CHAPTER 5
If you want to read up to 30 chapters ahead go to https://www.patreón.com/cornbringer
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
After having Emily pretty much chained to me, I only had a week to adjust before being thrown into training. Over the next two months I was little more than their dog. They point and I obey.
In turn I was encouraged to perform more than a few unpleasant acts. These included torture, interrogation, and assassination work, or rather putting me in a room with some random person who I was then ordered to kill. It really was a lose lose situation since I either kill someone directly, or I let Emily die. Needless to stay I spent many days curled up trying not to have a panic attack after all the shit I was forced to do.
The only kind of solace I could take from any of this shit was thatI was getting stronger by the day. Yeah, as disgusting as it was, the missions they had me doing were giving me the necessary experience to buff myself up. Kind of like randomly killing NPC's in a video game, except with actual PTSD. Fun. At this point the only things keeping me sane were the desire to get payback on these freaks and….
"Hi," Emily waved at me, hidden in the blankets of my bed, as I entered the room after one of the missions Hydra had sent me to do.
That little bundle was the only other thing keeping me sane, knowing that at the very least I was keeping her safe was helping me move forward.
"Hi," I half heartedly waved back pulling out a small bag of Doritos I had bought while out and about. One of the few concessions that heartless bitch Romania gave me.
Like one of those boxes with a cat that steals a coin, Emily snatched the Doritos from under her fort, "Thanks…"
"Don't worry about it," I said, visibly exhausted as I took a seat on the floor. Despite the improved accommodations the only furniture in my cell was the bed Emily was occupying. By the way, sleeping on the floor is awful.
"I'm scared of them…" Emily muttered, the sounds of munching from the tiny hole of her blanket.
"I know, but don't worry. As long as I obey you'll be okay and I promise I won't let anything happen to you. What a bitter sentiment, the freedom of one, the life of another. And yet, it was a decision I would stick with, no matter how much it killed me to do so, I knew it was right.
"Well," I chuckled, as I pushed myself up back to my feet. "I have to go and train, in the meantime..." I slowly reached into my backpack and pulled out a coloring book, which I dangled in front of the bed. "I got you something."
Once again, she snatched the coloring book, and thanked me, with a barely audible sound.
It wasn't much, but that was enough to motivate me to walk back out into whatever crazy missions came my way. As long as I can keep that little girl safe, I'm good.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
After five hours at the gym, I was permitted to spend some time at the library. Of course, what I was doing wasn't related to any of the crap Hydra wanted me to do, but a personal matter….how to remove the bomb from Emily's body.
Lack of medical license aside, it was pretty much the only way to take the proverbial bullet out of Hydra's gun and that was a good enough motive for me. Funny enough, when I took this decision, a new quest was created.
[Quest: Save Emily]
The quest like the one to escape Hydra was a high risk, high reward quest, meaning failure would result in the death of Emily.
Sadly, my study time came with one obvious little hiccup. "You really have taken interest in the human body, Mr. Walker."
Yup I had a chaperone, pretty obvious given the situation, but would've at least been nice if it was some random goon instead of the head bitch herself. Thus I pretty much needed to bullshit my way out whenever I could.
"Well, before you kidnapped me, I wanted to be a doctor." Ironically that part was true, at least prior to this bullshit., "And, well, we both know that dream is rather impossible to reach now, so I am happy with reading and you know."
"How is young Emily doing?" Romania inquired with an infuriating smile.
"Good, a bit scared of me, but she at least talks to me. I mean, I have followed all of your orders without a question, that alone should explain why she's still in one piece," I replied, putting the book on human anatomy I was reading down.
"Yes, yes, my loyal, loyal dog," Romania smiled, pleased with my answers, going so far as to lightly pat my head to get her point across.
"I aim to please," I spoke through gritted teeth, fantasizing about the many ways I would make her suffer after I regained my freedom.
"Talking about pleasing," Romania said, taking a seat in front of me, "We have yet to discover your mutant ability, and we need to run a few experiments to see what power you have."
I looked at her, already knowing what kind of shit would happen if they tried to experiment on me, so I thought up a plausible lie. "I already have an idea of what my power is… I just can't focus, not like my father used to."
"Your father, interesting, you never spoke of your family… not even during torture," Romania spoke with mocked intrigue, giving me a gesture with her hand to continue.
"We can shoot energy from our hands, at least my father and mother did, not so sure about me, I would have to practice," I said as convincingly as I could, praying she'd buy it. This would give me the chance to practice my mana skills, and trick them into thinking my mutant ability was only that.
"Hmm, energy manipulation I suppose, interesting." Romania clapped her hands in excitement. "Get to it, if by the end of the month you have no results… Well, you know what will happen."
"Yes." I nodded, looking solemn while patting myself on the back for again bullshitting my way out of a seemingly unwinnable situation.
"Good," Romania smirked with a small wave as she turned around. "Bye~"
I waved back before my hand turned into a fist, mentally wishing I could shove it through her head.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
So in the month that I had to train my possible mutant ability , I had to fake struggling with it. Hopefully just showing them some results would avoid them thinking I was hiding my abilities. And thankfully, I had two skills to work with [Mana Bolt] and [Mana Arrow]
[Mana Bolt - Active - LV 5 = Focusing your energy, you fire a bolt of pure mana at your enemies. Costs 50 mana. Damage based on INT and level of skill. Damage = INT * skill level = 135 * 5 = 675]
[Mana Arrow - Active - LV 9 = Focusing your energy, you fire an arrow of pure mana at your enemies. Costs 200 mana. Damage based on INT and level of skill * 1.5. Damage = INT * skill level = (135 * 9) * 2 = 1823]
[STATS
Name = Alex Walker
Occupation = The Gamer
Sub Occupation = Hydra Agent
Level = 23
EXP = 13875/25170
HP = 7000/7000
MP = 13500/13500
STR = 108
VIT = 70
DEF = 65
DEX= 115
INT = 135
CHA = 34
WIS = 75
WILL = 80
PER = 36
LUK = 29
STAT POINTS = 220
MONEY: 14500$
]
With those two skills, I was able to one shot normal humans, and more importantly, was enough to get Hydra off my back for the most part. Thankfully, they didn't know I was using the weaker version of said abilities. God only knows what they'd have me do if they knew what I could really do.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
[6 MONTHS LATER]
Sorry to keep skipping ahead but a lot of stuff happened over the last six months.
Probably the most crucial thing was I managed to more or less get Emily to trust me. She's still a little intimidated to be around me, but at least now she knows I'm here to help her so that's a plus.
More importantly, I'd naturally gotten much stronger thanks to all the extra missions and such. I'm pretty confident I'll be able to escape soon. I just need to complete my medical knowledge to operate on her properly. According to the scans I ran with my newest skill, [Mana Scan] I was able to see where the bomb inside Emily was located. Sadly the bomb was small, and it was attached to her heart, like a peacemaker.
If the bomb were to be in any other part, I would simply use [Aport - Active - LV 4 = It allows the users to take small objects toward them from a distance [4 meters]. Cannot be used for objects that cannot be grasped using one hand.] But considering I had no idea what would happen to her heart should I use [Aport] I decided against it.
But not to worry, my medical skills thanks to my Gamer power were looking quite promising. However, to learn the necessary removal procedure, I needed three things, 120 INT, 90 WIS, and 80 PER. And lucky for me, these were all things I managed to acquire during these six months leveling under Hydra.
[STATS
Name = Alex Walker
Occupation = The Gamer
Sub Occupation = Hydra Agent
Level = 33
EXP = 13875/25170
HP = 8000/8000
MP = 14500/14500
STR = 118
VIT = 80
DEF = 65
DEX= 125
INT = 145
CHA = 54
WIS = 110
WILL = 90
PER = 80
LUK = 39
STAT POINTS = 300
MONEY: 24500$
]
My stats were on point, and so were my skills, skills I had hoarded for this occasion.
[ SKILL LIST
Physical Endurance - Passive - LV 60 = Increases the body's durability, allowing for less damage taken. 60% decrease in damage taken by attacks.
Doctor/ Cardiothoracic surgeon - Passive/Active - LV 55 = You are a medical doctor who specializes in surgical procedures of the heart, lungs, esophagus, and other organs in the chest.
Hand to Hand Combat Specialist - Passive/Active - LV 42 = You are a master in mixed martials arts, you know how to hit, and you know how to kill with your bare hand! = 42% damage increase in hand to hand combat.
Mana Bolt - Active - LV 20 = Focusing your energy, you fire a bolt of pure mana at your enemies. Costs 200 mana. Damage based on INT and level of skill. Damage = INT * skill level = 145 * 20 = 2900
Mana Arrow - Active - LV 19 = Focusing your energy, you fire an arrow of pure mana at your enemies. Costs 380 mana. Damage based on INT and level of skill * 1.5. Damage = INT * skill level = (145 * 19) * 2 = 4132.5
Sooth Pain - Active - LV 17 = Using your HP and MP as sources of balance, you eliminate the sensation of pain in you or your target by a 17%, if you are higher level than the target you are using this, then you can add 3% per level ahead of the target to this, if the target is higher level than you, then the percentage remains the same. You lose HP and MP while this is active.
Mana Scan - Active - LV 11 = Focusing your energy, you scan your surroundings, or someone in particular getting information about something specific. This only works, if you know what you are looking for. It needs physical contact if you are scanning a person.
Mana Heal - Active - LV 5 = Focusing your energy, you transform a part of your mana into health, healing you or a target of your selection for a fixed amount. 1000 MP = 250 HP
Aport - Active - LV 4 = It allows the users to take small objects toward them from a distance [4 meters]. Cannot be used for objects that cannot be grasped using one hand.
]
With all this in mind, it seemed I was finally ready to royally fuck up Hydra. Or atleast, I would expect I still needed one thing...a distraction, and unfortunately for them, I had acquired such a thing during my last mission, an EMP bomb that I had stolen from Stark Industries.
Interesting little piece of tech, just a little bigger than a ping pong ball yet powerful enough to shut down their systems for a long while, giving me the time I needed to operate on Emily. Then, without the bomb, I would bust out of here, killing all those bastards.
"And… done…" I declared with a smile, finally the last book I needed to read to have all the knowledge to complete the operation was complete. Before this book, the chances of her surviving were 51%, but now they went up to 72%.
Oh yeah, I was able to see my percentage of possible success in things like medicine, cooking, and mathematics. The higher the level my skills were for those blocks, the higher the chance of succeeding in those blocks, like with cooking, my cooking was LV 12, good enough for simple food, but not chef like food, you get the gist of it.
With a sigh, I walked back to my cell, opening the door to find my little charge laying with her toys. Hearing the door, she turned around and smiled.
"You're back!!!" Emily giggled, tackling me into a hug. To think a few months ago, she was too scared to look me in the eye.
"I am," I nodded, though looking slightly glum at what came next. With a single chop to the neck she was out like a light as I pulled the EMP bomb out. . "Time to escape this hell."