Duel

It was the next day after the attack with the 2 shamens and Alan was once again in the freezer standing above a goblins corpse to test something. He was able to take creatures' essence and convert their bodies to energy to empower his own, so now he would try to take their memories. Holding his hand above the goblin's head he concentrated on his trait, after about 5 seconds the ghostly tendrils appeared.

Focusing he controlled them to dig through the goblins skull and into its brain, as the tendrals were not actually a physical thing they simply phased past the skill and into its brain. After this Alan concentrated on trying to pull out the goblin's memories and 'store' them so he could analyze them. The reason he didn't simply absorb them then and there was he didn't want any complications such as developing a second personality or altering his current one, so as a safety measure, he would store them and analyze them to learn what the goblin knew.

After a couple of minutes, he felt a sensation similar to the info stream from the true bloodstone, however, unlike the bloodstone he did not learn anything, but he could feel that so long as he wanted to he could 'read' the goblins newly absorbed memories.

Once that was done he absorbed the goblins body and moved over to the hobgoblin. He was now allowed to tamper with them as the scientist had learned all they could, apparently when a goblin completed certain conditions they would 'evolve' into a hobgoblin, the same went for hobgoblins to shamans.

After he finished absorbing the hobgoblin's memories he went to the main course, the hobgoblin shamen. As the tendrils dug into the shamen's head he felt a noticeable difference in difficulty compared to the hobgoblin, but it was nothing overall. If he were to explain it, a goblin was like waving his hand through air, there was no difficulty, a hobgoblin was like waving his hand through water, and while difficult, there was no real problem. Meanwhile, a shaman was like waving his hand through thin honey, while hard it was not impossible, especially for someone of Alan's strength.

Once he was done absorbing the memories of all the goblins and hobgoblins that he could, he returned to the cafeteria to chat with Abagail.

"you sure you ok? Those goblins seem pretty nasty, and you fight so many of them too. I get that if you don't we would have to run, but you might get hurt." "I'm fine. They are weak. But I am reaching my limit. That problem should be solved soon, however."

Posting Abagail said "Why are you always so serious, relax a little. If you frown so much you'll end up getting wrinkles." touching his face Alan didn't feel he was frowning, it was the same emotionless neutral that it always was. "looking at Abagail he said, "I don't frown."

Sighing Abagail reached over the table and put her fingers on either side of his mouth before lifting them, quite literally forcing him to smile. Taking off her fingers his face returned to its neutral position though.

"come on, it's not like you can't smile. I've seen it, whenever the goblins come to attack you have this big wide smile on your face and your eyes turn red."

Tilting His head to the side, Alan tried to remember the feeling of whenever he got to 'have fun' when the goblins attacked, as he remembered, he felt a wide smile, similar to the Cheshire cat, spread across his face. Smiling herself Abagail said "Yes! That's the one! See? You can smile. Your eyes aren't red though, I wonder why? Oh well, have you heard anything about Jason? Last he spoke to me he was 'starting his training arc' or something."

Immediately losing his smile and frowning at the mention of Jason Alan said "No, all I know is he is training whenever he can. All he's said to me is 'I will beat you, my rival, and show you the good side'."

As if summoning the nuisance Jason walked into the cafeteria at that moment, noticeably more muscular than the last time Alan had seen him. "now, my rival. I shall beat you and you shall join me on the side of righteousness." pointing to Abagil he said "And you! My heroin shall join me by my side as I defeat the demon king and we live happily ever after."

"Jason, for the last time I don't like you, and I highly doubt you can 'defeat the demon king' when you can hardly fight a single goblin, and what's this about Alan being your rival?"

Completely ignoring Abagail's remark Jason turned towards Alan and continued to speak "So, my rival, fight me and realize that I am better than you so you may join the side of good!"

"no."

... ... ...

After a long silence,e Jason said "No? What do you mean 'no' my rival, I have trained arduously for this very moment of glorious combat. Are you afraid? If so I shall go easy on you."

"No, I don't want to fight you. There is no reason to. you are weak. it would be no fun."

Overdramaticly turning towards Abagail Jason yelled, "Do you see this, my heroin, he is afraid. He said it 'would not be fun', That I'm weak. Very well, I challenge you to a duel, if I win you will cripple yourself and Abagail will be mine, if you win you will never see me again."

"Ok, first off, since when was this such a big problem, second off, I'm not some item you can own, I am a person, and lastly. The wagers for this duel seem way unbalanced, if you lose you just leave but if he loses he has to cripple himself? That doesn't seem fair to me."

"oh, my sweat Abigail, my sweat, sweat Abigail. I know what is happening now." pointing to Alan with a viscous face Jason started yelling, "Obviously he is a demon, and he has corrupted you, but never fear, I shall slay this demon and break the mind control he has on you. Die, nine heavens breaking fist!"

After spouting one of the cringiest lines ever and then blatantly announcing his attack, Jason proceeded to through a barely above-average punch that did not even care to dodge, as the first hit him it caused a slight itch, like when a puppy taps you with it's paw.

Gasping like he had just been lied to all his life Jason then exclaimed "How?! My nine heavens breaking fist contained all my enlightenment up to now? It was the epitome of the first! Ah, I see, you must have used a demonic treasure to block my fist! well then, how about this! Mountain splitting axe kick!"

Once again announcing his attack, Alan actually felt the attack this time. It was just barely stronger than a hobgoblin shamen's punch, but he felt it nonetheless.

Gasping once again Jason continued to spout something about 'you're stronger than I thought.' and 'you must be one of the demon kings' generals' before attacking again, once again doing nothing to Alan whatsoever as Abagsil just sat there and enjoyed the show, somehow getting a bag of popcorn to munch on as Jason continued to announce his move before attacking in a barely above average way.

As Abagail finished her popcorn she said "Hey, Alan. Could you finish him off? I'm getting bored and I'm out of popcorn." sighing Alan stood up, fixed his blood-red clothes, the wrinkles the only sign that Jason did something, And slapped Jason across the face. he proceeded to fly from one side of the cafeteria to the other without hitting any tables before hitting the wall in an overly exaggerated manner standing back up and saying

"Impossible, how could you be so strong? ah, I see now you aren't one of the demon king's generals, you are the demon king himself. I see now, I will return to free you Abigail, and I will slay the demon king who has imprisoned you when I do so. For now, I shall retreat." after saying this he ran out of the cafeteria and immediately out of the building into the outside which was calling with all kinds of monsters much stronger than Alan himself. With Jason's death all but assured Alan sat back down and continued to chat with Abagail.