Chapter 09: 3 Years

[Three Years Later]

"Let's try that again. Close your eyes, imagine the flower growing." Eny told Pruno, as the smaller boy focused, closing his eyes. The boy was sitting on the grass, everything around him was dead and withered. Pruno began to sweat as his hands glowed green, a small bud appeared on the ground and it began to grow, the dead grass around began to grow green, and soon everything that was growing ever greener and healthier than everything else around. The boy gasped for air and panted, Eny smiled as patted the boy's head and said: "You got better at it, I'm proud of you." Pruno smiled, happy to be praised by Eny who was his best friend and possibly more than that, the only person he trusts. And Eny? At first, he thought of Pruno as a simple pawn, but as time went on he began to trust the boy a little more... And now he sees him as his little brother.

They were in Connecticut. Why they were here? Well, they were going through the states of the US, hunting monsters ever since three years ago. Eny needed to be stronger so he would always ask his mother for guidance and she would guide him to place with monsters for him to hunt, and those three years Eny spent fighting, stealing, eating monsters, and surviving. It was a great learning experience for Pruno as he grew together with Eny, he also learned how to somewhat control his withering power, the power to destroy things around him. It took him all three years to learn how to do it, now he is learning how to make things grow. Eny was tall for his age, with 10 years of age now he stood tall at 4'9 feet tall or 150 centimeters tall, he grew faster every day because of the monsters he ate.

Talking about eating, Ent discovered that it was rare for him to get abilities from eating monsters. He only got 5 from eating monsters through all these three years!

[Skill] Thread Works: 60%

From eating a giant spider, daughter of Arachne, you get the ability to produce silk from your body and control it mentally, it is very flammable but resistant to cutting.]

[Skill] Height Manipulation: 30%

From eating a Southern Cyclops, son of Poseidon, you get the ability to grow or shrink your size, but because you aren't a giant, you can grow further from double your max size [Max Size:

Human: 7 feet → 14 feet)

Night Beast: 14 feet → 28 feet)]

[Skill] Fire Breathing: 30%

From eating a Dragon, you get the ability to breathe fire, however, this fire burns from within you and always keeps your body warm to touch. Losing control may cause fire to leave your mouth unconsciously.]

[Skill] Monster Mimicry: 10%

From eating various monsters, you receive the ability to mimic some of their physical body parts. You can add these parts to your Night Beast From at will or simply transform into them while your human body, they are considered part of your Dark Chimera's body:

Hellhound

Cyclops

Dragon

Harpy

Centaur

Giant Spider

Giant Snake

Giant Badger

Carnivorous Sheep

Minotaur

Stymphalia Bird

Calandrius]

[Skill] Healing: 00,1%

From eating a Calandrius, you got the ability to heal, this ability is hard to be used for it consumes both magical energy and stamina. However, it can cure any disease, heal any wound, and even save the dead if used right. It cannot, however, regenerate lost appendages]

It took him some time to get them to become [Skills], it was very repeating and time-consuming, which made it hard for him to train his other abilities, as he could only focus on so much. So he focused on some abilities while neglected others, just today he finished increasing the proficiency of [Healing] to become a [Skill]! He got that skill after eating a white dove-like bird that smelt delicious. The description of the ability did not change, but he could feel and tell that it consumed less energy than before, anyway, the 4 abilities he focused on increasing till they became [Skills] were:

[Cosmic Magic: 15%] [Magical]

[Cosmic Dust: Pain] [Proficiency: 10%]

[New] [Cosmic Dust: Confusion] [Proficiency: 2%]

Spreads a cloud of red-colored sparkling dust that everyone who inhales becomes confused about everything for the next 5-20 seconds.

Resistance against Mental attacks reduces confusion time.

Immunity against Mental attacks nullifies the confusion effect.

[New] [Cosmic Dust: Grief] [Proficiency: 1%]

Spreads a blue-colored cloud of sparkling dust that everyone who inhales becomes filled with grief, the heavyweight of their actions gives them the [Slow] effect.

Resistance against Mental attacks reduces confusion time.

Immunity against Mental attacks nullifies the confusion effect.

[New] [Cosmus: Falling Star] [Proficiency: 0%]

Consumes all of your magical energy to completely increase your speed, after impact with the target all the magical energy will explode outwards, and everything in a radius equal to half of your proficiency with this spell will be exploded and receive vast amounts of damage.

Can be resisted by a strong opponent, but not nullified nor evaded unless by a powerful spell.

[Skill] Night Beast Natural Weapons: 29%

[Skill] Night Camouflage: 15%

When standing completely still for 3 seconds you enter an invisibility mode that can only be activated at night, and when you move a muscle, you will leave this mode in 5 seconds, slowly getting more and more visible until completely visible.

[Skill] Night Beast Stomach: 31%

[Skill] Mist Control: 01%

Control mortal minds, create memories, create illusions, hide monsters, teleport through the mist, summon Mistforms, and even cancel the Mist from a mortal's eyes momentarily.

-×-

Other abilities naturally increased, but by a smaller percentage. All of the other abilities increased by 10%.

What Enychta found interesting was that after reaching 5% with his [Cosmic Magic], he automatically learned another spell and noticed he could get proficiency on spells as well. He just wonders if there is any ranking for Spell Mastery or something like that. With his [Thread Works] they didn't need to buy much clothing because Eny was able to weave some of his threads and patch up holes and even make clothes for himself and his new little brother that he should protect.

Now, before you say it was too sudden his change of heart, listen. After some time hunting for monsters, watching Pruno cry and be scared of simple physical contact, he decided to investigate why the boy acted like that and what he learned shocked him... Pruno was the son of Persephone and therefore he was Demeter's grandchild and also had some of Persephone's powers, one example of that is the withering of life around him! And because of that power that he suffered, he killed his father by the age of 3 accidentally when he saw a monster that entered his house, his withering powers killed both the monster and his father that dropped dead like an ancient mummy on the ground. Not only that but later he was sent to an orphanage later, where he was adopted by a seemingly good person who ended up being a monster that wanted revenge on Hades, and what better way than make Persephone suffer to get Hades to suffer?

So the poor boy was tortured for six months, his cries made Persephone beg Hades to help the boy, and after trying to find him, he found him and sent him to the Lotus Hotel because it was too dangerous for the boy. The monster that wanted to make Hades suffer was an old, very old man, he needed some years till he died. He was named Ophebias Johnson and was the Legacy of Ares who had his lover sent to Tartarus by Hades for insulting Persephone... How does Eny know so much about this? Well, apparently his mother was more of a chit-chat he thought. And later he felt sorry for the boy, he saw his scars and could only try and act a little nicer to him.

To help the boy he slowly got his trust and then began to teach him how to control his ability by teaching him how to control a panic attack. In his last life, he had a sibling who had panic attacks, so he knew what to do, and it was to breathe and give them their space, to not make them feel uncomfortable or suffocating. It worked well for Pruno after he learned how to breathe properly, calming himself down, he could use his powers somewhat efficiently. Suddenly, his shadow morphed and from it jumped Grenade, the Hellhound.

Eny must admit he started to like the dog, he was always cheerful and always happy to help, and he helped well. His abilities were great and he was very useful... But slowly Eny began to see him as more than a useful tool and began to see him like a dog, and soon as HIS dog. A few minutes ago he sent Grenade to look for any monster around this area or any Demigod even. And now he is back. "Master! I've found a Demigod! He is being attacked by several monsters!" Eny frowned, he could use this opportunity to get a favor from someone, but that someone may be useless for him after all... Should he risk it? He looked down at Pruno who looked to be scared and smiled, he began to care about others a little bit more, so he should first analyze the situation and then help if he deems the person worthy of saving.

"Take us to them... I need to know if they are worth saving." It sounded cold, but he can't simply take anyone under his wings, they need to be useful and maybe one day he can trust them...