CH27: Growth

Two days after the growth serum Elizabeth took him out of his cell early in the morning. Her lithe body stretched in front of him while he struggled into the tunic and trousers she gave him. But, unfortunately, his clawed feet kept poking holes through his socks before he could get them on. Eventually, he gave up on them and the shoes.

"Just go without them; you're burning daylight," Elizabeth said.

"What are we doing?"

"Running, I'm going to get you into shape before you step into the Colosseum. I won't have you embarrassing my family."

"Have you met your father, that ship has sailed?" Silas said, and she planted her foot in his gut.

His feet left the ground, and he flew a few paces before landing in a heap. Silas hadn't seen her move.

"Keep your opinions to yourself and follow my lead."

Thoughts of grabbing the collar and trying to force it off came to mind, but he stowed them away and kept his mind serene. He didn't know if she had telepathy or not, but she was certainly quick to violence. They needed him, but he didn't know how much. It was enough to pump resources into him. Cows took 2 years to grow to adulthood, and they gave 5 to him without a second thought. Some would see it as a sign of wealth, but he doubted they were that loose with their money.

His ADD attacked when he saw her shapely rear moving further away from him as she jogged. Silas sighed and followed quickly behind, leaving figuring out the situation on the back burner.

After a 4-hour run over bog land, through monster tribes, and in the cow pasture, they stopped at a gym. He felt like she had run him half to death with her pace. But it wasn't all bad; he gained a point in stamina and speed. While it was a small increase if he ran for months or years, he could build up a lot of stamina and speed.

"The goblins and other low intellect humanoid monsters will be well-training boxing machines. From the time these gladiators are born, they are rigorously tested and taught to bring fortune to their farms. The successful monsters are bred while the weak are culled. In the Colosseum, you won't fight the weak goblins locked up for months in a cage and experimented on. They will be the cream of the crop."

"Good to know; how does that help me here?" Silas asked.

"We have 2 weeks until you will fight in the arena. So, I will beat the basics of combat into you." Elizabeth said before he was forced to block a heavy punch.

His counter hit empty air before a sharp kick slammed into his side.

Silas slowly got to his feet after being knocked to the ground for the hundredth time.

"How is losing repeatedly going to help me?" Silas asked.

"Failure is the greatest teacher. If you don't like losing, then get stronger and train harder. We're done for the day." Elizabeth said and turned her back on him.

"Bitch," Silas said and felt a fist impact his stomach. He fell on his back, and she rolled her eyes at him.

"Don't provoke me if you can't back up your words," Elizabeth said.

"What are you talking about? You aren't that strong? If we were in the same rank, I would crush you."

"Too bad we aren't. I would love to take your last bit of pride, little leech."

He was going to fuck her and make her beg for more. In his musings, Silas decided to make her his side girl, not the one he bought flowers for, just an honorary fuck buddy.

When he was sure he was left alone, he took out a tiny stone and slowly focused on levitating it. His mana had gone up a rank, and he was stronger than ever. A more powerful body allowed his mind to focus to a higher degree. The stone wobbled and spun in place as he slowly pushed it up. Once it was up and steady, he held it until a prompt appeared.

Mana Manipulation: Beginner 0% – Allows the user to manipulate mana outside their bodies.

Initiate Threshold – Choke a humanoid with telekinesis.

Silas stared at the threshold and felt that it was a little extreme. Yea, he was pissed, but that shouldn't affect his threshold quests much, or maybe the system decided to make a Darth Vader reference.

He lay on the ground and looked up at the stars. Looking at the sky made it obvious he wasn't in Kansas anymore. None of the constellations were the same, massive bats occasionally flew through the sky battling owls, and there was a second moon behind the first one. There was so much he didn't know, like what the world was called.

As he lay on the ground, he froze when something jumped over the fence. Silas shot to his knees and then froze. If someone killed the alchemist and his daughter, then Silas's problems would be over. There would be no more early morning jogs or sparing with Elizabeth. No more seeing that tight sexy rear running in front of him with her short shorts. That wolf girl showed off the bottom of her butt cheeks, and when she ran, only a little cloth hid her womanhood.

Then there was his quest to worry about; he couldn't fail. Zacharia was a crazy alchemist, but he helped Silas get stronger. After adding all those factors, he was curious about the arena. He shot off across the farm after the ghostly white creature glided across the ground. Silas hesitated and couldn't get himself to move. It wasn't like fighting the spider or the mantis army. This was a presumably intelligent opponent, and he's never done well against those.

He remembered the demon summoning and how he hid, letting everyone else die until he could make it to his truck. Something must have possessed him to try and ram the demon. He had seen it kill with telekinesis before, making his mind shift to his skill. Was the demon a creature from the new world?

Silas watched the creature stalk close to Elizabeth's room and try to force himself forward. He moved stiffly but couldn't force himself to jump to action and save the wolf girl. Maybe if he saved her from an assassin, she would spread her legs for him. That thought made him snort, and the creature paused.

It froze in place and slowly turned around. Silas immediately hit it with charm and shot forward.

The creature waved its hand, and a charm impacted him, scraping against his mind struggling to find purchase sticky as molasses and sharp as an urchin's spines. A group effort between his significant mana and his high charisma barely kept the charm from taking hold. On the backhand, his felt instances take hold of his body, mortal, frailty, and weaken hit him one after the other. A second charm hit his mind and the instances stacked.

Silas froze as he stared into the monster's crimson eyes.