Book 1: Chapter 100: Sophie's Lament and A New Approach To Torture
'Focus on your footwork,' Sophie thought to herself as she spun on her heel and struck out at the air in front of her.
The motion looked smooth and seemed perfect but it felt off to her. 'This isn't how our instructor did it... Was it more like this?'
Sophie kept practising as best as she could with her entire suit of armour on. After all, what use would the movements be if she had no experience performing them in her normal battle attire? None at all, she assumed.
Kyuubi lazily snoozed atop several cushions only a few meters away from her, completely unperturbed by the sound of metal chaffing against metal or the audible tear of wind Sophie's slashes into the air caused.
A few hours slowly meandered on by until Kyuubi's eyes shot open upon hearing a yell.
"Finally! A whole 2-weeks of concentrated effort just to get a martial arts skill! Lone is far too unfair calling us lucky when he has a skill like Growth Accelerator," Sophie complained before ripping her helmet off and slumping down into the fortress of pillows Kyuubi was occupying.
She lay there, panting for breath for a good few minutes until she finally raised her torso and began to slowly take off her armour.
While she did that she looked over the details of her recently acquired skill.
Passive Skill: Wing Chun Mastery
A skill that allows the host to perform the martial art of Wing Chun with some level of competence.
The host's ability to control the flow of close-combat they are engaged in is increased by 5%.
The host's ability to perform self-defence with ones upper body is increased by 5%.
The host's ability to weave their footwork into their fighting style is increased by 5%.
Cost:N/A Mastery:Beginner Level 1
Sophie couldn't help but grin despite her usually stoic and serious attitude. "A technique-based skill certainly is a lot more powerful than a vague one. To think a skill could give 3 concurrent passive boosts at the beginner level... Lone would be overcome with jealousy were he to know..."
Her smile turned sour upon thinking of her and Soph's lover.
It had been days since she had last looked at the screen in The Summoning Room that displayed Lone purely because even glancing at his current state made her feel sick to her stomach and she always sensed herself being overcome with rage.
Worse still was that for each second she saw his condition the more her ability to keep Soph in a state of slumber weakened.
Once she was done taking her armour off she laid back down on the pillows, now in nothing but her underwear.
She reached over and grabbed Kyuubi before plopping the bright golden baby fox on her chest. "How strange, no?" Sophie asked the sleepy fox.
"We are suppressing your other mother so she does not contact Lone needlessly and potentially worsen his situation by endangering ourselves but here we are trying our best to ignore our own growing desire to do the very same thing..." Sophie closed her eyes and chuckled sadly.
"We never did tell him how we felt about him... Our shyness when he became flirty now seems foolish, no? We slept with him so much and heard him tell us how much he cared for both Soph and us yet we did not return the favour..." Sophie lamented.
She squeezed Kyuubi lightly and muttered, "We are such a fool..."
For whatever reason, Lone's jailor Sir Ardus had exited the dungeon earlier than usual today, giving Lone some extra time to think before he inevitably fell unconscious from tiredness.
He honestly didn't have much on his mind since his usual thoughts revolved around resisting the urge to murder the guard so he chose to pull up all of the skills he had levelled or gained during his stay in the cell he was in.
What else could he do, really?
First came perhaps his most important skill that was only slightly more valuable than the other ones he'd been 'training' while here. At least, it was more critical right now in his opinion. Poison Resistance.
Passive Skill: Poison Resistance
A skill that allows the host to resist most types of poison.
Most poison that the host is inflicted with shall be weakened by 60%.
The host has a 25% chance to ignore the effects of poison used on them.
The host has a 10% chance to gain permanent immunity to any poison used on them regardless of if it is a poison weak enough to be resisted.
Poison's the host has immunity to: Carbon Monoxide Poisoning | [New!] Inflamed Algrator Brew | [New!] Rashvine Coil Venom | [New!] [Magic Infused] Agony Serum.
Cost:N/A Mastery:Expert Level 9 [+4 levels]
The skill was only 2 levels off from hitting master rank which Lone thought was great. He had no idea if it would gain a new effect then or not but just the percentage chance of the existing effects going up would be a great boon to him.
Lone didn't know how long he'd been down here, exactly. Probably a few weeks at least, maybe months. Thankfully, in that time he had gained immunity to 3 of the many, many poisons Sir Ardus liked to coat his gauntlets and daggers in.
He still groaned and acting as though he was in immense pain even if he won the lottery and Sir Ardus chose one of those 3 poisons as the spice of the day though. The foolish knight clearly didn't know he had gained the immunities even if the man had concluded that he owned Poison Resistance which made Lone's suffering ease ever so slightly.
Of course, every now and then the dice would roll in his favour and he'd get to ignore the effects of the poisons used on him which was also nice, but it wasn't something to rely on.
Sir Ardus only ever used one type of poison per 'session', so having him choose one Lone was immune to was far more preferable than having one he wasn't immune to being ignored occasionally. It made it a lot harder to fake pain in those cases when he was actually enduring the poison 75% of the time.
The next skill Lone looked at was his Physical Pain Resistance.
Passive Skill: Physical Pain Resistance
A skill that allows the host to resist physical pains while still being aware of their existence at varying levels based on mastery.
All physical pain shall be weakened by 60%.
Cost:N/A Mastery:Expert Level 5 [+3 levels]
It wasn't a lot of levels and it hadn't ranked up so there were no substantial changes but Lone recognised the sheer amount of raw agony he had endured to gain those 3 levels.
Somehow, that made him appreciate each one of those levels more than perhaps he should have. Every level was a step closer to ranking the skill up and gaining an even greater passive ability to weaken pain, after all.
Lone had gained 4 new skills during his life as a prisoner, 2 of which he had mentioned to Gilbert, Torture Resistance and Insanity Resistance, however, the other 2 new ones surprised him a bit since he wasn't aware they even existed.
Passive Skill: Hunger Resistance
A skill that allows the host to resist hunger and the negative effects of being hungry to varying degrees based on mastery.
The host shall get hungry 5% slower than normal.
The pains and urges hunger induces into the host shall be reduced by 5%.
Cost:N/A Mastery:Beginner Level 8
Passive Skill: Thirst Resistance
A skill that allows the host to resist thirst and the negative effects of lacking hydration to varying degrees based on mastery.
The host shall get thirsty 15% slower than normal.
The pains and urges thirst induces into the host shall be reduced by 15%.
Cost:N/A Mastery:Intermediate Level 5
Lone honestly didn't think he could experience things like hunger or thirst given how utterly broken his Basic Regeneration was but it made some sense when he thought on it.
The energy to refill his Stamina and power his passive skills had to come from somewhere, right? He didn't have a skill to make him immortal. Soph owned that unique skill even if it was currently sealed.
Thankfully, it seemed that Basic Regeneration required very little sustenance to work at full power, hence why Lone had never noticed that his body was, indeed, reliant on food and water until just recently.
As the new skills ranked-up, the need to eat and drink would slowly lessen which was a nice little addition to Lone's collection of things that reduced the severity of his on-going waking nightmare.
His other 2 new skills were also a part of that collection, both of which he wished he never knew existed.
Passive Skill: Torture Resistance
A skill that allows the host to resist the mental pressures of being tortured.
When tortured, the host's natural willpower and tenacity are boosted by 30% [+25%].
Cost:N/A Mastery:Advanced Level 4 [+17 levels]
Passive Skill: Insanity Resistance
A skill that allows the host to resist the slipping of one's natural senses and lines of thought.
Increases the host's ability to resist losing one's sanity by 5%.
Cost:N/A Mastery:Beginner Level 9
'Torture Resistance is really skyrocketing as more and more sessions go by, huh? I wonder if it'll cap eventually like Lightning Resistance did until the prince hit me with that lightning current skill of his? I wonder how talented Sir Ardus is at torturing according to the almighty blue boxes, eh?' Lone joked internally.
'My money says it'll stop levelling at about, oh... let's say Expert Level 3,' he thought before he started humming.
Lone was never very musically gifted but he was confident in his ability to mimic his playlist of about 40 or so songs he listened to when solo grinding the MMO he used to play daily back home on Earth.
If Sir Ardus caught him humming he'd get a slap or a backhand for sure, but that was a risk Lone was willing to take if it enabled him to vanquish the deafening silence that plagued him in his private little corner of the dungeons of Ranton's royal castle.
Lone was jostled awake by the sound of footsteps. He could hear two different sets, one coming from armoured boots and the other belonged to someone who was small and who seemed to be barefooted judging from the noise.
He opened his eyes and glanced up to see Sir Ardus holding a torch with a young girl behind him.
This girl was draped in a rag and she had long feather-covered wings poking out of her back. Strikingly, she had a collar around her neck and she seemed to be clean. Too clean for a slave.
"Ah, good, you're awake," Sir Ardus said as he brought his torch up to the wall-mounted one, lighting it.
"Y'know, you've been screaming a lot less lately," Sir Ardus said as he unlocked Lone's cell. "Your groans are also half-hearted at best. I was thinking, maybe you're getting a bit cocky? You heal after all and not only that but you know I don't have permission to kill you."
The knight shook his head sadly. "I was in quite a pickle. How can I torture someone that's clearly set on enduring everything until he's eventually freed?"
A sinking feeling entered Lone's stomach as he glanced back and forth between his jailor and the beastkin girl.
"Yup, I guess you've figured it out. Today, I'm not torturing you. Hell, I'm not torturing anyone, not really. You are." Sir Ardus grinned under his helmet. "Choose. A finger, a toe, or a wing. Don't make a choice in 10-seconds and I'll break all 3."
Tears trickled down the girl's face but she didn't cry for help since she was aware of her fate. Today, she would die. There was no avoiding that.
'These humans have treated Lord Ninetails so poorly...' The girl thought to herself as she clenched her fists. 'I-If my suffering can lessen his... then it's fine...'
'... He's going to... torture a little girl no older than 10 or 11 just to make me suffer? What has she done to deserve that? Was being born with wings enough for her to qualify as nothing more than a tool to worsen my life?' Rage filled Lone's expression as he stared at Sir Ardus. "You are evil."
"And you are wasting time. 4. 3. 2. 1-"
"You plan to kill her, don't you?" Lone interrupted coldly. 'This man doesn't have a merciful bone in his body. Besides, there's no way the royal family can have it leak that they're torturing beastkin children. My situation is special but to do that to an innocent child... That could start a war. There's no way he's going to spare her after he's done. If that's the case, why should I let her suffer even slightly?'
"Too bad, you didn't choose. All 3 is it then," Sir Ardus answered jovially. He heard Lone mutter something under his breath but he didn't care. He was in a good mood today so slapping the foxkin for speaking out of turn could be left until later.
He moved to grab the girl to mete out the punishment, but she surprisingly collapsed. "What the... Get up. I had you fed and bathed specifically for this."
"She's dead," Lone claimed.
Sir Ardus, not believing his prisoner, kicked the girl. Her body rolled over flaccidly. What was revealed was a face covered in blood and foam that had seemingly escaped every one of her facial orifices.
"What a shame," Lone said mockingly. "It looks like your plan to psychologically torture me failed. Both evil and incompetent."
Lone clenched his teeth because the next moment his cheek was greeted by the powerful backhand of Sir Ardus' gauntlet. "What did you do?" he asked in a low tone that rumbled.
The knight lowered himself and grabbed Lone's head by his ears. "What did you do?! You're in ardartian shackles! If you have any magic it should be suppressed! How did you kill her?!"
'Huh, so there's a metal that can suppress mages? Nice to know. Not that it matters since my MP is still sealed, you fuckin' idiot.' Lone sniffed hard then spat into the eye holes of Sir Ardus' helmet. "Go fuck yourself, cunt."
Suffice to say that was not received very well. Lone didn't sleep for the next four days as he was tortured without pause.
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