novelraw Chapter 71: Turning the Cogs of Success
Chapter 71: Turning the Cogs of Success
Joji stood within the witch’s isolation barrier once more.
He remembered the three days he had spent trapped here with the women.
They had spent that time trading body heat and sharing their most intimate depths. The memory of those days hung heavy in the air.
Shaking off the distraction, Joji ate the Heart of the Troll Chieftain.
The thing was tough, and worse, it kept knitting itself back together whenever he tore into it.
Frustrated, he sliced the heart into one long strip and forced himself to slurp it down as fast as he could before it had time to wriggle and regenerate again.
The witch watched from the side, wondering all over again what sort of creature Joji truly was.
More and more, she found herself leaning toward the thought that he was something like her, a spirit born of nature.
Yet she had never heard of any being that grew stronger simply by eating.
Whatever the truth was, she knew this much. It had to remain secret, even from Walpurgis.
The moment the last of the heart dropped into his stomach, Joji threw back his head and roared.
Tusks pushed from his mouth. His eyes turned black. Bristles rose through his hair, and his skin darkened in a rush.
Then his body fought back.
The changes receded, his skin returning to normal, his features settling back into those of a man.
Only the added height and the new hair remained. Joji turned toward the mirror and stared.
"Damn. With this look, I could play Thor."
He rather liked what he saw. He had already been well built, but now his frame looked even harder, the lines of muscle more pronounced, the whole of him carrying a rougher sort of force.
As his admiration for the new look began to grow, the witch lifted a hand from where she sat.
A gust swept through the room. His new hair vanished at once.
Joji stood there in stunned silence, then slowly turned to look at her as though she had robbed him of a glorious youth he had only just discovered.
"What was that for? Aren’t I handsome?" he asked.
The witch looked at him as though the answer were obvious.
"You already have three women in your life. If you get any more handsome, you will only attract more flies."
Joji did not truly mind, but that did not stop him from putting on a wounded, pitiful expression.
"And what about you?" he asked. "You are beautiful, with that long hair and those unfair charms. Aren’t you the one giving me heartache? Where is the fairness between men and women?"
The witch remained silent. Her knowing eyes searched his face.
She had come to understand the storm of thoughts that lived inside Joji.
His mind was a mess of desires and trivial questions.
One moment he wanted her body. The next he wondered about hair tonics.
He even wished she were an ugly crone to test her heart.
Despite the noise it was a refreshing arrangement.
He was not guarded against her and that was a rare thing in this world.
Joji then sat cross-legged and began circulating his aura.
As he closed his eyes, he summoned the status window and reviewed it while the witch watched him.
{Name: Joji of Sins Crossroad} {Age: 21}
{Constitution: Embryonic Storm Bringer}
{First Job: (Rank 3) Knight}
{Second Job: (Rank 1) Portal Wielder}
{Aura: 13.8}
{Mana: 17.1}
{Brawn: 23.8} (⇧ 10)
{Quickness: 13.6}
{Wisdom: 21.3}
{Stamina: 34.4} (⇧ 10)
{Charisma: 23.9}
{Fortune: 33.5}
{BODY AUGMENTATIONS} {Amalgamate Augmentations}
{Eyes} {Rank: C} {Ability: Night and Darkness Vision}
{Heart} {Rank: C} {Ability: Perception and Sensory}
{Armor} {Rank: C} {Ability: Growth and Evolution}
{Flesh} {Rank: B} {Ability: Healing and Regeneration}
{(NEW) Troll Chieftain Regeneration - It draws upon stamina alone. By its virtue, broken bones, torn skin, rent muscle, severed sinew, and damaged joints may be made whole. A body well rested and a belly well filled shall strengthen the healing it bestows}
{(NEW) Troll Exclusive Talent} {Rank: A} {Ability: Revival}
{(NEW) Troll Chieftain Second Wind - It consumes great quantities of mana, prana, and aura to restore what has been lost. Ruined organs, pierced hearts, and even the sundered column of the spine. Yet it cannot regrow a missing head. A severed head, however, may still be rejoined, provided a third party does the work within a quarter hour.}
{(Obsolete) Flesh} {Rank: D} {Ability: Healing and Regeneration}
{(Obsolete) Runt Troll Regeneration - To regenerate wounds and, in some measure, to heal even the vital organs.}
{PROGRESS OF ARTS AND TRAINING} {Arts Synthesis}
{Fundamental Level of Swordsmanship - 67.6%}
{Intermediate Level of Swordsmanship - 12.6%}
{Fundamental Level of Close Combat - 14.1%}
{Everhart Tempest Arts Series: 3/10} {Rank: S}
{Lightness of the Wind - 9.6%}
{Emerald Blade Wind - 9.1%}
{Protectorate Barrier Wind - 7.9%}
{Ferryman Shadow Guardian Arts Series: 2/10} {Rank: S} (Incomplete)
{Into the Shadow - 5.1%}
{Blade of Deceit - 5.4%}
{Forerunner Dungeon Mechanics: 1/?} {Rank: ???} (Incomplete)
{Gate of Small Beginnings - 0.107%}
{TITLES AND ACHIEVEMENTS}
{Everyman - Can do, learn, and master pretty much any kind of job.}
{Beast of the Sheets - Permanently increases Brawn, Quickness, Stamina, Charisma, and Fortune by five points.}
Joji was pleased. The numbers kept rising again and again.
Someone else might have thought he was already nearing the peak, but Joji knew that was not even close to the truth.
For now, he had a clear measure in mind. He wanted to match a newborn dragon, a creature that would stand at fifty points across the board.
He had no wish to compare himself to lesser beings. That sort of thinking only made a man too pleased with himself.
"Sir Engine, I used the Monocle of Decipher to read the names of these skills. Why the sudden change?" he asked silently.
{You are not some troll chieftain. What the Monocle displayed were the details of the item itself, not those of the items already attached to your person.}
After understanding a little more of the system, Joji rose and approached the witch.
"How was it? I thought the change would be more drastic. You only grew a little..." the Lady of the Swamp began, then stopped short.
Joji stood before her bare and utterly unashamed. His old trousers were useless to him now. He leaned in to kiss the witch while his hard dick poked at her heavy robes.
"You will not need that either," he whispered in her ear.
His hands made quick work of disrobing her before she could even protest. He tossed the fabric aside and pulled her closer to his chest.
"It would only get in the way of what I have planned for you," he added with a low chuckle.
Joji took the witch with a ferocity that matched the beasts of the forest. He transitioned from the style of the dog to the eagle spread before allowing her to ride as the cowgirl.
They lost themselves in the heat of the moment until Joji abruptly altered his persona.
He slipped back into the role of a joker and put on the face of an innocent, lost child, as if the warrior from moments ago had never existed.
"What happened?" Joji asked, even turning to look around. "Is this the Lost Boy’s Marsh?"
Then he sucked in a sharp breath, as though only just noticing his condition.
"Why am I naked? Lady, what have you done to me?"
He sounded so convincingly aggrieved that anyone hearing him without context might have thought he was the wronged party.
The Lady of the Swamp rolled her eyes, though she still stifled a chuckle.
Her silver white hair had fallen across her face in complete disarray, and she looked at him with a mixture of exhaustion and genuine amusement.
Joji was tempted to keep the act going. She was like a tireless machine, and he had never enjoyed himself this thoroughly, not even back on Earth. But time waited for no one, and he still had other things to do.
"Help me draw these," Joji said, showing the witch Tempered Through the Abyss.
The Lady of the Swamp read through it, and at once she understood why Joji had needed the troll heart.
If he had the stamina to endure it, then he could force his way through this meditation method by sheer resilience alone.
She knew more of such things than he did, and she quickly realized this was no human technique at all.
It was the kind of method used by hydras, creatures that could grow back their heads and survive what ought to have killed them.
She explained as much to him, and while doing so, scolded him for once again acting as though her feelings did not matter whenever he set his mind on something dangerous.
Still, she did not stop him.
The witch drew the magic circles all the same. She knew he was a doctor who understood bones, flesh, and organs with a depth that surpassed even her own knowledge in some respects.
If anyone could attempt such a thing and live, it was likely Joji.
Daisy, who had originally helped him with work like this, was no longer called in.
It was not because Joji trusted the witch more. The truth was simpler and harsher than that.
Their finances as a couple were already stretched thin, and Daisy needed to keep working.
At first, Joji had wanted to use the task as a way to spend more time with her, to build something steadier between them.
But once he learned that every absence cost Daisy ten gold, he stopped asking.
Daisy only earned about two hundred and fifty gold a month. That loss was too steep for sentiment.
"Let’s begin," Joji said.
He stepped into the blood-drawn pentagram, one circle etched into the floor and its twin mirrored on the ceiling above.
Crimson lines spread in intricate layers around him, concentric rings bound to interlocking triangles, all of it closing around a dense core of symbols, runes, and broken compartments filled with sigils he could not have mistaken for anything harmless.
The Lady of the Swamp gave a small nod and activated the formation at its lowest output.
Joji closed his eyes. At once, heat swallowed him, thick and smothering, as though he had been sealed inside an oven.
A sharp wind followed, whistling past his ears with an edge that made his skin tighten.
Then it struck. Something invisible lashed across the side of his head and tore a line of pain into him so sudden and fierce that he winced at once.
He had expected suffering. He had not expected it to bite that hard.
A heartbeat later, regeneration answered.
He felt the flesh pull itself together, raw tissue rising and sealing at a speed visible to the naked eye.
His pulse climbed hard in his throat. The cost of it was unmistakable.
It felt like the aftermath of a fifty meter sprint, his body burning through itself just to keep pace.
What remained of the wound turned to scab, and even that was torn away by the dark wind circling the array.
Then another unseen lash struck him from behind.
Again the pain came. Again his body repaired itself.
Joji steadied his breathing and forced himself to think past the hurt.
If he had paid this much for the method, then he meant to wring every drop of value from it.
Suffering alone was a waste. There had to be a way to squeeze more from the process.
Then an idea came to him.
He raised a hand over his eyes, then opened them and looked toward the witch.
"Lady of the Swamp, can you bring me something to eat? I’m starving."
Thinking he meant to pause, she rose without suspicion and made for the door at once.
As Joji watched the graceful sweep of her snow-pale back disappear from the room, he turned his attention to the status window.
What he saw there pleased him greatly.
{Aura: 13.83} (⇧ 0.03)
{Mana: 17.14} (⇧ 0.04)
{(NEW) Prana: 0.02} (⇧ 0.02)
{(NEW) Force: 0.01} (⇧ 0.02)