CHAPTER 39: RANKING UP

~Amanda POV~

She sat cross legged on the floor of her bedroom whilst meditating. Improving the Mind aspect was simple in theory but as is often the case, simple doesn’t necessarily mean easy.

There are a few main ways that people can improve the Mind aspect, the ’easiest’ is through combat. When fighting with your life on the line if you make good use of your skills you will naturally progress the Mind aspect, similar to how you will increase your body aspect by fighting physically. The Soul aspect could also be improved through combat but there was no consensus on exactly what part of combat improved that particular aspect.

Regardless for the Mind one of the other main ways of improving it is through figuring out new ways to utilise your skills, by figuring out how best to utilise them, developing a new technique based on them or other such improvements one can improve the Aspect.

The last common way to improve the Mind is to simply study. By improving your knowlage base and understanding the world around you it will in turn improve your mental capacity ergo improve your Mind.

The method that I have been working on is by developing my skills. The one that I am currently working on is my innate skill blood syphon it is a skill directly tied to my race as a vampire. It allows me to drain the blood of any foe that I strike to heal back any injury’s that I have received. I am trying to make it work so that I will be able to share my own blood with someone else to heal them.

It should technically be within the bounds of the skill as it’s entire purpose is to drain the blood from one entity and giving it to another. Figuring out how exactly I can go about this however, is remarkably hard.

After repeatedly being unable to figure out a way around this I am broken from my thoughts by the door opening and Lily walking in. "Oh hey there, sorry for bothering you." She says.

"No your alright I could do with a break anyhow, nothing I do seems to be working." I reply dejectedly.

"Your still working on your syphon skill right?" She asks me, nodding I can only let out a sigh. We had naturally discussed our abilities and what we are doing to rank them up, I was still slightly jealous that Lilly was able to rank up through sex but everyone has their own advantages. "Hmm, you said that you can develop skills based upon how you view them working right?" I nod again curious as to where she is going with this.

"Ok so maybe you are just going about this the wrong way." She states with a glint in her eyes.

I groan at that but humor her. "Oh and how exactly am I going about it in the wrong way?"

"Well your a vampire." I nod at that. "And for vampires blood represents life right?" I again nod. "Well whilst that is technically true for other races the connection isn’t necessarily as deep for us as it might be for vampires. Now bare with me for a moment. How about instead of picturing what you drain as purely blood think of it as life force. As the vial energy that supports all life and you are simply taking that life force and using it for a different purpose." She finishes explaining with a wide smile.

I freeze, that.. that actually makes a lot of sense. Had I been subconsciously thinking of the blood as only blood? How exactly would it make sense for any random persons blood to heal another person who isn’t a vampire? That just wouldn’t make sense. No it would make more sense if what I was draining was their very life force, I only pictured it is purely blood as that is what works specifically for me. But if I want this to work for different people then I would need to think of it in a different light.

I sit myself back down and instantly focus back on my skill. Putting this into practice I focus not on just blood but of the concept behind blood, blood is the life force that keeps people alive, without blood their is no life but without life blood is meaningless. Why wouldn’t I be able to extract the essence of life through someone’s blood and in turn extract my own life force and infuse it into someone else through the medium of blood!

And as if a switch has been flipped I revive a notification.

[Innate skill - Blood syphon has upgraded to Life Syphon]

[Congratulations your Mind Aspect has ranked up to Iron 1]

[All Aspects have reached Iron rank. Beginning Rank up]

"It worked!" I shout out in joy and look up to see Lillys smiling face.

However before I can bask in my excitement she speaks up. "Congratulations love, but please go into the bathroom now, we don’t want the bedroom to be all stinky!"

———

~Kana POV~

This has been quite the productive week for me. I don’t think I have ever ranked up so many aspects in such a short amount of time. Both my Body and Mind have already reached Iron and I now only have my Soul left to Rank up. I can feel that I am right on the edge and all I need is that small push to get me over that boundary.

The Soul is a tricky Aspect to upgrade. Whilst you can upgrade it through combat like the other two the second most common way (or most common for non combatants) is to get to better understand yourself. As cheesy as it sounds you need to better understand your nature as a person. Learn what makes you tick, learn who you are down to the deepest level if you want to advance your Soul. Easy on paper but less so in real life.

I have just left the training grounds at the adventures guild and was walking through the streets intending to head back to Amanda’s house to meet up with Lilly and Amanda. But as I was walking I began to notice the stares, I had long ago learned to tune out the judgmental and sometimes straight up hateful looks that were thrown my way thanks to my mixed heritage. Whilst I was always aware of them they became a sort of background noise. It has only been since I met Lilly that they stopped bothering me as much. Her pure love for me made random people’s judgmental glares seem to matter less, why should I can about what other people think of me when someone as amazing as her cares so much for me.

Yet after spending so long trying to figure out who I am at a deep level I have begun to notice the stares more. They feel like needles jabbing into my skin their judgment pouring down on me and weighing me down. I hate it. I hate them!

I pause in my walk, "where did that come from?" I mutter to myself, whilst I’m not exactly thrilled to be despised so openly I don’t think iv ever in turn hated them back? Have I?

I change the direction that I’m heading and make my way to the town gate, I need to get some space and think this through. I quickly rush through the town making my way to the gates. Passing them I brake out into a sprint, quickly finding myself out in the multicoloured grasslands. After running for a few minutes I can no longer see the town and I find a quiet hill to sit down at.

Laying down I start to meditate on how exactly I feel about other people stares. Iv always know that I was different, I never knew my parents, the orphanage that I grew up in said that I was left at their doorstep one day and no one managed to work out who my parents were. I long ago gave up any hope of figuring out who my parents were, they abandoned me so why should I care for them. But because of them I have experienced so much.. so much that I wish I never had to. From distrust to outright hatred and prejudice, people, especially humans seem to dislike me as a default I don’t know why but it has always been the case other races don’t mind as much but the prejudice is still there.

But should I allow this to effect me so? I thought that I shouldn’t let it especially now with Lilly, Amanda and little Dawn but deep down I don’t think I’m able to let it go. The stares do hurt the distrust and prejudice that I face does hurt. The disregard that i myself have been ignoring the pain does indeed hurt. But does it have to? Can I change my own perception of who i am? My mind flashed back to my first time meeting Lilly, how her gaze held nothing but concern and slight assmusmet at how I so openly stared at her. About how she accepted me for me right out of the gate, never judging and disrespecting me. Always willing to listen.

Yes I think that with her by my side I can allow this pain to pass, it might not happen soon but it will happen eventually. And just like that I feel something change.

[Congratulations your Soul Aspect has ranked up to Iron 1]

[All Aspects have reached Iron rank. Beginning Rank up]

I smile as I see the messages feeling like a huge weight has been lifted from my shoulders. However my smile fades as I realise I am out in the wilderness. And I don’t have a change of cloths. "Shit I’m going to stink."

———-

~Lilliana POV~

As I watch Amanda rush into the bathroom whilst stripping so she doesn’t ruin her clothes when she ranks up I chuckle to myself as I gently stroke Dawns head. However at that point the doors swings open and disheveled Kama walks in covered in black gunk and loosing both excited and pretty annoyed. I pause for a moment trying to decide if I should congratulate her, laugh at her or move away from her as I can already smell the stink wafting off her.

However before I can do more than look at her she speaks. "Not a word out of you! I my had the whole town for that I just want to wash off and get into something clean." And with that she heads straight to the bathroom. Once she enters and I hear her exclamation of both supprise and horror at realising that Amanda is currently ranking up herself I finally let out a full belly laugh.

I eventually calm down and both girls eventually make it out now looking clean and with towels wrapped around themselves. I am then promptly grabbed by Kana and dragged off to the bedroom once she passes Dawn off to Amanda. I then proceed to get throughly used by first her and then Amanda in turn as they celebrate by using my body, I truly enjoy the experience.

And as I’m lying there in a puddle after the fact I revive the waiting notification.

[Congratulations your Mind Aspect has ranked up to Iron 1]

[All Aspects have reached Iron rank. Beginning Rank up]

"Oh no" I mutter as I try to drag myself to the bathroom, I make it about half way before the blackness of ranking up overtakes me.

——-

Any thought on how this was handled?

I’m not 100% on how I took the whole internal monologues and thought process but I hope it wasn’t too bad and you could all still enjoy it!