A Path Of Bone And Poison

To me they were only pictures, but through our connection I could feel the brain of the dragon was in a sort of trance. It stared at the pictures endlessly, as its mind became more and more active.

I could only watch for a few moments before the images began to give me a headache. I felt that I too could learn a lot from the images, but it would take me down a path I did not want to take.

Instead I turned my eyes to my own book. When I opened it, I was greeted by the sight of a normal human silhouette. Inside were several nodes, connected by lines. The lines were of different shapes and sizes. Some were extremely long, but relatively thin. Some were short, but far thicker. The nodes themselves were of various sizes and were spread throughout the silhouette.

The largest of the nodes was in the middle of the head, where the brain would be. The second largest was in the location of the heart. These two nodes were connected by the thickest of the lines. From the heart several lines spread throughout the body. There was one at every joint in the human body, as well as a single node in both hands and both feet. Finally, there were a total of 5 nodes along the spine. All in all, there were 23 different nodes. 4 in each arm and leg. 5 in the spine, one in the brain and one in the heart.

As I read further into the book, I found that the order to unlock them was incredibly important. The brain was first, and the heart second. The brain fed into the heart. And from the heart it spread through the rest of the body.

The brain needed to be first, as the entire process was based on the user"s mana. Mana was linked to a user"s intelligence and wisdom, and these two came from the brain.

The heart was the center of vitality. It fed into everything else. If the body were not healthy the rest of the body would suffer.

The spine was in control of Const.i.tution. A healthy spine was needed to properly defend yourself. If the spine were not properly protected the rest of the body would become useless.

The nodes in the arms and legs were next. They would unlock at the same time. One node from each. For a total of 3 times. These controlled the strength and agility of a person.

The final areas that must be unlocked were the hands and feet. These areas needed to be unlocked one at a time. Much like the spine. They controlled the Dexterity of a person and could be unlocked in any order. However, it was recommended to start with the feet, and then move onto the hands.

The entire process was extremely long, and during this you would not be able to learn any other techniques. It would take the entire time I was here to complete all of it. It was an investment that most people would not be able to make.

But the skill suited me perfectly. A user could temporarily boost their performance in a specific stat, other than intelligence or wisdom, by spending a certain amount of mana. There was a set limit, a person could improve their performance of a specific stat by up to 20% of your intelligence stat. This would cause a drain on the user"s mana at a rate of 1% per second.

As a secondary effect the nodes once opened would increase the pa.s.sive regeneration of mana. The effect was rather large, with it totaling around 1% per second with all of them unlocked.

The skill could also be used to upgrade the entire body. The skill still cost the same amount of mana, but the benefit would be limited to 5% of intelligence increase.

The skill could only be considered average, and for most adventurers it would not be worth it. Adventurers would either focus on their physical body or their mental abilities. Very rarely would they focus on both.

However, this skill was perfect for me. I focused on both aspects, though my physical stats would mostly be focused on dexterity and Agility. With this I could utilize my intelligence in more than a single way and would not just be used to increase the damage of my bullets.

I began to practice it almost immediately. It was much harder than any of the other arts I had ever tried. I had to focus my magical energy into the node in my head, which would slowly build. When the node was filled to bursting it would implode, causing a whirlpool to form.

Unfortunately, this could not be performed if the user had a core, as the magical energy in the body would naturally focus on the core. Fortunately for me, my core was no longer in my possession, rather it was now part of my dragon familiar. This unfortunate incident had led to many positive situations. The foremost being gaining a dragon as a familiar. The latest being the chance to learn this ability.

The road would be long until I mastered this ability. In the short term the other members of my squad would completely overpower me. In the long term our power would begin to balance out. I was not so arrogant that I needed to be in the spotlight every moment, so I would gladly take a back seat for a period of time.

These thoughts were fleeting as I studied the book in front of me. I could not help but think how much easier this ability would be to learn if I pulled it into my library. Unfortunately, this book did not belong to me, so I was limited to practicing during the period I was allowed. This would slow down my progress to a crawl.