Watching the Volunteers split apart and start searching through the city, Ubert followed after them from a short distance, fully trusting that his special circumstances would keep them from seeing him. He was followed by 4 others just like him, as they trailed the delectable meal before them with an insatiable hunger that only now came back with a vengeance.
Ubert wanted to rush in and consume the power he could feel in the quintet of Volunteers going door-to-door in the city of Zecklent, but he restrained his baser impulses. They had been waiting for weeks for this meal, and he wasn’t about to jeopardize it by acting stupid.
I’ve never tasted the potential of someone who has both their Mage and Martial sides unlocked before, and I want to savor the rush that it is sure to provide.
Granted, the former Martial had already unlocked his Mage side by consuming the magical potential of a Mage weeks ago, but that wasn’t exactly the same. It was like eating pasta without sauce; the pasta might be filling, but without the delectable addition of a sauce to make it taste better, it was fairly bland.
He wanted a full meal, and he was about to get it.
Easily keeping up with the group they were following, Ubert wondered how it would be to use the special staves that the Volunteers were reported to use. While he and the others like him enjoyed the benefits of consuming magical potential, as it raised their stats permanently, any time they’d attempted to use anything with a Fusion on it, it wouldn’t work. It was as if there was no connection between them and the magical formation; in other words, it didn’t know they were there.
Which was both a curse and a blessing. The same thing that prevented them from using Fusions also kept them from casting spells or utilizing Battle Arts; there was no energy within them to interact with these abilities, as they didn’t have any Mana or Stama. He also didn’t have any Skills, whether Martial, Mage, or even General, but he didn’t really miss those – because his stats more than made up for their loss.
Ubert
Level 1
Advancement Points (AP): 0/0
Available AP to Distribute: 0
Stama: 0/0
Mana: 0/0
Strength: 250
Body: 245
Agility: 260
Acuity: 152
Intellect: 144
Pneuma: 75
Pattern Cohesion: 75
Despite his Status still listing him as Level 1, he was now stronger, faster, and more durable than he had ever been as a Level 23 Martial. In addition, while unlocking his Mage stats had, at first, seemed like a waste because it didn’t really do anything for him, he soon realized the error of his assumptions: The increase in his mental stats allowed him to evaluate things faster than before, which helped him formulate plans at a fast-enough rate to keep up with his new Agility. His Mage stats also reined in the preliminary overwhelming desire that had overcome him soon after he had been turned into his current form, right after his own potential had been consumed by someone else.
He never did learn who it was that had caught and drained his potential away, though he liked to believe that it was the progenitor of their kind, the one only known as Number 37. Ubert didn’t know much about him, other than he had moved on with a small contingent of their kind shortly after converting everyone with potential in the city; where he was now, the former Martial that had been part of the Defend Faction in Zecklent didn’t know.
Ubert was starting to get impatient as the group of Volunteers they were following took entirely too long to finish with their current investigation of a local bakery, and he hoped that they would take the alleyway nearby to their next destination. Out of eyesight of the city’s population, he and the others could get their meal without having to frighten the citizens; despite his current situation, everyone who had been converted was still cognizant of their original duty to help defend the common people. While they didn’t venture into Apertures anymore, they were more than willing to defend the city against any monster hordes that might appear. Just because they weren’t technically Mages and Martials anymore didn’t mean that they didn’t care for the common people.
They weren’t psychotic murderers, after all. They simply hungered for magical potential, bereft of their own. That notion actually led them to call themselves, “The Bereft,” as that explained exactly what they were, no more and no less. It was only right that they take from those with magical potential to fill the emptiness in their bodies, they rationalized, as being bereft of their own just wasn’t proper.
Practically salivating as the Volunteers finally left the bakery, he couldn’t help but envision what would be only his seventh meal of magical potential. At first, he had been extremely weak after initially being converted into a Bereft, and he had been lost and confused at what had happened. It wasn’t until he had managed to catch one of his fellow Faction Mages alone that he learned how powerful he could really be, once he consumed her potential with a simple touch. It had been easy – and addicting, as he immediately wanted more. With each subsequent meal of magical potential, his stats increased substantially: While the original unlocking of his Mage stats had resulted in fairly low numbers, each subsequent Mage or Martial potential he consumed increased his stats by leaps and bounds. Going from just single digits in his Martial stats to the mid-200s had only taken 3 Martial potential consumptions to reach that level, while his Mage stats were far less with only 2 being consumed after the first.
It was a heady feeling, and he felt strong enough to contend with just about anything.
All but the man that’s apparently leading the Volunteers. When he looked at the man, his hunger increased substantially, as it was like glimpsing a 10-course meal all laid out for him to devour – but that hunger came with an equally healthy respect for the man’s power. If the meal he possessed as potential was a 10-course meal fit for a king, the man himself was the equivalent to a royal guard protecting it from those who would try to take it from his liege. There was a strength and a danger to him that Ubert had never seen or felt before, and he was smart enough – and in control of his urges enough – not to want to go up against someone like him, despite the payoffs if he was able to consume the man’s potential.
What made going up against such a man even more of a bad idea was the fact that Ubert was fairly certain that the man had actually seen through his blessing. If the inability to interact with Fusions, as well as using Battle Arts or casting spells, was a curse, then the complete invisibility that the Bereft possessed could be considered a blessing. It didn’t kick in until the Bereft had consumed their first meal, but after that, no one – not the normal citizens, nor any Mages or Martials – could see them.
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But it was more than just being invisible. It was almost as if the Bereft simply didn’t exist to them. There had been multiple instances when Ubert or another Bereft had accidentally bumped into a normal commoner while moving “invisibly” through the city; in each instance, the person seemed confused for a moment, but after a few seconds, even if they had been knocked down, the commoner simply stood up and resumed whatever they were doing without a thought about what they had run into.
It was bizarre, but it also allowed the Bereft to move about the city without being noticed – which was how they were following these Volunteers without their knowledge. Even if they had stood directly in front of them as they walked, their meals would simply try to unconsciously move around the invisible obstruction without wondering why.
Still, despite their invisibility, they were cautious in their approach to taking down their meals. People could still see the Volunteers, after all, and panic would certainly occur throughout the city if they all appeared to drop dead within seconds. But that wasn’t the only reason they needed to wait until their victims were out of sight; they also needed to bind and hide them somewhere in the city.
Why?
Because being turned into a Bereft didn’t immediately convert people. When they arose, bereft of their magical potential, they were still somewhat cognizant of who they were, if not fully aware of all their memories. For these Volunteers, they would likely have enough loyalty to their organization that they might begin to spread the word of what happened to them, alerting others like the powerful man that Ubert didn’t dare touch; if that were to happen, those with greater power might find a way to find and hunt them down.
To break them of their former ties, they had to restrain the new Bereft until their hunger grew to the point where they would do just about anything for a meal. Once they got to that point and they consumed the magical potential of another person, they would inevitably abandon their old life and fully incorporate into the life of a Bereft. It was exactly what had happened to him and the others in the city, after all, and while he had abandoned all loyalty to the Faction he’d belonged to, as well as to the Kingdom as a whole, he still wanted to live to protect the people he had defended for years before this.
And to live, he needed to eat, which meant that he and all the other Bereft needed to hide themselves from those who would end them without a thought of what they were doing.
Finally, after what felt like hours but was instead only a few minutes, Ubert’s focus spiked as the Volunteers turned down the alleyway he hoped they would. With a meaningful glance at the other Bereft behind him, they followed closely behind the staff-wielding meals, preparing to attack and consume their magical potential before they could react.
Unfortunately, halfway through the alley, one of the Volunteers stopped, which caused the others to do so as well. “Did any of you hear that? It sounded like someone was following us,” the man said, turning around toward the entrance of the alley that had just walked through. Ubert and the others paused, unsure whether they should attack then or not, as it seemed as though they had been heard; but when the Volunteers all looked through the Bereft, they simply stood still.
“I thought I heard something, but it was probably just the echoes of our footsteps off the walls. I don’t see anything, do you?”
The original one who stopped peered intently through the alley, as if searching for something in particular. When Ubert assessed the young man, his hunger grew significantly more pronounced in comparison to the others, which likely meant that this particular Volunteer was a bit stronger than the others. Not nearly at the same sort of level as the one he saw earlier that he had no desire to mess with, but certainly stronger than the other 4 with him.
Ubert thought everything was fine when the Volunteer seemed poised to turn away, but as he moved his head, the man’s peripheral vision must have picked something up, because the man’s head whipped around again so quickly that it was only the Bereft’s Agility that allowed him to see it. There was a confusion in his eyes as he stared through Ubert and the others with him, but just as the Bereft thought everything was fine, the man’s eyes suddenly focused on something.
The next thing he knew, Ubert made eye contact.
Well, there goes doing this quietly.
A split-second after eye contact was made, the Bereft were moving, each of them aiming for a different Volunteer. Ubert went straight for the throat of the young man who had somehow seen him, his hands outstretched to touch the bare skin, as that was necessary for his own hunger to invade and consume the other’s potential.
But the Volunteer he was targeting was also fast, if not quite as fast as Ubert. While the other Bereft managed to get to their targets without their victims being any the wiser about their presence, a staff was raised fast enough by the young man, and a steady barrage of flaming balls shot out at Ubert. It was unexpected enough that the first of them smacked him in the face, but instead of him being scorched and burned by the attack, all he felt was an uncomfortable level of heat. It was so shocking that he didn’t dodge the rest as he closed the distance, letting the balls of fire slam into him, only to dissipate upon contact with his skin. He couldn’t decide whether it was a result of his high Body stat, as he’d never had this high of a stat before, or if it was because he was Bereft, but the effects of the flaming balls were completely counteracted. They weren’t absorbed or deflected; it was almost as if whatever kept the flaming ball together broke apart when it touched him.
The shock and then fear in the young man’s eyes were evident as Ubert finally reached the Volunteer, his hand around the Volunteer’s throat and his hunger invading his body. The Bereft immediately found that the battle against the Volunteer’s magical potential was more difficult than usual; normally, his hunger vastly overpowered whatever resistance there was as it gobbled it all up, but this one actually put up a fight. Instead of the few seconds it usually took, Ubert physically lifted up the young man for nearly 10 seconds before his hunger finally had its meal, consuming the magical potential in a few large bites…
…and it was the most euphoric sensation that he’d ever felt. Every consumption of magical potential before this paled in comparison to the rush that accompanied his current meal, and his knees felt weak as he let the body of the young man drop to the ground. He vaguely caught the sight of the other Bereft reacting similarly, as this was also their first time consuming fully unlocked magical potential, though his was probably the strongest reaction because of the relative strength of his victim.
He wanted to continue savoring what he’d just consumed, but all too soon, his Intellect kicked in and urged him to move. The others were already gathering up the bodies at their feet, so Ubert stooped over to pick up the young man below him, as well. Their victims had a minute or so before they woke up as a Bereft, and they needed to get them into a secure hiding place. Before they took off, though, they felt for and removed any Fusion that was visible upon their victims, leaving them all in a waste bin in the alley, along with the staves and weapons that they had carried. After speaking with Mages in the past, he was more than aware that there were some who could detect such things from a distance, and he wouldn’t be surprised if that insanely strong man from earlier was one of them.
Fortunately, the Fusions that were inside the Volunteers were completely neutralized when the hunger of the Bereft gobbled up their magical potential, so that shouldn’t matter too much; it was only external Fusions that they needed to ditch. Once that was taken care of, Ubert and the other Bereft hurried through the city, heading for an “abandoned” building near the northern walls; it was technically abandoned by the citizens of the city, but it was the unofficial Bereft headquarters that was used for the exact purpose for which they were going. In the basement, there were a number of cells where they could keep recent converts, allowing them to hunger without being able to escape; the rest of the building was more of a hangout when they didn’t have anything else to do, as the Bereft didn’t need to sleep nor eat normal food.
Their victims were just starting to stir when Ubert and the others deposited them inside one of the cells, locking them inside before turning away. It was only then that he pulled up his Status to look at the changes his meal had wrought.
Ubert
Level 1
Advancement Points (AP): 0/0
Available AP to Distribute: 0
Stama: 0/0
Mana: 0/0
Strength: 321
Body: 335
Agility: 340
Acuity: 272
Intellect: 246
Pneuma: 132
Pattern Cohesion: 132
Amazing. That’s the biggest increase I’ve gained at one time, in addition to gaining stats in both my Martial and Mage stats.
The progress he’d made thus far only made him want even more, but he wasn’t sure when the next meal would be. There were other Bereft out there waiting for their own chance to snack on Volunteer magical potential, after all; and as much as he wanted to contest with them for it, such infighting wasn’t beneficial to their kind as a whole. It was better to share the wealth, as it were, instead of letting one or two of them have it all.
But that didn’t mean he was going to simply sit around and do nothing. While his hunger was greatly satiated, it was by no means silent. Its presence still lingered at the forefront of his mind, so he went back out to shadow the other groups of Bereft out in the city.
Ubert was content to share the wealth, but they had to go out and seize it if they wanted it. If the others weren’t able to immediately take advantage of the free meal presented to them, then who could blame him for taking an extra nibble here and there when they took too long?
It wasn’t him being selfish – he was just being pragmatic.
