Psychokinetic Eyeball Pulling

Chapter 45: Knife Skills and a Campfire

Astrid gazed at the ghouls approaching them. She counted sixteen of them before giving up. After all, they were approaching at a speed that she still had to get used to. Their high strength propelled their legs forward at an intense speed that made Astrid jealous. When will I receive a movement skill?

With the newly formed knives at her waist, she threw them forward. They streaked through the air and with the sound of something hard piercing bone; they pierced through the dense skull, all the way down to the blade's hilt as viscous liquid seeped down from the crack in between the blade.

Astrid raised her hand. Her psychic mana latched onto the other ghoul’s eyeballs. With a yank, their white gelatinous beads were torn from their skulls. Commanding them to [Crash] pink liquid was sent splattering into the air as explosions blew open their skulls. Fragments of bloodied bone and brain matter scattered, covering the already manky swamp ground in red and white.

“What’s your obsession with pulling out eyeballs?” Brett said. “Seriously, it’s so messy.”

“You don’t see me complaining when you slit throats and blood sprays everywhere.” Astrid crossed her arms.

“Yeah, well, at least it’s controlled.” Brett continued. “Somewhat anyway. Yours just splatters everywhere! Look.”

Brett turned around and pointed to the pink smattering of brain matter on his leather jacket.

“If anything, the smell is an improvement.” Rachelle joked.

“Smell? You’re one to talk, with the amount of perfume you slather yourself in. It’s no surprise our world ended.”

“At least I don’t smell like a donkey that rolled around in shit!” Rachelle squared up to Brett as she held her nose.

“Guys,” Leena said, “you all reek of the stables.”

Daniel laughed. “She’s right there.” He lifted his arm and took a whiff. His head recoiled back.

“Biological warfare, how powerful.” Astrid chuckled.

“And we still have six days?” Leena asked.

Lisa placed her hand on her shoulder. “You get used to it... maybe.”

“You’ll get used to it alright,” Daniel said. “It’s not always going to be like this. But sometimes you just end up taking the short straw.”

“Yep, you can’t find gold without sifting through a bit of shit now and then.” Brett flashed a smile.

Leena looked away, focusing on the surrounding sights.

The Wayfaring group made their way through the town. Killing every ghoul in sight so that Astrid could gain more experience and levels. For Daniel and the others, they didn’t need it as at level one-hundred and twenty gaining experience from level sixties, to ninety provided a miniscule amount of experience. So they just let Astrid have fun tearing down the enemies as they casually walked through the town.

They were expecting some stronger ghouls to be lurking, so they always held their guard up. But none made their appearance. They were all dead, or skulking away in some underground area. There were a few times that Astrid’s Psych Domain picked up matter moving beneath them, but it was scarce. They were just stragglers wandering underground. It would be a waste of energy and time to go down and fight them when it was unneeded.

Further past the church, they began walking to the other town that was far in the distance. The lesser ghouls had thinned out as soon as they left the ghost town. Most of them were level sixty to seventy-five, which meant Astrid could easily blow their skulls to smithereens. Or use her matter-formed blades to kill without even being seen. Her control was increasing by the second, every time she would experiment with changing directions last second. She wanted to get to a point where she could halt it in a blink of an eye, then shoot it to the target. She could do it now and then, but sometimes she would lose connection to the blade as she stopped it too fast.

Their heavy boots thudded against the wooden platforms.The wood was rickety and rotten in most areas. She had ended up just resorting to using her extra mana container size to levitate over the wood. Rob, Losef, and Leena had the biggest problems as their heavyweight bore down onto the frail planks of wood. Often stepping through it entirely as their leg disappeared.

Astrid could finally see the end of the swampy marshes.

She could hear a splash of water. Everyone stood at attention and leapt back. Rob’s heavy weight smashed against the platform, sending him down into the swamp water below. At the front, a massive reptilian maw slammed shut against the platform. Sending wooden splinters flying.

Level ?? - Titanic Alligator -

Its enormous scaled body crashed back into the swampy water, sending it splashing all over the Wayfarers. A frigid cold surged from Rob’s arms as he slammed his fist directly onto the prehistoric lizard's body. The ice travelled from his hand and latched around the monster’s limbs, stopping it in place.

“Here, Rob, why don't you give it a whirl?” Daniel threw the chain to Rob as he caught it in his bear-like hands.

It immediately coiled around his wrist. It was tight, as if it had blended into his skin and become one with him. Rob thrust his fist into the swampy water. Hundreds of thick metal chains twisted themselves around the beast. No matter how much it wriggled, its body no longer moved.

“Go on then, Astrid.” Daniel flashed a smile.

Astrid nodded, with the Alligator unable to move. She summoned her Skill-made knives and pierced them towards the opened eyes of the beast. The blade vanished as only the hilt remained. Noticing that it wasn’t enough, she brought out the needles from back in the dungeon. Willing them forward, they pierced through the eye and continued. She still attached her mind to the needle, even after she fully embedded them both into the alligator's skull. She shoved it forward until it pierced the monster’s brain.

I forgot to use my new Mind Domain skill, well there’s always next time.

“Thank you, everyone.” Astrid nodded.

“Gotta make sure you catch up after all.” Daniel patted her shoulder. “Once you have, we’ll probably be ready to join the City expedition at the end of the year.”

“City expedition.” Astrid’s eyes lit up.

“No point thinking about it now, that goes for all of us.” Lisa said. “We have a long path of blood and bones before we are strong enough for a city.”

Everyone turned silent.

“Way to go, mother.” Brett chuckled. “Killing the mood in one swift sentence.”

Daniel dropped into the swamp as his knife sliced in between the reptiles thick scales. The lines appeared within his eyes as he sliced the thick hide as if it was rabbit’s fur. He stripped the warm layer of scales off before placing them into his bag. Then, he cut into the flesh and sliced off a few fillets of flesh to be used for later.

“Finally, some good old fresh meat.” Brett rubbed his hands together. “Can’t beat it. You ever tried alligator meat before, lassy?”

“Can’t say I have, no.” Astrid said. “I'm guessing it will taste like swamp?”

“Indeed, but we have our own methods to help ease that problem." Brett continued. "We’ll find a nice place away from this damned swamp and we'll show you.”

They continued onwards as the flooded swamp town was finally behind them. Replaced with a solid road that Brett almost knelt down and kissed. Trees had finally regained their life as they lay at either side of the long road. Green budded from the leaves as a waft of fresh tree sap replaced the death from before. It only made their own putrid smell stand out even more than before.

Astrid and the others walked into the forest for a few minutes before finding a dry, open spot to have something to eat. Astrid bolted around the forest with her heightened strength and dexterity. It was a freeing feeling, not having to rely so heavily on mana. After all, she didn't have a movement skill. It was a tough choice using extra points in those stats, but it was invaluable for adventuring. She needed to keep up with their basic walking speed, and using all of her mana for levitating was suicide. She gathered the firewood while Daniel readied the firepit. The last thing they wanted was to set fire to the entire forest.

Oh wait, that would be great for rapid experience gain. Astrid smiled to herself before shaking her head. It would be irresponsible, and she didn’t know if it would harm the other groups if she did it. Next time when there are no other groups. Astrid rubbed her hands together.

Rushing back, she tipped the branches and logs that she uprooted with Psychokinesis. Rachelle formed a ball of fire from her hand and chucked it onto the woodpile as a blazing fire tickled their faces. Astrid once more ran into the forest. Using her mind, she corralled hundreds of sticks and logs and brought them back to the temporary camp. Lining them all up, they no longer needed any more wood.

“Though you were going to bring back the entire forest for a second.” Rachelle smiled.

Astrid took a whiff of the cooking meat on the fire as her mouth began salivating. Then a thought struck her.

“Did we bring any seasoning?”

Lisa flashed a smile and took out some crystal jars filled with a different assortment of spices.

“Just because we’re out in the wild doesn’t mean we need to have tasteless food.” Lisa sprinkled the alligator meat with salt, pepper, and some other spices. "It will also help to cut through the taste of swamp."

Astrid’s stomach rumbled. She patted her stomach.

"Quiet now, we will eat soon.” She whispered.

“Did you just talk to your stomach?” Rachelle said as she tilted her head.

“What are you talking about?” Astrid looked straight ahead into the fire.

“You definitely just talked to your stomach,” Brett said, "I heard it."

“Shut it, I did not!” Astrid glared.

“Did so!” Brett frowned.

“She always does.” Leena added as Astrid sent her deathly gaze back at her.

“Now, now, children.” Daniel grabbed hold of two sticks with freshly cooked alligator meat. “Here you go, Astrid, Leena. Welcome to the family.” He handed them over to them both.

“Thank you.”

“Thanks!”

Astrid tore into the fleshy meat. She was expecting something better, but the mild taste of the swamp left a bitter taste in her mouth. But thankfully, the spices mostly negated it. She wolfed it down and looked at the rest of them.

“I want to cook one.” Astrid’s mind connected to the biggest fillet and began rotating it slowly in the air. A few minutes later, Astrid nodded in satisfaction. She sent it towards Daniel.

“A Wayfarer always pays back their debts.” Astrid flashed a smile.

Daniel nodded and began eating.

“Do you think those other teams left straight away?” Astrid asked.

“Probably, they ransacked the hall pretty good.” Losef said.

“Few people want to stay down here any longer than necessary,” Daniel said. “The moment they get paid enough, they’re out of here.”

“And we’re staying for the full week to level me up?” Astrid asked.

“Bang on the money, lassy.” Brett said.

“Thank you, again.”

“Don’t mention it, besides," Rachelle experimented with a flame from the fire. "We love it down here.”

“Any reason to get away from that ship.” Losef nodded.

Astrid ended up having another piece of the tough, yet juicy meat, before her attention finally moved to the System messages within her head.