Suddenly, his eyes jolted open!

They were dark grey and covered with black spots, he had a captivating vertical black slit in the middle which gave him a very fierce appearance!

He started thrashing around and trying to get out from the Hands' grip, I quickly started forming a mind link to connect us.

Even though he was crazily moving his body, his eyes did not glance away from mine. There was a tense atmosphere in the air.

At this point, I wished I had some skill to transfer some of my memory to him. So, that he could see how much I suffered to get him out of there instead of giving me this stinky eye.

To me the glorified concept of doing good and not mentioning it was but a sham, not in the sense that it was bad mind you. But that there were no absolutes in life, it was not a good thing to do every single time.

For example, the consequences of me not showing him that and just letting him go he'd just go back to living a lonely life dangerous life in the jungle, I also would not stop and lower my value just in an effort to appear humble in my mind. I could change this guy's whole existence, I was very aware of that and that was my intention.

After he unintentionally broke off the mind link I was trying to connect us with a couple of times as he was thrashing around, he finally gave in and let it connect, after calming down a bit.

"Let go of me you filthy bird", I immediately heard a breathy voice in my mind. It sounded like that of a young man.

I let go of my control of the Umbra's hands, and he immediately ran away, but as he reached the edge of the window he stopped.

He did not go further than five meters so the link was still connected.

"You happy now?", I sat down once again and asked in a teasing voice not expecting anything.

All of this must have been very strange so I did not blame him.

"Very happy", He replied fairly quickly just as he was about to run away, he stopped once again and it seemed like he was hesitating he turned around with a puzzled look and asked, "What happened? I was caught by some monster and I got buried underneath with roots sucking out my life force."

I wished I had a memory transfer skill, wait!

I hurriedly opened the shop and went to the section on mind spells, there were illusion spells, mind strengthening, parallel thinking, and avatars, and then I found it.

[Basic Memory Transfer] (100 Karma Points)

I decisively bought it after calculating whether I'd have enough for what I needed.

This spell would definitely help me in a lot of things I was planning to do, so I decided to get it now.

"Wait and I'll show you what happened", I closed my eyes and started learning the spell.

The gecko was still fidgeting at the edge of the window, I could tell that he was scared and confused.

Due to the limited communication between monsters, fights to the death were the only viable option because everyone is afraid and suspicious of each other.

Unlike how the white snake was aware of its neighbor's name and they even seemed to have some sort of shallow relationship.

When I saw how the spell functioned I was simply in awe!

First, you needed to engrave a copying property into the mana. To do so, you had to build a tiny mechanism in every piece of mana.

What this mechanism did was once activated it projects itself outward and the moment it comes into contact with any foreign matter other than itself it envelopes it and uses its information transmission property to copy whatever its target had.

Just like the mana I used in examining the gecko previously, sort of like a drone but with a copy twist.

Then, you had to think of the incident you want to transfer and cover the parts of your brain responsible for storing memories with it. As you start remembering it, neurons start to fire away in your brain going from one place to the next talking to each other, and the mana is then activated and comes into contact with each neuron copying the information within.

I could tell that there was some stuff working under the hood which I did not have to immediately understand as the spell took care of some of them, but just the tip of the iceberg I was able to comprehend and work with was already miraculous.

I started remembering how I sensed the life underneath the flower, then I attacked it and brought the gecko out. As I grabbed him and charged toward the monsters blocking my exit I was bombarded with skills and I almost died.

Remembering up to there I instinctively felt terrified because of the sheer pain I was feeling and how close to death I was, which was also copied. Afterward, I shielded him while leaving myself unprotected amidst the barrage of dozens of monsters' skills. As we barely ran away from their encirclement, I healed him only to get caught by the white snake once again, I also shivered thinking up to here.

The white snake was definitely my closest brush with death, I could still feel it slithering over my body. The copying ended with me bringing him to the watch tower.

Suffice to say my mana and spiritual energy were running out like crazy, the amount of focus and power required to copy all of that was astounding.

I could not help but feel like I was manipulating him, because I think I was. However, my intentions were pure, I was not trying to harm him or use him in any way. I just wanted for us to be on the same page so to speak because to him I was just a strange bird he woke up to which was not true.

I did not need anything from him, and I figured if he could feel some semblance of warmth in this mean forest it'd be good. I could not imagine how lonely and terrifying it must feel like living here fighting for your life on a daily basis.

Especially since he seems very intelligent.

As I finished copying, my mana almost ran out but the end product was also finished.

In my mind, there was a small rotating ball of transparent energy, this was the memory I managed to transfer.

"I'll show you something but don't resist, I have no bad intentions I know you are not stupid so you'd know that if I wanted to kill you I'd have done it when you were asleep.", I glanced in his direction with my eyes, or rather my eye as I had not finished healing the other one.

He looked at me for a while but was still in doubt. He kept glancing at Ashe from time to time as if afraid, then he finally said, "Fine."

I controlled the energy-like memory and used the link connecting us as a way to send it. The ball transformed and turned into a stream the moment it came into contact with the bridge and then with lightning speed it entered his mind.

The gecko's eyes turned completely grey and his slit was nowhere to be seen as he fell losing control over his body, looking at that scene I was frightened!

Shit, did I kill him or something?

The spell did not mention anything past that part, this was definitely not the reaction I expected from a harmless memory transfer.

As he was out cold, I appraised him.

[Appraised Target: Sterus Tenebrous Gecko

Cultivation Realm: Foundation Establishment(Low)

Health Points(HP): 321/321

Magic Power(MP/Mana): 338/338

Spiritual Power(SP): 284/284

Magical Resistance: 51

Physical Resistance: 58

Spiritual Resistance: 47

Vitality: 149

Strength: 169

Stamina: 147

Intelligence: 153

Agility: 166

Spirit: 141

Description: The Sterus Tenebrous Gecko, is a rare reptile species that specializes in physical combat and stealth. Thanks to its small size, beautiful appearance, and other skills it can appear very harmless enabling it to lower its enemies' guard only to explode with terrifying strength.

]

He was indeed pretty tough and seemed on the verge of breaking through.

I wonder what his affinities were, other than darkness of course if he had any at all.

After a minute that felt like days, the gecko stood up once again though with clearly a conflicted expression on its small face saying, "Is that what happened? But how could a small Body Refinement like you do all of that?"

"I was the one who was holding you earlier, not her.", I said, as a matter of fact, the implication clear.

"I don't believe it.", he retorted with clear disbelieve in his eyes.

"Alright, I'll try to kill you now protect yourself if you can.", My previously relaxed and harmless demeanor changed completely, I stood up and looked at him with my one good eye challenging him.

He squirmed in his place and raised his guards, tense contrary to what he said.

[Piercing Gaze]

The moment he was stunned, I created several Umbra Hands holding him from every inch of his body, all around me I created six wind blades but did not release them.

Then, I locked into him with my huge Spirit Sense.

The moment he recovered from his daze he found himself unable to move, his mind was still in shambles, and six terrifying blades with darkness and wind aiming in his direction.

"Ok, ok I believe you stop.", with a quick panicky voice, he hurriedly bellowed.

I undid the wind blades and let go of my umbra hands.

It was only then that he was terrified, previously he could tell that he was able to run away or even beat Ashe and he did not even consider me. But after that display of power, he knew that his life was in my hands.

"Why did you risk your life to help me, it does not make sense?", He asked his face sporting a bewildered expression, but still scared nonetheless.

"To be fair, I had no idea it would be that dangerous. All of those monsters were practically dead so I could not sense them either.", I honestly replied because that was indeed what happened, the way things escalated after that was something no one could have expected.

He seemed like he was thinking about something, "Hmm... that does make sense.", after a moment of silence, he added, "Seeing that you did not eat me, why?" still hesitating.

Hearing that I felt a bit frustrated, not entirely with him but with myself. What was I trying to achieve by all of this shit and beating around the bush.

I wanted to tell him that I wanted someone to join me but he was so terrified that I knew he'd probably say yes just out of fear of rejecting me.

"Nothing. You can go.", I closed my eyes and shooed him off, I could tell that he did not feel any appreciation nor anything his only concern was getting as far away as he possibly could from someone who could kill him.

Just as he was about to leave, I added, "Keep running north and don't stop. If you touch anyone in my territory I will finish the plant's job myself."

I used my senses and locked into him, something he'd also be able to feel, just an indication that I was indeed seeing everything.

He looked at me one last time and ran away at a fast speed.

Seeing him running away I sighed, but there was nothing I could have done differently.

I opened my shop and bought another [Rare Beast Pouch] with 75 Karma Points, and the last spell I needed to confidently go to the human city.

[The Beastmaster's Mark] (150 Karma Points)

[The Beastmaster's Mark: A spell with the ability to link between two living beings. Superficially, it's a slave contract with one party being a slave and the other the master. In reality, it does not negatively affect either of them, but allows both parties to sense the direction of each other.]