Deep in the kingdom of Albion, along a dirt road that passed through forest, a merchant traveled in the direction of a Murkwell, a frontier town, where people supposedly found a dungeon, and him being an opportunistic entrepreneur, his caravan was loaded with the goods to start his own shop in the recently developed frontier town. If it were up to him, he would call this a village, maybe a hamlet, as it wasn't on par with the towns he visited when he was still a new member of the trader guild. With the amount of money that he used on buying the goods and transporting them to the frontier town, he was sure to profit. The bandits were rare in these parts, opting to rob more lucrative trade paths, or stay away from the big game and operate in the slums of the other towns and cities, the journey was mostly safe. Mostly.

Unfortunately, the frontier village was right near the Lumgus Woods, which wasn't the safest place in the kingdom, but much safer than the wildlands to the south, where barbarians were more keen to fight than to talk, the cursed land of undead, that was to the west, with the dwarfs protecting the mountain path to the rest of the kingdoms, and comparing to those, the north was relatively safe, even if the weather conditions could change in the blink of an eye. But comparing to the rest of the northern settlements, the weather was the only issue for the Murkwell, for monsters were few it's vicinity.

The merchant smiled at the prospect of gaining almost thrice the amount of money he invested in his goods, only that was not meant to be. Suddenly the guards he hired started panicking, as the horses stood still. They never stood still, instead they tended to become agitated when monsters came close, only trained warhorses would move on or stay in their tracks. To have horses behave this way, something truly bizarre must have happened.

Eventually guards climbed down from their horses, to inspect them, as well as the ones drawing carriages, for they were unresponsive as well. People unleashed their swords, and tried to move together, but no attack came, even if the horses were still paralyzed. At one point, one of the horses moved it's head, or it seemed that way, only to start neighing and thrashing the carriage it was supposed to pull. Nothing could calm the poor animal, even as the guard cut loose the reins the horse just thrashed wildly, even battering one of the guards, so the older guard grabbed his spear and with a clean strike to horse's heart, it was put down. Then all other horses started behaving the same way, one after the other, and as the cutting them loose wasn't an option, they had to be dealt in the same way, else they might not only injure, but kill the people in the caravan.

Only when the guards were dealing with the horses, the merchant had to step out, and get hit on the back of his head with a blunt object by an unknown assailant. No one noticed that merchant disappeared amidst all this chaos. Then one of the younger guards was chocked and carried away into the forest. And one more was knocked out, before the guards found out about weird disappearance of their coworkers, but not yet of an employer.

Once the disappearance was noted however, the guards assumed the defensive formation, with spear and shield users forming an outer circle around the carriage, and a few archers hiding behind their comrades. Only for the carriage to light on fire the moment archers were climbing it to survey the area. Unfortunately for them, one of them fell off with part of the carriage, and it hit him hard, damaging ribs, with some bone fragment piercing his lungs. Then all hell broke loose. The demon came out of the woods, and with a swing of the quarterstaff, he sent a shockwave that pushed guards back to the carriage, and increasing the intensity of the flame.

Guards weren't paid for nothing however, and started advancing towards the black scaled demon, only to find it gone. It reappeared right behind their archers, and swinging it's massive staff, the archers fell limp to the ground.

“Ah, it gets boring already, let's finish this.” The demon produced a toothy sinister smile and clapped it's hands, after which the guards were set on fire. “That's it, scream, scream for me pathetic weaklings.” and they screamed, like never before, even after they fell to the ground with the flesh charred and blind, they screamed, only to fell silent as the demon smashed their skulls with his feet.

“Yeah, seriously, what a waste. I totally wanted to let them alive for a while. Um... say voice, are archers dead or uncoscious? I mean, they don't have the dead tag on them, but you never know.”

“Hey, voice? Hello?” and it's gone. Great job me, I scared it off again. Just keep your mouth shut next time you hear this voice, maybe then it won't ditch you. At least I got three people that aren't dead yet, as well as a few extra, one archer with a pierced lung, one that started bleeding from the head, and... wait a second, one guard is trying to run away.

I run towards the running guard, and jump in front of him, in all my scaled glory, as I crush his arms and look into his eyes, as I activate my beholder eyes. I must say, for something that powerful, the costs are ridiculously low. The horses were forced to stand still as I paralyzed them, and then I used the beholder eyes to force them to obey my will. Was quite funny, I must say. As for the memory snacking, well... to be fair, I have no idea why I don't feel anything. I should've felt something while I was looking into the eyes of one annoying deserter, like headache from memory reading, or something, instead all I got was... nothing? Better luck with the next one, I guess.

As I convert the body of the guard, I move back to the place where the small skirmish took place, and start using beholder eyes on other people, to read their memories. Still get nothing, though I decided to try and let the merchant live for a while, I couldn't discern what they were talking about when I met them at first, so that means their language is different from english.

“Wake up human.” I shake the merchant awake.

“Wha... What? Unhand me you-”

“Speak.”

“Oh I will speak, do you little shit even know who I am?! I am-” I grab his head between my hands and use the beholder eyes. Wait a second.

New Skills unlocked

Socialite I

You talk the talk, you walk the walk, and you have a lot of money to back it up.

Mending I

You can repair a lot of items, provided you have necessary materials.

Power Slash I

Swing your weapon with enough force to send phantom strike through space. Type of damage depends on weapon used. Works best with cutting weapons.

Cooldown 4.9 seconds, distance 5.5 meters, has half of an actual attack value.

Ethereal Thrust I

Creates a small projectile out of the ambient mana on the tip of your weapon, and launches it at your attacker. Requires weapon with piercing properties.

Cooldown 24 seconds. Deals low amount of the physical damage on contact ignoring both magical and physical armor. Doesn't benefit from magical properties of a weapon.

Resonance Strike I

Your attack resonates sending a shockwave that heavily damages solid objects, while also rupturing organic tissue. Works best with bludgeon weapons, but can also be used with other weapon types.

Cooldown 58 seconds, Shockwave distance 0.11 meters, Damage to solid objects is significantly increased, while at the same time the damage to soft object is dramatically decreased. Magical properties may change the nature of the shockwave providing additional effects.

Cool. Beholder eyes can steal skills, to a degree. Wait... Skills Expand

CQC IV, Marksmanship III, Defensive Measures II, First Aid I, Survival III, Cooking IV, Stealth III, Mana Manipulation III, Meditation III, Enchanting II, Mending II

Expand the CQC skill.

CQC IV

Overall provess in melee combat. Has following related skills

Hand to hand, Blades, Bludgeon, Piercing, Ravager Training

Name

Related Perks

Effects

Ravager Combat Enhancement II

None

Passive: +10% Synaptic acceleration

Hand to Hand IV

Combat Styles

Passive: Increased damage dealt using natural weapons

Blades III

Combat Styles

Power Slash I

Passive: Increased damage dealt with cutting weapons

Bludgeon II

Combat Styles

Resonance Strike I

Passive: Increased damage dealt with bludgeoning weapons.

Piercing III

Combat Styles

Ethereal Thrust I

Passive: Increased damage dealt with piercing weapons

I see. That's nice to know. I wonder if I get some other stuff on next levels. Hm, the voice said something about a dungeon being discovered near this village, I wonder if

“{Screech}”... nevermind. I quickly convert the rest of the people and store the items that they were moving to the village, just in time to notice a slight earthquake.

“Sorry big fella, not going to stay around any longer, Adieu.” I disappear through the usage of my skill... or so I thought. Minion, quickly plant a beacon, come on!

Currently active minions: 0

“Oh fuck.” I turn into a dragon and quickly take flight, as I look down, I notice the giant ape thingy looking... more like sniffing the air to be honest. Is it actually blind?

“{Screech}” yeah, it's blind, but damn, his screech is annoying, and it also lowers my health, a bit. I wonder if he would mind me trying out a few spells while I'm at it.

“Ha! Prepare to fall before the allmighty Dragon you beast.” I laugh maniacally in the air as I conjure the most devastating inferno spell I can manage. It took me all of my mana, but I managed to make a point on him, from where the damage comes. I laugh as the monster gets swallowed by the flame, and see how his figure dances in the fire. I wait for a while, and once the fire comes down... uh-oh. “Dude, I totally nailed you, like hit you with the most powerful spell I had, and what? Not even a frigging scratch?” I look at the thing underneath me, and use appraisal.

Behemoth (?)

HP: 238966/240000(?)

MP: 0/0

“Fine, fine, you're big, strong and ugly. How come you don't have mana?”

“{Screech}.”

“Yeah, I guess. Well, thanks to you, I lost my minion, and my attack did some damage, but not enough to kill you. Considering that you also-” I deftly evade the suddenly thrown tree. “Fine, fine, I'm leaving your territory, sheesh.” I get higher and higher, until this behemoth is nothing but a small dot underneath me. Must say flying is actually quite tiring, or I'm doing something wrong. Anyway, I look at the map, and notice that I lost all of my beacons, for some reason. Map is sill working though. I place a waypoint on the location of the dwarf kingdom, and start flying in that direction. I'm totally taking my revenge, but that will come later, right now... Right now I'm making another minion, just after I recover my mana.