PS: Does anyone knows if I need to add a ‘Mature’ tag if I’m only doing it for a sidestory(ish) and putting it within spoilers?

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"So, you're t-the creature?"

Aston asked with hesitation. I replied, slightly amused at how he reacted towards me.

"That would be the truth, but I'll rather you not call me that; It is quite rude and unfriendly. You may call me Cliff, Cliff Blakesh. That was the name of the previous owner of this body."

Aston shuddered as I smirked. Yup, this had become interesting.

"Thank you for saving us, but why would you do that?"

"Ah, I didn't think that you could've stayed so calm. You cried so much after I last possessed you. Well, it doesn't matter. The answer to that is quite simple; It benefits me to remove him."

I explained to Chris as I pointed to myself. Looking at their confused faces, I continued my explanation.

"The two of you were, well, actually still are the only ones contaminated by me. Without one of you left alive, I couldn't possess anyone else. That would be until I used either of your bodies and contaminate more people. That was the reason, simple? Gaining this body was an unexpected bonus."

"Gaining it? It's permanent?"

It seemed like Aston had finally calmed down as he questioned me.

"Yes, I murdered him and unexpectedly gotten control of the body. Without me, this body is already dead."

Aston gulped. I believed that I had traumatized him. He had experienced first hand the method I used to murdered Cliff. Each of my actions were causing it to become worse.

"What are you going to do now, since you have obtained a body? Kill us?"

Chris questioned as he stares at me, prepared to draw his sword and cut me down in a single moment.

"No. For now the two of you are important resources. I would like to spread my influence and that would require your assistance. Cutting me down is useless Chris, unless you're also willing to cut Aston down. I hold the power to possess either of you at anytime. You can't stop me from doing so."

Of course that was a lie, but they didn't know of my limits. They don't need to.

"What I need you two to do is simple. Allow me to travel with you as part of the party. You will not reveal my identity to others unless I allow it. Also, you will do as I command for situations that I deemed necessary."

They seemed to relax a bit as I wasn't showing hostility. They weren't sure on what to do with the offer but hadn't dare to discuss it in front of me. Thus, I said,

"Of course, I don't expect you two to make a choice without discussing with each others. I'll head over to that willow tree so that you could have your 'privacy', or lack of it. If you run away, I'll just take it as you rejecting the offer. As long as the offer wasn't accepted, I'll not treat you two as allies in any sense anymore."

I ended my speech and walked over to the willow tree as I had promised. While they were discussing, I decided to check out my status and skills.

StatusName:Cliff Blakesh(???)Title:Sandman(???)Race:Human(Parasite)Gender:Male(???)Level:10(3)Experience:97%(67%)Stats points:0(10)Class:Shadow(Spores Master)Health:140/140Mana:300/300Health regen:1.4/sMana regen:6/sStrength:20Intelligence:18(16)Dexterity:39Wisdom:12(25)Vitality:14Willpower:17Attack:31-31Defence:15

Skills

Class Tree

Assassination[Level 27]

-Backstab[Passive]

-Gouge[Active]

-Sneak[Passive]

Shadow Manipulation[Level 3]

-Blend In[Passive]

Spores Controlling [Level 25]

-Spores Emission[Active]

-Spores Detection[Toggle/Passive]

-Spores Identification[Passive]

-Spores Sense[Toggle/Passive]

Other Skills

Information Processing[Unique Passive][137]Additional Bonus

+20% max mana

+1% of max mana to mana regen

There are additional bonuses that you may purchase with your stats point.

"So the stats point are used for purchasing of bonuses. I'll look at them after getting a more detailed description of the new skills."

Assassination[Level 27]

The tree that contains skills which are beneficial to the art of sneak attacks. The level of the skills will all be shared and their effect will change accordingly to the level of the main tree.

Backstab[Passive]

When the target's back is exposed to you, any damage you deal to him is increased to 250%.

Gouge[Active]

When activated on a target, it will get damaged for 200% of your attack power. Bleeding debuff will be applied until cured. The amount of health bleeded per second depends on the damage that caused the bleeding. If a vital organ was targeted, the amount of damage inflicted may be doubled. Other debuffs may apply.

Sneak[Passive]

Your presence is harder to detect, you also produce less noise. Equipped armor and weapon type may increase or reduce the effectiveness of the skill.

Shadow Manipulation[Level 3]

The tree that makes use of shadow for a variety of purposes. The level of the skills will all be shared and their effect will change accordingly to the level of the main tree.

Blend In[Passive]

You are able to mix into the shadow like you belong there. Effectiveness of the skill depends on the brightness of the area.

"Nice, the damage dealt by the skills are really nice. Most requires the situation to be correct for the damage to spike up. That was expected though as that is what an assassin should be doing. The other passive gives utility that allows the situation to come easier. They really compliment each others."

Believing that I understood how the skills worked, I moved on to find out the purchase options using stats points.

Learn skill treeLearn a new skill tree for your body. Trees lost upon death of body. Gains back stats point lost over 10 level ups in a different body.Cost: 20 points

Unlock spores typeUnlock a new spores type to be used along with your skills. Each type has their own traits. Currently there are 3 new types of spores to unlock.Cost: 25 points(locked)

Bind skill treePermanently bind a skill tree from the body to you. You are able to use the tree as long as the requirements are met.Cost: 50 points

"Hmm, the defense part bothers me. So does the attack actually. I noticed that although the defense differs between me and Aston, it remains the same for me and Chris. It doesn't make sense that different armor types can have such similar armor ratings. Maybe the attack and defense stats are modifiers?"

I stabbed the obsidian dagger into the willow tree and looked at my stats again. Nothing was changed.

"I guess I got that right. At least if defense and attack stats work the same, otherwise it wouldn’t make sense."

"For the upgrades, I'm most interested in spores type. I don't know what is the requirement to unlock it but I really want to find out what the other spores type do. I also found the ‘Learn Skill Tree’ and ‘Bind Skill Tree’ very interesting.There will be situations that I need to use skills that I don't have. By having more versatility, I’ll be able to handle those situations easier. If I really can’t handle the situation with what I have, I can just change my body. I'll like to keep that to a minimum as doing that will lose the skill forever if the body dies. The skill that a body possess may be rare and I don’t want to lose them especially if they are useful. [Shadow Manipulation] sounds like one of the rare trees and I am unwilling to lose it."

I walked back to them as I saw their discussion had ended. I could hear everything that they had spoken about due to [Spores Senses] since the start. I asked them for their answer while showing a grin. I already knew what they were saying next.

"We accept the deal."

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Author's Notes: This chapter took a while to write as I only had a brief idea on how I wanted to steer the plot towards. The usage of stats point for purchasing was the hardest. I don't want it to just be a stats enhancer as I don't intent to throw too many numbers around(I already did that for certain parts though). Another reason was that i was having a headache and mild fever then, which developed into a high fever the next day.

Thanks for reading the chapter. Constructive criticism will be appreciated. Please do ask for clarifications if needed.

PS: I may want to just scrape the whole thing and redo from the start since the proofreader friend of mine believes that the story is not working well enough. I don’t exactly agree with him but I can see his points. I’ll continue this story for now but I’ll try to develop characters before I restart it. (He suggested that having characters developed before writing a story will help greatly in making the plot move along easier and feel more real. Not the only suggestion, but the one I’m trying to make the most point out of.)