Sava took a few steps back, but looked on with a clinical eye, observing the whole process with a proud expression on her face. She pulled a string and the chords binding me came loose
I clambered to my feet, enjoying the feeling of the newfound power that was at my disposal.
You have been initiated into the local magic system! You can now convert your own mystic energies into points and can further enhance your abilities via point purchases or training. For your progress, you’ve been granted 500 points
So that’s what this feeling was. Magic? Well, I’ll take any advantage I can get. Mac would be jealous for sure. Speaking of Mac, I now had over 800 points. That meant I could finally afford some of those new rooms Mac had mentioned.
I looked at Sava, standing across from me and looking slightly wary. She bowed her head in my direction, hands clasp. I returned the gesture with a head nod. She’d tied me to a hammock and drawn several humiliating diagrams of me, but I was willing to let that go considering she’d just given me magical powers.
I’d played my fair share of games back home, and one of the best feelings was being able to do magic. When I was little, I wanted to be a wizard. It was a dream I’d always kept to myself because it was just too embarrassing to share. After all, it was a complete impossibility back on earth. But if it was possible here…
Just when I was riding high from the feeling of magic within me, I was hit by an explosive burst of pain in my left arm and left leg, right where the crossbow had pierced me.
I collapsed to my knees, and Sava leapt to my side, catching me before I fell to the ground. I clutched at my bare leg and saw purple veins pulsing right where the crossbow bolts had pierced me.
Pain flared again, worse than it had when the crossbow had actually shot into me.
I looked at the green-haired elf, thankful for the help she’d given me thus far, when I noticed the expression on her face.
The confidence and worry that suffused her features before had been replaced by a thin smile that looked equal parts satisfied and embarrassed.
She patted me on the shoulder “I’stala, yivir. Mordul kutur.” She said as she grabbed my arm.
Processing language data… 46% complete
Damn it! She planned this! I should have suspected as much. The other elves wanted to capture me for some reason. Same thing with this green-haired one. She jammed something into my back then.
It was pointy and filled with some sort of cold fluid. My last waking thought was that I’d never trust an elf again, no matter how pretty she was.
“Zora… sora. I’lp zora.” She seemed like she was apologizing even as she drove the needle deeper. She wouldn’t meet my eyes as I stared at her. I tried to grab her arm and push her away, but I was already too weak.
CHAPTER SEVEN
I woke up trapped thirty feet above ground in a sort of net contraption. I was hanging sideways and slightly upside down, with my arms and legs bound tightly with several rows of vines. These vines were supernaturally strong and try as I might I couldn’t even budge them. A similar set of bindings surrounded my legs. While they looked like simple vines, they didn’t give at all when I pulled and I doubted I had any chance of breaking them.
Other than the bindings, I appeared to be laying in a hammock. This one was near the back of what appeared to be a tree house. The floor boards were made of one solid continuous piece of wood, rather than being joined from many planks and boards, but there was a window nearby and I could see the ground was located many meters below. It wasn’t square or built like you’d expect a window to be like, but rather like it was a natural knot in a tree. I realized this room had been grown as part of a tree. What’s more, there seemed to be several other tree-fort like buildings seemed like they matched what I was observing about the inside of my current prison.
The hammock I was seriously undersized for somebody of my height and I was way too heavy for it. As a result, the sides of the hammock wrapped all the way around me, with both sides meeting above my head. At the top where the two sides of netting met my captor tied me in with two big knots. I was like a fish pulled out of water in a net.
I was very glad for the window view. It meant I could learn a bit more about the surrounding area. Looking out the window where row after row of trees that could make redwoods look small. Off in the distance, there seemed to be an increasing density of the various tree houses. The nearest ones were isolated and had rope ladders hanging down from their floors to the earth below. The ones farther away had wooden drawbridges moving from one branch of the gigantic trees to another. What’s more, the branches themselves seemed to have been hollowed out in the middle to form corridors and walkways, where distant figures could be seen. I was on the outskirts of an elven tree-village.
I could tell at a glance that the room itself wasn’t built to hold prisoners. There were piles of books and scrolls on a shin-high desk off in one corner, with an open inkwell just waiting to spill.
Along the other side of the room there were piles of glassware that matched what Sava had been using to brew that foul stuff she’d made me drink.
I recognized some glassware. There was a round bottom flask there, and there was a pipette just across from it. There was one tube that seemed to be lined with a fine mesh of something, possibly for distillation.
I concluded I was in a private residence, most likely the private residence of the very elf who had seen fit to tend to my wounds, then promptly poisoned me. This was… a good thing. It meant that I was being head by an individual, not a group. That would make escape far easier since my captor could only be in one place at a time.
“Hello?“ I called out loud. If Sava was here, she’d probably show herself. If she wasn’t, then they wouldn’t, and I’d know it was safe to try to escape.
After several more calls, the green-haired elf appeared, much to my disappointment.
“Aldukul.” She said as she stroked my head. “I’lp zora, chaka.”
Processing language data… 76% complete
Change of plans. Grinding this number to one hundred percent would probably allow me to have at least a limited understanding of the elf’s language. I liked my odds better in diplomacy than in combat.
“Hey there, Sava, was it? Keep talking to me.” I said gently, trying to get her to keep speaking.
“Ziel, katip zora chaka.” The elf said as she ran her fingers against my body. She said a few more words of nonsense before the message appeared again.
Processing language data… 87% complete
Come on, just a bit more!
Sava turned her attention away from me and started rearranging her glass cylinders. After she had a bottle set up under my head, she approached me again with a big blush on her face. She poured a runny, pale blue liquid all over her hands and rubbed them together, lathering her hands up.
My strategic nudity and position in the hammock quickly became apparent. I was positioned in just such a way that the elf was provided with access to my cock.
The liquid she’d poured on her hands? That was some sort of lube. She wrapped her hands around my member and started jerking me off.
Slow smooth strokes brought my cock up to full mast quickly. Soon I had a raging hard on, and with my hands tied there was little I could do about it.
That only seemed to encourage Sava to move faster and harder. She spread her attention to my thighs and balls, then undid a few knots to the net surrounding me. This allowed her to get her entire head in.
I’d thought I was only getting a hand job, but the elf had decided to turn it into a blowjob. I decided then that maybe my escape wasn’t that urgent after all. Yeah, I suppose she was treating my battle wounds. Relaxing like this was a major improvement over hunting for my own food and sleeping in the dirt.
The feeling of her tongue stroking up and down my member was absolutely heavenly. She didn’t seem very experienced, but she licked and slurped with enough enthusiasm to compensate.
One of the few motions I could do on my own was moving my hips. I began taking liberties with the only degree of freedom I had by thrusting my cock into the elf’s mouth.
At first, she was surprised, but she quickly took to the rhythm and bounced along with me, her head bobbing up and down on my cock like a cork in water. All the while she mumbled things in elvish. I couldn’t make out any words, both because I didn’t speak the language and because it was hard figure out what she was saying when I was balls-deep in her throat.
Apparently my modified implant was having no problem interpreting the sex-speech though, to my benefit.
Processing language data… 99% complete
Processing for the language [Common elvish, wood elf dialect] has been completed. The purchase is now available from your menu.
Damn cheap bald alien wizard! I had to pay just for basic communication skills.
I flipped open my menu with a thought. Sava noticed my eyes glaze over. She probably thought it was because I was about to orgasm, which was also the case. With slow, deliberate motions, she untangled herself from the netting and snatched a glass vial. She thrust the top of the vial onto the head of my cock and started pumping my throbbing shaft like her life depended on it.
Sure enough, I burst in a fountain of masculine fluids. Far more than I was accustomed to.
Sava capped the tube filled with cum with a satisfied grin, licking her lips and closing her eyes as she held the vial tight, as if it were made of liquid gold.
I browsed the menu trying to figure out what it would cost just to be able to talk.
Language packs available:
Subtitled language skills. [200 points]
You will hear speakers of Common Elvish as they truly speak, but subtitles will appear in your vision, translating what they say. You will not be able to speak the language yourself.
Dubbed language skills. [300 points]
The mouths of Common Elvish speakers will move naturally, but the sound you hear will be dubbed over. The reverse will be true of Common Elvish speakers who listen to you speak. The language barrier will sometimes create unusual misunderstandings and you may have difficulty communicating complex topics with grace.
True language skills (basic). [400 points]
You will have a basic but working understanding of Common Elvish, equivalent to that of a child. You will have the opportunity to evolve this skill naturally through use and practice or artificially through the spending of points.
Available points: 634
Good, it looks like Mac didn’t go on a spending spree the moment I disappeared. It seemed he had taken two hundred points out of that 500-point windfall I’d gotten from learning magic. He’d probably fulfilled my last outstanding request and bought the smith’s room. I wish there was some way for to get information to him. That’s right! The scanner.
Scanner level 1. (Upgrades available)
Upgrade for [250 points?]
I closed the window without purchasing the scanner. If that’s what allowed us to start communicating initially, then it stood to reason that upgrading it further would allow me to communicate at a longer range. The next time I got a point notification, the first thing I would do was buy that scanner outline.
But right now, I needed language skills. Subtitled language skills could be useful if I just needed to listen in on conversations, but I actually needed to communicate two ways here if I wanted to get myself in a better position than that of a human breeding bull.
I could buy dubbed language skills and still afford the scanner… but I was in a delicate situation here. I didn’t want to misspeak and lose my life due to translation errors. I had to purchase True language skills. The scanner upgrade was only a few points away, so I should be able to get back into communication with Mac as soon as I collected some more points.
True language skills (basic) purchased. Remaining points: 234
Communication! Finally, I could make some sense of what was going on.
“Hello. I think we got off on the wrong foot. I’m Theo.”
She tilted her head sideways in a curious expression. “Suddenly you speak.” She said with a strange cadence to her voice. It was odd seeing her lips move in unfamiliar patterns. I could hear strange and exotic sounds reaching my ear, but as soon as they were in my head they just started making sense. No effort needed on my part.
“That’s right. I speak your language now, though I didn’t until just now. Now, what do I have to convince you to get me out of these ropes?”
The entire time I spoke, the elf’s eyes were locked on my moving lips.
“You speak.” She began. “But not through normal means. There is some form of magic at work here that I don’t understand. Strange, you don’t appear to have any precious treasures on you.”
“Believe me. It’s not something you I understand either. You said your name was Sava before?”
“That is right, Theo the Chaka. I am called Sava Greenstem, of the Riverweed tribe.”
“I keep hearing that word, but I don’t know what it means. What is chaka?” I recognized the word as something that the other elves had shouted at me, but since it wasn’t being translated, it was probably a concept that didn’t have an English equivalent.
“You are a chaka. I can tell by vitality zeal that surrounds you and flows through every part of your body. If that were not the case, this stuff wouldn’t be nearly so sought after.” Sava held up the vial of my cum she’d just taken, along with a deep red vial. Blood, probably collected while she was tending to my wounds.
“I see. Vitality zeal. And what exactly is that used for?”
Sava cocked her head. “I have read that chaka’s often appear from thin air, with little knowledge of the world. Still, I would not think you would lack something so basic, though it would explain why you hadn’t even been initiated in magic yet.
“Vitality zeal is needed to maintain the coherence of your body as one practices cultivation. The higher your cultivation base, the more vitality zeal you must collect in order to maintain your sanity and identity.”
“Many would pay a small portion for these vials of… fluids… I just took from you. They contain a portion of your vitality and so could be consumed directly to aid in cultivation. For me though, it is more useful as a valuable alchemical component.”
“So, you’re an alchemist. Right.” I thought back to her messing with the vials and leaves.
She shook her head. “Herbalist. I am not worthy of the title of alchemist. Not yet at least.” There was a hint of ambition hidden in those words. Alchemists must exist on a higher level than herbalists here.
“So, you found me in the river, saw me as a big bag of human-shaped alchemical ingredients and now you’ve kidnapped me and you’re going to suck me dry? That sound about right?” I accused her.
“Well…” She blushed. “When you put it like that it sounds like something an evil cultivator would do… Anyway, you’re not going to be sucked dry. A normal elf would be drained of vitality in a day or so, but you’re a chaka. Your body has no trouble replenishing its own vitality.”
“Oh, wonderful.” I replied sarcastically. “So, I’ve become a living farm for you to harvest this vitality zeal from? Like a cow to spend its days in a pen getting milked.”
Sava looked embarrassed. “Fine… I suppose I can make things a little more comfortable for you. Just wait right there, I’ll have to go out and buy a spell formation.”
CHAPTER EIGHT
Sava returned quickly enough, which was a shame because I’d almost managed to free one of my hands by slowly flexing and putting pressure on the knot.
After she returned, she had a scroll in hand, along with a bucket of various powders and bits of metal.
“This spell formation cost me nearly a thousand merit points you know. I had to cash in just about everything I had. Considering the amount I spent just the other day on materials, if this plan doesn’t succeed I’ll have to sell chips off my spellhe
art to buy food.” The elf sighed as she placed some of the collection of objects on the windowsill.
“Wait. Points you said. You spent points to get the scroll you’re holding?” I asked, suddenly curious.
“Yes, the Riverweed tribe awards merit points for services rendered and materials given to the clan. We don’t have enough spellstones this far out, so we use merit points. Technically, ten merit points can be exchanged at the tribal treasury for a spellstone that can be traded with other tribes or in town, but the tribe doesn’t really have enough spellstones to pay for all the merit points it gives out.”
“So, merit points are your currency, and you spend them trading with each other? Not with something like… a big blue screen that appears in your vision?”
Sava raised her eyebrows. “No, I’ve never heard of blue boxes appearing in someone’s vision. Maybe it could happen if you cultivated a special technique? Or perhaps it’s a chaka thing?”
“More likely, it’s a me thing.” I grumbled. “Anyway, now that you’ve waved your hands about and fiddled with your spell formation, do you think you could cut me down?”
The elf did just that, though she kept the knots binding my hands tied to the back of the room, presumably so I wouldn’t interrupt her while she was doing amateur chemistry. Sorry, alchemy. Was that supposed to be titration?
Eventually, she undid my bonds and I rubbed my wrists, stretching.
Should I try overpowering her?
I should be able to… she couldn’t be more than half my weight soaking wet. But at the same time, I remembered the absurd strength of the elves back at the brothel. None of the elves I’d met thus far had access to that level of power, but maybe this one did. Besides, she was a known quantity, and also someone I could gather more information from. I could try to make an escape when I was better informed.
Zeal of the Mind and Flesh Page 10
