No matter how things changed in the new world, one fact remained. Vergil was here for the sarcophagus and nothing else. Mandela was still an active threat that judged all of them by their progress towards getting the treasured item.

 

So to that end, Vergil planned to use Gwen to get what he needed. In return, he would help her in any way he could.

 

While they were still in the cave cultivating near the leviathan vein, a purple glowing crack in the ground, he couldn’t quite focus. His vital energy raged in his body a bit more than he expected. As he moved between techniques in search of something to give his build some offense, his mind kept finding its way to the gutter.

 

To the tune of Hank Williams Jr A Country Boy Can Survive, he approached his psion friend carefully. She was in a mood he hadn’t seen before. A few of her tentacles latched onto his arms and swirled around while she stared at a hologram.

 

“Why do humans touch beaks?” Gwen asked.

 

Her tentacles swirled around him opening to reveal the hard black beak between the inner light pink flesh of her feeding tentacles. Vergil felt a little nervous when she slowly wrapped more tentacles around his body, leading him to the space in her center.

 

“It's to show affection. We kiss those we like of the opposite sex.” Vergil said.

 

Gwen paused, but her tentacles continued to move across his body, wiggling over his chest and exploring him. Each had a mind of their own, and they clung to him, careful not to attach a hook-filled sucker to him.

 

“We haven’t been doing that. I am of the opposite sex, and I think you like me. Could we kiss?” Gwen asked.

 

She lifted him up and caught him in her arms. Gwen’s green eyes sparkled like emeralds as her hair tentacles quickly stretched out to cling to his shoulders. The psion pressed her lipless face to his lips, and he kissed her.

 

He felt her silky smooth midriff and the soft fabric of her white leotard press against his naked chest as more of her tentacles wrapped around him.

 

Vergil thought about how little he touched her and how she was always initiating contact.

 

“There is a technique I could learn to make you feel good. But if I learn it, there are skills I won’t be able to learn in its place.” Vergil said.

 

“Don’t learn it then. You don’t have to make me feel good.” Gwen said. “If you want, I could purchase and control a human woman. There are techniques I could learn to link myself to her nervous system. Then, anything you did to her, I would feel.” Gwen said.

 

Vergil slid his ruff hand over her pink hair tentacles and leaned in to kiss her face. There were no lips or even much he could consider human. Gwen was someone he was beginning to think of as a friend, but there was a barrier between them he couldn’t surmount.

 

Well, that wasn’t true. Vergil could shapeshift into a psion once he reached the Foundation realm, but that was far away.

 

He had rejected fully altering his form in favor of keeping his humanity. It would take time to cultivate Nyarlathotep’s Flesh.

 

“No, there is an answer to both our problems. I can give you my ki cultivation technique and trust simultaneously. All I need is a drop of your blood.” Vergil said and sent her the familiar technique.

 

It answered all his problems but would require some trust from her.

 

“This technique will give me a human form. But you will have power over me.” Gwen said. “Just because I like your culture doesn’t mean I want to be human.”

 

It would take up a slot and break down the barrier between them. Then, while Gwen would still be herself, a human form would allow her to cultivate, and they could grow closer. After they found the sarcophagus, she would leave the world with him as his familiar.

 

That was something he hadn’t told her about.

 

“It's like becoming Dao partners. How can we do that when you’re too scared to kiss me?” Gwen said.

 

“I kissed you,” Vergil said and gave her an odd look.

 

She lowered him beneath her waist and spread her tentacles. From the center of her tentacles, he saw her beak, and it was large. She hid it behind two closed, moist lips. While the lips didn’t look uninviting, he knew what the beak could do.

 

“Even when I hide my beak between the lips of my folds, you are petrified. My Dao partner can’t be afraid of me.” Gwen said.

 

Vergil pushed himself forward, determined to prove her wrong. But, instead, she floated up and released him from her tentacles.

 

“I am not afraid,” Vergil said.

 

This wasn’t a random psion; it was his Gwen. She wouldn’t hurt him. Even if he feared her beak, Vergil was confident of her integrity.

 

“I know you’re brave, but it isn't real if you don’t do it on your own in the moment. When the moment arrives and you kiss me, I want to feel like your future Dao partner.

 

A Dao Partner was like a wife but more. They had to travel on a similar path to be Dao partners. If he was scared of her beak, then their relationship wouldn’t last.

 

“How about we start with something small?” Vergil said.

 

Gwen hovered closer to him, and he reached out slowly. Her tentacles slowly wrapped around his body like before.

 

“What do you have in mind?” Gwen asked.

 

“Well, I could touch your beak with my hand,” Vergil said.

 

She moved and quickly wrapped her tentacles around him before stopping herself and releasing him. Vergil concluded it was a quick hug.

 

"Be careful my beak is sensitive,” Gwen said.

 

He imagined that their versions of sensitivity were vastly different. If he touched it, would Gwen snap a finger off by mistake? Vergil imagined sticking his face there, and the reaction would be like a beartrap had gotten ahold of him. No, that wasn’t something he wanted to happen.

 

Still, she gave him her trust. Losing a finger or two was worth her trust. So he reached forward between her mass of tentacles from her dark pink colored ends to the lighter colored pink of her body. Her cool tentacles squeezed around his fingers, bumpy in places but welcoming.

 

His heart hammered in his chest as he committed and reached between her tentacles. Suddenly her tentacles wrapped around his arm in a vice grip.

 

“Sorry, let me pull you in the rest of the way,” Gwen said, and he felt her slowly pull his fingers toward her beak.

 

At first, he touched her lips, a closed orifice that held her beak. The soft flesh quickly parted, and he stiffened.

 

Her body wiggled in the air, and Vergil’s fingers tickled her closed beak. It was smooth in places and rough in others. But, most of all, it was smaller than he imagined it.

 

Gwen loosened her grip on his arm, and he continued exploring it for hours.

 

If he had a system or was in a game, he would have gotten points in his relationship with Gwen. While she didn’t accept becoming Vergil’s familiar, it felt like it was only a matter of time with how they were going.

 

That left him with other problems, like filling up slots. In addition, his mind cultivation was about to hit the peak stage of the prenatal realm, and he didn’t have any attacking options.

 

Vergil thought about adding a beam, but that didn’t end well for Far Ao. From the charge-up time and the power output, it wouldn’t work well on Vergil. However, adding a speed technique wasn’t the worst plan. He could choose another technique to add to his collection at peak, but he wanted something he would use.

 

A barrier technique came to mind, but the sheer psi consumption made one unfeasible. However, if Vergil had the option, he would go for something too close quarters. So he searched a few eldritch techniques in the mind refinement category. Nothing caught his eye, so he floated off the ground and practiced levitation.

 

It hit him after that; Vergil had been wrong about techniques. He could learn as many as he could personally handle, but he could only personally learn 12 per realm from the brand. After all, levitation and basic telekinesis worked fine. His makeshift ki enhancement didn’t take up any mental technique slots. That made things easier and much more complicated.

 

Techniques learned from the brand the official way were instant. Gwen had to learn the technique he gave her, but silver-rank mind cultivation was no joke. What was given could easily be taken away.

 

After he somehow manages to bring back the sarcophagus, what then. Would he be allowed to go home, or would they give him more missions? If they let him go home, would they take away the brand and cultivation in the process? It was something to think about.

 

Vergil took his time to go over cultivation techniques with the eldritch theme until he found something interesting.

 

Lord of Terror – Those capable of bringing great fear will gain the power of terror.

 

Mechanically the technique was like summoning a mix of communication and manifestation; only this one stores energy and refines itself from causing terror. From what he could tell, it wasn’t something he could pass up and would even improve his build.

 

After he was sure he had it right, he left the cave for some hunting.

 

He found a group of apes as the light in the grey dimension faded. Vergil moved in and killed one of the sentry apes before tossing its body into the camp. Young apes panicked immediately upon seeing the corpse, and Vergil felt a trickle of something. A dark shadowy substance rose from the terrified young apes before the troop leader calmed them down.

 

That’s when Vergil picked up a rock and tossed it hard. The leader’s head exploded like a ripe melon all over the other apes, and they reached the very edge of breaking. While the little apes panicked, the larger ones held their positions while Vergil grabbed another rock.

 

Willingly bringing fear to his enemies to increase his strength felt right, and it was simple. Fear was a pure instinct at the end of the day, and every living creature knew it in some form or another. It was survival, making it a powerful source of psychic energy. Even as the brave apes shouted and charged at the darkness, Vergil moved like a thief in the night.

 

Before he advanced in mind cultivation, the apes were less of a threat to him and more like the mobs in a dynasty warrior game. With his current strength, they were only valuable as a grinding resource. He killed them as they raged into the darkness, giving them only enough chance to yell out before he snapped their necks and ripped out their void pearls.

 

Ostrich Oscillation and Lord of Terror went hand in hand, helping him predict enemy movements and attack when the fear crop was the fattest.

 

Vergil held up his hand and watched a dark blade made of smokey fear extend a few inches. He was sure it would become something powerful with a bit more training.

 

Once he killed off the troop’s bravest protectors, he left them alone to spread this tale to the other troops. He could feel the energy flow towards him because he owned it.

 

That was something he hadn’t expected. Yet, somehow, he had a stamp of ownership from the fear produced by his technique.

 

Vergil left his little experiment behind and returned to the cave. He gained a constant if a small stream of fear emotion throughout the night and felt his new technique refine further. By mourning, he could produce a 10-inch shadowy blade. It was so beneficial that he decided to try it every night.