Forty seconds, that's how long it had taken him to take over the rat.
Not good. That would be enough for anything to escape or kill me if it can figure out it's me.
Of course, one vessel obtained isn't enough to make conclusions.
Hadrian spent the next ten minutes getting used to his two bodies and double perceptions. It was disorienting at first but he surprisingly adjusted fast.
Confident with himself, he did not waste time and moved on to a second rat.
The rat reacted just as the first, running away after sensing something was wrong. Hadrian was prepared this time and within thirty seconds he'd obtained a third rat body.
He went into his soul to check and just as he expected.
[ Current vessels:]
[ Basic lifeform vessels : 3 ]
Excited, he stepped out his soul and moved on to the fourth, fifth and sixth rat, each time entering and leaving his soul.
There has to be an easier way.
He was thinking about every time he wanted to check his vessels.
By the thirtieth rat, the time it was taking him to take over a rat was fifteen seconds. Mostly because they won't stay still.
One of the rats Hadrian took over had a bitten off tail. He focused on it only for a second but got the feeling he could stimulate it. When he did, it growed back. But as it did, another one of his rat's tails got eaten away.
Is this the manifestation of my third Authority attribute "substitution" ?
Together with his second authority attribute "chain" he could substitute one rat's flesh to another. And not just flesh, but essence as well.
He transferred essence from one rat to another, but nothing much changed about the rat that received the essence.
Not knowing how long it had been, Hadrian had already gotten tired of his existence as a rat and staying in this damp and hot sewer. But one thought kept him here after finding the use of his "substitution"attribute.
If I find my body, could I regenerate my lost arm and torso. How many rats would it take?
Would it work on a dead body? Am I even reincarnated in the same place and time?
On the matter of when and where he was reincarnated, since he was no stranger to this city's sewer designs, Hadrian had some confidence.
Of course, it could still be a far off city in a far off time with similar designs. But what good would that thought do him? Until he confirmed it, he was working on his revenge. Not just playing with his new abilities.
He stretched out the paws of six rat bodies over a squeaking rat that was being held down, pressed against the sewer wall, by ten of his rat bodies.
Six was the maximum he could use to grab at the essence fog.
Doesn't make sense, Hadrian thought, if all rat bodies are me, why can't I use them all to grab at the essence fog?
Ten seconds. That was the limit he reached this time.
He had one last experiment to focus on.
A rat had attacked him and made him remember he could feel every sensation of his rat bodies, including their pain.
He got into more rat fights. Not just to better his control, but also to try and find a way he could not feel the pain.
He was bitten and scratched, if he sent out two rats to fight, the pain summed up.
After twenty minutes of starting fights, he came to a solution. He could "muffle" the sensation by loosening his control of a rat. "Control" might not be the right term since they were all him.
This came at the cost of the control becoming mechanical and feeling more like pulling strings than existing as the rat. Not to mention the pain, even though little, was still there. And they could sum up through multiple bodies.
Confident with himself now. He ran through the sewers, using the glimpses of memories he got from the rat, and found his way out the sewer.
Hadrian looked up at the cerulean sky, the clouds streaked with orange from the setting sun.
Wind blew his fur and it was cool on his snout.
He was indeed still in the same city as he recognized the street he'd found himself in.
As he stood there, observing the sky and gargantuan towering buildings, his other rat bodies were scurrying through the city.
He needed to confirm the time. Months could have passed, but if the inn where he'd died was still in ruins, it could be the same day.
His snout twitched in pain. A hawk had just swooped down; digging its talons into one of rat Hadrian's guts, tearing through intestines, crushing his spine and sending blood flowing out.
He immediately let go of that rat body, and the paralyzing pain disappeared with it. He regretted the choice moments later. Of course, when the pain is memory, it is easy to regret it.
If I can resist the pain for a little longer, I can obtain a hawk as a vessel. I can fly.
He looked back up at the sky and his snout twitched in excitement, not just at the thought of flying but he'd also found the ruined inn.
I'll find you two and kill you.
Hadrian thought of the Mages again.
And I'll do more than just end your life.
His body was moved but his blood was still there, so was that of his companion that had helped him find the job. They had not been close, Hadrian preferred that.
There's only one place they could have taken my body.
A small rat stood at the ruins of the inn. People passed it without giving the strange rat attention.
For people with no family or could not afford burial, they would be cremated. The cremation was done out of the city, far into the forests and hills. No one in the city wanted to smell burning bodies.
I still have a chance.
Hadrian thought, two hundred of his rat bodies already running out the city. Luckily, he was in Calos district, the poorest in the city and the one furthest in the city perimeter to the south.
Come on. Come on.
Hadrian made sure to run in the open following the road, he was trying to bait a hawk. Of course, he made sure most of the bodies ran hidden.
He had left three rat bodies in the city to see how far his control could last, and in case the other rat bodies were eaten by creatures in the forests.
Stepping on some leaves, a snake hiding underneath them sprung up and dug its fangs in his tiny thigh, sending electric pain and poison throughout his body.
Hadrian stopped and the snake slithered to him. His eyesight changed and he grabbed at its soul fog. The snake sensed something wrong but it still dug its fangs into Hadrian, dragging him to its hole.
Affected by the poison, it took him thirty five seconds to turn this snake into his vessel as it dragged him.
A snake was slower than a rat but he could use substitution for its flesh or essence when necessary.
Most importantly though, due to his second authority attribute "chain" all his rats could now produce poison. This was a manifestation of "all vessels are one" in that they could all share each other's abilities.
Snap!
A wild dog closed its jaws on his spine, breaking it. Thirty seconds later it was his vessel.
Thirty was how long it took him to take over a body while using one of his vessels. Each additional body to grab the essence fog, up to a maximum of six, reduced the time.
From the snake, Hadrian had already confirmed this; all basic lifeforms, regardless of size, shape and attributes, take the same amount of time to take over since they are in the same category.
The wild dog ran following the trail to the crematorium pit.
His rat bodies slowed down. They sprinted fast, but also got tired fast.
The reason he'd sent out two hundred rats was for meat shields. He was going through all this trouble out of deep rooted sentimentality for one's own body.
If he failed he could try taking over another human, but, if he had to spite the world and fate using another man's face; he felt he would have already failed.
His dog snout twitched, he could smell dead and burning bodies.
He walked out of the trees and into a large opening.
In the middle was a large iron built structure, where bodies would be kept overnight, and next to it shallow blackstone pits.
The sun was almost set. The area reeked of death.
His dog paws pressed gently against the ground and fallen leaves as he tapped his way around. His dog ears pricked up as he came to a stop with one of his front paws raised.
In front of him, two men unloaded bodies off of a cart and threw them to the middle of one of the shallow black stone pits.
Another man with clothing wrapped around his nose and a black sleeveless tunic on, stood on a rock platform that led into the pit. This man waited with his arms crossed.
Hadrian got closer and the man on the platform gave him a moment's glance.
A body was carried out of the cart; black hair, lithe body with the right side torso and arm missing. They carried it by the legs, head and leftside armpit.
The skin was now pale out of blood loss.
An uncontrolled wimp escaped dog Hadrian.
That was his body.