Sylas brought Aria into the gas station while she slept in his palm. He glanced over her stats as he walked in.
[Name: Aria]
[Race: Cat]
[Level: 1]
[Tier: 0]
[Rank: Bronze]
[Strength: 1]
[Vitality: 1]
[Dexterity: 2]
[Agility: 2]
[Intelligence: 2]
[Bonded With: Sylas Redstone]
'She really is just a baby.' He shook his head at how weak Aria was. 'That's okay, I'll protect you no matter what.'
He raised Aria up to his face and slightly rubbed his cheek against her head. She purred during the action and scooched close to his cheek.
Swain looked up from his task of clearing a space for the party to set up camp, saw the small bundle of black fur and couldn't help but say "What is that?"
Diana and Jackie also looked over after hearing Swain's words, but they were able to tell Aria was something cute immediately. Diana ran over to Sylas and tried to pet Aria while cooing, but when Aria felt an unfamiliar touch she frantically woke up.
Aria looked at Diana before her tiny face scrunched up hissing at her. Aria turned back towards Sylas, who still had her at face level, and hopped onto his shoulder, pausing for a second before using her claws to slowly climb behind him.
Sylas couldn't see where she was going, but was able to feel her tiny claws make contact with his skin for a couple seconds before he couldn't feel her claws anymore. He knew something must've happened because Sam was behind him constantly saying "awww".
He slowly reached behind his back to find her. Sylas could only laugh when he did. Aria had discovered the hood attached to his cloak and was now snuggled within it. She was close to Sylas and out of sight of others.
"That was Aria. We just found her by the dumpsters out back." Sylas chuckled as he explained the bond and how they found Aria.
At his insistence, the party got back to their tasks of clearing a space for them to sleep for the night. They moved the shelves into a somewhat circular formation to enclose their bean bags and raided the chips, candy, and beverages for dinner.
The party all relaxed into their bean bags as the undead minions kept watch over the outside of the building. Gabriella and Shammy, after they found a ladder up, were on the roof to have a better vantage point while the Gobs were relegated to the ground since they were melee combatants.
Hours passed as the party worked on training their mana. Soft conversations were held as two or more members finished a training exercise and were recovering or waiting for Sylas to finish so they could ask him questions.
Sylas opened his eyes as the sun was going down, intent on grabbing another snack before trying to sleep for a bit, but when he glanced around he noticed the rest of the party was talking to each other in hushed tones.
Noticing Sylas's opened eyes, Swain hushed the others with his hands. "Hey buddy, are you done with training for the moment?"
"Mm" Sylas hummed and nodded in confirmation as Swain's eyes lit up. "Oh goodie, well, we've been talking…" Swain paused to increase the suspense, but Sylas didn't really care about his ploy. "Just spit it out."
Swain stuck his tongue out at Sylas, "We've been talking and we want to name our little party." He began to talk faster at this point, like he was hoping he wouldn't be cut off. "Like how adventurers have party names in shows. We want one."
"Okay, so do it." Sylas shrugged his shoulders and gave Swain a quizzical look. Why did Swain act like he was asking for permission?
"Well, I've come up with some suggestions that I'd like the group to hear." Swain said amongst the groans from the party. "You're gonna love them."
"First, my favorite: Swain and the squires." Swain glanced around, but only saw deadpan faces staring back at him.
"Okay, okay, okay, moving on to the next: The Pretty Person Protection Squad. Obviously, you're all protecting me." Seeing Sylas stand up and start browsing the candy, Swain coughed and spoke again with a more serious tone.
"Alright, I'll tell you the real name we thought of: Soulforged. We're being forged through this Integration as individuals and a party. Plus, your guys probably have something to do with souls."
Sylas looked over to the party with a thoughtful look for a few moments before nodding his head, "I like it."
He noticed Swain let out a breath he had been holding before him and the rest of the party all adopted malicious grins. "Oh god, what?"
Swain chuckled at his best friend's distrust of him. "Well, a party needs a leader."
Sylas cut him off with an exclamation, "Oh no."
"Oh yes!" Swain's grin grew. "We voted you as party leader, so enjoy that."
"No, come on. I just… tell you what to do and when to do it. Fuck." Sylas came to the realization that he was already the acting leader so Swain putting it into words didn't actually mean much.
"Are you sure?" Sylas pleaded with each of the members of Soulforged.
"I already married you. What else do I need to do to show you that I'll follow you?" Sam replied without missing a beat. The others replied with affirmations shortly after.
[Congratulations. You have made the first step towards becoming a sheppard among the sheep. Sentient beings have willingly decided to follow your lead. Claim a piece of land as your own to unlock the Lord system.]
Sylas couldn't help but laugh as he shared the message with his party. "Hahaha, the System called you Sheeple! That's what you get."
Soulforged laughed together as they contemplated the future and the meaning of the Lord system for the next hour until Sylas halted their activities and redirected them to their mana training or sleep.
Sylas chose to sleep with Aria curled up on his shoulder, snuggling into his neck. He was woken up a few times during his six hours of sleep as Shammy, Gabby, and the Gobs spotted and eliminated several threats approaching them.
He glanced at a notification of Gob 1 leveling up to level 6 when he was woken up for the last time. 'Finally,' Sylas thought. 'I've been giving them 100% of the experience and only one has leveled up so far.'
He double checked his settings just in case. In the Minion Management page where he could view all the information of his undead, there was a slider labeled Experience Share.
Sylas had the slider all the way over, giving his minions all the experience for their own kills. He wanted them to catch up to him in level while taking care of the night guard duty. It was only fair after all.
He shook his head softly, making Aria purr in his ear as the action caressed her. Sylas smiled as he lovingly stroked her back as he went over all he had learned about mana and the System.
Sylas liked to go through details of whatever his focus was on before starting with a related topic. He gained the habit from planning raids in video games he played with Swain. Taking a second to think about the information he had and the results of previous actions had served him well in helping him connect the dots.
Unfortunately, there was no big revelation this time so he started tracing his mana channels down his legs. He had finished gaining the rough layout of his upper body and was now fully concentrating down.
Sylas continued pouring mana throughout his channels until his core was exhausted. He opened his eyes to see a blue window silently floating before him.
[Congratulations! You have increased your Rank! You are now Silver Rank.]
'Wow, I did it. I actually ranked up. I bet you can't increase your rank if you only rely on the System level ups to increase your stats.'
He glanced at his updated Stat screen.
[Name: Sylas Redstone]
[Race: Human]
[Class: Necromancer]
[Level: 10]
[Tier: 1]
[Rank: Silver]
[Strength: 18{6}]
[Vitality: 17{6}]
[Dexterity: 18{6}]
[Agility: 18{6}]
[Intelligence: 65{7}(8)]
[Equipped: Rotting Wand, Cloak of Death]
[Skills: Raise Dead, A Summon's Thanks, Grave Pact, Analyze, Bossy Words]
'Hmm, 136 stat points total with the skills and items. I wonder if that's the demarcation line or if it's just base stats. I'll just wait until someone else gets to Silver rank to see.'
Sylas was petting Aria as he contemplated his rank up. He paused as a thought passed through his mind.
'What if I guide my mana into someone else? Will it help them learn their pathways? I'm currently the most knowledgeable about mana so it could speed up their learning.'
He slowly brought mana from his core, through his channels, and into his fingertip. Sylas watched as he ran his finger down Aria's back as his mana slowly seeped out. Aria continued to purr as she was pet and didn't show any reaction for the 15 minutes he experimented by petting all over her body.
'Hmm, I guess it's harder to tell with animals anyway. She can't tell me what she's feeling or if she can sense her own mana channels while I interact with her. I'll have to try again with Sam in the morning.'
Sylas fell back into his cycle of mapping mana channels until his core was empty and trying to pull in ambient mana to increase his regeneration while Aria slept through the night.
He had just finished the preliminary mapping of his entire body's mana channels and had slight success in drawing the environment's mana to his skin when the first rays of sunlight started to peak through the tops of the trees across from the gas station.
Sylas stood up, stretching as Aria softly cried and crawled into his hood to continue her rest.
'5:30, huh. No need to wake them.' He glanced at his party and smiled. 'Soulforged. Nice.'
He went outside and saw Gob 1 and 3, each standing at a front corner of the building. Gob 1 held its club in hand like it was in the middle of threatening to break someone's kneecaps. Right hand gripped around the handle and left hand palm up with the larger part of the club resting in it.
Sylas shook his head and started looking around at the scenery. 'I should train my physical stats too. I can't just rely on [A Summon's Thanks] to increase them for me, at least not while each undead only gives me one point.'
He spotted the rocks used to prevent people from driving on to a grass strip with some machinery on it. 'Maybe I can lift the smallest one and use it to train? My strength is much higher than it was.'
With no real hope of actually being able to lift it, Sylas approached the smallest rock. The rock was somewhere around a foot and a half cubed at his best guess.
Sylas spread his feet shoulder width apart, pushed his hips back as his knees bent, and kept his back straight. 'I'm pretty sure this is how Swain taught me to squat. Now to see if I can stand up with this rock.'
His fingers adjusted their grip around the edges of the rock until he felt comfortable with their placement and he maintained the correct positions while slowly raising himself until his arms were taut.
'Here goes nothing.' He took a deep breath and held it as he willed his body to straighten. Sylas focused on keeping his back straight and forcing the weight on his legs. He felt his muscles strain as he slowly stood in a straight posture.
Sylas looked at the rock in his hands and judged how he felt. 'Well, it's lighter than I thought, but I'm not sure I can do much with it. This rock is pretty big and not too easy to hold.'
He decided to try walking around with the extra weight first. The hardest part was the endurance his fingers had to show to hold the awkwardly shaped rock. The weight wasn't a deterrent for his other muscles.
Sylas set the rock down for a moment and checked on Aria's position in his hood. She was actually down to his mid back because of how large the hood was, so he went on with his plan.
He strained to pick up the rock and then slowly position it on his right shoulder. 'This is uncomfortable on my shoulder and it really throws off my balance.' So he dropped the rock back into the grass.
'No weight training, so instead,' he didn't bother finishing his thought as he took off towards the furthest end of the gas station parking lot. It only took him a few seconds to reach the end before he bent down to touch the curb and sprinted back to the other side.
Sylas heard a light cry coming from his back and he remembered Aria. She was being thrown around with each sprinting step he took and was displaced completely when he bent down to touch the curb.
"I'm so sorry little baby." Sylas softly said to her as he removed his cloak, setting it on the ground and ensuring she was well snuggled. "There you go. Now you don't have to deal with my movements."
He heard a small chuckle from behind him. He spun around to see Diana stretching the tiredness out of her body. His face flushed red, but he just smiled. "She's comfy now."
"Mm," Diana hummed in response. "You're doing suicides? I'll join."
Sylas nodded and the duo began their workout. Diana was able to fully lap Sylas once every minute while maintaining smooth unrushed breathing while Sylas was panting and slowing down with every lap.
Diana added obstacles in her path that she would barely juke before running into in order to work on her Dexterity even more. Sylas stopped his cardio after 30 minutes and began to do body weight exercises to work on his Strength as well.
They continued until Aria woke up and started meowing at Sylas. He understood what she wanted after a minute and pulled out some more meat from the [Mana Slow Cooker].
Letting Aria eat, he went back to training.