[Skill Leveled Up: Solidity (19) -> (21)]
Shaking off the emotions, Dei straightened his back as he emerged from the tunnel. He needed a clear head from this point forward, as he was in real danger now. There was no escaping into the Spirit World like he’d done so many times on the venture to Fendrascora. At the same time, he had more tools to work with. High risk, high reward was the name of this game.
Before he left though, he needed to drop off the six [Biting Flesh Trap of Allure]’s he had left in the bag.
He finally had enough mental power to set up a cloak for his presence again, by dedicating twenty percent of his mind to shifting the fog of Visible Presence in his soul, then another twenty percent for meditating on the current moment, thought he began to give off the feel of an unnoteworthy piece of stone.
Now that he had Clever here with him, he could actually ask another creature, too.
“Hey Clever, do I seem less noteworthy to you?” Dei asked as they walked to where he remembered placing the other six Flesh Traps.
Confused, Clever began studying him more closely. After a few seconds, he sent back that Dei seemed a bit “unremarkable” and that he was “easily ignored.” He also said that it wasn’t how Dei usually appeared, so it wasn’t just Clevers bias about Dei speaking.
Happy to have it confirmed, he hurried his steps, making them as gentle as possible.
* * *
Many times throughout the trip, Dei had the satchel slip down, and it was starting to annoy him, so he was about to change the tightness of the adjustable strap, when a thought occurred to him.
The last person to use this satchel was his mother, meaning that it was currently built for her height.
Dei could use this to measure how tall he was, compared to his mom. Studying the strap closer, he saw that he was still a long way away from reaching his mom. She was on the fourth notch out of six, fairly loose.
After noting that she was on the forth, he started to adjust it to his height. He had to bring it down to the second before he was comfortable. When he was comfortably on the fourth notch, he would know that he was the same height as his mom.
‘Still’ he thought ‘I think I’m over five feet tall. How tall is mom?’
* * *
Making it to his weird little circle of Flesh Traps, Dei began sensing the resonance between him and the plants, telling him exactly where they were. Getting as close as he dared, because he couldn't see them with his eyes or [Tremor Sense], Dei set his bag down next to him and opened the latch, pulling out the horizontal Flesh Traps carefully, one by one.
On the fourth though, he noticed something odd… the roots were intertwining into one another, and weirdly thick.
Normally Flesh Traps roots were an off-white color, but these were darker brown. Touching them, he realized that they were sturdy.
After he felt the roots, the mind within the Flesh Trap reached out to him, rather than the other way around, giving him the feelings of negotiation.
Confused, he used Identify to open a clearer channel of communication for it to talk through, finding that its primitive mind was far more advanced than it had been before, somehow changed from the rest of its siblings.
“Vessel” it said to him “I want more Soul mana, like you gave me, but I will not ask for it for free. I will become your blade to fight more monsters, as you are in need of one, and in exchange, you will give me more Soul mana. All that you have to spare.”
Dei’s eyebrows rose at its demand. This was the Flesh Trap that he’d used to kill the wraith, and it now wanted to become his permanent sword? All in exchange for his Soul mana? He looked at the red fragments of a sword he’d placed on the ground, almost rejecting the plants deal out of hand because he didn’t need it, but something made him think it over a bit more.
True, he didn’t need another blade. If he wanted to cut something, he could just use the Spirit Sword that he’d picked up. At the same time, the Flesh Trap was a sword made from his mana. That was cool as hell. It was a sword that would grow with him as he got stronger, drinking from his strength in turn.
True, he didn’t need a second blade, but would it hurt to have one? He could duel wield! Normally, that wasn’t a viable tactic for humans, as they are usually bad at multitasking, but with [High Mind], moving my two arms independently would be child's play.
“Alright. I will take you along on my Journey and give you my spare Soul mana, but that may not be for a while. I just used a lot of it, so I don't have any extra right now.”
“Okay” was all it responded with.
He waited a few seconds more for something else, but nothing was forthcoming. Shrugging, he planted the last two Flesh Traps, then packed everything up and continued his journey to Fendrascora.
* * *
Trying to make his steps as light as possible, Dei thought about forming a sort of footwear at some point. His pant’s would not last much longer, but he thought he would soon come to possess the materials for some rather exotic clothing.
To his Tremor Sense, everything was crystal clear to him. His footsteps were far too loud, and he knew he would attract more than one beast eventually.
Knowing his luck, sooner rather than later.
* * *
He paused mid step. The wall, forward and to the right, was different this time around. He wouldn’t have noticed if his [Vigilance] hadn’t kicked in, making him immediately scan his memories for what set it off.
It wasn’t much, just a part of the cave wall that was now bending outwards slightly, rather than than flat like it was before, but it was an obvious tell considering his memory was perfect.
Knowing exactly where to look, Dei used the chance to study the predator. He didn’t know what it was, but based on the shape of the wall, it was fairly flat, like a flounder, but wide and tall. He estimated it at around seven feet tall, but only a foot or two thick.
He needed to figure out a way to scan it now, just in case he ran into another of its species. It couldn't be a coincidence that it appeared the one time he was making the journey towards Checkpoint One in his real body. Whatever this creature was, it had a strong tremor sense as well, and purposefully placed itself in his pathway to snatch him up when he walked by.
So, he looked for any way to read it. Nudging Clever, he warned him silently of the hidden predator, and asked if he would try and find a way to point it out too, both of them quietly studying it, hoping to not tip it off to their knowing of its existence.
His idea that it had a strong [Tremor Sense] as well gave him an idea though. His own gave him a weakness to vibrations, so it only followed that another creature with the same Racial Ability would have the same weakness.
He began storing heat in his body using [Homeostasis], charging it up in his right limb. Now that he wasn’t a spirit, he genuinely had to worry about roasting his organs, so an extremity would be the safest to experiment on.
His plan would be to use the same explosion he had before, from a safer distance. The pulse of vibrations from being so close would hopefully blind the creature, where he could then attack.
Until then, he really needed to find a way to pinpoint the creature.
Using his Soul Sight, he could barely make out the vague shape of something living in that point of the wall, but he considered it far too difficult to spot as a viable finding strategy.
Clevers heat sense was in an even worse spot, as he couldn’t detect even the slightest escape of heat from the creature's body. Clever wilted when he realized that he would have been completely fooled, if he was the one leading them.
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Dei didn’t give up though, going down through the list of all his Skills and Racial abilities.
‘I could potentially use a Projection to scan the route ahead, but that would be a stopgap measure, and I’d still be in trouble if it died and I began suffering from lethal soul damage. When I Meditate on the current moment, can I search for other perspectives in my area?’
Trying the most recent idea, he went through each of the links that journeyed outwards. There were uncountable connections, and he tried looking through all of them. While it was true that he eventually found the hidden creatures link, and might be able to glean some information from said link given time, he put it off for later. Finding it took too much time, and he didn’t consider it a viable tactic.
‘Identify… I made it when I was trying to discover a hidden enemy, can I do something with that?’
If it would be any Skill, it would be Identify.
Trying something new, he used his Kindness version. His Wrath version fired like a needle, but the Kindness version spread outwards like a cloud, or a net.
He didn’t fire the Identify in any particular direction, simply focusing on pushing it outwards from his body
After the initial cost to his MP in order to cast the spell, it took only a small amount to keep it running, and he was able to push it out further.
His Identify crept outwards in all directions, passing over the stone and marking it as unnoteworthy. It moved outwards more, and more, and he felt his awareness of his surroundings grow as the cloud of invisible Kindness mana moved over it all.
The feeling reminded him of a second version of his Tremor Sense, except it couldn’t actually see anything yet.
When it finally passed over the hidden creature though, the reaction was instantaneous. His Identify brought his attention to it, specifically focusing on the hidden aspect of its being.
It felt like the Skill was an antithesis of hidden creatures, and really did not like them. As a result, it specifically searched for anything that cloaked itself in any way.
While the hidden beast was barely found, it was found by his Identify.
Knowing instantly that it was discovered, it whipped towards Dei, almost faster than he could react. Almost.
He immediately hit it with a Wrath powered Identify, causing it to wince, and its attack to go wide. He realized that it swung a long limb at him, which missed and hit the wall. Wasting no time, he used the heat in his arm, harnessing Snap magic to press it all forward.
With a single motion from his hand, the spark shot outward as he jumped back and threw himself against the ground.
An explosion washed over Dei, the vibrations aching his entire body and deafening him for a second. His balance was thrown off, and he struggled to understand up from down.
Shakily, he stood back up as his body slowly recalibrated itself, and he started hearing a faint screeching noise as the sound around him slowly faded back in.
He saw the creature squirming and contorting its body around on the ground like a fish out of water. Lying on its back, the bottom of the creature looked like a crab with twelve legs, and two large pincers on its front.
Panting, trying desperately to regain his bearings, he scanned its still-disrupted soul for any information on it he could get, as the defenses were healing fast
[Cophinus - Level 134]
The name rang a bell, and he remembered seeing an infant version earlier, saying they pull prey into their bodies and eat them.
He had to focus on killing this thing now, while it was dazed. His equilibrium was returning to him faster than its own, so he was almost back into top shape.
He was afraid. Afraid of getting close, afraid of dying. But nothing else in this world would care about his fear, so he had to overcome it.
He kept his body low, and moved forward, trying to avoid the flailing legs. He’d already deactivated his cloaking presence, so with his full focus, he started ripping it apart.
Darting in, he would cut off a leg with either his broken blade, Flesh Trap, or both at the same time. It quickly caught on and started fighting back in its own way. First, it quickly flipped itself back over, cutting off his easy access to damage, but he’d already cut off four legs on its left side.
It still had both its pincers though, and that was what he needed to watch for.
Now that it was upright, it reminded him of a horseshoe crab, but he didn’t have time to mull on it, jumping on its back. His left arm plunged the Flesh Trap through its skin, giving him a grip as it began trying to buck him off, while his right started to cut into its shell.
He hadn’t thought about how this was exactly the position it wanted its prey to be in. Normally, it would be attached to a wall, and they would walk too close behind it. This time, he got to watch what it did when given such an option.
Its two front pincers shot through previously unseen holes at the front of its shell, going for his head.
Rolling off, he dragged the flesh trap out with him, seeing a new geisering of blood from its deep wound.
All his other swipes hadn’t led to blood, so he would heave to pierce deeply to reach the vulnerable parts underneath.
It turned to face him as he carefully kept himself back. At some point, Clever went to hide somewhere after jumping off his shoulder while he was focused on killing this thing.
He felt a pulse shoot outwards from the creature, and a command screamed in his mind.
“SLEEP”
His Soul affinity translated the command into words, letting him resist it more easily, but the creature was not waiting for him to resist it, striking at him instantly while he was distracted. He split his mind in two, letting one bear the brunt of the spell as the other controlled his body.
Barely able to become conscious fast enough, he held up the red blade to deflect its pincer, when a second pulse came. Rather than at him, his Flesh Trap shot one at the Cophinus.
“MISS” it screamed at it, knocking the aim off ever so slightly. The Cophinus resisted well, but the flesh trap had over one hundred and twenty in its Magical stat, and would not be denied.
Rather than taking the blow head on, the claw skidded along the red blade being deflected to the side.
Thinking quickly once it was past his head, he turned his sword and swung at the joint of its claw, cutting it off instantly, the shell put up mild resistance, but the joints were ever vulnerable against his supernaturally sharp blade.
It pulled its clawless arm back with another scream, and paused a second, backing away slightly. He advanced on it, knowing exactly what it was doing now. It realized it was outmatched, and was ready to run.
His full mind was awake now, and ready. The Flesh Trap in his hand reached out, opening a communication with him. It wanted to launch a full-attack on it, but would be vulnerable to retaliation, as its kind were never meant to actually be spotted until it was too late. If it launched the attack, it needed him to capitalize on it.
He agreed, and got ready to move. When he felt it ready its mental strike, he shot forward a moment before it attacked, firing a Wrath Identifier at the Cophenus to disrupt its soul further before the strike.
The Wrath mana dug into the portion of its soul dictating its camouflage abilities, and he saw that it was an active camo. It could change its shape and color, but it wasn’t supernatural, so it was only a mild irritant to creature of its size. The crack in its spiritual defenses, though, were immediately dug into by a second mind attack, forcing it to freeze for a second.
Not wasting the chance given, he cut off its second claw and kept his body moving forward.
Using [Fine-Tooth Comb], he spotted the two tiny dots on its head that were its eyes, almost invisible if not for his Skill.
It flailed its arms, trying to push him back as it scurried backwards, but he weaved through its stikes, making one final lunge forward and pushing the bone white plant between its eyes, all the way down to the handle.
Its body stiffened for a second.
Then two.
Before going limp and collapsing. Its two main arms dropped to the ground, while the camouflaged shell softened and melted as its form was no longer being held together. Over time, it returned to its natural color, a reddish brown, rather than the gray coloration it’d given itself.
Through all the changes, he simply stood over it, panting. Slowly, he pulled out his living weapon, dropping his metal weapon to the ground as its weight strained his tired muscles.
He looked at the Flesh Trap, watching it absorb the blood of his enemy through the sharp alabaster material. In half a minute, it was clean again, and content with its meal.
[EXP gained for killing the Armored Cophinus (Level 134). EXP gain raised due to level disparity]
[Class Leveled Up: Prodigal Detector (Level 72) -> (Level 74)]
[+1 Mental, +1 Magical]
[Skill Leveled Up: Growing Pains (110) -> (117)]
[+1 Physical]
[+1 Physical]
[Skill Leveled Up: Solidity (21) -> (22)]
[Skill Leveled Up: Homeostasis (32) -> (38)]
[Skill Leveled Up: Identify of the Stout Protector (57) -> (58)]
[Skill Leveled Up: Fine-Tooth Comb (47) -> (48)]
[Skill Leveled Up: Vigilance (63) -> (68)]
[Skill Leveled Up: In Tune (1) -> (14)]
[Skill Leveled Up: High Mind (55) -> (62)]
[In Tune - Level 14 - Toggleable
While Detectors specialize in searching the world, what good is it to find an enemy if the response is too delayed to succeed in making a difference? If a hidden enemy moves through the ranks faster than you can communicate to your comrades, it does not matter how well you can find them. By doing away with the delay in communication, one can easily mitigate such a weakness
Creates a telepathic link between allies that partially shares your awareness of enemies.
Link strengthens with each level, sharing more information to those closer to you, and lengthening the distance with which the link may stay intact.]
Breathing deeply, he centered himself, calming his heart.
Clever scurried towards him, the lizard ready to jump in and blast the Cophinus if it seemed like Dei was losing.
Dei was about to hold his hand out for Clever to crawl on, when he saw just how much blood he was coated in, and pulled his arm back. His mind stuttered for a moment, the slick red layer on his body turning his stomach slightly.
Clever, uncaring of his inner turmoil, climbed up his leg and onto his bloody shoulder. It helped ground Dei enough to shake off the panic, enough to get him moving again.
[Skill Leveled Up: Solidity (22) -> (23)]
He had to be mindful of his still-fragile mental state. When he’d first been coated in blood, way back in the Lorpee cavern, he hadn’t panicked. It had hardly bothered him at all. Now, he was almost continuously overwhelmed as he struggled to stay on top of his bubbling insecurities.
‘Better’ he thought to himself ‘acknowledge the panic, but keep moving. Don't let it boil until it's too much. It’s okay to feel overwhelmed in the moment, but make sure to leave your fears in the past, where they belong. Be better than you were the day before.’
His quiet steps echoed in the cave around him as he left the monster behind him, mentally and physically.