18. Loot

After we were done eating, we all started packing. Well, not me ..because I had everything inside my precious rings.

Brandon looked at me and said with a hint of admiration and envy.

“Although storage rings aren’t really rare, not many have as much space as yours does. You have stored more than ten 8ft tall monsters, along side other things you have inside, especially the sauce, yet you still have space left.”

I don’t get why he mentioned the sauce in that sentence but I still responded, “It’s quite convenient.”

He also nodded and didn’t say anything of that topic anymore and continued turning towards the other two, “We still have two hours until the sun comes up, let’s get some [ Horned Rabbits ] while we wait.”

Tina and Claus nodded and got up.

“Are you not coming?” Asked Brandon, while looking at me.

“No, you can go, I will stay here. I doubt you will need my help anymore.” I spoke.

“Alright then.” Brandon nodded and started walking away with the others.

..

“Now that I have the time and the place to myself, lets test somethings.” I smiled as I saw them leaving my sight.

What I wanted to test was my remaining untested skills. There were still two that I didn’t know much about.

[ Crow Transformation ] and [ Feather Materialization].

Unlike descriptions of effects in items, I couldn’t see the description of my skills. But I vaguely know what they are. Those two skills are also quite self-explanatory, making it more easy for me to understand them.

I started with [ Crow Transformation ].

I focused and used it. It was like pushing a button mentally. If you have done it once, that button disappears and you can easily do it an infinite times, at least that’s what I felt when I used a skill for the first time. It was certainly an interesting feeling. It’s like unlocking something that’s a part of you.

I pushed that button on my mind and I felt my body slightly changing.

No! It wasn’t changing, It added something else.. I felt something on my back. Although I could barely feel them. They were there….. Wings.

I looked behind over my shoulder. There were wings. Black Wings, although awfully small, it’s progress.

I was quite surprised at the effect of the skill. I thought I would turn into a hybrid of demon and crow for a moment. I definitely do not like destroying my beauty. But those black wings made me even more handsome and cooler than I already am. I tried moving them, but they were too small and looked very fragile, threatening to fall at any moment.

Probably because of the level of the skill. I took note to level up the skill with Skill points in the near future. After I devour the corpses that I have, I’ll surely gain a ton of skill points. But I will also try to level it up on my own.

I moved on to the next skill [ Feather Materialization].

And without wasting any time I tried using it.

A dark black matter appeared on my palm and quickly formed into a black feather. As the name of the skill implies. A single black feather materialized.

It didn’t take a lot of mana for it though, it was so little I barely felt it, but I still had to continuously use mana for it to stay materialized otherwise it will probably disappear.

I further analyzed the feather, and I could come up with a few facts about it.

It isn’t really sharp, but I felt as I leveled up the skill the feather would be stronger and sharper.

I could control it, but just a bit, I could levitate it around my hand but that was it.

I felt a connection with it, it was like a beacon to me, to say more accurately, It can be used as a tracker, for me to find it. To prove my theory, I threw it in the air with my eyes closed and let the wind take it.

With my eyes closed, I found it, It was like a part of me that was lost, and my body wants to get back to it. I easily managed to find it.

And another thing about the skill. I can’t create more then 4 feathers at a time, even though I still had more than 95% of my mana, that seemed to be my limit for now.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

I was quite pleased with these two skills.

In the near future, one would allow me to fly freely among the clouds and the other would allow me to shoot projectiles at the hearts of my enemies.

To not end the fun, I decided to collect my spoils.

12 [ Ogres ] ; 10 [ Fanged Wolves ]

[ Orc/Ogre Half-ling ] and [ Three Headed Hound ].

I picked them from my [ Dimensional Storage ] and put them at the ground before me.

They formed quite the building in my eyes, as I gazed at the house of bodies before me.

One by one, I started devouring them.

“Devour”

Devoured 12x [ Ogres ]

Devoured 50 Status points and 50 Skill points

Devoured Skill [ Vitality Boost ] x12

Stored X12 [ Vitality Boost ]

…

Devoured 10x [ Fanged Wolves ]

Devoured 25 Status points and 25 Skill points

Devoured Skill [ Sharp Fangs ]

Stored 10X [ Sharp Fangs ]

…

Devoured [ Three Headed Hound ]

Devoured 20 Status Points and 20 Skill points

Devoured Skill [ Fireball ]

Stored [ Fireball ]

Devoured [ Fire Affinity - Low ]

Before I started to devour the [ Orc/Ogre Half-ling ] I stopped and looked at the notification that were popping.

“Holy Crap” I was surprised. I didn’t know I can also devour their affinity? Even though it was only a low-grade affinity, It seems affinities don’t need to be stored and instantly are integrated in me, unlike skills.

I continued and devoured the last one.

Devoured [ Orc/Ogre Half-ling ]

Devoured 35 Status points and 35 Skill points.

Devoured Skill [ Passive - Glutton ]

Stored [ Passive - Glutton ]

After I devoured every monster, instead of checking my status, I looked inside the < Devouring Snake Ring> and I could see 24 black cards.

10 [ Sharp Fangs ] black cards.

12 [ Vitality Boost ] black cards

1 [ Fireball ] black card

And 1 [ Passive - Glutton ] black card.

I didn’t think, I could get the same skill stored more then once. But it seems the ring had other plans for me. I could at most integrate with 1 skill out of 12, I have no idea what to do with the others, sell them? I am already rich. Give them to someone? Nope, not a giver.

Then a thought came to my mind.

From what I can remember, when I fused with [ The Ice Crow Bloodline ], the < Devouring Snake Ring > unlocked another part and fused two races, into a different one, which I now am. If the ability that the ring has unlocked is what I think it is, then I would be able to do something with the remaining unneeded skill cards.

I take five black cards of the skill [ Vitality Boost ] and checked them.

A panel appeared.

[ Integrate ] [ Imbue ] [ Devour ] [ Fuse ]

As expected another function was added.

Before there was only [ Integrate ] and [ Imbue ] and [ Devour ]

[ Integrate ] was a function which allowed me to gain skills.

[ Mana Claw ] , [ Magic Missile ] and the other skills. After I practiced them, I had the ability to accept the skills in my status screen despite not having slots left. But the only way to do that was to turn them into skill cards, just like then, when I devoured the gargoyles, I gained the skill [ Stone Skin ], but because I didn’t have any slots left, I had to turn it into a black skill card and to chose to either devour it, imbue it into equipment or integrate it into my body, which bypassed skill slots and could allow me to wield the skill anyway.

After integrating skills several times, The skill slot function in the status screen disappeared.

So I didn’t need to turn skills into black cards and just directly integrate them whenever I devoured them.

But I chose not to do so, the ring had a setting where I could choose whether to turn them into cards or directly integrate them.

I set it so they turn into black cards, that way I can choose what to do with the skills. It was better and more useful way of obtaining them.

As for [ Imbue ] and [ Devour ]. They were quite simple. [ Imbue ] lets me give equipment skills, which turns into effects. And [ Devour ] let me devour the card giving me skill points in exchange.

Now the new function [ Fuse ] will probably allow me to fuse my skills. Even bloodlines were not exempt from this function. If I gain another bloodline sometime in the future, I can integrate it and fuse with my current one.

So I started experimenting with the function.

I grabbed a card and pressed [ Fuse ] into the panel.

Some options appeared in the panel, it told me all of the skill cards I had in possession. And also told me with what that card was compatible with.

Unexpectedly, the skill card [ Vitality Boost ] not only could it fused with cards like itself [ Vitality Boost ] It was also compatible with [ Glutton ].

Name-wise, one wouldn’t think so, neither did I, but only when I checked their descriptions, I would realize why they were compatible.

[ Skill Card ]

[ Vitality Boost ] allows the wielder the ability to speed up cell regeneration.

-Active Skill- ~Buff Type~

[ Skill Card ]

[ Passive - Glutton ] allows the wielder to replenish his vitality whenever he eats.

Side effect - Hunger Status

-Passive Skill-

Although [ Passive - Glutton ] has a side effect that is unwanted, if I fuse the two skills, there is a chance that it might lessen or disappear completely.

But firstly I fused two Vitality Boost ] cards and I got this.

[ Vitality Boost Lv. 2 ] card.

All it did was gain one more level.

So I fused the Lv. 2 card with the other 8 [ Vitality Boost ] Cards and I got [ Vitality Boost Card Lv. 10 (Max) ]

I fused it with another one, but nothing changed.

I fused the Lv. 10 card with the last card and finally it changed.

[ Lesser Regeneration ]

In the end this was the description of the skill card.

[ Skill Card ]

[ Lesser Regeneration ] allows the wielder of the skill to regenerate cells at a certain pace in return for mana.

-Active Skill-

“That’s ridiculous” I was surprised at the massive change. But the difference is bigger than one would think

[ Vitality Boost ] only gave me the ability to speed up my regeneration.

However [ Lesser Regeneration ] allowed me to to directly regenerate at the cost of mana, however I didn’t exactly know what this ‘Certain pace’ before I come to conclusion.

Because I didn’t think I would get such a good skill, I was having second thoughts about fusing it with [ Passive - Glutton ]

The risk of still getting an abnormal status was still high, but If the [ Lesser Regeneration ] was a passive skill, it would help a lot more.

I took out the [ Lesser Regeneration ] skill card and checked if it was still compatible with the [ Passive - Glutton ] skill.

It turns out they still were compatible with each other so I took the risk.

…

Fusing [ Lesser Regeneration ] and [ Passive - Glutton ]

…

Fusion Complete

…

Fusion Result ~

[ Lesser Gluttonous Regeneration]