I have to say, this gem is a very nice find.

For safety's sake, I held it until I could get bandaged up.

We were definitely running low on bandages... well I say bandages, but I really mean cloth strips.

My shirt was absolutely ruined, so I added it to the pile of cloth to be washed and sterilized.

This got a significant number of odd looks of different kinds, mostly curious I'd wager.

I still had the perpetual proportions of a stick, I wasn't ashamed of it or anything, but it did still feel weird to be looked at so much.

Either way, my curiosity got the better of me after that point.

I took the gem and placed it in my pocket.

I felt a great weight added to my shoulders and felt my pain spike.

I stifled a pained noise, quickly grabbing it back out.

So no pockets then.

I instead took a piece of rope and made a necklace.

It seemed to work fine, even though it wasn't actually touching me.

I tied it around my leg, and it continued to work.

Strange.

From what I can tell, it only cares if it's either stowed or worn... or in other words... equipped or unequipped.

That brought up some interesting questions about whether I could use Shreddy without holding him or not.

Unfortunately, the answer is no, I cannot do that.

Well, that was certainly informative, but I had other things to attend to.

As soon as we were good to go again, we went back and retrieved the now empty purple bee cage.

Inside was a burst hive and some weird-smelling sticky substance.

The substance had the consistency of honey, but in no other ways resembled it.

I even did a quick taste-test and it made me vomit immediately.

Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

My next experiments with the substance would require it to sit out for a while, so I moved on to the wax-ish stuff.

The 'wax' was very hard and difficult to melt, but lit on fire very quickly.

It wasn't violent enough for anything useful, like a gun, but it also wasn't slow enough for something like coal.

It burned hot enough to be a substitute for coal though, which was nice.

I left the two substances out in different states as an experiment and planned to monitor them over the next few days.

----------------------------------------

Yuluulth

"Oh man, looks like my champion's about to become a statistic." Vindicost bemoaned.

"Oh yeah? What kind?" Jyn prodded.

"He's about to die the same way that yours did Jyn, killed by Andrew The Unorthodox."

"Why don't you tell your champion to stop? He has [Prophecy] right?"

"I did tell him, but it seems like he thought I meant: 'Killing him is a great honor' and not 'Attempting to kill him is suicide'... that and [Prophecy] is on cooldown until tomorrow."

Jyn clicked his tongue. "Oh shucks, that sure smarts."

Vindicost nudged Jyn with one of his long mandibles, and Jyn playfully snapped back at him.

All the while, I was struggling to find inspiration for any plan I thought could guarantee my champion a kill when it came down to him versus The Unorthodox.

By all accounts, my champion could out-speed him, overpower him, and take hits from even his most powerful attacks... but I couldn't help that tiny voice in the back of my mind telling me that The Unorthodox would still find a way.

I tried thinking of ways to give my champion better synergies, but it was moot, he already had a very good synergy.

I thought about Nemesis farming, but that was risky. Even if my champion never spawned a high-level Nemesis, which was less and less likely the more he spawned, the odds of another champion using that as an advantage to try some sort of surprise attack or something was very high... or even just stealing the drop with some sort of [Skill].

No, I need something specific to beat him, something unorthodox to beat The Unorthodox...

Suddenly, I had an idea.

But I'd need a few things to make it work...

----------------------------------------

Andrew

It was about midday, probably a couple hours after I had set out the 'honey' and 'wax'.

I was on my way back from a hunt when I noticed that the trees to my left started to wilt.

I dropped my kills and readied my crossbow, as I whipped to see what was causing it.

I saw a creature that looked vaguely like a lotus flower with tentacles instead of petals moving in my direction.

It was wreathed in a black aura, anything said aura touched withering in seconds.

[Gjkolo The Zealous]

Danger Level: Certain Death

"Gee, I wonder what your [Skill] does." I said sarcastically to myself.

I aimed at him and fired.

My bolt withered in midair, turning to a weird mulchy rust.

How annoying... but I suppose it's good for an experiment.

I held the name Sydui had picked for my crossbow in mind and focused on needing to hit my target in a very precise location.

I focused my entire mind on it, shutting out all other thoughts.

'I see it.' I heard an effeminate voice say.

[Your 'Creative Spark' has been special-activated and caused your item to gain 'Limited Sapience'.]

Experiment successful I suppose.

I lined up my shot.

"Do you think you can hit it?"

'How hard?' Hole Puncher replied in perfect monotone.

"Full power, I want to see what happens."

'Understood.'

I aimed and fired.

Hole Puncher was suddenly wrenched out my hands as enough force to throw me several feet backward, suddenly hit my entire body.

I heard an explosion occur where the champion was, but could not see it as I was on the ground at the time.

I stood up as quickly as I could to see that the champion was missing a hole the diameter of my entire body and disintegrating.

I looked around for Hole Puncher and found her stuck on a nearby tree branch with a snapped string and smoking from apparent heat generated.

'I am in incredible pain.' She said, still monotone. 'Please get me down at your earliest convenience.'