Night came in the blink of an eye as the sun set into the distant horizon.
Laura stared dazedly at the wall clock in her shop and yawned, mumbling to herself, “I guess it’s time to close.”
She patted the dog and cat beside her, waking them up so that she could stand up.
They soon woke up and hopped down from the couch, following her with wagging tails as she approached the door.
As she clicked the door close and turned the sign from open to close, she stared off into the outside streets and casually glanced at the pedestrians walking by.
However, as she was dozing off once again, she abruptly felt the space behind her warp, and a man’s chilling voice mumbled, “What a nice shop you have here… Laura?”
Without even looking back, all of the plants inside her shop burst out with massive tendrils while the animals around her immediately turned larger, growing in size and strength.
Level 3 Plant Manipulation, Level 2 Beast Tamer!
A man with wildly layered black hair and piercing yellow eyes calmly raised his arm. His skin tore open from the inside and his bones protruded out, wrapping his whole body in a jade-white layer of armor.
The tendrils of plants failed to pierce through his defenses, giving the man an opening to retaliate. From the surface of his armor, the traces of blood that remained from his skin tearing open froze in place, which then began to wiggle and move as if controlled by a mysterious force.
Level 3 Bone Manipulation, Level 3 Blood Manipulation!
He skillfully controlled the small traces of blood on the surface of his armor and transformed it into a blade spanning a meter in length. Although thin, its edge held a deadly sharpness that instantly pierced through layers of plants and arrived right before Laura in an instant.
Laura scoffed at the attack and her body rapidly shifted color, going from a fair white skin tone to an illusory green shade.
Her hair wildly flailed in the air as her aura reached a whole new level. The plants around her wriggled with newfound vitality, regaining all of their lost tendrils. Her tamed beasts growled with ferocity, lunging themselves at the man with no fear.
The blade of blood phased through her body as if she were a ghost, and with a grin, she pressed both of her hands forward, manipulating the plants in her shop to her full extent.
Inside her store, she could be considered unbeatable under Level 4, especially with her trump card ability—Level 3 Nature Spirit!
This ability that she got after spending a week in a forest hunting down the monster located by the other avatars was exactly this. With this ability, she could naturally control the plants in a certain range, control the creatures of the forest, and gain an amplification from nature.
Moreover, her Level 3 Plant Manipulation and Level 2 Beast Tamer perfectly complemented her transformation-type ability, elevating her strength to unimaginable heights.
The man, however, wasn’t one to be looked down upon.
With a wide grin on his face, he finally activated his third ability, Level 3 Flesh Manipulation!
Level 3 Bone, Blood, and Flesh Manipulation—these three abilities when used in tandem gave him full control over his body, and could already be considered the same as Level 3 Body Manipulation!
His form rapidly shifted, turning gigantic and monstrous, with his eyes radiating an intense yellow light. A layer of jade-white bones covered his frame, while blood coagulated around the tips of his sharp claws.
The walking mass of flesh and bones rushed toward her, with its blood creating a protective film around it to deal with the incoming tendrils that wished to deter him from his set path.
However, the tendrils kept on piling and piling to the point that his limited flow of blood couldn’t keep up. Before he could even reach Laura, over half of his body was wrapped by tendrils that pulled him from different directions.
In the next moment, the dog and cat that stood in front of Laura rushed forward, with a couple of plants hopping their way onto their body, intertwining with their flesh and melding into their bones.
From two ordinary pets, they have now become a monster between animal and plant, with grass-like fur and verdant green eyes.
The dog opened their incredibly large maw and bit, while the cat lashed out with its sharp tail, piercing through the man’s layer of bones, injecting a lethal dosage of poison into their skin.
The man grunted out in pain as a large chunk of his large frame was bitten off. Along with the poison flowing through his skin and into his muscles, he was greatly weakened and suffered severe damage.
With the overflowing energy of nature within the shop, even his defenses proved no match against Laura.
“Fucking hell…” he mumbled with a smile as his flesh rapidly healed. In less than three seconds, the chunk of flesh that was chewed off from his frame returned, covered by a new layer of jade-white bones.
In the next moment, the dog that chewed his flesh had bloody red spikes protruding out of its body, and the cat that used its tail to stab into his skin had the blood left over on its tail explode into an explosion of sharp blood.
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“You motherfucker.” Laura let out an aggravated sigh and suddenly returned to normal, with the plants retracting their long tendrils and regaining back their initial forms.
Laura quickly approached the corpse of her two pets and poked at them with her illusory green finger, infusing a burst of vast lifeforce into their recently deceased bodies. Their flesh writhed as the overflowing life energy breathed new life into their lifeless vessels, pulling them back from the land of the dead.
“Hey, I wasn’t the one who attacked first,” the man said with raised arms, his form quickly returning to normal.
From a giant hulking mass of flesh and bones, he transformed into a slim man with messy black hair and haunting yellow eyes.
“You didn’t have to kill my babies though,” Laura cussed as she approached the corpse of her other minions which included her bees and birds.
“Okay, fair point.” He shrugged his shoulders and helped Laura pile the corpses into one spot.
“And also, why the fuck did you have to teleport into my shop? Couldn’t you have just knocked on my door?” Laura clicked her tongue and infused life energy into their dead bodies.
The bees slowly flapped their wings while the birds chirped out weakly, signifying their revival.
“Okay, okay! I was in the wrong.” The man groaned.
“Yeah, you’re in the fucking wrong alright.” Laura side-eyed the man as she plopped herself down on her couch, with her tamed beasts surrounding her like obedient soldiers ready to protect their queen.
“So… You’re probably my partner?” Laura guessed after taking a closer look at the man.
He smiled in response to her question and nodded his head.
“That’s right. I’ll be the one dealing with the Right Isle,” said the man.
“And your name would be?” Laura asked.
“Wouldn’t you introduce yourself first?” The man smiled.
“You won’t have to ask that if you just entered my shop normally through the door like a normal person would,” responded Laura.
“Oh…” the man chuckled and shrugged his shoulders. “I guess that’s true.”
Relenting to Laura’s pettiness, he introduced himself with a bland tone, “The name’s Poppy.”
“Poppy?” Laura snickered at his ridiculous name. “How humorous.”
“I know, I’m just so comedic sometimes,” Poppy shamelessly agreed and took her sarcasm as praise.
“But the Right Isle?” Laura rubbed her chin. “What divination result did the original give you?”
“He pretty much said that there exists a path to construct a body molded from divinity, one endowed with the blessings of all four elements,” Poppy rephrased with an annoyed tone. “I assume if he gives permission, I would find four different abilities that would perfectly complement my current set, which, when combined, would give me a ridiculously powerful Level 4 ability.”
“Ha!” Laura laughed, amused by Poppy’s claim. “You’re probably spot on with the guess, but don’t even think of reaching Level 4 anytime soon. The original keeps us on a tight leash to ensure none of us becomes a Demigod before him.”
“Heh, zenithral power is a double-edge blade for him. While it does allow him to amass a considerable force in just a month, every single one of his avatars holds the capability to usurp the original as represented by our inherent ability to transcend all limitations,” Poppy mocked.
“We’re fucked up individuals, aren’t we?” Laura sighed. “We’d betray ourselves in a heartbeat if a chance was given.”
“It’s more exciting that way if I’m being honest,” Poppy mumbled. “It keeps us all on the edge of our toes, causing us to be as active as possible and scheme our own little ploys.”
“Who knows, maybe one of us would find a loophole one day and go from just being an avatar to becoming the original.” He couldn’t help but grin at the thought of transcending his mere status as an avatar.
Laura yawned softly and said, “Yeah, yeah, what an exciting future indeed.”
“But, I’m pretty sure you’re here not to just yip yap, right?” Laura crossed her arms.
“Oh yes, how can I forget!” Poppy comically slapped his forehead and flashed a grin.
“I need drugs.”
“…” Laura stared at Poppy as if she were looking at a dumbass. She then snorted and rolled her eyes, saying harshly, “Why do you think I would have drugs, hmm?”
“I know you don’t have them right now,” admitted Poppy. “But you can make them very quickly, correct?”
“Sure, let’s say I can make a massive amount of drugs in less than a day, what would you even use them for?” Laura questioned with slitted eyes.
“I need a cover-up, duh.” Poppy shook his head disdainfully. “I’ll be a local drug seller in the Right Isle while gathering info on my supposed opportunity. As a drug dealer, I’ll be able to worm myself into the Right Isle’s rampant underworld seamlessly.”
“And how would that help me in my little mission of finding the path leading to destiny?” Laura pointed at herself.
“Oh fuck you, you know why it would help.” Poppy groaned. “If I increase my influence over there in the Right Isle, you can quickly earn merit with Aegis as a valuable member by purposely instigating problems on all sides in that potbelly of scum.”
“You would then come swooping in, show your great skills, and soon enough, you’ll have enough authorization to gain access to certain information within the Archives and things like that.”
“I can even kill your teammates and team leader, creating a ploy so that you can replace them,” explained Poppy.
Laura grinned playfully as she silently listened to Poppy’s long drivel before clasping her hands.
“Oh wow, how informative,” said Laura as she grinned.
“Yes, it was very much informative,” responded Poppy.
“So?” Poppy pressed for answers.
“Give me a crystal first,” Laura shamelessly replied.
“A fucking crystal?!” Poppy gasped with wide eyes. “You scammer!”
Laura snorted and lifted her leg, pointing it at Poppy. “I know you can fragment your crystals already, bitch.”
“You’re one of the first batch of avatars created by the original. You had a month to grow your mastery of fragment crystals,” Laura said coldly.
Poppy grinned amicably and acted as if he just suddenly remembered something. “Oh right, I think I did manage to fragment a crystal yesterday.”
“Good. Now give me a list of all your crystals,” added Laura.
“Oh hell nah!” Poppy almost punched Laura in the face right then and there, but he remembered that he was currently inside her home turf and was at a severe disadvantage.
“What’s so bad about sharing your abilities with your dear partner, hmm?” Laura coyly asked,
Poppy heaved an aggravated sigh and tightly clenched his fists.
“You fucking bastard,” murmured Poppy.
“Yes, you’re a fucking bastard, how surprising.” Laura rolled her eyes.
Poppy didn’t bother to retort and simply said, “Blood, Bone, Flesh, Personal Soul.”
Laura snapped her fingers and stared at Poppy dead in the eye. “You’re lying.”
He was taken aback by her claim and felt a pressuring force descend upon him. It was an uncomfortable feeling akin to being weighed down by something heavy, causing him to feel the urge to involuntarily reveal the part he hid.
“There’s also Personal Mind,” he added softly.
She grinned when she heard his response and thought to herself, I love Charm. Finding that group of bunnies along the way to Insea City was such a lucky find.
“I’ll take Personal Mind,” answered Laura.
“Personal Mind…”
Poppy cussed vehemently inside his mind and raised his arm.
As a green flame kindled in the air, a small, tiny crystal formed into existence in front of his hand which landed in Laura’s open palm.
“It’s nice doing business with you,” Laura smiled, and as space tore open beside her, a large sack of white powder landed right beside Poppy.
“Nice doing business with you, Laura.” Poppy unceremoniously grabbed the sack of white powder, and in the next moment, disappeared from the store.
“Ninja wannabe bozo,” mumbled Laura with an amused grin as she fiddled with the tiny crystal in her hand.
“Welp, my luck’s been pretty good. Now I have another useful crystal added to the list.”