Thanks to Dandarious for proofreading
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Zaran walked over to pick up the two orbs, since as leader of the guild it was his job to distribute the loot. He hoped the two orbs would be worth some money, so that everyone could get a share. Plus in that case the guild would also benefit since the guild took 10% of any profit earned. Be it guild quest completion or selling items earned in a group with the guild, 10 % of the profits always went to the guild's treasury.
The reason for this was that the guild needed gold, at least in the future, and no small amount of it either. If the guild ever wanted to have a base, town or fortress of their own, they'd easily need to shell out ten thousand gold at the very least and even then they would only have the absolute basics. Moreover, Zaran also wanted the guild to have funds to buy good weapons in the future. In cases were someone within the guild found an incredibly good weapon, but no-one in his group could use it, Zaran hoped to be able to use the guild funds to buy it for someone that could.
So far the guild members did not have any problem with the guild taking 10% as the reasons for it were pretty valid. On top of that Zaran had also promised to cancel that system the moment the guild had a property or way that would enable them to sustain the guild's treasury without having to take the 10% share.
Because of this, Zaran hoped that the two small orbs were items that they could sell off for a high price. Right as Zaran was about to pick up the two orbs, a white shadow flashed past him and picked up the white orb. Picking up the black orb, Zaran first looked at the direction the white shadow had ran off too. He had just briefly been able to see that it was his demonic core tiger that had grabbed the white orb.
"Oi! Zaran! Your tiger stole our loot!" A few of the guildsmen yelled loudly.
"I know, I'll go get it back!" Quickly following after the tiger, Zaran was able to find it just a hundred meters away from the guild, hidden behind a large tree. Sadly enough he couldn't see there orb any longer and thus Zaran could only hold his hand out. "Give!"
The tiger raised itself and his body started convulsing as if it was about to throw up. Even though it was not necessary, Zaran still unconsciously took a few steps back. With a popping sound, the white orb burst through the tiger's mouth and landed on the forest floor.
Compared to before, the white orb was no longer fully white and now had specks of grey within it. A little confused about this change, Zaran picked up the orb and used the inspect skill.
Half-awakened demonic core
Type: rare Hellbeast master item
Description:
A half-awakened demonic core that has been infused by the energy of another demonic core. Once blood of any animal is dripped onto this orb, it will fully awaken and a new demonic core animal corresponding to the blood of the animal will be born. The newborn animal will be able to use most skills of the animal it is born from and is only able to slowly learn new ones over a very large amount of time.
Wide eyed, Zaran stared at the information screen. He could get another demonic core animal? And it could be any animal of his choosing? This was a really good item! The tiger he now had was undoubtedly one of his strongest beasts and it would only evolve to become even stronger in the future as long as he fed it the correct materials to replace its body with.
He instantly started to think about the blood of a few beasts that he could infuse this orb with, every one more formidable then the last. "A dragon." Zaran murmured. "If I feed this thing dragon blood... it will be able to use all the skills the dragon has? That would be amazing! Then again, where the hell am I going to find dragon blood?!? But this also explains why the tiger has so few skills, it's most likely born from a common tiger with nearly no special skills."
Zaran walked back over to the guild and posted the item description in the guild's chat. At first the guild was overjoyed about the item, even though they realised that it can only be used by Zaran as far as they knew. The potential of the item was just too great. As long as they found a beast with great skills and gathered some of its blood, they would gain an incredibly powerful ally and possibly even indestructible as long as they were able to procure good materials.
Posting the black orb's information, the guild grew even more ecstatic.
Evolution orb (Arthropod => beast men).
Ultra rare crystal
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Description:
Forces an animal species to step unto the path to become a beast men. In the initial stages only the intelligence of the species is increased but in time the target will evolve to become a beast man or beast woman. If the target is already currently intelligent, the orb will complete the evolution instantly.
"Feed it to Cindarrah!" Quite a few guild members said as they finished reading the item's description.
"No, not Cindarrah. At least not yet. I still have a quest line to finish that involves her and I am not sure what will happen if she suddenly evolves. " Instantly rebuking the guild, Zaran turned towards the mosquito queen and pointed at her. "We should let her take it instead. My reason for this is that she is already contracted to me and we've all seen how strong that king was, who was just a few steps higher on the evolutionary ladder. If she becomes a full-fledged beast woman she should undoubtedly become a ridiculously strong ally in the future."
A few of the guilds men nodded as they approved of Zaran's idea while many others were still considering it. The guild had all come into contact with Cindarrah for a long amount of time and held her dear, while this mosquito queen was just a newbie to them. Still, they had all seen the king's might so what Zaran said made sense.
After letting the guild think about it for some minutes, Zaran spoke up. "Right, let's have the majority decide who it goes to. Who is for the plan to give it to the queen?"
A large amount of hands were instantly raised, but it was still not the majority. Zaran sighed and decided to wait for just a bit longer, hoping that some people would still decide to support his idea. He really needed to get the queen to evolve, the main reason being that he absolutely did not want Cindarrah in human form and he knew that if he didn't use the orb straight away most of the guild would pester him into using it on her.
The other reason for this was that she could actually cooperate easier with the guild like this and wouldn't need to stay at Zaran's side all the time, which would in turn allow her to go to wherever she wanted, as long as she was accompanied with a small escort of guild members.
Seconds passed and slowly more people of the guild raised their hands and with every hand that was raised, those who had not raised it yet started to feel peer pressure and raised theirs too. Not much later every single member of the guild had his or her hands up.
Before anyone could change their minds, Zaran quickly tossed the black orb to the mosquito queen.
The queen looked confused at the orb and Zaran for a minute, unsure as to why Zaran had given the black orb to her. Suddenly her gaze was completely drawn into the orb and before she knew it, the orb dissolved and a sticky liquid rapidly started to envelop the queen.
Moments later a thick green layered liquid orb enveloped the queen and expanded outwards. Quickly, the surrounding five meters of forest were all covered in the same liquid. As swiftly as the liquid expanded to it's maximum width, it instantly burst open and revealed the queen.
Compared to mere seconds ago, she looked quite different now. Unlike before she now had a completely humanoid figure. The only thing that set her apart from a normal human, were her razor like teeth and her 'skin' that consisted out of chitin.
Seeing the humanoid mosquito queen, many of the as men in the guild had to swallow their saliva upon seeing her as she was completely naked. Before they had paid her no mind as she was a somewhat awkward fusion of a man and a beast, but now that she looked remarkably human, they could not help staring longingly at her body.
Zaran face palmed upon seeing this, and quickly took a cloak out of his storage ring and put it around the queen. It was the best he could do for now as he had nothing better on hand.
"Thanks" The queen mumbled shyly. She recognized the longing eyes of the men in the guild and was extremely grateful for the cloak she had been given.
"Oh you can speak?" Zaran said in surprise. While he had expected the queen to gain the ability to talk, he hadn't expected her to be able to talk in their language immediately.
The queen was in thought for a while before she opened her mouth again. "Little. Know not many words... yet."
"I see... we'll teach you more words!" Zaran said with a smile before returning his attention to the guild. "What are you all staring at her for! Let's return to the outskirts of the forest and level there for the time being!"