The Cobalt Eagle felt a familiar aura coming from Orla and Xena. It chirped and turned toward them. The bird knew it had a link with the Blue Eagle Tribe; it could instantly distinguish the members of the tribe. It opened its wings and landed on Xena's shoulders.
The Cobalt Eagle was large and on Xena, it looked like a giant festival hat on top of her head. Then, the Cobalt Eagle noticed Harriet standing in the background.
It screamed and instantly jumped on the ground behind Xena. The bird clearly remembered the terrifying harpy queen; the scene where she slaughtered the purple-eyed Vulture was still clear in its mind. The Cobalt Eagle did not want anything to do with her.
Harriet smiled upon noticing the Cobalt Eagle's behavior. If it was intimidated by her, then it was less likely that the Cobalt Eagle would attempt to run away.
"Scree!"
"I hope you are not thinking about going back on your words now that I spent my DP on your totem spirit," said Five as he looked at Xena.
Xena and Orla recollected their thoughts. They had been so excited at seeing their totem spirit again. The female chief patted the Cobalt Eagle and stared at the bird with her large blue eyes. "I am very sorry but in order to ensure your survival, I promised that you will agree to join his dungeon and become his monster. However, he also agreed that you will be free to do as you wish. You will not even have to stay here and can come to stay at the village. You will only have to act if the dungeon is truly in danger."
"Scree!" The Cobalt Eagle used the connection it had with the Blue Eagle Tribesmen to express its thoughts to Xena.
The latter replied aloud with a saddened expression. "The tribe no longer exists. We merged with the Musclewood Tribe. If we did not, we would have been absorbed by the other tribes anyway. At least, you are now revived. You even regained a body."
The exchange between the barbarian and the bird continued until finally, the Cobalt Eagle opened its wings and landed in front of Five. It fearfully looked at Harriet before bowing its head.
[System prompt: Congratulations Player Five, the unnamed Cobalt Eagle has agreed to serve you.]
Name: ???
Race: Cobalt Eagle
Type: Bird
Attribute: Wind
Level: 42 (0/2000000)
Class: None
Title: Totem Spirit
HP: 560/560
MP: 600/600
Strength: 62
Dexterity: 98(+12)
Vitality: 56
Intelligence: 60
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Wisdom: 57
Special Skills: [Crystal Reflections], [Cobalt Statue]
[Information]
[Crystal Reflections]
Create X copies of the user and divide the user's HP and MP equally among all copies. The copies can be controlled by the user to attack or defend.
The number of copies, X is chosen by the user but cannot exceed the user's Wisdom divided by five.
Mana Cost: 100
Duration: 10 minutes
Cooldown: X hours
[Cobalt Statue]
Transforms the user in a statue, drastically increasing the user's vitality, armor and magic resist for the duration. The user becomes unable to move for the duration of the skill.
Vitality +30
Armor and Magic resist +30
Mana Cost: 80
Duration: 1 hour
Cooldown: 24 hours
Five was delighted. The Cobalt Eagle's stats were quite impressive, but he could not really consider it as his monster. What Five was really interested in, was whether or not he unlocked new monsters. After checking the dungeon shop, he indeed found that 'Cobalt Eagle' and 'Blue Eagle' were both unlocked. The Cobalt Eagle was a Boss Monster but unfortunately, only one boss monster could be summoned at a time for a particular species.
"Thank you. As Xena said, you are free to live at the village. I will only ask for help when I really need it."
The Cobalt Eagle seemed relieved. It felt the connection forming between it and the dungeon core. It was like a shackle being placed on its neck. It deployed its wings and returned to its place on Xena's shoulders.
"Very impressive. Its skills are interesting. I get why it has [Cobalt Statue] but why does it also have [Crystal Reflections]? They are two different types of precious stones."
"That's probably because the Cobalt Eagle might be close to evolving its bloodline. It has already acquired the skill belonging to the species above it: The Crystal Eagle," explained Harriet.
"I see." Five had long heard of the matter of bloodlines from Harriet but he was not really concerned about it. Under certain conditions, monsters were able to evolve their bloodline and get closer to the Sacred Beasts whose bloodline were the purest. It was the goal of all monsters; to purify their bloodline and climb the hierarchy of the monster community.
In the meanwhile, the three Shamans did not say a word. Their eyes never left the Cobalt Eagle from the moment it came to life. It was especially true for Old Dale and Ester. They were having the same thoughts: 'Will it be possible to give a body to our totem spirit too?'
While the Humanoid Metal Slime had a physical body, the Mystic Wood Fox and the Skyblazing Crow were both spirit monsters. They were monsters who refused to die and chose to seal their soul in relics. As a result, they lost their physical bodies. Their goal in protecting the barbarian tribes was precisely to slowly gather their energy and find a way to regain a physical body.
It was also in the barbarians' best interest to help their totem spirit regain a physical body. The totem spirits were already bound to the tribes and by being a physical beast, they would be able to defend the tribe at all time. It would no longer suffer from the restrictions of being a spirit and having to depend on the relic to materialize themselves.
…
"What are you going to do about the two other totem spirits?" asked Harriet as they returned to the dungeon.
"Nothing. I believe it would be a waste to revive them. Although we have enough DP to do so, it would be better to invest it in the development of the dungeon instead. From what I observed in the Cobalt Eagle, even when it was in that state, the connection between it and the Blue Eagle Tribesmen did not disappear."
"The Vicious Rhino Tribe and the Black Vulture Tribe are not dead. The latter was absorbed by the former. They both lost a lot of men in the battle and even after merging, they were retrograded to a medium tribe. But they still exist!"
"I don't know the details but it is clear that there is some sort of contract between the totem spirits and their tribes. The totem spirits cannot really leave their tribe; they are the two sides of the same coin. Even if we revive the two totem spirits; they will have the urge to return to their tribe."
"It is true that it will still be worth it if it allows me to unlock new monsters, but would it not be better if I also get the totem spirits themselves. Without their totem spirits, it is only a matter of time before the two tribes disappear. We just have to wait a little. I doubt the Musclewood Tribe will also let go of these two. Even if they don't, we can be the one to do the deed. With Lyra having reached her level cap, Dreidus should be delighted at the idea of destroying a village."
Harriet listened to Five's explanation without a word. She had never been truly involved in this sort of things. She preferred to spend time enjoying her life; in fact, she could not wait to chat with the new harpies.
"With this out of the way, how are the investigations going? Did you find anything about the Ghost?" asked Five.
The Ghost he referred to was not really a ghost. There have been several mysterious occurrences at the dungeon in the past few days; items started disappearing out of nowhere without a trace. It was as if a thief was stealing from the monsters but no matter how vigilant they were, the monsters were unable to find the culprit. In the end, they decided to call the thief: Ghost, after watching scary movies from Earth.
It was not just the monsters who were victims of the Ghost's act. Five also lost a few items but more importantly, the Nerubian Egg disappeared! The precious egg that Five obtained from the Cube of Resourcefulness was also stolen by the Ghost.
Five did not even know the hatching method. Nevertheless, it was clear that the Nerubian Egg was quite precious. Five felt his heart being ripped apart when he discovered the disappearance of the precious egg. An item worth so much DP vanished without a trace. It was unacceptable!
"We have no leads. The girls are keeping their eyes open for any signs of the Ghost and Dreidus is looking after the Platinum Armadillo to make sure it is not him with his pickpocketing talent, but we have yet to catch anything," answered Harriet.
"It is fine. Just do your best. The Ghost is only taking away basic things like food now but we must not let it run wild."
"I know. What are you going to do now? Do you want to spend the night with us? The girls want to watch the 'Frozen' series again!" said Harriet.
Five shook his head. "Not tonight. I am exhausted. My sleep cycle is completely messed up. I hope the goblins do not explode something else tonight. I really need to get some rest."
Harriet lightly giggled. "Sure. Goodnight then."
Unfortunately, the night was bound to be long. Right as Harriet spoke, another voice sounded:
"Greetings dungeon masters! I hope I am not disturbing anything important, but I have a very important announcement to make! The third trial is about to begin! I know we are ahead of schedule, but this trial will be quite different from the previous two!"