Night fell across the sky and conversations turned to whispers as frightened people huddled as close as they could to one of the many fires scattered about, listenin' to the soundscape of an alien planet. Weisner was sawin' logs, apparently able to sleep anywhere, anytime, and yet wake up at the drop of a hat if needed. I’d heard that was often the case with ex-military types. I was wound up tight as a bowstring, there was no way in hell I was goin' to be able to sleep tonight. I decided to experiment a bit and hunt through my blood clone. That way I’d be here in case anythin' crazy happened. I hadn’t noticed anyone lookin' the psycho murderin' type, but they’re often experts at blendin' in. I walked just beyond the safe zone, in the direction of the dungeon tower, well out of sight of camp and overcharged my drake with thirty years of life force. It seemed infusions after creatin' a clone were near instant. I summoned it and sent it out to commit mass slaughter, hopin' the twenty percent stat boost from overchargin' would keep it alive. As long as the clone didn’t run into a bigger boss it should be okay, or able to fly away at the least.
An hour later, I found myself sittin' by the fire, grinnin' like a cheshire cat and watchin' the life-gain messages scroll by in a shrunken system window. Lookin' through my clone's eyes with Sense Life granted my clone the same sense. Findin' boars was child’s play, here and there I’d find one, motionless on the forest floor, hidin' in thickets, asleep I figured. Occasionally I spotted a female with offspring sprawled out near her. I left these alone. As tough as the boars were, they couldn’t survive even a single Drake’s Breath attack from my clone. I was shootin' ducks in a barrel basically. It must’ve rained recently as my drake’s fiery attacks failed to light the whole forest aflame, or perhaps dragon magic was at work. Occasionally a loot box would spawn by a corpse and I learned I could loot remotely through my clones. My clone had to touch the chests for me to pull the items into my P.D.S.. Sometimes I had to land the drake if the canopy was too thick for a swoopin' talon grab or a quick tail touch, slowin' down my killin' speed but I couldn’t just let the shinies lay there. If the carcasses were too crispy I converted them into biomass, if not I preserved them in my Bone Vault for food. The loot chests were all common except for a single blue rare chest. I left them in storage for now, focusin' instead on the slaughter I was committin'. It was so easy I felt bad, like I was clubbin' baby seals or somethin'. I was gettin' ten-percent life steal from my minion even though it was easier than a solo kill like the drake where I’d had to encapsulate its body with life force to achieve that ten-percent. I wasn’t about to complain though. Each boar gave me roughly ten years of life force. If I could kill seventy five or so I’d hit the two-thousand mark and gain several racial trait boosts: +10 to my stats, a second facet from Diamond Mind, another summonable clone and +5 cubic meters to my P.D.S. size.
Twenty boars and two hours later I ran across another miniboss.
[Peak Rank D Miniboss: Ancient Forest Troll.]
It was difficult to judge from the sky but I figured this troll was fifteen feet tall. Trolls were generally weak to fire in books and games, but that may not be the case here. This could be a difficult fight for my clone, it’s stats weren’t quite what they had been when it was livin’. My half of its stats was its weak point currently. Perhaps with overcharge’s twenty percent boost it was close though. I figured I’d test the waters by hitting the troll with a few Drake's Breaths from the sky and see what happened. Unless the troll had some means to ground my clone it wouldn't be in danger. My clone was silently circlin’ in the sky awaitin’ an order. I sent it in at an angle so its jet of flame would hit the troll directly in the back. Drake's breath splashed on the troll, completely engulfin’ it. It rose up from its crouched position roarin' in rage and agony. The troll was covered in what looked like vines and moss. By the time the flames went out my clone's cooldown was almost finished and all the vines and moss had been burned away. Another blast hit the troll from behind. It spun around quickly but my clone was long gone. The troll's flesh started droopin’, it activated an ability causin’ it to glow with a green light. Its flesh tried to heal but couldn't fully while consumed by fire. As soon as the flames dropped its skin rapidly recovered. Despite the pain the troll was endurin’, it picked up a nearby weapon that looked like a tree trunk with a handle carved into it and swung it around in the air threateningly. This’d be a battle of attrition between my clone’s fire and the troll’s healin'. My Drake swooped by from its blind side, usin’ the shroom caps for cover and blasted it again, makin' sure to sweep the jet of flame to hit the troll's weapon as well. With its weapon on fire the troll decided to throw the small tree at my clone, strikin' it on the back. It must have used some ability because my clone was momentarily stunned, almost crashin' into the shroom caps before it caught the air with its wings and ascended again. It was probably some skill with a retarded name like Trolls Rebuke! Or Stunnin' Throw! or somethin'. However, the troll wasn't entirely stupid. Missin' its weapon and seein' the fight wasn't goin' its way, the troll started climbin' up a nearby stair steppin' cluster of mushrooms, stoppin' on the tallest one nearby. From here it could more easily watch out for my drake in all directions. The troll activated a new ability, causin' its fingertips to grow into sword like protrusions, it's torso slimmed down, sendin' mass out to lengthen its legs and arms until I was certain it would stand near twenty feet tall if it wasn't hunched over like it was waitin' to pounce. The beast wasn't lighter but I imagined it would be more agile and have greater reach. Thinkin' I could keep my clone out of its reach, I used taller shrooms to block the troll’s sight and tried to get behind it. The troll must have heard my clone as it spun around just in time to take a jet of flame to the face. It still leapt towards my clone tryin' to tackle it to the ground but a swift, perfectly timed Talon-Strike sent the monster crashin' back down to the earth. The beast had managed to strike my clone's arm but the scales held up with nothin' more than bruised muscles to show for it. The troll laid there stunned momentarily. Tryin' to take advantage of the situation I steered my Drake around and slapped the troll with a Tail-Whip. The bastard was still glowin' green. The troll either had massive quantities of mana to keep its healin' ability active or it was a permanent passive ability that activated upon injury. Either way it was a pain in the ass. I decided to go for broke and directed my clone to dive bomb the troll in the chest with all four limbs worth of claws extended, stabbin' deeply into the beast. With a powerful flap of its wings my clone backed off just far enough to land and then activate Dragon's Pounce, sendin' it flyin' right back onto the troll's chest and head with doubled weight and stats for ten seconds. Just as the troll was regainin' consciousness Drake's Breath came off its cooldown so I unleashed it directly onto the troll's face and torso. I ordered my clone to bite and claw into the troll's chest, searchin' for the beast core. The troll, desperate and furious, tried diggin' its sword like fingers up under my drake's insanely durable scales. When that barely worked it grabbed my Drake's neck and tried to pull it down to bite it. I had my Drake pause its efforts to get at the core long enough to savage the troll's face with its teeth, blindin' it in the process. The troll was dead within a minute after that. My clone finally found the core and ripped it out, swallowin' it in the process. I hadn't instructed it to do that. No doubt that core was worth a pretty penny. I was puzzled until I saw the next system notification.
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[Your clone has consumed a beast core containing sufficient energy to rank up. Would you like to rank up your clone from Peak D rank to Low C rank? Yes/No.]
What a stupid question! Of course I do. The system didn't seem to be listenin' so I mentally selected yes. Energy filled my clone to burstin', slowly increasin' its size, stats and even gainin' a new ability called Dragon's Spite. Lookin' at my minion tab I looked for the new ability and selected it to get a peek at its details.
[Dragon’s Spite: Dragons are prideful creatures and hate to lose. Before that happens they would rather spend their life to gain a temporary boost if it would mean victory. Although dragons are very long lived, some living for tens of thousands of years or more, dragons have been known to burn thousands of years in one battle just to save face. This ability allows a dragon or drake to consume their own life force in order to boost their stats and abilities. For the cost of 100 years of life they are fully healed and gain 5 minutes of doubled stats. This effect can stack up to 5 times, requiring 5x the life cost per 5 minutes.]
Damn that was better than my Battle Form. I could probably take it from my clone but its life-farmin' capabilities were just too good for me to handicap it like that. If I ran across a boss it might be the decidin' factor for a victory. I would have to massively overcharge it for the clone to be able to use that ability though. Perhaps when I built up a massive surplus I would do so. I wasn’t certain I could use the troll boss corpse as a bloodclone without its core, but storin' the troll in my Bone Vault gave me the option so I started the life infusion. I pulled the loot-chest into my P.D.S., another Obsidian ranked chest made of black wood with silver inlaid accents. I figured I’d check all the chests later. Right now, I was more curious about the notifications blinkin' in my peripheral vision.
[Peak D rank miniboss: Ancient Forest Troll has been slain. 196 years, 3 months life force gained with an efficiency of 10 percent Life Drain. Current life force: 1,781 years, 7 months.]
[For defeating a miniboss well above your rank, rewards have been boosted. For defeating a miniboss solo, rewards have been boosted. For being the first person from your world to kill a second miniboss, rewards have been boosted.]
[Title: Punching Above Your Weight, has increased. Effects: +4 to all stats. +4% to all stats with a minimum gain of +1 at 1%+. For each rank a soloed slain boss or miniboss was above you, this title gains +1 and +1% to all stats. Solo further bosses or minibosses above your rank to increase the stat gains. Title maximum: +25 to all stats, +25% to all stats.]
Twenty-two more boars and I’d hit the stored-life threshold. I continued my mass genocide of boars. Unfortunately, I failed to find any more minibosses, but just as the sun was risin' I killed the last boar I needed and a rush of power spread throughout my body. I checked my stat menu and was pleased to +10 had been added to all my stats. My stats had skyrocketed. With Battle Form activated I’d be +6x my original base stats on my lowest stats, +7x on strength and 11x on others. I couldn’t wait to see what kind of damage that would translate into in an actual fight. A little quick math put my swords Blackened Strike ability at over 10,000 damage and a 17% proc chance with Battle Form on. That’s 5,400ish without and a 13% proc chance. My health pool was as big as a gnat's knee compared to that. It was hard to say just how much damage that proc would do to an enemy, but I had a feelin' it was gonna be a whole lot. The only way these numbers made sense was if Fantasy was a stat that was harder to raise than a mule was to get movin’, and I would get +10 Fantasy every 1000 years of stored life.
Beyond drained, I directed my clone to find the troll miniboss’s weapon it had thrown durin' the fight and then fly back to me at camp. I needed a quick nap before we headed out. I felt my second facet in the back of my mind, ready to activate, but I was too worn out to play with my new toy. Most everyone was asleep at camp. I’d been so engrossed in my mission to hit 2k I’d lost all awareness of my body as I commanded my clone. Now, with a second facet I might be able to fight and command a clone. The thought of puppeteerin' a clone while fightin' was exhilaratin'. I envisioned myself weavin' through the battlefield, my clone actin' as a meat-shield, absorbin' attacks while I focused on offense. A grin spread across my face as I drifted towards sleep. The soft chirpin' of crickets and the distant howl of a wolf lullin' me towards a peaceful slumber.
Weisner snorted beside me, “You finally back?”
I jerked upright and looked over at him with a satisfied grin, “Finally hit 2k stored life. Got me a new pet too. I think I’m gonna name him Freddy. It’s still bakin' in the oven but I’ll show him to you after I wake up. Hollar at me when it’s time to leave.”
“Will do,” he said, noddin’ and watchin’ the surroundin's vigilantly.