A myriad of screams, one mortified and the other monotone, reverberated through the sprawling and expansive ruined stone brick room, drowning out the swarming buzzing encroaching from every direction. As the buzzing and screaming drew nearer, the ground shook with tremendous tremors before Zalroth, carrying the screaming Yai and Nakamai, vaulted over a slightly crumbled stone brick wall.
He ducked behind the wall, pushing the other two's heads below the wall before a torrent of cat-sized insects surged past the trio. The wall shook from the force of the passing insects, knocking small chunks and chips off the wall, as Yai and Nakamai covered their heads from the falling debris.
"Their speed is certainly an issue," Zalroth remarked as the last of the flying insects passed overhead. He coated his hand in Frostbite Armament and threw his hand up to catch one of the insect monsters. He brought it to his face, its legs and wings flailing sporadically as it screeched, while he got a better look at it: the monster was the size of a house cat-sized insect monster; its shell made of iron while it had a resemblance between a rhinoceros beetle, a ladybug with blue spots, and a locus mixed together.
[Activated Skill: Appraisal(Level: 3)]
[Swarmer(Rare)][Level: 80]
[HP: 350][Hexa: 10]
[Vitality: 35][Stamina: 50]
[Attack: 120][Hexa Attack: 1]
[Defence: 100][intelligence: 1]
[Agility: 1][Speed: 100]
[Activated Skill: Monster Control]
"Dang... they still outspeed you even with your speed-boosting skill!" Yai mentioned while Nakamai nibbled on one of the swarmer's legs. Zalroth nodded before he heard a cracking sound below him. He glanced down to the noise, a tinge of discomfort on his face, as he saw the swarmer had seemingly calmed down and nibbled the Frostbite Armament off Zalroth's arm. Zalroth raised an eyebrow and released the swarmer and it slowly fluttered itself to the floor before scuttling over to Yai.
"It worked," Yai said excitedly while lifting the swarmer off the floor. Nakamai tilted her head and stared blankly at Yai.
"What did?" Nakamai asked neutrally. Yai lightly pressed her fist against the side of her head, realising it would be easier to simply show them than try to explain, before opening some RPG panels.
[Regal: Swarmer(Rare)][Level: 80]
[HP: 350][Hexa: 10]
[Vitality: 35][Stamina: 50]
[Attack: 120][Hexa Attack: 1]
[Defence: 100][intelligence: 1]
[Agility: 1][Speed: 100]
[Yai's Skills]
[Unique]
[Monter Control]
-The user can control and modify the mind of monsters weaker or lower level than the user, or is restrained-
"To think me holding it would count as restrained," Zalroth stated as the buzzing swarm began to descend. Zalroth hopped to his feet, staring down the swirling storm of descending swarmers as a plan occurred to him.
[Activated Skill: Gaiaful Thorn(Level: 1)]
[Activated Skill: Frostbite Armament(Level: 2)]
Dark green Hexa particles swirled around Zalroth's hand as vines began to form from the Hexa. The vines jetted away from his hand, morphing and twirling together as they became overcome with petrification before turning to dark green stone, and forming into a spear. Along with the spear and knife, Zalroth also coated his hands and forearms in Frostbite Armament.
"Stay put until I've grounded these swarmers," Zalroth stated with his back to Yai and Nakamai. The two girls nodded as they watched Zalroth pull his silver combat knife back.
[Activated Skill: Flame Blast(Level: 2)]
Zalroth steadied his knife as a Flame Burst core gathered at the tip of the knife tip, spurting out small orange Hexa particles, before slashing it through the air and hurling the FLame Burst core into the air. The Flame Burst core rocketed straight for the Swarmer swarm, with some of them turning pure white and blasting off to avoid the attack while a few coated their bodies in extra layers of iron coating.
Noticing the outliers from the swarm, Zalroth narrowed his glare, focusing his vision on the select few, and failed to stifle a smug smirk.
[Activated Skill: Creation Crest(Ranged) x6]
[Activated Ability: Weakening Howl]
Multiple Creation Crest marks(the purple crown made of spikes and thorny vines) formed on the six stand-out Swarmers, shortly followed by Zalroth snapping his fingers. The Flame Burst core cracked, splintering into many pieces, before violently exploding with a deafening bang. The swarm of swarmers scattered, flying in arches, managing to avoid each other as they formed smaller swarms before zeroing in on Zalroth.
"Woah... your skill's name showed up," Nakamai stated, in a monotone way, while standing next to Zalroth. Zalroth flinched at hearing Nakamai's remark, and he slumped his head as he realised he had forgotten to activate his status-hiding skill.
The screeching swarmers zipped through the air, descending straight for Zalroth. Returning his focus to the swarmers, Zalroth lept into the air before leaping between multiple Seraph Step platforms as he ascended away from the floor. Nakamai mindlessly watched Zalroth as he continued ascending, completely ignoring the swarmers flying inches past her face before being yanked to the ground by Yai.
The swarmers surged after Zalroth, swirling and twistering around each other as their chorus of screeching drew nearer and louder. Zalroth spun around mid-air, landing on the bottom side of his Seraph Step platform, and dangled from it as if his feet were magnetised to it. He threw up his weapons, crossing them together with an icy chink, as small sparks of lightning emerged from him.
[Activated Skill: Thunder Wave(Level: 2) x10]
Sparks shot from all over Zalroth's body, culminating into ten blue energy spheres within the midst of the swarmers.
"Say a one-liner!" Yai exclaimed cheekily, leading Zalroth to swing his head back and glare at Yai with extreme disappointment. Yai shivered from the overwhelming chill running down her spine from Zalroth's glaring. Zalroth sighed as he dropped his Gaiaful Thorn spear before spinning on the spot and punting it at the swarmers.
The spear pierceded through the air, a chirpy whistle whirling through the air, and catching the attention of the swarmers. The head of the swarm doubled back on themselves to follow the whistling, a faint chatter coming from them, before slamming headfirst into the swarmers coming from the other direction and causing cracks to form on their shells from the impact.
[Swarmer's Status Effects]
[Cracked Shell]
-The User's DEF is decreased by 50% and the user receives triple the DMG from piercing-type attacks-
-The User loses 1% every second when HP is below 30%-
"So some creatures can have creature-specific debuffs," Zalroth uttered as he recalled a goblin with the Cracked Armour debuff: it's the same as Cracked Shell minus the HP drain. Zalroth nodded, a small smirk forming on his head, and aimed his silver combat knife at the Swarmers while commenting on the extra DEF decrease being a blessing. As he readied himself to attack, Yai's request rang through his mind, his expression souring slightly as he felt his restraint crumble.
"Prepared to be thunderstruck!" Zalroth murmured reluctantly, with Yai giggling despite not hearing him say it. Zalroth slumped his head, allowing his body to dangle limply, and half-heartedly waved his knife in the direction of the scrambling swarmers. A faint buzz emitted from the Thunder Wave spheres, a crackle shortly joining its increase in shine, before the spheres popped and erupted into torrents of electrical waves which shredded through the cracks in the swarmers' shells, creating a tsunami of bold teal digital numbers which exploded around the swarmers.
The waves of lightning crackled and sparked through the upper section of the room before slowly fizzling out as the swarmer became mostly charred with roughly around ten percent of their HP. With their wings left ragged, the swarmers could only wildly flail as they plummeted to the ground, slamming into the floor far below like rain. One of in swarmers crashed in front of Yai and Nakamai, making them briefly jump from shock; the two stared at the swarmer before abruptly dashing next to it and repeatedly stabbing it through its cracks using stone knives.
"That's what you get for scaring us," Nakamai said monotonously while wearing a forced pout. Bold red digital numbers appeared around the swarmer as the duo continued to stab it until it eventually died.
[Yai's Level Increased]
[1 -> 23]
Yai squinted her eyes at the pop-up and contorted her face in confusion as she tried to wrap her head around the amount of levels she received.
"Huh? But wasn't this guy like level eighty?" Yai uttered. She scratched her head as she stared at the level-up pop-up, her eyes glued to it like a hawk, blocking out all over things of interest.
"Clearly, you haven't played an RPG before," Zalroth remarked as he dropped onto a Seraph Step platform above the cluster of charred swarmers. Yai passed a judgmental glance in Zalroth's direction, mentally denouncing the absurdity of a level eighty monster not making her level eighty being ok, and huffed in frustration.
"That's so dumb!" Yai whined defeatedly while Regal simply shook their head at their master's demeanour. Zalroth sighed and rubbed his face, not wanting to hear any more complaining from Yai.
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"Just think of it as you getting a fraction of their level when they are defeated and the rest is converted into their loot," Zalroth stated exhaustedly. Yai considered responding but after thinking about it, and seeing Zalroth's gradual anger-growing expression, decided the explanation was satisfactory.
"You should get to stabbing," Nakamai remarked before she bit through the torso of the defeated swarmer. Yai realised what Nakamai meant, quickly springing to her feet, and hurrying around to stab as many of the swarmer before they lost all their HP.
A little bit later, an exhausted slumped to the floor and rested her back against Nakamai's back whilst she was still eating.
[Zalroth's Level Increased]
[73 -> 93]
[Gaiaful Thorn's Level Increased]
[1 -> 2]
[Accel Drive's Level Increased]
[2 -> 3]
[Detect(Creature)'s Level Increased]
[2 -> 3]
[Yai's Level Increased]
[23 -> 86]
[Nakamai's Level Plateaued]
[1 -> 1]
"Yippee," Yai said lathargically, lightly clapping her hands together, before slumping against the crumbled wall while pressing her fingers against her sore wrist. As she continued massaging her wrist, she noticed Zalroth methodically walking through the cluster of swarmers, checking for the ones with his Creation Crest crests before picking them up and just as quickly dropping the last one with a crest on them.
[Aquired Ability]
[Error]
[Zalroth Already Possess Current Ability]
[Swapping To Randomized Mode]
[Aquired Ability]
[Aquired Skill]
[Notice]
[Combining duplicate Skills]
[Skill Leveled up]
"So abilities don't stack but copying the same skill will convert it into EXP for the other," Zalroth uttered as he opened his Skills/Abilities lists to check out his new ones.
[Zalroth's Skills]
(New)
[Inferno Blaze]
[Level: 1][Cost: 85 Hexa]
-The user coats their equipment in opaque flames that increases the user's physical attack by 60% of user's attack and 50% of intelligence when using fire magic, and increases the user's agility by 180% along with making all the user's physical attacks of the fire element-
-The user can also fire off a ranged fire slash, doing double the DMG a melee slash would before using up the flames-
[Level: 2][Cost: 145 Hexa]
-The user coats their equipment in opaque flames that increases the user's physical attack by 120% of user's attack and 250% of intelligence when using fire magic, and increases the user's agility by 180% along with making all the user's physical attacks of the fire element-
-The user can also fire off a ranged fire slash, doing double the DMG a melee slash would before using up the flames-
[Level: 3][Cost: 465 Hexa]
-The user coats their equipment in opaque flames that increases the user's physical attack by 330% of user's attack and 280% of intelligence when using fire magic, and increases the user's agility by 220% along with making all the user's physical attacks of the fire element-
-The user can also fire off a ranged fire slash, doing double the DMG a melee slash would before using up the flames-
[Gaiaful Thorn]
[Level: 2][Cost: 245 Hexa]
-The user creates a dark green petrified vine spear with the tip of a spear 130% of the user's attack and 50% of speed, and increases the user's agility by 45% along with making all the user's physical attacks of the earth element-
[Accel Drive]
-increases the user's speed for a short burst and attack scales off the user's speed at attack-
[Level: 3][cost: 75 Hexa]
-Increases speed by 40% and attack by 35%-
[Detect(Creature)]
-The user's map displays all nearby creatures on their map when the skill is active or gets a sense of nearby creatures when the Map isn't open.
[Level: 3]
-20 meters-
[Zalroth's Abilities]
(New)
[Particle Warp]
-The user turns completely white and can warp to any location within their vision-
-Cooldown of 5 seconds per meter-
[Material Coating]
-The user coats their outer layer/clothing in any material they know the composition of or has in their possession/Inventory-
-Resistance and DEF increase is based on used material-
Nakamai noticed the panels floating around Zalroth, a realization hitting her like a train despite her expression remaining as poker-faced as ever. Zalroth continued to inspect his new skills and abilities with laser focus; but as he did, droning words began to creep up behind him, a strange sense of denial gnawing at him as the words became clearer.
"One of us, one of us, one of us," Yai and Nakamai chanted in unison. Zalroth pessimistically sighed and used a hand to cover his eyes as the duo continued to chant while Regal made buzzing noises with a similar tempo to the girls.
"Knock it off, would you?" Zalroth stated calmly while the Yai coyly pestered him with pokes and prods as Nakamai wandered off to eat more swarmer legs. Zalroth sighed, pushing Yai away with his free hand, and held up the swarmer iron shell fragment in his hand.
[Activated Ability: Material Coating]
The direwolf cloak rustled slightly, its weight increasing as a wave of cyan Hexa washed over its fur and encased it in iron. Yai raised a fist to the cloak and lightly knocked her knuckle against it with a ching. Zalroth stared at the shell, noting his ability not consuming/altering the shell, before flicking it into the air and sending it into his Inventory.
"Alright you two, help me collect all these swarmers before any more of the boss show up," Zalroth requested sternly. The other two begrudgingly did as Zalroth instructed, despite not wanting to do any tedious work.
[Notice From Ne-Lon Operatior Devi]
[System Update]
[Change Log]
[Name Of Stat: Hexa Attack Has Been Changed to Hexa Proficiency For More Clearity]
[Stat Summery Button Has Been Add To Status Menu]
The trio stared at the sudden notice, their focus on collecting briefly diverted, and swiftly opened their status to check. Zalroth lightly threw a hand over his eyes, a low simmer of rage bubbling to the surface as he read that Hexa Proficiency increases the accuracy of debuff-type skills/abilities, and the strength/accuracy of Unique Hexa Skills/Abilities along with unlocking new Sub/Extra Skills/abilities related to their class.
[Zalroth Akikou][Level: 73]
[HP: 500][Hexa: 850]
[Class: Creation Crest]
[Vitality: 50][Stamina: 25]
[Attack: 60][Hexa Proficiency: 2]
[Defence: 60][intelligence: 85]
[Agility: 20][Speed: 66]
[Avalible Points: 105]
[Yai Kiaria][Level: 86]
[HP: 10][Hexa: 10]
[Class: Monster Sovereign]
[Vitality: 1][Stamina: 1]
[Attack: 1][Hexa Proficiency: 1]
[Defence: 1][intelligence: 1]
[Agility: 1][Speed: 1]
[Avalible Points: 470]
[Nakamai Sakamoto][Level: 1]
[HP: 340][Hexa: 850]
[Class: Abyssal Devourer]
[Vitality: 34][Stamina: 1]
[Attack: 120][Hexa Proffiency: 1]
[Defence: 95][intelligence: 85]
[Agility: 21][Speed: 99]
"So this system thing isn't automatic?" Nakamai mumbled between biting swarmer legs. Zalroth placed a hand on his chin, lightly humming, as he thought it over.
"I believe the word you're looking for is autonomous, although your verbal mishap might be more accurate," Zalroth remarked, tapping his chin in rhythm with the abient buzzing-like tune.
"Are... you saying the RPG system is being controlled by someone?" Yai asked with mild concern. Zalroth closed his eyes, silently mulling over multiple possibilities, before sighing and opening his eyes.
"Hard to say, but someone or something is certainly overseeing it," Zalroth mentioned. The two girls' whined, the thought of their efforts being undone at someone else's whim being too much to bear, before Yai began angrily assigning her stat points in spiteful defiance while Zalroth was more reserved in his approach.
[Zalroth Akikou][Level: 93]
[HP: 500][Hexa: 850]
[Class: Creation Crest]
[Vitality: 50][Stamina: 25]
[Attack: 100][Hexa Proficiency: 5]
[Defence: 80][intelligence: 85]
[Agility: 40][Speed: 88]
[Avalible Points: 0]
[Yai Kiaria][Level: 86]
[HP: 1000][Hexa: 1000]
[Class: Monster Sovereign]
[Vitality: 100][Stamina: 35]
[Attack: 150][Hexa Proficiency: 50]
[Defence: 1][intelligence: 100]
[Agility: 1][Speed: 1]
[Avalible Points: 0]