Shin popped a large blood fruit into his mouth and directed its power to the trait in mind without delay.
[Survival State has become the mythic tier trait Unfettered.]
‘Immunity from lethal wounds.’
Shin glanced over at Yen who seemed to be waiting on an explanation. “Can’t die.” A flash sliced off half his head without warning to the shock of most.
“See.” Shin spoke as nonchalantly as ever while he slowly regenerated. Kamala added on her Greater Heal to speed things along, and Ashley hugged her unkillable target from behind with more fondness than usual.
“Creepy.” Yen held nothing back in her commentary. “How can you still talk without your brain?”
“Body Supremacy?” Shin wasn’t too sure himself but he felt that was right.
“Mmm… I guess it’s pretty broken when you pair it with other traits.” Yen glanced at severed skull on the ground with some disgust and burned it to ash, noticing some of the looks when she turned back. “What? It doesn’t matter if it’s an arm or something but having chunks of his head lying around is weird.”
Rumbling cut the conversation short and Chariot rushed out of lair, heading back along the trail in search of another. A search that lasted only a few moments before several burst forward into action, surrounding an unfamiliar party at Donny’s example. Unidentifiable all of them, but caution draped their expressions at the sight of who they faced.
“You clear out the lairs back that way?” Wary silenced returned but Donny didn’t change his tone. “Don’t have to be more than a quick bag check. Be smart, yeah?”
Reluctantly, the other party threw over their bags for Chariot to inspect. Shin, Jean and Mujin held out some blood fruit for the rest to see, seven in total.
“How far back did you come from?”
“...Half an hour.” A black haired woman in her late twenties answered.
Donny eyed down them all then nodded his head at them, signaling the others to return the bags. “You can go.”
They hesitated then moved slowly at first past the two rows at their flanks before speeding off at a measured pace. Donny waited until they left entirely before speaking. “Things might start drying up sooner than we thought.”
“Kinda early to call that, isn’t it?”
“I didn’t recognize any of them. And they sure as fuck weren’t one clan. There’s bound to be a ton of others just like them and fruit gets used up quickly. We should switch priorities from training at night to robbing.”
“We’ll make a lot of enemies that can reach this far.” Jean mentioned.
“That’s just the game, innit.”
“Why don’t we just kill them~?” Ashley asked.
“No point wasting energy we don’t need to.”
The blood fruit were handed over to Karla and Jean as the next ones in the order, with one remaining.
“Who’s still got rare traits?” Donny asked. Karla, Basem, and Kamala raised their hands. “Strong Body?” He asked the amazon.
“Yeah~”
“Alright, that’s yours then.”
“Why?” Basem snapped.
“Better for the shift. Unless you wanna increase your workload?” The hunter sucked his teeth in a sulk but his silence yielded to Donny’s reasoning. “Alright, no point waiting around.”
The party headed off once again. True to the other party’s words, they found nothing in the way of lairs for a while, but soon afterwards they came across something new. A chasm in a cliff straight down from the top all the way to the ground and stretching several miles to the other end. Through it, they could just make out a green forested area.
“It looks different than the jungle…” Basem commented.
Donny stared down the same way, thinking for a little. “Leave it for now. Keep the focus on raid and robbery before we go exploring.”
“People.”
Everyone shifted their attention to the direction Shin looked just as another party emerged from the jungle.
“Speaking of…”
---
The party returned to the beach front once again early into the night, another long successful day under their belts. They had managed to raid 23 lairs this time and gained additional fruit from the other parties they encountered, most of whom didn’t fight back. Shin himself managed to upgrade Regeneration, Hawkeye, and Blindsight to Rapid Regeneration, Greater Hawkeye and Greater Blindsight. His sphere of vision now spanned almost 200 yards with even greater clarity and its speed enhanced tenfold.
Chariot didn’t rest, but instead immediately headed down the sandy path in search of more parties as they previously decided. Shin drew two orcs souls and started fusing them together, though his focus was mainly held in his lookout duties.
It was harder to fuse successfully without devoting his full attention but wasting a few extra souls wasn’t an issue when he had an infinitely replenishing supply. The process had also become much easier with his skill steadily improving. The two souls sheened together forming a wisping soul of a blood orc warrior which Shin stored within himself. Unlike spirits, normal monsters remained souls even in success, so he didn’t have to worry about fighting and capturing them again.
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Shin drew out two tribe chief souls and focused, both tearing to nothingness in failure. Undeterred, he drew two more and fused again, this time to a successful elite Blood Orc High Chief. He paused for a moment, letting the lingering feeling sit with him for a moment and drew two lair chiefs. He pulled in his focus a little, focusing more attentively as he ran, the swirling souls straining against each other until finally…
[Soul Fusion has reached lvl. 10. 100 Attribute Points rewarded.]
“Wait.” Shin said and the rest stopped.
Shin summoned Mara, excitement and eagerness apparent, and drew the Centaur soul from his own. Without delay, the two were drawn into a meld of spiritual energy. The ferocity of the centaur had not waned in the long days spent stored away but gradually Mara overwhelmed it with emotion and desire devouring its resolve.
Light shone from the soul and shattered revealing a new monster. The lower half of a bird with beautiful green and blue feathers and long legs, and the upper half of a gorgeous woman with flowing red hair and wings for arms with feathers than matched her other plumage. A golden stepped crown rested on her head a woven silk mantle of intricate design draped her shoulders just barely covering her breasts with a matching cloth over her feathered waist.
[Befriend Spirit has upgraded to epic tier Spirit Communion.]
Shin willed it and his skill advanced allowing him to request a bond with the now epic tier spirit, one she accepted immediately.
[Kinnara Barrierconsort (epic) - Greater Lord]
Strength - 408
Agility - 734
Constitution - 456
Vitality - 463
Dexterity - 439
Perception - 842
Force - 2101
Spirit - 1592
Control - 1024
Willpower - 981
Skills:
Greater Ward lvl. 1, Greater Mana Shield lvl. 1, High Pitch lvl. 10, Mindfray lvl. 10, Feather Rain lvl. 1, Enchanting Song lvl. 1, Fly lvl. 1,
Traits:
Greater Protector (legendary), Songbound Plumage (legendary), Sound Amplification (epic), Nightvision (epic), Lesser Curse Resistance (rare), Lesser Disease Resistance (epic), Lesser Poison Resistance (rare),
Sonic Wave had vanished, which was a notable loss, but one more than made up for with what was gained. The Ward and Mana Shield skills upgraded to a substantially more useful tier and her trait enhancing both improved, fitting for her status as a Barrierconsort, and she had gained Fly. Songbound Plumage was the most unique of the additions, a trait that connected each and every one of her feathers to her through sound based abilities, something for which Shin already imagined several applications.
“Does my new form please you?” Mara asked, a passionate expression spreading across her face in reaction to Shin’s attention.
“Yeah.” Mara’s face flushed slightly in amorous fashion as she sauntered over proudly behind and wrapped her wings around him.
“...hey, you’re not going to fuck your monsters, are you?” Yen asked, her tone full of judgement and not entirely rhetorical.
“Little girls should stay out of the affairs of kings.” Mara’s eyes glazed up to the mage, a graceful coldness taking over.
“I need to fuse Kong now.” Shin looked back at her.
Mara returned her attention to him, hostility vanishing in an instant as she regained her coquettish gaze, lowering her face closer to his ears. “Use me more.” The kinnara’s body turned to light and returned to Shin.
Shin called out Kong and pulled the soul of an orc brawler but before he could do anything more, the gray shug let out a frenzied howl, terrible and desperate. Light cloaked Kong’s body and grew before shattering to reveal a new form.
A huge gorilla like creature stood before Shin, short legs and massive long arms as thick as trees, easily standing 8 feet tall despite the hunch. Dark purple fur covered it apart from its leathery rust colored face, chest, and hands. It’s face held manlike features though the pronounced brow, large skull and fanged jaw marked it firmly primate. Kong stood silently and stern, his head bent down slightly avoiding direct eye contact, and simply waited.
Shin tilted his head. It wasn’t his plan but Kong was an epic tier elite so there was no need to fuse him. He stored back the orc soul and requested a bond of the giant gorilla. Kong continued to hold still in deferral, accepting the bond at once and returning to Shin’s soul without a word.
[Mangani Magebreaker (epic) - Greater Lord]
Strength - 1608
Agility - 950
Constitution - 1196
Vitality - 1074
Dexterity - 877
Perception - 952
Force - 365
Spirit - 740
Control - 592
Willpower - 628
Skills:
Greater Spellbreak lvl. 1, Greater Haymaker lvl. 1, Blink lvl. 10, Shift lvl. 10, Barbarism lvl. 1, Thunderclap lvl. 1,
Traits:
Greater Mana Eater (legendary), Leather Hide (epic), Weakness Resistance (epic), Nightvision (epic), Lesser Poison Resistance (rare), Lesser Disease Resistance (rare), Lesser Curse Resistance (rare),
A manangi’s stats were far more specialized to strength and constitution than the more balanced physical build of a shug, fitting its appearance. Greater Spellbreak and Greater Haymaker were welcome improvements though he would have liked Blink to be among them as well. Great Dart had become Shift which Shin was told is the product of Dart and Slide, several members in the party having fused that particular epic tier skill and Kong had lost dodge, though the two skills he gained were superior by far.
Thunderclap emitted tremendous blunt pressure from the palms in a variety of ways and more importantly, from the current result it seemed Barbarism would triple the potency of all martial skills when active at the cost of halving the potency and efficiency of magic skills and increasing the damage received from mana based abilities. Kong had only one magic skill and Greater Mana Eater would offset much of the latter disadvantage so the actual cost seemed negligible. Leather Hide was a straightforward bonus of making his skin as tough as epic tier leather armor.
All in all, Shin was pleased with the result. Both his bonded spirits had become much stronger and more specialized down the paths Shin desired. Though there was one certain kitsune warrior making her foul mood strongly apparent.
“I’ll make you stronger soon too.”
“Tamer builds are so busted…” Yen grumbled. “What’s even the downside?”
“Costs a lot of mana. And I can only have four right now.”
“I know what you’re trying to do with your build, don’t act like mana means anything. And ‘only four’ is only ‘only’ until the next tier. Only four legendaries is fucking armageddon.”
“We need training.” Mujin interrupted, his mood more serious seeing Shin create two new epic tier monsters for himself. “Holding back against the blood orcs is too slow.”
“We can train whenever we want after this, upgrading traits is something we can only do here.” Yen countered, before paying a bit more focus to brooding spearman. “How many traits do you have anyway? Besides great attributes, resistances and toughnesses.”
“...five.”
“Seriously? Well, make sure you still pick a trait for your legendary option. You know… I’ve never seen you do anything special. What are your legendary skills right now?”
“Supreme Spear Combat. Greater Impale. Greater Haste. Greater Flicker.”
“Certified goon build…” Yen gave a pitying groan. “What about that lightning attack? Fixed damage? No? What stat is it based on?”
“Force.”
“Are you are idiot?”
“It uses aura!” Mujin snapped back sharply.
“But it’s still based on Force. And you can’t have much of that with your physical abilities… Listen, you need to specialize. Jack of all Trades is nameless henchman tier. Unless you have a trait that boosts Lightning type attacks or compensates for Force or something, that skill is worthless against anything that matters.” Yen calmed herself and though for a moment. “That snake scale ability, is that a trait or a skill?”
“Skill. And it is dragon scales.” Mujin stressed that last point.
“See, there you go.” Yen perked up. “Focus on that one, make sure it’s one of your six so you can get a half decent class option at least.”
“Tribe.” Shin alerted.
“We’ll talk more about this later.” Yen told Mujin as she, Ashley and Dante joined Shin at the frontlines.
Shin called Mara and Kong out as the blood orcs lunged, white and black mana coating his hands. They needed training too, and so did he.