Unable to scent the snake-monster that had suddenly appeared, Wyatt quickly used Analyzer on it, discovering it was only level 1.
Subject
Estimated Level: 1
Use ⦗Essence Orb⦘ for more information
Monsters are listed as subjects too?
While he hadn’t been expecting the monster, nor had he prepared, he was glad to be able to so quickly get the chance to test out his skill balls.
He had just grabbed the item from his belt when the monster dropped the smaller dead monsters and suddenly changed into a naked girl.
Wyatt frowned. “Lena?”
She beamed at him, the snake corpses at her feet. “You’re alive. That’s unexpected.”
🞠
“Tore up all my clothes doing this the first time,” Lena said with a serpentine smile as Wyatt and Akira cut the orbs from the monster corpses she’d brought back from her hunt—Patrick having been banned from touching them lest he steal them again.
Despite coming from a giant snake’s mouth, her voice sounded the same as normal. Which was disorienting.
In addition to turning her into a monster, the skill boosted her up from level 0 to level 1, though as she could only turn into one monster so far, she didn’t know if that was because the snake—another monster from myth called a tlilcoatl—she’d imprinted on was level 1, or if the skill would always boost her up by one level.
“Can you switch?” Wyatt asked. “Imprint on a different monster?”
“Haven’t tried.”
“Do you have an interface for it? A longer message with more information?”
She frowned. “I don’t think so.” She stared into the air, then shook her head. “No. I can bring up my status and see the skill listed there, but can’t get more information.”
Just like Analyzer. So it must be something that’s available only once a skill reaches D-Grade, since both Emma and I have it for our D-Grade skills.
She shifted back, standing naked once more. “Shifting’s easy, but it uses a lot of Energy to stay in the form.”
Olivia chuckled. “She says she regains it faster when she's not wearing anything,” she said sarcastically.
“I do!” Lena protested. “I feel connected like this.” She waved her arm around the camp. “Not like there’s anything for me to wear anyway.”
“I offered you Carlos’s shirt,” Maria said.
Lena shrugged. “It made me lose the connection.”
Wyatt realized he had stopped cutting the corpse open and was staring at her.
I'm going to have to try much harder to stay focused. Maybe I'll get used to it.
He glanced around at the others. At least I’m more focused than the other guys. Looks like that’s one sense that didn’t get altered.
Brandon was grinning broadly and openly leering at her, while Tyler and Jack were trying to look like they weren’t. Kevin was scowling and forcing himself to focus on the monster corpse Wyatt was cutting into, as was Akira on his own monster corpse, though with a look of intense concentration rather than a scowl, while Patrick was just grinning, his eyes roaming over her.
Wyatt couldn’t tell if she minded.
She’d gone skinny dipping the night before, so it wasn’t anything they hadn’t all seen, but they’d all been drunk then.
Though she was also German. And a hippie. So maybe she just didn’t care.
As for the women, Maria was looking on with a slight scowl, though Wyatt didn’t know if she was jealous of Lena’s physique or upset that Carlos kept stealing glances at the younger woman.
Camila didn’t seem bothered, nor did most of the other women.
Emma was intently studying her. Mysteriously.
Jasmine was glaring at her. “I wish we could trade skills,” she muttered.
“Yours is better,” Lena said. “You can get stuff from these monsters.”
“And you can turn into a fucking monster! You know how cool that is?!” She shook her head slowly. “I would’ve made so much money with that…”
Wyatt was staring at Lena again.
Dammit.
He’d also stopped cutting into the tlilcoatl corpse.
“Yeah, explain that,” Wyatt said to distract himself from Lena.
Jasmine grinned at him. “Lots of guys would pay heaps of money to see—”
“The items I mean.”
Her grin disappeared and she sighed.
It turned out the pile of weapons and armor and other items came from Jasmine’s Waste Eater skill. It let her consume ‘waste’, in this case monster corpses, and convert them into seemingly random items.
But she had to literally eat them. All of them. “After eating an entire corpse,” she explained, “I feel like I’m about to give birth.”
Wyatt grimaced, looking at the swords in the pile of items she’d birthed. They were those fencing-type swords, except their ends were very sharp. “That must hurt coming out.”
Jasmine snorted. “Not like that. I throw them up.”
“That still seems like it would hurt.”
“It does, doesn’t it?” She frowned. “But it doesn’t. It doesn’t really make any sense, down goes meat—and bones and everything else—and out comes random items whole and intact and way too big to have fit out of my mouth normally. Which… I reckon is kind of like birth.”
“Your face kinda distorts,” Faith said. “But I think the items do, too. Like, the chest seemed larger once it was out.”
“You looked like you were enjoying the eating part at least,” Olivia chuckled.
Jasmine sighed. “I’m good at faking it.”
“Chest?” Wyatt asked. “Did you get an inventory item?”
“No idea what that is. I did get a chest. It broke when I was dragging it here.”
Wyatt recalled the broken bits of wood he’d found on the way here, how one of the pieces had given him a shock when he’d picked it up.
“What did it do? Was there anything inside of it?”
She shrugged. “I didn’t have enough Energy to open it.”
That was disappointing, but maybe she could get another one.
“Is there a limit to how much you can eat?” Wyatt asked.
“My Energy. It only happened once, but I was in the middle of eating a corpse when it ran out.”
“I thought she was gonna pop!” Olivia laughed. “She blew up like a balloon.” She puffed out her cheeks and held out her arms and waddled in a small circle, mimicking what Jasmine had looked like.
“So did I,” Jasmine agreed with a sigh. “It felt like my stomach was going to burst open. Once I got some Energy back though, I felt right. Not even any stretchmarks.”
“Why aren’t you using more of the items?” Wyatt glanced at Patrick, who along with Carlos seemed to be the only ones with items.
“Their items aren’t from my skill,” Jasmine said.
“We can’t use her items,” Patrick complained. “She’s the only one who can.”
Wyatt stopped cutting into the monster. He was using his suit, having formed one of the hands into a blade, since the only sharp items in the pile were that pair of fencing swords, and while their points were sharp, the edges were not. “So if I picked up one of those swords and stabbed this,” he gestured at the partially cut-open corpse, “it wouldn’t work?”
“It would drain all your Energy,” Jasmine answered. “Then you’d involuntarily drop it.”
“What happens if you eat the corpses before removing the orbs?”
She shrugged. “No idea. We’ve always removed the orbs first.”
This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.
This reminded Wyatt of something. “Did you throw up the Augment Orb you ate?”
“Once I used all five points. Empty Orb.”
“Where is it now?”
She shrugged. “Didn’t have any use.”
Wyatt was stunned. How could she leave loot behind? That was extremely irresponsible.
“I know!” Brandon agreed, seeing Wyatt’s expression. “That’s how I felt. But I didn’t find out until we got here. And no one wanted to go with me to look for it in the jungle.”
“What did you put your stats in?” Wyatt asked Jasmine.
“I put one in each.”
Wyatt saw Brandon rub his face. He felt the same. With twenty people, they should be specializing.
Well, they could start now.
Once he got this damn corpse cut open. Its skin was incredibly resilient, and his knife-hand wasn’t the sharpest. He considered using his shield to bash it open, but that would probably get blood and gore everywhere, and he didn’t want to risk damaging the orb.
The others continued talking, but he was lost in thought.
Her skill could be extremely useful if they could figure out some way to use the items. He’d have to experiment.
He glanced over at Akira. The man had gotten the snake’s scales peeled back and was now digging around inside.
This blade really is dull if he beat me with a regular pocketknife.
Or maybe he’s better at not getting distracted.
Continuing to saw away with his hand-blade, Wyatt glanced at the pile of items Jasmine’s skill had created and focused on one of those sparring swords, but found he was unable to inspect it.
He tried Analyzer.
Split Piercer
Estimated Level: 1
Use ⦗Essence Orb⦘ for more information
Estimated level this time, but there wasn’t one when I used it on the shard. Maybe because I could already see the shard’s level when I inspected it directly, but I couldn’t this time?
Since it was likely level 1, he tried his Reformation Orb on it.
• ⦗Split Piercer⦘ → ⦗Divining Rapier⦘
• ⦗Split Piercer⦘ ? Unavailable
• ⦗Split Piercer⦘ ? Unavailable
So I can’t wield it or inspect it because it’s bound to Jasmine or whatever, but I can use the orb on it? Would upgrading it let me wield it?
When he had set down his rune shield to cut open the tlilcoatl corpse, Tyler had tried to pick it up, but hadn’t been able to. Even when Wyatt suggested running Energy into it.
Which made it seem like items could become bound to the user, though there was no obvious indication of that.
I wonder if the bonded on the Empty Orb has anything to do with that.
⦗Empty Orb (Bonded), Level 1⦘
He focused on Carlos’s crossbow and was unable to inspect it, but he could use Analyzer.
Autobolt Crossbow
Estimated Level: 1
Use ⦗Essence Orb⦘ for more information
He tried the Reformation Orb.
Unable to reform item in another subject’s possession
It was the same for Patrick’s armor.
Bloodfiend Armaments
Estimated Level: 2
Use ⦗Essence Orb⦘ for more information
He already knew he couldn’t inspect items people were wearing, because he’d tried it on Emma’s armor back in the pyramid, and it appeared the Reformation Orb didn’t offer him a way around that, but Analyzer did and even gave a bit more information than just the item’s name and level. At least if he was willing to spend an Essence Orb.
Shouting drew him from his experimentation.
The group was in an animated discussion about what this all was. Some of their theories were crazy. Most seemed to believe it was aliens. Kevin thought it was China for some reason, which made no sense whatsoever to Wyatt.
He got Jasmine’s attention.
“What does that say when you inspect it?” he asked, pointing at the rapier.
“The message thing?” she asked. “Split piercer, level one.”
“Is there anything in parenthesis?”
“The item itself is in square ones.”
“What about the words bonded, or special, or growth?”
She shook her head. “I got a message about synergy when I picked up both though.”
“Those two?” He pointed at the two rapiers. Both were named the same, split piercer.
“Yeah.”
“What did the synergy do?”
She shrugged. “Bugger all as far as I can tell.”
Maybe the split part has something to do with that?
He’d gotten two messages about synergies, first with the mantle, then the shield, but hadn’t got any more information on what it might do.
He tried using Analyzer on his shield.
Rune Shield of Consumption
Level: 7
Effects:
• Effortless Defense (Special)
A shield capable of bearing runes.
Use ⦗Essence Orb⦘ for more information
Nothing about a synergy. He wondered if his own knowledge was affecting the description at all.
He tried focusing, thinking about everything he knew about the shield.
The message changed before him.
Rune Shield of Consumption
Level: 7
Type: Special
Effects:
┍ Effortless Defense (Special)
┕ Feed Energy to eliminate perceived weight
Synergy: ?
A shield capable of bearing ⦗Runes⦘.
Use ⦗Essence Orb⦘ for more information
So it is, to some degree at least. I wonder if using an Essence Orb would show me the synergy. I should test it on—
“Wyatt?” Jasmine asked.
He looked up at her. I’ve really got to stop getting distracted. What was I doing? Oh yeah. He pointed at the swords. “Pick up one of them.”
She frowned at him, but did as he asked.
Once she was holding it, he could no longer use his Reformation Orb on it.
Wyatt looked at the corpse and started cutting again, thinking.
So it doesn’t take much to have possession of something. Would knocking an item out of someone’s hand let me take it from them? If they didn’t have a Reformation Orb, I—
“Uh…” Jasmine said.
Wyatt looked up. “Oh. Thanks. You can put it down now.”
She sighed and shook her head, putting the sword back and rejoining the group.
Apparently his interruption had changed the conversation. They were now arguing about who should get the next Essence and Augment Orbs.
Wyatt was a little surprised they’d all managed to survive two monster attacks. From what they’d said, it sounded like only Patrick had use of his skill during the first.
The ratapua were easy to kill on their own, but no one had even been seriously injured.
That kind of luck couldn’t hold out. They needed to get stronger.
And distribute orbs to who could best use them, not who could argue the most persuasively.
“So we’re all on the same page,” Wyatt said, causing a few people to startle. Was that too loud? “We’re going to go over everyone’s skills again. We need to know what each other are capable of if we’re going to have a chance of surviving. Describe what you’ve used them for, but don’t make any guesses.” He motioned at Camila with his head, still sawing away at the frustratingly tough snake corpse. “Start with you.”
She crossed her arms and glared at him.
He waited, not taking his eyes from her.
She sighed and uncrossed her arms. “Restorer. And I don’t know what the fuck it does.” She glared at Patrick. “He took all the fucking orbs.”
“I took one Augment Orb. And you had plenty of chances after that. Regan even offered you the one she looted.”
“Things were crazy,” Camila countered. “I wasn’t going to risk it in the fucking middle of a fucking fight with fucking monsters!”
Wyatt thought that was a terrible decision. The possible healer should have been the first priority.
When he said as much, Brandon threw up his hands. “That’s what I said!”
“I don’t like being a guineapig,” Camila said.
“No,” Patrick scoffed, “you like complaining about others taking power you weren’t willing to take for yourself.”
Wyatt interrupted to stop another argument from breaking out. “Regan, Lena, Tyler, Jasmine, and Patrick are the only ones with Energy, right?”
“And you two,” Patrick said.
Wyatt nodded. “Okay.” He pointed at Regan. “We’ll start with you. You already explained what your skill does, but did you leave anything out?”
“Um, no? It’s Navigator. It marks monster locations on not so much a map as an overlay… thing. And gives a running count of how many we’ve killed and are left.”
“Do you have to be nearby to see the kill count change?”
She shook her head. “It works wherever I am. I saw it go up by three while Lena was out.”
“No unexplained increases? Like, while Emma and I were gone?”
“Not that I noticed.” She shrugged. “But I only just got the skill a little bit ago.”
“What’s the exact text? And describe the overlay in detail. Does it have landmarks? What do the marks look like? Are they different for each monster type?”
She groaned. “I wish I could just show you.”
Floating image and text suddenly appeared between them, Regan’s eyes widening in surprise. “Oh. I guess I can. Wait, you can see that, right? I feel like you can for some reason.”
“See what?” Kevin asked. “What are you doing?”
“Can no one else see this?” Regan asked.
This started a whole round of people saying they couldn’t and Regan giving them access, but Wyatt ignored it for now and considered the screen.
Rather than simply text, there was an overlay of the area, scattered with dots that aligned with the location of corpses.
Beneath the overlay was several lines of text.
Your team has slain 29 of 128 hostiles:
5
7
2
8
7 Other
He stopped cutting into the snake and moved the body.
On the overlay, its dot moved.
“It only shows corpses?” Wyatt asked Regan, interrupting Kevin.
“No, monsters too, but the dots don’t have that little cross when they’re alive.”
He counted the dots. Eight of them in total.
That’s less than it says we’ve killed.
“What’s the range of this?”
“For the number slain there doesn’t seem to be one. For seeing them on the overlay? A few hundred yards, maybe.”
“So you can track the monsters that are close to you?”
Regan nodded.
I wonder if the range will improve as her skill gets better.
“What happens when Jasmine eats the bodies?”
Regan shrugged. “She hasn’t done that since I got the skill.”
“It’s disgusting,” Carlos grumbled.
“No one’s forcing you to watch,” Jasmine said, but Wyatt tuned them out, focusing on the list of slain monsters.
Something about the word ‘team’ felt… He couldn’t put a name to the feeling. It was like when he’d wanted to loot the ahuitzotl.
He tried focusing on the word to see if he could get a message, but none appeared.
He tried thinking ‘team’. Tour. Group. Group status. Team status.
A list suddenly appeared in front of him.
Team Murder
Akira Sato, Level 0
Bailey Sophia Rodriguez Diaz, Level 0
Brandon Huang-Svensson, Level 0
Camila Ramirez, Level 0
Carlos Gonzalez, Level 0
Dave David, Level 0
David Edwin Miller, Level 0
Emma Clark, Level 1
Faith Samson, Level 0
Grace Kim, Level 0
Jack Wilson, Level 0
Jasmine Heart, Level 0
Kevin Richard Robinson, Level 0
Lena Schmidt, Level 0
Maria Gonzalez, Level 0
Olivia Perez-Maartinez, Level 0
Patrick William Bates, Level 2
Regan Eberhardt, Level 0
Tyler Jones, Level 1
Wyatt Willaby Johnson, Level 1 ❰Prime Redeemer❱