Johan took his time with the imps, that with there being no resources on the underworld.
There was the blood, but he would need access to a more potent source, rather than his dried up spawning pool.
The imps’ bodies would have to do for now.
With his claws he peeled away the flesh from the bones, taking the forearms’ bones and sharpening them to make four small stakes. Which he stuck between the folds of his shirt. Now beginning to tatter.
Worn down clothing would not last long against the claws of demons, weak as they may be. But there were no tanneries nearby, on which to process the imp’s hide.
That didnt stop Johan from trying.
He clawed out the skin as best as he could. That is, very terribly, and obtained six long strips. Little amounts of flesh still dangling from them.
After confirming the steam coming from the ground vents was hot, Johan took the strips and let them there to... dry? Tan? Mature?
He was not sure, but he had to try something before his clothes fell apart.
Even the small amount of protection on himself had proved to be a big advantage. He could not allow himself to lose that head start.
On the bright side, combing through the flesh of the imps granted him extra insight on the way magic interacted with the body, and he gained another level. Which he intended to put to immediate use.
Johan absorbed ambient mana into his soul space, and enveloped it with his fulmin. Then compressed.
The ambient mana escaped, like a bunch of water compressed by a fist. Johan tried again.
And again.
And again.
Eventually it worked.
-Compression 1.
*Compresses ambient mana, and wraps it in a layer of fulmin.
Last time, that imp could not control the fire on his hand, because he had tried to maximize the power output. Probably by taking in as much ambient mana as possible while using several cards at once.
Ambient mana had no will, and only followed its own nature, being easy to manipulate, by nudging it on the desired direction.
Fulmin, on the other hand, was naturally imprinted with the will of the person, and only responded to the person who generated it.
Forcefully taking control of someone else’s fulmin, would result on the fulmin degrading back into ambient mana. Creating a chaotic flow that would be even harder to use than regular ambient mana.
Stronger enemies would not commit such rookie mistakes.
Or maybe they would?
The imps looked pretty dumb.
Whatever the case, the Compression card created a ball of ambient mana firmly under his control. In a chaotic battle, that would come in handy.
Johan took his time cleaning the other bones, because he still required some kind of helmet to properly hide his left e-
-Shadowbeast level 7.
A message appeared amidst the darkness around the stones, and Johan made it a point not to look.
On the edge of his vision, he could see nothing, but the eye did.
Johan took his newly crafted bone spear, and wrapped his left arm on clothing strips, just as he had done before with the stone. Then fiddled with the flesh of the imps, making it look as if he was separating it into piles.
The darkness surrounding him advanced, until a form separated from it.
It was something like a mixture between a toad and a dog. Stout body, large torso, big folds of skin below the mouth and on the neck. It had no webbed feet and all its limbs ended in wide claws. The head had large round eyes and no ears, its snout not too long and with few teeth, large and thick.
It was twice the height of Johan himself.
The shadowbeast leapt at him, mouth opened at full width. Which was more than enough to engulf half the body of an imp.
Johan threw a bone inside the open maw, then the compression and combustion cards.
Two cards was his maximum current output, or he would have thrown in the fire card too. But it burned nevertheless.
If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.
The shadowbeast thrashed around, howling in pain, Johan waited at close length, advancing or retreating in order to keep always the same distance. Once the beast regained its bearing and stopped throwing its weight around, Johan stabbed it in the eye, shoving the bone spear all the way down.
The beast stopped moving.
Johan looked around, specifically at the boulder the imps were lounging on.
It occurred to him, that if a shadowbeast like this one, were to attack the imps above. It would waste the surprise factor by climbing the boulder, and the imps would be in a good position to jump down at it.
Just like that second imp had tried to jump down on him.
“They were hunting, using themselves as bait.”
“But their lack of equipment must mean there are near places where they can trade. Or more precisely, they are paying taxes to whoever controls this area. Otherwise they would be using the corpse themselves.” Johan mused to himself.
It would be no good to stand around in a controlled place... or maybe it was a good place to set an ambush?
“I have too little information.” Johan sighed.
Deciding it was a problem for later, Johan got to skin the shadowbeast, and was pleasantly surprised to see its leather was thicker than those of the imps
It was only natural, as magical beasts could not cardcraft the same way as intelligent beings, and instead relied on reinforcing and upgrading the magic of their body parts. Just like a person would reinforce and upgrade their cards.
Johan absorbed the leftover magic emanating from the body, and cycled in on the wheel of his heart deck. The compatibility of monster magic with body reinforcement was good, and Johan obtained a little insight on body reinforcement.
He gained a level, and this allowed the magic to condensate into another card.
-Toughness 1.
*Increases the resistance of the body.
Eight levels were not much, but it was something. Hopefully the corpse would provide another one.
Johan went to check the vents where he had left the imp skins, and found them dried out and brittle. The magic ejecting there may be harmless in small amounts, but it was a problem in the long run.
“Noted, back to the shadowbeast then.”
Johan obtained longer, stronger bones from the beast, making his previous work looting the bodies seem pointless. To his annoyance.
The skull made for a good helmet, if a bit oversized. Johan took the bones to the vents, and had the ejected magic sear away the bits and pieces of flesh sticking to them.
After making a test with a little bit of beast hide, Johan found out the magic stream got diluted when searing the bones. The resulting stream was still coarse, but not so much as to damage leather.
With a lot of effort, Johan took the hide, set it above the bone pile, this time containing the imp’s corpses at the very bottom, and moved the hide above. Flipping it like a cook preparing hotcakes. Making sure it never got too seared on any side
Another level 7 shadowbeast jumped at him in the middle of his preparations. This time Johan had his hands full with the hide, and had no choice but to cover himself with it, grab a long bone and brace himself for impact.
Activating Toughness, Johan resisted the attack, keeping his feet firm while the monster’s fangs grabbed the hide and pressed down, clamping but not piercing.
Johan took the bone and smashed it into the beast eye, then activated the flame and combustion cards. The eye splashed into a burst of steam and slime, and the beast died.
Once again, Johan took to the task of extracting the materials from the corpse. The magic insights gained from the second beasts where almost the same as the first one, giving him no levels.
They were too weak to have cores, but hopefully their bones could help him gain a level with repeated use.
With two beasts, it was clear Johan could not carry all the materials on his person, and focused on quality over quantity.
After cooking their meat, Johan found their taste foul, but it was not poisonous. He chewed on it while working. As a demon Johan found he had little hunger, but he knew it was due to passively absorbing ambient mana to restore his energy. Meat however, was a good aid to his physical recovery.
The longest bones from the beast forelimbs made for really good short spears, as long as an arm and a half. One skull he fashioned into a helmet, it was oversized, but Johan filled it with the leftovers of his old clothes, creating a padded interior.
His big ears went perfectly through the beast’s eyes, but the snout covered the eyes too much.
With a precise and repeated application of flame and stone, Johan broke the right side of the snout in order to gain more visibility on his right eye, but left the left side intact. After all, his left eye only required the bare minimum of eye contact to give information.
The lower maw made for a solid bevor, protecting the lower side of his face.
“This fits so well.” Johan said to himself. “Maybe thats why they were hunting those beasts in the first place.”
More the reason to be on the move.
Making armor for the rest of his body was well beyond Johan’s capabilities, and he had to content himself with a leather poncho, made with a single beast’s hide. A little stiff but capable of covering most of his body. A leather string worked as belt, and more straps enveloped his feet, ankles and lower legs as makeshift sandals.
Same for his hands and forearms covered in straps, those with small bones fastened on the outside.
The weight was already noticeable, but he could manage. More than that would begin to encumber him.
When a third beast attacked, Johan rushed at it head on, brandishing a spear.
The beast got thrown out of its rhythm by the early aggression, and retook its stance, instead of moving in big leaps, it used little jumps to advance or retreat, trying to land a bite.
Johan did almost the same, taking a step forward or backwards, trying to land a hit with his bone lance.
In the meantime, Johan activated Compression, and gathered ambient mana, when it was ready he activated Combustion and threw both cards at the creature.
It created a small explosion that did some damage, but more importantly, interrupted the beast’s balance.
Johan activated Dash and got close enough, to pierce the eyes of the beast with his lance. But it noticed the attack and rolled on the ground to throw him off balance too.
Johan’s bone lance got flung away from his hands, but on the ground he grabbed onto the beast’s head and activated Sharp Claws, then shoved his hand completely into the monster’s eye, activated Flame and killed it.
He stood up panting but satisfied. Then cycled the monster’s magic into his heart deck and gained enough insight to make another Toughness card, then reached level nine.
With two Toughness cards his strength was the same, but his resilience increased. And he found it easier to move while carrying his equipment, three lances tied in a bundle that also held some meat, and another spear on his hand.
Johan debated if he should extract other two lances from the beast, but decided against it, carrying four was more than enough, as he could only use a couple as projectiles before an enemy caught up to him. And having too many weapons could result on an enemy seizing one and using it against him.
In the end, he could only trust his cards.