Kai saw the notification he was looking for:

You are now level 13

21 stat points to assign

He celebrated with a quiet grin as he staggered back to his safe cave painting tunnel. He slumped against the cave wall and slid down. He rested his head against the coarse stone wall as he examined his swollen arms and legs. Fortunately, the swelling stopped him bleeding much from the lacerations. He grit his teeth—every time his arm throbbed, it felt like his flesh burned. His chances of survival weren’t looking good, hungry and injured from head to toe.

Kai stared at the ancient cave paintings of his human ancestors. He missed the monastery. They took him in when no one else would. He placed his hand inside a smudged outline of a hand. I was here too.

He exhaled deeply as he reviewed the rest of his notifications with muted hope. Kai had slain 13 Ooze hounds. He focussed on the highest and lowest because he noticed something odd:

Ooze hound umbra: 21 - Slain

vital aura +27% (+9 level difference)

Ooze hound drone: 10 - Slain

vital aura -6% (-2 level difference)

It was pretty clear to see that for each level between him and what he’d slain, his vital aura gains would increase by 3% per level or decrease by 3% per level. Meaning slaying something thirty-three levels below him would mean zero vital aura. Which made sense the more he thought about it. To grow faster, you would need vital aura stronger than yours. The system seemed designed to incentivise low levels fighting high levels. While disincentivizing high levels from indiscriminately killing low levels.

He briefly wondered how this would impact social dynamics and power structures, but cut the thought short when he realised he really didn’t have the energy to care. Most of humanity could be dead by now, and he was still trapped underneath a beautiful floating island.

At first, he had been alarmed when small wisps of blood-red smoke rushed into his body when each Ooze hound fell. When he found he was unable to dodge it, he suspected it was vital aura, now observable thanks to his enhanced senses.

Levels did not feel like an accurate measurement of who would win in a fight to Kai. Sure, it gave an estimation of one’s vital aura, but not soul aura. He hoped that further increasing his senses may allow him to gain insight into an opponent’s aura.

Next, he inspected Kura, already having absorbed all the remains before his retreat. He was confident he could finally use what he thought of as his inventory. Kura must have enough pride by now. The treasure ring had 5/9 slots in use; with a thought, he expanded details on just the new items.

Apex Mimic Ring (Young)

Rarity: Mythic (Spirit Treasure)

Traits: Voracious Pride

Evolution: 14/500 remains consumed until adolescence.

Details: Spatial storage.

1 F-grade Healing Crystal

Details: Crystal containing healing aura.

6 Refined Ooze hound Honey

Details: Can be eaten or used as heavy glue.

5 F-grade Aura Crystal

1 E-grade Fire Resistance Crystal

Heritage Crystal: Altair Sol, Starforger.

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“You made h-honey — you can create food and healing crystals?”

Kai flooded Kura with feelings of appreciation; she swelled with pride and he rejoiced with a fist pump into the air, causing pain to ricochet along his wrist. Ouch ouch ouch.

If he had known healing crystals were a possibility, he would have absorbed the remains sooner. Kai’s eyes turned to slits as he glanced at the tiny treasure chest on his finger.

“Why d-didn’t you tell me?”

Did. Idiot. Feed. Reward.

Kai winced; he could feel her smugness and a hint of affection, the same you might show to your favourite dog who’d learnt a new trick.

“I’m sorry, Kura, I guess you did. I really just th-thought you were trying to get me killed to sate your hunger.”

Feed or die.

Kai blanched at the directness, but grasped her meaning, she meant keep feeding, keep improving or he would succumb and die.

The long days alone underground were starting to make even him miss other people; talking aloud and even being called an idiot felt oddly comforting and he smiled.

His hunger and pain brought him back from his thoughts, however he was torn between withdrawing the honey or the healing crystal first, in case her pride was low. If Kura got 1 pride per corpse, she could have around 14, though he did not know how much each transaction cost, maybe storing things she didn’t like cost more pride, maybe it doubled if he had annoyed her. Kai rolled his eyes.

His mouth watered at the thought of refined honey. After thinking withdraw; the treasure chest unhinged and white dust swished out and materialised a large jar of honey in his hand. Kai rejoiced like a kid at a birthday party. Finally! He popped the cork and poured the sweet nectar down his throat in a way that would have caused Winnie the Pooh to blush. He ate like no-one was watching, licking his fingers clean after his third jar.

Kai hummed a cheerful tune. Getting items through Kura while progressing her evolution seemed like a better path than his other idea of trying to somehow skin the beasts with his bare hands in an attempt to make some kind of wolf pelt armour.

He turned his attention to the daffodil-sized healing crystal thrumming in his hands. Holding it reminded him of sitting in a sun-kissed meadow teeming with flowers and life. Kai reached within the white crystal and drew wisps of life aura through his hands towards the centre of his being, towards his soul. He smiled as it coursed through him like a summer breeze. Kai rotated his hand, watching in awe as his splotchy blue wrist and lacerated arms restored to health. The aura that reached his soul didn’t seem to heal any other part of him though, and he could not convert and add it to his aura reserves.

Kai grimaced as he realised his mistake. Not wanting to waste his only healing crystal, he tried to direct the summer breeze to specific parts of his injured body. It took some practice, but he managed to significantly direct the focus of the healing aura, however the frustrating experience of trying to guide the aura made him almost certain that there were some kind of aura pathways within him that he could not see.

Kai shifted his attention to the scars from the magma that had seared his back and leg, the skin was no longer tight when he twisted his body. He smiled, the blisters on his feet had completely disappeared, as if they had never been there. Only his broken rib had not completely healed by the time the crystal ran dry which made him suspect F-grade healing crystals could not completely heal broken bones and organs. Thankfully he was used to functioning while in pain from years of training. He poked around his chest. Barely feels tender anymore though. He made a mental note to further improve his survivability somehow, since he was usually in the thick of a fight.

He’d only gotten one healing crystal from over a dozen kills, so they seemed pretty scarce. He wasn’t sure if it was from a specific creature or rather the culmination of collected residual aura that allowed Kura to make one.

Kai took a deep breath for the first time in days, finally feeling like he could focus. He moved on to absorb aura from a sapphire-blue F-grade aura crystal. The aura was without flavour, unlike what he had experienced in the underwater grotto; he figured he shouldn’t be too surprised since it was a legendary location and there was something special about the crystals there. However, using the crystal, he gradually restored some of his aura reserves.

While restoring his aura he wondered how to progress his soul grade, but he wasn’t really sure. Aura traits reminded him of active skills and along with his soul, seemed nuanced and would probably require deeper understanding of himself or fundamental concepts of the world around him to improve.

He tapped his chin thoughtfully. Vital aura on the other hand felt relatively straightforward, slay things stronger than you and absorb their vital aura to improve your physical attributes. Vital traits seemed mostly physical and passive in nature and would scale with his attributes to some extent.

Feeling adventurous and in high spirits, he also grasped two crystals in one hand and tried to absorb both at once. A familiar sharp pain seared him from hand to soul. His veins felt like pipes about to burst; it was a similar sensation to what he had experienced in the underwater grotto and the pain reminded him about the mind stat, would mental resistance help with pain suppression?