Today was a day of firsts, first time hunting after the monster break, first time hunting with a partner, and hopefully, I would also be able to gain my first tier 4 summon.
Jareth had finally accumulated enough experience and had achieved maximum growth in his body, so all that was required was a dangerous fight for him to evolve. When he expressed this development, I immediately knew it was time to feed him the ogre core to start off and potentially affect his evolutionary path.
Becoming an ogre was more in line with Jareth's personality with brute strength and strong defense being his apparent qualities. Orcs were weaker and more skill-based, and trolls were dumb as rocks, so I wouldn't want him to become one of those.
The drop of regeneration serum would make Jareth a pseudo-troll in a way, since trolls were known for their impressive life force and regeneration. Thinking about that made me realize I still needed to give it to him.
I took out the vial with the drop inside and handed it to Jareth, "Here, drink this, It'll make you heal much faster and be that much harder to kill."
He seemed to take my words at face value as he uncorked the vial and downed the red-tinged drop of liquid. His next action was to crouch down on the floor in pain as his body began to change and accommodate more cells and blood vessels for increased healing.
He had begun to turn red despite the grey shade of his skin, and by the end, the hobgoblin had gained an extra 10 pounds of stem-cells and blood. It was spread evenly around his body, so the change was subtle and only noticeable because I watched the changes occur.
I brought out my tier 3 sword and told him, "Cut your arm and see how fast you heal now with your increased regeneration factor."
He did as he was told and drug the sword in a neat line across his bicep with the help of a little elbow grease to get past his naturally defensive skin. Red rivulets of blood welled out of the cut, and at a visible rate, the skin slowly stitched itself together until after a minute there was nothing but a faint scar, and even that was fading.
Jareth had become that much more deadly, and now he could rush in and commit to dangerous attacks since he would heal soon after. It suited his fighting style perfectly, but it wasn't without flaws as there was only so much damage that could be healed at once, and eventually, his healing would slow down after repeated use.
Once he had recovered a bit I gave him the berserker skill, and after a rush of light entering his head and an apparent mild headache, he gained hold of himself and was back to normal. It appeared that these distributable skills were nearly instantaneous and the only drawback was a headache from a ton of info entering your head. I imagine it would be best not to gain a bunch of skills at once, the rush of info might be enough to cause an aneurysm if you were unlucky.
I sent him back and decided to distribute a few other gifts to my summons. Jotun had to be summoned into the living room and I made sure to carefully give him just a drop from the river Cocytus, the effect was immediately apparent as ice seemed to form and crack all over Jotun's skin, and his breath became an icy fog every time he breathed.
Brutus got the collar, which he seemed to really enjoy and was showing it off at every opportunity when I was paying attention to him. I had to console him with praises and head pats as if he was still a puppy despite coming up to mid-chest on me. Getting this close, I was able to see that his evolution to a grim had actually changed his fur to malleable wisps of shadow, they even felt cool to the touch from the heat of light being absorbed by the shadows.
My immediate gifts had been given to the necessary recipients, and now it was my turn. The first thing I got out of the way was the energy shield skill that I immediately used on myself. I crushed the card that the skill came in that had the name and description of the skill on it.
I saw a burst of golden light rush towards my eyes, and then all I felt was information rush into my brain in a tide. For a short moment, it threatened to burst the vessels in my brain from the sudden rush of blood required to distribute oxygen for the brain to work at max capacity.
My brain was working on overdrive for about 10 seconds before the information settled and was properly stored within myself. With the consolidation of information, the headache that had been plaguing me since the start had abated as well.
The sensation of suddenly knowing about and being able to do something that was impossible a few seconds ago was startling, and it made me appreciate how convenient it was even if it came at the cost of a headache.
I decided to try out the skill and see the limits of the skill. I closed my eyes and focused on the intent of creating a barrier in front of me, with that intent came a rush of energy, and when I opened my eyes a faint green shield-like barrier was formed in front of me. In total, the barrier was about 2 inches thick and looked like it could handle a strong attack, and would probably save my life in the future.
The only drawback of the skill from the info that was available about it was that it would only last for 20 seconds, it was stationary, and each attack against it would make the barrier disappear faster. It was still a strong skill and would definitely be of use in the future.
In addition to the skill, I also had a body tempering pill to use. I had woken up early today before when I had planned to meet Alexis so that I could use the pill, my only hope was that it wouldn't take too long.
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The pill itself was about the size of a thumb and was a brown oval with an engraving of the letters BT, if I didn't know better I would think it was just a normal supplement. Deciding I had done enough inspection, I tossed the pill back and downed it with some water I had on hand. The size of the pill made it difficult to swallow, but with monumental effort and three tries, I managed to get it down.
I felt it already beginning to take effect, and headed to the bathtub and took off my clothes so I didn't get the rest of the house dirty and ruin a pair of clothing. The pill was supposed to enhance the body by removing impurities that blocked us from using our full physical capabilities. I'm looking forward to seeing just how much this would change me.
The pill seemed to be working just fine as I felt pain begin to build as gunk and impurities were pushed out of my body. I even puked up a nasty black blob from my lungs and immediately felt like I could breathe easier.
In total the entire process took about 10 minutes, and was rather painful, but still within manageable levels. No pain no gain I guess, the other downside was the horrible smell emanating from the black sludge covering me. Focusing on the smell made me immediately gag as the unpleasant aroma of rotten garbage wafted from it.
I couldn't stand the smell anymore and turned the shower on and made it as hot as it could. I furiously scrubbed the gunk from my skin with soap and hot water and after about 5 minutes of scrubbing myself raw, I had finally managed to rid myself of the tar-like substance and the smell that seemed to want to cling to my skin.
When I could stand being around myself I turned off the shower and threw on some clothes before rushing out to go meet Alexis. I was still a few minutes early from when I had planned to leave, but I wanted to take my new body for a ride to see the efficacy of the pill.
What I noticed was that I was able to breathe easier while running, and the familiar ache in my muscles after running for a while was absent. When I got to the fountain we had met at the night before I was able to study myself closely.
My skin had turned lighter, and no longer was it an olive-brown tone from many hours spent in the sun training, but instead, it was a creamy medium skin tone that looked rather nice on me.
That wasn't all of the changes, but it was all I was able to discern at this moment. The body tempering was about the equivalent of having one of my summons evolve from tier 2 to tier 3, but it came completely from my own body's ability which had been unlocked at this point.
It wasn't a massive change in strength, but it was noticeable, and overall it seemed to make my body more efficient with no impurities left to obstruct it in any way.
....
I was excited for this coming hunt with Alexis, I was sure that it would take a bit of getting used to, but I had no doubt we would be able to be more efficient and safer than if we were on our own.
Speak of the devil, as soon as I begin to think about her she shows up. I continue to watch her and see that she is dressed up in a carapaced hunting armor with a short-sword strapped to her hip.
I wave her over and greet her, "Hey Alexis, it looks like you're all set up for hunting today."
She gives me a duh expression and says, "Of course I am, death isn't exactly something I want to invite today so full protection is warranted, especially considering we're going into a relatively dangerous area for beginners like us."
"It'll be fine, we both have our summons and skills, not to mention that if we can survive a monster break then we can survive anything."
She just shrugs and we head off to the gate, and after registering with a quick scan of our watches we head south to the glorified swamp.
....
Getting there after a bit of a run, we each bring out one summon to preserve our strength for now while in the easier outer area of the biome.
I bring out Brutus, and Alexis brings out Musashi which was her bladed mantis. The look at each other and then to us to see who all would be in our group, and upon finding no one else they begin to head into the dark marsh.
We come across a few poisonous insects that are quickly stomped, along with some filament dragonflies that try to swarm us with a group of 9.
They all rushed towards Alexis and I, and to block their charge which could potentially hurt us despite the armor we wore, I used my energy shield skill. Their bodies acted as if they had run into glass and were smushed against it before flying off to try and attack again.
My shield was still up, but after 10 seconds it disappeared early due to preventing the mass of dragonflies charging with their ridiculously sharp wings. Seeing that their charge hadn't worked, they split up and gave 2 monsters to each person and summon, with an additional one attacking Musashi.
Brutus uses an illusion to fool them into missing him, and uses their confused state to snap them out of the air with his teeth and grinds them up before spitting them out to make sure they are dead. The only wound on him is a few cuts on his tongue, which heal not long after.
Alexis and I were swiping at them with our swords and managed to avoid their charges while swinging our swords along the trajectory of their flight. It took about 3 swings for each dragonfly before they were brought down.
It didn't require much from us as the bugs were only tier 2 and had a fairly weak body. Despite their wings being so sharp as if made out of metal, they were only made from a hardened and thinned chitinous shell.
Musashi required no help as the dragonflies had trouble even getting close before he swiped them out of the air in half. If it was the entire swarm, they may have been able to actually damage him some, but 3 posed no challenge for the skilled mantis summon.
A few more monsters crossed our path and were immediately disposed of with minimal effort before we made it to the middle area where tier 3's resided.
We broke for lunch at this point before venturing further and each summon got a core to eat, while Alexis and I each brought sandwiches out from storage to quickly eat before continuing on.
We ate in comfortable silence and focused on resting for the little time we had allotted while eating our food. Our meals were quickly finished off before we allowed for an additional 5 minutes to collect ourselves before venturing on.
Preparation was important, and even though we hadn't gotten into a truly dangerous area yet, it didn't mean we could allow ourselves to relax. A weak monster could still get lucky and take us out if we were unprepared, especially if it was tier 3 and managed to slip by our summons. We were no means invincible, but it was understood that being cautious would go a long way to saving ourselves from threats.
We kept Musashi and Brutus out while also summoning Holly and Emmett for added insurance against these potentially equal opponents. It wouldn't do to have a swarm of tier 3's restrain our summons and attack us, having more summons out would hopefully prevent this problem from arising.
We hadn't yet got to an area that would be challenging for Jareth and provide him a battle where he could fight for his life, I would have to wait till we got to the tier 4 area in the center. I only hoped we wouldn't be walking into danger since neither of us had a tier 4 monster to ensure our protection.