Ford didn’t get much sleep last night, probably only a few hours. She left her tent and looked around the camp. The sun had risen, and everyone had busied themselves packing and cleaning the camp. Tanya stood silently behind Gimble while the big guy and Ace sat beside her. Ford sighed and scratched the back of her head.
She, too, busied herself packing away her tent in her void warehouse and getting breakfast ready for everyone except Ace since they had run out of monster meat. Once breakfast was ready, everyone gathered around with their bowls and began eating. While they ate, Ford noticed that Tanya’s hair had been cut and trimmed. The hair on the sides of her head had been cut short while the rest had been pulled back in a ponytail. Ford cleared her throat and said, “Hey, Tanya. I like your new hairstyle. It suits you.”
“Thanks,” Tanya said with a small smile, “Auntie Farah did it for me.”
“Is that so?” Ford said with a rye smile and looked at Farah. She didn’t look back at them, but Ford could see the tips of all her scales turn red as she blushed. Ford chuckled and kept eating a little. She didn’t feel very hungry at the moment.
Once everyone finished eating, Lilly walked over, “Are ye al’ righ’?” She asked, “Ye always finish yer grub.”
Ford stopped momentarily and spoke in a low voice so only Lilly could hear, “I don’t know if I am all right. But I do know that I can handle it by myself. For now, at least.”
Lilly sighed and gave Ford a small kiss on her head before saying, “Ye be’er come blatherin’ to me when ye nade ‘elp. Or I’ll beat the livin’ shoite out av ye.”
Smiling, Ford nodded, dumped her half-eaten food, and cleaned the cookware. Before climbing into the back of the wagon with everyone else as they got moving. “Onto the next adventure,” Ford said, making Tanya excitedly laugh.
***
The day was spent on the road with Ace pulling the wagon through the forest. While Ace pulled, Ford opened Ace’s stat screen and allocated his twenty-eight ability points. Placing ten into STR, eight into END, and five into INT and WIS.
Name: HK-9 ‘Ace’; Gender: ???; Race: Mech Hellhound; Grimoire: Antarctictite; Class: Void/Time/Destruction; Level: 17.
Abilities: STR: 160 x 2 (320); PER: 50; END: 60; INT: 40; AGI: 42 x 2; CHR: 33; LCK: 15; WIS: 40; SOL: 6.
Skills: Natural: Carry Weight: 1,600 Kg, Great Strength, Great Speed, Shock, Bloodhound, Tracking, Poltergeist, Fear Monger, Soul Eater, Soul Minions.
Skills: Destructive Field 5/5, Gravitational Pull 5/5, Mana Pool 5/5, Energy Release 1/1, Essence Thrower 5/5, Essence Ball 5/5, Essence Manipulation 1/1, Essence Shield 5/5.
HP: 660/660
STM: 6,120/6,120
MN: 24,970/24,970
EXP: 2,598/5,053
STM recharge: 89/sec
MN recharge: 50/sec
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Grimoire Level progression: 0%
54 skill points available.
Ford gaped at the number of skill points Ace had and decided to start allocating them. She opened up Ace’s skill tree and went into the time class.
Time selected
Skill: Stasis Field. Freeze time in a two-meter sphere. Requirements: INT: 50, WIS: 30, SOL: 10. Cost: 100 MN/sec. Level 0/5.
Skill: Advance. Increase the speed of time with a beam of time. Requirements: INT: 30, WIS: 20, SOL: 5. Rate of advancement: 1 yr/sec. Cost: 50 MN/sec. Level: 0/5.
Skill: Time Field. Control the rate time passes within a determined area. Requirements: INT: 30, WIS: 40, SOL:10. Cost: 50 MN/meter/sec, 100 MN/(+/-1 sec)/sec. Level: 0/5.
Skill: Time Travel. Travel within a certain distance in frozen time. The frozen time lasts ten seconds. Requirement: SOL: 10. Cost: 300 MN/time stop, 100 MN/meter. Level: 0/5.
‘These are some pretty good skills,’ Ford thought, placing five points into each skill and reading the new descriptions.
Skill: Stasis Field. Freeze time in a ten-meter sphere. Requirements: INT: 50, WIS: 50, SOL: 20. Cost: 500 MN/sec. Level 5/5.
Skill: Advance. Increase the speed of time with a beam of time. Requirements: INT: 50, WIS: 40, SOL: 15. Rate of advancement: 10 yr/sec. Cost: 200 MN/sec. Level: 5/5.
Skill: Time Field. Control the rate time passes within a determined area. Requirements: INT: 50, WIS: 50, SOL:15. Cost: 25 MN/meter/sec, 150 MN/(+/-2 hr)/sec. Level: 5/5.
Skill: Time Travel. Travel within a certain distance in frozen time. The frozen time lasts twenty seconds. Requirement: SOL: 15. Cost: 150 MN/time stop, 75 MN/meter. Level: 5/5.
She closed the window realizing Ace could use all the skills due to the requirements to cast the spells. So she used companion skills to give Ace a few of her stats, giving him ten INT, WIS, and fourteen SOL. She then read his new stats.
Name: HK-9 ‘Ace’; Gender: ???; Race: Mech Hellhound; Grimoire: Antarctictite; Class: Void/Time/Destruction; Level: 17.
Abilities: STR: 160 x 2 (320); PER: 50; END: 60; INT: 50; AGI: 42 x 2; CHR: 33; LCK: 15; WIS: 50; SOL: 20.
Skills: Natural: Carry Weight: 1,600 Kg, Great Strength, Great Speed, Shock, Bloodhound, Tracking, Poltergeist, Fear Monger, Soul Eater, Soul Minions.
Skills: Destructive Field 5/5, Gravitational Pull 5/5, Mana Pool 5/5, Energy Release 1/1, Essence Thrower 5/5, Essence Ball 5/5, Essence Manipulation 1/1, Essence Shield 5/5, Stasis Field 5/5, Advance 5/5, Time Field 5/5, Time Travel 5/5.
HP: 660/660
STM: 6,120/6,120
MN: 104,040/104,040
EXP: 2,598/5,053
STM recharge: 297/sec
MN recharge: 207/sec
Grimoire Level progression: 0%
Feeling satisfied with her changes to Ace, Ford meditated to cultivate some more Soul before she looked at her stats. She’s cultivated so much Soul over the past month her meditation didn’t take long to complete.
“Was it wise giving so much of our stats to Ace?” Wrath asked.
“Yeah, those were my stats, too,” Greed added unhelpfully.
“Those stats will help Ace help us in the long run. It’s a worthwhile investment,” I retorted.
Wrath shrugged, shaking her head, “Fine, fine.”
Ford felt concerned that Wrath wasn’t putting up a fight this time but decided to leave it be as she opened her eyes and her stat screen, noting the changes. Her INT was 41, her WIS was 40, and her SOL was 42. She didn’t cultivate all the Soul she spent on Ace, and her STM Recharge had dropped to 550/sec. And her MN capacity was at 264,366/264,366, and her recharge was 526/sec.
She sighed, knowing there wasn’t anything else she could do about it. Then noticed that Ace was slowing down, and so did everyone else. “What’s wrong, Ace?” Ford asked.
Ace slowed to a stop and turned his head back to look at everyone, “I’m hungry,” he said.
“Oh, well, in that case,” Ford said as she opened her inventory screen … and saw no monster meat. She closed the screen and said, “Well, shit. We’re out of wolpertingers. And all we do have is the massive snake scales.”
“Looks like it’s time to hunt,” Farah said.
“Aye, let’s spread out an’ git as many monsters as possible,” Lilly agreed. Ford nodded, hopped off the wagon, and got to work taking the wagon off Ace. It only took a moment as she shrunk him down to the size of a puppy, and he stepped out of the harness.
Ford looked at everyone and began splitting everyone into teams, saying, “Farah, Gimble, and Lilly, you three head north with Tanya to find monsters. Benet, Morgan, Kii, and Mizu, you all head south. Max and Ace, you two are with me, scouting out ahead.”
“Heard,” everyone said, Max agreeing reluctantly as they all went in separate directions.
***