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"We'll be ba a moment, Eve." *SNAP* Letting go of the lizard's mouth as I hopped into the pool of blood with Bel, its jaws snapped shut, and in an instant, Bel and I were shrouded in plete darkness. *Spsh* "Alright, Bel. Just follow me."
*Snap* Snapping my fingers, a bright fsh of light filled the lizard's mouth, illuminating Bel's slightly anxious expression.
*Snap* But by the sed, rhythmiap, her gaze was overtaken with fasation, and by the third, she was closely following behind me. -Good...-
Swiftly tinuing through the pool of blood, we made it all the way to the back of the lizard's tensing throat before stopping and looking up at the slime-covered ceiling. *Snap* "Okay, you still have the bde I gave yht?" *Snap*
"Y-Yes!" *Vwoop* Popping it out of her iory with a momentary, dim fsh, she reached up and caught the bde in her mouth. *Tink* "W..what should I-"
*Snap* Illuminating myself with a fsh, I cut her off to point at the ceiling. "Climb up there, dig through the muscle, and cut its spinal cord."
Almost immediately, her expression turned serious and stiff, looking up at the ceiling with a far more predataze than I had ever seen on her.
Although this wasn't a test, she seemed to interpret it as one. So, without a moment of hesitation, she trotted over to the side of the lizard's throat before sshing it, somewhat shallowly with her bde, and hooking her cws into the wound.
Since her cws were far from sharp enough to dig through the tissue on their own, she had to essentially create a dder in its flesh. -How clever...-
Unfortuhough, after a few slices, the lizard started feeling it. *blub-SPLASH* Jolting, the blood in its mouth sloshed around, and the sphincter-like entrance of its throat started violently trag. -Ah, didn't think about that...-
Looking into the darkness deeper in its throat, I quickly threw up my hand and created a stiff wall with my aura before suddenly... *SPLASH* An immense wave of acid, mixed with the half-digested remains of some creature smmed into the back side of it.
-Hm... Looks like he was eating the remains of something pretty substantial...- The flesh was old, but made of incredibly lean, dense muscle fiber, but while I wao try and figure out what other kind of creatures were in the area, it didn't tell me much.
At least that was until I forced my aura into the wall of bile. -Feathers and eggshell...-
The lizard had just retly feasted on a young, unhatched bird, likely within minutes of me catg him. -If he was able to snatch it, the mom couldn't have been around, but...- Squinting as I looked toward its mouth, I quickly propped it open to let my aura out, extending its ra closer to what it normally was. -I should keep an eye on Eve just in case...-
But thankfully, my worries weren't so readily realized.
After a few minutes passed, Bel had carved a fairly long tuhrough the Lizard's muscle, and had actually reached the spine, her first road block.
Instead of asking what to do though, she started experimenting, using the back of her paw to fruitlessly try and crack it before cutting to the side to find where two vertebrae met, and stig the bde into the joint.
*mush* Rolling onto her ba the tunnel she carved along the create's spine, she carefully moved the ko a cartige-filled crevice before setting her paws on it and pressing as hard as she could. "Nnnggh-"
But while the bde was slowly pushed into the cartige as if stabbing into stiff jello, as the bde reached the rather thick spinal cord, it was just guided to the side, uo cut through it as easily as it did the cartige.
-Ah.. one of those bck threads must be in it...- And, unfortunately, that wasn't something she would be able to cut through. -Shit.. I didn't think about that...-
Not knowing that though, she didn't give up.
Trying to push the underside of the bde's hao leverage the bde through the cord, she put her entire body into it, using the cartige pressing into the dull backside of the bde to hold it still and rotate the whole thing like a big lever until... *Vwoop*
My face was lit up by a kill-firmed panel.
The lizard finally bled out.
However, the panel was somethio me.
You have killed a Level 6358 Voknoz Kuuxl
How would you like to distribute the rewards?
Use Slider to determihe pert reward you distribute between tributing panions Or Allow Automated distribution by tribution (Suggested)
(The amount allocated to panions will be distributed to them by tribution)
0% |-----------------------------o| 100%
Eomated Reward DistributionsItems and Upgrades:
And that was absolutely perfee.
Maxxing the slider in a heartbeat, I hit firm before promptly being presented with another panel dispying a warning about my decision: 'As the panion ot receive all the allotted experiehe remainder will be transferred to you, unless directed otherwise.'
It was a message I expected. Even I, a proper System User, could never exceed the daily or weekly experience limits.
However this time, I rovided an option other than 'Close' at the bottom: '(Experimental) Force experience limit multiplier. (This will allow the panion to absorb several times their experience limit, but result in the perma physical damage or death of the creature) (Not Reended)'
-Hm...- Thinking it would give me more detail in the form of a warning if I pressed it, I tapped it without thinking. After all, typically, such 'gamble' options typically came with warnings.
But this time that wasn't the case.
*Beep* The panel closed instantly before my system's automated voice graced my ears. "Data gathered from 'Experimental' modes will be used for the betterment of future System operations. Thank you."
-What?!- *VWOOM-CRACK* Jolting as the air instantly screamed from an explosion of mana above me, a shower of liquid mana rained out from the tunnel Bel bored, and I felt my skin crawl.
Before I could even think, a rush of mana ripped past me and Bel's mana core exploded. -W..what just...-
Looking up, I flooded the area with the de aura I could, only to find that the liquid mana had liquified much of her body and the surrounding flesh...
But she wasn't dead...
After watg the liquid maurn to its typical, gaseous form, at the point where her core once resided, a massive, swirling vortex appeared and pulled it all ba, hastily ref a flowing sphere of liquid like a growing star before solidifying inter, stronger, and denser form.
Until finally. *Beep* "Multiplied limit reached. Remaining experience directed to host." Hearing my system calmly beep, I watched the remaining, massive currents of mana being directed into Bel suddenly turn toward me.
-H..huh?- Feeling my reserve start to swirl and blend on its own, the intense wash of mana that surrounded Bel flowed into me like water falling into an endless reservoir before suddenly ceasing.
-What the...- For an instant, my system had taken trol of my reserve in its ey. -Has my system.. always dohat..?-
I still 't uand how I never noticed. Perhaps it was the adrenaline or pain that blinded my senses after my feropriately leveled fights after I learned how to actually sense my own mana.
However, after notig it the first time, I would never fail to notice it again. -How.. uling...- My stomach quickly ed as my mind wandered, questioning if my reserve was really the only part of my body the System had trol over.
But before I could fall pletely into that rabbit hole, Bel popped her head out of the hole above me with a look of . "U-Uh..." Her voice was crisp, as if ing from a person rather than some device. "W-What just.. happeo me..."
Looking up the hole, illuminated by the dim light sneaking through the lizards mouth, I found Bel's whiskered face peeking down at me, with a bright white patch of fur c a se of her head and one of her rounded panther ears. "I gave you max tribution for the kill." -I wonder if she knows her mana core reformed...- "Did you notiything special?"
Quickly crawling down the hole and dropping dowo me, she nodded.. but her response wasn't what I expected. "I.. felt something... And I don't mean teically with my sensors..." Looking down at her half-white paw, her eyes filled with skepticism. "I feel.. fused..."
-Huh..?- Quickly cheg my system, she was still cssified as a robot, however, as I squatted down and forced her to look into my eyes, I no longer saw the meical array of light receptors at the back of her retina. -How fasating...- "Well, I wouldn't let yourself get caught up on it for now... Did you get any items rades?"
Somewhat relutly nodding her head, she tried to shake off her fusion before opening her system as well. "I got a bunch of 'old artifacts', and.. twenty upgrades..?"
-So she view them herself... She really does have her own system...-
As she looked up at me again though, her gaze was washed with fusion again. "Uh.. what are those?"
-Huh?- Not knowing what she was asking, I tilted my head. "What do you mean?"
"Uh.. at least to my knowledge.. oh we have things called skill enhas which are simir.. but this is different..."
-Ah...- She was talking about Upgrades. -I remember Eve mentioning something about them actually...- "They're the same as skill enhas, but instead of only being able tthen system-registered skills, they could rete to anything, whether useful to you or not."
"Isn't that bad then?"
I was quick to shake my head. "Upgrades are more like passive ability enhas, like improving how fast you run, redug muscle strain, or how fast you throw something, whereas skill enhas are only ever active when you use a skill, so I personally think upgrades are far stronger. However, upgrades seem to permaly allocate a bit of your mana to them whereas skills will just e more mana when used."
Generally, it made things easier for newer users. Rather than needing to figure out how to make use of new, random upgrades that were possibly outside of their fort zohey would just learn a new skill and enha over time, with the main downside just being you only enhance skills after obtaining them.
"Both have their tradeoffs, but at this level, I doubt skill enhas will scale half as fortably." -Even if you lose the venienana and aura as a cost of it...-
Turning back toward the lizard's mouth, I was quiotion Bel along.
"Anyway, take a mio read through all the upgrades you got, a 'em out when you get the ce." *Vwoop* Opening up her panel in my system, I quickly glossed over her level before turning somewhat troubled. -Only level eighty, huh...-
Even after nearly killing her, she only went up sixty levels. -But.. that's to be expected given she was only level 20...-
In an instant, she went from an above average human's level to a low-ish level monster oh, with upgrades that would let her fight into the low 100s. A substantial jump... Even if quite underwhelming given the creature she got credit for killing.
As she would get higher level though, her experience limits would also increase proportionally, and while it would take a while, it was just a matter of time before she could stand more on her own without me watg her like a hawk.
-I do wohough...- tinuing to idly scroll through her stats, I found several other familiar oddities, from her mana stat not budging because of upgrade cost allocation, to the periodic warnings saying to assign a css.
But just as I did with myself, I just closed them. -If she is to ever handle herself in my worlds, she o build a strong foundation.. much strohan Eve...- But I didn't think that would be too difficult, it would just take time.
However, finally making it through the ke of blood in the lizard's mouth, I threw its mouth open before letting Bel out and finding my gaze on Eve.
pared to many, she was already strong, so much so she was hailed as a humanoid close to immortality, but in a universe where there were monsters could kill her with a gnce, I was worried such praise would be her downfall...
Her foundation had already solidified.. so I wasn't sure if the seed I nting could sprout through it. If it did, it would destroy the existing foundation to form a new, much stronger one...
And if it couldn't.. she would be fated to fall... Just as her father did...
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