Chapter 89: Eeeeeeeeeek?
Night systematically put both of the massive bear corpses into his spatial ring, since his soul space was currently off-limits while undergoing ’interior design’, according to [Dream].
After they swiftly finished up the battlefield, they moved deeper into the snowy forest.
The trees in the dense forest looked very beautiful, with jagged ice crystals naturally growing on their wide leaves.
Most of them possessed stark white trunks, pale branches and translucent leaves. As the sunlight fell on them, the entire forest glowed warmly, like cereal lights strung on a massive Christmas tree.
Not all of the trees were the exact same species, however; there were several distinctly different types of them. It was easily obvious from their varying shapes and structural sizes.
The forest was incredibly beautiful... if you safely ignored the lethal dangers lurking within.
He suddenly spotted a huge vibrant fruit that looked like a very juicy apple hanging alone on one of the trees; a tree that possessed a huge trunk but very small branches and sparse leaves.
He quickly stopped Sage, who was just about to eagerly jump up and pluck it.
Looking down at the questioning look on Sage’s furry face, he warned, "It’s highly poisonous."
Even he was tempted as well when he first saw it, but when he focused on it with his [Mystic Eyes], he could understand subtle things that were normally difficult to notice.
Of course, it was not strictly just his [Mystic Eyes] doing the heavy lifting, but a seamless combination of raw information from his [Beast Instinct] skill and the passive wisdom granted by his Refiner Class.
Of course, they still ultimately picked the rare fruit, but not the usual, reckless way.
He carefully removed the fruit using a long stone spear he created using the [Stone Creation] skill. By coating the sharp tip of the spear with Nightmare Mist, he effortlessly cut the thick branch connecting the fruit to the tree.
Lucy smoothly caught it using an extended shadow, which audibly sizzled upon direct contact with the toxic skin and safely stored it deep in her spatial ring.
Sage looked genuinely shocked, quickly realizing she might have lost her hands to the despicable glowing fruit.
Eeke ek! eke eke eke?
(How devious! Where are the tasty fruits?)
In great injustice, she turned and asked Sara.
Sara crossed her arms. "I am a Witch. I am not knowledgeable about these botanical things. Besides, we are not here to collect fruit, but to gain combat experience."
They had previously decided to officially hold off on safely watching live streams to learn martial arts and instead focus purely on gaining raw levels for now.
As they moved silently through the dense forest, actively looking for more monsters, Night frowned.
According to information blade gathered, a dungeon break had happened here recently, but the complete lack of roaming monsters in the immediate vicinity was weird.
Suddenly, Lucy paused her steps. She sniffed the cold air a couple of times, then looked back at them and whispered, "I smell a huge group of monsters up ahead."
Sara and Blade remained completely silent; they were here just to passively support.
Death gripped her scepter. "How many?"
Lucy sniffed the air again using [Sensitive Nose] skill to its full potential. "About a hundred."
Eve looked nervously at Night. "Master, should we change directions?"
Night shook his head. "How about we secretly check what the actual situation is first? What if they are just a horde of low-level monsters?"
Sage puffed her tiny chest out.
Ek ek eke ek eke?
(Should I scout?)
Night shook his head again. "For scouting, me with my [Meditative Stealth] and Lucy using her shadows are more suited."
"First, we also really need to see who is actually better at what specific role. Though you guys will eventually get a true Class at level 50, it’s still nice to know from beforehand what you guys genuinely like and are natively good at. Like my Summoner class, for instance..."
Hearing this logical breakdown, the others fell into deep thought about their own combat styles.
Lilith started first. "My Dark Energy is actually very suitable for stealthy things as well. I recently found out that, other than just raw corroding, it can be seamlessly used for various other utility things. If I wanted to accurately describe it, my true specialty seems to be more similar to an Assassin type... or, the more correct, modern word would be a ’Hacker’."
Looking at their curious looks, she explained, "It’s like I can actively invade closed systems. Mainly advanced machines, but it can be used on other magical things as well."
Night smiled. "Wow, that is really cool."
Lilith’s robotic eyes flashed happily at his praise.
Seeing that, Eve quickly chimed in. "My situation is very similar!"
"From what it seems, my Electric Energy is actually not good at attacking, but rather at defending. It acts almost exactly like an antivirus program and heavy firewalls!"
"I am basically like a Mage with a specialization in barrier-type magic. Though it is objectively better when used with machines, I can effectively use it outside machines as well."
Lucy asked, puzzled, "Isn’t your power more like the Lightning Aspect? Shouldn’t it theoretically be better suited to attack?"
Lilith clarified for her twin. "Yes, it is structurally very similar to a true Lightning Aspect, but pure Electric Energy is much milder and far softer to control. Basically, raw lightning is nothing but a massive natural discharge of static electric energy in the sky. But that chaotic destruction is not my sister’s specialty."
"Though, I can do that if needed..." Eve added defensively.
Lucy shrugged her furry shoulders. "As for me, I am still trying to figure my true specialty out."
Death gripped her bone scepter proudly. "I can be whatever you want me to be, Master."
Night’s lips twitched. "But what is it that you are good at?"
Death pondered this deeply as she thoughtfully tapped her chin with her skeleton fingers. "I think I can easily do similar things to what you do, just by utilizing my vast skeleton army."
"But since that is in direct conflict with your own Summoner specialty, I honestly don’t know what else to do. I could focus on becoming a true Mage specializing purely in the Death Aspect... but that would honestly be wasting my natural talent."
Night had been keenly aware of this problem for some time now.
He needed the raw corpses, which Death could otherwise use to create a terrifying undead army, for getting new skills and leveling them up. And he did not have infinite EV to spare.
[Energy Value (EV): 36,732 EV
EV was an invaluable resource for his accelerated growth, but he knew he couldn’t completely waste Death’s potential either.
Night said after some careful thought, "If the monster group up ahead is manageable, how about we start dividing the spoils?"
Death immediately shook her skull. "I do not want to ever get in your way, Master."
For her, Night’s growth was her priority, even if it meant her own growth was severely stunted.
Night, smoothly ignoring her stubborn protest, declared, "It’s decided. From now on, we will equally divide the corpses 50-50, unless I have very low EV reserves."
He then pulled out one of the massive Ice Bear corpses from his spatial ring, dropped it on the snow and looked directly at her.
Death looked closely at the fresh corpse. She muttered some words softly under her breath as she waved her bone scepter.
Immediately, the Ice Bear’s muscle, fat, tissues and everything else rapidly shrunk and dissolved, until only its bones remained.
Standing tall on four skeletal legs, the undead bear prostrated itself before Death as blue fire burned fiercely in its empty eye sockets.
It then dispersed into glowing blue particles that flowed directly into Death, who visibly looked a little stronger now.
Death said in a cheerful voice, "Master, I actually feel much stronger after that..."
Night said with a slightly strained smile to Death, "Good, good."
Night shook his head slightly, looking at his EV reserves.
[Energy Value (EV): 36,532 EV]
He had instantly lost 200 EV during the process.
Since his friends relied entirely on him for their energy, any energy actively consumed by Death for creating a new skeleton automatically consumed his own personal EV.
Sage jumped up cheerfully. Ek ek ekee eke eke!
(I will be the Warrior!)
Night looked down at her tiny size, but wisely didn’t underestimate her destructive power.
Night nodded. "Sure. And I will also be a Warrior."
The others looked at him uncomfortably.
A Summoner was supposed to chill safely at the far back while their summons fought! They were also worried he might get hurt.
Before they could try to persuade him otherwise, Night continued his tactical breakdown.
"So now that we officially have two Warriors," he said, pointing at himself and Sage, "a Mage," pointing at Eve, "an Assassin," pointing at Lilith, "a Summoner," pointing at Death, "and a clueless Fenrir," pointing at a glaring Lucy.
He continued counting on his fingers.
"We just need at least a Tank, a Healer, an Archer, and high-DPS Mage for a truly balanced team!" He held up four fingers happily.
"So, who is excited to get four more new friends?!" he said with a beaming, enthusiastic smile.
Death immediately crossed her arms. "I refuse." She shook her head firmly. Even the others shook their heads in agreement.
"Why?!" Night whined.
Sage frowned, crossing her tiny arms. Ek ekk ekk eek!
(Too many summons = less screen time = less character development!)
That’s... actually true.... Night’s lips twitched.
These past few weeks, he had been regularly telling them stories in between their chess games; it helped him stay awake and the others genuinely liked these engaging stories.
But he really didn’t expect Sage to use those exact storytelling tropes to counter his argument...
Night tried to weakly argue back. "But that’s only an issue with those smut harem novels..."
Sage raised a furry eyebrow. Ek eke ek? Ek ek ekee?
(Smut Harem Novel? What exactly is that?)
@(・_・ヾ@
Night finally admitted defeat.
Shaking his head, he started walking away through the snow. "You are too young to know!"
Sage eagerly ran right behind him. Eke! Eke! Eke!
(Tell me! Tell me! Tell me!)
@( ｡>﹏<｡ )@ 🙏
Night threw his hands up. "See?! That is exactly what I was talking about!"
Sage tilted her head. "Eeeeeeeeeek?"
(Whaaaaaaaat?)
@( º □ º )@ ⁉️