perizou
patreon
Energy Eater - Chapter 129 -Encouter
🕑 Added 2025-06-05 16:49:26 +0000 UTCOnce we were ready to go, everyone shared their status screen, just to show what we all gained.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Astrid Ek - Level 1
Titles: Frosted Metabolism
Tier: 2 - Huskcarver
Mind - 12 Body - 26
Memory - 10 Energy - 11 (2 reserved)
Skills 10/10
Energy Storage - Passive - 1 Energy
Memory Bank - Passive - 1 Energy
Cold Endurance - Passive - 0 Energy
Frostbound Grip - Passive - 0 Energy
Huskforged Armor - Passive - 1 Energy
Body Regeneration - Active - 1 Energy/10 minutes.
Frost Chop - Active - 1 Energy/3 uses
Shattering Frost - Active - 1 Energy
Emerging Glacier - Active - 2 Energy
Frosted Swarm - Active - 3 Energy
Mind of Possibility - Unavaliable
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Michael Kahele - Level 1
Tier 2 - Silkbound Marksman
Mind 14 - Body - 17
Memory - 10 Energy - 10/13 (3 Reserved)
Skills - 10/12
Energy Storage - Passive - 1 Energy
Memory Bank - Passive - 1 Energy
Makeshift Munitions - Passive
Weavewalk - Passive - 1 Energy
Body Regeneration - Active - 1 Energy/ 10 minutes
Power Shot - Active - 1 Energy
Splintering Shot - Active - 1 Energy
Scavenger's Volley - Active - 1 Energy
Silk-Slip Retrieval - Active - 2 Energy/ 1 minute
Loom's Volley - Active - 2 Energy
Mind of Possibility - Unavailable
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
{Loom's Volley} basically created a spider web once his arrow hit something. Making anyone who got hit to be stuck. While {Weavewalk} would slowly wrap debris and random junk that he gathered in silk. As long as all that was placed on the vessel he chose. That would, in essence, keep creating more arrows while we traveled.
Riley was the last to share, and pretty much all of her abilities were new to us.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Riley Jogan - Level 1
Tier 2 - Novice Silken Witch
Mind 24 - Body - 7
Memory - 10 Energy - 10/18 (2 Reserved)
Skills - 10/10
Energy Storage - Passive - 1 Energy
Memory Bank - Passive - 1 Energy
Spellthread - Passive
Slikbind Brew - Active - 1 Energy
Loom's Lash - Active - 2 Energy
Web Weaving - Active - 1 Energy
Silkworm's Revelry - Active - 1 Energy
Thousand-Loom Dominion - Active - 5 Energy/1 minute
Marionette's Rebuke - Active - 3 Energy
Body Regeneration - Active - 1 Energy/ 10 minutes
Mind of Possibility - Unavailable
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Riley's skills were the ones that took the longer to explain. The combo of {Silkworm's Revelry}, {Spellthread} and {Spell Weaving} is what allowed their to use magic. Although, according to the System, it was just a way to control particles to reach different effects. {Silkworm's Revelry} allowed them to create silk out of nowhere, while {Web Weaving} let them control the silk. Lastly, {Spellthread} is what made it possible to activate the runes for the various spells they had.
The thing is, unlike skills that had a set Energy cost. Spells didn't have that. It was all up to them to make something cheap, or expensive. And depending on the runes and spell circle they created, things could vary wildly. It was an interesting thing, as Riley was, in essence, giving orders to the particles directly instead of using a skill.
They also got {Slikbind Brew}, which let them coat silk with any sort of concoction available and disperse it through the strands. And a basic attacking skill in {Loom's Lash} which did just what it sounded like, turned a piece of silk into a whip.
We also gained a few skills from Wistra, but none of them seemed particularly interesting for me, nor for Michael or Astrid, for that matter.
Riley was the only one who decided to take those. {Marionette's Rebuke} would be a counter of sorts. If at any point, a piece of silk created by the Novice Silken Witch was destroyed, by activating that skill, the silk would explode violently. It could both hurt what destroyed the strands, and wrap them in loose pieces of web that hindered their movements.
Then there was {Thousand-Loom Dominion} which overtook Astrid's {Frosted Swarm} title of most expensive skill by almost double the cost. It was something that came from Wistra's Tier 3 body and the only skill that any of us was able to use while being at Tier 2. The reason was simple. It was powerful. Not only would Riley be able to instantly cover an area in webs, but each of those strands would move on their own to attack enemies inside. Apparently, once they reached Tier 3, the silk on that area could also be used as a defensive tool, but right now, it was just an attack.
We made sure to test it out, and if we were part of the same party, the skill would understand that it shouldn't attack us. But at the same time, the force and violence behind each lash of the strands was terrifying. Even if we wouldn't be hurt, it was hard to move around and trust that the silk wasn't going to hit us out of the blue.
One funny thing was that System made it clear that silk skills would also count as an element. And after testing it, I realized that if I were to imbue my attack with silk, it would have a glue effect, trapping my target on my staff. It wasn't the best skill to use for something like that, but at the same time it was useful enough to make me want to stay with that skill.
It wasn't an element in the real sense of the word, but for the purposes of {Elemental Imbuement} it worked.
Aside from that, I decided to remove {Energy Storage} from my skill set. Most of my skills were pretty cheap and my Energy was starting to get considerably high, sitting at 16, or 12 considering the passives. The only way that {Energy Storage} would be helpful for me was if we were in the middle of a battle that would last a long time and I could continuously spend the 10 minutes required to gain a single point of Energy doing something else.
In a way, it was much more effective to just hunt down an Eater and fill the water skin with its blood. Which, by the way, was almost empty. But at the same time, considering how things were seeming to be getting stronger the farther away I was from Madison, I could only imagine how dangerous the Eaters that existed around this region really were.
We decided to leave after finishing eating Wistra's newest body and headed towards the coast once more. However, Riley also added one hiccup to our idea that I hadn't considered before. We were too far north. Even if we were to reach the coast, there was a good chance that it was too cold for us to enjoy the ocean, which meant that we should be heading towards the south where the climate would be a bit more appealing when we reached the shore.
Honestly, that was something I never even thought about, and in a way, I wasn't sure if it was going to be a problem. Astrid still had a skill that could handle cold and maybe it would be enough for us to go in the water a bit. After all, I wasn't the only one thinking about swimming in the ocean. Michael also wanted to do that, and the two of us were the only ones who knew how to swim.
So we started following their suggestion. Going southward but still heading west. We ended up reaching the large dam that was holding the river way beyond where the village was and continued moving down. Passing through the dam, although we needed to move carefully, since the structure seemed to be about to collapse at any moment. This put us into a mountain pass created by the people of the old world.
We were halfway past that mountain pass when something approached from the front. It sounded strange and really big at first, but it quickly shifted and became smaller, as if there was whatever strain this creature was going through. Everybody pulled their weapons, with Riley being the only one without anything. We had given them a small blade that we found back in the fortress, but it was hardly something that could be used in a fight. It was more something made to cut ropes and other things. But it was better than nothing. Everybody agreed that we should try to find something better for them. But whatever was coming closer wasn't going to wait.
We all prepared to fight when suddenly there was a familiar growl coming from the trees. I hesitated for a moment before turning to Astrid, who had a big smile on her face.
Coming from behind the bush, a large humanoid rat appeared. With grayish fur and wearing some loose clothes. A beige shirt that was way too big for it and a pair of khaki shorts.
"Let go!" the rat growled and pulled back, causing a piece of its cloak, a simple cloak draped over his shoulders, to snap and tumble forward, landing almost under our feet.
The rat opened its eyes and looked up, jumping into a stance and getting ready to attack, but his eyes quickly flickered with recognition.
"Friend!"
Astrid replied "Rex!"
"What are you doing here?" I asked.
"Searching you," the Rodenti replied.
"But how did you find us?" I approached.
"You have cheese, right?"
I turned to Astrid. She was already waving the small wooden piece of cheese that Rex had given us. He nodded with a smile and turned to Michael and Riley, who were just staring at him with confused expressions.
"Who they?"
"Rex, these are new friends that we made. This is Michael and this is Riley."
Rex opened an even bigger smile and rushed to shake their hands.
"Good, good. Friend of Cassandra, friend of Astrid, friend of Rex," he said with a big smile.
Michael turned towards me as the giant rat shook his hand, "Could you care to explain what's going on here?"
"What is there to explain? This is Rex, he's a friend," I replied, holding back a smile.
Riley stared at me and then at the giant rat again, then back at me.
"A friend?"
I tried keeping a serious expression. "Yes, friend."
After enjoying their confusion for a few more moments, I chuckled and explained.
"I don't think I mentioned this to you, Riley, but Michael, remember when we talked about meeting someone else from a species that had the System?"
He paused and then nodded. "Yeah, I do. Oh, was that him? He's the one who saved you?"
"Not Truth. Friend would be fine without Rex," Rex just grinned.
Riley kept staring at Rex and asked, "So he's another of the species? We have the Lumerin, the Eaters, and the Aranean.. What are we missing?"
"We're missing two. One that might be the giant bats that we've been hearing about down south, and the other that we have no idea," I said.
"Right," I just nodded, but Rex let out a gasp.
"You know Lumerin?"
Quickly giving everyone a look that said 'don't say anything.' I turned to Rex, thinking about how to answer that. After all, we had no idea if there was some sort of power struggle between the Rodenti and the Lumerin or something else.
In the end, I chose to be honest while keeping some information to ourselves, "Yeah, we had to kill one."
Rex smiled. "Good friend, strong friend. Lumerin vicious. Hard to fight. Don't listen."
"You never talked to them?" Michael asked.
"Always angry. Had give up. They might good friends. But never worked."
That was a gigantic piece of information. If we were ever to find the Lumerin, the odds of them being as kind to us as Rex was were minimal. At least, that's how they behaved with the Rodenti. Maybe it would be different, but I wasn't going to count on that.
"And what about your mission? Did you manage to find more allies?" I asked.
Rex looked down, clearly dejected. "No. Other families not help. But okay. Rex can still go back."
"Help with what?" Riley turned to Rex.
"Rex travel to find help. To save family from danger. No one wants. Rex still look for ally. Can't return without."
"What exactly is the danger?" Riley asked.
"Eater nest," the rodenti replied.
Riley's eyes went wide as I they turned to me. Getting a nod of confirmation. I never had
"What about us?" Michael asked.
Rex looked around. "Friends good. Friends help. But friends not enough. Need more. New army. Rex ask if can't find more friend."
"Got it," Michael nodded with understanding, but he quickly noticed my expression.
I was frankly a bit annoyed. It wasn't like I didn't consider helping the Rodenti. But if they were going to face off against an Eater nest, we needed much more than just a couple extra people at tier two. We needed people much stronger than us and an actual army. Otherwise, it was a suicide mission. And I had no intention of killing myself for someone who I didn't really know that well. Even if Rex was a really cool guy.
"Where are friends going?" Rex turned to Astrid, who smiled and said.
"Beach."
Rex's eyes started to sparkle. "Good, good. Know family close to ocean. Can Rex follow?"
I was about to say yes, but Pamella popped into my mind once again. Last time I told her to come along without checking with the rest of the group, and things were not great. I wasn't about to commit the same mistake again, even if it was for Rex.
"What do you all say?"
Astrid quickly spoke up, "Yes."
Michael nodded but Riley moved away from the Rodenti. They stopped and seeing that we all seemed to be in agreement, sighed. "I guess. I just don't blame me if I wake up screaming in the middle of the night because the first thing I see when I open my eyes is Rex."
"What's the matter? You have a problem with rats?" Michael asked, but for the first time, Rex seemed a bit upset.
"Not rat. Rodenti," he announced with determination.
We were all taken a bit aback by that.
"Oh. Sorry, didn't mean anything by it." Michael replied.
Rex quickly smiled. "Good, good," and any offense that he might have taken was gone, just like that.
Having our group of five now, our travel sped up considerably, but more importantly, our nights were much better. We could make a proper schedule so everybody could have 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep. Although it seemed like thanks to our high level of body, we were slowly needing less and less sleep to be properly rested.
For instance, Astrid felt completely refreshed after 6 and 1/2 hours of sleep. While for me it took only 7 hours and something. Michael was close in time to me, but Riley and Rex still needed almost eight hours to be completely well rested. A clear reason for that was the fact that both of them seemed to be focusing more on mind than body. Riley, despite being tier two, still didn't have 10 points in Body, for instance.
I was trying to figure out a way to talk to Rex about getting some of his earth control. After all, thanks to my new class, something along those lines could really bump up my power. But I didn't find a way to do that without sounding like I was trying to extort him. And I really didn't know what was the proper way to go about something like that with a different species. Hell, even with humans I wasn't entirely sure if it would be polite to ask about one's abilities or not.
But just two days after Rex joined us, we were able to reach the shore. It was almost as if the universe was on our side, as it was an extremely hot day and we just crested over a hill, seeing that vast expanse of water that seemed to go on forever.
"That's the ocean!" Michael cheered as we all started running down the hill and onto the sandy beach.
Comments
Perizou
Yeah I think I got a handle of the 'she' the 'her' is what still making me trip.
Lillith Ophidia
You are doing a lot better with the pronouns, only used she/her I think 2 or 3 times
