NOVEL NEXT Chapter 5: Mixed Bag
By the time Dominic had finished sorting through the Beast Cores – from both enemies and Pride members – quite a while had passed. Frankly, he never wanted to see another of these shiny marbles in his life.
'You're exaggerating,' Leo dismissed.
'You're not the one who's had to pay attention to them all!' Dominic retorted.
The Cores had definitely been a mixed bag. Some of them had given Abilities which he guessed might come in useful for him. Others had carried Abilities which might be useful for the Pride. And then there were some that had contained Abilities that were just weird like Sticky Tongue or Explosive Flatulence. Dominic admitted that he'd had a schoolboy chuckle over the last.
About 60% of the Cores had been from beasts under level 10 and therefore only held two Abilities, but the rest had contained three Abilities. He had decided to absorb the ones which could be useful to him or his Pride – the latter he would add into the Ability Forge once he'd got them to 100%. The ones with weird Abilities he put back into his Inventory – the elves had taken the Cores from the first battlefield so they obviously had some use for them.
Interestingly enough, Loud-Hoot had brought a few Cores with him in his storage containers from the battle with the other kesh. Those had done little more than given him a few percent of progress to Easy Landing, but Dominic had been impressed that the monkey-like creature had thought of him sufficiently to collect some of what, for them, were useless shiny things.
Like the Cores from the kesh, there were quite a few others with Abilities which matched ones Dominic already had, or at least had derivations of – for example, Sharp Bite or Pack Attack. Since he thought it would be a good idea to have those Abilities in their original forms, he had decided to feed some of them to the Ability Forge directly and just hope that the Place of Power would absorb the right Ability in each case. To skew the odds in their favour, he'd chosen ones where the Ability he'd like the Ability Forge to absorb had a high percentage of probability.
Now that he'd finished absorbing everything he wanted to absorb, he checked on his list of Abilities in the course of being acquired. Sekhmet hadn't yet reached out to him, so the elves clearly hadn't yet decided on the best place for their town. Hopefully they would do so soon – time was ticking away.
Rending Bite (100% to level 1) level up to acquire Ability
Bloodied Stalwart (100% to level 1) level up to acquire Ability
Rock Skin (10% to level 1)
Spike Attack (24% to level 1)
Enhanced Scales (75% to level 1)
Loose Skin (48% to level 1)
Poisonous Spikes (73% to level 1)
Projectile Vomit (48% to level 1)
Hop (37% to level 1)
Extended Jump (100% to level 1) level up to acquire Ability
Enhanced Accuracy (24% to level 1)
Tribute (89% to level 1)
Soaring Glide (100% to level 1) level up to acquire Ability
Champion (30% to level 1)
Gore (98% to level 1)
Charge (100% to level 1) level up to acquire Ability
Burrow (100% to level 1) level up to acquire Ability
Ambush (100% to level 1) level up to acquire Ability
Death Roll (56% to level 1)
Extended Breath (66% to level 1)
Quick Snap (100% to level 1) level up to acquire Ability
Famine (100% to level 1) level up to acquire Ability
Poisonous Mucus (100% to level 1) level up to acquire Ability
Extended Hop (100% to level 1) level up to acquire Ability
Enhanced Regeneration (100% to level 1) level up to acquire Ability
Easy Glide (64% to level 1)
Sharp Mind (100% to level 1) level up to acquire Ability)
Detachable Claws (13% to level 1)
Tail Regrowth (59% to level 1)
Healing Saliva (36% to level 1)
Delayed Pregnancy (24% to level 1)
Keen Intelligence (37% to level 1)
Echolocation (26% to level 1)
Armoured Hindquarters (54% to level 1)
Ovulation Control (5% to level 1)
Malleable Skin (37% to level 1)
They'd earned percentages towards quite a few Abilities and earned some outright. The ones Dominic had been most interested in were Rending Bite for the extra bite damage, Extended Jump since that would probably work well with his fighting strategies and to get into the air to fly, Soaring Glide as an extra flight ability, and Enhanced Regeneration, for obvious reasons. Unfortunately, they hadn't managed to find enough Cores with Keen Intelligence to get that, but they had got Sharp Mind to 100%. Though Dominic was uncertain if it was as good as Keen Intelligence – it was clearly a far more common Ability – that his sharpest Pride members had it was a good point in its favour.
Of course, they'd ended up earning percentage progress to a lot more than just the Abilities they wanted – and some of the new Abilities now on his list were just bizarre.
Detachable Claws, for example – what, did that mean he could leave his claws in targets and potentially kill them through infection? Delayed Pregnancy didn't seem like something he'd ever get any use out of, but it might be worth putting it into the Ability Forge for if he was able to share Abilities with his Pride later. Similarly with Ovulation Control.
'Unless it means we can control when the females ovulate and thereby when they will be fertile,' Leo objected.
'I suppose,' Dominic responded, unwilling to think too much about it. 'But I'll say that if we do get an Ability like that, we should only use it with our partner's permission.'
Leo didn't like the limitation, but Dominic was determined not to give way on that. In the end, they put it to the side – for now, it was purely theoretical anyway.
This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.
Of the Abilities they had earned, they wouldn't want to keep everything anyway. After a short but heated argument, Dominic and Leo agreed to put Bloodied Stalwart and Poisonous Mucus into the Ability Forge before levelling up.
Standing up and stepping over to the obsidian-like stone, Dominic noted with approval that the Cores he'd packed next to the Place of Power stone had disappeared into it.
Touching their Place of Power brought up an unexpected notification.
[You have defended and retained control over a Place of Power. As a result, it has gained more progress towards the next level. This addition to the existing progress has enabled it to increase by 1 level.
Level 2 -> Level 3 (progress 13%)
Current benefits may have been enhanced.]
'So defending the Place of Power actually helps it progress.' Dominic noted. 'Selessa didn't mention that option. But it doesn't give any extra benefits, only enhances the current ones. And even that's not guaranteed.'
'Maybe the new benefits only come from dungeon Cores,' Leo suggested.
'Or other Places of Power, perhaps,' Dominic mused. Dismissing the notification, the usual status page appeared. He scanned it, looking for any changes as a result of the level up.
[Place of Power ownership: Dominic Martin Cole / Leo
Status: Active – Unlocked
Level 3 (progress 13%)
Benefits:
All denizens: +15% to hydration and satiation from relevant sources while within the influence of the Place of Power.
Affiliated denizens: +15% to attack and defence when fighting in a savannah, a jungle, a dungeon, or a temple.
Owner: +15% to attack and defence when fighting in a savannah, a jungle, a dungeon, or a temple; healing and strengthening effect to Mana Heart and Soul upon level up within the area of influence of the Place of Power.
Area: 47.6km² (0.4 km²/day, 12%)
Owner: (0%)
Recognised (affiliated) denizens: 400+ (40%)
Recognised (unaffiliated) denizens: 0 (5%)
Unrecognised denizens: 600+ (35%)
Deity 'Selessa': (8%)
523 PP/hour
Specialities: Ability Forge (level 2)]
'A fifteen percent increase to the benefits rather than the ten percent it was before,' Dominic noted. 'And it doesn't seem to be giving exact figures for the denizens any more – I wonder why?'
'More importantly, why is it counting our allies as affiliated denizens rather than unaffiliated ones? How are we supposed to make sure that our Pride gains more out of this than the others?' Leo asked, clearly aggrieved.
That was an interesting point, though Dominic wasn't too concerned about the Pride Point aspect.
'Our Pride will already benefit more from the Prey Point enhancements in battles. I don't think we need to worry about them falling behind our allies. The Place of Power probably considers them affiliated because they're allies. The kesh clearly weren't allies before, according to the System, but now they are.'
In light of the increased Prey Points being distributed but the far greater number of beings it was being distributed among, Dominic reluctantly decided to only take 2% of the total for himself. He felt better about keeping only such a small portion for himself when he worked out that it would still give him 10 Prey Points per hour, and over 200 Prey Points per day. Everyone else would be gaining less than 50 Prey Points per day even if he dedicated 100% of the total to them, which he didn't want to do.
He did a bit of rejigging of the Prey Point allocation and then reviewed his changes.
Area: 47.6 km² (0.3 km²/day, 5%)
Owner: (2%)
Recognised (affiliated) denizens: 400+ (50%)
Recognised (unaffiliated) denizens: 0 (0%)
Unrecognised denizens: 600+ (37%)
Deity 'Selessa': (6%)
523 PP/hour
His allies and Pride members were now receiving a full half of the Prey Points that the Place of Power generated every day, which came to approximately fifteen Prey Points per being per day. It wasn't much, but over time it would really help the weakest members of their groups. With the dungeon overflow incoming, the strongest weren't likely to be in need of so much help.
The forest was back down to five percent, and he'd reduced Selessa's portion a little bit, but it was still higher than it had been the last time he'd been here. He'd decided that it was more important that the extra 2% went to the unrecognised denizens – their numbers had clearly taken a hit as a result of the recent invasion and Dominic knew from conversations with Selessa that they had an effect on the rate of progress of the Place of Power.
To his surprise, Dominic noted that the Ability Forge had reached level 2. He went into that next.
[Ability Forge has now reached level 2. Members of your immediate following may now access complete Abilities generated by the Ability Forge.]
''Immediate following' – do you think that means our Pride?' Dominic asked with excitement. He had been hoping that he'd be able to share the Ability Forge with his Pride members at some point in the future but hadn't been expecting it to happen this soon!
'It seems the most likely,' Leo agreed. 'But how are they supposed to access the Abilities when touching the Place of Power stone means their death?'
'Good question,' Dominic replied hesitantly, not having considered that. Surely the System wouldn't be so cruel – giving them a functionality which he wouldn't be able to take advantage of without killing his Pride members. He tried asking the System for more information, but it stubbornly refused to give up anything. 'And what if it's only the Pride members who are considered to be in our part of the Pride?' he wondered, struck by another thought. 'I mean, on the Pride status, there are now several groups. Do they all count as 'immediate following' or not?
'I have as much of an idea as you have, unfortunately,' Leo admitted. Then he seemed to brighten. 'Perhaps Selessa will know. Let's talk to her now.'
'Hold your horses, now who's jumping into things?' Dominic asked with amusement. 'While I agree we have lots to discuss with her, there are far too many other things to do first.'
Case in point, they had only just managed to finish adding their unwanted Abilities to the list of components in the Ability Forge when Sekhmet padded into the clearing and made a beeline towards Dominic.
'The elves have chosen their site,' she informed him seriously before complaining a little even as she rubbed heads with him. 'They kept arguing over it. One would look around and say it was a fine spot; the next would taste the earth and disagree strongly. Or one would close his eyes and declare that the 'mana' flows were disharmonious when another would stamp the earth and say that her bones liked it. But now they are all – mostly – in agreement. They say they need you to help with the ritual now.'
'Alright,' Dominic replied, huffing out a sigh. It seemed like he was destined to never get around to his level ups. But getting the elves settled was important, and they only had a short few hours to go before the dungeons started overflowing. And while he wasn't expecting to immediately see dungeon beasts approaching the moment the countdown ticked to zero, he wanted to be ready just in case they did. At least the ritual wasn't supposed to take long. 'I'll come in a moment.'
He cast a quick eye through the Abilities in the Ability Forge before closing it.
[Bloodied Stalwart T1 100%
Poisonous Mucus T0 100%
Crushing Bite 76%*
Sharp Bite 59%*
Powerful Kick 87%*
Pack Attack 96%*
Quick Strike 85%*
Sure Feet 46%*
Venomous Bite 36%*
Easy Landing 24%*
Tail Strike 19%*
Bleed 78%*
Sure Paw 14%
Keen Eye 17%
Crushing Embrace 4%
Stillness 11%]
A good start – hopefully the dungeon beasts would have Cores which would help complete some of the most useful Abilities. And then if Selessa knew how to safely give the Abilities to his Pride mates, they'd have an excellent way to share some useful skills.
For now, though, as he padded off with Sekhmet to find the elves, Dominic was wondering if he'd ever get time to level up.