Nightmares Paradise [LITRPG System Integration]

Jon and Avahni sat opposite each other, watching as a strange-looking peacock creature that Jon managed to hunt sizzled over their open fire. Even without any herbs or unique flavourings, the scent of cooked meat wafted throughout the riverbank, unconsciously causing Jon's stomach to rumble, and Avahni to giggle in response.

After the… intense summoning ritual from earlier, Jon thought it a good idea to find some sort of food for the pair of them. Through his Fragment Of Regeneration, Jon's burnt arm was slowly on the way to full recovery, and the pain had almost completely subsided.

He had made sure to communicate with Avahni, and her strange fat plant, that he planned on bringing food back to the camp, making a somewhat awkward gnawing motions with his hands and teeth. Jon did not think it took more than an hour before he encountered perhaps the weirdest looking big he had ever seen in his life.

This strange-looking peacock did not possess the same multi-coloured feathers that Jon was familiar with. It was adorned with feathers of dark-green and shamrock, a lone golden feather sticking out the top of its head.

While it possessed a beak and nostrils, its face did not have any eyes. Instead, the long tail feathers that its species were famous for possessed several dozen eyes scattered across it, giving the bird a frightful, somewhat eldritch appearance to it.

It's corpse contained a Fragment Of Eyes, which Jon subsequently pocketed, turning around back in the direction of his campsite. During the walk back, Jon found himself occasionally glancing down at the bird in his hand, narrowing his eyes while scratching at his chin.

'I wonder if lutin's even eat meat. I mean, I hope that Avahni doesn't have some sort of photosynthesis thing going on. She has a mouth, and teeth, so I guess she must have a similar sort of physiology to humans,' Jon thought to himself while carrying the peacock in one hand.

Despite his initial assumptions about Avahni's culture and biology, she seemed more than pleased with the meal that he had brought them.

The lutin was surprisingly adept at defeathering the bird, managing to safe quite a few feathers, even with Jon managing to butcher more than half of them. Avahni was also the one who prepared the fire while Jon had been out hunting, although he suspected that she used her fat plant summon to gather up all the sticks and dried grass for it.

The human and lutin pair relished the taste of this mutated eldritch peacock. It tasted surprisingly similar to chicken, but with a much higher fat content. The heat from the open fire managed to render quite a bit of the fat, even if it did singe the meat a bit darker than he would have liked it to be.

Jon just sat there, feeling like a king as he devoured his share of the peacock. His eyes were occasionally drawn to the figure of the lutin sitting opposite him, towards her arm, which had already shown signs of scabbing over her wounds. Just like himself, Avahni was consuming the bird with as much gusto as a man who had not eaten in over a week. Her fat plant summons sat motionlessly beside her, although closer than what Jon assumed would for a plant.

His gaze lingered on said plant, towards the limb which had already started to show signs of regrowth. One single, lone strand of root hung helplessly from where it's appendage once sprouted from. This single root strand was about the thickness of a pencil, and barely a couple centimetres long.

'So, this root creature has healing capabilities. Eating one of its limbs will either temporarily increase natural healing speed or promote healing throughout the body. It might even give a temporary increase to certain damages or debuffs, similar to my own [Green Is The Flesh, As Red Is The Blood]. Interesting,' Jon was thoroughly impressed with the powers of this little guy.

While Jon did not have his own summon to practice on, he did want to see how such an ability would react to the increase in Avahni's Mana Core rotation speed.

'Would it increase the natural healing speed even further? Or would it just increase the rate of the fat plant's regeneration? I mean, as it stands, it only has four instances of healing before a cooldown sets in. Unless… we can eat the main body of the root?' Jon watched as the fat plant creature lifted its "head", turning its gaze towards Jon. The creature was strangely perceptive, and Jon moved his attention back towards the strips of grilled bird in his hands.

If it was not for the fact that Jon possessed two Mana Cores, he suspected that he would have already reached the limit, in terms of the number of abilities a single Mana Core could possess. While he had nothing to go on but the sensation of being somewhat "full", the number of fragments he could integrate, meant that Jon, or anyone within the System Introduction could possess a wide range of different abilities.

Thirty-six was the number that Jon had in mind.

It meant that an individual could possess a full range of comprehensive abilities.

While it was the fragment that determined the characteristics of an ability, the Mana Core added its own chaotic touch to the equation.

'I have integrated a Fragment Of Instinct, Mind, Tree, War and Shadow into my Knowledge Mana Core. Obtaining [Thou Is But A Shadow Of Oneself], was somewhat unexpected, but perhaps change as I increase my Rank.'

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'At the end of the day, all five of these abilities somehow increase my capacity or ability to gain knowledge or information. [Ashvattha Rana] has an infinitesimally minute chance of granting me enlightenment, so I guess regardless of what type of Fragment I integrate, they will all share this commonality.' Jon continued munching on his peacock skewer, watching as Avahni used a particularly sharp rock to cut off another chunk of meat.

Determining what the common theme of his Wood Mana Core would be was significantly more difficult. Given that one ability was a passive regeneration, and the other an offensive piercing Spell, Jon felt as though both abilities shared nothing other than perhaps the word "green" in both of their names.

While Jon felt as though he was adapting to life in the small realm quite well, he did want to think ahead towards his future.

Or rather, the future development of his Mana Cores and abilities.

'If each Mana Core possesses abilities that complement each other, then I should be able to create the basis for some sort of organized system of abilities based on their combative and non-combative capabilities.'

The abilities tied to his Knowledge Mana Core were geared towards obtaining knowledge and supporting Jon through their various passive and active enhancements. This support was not limited to merely mental buffs or metaphysical mutations, but also physical and sensory enhancements as well.

Jon's Wood Mana Core only possessed two abilities.

One, simply put, was a self-healing ability, while the other was his only short-to-mid ranged offensive Spell. It left a lot of room for the consideration of other abilities, while allowing Jon the possibility to change his mind after acquiring another Mana Core or two.

Glancing towards Avahni's summon, soundlessly sitting beside the fire, Jon felt quite impressed the supportive capabilities of such an ability.

'I have no defensive abilities at the moment, so a summon that could fill that role would be quite useful. Similarly, something that is capable of flight might also be large enough to carry myself on its back! I could even choose something like a Fragment Of Roc, or a Fragment Of Behemoth to increase the chances of summoning something mythologically powerful!' Jon grinned; his mouth still full of food. Avahni thought that he was smiling at her, and the lutin gave him a small thumbs up, similarly proud of how the peacock tasted.

'There is also the matter of whatever ability she managed to obtain from that Fragment Of Mouth. The thing literally cracked open a hole into another dimension or realm or something. And that fruit-thing that she brought back with her, what is it? Is that the ability? Or was it another summoning ability?'

There was still quite a number of things that Jon did not quite understand regarding the nature of abilities. The form and manipulation of spiritual essence and even the qualities and characteristics of Mana Cores.

There were multiple mandatory System tasks which focused on uncovering these truths. While Jon felt as though he was heading in the right direction with regards to the first and ninth System task, the remaining twelve were still quite a ways away.

Jon still was not quite sure what a "Source" was either, but his intuition urged him to remember the word. The System had given him an optional task to "glimpse" into it, but no other information regarding it either.

He had managed to peer into it when he integrated his Wood Mana Core, so Jon suspected that he would be given another chance when he decided to integrate his third Mana Core.

Letting out a small sigh, Jon shook his head before plucking another strip of meat off the cooked bird in front of him. The smile on his face becoming ever so slightly more prominent the moment its juices touched his tastebuds.

'Man… this stuff is delicious!' The sense of pleasure running through his brain, caused the logical and rational part of his mind to turn off for just a while.

Break

'Father… I am living the dream right now!' Avahni gleefully thought to herself.

Her human friend, Jon, had brought back some sort of bird-like creature for them to dine on. The structure of the feathers was somewhat discomforting to stare at, eyeballs of various sizes, colours and structures placed on certain feathers, allowing it to gaze at numerous directions all at once.

She assisted Jon with defeathering the beast, seeing that the human was not the most experienced at cleaning his prey.

While she kept her hopes low regarding the taste of the creature, Avahni felt herself unconsciously slouching in pleasure, feeling the succulent taste of bird fill her mouth. Even back on Svarlfin, there were very few animals whose taste could compare to that of the strange bird in front of her. Even without seasoning or some sort of sauce, Avahni could say with absolute certainty that this was one of the best meals she had ever had in her entire life.

Chewing on her section of meat, Avahni noticed Jon's gaze linger on her summon, Roland before turning his attention towards her once injured arm. She knew that Jon was quite perceptive, perhaps an effect of one of his abilities, but just grinned at him, giving him a thumbs up for making the connection between her rapid healing as Roland's missing limb.

Roland, or Roly for short, was the first ability manifested from her Fire Mana Core.

Born from a Fragment Of Ginseng, Avahni found the presence of her first summon heartwarming, a feeling of comfort amidst a strange, dangerous world. She had encountered creatures with appearances like those from Svarlfin, but mutated, obviously from the effects of fragments they had integrated into their Mana Cores.

Brining up her status page, Avahni pressed on the first ability listed under her Fire Mana Core.

[Fragment Of Ginseng]
[Ru Luan Di; Liver Of The Ginseng King]
(Summon, Fire, Ginseng, Recovery, Buff)

Effect (Mortal): Perform a ritual to summon Ru Luan Di; Liver Of The Ginseng King. Ru Luan Di is an infant ginseng king born from the lineage of an enlightened demonic ginseng and a transcendent xian. Ru Luan Di dwells within the liver after being summoned.

Ru Luan Di is capable of snapping off its own limbs and then feeding them to a willing target. The target will temporarily receive a dramatic increase to their natural healing speed and recovery rate. The target will have their resistances towards fire-related damages and debuffs temporarily increased. The target will be periodically cleansed of debuffs and afflictions for a short duration after eating.

Ru Luan Di, or Roland as Avahni preferred, was a boon greater than what she ever could have imagined. She had received the Fragment Of Ginseng from a system task reward and was torn between integrating it into her Wood Mana Core or her Fire Mana Core.

In the end she chose the latter and hadn't regretted it since.

Patting Roly on the head, Avahni took another bite of the bird in front of her, cupping one of her cheeks in her hand, grinning as another wave of flavour filled her mouth.

'Father… this stuff is delicious!'.