NOVEL NEXT Chapter 7: The merging
"Poor boy, he hadn't spoken a word since he was first admitted 4 days ago" A nurse said to another nurse while they were walking in the hospital hallways, she was pushing a trolley with a food trey on it while the other nurse was carrying a glass screen.
"I know right? He even eats little. If it wasn't for Dr. Shaefield he'd have died from his wounds" said the nurse accompanying her. They then both went into a room with a boy laying on the hospital bed. "Mr. Blackstone, how are you doing today? I'm here to check up on you." said the nurse as she opened up a tab with the details about Aries. He looked at her with empty eyes, and dark circles which imply his lack of sleep. "Unresponsive as always. I didn't expect a response either way, but please, for the sake of everything that's good, eat some food." She said while the other nurse put a new food trey in the place of a seemingly untouched trey.
As they left the room, Aries stood up from the bed and sneakily took the utensils from the trey. He then raised an eyebrow as he read an Item description screen which stood out by its length.
[Item: Fork
Rarity: Rare
Skill: Enhanced Nutrition
Merging success rate: 57%]
"Woah!" Aries said to himself "A skill? That wasn't there on the others. And the success rate is significantly lower than the ones I did before" he then took out 9 splayds he hid neatly in his clothes "There would be a significant chance of failure, but if I didn't take the risk now I won't know what will happen when the merging fails. Screw it I'm merging anyway" he then merged the fork with the spoon and the knife, it rose for a moment then instead of the normal green light at the end, a red light appeared and the three utensils dropped right in front of him.
[Merging failed
Hint: Try merging Items of similar rarity for better odds
Retry merging? y/n]
Aries stood there comprehending the message in front of him for a while before deciding to retry merging, he pressed yes, but instead of the normal merging process another message appeared.
[Insufficient Item points
Current Item points: 1
Required Item points: 10
Hint: Item points can be obtained by merging with items]
"Item points? That wasn't there in the beginning" He then looked at a splayd, contemplating whether to merge it with his body or not before deciding to take the risk.
[Would you like to merge it with your body? y/n]
As Aries pressed the yes button, the splayd floated for a second before disintegrating into little light particles, the particles then flew towards Aries at magnificent speed. Aries closed his eyes waiting for the impact, but nothing came. He opened his eyes slightly to see a system window in front of him.
[Merging successful
Item points gained: 3
Abilities gained: none
Item affinity gained: Fork, Cutting Knife, Spoon, spork, knork, spife, splayd]
"Item affinity?"
[Item affinity: When merging an Item with your body you gain the ability to use the item more proficiently, in addition to better odds when merging said items]
"So now I can use the basic utensils and all their combinations more efficiently? Wow, what a great skill" Aries said mockingly, but when he took a second to think, he came to the realization that this applies on everything, he then looked at the others and picked up two of them, he then merged them with his body
[Merging successful
Item points gained: 6
Item affinity gained: none
Item affinity increased: Fork, Cutting Knife, Spoon, spork, knork, spife, splayd
Abilities gained: none]
"Affinity increased! So the more I merge with my body the better I wield the Items? That's so cool! I don't know why the altar said it was a normal tier power" Aries said as he looked at the remaining 6 splayds "What would happen if I merged them together?" he said as he tried to merge two of them together
[Merging successful
Item produced: Splayd +1
Rarity: uncommon]
"Woah! So when I merge two similar items together it creates a rarer item?" Aries exclaimed as he looked towards the rest of the splayds
A couple of minutes later, Aries stood in front of the food tray holding a splayd, the system screen window in front of it
[Merging successful
Item produced: Splayd +4
Rarity: epic
Skill: Enhanced Nutrition, increased metabolism]
"A new skill? Great! The more the merrier"
[Merging successful
Item points gained: 21
Abilities gained: Enhanced Nutrition, Increased Metabolism
Item affinity gained: none
Item affinity increased: Fork, Cutting Knife, Spoon, spork, knork, spife, splayd]
[High rarity consumption bonus:
Item points gained: 9
Ability gained: Weapon summon]
[Skill: Weapon summon: You can summon any Item you consumed before or any of its components infinitely]
Aries was about to jump from joy, but when he heard the trolley being pushed in the hallway he summoned the normal utensils to returned them to the trey, then he rushed to the bed without eating from the food. A couple of minutes later the lights went out in the whole hospital, Aries could hear faint footsteps in the hallway which stopped right in front of his door. The door opened to show a man wearing all black and carrying daggers, the man then inched towards Aries with faint footsteps, but before he could do anything, Aries summoned a knife and swung it towards the man's leg, but the knife just phased through the men who, in retaliation, hit the back of Aries's head with the handle. As Aries's vision went black, he could see the man speaking into his watch
"Agent Owl here, I subdued the target and am on my way to HQ" the man said as he then carried Aries on his back and stepped into the shadow to disappear