C60: Gerald's Evolution and New Features.
To make up for my bungle with posting last chapter late, im gonna send this out a bit earlier than normal. Enjoy
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My return to the dream was very simple, my behavior on the other hand, was not.
"Please don't disturb me for the next while, no matter what you hear, do not lay your eyes upon me for this next while until I come back" I briefly inform the Doll as my hunters will is gradually cracking from my own intrusive thoughts as I shunt myself over to the garden as I allow a vast array of menus to pop up.
The first three being that of the pet evolution screens related to Gerald, specifically the details of each type of evolution option. Yet im soon stunned as I spot a '+' next to the previous (i) next to each original option.
[Warning, pet has experienced an oversaturation of xp. A single free mutation is available for each possible evolution. It will reveal the potential of each choice as well as bestow new skills]
"Hah, hah, I don't think I can handle anymore" I mutter to myself in agony as I bring up each menu again only to look at the new 'mutations' that arose in each possible evolution.
[C1-Blood Siphoning Beast +-Gain Blood mastery from the start, reaching Earl class and simply requiring experience to reach Marquis class.]
"Hmm, yes, Indubitably." I stroke an air mustache as if I was some pompous noble as I look at the next screen and I hesitate for once with my options.
[C2-Blood Starved Beast + + - Gains the ability to manipulate the arcane, bestowing blessings that not only increase the beings newly enhanced base power but manipulate various arcane forces.]
"Damn, a half-caster in the making. This actually works very well for me now as it would be akin to a paladin by my side if he still grows in the physical aspects too." i compliment the change as it is much more positive than I expected unlike the original phrasing. Though I do still have to compliment it's basic form as it's the only one with a notable doubling in physical power while others focus on various other aspects or simply change what was already there.
The current format for this evolution path bestows upon me the chance to explore who knows how many other arcane possibilities of this world other than the snake and hand of Ebrietas thingy with the tentacles and ball explosions like that one scholarly hunter in Byrgenwerth.
[C3- Elemental Beast + - gain advanced mastery of the first randomly unlocked element, to the point of achieving basic elementalization and unlocking the second early. ]
"..."
"..."
"Okay. I'm gonna take a nap now. My greatest dreams are right in front of my fucking eyes. I must be tired to see such illusions" I mutter to myself as I cant believe something so good would be possible for me. I take out my tontritus to ensure I reach nap time as soon as possible.
DONK
"Fuck, alright. I'll deal with this now. That did jack fucking shit" I curse as while my head now hurts, for some reason, the Caryll runes don't feel like working now to enhance my own damage to give me enough brain damage to knock me out.
I bring the screen closer to properly reread it as I nod in confirmation to make sure I wasn't seeing things and that it really did mention Elementalization before I just sit down, my head between my legs. I flop over in defeat as I realize that I have reached my peak. There is no greater honor than this option before me.
There is no actual competition from the evolution in the first place as the third option calls to my heart at it's very core. A crystallization of my childhood passions, at least of one of my lives.
I punch in the third option with the pet system and I see within the system screen that Gerald is covered in a silver thread cocoon. A ten minute timer appears before the screen and im like a star struck child as I wait the entirety of the ten minutes to properly witness the 'egg' hatching right before my eyes as elemental energies blast out from the egg.
"Ugh" I groan a bit as I can feel some strain on my spirit. As if something was pressing down on my soul.
[Warning: skill Pet Bond deemed too low level to properly target pet: Gerald the Elemental beast. Skill negated and perks and skills retracted except those already merged]
(the skill 'Pet skill' was renamed to Pet Bond as it was just an ugly name that was too confusing to read or write about)
"Shit. I can't even do it even if I wanted to. I need to level up the skill, probably to the next tier but it's hard as the skill itself is difficult to level up. I'll have to focus all my skill shards on it just to regain the connection. Haaaa" I groaned but this time in misery as all my excitement was for nothing. At the very least, I crush all my newly obtained lesser shards and the skill does level up.
[Pet Bond has leveled up. Level 2-Level 4]
"... hooray" I say with a monotone voice before my excitement does rise a bit as I finally get to see what Gerald looks like as I summon him immediately, rather than examine him in the system menu like some character selection screen. It's more genuine this way.
Gerald appears before me with a thundering aura as wind sweeps around him in ravenous activity. I squint in response to the wind as I ensure that the wind doesnt blow me away. I take a good long look at Geralds new form and im a bit surprised as i feel i recognize it but not completely.
"Air Genasi?" I think of the first type of being that comes to mind.
Geralds skin has taken on a pale grey hue compared to his rosy peach from before that was more human-like. The tribal style markings that are unique to Genasi are instead more akin to realistic cracks that occasionally shift to release bits of wind from him. These cracks are primarily around his face, neck, and arms, though with how his clothes billow every so often, he has more on his chest and legs but they don't tear his clothes further.
The pupils of his eyes have also completely grayed out but I can see bits of movement in them akin to the top down view of multiple intersecting tornadoes. His clothes are torn but not in a messy style, but primarily around his sleeves, leaving his arms free. His pants alone remain normal and undamaged, the standard gentlemanly style turned into a crass british gangsters form.
Overall, he looks cool as hell but I'm slightly disappointed that his first element is wind. Not for any logical reasoning but simply because it's going against my initial formatting of elementals, at least those related to me.
To better explain, throughout most of my 'futures' childhood, the elemental form that me and my brother had was always Fire as the birth element. As such it holds a special feeling to my heart but wind is plenty amazing in its own regard.
Wind blades, aura forms around weapons, tornados and hurricanes, slipstreams, wind armor, veils, barriers. So many possibilities but for now, I have to settle Gerald down.
"Hey there bud, feeling alright? It's a massive change for you." I speak up and Gerald does from simply inspecting himself to looking at me with a look of annoyance.
"my …head hurts." He states in response. His tone grating on my ears a bit as it feels like he just shouted at me but I could sense the effect of his voice on the air itself. I inform him of this event and he stiffens in response.
"Okay bud, just try your best to remain rational and have a seat. Stabilize yourself so that you can focus on all the changes in your body." I try to guide him through it bit by bit as even his movements are shaky with him barely even touching the ground he was walking on.
After a few minutes he was able to weaken the 'expelled' wind from himself as he realized that it was in sync with his own breathing as well as his heart. Which means his brief panic had increased both to make him feel so uncomfortable. I had also used my cosmology skill to weaken his wind further until he got the basics down.
Taking a few more minutes, he gains initial control of his abilities, he tries to explain what he could at my instigation as I proposed this to him. A form of abstract reasoning to allow his mind to process all facets of his ability.
Yet a hint of personal greed flows through me at that moment as well. I got the [wind manipulation] skill but it's similar to the ice version but with wind being more widespread, it's easier to influence. Im still far from a mastery level skill but perhaps understanding it from another's experience would serve as a shortcut to that.
[Wind manipulation has leveled up. Level 1->level 3]
While my thoughts worked, it was only to give me the theoreticals to level up my current skillset faster which still works for me. Though there is one more surprise that awaits me as I reach this level.
[Skill: Tracking is compatible with wind manipulation. Allow the skill to be subsumed?]
"Huh, that sounds cool. Getting more abilities from my magic would be great" I accept and level 3 turns into level 4 for wind manipulation.
I can also now passively feel the air around me to greater results. So much so that I can detect Gehrman and the Doll on the other side of the dream with greater ease. I also get why Gerald says his head hurts as this sense allows me to feel the flow of air as a result of heat and cold around me. Though I feel I have better luck than Gerald as I can actually turn it off or at least tune it out better than him whose very presence is linked with the wind.
I then open up the pet system again and I learn that I can make copies of Gerald's traits, while I can't attach them to myself. I could attach it to any of my other pets, allowing them all to have elemental specializations. Though according to the pet system, other pets have limited slots for something like elements unless they have a secondary trait which allows some form of separation with the simplest version being something like extra limbs to help 'expand' the base form.
Arms, legs, heads, tendrils. Anything goes to expand the max amount and these aspects are also quite common but sorting them correctly to not make the pet itself lose it's mind is the principle factor behind what you can and cant do with this rune of aberration.
Speaking of limbs, I got a few traits from the snake hydra thing before and those turned out to be:
[Extra heads x2, Rapid hatching x1]
The rapid hatching sounded interesting to me as I felt that I could give that to my random egg that I got so long ago but upon closer look, it's more so rapid breeding as it makes the owner of the trait have babies faster. Weird…anyways.
I still have no clue what the egg actually is but then i found out I could essentially max it out this very moment by spending a cool million echoes to hypersonic it's growth state. I don't see why not and do it.
[Warning, Rapid saturation of time shall leave the egg unstable. Allow pet to remain unhatched to fix stabilization]
Having spent the price, I begin to watch as in rapid action but still relatively slow pace that the egg begins to expand. "Is it supposed to be this big or did some mutations occur because of time acceleration and it's coming out as an adult creature?" I question but don't get a response as the egg becomes far taller than even my exaggerated height. Then I see the message that popped up in the edges of my vision and my mood clouds over.
"Damn, what a scam." I complain, as having spent a million echoes to accelerate the months long incubation period and it still requires another who knows how long the incubation period to stabilize itself.
The only positives being that I finally learn what the actual pet is.
[Name: None
Race- Dragon
Skills- lightning affinity (innate), gigantism (innate), Pure-blooded (innate).]
"Huh, thats…really cool. When it hatches and gerald doesnt learn anything new by that point, I would have at least 4 or 5 elements available to me via Pet bond and my own elemental manipulation skills." i nod in acceptance before a strange thought occurs to me.
"Wait, why the hell was this an egg from an achievement so early on? I hadn't even gotten my first physical 'ascension' before I even got this egg. What is this dang system planning for me?" I cant help but speak aloud that even Gerald hears but he doesnt seem to give a damn, at most giving me a weird look which I brush off.
"Okay, so what should my current goals even be?"
"I have the dungeon, the nightmare school which I believe leads me to another place…that I can't properly remember the name of. I've done cainhurst, i've done a few dungeons but more await like the rest of my current Lower Pthumeru which should only have one floor left, but I have the Hinter-tomb chalice now from a previous dungeon. Other than that, there is the main path related to the story which is Yahar'gul. "
"Okay, let's summarize that. Dungeon, nightmare hall, or Yahar'gul…Guess it's the nightmare hall since I don't have much else to do and am slightly bored of the dungeon already."
I come back to where the Doll is with a relatively peaceful expression, far less crazed than what I had going into it my brief seclusion.
"Welcome back Good hunter. Was your hard work successful?" She questions and I do feel an arrow fly into my heart in regret as while Gerald did evolve and i did a bunch of other things with my system. It did not actually feel productive. So i guess ill spend my echoes in the meantime to cheer myself up.
"In a way, though I do have a question for you before I head out again"
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Word Count = 2545