" I guess certain beasts have horrible drawbacks as well. No matter how strong they are." He thought referencing it to how his rain ability was limited because he needed the sky for it to be of use."
At day break they linked their calls and moved out. They constantly informed eachother of their surroundings just in case they were near eachother and didn't know it. Fang took a different route knowing he couldn't deal with the spiders.
The only thing they knew was to head south east of where they were. In order for Damon and Calvus to do so they had to take a much longer route because of the mountain.
After the first two hours they decided to contact each other every hour to check in.
Damon walked with a bottle of false will on his waist just in case he needed it quickly, he still had another twenty four hours before his penalty was up. Until then he was the most vulnerable out of the group.
Damon entered a small clearing with high thick grass that was red and shaded orange in color. It was his third clearing he had entered so far, the area he was currently in had small plains all around that turned into a thick dense yellow and brown jungle every so often.
He would run from time to time making sure to stay on top of his tasks. He also paid attention to the trees and herbs in the area. Damon had plenty of craft material ingredients, but lacked many more to create new items.
He counted the items he could create, and it was only seven. As he scrolled down the list every item written in red meant he had zero ingredients to make that item.
If it was yellow it meant he had one or more ingredient. Green meant he had all the ingredients in his inventory for that particular item.
The only item he could create many more times was the alleviate elixir. He had two false will elixirs left. In order to create more he needed more blue circadians.
Clicking on the blue circadians tab information was displayed with a image of it.
[ Blue circadian- An insect that can be used in all elixers because of its blue exterior creates liquid space when crushed. Can be found in dark dry areas, burrowed at the base of certain trees that produce the scent of vanilla.] [ Underworld planet Sactus.]
He noticed the entire description was highlighted red because he didn't have one , but the planets name was green.
"The hell is liquid space."
[ Liquid space is the increasing volume of any liquid.]
Their were hundreds of items listed under a section that was labeled [absorb tab] which meant elixers or some kind of item he can create to ingest. It was a sub tab within the elixer tab that also had cooking recipes as well. He went to the apparel tab which included armor and regular clothing.
[Mirage cloak- a cloak with the ability to create duplicates when worn.] It was written in yellow. Looking closer he already had three ingredients and only needed one more.
[Mirage panther- a beast with the power to fool it's prey and enemies through clones. Can be found only in the most dense parts of the forest called Kings branch. [Underworld planet Sactus.]
The description of the beast was in red and the name of the planet was green.
He scratched his head a bit, It was the second time he saw the underworld called Sactus. He looked through many more and saw the same thing on all of them.
He wasn't completely sure, but he had a feeling it was the name of the planet he was currently on. Clicking on the name Sactus an image of the planet was showed in 3d like it was taken from outerspace. a incredibly long list of beasts names and descriptions that could be found on the planet was displayed as well.
Seeing a search tab he looked up the mirage panther. The same information came up again,but this time a map as well that displayed its habitat location and Damons location.
"A map....an entire map of the planet itself." He mumbled in deep thought.
He didn't understand why all of a sudden he had a map. Thinking further, it was linked to the crafting bar in which he knew was a very important skill, the most important skill he had gotten so far.
Thinking even further, it made sense to him, the system ordered him to craft a new item every day as apart of his daily routine. So it had given him a way to not only find craft material, but a complete layout of the places he was currently at. All of this was just a guess and so he looked further.
His guess was correct, The system was showing him the planet he was on and the locations of beasts he could obtain for all the possible crafting that was displayed.
"So there's a chance the items on the list are only on this planet. When or if I get out of here I may not have another shot at these particular items for a very long time ,or atleast until I'm a seasoned soul master, that could take years he thought."
Now that he discovered a map within the system craft tab, he could find his way back to home base much easier. He was having a bit of trouble deciding on what to do, Planet Sactus had already provided him with so much rare materials, but he wanted more.
He wanted to give himself the best chance to improve himself, his only delay was he was still weak compared to the dangers on planet Sactus. If he encountered any beasts at the mid level with tricky abilities or higher, with or without his powers he was sure he wouldn't win.
He couldn't tell if his clouds or rain grew stronger with each level up, his rain had become more effective after reaching level 2, considering it could attack the stamina of a person or beast but that was all. His clouds were more easier to shape and had a faster shaping speed, but as far as the actual strength of the clouds after they were shaped, they all felt the same. they weren't strong enough to take on a mid level beast without him wounding them over and over, which bothered him.
He didn't let killing the panda foxes which were mid level beasts get to his head because he knew all beasts weren't the same and had their own strengths and weaknesses.
He thought about the white diamond back soul core. He could probably use it to create some kind of powerful weapon. Looking at the weapons and armor tabs a huge grin grew on his face.
To create weapons and armor all he needed was specific beast core combinations, but not for the Grand prime core. No other cores were needed to create something out of it.
Clicking on it, his grin disappeared as a disturbing notification came in his view.
[This item can only be forged into a sword, axe or armor, warning your level is too low. A a soul bond must be forged.]
"Damn it. I guess the system wasn't lying about using it in the future. What the hell is a soul bond."
[Soul bond- A soul bond is a soul connection with a beasts soul. Soul bonds are required when using beast cores at the prime level or higher.]
"Prime level or higher, i thought beasts were at their peak once reaching the supreme prime level. Which is considered the highest." He tilted his head thinking.
He tried clicking and searching how to create a bond, but nothing came up.
Scratching out that plan he began checking what could be created with the scarabs, when he heard the cracking of a branch. He unsheathed one of his tomahawks ready to take the penalty and quickly swallowed the bitter, tasting elixer.
The ominous pressure returned generating a false will of a grand prime beast.
He stayed perfectly still and as time passed, he relaxed and put his weapon away. Taking a few steps forward a feeling came over him, He didn't know what it was exactly, but lately his gut or intuition had been guiding him more like it did in the past. Feeling a sudden sense of discomfort made him look up.
Boom!
He was knocked back on his butt as the head of a creature slammed into him. Dropping from the tree was a long beast with black scales, The horns on its head curved out and backwards like a ram.
It snapped forward showing thick rows of small teeth with two large fangs that sprung out, Damon pedaled backwards with his hands and feet escaping its reach just before it snapped towards him. Turning around he, took off running, jumping over thickets and ducking low hanging limbs.
He didn't stop and ran for at least a couple minutes when his body began feeling unbalanced, shaking it off, he pushed forward. Reaching a tree a good distance away, he clung to the base of the tree with one arm keeping himself up while holding his chest with the other.
His breathing was short making him feel tired even though he wasn't running long at all. Looking back he didn't see anything, but still moved on. He only ran thirty or so meters more before he had to stop again.
His breathing was getting worse and his body started to hurt with every breath he took. Instead of running he jogged off and on getting further away until he couldn't handle the pain anymore.
"The hell is going on, is it internal damage or something, my body, it doesn't feel right." He questioned himself blinking in discomfort while holding his chest.
He hid behind a large tree trying to reel his mind in and control his breathing. The pain and shortness of breath disappeared as long as he remained still but came back with the slightest movements.
"Damn, I walked right into that one. It had to be there already, but I took the false will elixer, it should have worked, I know it worked."
"Unless...." Damon eyes shot open with confusion and uncertainty.
"no it can't be a grand prime beast, the chances of me running into one were slim to none. They were extremely rare and super intelligent, discovering the grand prime Caimen was just a fools luck." he assured himself.
He felt around on his body and nothing as far as he could tell was broken, Forcing himself to stand he felt he needed to keep moving just in case there was a chance he was wrong.
Ding!
[Core cloud manipulation has reached 240 hours. Beast core manipulation complete.]
He blinked a few times looking at the notification realizing he had forgotten about the only unique skill in his arsenal. He didn't know what it did besides manipulating a beast core somehow, but It was also the only skill he had that started off on level 2.
[Unique skill- Cloud core Lvl 2. A cumulus cloud that can harvest beast cores for soul manipulation.] [Cloud chambers- 1/2]
Hisssss!
Hearing a hiss, he turned around taking in a light breath, thinking it was just his imagination.
Slithering around the tree above him was the same snake beast. Before he could react the beast launched at him wrapping him up in the blink of an eye. His body was wrapped from his feet to his chest as the snake head hung over him.
He pushed against the snake's body trying to keep it from crushing him, he could feel every muscle within the beast contract forcing his body to fold inward.
"Ahhhh, gwahhhhh" He screamed in extreme pain.
His jaws tightened and his body began trembling like he was bench pressing heavy weights as he pushed against the beast again.
"Nooooo, It can't end like this, Not this soon"
He knew it was no way he could reach his tomahawks, but he still tried. His arms were forced to his side and so he was able to reach one of the daggers he kept strapped by his knee.
Flipping it out with his fingers he positioned it so the snake would push into it, but the scales of the beast were too strong and the dagger was too weak.
"Ahhhh."
He screamed as the snake grip tightend shattering the dagger, Pieces of the dagger stabbed into his leg as it pushed in on him. His shoulders were pushed up and in as one of his bones snapped through his arm.
Damon could feel his hipbones moving out of place as his ribs began cracking. The taste of iron flooded his mouth and It's green eyes flashed with anticipation as it tightened even more.
Damon gritted his teeth trying to stay awake, but felt his mind leaving him, his eye sight had become blurry and he had begun to fade out when he saw a blurry message.
Ding!
[Cl.... Be.s. cham.er h.s. be.n cre..ed. would. y.u. like T. Release your clo.. Be..t.]
"Release." He mumbled as it was almost the only word he could see clearly, not thinking it was anything, he just said the only word that was clear to him.
A red and silver beast core appeared releasing a thick cloud. It twisted and shaped itself as Damon completely lost consciousness.