"Hahaha, now it's time for some fun," Vikram was giddy with joy as he could feel the speed of the mini Shaggy that was converting his Fish Karma had increased by leaps and bounds. He was trying to gain some Spider Karma which was what he required the most at present.
When he initially deployed mini Shaggy, it expended 1000 units of Fish Karma to gain 1 unit of Spider Karma. After his Skill attainment reached '0.2%', it took him 500 units of Fish Karma to gain 1 unit of Spider Karma.
Now, after increasing his Skill attainment to '1.01%', he only needed to consume about 100 units of Fish Karma to gain 1 unit of Spider Karma. The conversion efficiency had multiplied by 10 times.
"Phew, now I could actually begin to increase my strength," Vikram thought to himself as he gazed at the wristwatch he had carried with him and once again slumbered. There was still an hour or so before their attack on the birds camping at the cinema halls. It was enough time for him to get a full nap.
After their bodies had changed, their perception of time had also changed. This also invariably affected their sleeping patterns.
They would feel the need to sleep after staying awake for 5 hours and would take a nap that spanned about 1 hour. This meant that they would have a four-day per actual-day routine. In simpler terms, a quarter of the Earth Day was their one full day.
Victoris transferred him with a unit of Fish Karma every 4-5 seconds while the mini Shaggy could theoretically consume a unit of Fish Karma every second and give out a unit of Spider Karma after 1000 seconds (initially).
But since he only gained a unit of Fish Karma every 4-5 seconds, it also meant that he could finally gain a unit of Spider Karma after conversion after 4000+ seconds had elapsed. So, it took him about an hour approximately to gain a unit of Spider Karma.
Vikram didn't know whether to laugh or cry. If not for the fact that he possessed Victoris, increasing the attainment of his Convert Skill would be next to impossible due to the humongous amount of Karma that it wasted.
He had spent the past 3 hours maintaining the Convert Skill and finally managed to evolve it to the next level. The only reason he could even proceed with this daunting endeavour can be attributed to the presence of the Gharial that hunted all the fishes and also due to the fact that he was in a relatively safe location and could afford to stay at a single spot for such long durations.
"Hmm, wait a minute. There's still an hour for our battle raid on those birds which equals to enough time for me to increase my comprehension of a creature's Karma from 0% to 1% and gain a part its stats. The question is, what creature should I choose?" Vikram wondered as he gazed at the plethora of rows in his 'Record' that belonged to various insect species.
Except for the spider, wasp, dragonfly, housefly, and the mosquito, the comprehension of all the other insect Karma was at a striking zero-percent. The only other creature in his 'Record' was the pigeon which he had been focusing on for the past 3 hours and managed to gain one-percent of its strength.
He had gained so much Pigeon Karma when he made Victoris devour 3 pigeon carcasses out of the 14 they had managed to kill with the help of everyone in the base. He had left the rest for the other warriors so that they could raise their strength.
Even if they had a single unit of pigeon karma, they could concentrate on it and enter a relative dream world. When they wake up after an hour, they would have gained one-percent of its strength which would be a massive boost to their measly strength.
'Plop' 'Splash'
As Vikram gazed at the figure of the humongous Gharial that was cheerfully chasing after a long fish in the waters, the mouth of Vikram curved up in delight.
The Victoris that was gorging through the flesh of a fish stopped its feast and returned back to hover beside Vikram. After receiving his mental input, the eight Amethyst eyes of Victoris shone with an intelligent light as it shot towards the Gharial and plunged into its body.
The Gharial that was chasing after a fish abruptly shuddered in response the moment Victoris plunged into its body. A second later, Ugly Shaggy emerged out of its head and slithered away in fright.
The moment Ugly Shaggy ran away, the eyes of the Gharial turned vacant as its body began to sing into the reddish-brown waters like a puppet that had its strings cut.
Five seconds later, Victoris emerged out of its body and retreated towards Vikram.
"Gharial, I choose you," Vikram laughed and sent Victoris away to devour the flesh of another dead fish while he lay down to rest and happily entered his dreamland.
"Hmm," Prakash woke up after his 'Purple Transformation' wore off only to gaze at the figure of Ugly Shaggy that was trembling beside him.
"Why have you returned? Have all the fishes been eradicated?" Upon his question, Ugly Shaggy shook its head once but failed to convey anything meaningful after that.
"Ugh," Prakash clutched his head in irritation when he tried to will Ugly Shaggy to enter the waters. Since he couldn't see the body of the Gharial near him, it meant that Ugly Shaggy should have left it in the water before returning to his side for some reason.
"Forget it, no point in fretting about it now," Prakash willed for Ugly Shaggy to enter his body which it did without resistance. Upon his mental input, it then began to consume the newly gained Fish Karma and began to convert it into Ant Karma.
"So this works too. As long as I had it before, I could gain it back once again after adding a unit of Karma into it through Ugly Shaggy," Prakash felt joy upon this discovery.
The row pertaining to Ant had disappeared from his 'Record' the moment he had fully expended his Ant Karma before. Now that he had converted 5 units of his Fish Karma into a unit of Ant Karma, it had reappeared once again.
"My mini Victoris is also faring well," Prakash thought as he gazed at a thin stream of purple smoke that gushed into the body of Ugly Shaggy through a small cord that had attached itself to somewhere in the middle of its body. Through the body of the Ugly Shaggy, that thin stream further gushed into his body and began to increase his reserves of Fish Karma.
"When did she come here?" Prakash felt shocked as he gazed at the figure of a woman who was sitting cross-legged a few centimetres away from him. She had rested her chin on her right palm whose elbow anchored on her right thigh and seemed to be asleep.
"Maybe Vikram sent her here to protect me? But why her though?" Prakash pondered before heaving a sigh and deciding to ask the concerned person after she woke up.
He had been concentrating on his Pigeon Karma while in his sleep and managed to raise its comprehension to a satisfactory level. Now, he planned to focus on the creature he had put off for long enough.
Informing Ugly shaggy to leave a unit of Karma in all the fishes and convert the rest into his Dog Karma, Prakash closed his eyes while thinking about the Gharial.
----------------------------------------
'Tick-tick' 'Tick-tick'
A loud alarm sound woke up the sleeping dude who sprang awake like a cat that had its tail stepped upon.
Vikram slammed his hand on a certain button on the side of the wristwatch. He felt his heart calm down from its rapid rhythmic tantrum after that alarming noise had been stopped. He had brought this wristwatch with him to make note of the time so that he wouldn't be late for their battle (though the chances of it happening without him were next to zero) and had set an alarm on it.
But he hadn't expected its sound to be so loud that startled him to such an unexpected degree. Maybe their size differences should have played a huge part in this.
Vikram rubbed his hands over the sleek edges of the wristwatch that was half his height and felt nostalgic. He longed to be able to wear this on his hand once again. It was a precious gift that his ex-girlfriend had given to him, the only item she had ever given to him.
Even though she had left him, to him, she would always have a precious position in his heart.
"Maybe if you see my current self, will you love me once again?" Vikram had a dazed expression as he thought about her.
Shaking his head to clear his thoughts, Vikram stood up and retrieved Victoris into his body.
Purple smoke gushed out of the pores on his skin and coagulated to form a cocoon that enveloped him and shattered to reveal a wasp from within.
The wasp took off to the skies and landed beside another sleeping youth and dissolved its transformation. Vikram woke up the sleeping Prakash who immediately materialised Ugly Shaggy after waking up to retrieve the Gharial from within the water.
Surprisingly, Ugly Shaggy didn't resist this time and entered the water. A moment later, the Gharial swam towards them. Even though it was their puppet, such a calm swimming scene sent shivers through their spines.
The creature was way too big so every action it took overwhelmed their tiny selves, both physically and emotionally.
The Gharial wriggled its massive body and struggled for a while until it could climb a few stairs before choosing to rest there.
Prakash then made Ugly Shaggy enter the pigeon's body and controlled it while Vikram woke up the nearby Vidya with a smack to her head.
"Huk," Vidya rubbed her hand on the region of her head where Vikram had smacked her while she fought to control the tears that threatened to leak out of her eyes.
"Why did you volunteer for the task if you didn't have the patience to do so?" Vikram reprimanded the lady for an entire minute before he let her go.
Vidya had her head bowed in shame the entire time she was scolded. It was her fault that she had slacked off during her task. When she noticed that their surroundings were practically safe, she decided to take a nap to increase her karma comprehension.
What she hadn't accounted for was to get caught in the act. It seemed she had slept for way too long.
"What are you doing? Are you planning to waste our time next?" A stern shout jolted her out of her thoughts. She traced her eyes to the source of the sound and gazed at the two figures who sat on the back of the pigeon.
Her head further drooped lower in shame as she got scolded in front of the man she was courting.
"Come up, or are you planning to fly your way back?"
"Eh?" Her eyes lit up in surprise as Vidya gazed at Vikram who had extended his hand towards her.
"Well, if you have excess insect karma, then you can fly your back," Vikram said after he saw Vidya being unresponsive to his invitation.
"W-Wait, I'll climb up," Vidya tried her best to conceal her joy as she sprang up to catch the extended hands of Vikram who was about to retract his outstretched hand.
"Don't hold there. Hold somewhere else," Vikram said with annoyance as he gazed at a slender hand that had wrapped around his waist.
"Leader, are you for real. I don't have enough space to catch the rope," Vidya said as she further tightened her hold on his waist. A grunt leaked out of Prakash as she had tightened her hold on his waist until it began to slightly constrict him.
"I should have expected this; I invited disaster upon ourselves," Vikram gazed at the face of Prakash that looked incredibly pissed and cursed the shameless woman a hundred times in his heart.
Prakash glared at Vikram implying him to control his subordinates while the accused youth sent him a helpless stare.
"I should probably teach him the methods to tame and control his subordinates later," Prakash thought as he willed for the puppet pigeon to fly towards the base.
The puppet pigeon flapped its wings and took off to the skies. Of the three people who sat on its back, two youths looked pissed while the other seemed to be having the time of her life.
With one hand wrapped around the waist of Vikram, while the other wrapped around Prakash, a radiant smile was plastered on the face of Vidya throughout the entire journey.
The puppet pigeon flew for a short duration and landed on an open area where 300 warriors comprising of both men and women stood like an army. Their gazes were full of anticipation for the upcoming fight.