Wu Hai repeated himself, "Don't touch the orb! When we grow stronger, we will be leaving without it. Look at the power it has, those around the entrance should be a foretelling of our future. We will not be so greedy. Lets train here till it stops working or we need to resupply." He sighed and started to go into detail. "We can't let this go. I have a few things I'd like to take out and try but I've been sort of hesitant. There is a higher level at work in destiny and I aim to make my own."
'This is a great start, fortune favors the bold or so Master keeps telling me.' "Greed is also the downfall of Men." Wu Hai took out his dice. He looked at the group and said, "Okay, now.. Don't freak out. I wasn't sure if any of you were going to stick around and telling random strangers, even those you travel with for a bit, could be dangerous, I am sorry."
Khan Ni looked back at Wu Hai, "Wu.. Why are you sorry? and what exactly should we not freak out about..."
Just when Khan Ni had finished her sentence, Wu Hai tossed four cubes at the wall. An interesting and strange thing happened. He started to change, his skin grew fur and his height had grown a bit. He had short horns and a pair of feathered wings like an owl. Wu Hai's skin crackled with the power of ice and metal. He could feel the power bursting out like an unstoppable swell.
'Ice, Metal, Explosion, Qilinkin' Reading it in his mind, he felt the air around him slowly drop in temperature and his feet sank into the dirt a bit. Most of his clothing ripped and tore, if not for his belt, he would have been stripped entirely.
Before the brothers could finish dropping their jaws and exclaim, Wu Hai had risen to height quite taller than the two men. They rubbed their eyes in disbelief before jumping in excitement, "BROTHER WU! WRESTLE US!"
Khan Ni didn't know what to say and remained quiet. In her mind, she delicately laughed.
"I'm going to do it again, this form is fine but we're inside, I want to try for an elemental.. it might take a while." None of them understood what he was talking about and could only wait.
"Also, I am not going to wrestle you without pants.." Wu Hai finished speaking and rolled the dice saw the gygax come to a stop, 'Earth, Darkness, Demonkin, Ring.'
'DEMON!' Both brothers were extremely excited but oddly angry at themselves. Demons were fearsome looking, intimidating and had massive wings. They had only heard negative things about the race but Wu Hai was a friend.
He threw again before there were more kneejerk reactions. 'Fire, Soul, Dragonkin, Shooting Star' Reading the group with his mind as he started growing to the size of the Jiao at its peak, Wu Hai took up a lot of space in the hallway they were camped in and reacted to their opinions of his body. Not giving up, Wu Hai grabbed the dice again with his claws and tossed them once more.
'Wood, Healing, Elemental, Combat.' A power that had never manifested within his body, Zao Wu Hai could feel immense power and cleansing effects pushing his body to a state of oneness with his surroundings. Even the green orb had stalled for a moment before returning to its orbit. Wu Hai's skin turned into a rock like body, waves of green and white light circulated around then collapsed into a pattern across his skin.
Wu Hai had never felt anything like it. He had felt the primal magic of Earth and mind coursing through his every cell when he had been part of nature before in the Old Man's yard.
This new feeling was on another level. Wu Hai's feeling of oneness with the World was at an all new height and words to describe it all felt insufficient. The symbol on the side of the Wooden Die that was marked for wood didn't only control wood, it was actually nature affinity.
While experimenting, he made flowers in his hand that glowed in the darkness. The Glowflowers were extremely big and luminous. They easily lit everything in the area with a light blue light, everyone was happy to see the change. The green orb's color was a bit harsh on the eyes.
'All I can see is red. Green light will lead to someone only seeing Red after a long time? Maybe I shouldn't tempt fate,' Wu Hai thought about things and then sat down to settle into his new form. He started making things and his actions seemed like he was on a spree. Experimenting with the abilities, he found there were many things about his new form that were interesting.
Wrapping Roots into things like clubs, he made a few dozen types of items, staffs, wooden training swords, healing burls and a bunch of sap that came directly from his palm. Pushing his nature powers as high and far as they would go, he kept making armor pieces after weapons. There were a few types of cloth that he was able to produce but all of them tore relatively easy.
A variety of items took shape a bit of time, everyone was already resting. All of them took Wu Hai's advice and left the Orb alone, none of them responded to it despite its constant haunt. While they remained in the Cave, there was a strange boost to their vitality and Wu Hai was experiencing it by many folds.
Several days later Wu Hai had gotten a knack for his abilities, he opened up the cave sidewall and created a small living area. He setup a bath and some tree roots to filter the ground water, the brothers needed a bath more than any of them. Heating the water was impossible with his current powers but he did everything he could to make it happen. As the water came out of the roots, he had it drop onto the Darkflame blade.
Pulling a number of supplies from the Crusher's storage, the shelves in the cave were filled. The supplies would last a few months. Winter was soon but it wasn't immediately upon them. If they wanted to have meat, they would have to set out and hunt in the near future.
Crafting Wood was different than he originally expected, so long as he understood the material he was able to make it. He made a few high tensile bows from Darksoul Wood and Kamoiya saplings, then he decided he was almost done making weapons from wood and started with staves.
While they held power, it was just a branch of a tree. The water from the root was starting to overfill the tubs in the steam room, Wu Hai stopped putting energy into and made some buckets to store some.
"You guys should probably take a few steps back." Picking up his dice to get a more suitable form, Wu Hai threw them.
'Fire, Mind, Downpour, Dragonkin'.. "Too big", Wu Hai rolled again.
'Lightning, Metal, Wave, Vishnan'
'Water, Darkness, Explosion, Qilinkin'
'Earth, Darkness, Combat, Demon'
'Water, Soul, Shooting Star, Human' Sensing his luck running short for the evening, he decided to stick with the combo. Wu Hai had to do some specialty reading in the near future and the water would make it easier for him to purify their bodies.
With plenty of room, the group no longer felt cramped. The only issues they were experiencing were with the mounts. Being cooped up for long was not easy for any of them.