Honey contracted and the commander was pulled, dragged across the ground by his face. The mud filled his mouth, even when he managed to stand slightly he was forced to spit it out, costing him precious time.
A spear like stab from his opponent cut across the base of the commander's tongue, it was severed, then snapped back and into Honey's grip. "Woo-ooh!" She cheered when the frog man's eyes rolled back in pain. "You shouldn't go around licking women you've just met!" Honey regained her full figure and bounced several meters into the air before spreading her wings. They were rudimentary but effective in carrying her higher.
A delicate rain appeared above her, Honey yelled to Mursayade. "Avoid it." She was waving her hands above her head and weaving signs.
Runes condensed and then a formation circle spread out.
Mursayade rushed out of the engagement zone and watched as a massive storm built overhead. "Exactly what are you doing?"
"I'm having a bit of fun." Honey giggled, the formation tripled in size and hail, the size of basketballs began to fall. A massive amount of Ice was falling from the sky, it devastated the swamp, what little forces that remained were trampled under the falling sky.
"You really can do a lot of different things." Mursayade hid near Honey to avoid the hail.
"Of course, Kink taught me never to lie about my strength. Except to opponents.." 'hehe' Honey snickered again and went to collect the battle remnants.
The Armor, Weapons and Body parts of the Frogmen were definitely unique. The group had not encountered a chance to study anything that was crafted in Ultinia directly, the passing soldiers from before were not from the same Kingdom.
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There was an alarm set in the cockpit to remind the Emperor of the time, he too wanted to have a Steak. It had been quite a long time since they had a meal, it was sitting on a plate at the Table near the Throne.
"Vector, this looks great." Vira cut at it with her knife, when the juicy piece of meat hit her tongue she clamped down and nearly bit the fork. 'Mmm.' Vira's delight was visible.
"I'm glad you like it. Barbecue had always been a family thing, but.. spices are going to run out eventually. We've gotta get more herbs."
Qu's voice rang from the Tower Token when Wu Hai was halfway through his steak. "Master."
He stopped and put his fork down, sighing. "Yes, Qu. What is it?" Wu Hai was prepared for bad news, he waited patiently for Qu's answer.
"The fighting outside has ended, would you like me to lower the door and reorient the Tower?" Qu's voice sounded weak as he spoke.
"No, just let the girls in, don't worry about the tower for now. We don't need to attract more attention." Wu Hai cut into his steak, he had prepared to take another bite when Honey and Mursayade came through the front entrance. They were dragging things inside as well.
"What's this?" Vector asked, he had seen it from a distance but he wasn't outside and most of his attention had been spent on the meat.
"Frog Legs." Mursayade warped several piles of legs out of her storage ring.
The legs flopped onto the floor with a squishing sound.
"Is that food?!" Mursayade rushed over and grabbed a plate full of meat.
She started to devour it.
Honey saw everyone eating. It made her want to bask in the sunlight some more. "No, I think I'm going to head upstairs and sunbathe on the arena deck.
When she started up the stairs, everyone felt a little bad that she was left out but Honey technically didn't eat.
"We should find some herbs she can absorb, its probably better for her. How about after we finish eating, we go get a bunch of them and let her give it a shot." Wu Hai spoke casually but everyone understood that Honey needed to be happy and included in their efforts.
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After having eaten, they made their way outside.
Vector, Vira, Kuzunoha and Wu Hai were able to see the Herbs that scattered the landscape and while they were able to pick and store them, their uses were somewhat unknown. Most of them carried the ability to boost soul energy but some of them held more interesting effects. There was a grass that continually threw out sparks, its intensity grew while being held in the hand.
"Lets call this one Sparkler Grass, the heat is just so-so but it could be useful in other ways." Vira plucked it from the ground and took the roots with it. "I've got another one over here that's got flowers and there's a bush."
"Grab them both but make sure you take precautions, We don't know what effects they have." Wu Hai had already collected more than a dozen fire type plants.
"Try to keep them in tact and in the soil." Kuzunoha spoke to Vector when she saw him ripping a plant out by force.
"I know, this one is just heavy.." Straining slightly, Vector lifted the small shrub free of the ground. There was a dense rock at its base wrapped in the roots. Once it was freed, he stored it away and brought it back out on stable ground. "What is that?"
The rock was red and glowing. It was hot but the roots were feeding off it.
"This is interesting." Vector probed it with his senses and called out for Wu Hai.
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Qu and Qingchi were busy arguing over their prolonged proximity, both of them wanted space.
Qingchi could follow Qu around the Pagoda and without end, her questions continued. It wasn't until Qu took her to the storage levels with the Information Crystal backups that she calmed down. "These are the backups of the Library and most of the information that I've accumulated over the past few thousand years. Master Xuan has helped me catalog the majority of it, my information on souls is in Section 6628." Qu vanished from sight, a puppet had appeared for Qingchi to operate.
There was a manufacturing line left by Kim Li in his early days at the Tower, all crystal data was kept in triplicate and once a crystal was used, the remaining two would be used to make a replacement for the third. It was rather ingenious but a little wasteful, Qingchi marveled at the construction efforts involved and Kim Li had done it without the aide of others.
She began by absorbing formation data and all manner of alchemy formula. The recipes were in no particular order, merely recorded down and sorted into the crystal that held its general field. Making sense of it would take time but Qingchi had a lot of that.
Qu had no problem with the distribution of knowledge, his only worry was that she would deplete crystal reserves in the future.
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The spoils from the Frogmen left the group with a little bit of an understanding to the technology and methodology that the Ultinian Heavens had to offer. Among the things left by the dead were several different types of talismans written in blue, they were written across large translucent scales. The scales were each about the size of a small shield and they had been hung across the shoulders of several of the officers.
Mursayade figured that they were harder to find given that only the higher ups had them on their person, Kuzunoha wanted to try deciphering them.
"I want to go back to hunting, its been a long day already and I'm still yawning from all the work I just had to do to fix the Pagoda. I think I'm going to bed, tomorrow, we're headed out to hunt properly." Wu Hai yawned while stretching his arms out. "You should show the rock to Honey, she will probably want it."
Vector remembered just how difficult it was for the Rock to be lifted, it weighed far too much for its size. The boulder was only about the size of a bar stool but it was wrapped by the roots of the bush. There was a special quality to the bush but he didn't understand it, Vector hoped it was something great but refused to hold his breath over the matter. "Qu, can you take me to Honey's position yet or do I have to walk?" He asked.
"Yes, but, I would prefer it if you walked back." Qu did as he asked, Vector was moved to the Arena balcony.
Honey was sprawled out near some mirrors.
"Aren't you living it up." Vector smiled and spoke softly.
Honey covered herself up, "Welcome back, how did the operation go?"
'Operation?' Vector did his best to figure out what she meant, "Oh, Qingchi's fine. It will be a while before she finishes recovering. We felt bad about eating in front of you so we went out to find herbs, Anyway, I found a rock that you might be interested in."
"Rock?" Honey's dress materialized and darkened further.
He took it out and set it down on the balcony. It radiated heat, with the mirrors nearby, the heat was driven across the path of their reflections and it seared Vector's scales. "Chhe" he pulled his arm back quickly. 'It didn't do that before.'
"Are you alright?" Honey channeled and wrote some runes in the air with her fingertips and the accumulated energy flowed and directed itself to the burns, healing them slowly.
"I'm fine. This Rock is attached to a bush, I don't understand it but.. the bush isnt burning. If you like the rock, keep it. Here's a storage ring, You should put it away when you're done." Vector passed an empty storage ring to Honey.
"Ah, thanks." She caught the ring and put the rock inside and it would be easier to probe its structure. "That fight earlier was fun.. I want to fight more often. Maybe this rock will help." She stroked the ring and put in on her finger.
Vector shook his head in disagreement. "You don't have to push yourself, when you're ready, you'll know it."
He turned away and headed down the stairs. There were more than a hundred stairs to a level and the Balcony was very close to the top of the Pagoda.
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Wu Hai, Vira and Kuzunoha were cultivating in the ship before bed. They had eaten earlier after some fun and even gone out to hunt before that. All of them were tired, once they had finished absorbing a few spirit stones, they all decided to get some sleep.
A rocking sensation shook them all from their sleep. Honey was trying to wake them up.
"Wu Hai. Wake up. Wake up." Honey shook the bed.
Vira opened her eyes, "What is it?"
"The Rock, I know what it is." She sounded excited, Honey's sleep cycle was sporadic ever since she had freed herself from the confines of her old body.
Vira yawned, "That's good." She yawned again while speaking. "I'm going back to bed."
"But.." Honey bit her lip. She went to the wall and opened the dimensional card storage space. There were a few places she had to go. Taking them all for good measure, she went to the front of the ship and found that Misozi was waiting.
"Where you going?" Misozi wanted to know, not stop her.
"You can't stop me. I need to do this. I'm going into the garden dimension, when the Emperor wakes up just let him know I'll return when I'm done. Oh.. and tell Vector thank you for the rock." Honey held up one of the dimensional key cards. "Don't worry, I'll be back."
The card fell to the floor and Honey vanished.
When Honey reappeared, she was standing at the edge of a volcanic plane. It stretched out as far as she could see. The region boiled with primordial earth and fire, "This is Perfect."
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Mursayade and Vector took a room by room tour of the Pagoda. She had been inside it before but had never really been past the third floor and the library.
She and he were alone, no one would disturb them. It was in fact, the other way around.
Qingchi and Qu could both actively sense all the happenings within the pagoda. Qingchi's avatar grimaced, she wondered how Qu managed to keep his composure. "Qu, how do you deal with this?" She asked delicately.
"Normally, I have a harem of my own and choose to ignore such things once they are initiated." Qu waved his hand and an isolation field surrounded them both. "This is much easier than you think, just think about the outcome more than the process. Your muscle memory and imagination know the steps, you just have to go through it in your mind. Now, once again. Make it dance."
Qingchi stretched her senses out and enveloped a Puppet. Her image covered its surface and she did her best to move with grace. All was going as planned until she tripped across a lip on the flooring that had caught the puppets foot. Faceplanting the puppet didn't hurt Qingchi but it did let her better understand the difficulty and precision required to operate it well.