Alban felt like a schoolgirl with all of the giggling he was doing. Or maybe he was like a little kid viewing their first circus...at least before clowns showed up. His hands up to his face, he didn't care how stupid he looked at this moment. It's finally here...mana town here we go!
Alban set his hands down and tried his best to stop laughing, to which he succeeded. Partly. There was still a stupid grin on his face, but he found it inconsequential. Focusing deeply on his body and entering a meditative state, he noticed something flowing inside him. Through his cells, energy started oozing out and flowing throughout his body, resembling a small stream.
Alban then attempted to guide the energy to his hands. Unknown to himself, his mana control of 3 was the only reason he could do something like this. As the mana flowed into his hand, Alban felt it gathering into his palm. He then attempted to push it out, and was met by a small flame.
'Heh, I wonder if I look like the world's first caveman right now.' His smile was still painted upon his face, looking a bit sinister due to the shadows the flame cast upon it. Alban then thought about his Assembly skill, wondering if he could make something good.
He currently had 1 Tajaran Shard and 14 Floratine Vines, and 20 Eimharr Cloud Beads. Counting his Leaf Shorts, he figured he should be able to make something good. He proceeded to lay his shorts, two vines, and the shard before him. He would've wished to use the shard as a weapon again, but he could clearly see it cracking.
Guiding mana into his palms, he then kinda just...stretched them out. Surprisingly, nothing happened. Shocking. Alban then attempted to activate the Assembly skill, and mana surged out of his finger tips, gently wrapping around all of the components. His hands felt guided to the shining light his materials were covered by, and as he touched them, the light faded. He felt pretty drained, he looked at his mana and saw there was only 12 left.
{Tribal Shorts}
Stats:
Agility + 2
Vitality + 1
Strength + 1
Durability: 15/24
{Inspect is now level three}
His masterpiece was finished. The shorts were a bit longer, with bone shards littered around the ends of the shorts in the shape of small kites. The vines joined around the top of the shorts, wrapping around each other and acting a bit like a brace. Putting the shorts on, Alban couldn't help but notice that they felt a lot more comfortable as well. He then set to inspecting what was left of his inventory.
{Eimharr Cloud Beads}
Recovers 10 mana. Can be melted down.
{Floratine Vine}
A bit reedy.
Durability: (2/3)
Vit + 1
After seeing these two descriptions, only one thought remained in his mind. Accessories! Alban conjured a flame on his hand again, holding one cloud bead over it. As the bead melted, it became a sort of metallic liquid that he could touch and shape a bit. After it cooled down, he noticed that it was kind of like an ore, its shape being a sphere with the indent his finger left upon it. Alban decided to melt down 12 more and shaped it into an anklet. He then used Assembly to fuse it with the three vines.
{Inferior Coiled Shin Guard}
This bracelet can swing the vines coiled around it.
Stats
Vitality + 1
Dexterity + 1
Attack: 4
Satisfied with his product, Alban scratched his nose with pride. Quickly donning it, he tested the whole vine swinging option. As soon as he willed it, the vines unraveled themselves from the neat little tie it made around the anklet. The vines swayed and wiggled as they awaited orders, their movements similar to the snake they came from. Alban then swung the leg he put it on, said leg being his left, and was amazed at seeing the vines extend about 2 meters from his kick. He knew just what to do with these...
A bit of time had passed since Alban forged his equipment. As soon as he got comfortable with commanding the vines and syncing them up with his kicks, he soon went on a hunt once again. It felt a bit more like a massacre though.
Starting with the Tajaran, Alban started to enjoy terrorizing them. When they'd charge at him, he simply had to kick out his left leg and the vines would do all the work. He commanded the vines to bind down those poor creatures, and once they were tied down he practiced mana control by barraging them with a series of flame-infused punches. He was a bit curious as to why it didn't count as a skill, but he didn't fret much about it.
At times, he would sidestep the dodge and and bind a tajaran, proceeding to swing it around and throw it at another monster of its kind if he encountered two at once. Sometimes, he would hurl fireballs at a distance, titillated by the sensation of energy burning in his body. The victims of his fireballs were usually the floratines, his flames suppressing their vines and cutting off most of their avenues of attack. He even started considering the terrain, throwing his fireballs onto the ground to restrict their movements. He also found out that by focusing his mana and willing it to protect him, he could effectively 'coat' his anklet, making it resistant to his own mana. He let his mind run wild at that point, setting the vines on fire and lashing out with them as if they were whips.
He noticed that he seemed a lot crueler, changing from merely killing to survive to looking for new and exciting ways to deal with his opponent. It seemed the Hunter class was right for him after all, as much as he loathed to admit it. He felt something slipping from himself, the morals baked into his brain by human society feeling alien in his own body. As he grew ever worried about his mental state, he would always suddenly feel calmed...he saw that his Steady Mind skill was already at level 5. Feeling a bit unhinged, he started to ignore it and immersed himself in the feeling of moving his body.
Soon, Alban came upon another tajaran, and it seemed totally oblivious to its surroundings. Just as he was about to commence another round of hunting, he felt something. Almost like an instinctive shiver along his spine, his body remembered a feeling he couldn't even recognize at first. It was the feeling of being watched.
Alban turned around hurriedly and faced the direction he thought the gaze was coming from. He was no longer surprised in the appearance of creatures he saw, but he took his time to observe the monster as he felt it wasn't much of a threat. Unbeknownst to him, his wild aura was actually scaring the monster into submission.
A small body, maybe about the height of a child. It looked like it was about 3 foot tall, Alban's height being at least twice the size of it. Its skin was all red, it had quite a thin frame. Malnourished. Or maybe lithe was more apt...but it didn't seem likely. The head on its shoulders looked a bit too big for the body it was connected to, giving the creature a bit of a clumsy appearance. Lastly, it had big and beady eyes, sharp looking teeth, and a singular red horn on the right side of its forehead. Alban recognized what it was, or at least what he thought it was. It was clearly an imp.
"You. Wildman. Scary."
Alban's unshakable aura faltered a bit at that moment. He clearly heard it speak...although it's sentences were choppy, to say the least. He hadn't heard any voice other than the one belonging to his system, or at least any voice that was transmitted in a recognizable language. And what was up with the wildman thing?
"Hey. What's a wildman?"
"You wild. You bloody. Scary."
Come to think of it, Alban hadn't had a shower...and he was going on a huge hunting spree. It made sense that he was bloody, but it remained unnoticed until the crude creature pointed it out. But what was he supposed to do about it? It's not like he had a bucket of water to bathe in. He could only accept the statement and attempt to get more information from the imp like creature. He didn't want to automatically kill something he could communicate with, after all. Deciding on his next course of action, he squatted down and met the imp at eye level.
"Why are you scared?"
"Saw you kill. Face happy. You kill me too."
Oh, that's unfortunate. It saw...all of that. Alban's face seemed to get a bit grouchier as he closed his eyes, before he brightened up into a smile. He was trying to calm down the imp and let it see that he meant no harm. He was even getting a little speech ready. As he opened his eyes again, he noticed that instead of looking at the face of the creature, it was instead a thin little back getting further and further away from him.
'Why, that little...' A chase was soon scheduled after a discovery, it seems.