This new information was sent on a ship back to the guild in the old world that was sent to restock on all the supplies that the operation against zorah had exhausted. it would take at least three months for the ship to get there and back with the supplies at which point alex knew the time for the second operation against zorah would be being discussed. this was just after the first kirin would show up in the coral highlands. alex planned to stockpile points during this time in order to get another element as well as aim to get the perfect A virus since he had discovered that ultra dense muscles left his body unbalanced.
The reason for this was that alex had failed to consider that while increasing the density of his muscles greatly increased the strength they could exert it also massively increased their energy and nutrient demand. this meant that at the moment any action alex did left him more hungry and exhausted than before the change. the only reason it hadn't become a problem yet was because of the size of the prey he usually hunted that gave him a massive amount of nutrients.
The A virus would shift his body into a more balanced state while also increasing his attributes across the board greatly. alex priced checked the virus and was thankful he hadn't tried to get it earlier as it cost ten million points after he added his changes to it's description including the infectivity restriction and exclusivity to himself. this was a very pricy thing for the current alex who got about two hundred thousand points per kill if he only targeted the alpha species like the raths and diablos. getting a new element was a far more reasonable goal since it cost one million eight hundred thousand points , plus a hundred thousand to get a corresponding orb.
The price for elements had become clear to alex as he figured out that the price was a multiplied version of the previous elements price times however many elements this would give him , in this case three. the price for the element after this one would be four times this elements price while the price for the final element would be five times the fourth elements price. alex couldn't say this was unfair since he was well aware that the amount of creatures that had all the elements or even most of them was able to be counted on one hand.
This would certainly make the process of gathering all of the elements into his body far more difficult but he would still manage eventually. gathering points had never been easier for alex since he had three whole areas that contained alpha species he could hunt everyday. the rotten vale didn't actually contain any alpha species but had mostly scavenger monsters. the coral highlands , wildspire waste and the ancient forest each had at least one alpha species with the wildspire and ancient forest having two different kinds.
Hunting in the last two areas basically guaranteed alex an alpha per hunt and if he hunted once a day he earned around eighteen million points at the end of this three month period. it took alex ten days to gather enough points to get his next element ,fire. he also obtained the elemental orb that boosted the element growth thanks to the synergy description to small stones at a time. the small amount of points alex had saved up from his previous hunts before this time were barely dented to get a new set of horns and spines in a flame like design.
This new row of spines was located on the right side of his backbone rather than the left like the other two elemental spines. besides the third fleet who were not used to alex undergoing sudden shifts in biology no one was really surprised at this new change. this didn't mean it wasn't noted and celebrated though since alex only got new spines and horns when he got a new element. the smithy people from the second were thrilled when they learned it was fire as it meant alex could help them keep materials hot longer.
Smithing was weird in this world since for some crazy reason bones acted more like metal than it did bones on earth. here they could be tossed into a forge and beaten into shape without any trouble at all rather than simply burn and crack like bones on earth. it certainly explained to frankly superhuman levels of damage people in this world could tank before fainting or even dying. hell in the game you could even leap several stories while holding a child sized egg before landing in a squat and walking it off easily. alex was sure that if the humans from this world ever figured out how to travel to earth and invaded the people there would be screwed.
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