-Alice:
[-First Seal-]
Name: [Anima Invoker]
Characteristic: [Soul Slate]
Quirk(s): [Spirit Invocation], [Anima Integration]
Taint: [Berserk Ego]
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[Soul Slate]: A soul slate in your mind that shows the potential and status of inanimate, non-sentient things that you focus on and objects you animated. The slate can also store the objects you animate using Spirit Invocation only if they obey you, limited to storing three animated beings.
[Spirit Invocation]: Dropping a drop of your blood on non-sentient and non-creature things before using this Quirk will bestow them with a spirit and make them animated. Consumes stamina when using the Quirk; consumption depends on the target. The objects you animate might not obey you, and if that happens, they vanish shortly.
[Anima Integration]: You can temporarily integrate with an animated object that obeys you in your body, receiving its extraordinary power but with a slight mutation.
[Berserk Ego]: There's always a high chance that the object you animate might become berserk and attack you.
"I am going to use Spirit Invocation on this flower," Alice said, a few sweat drops forming on her forehead. "Lia-sis, use barrier on me."
Lia looked at the flower in front of Alice, a palm-sized red flower with beautiful orange vein patterns.
"What do you see in it with your Soul Slate?" Lia curiously asked since Alice could see some information about things from her Soul Slate characteristic.
"It's not poisonous. So you shouldn't use Toxic Farm on it," Alice informed. "As for its properties, its name is Roublin Flower, and your skin will burn and get charred by it if you touch it."
"Eh? Then this flower might pew out fire after getting animated," Lia said as she used her Bond Barrier on Alice.
On their way to this planet, everyone wanted to check Alice's Quirk, so Alice used it on the Red Rex laser pen!
The freaking laser pen became alive with two stick legs and one eye on its body at the button. But it became berserk and started shooting lasers from its single eye. The laser was more powerful than before!
Fortunately, Rei immediately cut it into two with his katana, causing it to vanish.
"I also want to see how long they take to vanish if they don't obey me," Alice said before slightly cutting her thumb as she dropped a drop of her blood on the flower.
Afterward, she pointed her palm at the flower and used [Spirit Invocation].
Her stamina reduced slightly as a mystical tiny white orb came out of her palm and entered the flower.
The flower soon moved on its own before a white border covered it.
Three seconds passed in silence before the flower detached, and a pair of cartoony eyes appeared on it as it transformed into a humanoid flower!
Its head was the central flower with two eyes and a literal mouth with sharp orange teeth! It grew a torso from below before it was covered by a green leaf as if covering its body with a cloth, and lastly, it grew two thin green hands and legs from that torso.
It curiously blinked its eyes before looking at Alice. A second later, the flower's head started glowing before it shot out a ball of flame!
The ball of flame naturally couldn't break Lia's Bond Barrier. Her Bond Barrier was a Silver-grade Quirk, but it could go up to Gold-grade depending on her closeness with her allies.
The more she feels closer to someone, the more powerful the barrier they receive. Since the upper limit of Quirks in Inferior Seals without any evolution was Gold-grade, Lia's Quirk could reach there.
This ball of flame from Roublin Flower was not even that strong, only slightly reducing the barrier's durability.
Upon seeing that its previous attack did nothing, the flower shot another ball of fire, entirely ignoring Lia and just focusing on Alice.
"Why don't you obey me?" Alice frowned.
The flower shot another fireball.
"Stop attacking!"
But soon, it vanished.
"So it stayed alive for six seconds," Lia said as she counted.
Alice sighed in disappointment and said, "Two tries, two fails. Let's go to the next one."
…
Alice and Lia roamed the forest for five hours and used their Quirks.
Lia used her [Toxin Farm] Quirk on poisonous plants and flowers to store Toxin Nova to use in emergencies but discovered her limit as she could only store up to five Toxin Novas.
Meanwhile, Alice was sorely disgruntled as she had yet to animate something that would obey her!
Everyone rebelled and attacked the poor soul.
"Your Taint is troubling you too much."
"Yeah. Let me see if it appeared on my Exceed Tree. I want to remove it as soon as possible, sigh."
Alice closed her eyes and checked out her Exceed Tree. After a careful inspection, she found the black spot on her Exceed Tree and focused on it.
[Condition to Remove the Taint: Successfully invoke twenty anima spirits that obey you.]
"…"
Seeing Alice's speechless expression, Lia curiously asked, "what's the condition?"
"I need to invoke twenty anima spirits… that obey me," Alice said, a frustrated pout forming on her cute face.
"Ouch, that is indeed going to very tiresome and long," Lia said with a woeful smile.
Patting Alice's head, Lia cheered her up.
"Let's continue trying, this is a good place for your Quirk, so we won't leave before you get three spirits that obey you."
"Mhmm," Alice nodded, regaining her determination. "Let's go, Lia-sis. I will definitely make one obey me today!"
The girls continued with their endeavor.
Since Lia was free, she started using her Gifted ability in passive mode for continuous practice to dominate and resist the mythical beast of her ability.
And Alice continued using Spirit Invocation until she was tired. Unfortunately, she still didn't get any obedient anima spirit.
Evening descended, and both returned to the spacecraft before immediately sleeping to the tiresome day.
…
Meanwhile, Leo and Rei were received as guests in a beautiful big courtyard with cherry blossom trees, open pavilions, and a pond with colorful fishes.
They found this place right after leaving the forest, and the people here also saw the spaceship, so they were about to go there.
Fortunately, Leo and Rei talked with them and also displayed their strength, earning their respect.
After telling them his request, Leo successfully got some blood from the master of this courtyard, who was an old man who trained poor and talented kids from villages for free.
There were also sects where people of villages and small towns would join to get strong and return back to settle and protect their villages or towns from ferocious beasts and earn money with their strength to support their families.
The master of this big courtyard used to be a big shot and had reached the peak of his strength.
Rei even lost his duel against the old man! His mastery of martial arts awed Rei and Leo.
They decided to stay for the night since it was already evening. After a good dinner and comfortable sleep, they left early morning.