[Name: Sephtis Quinn
Species: Gaian Human
Biological Score: 45 Elemental Score: 48
Spiritual Score: 65 Psychic Score: 46
Mutation - Puppeteers Thread
Requitals: Toothpick]
Staring at the floating screen in front of him, Seth was still in shock. He knew that Angel wouldn't lie to him, or atleast hadn't done so yet, but there was something different about seeing the change before him. Even though it was only a measly increase of 1, it was still an increase.
It was something that had been gnawing at the back of his mind ever since he slew his first enemy. Sure, it seemed that the loot drop was low, but was that really it? If he was supposed to grow stronger, shouldn't there be XP? Shouldn't there be some way of advancing? But this was it.
Even the smallest increase meant that further strength was within his reach. It meant that he wouldn't be weak any longer.
"So… what did it do?" Cynthia probed, not bothering to look at Seth as she was focused on keeping look out for other creatures.
"It increased my stats."
However when she heard his reply, she couldn't help but whip her head around at him, turning it so fast that she forgot the rest of her body should turn along with it.
"It did?!"
"I know, I can hardly believe it myself. We don't grow by killing, we grow by eating. Which means…"
He trailed off, locking eyes with Cynthia before they simultaneously turned to look at the gangly corpse of the Vitruvian Ghoul. A shiver went down Seth's spine at the thought of carving into that things gaunt body and picking its bones for the smallest morsel of flesh.
It wasn't just the fact that it was disgusting or that it already looked like it was already trudging down the path of decay. No, the worst part was that it used to be human.
If the simple humanoid form wasn't enough, the remnants of its outfit and the name tag drilled that fact deep into his mind.
Sure, the Wraith was most likely also human at one point. But it just felt different, far too different.
He was about to suggest to Cynthia that they simply leave it and move on, but he paused when he saw her tilting her head. It was clear she was having a conversation in her head with her guide. She made a disgusted expression for a few seconds before letting out a resigned sigh and started to approach the emaciated corpse.
Making Coal step back from it, so she had plenty of space to do… whatever it was she was planning to do. He simply watched as she stepped up to the corpse, before her body seemed to explode outwards and envelop the corpse like a tidal wave.
She returned back to being a simple blob of slime, although a much bigger one this time, as the corpse started to bubble and hiss inside of her. Within a matter of moments it dissolved in her powerful acid until there was nothing left but a few bubbles that slowly rose to the top of her body before dissipating.
Cynthia returned to her human form, letting out a loud belch before covering her mouth in embarrassment, her face changing its hue from pale blue to a light purple.
"Excuse me."
"It's fine. Just…remind me never to get on your bad side. I don't want to get eaten."
"Hmm, now that you mention it, You do look pretty tasty."
She said with a mischievous smirk before letting out a playful laugh that made her whole body jiggle like jelly, her face returning to its pale blue hue. Before he could provide a rebuttal to her joke though, she tossed the other half of his spear back to him.
"You should have this back if we're going to go hunting some more."
"Don't you need it though?"
"Nah, I got my own now."
She raised her hand as black ink flowed from within her gelatinous body and formed into a long, straight knife that resembled one of the needle like teeth of the ghoul. The blade was double edged, 12 inches long and had a grip of a sickly grey leather, almost as if the grip was formed from the ghoul's own skin. Overall the style of the dagger was reminiscent of a Scottish Dirk.
Cynthia spun the dirk in her hand as Seth pressed the two halves of the spear together, willing them to snap back together and form a whole. He gave it a few swings, to make sure it was stable, before slamming the butt of the silver spear against the ground.
"Let's get some dinner then."
***
Yanking his spear from the slobbering maw of a zombie, Seth let it fall to the ground as he swiftly turned around and swung his weapon in a wide arc. With a single thought, the spear broke apart and quickly reformed into a macabre mace which he immediately used to slam into the head of the other zombie without breaking the moment of his initial swing.
Unable to withstand the force, the rotten head of the undead splattered apart like a watermelon thrown at a high speed train.
He took a second to catch his breath, his chest heaving up and down as his lungs burned from exertion, before turning to find his cyan companion. He found her in a three way battle of her own, although hers was going better than his had been.
Behind her was yet another Wraith, it was the fourth they had encountered in the six or so hours they had been hunting together. In that time, they had managed to move down a grand total of seven floors. While Seth felt that was a decent time, most of it was spent on rest after intense battles and even then the exhaustion was still setting in. But he couldn't deal with that right at this moment.
The Wraith was slashing relentlessly at the girls back. Its deadly claws carving furrows in her viscous form time and time again, yet much to its frustration the girl didn't seem to feel it, nevermind be injured by it.
Instead of dealing with her new back scratcher, Cynthia was dealing with frustrations of her own, as she was repeatedly swiping and slashing with her dirk, yet hitting nothing but air.
The target of her assault was a small, reddish brown bird that darted through the air so fast that all that could be seen of its movement was a blurred streak.
Luckily for her sanity, Seth was already controlling Coal to come and help. Wielding a large desk like it was a baseball bat, Coal smacked the little pest out of the air and pelted it into the ground, where it rolled to a stop after a dozen bounces.
Immediately Cynthia pounced on it, with the wraith in tow, as she plunged her dirk into the small body of the speedy little bird and let out a maniacal laugh.
Seth couldn't help but shake his head at her antics as, with a flick of his wrist, he sent out his spare set of threads to deal with the Wraith clawing at her back. At this point, he had gotten used to where the Wraiths kept their cores within their smokey bodies, so he simply wrapped the threads around the marble like a whip and yanked it out.
He immediately crushed the core and used his threads to slurp up that good stuff, hearing Angel whisper in his mind those magic words.
[Your Spiritual Score has increased.]
"Hey! What do you think you're doing? You get those ones."
Seth shouted like a disappointed father, pointing at the zombie corpses behind him. Cynthia, who was almost eating the bird whole, let out a groan and tossed to him instead.
"Ugh… Why do I have to get the rotten ones?"
"It's not my fault you are the only one who can eat them. Anyways, we collected some good stuff. I say we'll take a rest and sort it out."
"Sounds good to me!"
Cynthia said, already in the form of a large blob which vibrated to speak, digesting the disgusting zombie corpses Seth had left behind. Apparently, it seemed, not talking with your mouth full didn't apply when you didn't actually eat or talk with your mouth.