"A what?" Seth muttered softly, racking his brain to see if he could remember ever hearing such a word, only ever coming up with something similar from an old assassination game. But that wasn't quite right.
[A Requital. It is something given to you as a reward for continued survival]
It took Seth a few moments to process what Angel had said to him, but once he had he couldn't stop the smirk from spreading across his lips. He looked to the side, where the strange floating ball of nonsensical symbols was floating.
"A reward, huh? What kind? An upgrade to my stupid ability would be nice. Really thought I'd be able to at least damage someone with these strings. Hell, I can't even tickle them." He said with a sigh, once again moving to the realm of self pity. It was only Angel's words that dragged him back out and dropped a bucket of cold water on that notion, even though he wasn't being serious in the first place.
[No, an upgrade cannot be given as a reward. Only by improving yourself and progressing down the path of evolution can you further develop your newfound abilities.]
Seth nodded to himself as he heard these words, he had expected as much. He quickly glanced outside the door, making sure nothing else was coming for him, before turning back to Angel.
"Alright then, give me this reward. Hopefully it's something actually useful."
[Certainly. Here is your new Requital. It, like all future rewards, is made from the enemies that you overcome.] They said matter of factly, starting to float across the room.
Seth couldn't help but look at the corpse of the rock man, the being that seemed nearly indestructible. He could imagine it being turned into a powerful set of armour, like the type you would get after beating an incredibly difficult boss monster. He watched Angel float towards its body, already imagining himself beating his way out of here with an indestructible suit of armour. But alas, it seemed that wasn't meant to be.
Instead, Angel floated past the rock man and over to the pile of glittering dust that was all that remained of the fanged skeleton. They quickly sucked up the pile of dust like a powerful vacuum cleaner, before pulsing with an array of colours. The dust floated around the central orb that was Angel's core, at least he assumed that's what it was, and started to arrange itself into the letters that floated around said core.
The process only took a few seconds until they had formed a new atomic orbital of unknown symbols. Those same newly formed symbols burst forth, swimming their way through the air towards Seth and began to weave themselves into a new pattern.
With a final flash of light, Seth suddenly felt a slight weight in his hand and gripped it on reflex. He looked down, finding himself holding the silvered shaft of a weapon, a Warpick.
[You have gained the Requital, Toothpick.]
It had a 4 and a half foot shaft that appeared to be made out of silvered bone, each bone around 12 inches in length and connecting together through unknown means. At the base of the shaft was a small spike, only a few inches long, which had a design reminiscent of a shark's tooth.
At the head of the weapon was quite literally a head. Or more specifically a skull. While it looked human from the front, it didn't from the back as it elongated to form the bludgeoning side of the Warpick, almost like a ball peen hammer.
The pick itself extended outwards from the open mouth of the deformed skull, extending to a length of almost 2 feet, coming to a deadly point. Its design reminded Seth very much of the vampiric fangs that the skeleton had while it was still alive… or would it be undead?
Seth raised his eyebrows, taking in the sight of the macabre weapon that he had been gifted. While it wasn't an invincible suit of armour, this would certainly work for him. He gave it a few slight swings back and forth, testing its balance and weight in his hand. It looked resilient, at least he hoped it was as a fragile weapon would be beyond useless, yet it felt virtually weightless in his hand.
He was thankful for this, as he could still feel the burn in his arms from carelessly swinging about that fire extinguisher. He could only imagine how it would have been with a proper weapon in a prolonged fight.
"I can definitely work with this. It will be much better than some crappy improvised weapons. Personally, in a situation like this against unknown enemies I would have preferred a spear to keep them at a distance. But I'd take anything over those scissors." Seth said to himself as he did a mock swing with his new weapon towards the ground.
Although as soon as he stood straight, the head of the new weapon shattered like glass. But before Seth could even mutter his grievances or state his annoyance, the shards of glass swirled and reformed. Not as a warpick, but as a spear instead.
The shaft grew, now 6 feet in length, with a dog-like skull resting along the tip of the spears shaft. The blade that was coming from inside the dog skull's mouth was now double sided, starting wide and coming to a sharp point. A Langdebeve blade of silvered bone, the blade even slightly serrated.
Seth was confused at the change for a brief second, before he remembered the creature's ability. Not just how it was able to reform itself from any and all damage, except from that of its core, but how it was also able to rearrange its hands into sharp daggers.
He couldn't help but let out a soft chuckle, releasing that he had been given a shifting weapon. With another thought, it broke apart and quickly reformed back to that of its original form, the warpick, then back to the spear again. He would have to leave further experimentation for when he was in a safer place and not so exposed.
"Alright," Seth said to himself with a chuckle, "Now I've got a decent weapon. Just wish I knew what this stupid ability did so I could actually use it."
It was then that a particular voice chimed in once again.
[If you'd like, I can show you the details of your ability so you can better understand how to implement it towards your continued survival.]
Seth was stunned for a moment, unable to process the fact that it could have told him the entire time. He pinched the bridge of his nose, letting out a sigh as he quelled the frustration.
"Yes. Yes Angel, Please do show me that. And in the future, please don't hold such information back from me."
[Certainly. My apologies.]
[Mutation - Puppeteers Thread: Your soul has taken its first step in transcending the spiritual plane and breaching into the physical. The user is able to create thin, spiritual threads made of soul energy emanating from their fingers. By connecting the threads to an inanimate object, the object is converted into the puppet of the user.]
He took a few seconds to read over the description, raising his eyebrows as he did so.
"Inanimate objects?… puppet?..Hmm…"
He muttered to himself, his eyes trailing away from the floating screen and back towards the corpse of the indestructible stone man, the light within him completely gone and simply leaving behind a humanoid husk of coal. A devious smile spread across Seth's lips as he finally understood what he could do.
"Perhaps you can be of use after all, my friend."