Exiting Nature’s Meditation
, Archie smiled before looking back towards his notifications that he ignored in favor of regenerating a bit more of his reserves, bringing his health to full and both his mana and stamina reserves to around 65%.
*Nature-Attuned Pugilist class skills available. Choose one of the options*
When going through the list of skills he was offered, only two grabbed his attention, Petrifying PalmHyper Impact
Petrifying Palm (Uncommon):
Infuses a palm strike with a surge of nature-infused petrification. When you strike, the impact releases a petrifying energy that seeps into your opponent’s or foe’s body, turning portions of their flesh into stone, which, when attacked, deals increased damage.
Archie chuckled to himself, imagining the absurdity of it. He pictured just randomly slapping someone and watching as they stumbled backward in shock, before their entire body turned into stone, and the loss of balance caused them to crash onto the ground and shatter into thousands of pieces.
, Archie sighed in contentment at the thought, but then blinked a few times before admitting,
, Archie mused, glancing back at the skill’s description. The ability to turn parts of his opponent’s body into stone seemed incredibly useful. Not only would the petrification hinder their movements, but any attack on those petrified parts would deal increased damage.
However, it only left him with one question: Would the petrified pieces hinder Leeching Strikes of FuryPetrifying Palm
Which left him with the second skill that caught his eye.
Hyper Impact (Uncommon):
With every strike you land, you passively absorb a sliver of the energy created from the impact, minorly amplifying the damage of your subsequent strikes. Once fully charged, you can unleash a devastating strike that releases a shockwave of force.
, Archie remarked, recognizing the similarity instantly.
, Archie smiled as he reread both his Cragforge Gauntlets of Nature Resonance’s and HyperImpact
After the battle with the Five-Eyed Serpent and its final form, the Triarch Serpent, when Archie reached his base, it was only then that he used Gaze of the Forgefather
On the outside, his gauntlets looked as though they were only a bit banged up, but internally, they were in ruins, and they needed to be repaired quickly before it was considered broken by the System.
While repairing the damage to his gauntlets, he’d debated whether or not he should toss them into his spatial storage and make new ones, but with how much ore he had left, that was out of the question.
Even after he’d scoured the volcanic section of the island, he barely found a couple more pounds of Cragforge ore, barely enough for another gauntlet, something he told himself that he would save for when he reached D-Grade and needed something to keep up.
And whenever he tried to justify to himself about making non-Cragforge gauntlets, Impact Dynamo always popped in his head because of how useful it was, albeit it had become easier to charge up as he grew in strength, which translated to diminishing returns when activating Impact Dynamo, but it was a great ability to have.
But with Hyper Impact,
His gauntlets, if you could still call them that, were riddled with cracks, chipped in several places, and even missing a pinky on his right hand, along with both an index and ring finger on his left.
They weren’t even considered to be broken; they were only heavily damaged when identifying them.
Could he have repaired them fully? Yes, but it felt more symbolic to leave them like this.
Carefully lifting them from off the sand, Archie sent them into his spatial storage, and only after selecting Hyper Impact
His stats didn’t decrease after he placed his gauntlets into his spatial storage.
Archie asked himself in disbelief, repeatedly taking in and out his gauntlets from his spatial storage. Curious, Archie took off his bracers and sent them into his spatial storage and noticed the same result; he retained his stats even while they were off of his person, but lost the abilities they gave him while physically equipped.
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Archie was pulled out of his thoughts when Aoife suggested that they should search their attackers’ corpses for anything useful.
Looting, his fourth favorite activity to do after the integration.
‘You find anything cool?’ Archie signed, before taking out a pile of various vials and sticks from his spatial storage and placing them on a cloak he pilfered from the first attacker he killed. ‘Because I did!’
Health Vial (Common):
A vial of health concocted by a D-Grade Alchemist. This vial, when injected, fully restores a total of 3000 Health. Adverse effects will occur if you inject another Health Vial into your system before the cooldown expires. Cooldown duration: 1 hour. Requirements: D-Grade.
Mana Vial (Common):
A vial of mana concocted by a D-Grade Alchemist. This vial, when injected, fully restores a total of 2600 Mana. Adverse effects will occur if you inject another Mana Vial into your system before the cooldown expires. Cooldown duration: 1 hour. Requirements: D-Grade.
Cytotoxic Poison Vial (Common):
A Cytotoxic poison brewed by an E-Grade Alchemist. Brewed with Bloodrot Yew, Ashen Thistle, and fangs from a late E-Grade Scourgeborn Stag. Upon contact with biological material, the poison rapidly spreads, destroying tissues and cells.
Gravebloom Duststick (Common):
A necrotic powder concocted by a D-Grade Alchemist. Made from dried Corpsebloom Pollen, powdered E-Grade Ghoul’s Spittle, and crushed bones of a late E-Grade Plague Basilisk. When inhaled, it causes slow tissue decay and festering wounds, making healing magic less effective. The glass container merely requires a small amount of force to release its contents. Requirements: D-Grade.
Languish Bloom Sporesstick (Common):
A neurotoxin powder concocted by a D-Grade Alchemist. Made from Chimera Thistle pollen, Ashen Lotus dust, and the dried sap of an E-Grade Infant Bloodthorn Vine. Upon exposure, microscopic thorns begin growing inside the victim’s veins, causing excruciating pain and eventual paralysis. The glass container merely requires a small amount of force to release its contents. Requirements: D-Grade.
Along with a couple of Silver coins, these were the exact type of items Archie would assume belonged to a group of assassins.
, Archie smirked. The Health and Mana Vials were thin, cylindrical containers, containing either red or blue liquid with a metallic outer casing. On the bottom of the vial was a see-through circular seal that covered a thin hollow needle behind it. On top of the vial was either an H or M button, denoting either health or mana.
Looking at Aoife’s pile of items she’d found, he noticed quite a few items were the same, indicating that these items might be standard items that the Hounds who hunt us down might carry with them.
Deepiron Shackles (Common):
A set of shackles, forged by a D-Grade Blacksmith and enchanted to keep any humanoids below D-Grade restrained and restrict all use of mana and stamina. Effects: Mana Restriction, Stamina Restriction & Physical Reinforcement. Status: Moderately Used. Requirements: Humanoid Race.
Deepsilver Lockpick (Uncommon):
A sturdy set of easily moldable lockpicks made from Deepsilver by a skilled E-Grade Locksmith. Status: Lightly Used. Requirements: Rouge-related Class & Humanoid Race.
‘Okay, I get the shackles, the poisons, the lockpicks, and the vials. Classic assassin gear,’ Archie signed to Aoife, one brow arched high. ‘But what I don’t get is - what the hell is that?’
The ‘that’ in particular was a baseball-sized reddish-orange creature that constantly shifted different parts of its body at every second, seemingly never comfortable.
[Flesh Golem Lv 10]
, Archie thought before being interrupted by a large burp that escaped the flesh golem, and a piece of orangish-red crystal smacked Archie’s right cheek.
Picking the piece of orangish-red crystal that landed on his cheek, Archie brought it up to his face and narrowed his eyes in confusion before his eyes went wide.
on! Archie realized.
‘This thing was the reason why the flames died out!’ Archie signed to Aoife, who looked at Archie in surprise. ‘It ate the beastcore I was using for a skill.’
“This thing?” Aoife asked, poking at his fleshy exterior and uncaring as its beak started to repeatedly snap shut on her cybernetic finger which then transformed into a hippo’s mouth and attempted to gnaw on her finger. “Are you sure? Beastcores are pretty large, I don’t think this one could have eaten it.”
‘Where did you find it?’ Archie signed as he took out another Emberlash Eudromaeosaur Beastcore and held both it and the shard that the flesh golem spat at him.
“I found it in the Hecatoncheir skeleton,” Aoife answered as she noticed the similar patterns of the core and the shard. “It does look the same. What level was this beastcore?”
‘I think around the high 80s,’ Archie signed before asking another question, struggling with trying to spell out what she’d said prior. ‘What’s a Hec…aton… Hecatoncheir?’
“A Hecatoncheir belongs to the Giantoid race, the Hecatoncheires. At birth, they possess three heads and six arms, standing at the height of an average adult human. With each evolution, they grow both in size and limbs.” Aoife answered as she stared at the level 10 flesh golem in confusion. She’d never met one of the flesh golem race before, nor did she quite understand how something so small managed to devour something double its size. “I’ve heard rumors say that by C-Grade, they have fifty heads and a hundred arms.”
, Archie wondered, trying to imagine a fight between him and the dead creature behind them both. ‘You think they’d be down for a fight? Because I’d totally be down for one!’
“I'm not sure. The last I heard of the Hecatoncheires, they were last seen on this planet thousands of years ago,” Aoife smiled at Archie’s joke, unaware that he was being completely serious.
“I assume no one was able to continue to supply them with cybernetics for their Cybernetic Sockets,” Aoife joked, getting awe-filled eyes from Archie.
‘Woah! That would be awesome to fight, I have to see if I can find one,’ Archie signed in awe as he stared at the Hecatoncheir skeleton.
Archie continued to stare at the skeleton, only for him to immediately swat at something flying directly at his face purely on instinct.
Blinking for a few moments, Archie looked at Aoife, who looked just as shocked, then toward his reddish-orange palm, and finally to the squashed puddle of bubbling flesh that seeped into the sand.
*[Flesh Golem Lv 10] has been slain – XP has been given.*
Scent of the Hunted has weakened.
Not even the throbbing pain of Phantom Pain could mask his surprise.
