[Since the Fall: 10/17/809 - 6:23:17]

[Skill Leveled Up: Good Samaritan (13) -> (28)]

[Skill Leveled Up: Meaningful (38) -> (41)]

[Skill Leveled Up: Growing Pains (119) -> (121)]

[Total Stats Gained: +2 Physical]

[Skill Leveled Up: Solidity (84) -> (86)]

[Skill Leveled Up: Homeostasis (73) -> (81)]

[Skill Leveled Up: Meditation (83) -> (88)]

[Skill Leveled Up: Identify of the Stout Protector (60) -> (61)]

[Skill Leveled Up: High Mind (77) -> (81)]

[Affinity Strengthened:

[Fortitude: Mid-Uncommon: 99% has strengthened into [Fortitude: High-Uncommon 6%]]

It'd taken two days after he'd dug out all the crystals for the first breakthrough to come.

His and Fendrascora's magical signatures were mostly attuned to one another, and they both began to feel a sort of resonance, similar to how he'd felt with Fang and her siblings when he first saw the Flesh Traps.

He now knew that it was because their low Spiritual stats made them more vulnerable to his manipulation or demands, their natural defenses being quite low. If he felt this now, Dei suspected that he'd have an easier time with hurting Fendrascora, just as she would have an easier time of hurting him.

He likened this resonance to a bond of trust, both of them lowering their guard for the other, earning a synchronization as a reward. What to do with this reward wasn't clear, but one use would be carrying Fendrascora around.

Although they'd finally attuned to one another though, he couldn't just carry her, because she still hadn't figured out how to compress her size. She insisted she was making progress, but it would still be a while. They didn't have a while though, so instead they found another solution.

Fendrascora could store the main section of her body within the "container," and have the rest of her body follow the main portion around, meaning that her entire body did not need to be within the container, just the important bits. Luckily, her main body was humanoid-shaped, and her container just so happened to be a humanoid shaped man (Dei).

Once Fendrascora's signatures overlapped with Dei, they had to figure out how he was going to move her main body. She could still manipulate it, so she said she could carry herself- albeit slowly- as he walked, as long as she had a connection to herself.

Dei needed to use his arms, so he needed her main body behind him, in case he had to fight something. The final solution they found was for six holes to be opened in his skin on his back, where Fendrascora's central body would connect to her peripheral body. When, at last, it came time to move her, Dei stood at the edge of her pool, back to her peripheral body.

"Ready?" he asked her.

"As ever!" she said excitedly, finally leaving the prison behind. Over time, Clever had eaten all the rest of the rocks and grown yet again to the point where he slightly exceeded his sisters size, last they met her.

Slowly, Dei walked forward, letting Fendrascora move the parts of her that were outside of his body. The mass of writhing tentacles moved and molded, a central orb of blood carried upon five evenly spaced legs, the sixth connecting to Dei himself. On the central orb, a mobile garden of Fendrascora's beloved plants, the ones his mother had left for him.

She hoisted herself up and out of the pool, carefully watching whether she would begin taking damage so she could tell Dei to move backwards to her prison. The moment never came though as he moved towards the door.

After a minute of gradual shifting, Fendrascora was fully out of her pond, and Dei turned to look at it.

The ball of blood held on five elephant-like legs would have made him gag a few months ago, but now it was just another weird sight in these caves. The sixth leg connected to his back, and he felt a weird tingling along his body when he remembered there was an entire being moving through his blood stream.

"Gross" he heard Clever say, and turned towards him.

Dei chuckled. "Gross? How so?" Clever was better at using concentrated words to express himself, rather than bare emotions.

"Looks like big parasite… but she is not?" he asked the last part, just to confirm that Fendrascora wasn't harmful to Dei.

"No, she is not. She is a friend."

Clever nodded. "Friend."

Now mobile, Fendrascora was sending off waves of happiness, and was ready to leave. Making sure he had everything on him, both his swords and his satchel, Dei began walking down the exit of the hallway. No more Darkness mana was produced, and the sound dampening effect was gone as well. Though distantly, he could hear the echoes of dripping on stone.

Looking through his [Tremor Sense], he began to move towards the first of three spiritual signatures in the area he intended to collect before going back to visit the Garden.

* * *

Fendrascora's legs latched onto every surface, not just the floor. Multiple times she carried her garden along the ceiling or walls, her liquid form easily gripping onto everything. She reorganized her garden a few times to squeeze through tighter spaces, arranging the plants single-file or pushing them together a bit, always very gently.

Dei was nervous at first that they would attract even more attention than they had the first time because Fendrascora gave off massive vibrations with each step, but he watched through his Tremor Sense as several creatures went out of their way to avoid their group, probably fearing a large predator.

There was even one case of a feline creature that wasn't really paying attention crossed paths with them. Dei was ready to attack, but the lean cat-like animal jumped ten feet backwards when it saw them, turned around, and ran away as fast as it could.

When Clever saw how confused he was, Clever once more pointed out that Fendrascora looked like a massive parasite, puppeteering Dei. No animal would want to fight something like that.

Dei remembered the Accipere he saw, where it would supposedly absorb mass into itself to grow its form, and if he faced something horrific like that, he'd probably turn around too!

Looking at his sword that he constantly fed, the weird blood garden floating behind him, and the time lizard that could shoot lasers, Dei wondered when his friend group had gotten so weird.

* * *

The Flesh Trap was unhappy. This should have been a time for joy, as she'd finally gotten enough Soul mana. She hit an affinity, the evolved version of Blood, and her work was done.

It just felt so… lackluster.

For weeks, she'd absorbed Soul mana, constantly building a bridge between the Blood affinity and some faraway affinity she could barely sense it could connect to. Finally, that bridge hit a wall. She couldn't find a way to build it any further, and now this new affinity offered itself to her.

The issue? As she studied it, she felt it was so generic. It was called the Flesh affinity, and it involved controlling the biological components of others, using it against them. It would be strong, yes, but there was just nothing special about it. When she first started building this affinity connection to something else, she felt a deep and terrible power at the end of it. Now, it was a completely regular concept. Flesh. Something normal.

It continuously tried to connect to her soul, offering her a bountiful accord, but she sneered at it and denied it even the slightest access. It wasn't enough, it was pathetic. She resisted it so fully that the affinity recoiled, its incessant attempts coming to an end, causing it to recede to wherever it came from.

Now, there was nothing else to do. A barrier lay before her, blocking her attempts to build further, but something didn't feel right…

Finally, it dawned on her. Though fleeting, she could still sense it. She could still sense that terrible power far away, but she couldn't reach it. The connection she felt to it called out to her, but the barrier held her back. Something attempted to block her from claiming what was rightfully hers.

Knowing that there was something past the barrier gave her all the strength and determination she needed. At first, she assumed the barrier was absolute, that it was the end of all things, that there were no more affinities past it, but her heart told her something else. Something more.

So again and again, she slammed into it, pouring every fiber of her being into her attempts at cracking it. Using the extra Soul mana she had, she empowered herself, slamming into the barrier again and again. She could sense no cracks, no matter how many hours she tried, but nonetheless she continued. She would not give up.

The longer she fought, the more sure she was of herself. It was out there, somewhere.

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Finally, in the deepest recesses of her heart, she declared that nothing would hold her back. She internalized into herself that she would not be contained, and this thought passed through every inch of her soul, empowering it.

The next time she slammed into the barrier, there was nothing to hold her back. She'd not shattered the barrier, she instead simply passed through. It could not hold her back, it did not have the right to do so.

The moment she crossed that threshold, several notifications forcibly opened themselves to her vision.

[WARNING! You are crossing outside of System boundaries. You will no longer be under the Systems protection. Should you choose to continue, you will be subject to the wild forces of the universe.

You are attempting to reach for: An Affinity. Should you connect to an affinity outside of System boundaries, you will not be protected from the latent will of the affinity. The latent will of affinities carry the message of their original creators, potentially superimposing themselves over you.

The System can grant no assistance in learning, forming, or containing outer affinities.

Are you sure you want to continue down this path?]

Triumphant, the Flesh Trap carefully read the notification. She was doing something not even the System could help her with. The thought caused her to hesitate for only a moment, but another thought cleared her head.

She would surpass the boundaries of the System. She would be contained by nothing, she would bow to no one. She did not need the assistance of the System, she would walk whatever path was required of her because, in the end, she knew power would be her reward.

Not ignoring the notification, but not stopping either, the Flesh Trap continued to build her bridge towards the faraway affinity, now without the System to protect her.

* * *

Dei tried planning out his new fighting style if a monster were to approach them, but Fendrascora said it was unnecessary, assuring him that she would stay out of the way and he could fight the same as he always had.

He believed her, because he still didn't really feel the weight when he was walking around, despite the massive body attached to him. Speaking of, that body was beginning to store certain things as Fendrascora took interest in the world around her. Random rocks, plants she thought looked special, and even in one case an odd bug, were all sucked into the orb and spit back out into the quickly decorated garden.

Dei insisted she release the bug, he didn't think it would be happy atop her mobile garden. He wouldn't have been too opposed, but she didn't want to take the generic-looking plants it lived off of, so he thought it'd be cruel to take it away from it.

Now that she was out of the prison, her levels were coming in quickly, and he occasionally Identified her to check her progress.

[Corrupted Damaged Crippled Embodiment of the Flow - Level 48]

* * *

Once Fendrascora was done taking all the knick-knacks she could find, she began to store a lot of water in her body, growing the orb to epic proportions. To him, it looked like a shiny red marble, with a bubble of air trapped in the middle because the water was so clear.

Using that water, Fendrascora kept her plants healthy, and he suspected she watered him too, carefully managing his water and nutrient levels…

"Am I also part of her garden now?"

* * *

Sleeping was an endeavor to say the least. He tried digging out a cave large enough for Fendrascora to hide in as well, but that was just not feasible. Instead, Dei suggested that she lean into the "big parasite" look she had going on, forming bloody veins all along the walls next to the crevice which he hid in.

He told her to wake him if anything approached, and she agreed to keep watch. The four of them needed rest, but it took different forms. The others all agreed that Dei would not be put on watch because he needed to be in top condition at all times because he was their combatant; he needed to be ready at any moment. The others kept watch instead, especially because their versions of "sleep' were a lot less vulnerable

Fang and Fendrascora could only enter stupors, where they could perceive everything around them but wouldn't actively think or talk about it, relying on a subconscious sense of danger to warn them.

Clever was almost always the one on watch during the night. He was carried around during the day, where he would sleep, so he had an inverse schedule of the others.

Fang and Fendrascora agreed with Dei to only rest four hours during their breaks, keeping mobile and staying aware.

* * *

After a day and a half, during their third break, they were finally attacked.

Fendrascora quickly woke up, telling Dei "I felt a scan over my body, something investigated me. Though I am unsure of what it managed to figure out, I am still wildly weak, and that has no doubt been detected."

On his feet and ready before the first word was out, Dei listened to the rest of her sentence as he picked up Fang and the red blade, leaving his satchel behind.

Clever quickly attached himself to Dei's back, keeping his head level with the nape of Dei's neck. Clever sent back his determination to train during this battle if he could.

The wall of blood and water that was Fendrascora's body parted before him as he walked, guiding him to the place she felt the foreign Identify come from.

It was dark as usual, the few glowing crystals around having gone dim enough that not even his Darkvision could properly take advantage of what little light was left. Despite that darkness, he could still slightly see the moving figures because of the infrared light they gave off. Channeling mana into his eyes, infrared light blasted forward and lit up the cave as he sprinted forward. Before he'd even processed their appearance, three Wrath Identifies shot forward and he told Fendrascora to spread her body out and move it around to scare the enemies.

[Quick Pale Praerel Swarmer - Level 142]

[Quick Pale Praerel Swarmer - Level 138]

[Quick Pale Praerel Swarmer - Level 141]

Several things happened in rapid succession. First, he noted their appearance. They were medium-sized, about to his waist, and looked like albino dinosaurs. They had the faces of monitor lizards with a thin layer of proto-feathers along their bodies. The legs were much longer and more defined than a monitor lizard's though, visible muscles bulging as the lizards moved.

The moment infrared light hit them, they all flinched back, blinking rapidly. He didn't want to give them a chance to orient themselves, going straight for the first one and bringing Fang down on its neck.

It tucked its head, pushing itself back as hard as it could. Rather than cutting deeply into its neck, Fang scraped against its tough scales. The other arm stabbed forward with the jagged point of the red blade. So focused was he on stabbing it in the eye, that his aim was thrown off when that same eye emitted a wave of blinding light. Rather than stabbing it in the brain, he jerked his arm to the side, opening up a large hole in its skull and taking the offending eye with it. He rolled back and got low to the ground, blinking away spots.

The Praerel also had Darkvision and the ability to channel infrared light through their eyes, using it to their advantage.

The three of them were splitting their attention between Fendrascora and Dei, as she looked threatening, but he was actively a threat.

He had to end it before they started trying to attack her. Their adjectives made it seem like they were physically focused creatures, improving their underground capabilities, so Fang's mental attacks would be useful.

He didn't even need to verbally express his idea to her, [In Tune] helping to facilitate a rapid communication.

Again, he threw himself forward into battle, attempting to fatally wound the Praerel that was already bleeding profusely from its head. The other two didn't stand idly for that though, jumping in to save their comrade with claws and teeth. He noted their positions in the air as they came down upon him, and closed his eyes, dodging the swipes of the first one and slamming into the other before its teeth could latch onto his shoulder. In the same moment, Fang stunned the one on top of him, and he quickly brought the red blade down through its chest.

Its innards spilled out, covering his body in viscera as he moved into the flank of the one he'd dodged, his eyes still closed as he feared another infrared attack. The moment the creature landed, he felt it through [Tremor Sense], and went for its vulnerable side. It'd left itself open by overextending its swipe, and would pay for that now.

Before he could though, he sensed the injured Praerel disappear from its position ten feet away, where it was watching the confrontation. Faster than he could react, a crushing bite latched onto his leg. He heard the crack of his shin, and only his meditation kept his mind stable, keeping the pain from affecting his decision making.

He wanted to cut down at the Praerel's neck to get it off his leg, but its neck muscles flexed, and his body was hoisted off the ground. Its whole body seemed to twitch, and he was slammed back down in just a single moment

'They can use massive bursts of speed! The Quick adjective must give something like that. They likely didn't use it in the first assault as they were still wary of Fendrascora, but now they're pissed that I killed one of theirs. If they're more willing to use their burst Skill though, then the other Praerel will use its own the moment it turns back to me!'

On his back with the wind knocked out of him, Dei didn't even try to pry himself from the offending Praerel's grasp. He tried opening his eyes, but both of them were now using their Infrared eyes, and he couldn't see properly at all.

'Damn this weakness to light!' Instead, he placed the foot of his unhindered leg on the ground, finally getting a sense of the other Praerel's position as his Tremor Sense took in all the details

His [High Mind] scanned its every micromovement, predicting the exact moment it would launch itself at him. At the last second, he brought both blades together, pointing it in the second Praerel's direction as he sensed its form disappear.

It'd gone for his neck, but he knew it would do exactly that. Instead of biting into him, it pushed down his two blades, bisecting itself. Its dead body slammed into his side, and both him and the last remaining Praerel began to roll. His leg was finally twisted just a bit too far, and the bone fully snapped.

Though his meditations ability to block pain was strong, it wasn't that strong, and his mind blanked as he screamed out.

At the same time, Fang caught up to what was happening, and sent a mental command for the Praerel to open its jaw, forcing it to release his leg. It knew he was free now, but also severely injured, so it jumped back to observe him, giving him a moment. He still kept it in his focus with Tremor Sense, ready to bisect it like the other if he sensed it trying anything, but it appeared to learn from its sibling's mistake, and its body language indicated hesitation.

His natural regeneration would heal him, fast, but wrong. His leg was collapsed and the bones were misaligned, he didn't want it to set incorrectly.

He immediately sent a quick command to Fendrascora, asking her to put the pieces of his leg back in place. A second bout of pain erupted from the leg as multiple blood vessels burst, Fendrascora leaving his circulatory system to push multiple tendrils through his body, grabbing the bones and forcibly stretching his leg out far enough for the two parts to piece back together. When they were, she pulled her tendrils back to the blood vessels, and stiffened all the flesh in that part of his leg, making a biological splint to keep the bone in place.

It was pure pain, but he could push through that. Pushing himself back up, he stood on both feet without wobbling, and stared at the remaining Praerel.

It turned back the way it came and disappeared. He only saw it land on the ground for a moment at a turn, before running away as quickly as it could.

He sighed in relief. While he could have killed it, he wanted to heal up first. His leg fucking hurt.

Looking down at where it bit him, he saw that his pants were finally in tatters, completely ruined. One leg was fine, albeit skin-tight, while the other was ripped to shreds.

He sighed for a moment, but realized something…

He had two bodies here, both with hides. Sure, one was ripped in half, but the other was completely unscathed in all the important parts, and the cut that killed it was rather clean!

Fendrascora was also very good at going through anything with blood in it, as he'd seen with his leg, so he might even be able to separate the hide from the meat.

Sending as many detailed instructions to Fendrascora as he could, they got to work.

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