Ash’s Party
Skill Gain: Iron Gullet I
You gain the ability to eat the majority of "normal (relative)" foodstuffs even if your size, teeth, or other factors would have made this difficult. You also don't suffer nausea or other side effects of bad tastes. You have a lower chance of being damaged or placed under status effects when eating tainted foods. You may swallow small non-edibles without issue, but you gain no nutritional value.
As Naji approached Colchain, the lizard narrowed his slit eyes. Scott jumped up in a panic, causing Colchain to lower himself to the ground with a hiss, but as Ash glared their way he relaxed somewhat. Since Scott had tossed out some strips of rat meat, the lizard quickly gobbled up his portion and settled back down. He still seemed wary, but it looked like he wasn't trying to get away any time soon--after all, this group of creatures had for some reason protected him, and now fed him. They made surviving easier. And to Colchain's simple reptilian brain, survival was good. Death bad.
After eating part of the Slime, Reoth noted that some parts of the membrane were thicker than usual--probably because this slime seemed to have been much bigger than normal ones. Maybe its multiple colors were an indication that it was more than one slime, all jammed together? In any case, this membrane was all he could eat of the creature, and there were barely any large enough pieces of it left to be anything less than a snack. But it was rubbery on the tongue and had an intensely sour taste, and the leftover bits of digestive fluid burned Reoth's tongue. Not too long after he swallowed it, on the way to Ash's camp he felt his stomach cramping a bit. That probably meant it was going to be as unpleasant coming out as it had been going in.
LEVEL UP!
Your battles and experiences have culminated in new power! You are now Level 2! You gain Skill Points to distribute as you please!
Unspent Skill Points: 7
Current Skills:
Stun Fang I (1.0)
Poison Spit I (1.3)
Crafting I (1.0)
<UNUSABLE SKILLS>
Muffle (0.9)
Faster (0.1)
Mental Resistance (0.1)
Charisma (0.3)
Counter (0.1)
Monster Analysis (0.3)
Suppress Presence (0.1)
As Ash practiced her limited understanding of magic, it seemed that the "buzz" she felt was growing significantly stronger the more she practiced...but still, as of yet there was no visible effect on her wound, nor any other signs of magic like the Pixies had produced with their flashy lights and such. But now that they were in a safe place, there was plenty of time to practice, and maybe even get creative...
Bonfire Party
22 Mana Crystals remain.
2 Flame Touched Crystals remain.
As Asura and Momma Slime headed for a hiding spot, the bigger blue blob responded with a curious wobble to the images and thoughts Asura sent her.
But I bigger than two-feet-not-me. Why not eat? You say eat bigger, time-was-now-not-now. What Am Boo Sha? This time, in addition to her own thoughts, it seemed her sound making had become syncronized to her usual communication. "Buhhablblbr dantuhfeenuhm, whanaeee." Her membrane made its usual flapping motions as she seemed to be trying to form words. "Whanaeeet?"
As Ed worked with the gristly jawbones of the lizards, he soon found that his lack of practice compared to Asteria made it exceedingly difficult to get the items to do what he wanted. His "hands" were too uncoordinated in this new body, and he didn't have the right posture or enough strength to use them correctly for this kind of work. Eventually, however, he finally managed something close enough to call success.
You are experiencing a Fast Rate of Skill Progression
You do not have a Crafting Skill. The Quality of your Item has degraded.
Your species is unsuited for this kind of work. The Quality of your Item has degraded.
You made an item!
Materials: Broken Fanged Lizard Jawbone (???)
You have processed this item.
You created: Broken Jawbone Club (???)
This item has very low durability. You cannot wield this item.
As Digbie made his preparations and set up his ammo pile, he found that he was looking towards the opening at the distant end of the cave--the exit to the outside world. He couldn't make out any really distinct figures at this point, but he could practically count the torches. The goblins were coming...but they weren't charging the way you might expect an undisciplined tribal horde. It seemed they were clearing their way rather methodically, in small groups...and at their backs, a campfire not quite as big as a bonfire had been made. Between the entrance and the territory they captured, they had protected their backs and could fight with the confidence that everything in front of them was an enemy...
They were out of his range for now, but how long would it be before he could strike at them? And they at him?
As Jason practiced, he could feel himself becoming more familiar with the manipulation of this psionic type of energy. However, he soon began to experience fatigue both mentally and physically. Even after practicing long enough to use up one (1) of his Mana Crystals due to MP drain, he hadn't yet gained the skill. Maybe he needed to try something else...or maybe even take a break? He had been going full tilt for most of today after all, and aside from the moment of his evolution he hadn't taken much time to rest or recover from all his activity. Either way, right now it seemed what he was doing just wasn't quite cutting it to earn a brand new skill--or at least, the increments of improvement were small enough that it would likely take him much longer than he thought to grind it out.
Oberon's practice seemed to be going slightly better than Jason's in terms of results--he could actually see his Mana taking shape after all, and could observe the effects the rough draft of Mana Dart had on his targets. Still, he hadn't yet gained the skill. What else did he need? Was it really enough to just shape the orb? It was a bit like cutting a shape out of paper at the moment, but just because it had a point didn't mean it would penetrate that well...Maybe it needed more "weight," so to speak? Or maybe it needed some method of actually driving the point in, like a hammer on a nail? Or maybe...what possibilities could he think of? How else could he push this skill?
You used Magic Analysis III! This is a Monster, but a highly magical one. Effectiveness reduced to 45%.
This is a Slime Mage. It's a Transformed Slime that has taken on magical properties. This one has also taken on an Earth Elemental Variance, Stone-Hardened, that increases its defenses and affinity with that element. This slime possesses several spells and magically oriented skills, with several others that are still developing. Most of its combat skills are Earth elemental, but it also possesses Psionic skills. The spells you've seen it use are Rock Spire and Soil Manipulation.
Rain, too, had not gained a new skill yet. She had, however, hit upon her desired effect--moving her head and amplifying her breath now seemed to cause the acidic fluid built up in her mouth to evaporate at a faster rate, producing puffs of purple smoke. But were they concentrated enough to be truly poisonous, or damaging in any way? And they didn't really go far enough yet to be considered a ranged attack...What else could she do? How creative could she get?
Much like Digbie, Rain was also beginning to see the dancing lights of the goblin parties. They were still too far away to see clearly or to attack, but should she risk staying out here...?
As Asteria experimented with her needles, she indeed received a System message saying that she had created items. Once again, however, their quality degraded...and ultimately it seemed like all that happened was that the Sharp, Broken, and normal Bone Needles now had "Poisoned" at the front of them, clearly evidenced by their purple dyed tips. Maybe the quality degradation meant they had a low chance of poisoning the enemy, but every little bit helped and they weren't meant to resist breakage anyway.
Skill Gain: Crafting I
Your knowledge and understanding of mechanics, workmanship, and other such things enable you to craft better items. The process of creating regular sized items is still an unknown to you, and your current species doesn't support many smaller items, but if you ever succeed in such a creation its Sub-Stat Enhancements will be higher than normal. Currently you cannot use equipment, and attempting to craft it will be much more difficult.
As she strained her senses from the inside of her fox/rat hole, however, the System had one more thing to say.
Skill Rank Up: Beast Sense I > Beast Sense II
Passive sensory range increased. By actively focusing on one (1) sense, you can further increase that sense's sharpness.
Ardur, up higher near the ceiling above Jason and the others, had a much clearer view of the goblins holding torches. Though he couldn't quite count them the way Rain and Digbie could, he could still warn the others.
"Heads up guys! They're coming in through the entrance...but they're moving slow for some reason, like they're being really careful! I can't tell how many there are." he shouted down to the others.
Mourningstar
As Mourningstar headed towards the Nesting Area, she found that the Mana Crystals here had not been quite so badly depleted as the rest of the cave. Likely because Dire Rats and Fanged Lizards didn't use any magic, and likely couldn't have climbed this high up to the ceiling to get at the crystals. Thus, this was a prime gathering spot for Wisps and Pixies. She could see quite a number of the former buzzing around, as with night falling their bright colors and lights were clearly visible.
However, she was encroaching on their territory. As she got closer, she soon noticed two more wild Wisps heading towards her intentionally. They seemed to be pulsing rhythmically, like they were angry or trying to warn her away...
Orchid and Goblin Party
Orchid's attack slammed the Slime into the dirt, where it squealed with a sound like a wet fart. At her urging the two younger ones struck it with their torches, and the flames spread somewhat over its membrane. The creature gave one last death throe, then lay still, deflating until it was little more than a puddle. Not too long afterwards the other goblins had made a quick perimeter check, like Rattleskull had told them.
"Dis place is clear! We can move up!" shouted one. The others waited for Orchid to give the okay, then they all took up positions and moved forward. To their left the team led by the Hammer Goblin seemed to be moving up even further--they were either going too fast, or hadn't encountered anything else yet. It was hard to tell if the Brawny Goblin and that other female--the Bitchy Goblin--had moved further on yet. Soon the Hammer Team began making the sounds of combat again, but they couldn't spend all their time focusing on the other teams.
As they began covering new ground, it seemed the way was mostly clear--until one of the Minions poked his spear into a crevice in the wall, and an angry pixie fluttered out. However, it didn't realize how badly outmatched it was--a single spear thrust from the second minion, the one who had the good spear, killed it and tossed its disemboweled body to the ground.
"Mini-boss! Do ya wanna hug the wall, or keep pushin' into the open?" called one of the others.
((Orchid's Team can move from B6 into either C5 or C6.))
