Beneath the ashes of some fallen knights, a small worm turned from a___ to a pale grey. It's mouth shot out 2 bone fangs and It's length doubled. Most frightening was a dark colorless aura radiating out into the area around it. This aura seemingly dissipating moments later.
But the ripples spanned throughout the underground. Down and around. Going right through a shadow. Lurking in the depths of the underground, it smiled in response to the faint ripple. A circle of smaller shadows surrounded it. One of the smaller shadows left.
In the direction of Quinn.
...
The assassins wasted too much time on their clean-up operation.
They left the odd arm or leg scattered all over the place but these weren't a threat of reanimation.
It was time to move on to the next skirmish, near the Stormreach Manor, where 'the item' became a key.
The item...
The scorched face of the high priest coiled in anger as his eye's looked upon the empty chest.
"WHAT!? Where is it??" The high priest snarled.
Flabbergasted the junior stuttered, "th-th-there was a boy we let him go bec..."
"You let him go?!?" the junior coiled in fear. "I'm s-sorry".
"Ruby!! As the senior on this mission you take responsibility. How could this happen??"
Flash backing to the fight Ruby recalled the moment when Billy grabbed the chest off the captain. "A boy called Billy must've pickpocketed the chest. We couldn't catch him because of the captain's flames".
Silence followed.
The two assassin's felt as though they were choking despite no aura being channeled.
"No excuses. Take who you need and FIND HIM!!!"
"Hahahha, seems your having trouble, Carlson" Stormbreaker chuckled. The figure approached albeit cautiously this time.
"The only reason you're alive is for leverage over the Stormreach scum. As for your comrades..." Every prisoner except for Stormbreaker seized up. Their veins turned black as they coughed up black sludge from their lungs. They soon stopped seizing and went limp
Dead.
"Useless," the high priest retorted
Stormbreaker's faced paled. "A heart has two sides Carlson. You've lost one of those sides to revenge. And now, truly, no one loves you anymore."
The high priest gave him a look.
"Two sides you say?"
...
The Goliath rumbled with excitement. It loved collecting tasty treats for it's collection. It liked to mostly mixed the dark pine leaf's with a few other things to create interesting salads for it's appetite. For the goliath only knew hunger and was always trying to satisfy itself.
It could smell something very tasty. Not that potent of a smell but something that probably it with all it's wisdom could sense it's power, it's tastiness.
[Appraisal: Secret sided Heart of the Auric Dynasty]
'Hmmm yummy' it thought as goliath dragged it down to it's collection.
...
Quinn was in mourning as he was digging toward something tasty. He lost his tail.
Quinn was delighted. A whole arm. Those bastards missed a whole arm. Having a jolly ol' feast while maintaining decent distance from an exit seemed so melancholy. Due to [Fragmentation], it seemed that he lost 0.6 Exp, but it didn't matter now.
Quinn had not only regained the lost amount but also managed to horde enough for more than half a level up. Pulling up his status:
[
Name:Quinn
Species:Fragmented Bloodworm(Lvl:3)
Exp:[6.7/12]
Strength:0.017
Agility:0.01
Vitality:0.024
Intelligence:0.8
Arcane:0
Skills: [Appraisal(Lvl:2)] [Mana Sense(Lvl:1)]
]
Putting the status aside he noticed the presence of something.
The flesh near his proboscis started to jiggle. Simultaneously activating [Appraisal] and [Pheromone detection], he answered his query with a base appraisal.
[Appraisal: Maggot(Growth Stage)]
Digging through the flesh, Quinn found a cavity seemly teeming with maggots.
'illlll Yuckkk. Wait!!! Hahhhahahh... Finally, target practice with Venom'
Quinn's curled up like a snake, ready to pounce. His body was short, so it was nothing special. Just enough to exert all his strength in one pounce.
He missed.
The maggot didn't mind him. It was enjoying its lunch. It knew no fear. No emotion. It literally had no fucks to give. Except for hunger. The inside of a maggot looks like this.
'Eat eat eat eat. Food food food. Eat eat food eat.' <- (Definitely factual)
Quinn didn't know what its existence felt like. Nor did he care. He tried his pounce again. Missed even greater than before. It's almost as if predatorial worms don't pounce. They ambush.
Tying one more time, Quinn managed to hit the flesh just beside the maggot.
'Wait.. Is this runt ignoring me. Nah. My first prey just doesn't give no fucks about me. Imma fuckin kill this baby.'
Quinn just simply opened his mouth, and bit down on the maggot.
[ [Maggot(Growth Stage)] Slain - Exp:1]
Exp:[7.7/12]
It seemed that [Copper fangs] greatly improved his "combat" ability because he finally had a weapon. But more importantly, Quinn's finally killed something.
'Awww yea, that was easy as pie. Imma evolve again in no time.'
Quinn ate the rest of the maggots, which were all Lvl:1 only giving 1 Exp. But it was still progress for Quinn.
He even used [Venom] on one, which killed the maggot in an instant.
Quinn transformed from a dismembered worm to an evil scientist, experimenting all sorts of combinations of skills on the maggots.
'Maggots shouldn't be given any mercy it's their fault for being disgusting'
[ [Maggot(Growth Stage)] Slain - Exp:0.6]
[Level up: Lvl:3 -> Lvl 4]
[Exp:0.4/13]
Quinn had now discovered a new way of gaining Exp. Killing.