Lil was missing but that was to be expected as she was likely in the shower at this point. Roland meanwhile was sitting with that ridiculous stoicism of his as he cleaned his turret. Ladon was over in the corner sleeping with a deep contented rumbling sound accompanying each breath he took, adorable really. I found myself a seat and leaned back while closing my eyes to focus on the weighty traits just waiting within me to be integrated or given away. I nudged the expertise traits first as those didn't cause any physical changes really and grunted slightly at the headache and sting I got as they popped into place.-
Three copies of [Gun expertise] and two of [Mechanical engineering expertise] with one being Uncommon and the other rare grade all at once even made me feel like my head was the battleground for a clan war. Still it wasn't anything I couldn't handle and it paid off as I had four stacks of [Gun expertise-Uncommon grade] and only needed a single one more for the trait to turn into a single stack of the rare graded version.-
My integration of the rare grade [Mechanical engineering expertise] I got from Scooter ate the two stacks of the uncommon grade version while it settled into place. I found my knowledge of mechanical engineering now making a whole lot more sense than before. Like if before I had just scratched the surface of understanding now even with the same amount of knowledge I had a deep hole. Concepts involved fit together better and I was making connections that I hadn't even realized were there before. I waited a bit for my headache to die the fuck down before turning my attention the the copy of [Energy projection] I had unintegrated.-
This was number five and if the pattern held that meant I was about to get my first legendary grade copy of the trait. I won't lie and say that I wasn't a little nervous as each grade a trait went up there was a qualitative and quantitative improvement to it. Right now with four of the epic graded copies my powers could take traits and lifeforce from anything dead within fifty meters of me but with this fifth copy all that was going to change drastically.-
'Fuck it! Go big or go home!' I thought as I gave the trait a mental nudge and braced myself for the impact.
It did not help.
The moment the trait clicked into place over the others and began to fuse into a single legendary grade version My tattoos EXPLODED in green light while my eyes blazed in the same hue. It didn't matter if my tattoos and eyes were covered as the light shone through it all and I flooded the room with my powers light. The others all freaked out over this and looked defensive even after the changes settled and the light died down.-
"Ugh, that fucking hurts!" I complained loudly.
"What the hell was that?" Mordy demanded seriously.
"Trait evolution. Whenever I collect five of the same trait with the same grade they fuse together into a single higher graded trait of the same kind. In this case I evolved an epic graded trait to a legendary one, that whole event was that change manifesting. It's my first time evolving a trait to that level and also didn't expect it to be so fucking dramatic." I said aggrieved.
"Understatement of the century, you lit up the whole damn room with the light coming out of you." Mordy said and I winced.
"At least it was worth it." I said as I looked raised my right hand and a orb of red energy manifested there above it like a pulsing ball of liquid.
"That's new, what's it do?" Brick asked curiously.
"I don't know, I'm gonna find out though." I said honestly as I played with the orb for a bit before absorbing it back into my body.
The ability to project energy outside my body without physically touching something wasn't the only change however as I felt roughly an area over two hundred meters around me in terms of reach for what I could drain traits and lifeforce.-
A tenth of a mile may not seem like that big of a distance cosmically speaking but that was a huge area in terms of targeting with my powers. Keep in mind this was a tenth of a mile in every single direction like a massive sphere. An easy way to explain it was that it easily covered all of New Haven and a bit more meaning that if everyone here keeled over all at once I could harvest from them at the same time.-
In a manner of speaking it was as if my mouth had suddenly grown several times larger allowing me to swallow much more at once. In addition to this I now had a sort of gauge of the lifeforce of everything within the range. I still needed physical contact with living things to see their traits but I could at least figure out how much lifeforce they had from a distance. Perhaps not the most useful ability but it had one upside that I was particularly happy with, stealth detection. No living thing could sneak up on me now as if they entered my range I'd immediately sense their lifeforce.-
Robots could still do so though so I had no intention of letting my guard down on that front. As an added bonus unrelated to my original powers I felt my Phase locking become much more efficient thanks to my [Energy projection] trait getting that qualitative upgrade. In fact I was willing to bet that my energy efficiency with the ability was near the same level as Maya's. Her power was far more efficient naturally as she uses an energy type actually meant for it rather than the version of her powers I use that takes lifeforce instead.-
There was nothing for it really as I absolutely wasn't going to add [Energy reservoir] to myself even if her powers were supposed to use it. Still just matching her efficiency like this was more than enough as it expanded my usage of her powers in the future. That reminded me of that annoying spy that listened in to us on our echoes. Something about their whole story fucking bothered me to no end but I couldn't exactly figure out what. Whatever the hell it was I didn't want to reveal my ability to use Maya's powers to that "angel".-
That unfortunately also meant that I couldn't exactly reap the benefits of using the damn thing either unless I was here in my house or there was no devices capable of listening in nearby. I had considered fucking with the "angel" and creating an Eridian signal jammer but that also kinda fucks with all of us as well since we couldn't send out or receive signals either if I did. In the end I simply chose to wait until we opened the vault that was the "angels" only clear goal to see what this puppet master was after.-
Anyways Lil finished up her shower and walked out of the bathroom in her sweatpants and hoodie while drying her hair. Roland went next and like the hardass he was he took exactly ten minutes in and out of the shower even if there was no real time limit. Mordy went next with Bloodwing which we all chose to ignore as the alien bird needed a bath since she was covered in blood. He took longer than Lil but both he and the bird came out clean so nobody cared.-
Brick went after that and to no surprise he took the longest as he simply enjoyed the hot water that never ran out. With all of them cleaned up and the bathroom free it was finally time for me to integrate the rest of these traits. I left my clothes in the cleaning array and my echo on a shelve as I locked the door and stepped into the shower. [Fire resistance], [Omega body], [Supreme armored hide], [Powerful vitality], [Minor regeneration], [Elemental body(Corrosive)], [Corrosion resistance], [Mechanical Savant], [Quick reflexes], [Steady hands] and [Mutant strength]. These were the traits I had to integrate and I sighed as I knew this was going to really fucking hurt.-
I started out easy with[Powerful vitality], [Minor regeneration], [Quick reflexes] and [Steady hands]. All of them folded in nicely with the preexisting traits of the same type and my body burned and stung for a few seconds before relaxing again once the changes settled. Next up was the slightly harder traits in [Fire resistance], [Supreme armored hide], [Omega body], [Elemental body(Corrosive)] and [Corrosion resistance]. This time I immediately felt my body tense up in agony as my entire skin sloughed off and my muscles sizzled in the air as my whole body took on a corrosive nature in addition to the other elemental natures present.-
Like always this process was beyond words levels of painful but lasted a short period of time. Once my mind and body wasn't screaming at me anymore and my skin had grown back I looked at the last two traits I had to deal with.
'In for a pound I guess.' I thought with gritted teeth as I nudged [Mechanical savant] and [Mutant strength].
Gonna be honest here I blacked out as my brain straight up noped the fuck out of that situation as the changes started. All I knew was the pain started and then I was waking up in a pile of viscera and blood while feeling lighter than I had ever. I mean that both literally and metaphorically as it felt as though I had lost a ton of weight in terms of both traits and on my body. I ignored that for now and moved pressed down with my hand to lift myself out of the mess only to send my head slamming hard into the shower wall as I used WAY too much strength.
___________________________________________
https://www.pa treon.com/user?u=81578854#:~:text=pa treon.com/pa treon_loskro
_______________________________________________
Alexander Drake
Lifeforce:234,847
Integrated Traits: [Gun expertise-Uncommon grade]X4, [Clever mind-Rare grade],[Enhanced senses-Epic grade]X2, [Demi-supreme body-Legendary grade], [Supreme armored hide-Epic grade]X2, [Energy projection-Legendary grade], [Superior vitality-Epic grade]X2,[Flame breath-Uncommon grade],[Regeneration-Epic grade]X2, [Disease resistance-Epic grade],[Amphibious lungs-Uncommon grade], [Thermal sensing-Uncommon grade], [Water resistance-Common grade],[Active camouflage-Epic grade], [Eridian engineering expertise-Mythical grade], [Efficient lungs-Rare grade]x2, [Fire resistance-Epic grade]X3, [Elemental body(fire)-Legendary grade], [Shock resistance-Epic grade]X4, [Energetic sustenance(shock)-Epic grade]X2, [Radiation resistance-Epic grade]X3, [Energetic sustenance(radiation)-Epic grade]X2, [Biometallic bones-Epic grade],[Elemental body(shock)-Rare grade]X3,[Quick thinking-Rare grade], [Minor spatial awareness-Epic grade], [Buzzaxe expertise-Uncommon grade], [Siren(Phaselock)(Altered)-Mythical grade], [Pugilist expertise-Uncommon grade], [Adrenal rush-Rare grade], [Mechanical engineering expertise-Rare grade], [Gunsmithing expertise(degrading)-Common grade]X3, [Elemental body(Corrosive)-Rare grade], [Corrosion resistance-Rare grade], [Mechanical Savant-Epic grade],
Stored traits: