"Carl, if you're quite done daydreaming, we should get somewhere safe to make camp for the night, Squidge is tired and you need to have a look through these bags, you're the material one in this relationship." Klaire's voice was cutting, she may pretend otherwise, but the break-up hurt her.
"Sorry Klaire..." The words escaped him almost instinctively. "...For daydreaming, I mean. You're right, let's go find somewhere to set up camp so this big ball of squidgyness can sleep." He finished, though the damage was done, showing just enough for her to see through him as though he were glass.
At the talk of resting, Squidge shrank himself down, coming to a stop at about three metres long and half as tall, then splitting in half, which halved his size. Doing so meant he could make the most of his hyper-sensitive senses and sniff out trouble, whilst also not drawing any and allowing Carl and Klaire to employ stealth.
The plan helped them find a suitable spot pretty quickly, one in a cave where they could sit in front and let Squidge rest in back, a strategy they figured out to lead things into a trap. Fall back slowly to give him time to wake and shift, fall back and disappear behind the fake wall of his body.
"You know, this will be the first time we've slept in the same place since Madam Director caught us kissing in your room four years ago. Mum told me I spent too much time with Auntie Lydia."
"Both of mine said the same thing, well, after "No, no, no, no, no, no... There'll be none of that, nope, not in this suite, nope, nope, nope." Well I might be paraphrasing."
"Is that why you broke up with me, because we never went further?" Carl, suddenly lurched like he'd been stabbed, the words caused his stomach to twist itself into knots immediately.
He suddenly, rigidly, stood upright again. A mix of anger, sorrow, guilt and longing bubbled up in him, but as he did so, he caught sight of something, something dangerous. His mind instantly prioritised keeping Klaire safe, so he tackled her to the ground to get her into cover amongst the thick undergrowth of the alien world.
"That wasn't an in-"
"Klaire, I'm mad as hell, but shush. Danger at two and twenty-five, distance times four." Klaire's gaze snapped to the position, the code and com system they developed was one of the key reasons they had never been beaten in any team event they entered as a duo. "Duck right, point six, no DEF double tap."
Without a response she activated her build ability, a piece of armour creeping down her arm like a spider before reforming into a sightless marksman-rifle the first trigger pull flew wide, then exactly point six seconds later the beast had turned the second trigger pull had sent a projectile to cripple it's hind quarters.
"Don't ever say that's why I broke up with you Klaire, wanting more with you was definitely a reason, but not like that. Good shot, let's go, we can throw Squidge to push it down." Carl was still hurt, so much so that Klaire was feeling bad, but she knew he wouldn't listen to her for a while so she just nodded and followed.
Reaching the cliff was easy, they then proceeded to throw Squidge to the top and after the sound of thrashing died where he had suffocated the maimed beast, he pushed it over the edge unceremoniously.
Between the two of them, they were able to catch it, though Carl's mostly unmodified stats meant his entire body ached afterwards. He didn't care though, he was relentless and harvested everything it had to offer, storing his share in the armlet he brought with his share of the winnings from the last years duo competition.
"I can't believe you managed to get one of those, I got some great things at the market we went to, but you got such a great discount for letting him study Squidge for an hour."
"It still cost me every coin of my half though and a paper on his growth over the next ten years and that rare Largarian crescent spike I had on me." Carl ranted, the memory of his CHA failing him completely, was still raw. "I didn't even have enough to buy the necklace and I had to leech of mum for it because there wasn't a bank there."
The mention of it made Klaire stroke the necklace protected beneath her shifting armour, she then spread her arms as a shadow formed above her and caught the ball of slime that was slowly reforming and began to hiss.
With the three of them back together again they headed to the cave, carefully inspecting every inch before Carl pulled Squidge's bed from his armlet. "If I weren't such a loser, I could have brought her the ring instead." The words slipped out as he was petting his beloved pet goodnight, but the clanging of dropped utensils made him realise what he'd said.
"Ring!? What ring?"
"Klaire, sorry, forget i-" He didn't finish that sentence, the legendary temper of his first love, flared into motion as she pulled a gun a shot a glancing beam across his cheek.
"Don't tell me to forget that! What ring? Were you going to propose, before those arseholes got in your head? Talking about skill demand and bloody familial class." Klaire's banshee heritage was starting to show, every word and raised syllable causing twinges of pain.
"Look. Yes, I was, but I was wrong. I know you don't care about that stuff, I know Aunt Danielle would put anyone in their place, but is it really so wrong for me to want to make sure it isn't an issue? Yes, it delayed things a bit. Yes, I needed distance from you. I have to put in the damn effort because I want someone whose worth it!" Carl suddenly froze, crushed beneath the weight of his own words.
Klaire turned bright red, then pulled the trigger again by accident, taking off a chunk of ear. "Oh god! I'm so sorry, Carl! Heal, you need to heal..." She rambled like that for a while, making Carl flinch as she waved the hand still holding the gun around.
"If I wasn't used to being shot by you, by now, I wouldn't have grown at a-" Suddenly she tackled him to the ground, her face mere inches from his. The tension of the unintended intimacy making them both blush more until Klaire roared in frustration and punched the ground.
"Idiot! Fine! Do what you need to do. I'll wait. Don't take forever, actually you stay back here and go through materials and try to cultivate properly. I swear to god if anyone tries to disturb you they're dead. Squidge, if he tries to slack off, bite him, with lava."
Squidge made an energetic hissing noise as it nodded in agreement. "Hey! Whose side are you even on?" Squidge made no effort to hide the truth and quickly moved to nuzzle Klaire before returning to bed. "Damn traitor."
"He's always been a Mummy's boy. Well, if you don't count Auntie Lydia and that freak CHA stat of her's, damn Succubus genes." Klaire chuckled, turning on her heel and simply leaving Carl to his experiments. What Carl didn't know, was how she was having a miniature panic attack and meltdown beneath her calm exterior.
The first thing he did was meticulously lay out all the materials, what he did know as he stared over the haul was that these were some premium materials. Herbs, ores, several cores, crystals beast hides, bones, teeth and claws. The prime piece, was what Gillian had tried to take, the jupiter dragon egg core that must have been dragged here after the last realm gate incursion.
He held the piece close to his chest and began circulating mana through his body, when it was stabilised, he expanded it, opening the circuit to include the core.
[ SYSTEM ALERT : JUPITER DRAGON EGG CORE CAN BE SYNTHESISED... ]
[ PLEASE SELECT MATERIALS TO CATALYSE SYNTHESIS ]
[ WARNING : PROFICIENCY LOW, 1 ATTEMPT REMAINING ]
This was the first time he had had a system alert since Squidge's last growth spurt. and a wave of emotion ran through him. "KLAIRE! COME QUICK!" The smile in his voice was noticeable, he didn't even care though, he wanted her by his side for this so she could share the moment.
"Did it work!?" She shouted upon arriving, confused why he still held the egg core.
"Not yet, but I got a system alert, these materials can be synthesised, even if I don't level up, this is still huge and I wanted you to be here to record it so there is proof." They both grinned at each other as she pulled out her personal slate and began recording.
He had already picked what materials he would use for catalysts, the water snakes core they got from Gillian's crew, the walking tree sap they had collected before splitting up, some slime from Squidge and finally his own blood. It hadn't told him a limit on catalysts material, and those five would provide great synergy for it.
[ CATALYSTS SELECTED : USE SKILL "NEO SYNTHESIS? Y/N ]
Carl didn't select it mentally this time, he spoke it allowed for the sake of the camera. "Neo synthesis, activate".
[ SYSTEM NOTICE : DIV EXPENDED NEW VAL = 0 ]
[ EXPENDING DIV WILL NOT REDUCE PET LIMIT ]
[ DIV WILL RESTORE AT 1 UNIT PER DAY OR COMPLETELY AT LVL UP ]
[ TO USE DIV BLOOD MUST BE USED IN NEO SKILL ACTIVATION ]
Just as had happened before the objects began to glow, then smashed into each other creating light particles, which then swirled and reformed. The glowing egg shaped core was iridescent and simply being around it was humbling.
Klaire was barely containing herself, she felt a step closer to getting that ring of the idiot already. "Well?... Did it work? Can you use it for cultivation?"
[ SUITABLE CULTIVATION MATERIAL FOUND...]
[ BEGIN CULTIVATION? Y/N ]
"Yes!... I mean, err, yes, begin cultivation." He had to stop himself begging his system to get it done already and the last thing he heard before his body went catatonic as was normal, was Klaire's final dig.
"Smoothe... Real smoothe."
Unlike what he had heard, Carl didn't fall completely catatonic, in fact he still felt largely aware. Until that is, his mind wandered and fell back to the same nostalgia he was experiencing before.