ALL NOVEL CH.468 Lizard-folk
“Sir. I don’t want to sound rude, but why do you need to see this?” Chloe asked.
I had asked her to come to a training room to show me a racial skill she has, so I can have a decent recording of it, because it might be something I can use for my own ‘new skill’ project.
“I just want data about it. You know that other than Albus, you are the only other lizard-kin on HomeBase. … And since Albus is actually a lizard-folk, he has a different racial skill than you do.”
“... I just don’t see why it is so interesting. I mean, it is nothing special really.” Chloe said.
“Just humor me.”
Chloe then detached her arm from her body and showed the detached limb flying around the room.
That was her racial skill, Split Lizard. It allows her to detach her limbs from her body and telekinetically control them. The control isn’t actually even Telekinesis based, but instead some strange nerve link. And the limb can fly because … I honestly don’t know that part yet. Again, it isn’t Telekinesis, but something more akin to Mana Flight, but just on a smaller scale and at much lower speeds.
The skill might sound kind of useless, or like something that is very much situational, but at least Chloe can use it to reach the high shelves. … yeah, she isn’t the tallest lizard out there.
But why I’m interested in it is because despite her arm being detached from her body, it still counts as a physical part of her body. So if she were to punch someone with it while it is detached, it would do damage based on her Strength stat, not her Magic stat.
And that is something I want for my new skill. Telekinesis is great for utility, but not for doing damage. If I can materialize magical body parts, I should also be able to detach said body parts, and use them to attack from a distance. And if those attacks could do physical damage, that would be great.
I then had Chloe attack a few target dummies so I could get some damage readings, before I decided I had enough data for now. And if I’m wrong, I can always ask for her to show me some more things, but I’ll likely have to prepare some more specific targets.
“Thanks. I think this is enough.” I said, and let Chloe get back to whatever Lawrence wanted her to do.
With the data now on hand, I jumped into the Factory to test some stuff out. After all, it is much easier here.
Replicating the racial skill wasn’t difficult, but it did feel strange as anything to detach my arm. I think that is because I ‘forced’ it using Factory bullshit, instead of actually correctly replicating the skill. Maybe I should try unlocking the lizard-kin race.
I quickly ran a test with DNA Surgery, declaring Reptile as the type, and I did transform into a lizard. … a lizard-folk, not a lizard-kin. And since lizard-folk come with the racial skill Hardened Scales, I’m kind of shit out of luck.
I’ll still activate the card outside, so I can gain the new race in One of Every Race, as well as the new racial skill. Also, Hardened Scales will work well with my Draconic Body skill, so it will be a nice addition to my skill arsenal.
Also, Lizard-folk goes well with Multi-Armed. At least in my opinion. Just the hard scales covering my extra arms are kind of nice, so instead of the extra arms being a weak point, they are actually kind of a good thing to have.1Brian’s status will be shown at the end of the chapter instead of here for reasons.
After my kind of sudden race gain, which yes, I know I could ‘cheat’ myself new races with more DNA Surgery use, I just don’t because I want a bit of time between each new race so that I can get used to the race and the racial skill.
But anyway. After that, it was time for my lesson on Draconic Skills with Lady Janina and Agunan. And I have to say, my new Hardened Scales came in handy. As I suspected, they do work with dragon scales I can form with Draconic Body, so that was nice.
… on the other hand, when Lady Janina realized I could take more damage, she had Agunan punch me harder, so … more efficient training?
Still hurts though.
After the training that absolutely wasn’t at all torture, I asked Lady Janina for a favor. That of taking us, Alice, Lua, Cailie and I, to the spirit world. We haven’t visited since the spirit adventure, mostly because we can’t get there without Lady Janina, and I think it is about time.
And the spirits are family to us, kind of, because Cailie is half-spirit. And visiting family is important. Sure we call them over all the time, but we can also visit from time to time.
Visiting the spirit world after a while felt great. I think it is just the general structure of this world, as this world has no miasma or ‘creation energy’, just pure mana.
“Quick question Brian. Why did you come here as a mer-folk?” Alice asked. “Isn’t it kind of inconvenient since you’ll have to fly all the time?”
“What? Don’t you like my tail?” I teased Alice, as I flew a few circles around her.
“I love it.” Cailie said, as she began to chase me in a circle around Alice.
“At least someone does.”
“I don’t hate it. It does lower your body temperature to be closer to mine.” Lua said. “But Dhamir is better.”
“... so I’m the odd woman out. Makes me feel left out.” Alice complained.
“You do prefer it when I’m warmer. At least you don’t mind my cat-self balling up onto your lap.” I commented.
“... your ears are nice and soft.”
“Yes they are.”
“And cats are divine creatures.”
“Forgot you are half Mana, thus half Egyptian, for a moment.”
“... I would ask why are you like this, but then again, I know the answer.” Lady Janina commented.
“Yeah, you do. Let’s get going before Anemoi hunts us down.” I said to everyone.
“Too late! Like the wind, I’m already here!” Anemoi said, as the wind gathered and formed her body.
“Hi mom.” Cailie quickly ‘swam’ over to Anemoi, and hugged her.
After a bit of catching up, we headed out to visit the other superior spirits. On the way, we ‘ran into’ Pan and her pack of beasts, and she challenged me to a fight.
She banned my use of Dark Chain, but since I now had Restraining Sword Barrage by my side, I managed to beat her again, and she called Restraining Sword Barrage another cheat skill.
Then, while in the domain of Anemoi and the wind spirits, Anemoi taught Cailie how to do something interesting.
“Alright Cailie. It is time for you to learn how to give out a blessing.” Anemoi said. “Pick someone you want to give it to first, and let’s go from there.”
“Brian.” Cailie said with no hesitation.
“Knew that was coming. Swim over here kid.” Anemoi called out.
I did as asked, while grumbling about being called a kid. I don’t actually mind it, but I felt like I had to.
“Alright, so it isn’t actually complicated at all, you just have to …”
Anemoi then explained how to give someone a blessing in way too much detail. In short, you just had to make a magic link between you and the person you wanted to bless. It was actually surprisingly similar to Dragon Life Dedication, except on a much lesser scale.
The spirit kind of entrusts a part of their being to the person whom they bless, but unlike with Dragon Life Dedication, where the dragon’s entire life is given to someone, spirits only give a small part.
For a greater spirit, it is generally between 5 to 10% of their whole being, but for a superior spirit, it is more like 0.2 to 1%.
I later asked the superiors who had blessed me, and I found out that my technically strongest blessing is a 0.9% blessing from Iris, followed by a 0.7% from Eosther. The others I have range from 0.5 to 0.3.
The portion of the blessing doesn’t actually matter much. It does effect Spirit Magic a tiny bit, but not to the point where I’m complaining about it.
But anyway, let’s get onto Cailie giving me a blessing. Because it was her first time, or maybe because it was me who she was blessing, she went a bit overboard and ended up giving me what is about a 20% blessing, over double that what is standard for greater spirits.
It won’t really cause her much damage, unless I specifically force damage onto her using the fact, but I think everyone knows I won’t be doing that.
But Anemoi still preached about the importance of keeping the blessings smaller, so that what happened with Amilie and the water spirit she corrupted cannot happen with Cailie.
Cailie just said she wouldn’t be blessing anyone else as long as I lived, so that got around that problem. … until Anemoi recommended her to maybe consider that again later, because she might want to give our children her blessing, which made Cailie blush so much that I swear I could see even her tail turn red.
And since I got a blessing from a greater wind spirit, I can now use Summon Wind Spirit. But since Cailie doesn’t have that many spirits she has made yet, and because she can’t separate her spiritual body from her physical body, that skill won’t be all that useful for me yet. But it is still the best Summon Spirit skill I have, because I got it from her.
Anyway, we had some fun in the spirit world, and between my new race, and my new blessing, you might want to see my stats, so here they are.