Chapter 11: What A Good Start!
"Alright…" Yakumo inspected his just reformed body, "this is freaky, but it really is damn useful."
The rematerialized revenants did the same, the wonder and disbelief clear on their faces.
After checking my own supplies that I bought, I looked around for any reactions from what they should've seen while traveling through the mistle. The tinted glass of my mask is not hindering my vision even in the caverns.
But not a single one of them said anything about the horror paralysis demon incarnate that I have for my roommate in my body.
Guess that it only is visible to me when we are in that weird void where consciousness exists only. Considering it lives in my consciousness or shares it in some kind, it was likely that I would be the only one to notice it. So it's just me and my demons, heh.
"Are these the caverns you explored?" He glanced around and asked us.
"Yup, just add some miasma here and there coupled with some ugly screech every now and then." I nodded, that would be pretty much the general vibe of the underground.
"...miasma…" Yakumo finally noticed the lack of it. A small chuckle escaped the man once he saw a revitalized mistle beside him.
"This thing was definitely dead…wow." Yami poked the chimera plant with curiosity.
"We should get going soon." Louis brought everyone's attention back to the objective and looked at the jet-black-haired revenant.
"Right, this is my time to shine!" With the blood code that gives him keen sensory capabilities, he is able to discern his surroundings like a sonar. Just like a bat in a cave, he was in his element.
And let me tell you, having five revenants explore the cave that I and Oliver had moderate trouble exploring, made this a walk in the park.
Other than finding those giant snoted wanderers, nothing really managed to put up a fight. This also gave me some freedom to experiment with my new two blood codes and their gifts, well, only one of them.
Apozypoz, Ren's Blood Code. But he calls it Apoz for short.
"BAH%^(?!" A purple schmuck bolted towards me with the wrath of a thousand suns, roaring with mindless rage and fury.
Which made the next scene quite funny to me as-
*thud*
It slipped and fell face-first on the floor covered by my liquified slime. It attempted to get up with its arms but ended up pushing itself forward, falling face-first once again.
The slippery multicolored liquid makes any attempt at standing up absolutely hilarious.
"AHHHHHhhhh" *thud* "AHHGg-" *thud*
"Pft…" Yami snorted, watching the show ensue. "Guess it's time to test if my trick works with this weapon too." He walked forward to the lost doing its best impression of a worm, truly deserving of an Oscar.
I managed to make the slime move out of his step by holding a thread connecting to the pool of slippery liquid under the beast. I learned a few tricks, like the one I'm doing just now.
I was a bit stubborn about controlling it as if I had telekinesis, but having a connection to the slime I'm trying to control makes things hundreds of times easier. Another piece of advice I got was to try and make the slime liquify instead of trying to condense it into a rock-like structure to throw around as an earth bender.
I was so excited about the new power that I just jumped to the last level. I really have to remind myself more than once that Ren had at least a decade of experience with his blood code or maybe more.
Yami's blade began to vibrate at such high speeds that it would seem like a blur to the normal eye. Thankfully, that wasn't the case for me.
He brought down the sword on the lost with little to no force and yet it went through it like a hot knife cutting butter. The purple monster turned to ashes but Yami remained in place while I took back all my slime and made it hug my forearm while constantly molding it to get used to utilizing it.
"Hmmm… Too much ichor used…" He gazed at his blade for a few seconds before complaining, "This won't do, I will need a weapon with a handle that won't mess up the transmission of my waves."
"What are you grumbling about? I can see a promising future with the ladies in that gift of yours." I chuckled at the revenant whose head immediately snapped towards me.
"LADY? Which lady? One is a kid and the other one is a dominatrix that will put a thumb up my butt." Yami barked back about the women in the base…
I shrugged, "there are always risks, man." I gave the man a head shake. "We are in an apocalypse scenario, you can't have the best of both worlds."
"A rIsK, my ass! Literally!" He sneered and shook his fist, "it will be a cold day in hell before something enters my O ring, that place is an exit, not an entry!"
At least he has a bottom line I can agree with. Who knows, people in the apocalypse might have a bottom line that could be a tripping hazard in hell.
"Besides, like you are one to talk with that slime! You and I both know the kind of uses you will give it in those kinds of matters."
"Oh my, what could you mean, good sir?" Even if my innocent smile couldn't be seen under the mask, I'm sure I radiated nothing but my insurmountable good virtues. Mostly because of how Io seemed interested in the uses of my new blood code…
"Can't we talk about something else?" Oliver suggested as he smacked another lost with his upgraded hammer, giving it a trip to the nearest wall free of charge like a gentleman.
"Like what? The weather?" Yami flailed his arms in the air toward the rocky ceiling of the tunnel.
"Strategy?" Io actually gave her opinion for once. Probably why she was curious about the usage of my slime… But I don't really want to have that talk with her.
Too innocent to corrupt her this early.
"Blood Codes?" And my dumb ass still suggested something similar. Great!
"How about our next destination?" Yakumo excited the rocky hallway behind us with Louis following him.
The researcher held the map, tracing some lines on it. "After inspecting this blood spring, our next target has been narrowed down enough for us to know that the principal blood veins run through the north of the city ruins."
"Once we are outside-" Oliver looked at Yami, "-we can talk about the weather."
"Oh, goodie." He rolled his eyes. "I sure do love the greenery out there."
With that information, we made our way through another rocky tunnel near the blood spring I revived before. It leads to the city ruins according to Louis. He knows about two blood springs due to past expeditions but couldn't get any info since they were dry.
Must've been the way he would've taken it originally if I didn't get his attention. And maybe where Ren and Yami planned to make their escape.
At least the environment went from stony and gravelly walls to just good old plain and rickety concrete structures, a sign that we were near the surface.
With some proper equipment, we made easy work of anything in our way.
My bayonet and lance were fascinating not only in design but also in practice. Both of these weapons work perfectly in tandem with my keen sight.
Yami had just a sword while Oliver kept his hammer with him. I could see those little vein-like lines engraved in it unlike before. It also had some alloy grafted in the handle and base of the head in what I could guess would be an attempt in lowering the recoil he takes from swinging it around as he does.
Louis and Yakumo also had the same gear they would have in the game. Excuse the little detail of Yakumo's blood veil being more of a military jacket with flaps on the shoulders that would definitely turn into canine jaws and he's pretty much the same.
The Oni Bane is just the same as its game counterpart too. But seeing the giant double-sided ax by myself was a better experience. Swinging the weapon with yourself is the perfect way to describe the way Yakumo has used his weapon until now. Will ask him later for advice when I get strong enough to use big weapons just as Oliver does.
"Well, what a coincidence." I looked at the mistle that succumbed to the miasma, failing to outpace the infection it tries to purify.
There was a short silence when the group looked at me and I easily understood what they wanted. It was obvious.
"Behold." I took out a vial and dropped some of the liquid in it on the Mistle. After all, it would be stupid to show anyone who is snooping around that my blood is miraculous.
Io stayed close behind me while the group huddled around the mistle like a bunch of kids about to see the Beyblade battle of the century during lunch in school. Good times.
The white miraculous plant, which looks more like a carnivore plant due to its crown-like 'mouth' closing when inactive, opened its curled-up tendrils as pale light emanated from the center along with small motes of ice blue light flying around it, almost like fireflies around a bonfire.
Now I could properly connect the dots about the patterns this plant has in its webs between the tendrils to the ones found in fungi network systems. That and the small 'leaves' that aren't what they seem.
Man, this world really is something. Researchers like Louis would surely have a field trip here if it wasn't because this is an end-of-the-world scenario.
Louis, Yakumo, and Yami were rightfully entranced as they saw this event for the first time…well, Louis already did but now he could see it up close.
"Hahaha." Yakumo wholeheartedly laughed before giving my back one fuc*ing hell of a smack, only keeping myself in place because of the effects of Louis' blood. "Expectations exceeded!"
"...I'm glad." I wheezed my answer. The meaty hand of the most muscular man in the group almost made my lungs explode.
"Man, you are a miracle worker!" And fucking Yami did and done it with his smack. Just gave him a glare as I couldn't even voice anything with the raisins for lungs that I had at the moment.
"..." I saw Oliver look away when I cut at him just in case he wanted to celebrate too.
"It really is a miracle." Louis nodded after getting a good look at the plant while I was overwhelmed by positivity.
Io, my beautiful attendant, massaged my back while Louis told us that we should keep going and look out for other mistles on our way towards the blood spring.
I just wanted to leave this enclosed space to try Louis' blood code. Or to be more precise, his mutated blood code.
My BOR Parasite really is a mystery. The test results in my blood where we were supposed to get an idea of what the hell it was doing with the blood code I consumed turned out to be more confusing.
The code in my blood was being dismantled, resembled, and then established in my own blood code as if the key that was given to the parasite was refitted to be a ring that fits in the broken chain it has for blood code.
It was reconstructing itself.
Although I gained fire abilities, they are really hard to control so it's better to be in an open space. On the other hand, I got stronger in general even if most of that additional strength could be attributed to my training before the expedition.
I was getting the blood code without the downside of becoming more fragile or just not being able to get some good gains in strength. Louis might be stronger than many revenants when it comes to brawn even if his blood code doesn't help him in that category, but that is due to him having a facility to train his body while the rest have to try to survive in this world 24/7 with scraps for resources.
"Would you look at that, such great scenery indeed? Love this weather." Yami nodded at his own assessment of the outside as we were close to the exit.
"That tree is very green, it needs a friend." I bobbed my head up and down, the grass and bushes growing between the thorns of judgment and debris of buildings.
"Yeah… um… Look at the flower over there." Oliver also added, unwilling to acknowledge the Queen's knight just outside the entrance of the subway we were getting out of.
"I'll be honest, there is more life here than I remember," Yakumo calmly admitted, the knight apparently not being something to worry about.
"This is a tough enemy. Remember the formations." As the leader of the expedition and the one holding the treasure map, Louis wanted us to keep our heads in the game.
Oliver and Yakumo are the tanks while Louis and Yami are the DPS. Io works better as a support despite being more of a proficient fighter and I can play DPS or support due to my abilities.
Still, kinda bad luck to encounter an enemy that we have to take down together, which makes it hard to try my fire out since I might hit someone else.
Oh well, but if so what? It's not like it was the real queen's knight. It didn't have a shield. This dollar store Dante's devil form just came a dollar short.
It had the same devil theme going on with its whole body showing the muscles and cartilage as if it had been skinned but lacked any red coloring, being mostly gray or dark. It even had a giant devil sword with devil wings sprouting from its back.
Now, let me tell you something interesting. If you get your friends to band together and stab, slice, and hit your victim on the head for a solid minute, no matter its regenerative abilities or toughness, it will drop like a rock.
Now-
What did you say?
That this sounds like mugging?
Well… if you think about it that way-
"-we have weapons at home, leave that already!" Louis' refined voice which could belong to an agitated science professor disturbed my contemplation.
His unappreciation for lotting clearly shows.
Heretic!
"We don't have this kind!" I shouted back, trying to pry off the badass sword from the rip-off Dante as it was turning to ashes.
"Do you see these cool jagged teeth?!" Yami pointed out while helping me.
"We probably should just cut it…" Oliver looked at Yakumo who was holding a laugh beside him.
"Io, hold that side!"
"On it."
"Now just-nononono wait wait wait -Don't leave meee!" But in the end, a fused weapon with a lost isn't meant to be used by revenants.
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Word Count: 2,540
Code Vein has some good designs, don't let MC's little rants fool you. This game is dripping ice cold when you put in the effort. Just like Fashion Souls drip.
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