Daniel walked deeper into the Ossuary. The blue-green light from the weird mushrooms bounced off the walls of branching tunnels and smaller caves.
Each new area held more dead recruits. It got colder the deeper he went, and the smell of decay grew stronger.
But he also felt that sharp tang of raw Verge energy getting stronger too, like it was leaking from somewhere hidden.
His [Aura Sense] helped him find where the bodies were piled up. He moved silently using [Ghoststeps+], making no sound on the vine-covered floor.
He absorbed the energy from several more Vanguard recruits. They gave him small boosts to his stats and a couple more weak F-grade skills he didn't pay much attention to, [Keen Hearing (Situational)] which might help sometimes, and [Improved Balance (Minor)] which probably wouldn't do much.
He didn't get any fusion prompts from these, but his Talent stored the information away.
Maybe they'd be useful later.
Then, in a small cave off the main tunnel, he found someone different. This body wasn't piled with the others.
It lay alone, almost placed with care. The uniform wasn't Vanguard grey; it was deep red with silver markings. It looked fancy.
The recruit looked mostly human, but had slightly pointed ears and pale purple skin, hard to see under the dirt and blood. They clutched a broken crystal staff.
Daniel got curious. This proved other groups, maybe even other races changed by the Verge, were here too.
That meant more possibilities, but also more dangers. He knelt beside the red-clad figure.
The energy felt very different this time. It was cleaner, smoother, like refined magic, not the rough physical power he'd felt from the Vanguard recruits.
[Soul Assimilation successful on Fallen Unknown Aspirant (Likely from Crimson Spire group).]
[Warning: Alien mind echo detected. Adaptability (23) okay. Strong magic echo felt - thoughts of spells and energy. Spirit (16.2) okay. Echo stored safely.]
[Gain: Spirit +0.5]
[Gain: Agility +0.2]
[Gain: C-Grade Skill - Mana Bolt]
[Skill: Mana Bolt (C-Grade): Create and shoot a bolt of pure magic energy. Does medium Spirit damage. Range: 50 meters. Mana Cost: 35.]
[Assimilation Charge Consumed (1/15 Remaining).]
Wow!
A real magic attack skill, and C-grade! [Mana Bolt] let him shoot energy that hurt enemies based on their Spirit, ignoring their physical armor.
This would be great against tough enemies like the Stonehide Crusher or anything hard to hurt physically.
The boost to his Spirit and Agility was also much bigger than what he got from the normal recruits.
Absorbing different kinds of Awakened gave different kinds of power. The warning about storing the echo was interesting, his mind was like a library now, keeping track of all these different feelings and skills.
He left the small cave feeling much more versatile. Having both physical and magical attacks made him way more dangerous.
He found one last huge pile of bodies in a big cave near the back. There must have been thirty or forty recruits here. A whole team wiped out.
Taking a breath, Daniel decided to absorb them all at once. He didn't focus on each one, just opened his mind to the flow of energy.
It was like a river of cold, broken feelings rushing into him, faint memories, fear, surprise, echoes of dozens of different weak Talents like sparks, shields, small power-ups.
His Nexus Interface screen flashed with tons of tiny stat gains and F/E-grade skills, too fast to read.
He focused his mind, guiding the flood of energy, letting his SSS-Talent sort through the mess.
His Assimilation Charges quickly drained to zero: 0/15. But the huge amount of energy settled into his body, making him stronger overall.
Then, the fusion prompts started popping up one after another. His Talent automatically found skills that could combine in the messy flood of energy.
[Found matching skills: Patch Up (E), Minor Mending (D echo)... Fusion Successful! New Skill: Rapid Mend (D-Grade)!] (Faster minor healing)
[Found matching skills: Keen Hearing (F), Aura Sense (E)... Fusion Successful! Skill Improved: Aura Sense+ (E+-Grade)!] (Can sense things further away now, ~40m)
[Found matching skills: Enhanced Grip (E echo), Slightly Thicker Skin (F echo)... Fusion Failed. Skills don't work well together.]
[Found matching skills: Venomous Strike (D), Faint Toxin Echo (F echo)... Fusion Successful! Skill Improved: Venomous Strike+ (D+-Grade)!] (Poison lasts longer, hurts more)
[Found matching skills: Mana Bolt (C), Faint Energy Echo (E echo)... Fusion Successful! Skill Improved: Mana Bolt+ (C+-Grade)!] (Costs less magic energy, flies a bit faster)
He felt his skill list getting cleaner and stronger. The weak, junky skills were being used up to make his better D and C-grade skills even better.
[Rapid Mend] would heal small cuts much quicker. [Aura Sense+] meant better awareness. [Venomous Strike+] was nastier. And the improved [Mana Bolt+] was more efficient to use.
He looked around at the cave full of still bodies. He had gained so much here. He quickly checked his status in his mind.
Strength: Around 68
Vitality: Around 75
Agility: Around 108
Spirit: Around 19
Adaptability: Around 25
His EXP bar had also jumped up a lot from killing those Gravehounds earlier. He was almost halfway to Level 3 now (maybe 210 out of 500 EXP).
He had a strong physical punch skill ([Kinetic Hammer]), a good magic bolt ([Mana Bolt+]), better defenses ([Steadfast Guard], [Stone Resilience]), amazing speed ([Ghoststeps+], [Quick Dodge]), better senses ([Aura Sense+]), useful support skills ([Rapid Mend], [Venomous Strike+]), and of course, his two champion joke skills ([Pocket Sand!], [Slippery Hands Be Gone!]).
His Assimilation Charges were all used up, but they'd slowly come back (one every hour).
Outside, the sounds of the Purge seemed quieter now. Maybe the worst was over? Or maybe the fight had just moved somewhere else.
It didn't matter right now. He had survived the chaos, and even gotten much stronger from it.
He needed a break. Maybe use the next few hours to upgrade his gear while his charges came back? His knife and bow felt like toys compared to how strong he was now.
Yes, that was the plan. Find a safe corner deeper in the cave system, use the regenerating charges to improve his E-grade knife and bow, spend his Level 2 attribute points (making Strength 60.1 and Vitality 61), and then figure out what to do next.
Should he explore deeper into these caves, or go back outside and see what was left of the assessment?
The Astral Verge was full of death, but thanks to [Soul Assimilation], Daniel Vance was quickly becoming the deadliest thing in it.