Chapter 77 : : Raid
The box contained the inheritances sent by Sanae to complete the transaction, Kale briefly scanned through the spells combined with the details sent in the mail he was able to evaluate their worth.
There were five Earth Spells which met the minimum requirements to be called complete inheritances, as for Plant Spells, they were seven in numbers, although their numbers were low but in terms of quality and rarity, they were all top grade in their tier.
The five Tier 1 Earth Spells were ‹Mud Wall›, ‹Stone Shot›, ‹Stone Blast›, ‹Earth Sense›, ‹Earth Magnet›.
‹Mud Wall› allows the user to form a wall made of mud for protection, alone it isn't that useful but it can be stacked again and again.
‹Stone Shot› allows the user to condense a stone out of microparticles in the air and attack the target.
‹Stone Blast› is a trap spell, the user can leave their mark on any stone and make it blast or explode with a thought, in a certain range.
‹Earth Sense› is similar to ‹Life Sense›, it allows the user to more efficiently sense anybody below the ground, the increase in range with mastery goes as same as that of ‹Life Sense›.
To Kale, the most precious of those five was ‹Earth Magnet›, it could allow the user to use the magnetic waves of the planet to their advantage and commence a low flight.
Plant Mage subclass's initial tier is 2, so all Plant Mage spells are of at least second Tier.
The seven Tier 2 Plant Spells Kale obtained were ‹Analyze›, ‹Life Link›, ‹Mana Share›, ‹Fusion›, ‹Fission›, ‹Result Prediction›, ‹Back Tracing›.
‹Analyze› helps in analyzing the inner structure of a plant.
‹Life Link› is a risky spell, normally a plant has high chances of getting destroyed if it is under an operation and it fails but ‹Life Link› allows the user to form a link with the plant under operation, this way the plant won't get destroyed but the damage will be transferred to the user which can be risky.
‹Mana Share› allows the user to extract some of the mana from plants, the replenishing rate would be faster compared to absorbing it from the environment.
Both ‹Fusion› and ‹Fission› are spells used to merge target plants to make something new, such spells are rare, normal plant mage has to at least activate two spells at a time, to do that, ‹Fusion› and ‹Fission› were made after observing the pattern and doing long time research.
In ‹Fusion›, the user can attempt to merge two or more plants at once, then the process will end. ‹Fusion› needs strong control and the failure rate is high, but the efficiency is good, time taken is low and the mana consumption is also lower.
In comparison, ‹Fission› starts with only two plants, like the initial plants were A and B, then the product will be C but the process won't end there, the user can try to fuse C with a new plant D, the process is continuous, it takes time and a good amount of mana, the spell is less complex to activate and have a high success rate.
‹Result Prediction› is a supplementary spell that can only be used after spells like ‹Analyze›, ‹Result Prediction› allows the user to guess the result before the operation is commenced with high accuracy, based on the data collected on the plants. ‹Result Prediction› only helps in prediction and doesn't tell the future so the output can be wrong.
‹Back Tracing› is also a supplementary spell that is used with spells like ‹Analyze›, it helps the user dismantle the data of a resultant plant's inner structure to figure out what was used to make it and how. The effect of ‹Back Tracing› is proportional to one's comprehension skills so the gains from it vary from person to person.
'She carefully chose the Plant Spells that are the core of being a Plant Mage, they all complement each other, this was a little unexpected, I guessed she may send top-quality spell but in a way that they obstruct each other, as a result, I would need her help and more spells to form a balance' Kale pondered while observing a spell formula, then placed it back in the box 'Seems like this woman is more on the principle-based path… What a shame, these type of people are hard to control,'
Kale slide the box under his bed the turned towards Fynn, he was looking at the Ghost Lady flying beside him.
Fragments of information in the form of messages appeared in his head, Kale made a thoughtful expression "I knew he wouldn't give up that easily, making him wait so long was already nice," He said in a low tone.
Fynn raised his eyebrows but didn't say anything.
Kale was silent for a while then his lips curled up into a smile "We will raid The Poison Crypt after two days, the raid will be long and one way, so if you want to survive, prepare properly, and yeah tonight go to the Baron and sell those snake Eggs, I am sure he will buy them at a good price hehehe…"
Kale sneered as he took out his phone and checked his status.
___ ___ ___
Name: Kale Oshwatt
Race: Mutant Human
Health: 100%
Stamina: 100%
Class: Mutant Martial Mage
Subclass: Wood Mage(Expert), General Martial Artist.
Life Level: Enlightened Mortal
Progress: 3%
Foundation: A+
Traits: Auto-Photographic Memory & Bone Manipulation.
Knife Intent: Asura's Rage(Ethereal)
Mortal Spells: Life Sense(Ethereal), Camouflage(Ethereal), Wooden Thorn(Ethereal), Fast Growth(Ethereal), Wood Hammer(Ethereal), Mud Trap(Ethereal), Rubber Touch(Ethereal).
Enlightened Mortal Spells: Mana-Resilience Cycle(Ethereal).
Martial Techniques: Wind Chasing Knives, Snake King Killing Series, Falling Meteor Blade Art, Illusory Phantom Walk, Snake King Body Toning Art, Vanishing Ghost Step, Arachne Thread Controlling Art, Nether Venom Body.
___ ___ ___
Many things changed after his breakthrough, the AI failed to grade his new foundation and named it A+ but only Kale knew the great difference between A and A+.
As for his Knife Intent, now that his body was strong enough, Kale could display greater power at full mastery even if it's only for a short while.
Fynn respectfully bowed then left.
Around a mile away from Kale's mansion, several people in ragged clothes, looking like poor hunters were harvesting wild fluorescent grass, they were spread all over the area, as they collected the grass they would carefully observe their surrounding then glance in the direction of the mansion before continuing harvesting.
The oldest looking man with a long white beard sat on a stone and slowly drank some water, while he was drinking, a young man slowly approached him with some hesitation and whispered "Master, how long will we- "
The young man was just speaking when he saw the cold look in the seemly weak old man's eyes and he shuddered, he quickly changed his wording "Elder, how long are we going to harvest the grass? We already found that no beast is guarding the precious herb, we can go grab it and finish the contract this instant,"
The old man looked at him in slight disappointment, he opened his mouth but didn't speak, the old man shook his head then walked past him.
The young man remained standing on the spot with a confused expression, then a hoarse voice rang in his head.
{My foolish disciple, even the harmless-looking ashes can have smouldering embers beneath them, a hasty assassination is more useless than a frontal assault, we take full payment in advance because we guarantee to do our full work, those people doesn't admire our working speed but success rate, always remember that,}
The young man felt the disappointment in the old man's voice, he quietly bowed and started harvesting the grass again.
***
Two days later…
The Poison Crypt, First Floor, Boss Room.
Kale was sitting on the ground with his back supported by the closed enormous door of the Boss Room.
The Boss Room was like an indoor arena big enough to play football matches, at the centre of the hall, a man in black attire was fighting a gigantic spider with bare hands.
The man was without a doubt Fynn, he had his two swords on the back but lacked the permission to use them.
The opponent he was facing right now was the Acid Spider Queen. The spider was big as a bus, its legs were strong as steel and sharp as blades, the monster spider couldn't move its body freely because of its size but it could move its six blades like legs with utmost agility to kill its enemy.
Still, the most frightening thing about the spider wasn't its legs but the acidic poison shots that came out from its mouth, from time to time.
Fynn was cautiously dodging its every strike while moving around it without getting caught.
The spider was a weak Tier 2 monster that didn't specialize in close combat, so normally Fynn alone could take care of it very quickly even without the swords, but Kale didn't let him, he placed a lot of restrictions on him, his motive was simple, it was to sharpen his mastery in the techniques he taught him.
Normally Fynn would feel better knowing that it was for him, but whenever he thought about the words told to him before entering the dungeon by Kale…
"One finger for each mistake,"
He would get shivers down his spine.
Fynn didn't dare make any mistake, he didn't doubt Kale's words, especially when he had seen how cruel Kale could be.
The scariest people aren't the ones that are cruel to others, but the ones that are cruel to themselves.
"This much is enough, for now, end it," Kale said lazily.
Fynn heard the words and his eyes shined, he stopped evading, in the next second he reached out his hand and grabbed the incoming sharp leg of the spider with his fingers.
The second its leg was caught, the spider stopped moving, it looked at Fynn in surprise and panic flashed in its 3 pair of eyes.
It opened its mouth intending to shoot acidic poison at him.
But Fynn didn't give it any time to do that, he made a claw with his right hand, a layer of stone was formed on it in an instant, Fynn then struck it on the spider's face.
‹Desolate Sloth Grappling Art› was focused on the cultivation related to grappling, as a result, even a martial artist who has only understood a part of its could carve their name on stone with a finger even if their cultivation doesn't allow them to break that stone with a kick.
Fynn was a stoneman, hence, he already had a strong and tough body, after cultivating ‹Desolate Sloth Grappling Art› and training under Kale's guidance, his hands had become a formidable weapon for him.
His bare hand penetrated the spider's head like it was made of butter, there was no resistance, its brain was destroyed instantly.
The spider's body twitched twice before it fell to the ground and turned limp.
Kale slowly walked closer to it, took out his knife and sliced open its body, he reached out his hand and brought out a lump of flesh with a round stone embedded in it.
It was the core of the monster.
Just as he held the lump of flesh closer to observe it, Kale felt some movement around his chest, in the next second, a tiny snakehead popped out his head from his collar area and opened its mouth wide trying to gobble up the whole core and flesh in one go.
Kale reacted, he reached out his hand and gently blocked its mouth, the snake turned its head to stare at Kale with its two little eyes then hissed in dissatisfaction.
Hiss!
Kale chuckled, he lightly held its head and rubbed its lower jaw. The snake rubbed back its head on his palm in dissatisfaction as it kept staring at him. Kale lightly smiled, he used the knife to cut half of the flesh around the core and store it, then presented the rest to the little snake.
The snake was delighted, it didn't think twice before opening its mouth to the limit and swallowing it, although its size was small but its race was master at swallowing the prey of size several times bigger than themselves.
Once the little snake swallowed the core, its stomach bloated up, it slid down Kale's shoulder and went back to the inner pocket it was using as its nest to digest the meal.
Fynn looked at the snake, he felt that it was getting better treatment compared to himself.
He sighed and bent down to start butchering the spider but Kale stopped him waving his hand "No need, we are here to purely raise our strength and expedition, just take out its poison glands, we can't put efforts in carrying many things, you have half an hour to do that and recover your strength,"
After saying that much, Kale went back to the previous place and sat cross-legged, he took out the piece of flesh he cut from the spider monster core earlier then placed it in his mouth.
Fynn saw that and his gaze flickered, he knew that the flesh of the spider was poisonous. Furthermore, he had never seen Kale eating meat before, he didn't understand why he did that now.
Kale didn't mind the gaze and started chewing it regardless of the extremely bitter taste and foul stench coming from it, once it was turned into a paste he swallowed it hard down his throat.
At the same time, he started cultivating ‹Nether Venom Body›. Initially, when the poisoned flesh slid down his throat it gave off a burning sensation but once he started ‹Nether Venom Body› a new change occurred, it started to feel cold.
The essence of the spider was repeatedly refined and slowly converted under the influence of ‹Nether Venom Body›, due to its ingestion, a qualitative change took place in Kale's body.
Out of nowhere, he started to feel cold, his heart rate slightly slowed down, his limbs became somewhat numb as well as cold, the hot blood circulating in his body now seemed chilled, the little snake inside his pocket felt the temperature change and started headbutting his chest in dissatisfaction but Kale couldn't bother to focus on it.
He sped up the Qi circulation speed and snap!
He suddenly felt an invisible bottle neck loosening, Kale secured the opportunity and increased the pace.
Swoosshh...
He exhaled deeply, a cold chilling air came out of his mouth, decreasing the temperature around him.
At this moment, he had finally completed the first chapter of ‹Nether Venom Body›.
Nether Venom Body - 1st Phase - Venom Blood
'FInally... I have some insurance,' Kale sighed in relief, he had almost reached the first stage a while ago after his breakthrough to Level 11 and could ingest meat to some extent, he was just waiting for the right opportunity, now he had finally overcome that restriction smoothly.