Chapter 548: Good Haul

"A starfish?" Ares couldn't help but think the parasite, now not covered head to toe in its own black gunk, looked incredibly similar to the classic star-shaped marine invertebrate everyone knew and loved. Well 'loved' is perhaps a bit of an overstatement, Ares viewed these creatures as being rather ugly, but the point being that starfish were relatively well known even if only for their uniqueness in terms of shape. All that being said, however, there was an immediate and obvious difference to this starfish that made Ares feel revulsion to his core, more than he usually would upon seeing any regular old starfish, because of the presence of large jagged teeth directly in the centre of the creature. It didn't end there, though, as a hidden tongue, behind those teeth, had an eye buried inside it that was bloodied and generally rather creepy. Thankfully it wasn't moving about right about now, or else Ares may have instinctively launched a Grand Annihilation at this horrid thing to remove it from existence and put it down for good, but it didn't change the fact that Ares hated this thing immensely. He almost felt bad knowing he was going to gift this thing to Allie as a potential ingredient for her pills... Though, then again, Allie was actually pretty ok with stuff like this. Living in the same house as her Ares knew full well she was tolerant when it came to alchemy ingredients and had handled some things Ares would feel uncomfortable even looking at let alone touching. She had a timid personality, more so before the snatcher incident but still somewhat to do this day, but she showed real gumption and gusto occasionally and her alchemy was one such field where her bravado was commendable. She'd be off put by this too, most people would so that wasn't a knock on her at all, but she might actually be perfectly fine with touching this thing and rummaging it around in her cauldron as she melted it down with her hands on aspect.

Rather, instead of worrying about whether she'd use it or not, Ares was interested in finding out what she could possibly turn it into. A normal pill? A Mini Pillie? If it was the former then was it going to be some sort of mind control pill? Such a thing would be highly unethical but also really cool and Ares would have to give his resident alchemist serious props for even having the ability to create such a thing. Other possibilities would include, perhaps, something restorative, as the parasite could stitch itself together and so maybe that trait would be brought forth as a healing pill, or maybe the ability to temporarily create tentacles from one's body, which would be incredibly odd but also helpful in the same sort of way the Zephyr was. As a Mini Pillie it could exemplify those prospective abilities and allow for repeated use of them. An automated pill that sought out targets and possessed them, when combined with various other means like Aejaz' concealed serpent and his own invisibility to get the pill close to said targets, meant taking control over important political persons, or other such VIPs, was a future possibility. Who knows, Allie might even be able to create a Mini Pillie Parasite and effectively revive the dead creature to do her bidding with its full skillset it had when it was alive.

Ares wasn't too well versed in the realm of alchemical possibilities, let alone Allie's unique aspect, so he couldn't say for sure what would come of this monster corpse but Allie would absolutely be happy to have this once-in-a-lifetime specimen. Ares didn't know where it came from but he was starting to believe the parasite was amongst the ranks of the likes of the Anubis and the Scylla in that it shouldn't have appeared in a lower domain. It was weaker than them but it was also still growing and had yet to really flex its true might. Had Ares only discovered this thing in a few years time it might have grown to be a problem even he would have to work hard to overcome and put out of commission. There were no records or books that contained any information about this thing, at least nothing Ares had read and he'd read widely in terms of monster encyclopaedias, so he was fairly convinced there was nothing ordinary about this parasite. Regardless, it was in his possession now and good things would come of it, that was what Ares told himself. The rare the monster the more you could get out of it, typically! The mecha dryad was an exception in that regard but this parasite ought to provide opportunities for cultivators with more miscellaneous talents.

Speaking of good things coming once talented craftsmen were given gifts by Ares, the shark corpse was also valuable, albeit for a different purpose, and this was where Dabble would get to receive a little something something. Well this shark corpse and the axe but the latter was more of a request while this was a gift. The axe was a task that might lead to some interesting discoveries for Dabble but, for the most part, was just applying one new piece of knowledge in the same way multiple times over to different weapons. On the flip side, Dabble could do whatever he liked with this shark corpse because Arse was more interested in fostering a good relationship with him, and keeping him in the sect, while also levelling up his blacksmithing skills beyond where they were currently. New materials would breed new ideas, ideas that pushed boundaries and forced Dabble to overcome them by cultivating a stronger mind and body to make better use of them. New smithing techniques, new design spaces he might not have thought of or entertained previously, combining knowledge of new materials with the familiar to broaden his spectrum of smithing... All of the above were good enough reasons to let him have this corpse; Ares himself didn't care for it in any way as his smithing journey was basically still at the starting point for now.

Ares could also sell the corpse, although he was still banned from the Red Sun auction house due to his previous stunt there so he'd need to do it via a proxy, but if he wanted stardust there were plenty of collectors who'd froth at the mouth for this. He could make potentially thousands of high grade stardust in one go if he sold the shark and the parasite, maybe even more if he auctioned it on the Federation, but, well, he already had thousands of high grade. Ares would much rather give those close to him opportunities that were hard to come by but would result in growth that benefitted the sect at the end of it all. Ares was well and truly a generous sect master! And the best part was that a shark corpse couldn't be taxed into oblivion by wage-stealer Rud! If Ares kept up this clever way of distributing goods to elders, and bypassing Rud's economic vengeance, he would soon become a favourite no matter their previous opinion of him compared to Yulo!

Getting back on track, however, and bribes aside, the shark corpse was rubbery. There was still a good deal of the parasite's inky black corruption spread across the length of the corpse so it was predominantly a pitch black shark that would blend in with shadows like a predator of the night. It was a good thing, actually, Ares fought this monster during the day, or what could be classified as 'day' amidst the heavy snowfall anyway, otherwise he might have needed to keep Omniscience and divine sense active permanently just to keep track of this camouflaged shark. Of course that meant anything Dabble created using primarily this shark skin would be subtle and good for assassination related tasks but that was merely a side benefit. At best it was functional but at worst it simply changed the colour of whatever Dabble would make.

The real draw of this skin was its elasticity because it could stretch like chewy gum and never split. Ares tried, with all his might mind you, to rip a piece of skin in half but it just kept snapping out of his hand like a rubber band and generating a sonic bang when the material reconvinced in one spot. It just went to show how much force Ares was putting in, he was even using annihilation enhancement, so it was quite an impressive material. Flexible too. This would be good for armor if one could stomach wearing that parasite's... Essence? Excretions? Mana? Whatever it was, if someone was wiling to keep it close to their skin as an under layer, they would be well protected and insulated while maintaining perfect control over their body without any hampering or extra weight. The material could also be used to create slingshots, which were viable as weapons thanks to various arts and runes, helmets, the inside of which could be made incredibly soft to mitigate heavy blows while the outside remained firm and unflinching, or adaptive shields that responded to enemy attacks in the moment, adjusting weight distribution on every block based on the pressure point being struck. These were just Ares' off-the-cuff rough ideas and he was sure Dabble would do something more interesting with the material by the time he was done experimenting with it. Knowing Dabble, even if he could barely stomach the thought of it, he would also then go and bother Julio for some top grade runes to really turn this unknown material into some kind of bizarre masterpiece. Ares was very curious to know what would come of their combined efforts on an uncommon sample like this so, in a way, this was a souvenir, and training tool, for both Dabble and Julio. Brilliant find!

Last up was the neon axe. Ares was like a moth to a flame on occasion but he knew better than to touch the hot stove that was the blade of this thing. He'd been very tempted mind you, it would be a lie to say he wasn't considering touching the pretty glowing thing! His revenant regeneration instilled within him a sense of confidence... But he didn't follow through in the end. Rather than test on himself he chickened out and tested the axe on a nearby tree instead. Coincidentally it was the same tree the Viking had been hiding behind, just a quick walk away from the lake, but that wasn't intentional. Ares didn't mind mocking dead people but this was far too petty even for someone like him and it was merely happenstance as this was the best place to test in the immediate vicinity.

As for the results of Ares' axe test, he concluded that the axe was indeed, very sharp. Without any sort of physical modifier or enhancement, it took Ares at base strength a mere three swings to chop through the tree. Comparatively, Ares went over to the felled tree with a regular axe... And well he was still hacking away at it even now so he was on, what? Swing ten? His form was awful, so that didn't help, he'd never done this before, so that didn't help, he was hitting the tree from a weird angle, so that didn't help, and it wouldn't snap when the load was too heavy to bear because it was lying on its side, so that... Didn't help! Still, the difference was clear as day as Ares didn't need to conduct a fair test to get a fairly self explanatory result. This neon axe was vicious, drastically better than any ordinary axe, and would tear through even metal if given a chance to. Furthermore, though it was highly overkill, Ares could merge his disintegration with the axe. It would actually change the neon glow to a ghostly black colour that looked like wispy charred smoke. By that same logic Ares could change the colour of the neon glow to gold and red, to represent annihilation and nothingness respectively, but he could also pick from a variety of basic colours that didn't interest him. For the most part, Ares would keep it in a golden state by default and only change it to funnel disintegration mana in. Gold was his symbolic colour and so he gravitated towards it whenever there was such an option available. He could also pick between multiple colors at once, and do a variety of patterns or colour cycles, but a gold tipped axe was oddly presentable and Ares quite liked it so that was going to be his go to from now on until he one day replaced the axe with something better.

And that about summed up his gains! It was really worthwhile to stop here and pick a battle after all. Ares had been considering using Visitation to sneak by without a brawl but he was ultimately glad he didn't. A quick pit stop netted him many benefits but, now, it was time to get a move on and keep seeking out the Moongate Mountain... Which was apparently somewhere nearby? Ares had recognised that nagging feeling within him, the one that pulled him towards Celestial Cluster treasures, the moment he stood near the inside of the lake. Once he almost crossed over it, onto the main body of the mountain itself, near the tree he just knocked over with the axe, that tug in his soul flared up once more and was impossible to ignore. It signified the treasure was nearby, or at least nearer than it was at any other point on the mountain, but that made no sense to Ares who assumed, up until now, that the treasure would logically be placed at the tip of the mountain. Then again, this was Dominus he was dealing with and the idiot was very much the kind of prankster to hide it at the base just to mess with people. Crafting an intricate mountaintop labyrinth but not actually needing participants to interact with it to gain the hidden treasure was definitely something this punk would pull! As such, Ares figured he was better off if he just asked the culprit himself about what it was he'd done here and the best way to go about approaching acquisition of the treasure. Ares found it strange Dominus hadn't directly mentioned to him that the treasure wasn't where he thought it would be but perhaps it was just because Dominus knew he'd sense and locate it anyway thanks to the innate feeling that guided him towards them? This was what Ares assumed but, as it would turn out, he was wrong. Ares called Dominus, didn't receive a response, realised he muted the guy earlier, and unmuted him to let him speak freely in a way that Ares could hear...

You wait 'till I get my body back, dumb dragon wannabee, see if I don't Asura Rondo you into chunks of lizard meat and then grill you over my barbeque!

... Ares shut his eyes and sighed. Right, they were still going at each other's throats last time I checked in with them, weren't they? Ares had left Dominus and Ignizz to sort out their own dispute but apparently this was a hundred year war in the making as they were not content with each other's presence and never would be.

Pft, as if a mere puppy could beat a glorious dragon! There's a whole lot of big talk coming from a guy who killed himself!

Ares, aware this would continue for a long while if he simply waited for it to end, intervened. "Oi, you two, do I look like some kind of clown car? Stop hosting a debate circus inside me for two minutes and listen up." Ares tried to intervene but the bickering persisted and he was too clouded in a rising rage to even listen to their petty jabs at one another any more, he simply took matters into his own hands... Literally.. Ares summoned a globule of his own blood that took the form of an upper body covered in samurai gear, which represented Dominus and his usual getup, while also summoning the Ignizz clone in his other hand. Ares placed the blood globule on the floor, raised his other hand, and slammed Ignizz into the blood globule to simultaneously batter both freeloading Bastards at once! Dominus was scattered into a tiny pool that seeped into the snow while Ignizz' head was buried like an ostrich as his tiny webbed feet scrambled to push himself out of the floor.

Double K.O!

Victor, Ares!

It was a shame Mini Pillie strength wasn't here to offer Ares a championship belt although, debatably, he was fighting in a weight class he really didn't belong in so his win was somewhat unearned... Now that he thought about it though, letting Ignizz and Dominus battle each other mano a mano in these two small forms would actually be rather entertaining. He could give Dominus a tiny stick to use as a weapon and Ignizz a lighter or something and just watch them go at it like miniature wind up toys. Ares' bet was on Dominus because, although his physical form form was shoddy compared to Ignizz, Ares would never bet on Ignizz to win anything other than a dragon trivia contest. Honestly, maybe Ares should present this gambling idea to the betting brothers back in red sun... Anyway, that aside, Arse had silenced the angry couple and could finally talk with Dominus in peace.

Ares pulled Ignizz out of the snow, with a tiny pop followed by angry yelling that had been muffled by said snow prior, before shoving him back inside his body and muting him. Ares then gathered another globule of blood on his palm but didn't flatten this one on the ground. Dominus was technically merged with Ares blood so he could be sacrificed like that and still technically exist within Ares. He could be reformed at will so long as Ares had blood, basically, and even if he didn't Dominus would still e capable of chatting with him...Though, without blood, it was unlikely Ares could talk back, he'd be a corpse at that point! Anywho, blood = physical form for Dominus. At least for now anyway, he might not need blood as a medium to be summoned in the future but that was a way aways and not the current issue. "Dominus, what's up with the Moongate Mountain? I thought it was at the top of the mutated mountain no? Why am I sensing it down here?"

"Hmph."

...

A dismissive snort was all Ares managed to get out of Dominus; it appeared he was looking for an apology and world not speak until he got one. Dominus was a prideful individual, and he had the talent to justifiably back it up, so it was little wonder he felt upset at having been defeated so easily by Ares earlier. Granted he was nothing more than a small finger sized drop of blood but he was still indignant anyway because a loss was a loss in his book, he was oddly stubborn about this sort of thing. "Next time I let you out, no matter whether it's an important fight or just for practice, I'll let you use the Primordial Blade as much as you want." Usually there was a limit on Blade usage that Ares imposed on Dominus because of the aftereffect Ares would have to put up with but he was willing to make a concession or two for now to get Dominus talking again. This bribery ended up working a treat as Dominus really quite liked the Blade, which was unsurprising given the quality of the weapon, and so he didn't take long to spill the beans knowing full well he'd get to swing around the legendary weapon to his heart's content.

"The Moongate Mountain is... Around here. Sort of. It's not actually on the mutated mountain at all... Ah whatever, it's too complicated to explain, and it would ruin the entire reason I set things up like this in the first place if I announced the secret ahead of time, so just climb to the top of the mountain. You'll figure it out eventually, there's no way you don't understand what I've done here by the time you're too deeply involved to back out. Anyway, long story short, you want the Cluster treasure? Keep climbing for now. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going back inside your body to keep putting that damn lizard in his place!" Dominus vanished and Ares immediately stuck him on mute as well because the last thing he wanted was to have a headache listening to those two go at it all day long. Ares didn't exactly receive a straight answer to his question but he was placated for now and decided not to worry about the strange sensation fo the Cluster treasure inclining him to jump off the edge of the mountain... Ares shook his head, he had something more important to take care of. Between learning and practicing Skip, utilising it in a new way against the parasite shark, and constantly passively cultivating, it seems as though Ares had arrived at the boundary o bloodline awakening much sooner than he planned. He was expecting to have to destroy both the Throne and the Nu Kings to get this dedication cultivation riled up enough but apparently he miscalculated big time. His nothingness magic had really been behind the curve so all that Skip development must have really helped him along as cultivation was arguably more of a knowledge check regarding how well you understood your cultivation path than anything else. Regardless, Ares was able to ascend to bloodline awakening basically with only a minor push. If he found a secluded place to cultivate for the rest of the day... Well he could probably bridge the gap between realms at long last and finally become his true self... The Moongate Mountain was enticing but this took precedence so Ares knew what he was going to be doing for the rest of the day!... Even if cultivating with his legs crossed in the middle of nowhere was incredibly boring... Oh well, he had to do this sort of thing every now and then, eh couldn't escape it forever regrettably!