Ting-Ting

Upon leaving the black void he had been speaking to Trivrium in, 6 appeared inside of his home.

They spent the better part of an hour talking about the possibilities of what the nest was, what the causes of it could be, and surprisingly to 6, she even seeked out his input on how the future missions regarding the nest should be handled.

More importantly, she also informed him that she would no longer be attaching her presence to him, as it was no longer needed. On the surface, this meant he would no longer have her around to detect things with presence as early as she did. The automated version of her could, but all it oculd do was tell if one was there. It was nowhere near as accurate as the senses the small portion of her presence had.

She jokingly mentioned that this meant he had to actually be careful about throwing himself head first into dangerous places, to which he aptly responded with 'Don't throw me into dangerous worlds then'.

Missing her senses and ability to warn him about danger was one thing, but it was also nice to have someone to sound board ideas of off, and 6 didn't want to admit it, but it was also nice just getting to talk to somebody who could keep up with his erratic thought process.

Moving onto more important business, however, 6 opened his reward page, ready to claim his rewards, and hopefully, turn them into his strength.

He still had the [Collective Reward] that he got after killing a bunch of spiders, and now he had his random item reward from the compensation from the planet that failed to properly inform Trivrium of the level of danger. There was one thing there that he hadn't been expecting, to his pleasant surprise.

[Jock Spider Loot]

Checking his log, it seemed as though the big spider that he fought at together with the spiked spider ended up bleeding out and dying not long after he left the nest. The pressure of their blood made their blood flow out too quickly, and it didn't seem to clot very well at all, so even the quick wound he left on its underbelly just before running away was enough to make it bleed out.

Though it did obviously take awhile.

So as it stood, 6 had two rewards to claim, the [Carusian Salt] that he had yet to use, as well as just over 1000 points to spend on gearing up for his next adventure.

But before he got to opening them, he had to take care of one thing.

He began clearing an entire room in his house, stripping it of all furniture and decorations, leaving an entirely blank room, white walls and all. Given his last experience in opening a reward, he wanted to make his life as easy as possible, saving himself the stress of tearing apart the room in order to find wherever his reward was hidden.

To this end, he was designating this room as his loot room. Whenever he received loot, or a reward of any kind, this room was where he would open it, no ifs, ands, or buts.

If it got lost in here, it had to be a prank of some sort. There was nowhere for anything to be hidden but on his own person, and 6 didn't intend to make the mistake of failing to check his pockets like he did last time.

Opening the first one, the [Collective Reward], a pair of fingerless gloves fell on the floor directly in front of 6.

Reaching down to pick them up, he looked at the item description.

[Spider Silk Gloves]

[Type: Gloves]

[Quality: Basic]

[Defense: Basic]

[Special Effects: Increases the wearers grip when holding their weapon. Increases overall grip strength by a small amount.]

[Description: Don't go thinking you can climb walls with these. At best, you'll hold onto weapons without your weak grip strength a bit better.]

Claiming the next reward with hesitation, 6 looked at the item description of that as well.

It was a small bell, the kind you'd see on a dog collar.

[Ting-Ting]

[Type: Auxiliary]

[Quality: Basic]

[Special Effect: Tings happily when the wearer of the Ting-Ting is approached by someone with good intentions.]

[Requirements: Must be nice to Ting-Ting]

[Description: Ting-Ting can be tricked by bad people if they're much stronger than Ting-Ting's owner.]

The spider silk gloves were nice, definitely useful for 6. They protected his hands as well as helped him keep a good grip on his weapon, which he certainly couldn't complain about given that he didn't even have gloves yet.

The bell, on the other hand...Ting-Ting. In 6's opinion, it seemed like Ting-Ting was a child's toy honestly. The kind of thing a parent would give their kid to keep them from being kidnapped, like "If this Ting-Ting doesn't Ting when someone comes near you, run away sweetie".

It didn't really seem like something he needed.

And...well, as someone who depended on stealth currently, he couldn't exactly walk around with a bell attached to him.

Not if he wanted to actually go unnoticed at least.

After reading the description of it, 6 almost immediately decided to sell Ting-Ting. Though being able to tell when someone approached him with good intentions would be nice, the downsides of carrying the bell were too big for him.

Besides, he was willing to bet that an item like this would sell pretty well.

It might sell better if he waited for an auction, but he was nowhere near patient enough to wait for the next auction when he could be diving right back into a mission.

The biggest thing he needed right now was to improve his basic attack and defense. The spider's egg was a wake up call for him. 6's ego took a blow when he realized he could barely even break the defense of the weaker spiders inside of the nest, and he was literally fodder compared to the strong ones.

There was nothing he could do in the short term to be able to take the stronger spiders on, but for now it was definitely within his capabilities to ensure he wouldn't be on the losing side if he fought the spiked spider again.

Had Trivrium not be truly present at that point in time, he may have gone on an angry rampage, frustrated by his own weakness.

6 looked down at his own hands, reminding himself of just how little they could achieve right now.

Engraving the struggles he would have to go through to be satisfied with himself on his heart, he claimed the [Carusian Salt], pouring it directly into his mouth.

The bitter salt stung in his mouth, but he quickly chewed and swallowed all of it, making sure he didn't miss a single bit.

This was strength, even if it was disgusting. Every bit counted.

After swallowing the salt, 6 was expecting to feel some kind of reaction in his body, like he had when he used the ruby.

Upon asking the automated Trivrium he still had with him, he discovered that [Carusian Salt] would take effect over the course of two-three days, and he likely wouldn't feel anything directly.

It was recommended to only lightly train throughout these three days, but to train for at least two hours a day afterward until he became familiar with his body again.

Recommendations, in 6's mind, were made to be ignored, otherwise they would be requirements.

According to his mental plan, he would spend the three days waiting for the effect to kick in training, shopping, communicating with locals, and finally, studying.

His training was for the simple fact that he didn't know any other surefire method to getting stronger. Given that this universe worked differently than what he was used to, human limits shouldn't apply the same way, right?

Of course, he didn't believe he was gonna become the most powerful person in the world by doing pushups and lifting weights, but at the very least he could hope to hit a little bit harder.

On the other hand, his shopping plans included selling his bell and finding new equipment, but most importantly, he needed to find an attack skill that he could use together with his dagger to enhance his lethality.

Otherwise he'd still be useless the next time he ran into something with thick skin.

Talking to the locals was actually for two different reasons, however. He needed to learn more about the way things worked, how adventurers gained strength, and all kinds of different things, but he also needed to establish connections.

Connections make the world go round. Proverbially, of course. Who knew if Trivrium actually spun like his world did. Or if she was round...

But if he could make connections, it would make many things easier, like finding crafters for commissioning specific items, or locating certain skills that might not be sold in the shop or on auction.

And finally, studying. He needed to learn up on alchemy if he was going to dive into [The Alchemical Madman] mission next.