47 The Flexible Karmic Art (Part-1)
After a long period of careful instructions from Vikram, Prakash made Ugly Shaggy coil around him until it formed into a cocoon that completely enclosed his body and began to suck out his Dog Karma.
The absorbed Dog Karma converged into Ugly shaggy's head and gushed inside a small bump that had formed atop its forehead. The bump detached itself from Ugly Shaggy when it had grown to half the size of its face and hovered in the air as it began to shrink itself into a thumb-sized egg.
Prakash noticed that he had consumed about 80 Dog Karma in order to create that small purple egg. After careful consideration, Prakash mimicked Vikram's earlier actions as he gently pushed the purple egg forward and walked back until he reached one corner of the room.
Vikram stood in the other corner of the room opposite to Prakash as he gazed at the thumb-sized purple egg that silently hovered in the air before him. There were numerous engravings that had been mysteriously carved onto its surface while it emitted a deep purple hue. When Vikram held it in his palms, he felt that the purple egg was soft to the touch and also had a faint pulse that coursed through its surface.
Purple smoke gushed out of his body involuntarily and transformed into Victoris that gently removed the purple egg from the hands of Vikram and swallowed it.
Immediately, something seemed to have exploded as the huge body of Victoris began to shiver like a person trapped in a world of ice.
"So, this is what will happen when the receptor also possesses a Karmic Art," The eyes of the duo lit up in comprehension as they gazed at Victoris whose actions were almost a replica of Ugly Shaggy when it swallowed the purple egg created by Victoris.
Purple smoke gushed out of the body of Prakash and transformed into Ugly Shaggy that displayed rage and a slight sense of fear as it gazed at Victoris.
After Ugly Shaggy had manifested, Prakash could feel a connection with something within the body of Victoris that was trying to wriggle its way out. He could also sense that the connection with the object inside Victoris was becoming faint as time passed.
Before Ugly Shaggy could break free of his control and charge at Victoris, the connection was completely cut off from the object trapped within the body of Victoris that made the rage in Ugly Shaggy's eyes fade into nonexistence. It then dissolved into purple smoke and was absorbed back into Prakash's body.
The entire process had concluded within a span of 5 seconds as a small purple snake with the head of a dog emerged out of the body of Victoris and rubbed its dog head on the hulking frame of Victoris.
"Haha, that was a bit anticlimactic," Vikram heaved a sigh of relief after seeing a new row appear in his 'Record'.
<Skill: Convert (0.01%)>
When Prakash saw the familiar face of Shaggy once again, his eyes moistened a little. Even though they fought against each other to the death, it was still a child that he had taken care of for many years.
"Isn't this…Shaggy?" Vikram exclaimed in surprise as he saw the dog face that had a striking resemblance to the one he played with for years.
Since the university he went to was in the same city where Prakash and Anita had stayed at, Anita forbade him from staying at the university hostel and forced him to stay in their house. So, Vikram had plenty of fun memories he shared with Shaggy.
"H-How did it die?" Vikram asked. His eyes became cloudy the further he gazed at the cute and innocent face attached to a tiny purple snake that played with Victoris.
Prakash sighed in response as he began to recount the experiences he and Anita had faced after they had turned small. He began with how they first survived an encounter with Shaggy, then their first fight with it, and then their consecutive battles with a horde of ants and how he eventually got critically injured and had almost died.
He then continued about how they chased after the tracks of their maid in search for their son, faced many emotional trials and eventually suffered from the attacks of Shaggy and three kittens.
"And then, I entered the mouth of Shaggy while sacrificing my legs to survive the tsunami," Prakash said with a heavy heart, he wanted to find his family soon.
"What happened to sister then?" Vikram inquired as tears streamed out of his eyes like a waterfall. Prakash had to actually support him as his legs gave out under him due to his flustered mental state.
"The last I saw was her running towards a room where we believed Diana had run off to with Akash," Prakash said when he realised something; until now, he thought that Anita might have somehow found her son, but what if she hadn't? She too was chased by three kittens that would have proved to be terrifying enemies for her, not to mention the fact that even if she were to miraculously escape their pursuit and find her son, how did she survive the ensuing tsunami?
It wasn't that he didn't want to think about such things, it was only because such a train of thought was too terrifying and he hadn't dared to think so. He wanted to hope, no matter how vain or foolish it may seem.
As he saw the complexion of Prakash that was worsening further than his own, Vikram realised the amount of stress Prakash had been carrying with him all along. Compared to that, his experiences were relatively milder.
"Then, when are we leaving?" Vikram asked as he wiped away his tears. He no longer had the mind to worry about the wellbeing of their base.
"Once we finish our talk," Prakash said. He had already completed the objective he intended for in this base anyway. His first priority was to search for his wife and son, and the second was to accumulate some information about their transformation powers.
He thought that Anita might have eventually found her way to some human base as she roamed the wilderness since staying in a base was many times safer than roaming out in the open.
"Then, let's get going. We can talk later during our journey," Vikram said as he began to walk towards the door to their meeting room.
"That's not wise, haste makes waste. We can leave after the two of us have tested our respective skills and prepare accordingly. We wouldn't get the chance to do so once we go out into the open where we will have to face battles one after the other," Prakash said.
Vikram pondered about Prakash's logic for a second and felt it wise to check the versatility of his new skill and prepare for their journey. After all, if their preparations were insufficient, they would die in the open before they could find Anita.
"Until now, I could find two uses for it: converting the Karma of any creature into the Karma of the creature I desire and converting any lifeform into my puppet," Prakash said as he taught Vikram the ways in which mini Shaggy could be used.
Following his instructions, Vikram activated the skill and saw mini Shaggy turn transparent and enter his body. He wanted to convert a certain Karma in him into Spider Karma which was what he had expended the most to defend their base and also to raise the combat prowess of his warriors.
After that, Vikram noticed the Karma of the intended creature in his 'Record' decrease at a snail's pace. It took a second for a unit of Karma in his body to decrease as mini Shaggy consumed it but even after patiently waiting for more than a minute in silence, Vikram noticed that he hadn't gained even a single unit of Spider Karma.
"How many units of Karma do you have to consume to convert into one unit of the Karma you desire?" Vikram inquired Prakash as he felt confused about not gaining even a single Spider Karma until now.
He was also feeling puzzled because his mini Shaggy had the face of a dog while the Ugly Shaggy Prakash possessed hardly resembled a dog's face and seemed to be an accumulation of many different organisms. He could even make out many fish-like traits all across Ugly Shaggy's face, which were in sharp contrast to the dog-headed purple snake he possessed.
"Currently, I can gain a unit of my desired Karma through conversion after expending 5 units of any Karma," Prakash said as he noticed the expression of Vikram getting uglier.
"What is your Karmic Art attainment?" Vikram questioned in a solemn tone.
"Karmic Art attainment? What's that? Is it that number displayed next to my Karmic Art?" Upon his guess, Vikram nodded his head as a sign of confirmation.
"It's 20 something percentage," Prakash replied.
"Damn it," Vikram cursed. He could now basically infer some relation between the amount of Karma that would be converted based on the numbers displayed next to it in the 'Record'.
Since Prakash could gain one unit of Karma through the conversion of 5 units of Karma with his twenty percent Karmic Art attainment, Vikram did some math and ended up with a horrible number.
With his 0.1 percent attainment of the Skill 'Convert', it basically meant that he would have to expend 1000 units of Karma to gain one unit of the Karma of his desired type. It was utter foolishness to waste so much Karma to gain such a paltry sum. Instead of that, he could just go out and hunt the creatures whose Karma he required.
It wasn't like there were creatures that were so rare that he wouldn't be able to encounter them for the rest of his life and also possessed useful abilities that he desperately needed. The ones he used regularly were the insects that were available in excess in the wilds and also constantly sent themselves to their deaths by invading his base.
"It would take me a long time to upgrade this skill until it proves to be useful," Vikram commented.
"The skills could be upgraded?" Prakash's eyes lit up in surprise. Since the skill 'Convert' Vikram obtained was almost useless as compared to his Karmic Art, Prakash thought that the skill 'Supplement' would be similarly useless.
The fact that it could be upgraded would increase its effectiveness on a qualitative scale.
"Yes, you can upgrade your skill. Many warriors in our base have already upgraded their skills to considerable heights," Vikram said.
"Do I have to sleep and enter into the dream world or something to upgrade it?" Prakash inquired. If the method to upgrade the skills were similar to how he increased his comprehension of a specific Karma, then it might turn out to be simple.
All he would need to do is think about the skill before sleep and find himself in a dream world experiencing a different life. After he then wakes up, his comprehension would have risen up by a small but significant amount.
"No, the growth of skills is quite simple but they require a tedious amount of usage. The more you use the skill, the greater it grows. The numbers in percentage displayed next to it indicate its growth. It's a slow but steady progress and after reaching a certain percentage, its name displayed in the 'Record' changes," Vikram said.
"Arvind, for example, is one of the few people in our base to have increased his attainment level until his skill upgraded. After crossing 1 percent attainment, the name displayed in his 'Record' changed from 'Skill' to 'Minor Art'. His mini Victoris also became more powerful as compared to the mini Victoris possessed by the others," Vikram said and couldn't help but think about the brave youth who had fought with a zombie on even grounds.
"I see, in such a situation, increasing the attainment level of the Convert Skill is an expensive endeavour. The amount of Karma wasted would be an astronomical amount," Prakash muttered when his eyes lit up as a different possibility began to play in his mind.
"Come with me," Prakash dragged Vikram with him and exited the meeting room. The two ladies who were resting near the door were jolted awake from their spots but before they could even call out to the two males, Prakash and Vikram had long vanished from their sights.
Passing through a long winding path, the duo stood before a hurriedly built stable-like structure within which the body of a pigeon rested. It had its eyes closed while its chest rose up and down in a slow but rhythmic manner.
