New Discoveries

Cleaning up was easier than I thought. Didn't have to wait around as after stripping the scumbags of any magic stones or money a goblin had already come along and started staring at me. I say staring because one good eye beam in front of it had it waiting warily for me to finish or perhaps for backup.

"Okay now what? I could go back to the surface and talk to Lord Miach about what happened, but I don't actually feel like doing that. I've barely spent my day yet and I want to see what these talismans can do. Still should I head back and see how I unlocked them or try to see what they can do? Well Naaza would probably give me an earful coming back without some money made so lets try the fifth floor."

Heading to the fifth floor I thought about what exactly had happened. I hadn't eaten any magic stones so what had empowered Shendu. Thinking back on what happened made my anger rise but I noticed my chest didn't heat up.

'It seems like Shendu reacted to my anger. Well that fits the jinchuriki analogy. He must react to and feed off my negative emotions, enough at least to substitute for magic stones. Well he is a demon so I should have seen that coming. Though why were the talismans so weak? I'm sure they were much stronger in the show? Well it could be a number of things so I'll just have to find out.'

Down at the fifth floor I took a look at myself to see if I was ready. My arm had scabbed up and was serviceable while the rest of my wounds were either gone or almost so. I also didn't feel quite as tired as I should be. I had just fought to the death and nearly died. I should be at least on my last legs by now, but even after walking all the way from the fight with monsters in the way I felt like I had just sat there and rested.

'The healing is obviously the horse talisman, and this rested feeling must be the dog talisman. Seems it does more than keep me young.' Done checking I spent the rest of the day fighting monsters and practicing with the talsimans.

'Overall it seems that all of the talismans are much weaker than they should be. The most obvious are the dragon and pig talismans. They are much weaker and can't even one shot a monster without hitting a vital like the eyes or throat. It seems like the pig talisman focuses more on speed and penetration while the dragon on power and impact so I can use the pig like a spear and the dragon like a hammer. I also can't use their powers very flexibly only with the hands and mouth for the dragon and the eyes for the pig. It seems like their only use is for a range attack or for when someone gets too close to use my spear. Oh, they also make great surprise attacks.'

'The ox and rabbit talismans on the other are probably going to be my bread and butter. A simple speed and strength increase are great and while its probably only worth about 100 stat points now it should grow in the future. Also saving them to suddenly increase the speed or strength worked pretty good on catching monsters off guard, very useful in a group battle.'

'I'm a little disappointed in the snake, rooster, and monkey talisman though. The snake doesn't make me fully invisible yet, just transparent. Luckily with the dimness of the dungeon that will work just fine for now. I tried flying with the rooster but all I could do was jump farther. At least I could levitate my spear so it should be a weight restriction. I can think up some good moves with this to get around that too. Still, no throwing monsters around yet.

'The monkey on the other hand has serious problems. I changed those swords just fine but it's like everything else resists. The monsters can't be changed properly and when successful its only partially like changing that one lizard from before from green to red. I can, however, make them tougher but not weaker, which is useless. What's even worse is the rock of the dungeon itself seems to resist me. Any change to the dungeon rock takes more work for less results. Those snakes I tried making looked more like worms! Judging by this the dungeon is really alive with a will of its own. That means no pitfalls or earth bending I guess. I bet the deeper I go the harder it gets so even increasing my strength won't help there. Wait, I might be able to shape rocks that aren't directly connected to the dungeon. The disconnect should weaken the will enough that I can do it. That means land forms would be a good target. I could just break the ground up enough, but that might lead into other problems and is discouraged by the guild. Still good option for a tight scenario.

'Lastly are the rat, tiger, and sheep talismans. The rat talisman seems to work on a time limit where things just change back after a short period. I can't check it right now with nothing big enough to work with, but I bet there is a size limit too. As for the tiger and sheep talismans, I either can't use them here or it would be too dangerous. Can't sleep alone in the dungeon after all. Though it does feel like I can use several talismans at once, but I can't keep it up long. Can't tell if that's from lack of power or the tiger talisman.'

"Alright I think that's enough experimenting for today. Now to figure out how to explain this to Lord Miach."