Ch. 42 Planning for the Future

(It is going to take a full day to clean these bodies up. Maybe we can use them as fertilizer to plant a herb and berry field outside. With this much space, we'll definitely be able to do as we please.) Gabriel had already planned to turn this into a future base. He had started to inspect the area for future uses while waiting on Gala to wake up. Acorn had been in a state of meditation since the end of the battle. After he had noticed the last enemy was felled, he placed his tail on the ground lifting his body and took on a balancing pose. His Crystal Mist was continuing to spread uncontrollably at a slow pace, nearly a quarter of the cave was now covered in his red mist and it showed no signs of slowing. (Hopefully he's just increasing in Realms or something. This is a lot of mist, at least its still low too the ground, guess we'll have to clean up that battlefield last...)

Gabriel took flight to survey the Goblin village. Most of the small buildings still stood, only a few had been knocked over. There was one bigger tent in the middle of the village which Gabriel assumed to be the humanoid Goblin's tent. (If there is anything to be had, it'll be in there. Before we go searching, we need to heal up and rest. Plus, I need to check our growth again.)

'Host: Gabriel

Species: True Shadow - Young Adult

Realm: Basic - Mastered - 98%

Stats: Available Points: 0

Agility: 30

Endurance: 10

Strength: 10

Intelligence: 21

Magic: 30

Abilities:

Leaf on the Wind, Basic Herb and Ore Knowledge, Language Mimic, Extreme Comprehension, Shadow Hide, Basic Magic Paths, Shadow Form, Shadow Throw, Shadow Travel

Skills:

Wind Manipulation - Mastered - R.T.L.

Water Manipulation - Beginner

Light Manipulation - Adept

Shadow Blade - Mastered - R.T.L.

Shadow Claw - Adept

Cloud Vision - Beginner

Shadow Cannon - Adept

Basic Heal - Beginner '

(Almost there... System, explain about my Realm enhancement and what species I've become?)

'Host, your bloodline has been enhanced into its primal state. The potion you ingested contained an unknown mixture that facilitates bloodline growth to original development state.

True Shadow is what the Shadow Ravens were bron from. They still have the shape of a Raven, but they are part of the shadow. They can move within shadows, transform shadows, throw shadows, when strong enough they can even force shadows to expand. It is a race of creatures meant to never be seen unless they wish to be seen.'

(So, the reason my Wind Blade and Pressure Cannon both became Shadow mutations must be because of my bloodline enhancement. System, where did Light Manipulation come from?)

'Host, Light Manipulation is an inherited ability of True Shadows. As they are part of the shadow they have to know how to manipulate the light away from themselves. True Shadows can increase the masteries of Shadow related abilities quicker and any Shadow Abilities acquired will automatically be in Adept Mastery.'

(Pure bloodlines are insane. System, will my bloodline get weaker after I evolve into a humanoid state?)

'Host, System is currently unable to answer inquiry.'

(Probably up to chance like everything else in my life.) Gabriel was incredibly happy with his growth from just 1 battle. It felt as if he had grown more in a single day than he had in the past few weeks. (Life and death battles must be the only way to increase Realms and masteries efficiently.) This was the first time Gabriel had a chance of actually dying in battle, he'd never brushed against death before because he'd never really been hit before. Being hit by that humanoid Goblin had almost completely killed him and it was only one attack. Gabriel knew he had to become even faster if he wanted to keep his life intact for future battles.

(I'll have to train my Shadow Skills and abilities like crazy. Learning how to properly use 3 new movement and control style abilities is going to change the way I fight entirely. Guess I'll just have to fight more and adjust slowly to my new abilities.) Gabriel circled the cave one more time before landing next to his companions. He retrieved some Bear Meat and Hermitberries from his Tiny Dimension then put them up away from the gore, but still nearby his companions. After eating his piece he noticed Gala starting to wake up and took the opportunity to check her condition. No more wounds were visible on the surface, but Gabriel was sure she had internal injuries she's recovering from. He cast heal on her again and hoped it would help.

'What happened?

"I don't know, you'll have to ask Acorn when he wakes up."

'Gabriel? What happened to you?'

"What do you mean?"

'You don't look like you used too, in fact in this light I can barely even see you except your silhouette.'

(Well, apparently the species change also made some physical changes as well. I'll have to check myself out in the river tomorrow.) "It may be a residual effect from the potion I accidentally drank. It enhanced my bloodline greatly, changing my race to a True Shadow." Gabriel puffed his chest up proudly while strutting back and forth. He was actually pretty proud of his bloodline after enhancement. "I've surveyed the area and didn't find any more enemies. We still need to go through the buildings and rest for the night. Tomorrow we can start destroying the bodies." Gala gave a nod and headed toward the nearest rent to take a look at what she could find. Gabriel decided to take a break and stare at Acorn's ever spreading mist. It had been close to an hour since the battle had ended, but he was still in his strange position and seemed to be meditating.

(I'll leave him be while we start looting. I don't want to ruin his enlightenment by breaking his trance.) Gabriel started hopping along to check the smaller buildings while Gala cleared the tents. The first building he came across was filled with shit, literally shit, it must have been some sort of outhouse. Gabriel quickly moved on to the next one only to find it was empty except for a makeshift bed. He checked nearly all of the small buildings and the best thing he found was a fancy obsidian pot. (I guess it's time to check out the boss man's tent.)

Gabriel hopped his way into the biggest tent in the village and found very little. There was a makeshift bed, a small desk, and a cupboard. On the desk were a few books and two small chests that looked to be for potions or jewelry. (I'll check the cupboard first, maybe there will be herbs!) Gabriel flew up to the double doors on the front of the cupboard and magaed to use his beak to open it. (What the hell is all this?) Inside the cupboard was a wide variety of jars all containing organs. They appeared to be the organs of the Goblins preserved in some sort of liquid. (What was actually going on here?) Gabriel landed on the desk and walked up to the stack of 3 books, there were no titles written on their spines or cover so Gabriel touched the top book waiting for a prompt from the system.

'Host, this book is an incomplete record of experiments, would host like to acquire knowledge from the journal?'

(I mean, the one doing the research is already dead so I might as well. Yes.) As it was just acquiring knowledge, Gabriel had already become accustomed to the pressure it brought on him. (It gets easier everytime.) Within seconds he assimilated the knowledge and almost passed out. (THE FUCK!?!?) The records in the journal described experiments done to try to forces regeneration mutation in the Goblins. Each experiment more gruesome than the last. As Gabriel began to explore the information in his mind, he began to feel sick to his stomach. His eyes were drawn back to the cupboard of organs and he immediately puked his guts. Every single one of those jars were a separate experiment and there was hundreds of jars. (This sick fuck was pulling these Goblins apart piece by piece. How could anyone do this? He couldn't have been sane....) He looked at one of the jars and started to gag again. It was full of little pieces of fleshy material, but Gabriel could immediately place what it actually contained. Pieces of heart. Hate researcher had cut open a living Goblin and shaved pieces of it's heart every few hours while constantly feeding it healing potions forcing the heart to heal. He repeated that process for 3 months before the Goblin showed signs of regeneration. Once it showed the signs that it could heal its own heart back from being injured, he upped the times he shaved the heart from a from once every 3 hours, to once every 15 minutes. The Goblin died within a week, but that week was like hell on earth. Gabriel couldn't even imagine the pain it would've felt, just thinking about it made him nauseous.