The night and star

Sure the last blast of wind made it hard to breath for Alex but other than that it did no damage at all. This wasn't strange at all as even in the game the only thing the winds did was prevent the player from moving through that area. Even the blast that kushala hit the player with in the game was probably only damaging because of the impact of it. Long story short the only reason that kushala was a problem was because of how hard to approach it was normally , something Alex fixed with a single measly flash bug.-

No one was surprised when Alex arrived back at astera with kushala's corpse in tow since they had been given warning before hand. The hunters went to work without delay taking the elder apart with an almost graceful ease despite clearly never having worked on a member of the species before. Alex was lucky this time as there was a small grey gem imbedded in the elders body that he directly snatched up before it could get taken by the smiths for Zain. None of the other hunters had a problem with Zain using the materials from Alex's hunts since he was easily the most active and deserving of them.-

Just in the new world alone Zain had a body count well into the double digits for monsters as he much like Alex actively sought out a good fight. The man was a battle junky , simple as that and had the skills to prove it. This had caused a saying to pop up in astera to describe Zain and Alex in the same sentence "The all encompassing night that allows the star to shine" , poetic but not inaccurate. As if on cue Zain himself also returned to astera with a wide smile after a successful hunt of an odogaron that was being hauled along in a cart behind him.-

Zain eyed the remnants of kushala that was in the finishing stages of being dismantled and sighed in disappointment. He walked over to Alex casually "you know if you keep taking all the fun stuff we're gonna have a problem right?" he asked with a joking smile. Alex shrugged 'At this point your definition of fun is a bit crooked.' he said playfully making Zain laugh. "Yeah fighting elders usually doesn't fit that description but normal monsters are just so stupid you know?" Zain complained.-

"I mean it takes next to no real effort to lure them into a trap and then it's all down hill from there." he said frustrated. Alex snorted in amusement 'have you tried fighting with a handy cap like not using potions or using a weapon you're not very familiar with?' he asked calmly. Zain froze "you can do that!?" he asked in astonishment. 'You know for actually being very smart you are kinda stupid some times right?' Alex teased but Zain just waved it off fixated on trying Alex's suggestion.-

For the first time ever Alex got to see the head chef declare an ingredient unfit for consumption. As it turned out much like sharks , kushala had huge amounts of heavy metals like mercury in it's blood and flesh. This meant that not even the runt could eat the dish that the chef cooked using the meat as it would cause problems. 'Jokes on them , I can eat damn near anything without a problem.' Alex thought while popping the deep fried bites of meat into his mouth. The chef was a bit lazy this time and just deep fried the meat since he disdained using it for anything else.-

Alex didn't mind though since pretty much anything taste good after being deep fried as any american from earth could attest. Kushala's meat wasn't all that tough really which surprised Alex a bit, it did have a similar taste to braised eel though. From the meal Alex got two more traits that interested him , [Wind resistance] and [Metallic skin]. Both were rare ranked and thus directly unlocked giving near immediate benefits. [Metallic skin] did exactly as one would assume and create an additional layer of organic skin that was metallic in nature. [Wind resistance] however surprised Alex since rather than make him more aerodynamic like he expected it actually gave him a sort of preternatural super sense of where the flow of air was smoothest.

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