118 Harder to Hide 2
He analysed the new armour before he began gathering more bones.
<[Necrotic Fingers]>
0% Full
<[Functions]>
[Transplant]
– Bones are automatically extracted from the surroundings and added to the ring
– Bones are extracted from the ring, float around the wielder.
[Amputation] (Fingers form)
– Only the desired amount of bones are extracted. Do not float.
– Bones can be extracted from the surroundings and added to the ring.
[Shift] (2 Fingers)
– The ring changes form, storing the bones in a different form
– No mana cost
<[Description]>
[Bone storage]
“Oh, not much is different… oh hang on, amputation changed… so I can now extract bones without having to shift the ring?”
Another useful change was added, and Jay immediately tried it of course.
Approaching the wall of bones, he held out his hand like he was going to use some sort of powerful force on it. He held his hand at the wrist and braced himself.
Any onlooker would have thought he was about to release a powerful spell capable of wiping out a city.
“Amputation?” he thought, desiring a bone to enter his dual-finger armour.
The bone he targeted rattled for a moment and then began to float gently towards him. Not as dramatic as Jay wanted.
As the bone came within reaching distance, Jay lost control of his hand as it grasped the bone.
“Huh?” he thought, wondering what was happening.
Suddenly the two finger pieces of armour squeezed with unnatural strength, crushing the bone as if it were nothing more than a dried out leaf.
“Wow…” the bone turned into two separate pieces with only dust and fragments left in the middle.
The two pieces had splits and cracks in them, and now the necrotic gas had caught them from falling to the ground, like flies in honey their fate was sealed.
The gas entered the cracks and they were then split into smaller pieces before being stuck onto the finger armour.
Somehow, the bone fragments began to dissolve and disappear; They melted like ice sitting on a bench, turning to liquid before disappearing completely.
Jay couldn’t stop smiling seeing this weird trick. He did it again a few more times with different sized bones; to him, it was simply too amazing. There was also a feeling of contentment welling up in him each time he snapped a bone like it was a twig.
After satisfying himself enough, he finally stopped; realising that Anya would be getting bored too.
“Ok, time to get back to business.”
Jay shifted his ring to the orbital form again and began carving another path through the skeleton sea.
Some time later, he got the notification again.
[Criteria met – 400/400 Skeletons]
[Necrotic Fingers – Evolution Available]
[Consume all stored skeletons to evolve the necrotic ring?]
[Yes / No]
“Oh, it’s not going up by one hundred, it’s doubling… damn.” he pursed his lips.
The first evolution needed 100 skeletons, the next was 200, and now 400.
Jay hoped that it would stick to only needing an extra 100, but it seemed that fate had already given him enough today, at least he thought so anyway.
“Well, even having 100 skeletons is crazy.” he shrugged, allowing the evolution.
After the process completed once more, there were now three fingers – but no new skills or changes to the item.
Jay continued anyway, gathering even more bones.
The swirling mass of bones around him was truly getting large now, as he needed 800 skeletons to satisfy the next evolution.
It was simple enough – he just kept walking down the ramp, deeper into the sea of skeletons.
Before long, he had his next notification.
[Criteria met – 800/800 Skeletons]
[Necrotic Fingers – Evolution Available]
[Consume all stored skeletons to evolve the necrotic ring?]
[Yes / No]
“Yes” he thought, getting the fourth finger of his hand and then gathering more bones.
[Criteria met – 1600/1600 Skeletons]
[Necrotic Fingers – Evolution Available]
[Consume all stored skeletons to evolve the necrotic ring?]
[Yes / No]
“Yep.” Some thumb armour appeared, all four fingers and his thumb were now covered.
The skeletons swirling above were also like a threatening storm, as the ring could hold more and more bones in the air.
Jay hardly had to move as it seemed that the storm of bones pulling the skeletons into itself was getting stronger.
By now, he made it to the bottom of the ramp and was on the ground level; the bottom of the pit.
Still, he kept moving as he had skeletons to gather. The necrotic gauntlet was still incomplete, as the pieces of finger armour only slightly connected at the sides. His palm and the top of his hand were still bare.
He went to gather more skeletons – but he heard a faint yell through the storm of bones; Anya was calling.
“Jay!” Anya yelled out through the masses of swirling bones.
Jay shifted the ring back into the 5-finger armour.
The swirling storm of bones above and around Jay all suddenly flew into a single point; it was like they were all a swarm of birds which suddenly dived on a single target.
The bones gathered, condensed and became the 5-finger armour and found its rightful place on Jay’s hand. With all of their rattles and tapping disappearing the room suddenly went quiet again.
It was like a hurricane had vanished before their eyes.
How long had he been here anyway? He completely lost track.
“Anya? Hello?” He saw her waving her luminous orb.
She was standing much further up the path with Jay’s skeletons, looking a little concerned as all the flying bones disappeared.
“Uh, I was just wondering, how long do you think this is gonna take?” she asked, trying not to sound rude.
“I don’t know. There’s a lot of bones here, but it seems like I’m getting faster at collecting them, so maybe not too long? Did you want to leave? You can leave the dungeon and come back later maybe?” Jay suggested, feeling a little bad about making her wait.
“Oh, no. It’s ok. I’ll wait. You continue.” Anya said quickly.
She didn’t want to miss the opportunity to keep running through the dungeon with Jay.
After all, Jay was hard to get a hold of. Even Viladore had problems trying to get some time with Jay.
Plus, even after waiting she would still have more exp than if she partied with someone who didn’t have skeletons.
Anya sat down cross legged, putting her elbow on her knee and leaning her chin on her hand.
Jay smiled seeing her sitting in the darkness of the dungeon patiently, and he felt bad for making her wait. He walked over and pulled out his trusty chair.
“Here you go, have a rest.” he patted the chair.
“Thanks.” she smiled softly.
Jay then went back to the massive wall of bones and shifted his ring, continuing his gathering process.