"Hahh…haah…dammit, this freak!" The Night Ranger System Host panted in exhaustion, hiding within an empty house as she drank some water that she stored in her dimensional storage.
As for the owner of the house, they had become Grassmen long ago. As to how she was aware of that?
They currently lay near her, dismembered.
"Wait…what's this?" Just as she was about to look around for supplies, her eyes caught sight of a colourful object within the Grassmen's corpse, fishing it out to see that it was a blue coloured pearl.
'System, appraise this.' She spoke in her mind.
<Ding!>
[Stamina Pearl: Replenishes the stamina of anyone that consumes it]
'Replenishes stamina?' She was surprised before searching through the corpses of the other Grassmen, sighing when there was nothing in them.
She then thought, asking, 'System, will such pearls grow in other Grassmen too?'
As usual, there were no replies from her System, causing her to pout, "It never informs me about such things."
She then sighed, shaking her head as she got up and began to look around the house for any useful supplies. Her pearl reserve had almost diminished, after all. So, she had to stock up on other weapons for times of necessity and amass pearls as quickly as possible.
"This pearl business is pretty risky. If my skills are even the slightest bit sloppy, I won't even earn back as many pearls as what I spend to hunt."
…
Spurt!
Dwun stabbed a knife into the part between an ant's head and thorax, severing it easily. He attacked it before it could unleash a breath attack, fishing its pearl out.
He cut off its horn and pocketed it, beginning to kill the other ants, collecting the pearls and horns of any horned ant he came across. Finally, when he had collected more than twenty horns, he unleashed golden light from his hands, causing it to envelop all horns.
The horns melted into a puddle before condensing into a sphere. A couple of seconds later, the sphere elongated to produce a sword, one sharing characteristics of an ant.
"Alright, I have created an ant sword once again." Smiling in response, Dwun swung it, noticing its sharpness as a random ant was cleanly bisected without effort. He then used it to kill ants from time to time, resting as he entered a house, found some canned food and gorged through them, commenting, "Ahh, the bliss of life!"
…
Having observed the actions of the two System Hosts, Compass Carburettor sighed in relief, continuing with the process as he observed his reserve of Darlac had already crossed 6000. 'I'm becoming stronger!'
Suddenly, he paused in action, eyes glazed over, fainting immediately. Grisha grabbed hold of him immediately and brought him to safety, smiling, "That was quicker than I expected."
A couple of minutes later, Compass Carburettor woke up, sweating all over, muttering, "that was…horrifying."
"Yes, you should have been torn into two halves by your two mutated beasts." Grisha nodded, "In the previous loops, many people were unable to endure this pain as their minds shattered, plunging them into a vegetative state from which they never woke up."
"Will this continue to increase in the future?" Massaging his forehead, Compass Carburettor asked.
"Yes, the pain will continue to scale up as your Stage increases." She nodded, "Though, from Stage 4 onwards, it is your choice whether to face it or not."
"After all," She sighed, "You'll be split into three parts by your three mutated beasts. And, you'll have to experience this three times. That's when you'll reach Stage 4. Four parts and four times for Stage 5, so on and so forth. That's why it becomes progressively harder to reach the higher Stages."
"So, that's the limiting factor for this power system." He nodded, slowly getting up as he informed the cobra through telepathy, "I've reached Stage 3. What do I need to do now?"
"Awesome!" The cobra replied excitedly before saying, "Uncle, concentrate on your space and try to sense me. Think as if you're swallowing my orb. I'll handle the rest."
"I'll try…" Nodding, Compass Carburettor sat cross-legged, sensing the space within, relying on the vague feeling that he felt every time he summoned his pair of boots or wings. After all, he didn't know where this space was exactly within his body.
Even Grisha didn't know about that. So, this vague feeling was his only clue, one that felt as if it existed everywhere within him.
Slowly, he was able to sense three existences within his space, focusing on the cobra when the connection of Secret Society between them strengthened, suddenly causing him to sense it perfectly clear.
It felt as if he was zooming into its body, focusing on its orb automatically when he thought of swallowing it. Even though the orb was still there, the cobra's body experienced a jerk as a powerful connection was established between them.
Immediately, his Darlac gushed into it as the cobra's body thinned rapidly. The four mutated beast corpses within it were digested at a faster pace while its horn began to grow. Within three hours, it finished growing as the cobra returned to its original size of being a metre in length.
"Uncle! It's a success!" It shouted in joy, jumping around within his space as it messed around with the mongoose, irritating it.
Compass Carburettor grunted a little, feeling a surge of information gush into his mind, causing him to pant as he took almost an hour before the headache vanished. Upon understanding what his power implied, he summoned the cobra, snuggling it, "Did I tell you before that you're awesome?"
"No, you didn't!" The cobra retorted before expressing an arrogant posture, "But you can praise me now, uncle. Praise me lots!"
"Alright, alright." He laughed, thinking of something as he gulped before acting cheerful, "You know, I was saving this up for when you grew four horns and was able to use Secret Society to take on a human form. But, I think now is a better time for this."
"So, you finally thought up a good name for me?" The cobra snorted, turning around as it sulked, "I almost thought you had forgotten about it."
"Of course not," He laughed wryly, before stating, "I've planned this name from the moment you became a member of Secret Society…"
"Dita."
