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Path to Prosperity - B2 Chapter 8
🕑 Added 2024-08-04 10:00:05 +0000 UTCTo say that Percy was surprised about Tarlek’s power was an understatement. Even now, he was having difficulty comprehending what Tarlek had done to accelerate suddenly. It was related to his Ego, for sure, but that was all Percy knew.
“How about you take the corpses instead of staring at me like this?” Tarlek teased Percy while Erik chuckled, “Show off!”
Percy swallowed but used [Consume] to swallow the four River Boars. The abomination burst from his palms and split up to reach the River Boars once the Interfaces popped up. Interestingly enough, the Interfaces of the River Boars killed by the brothers appeared right away. They genuinely never considered the River Boars as their property.
They are much nicer than Melissa and the Glacia Knights. In the first place, Melissa is…complicated.
He grinned faintly at that thought and waited patiently until the abomination devoured the corpses and retracted.
[Four River Boars have been consumed. 86,635 Prosperity has been added.]
The gains were remarkable and were the first of many hunts that would follow today and in the following days. The monsters of the Moonlight Forest were strong and considered rare in other parts of the kingdom, but their population was too big in the Moonlight Forest. They had to be hunted to rebalance the population and regulate the Moonlight Forest in the first place.
“What weapons and armor do you like the most?” Percy asked the brothers, “I figured you’re using a broadsword to deal massive damage with your move – whatever that was earlier – but neither of you wears any armor.”
If I can purchase a Broadsword from Melissa, alongside a few Silvron Swords, I can repay my gold debt to the Glacia Knights with Silvron Sword Artifacts and create a better weapon for Tarlek to thank him for the corpses. But Erik…Erik’s weapons are made of blood. I don’t think my Ego can engrave runic enchantments on blood. If that were possible, I could only enchant my blood in the first place. I doubt something like that is possible, though.
“Armor slows me down. My blood armor is much more flexible and durable than most armor pieces, and I can transform it into weapons or gather the blood in a single spot to block stronger blows. An armor would slow me down. As for weapons, I like to be a little more versatile with my blood weapons. They’re the best!” Erik exclaimed, only for Tarlek to intervene.
“Your blood weapons are great, but I told you to purchase a weapon Artifact. Your blood can only create weapons at the same rank as your Tier. [Bloodweaver] is strong, but a weapon Artifact with tremendous destructive power could grant you victory in a fight you would lose otherwise.”
Erik scoffed, and his lips parted, but Tarlek lifted his hand.
“I know you’re against that, but I think you should focus on your Monster Cards more and buy some proper Artifacts once we’re out of here. It’s not like we lack money after the Monster Rampage disaster and…” Tarlek stopped and waved his hand dismissively, “Either way, we have enough money, use it before it will be too late!”
He turned to Percy to answer his question, “I had a few armor artifacts, but most of them are not compatible with my Ego. My Ego is a little unique if you want to put it like that, and it ends up wearing down my armor and their enchantments very quickly. A single battle, or maybe two or three if I’m lucky, might destroy the average Elite Artifact. My Ego is powerful, but the drawback is that Artifacts are not that useful to me.”
Tarlek looked at his broadsword with a bright smile, “Except for this little baby. I don’t know what the Artificer did with this masterpiece, but my Ego doesn’t harm this one. In fact, I think the broadsword fits perfectly with my Ego. They’re compatible.”
That wasn’t what Percy expected to hear, but he nodded slowly.
“That’s interesting.”
And it’s annoying because I won’t be able to thank you by preparing a better broadsword for you – or something else – because your Ego will end up destroying it. What can I prepare instead? Erik doesn’t like Artifacts, but Tarlek told him to get something. I could prepare him a small war axe with some feisty runic enchantments. He would probably like it much better than using his money. I feel like Erik would love self-made gifts much better than buying stuff.
He looked at the brothers with a smile.
In the worst case, I can prepare some Monster Cards for you. If we hunt like this for several hours every day for the next few days, we’ll accumulate a small fortune. But getting them to ‘gift’ me their Monster Cards will be annoying. They cannot know about the transaction, otherwise, my Ego won’t accept it as a ‘fair’ deal. Maybe that won’t work. In the worst case…I upgrade a few potions with my ego. That wouldn’t be too bad either.
“What’s all this talk about Artifacts about in the first place? Let’s not waste our time and keep going! We don’t have all day to hunt!!” Erik exclaimed, dragging his brother and Percy along.
“But we have all day to hunt,” Tarlek responded.
Erik glared back while Tarlek lifted his hands helplessly, “That was a joke.”
The corners of Tarlek’s lips curled upward while Percy laughed aloud.
He liked being around the brothers. They loved fighting and were genuine good people. The noble society had yet to tarnish their quirky personalities.
**
Percy was unsure how the brothers did it, but they left the Wintermoon estate every day around the same time. He worked out for about an hour and rested, leaning back near the entrance to the Wintermoon estate where his mana would replenish. Percy also trained his mana control like everyone, but his progress was slow. He was already fairly advanced – Percy discovered that when he compared his mana control with Tarlek and Erik –, and it was far more challenging to progress further without proper teaching.
Tarlek and Erik taught him a lot in the last few days, but he was most interested in gaining combat experience and studying Tarlek and Erik. It looked like leaving the Wintermoon estate and fighting monsters helped them progress faster, which was something the Imperial Instructors must have noticed. More commonbirth Egos left the Wintermoon estate several hours a day to enter the Moonlight Forest for various purposes.
Percy and the brothers discovered some commonbirth Egos harvesting herbs and natural treasures, while others fooled around. One way or another, more Imperial prospects left the Wintermoon estate than before.
While that was interesting, Percy and the brothers focused more on their task. They were on the hunt most of the day and chatted whenever the surroundings were clear of monsters.
Their bond tightened and Percy was sure that Tarlek and Erik were his friends now.
“How much longer do you want to let us wait?” Erik asked impatiently, “Didn’t you want to show us something special?!”
The corners of Percy’s lips curled upward. They were currently in the middle of the Moonlight Forest, probably in one of the deepest parts of it. After hunting a large pack of Viridian Wolves, Percy finally had enough Prosperity to change his combat style. Well, maybe Percy would alter his combat style by adding more varieties.
[Blueflame Hawk Card’s Augmentation -[Frostbite ⭐⭐⭐⭐] has been unsealed.
1.000,000 Prosperity has been consumed]
[Your Tier increased by one rank]
The interfaces were beautiful. Unsealing [Frostbite] might have been expensive, but Percy didn’t regret it. He had been in dire need of a subtle change in his combat style, a means to alter his style easily. [Frostbite] would change everything.
He pointed behind Erik, who turned around, expecting to see something, only for something to hit the back of his head. His hand reached out and touched the hit spot…only to feel something cold. He looked at his hand and frowned deeply.
“Is that snow?” He looked up to Percy, who had conjured a few snowballs, which he hurled at Erik one after another.
Tarlek chortled, seeing his brother under the barrage of snowballs until one hit him square in the face.
“Oopsie,” Percy mumbled, but his vibrant smile indicated that he wasn’t sorry at all.
“You!!” Tarlek roared, charging behind Percy, who spun around to flee from the scene.
The brothers hunted Percy through the Moonlight Forest, but neither realized where they were headed.
