chapter 120
POV: Dean
My hand moved a bit too fast, and I almost broke one of the test samples. Placing it back onto the table, I took a step back. This was too delicate work for me right now. It has been a while since I have had a body this fast and strong, but this isn’t the only thing this body came with.
The sensations were overwhelming at times, but I was slowly getting used to them.
“Is something wrong? I need those samples tested,” Lola asked, and I looked towards her.
“Just need a bit of time to get used to this new body,” I answered her, probably a bit more defensively than I wanted to.
Focusing on myself, I toned down all my sensations a lot, which helped me focus. It seems that I couldn’t turn them off entirely, but Captain did warn us that our new bodies would be changed by magic, and that could be an outcome of it.
It really surprised me when he said that even his mechanical parts could now feel. It was something I never expected could be possible. Managing my speed as best as possible, I continued my work helping Lola make Bob’s body.
It was a massive hulk of muscles. To the surprise of us all, even Bob chose to go with the more human body. According to him, he no longer needed his special attachments, as he had enough subordinates to not have to worry about transporting stuff himself.
I was still a bit wary of him, as he could so easily bypass what the bonds were supposed to do, but I was also thankful for him, because without him, we wouldn't have been able to keep this base or even be able to stay on this moon.
The captain and the others were worried about the upcoming fight within the A-rank portal, but I wasn’t. I knew the capability of this ship, and I was sure we were going to pull through no matter what. From what I’ve read about our enemy, the ship was practically made to fight them, and the large mothership should be taken care of by larger ships. We shouldn't be anywhere close to it.
With every hour, I felt more and more in control of this body and started to appreciate each feature more and more. It never occurred to me how accurately you can grab things when you have a perfect understanding, thanks to your skin's feedback, of how much pressure you're putting on the object.
For a moment, I glanced at my status screen, still weirded out that I had one. Bet my brother is fuming that I have two more skill slots and an extra affinity. Two of them I really liked—swords and speed—it felt so right for me. Even my innate ability seemed to work perfectly with them from what FH described to me what they meant.
“FH, what have you been able to dig up on disempowerment?” I eventually asked when my tasks became a lot less strenuous, as I had a lot of waiting to do.
Stolen story; please report.
“It's a curious affinity and seems to depend on the person on what skills you can absorb. There are two main builds people usually go with this affinity. Both use the skills you can have with this affinity to make your opponents weaker in some fashion. The difference is how those curses are applied.”
“The first method is ranged and is mostly for large groups of enemies. These are useful if you are going to fight a lot of opponents that are as strong or weaker than you. The other method is physically delivering the curses, like with cuts.”
“Well, I am going to be using swords. Are there any curses that might stack?”
“Those seem to be rare, but yes, with each wound you could make the curse stronger. It’s usually used by people who are fighting stronger monsters than themselves. I will send all that I have collected so you can look over it.”
“Thank you for the insight. You’re the best as always.”
I imagined some fights that I have had and might have with my new affinity and skills. The second build type seemed more suitable for me. The rarer skills needed for it did worry me a bit, but only a bit, as we had Bob and the captain, who both were way too good at finding stuff that we shouldn’t have our hands on.
Time continued to pass, and it was finally time for Bob to be on the table. We had to push another table against this one because he was way too wide and tall. It was a bit impractical for him to be 7 feet tall, but he wanted to. He also hasn’t said what affinity he wanted to go with, but I guess we will see soon.
He woke up the same way as both Sam and me, a bit overwhelmed but able to get a grasp on his sensations a lot faster than both of us. Lola was once again happy because she was able to test her creation and see what Bob’s body could do.
“Sorry,” Bob said, while not being sorry at all when he managed to crush one of the strength testing machines. Lola had already narrowed her eyes, and I just waited for what came next, but luckily for Bob, it was at that moment that his flame stabilised.
Once again, he was barely affected, but like the rest of us, soon he was unconscious. Nothing special happened; his core formed like for the rest of us. The moment he opened his eyes, it felt like the space around us became more solid.
Almost immediately, a hand hit Bob’s head, the captain glaring at him.
“Don’t use your innate ability when you don’t know exactly what it is.”
I hadn’t seen Bob genuinely sorry for anything, so it was weird to see that expression on his face. It seemed that what happened next was becoming a tradition. The captain was in the lead, heading towards the room with the reading crystal, followed by Bob, and then the rest of us trailing behind.
He placed his large hand on the crystal, and after a little bit of time FH showed us all his status page.
Name: Bob
Age: -
Species: Bio-cybernetic humanoid
Bonds: To Remi Graves
Items: None
Body: rank G
Mind: rank G
Core: rank G
Innate ability: Strengthening
Affinity:
Bulwark: rank G 2/4 0/13
Supply: rank G 2/4 0/19
Skills: None
“Supply?” Sam spoke out loud, sounding pretty confused.
“It’s an extremely rare affinity with quite a wide skill selection that seems quite fitting for Bob,” FH clarified.
The name for that affinity did seem to fit Bob quite well. So did Bulwark, which if I remember correctly, was one of the best defensive affinities out there. That innate ability also seemed to be able to strengthen almost anything, including himself. Getting past Bob was going to be a tough job for anyone.
“This is better than I expected. Captain, I do have a bit of a worry.”
“What is it, Bob?” the captain answered, getting immediately serious.
“Getting the skills we need will be troublesome. This place here just doesn't have enough variety for what we need, nor can we hide our purchases too well in this small place. Also, we do not have enough credits for our current needs.”
“That is understandable. We should be able to make quite a lot running supply missions for the next month to the planet surface. We should also get a pretty good payday if we survive the A-rank space portal.” The captain went silent after that, thinking things through.
“I think that would be the time to leave. We would get too much notoriety if we survive. It looks like we won’t be able to accomplish everything we wanted to do here, and that does mean we need to back up the factory as well.”
Bob visibly winced at that. “I will start dismantling everything we can, save the expensive components and the expensive raw materials, but a lot will be left behind.”
“That is understandable and something expected. Let's get the upgrades finished, and then we can start with the next step,” the captain finished, and we all dispersed back to do our tasks.