Chapter 20: Better skills
Daniel walked deeper into the Ossuary. The blue-green light from the weird mushrooms bounced off the walls of branching tunnels and smaller caves.
Each new area held more dead recruits. It got colder the deeper he went, and the smell of decay grew stronger.
But he also felt that sharp tang of raw Verge energy getting stronger too, like it was leaking from somewhere hidden.
His [Aura Sense] helped him find where the bodies were piled up. He moved silently using [Ghoststeps+], making no sound on the vine-covered floor.
He absorbed the energy from several more Vanguard recruits. They gave him small boosts to his stats and a couple more weak F-grade skills he didn't pay much attention to, [Keen Hearing (Situational)] which might help sometimes, and [Improved Balance (Minor)] which probably wouldn't do much.
He didn't get any fusion prompts from these, but his Talent stored the information away.
Maybe they'd be useful later.
Then, in a small cave off the main tunnel, he found someone different. This body wasn't piled with the others.
It lay alone, almost placed with care. The uniform wasn't Vanguard grey; it was deep red with silver markings. It looked fancy.
The recruit looked mostly human, but had slightly pointed ears and pale purple skin, hard to see under the dirt and blood. They clutched a broken crystal staff.
Daniel got curious. This proved other groups, maybe even other races changed by the Verge, were here too.