Chapter 30 Growth

Bones floated in front of Jay as he channeled his mana into them, giving them a light-green tint as it mixed with the bone particles. Slowly, the bones began to soften and meld together before flattening out. It was a round disc of bone at this point, looking nothing like a shield.

Jay tried to mould it into a shield shape, but he couldn’t hold the shape. Losing control over the bone disc, it fell to the ground, splintering into pieces.

“Damn…” Jay thought as he picked up the bone scrap “My scrimshaw ability is still level 1, even after all the dagger crafting. Surely I’m close to levelling it up though…” Jay thought as he pulled more white bones from his ring “Guess I’ll just have to change that.”

After a while, Jay was getting faster and more efficient – finding he could shatter daggers with his mana before recrafting them, though he did lose some material in the process.

Two hours and 23 white bone daggers later, Jay finally received a notification.

[Scrimshaw Level 2]

“Finally.. What was I doing again?” He looked around at the bone residue and splinters on the ground, wondering for a moment..

“Oh yeah, making a shield” he chuckled, grabbing more bone for his shield.

This time, as he crafted the flat circle he had a feeling that he needed to add more bones, so while holding the forming bone-pancake, he shifted his ring. To Jay’s surprise, the circular bone formation pulled bones in from the ring itself, as if they were magnetized. Seeing it slow down, Jay added more mana and restored it’s formation speed.

The shield drew an additional six bones into itself along with a soap rat skull; one of the bones was one of the blackened marsh bones. After Jay forced the mana-filled semi-solid bones into a shield-like shape, the process began automating itself.

Before Jay’s eyes a shield formed. The rat skull increased in size while it’s snout shortened. It found its place on the front of the shield as two glowing green eyes appeared in it.

[Item Complete]

“Nice.” Jay thought, grabbing the shield after the process finished, looking at the menacing rat skull on the front as it stared back at him.

The shield was the same shape as a knight’s shield, yet lighter. The edges were thicker and black, with claws at the three points, facing towards the enemy-side.

Artery-like structures seemed to stem out from the rat skull at the centre, It seemed to Jay like there was a green-ish liquid coursing through them.

Pleased with the design, Jay analyzed the shield.

[Dealthwalker’s Sentry] (Unique Shield)

[Aware – Alerts the owner when it detects a threat]

[Shade Vision – Can still see clearly in the absence of light]

[Mana burn – Physical contact causes manaloss to enemies]

[Block – Negate 100% damage from an attack. 15% chance.]

[Lifespan – Requires essence to maintain it’s form]

[Current lifespan: 120 hours]

[Remnants] When life reaches zero, the shield breaks into three pieces. Can be restored using necrotic mana. Each piece can track the other pieces.

“Wow…” Jay shuddered with excitement, eyes bulging as he had to take a breath. “No wonder it’s called a sentry, it literally detects enemies in the dark, it’s so good!” he grinned, looking at the rat skull on the shield. “The creepy rat skull alone would cause people to think twice before even striking it.”

Standing up, Jay had a snack and some water before getting the party into formation and moving deeper into the caves, excited to try his new shield. He decided he would give his buckler to the lamp-carrying skeleton once they were out of the cave.

“Hmm, perhaps I should make you a shield instead…Having one of you to guard me with a shield would be good, but I think I’ll keep the other two for damage-dealing.” Jay had a realisation “I wonder if I can equip you all with armour too…” rubbing his chin, he slowly started to smile cunningly, imagining a skeleton clad in thick armour.

“Maybe I’ll wait till the skeleton’s stop growing before giving them armour.” he glanced at Lamp. “In one level-up, the skeletons went from being up to his hip to being shoulder-high, so they could probably get much larger.” he reasoned.

A few hours passed as the party of four killed it’s way through the dungeon. Three single silt wolves were dispatched along with two pairs of silt wolves – Jay needing to help with the pairs of wolves, using four unstable teeth attacks and blasting holes in their hides, stalling one before the minions could kill them both.

“This works well enough” thought Jay, considering his tactics while continuing through the dungeon – before his shield alerted him, squeezing his wrist a little as it saw something in the dark; another silt wolf ambush.

Noticing a faint light glowing in the dark, Jay understood that he finally found another one of those silt wolf variants – the one which released the pulse attack and fled.

“Finally, another one… this time you won’t escape.” Jay glared at the wolf, he knew it was a different one because it didn’t have a blue bone sword sticking out of it.

First, he commanded Red and Blue to fight the variant while he backed up, bracing for the mana pulse attack.

He quickly channelled his mana around his head, imagining a thick membrane which slowly formed. The wolf variant continued to charge it’s first attack even while the minions were now stabbing it’s throat and torso, meanwhile the other silt wolf was winning it’s battle with Lamp, however an unstable tooth blasted a chunk of it’s ribcage out, causing the fight to be a stalemate – Jay went back to forming his makeshift mana wall, before being temporarily distracted from the fight.

[Ability Discovered – Mental Coating]

Not having time to analyse the skill, Jay continued to assist Lamp while he kept track of Red and Blue fighting the variant, which was starting to glow more brightly at this point.

“It’s about to do it…” Jay thought to himself, noticing the flesh-like flaps open up. He took a knee, stabilizing himself so he wouldn’t fall over.

As Jay thought, the glowing light contracted and emitted a translucent blue pulse, it waved through the minions without affecting them. This time, as it hit Jay, he felt like he was poked in the forehead rauther than punched in the brain.

Jay smiled condescendingly “So weak.”

Raising his hand with a floating tooth in it – the tooth seeming to shudder as if excited or full of energy – Jay only smirked like a noble as his eyes gleamed like a predator.

“My turn.”