As Alex stood on the deck of 'King', his admittedly cringe-named ship, he held Virtue's Edge in his hand, as he opened its details.
[Virtue's Edge]
[E rank (Growth type)]
[Ordinary Class (Growth type)]
[A sword like no other. This blade was forged by Mikhail, a grandmaster swordsmith as his final work before he disappeared, never to be seen again. Forged in the heart of a volcano, it is particularly fond of the fire element.]
[F tier effect - When combined with the fire element, the power produced with each slash will be doubled.]
He read through the details, proud of its growth already as its rank would soon catch up to his own with enough time spent on the battlefield.
But he was a little disappointed at the fact that its class hadn't grown yet, as well as the fact that no E tier effect had appeared.
But he had a pretty good guess why a second effect hadn't appeared yet, and the answer was a rather simple on.
The F tier effect only appeared when the sword reached F+ rank, although he didn't know this at the time because it completely skipped F rank, jumping from F- to F+ with its first kill claimed.
But now, after hitting E rank, Alex began to understand more of how its functions worked.
It seemed he would only gain a new E tier effect when its growth reached the peak of such tier, so he would only receive his next upgrade when it reached E+ rank.
And judging by the fact that this would have repeated from F to E tier, there was no doubt in his mind that it would also apply to the higher tiers as well.
It was a little disappointing, because it meant he still had some more upgrading to do, but he was going to be doing that regardless, so it really made no difference to his current plans.
***
***
"Selithia, you, Gormak, Rakul, and finally Xulthar will be coming with me to the battlefield in the Shen Wu system."
When Alex awoke, he found himself inhabiting the body of Selithia, the only female among the elites and also the first Red Demon elite he had killed.
He was unable to enjoy the sensations of inhabiting a female body though, as he found himself thrust into quite a... 'sticky' scenario.
She, or rather he, was lying down in a bed, without a single piece of clothing in sight, and rather uncomfortably for Alex, so was Varkoth...
Luckily for him though, it seemed the... session Varkoth and Selithia were having with each other had just 'finished' before he inhabited her body in the remnant memory.
Though, he was still feeling some odd sensations coursing through his, or rather, her body.
But there was nothing he could do about that, as he was in absolutely zero control of anything when he inhabited these remnant memories.
Rather than being thrust into a world created around a memory fragment, it was more like he was sent into a full dive VR movie where he got to experience everything from the protagonist's pov.
He had his own thoughts, and the Selithia in the memory had her own too.
After a few minutes passed and the odd sensations Alex was feeling settled down, the scene with Selithia and Varkoth finally advanced to something more than just them lying on the bed and panting, trying to catch their breath.
"Ugh, why do I have to join those brutes? Don't you know Gormak and Rakul have been lusting over my body ever since they first laid eyes on these luscious curves? I can't stand the sight of those horny dogs constantly staring me down."
Selithia's reply was filled with disgust, though some questions were answered for Alex, who was spectating this scene from within Selithia's mind.
Such as why Gormak and Rakul were so enraged when Alex dealt the killing blow to her.
'So they were in love with her? Or maybe it's better to say they were lusting over her, considering Selithia's words just now...'