Magnus didn't walk even 20 steps when a notification window popped up. Surprised, he kept walking ahead as the two of them followed.
He began reading the popups.
[Analysis complete. Elara Stone meets the subordinate requirement, activating vassal system.]
[Troop system will unlock at 50 units.]
A second window popped up, displaying a picture of Elara. Listed under her name were the same stats as Magnus, minus the last two stats he had locked.
[Current Vassals 1/1]
[Elara Stone]
[Trust:46/100]
[16 STR] [14 SPD] [13 WIL] [9 INT]
[Potential : 67]
'Say system, why is her order of stats different than mine?'
[That's the stats she has most potential for. Naturally everyone has a different things they're good at, but you're both muscle brained idiots for now.]
'Cunt. What's the potential field though? And trust is self explanatory, I guess.'
[How many stat points someone can get before they would hit a 'wall'. There's ways to surpass those walls and break through, most of which are far above your pay grade for now.]
'I see... Then how would I raise her stats?'
[Level her, her xp and stats will not be shared with you. Or train her and exhaust her potential. Or treasures. Or magic. A lot of ways, really.]
'Wait so I can throw kills to my team mates to fatten them up? So what level is she then?'
[Yes, you can. And she's level 1.]
Upon hearing that, Magnus couldn't stop himself from smiling. 'This... Is very interesting.'
His thoughts couldn't help but wandering, imagining himself surrounded by an army of people more powerful than grand knights.
'Each grand knight has at least 80 in Strength and Speed. On top of that they have countless enchants, which...' pausing for a moment, his breath accelerated as he asked the system.
'How do I give them skills?'
[Dunno, maybe same way you get them?]
'Holy... Shit...' excited, he quickly hatched a plan for the still unaware Elara.
---
After a few hours, they decided to temporarily set up camp. Neither Elara or Magnus needed rest, but...
"Haaah..." Charlotte fell to the ground, covered in sweat.
Passing her a waterskin, Magnus sat left of her, while Elara was on the right, forming a triangle to watch each other's backs.
"So, dear knight..." Elara spoke, "What's the plan?"
"For now, it's -"
He wanted to continue, yet a sudden tremor passed through the ground, launching all 3 of them into the air for a split second.
"Ah? What was that?" Charlotte asked, confused.
"Shit..."
Both turned their heads to look at Elara, who just spoke.
"The kraken has eaten enough, it'll flood this place with stomach acid."
"Oh come on, I don't want to end dissolved as-" Magnus wanted to complain, but Elara cut him off.
"It's not the Stomach acid that's horrible, most people can resist it." She said, recalling unpleasant memories as she shook slightly. "There's things swimming in it that tear anything apart. Tiny things that burrow under your skin and eat you alive, inside out. I've seen them tear apart humans and beasts alike..."
A chill went down everyone's spine.
"Then how did you survive?" Magnus asked.
"I climbed some metal tower, it didn't reach the tip of it but the rest of it was flooded. But that was pure luck, and I've seen someone try to climb one of the flesh towers only to..." her words cut off, a tense silence following.
"How long until the flood hits?" Magnus jumped up from the ground.
"A few hours, at most."
"Great, we got time to find a safe spot. And I got a plan!" he replied, reassuring the two girls. Inside his head however...
'I will cook this damn squid one day, JUST YOU FUCKING WAIT!'
"Elara, you have a new job."
"Hm?" by now, she also stood up, getting ready to move.
"Being my scouting tool." he said, grabbing her by the hips.
"Eh???"
"Up you go!" With a yell, Magnus launched his new scouting drone as high into the air as he could.
"I hate youuuuu!" Her scream followed, and Magnus carefully awaited the return of the scouting tool.
As for Elara, she shot past the flesh towers, higher and higher into the air. Taking a panicked look around, she soon gasped in amazement.
'A structure, and it looks huge, we can definitely hide there!'
In the distance, hidden behind a slightly larger patch of flesh towers, a metallic object stood.
"Magnus, I see-"
She began falling down, following by another curse directed at Magnus.
Catching her carefully in a princess carry, his excited expression was the first thing she saw.
"Where!?"
Dazed, she pointed in a direction. Letting her down, Magnus failed to notice her slight blush.
He threw her the supply bag they had, and he himself threw Charlotte over his shoulder.
He took the first step, and a screech made him pause his steps. Turning to look, one of the creatures came out from the forest.
'And it had to come from the direction of the structure... Damn it.'
He knew what was coming, so he put Charlotte down. "One sec!" he told her, before charging at the creature.
An effortless dodge, followed by a grab to the throat and the creature was on the ground.
"Elara! GET HERE AND KILL IT!"
"Huh?"
"Just do it!"
Confused, she still followed orders before bringing her leg down onto the creatures head.
[Elara Stone level up.]
[6 points available.]
He thought for a moment,seeing as she only got 6 points.
[16->18 STR] [14->18 SPD]
"What is... Waaaah?! What is this, something hot is flowing through my body?!" At first confused, her expression quickly changed to one of ecstasy.
"You're gona need to carry Charlotte, and I promise I'll explain things later!" He said, turning to look in the direction of the uninvited guests.
From the dense flesh tower forest, the same creatures he fought came pouring out. The only comforting thing he noticed however, he saw no soldiers anywhere.
'That or they wanna ambush me when jumping, damn it. Guess I need to brute force it!'
"Ah? Okay!" She replied, wearing the backpack properly, before slinging Charlotte over her shoulder.
'She has one hand free to defend herself, I need to make sure she doesn't get swarmed with too many of these fuckers.'
The first of the creature's reached Magnus, only to get its head blown to bits by a back handed strike.
Rage consumed him.
"CHARGEEEEEEE!" he shouted, cutting into the horde. Slightly behind him, Elara followed.