As the spirit glass cell opened, the Black Scavenger Bird cawed. It was jet black, even its beak and claws, but was slightly smaller than the Carrier Beetle he had fought, so perhaps wasn't quite as intimidating. However, Lenny knew it was unwise to underestimate a spirit beast of any type. After all, he was now without a spirit weapon and did not come close to matching combat prowess of the Group Warfare teams he had observed only the day before.
As the beast left its perch, it dove towards Lenny with its sharp claws stretched outwards. Lenny had assumed the beast would use some sort of wind attack, perhaps like an elemental user, but instead, it seemed to be using its essence to propel itself forward for extra speed, something he had not accounted for.
He placed his left arm out across his face, protecting himself from the strike, but the claws dug deep into his arm. With his other hand he grabbed the bird's neck squeezing as tight as he could, while warm blood ran down his other arm. The bone might have been somewhat protected, but the flesh was being churned up like mincemeat with its jerk of its claw.
Thinking it might give him an edge, he activated his Spirit Drain skill—and began to feel the beast's energy flowing through his body. As his essence was now much higher, Lenny was surprised to find the skill worked more quickly and after a only few moments his essence was now showing 39 out of 29 and no more essence was flowing from the beast. He could feel the extra energy surging through his body, but it felt unstable, like an overloaded battery pushed beyond its limits.
The bird, feeling this strange effect, tried to break off, releasing his arm and driving upwards, eventually breaking his grasp.
"System notification. Your body is overflowing with spirit essence. You must use some before permanent damage is caused."
"Great," thought Lenny. "Now there's a timer ticking."
He moved towards the bird, who was backed up in a corner of its cell. It was suspending itself in the air with its claws still raised, ready to attack again at any moment, so Lenny approached cautiously.
Just then, the bird dove down again, and Lenny waited patiently this time. Instead of simply blocking the blow with his mangled arm, he leaned backwards and delivered a powerful hook to its head.
The beast was thrown through the air, though it seemed to gather itself quickly. It seemed somewhat dazed, so Lenny used the opportunity to throw a series of strikes, like Master Berg had shown. He knew if this didn't work, he'd have to used his Adrenaline Rush skill, but once he used his trump card, his training would be over for the day.
A jab, cross, left hook, cross was thrown, hitting with three of the four strikes directly to its small head. On the final strike, Lenny had heard a crack. At that point, the bird looked around, spotting the exit to the cell and tried to move for the door. Lenny blocked its path, attempting to grab its body again, but just finding purchase on the wing, which he swung around, then released, smashing it into the wall.
"Scavenger tier beast slain. 50 EXP rewarded. Current level: 7. Progress to next level 150 of 1600 EXP."
As much as he wanted to, Lenny knew he wouldn't be levelling up today. With the spare essence still flowing through his system, he approached the beast's corpse and activated his system to find out what he could make.
"System analysing… analysis complete. The beast materials can be made into a Black Shuriken with high durability, or Black Wristband with a speed enhancement. The material requirement under each was listed and the hide or claws would be used up depending on the option taken, along with the spirit core.
There was only one option that Lenny cared about, and that was the one which would allow him to kill more beasts the quickest. He closed his eyes, and began to activate his ability, draining 4 spirit essence. A few moments later, the Black Shuriken was in his hand and his essence was now showing 35 of 29. Its still felt slightly uncomfortable, but not unstable in the same way.
He read the system's description of the item carefully: Black Shuriken. A sharp three-bladed throwing weapon imbued with a wind affinity for extra speed. The cost to activate is 3 essence or 2 for the current player.
Testing it out, Lenny threw the weapon, activating its core. It dug deep into the carcass of the beast he'd recently been fighting and his essence now showed 33 of 29.
"Seems quite effective," he thought. But it was time to hunt more beasts.
*
It turned out that the Black Shuriken was quite an effective weapon for taking out the beasts. Though it couldn't kill them in a single hit, the damage was usually quite severe, injuring them significantly before he had even engaged. It helped that he had chose not to fight any other flying beasts, which would have had an easier time moving away from the strikes.
Further, Lenny had noticed with his weak wind affinity, when the effect was activated, he was able to slightly alter the path of the shuriken's flight. It was not significant, in fact he thought he might have imagined it at first, but then he had noticed his essence go down by a single point.
The only beast to really give him any trouble was a spider, who lost a leg from the strike, but seemed to carry on moving fine on the other seven legs, if a little slower. As he went to pick the weapon back up, the creature had pounced, going to poison him with its fangs, and he'd had to use his Adrenaline Rush skill to avoid the blow. He'd finished it off with another throw aimed directly at the head—this time, finishing the job. With that, he decided to call it a day.
When Lenny got back to his room, he had 3 spirit cores. His EXP was sitting at 300 out of 1600 and his body was bruised and cut all over. However, none of the injuries were as severe as those caused to his forearm.
"What happened to you?" asked his roommate.
"I went hunting spirit beasts," said Lenny, pulling out the three tiny cores in his hand.
James looked at him confused. "But the only place in the facility that has Spirit Beasts is locked behind closed doors?"
Lenny could see his cogs figuratively whirring.
"Are you a hacker?" he asked.
Lenny laughed. "No, nothing like that." He chose not to elaborate further. Although he had disclosed about his ability, he knew the system was even stranger, more obscure. Although James might have been a good person to tell him about any other known cases, the idea that it could link him with some dangerous AI systems from the past was a risk he did not wish to take.
With that, Lenny brought up the upgrades tab and looked through the options carefully. There was one that he knew he absolutely had to get: Steel Metacarpals. Although they technically gave no stat boosts, he knew it would suit his fighting style, and give him options even if he found himself without a spirit weapon.
The question was, what to do with other two? The Steel-Plated Cranium required a prey-tier core, so that was out of the question. Many of the other steel enhancements stat boosts were not significant enough to make a drastic difference in his fighting prowess.
However, there were at least a few other options that intrigued him: Right Pectoral Stimulator, with both a copper and power source requirement, gave him a +2 in both strength and speed. Then the Left Deltoid Stimulator gave him a +1 in strength and speed but a +2 to his health too. Although this confused him at first, as this health boost had not been displayed previously when he had first unlocked the enhancement.
The only significant change between now and then, other than his essence, was the steel plating in his forearm. With its defensive utility, it made sense that increasing its overall speed of movement would offer more defensive capabilities, and therefore ultimately a greater health stat. As always, Lenny was impressed by the utility of the system itself, which seemed to work in tandem with his power, giving him a direction and cold assessment of how it could best be utilised.
The only thing preventing him from getting both of the above with his final two cores was the Infrared Iris upgrade. A strange one, allowing him to see in the dark, and increasing his perception by +2. The material requirement was listed as "camera parts, including a lens", fortunately sparing Lenny some of the technical details it was prone to share on occasion.
In many ways, he thought the stat enhancements from getting both of the muscle stimulators would give a more immediate utility, but the material requirement for the Infrared Irises was unusual, and he did not know if he would find such parts again without James's help, which might not be as forthcoming in the future.
After a few moments' deliberation, he made his decision.
"Pass me some copper, 200 grams of steel, some kind of long-lasting power source, and a camera."
"A camera?" said James.