Chapter 158: Material Affinity
“Obvious segue{sex} way thy name is thee, what was that last one?”
“Say wha-GAH!”
Before Zhen Liu could ask or mentally prepare himself, a clipboard size window screen appeared out of nowhere in his field of view.On this aforementioned window screen were cartoon icons depicting Nepherage, Hurricroak and Frosttusk on the left, while the right side of the screen had four circles, one colored copper, two colored white and one green.
[Huh? Milord? Why are we floating in space?,] the Nepherage bubble suddenly said complete with text box above its head. Once Zhen Liu had seen this, he quickly realized the accessories that would be his kaijin, were missing from his person. Also the zakos were gone too, they had turned into balls of light and entered the screen without Zhen Liu noticing.
[Is this going to be a trend? I feel like our bodies being molded and folded like clay like this is going to happen more often than it should,] Hurricroak commented while sending her icon into a spin. It reminded Zhen Liu of a child spinning on a stool.
Frosttusk for his part just sorta stayed still and chilled. He did blink a little though to convey boredom.
After this little moment had passed, the voice in Zhen Liu’s head began to talk again.
After it had said this, flashing arrows began to animate and show him how to drag the two symbols together. It was very mobile game-y.
‘Okay then…let’s start from the top, shall we?’
Zhen Liu pressed a finger on the copper colored circle on the screen and held it there. As he did the Hurricroak, Nepherage and Frosttusk icons began to glow.
[Huh? Why am I glowing yellow? Yellow ain’t my color!,] Hurricroak exclaimed
[Milord, why am I suddenly glowing green?,] Nepherage calmly asked.
[Red…]
Zhen Liu was about to ask this as well, until he noticed the little help screen within the screen.
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From this screen, the user will be able to assign zakos to any active kaijin they currently have on hand.
Assigning a zako to a kaijin will enable the kaijin to summon the zakos in battle for assistance if needed, or provide the kaijin with a special enhancement if compatible.
On the flip side, the zako will develop traits and characteristics similar to their assigned kaijin… provided they last long enough for this to happen.
Indicators:
Red => 15% compatibility.
Yellow => 35% compatibility.
Green => 75% compatibility.
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“This is so much like a video game it hurts…whatever, it’s probably my brain translating whatever I’m actually handling into something understandable. I’m probably staring at some absurd aether array that’s twitching and moving like an eldritch monster in reality…,” Zhen Liu muttered to himself. “Regardless, let’s just assign them and go.”
Zhen Liu quickly clicked through the list of zakos, and using the color indicators on the tip screen, he assigned the copper zako to Nepherage, the two bone zakos to Hurricroak and the dryad looking zako to Frosttusk. Once the assignments were completed, something strange occured.
The little mono-colored circles suddenly developed little eyes and began to look about on their own, until settling their sights on their assigned kaijin. At which point, as the kaijins and zakos locked eyes with one another, little symbols began to form in between the eyes of the circles. If Zhe Liu had to guess, this was a pact symbol or something.
[Hmmm. I’ll be sure to train to become a proper ward for our lord.] The copper zako nodded with resolve.
[Oooh, understudies! I’ll be sure to make you superstars! Of course, I’ll also work to make myself shine brighter too!] The two bone zakos looked at each other with confused looks.
[…friend.] The wood zako just went ^.^.
‘Well it looks like they’re getting along swimmingly…why do I feel less like a lord and more like a manager?’
But as Zhen Liu and his kaijin were busy with their newly minted allies, things were stirring elsewhere…
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“So this is the Jade Lake huh? Aether’s too earthy for my taste, but the food ain’t bad,” Gio mused as he crunched down on some freshly picked wild fruit. “Now then, where is this so-called archive…”
A few days back, the Wolfe Patriarch commanded that the family were to send it’s younger generation, with an escort of course, to the Jade Lake for a hunting expedition of sorts. He had heard rumors that an unusually rare aether medicine had suddenly grown there over night, and wanted to secure it before any of the other factions caught wind of it.
Of course, the real reason for this expedition was kept secret to all but the leader of the expedition, Gio Wolfe.
“Let’s see…if I were a secret archive of lost knowledge… I’d probably be hidden in the water. Good thing I brought this aether tool.” While Gio prepared an aether tool designed for underwater breathing, he began to circulate aether into his eyes.
Of the Wolfe Family Aether Masters, Gio Wolfe was considered the most perceptive.
When Gio had come of age and began to cultivate aether, it was discovered that his ability to detect aether was much sharper than others in his generation. A quick glance was all he needed to determine a person’s aether type and cultivation level.
On top of that, his formula, [All-Seeing Hawk Mantra], gave him eyes so sharp he could see a mosquito biting a rabbit at least five kilometers away on a cloudy day.
As far as frontier powers went, there was no one in the region that could match him in terms of perception.
Which is why he was very confused that when he submerged himself under the lake’s surface, he found absolutely nothing, save for freshwater fish and pillars of underwater jade.
‘Huh? I can clearly see the bottom of the lake from my current position and even if the place was hidden with an array, even that gives off some aether as well. There’s nothing here…’
Of course, such aether perception isn’t exactly useful when the target isn’t even using aether in the first place.
