#031 – Don’t mind me, just blowing bubbles in a water park

#031 – Don’t mind me, just blowing bubbles in a water park I tried the most obvious thing first – fusing my two weapons into one. As cool as dual wielding was, it wasn’t really my thing. I much preferred to have one strong weapon. Quality over quantity and all that. If only I could get my hands on a greataxe or a halberd or something like that... Anyway, I pulled out both the sword and the key, brought them together, and prodded at the new mental switch, trying to get a feel for it. I immediately found out that the sub skill worked a bit differently from what I’d been expecting. Rather than just straight up fusing the two objects, it wanted me to pick one of them as the base and then fuse the other object into it. Which meant that there were even more possibilities for what I could create with it. To start with, I attempted to fuse the gate key into the Ether Volt, feeding it Ether as necessary. It drained a lot of Ether though. So much that I could physically feel it. More than shooting a fully powered fireball. “Ooh, boy... This is an expensive skill...” I murmured. The Ether all went into the gate key, flowed all through it, and then seemed to consume it from the inside, turning it into glowing orange blob of energy. I then directed the energy into the Ether Volt and the sword absorbed it like a sponge before beginning to glow itself. A few seconds later, the glow dimmed and let out and I was left with my finished product. It was still the Ether Volt, but it now had jagged saw-like teeth to it. I immediately appraised it and stared at the result. Ether Volt + Golden gate key (fused) A fusion of two objects. [INNATE] skill: Quick Fetch - Use a small amount of Tempor to teleport this item back into your hand from anywhere. This object is a Key item. Interesting... So it didn’t have a unique name or description, but it’d retained the innate skill and its... key-itemness. Hmm... I lightly tossed it across the room and before it even hit anything, summoned it back into my hand with Quick Fetch. Then I proceeded to use Craftsman to feed it a bit of Ether while slashing at an empty corner of the room, and as expected, lightning shot out and zapped that poor corner of the room. I grinned. “Nice! It can do both! It’s the ultimate weapon!” trelipideliberitation: swiss army sword lol GeorgeDoshington: noice “It took a lot of Ether, though... Ugh, I guess it’s time to stuff myself full of slime again if I want to keep fusing stuff...” FouxMoux: you could get that one skill that boosts Ether regeneration “Skill...? Oh, you mean Persistence?” I idly opened the description for it again. Persistence: Doubles your health, stamina, and Ether regeneration. “Eh, I don’t know... It’s not really that good, is it? And it costs a skill point...” I argued. Despite that, I kind of liked the idea though. As sweet as the ooze tasted, I was getting quite sick of it. FouxMoux: it’s not like you’re fighting today anyway right? “I mean... I guess I could replace Flameguard with it... But it still costs a skill point...” Granted, I’d been getting a ton of skill points lately, but most of them were for crazy, near-suicidal feats. I wasn’t too keen on repeating any of what had happened on floor two. ...But then again. It was just one measly skill point and if my gaming experience was anything to go by, they would get easier and easier to get. Or at least they should. Otherwise, how else was anyone ever supposed to get eighty skill points for Phoenix Breath? “You know what? Fine. I’ll think of it as an investment. And I mean, who knows? Maybe it’s secretly a super overpowered late game option! I mean, doubling your health? Sounds really good if you have a lot of health to double!” Purchase the skill [Persistence] for 1 skill point? Y/N Replace [Flameguard] with [Persistence]? Note: [Flameguard] will not be re-equipable for 24 hours. Y/N “...And confirm.” I suddenly felt very vulnerable without either of my fire skills and instinctively looked around the room to make sure nothing was about to sneak up on me. There was nothing, of course. Just as a test, I tried to light my hand on fire but couldn’t. It felt like I was missing a limb. Similarly, I tried to breathe out some fire and nothing happened. This felt much more disconcerting than when I’d swapped Craftsman out. After all, I’d been using Fire Breath all throughout this dungeon. And now I just couldn’t. Speaking of Craftsman... I’d been wanting to try and figure out whether I could channel my Ether without the help of the skill, wasn’t I? Maybe I could even take it a step further and see if I could recreate the effects of Flameguard and Fire Breath without having the skills equipped as well? I still wasn’t quite sure whether the system simply helped me do these things, or if it was outright impossible without the right skills. No harm in trying though. The first step was to keep flicking that mental switch the skill provided while focusing on what exactly it was doing. Then I tried to replicate it without the mental switch and failed miserably. Rinse and repeat, while occasionally nibbling on some ooze just to make sure I wouldn’t run out completely. Poll: ‘What should I fuse with the Bubble glove and in what direction?’ Popsicle into glove: 0% (0) Glove into clothes: 0%(0) Soap into glove: 0% (0) Glove into soap: 0% (0) Shower head into glove: 0% (0) Glove into shower head: 0% (0) Towel into glove: 0% (0) Glove into towel: 0% (0) Mop into glove: 0% (0) Glove into mop: 0% (0) Pen into glove: 0% (0) Glove into pen: 0% (0) Ether Pop into glove: 0% (0) Glove into Ether Pop: 0% (0) Plastic wrapper from the Ether bar into glove(wtf guys): 0% (0) Glove into the plastic wrapper(seriously?): 0% (0) Close poll I breathed a sigh and leaned on the table as I finished setting up the poll and watched as the votes started to roll in. Of course, chat being chat, the winner seemed to be the very last option at first before the others caught up. I glared at the poll, unimpressed. “Chat... I will go with the winner, but if it’s literally useless, I’ll still revert it and try something else, you know? A random plastic wrapper with the glove’s powers would just be... the glove, but more inconvenient to use. Seriously.” I let the poll run its course while I returned to attempting to manipulate my Ether without the skill’s help. I tried it with the sword again, but now I also had the glove to try. After what felt like hours, but was only about twenty minutes, I actually managed to do it. The circuits on the glove momentarily lit up before dimming again and I gasped in surprise. Was that it? Had I done it? Or had I subconsciously used the skill again? I tried again and sure enough, the circuits briefly lit up once more. “I did it, chat...! Kind of!” Obviously, this wasn’t enough to activate the glove or the sword, but it meant that it was possible without any skills to help with the process. Definitely a step in the right direction. Still, it felt really strange to manipulate my Ether. Like moving an extra limb that I... kind of had, but also not really. I hadn’t ever felt anything like this before. Was I becoming less and less human with every passing day...? ...Anyway, it would probably take a bit more time before I could reliably use the sword and bubble glove without Craftsman. But the fact that I could opened up a ton of options. Like the possibility of replicating other skills that used Ether. Granted, trying to replicate Fire Breath without the automatic fire resistance it gave would probably end up with me scorching my own throat, but... Well, I wouldn’t rush into trying it very soon anyway. “If I can master this, then I can switch back to my fire build and I would still be able to use the sword and bubble glove! Heheh, the rest of this silly dungeon stands no chance!” I haughtily proclaimed. Then I looked back at the polls and frowned as I went over the numbers. Then I grimaced when I saw what had won the poll. “...Seriously? Why did you have to pick one of the dumb options?” Poll: ‘What should I fuse with the Bubble glove and in what direction?’ Popsicle into glove: 9.67% (3052) Glove into clothes: 10.41%(3286) Soap into glove: 11.48% (3622) Glove into soap: 2.92% (921) Shower head into glove: 10.65% (3362) Glove into shower head: 6.73% (2123) Towel into glove: 2.62% (828) Glove into towel: 0.79% (249) Mop into glove: 4.58% (1446) Glove into mop: 2.78% (878) Pen into glove: 10.94% (3453) Glove into pen: 9.54% (3012) Ether Pop into glove: 7.55% (2384) Glove into Ether Pop: 2.15% (678) Plastic wrapper from the Ether bar into glove(wtf guys): 3.13% (989) Glove into the plastic wrapper(seriously?): 4.04% (1275) Close poll “You’re making me sacrifice my only soap to... what? Probably make the bubbles soapier? Why, chat? Just why?” trelipideliberitation: soap bombs trelipideliberitation: blind your enemies GeorgeDoshington: extreme showering sessions “Right... Well, let’s do it then...” I was about to close the poll, but then decided to keep it running. If the first winner was useless, I would go to the second most voted option. I walked to the table and took off my glove. Then I grabbed the soap, used the Fusion sub skill on them, and watched as the soap went through the same process as the key earlier. Once the glove fully absorbed the blob of orange light that used to be the soap, I picked it up and inspected it. It looked nearly identical, save for the white circle on the palm. Instead of being empty, it now had three smaller circles – soap bubbles, probably – drawn inside it. I hummed and pulled the glove back over my left hand. Then I assumed my dramatic position once more, pointed the glove forward, and used the Craftsman skill. A bubble popped out just as before, except this time, it had a bit of a rainbow hue, just like soap bubbles tended to have. I poked it with my right index finger and... yeah, it still felt rubbery, but it was also very slippery and I would probably have had a lot of trouble trying to grab it like before. I stepped back and let the bubble float far away from me before I drew my sword and shot a lightning slash at the bubble. The bubble exploded once again, but this time, instead of a wave of air, it was a wave of soapy water that burst out and covered the nearby ground and wall. I stared at the aftermath for a moment before shrugging. “Yeah, well... That’s about what I expected, honestly. I guess this is potentially more useful as some kind of blind bomb, but... It’s not like I’ve met any enemies with eyes in this dungeon, so... Let’s try other combinations! This one didn’t drain as much Ether as the swords for some reason, so I can try a few more...” I walked back to the table I’d designated as my workbench and put the glove on it again. Then I focused the Fusion sub skill on it again, but rather than trying to fuse it with something again – which actually felt impossible, like there was something blocking me – I tried to mentally order it to split in two again. I found that I had to sort of mentally grab the soap that had integrated inside the glove and slowly pull it out so as to not damage either of the two items. It was kind of like pulling off a bandaid... if you squinted. Once the ball of orangeness was out, it gradually settled back into the shape of the soap and stopped glowing, becoming the soap once more. The glove also lost the picture of three bubbles on its palm. “Okaaay... What’s the next most voted option now...” I glanced back at the poll with narrowed eyes, scanning each entry. “...A pen into the glove? Chat, why? I know I look and sound like a kid right now, but I’m too old to be finger painting...” I said, my voice dry like my magical towel. I sighed and shook my head, but grabbed the pen anyway. “Welp, whatever. Maybe it will surprise me. Time to experiment!”