Grey weakly crawled over to the edge of the cobblestone path, dragging himself forward until he just barely grabbed at a piece of flesh and took a bite out of it. He was careful not to actually drag himself into the field.
The stone path had some protective properties that he wasn’t stupid enough to miss. If he actually did crawl into the field of arms, he’d die before he understood what was happening.
This way, things would work out for the better.
And the moment he started eating, and his stomach starting churning, a great amount of energy flooded out from his guts into the rest of his body.
His Stamina began to recover, much slower than usual. Well, he wasn’t sure what the "usual" was considering he had only just learned this ability of the Gnomes. He didn’t know its limits just yet or what it could do. All he did know was that it was very, very useful to him.
Under normal circumstances, testing out that Call of the Silver Moon in this condition would put him out of commission for days—at best. Normally, according to the lore of the Dark Kin, especially the first Call might take weeks or months to recover from depending on talent.
The problem with this "talent" metric was that this was a measure of bloodline, a bloodline that Grey didn’t actually have.
This method of training was meant to ingratiate the children of the Dark Kin more with the Silver Moon, flooding their body with its energy. And how well they recovered from it often depended on what level of bloodline talent flowed through their veins.
Technically speaking, using external means to recover was actually forbidden and weakened the effects of the training greatly.
But, in this odd situation, Grey was actually eating Dark Kin. Like Amunet had said, these arms were actually the recycled bodies of dead Old Ones. As such, in many ways...
Grey was using their bloodline to recover.
It was said that the most important Call of the Dark Kin was the first one. This lay the foundation for all the others.
If Grey was compared to the other supreme talents of the Dark Kin, he was actually very weak. Only surviving to the second heartbeat skip was considered a mediocre result—though it was certainly better than only surviving a single one.
However, Grey didn’t even have their bloodline to begin with. And... all he really needed was just a little bit.
It was just like SpellSeeker had said. Grey’s own talent, even without a special bloodline, was so ridiculous that all he needed was a small sliver of a door opened for the results to be greatly exaggerated.
The Volthari had opened a little sliver of that door for him.
And the Silver Wolf opened another.
BOOM.
Grey’s body shook with a radiant silver light. His pores dilated and he unleashed a roar that pealed through the skies.
The arms, still restrained under Amunet’s control, actually began to ripple away from him, almost like grassy fields suffering a rush of wind.
—
STR +200
SPD +200
DEX +200
INT +200
—
[Name: Grey Temolt]
[Named Affiliation: Disciple of Sir Trolley]
—
[Frame: Prometheus]
[Frame: Vampire Lord (Established Class)]
[Frame: Last Paladin (Established Class)]
[Frame: Dark Solveign (Established Class)]
[Frame: Mechanical Jaw (Proving Class)]
[Pending Quests: 1]
—
Stamina: 1177/1177
Sync Rate: 0.57%
Energy Reserve: 1,099.1/12,100.1
—
Sync Rate: 57.01%
Energy Reserve: 27.1/9,300.3
—
Sync Rate: N/A
Energy Reserve: N/A
—
Sync Rate: 18.99%
Energy Reserve: 6179.9/9,755.7
—
Sync Rate: N/A
Energy Reserve: N/A
—
STR: 938 (+100%) SPD: 968 (+100%)
DEX: 920 (+100%) INT: 586 (+100%)
END: 988 (+100%) PER: 510 (+100%)
—
Harmonic Stats: N/A
Free Stat Points: 2347
—
Abilities:
Body
Resistances: Lv20 (+5 Lv) Iron Veil; Lv17 Last Bulwark; Lv15 Solvmantle; Lv15 Dark Mantle
Combat: Lv20 Heart Lance (+5 Lv); Lv17 Last Sever; Lv15 Solarbreak; Lv15 Shattered Eclipse
Enhancements: Lv20 Hemorrhagic Regeneration (+5 Lv); Lv17 Last Vigil; Lv15 Stellar Drift; Lv15 Dark Stellar Drift
Mind
Resistances: Lv18 Mental Fortitude; Lv20 Abyssal Anchor (+5 Lv); Lv15 Center of Balance; Lv17 Last Endurance; Lv15 Corona Veil; Lv15 Horizon Veil
Combat: Lv20 Void Gaze (+5 Lv); Lv17 Last Coronation; Lv15 Solveign Storm; Lv15 Dark Storm
Enhancements: Lv20 Crimson Cognition (+5 Lv); Lv17 Last Sword; Lv19 Last Paladin Spirit; Lv15 Helion Web; Lv15 Dark Web
—
Grey hadn’t even noticed that after the Mechanical Jaw Spirit appeared and Prometheus tuned itself to its resonance, that the Sync Rate with the Helm Frame had actually almost doubled.
What he did notice, though, was that after surviving to the second heartbeat skip of the New Silver Moon, he had not only gained +200 to all his physical stats, but his stamina had also gone up by +200.
This was absolutely huge.
If Grey was correct, every moon had 10 heartbeats to survive, and if the New Silver Moon gave +100 for every one he managed to, there was still another +800 physical stats and Stamina available for him to take advantage of.
This was huge.
Grey struggled to his feet. He could feel that his stamina had returned to full, but his body was still heavily injured. It hadn’t completely recovered yet.
The connection between health and stamina was there, but it was clearly not entirely one to one.
So, he reached out, took another arm, and then began to eat without a care.
He didn’t know how many arms he ate, nor did he care just how ridiculously bloody it all was. But he didn’t stop until he felt every last fiber of his body was radiating with a perfect might.
His tendons and ligaments shone with a silvery color beneath his skin, the lightning that flashed in his eyes when he activated his abilities gaining a silver hue to them as well.
While the compatibility with what he now knew to be his Crimson Wolf Spirit wasn’t 100%, it was certainly better than anything else he had ever had.
He felt strong and powerful in ways he never had before.
It was intoxicating.
Contrary to their history, the compatibility between the Savage Races and Dark Kin was ridiculous.
If the Gnomes and Silver Wolves had this sort of compatibility.
Then what could he get out of the compatibility between the Blood Witches and the Vampires...?
Grey exhaled. He was really going to have to find time to do that, and he knew how. He just didn’t like it.
Grey looked back toward Amunet, and then toward the final loot box.