The Ghost Shepherd

Integration and Quantification

K.C was scared at first, the moment the Glyph was completed, she finally felt the energy that it was releasing and was traveling through the nervous system and hit her like an ocean of information that had Virus like properties.

Nooooo

It was a tsunami attaching itself to her operating system and it was coming so fast that she felt helpless.  

Rebooting….

K.C was forced to reboot and this also contributed to the time Sly spent unconscious, the core also changed in size and took on a more spherical shape improving the performance of the energy channels of the weapon.

The changes took a long time to happen but Sly did not have to worry about anything as Steelforge was by his side the whole time.

Update Completed

K.C came back online and so did Sly, he felt like he had the most wonderful rest and his mind was extremely clear.  The core in his chest now felt like an extension of himself in terms of control but he also discovered that it was a place similar to his space folder that stored the souls of creatures it absorbed. The souls acquired would stay with him until their spirit energy was depleted and all the resentment, if any, was purged before they were reincarnated.

In the meantime, the energy could be used or stored for the many abilities and the actual souls inside could be manifested in various ways like the cursed land ability in which the souls were used to entangle the target.

This meant that Sly had to constantly consume souls to replenish his stash but at the same time the more he consumed the larger the pool of energy he could use.  It was for that reason that the owners of the mark were known as the shepherd of souls and wielders of Ghost, and were granted two special privileges; one was the ability to destroy the soul of an individual at a price and the other was the ability to strengthen them until they were ready to be revived.  

Sly had become a guide and this put his mind at ease because he realized that the young Ortonian he thought was destroyed, actually had just passed on to a new life. 

The cryomancer and the other headhunter on the other hand were the ones that received a true death since they were now dead in body, mind and spirit.

With the integration of the symbols into his chip, it was easy for K.C to quantify the Energy Sly acquired and for her to organize the knowledge the glyphs brought with it.  There were many abilities that required an exorbitant amount of spirit energy and resentment forcing Sly to wait for a distant future,  these include the ability that destroyed planet Icarus, Soul Reckoning.

The data was processed and quantified for Sly and it was displayed in the corner of his eye like when he saw the information from the dracos.

Core Soul Capacity : 100,000 souls 

Spirit Energy: 1,000 Units 

Resentment: 1,000 Units

Expenditure:

Energy Scythe Ability: to be measure

Curse Land: to be Measure 

Spirit Walk: to be Measure 

The most important aspect that came out of the Mark’s completion was that he could now control the type of energy he could use without having to wait for the core to choose for him. The only problem K.C foresaw was that the extreme use of one over the other would affect Sly’s mental state making him more aggressive or passive depending on which energy was being depleted.

 “By the way, there are also physical changes” said K.C

“Huh”

Sly opened his eyes and saw Steelforge sitting by his side drinking ale and playing with some kind of raw ore while the rest of the team were doing their own thing.  Gonzo was also sitting around and his wounds were already healed, thanks to the prompt intervention of the team and the fact that chameleon was so sure of the kill that didn’t apply any sort of poison to the knives, he was able to make a full recovery in no time at all.

“How long was I out for?”

“You sure took your time… you were out cold for 48 hours”

“THAT LONG!!!”

“Yeah”

Everyone around the camp stopped what they were doing and walked over to say hello including Clayton who awkwardly tried to mend the relationship.  He thought that the decisiveness with which Sly avenged Gonzo was something a true comrade would do and during the many hunts he also tried his best to do his job properly and helped the team.  The Brain hoarding was a little strange but the field of DNA enhancements was always changing,and  with new Argonians species popping up, people were finding more and more quirks to their bodies after the tinkering. 

Sly was really happy and he saw himself hunting with the team on a regular basis, he was a loner during his days in the academy but his life was changing ever since the enhancement.  The new baby horns were not as outrageous as his razor sharp teeth that looked a little bigger now. Overall, he was taking the changes with an open mind and there was nothing that could damper the mood except a tail but he didn't have that yet...   

“So did you guys hunt some more?”

“Nah... we decided not to.   Thanks to what happened we have enough Argonians to meet our goals and Steelforge agreed to split the Dracos from the headhunters evenly.. So we were just waiting for you so we could go back to the Bunker” said Anku. 

Ankus' decision was welcomed by Sly that had a new outlook towards killing Argonians and he couldn't wait to spend some of the.money that was coming his way.  

The tents were picked up and the fire put out, they were definitely ready to head back when a rat like humanoid hunter stood a few feet away waiting for them to finish packing.

"Greetings fellow hunters". The rat like little guy did a very cordial bow and continued speaking, "I am looking for a team of hunters that were supposed to set up around this area, about 15 or so"

Sly and the others kept quiet waiting for the little hunter to continue, there were a ton of teams hunting the red zone, the question was basically asking if they saw somebody wearing pants in the red zone. 

The rat looking guy did not get discouraged and then said, "My friend's team has not return you see, and there were supposed to return yesterday, I am extremely worried that something could have happened to them, here are their pictures"

Steelforge was yawning while Sly's eyes could not be seen under the blindfold, however, the little guy didn't miss the expression of Gonzo that recognized the holograms as the people that tried to kill him.

"Did you see them by any chance?" Said the rat to Gonzo, but before he could answer Steelforge stepped forward and said.  

"Nothing is free little guy.  If you want information then there is a price"

The rat was annoyed but he didn't bring that many people with him and if he could solve everything with money or their reputation then all the better.

"Raol would be really grateful if you could help us out this time "

"Well Raol, the price is 50,000 E.C and I don't take I. O. U s"

The veins of the rat-like humanoid from the Ratonneer race was about to pop off. He thought that dropping the name of his boss could solve the problem but now he realized that the people in front of him were very stupid or very ignorant about the real power in the shadows.

“You over there!” the Ratoneer said to Gonzo, “It is better if you cooperate and tell us what we want to know, I can tell you know something…”

“The price is 50,000 E.C '' repeated Steelforge not letting anybody else talk.

“Sigh… I wanted to solve everything peacefully but you are just unreasonable so don’t blame me, take care of them , but don’t kill that one over there” 

Gonzo’s face dropped but even before they could come close, steelforged opened her mouth and inhaled the air around her ... FWOOSH… a Breath of Fire swept horizontally in front of all the incoming enemies that were swept off their feet  and fell backwards.

The little guy's eyes shrunk and he knew that he was f****d, that was a weaponless attack and only people with high level DNA enhancements had changed their bodies enough to obtain  such power.

“The price just went up to 100,000 E.C”

“s**t… s**t…” was the first thing that came to his mind but he had no choice now that he had offended such a powerful person.  The rat-like hunter had to pay up or probably die in the wilderness, the worst part about it was that nobody would say anything to an individual that clearly exceeded the planet's threshold.

“OK.  One hundred thousand… but you better not lie to me or there is not going to be a safe spot on this planet for those chicks behind you… So what happened to my friends”

After the transaction was complete a big smile came over the female dwarf that said, “I killed them”

Crash!!!