The bond grew as Karl stabilized the spaces all through the next day, and after a few glasses of straight monster blood, they were beginning to make progress on returning his body to its normal state.
Currently, the feedback from the two new monsters wasn’t great, and mostly it was them drawing from Karl and Hawk, who was also eating heavily to sustain the burden of their two rapidly growing hatchlings.
But already Karl could feel that the demand was decreasing as they grew in power, and soon it would reverse, with them beginning to strengthen his Awakened Grade physique.
The Bloodbath Spider in particular. It was born on the strong side of Awakened Rank, going by its physique, but nobody in the room really knew what its innate skill was.
It could tear apart an armoured car with its mandibles, and smoothly cut through monster flesh with the claws at the end of its legs, but pure power wasn’t enough to explain its deadly reputation at its level.
Just after lunch, the best sign that the bonds were normalizing appeared. The Cerro, who insisted its name was Thor, after someone in the room had mentioned the mythical god of lightning, had settled in to sleep off a heavy meal, and Karl received a mental impression of a new power.
[Refreshing Lightning] Create a lightning barrier around the caster that damages enemies and increases healing speed.
“Thor’s lightning isn’t just lightning. It is a magical effect that also slightly increases healing speed. I just gained access to it, but I don’t dare use it in bed and hooked up to the IV. At least not the first time.” Karl informed the others.
Whoops of joy filled the small hotel room, and the weary Elites began to celebrate the fact that there didn’t seem to be any lingering damage to Karl’s body from the mishap.
“Now, we just need to find out what the ability of the Bloodbath Spider is, and we’re set.” Alice cheered.
Karl checked on the spider in his mind. It had gone from the size of a baseball to the size of a volleyball overnight, and it had consumed nearly a third of the bucket of blood that they had provided for it. But it was happily sleeping in the hammock it had made in the small branch it had been given, and wasn’t ready to answer questions yet.
“Give it a bit longer. They’re both sleeping it off, and I need to do some more strengthening of the spaces before they grow any more powerful.
The incredible body growth speed is great in theory, but I wasn’t prepared to contain them, and I’m still worried that they will grow faster than I can keep providing a home for them. Hawk was good that way, his initial power level started low, and he grew with practice, but these two are growing powerful quickly without any training at all.” He explained.
“That’s fine, take all the time that you need. Should we get you more of the monster blood to drink?” Jodi asked, concern clear on his face.
“It’s fine. I think that the initial lack was due to the spider, and once we got a bucket of blood in there for it, I just needed to replenish what I lost.” Karl sighed.
That was completely unexpected, but they had gained valuable insights into the bonding process, and the possible side effects of bonding to something beyond your level.
The spider still hadn’t made direct contact with his mind yet, though he could feel its curiosity about where it was and what Karl was. They were lone predators by nature and had only recently taken to protecting their young as their numbers dwindled. Before that, they were nomadic, and once they mated, the females would lay single eggs every few days as they travelled, spreading their clutch far and wide.
For most of the day, they all rested, moving past the excitement of the night before, and just before dinner, the doctor came to remove the IV stand and the needles from Karl’s arm.
“It looks like you’re healed well enough to be in the clear now. Not all Elites heal faster than normal, but you should be alright on your own, and you will just need some training to rebuild the muscle mass that you lost.” The Doctor informed Karl with a professional gaze.
“Thanks Doc. I will get to that as soon as the headaches are gone, and I’m feeling less dizzy. I think it should be within a day or so. Possibly, right after dinner.” Karl replied.
The doctor got back to tending to the rest of the frontier town, which Karl had learned was as much a military outpost as a town. They might not dress like it, but most of the townsfolk were low-level Elites, people who never made it past Common Grade, and who signed up to work for the Defence Department.
Like the Doctor, who could make various medicines, but nothing amazingly powerful by magical standards, they were still Elites, but doing the most dangerous sort of job by keeping the wild monsters restricted to the South and not moving into the more populated areas.
“Let me stand up, and I will see if this lightning is enough to help me recover.” Karl suggested.
“Outside. Try the first time outside, in case you can’t control it properly.” Daniel reminded him.
The first few attempts to stand up were shaky, but Karl was feeling better by the step, and once they were out in the parking lot, he was ready to give the [Refreshing Lightning] a try.
Soft blue light crackled over his body, and Karl felt his body strengthening, while the sleeping Thor woke up for a moment to see who was under attack. Once it realized that it was just Karl healing himself, the newborn beast went back to sleep, secure in its small home and tired from the effort of growing so much.
“Impressive. The muscle mass is growing back at a notable rate, recovering from the damaged and dehydrated tissues, your skin is clearing up, and your pores are getting cleansed. You even smell faintly of ozone. It’s a healing effect and a spa treatment in one.” Jodi noted with glee.
“Unfortunately, I can’t put it on anyone else. But I think it’s going to be a fairly reliable defensive technique.” Karl agreed.