A/N: College is just around the corner for me, updates might become less frequent in the future, mostly cuz I'm gonna be doing my thesis.
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A loud sound echoed throughout the forest and that was probably an alarm because the workers dismantling the corpse all stopped working and were starting to walk back to their camp.
"Alright everyone! Dinner time! Good work with the dismantling everyone! We'll continue this tomorrow! At 4 o'clock in the morning!"
As they shouted out orders or whatever to each other, I opened my status to see if there was a system feature that allowed me to write something down and sure enough-
__________
[Notepad]
Description: You can write notes, reminders, checklists, and many more with this feature.
Activation code: "Notepad: (Insert your goal)"
__________
'Notepad: Create Checklist' I mentally commanded
And then I began to write two important things to the list, my goals for tonight.
__________
-Permanently relocate a few Pillows and Blankets from their camp.
-Borrow their foods
__________
I nodded to myself after I finished up my list and continued to follow the workers, in the darkness of course, to where they were going to, which I'm going to guess is their cafeteria.
As I was a little bored, instead of just a simple walk in the ground, I glided in the darkness, jumping from tree to tree just to have a little bit of fun while following them, feeling like Tarzan.
The workers were all wearing bloodied white hazmat-looking suits, talking with each other of how they did in their jobs, were they good, were they bad, etc., normal coworker conversations.
I was walking alongside the people in front, which was why the smell of the food intensified as I kept getting closer to that area.
'Man, I can't wait to try some of their food'
However, just then a primal fear instinctively erupted within me, my body froze from it, my body shaking, I had an intense feeling of wanting to run away and fly.
But despite that feeling, there was no immediate danger if my Danger Sense skill was to be believed.
I looked around left and right, trying to make sense of what was happening when my eyes finally landed on someone which intensified that instinctual fear even more.
*Fwooooom*
*Fwoooooooooooooom*
I looked at the source of why I am feeling the way I am and there I saw it, a woman wearing her yellow blonde hair in a ponytail fashion using a black scrunchie that had an extra cloth sticking out that made it look like she was tying her hair with a black handkerchief.
The woman was sporting a White Battle suit that had a long skirt, and behind her were these transparent floating panels of what I assume were made of glass, but-
'Glass doesn't just float like that, what are they?'
Her hair waved slowly but wildly, like the wind was blowing around her.
Her eyes were closed while she held a black spear in front of her with both her hands, the tip of the spear pointing to the sky.
And then, an almost invisible energy field erupted from her body and spear.
The energy expanded, and expanded even more to the point where even I was engulfed in it and that was the source of my instincts warning me.
'She is no joke.' Even though I didn't have pores, I could feel as though beads of sweat formed on my face.
The terror inside me felt like facing a colossal creature looking down, ready to crush me.
Yet, [Danger Sense] wasn't blaring any other color except for hers.
'Could this be purely a fear-based effect? Or something else…?' I muttered.
---
[You have been debuffed: {Panic I} (Undefined)]
[(Undefined) = Lasts indefinitely unless you leave the area where the source of the debuff is located, or the energy of the cause dissipates.]
[Panic I: Reduces voluntary motor control. Actions are more likely to be reflexive or involuntary. Base stats temporarily reduced by 10%.]
[You have been debuffed: {Fear I} (Undefined)]
[Fear I: Heightens instinctual caution and emotional stress. Reduces decision-making efficiency, perception speed, and reaction precision by 10%.]
---
"Yup, it's a debuff, alright," I said out loud without thinking.
I quickly covered my mouth.
'WTF? I couldn't control my mouth. How did that happe.....' I realized at that moment why
'Panic Debuff…..I underestimated the effects of the debuffs, shit.'
[This is a Domain Establishment host. Though its power is relatively weak, it'll likely dissipate in a few hours.]
Though I spoke out loud, I was glad that the surroundings were a bit noisy, mostly from the fact that multiple sounds from the animals running away from the area were screaming out like they were being chased by their predators.
Such was the effect of Fear and Panic Debuffs, and to be honest, I walked back a little bit, just a little bit
'Analysis' I used my skill on the woman
_____________________
[Neohuman / Tier III]
Scientific Name: Homo novus dracoadaptus
Assigned Name: ???
Age: 221 years old
Assessment: Healthy; extremely powerful
Species Description: The evolved successors of humanity, developed after ??? ??????? years of evolution and adaptation to a radiation-rich world. They possess enhanced longevity and physical strength compared to their ancestors. At some point in their lineage, they successfully integrated genetic traits from the species ??????? who now also live among them, further boosting their base physical capabilities.
HP: 20,725 / 20,725
Skills: ???
Equipment:
Kaiju No. 4 Battlesuit
Kaiju No. 20 Two-Handed Power Spear
Equipment Description: ???, ???
_____________________
'Neohumans?, What the hell is that? well for starters, Neo means New, and Humans, well, humans, and what's with the Kaiju Numbers for equipment?....Is it like how a powerful weapon is made and then it get the Kaiju number?'
'Homo novus dracoadaptus…..I think 'Homo' means 'Human' too, right? Or was it 'monkey'? Guh, it's been so long since I graduated from school so I wouldn't remember such a thing, same with 'novus' I don't know what it means, and 'draco'....Dragon? Is the species that this new humanity integrated with some sort of dragon? I think draco just means it's a lizard of sorts, weird, so these Neohumans are just basically a Lizard-Monkey hybrid now huh? But while that's weird and all-' I looked at the woman again, and her age.
'There is no way a regular human would live to be over 100 years, much less 200 years while still looking like in their late 20's' I thought that she was a special case since she's a very powerful soldier, but when i inspected some of the workers, they too were either somewhere around her age, or older, and they still looked young.
Aside for the actually old looking ones who were well above 600 years old, which lead me to believe that Neohumans had around maybe 10× or more longer lifespan compared to the regular humans I knew.
'tch, this debuff is really getting on my nerves'
While I could've speculated and theorized some more of their lineage and whatnot, the debuff was starting to annoy me, and so I went away from her area slowly and the fear was slightly reduced, but it was still getting to me.
'I want to leave but the chance of gaining a skill that can resist panic or fear-based debuffs is pretty enticing right now, but that reminds me, can I actually gain skills that way too?' so I asked Lucoa in a low tone to which she responded with a resounding Yes.
'yup, let's walk around the place, hopefully the skill can be gained'
And so I added another goal to the checklist:
__________
-Permanently relocate a few Pillows and Blankets from their camp (p.s.: Even better if there is a mattress or a foam bed)
-Borrow their food.
-Gain a Skill that can resist Fear and/or Panic-based Debuff via extended Fear/Panic Debuff exposure.
__________
Nodding to myself, I walked towards their tents to maybe snag a pillow or two.
After a few more minutes, I was starting to get used to it but it was still getting to me, so I just distracted myself with my goal.
I tried to look for the tents where they would sleep, the good news is that it wasn't hard to look for it since it was right next to their cafeteria. The bad news is, I returned back to where the blonde woman was, making me a little unsettled.
So I simply distracted myself again by just scanning their cafeteria so that maybe I could scavenge and try some of their food.
I went around their cafeteria to avoid the most number of humans and activated my Hunter's ear to the max, helping me hear if someone was getting close to me and to not get blindsided.
I entered in one of the tents and saw a lot of the white and soft pillows, thick blankets, foams on their beds.
'Oh Hell yeah, I'm borrowing these, permanently'
And so I started by taking 2 of them and bringing them to the a close but dark side of the forest so that I could fly then later when I'm going to leave.
This continued until I got 10 Pillows, 10 Blankets, and 3 Foam beds,
'Heh, those guys won't know what hit them'
I wrapped the Items inside the blankets for ease of transportation, tying them up with my claws, my weirdly bendable claws, they terrify me sometimes.
First goal partially Achieved, now onto the next one, the food.
(A/N: Have you guys figured out who the woman is?)
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Usual copypaste:
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Word Counter: 1,540 words (Minus the usual Copypaste, Authour Notes and and 1st sentence/paragraph from previous Chapter) (Source: Wordcounter*net)