Il Ji looked at his new stars. His Lotus, named Locus, and Obsidian, his puzzle pendant, were both at [Copper]. The lotus, because Myria was testing him, and the elemental, because it was newly formed.
Unlike certain beast tools that gained bloodlines based on their history, newly formed elementals would always start out with [Copper] level bloodlines. However, as they became more powerful, they could eventually form their 'children.'
These elemental 'children' were born of a shard of an elemental's power. This would allow them to form a bloodline. But for 'wild' elementals like Obsidian, their personal growth determined their strength.
He had plans for both Obsidian and Locus.
He could run around to the various research labs and grab all of the elemental abilities. Most of them were innate abilities, and if he could snag them while Obsidian was at [Copper], his beast would have a strong head start.
As for Locus, the situation was similar. He needed to maximize the number of petals from the very beginning.
He planned to use [Add Head] and [Extra Head]. Using a similar plan for adding heads to Razoria, an extra head meant extra petals.
He also planned to use [Petal Bifurcation], [Branch Bifurcation], and [Root Bifurcation]. Once paired with further skills, they could upgrade much further.
He also planned to use Obsidian's skills to infuse an element into each of the petals.
For Razoria, he needed to find the extra head skills. He also planned to copy skills of the Research Department's badgers: By infusing Razoria with blood, blade, and water attributes, he could form an as-of-yet unformed mythical beast: the Hydra.
Jackpot needed a little bit more. Il Ji planned to use Jackpot as a place to copy all of his unwanted skills. For that, he needed the skill, [Skill Displacement]. In combination with [Mimic], the skill could be used to take the form of all of his other beasts- and use ther skills.
He also planned to eventually use a Lexicon-type beast tool and a Training Dummy-type one as well to do the same.
But out of all the skills he was looking forward to, [Skill Replacement] would be the hardest to procure.
Il Ji wrapped up his escalating thoughts and walked over towards his sister. She was still reading, so he took the time to put in a holo request to borrow the lab's [Swamp Elemental] and [Skill Unlocking Stone Elemental] beasts.
His sister still had most of her stack, so he decided to use the time to utilize [Brain Partition] and [Submind Creation] to create a submind to manage each of his soulstars.
Time passed. Il Ji opened his eyes. As the breeze passed through the meadow, his sister opened yet another page. She was on to the last book, and almost finished...
Laila set the book down.
Il Ji looked into her eyes. She seemed different.
"How are you?"
"I remember… everything. Thanks for taking care of me, Il Ji."
"It is my honor."
He looked into her eyes. She understood. "While you're not my young-mInded sister anymore," Il Ji continued, "and your brain has developed into something more…"
"You're still my sister and I can still pick you up and throw you around!"
With a might sweep, he picked her up and began spinning her round and round.
"Illlll Jiiiiii! Stop it! Stop it! I'm so tiiiiireed!"
The two eventually spun to a still. Catching her breath, Laila walked up fiercely and punched his shoulder.
Il Ji pulled on her cheeks. "My. Sister."
She immediately pouted in return. Il Ji caressed her sore cheeks and kissed her head, pulling her in. "And nothing can change that."
They stood in silence. "Want to see the beasts they're working on here?"
"Sure."
Hands around each other, the two walked towards the teleporter so that they could teleport around to the eleventh subfloor.
A giant beast from an ancient era towered over that which remained of a once-glorious building. With a deep roar, it summoned meteors to strike the beasts flittering around it.
A voice rang out from the rubble below.
"Orio, give it up! Take us to the treasury and we'll take it off your hands. If you do, you'll be alive to say 'hi' to your pretty princess in the morning."
"Oh?" A voice laughed from behind the speaker. "And of what pretty princess do you speak? I disdain killing, but there are some things that are, well- unforgivable."
A pair of eyes narrowed behind a mask. Blood-pink petals shot through the air on beams of light.
Of the 20-odd attackers, none were left. A little Haora Bug zapped across the bodies.
"Hmm. As I thought."
Orio walked over to his former disciple. "What brings you here?"
Myria smirked at his nonchalance. "If I remember right, it was an old man, with crotchety knees, an entire fold of wrinkles, denchers, and that's not even mentioning the bad back and further atrophy."
Orio muttered under his breath.