"Damn it." A man with biological modifications was rummaging through his sales files. He had scales for skin, a large scorpion tail and spider eyes, leading to an intimidating presence.
Body modification was an alternative pathway for strength - if one couldn't awaken, but had money and little morals, they could directly modify their body parts with either machinery or monster parts.
The man in question was known as Senhei, one of the only ones who supplied monsters in the area. These monsters could be used for taming, or for body modifications. He also broke the rule to never consume his own product, but, whatever.
Recently, for the past month to be exact, supply started to dwindle. You see, Senhei had men stationed at the Border, waiting specifically for monster waves. It was at this time where he'd purposely sabotage the defences of the Border and capture the monsters that came through.
This strategy worked wonders. No one could ever guarantee a full defence on the Border, so as long as he only did it once in a while, Senhei could have a constant supply of monsters.
Until now.
For some reason, the Border Control teams had become stronger - incredibly strong. It wasn't like before, where he might not even need to sabotage the Border in order to capture monsters. Now, even if he wanted to sabotage the Border, the defences had become so strong that he wasn't able to.
"Damn it, damn it, DAMN IT!" Senhei cursed. Flipping around, he pointed at one of his subordinates. "YOU! Figure out just why the Border Control has become so much stronger. If you don't come back with answers, then DON'T COME BACK AT ALL!!"
He roared his last sentence at the frightened subordinate, powered in volume by his biologically modified body.
I don't know who or what is cutting off my supplies... Senhei's eyes narrowed darkly. But when I find out who or what it is...
I will destroy them all.
...
Steal!
Steal!
Steal!
Cane rushed along the Border, using Steal on the self-building turret modules. After they replicated, he would drop them down next to the original and move onto the next.
What was originally a skill used to remotely steal objects from far away, as long as you entered within 2 metres of it, was now turned into a replication skill in the hands of Cane.
With Cane rushing across the Border, everywhere he passed would find themselves with double the turrets - all they needed to do was get more people to operate them. It wasn't just the basic turrets which Cane could duplicate, however.
Noelle's materialised weapons? He could do it.
Chuck's automated turrets? He'd already duplicated them.
Cane could even duplicate Abel's syringe gun, effectively giving Abel twice the amount of potions he had before.
During this time, Cane's continued use of Steal led to it being upgraded as well, causing him to rise to a full rank Supporter.
While at the Apprentice Supporter rank it gave a 50% strength increase, the Supporter rank led to him doubling in strength. At this level, he was able to sleep for a third of the time a normal person needed, he was able to survive off of one third of the normal amount of food needed, and he held 3 times the power and energy of a normal human.
Furthermore, the range for Steal had directly increased to 4 metres and the range for Divine Treasure Eyes increased too. In fact, the ability description for it was too basic - most likely due to the fact that he didn't earn it himself.
The actual description for Divine Treasure Eyes unlocked the more he used it, which he used whenever deciding what to "duplicate" using Steal.
it looked somewhat like this, now:
[Basic Divine Treasure Eyes]
Eyes which can determine the value of a selected object based on how brightly it glows. Objects with a value of less than 10 points will not glow. Objects with a value of more than 20,000 points will not glow. If the object is further than 10 metres away, it will not glow.
That was what Cane's Divine treasure eyes would've looked like before he became a Supporter. But now?
[Full Rank Divine Treasure Eyes]
Eyes which can determine the value of a selected object based on how brightly it glows. Objects with a value of less than 10 points will not glow. Objects with a value of more than 40,000 points will not glow. If the object is further than 20 metres away, it will not glow.
All of the values, excluding the initial value, had directly doubled too. Cane could only guess that once he became an Apprentice Combatant, it would be called Basic again - simply by virtue of him no longer being full rank.
But all of that exposition nonsense could be saved for later. Right now? It was time for battle.
Cane finished doubling the rest of the turrets and then threw himself into battle as well. This time, it was a wave of Scorpion-Spiders. These spiders were as tall as a metre and had a leg span of around 3 metres. They also sported terrifying scorpion tails which could do many things.
The tails could spray sticky webs to trap their prey, and could also directly puncture someone to deliver fatal dosages of venom.
Despite how dangerous they sounded, they were only rank 1 due to the fact that they were very weak. Even a regular human could punch one to death, provided they could avoid the terrifying tail and mandibles.,
Even still, the most annoying part about them was how many there were, and how quickly they could reproduce. They could reach insane numbers every week, and as the population grew to a certain point, most of them would rush back to penetrate the Border for better food and shelter.
Slash!
Cane rushed past a Scorpion-Spider and directly cut off the tail in one swipe. Then, without missing a beat, he turned and sliced through the pedicel, severing the Scorpion-Spider in two.
Cane quickly spun around to make sure there were no enemies attempting ambush, and upon seeing a leaping Scorpion-Spider, he blasted a hole through its head.
Cane glanced over the field. Chuck's automated turrets were making light work of the Scorpion-Spiders, though there were too many, and Noelle was directly within a huge horde of them - relying on her impressive physical strength and speed as an Apprentice Warrior to decimate their ranks.
Abel was clearing out webs, hitting them with a dissolving agent to free up the lower teams and turrets.
Then, there was Krouse.
Cane couldn't actually see Krouse, truth be told. Almost half of the Scorpion-Spiders had been lured by his Attract, and they'd surrounded Krouse's Shielding ball so much that he just looked like a ball of spiders from Cane's point of view.
Cane took his pistol out and duplicated it with steal. Then, he took out another spare he held and duplicated it too. Putting back both of the originals, Cane held out the two Clone pistols and began to fire energy beams into the mass of spiders - full auto.
With two pistols on full auto, one holding 99 rounds and the other holding 100, Cane was more akin to a walking machine gun, releasing energy beams at such a high rate it seemed like he was firing lasers.
Once his pistols ran out, he dissipated the clones and used Steal on his pistols again.
Seeing that the number of Scorpion-Spiders on the Border hadn't diminished by much, Cane sighed inwardly.
This is gonna be a long day at work.
...
"No, yes, sir, I promise! I can get you your monsters if you just give me some more time!" Senhei's panicked voice echoed down the halls of his office.
"You said that last week too. As compensation, I'm taking your last Wind Falcon for taming." Senhei and a mysterious figure walked out of the office together and headed off to the holding bay.
Inside, there was one, lone cage remaining, containing a green Wind Falcon. Wind Falcons looked like green-coloured Falcons, but with the addition of huge plumes similar to a peacock. They would use their screeches as sound attacks and could also generate huge amounts of force using their wings to create wind. They were considered a Rank 2 monster.
As the pair walked together, the other employees gathered around to watch how the mysterious figure would contract the Wind Falcon.
Normally, when contracting a monster, you could either create a mutual consent contract, or a slave one. The slave contract required the tamer to beat their monster to the brink of death in order to function.
Such violence was what Senhei's employees loved to see. As they watched the cage open, their breaths hitched in anticipation.
"Look here." Came the voice of the mysterious man. He directly conjured up an illusion of a beautiful female Wind Falcon. The male Wind Falcon stepped out of the cage and stared at the illusion with clear desire on its face.
Seeing this, the mysterious figure smiled in an evil way. "Yes, that's right. Do you want her?"
The Wind Falcon nodded hurriedly.
"All you need to do... is just. Accept. This contract." The man had opened a mutual consent contract, and without a second thought, the Wind Falcon accepted it.
Woosh! The illusion immediately disappeared, causing the Wind Falcon to cry out in confusion. Then, it angrily stared at the mysterious man. He smiled even deeper. "Too late. You can't disobey me now..."
Senhei's employees also stared at the scene in disbelief. So, this is also a method to contract monsters???
They cursed in their hearts.
F*ck, isn't this method of beast taming too unscientific???
The Wind Falcon cursed, the employees cursed, and Senhei cursed too as he saw his last Wind Falcon get taken away.
DAMN it! If I don't find and kill the person cutting my supply, my name isn't Senhei!
His face darkened with malice as he prepared for the future...