I Became A Bat

27: Ancestor

Probably because of its low level or because of the Summon Bats skill is only effective on bats, the rabbit monster I picked up died in less than a minute. No matter what is the real reason, doing more experiments won't cost me anything.

"Oi! Help me pick up a few monsters around level one to ten. You can do that much, can't you?" I wrote on the air to talk to Erician who curiously checking out the dead rabbit monster.

Right after he heard my call, the young prince's body jolts from shock before he starts nodding. Without saying a word, he quickly started heading somewhere. He really looks so tender but I guess he can also put up a fight himself. According to the screen above his head, he's currently level fifteen. Is this another requirement for being a prince, having a high level?

Not long after, he came back dragging five monsters. Earth chains are restricting the monsters from moving. Based on their screen above their heads, they're all below level ten.

Speaking of the level screens, I can see what kind of monster and since they don't have proper names, only a 'No Name' sign can be seen on each screen. On the other hand, I noticed that Erician only had the word Fairy on his head with his level when we first met. The name Erician only appeared when he introduced himself.

Erician lets go of the earth chains he is holding which causes the monsters to fall to the ground in an ungraceful manner. After that, he speaks. "A-are they to your liking, Your Highness?"

As a reply, I nod as a reply before I start approaching the monsters. I stopped a few meters away to stop the Vampiric Presence skill from absorbing their life before I started casting a Summon Bats skill.

Anyway, Erician is really a smart kid. He probably understood that I was going to throw the monsters to the air once again so he especially chose the lighter ones. I picked up the weakest of the bunch, a level three monster that looks like a tree stump with a mouth and a pair of eyes.

The moment the ring merged with he monster, its body started increasing in size. Around a minute later, it's body turned from around two feet tall to about five feet tall. The next change that happened is its color. From dark brown, it became dark as if it had been scorched. Thorns also appeared on its roots.

I waited for around five minutes but it seems that the transformation is already finished since no change is currently happening. It's health dropped to the critical zone but it's not dropping anymore. In other words, it's a success!

The tree stump which is originally called a Stump Treant is now called a Decayed Treant. While I'm investigating it, the Decayed Treant is waving its roots at me before. I don't sense any hostility from its eyes though unlike before.

Good. This experiment is a success. Now let's try the next ones.

After I experimented on the next monsters, only one of them survived which is called a level ten monster called a Blood Spider. The rest died which confuses me. There were a level eight and a level five among the samples but somehow, only the Decayed Treant which is lower in level survived.

So is it a matter of health instead of mana instead to make the conversion successful? The Decayed Treant looked sturdier than the other ones so it's probably the case. However, a monster's health goes up as it levels up. So I guess I have to pay attention to both their health and levels, huh?

For the next hour, I ended up experimenting with the skill. Currently, I have five new underlings namely: Decayed Treant, Blood Spider, Flash Crow, Toxic Worm, and Ink Ant. Somehow, their abilities are kind of similar to what I have. Maybe the underlings take on the abilities of their master which must be why this happened.

I wanted to add more of them since five underlings are too lacking in numbers but nothing happens. It seems that the limit imposed on the Summon Bats skill still applies even when I cheat the effects. It seems I have to level up this skill in the future.

[Acquired Subordination Level 1!]

[Subordination is about to merge with 'Summon Bats' Skill. Will you allow it?]

Wow! This is new. Merging of skills, huh? Why did this happen?

"Hey, what does this mean?" I explained the circumstances to Erician who easily explains. This kid surely knows a lot.

It seems that two skills of the same type has a chance to merge to make a new one. The effect is random so it can be either good or bad. It's fine to reject the merging of the skills but if you don't have the affinity skill that corresponds to the type of the skills that are about to merge, there's a chance that the two will disappear.

My luck is bad. According to Erician, the two skills 'Summon Bats' and 'Subordination' are both Anatomy and Authority type skills. I don't have those which means I can only choose to continue the merging.

W-well, there shouldn't be anything weird that would be formed from these two, right?

While I'm still in the middle of thinking, my right hand already moved to confirm the merging.

Ah! My bad habit just happened to act up again. Whenever I'm stuck in choosing to say yes or no, I'd usually go with yes first before thinking about it later. Ugh!

The screen starts turning blurry and the words fades away. It's only for a a few seconds though. Suddenly, it returned to normal. However, new words are now written on the screen.

[Acquired Ancestor Level 1]

An oldie? I know, a bad joke. But what does it do? From the name, I'm getting the feeling that it only controls an underling's mind. Did it lose the transformation ability?

I tried asking Erician but it seems that he doesn't know. It seems that I need to conduct more experiments again. I look at the teen fairy. Seems like he's not in a hurry. Let's drag things out first to prepare. Maybe this new skill of mine might be a big help towards our plans for the future.

[AUTHOR'S NOTE]

Not really what I had in mind but, oh well! Thanks for reading!