Stryker didn't take long to get used to using the new weapon they had acquired. It was a strange weapon, never seen before in their own world, but with his Weapon Learning skill, he found it almost natural to wield. Yami surmised that the D Rank made one immediately proficient in anything they picked up, but higher ranks probably ensured a certain degree of immediate mastery. Kotushk agreed, but considered that since the skill involved learning weapons faster as well, then with enough hard work they'd be able to get to a master level with hard work and training.
While everyone inside was remarking on these things, Stryker took his new toy into the forest. It was time to find some new enemies to bring down. And it didn't take too long. By retracing some of their route, he ended up back at the clearing with the dangerous blue flowers. But he wasn't here for them. He continued further back to the point they had found the large beetle earlier, and gave control to Kotushk for his tracking skills.
Kotushk wasted no time, investigating smaller broken twigs the beetle must have scurried over in its path through the underbrush. They followed the tracks for about an hour before they disappeared into a small cave opening. Looking around, they found a sturdy branch, which Kotushk dipped in some resin he obtained from drilling into a tree with his speed and a sharp rock. Then he used his outdoor skills to light a fire in the resin, making a short lived but effective basic torch. After gathering a couple more large branches and dipping them in resin as well, he set off into the cave.
As they traversed cautiously through the cave, they noticed patches of foul smelling liquid. When Kotushk bent to investigate, he found what looked like a leg from the beetle they were tracking. It seems they stumbled into the nest of some predator, and it didn't take long to find out what kind.
As he stood up from the leg on the ground, a whispering sound came from a tunnel to his left. Looking over, a shadow seemed to twist within, before a figure came into the light of the torch. It looked like an ant from their old world, but it was the size of a small cow, and had a row of razor sharp spines down its back. It raised its head, waving its antennae inquisitively towards them before turning around and scurrying back into the tunnel behind it.
"Quick," Yami ordered. "It's going to warn more of its kind if it behaves anything like our world's ants. We don't want a ton of them coming all at once."
Kotushk grunted, before accelerating towards the fleeing ant, kicking its side into the nearby wall. Before it could recover, he grabbed one of its legs and dragged it back, out of the cave mouth and into the light, before using his momentum to chuck it into a small boulder close to the forest line. The boulder cracked from the impact, and the ant flailed wildly as the spines on its back pierced into the rock and it stuck fast.
"Good thing it can't reach the ground with those legs. If they've got the strength like our own, that rock would become a bit of armor for it. Go Stryker, cut those legs off, so Arthias can drain it."
Stryker took control, bringing the kusarigama from their inventory, and carefully approached the twisting, scrabbling legs of their foe. With careful aim, he sent the weighted ball out, wrapping around the left foreleg, and yanked back, ripping the leg clean off. A spurt of blueish-green blood shot out, staining the ground underneath it.
"Weird. Most stories I read back home stated insects and arachnids made chittering and screeching noises when injured. I guess some people just take creative liberties to be more entertaining. Anyways, it looks like their blood isn't acidic, though it smells something awful. Finish ripping those legs off, treat it like those bugs you caught back home."
Stryker returned to dismantling the creature's limbs, avoiding the blood splashing around, and before long the ant was left twisting its back and quivering while still stuck to the rock. It squirmed uselessly, trying to get free, but the speed at which it embedded into the stone made it unable to break free, even when it did have all its legs.
"Alright, looks like it's on its last legs, oh wait, no, not even that. Go on, Arthias, see what kind of skill you can drain from this thing."
Arthias walked over, ready to place his fingers on the ant's chest, avoiding its snapping mandibles, when he heard a subtle scraping and shifting. Kotushk came in then, pushing him out of control and dashing backwards, narrowly avoiding as the ant freed its abdomen and attempted to jab its two foot long stinger where Arthias was standing just milliseconds before. Now with more of its weight freely moving, it eventually managed to wiggle fully free from the rock, landing on the ground with a thump. After landing, it curled up, exposing all of its spikes outwards, and began to roll towards them, gaining speed rapidly.
Kotushk quickly jumped out of the way, watching carefully as the ant turned slightly, moving in a large arc to return towards him. He kept dodging the ant as it kept gaining more speed, eventually almost surpassing Kotushk's Speed Boost before he made one final jump out of the way and the ant swerved past them, but unfortunately for it, it had been led to bury its spines back into the rock it had tried so hard to escape on the other side. Kotushk then quickly sped forward, delivering a reverse roundhouse kick into the ant's stomach, and switching with Stryker who quickly cut the stinger out with a swift slash of the kusarigama's blade.
Now that the ant was crippled, bleeding, and defenseless, Arthias assumed control once more, and began draining the ant with all of his fingers and leaned his forehead into a plate of armor on the abdomen for another point of contact. When he activated his power, the system displayed a new message.
:NOTICE - The enemy, Spiny Ant, has (3) obtainable skills, as follows;
{F Rank} Status Resistance - Nullifies lowest rank status effects.
{E Rank} Venom Imbue - Injects a low rank venom to lower HP of target.
{D Rank} Speed Siphon - When lower speed than target foe, can use extra stamina to forcefully match speed. Results in extreme exhaustion, however.
The chance to drain each ability, based on current rank and acquired skills, is F(85%), E(10%), and D(5%).:
After only a minute of draining, since the ant was extremely damaged, Arthias finally finished it off, and gained the F Rank skill, Status Resistance. Now he could nullify any status that had a rank of F, which was not going to be useful if all the ants had an E Rank Venom Imbuement. But Yami wasn't too stressed about it, as he figured each ant probably had a variable strength to their venom, and if they found a lower rank venom, the worst thing they would get would be Arthias being able to imbue a weak venom. It might not be useful versus the ants themselves, but it could help weaken enemies elsewhere with careful planning.
Kotushk took control of the body after they discussed their prize and win, and decided to head back in the cave to lure more solo ants for Arthias to drain. He found one near the area he kicked the last one into the wall, investigating the small dent there, and swiftly rushed it down, kicking its head down into the ground to daze it, before kidnapping it back outside to repeat the fate of the last ant, though Stryker made sure to remove the stinger from this one before leaving the rest to Arthias. When Arthias began to drain this one, the system message stated the it had the same abilities as the last ant, though the Resistance and Venom Imbuement were swapped in strength. This time he did manage to obtain the Venom Imbuement skill, though it was a very weak, almost useless damage. At a mere 1 damage every 5 seconds, it wouldn't even outpace three of his fingers draining something. However, an interesting synergy appeared when he obtained the skill, in the form of a system message.
:NOTICE - As the Venom Imbuement Skill is organic in origin, the Absorption Skill can be used through the venom, as long as it remains in the flesh of the afflicted target and the user, Arthias Fier, remains in control of the main host.:
"Oh, that's interesting," Yami mused. "So organic skills that affect the target count as one of your points of contact as well. Ain't that just nice of this system to allow?"
"It is pretty useful, but unfortunately we would have to trap our targets if I want to use it on multiple foes, considering how weak I am in combat still."
"So far that hasn't been an issue. Kotushk and Stryker make a good combo by themselves, and I can always subdue a stronger foe if need be. For now, let's keep hunting these ants. I want to see how those chances to absorb skills change if we get all the lower ranked skills."
And so they continued hunting the ants in small groups, kidnapping only a few ants at a time before rendering them unable to resist being absorbed. One fight did end up getting dicey when an ant ambushed Kotushk as he was dragging one prey by a tunnel, slicing into his arm with its sharp mandibles. He quickly turned and kicked it in the side of the head, but he put more force than intended, and utterly removed its head from the body. With no time to stop, considering he already had one prisoner in his grasp, he continued to drag his initial prey outside and repeating what they'd become accustomed to, though they could feel the blood loss affecting their low HP. But once Arthias began draining the three ants they had stacked up, the wound began to close up and heal rapidly, allowing them to return to top performance once more. And with the ten ants they had hunted, they finally leveled up again, reaching LV6. After putting these two points into Dexterity, they went over what they learned and gained.
"So, once you obtained the F Rank skills from them, you had a 50% chance to just gain nothing. But once all that was left was the D Rank skills, you had an 80% chance to gain nothing. I suppose we're lucky you got E Rank Venom Imbuement and Status Resistance, but damn, none of their Speed abilities was lower than D Rank. It must be a racial ability they all have from birth."
"Yeah, and the extra rank in my two new skills only makes it slightly harder to remove the venom, and gives me resistance to the E Rank statuses we might encounter, which considering the strength of each ant individually is pretty negligible. But hey, at least I'm gaining some strength. Though I'm curious why Stryker doesn't seem to be getting more proficient in the use of that weapon. He's been using it a ton."
"Oh, I think I know why," Stryker said coolly. "I probably have to get the kills. Since we've been testing your ability, mine hasn't had much chance to really shine. I say we put the D Rank skill acquisition on hold for the moment, and let me finish a few of these bugs off myself. Just to test my theory."
"I agree," Yami assented. "For now we need to get deeper into this lair. There might be a queen ant, and we don't want to be lacking in a single area, especially when the area of power we've been focusing can't really fight a strong foe alone yet. Any problems, Arthias?"
"Not really. I think it's not wise to waste time on gambling for an ability that even states a severe downside to it."
And with that, Stryker and Kotushk returned to hunting the ants. Though now they no longer kidnapped any. Kotushk used his new dexterity to better position his strikes to trap the ants in the walls of the tunnels, where Stryker would take control and remove their heads cleanly and swiftly. After killing another thirty ants, they leveled up again, but had to retreat, as the ants were becoming more aware and agitated that something was disturbing their nest.
Retreating from the cave one last time, they found that night had finally fallen, and so decided to climb a tall tree a bit far from the ant nest, where Yami used his dark magic skill to enshroud themselves in shadow, erasing their presence completely from prying forces. He also decided to hold onto this level's points, as he wanted to gamble a bit on the Luck stat. He figured it might help with the percentile chances to absorb skills for Arthias, though perhaps not much. And with that, they drifted off to sleep on their first night in the new world.