Chapitre 40: Tracks
The lack of a day and night cycle in the Forest of Menos on top of his lack of sleep and the non-stop hunting and fighting was making it hard to keep track of time. Hisashi had been cycling through tracking new prey and devouring them or running if it turned out to be too many over and over.
He could go to the surface to get an estimate based on how much the moon phase has changed, but climbing up and out of here in his current form without wings would be a massive pain and is time best spent hunting. He had just devoured a duo of Gillian and knew he must be getting close to completing the mission.
'System, how long has it been since I came to Hueco Mundo.' he asked.
[Answer: 12 days 6 hours 23 minutes 54 seconds]
'Ah, never change system. Never change.' he responds sarcastically. At times like these where he was completely cut off from social interaction he almost wishes he had one of those systems that had a real personality to interact with. Beggars can't be choosers though.
[Answer: Affirmative]
He shakes his head with a wry smile.
'Ok, well can you show me my status panel?' he asks.
[+720,000 XP from Hollow]
[+18,000 Spirit Power from Hollow]
[+52 Spirit Power from passive absorption]
[+6 Levels]
[+6 Stat points]
=Status Panel=
[Name: Saito Hisashi]
[Soul Age: 58]
[Race: Hollow]
[Rank: Gillian]
[Level: 118 -> 124]
[XP: 59,230/86,550]
=Stats:=
[Strength: 84]
[Dexterity: 61 -> 67]
[Constitution: 40]
[Intelligence: 30]
[Spirit Power: 240,765 -> 258,817]
[Available Stat Points: 0]
=Passive Skills:=
[Spiritual Energy Absorption]
[Super-Speed Regeneration]
[Acidic Touch]
=Active Skills:=
[Soul-Body Separation]
[Spirit Power Concealment]
[Illusory Aura]
[Blut]
[Energy Blade]
[Transcribe]
[Hachigyō Sōgai]
[Cero]
[Kūmon]
[Negación]
'What's my progress on the mission?' he asks.
[Mission: Devour 20 Gillian 19/20]
'Ok, I still have about a week before Aizen should be bailing from Soul Society. System, is it possible to keep stacking experience and stats rather than giving me the evolution as a reward right away?' he asks hoping to maximise his returns since he has some time to spare.
[Calculating...]
[Answer: Possible, rewards are generated using energy siphoned from host's devoured spirit power. Unlike other rewards the current reward was simply created by foregoing the siphoning of spirit power in turn speeding up the evolution speed. System is capable of inverting this increasing the siphoned spirit power and using it to generate an actual reward while slowing evolution progress. Would host like to make this change?]
'Wouldn't this slow my levelling speed making the whole thing a waste of time?' he wonders.
[Answer: Incorrect, spirit power gains from soul conversion would reduce. Experience is not based on devoured souls though.]
'Then yes, if I could get a reward and grind for a few more days before evolving that would be even better. I'll leave the adjustments to you.' he answered.
[Answer: Affirmative]
[Mission Cancelled]
[New Mission: Evolve to Adjuchas]
[Reward: Passive Skill - Silencioso]
While he is discussing these with the system he notices a few stronger signals approaching from far away. Stronger even than he currently is. He quickly dashed a few hundred feet in the opposite direction. Although he is used to [Illusory Aura] taking care of everything he wants some extra insurance so he immediately also performs [Hachigyō Sōgai] on his immediate surroundings creating a second layer of concealment making him even less likely to be noticed due to the very space he is in being concealed and making others not want to pay attention to it.
A few minutes later a couple of Hollow show up. Probably Adjuchas because they don't look like Gillian and they're too powerful to be basic Hollow. One looks like a grey snake, another like a brown and golden lion and finally a unicorn. They start investigating what's left. Though all the Gillian have already been completely devoured there are still traces of the battle.
They are unknowingly completely ignoring the space that Hisashi is in due to [Hachigyō Sōgai] as it forces their focus away.
"Where is it? We've been tracking for days and still seem to be no closer!" the unicorn says in annoyance.
"Calm your hooves. They might not be here, but the tracks are fresher." the snake responds condescendingly.
"I can smell it a little, but the trail dies here." the lion says.
Hisashi feels nervous and relieved he didn't hesitate to deploy the barrier since his Illusion doesn't cover his scent even if it is less distinct as a hollow some Hollow do have enhanced senses that can still pick up on it. Meanwhile the barrier affects all senses making it seem like the things inside simply don't exist.
"See...see, we're still just running around." the unicorn says.
"Shut it! Your impatience isn't helping us investigate this any faster." the snake says getting annoyed at the unicorn.
"Whatever." it responds to her and starts ignoring her in favour of looking around.
The snake just shakes it head and starts ignoring the unicorn and looks at the lion instead.
"Ok we were told to investigate and find out the sudden increase in disappearing Gillian. Obviously it's not a coincidence as we've already found a few places of combat like this so it's not a one off. Any luck in tracking it from your side?" she asks it.
"No, I can vaguely smell it here around the marks, but then it just vanishes into thin air." she says, her head lowers seeming disappointed in herself.
"We'll figure this out. We are getting closer and closer after all." the snake says with determination slightly lifting the lions spirits.
"Looking at the power and destruction used obviously it has to be at least a Gillian in strength, but they're generally too dumb for this. So it's probably a new Adjuchas or desperate Adjuchas hoping for some fast meals." she tries to reason. The lion nods in agreement, but the unicorn just seems to be strolling around. Saying she was investigating was a stretch.
Finally they left leaving a relieved Hisashi waiting in his barrier for them to leave the range of his spiritual senses.
---
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