22 Holy shit!
While I drank the vials I had received, Bella, Jo and Jasmine each explained to the newcomers how {Rewind} worked. The downloads for all three, Liv, Aki and Robyn, were not so bad.
The cost was also similarly 100 for the main {fate} and 50 souls per derivative. I lost about 450 souls. When I thought of my information, I saw some stuff that made my jaw drop when it came up.
___
{Rewind} 00:00:00
{Save} 00:00:00
{Auto} 17:41:07
- {Reload} 00:00:00
Souls Available: 608
{Fate} Level 2
Souls needed for evolution: 3,000
{Fates} Active
1. {Code} 728:58:23
- {Connect} 358:18:10
2. {Perceive} 358:18:30
- {Aim} 358:20:30
3. {Listen} 358:20:22
- {Interpret} 358:20:22
4. {Withstand} 359:57:22
- {Endure} 359:57:22
5. {Carry} 359:58:40
- {Pack} 359:58:40
6. {Eat} 359:59:14
- {Gather} 359:59:14
{Kindred}
N/A
{Kismet}
- {Identify} = {Code} + {Perceive} + {Listen}
___
"Holy shit," I cursed.
"How is it, Honey? Did your {fates} change?" Bella asked inconspicuously.
"They did, I got all of them."
"What do you mean you got all of them?" she asked.
"I have mine plus everyone's {fates} activated."
"Holy shit!"
I could tell from the surprised expression on her face that she was absolutely dumbfounded by this information. Alerted by her reaction, Jo and Jasmine came over in haste.
"Please don't tell me you have seven {fates} now," Jasmine pleaded.
"I do."
"HOLY SHIT!" Josephine, unable to hide her surprise, gasped while cursing.
"This is good, we can use the Assault group as practice," Isabella added.
"But Bella, John is an anomaly. Even the Revenants cannot exceed two. And this man casually gains seven!"
"Well, at least he has that going on for him. Liv and her group explained their {fates}. Aside from Liv's {Withstand} the other two are not useful in battle. Robyn's {Carry} is basically for porters while Aki's {Eat} is a support type," Bella whined.
"Maybe he can gain {Kismet} from them? Darling is amazing, after all!"
Jasmine suddenly shifted the tone of the conversation. "John, you also need to learn the plan of the gorilla."
At that point, Liv and her group joined our conversation.
"Southerner, {Rewind} is amazing. Thank you for granting it to us. The {fate} I gave is pathetic in comparison." Just like Isabella, Liv had a severe inferiority complex about her {fate}.
"You are mistaken Liv, {Eat}, {Carry} and {Withstand} are not trash {fates}. And I will prove it in our battle."
Maybe it was because I was an amateur. I saw numerous applications with them. They were not bad {fates}. You just needed to understand them. Liv, Aki, and Robyn all smiled at us as they heard me speak. I didn't know what they looked like as both Aki and Liv got their faces covered, but the movement of their eyes and cheekbones told me they were pleased.
I noticed Jasmine was pouting unhappily, probably due to being ignored. I quickly approached her and took her hand. Unlike Jo who loved skin contact, Jas would freeze up at the slightest touch. Her reactions were pretty adorable, so I frequently grabbed her hands to throw her off.
"Jasmine, can you please continue what you were trying to say?"
"Oh, Uhm… Hmmm…" Flabbergasted, Jas blushed and tried to pull her hand away.
"Amazing, Smith-san, you have your harem so well managed," Aki commented.
"Indeed, my mothers often fought for my father's attention. You look like a naturally born womanizer, Southerner."
"Get stuffed, wanker!"
Aki and Liv got impressed while Robyn grew annoyed. They were not my harem, though? Just the soldiers under my command. Well, whatever, Jasmine seemed to have regained her composure. Unwilling to let her effort go to waste, I removed my hand from hers.
"Well, it's basically a sacrifice. From the stories from Liv, Aki and Robyn we can deduce that the gorilla had an idea that the boss would be above class E. So, he intentionally boosted his group to Level 3, and intended to farm the souls from the dead reapers. All to boost the ones loyal to him to Phantoms," Jasmine elaborated.
"The gorilla is called Amari from the African battlefront. His {fate} is called {Primate}. His second in command is a female reaper named Mia from Europe with a {fate} called {Lycan}. Both were close to evolving," added Liv.
"Their goons are led by Oliver from the Australian battlefront. They basically bully everyone into fighting for them, even taking the attractive female reapers as slaves despite Wraiths not being able to have sex. They are scum, Smith-san. And I wish to decapitate Oliver personally for what he did to Robyn."
So, they used everyone here for their own benefit. Why wasn't Lilly's group upholding the law? Well, it was better for me, at least I thought so. If the organizers interfered, I wouldn't be able to kill them.
"Okay, then we will do the same plan as them. We will kill the assault group and loot them of souls. Is there a way to get the souls from a corpse?" I asked.
"There is Smith-san. You need to find the soulgem in the body of the corpse and drain the souls from it."
"But the problem is, everyone hides it on their body, it would take hours to search for it. Oliver's groups take the souls by mugging the reapers with them. Amari convinced us to fight in order to survive. But the whoreson stabbed us from behind," Liv added.
"Maybe I can find it. What does a soulgem look like?"
This battle seemed to be a match about who transformed to a Phantom first.
"It looks like half a marble embedded on the skin darling. If you touch that, you can withdraw the souls from a dead reaper."
I looked at the various dead bodies and made a wish.
'Show me the soulgems,' I thought.
If the {Kismet} were made from a wish, then they should answer my need now. In less than a moment, a searing heat came from the soulgem on my neck. With it, a new ability downloaded into my mind.
"{Loot}," I whispered.
I saw lightbulbs in various points on the bodies lit up. Unable to contain my excitement, I celebrated out loud.
"Perfect."
"You made a new {Kismet}?" asked Bella.
"Yes, it's called {Loot}. It combines {Identify} and Aki's {Gather}."
My partner couldn't suppress her annoyance.
"This fucking cheater," she blurted out in envy.
"Give it here." Isabella then nicked my finger and let the blood drop onto a small vial. The rest of the women gathered around me as she explained.
"Okay so, this vial grants you a {kismet} called {Loot} it will allow you to steal the souls of a reaper. We will use this to quickly level up to level 3, is that fine for everyone? The one who uses it will have to let go of {Rewind}. It is best to level up everyone before confronting the brute, Amari and Mia."
"We need to hurry, though. Once the remaining people from the reaper army die, the undead will head to the next group with the highest souls," Jasmine warned.
Oh? So, they were not drawn to sound and light for reapers, they charged for the ones with the highest souls. Then it made sense that they charged the army first, as there were hundreds of them. Therefore, if we had less souls than everyone else, we would be mobbed last.
"I will do it. I can't use {Carry} for combat anyway. I'll just drain the bodies we pass by. Then I will distribute them to everyone. How many does everyone need to get evolve to level 3?" Robyn suggested.
Everyone shared how much, and I was alarmed to find they all only needed less than a thousand. Me? I needed three times that.
"Three thousand," I declared.
"Fuck me dead, are you for real wanker?!"
"Yeah."
"Right, let's level up everyone else first then. Let's go!" Bella commanded.
Wait, no one wanted to help me?
We began moving towards Red, or Oliver. Liv took the front, Jo and Aki were her flanks, and Jasmine and I were at the middle while Isabella and Robyn took the rear. All three of them had less than 300 souls. Each used {Rewind} once they consumed their stamina-giving items.
We moved like a cohesive unit barreling through the undead. Liv didn't bother killing everything and just smashed them away with her sword and shield. Jo and Aki butchered the ones who tried to attack our point man.
Jas and I shot dead anyone who tried to close in, while Bella and Robyn defended our rear with their knives. Every so often we would encounter a reaper corpse and Robyn would loot it while we guarded her. The looting itself was fast. Due to the zombies still swarming the arrow formation, there was barely any around here.
Oliver and his group left us a trail of burning corpses, so visibility was no issue. To help, I asked Jo and Aki to bring corpses I saw soulgems on. While we didn't run because we didn't stop, we moved at a good pace.
Using {Perceive}, I studied how Amari the black ape and Mia the violet wolf attacked the brute. Basically, Amari kept the Brute still by pinning it with his gorilla body while Mia whittled it down bit by bit. Effective, but it would take too long. The undead drawn to the trio were blocked by Oliver's group.
Eventually we got within a quarter mile from Oliver's group. The sound of my heart beating wildly echoed in my mind. Finally. I waited so long you fucker. Unable to endure any longer, my bloodlust soared and I broke rank.
Even though I was overweight, my legs carried me faster than Jo, Jas and Aki. As I left everyone in the dust, I heard voices calling me back.
"Southerner! Wait for us!" Liv cried among others.
Sorry girls, a formation was good and all, but the seven {fates} in my body commanded my body to move. Who was I kidding? I just wanted to get even, and break every bone in Red's body, then throw him to the undead.
"I will leave him for last though. For now, let me show you all my determination to become the strongest Revenant."
