Parasitic Equipment

Auntie didn't open the door when I knocked on her apartment. It was dead silent, so I just brushed it off as she didn't come back yet. With her level of power, she would probably defeat the woman and hand her over to the government.

The next day, I knocked on her door, and she still didn't answer. I was slightly sad since I wanted to show her moms grave, but I just went about my day.

"What's wrong?"

I looked up at Mia's face, which had a worried expression. I was currently lying in between Mia's legs, on the carpet that was just added to the base… though that was the only thing added. It was still a metal box with a loft towards the corner of the room.

"... I'll tell everybody during the meeting," I say.

Those people from yesterday… weird… Why didn't they chase after me once Auntie threw me away? They could've used the advantage of Auntie needing to protect me from killing her off… but they didn't do that.

Did they need that many people to stand a chance against Auntie? What are they waiting for? What was their plan? It seemed like it was formed on the spot…

Mia sees my troubled face and hugs me tightly.

"Alright, love birds, everybody is here," I hear a familiar voice say.

"Oh, Clio. Are we starting the meeting now?" Mia asks.

"Ye," Clio says as we stand up and follow her into the meeting room.

We all settle down as some of us take out boxes of equipment. Though we didn't need to discuss it, it seems about half of the group brought some equipment that could be useful later on… including me.

"Alright, who wants to go first. Lucy needs to talk about something important but let's go through the equipment we brought first," Mia says.

"I'll go first then… it's pretty simple. I bought us parasitic rings," Celestine says, speaking up first.

She opened the small metal case and revealed 12 white rings. They all had the same pattern, which consisted of thorns and roses.

"Since they're parasitic, you don't have to wear them," Celestine adds as she pushes the case to the center of the table.

Parasitic equipment. They aren't a new invention; we've had them even before the appearance of dungeons. It's just the appearance of mana infusing that sped up the research process significantly.

Parasitic equipment is exactly how it sounds like. It's like a parasite that latches onto you and doesn't come off unless you rip the limb off or cause it to explode due to magic overload. Of course, you would be losing your limb or even more with the explosion, which is why people typically choose the first option.

Parasitic equipment fuses with your body allowing it to pump an endless amount of mana or a buff within your body. But the endless amount of mana is usually a very minimal amount since… well, magic overload.

On the other hand, the buff can give great benefits such as a lighter body, stronger muscles, enhanced senses, enhanced regeneration. But that is only the very basic buffs available. The best buff that I've read of would be Enhancing your power stones' capabilities by up to 3x its original power.

The way they make this parasitic equipment is unknown to the public. Underground services generally make it, but the government sometimes creates them as well. They give them as rewards for people who had a massive achievement, such as destroying an A-rank or S-rank portal that had already started to leak monsters.

"What are the effects?" Nell asks.

"Uhhhh… I think it was mental enhancement by 2x," Celestine replies.

"Like in which way. Overall IQ, mental stability, or resistance to mental attacks?" Nell asks once again.

"Mental stability, resistance to mental attacks, and fear suppressor. Just make sure you don't get into a fight you know you'll lose. Fear is what keeps you alive sometimes… don't forget that," Nell says.

We all took one.

I held the white ring near my finger, and it suddenly burst into a white liquid that formed around my pointer finger. I didn't choose the finger. It just jumped out of my hand and onto my finger.

Suddenly, I felt a prick all around the circumference of my finger. It felt like six teeth had stabbed me and started to suck my blood.

The white ring started to color into a shade of red… and then it turned pale white once again. The only red remaining were the rose patterns scattered across the ring.

I didn't feel any immediate effect besides my mind becoming slightly clearer than before.

"Alright, guess I'll go next," Ethel says, placing a large wooden box on the table.

She opened it and revealed huge and loose sweatshirts with countless amounts of tassels hanging off of them. Judging from the look, I could tell it would hang to my knees.

They consisted of various colors, with all of them also consisting of darker shades of their specific color.

"What are these for?" Mia asks.

"You can wear them when you want. This is what I wear to sleep and when I'm just staying at home… it's pretty comfortable," Ethel responds.

We all accepted the sweatshirts and moved on to the next person.

Everybody else who brought equipment only bought jewelry. They weren't just any jewelry, but they all provided buffs that will improve our overall performance. Celestines ring was the only piece of parasitic jewelry, so I was able to put on the new jewelry with ease… besides the earrings Charna bought.

"Ah, Lucy, your ears aren't pierced?" Mia asks, seeing my troubled expression as I looked at the two earrings in my hand.

"Yeah,"

"Let's get your ears pierced later then," Mia responds.

"Sure… Do you want me to go next?" I respond.

"If you want. We only have you and Mia left," Aria says.

"Alright,"

I take the massive wooden box that I set aside and placed it on the stone table. Like I was opening a treasure chest, I revealed the contents inside… two massive pupils about 2 feet in height.

They were the golden sun pupils of the boss I had killed yesterday. While I was fighting with the mysterious summoner, I made sure to place the pupils into my inventory after the entire snake corpse had burned away.

"Holy shit…"

"Woah,"

"How did you even get this?" Amanda asks.

"Killed it. What else," I said, taking both yellow pupils out and placing them on the table.

I then moved the wooden box off the table so the rest of the girls could see the valuable item presented to them.

"So, what do you want with this? You could sell it for a fortune, but you could also split it amongst us. We might have the hardest bones in the entire world if we do end up eating these," Nuala says.

"Of course, I brought it for us to consume. If I wanted to sell it, I would've already done it," I said.

"How are we going to crush it. I doubt your bodyguard could crush it with his earth manipulation," Astra says, slumping down into her chair.

"Yeah, he can't, but I can. I think I could melt it if I used my fire at max power," Mia says, rubbing her chin.

"You can try. Just don't kill us all," I say.

"I'm not doing it right now," Mia responds.

I permitted Clio to store the pupils in her spatial storage for now since I told her she has to take them out once the meeting had ended. There was no way she was going to try and steal it in front of everybody.

"Okay, now you might be surprised, but… I bought a parasitic liquid. And it's not just any parasitic liquid; it's the Carnivorous Fan Jellyfish's slime,"

It seems Mia was waiting for applause, but everybody had a blank face… nobody knew what the hell that was.

"What…"

"Care to explain what that is,"

"Explanation,"

"Huh?"

"Say that again?"

"What?"

"Sounds cool… I think?"

"Okay,"

"Huh?"

"What?"

"Say that again," I said.

"You girls don't know what that is?" Mia asks, her face full of utter shock.

Everybody's face displayed one sentence and one sentence only… "We just asked what that was."