A mix of silvery dark blue stood before the Hybrid Luman.
It was in the shape of an exactly 2.3 meter tall humanoid figure that Skullius couldn't pin among many options.
It was like looking at a walking piece of armour. A particularly powerful looking one.
The most distinctive feature over Ferex's body was thick scales. They, in their silvery dark blue hue made up his entirety, layering over his powerful but slightly slim arms that had bracers of shaggy brown fur with streaks of silver and glowing marks. The same was true for his long, mighty legs that had numerous protrusions and straight edges on the thighs with custom designs on the knees to give them the looks of poleyns. Boot like greaves also reached to his feet, the whole design imitating standard armour.
The chest was made with scales thicker than those on the rest of the body, layering in a circular plate like formation to the neck where something akin to a protective collar rose to Ferex's chin.
The Apostle's head looked like a wolf themed helmet, two tall ears on top wiggling flexibly as they didn't seem to be made of scales. From the ears there came two slanted openings as the eye slots with a blue glow suffusing from each, a curve to form an undetailed snout below them and another to complete the set to the chin.
Something else to note was the brown hide that extended halfway through Ferex's waist to the other side, the length of it reaching the right leg's knee.
"Wow," Skullius said as he felt Ferex again. He was even tougher than before, by at least three times!
Also this design could easily be mistaken for armour, meaning Ferex could walk with Skullius in the outside world (definitely not in the city) though.
Ferex extended his hand before him and with a flash of light blue energy, a lengthy shape was formed, its figure losing the brightness that came with its manifestation.
"Oh..."
What appeared was the form Ferex had used in the battle against the Fire Breeder. His sword form that had cleaved apart many Fire Breeders before harming the Grand Flame Bringer's soul when passed to Skullius.
Now, it was longer, the dark blue double-edged blade preceded by a shaggy brown hide as its cross guard.
Just now, Ferex had used the same move the Grand Flame Bringer had showed when it churned out fiery wings from its back to manifest this sword, something Skullius hadn't missed.
"I'm impressed, Ferex. You really copied the Grand Frame Bringer's body and some its abilities," Skullius remarked with amazement while patting the Apostle's shoulder. "This is really good work."
"Thank you, Master," Ferex said, his voice being a fair bit deeper than previously when he was in his Hound form.
Ferex could naturally only show a blank gaze but...
[Ferex approves of your praise. +40 favourability]
... the notification expressed his happiness at being praised adequately.
Furthermore...
[A 100 points of favourability have been reached between you and your Apostle]
[Apostle 'Ferex' has made his first pledge of loyalty to you]
[The following options are available for your Apostle. You may choose one:]
[-Skill Amalgamation | Tier 1]
[-Rank Bestowal]
"Ah. As expected. I guess it's your turn," Skullius said.
Ferex had always been loyal, unlike a certain someone. When Skullius had seen the notification for favourability he had fully expected this boon.
Before dealing with that though...
"How did you gain the ability to speak?" Skullius asked curiously.
"Master, I kindly asked to rip apart your servant's neck so that I could replicate how she made sound. From there, recreating the mechanism was easy with my evolved skills," Ferex explained.
"I see. And by servant, you mean Yuyui?"
"Yes, the servant."
"And she agreed for you to... rip apart her neck?"
"... Yes. The servant agreed."
Skullius wore a strange visage on his face.
He didn't know which part was stranger than the others.
The fact that Ferex was showing a sort of superiority over Yuyui, the fact that he obviously assaulted and killed her to study her insides or the fact that right now, Ferex wasn't speaking in the Known Language of Aigas or any other Language from this world but was instead speaking...in the bone language from Deadmanland!
Actually, after thinking about it, the first two were pretty tame compared the third one. Sure, there was no way Ferex had somehow learned to speak in the Known Language or any other dialect but it was weirder for him communicate with the bone tongue. Fluently to boot!
Technically, he wasn't worthy of speaking it. That was the Language of skeletons from the mine boonies.
"Anyway, good job. You're doing well. I see you have faint traces of mana all over each of your scales?" Skullius analysed.
"Yes, Master. I have carved all the Spells I learned from the Innate Holder I sample over all of my scales at least ten times over. Unfortunately, I lack the mana to power them all. If I had enough, the effects of each of the spells on my scales would pile over each other for greater power," Ferex said with yearning.
'Damn! He can speak well. The guidance field did say his race is pretty smart,' the Hybrid Luman thought.
"I guess we need to have you evolve soon then," Skullius said. "Also, since you have an appropriate body for it, I think you should be the one to own the Cross Pyre."
"...Really, Master?" Ferex asked.
"Of course. Just go and retrieve it yourself from the lava pool."
The Cross Pyre, the large greatsword the Grand Flame Bringer had wielded was now Ferex's to use! How fitting.
Skullius didn't have much of a use for it anyway. He had Demion's Dance. Even if the sword became inadequate later on, there was still the weapon in Fulgardt's chest. Soon, he would be able to get his clutches on it.
Ferex celebrated silently to this gain, seemingly trying to maintain a disciplined image.
"Alright, let's get you some new skills. [Rank Bestowal] doesn't have any effect with only two Apostles so let's just go with [Skill Amalgamation]," Skullius said. "I'll let you decide which skills to combine since you know yourself best."
The Hybrid Luman opened up the Hound's status to look at the Apostle's skills.
~~~
[ Name : Ferex ]
[ Tier : 1 ]
[ Apostle Trait : None ]
[ Rank : None ]
[ Level : 5 ]
[ Race : Limitless Body Null Demon Hound ]
[ Inv. Status : Pumped ]
-------
[ Stats ]
[ Strength : 440 ]
[Agility : 345 ]
[ Intelligence : 510 ]
[ Endurance : Infinite ]
[ Luck : 5 ]
-----
[ Health : 825/825 ]
------
[ Mana : 4210/4210 ]
-------
[ Skills ]
[ Null Life Aura | Lv. 2 ]
[ Null Extraction ]
[ Lanterns of the Pure | Lv. 5 ]
<Racial>
[ Limitless Self Forging | Lv.2 ]
[ Smart Mimicry | Lv.1 ]
[ DETAIL! | Lv.1 ]
[ Demon Thread Weaving | Lv.6 ]
<Mutation>
[ Pseudo Spirit Walker's Hide ]
> Spirit Walk
> Spirit Touch
....
~~~
"Seems like you levelled up a bit," Skullius pointed out.
Skullius could decide for Ferex but he had the right to pass on the power to do so to his Apostle. In short, he had more faith in Ferex than he did in Red Rage when it was that Apostle's turn.
Damn. Just the memory of it...
It didn't take long for Ferex's status to shift as the Apostle had already decided which four skills he wanted combined.
~~~
['Smart Mimicry' has been combined with 'DETAIL!']
[...]
[The skill 'EXCELLENT FORGERY!] has been born]
['Demon Thread Weaving' has been combined with 'Spirit Walk']
[...]
['The skill 'Dark Soul Bending' has been born]
~~~
With the birth of the last skill, Ferex's body immediately started to change.
His scaly body emitted a hiss of peculiar energy, its entirety turning illusory for a few moments.
This quickly died down as Skullius could already discern...
"You got something really good, didn't you?" he asked the Apostle with a smile.
"Incredibly so, Master," Ferex affirmed.
The first combination was obviously good but the second...
Combining a soul related ability from the Pseudo Spirit Walker's Hide with his ability to wave Unliving Thread...
The result was bound to be phenomenal!
'My wish to make Ferex a speed type Apostle never truly come to life. He gets soul abilities instead,' Skullius thought not knowing how to feel.
Still, he was curious about this [Dark Soul Bending] skill and he could see Ferex wanted so much to try it out.
"Why don't you practise with it? You can show me what it can do when you fully understand it," he said. He could check the description of the new skills but he preferred to see this one in action. Besides, he still had a lot of stuff to do.
"Ah, before I forget. Fetch me Yuyui, would you?"
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