Ashton was still a bit shook from the upgrades that he had received, and to be honest, although the pain was a ridiculous part of the process, he felt a lot stronger than he did before. Not only he was feeling good, but his body had also changed a bit.
He had gotten a bit bigger and new muscles had taken over his body to make him look even buffer than before. The change which Ashton was concerned about the most was his eye colour. His right eye was red as usual whenever he activated the vampire genes.
But his left eye had turned yellow, Ashton didn't know why it happened, but if he had to guess it would be because of the upgrade his [Detection] skill received.
"I just hope the colour turns back to normal once I turn off the rest of the genes." Ashton sighed while looking around the forest.
Although the forest was located within the cave, it was surprisingly huge. Huge enough to make Ashton lose his sense of direction. Which was a bit problematic. While he wanted to level up his genes as much as he could, he also wanted to locate the Histeria flower.
"Forget about looking for a needle in a haystack, locating anything in this forest is next to impossible. Maybe one of my new abilities could help?"
Ashton quickly opened his stat page and began checking his skills out. Sadly, neither of the two skills he had obtained could help him locate the flower. [Blood Mist] was an offensive skill while [Exorcise] could be used for recovery.
[Blood Mist] was basically an evolved version of [Blood Poison]. Rather than coating his weapons with his blood and then attacking the enemies, Ashton could now activate [Blood Mist] to do so.
Once activated, the mist would either ooze out of his existing wounds or burst out of the palm of his hands. Whoever breathes in this mist would get affected with poison and their vision would get obstructed.
However, there was a downside to it. The poison effect would be slow and the target would have to breathe in the mist for at least 10 seconds for the poison to kick in. Also, using this skill would consume HP rather than mana with the cost being 2 HP per second.
Meanwhile [Exocise] was a skill that countered the ill-effects of [Blood Mist]. Upon killing a target, Ashton could capture their 'souls' to heal up or to recover his lost stamina back. Depending on the level and grade of the soul, Ashton could recover anywhere from 50-500 HP per soul consumed.
"Hm… these skills won't be of any use for me in looking for the flower." Ashton mumbled to himself while scrolling down the page further, "Wait- this is it!"
His eyes began to shine the moment he realised he had found the answer to his problem. If the werewolf and vampire skills weren't going to help him, then this zombie skill will.
"Let's give it a try, shall we?" Ashton excitedly rubbed his hands together as he walked up to the dead Wraith Wolves.
[Unique Skill: Corpse Parade has been activated.]
[You have resurrected 2 Skeletal Wraith Wolves.]
[The Host's intelligence isn't high enough to raise more skeletal soldiers.]
[Unique Skill: Corpse Parade level is too low. The skeletal soldiers will only do the host's bidding for 1:30 hours before disintegrating into dust.]
[The Host can also cancel the skill anytime they want.]
As those words flashed before Ashton's eyes, two dead wraith wolves shed their skins and organs, before standing in front of him. Watching their skin peel off right in front of his eyes made him a bit uncomfortable. Well, to be honest, it made him plenty uncomfortable but at least he didn't need to look for the flower by himself anymore.
"Hm.. their levels dropped a bit. But it isn't like I raised them to fight so it should be fine." Ashton mumbled while looking at their information, "Also, they can't use most of their skills… not gonna lie, I was expecting a bit more out of this skill but I guess beggars can't be choosers."
He closed the interface and was greeted by his temporary servants, but it didn't look like Ashton was pleased with the way they were looking at him.
"Ayo, stop looking at me with those eyeless holes… it creeps me out."
Ashton wasn't expecting them to do anything, but to his surprise, they actually bowed their heads down. It almost felt as if they could understand what Ashton wanted them to do.
"Woah, Woah, Woah! You freaks can understand what I am saying?"
The skeletal wolves looked at each other before nodding. As they did that, Ashton jumped and threw a punch in the air. His mission had just gotten a lot easier! Now he only needed to ask the wolves about the flower and they'll guide him to it. Simple!
However, when he did that, the skeletons looked a bit… nervous. Ashton would have never imagined that a bunch of bones would be able to show such vivid emotions. After all, how the hell would someone dead express such emotions- well, scratch that. More than 50% of the world's population was officially dead. You know with the vampires and undeads walking around.
"Something's wrong?" Ashton asked the skeletons hoping they'd start talking as well. But he was disappointed, "Fine, if you're scared of something, just show me where I can find the flowers and I'll take care of the rest."
***
Meanwhile, the mistress had arrived at Ashton's bungalow in Deja, only to find out that he wasn't even there. Instead, she was greeted by hostile security guards who didn't know what to do with her.
For starters, she was much stronger than they were even without the bodyguards standing behind her and on top of that, she was royalty. Which made it impossible for the soldiers to lay their hands on her.
"Please evacuate the premises, Marchioness Mera." The soldier in charge of the bungalow's security addressed the mistress with her official title, "The king has explicitly instructed us to only allow those who have his permission to step inside. After the… last incident."
The soldier half expected Mera to strike him down, but to his surprise Mistress nodded, "I understand. Very well then, I'll go and greet father first.. But when I'm back, you better not show me your face."