Name: Belt of the Mother Bear
Abilities: Aura of the Bear. Totem of the Bear. [Fist of the Mother Bear].[|||||]
Description: A belt made by an ancient huntress, using the leather sourced from a high tiered aether beast known as a Gaia Bear.
The story goes that the huntress was raised by the Gaia Bear, but the mother bear died protecting the huntress from a rival bear aether beast. She made the belt from her remains as a means to keeper her close.
Over time, bathed under centuries of moonlight and carried by the huntress until the day she died, the belt ended up developing into an aether treasure capable of channeling the power of that ancient Gaia Bear.
Unfortunately, years of neglect and improper maintenance has weakend the belt greatly to its current state.
If it can be restored though...the wielder will be able to cause the world to still with a single roar...
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’How the fuck do you know any of this?’
’...is this belt also a-’
<=No, it’s a normal aether treasure.=>
’Okay then...how are you guys getting these compatability values?’
=Every aether formula gives off a special... frequency, to us at least. We use that in conjunction with the frequency given off of aether treasures.=
’Right...then what’s the weird looking thing? Why is there a blanked out textbox?’
=You mean the grayed out ability?=
=The treasure will reveal that ability when a certain condition is met.=
’What kind of condition?’
=Also, you should probably know that your cousins are staring at you like a weirdo, due to you staring at that belt for so long.=
=She’s referring to [Exhibition].=
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"The hell kind of face is he making, right now?"
"I don’t know. It looks like surprise..."
"Xiao Liu? Are you okay?"
The branch clan scions had initially assumed that Zhen Liu was full of smoke when he mentioned he could see the compatability between a formula and an aether treasure. He may have been a crafter of very strange, albeit very powerful puppets, but there was no way he could have an ability that only high tier experts or master crafters should have at such a young age. Then again, Zhen Liu’s master was an enigmatic weirdo that had not only rescued their asses multiple times but had also helped their grandfather break through to Aether Lord rank and helped them break into Aether Master rank with some added benefits.
It wasn’t a massive stretch to believe him when he said he could see the more hidden qualities of aether treasures, it just seemed too good to be true.
However, now that they gave me free reign to do just that...they couldn’t help but notice the looks on his face changing as he looked over the aether treasures that Zhen Yue managed to attract.
When he looked at the first three items, he had this look on his face that seemed to suggest he was impressed with what he saw, but not stumped. When he passed over the small elephant statue, he seemed to linger on that particular item for a whole. To them, this meant that there was something about that statue that was probably the most compatible with Zhen Yue.
However, the moment Zhen Liu shifted his gaze over to the belt, they noticed how his eyes went absolutely wide while his mouth stretched out as if he was trying to suppress an expletive.
The belt in question might’ve looked weird in comparison to the rest of the aether treasures picked, but that shouldn’t have been a reason to freak out as such. As such, the scions couldn’t help but to be a little curious as to what was so special about this belt that had caused their cousin to freak out as such.
Thankfully, they didn’t have to wait too long.
Zhen Liu eventually stopped looking like a deer in the crosshairs, and gestured for Zhen Yue to come over to where he was. Which is when he asked a singular question.
"Before I give my input, why’d you pick these treasures?"
"Just humor me for a moment,because out of all of the aether treasures you called over, these ones weren’t exactly the strongest," Zhen Liu explained as he gestured to the treasures she rejected."So...why’d you grab them?"
"Because...of instinct I guess?"
Zhen Yue started with the mirror since it was the furthest from her position in space.
"That mirror over there, I got the feeling it has a secret to it that maybe I could figure out."
"You’re not wrong," Zhen Liu confirmed. "That mirror has the ability to store moonlight and aether, and has the ability to release a powerful aether art when filled with the moonlight of eight different moon phases."
"How strong of an aether art?," Zhen Hai asked.
"About as strong as the [Echoing Frost]."
"Good instinct, Zhen Yue!"
"Huh...wait, how did you-"
"The rapier," Zhen Liu interjected. "What about that one?"
"Well... I’m used to using a soft sword when fighting and I figured a blade like that would be a step up," Zhen Yue answered.
The girl did have a perchance for dancing with her blade while fighting, but there was a key issue in that regard.
"Do you have any interest in learning Ice Weaving Ballet? Because you won’t be able to bring out the full power of that thing without doing so."
"Oh...I mean...I could...,’ Zhen Yue answered in that noncommittal voice everyone used when they said something like "I could be a rockstar if I tried" or "I could write a novel if I wanted."
"Moving on. What about the elephant?"
"Honestly, I thought it was cute. That and when I channeled my aether earlier, I could feel it resonating with mine."
"Good choice. This thing is technically an aether puppet, but it also has an aura ability related to it. Channel you aether and it’ll produce a big ole elephant you could use to smash stuff. Stronger effect too due to you having moon aether."
"Wait, that clearly the best one then, right?," Zhen Guo asked. "It has a built-in weapon effect and it’s puppet! Doesn’t that mean you can enhance it?"
"Technically yes, but the way I enhance it would...render it weird and inoperable to most people except me," Zhen Liu lied. Technically speaking, he could turn it into a kaijin and give it to Zhen Yue, but he didn’t want to expose them to that stuff more than he had already done so. That and he didn’t even know what would happen if he gave someone a proto as opposed to a fully fledged kaijin.
With that out of the way, Zhen Liu brought the focus back to the last item on the list: the belt.
The same belt that caused him to go wide eyed in the first place.
"Why’d you pick this belt?"
"That...I don’t know."
Zhen Yue focused on the strange belt with a bear motif and continued to stare at in silence for a while, unable to provide an answer as quickly as she could with the others.
This silence stretched for a solid minute or two before Zhen Yue finally thought of one that satisfied herself.
"I picked it because...it felt right? I know that sounds weird and doesn’t explain anything, but-"
"No. It does," Zhen Liu interrupted. "Your instincts were right on that one. This belt is arguably the best of the bunch for you."
"Are you...are you going to explain why?"
"Better. Zhen Yue’s going to show us."
Zhen Liu proceeded to float a couple feet away in order to give Zhen Yue room alone with the belt.
"Zhen Yue, can you perform [Exhibition] where you are standing right now?"
At this point, Zhen Yue thought her cousin was going crazy because of...who knows what at this point...but decided to roll with it due to the weird amount of confidence he said those words with.
He must’ve had a good reason to...right?
Zhen Yue let a breath as she began to circulate her aether around her body, producing the faint image of a large, illusionary moon behind her, that appeared to be decorated with stylistic depictions of a jaguar, a pangolin, a rabbit and an owl.
"Damn," Zhen Hai commented as he stared at the moon. "I honestly keep forgetting how pretty Zhen Yue’s aura can-"
"What the fuck? Did that belt just...growl?"
Before the eyes of the Zhen Clan scions, the strange looking belt revealed exactly, why Zhen Liu said it was the best choice for Zhen Yue in a rather...showy manner.
"Oh...that’s why Zhen Liu said that was her best choice..."
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[By the realms of Chaos, how much longer do we have to-]
[Go and steal his stuff! Go, go, go!]