[Party Members Titan and Rose have Leveled up]
[Titan has unlocked Titan Specialty: Titan Metallurgy]
[Rose has unlocked Ancient Vampire Specialty: Dismantlement]
Penny didn’t know what to say as she was enveloped in the soft glow of a Level up, looking at Leo as he basked in the afterglow of a bloody fight. Her hair was a mess. Twigs stuck out at odd angles, and a smudge of dirt clung to her cheek from when she had hit the ground trying to avoid that one wolf.
Leo wasn’t even looking at anyone. His eyes were locked on the path ahead, chest rising and falling with deep, even breaths. Blood dripped from his claws and gauntlets, pooling quietly on the forest floor. His expression was unreadable, but calm. Focused. Not cold, just... distant.
Penny tilted her head. "So... that was kind of terrifying."
Leo blinked and finally glanced over his shoulder. "You okay?"
"I mean, emotionally? No. But I’m still standing."
Before anyone else could speak, Aria stepped up beside them, her gaze still on Leo. There was a faint tilt to her head, thoughtful and just a little puzzled.
"Your fighting style has changed again."
Leo tilted his head, slightly caught off guard
Greg immediately followed up with his own opinion.
"From what I saw, each of your attacks flowed with near perfect precision. I don’t want this to sound like a bad joke but you were fighting as if you had cat-like reflexes. Not a single one of those guys touched even a corner of your clothes."
Leo looked at them, half-expecting someone to crack a joke about his ears or downplay it, but instead, everyone just nodded. Aria. Crystal. Even Penny, who gave a dramatic thumbs-up despite still brushing twigs out of her hair.
"Huh," Leo said, a little surprised. "I’ll take it."
Greg gave a small smirk. "Good. You should."
The air settled between them for a beat, heavy with the quiet aftermath of the fight. The blood-soaked clearing buzzed faintly with the return of insects and rustling leaves. Penny was the one to finally break the silence.
"So...Anyone gonna tell me why the corpses are glowing?"
Aria blinked. "Glowing?"
Penny pointed. "Yeah. The corpses. All of them. There’s this faint, golden light hovering over them like fireflies stuck in place."
Greg raised an eyebrow. "I don’t see anything."
Crystal gave her a look. "Penny, are you concussed?"
"I know what I saw," Penny huffed, brushing off her dress. "And I am only mildly concussed, thank you very much."
Leo stepped forward and peered at one of the goblin bodies. "There’s nothing there, Penny. Are you sure you’re not just lightheaded from all the screaming?"
"I don’t scream. I project fear strategically."
She ignored the doubtful stares and made her way over to one of the fallen wolves. The glow was still there, faint but persistent, flickering gently just above the body. She hesitated for a second, then reached out and touched the golden shimmer.
The second her fingers brushed it, something clicked.
The light surged into her hand, and a low hum resonated in the air around her. The wolf’s body jerked once, not in life but as if some invisible thread had been pulled.
Then it began to unravel. Not in blood or gore, but in clean, perfect sections. Muscles separated. Bones came apart. Internal organs slid free and categorized themselves neatly on the grass in front of her.
There were no sounds of tearing. No mess. Just smooth, controlled dismantling.
[Player Rose has activated Dismantlement.]
[Specialty Effect Activated: Dismantlement]
[Effect: Extracts material components from monster corpses. Increases the quantity of drops and improves the chance of rare materials appearing.]
Penny’s eyes widened as she skimmed the floating text.
"I can loot them. Better than anyone else, apparently." She crouched beside the neatly separated pile of organs and bones, wrinkling her nose. "It’s not pretty, but this is definitely loot."
Greg stepped up behind her, arms crossed and looking faintly intrigued. "So what, you’re a walking autopsy kit now?"
"Excuse you. I’m a highly specialized loot extractor." Penny plucked a gleaming fang from the remains and held it up between two fingers. "See this? That’s pristine. No chips, no damage. You can’t get this kind of quality from regular carving."
Crystal still looked mildly disturbed but leaned in slightly. "It did separate cleanly. There’s not even blood."
Aria, curious despite herself, stepped closer. "That’s definitely not a normal skill. I wonder what the limits are.."
Penny turned the fang over in her fingers, the surface catching the light just right to show off its flawless edge. She dropped it into her pouch and glanced at Aria with a spark of excitement in her eyes.
"I don’t know the limits yet," she said. "But I plan to find out."
She moved to the next corpse without hesitation, eyes scanning for that familiar golden shimmer. Another light floated above a fallen goblin, soft and steady like a waiting candle. Penny reached out and triggered Dismantlement again.
The process repeated itself. Bone, flesh, and materials pulled apart like pieces of a well-oiled machine. Nothing wasted. Nothing left behind.
[Material Obtained: Goblin Horn (Common)]
[Material Obtained: Reinforced Wolf Hide (Rare)]
[Material Obtained: Toxic Fang Fragment]
Penny’s smile widened. "Oh yes. This is going to be very profitable."
Leo raised a brow. "You sound disturbingly excited about this."
"I’m an artist," Penny replied as she tucked the hide away. "And this is just another medium. A gross, fleshy, anatomically correct medium."
Crystal stepped back slightly. "Please never say that again."
Penny paused, a glint of inspiration flashing across her face.
"You know what? No. I will say it again. Because I’m feeling inspired."
She scooped up several cleaned bones and the reinforced wolf hide she had just extracted. The dismantled remains shimmered faintly, like they were waiting for instruction. Penny dragged them into a pile with determined energy, muttering to herself as she began sorting through the pieces.
"Long bones for the frame... hide for the canopy... maybe a curved rib piece for the handle..."
Greg watched her crouch over the materials with a raised eyebrow. "What exactly are you doing?"
Penny didn’t even look up. "Crafting. Obviously."
"You’re going to craft something from a wolf corpse?"
She pulled a needle from her belt, threaded it with eerie speed, and began stitching the black hide with quick, confident movements. "Not just something."
The bones clicked together with a soft snapping noise as she arranged them into a delicate, curved framework. The hide stretched and shaped itself over the top under her precise handiwork. In just a few minutes, she stood up and held the result aloft.
-Success! Player Rose has created the Unique Item: The Mourning Howl.
Usable by: All Classes
Rarity: Rare | Required Level: 6
Passive Effect — Sunshade
– Blocks harsh sunlight, reducing accuracy loss caused by glare by 15%
Passive Effect — Beast’s Dread
– Increases intimidation against beast-type enemies
– Beast-type enemies have a 10% chance to hesitate or delay attacks for 2 seconds (12s cooldown per enemy)
"Behold my Masterpiece~!"
She held up her umbrella to the sky as if it was some sort of mythical blade
Everyone stared at Penny’s umbrella, stunned by how something so intricate and perfectly crafted had been made from wolf bones and hide with just a sewing needle.
Crystal blinked. "How did you even make that with only a sewing needle?"
Greg chuckled softly. "Yeah, that sounds like something best left unexplained."
Aria looked at Penny, curious but hesitant. "It’s impressive, but... I’m not sure I want to know the details."
Leo nodded his head in approval. Finally he wasn’t the only one going crazy with all the nonsense going on around him!
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