As soon as I had assimilated the Water Breathing card, the basic movements of the first three forms began to take shape in my mind.
'Unfortunately I can't take my sword and try this out right now... but just visualizing the potential of this technique makes me very excited. I thought.
Not to mention that I had also learned the concept of the other forms, but to be able to use this I would need to practice on my own, this 3 Star Card only gave me mastery over the first three forms.
I don't know if it's because this was a 3 Star Card, but after learning this power I started to feel like my mind was getting a bit tired.
But I still managed to look at the other powers I could learn and chose a few more.
Powers:
Water Breath (3★) ✅
Touch of King Midas (1★)
Levitation Magic (2★)
Hunter's Night Vision (2★)
Tsunade's Healing (4★)
Aura of Intimidation (1★)
Sonic Scream (2★)
Diamond Skin (4★)
First of all, Touch of King Midas was completely out of the question, I've even activated an option to hide these skills so they don't appear to me anymore.
It may seem very tempting to have this power, since I'd practically have infinite gold, but anyone who knows the real story of Midas knows that it was more of a curse than a blessing, no thanks.
As for the other cards, they were all useful, so I intended to just take them all in.
But considering the headache I got after assimilating Water Breath, I decided to take it slow and assimilate the cards little by little over the days, since I still had time before I could roll again.
Equipped Items:
Raven's Mask (1★)
Empty Poké Ball (1★)
Mario Gum (2★)
Ninja Smoke Bomb (1★)
Invisibility Ring (3★)
Batman's Tool Belt (3★)
Among the items I got, the Batman Tool Belt with the various gadgets it carries would be very useful to me on reconnaissance missions, while the invisibility ring and the Raven Mask would be useful in stealth situations.
The Poké Ball would be very useful in the future, as for the others, I'd just leave it in the inventory and pick it up if some very specific situation arose.
Consumables:
Reinforcement Card (2★)
Speed Potion (2★)
Among the consumables, I was very tempted to use the reinforcement card in Water Breathing, but thinking about the possibility of it being more difficult to improve my mastery of the technique in the end, I decided to just practice it normally at first and save that card for a bottleneck.
Now all I had to do was decide which would be the last character to assimilate...
- Character Assimilation -
Fully Assimilated: None
In Progress: [Percy Jackson - 10%] [Empty]
Summoned Characters:
Johnny Cage (3★)
Nami (3★)
Bolin (3★)
Although all three cards had 3 stars, the difference in their strength and usefulness was very great.
I saw name as completely useless without Clima-Tact, making me quickly disregard it.
The final choice was between Johnny Cage and Bolin.
One was a human martial artist, with good acting skills and a fighting level that could take on special forces agents.
The other was an Earthbender from the world of Avatar, a decent fighter, but one who came with a useful set of powers.
If I didn't intend to spend my next few days training and improving my control over water with Percy's assimilation and training Water Breathing, I might be more interested in Bolin, but as I already have powers that outweigh what I could use his for, I decided to assimilate Johnny Cage and improve my martial arts techniques.
Percy's strength with Johnny's techniques will be a good upgrade on my normal strength, just as Percy's water control with Water Breathing will also greatly amplify this technique.
Compared to these synergies, Bolin would just add another completely different attack style less useful than the one I'm already developing.
Activating the Johnny Cage assimilation, I once again felt a refreshing sensation run through my body, as if I had entered an air-conditioned room on a hot day.
Looking at my hands in surprise, although the strength gain wasn't as great as what Percy had given me, I still felt stronger, and more importantly, I felt as if my control over my body had greatly improved.
Many of the martial arts techniques he knew came to mind, some of which had already given me a little muscle memory while others I still had to train manually.
Excited about my newfound strength and feeling my body healthier than ever, I put on my training clothes, grabbed my sword and decided to go practicing on the beach.
Considering that all my attacks are focused on water, and that my Semi-God lineage gives me regeneration when I'm in contact with water, there was nothing better than practicing on the beach.
But as soon as I left the room, I ran into problems.
"Prince Eric, are you going to train?" A maid asked in surprise and concern.
"Yes, let my parents know that this accident I had has given me an enlightenment on how to deal with the dangers of the kingdom, I'm going to the beach to practice this new idea of mine to see if it's really enough." I explained with a polite smile as I continued walking, giving the poor girl no opportunity to try and stop me.
I could notice her slight hesitation at seeing me leave, but as she had no authority to try to stop a prince from doing what he wanted, she could only sigh and run inside the castle.
Surely my mother and father would soon be notified of this, so to make sure they wouldn't stop me I quickened my pace, even practicing Water Breathing on it to gain more agility and improve my control of the skill all the way to the stables.
There I took my horse and rode freely to the beach, passing the beautiful capital of Miralune, a rather small city compared to the capitals of the neighboring kingdoms, but a very warm and welcoming one.
As my family has always treated our subjects well, not charging abusive taxes or taking tyrannical attitudes, when people saw me riding through the streets smiles would appear on their faces and they would wave at me, greeting me with excitement.
Receiving so much attention and adoration from people I didn't even know was a little uncomfortable, as part of me wasn't used to it, but the part of me that lived here felt very good.
"Prince Eric, my daughter has just baked these buns, please try some!" A woman waved at me as she pointed to a basket of buns.
With the mindset of my other world, the one that saw Snow White get poisoned by an apple that a nice little candle gave her, I was worried about this offer.
Looking at the woman again, I noticed that in the window of the simple house behind her there was a girl of 13 or 14 looking at me with her eyes shining in anticipation.
'I can refuse this, I'm sure the bread she's offering me will hardly be tastier than any meal in the royal palace... but is it really worth it? ' I thought. 'Living in fear of everything and everyone, refusing the kindness of many for fear of the malice of a few... it's not even as if I'm the target of someone who feels jealous of me...'
Thinking about my current physiognomy of a Semi-God, this gave me a little more courage, not wanting me to stay hidden in fear of everything and everyone.
Smiling at the polite woman, I stopped the horse next to her and held out my hand as I took the bread roll from the basket.
Bringing the bread to my nose and sniffing it suspiciously, but disguised as me just enjoying the aroma of freshly baked bread, I didn't smell anything strange about it.
So with a surge of courage I took a bite of this bread under the expectant expression of her and the girl inside the house.
What came to me was a sweet and pleasant taste of sugar bread, surprisingly tastier than I had imagined!
Surprised by the taste, I smiled at the woman and looked at the girl behind the window and said. "Madam, thank your daughter for me, that was a delicious bun. I'm sure her future husband will be a lucky man."
As soon as I said this, the girl inside the house's face turned so red that she quickly turned around to try and hide, while the woman flashed a proud smile and bowed to me again in farewell.
With a bun in my hand and a sweet taste in my mouth, I continued riding to the beach.
Despite being on horseback, it still took me 15 minutes to reach the beach closest to the castle.
As it was still daylight, the monsters weren't attacking outside the city walls, some men were fishing on the beach with handmade nets and children were playing in the water under the supervision of their mothers.
Whenever someone saw me, they waved at me with polite, happy smiles, making me certain of my decision to enjoy this life as much as possible, and to use my new power to protect these people's happiness.
Finding a more secluded spot on the beach, I finally dismounted from the horse and drew my sword from its sheath, ready to use my new powers for the first time.