Chapter 26

Dealing with his Bladed Drakeling, amusingly enough, was easier than the Storm Crow. Of course, the Drakeling was angry about his no murdering those whom he was in the middle with pacting rule. However, after a brief discussion, regarding combat, the amount of essence the Drakeling could gain from fighting, and the promise of allowing it to be out and about every night, an agreement was reached.

Best as Henry could tell, and thanks to the D.E.D., the leveling system for the D.E.D., in video game terms, was quite simple. It took them 100 experience to go from level 1 to 2, 200 to go from 2 to 3, and so on, increasing of course with more difficulty the stronger they got. While the system, in reality, was a little more vague than that, considering they were harnessing the essence of the other D.E.D. they killed, as well as gathering the energy from around Henry and in Earth passively, it was simplest to break down in video game terms.

As for the amount of essence gained while being out and about, that was determined by the strength of the Exorcist they pacted with. Those with a higher resonation, created a larger amount of energy around themselves constantly, which the D.E.D. could feed on. At Henry’s current tier, any D.E.D. that was pacted to him and out and about, was able to gather an additional 4 essence. Which wasn’t much, but passive experience gain was still experience gain. And given the low levels of his D.E.D., they could still level rather decently based on that.

That being said, it made Henry realize how hard it would be to just grow his D.E.D. in a safe and easy manner. Sure he could hang around the house and let them all gather experience through the day, but it was going to be slow going. According to his Drakeling, killing a D.E.D. rewarded those who’d fought it with half the total essence the creature had accumulated. Split of course, between the combatants.

This was why his Evil Eye had been able to level to 2 overnight after the battle with the winged serpent, and also why, according to his Bladed Drakeling, that the Drakeling was nearing level 3. Between the serpent, and the battle with the Storm Crow, the Drakeling had ben able to nearly reach that next goal, which also explained why it had been so bloodthirsty regarding the fight. Killing the Storm Crow, which at level 5 means it had accumulated at least 1,000 experience, would have given the Bladed Drakeling and the Evil Eye each 250 experience. Which would have bumped them both to level 3.

All things considered, the conversation with the D.E.D. had been helpful in that regard. Henry now knew the way forward would involve fighting D.E.D., and either pacting with more to build his team that way, or defeating enough to grow his team. The latter, still bugged him, but the D.E.D. all assured him they were well aware of the risks when they came from their dimension to his. The D.E.D. existed in a constant life or death state, even in their own dimension, but the risk was worth the reward to come to Henry’s.

Which didn’t really help him come to terms with it, but he also knew first and foremost he needed to ensure he could keep this world safe. And he knew any D.E.D. that wouldn’t make a pact with him that he encountered, was a threat to humanity. He just wished killing them wasn’t the only option. It seemed a bit…extreme.

His D.E.D. told him to just imagine it as a transferring of their matter. Which was a very calloused way of saying they were consuming the other D.E.D. But, it did help at least a little. Cold blooded killing was out of hand, but the world existed on the concept of matter not being created nor destroyed, but changing shape and form etc. So transferring matter, at least made him feel a little better.

With the philosophy lesson aside, and the goals laid out with his group, he decided to take it easy for the rest of the day. This was because if his Bladed Drakeling really was close to level 3, his Evil Eye, who’d been out and about with him all day, had to be nearing it as well. And while he could certainly go out and chase after rifts today, he figured letting his D.E.D. level to 3 was the smarter play. Besides, he’d suddenly found himself rather exhausted after everything that had happened, and really just wanted to take it easy for the day.

As such, Henry ordered a pizza, put on a show, and started scrolling through the D.E.D. app a little more as he let the three D.E.D. hang about him. It still fascinated him how they were there, and yet not. They seemed to be able to interact with physical things, but to a degree that only he could notice it. He wasn’t certain how it worked, but they could walk about on solid objects as if they were solid as well, but then lazily just pass-through walls and barriers like they weren’t there. Another thing he figured he probably just wouldn’t question.

Instead, he turned his focus to the next set of questions. According to Jon, the D.E.D. App housed the cumulation of knowledge that had been gained by the organization since it’s creation. How long that actually was, Henry had no idea. However, he figured such a collection of data, along with the simulations Emelia had mentioned the app allowed them to run, would help him learn a little more about his own D.E.D., and their powers.

Indeed, about twenty minutes later, as his pizza arrived and he enjoyed a slice, he was at a treasure trove of knowledge. For two of his D.E.D. at least.

Both the Bladed Drakeling and Storm Crow, even though they were uncommon, had detailed entries within the app. Interestingly, looking at the app would give Henry the option to view the variants of the D.E.D. as well. Bladed and Storm were the unique type, it seemed, which denoted the element of the D.E.D. The Drakeling and Crow were the species, and had different forms based off of their type.

That note aside, there was data on the various skills they unlocked, and at which level of power they unlocked them. The people who had input the data had even gone so far as the detail the amount of MP such skills utilized, how long they could last, and what their effects were. His Bladed Drakeling’s Rock Armor skill, for example, not only increased its defense, but decreased a percentage of physical damage dealt to the D.E.D. and lessoned damage from certain elemental types.

Meanwhile, the Lightning Surge skill his Storm Crow had actually had different effects, depending on the target. If it cast it on itself, it increased its agility, and created a passive electrical storm around itself. If used on an ally, it gave their attacks an additional bit of lightning damage, and if used on enemies, it made lightning attacks automatically seek out the targeted foe.

Needless to say, the information Henry was finding on his D.E.D. was fascinating, while also showing him there was much, much more to all of this than anyone had actually be letting on. That being said, there was one last bit of information he came across, that really excited him.

There were detailed logs on the evolution trees for the Storm Crow and Bladed Drakeling, showing clearly at what levels they would evolve on their own. Less detailed, but still intriguing, were their fusion trees. These were sparsely filled out, and included various notes indicating the likelihood of success, and potential failure results. Needless to say, it seemed fusing D.E.D. was an uncommon practice, but one that could result in crazy outcomes.

And that, was the bit that really stood out to him. There were level requirements for the fusions, bare minimums that were required to make sure it was a success. And all that meant, was something would happen, and a new D.E.D. would be created. What D.E.D. actually appeared, seemed to vary on the D.E.D. utilized in the fusions, as well as the Max D.E.D. points of the Exorcist doing the fusion.

These entries, the fusion logs, were the only ones that actually showed up for his Evil Eye as well. The Evil Eye’s, whose tree was rather undetailed, the common mob most people just ignored and didn’t bother to level, had three entries for fusion. It didn’t actually state what the outcome was, only that there were three times, once at level 25, once at level 50, and once at level 75, that someone had done a fusion with an Evil Eye, and gotten a result. Oh, and one other thing. For a success, the Exorcist doing the fusion needed 1,000 or more D.E.D. points.

Which of course, implied the Exorcist conducting the fusion, had to be have a resonation tier of A or higher. Obviously, the unknown nature of this, as well as the massive resonation requirements, simply made Henry want, now more than ever, to see just what would happen if he continued to level his Evil Eye. What, was the potential outcome? And who, had done the fusions in the past? In other words, he’d once again gained more information, and unlocked more questions. But now, at least, he had a game plan. Tomorrow, he would start to level his D.E.D. Tomorrow, he would truly take the step forward towards becoming a powerful D.E.D. Exorcist.