During the night, after sending everyone off to bed, I ran around in the dungeons on the phone, killing Ants and Skeletons. But I didn’t make any progress. It seems my stats were already higher than what the Ants could drop (unless they bless me with a skill crystal), while the skeletons just dropped bones to begin with.

  I did figure out the path toward the General but fighting him is a process. First, I had to dodge his one-shot thrust attack at the beginning of the fight (I failed this more than half of the time). It doesn't help that it takes about 10-20 minutes from the start to get there. Or the fact that it spawns in an arena surrounded by other skeletons. While they can be easily dispatched in a hit or two, the time wasted taking care of them ultimately leads to my demise. Even after a dozen tries, I can only get him to about half health before getting stuck through or stompped. On the bright side, I was learning his movement pattern.

  After entering its zone, and promptly dodging the nearly unavoidable thrust that starts the battle, its actually quite simple: dodge roll under the skeleton horse and slowly whittle him down while avoiding attacks and the outer ring. From the comic, his head seemed to be his weak point. (If the fact he wasn't wearing a helmet made it any more obvious). Sadly, I couldn't output the damage to kill it in a hit or two. I feel like I'm spending more time fighting with the controls than the boss as my character makes moves I didn't press on occasion.

  I also figured out how to leave a dungeon without needing to respawn my character. Doing so however does not respawn the mobs. I would need to offer another drop of blood to do that (death was purely optional). This also doesn't restore health, and if I did end up swapping with a rge amount of blood, all of it was lost. So, I ended up starting in the Ancient City, smashing skeletons before returning to the Ant Nest to recover my health working my way around the tunnels, looking for the path to the next floor. I have yet to spot a Red Ant.

  In the morning, after getting everyone fed I had them line up for their tasks.

  Starting with the Porygon, ”Two of you are on information gathering, I need you to find anything on dungeon exploration, any interesting powers people have developed, or animal mutations. As for the remaining two, finish up the banking system and process the rest of the data from the hard drives. I’m leaving the rest of the exposé to you two, double-check the information and send out the emails.” *Bawee* *Bawoo* The Porygon confirmed their tasks while I took a picture of the ptop setup. Two of them set off while two stayed behind, immediately getting to work.

  Next was Kuramon, handing him a copy of a ptop loaded with Pory OS, “Here, go nuts. Don't forget, you still need to finish the privacy virus.” He bounced up and down excitedly as I presented the ptop. Since it was a copy it didn’t matter what he did, even if he destroyed it. Once I pced it down, he lunged, entering the screen, turning 8-bit. He had an eted expression on the screen while running around the pink and blue Porygon-themed wallpaper.

  Lastly was Beldum, "You're with me today, once I finish going over the shopping list." The blue leg looked at me rotating its body up and down, nodding.

  Now was the Shopping List. Despite how weak my new sixth sense was, I might be able to strengthen it using items. In its current state, I could only vaguely feel the room around me. Using an item as training wheels, I might be able to strengthen it until it becomes something I can do naturally. Just moving things would be a massive improvement. With all the time I had st night, however, I couldn't remember any items off the top of my head and was more focused on grinding.

  While making myself breakfast this morning, I found a list of psychic objects on a wiki pretty easily after a couple of searches. Most of the list seem to come from Marvel or DC comics, with a few from other Western animations. It wasn't exactly an expansive list of psychic objects, but it’s a start. Looking over the list, I had a flood of memories resurface, remembering these shows from my childhood.

  With all the Marvel items, it reminded me of another item I had thought about during my first week, but ultimately decided against it at the time; the Super Soldier Serum. You can more or less get the same effects through Ki (with little if any side effects). The only problem is the decades or centuries of practice required. The problem with the serum was, to activate it I would need to get in that tube and get bsted with radiation. How I would even convince the team of scientists to perform the experiment in the first pce was another problem. Like with some of the items on the psychic list mind control and mental manipution were options, (I still had the item I grabbed then lying around somewhere) but it left a sour taste in my mouth. I couldn't believe they'd do it properly if I used it. Then towards the end of the week I had to study for the test and ended up forgetting about it.

  Now I've come upon a couple of problems since then. First being the world going to shit, and now that I've found out, if I go somewhere where my Ki gets sealed it's basically useless. So, this wasn’t a bad idea. But,

  “What abilities does the serum even give?”

  This question led me down a rabbit hole researching Super Soldiers, in the end, it seems most characters in Marvel count as some form of Super Soldier. Captain America was the first success with all subsequent characters' attempts at recreating the formu. Spiderman and The Green Goblin, The Incredible Hulk and The Red Skull, the Winter Soldier program that created the Red Guardian and spun off into the Bck Widow program, etc. Some were more effective than others, some granted unique abilities, while most just ended up dead or horribly mutated, but there was a general trend on abilities.

  1. Enhanced Metabolic Processes:

  Enhanced cell division/Enhanced Healing: “Enhances the subject's metabolic processes at a rate four times that of an average person.” This is very standard on the tin healing factor. It’s not bad, but the speed varies. It’s not as strong as pouring a mid- to high-level potion on the wound, but it's useful if I ever end up in a situation where I don’t have access to potions. However, I will need to eat more to keep up with this metabolic rate.

  Hormone Augmentation: “Increases the effects of hormones like dopamine, adrenaline, testosterone, and endorphins.” This is used to amplify physical and mental performance and is the reason for the strengthened muscle mass and enhanced mind.

  This seems iffy. It’s a drawback if too much of certain hormones are created. The Abomination is the best example; too much testosterone turns you into a roid raging freak.

  At a certain level of Ki mastery, you can do this whenever—your body adjusts to fit your mental image of yourself. Then there’s Hormone control. If memory serves, reaching just the Foundation level in most works lets women control their periods. Certain techniques can cause mental changes (like heightened aggression).

  Immunity: Due to the enhanced metabolism a certain level of immunity is granted; the body breaks down foreign objects faster. Not really immunity just a certain level of Poison and Disease Resistance. Something strong enough will just bypass this, but I could compound this with more resistances for complete immunity.

  Muscle Mass Enhancement: The hormones were designed to enhance and multiply muscle mass. Generally, this results in increased strength and performance.

  Positive or negative this just sits in the middle for me. Though, I’m starting to feel like a Ken doll.

  Decelerated Aging: Slows or outright stops aging to a certain extent.

  Some seem to do this some don’t. Either way, it's worthless to me since I can just make myself immortal.

  2. Enhanced mind

  While there are various methods to enhance the mind, this one seems to enhance processing speed, (IE Enhanced Response/Reaction Time) and General Cognition. It’s not going to make you a super genius (unless you use one specially formuted for that), but you will probably remember what color a card was from a week ago. Or do long division in your head in a couple of seconds.

  While Ki enhances memory and mental retention, I don’t know the specifics. I know my kinetic vision and reaction time have already increased dramatically. But as far as memory is concerned, I can't really tell.

  Personally, I think I've always had a decent memory, it's not photographic but I've always been able to remember how to clear a game I've already finished. While I might forget the specifics, I'll remember the quest line and key points even a decade ter.

  Personality traits: This seems to be the main sticker for the Serem; Emphasizes key personality traits.

  As Erskine put it; "The serum amplifies everything that is inside, so good becomes great, bad becomes worse."

  This is possibly the biggest demerit of the serum, causing many characters to go mad. This was the side effect that made me the most apprehensive. I have no idea what personality traits it would enhance, nor did I want to find out.

  I continued looking around, scrolling through Wikis before I found something interesting, coming from the TV series The Falcon and The Winter Soldier, part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (who even watches these?) Wilfred Nagel's Version of the serum is considered a ‘perfected’ version. Granting all the benefits with none of the adverse effects, no excessive bulky muscle, strange mental issues, or personality changes, and the best part; all of it comes in a small finger-sized vial injection with nothing else needed. No additional injections, or radiation.

  The only caveat, the injection is accompanied by excruciating pain. (I can just jab myself before I go to bed tonight).

  What else should I grab on this little shopping spree…? Since I’m already browsing Marvel heroes… Scrolling down to the bottom of one of the pages, “What was it Bck Panther used for his powers?” Finding the page and reading the blurb.

  “The Heart-Shaped Herb is a pnt that only grows in the nation of Wakanda. In legend, it was said to have been a gift from the Panther God, the local deity they worshiped, but in reality, the pnt had been mutated by a giant meteorite of Vibranium crashing into the Earth”.

  Spoiler

  [colpse]Basically, a funny herb that mutated due to proximity to a rge source of Vibranium. On that note, I should check out Vibranium ter. The effects were… basically, everything the super serum does to a lesser effect but with a major focus on the senses, mainly the Kinaesthetic sense.

  Not knowing what the kinaesthetic sense was I looked it up, in simple terms, it's ‘perceiving one's bodily position even when your eyes are closed’.

  "Is that why I feel the room around me?" Closing my eyes, I didn’t feel just my body, it was vague, and everything was fuzzy, but I could tell where most objects in the room were. Including Beldum who floated nearby appearing as a vague fuzzy tube shape. Continuing to read about The Heart-Shaped Herb,

  “It heightens the proprioceptive system processes the orientation sense to the brain and perceptions in your body. That is how you sense where a tree limb or a building edge is, know exactly where it is and never have a moment's doubt that your fingers will close about it...”

  "...The sacred anointment poultice has a second effect on your muscles and ligaments, specifically on the joints where bones connect and swivel, mesh and respond. There are receptors in these joints called the Pacinian corpuscles that carry the signal to the brain to fulfill proper movement. Somehow the poultice is absorbed into those receptors and makes them especially sensitive. This is what enables you to twist and dodge with unparalleled grace."

  If I were to guess, the Vibranium that’s bonded with the herb's molecur structure once ingested, subsequently bonds with the consumer’s body, namely within the joints and parts of the brain reted to sense, movement, and orientation. Aside from that, The Heart-Shaped Herb seems to be toxic, its consumption is limited to the royal line, and one must be worthy of noble blood or risk being poisoned by the herb.

  This doesn’t mean much since it's probably to control its consumption away from the masses. If one's body isn't strong enough, they'd just die. If they are, they could challenge the rulership. With that said, if I take the Super Soldier Serum first, I'd gain some resistance to the poison, then taking this, I wonder if they'd stack? I won't die, thanks to the 1UP's, but I'm not exactly looking forward to tonight.

  Feeling a watchful eye staring at me intently, “Alright, give me a minute to get ready, and find a nice pce for us to py”.

  END

  Spoilerkidmonkey94

  Heres Spiderman enjoying a nice sad:

  [colpse]