Samson’s nightmare sister was taller than him, with the same spikey hair flowing down to her shoulders. Her body was nearly hairless except for a small patch between her legs hiding her modesty. The smirk matched the few I had seen on Samson. Her chin was pointier than his, and she lacked scars from surgeries. There was also darkness in her qi that permeated her body. It made my skin crawl even as she hid her naked form under some silk sheets.

 

“Did that bed come from your bag?”

 

“Of course, where else would it come from.”

 

“I thought werewolves were monogamous. Won’t she die if she leaves this place, or we beat the nightmare lord up top?”

 

“None of that from you. I see the mermaid you shacked up with even after we warned you of the dangers. Taming, now that is a load of horseshit.” 

 

“The skill was called Oversoul.”

 

“Oversoul binds souls to an object or user, not monsters. It’s a shaman and necromancy skill; where did you hear about it?”

 

“From my skill list.” He wouldn’t budge on the subject, so I decided to skip over it. “I got the fish and made an enemy of the treasure cave guardian.”

 

“Free exp as far as I’m concerned. If she is yours, then you should party up with her. Anything she kills will help you. Her luck will boost your drops, and you can develop the message skill.” I gave him a confused look. “Just look at her and say party options.”

 

I turned my attention to Ariel. “Party options,” I said, and an option appeared.

 

Make Ariel a subordinate.

Y/N

 

I hit yes, and all her information appeared before her icon appeared under my name.

 

New Skill

Message lvl1

 

“So, what are we going to do about her.”

 

Swarm spoke up. “Samson will get rid of her, or I’m going to give them both crabs and any other itchy parasite I have in my arsenal.”

 

“Can I eat her?” Ariel asked.

 

“No, why would you want to do that?”

 

“I’m hungry, and she looks plump and delicious. Those mounds on her chest are full of meat.”

 

“I think I’m going to be sick.”

 

“I’m joking, mostly. But I’m hungry, and the longer I continue to hunger, the more people start to sound like talking snacks.”  I pulled a leg of ham out of my inventory and tossed it to her. She dug into it immediately, even digging into the bone.

 

“So, who’s next. Majorian or do we get to see what Obelisk fears?” Samson raised a hand and blasted his nightmare into ashes, bed and all.

 

“To answer your question, we are monogamous, but that doesn’t mean we can’t fuck around.”

 

“How does that work?”

 

“Only the children we have with our destined partners are born with an inheritance of our perks, predisposition for our skills, and stat bonuses. Our bastards might as well be born from commoners.” Samson said.

 

Samson pushed me out of the way of a massive red claw. I turned my head to see a massive she-wolf glaring down at Samson.

 

“You’re mine. Make us whole.” Her jaws clamped down on Samson’s shoulder before a shockwave blasted out from his blue aura. Samson raised his hand and blasted the nightmare with qi blast after qi blast. The creature endured the attacks and healed almost from the point of being turned into ash.

 

Wasps flew into her eyes, biting and stinging as I raised Nirvana. I squeezed the trigger, but my bullets seemed to bounce off her aura-packed fur. “You need to concentrate your aura on your weapon. I’ll keep it off you, do the damage.” Samson said and engaged the werewolf.

 

Nightmare Immortal Alpha Werewolf Bitch lvl900

 

I raised my weapon and unleashed my own aura. With Ariel fueling my qi regeneration, it was easier than ever before. Aura manipulation wasn’t my strongest suit, but I slowly wrapped it around my gun. As I wrapped it, I felt a force take over. When I moved my aura, it had a habit of moving that way until I stopped it or another aura countered it. So, I let it spin around Nirvana until small bolts of green lightning flashed across the weapon’s surface.

 

The weapon felt heavier in my hand than ever before. I struggled to divide my attention and anchor myself while concentrating on the weapon. Finally, after lining up my shot, I fired.

 

I felt like my opponent had taken a serious hit for the first time. The werewolf fell over on her side, and her wound bubbled before pouring blood. Green veins covered the area around the wound, standing out thick on the monster’s fur.

 

“Now that is pure DPS. Did you see that Swarm? He just laid out a lvl900 bitch because we told him what to do?”

 

“All I wanted was you.” The nightmare of Samson’s sister said.

“If you were what I wanted, I could have the real thing,” Samson said before blasting her for a final time. Fortunately, her body didn’t regenerate.

 

Swarm opened the door to an empty room filled with piles of coffins. The second we entered, one of the lids popped off. A copy of the vampire that first wounded me pulled itself out. However, it was larger, nearly 10ft tall, and bladed tendrils spewed out from all corners of its body. A shiver ran down my spine, and I took a step back.

 

Uber Eldritch Abominable Immortal Vampire lvl500

 

I raised Nirvana, and my aura flowed into it easier than before. More lids ripped off the coffins as I fired, piercing the first monster's heart. Blood gushed from the heart and formed into dozens of small tentacled hearts. More bullets fired, but I only had one handgun against many enemies.

 

Termites exploded from the walls with such force that the wood deformed. Samson put a hand on my shoulder. “This is why you need an old master. They can teach you things sects have long forgotten. Your gun fires .45 CAL rounds, but it’s also an extension of your power. Push your aura into the weapon, and your bullets will explode. Listen, I believe you can do this even if you don’t think you can.”

 

Sweat poured down my palms as more of the massive vampires charged. I fired, piercing them through the heart only for their bodies to dissolve into more hearts. So, what if I killed the big ones when they spawned dozens of small ones. Making my bullets explode by forcing aura into them sounded impossible. Instead, I could concentrate on the weapon by spinning my aura. That spin stopped my aura from escaping when it overflowed.  

 

I fired again and watched my bullets streak through the distance with a tail of green qi. But, again, my shots were precise and had no trouble ripping deep through the floor.

 

“That isn’t it. You should finish them before they get any closer; my termites can only slow them down so much.”

 

Samson growled. “He has it; just give him more time.”

 

I held Nirvana out and felt peace flow into me through the weapon. All my worries about the world fled away almost to the point I wouldn’t mind dying. That was the power of my weapon; it could make death seem peaceful. It wanted me to let go of worldly concerns and become one with them, but I couldn’t let go.

 

So, I focused on my qi even as Nirvana spat it out at me. My gun was powerful, way stronger than I was ready for. It wanted me to find peace, but that wasn’t something I was ready for. There was so much left to live for, and I had my own goals. I didn’t want to fail here and die a nobody.

 

My gun became heavier in my hand as I tried to focus on the termite-covered hearts. I glared at the weapon in my hand. What did it want me to do? Let them kill me? That wasn’t the answer either. 

 

Nirvana grew even heavier in my hand until I had to grasp it with both hands, and my qi wouldn’t fill the weapon anymore. Finally, my eyes widened as a tentacle wrapped around my leg. I couldn’t do this; I was going to die.

 

I would cease to exist, and then I would be nothing. Nirvana increased in weight again, driving me to a knee. My eyes shut, and my aura flared to its maximum. There was no world besides what I could feel and hear with my eyes closed. Nirvana lightened in my hand, and I felt the heart wrapped around my leg pop under my aura. The feeling I had from Nirvana went silent, and the weapon lightened until it felt weightless in my hand.

 

Something had happened, and I couldn’t explain it. The world hadn’t changed, but everything looked different to my eyes. My aura flooded Nirvana thicker than ever before, and I aimed for a group of hearts. I fired and felt the aura in the bullet rapidly expand after it was fired. Several hearts were caught in the explosion, reducing them to ash. I fired a few more times, clearing out the nightmare hearts.

 

The peace I felt radiating from Nirvana hadn’t changed, but I could feel some of it inside my aura. Something had changed between me and the weapon.

 

Red lvl130

Nirvana Rank1 lvl10

+20INT

+45WIS

+11CHA

+10INS

INT 175(1776.6)

WIS 150(2,265)

CHA 70

INS 60

Skill Training lvl20

Aura Manipulation lvl17

Qi Manifestation lvl12

Nirvana Gunmanship lvl10