The Scrap Tamer - Chapter 66

Chapter 66: Unexpected Apologies and Rewards.

The lizard threw a boulder at her but before she could slice it in half, it disappeared, reappearing in her blind spot.

Seeing that she couldn’t block the boulder, she wrapped her flaming wings around herself as it crashed into her, burying her in the hole below.

“Mom!” “Mistress!”

Both Reid and Ellie shouted out in worry, seeing the attack connecting.

Both the lizard and wolf looked smug at finally being able to land an attack. The boulder kept covering the hole for a while before it started glowing red, emitting waves of heat.

The wolf and lizard took a cautious step back as the boulder got hotter and hotter until it suddenly exploded, sending shards of rocks flying directly at the two.

The explosion created smoke and dust which cleared up to reveal an unhurt Vivian, a smile still on her face.

She didn’t even look like someone just buried under a boulder.

“Alright, it’s time to end this” she said as the heat she emitted increased.

Before the wolf could get a chance to teleport away, she was suddenly upon it. With a swing of her flame spear, its head was seperated from its body and is started disintegrating.

The lizard, seeing how easily she dispatched the wolf, created a fortress of rocks around it.

In any other situation, it would have been safe behind its wall of rocks but not in this one.

Vivian easily passed through the rocks, leaving holes dripping with lava in them. The lizard looked up at her smirking face in fear.

She swung her spear, cutting both the lizard and the ground in half, and turned towards Ellie and Reid while the hologram disintegrated.

“How did I do?” She asked the two who had their mouths wide in shock, which caused her to chuckle.

“That was awesome” Reid was the first to recover.

Ellie cleared her throat, embarrassed at the unprofessional expression she just showed but she also knew Vivian didn’t mind.

With an order from Vivian, she turned off the hologram and the forcefield around them and the seats were visible to the again.

Walking towards them was Maximus, Alexander and Nathan approaching them. Maximus and Alexander were not too surprised at her display since they were present during the fight with Malrath.

The same could not be said for Nathan. His first reaction was surprise but it quickly changed into something else.

If he wanted to keep up with his brothers or even overtake them, this power was exactly what he need, so he was determined to find any way to gain it.

To Vivian’s and everyone else’s surprise, Maximus didn’t say anything, he just hugged her as tightly as he could.

“I’m sorry” he whispered, his voice cracking in pain “I should have been a lot stronger, I should have tried harder.”

Vivian was surprised at the hug but was quick to recover and returned the hug.

“It’s fine” she assured “I’m okay now.”

The hug lasted a while before both pulled back, remembering that they were not alone.

Maximus then turned to Reid, who was quietly observing them, and made a deep bow which surprised everyone for the second time today.

“I know I don’t deserve to say this now” he started “but I really hope you can forgive me for everything”.

Even Reid could feel the sincerety in his voice but he clenched his fist angrily. He didn’t want his father to apologize.

He wanted him to be filled with regret after seeing him stronger. He was about to say something but the pleading look on his mom’s face changed his mind.

“I don’t think I’m ready to forgive you just yet” He started calmly, a contrast to his inner turmoil.

He could see how sad his mom got when he said that so he continued.

“But I’m willing to give you a chance.” Reid completed.

“That’s all I ask” Maximus raised his head and gave him a smile.

Alexander stood back, clenching his fist but said nothing since this was a decision made by his father.

Satisfied with the outcome, Vivian suddenly said “I haven’t eaten since I woke up”.

“I’ll have the che—” Maximus started but she interrupted.

“I feel like eating out” Vivian said. This was a chance for a family outing and she was going make sure it happened.

“Prepare the car” Maximus said and again, the butler appeared out of nowhere.

“Right away” he said and disappeared again to fulfill the task.

Reid looked at his mother who was currently squishing both Alexander and Nathan in a hug.

Alexander’s face remained neutral but it was evident that he was happy, while Nathan looked annoyed at the hug.

The butler returned in a few minutes, informing that the car was ready to go.

____

Reid returned to the hotel the next day since he was supposed to be sent to the military base in two days, and he didn’t want Elizabeth worrying too much.

His mom didn’t want him to return but he convinced her that he had to and she relented after a while.

Reid arrived at the hotel to find Elizabeth, the twins and Alex waiting at the hotel’s lobby for him which was a bit strange.

But it got stranger when Elizabeth suddenly walked up to him and gave him a hug.

“I’m glad you’re alright, I wouldn’t have known what to tell grandpa otherwise” she whispered and it suddenly made sense to Reid.

The twins were the next to welcome him back and Alex actually swallowed his pride and apologized for bullying him the past few months.

If Reid could forgive his father, forgiving Alex was no big deal for him.

“Have you eaten yet?” Elizabeth asked “we’re heading out for breakfast”.

He had to deny the invite since his mom didn’t allow him to leave without having breakfast together with all of them.

Which was a bit awkward but better than the one that happened the day before. Plus his rewards from Evo had been pending for a while now.

Reid walked to the elevator while the trio walked towards the hotel’s restaurant to eat.

_____

Arriving in his room, Reid plopped down on the bed and summoned out his forged-beasts.

It had been three days since he last saw them so he really missed them and by the looks of it, they did too.

Because they all pounced at him as soon as they were summoned.

Reid laughed as Rusty, in his wolf form, tackled him to the bed and shrunk back to its mouse form and settled on his face. Nyx and Beel decided to do the same.

“I missed you guys too” he said and they hopped/ flew off and went directly to the snack table causing Reid to chuckle again.

“I guess you missed the snacks more”.

“Alright Evo, let’s see how many cores I got” he said and a screen popped up in front of him.

[Congratulations, you eliminated 300 primals:

Iron tier: 200

Silver tier: 70

Gold tier: 30

You have gained 300 cores].

“That much?” Reid muttered in surprise.

He knew that he eliminated a lot of primals while unhinged but he didn’t expect it to be this many.

His surprise increased when Evo suddenly suggested.

[If you’d like, I can combine them all into a single platinum rank core or three peak Gold tier cores] she said.

Reid abruptly sat up and asked “you can do that?”

[Yes] Evo simply said [I was supposed to give you a quest to unlock this feature but Malrath’s presence created a variable, so I’ll need to get you as strong as possible so that you’ll be ready to face him the next time.]

Reid nodded his head. Evo was right, he needed to get stronger fast. He was only able to injure Malrath because its focus was entirely on vivian otherwise, even in his injured form, Reid wouldn’t have been able to put a scratch on him.

He sighed, the obvious choice was to choose the platinum tier option but his instincts told him that was not a good idea so he asked Evo.

“What happens if I decided to evolve my forged beasts directly to Platinum tier from silver?”

[While it is possible, Even if I lengthen the process and slowly introduce the energy to your soul, you would suffer from from soul power overload which would cause you to explode.] She explained, causing Reid to shiver.

He nervously swallowed and made a desicion. As much as he wanted to get stronger fast, he wasn’t keen on exploding because of it.

“Combine the cores to gold tier” he said and Evo complied.

[Three gold tier cores has been sent to your Forge Lab] Evo said.

“Open Status” it has been a while since he looked at his and his forged-beasts’ status.

Evo opened just his and the forged-beasts status.

[ Status opened:

Name: Reid

Age:.17

Rank: Silver Ranked Tamer

Soul power: Silver Rank

—

[Abilities]

Copy: allows you to copy an ability from one of your forged beasts.

NB: this skill is tied to the bond stat.

[Evolution Codex]

Inventory: a space you can store your forged beasts

Evolve: Provides a blueprint for evolving your forged beasts.

Forge Lab: A space equipped with all you need to update your forged beasts.

—-

[Forged Beasts]

[Rusty]

Species: Temporal Wolf.

HP: [100/100]

Bond: [90/100]

Rank: Silver-tier

Abilities:

Skip: a skill which allows it to teleport to a selected location.

Delayed Reaction: Slows down opponents within a short radius, making them appear sluggish or delayed in their actions.

Pause: Traps the target in a temporal lock, complete stopping the target’s time. The effects lessen the stronger a target is. Can also be used as an AOE attack but the duration is reduced.

Rewind: Rewinds time on a selected target.

_________

[Nyx]

Species: Void moth

Hp: [100/100]

Bond: [85/100]

Rank: Silver-tier

Abilities:

Void: The moth can momentarily disappear and reappear in a different location a meter around it.

Smoke screen: Creates a smoke cloud that it can use to hide.

Nullification: negates/nullifies any type of energy.

Spatial Collapse: collapses space within a certain radius around a selected target.

[Beel]

Species: Gluttonous fly.

Hp: [100/100]

Bond: [70/100]

Rank: Silver-tier

Abilities:

Consume: The ability allows it to consume anything, whether physical objects, energy, or even concepts

Extract: allows the forged beast to extract anything deemed useful, including skills.

Enhance: The more it consumes, the stronger, faster, or more durable it become temporarily

Black hole: can trap anything within an inescapable black hole in its belly.

Evolve: Depending on what it consumes, the forged-beast can evolve into higher forms

Note: due to you using a Gold-tier core to evolve your forged-beasts, they now have the energy of a Gold-tier primals causing them to be able to use their skills for as long as a Gold-tier forged-beast.

[Extracted abilities: open to display]

—

[Mission Log]

Active Mission: Forgemaster 01

Collect all the necessary parts and create your first forged-beast.

Rewards: Unlocks the beast memoir.

Status: [Incomplete]

Active Mission: Evolution 02

Collect all the necessary parts and evolve your beasts for the second time.

Rewards: unlocks [synergize] ability.

Status: [Incomplete]

]