Chapter 103: Perrafin

[About time!]

'You were about to say something.'

[Yes. How about progressing the affinities? Now you have all of them!]

'I remembered about it when the notification came up. Do me a favour and bring up the Affinity panel.'

As Lee asked, the affinity panel was brought up in front of him.

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Affinity:-

• Greater Poison Affinity (12131/1000000)

• Greater Lightning Affinity (15354/1000000)

• Medium Fire Affinity (136/10000)

• Medium Water Affinity (0/10000)

• Medium Ice Affinity (664/10000)

• Greater Rock Affinity (11975/1000000)

• Greater Metal Affinity (11974/1000000)

• Medium Sand Affinity (286/10000)

• Greater Nature Affinity (11984/1000000)

• Medium Air Affinity (2375/10000)

• Greater Sound Affinity (12371/1000000)

• Greater Dark Affinity (11998/1000000)

• Medium Light Affinity (0/10000)

• Medium Death Affinity (286/10000)

• Medium Gravity Affinity (1004/10000)

• Medium Space Affinity (1004/10000)

• Lesser Life Affinity (0/100)

• Lesser Time Affinity (0/100)

=====

Lee slowed down his pace a bit as he skimmed through the lines of information. D continued to describe about the effects and advantages of each affinity.

[The more your proficiency in an element, higher will be your degree of control. You can understand it from the usage of lightning affinity. You can compress the lightning into a small sphere with lethality of disintegration, or make it go like wildfire and do an AOE damage.

But poison affinity is a good example for reflecting your imagination in the element. The poison affinity varies it's efficiency from numbing your opponent, to killing them at the first contact. You can only create poison which can numb your enemies, because you acquired the affinity from a Swamp Serpent, which relies on its poison to immobilise its prey.

Once you acquire an affinity, you cannot change its characteristic function. If you need to alter its purpose, you need to achieve the Absolute grade of the affinity. The same goes with those born with an affinity. Since they do not have a system to help them progress, they tend to make very little improvement in the course of time.

But there are exceptions. Some would dedicate themselves in, to such an extent that they will progress greatly in their path. Still, reaching the Greater grade is unheard of, and reaching the Absolute remains as a fantasy!

You are lucky, for you have me! If cultivators and adventurers were to hear of the easiness you have in the progression, they would have a heart attack or will fall into an existential dilemma!]

'Stop praising yourse-'

*Thuck*

Lee was immersed in the conversation with D and his eyes were planted on the affinity panel. Thus, he failed to notice the tree in his path. Lee head on collided with the tree and it produced a noise. Lee came back to reality and rubbed his forehead. He did not look back and walked forward, as Ruella and her friends were laughing.

'D, I can see two Lesser ones, nine Medium ones and seven Greater affinities in the panel. Use Essence to upgrade the Life and Time to Medium grade.'

[Okay. Deducting 800 Essence. Since they are Life and Time, expect some discomforts. They are rebellious in nature.]

'What-'

Before Lee could finish, a pain assaulted his stomach. The sudden outburst of pain made him twitch, but he managed to tolerate it. Seconds later, the pain vanished and everything came back to normal. The ladies did not find anything suspicious, but Fero did walk towards Lee. The hyena felt a sense of pain for a short moment, so it walked towards Lee.

*rub rub*

Fero came and rubbed Lee's feet as he walked. Lee expressed his affection with pats and by caressing his mane. The ladies became silent for a moment as they watched them. They just came to realise that the falling fruits and naughty laughs of the monkeys have vanished.

[Lee, something is in the vicinity. Probably a flying beast.]

Lee immediately went alert as his senses went from 0 to 100 in an instant. He realised the silence that overpowered the monkeys and found the threat even more overpowering, as he glanced at the Map.

'Is that a Griffin?'

[Close. It's a Perrafin. Something Griffins and even Swamp Serpents find threatening. The Foura Monkeys are delicious to it. Tell the ladies to hide.]

Lee waved his hands at An and gestured to stay silent. He also conveyed to stick to the shades of the trees. Luckily, the trees were tall and wide enough to provide enough shelter. Signalling Fero not to make any noise, he told him to follow as he tiptoed towards the trio. The antelope was sticking close to An.

"It's a Perrafin. That's why the monkeys went silent."

Lee spoke in a hushed voice. It was barely audible to the three. They heard what he said and nodded in agreement. They were all internally amazed to know that the terrorizing beast which silenced the monkeys were a Perrafin.

'D, tell me more about Perrafin.'

[I don't have to. It seems like it has caught the scent of humans in the forest.]

Lee immediately notified this information to An. Mia, who heard this, unsheathed her katana as An pulled out her longsword. The blade appeared in Lee's palm. Poor Ruella did not brandish a weapon, because she did not have one.

'D, I am giving you the task to upgrade the maximum number of affinities to Greater grade.'

[Just emptied your Essence reserve for completely upgrading fire element to Greater grade and raising the water element progress to 5119.]

'Hmm.... Tell me D, is there any advantage in using Mana to manipulate elements than just simply using the affinity?'

[Mana acts as an amplifier for damage and helps to control element with more precision. It is good to leash the bull than letting it go rampage!]

Just as D paused, Lee's heightened ears picked up wing flaps above the trees. He can see the trees swaying by the enormous gust of wind. Luckily, the drooping vines of the trees acted as supportive anchors and went deep into the soil. It created a cage like structure, inside which An, Ruella, Mia and Lee hid, along with Fero and the antelope.

*points upward*

Lee pointed upward and the eyes of the trio scanned the interior of the cage and saw a glance of the beast's flashing figure flying over the area.

"I think it caught our scent."

Lee spoke in a barely audible voice.

"I have previously fought a Perrafin. I never knew that those beasts had such an acute sense of smell!"

An hushly commented as she glanced at the faces around her. They were surprised and the brows were raised.

A specific set of wing beats could be heard, and Lee realised that the beast is trying to descend. The trio made themselves ready.

*DHUM*

A loud noise in a distance attracted their attention as the beast touched down. It's massive size was unsuitable to land among the dense packed trees, so it found a relatively wide area to land. Surprising everyone, it did something intelligent!