Alex was extremely surprised by the new Crystal accompanying his others. Confused about its whereabouts.
Yet Alex first wanted to check out his quantity of monkey crystals first. This was to check if he had gotten the amount that he should've.
As Alex specifically remembered slaying twenty three monkeys. While from previous experiences he new that the chance he'd get a crystal was one hundred percent.
Although he could not say the same about other types of ruins. As those were harder to come by.
Yet after slaying twenty three monkeys he expected at least some new ruins other than the crystals.
He even hoped to find a new type of ruin, one that wasn't a weapon related ruin or crystal, as that was immensely hinted at by the system.
Yet Alex had not yet heard of anyone getting a new type of ruin. Except this could also be due to Alex's socialness.
As since their crash Alex had been more of a leader and ignored talking to the survivors any other times than leading.
So Alex had missed out on lots of information because of his introverted personality. Although to Alex this was a boon as he didn't strain himself talking to others.
Yet Alex was still curious about the crystal, deciding to check out their information first. As he summoned up the illusory screen.
He was met by his usual status screen, with the only thing that changed was his ruins, staring at a whopping twenty eight ruins.
From his math he should've had two ruins before hunting, and gained twenty three, leaving him at twenty five ruins.
That meant he had gained at least three new unknown ruins. The thought of this made Alex bubble in glee, overwhelming his patience.
Immediately concentrating on the word ruin, as a new screen suddenly flickered from where the old one used to be.
Displaying a list of ruins Alex had in his possession. As he immediately focused on the one that displayed money crystals.
Another illusory screen flickered into reality, this time beside the original one. While Alex quickly summoned the screens of the other ruins.
Then he turned back toward the screen displaying the monkey Crystal.
He quickly navigated through the information and found the quantity.
[22]
This shouldn't have been right, unless Alex had somehow miscounted the monkeys he had slain.
Then he suddenly remembered his new crystal type ruin as he quickly looked for the screen displaying it.
[Ruin name: Mutated Steel Crystals
Ruin type: Crystal
Ruin class: Steel
Quantity: 1
Ruin Abilities: Increase the power of a ruin inside the steel class, or talents in the steel class.
Ruin origin: Produced from the bodies of the mutated monsters containing steel weapons.
Stage: 2
Realm: 1]
After readying through the description Alex had many questions that could be answered.
As the immense knowledge displayed in front of him was extremely important. As he was able to discover that the crystal too was gained from slaying the monkeys.
He had gained this information by reading its origin. Where it had stated it was gained by slaying the mutated monsters with steel.
While he had quickly connected the monkey's sharp claws to steel. This meant that the crystal could be used to upgrade a broader category of ruins and or talents.
Alex had also noticed that the stage of the ruin was two. Which he had never seen a rank two crystal before.
Connecting the dots Alex soon realized that the higher the stage of a crystal the broader its class.
This could help Alex find crystals to upgrade unrelated ruins by hunting unrelated abominations.
Although Alex did not know if this was true or just home connecting dots that didn't exist, so he didn't rely too much on the fact.
Yet he was still very intrigued on how he had gotten a stage two even though he had only been slaying the monkeys.
At this thought Alex had a sudden realization.
I've been assuming the monkeys were all stage one this whole time, yet I have no evidence of it. Wait, how am I even supposed to know a stage or realm of these abominations.
This whole time Alex had been assuming ranks of the creatures and ignoring that he did not know.
Only realizing this after blatantly assuming it and trying to back up his answer. Yet Alex threw away his new found curiosity.
Replacing it with the curiosity of his new ruins.
Alex turned his head looking at a random description of a ruin.
[Ruin name: Monkey Fur
Ruin type: Armor
Ruin class: Monkey
Ruin Abilities: Slightly increase the warmth of the user's skin, and offers a protective leather.
Ruin origin: Produced from the bodies of the mutated monkeys.
Stage: 1
Realm: 1]
Alex was astonished, surprised that he had finally come across another type of ruin. Almost overjoyed by his new weapon.
Although he was a bit disappointed, as it honestly just sounded like a normal leather coat.
Yet Alex still believed it to be special, being his very first armor type ruin. Then he moved his gaze to the next ruin.
Sadly the next to ruins were just disappointing weapons that had no uses. So Alex disregarded them.
Getting ready to upgrade his monkey claws even more. He was excited by the thought of watching the mystical process once again.
As he searched within himself, summoning a large quantity of crystal, and the monkey claws.
Yet of those crystals there were only twenty two. As Alex had decided it would be better to save the crystal just in case.
After the funneling of air had stopped and all of Alex's needed materials had been formed Alex prepared himself.
Alex then slammed the two ruins together, creating the familiar spark of light. Once again causing Alex to look away.
Alex repeated this process many times, catching the attention of the nearby survivors. Yet none of them interrupted Alex.
After a while of leveling up the ruin Alex was finally one away from reaching level two with the monkey claw.
He pushed his third to last crystal against the monkey claw. Except this time it wasn't white light emitting from the blade.
Instead the blade was glowing yellow, then it suddenly started floating and gusts of air funneled into the blade reshaping it.
After the monkey claws had re-formed they started floating back down to Alex's hand.
Alex took a moment to stare at the monkey claws, in awe by their new form.
The monkey claws had taken an entirely new form, now with leather lining on the inside, and holes for the fingers.
While the blades seemed to be even sharper and just a bit longer. While the fur on the outside of the glove felt like steel, and not soft fur.
The monkey claw had gone through a complete change. Bringing Alex's hopes to an all time high.
While outside the plane the sun had long set, and it was now time for Alex to search for his dream.
As he laid down on his seat, constantly moving around until he was comfortable before dozing off into the grasps of slumber.
…
Alex suddenly woke up on a cement sidewalk. Opening his eyes his vision was blurry.
Quickly rubbing his eyes and re-opening them he once again glanced around his surroundings.
Alex was once again in the familiar dreamscape of his mind, it was now time for Alex's tests to commence.
Alex walked forward entering the driveway of a nearby house. Approaching it, Alex prepared to open the door.
Grasping on the cold sphere of metal, he turned the knob and opened the door. Inside he saw nothing but void, absolutely nothing.
Nonetheless he walked in, as the abyss around him suddenly changed around him, forming into a playground.
Around him kids ran and played, while laughing and giggling. All of those kids were from his orphanage.
While in the near distance Alex watched himself running along. As a small child Alex was extremely fast.
As he ran past the other kids, before tripping in the grass and rolling over. He giggled on the grass, whir Alex stared at his younger self with a mournful expression.
Eventually the memory ended and Alex had confirmed that in his mind his memories were in the form of houses.
Alex traveled to the next house and entered it, noticing its similar vibes and appearance as the last house.
When Alex entered the world re-shaped into what seemed to be a bus. On that bus were a bunch of little kids telling jokes and rumors.
This memory was just before the previous one, and was just their journey to the playground.
Alex had now figured out that if he had gone the other direction in his mind there would've a memory just after the previous memory.
Alex waited through the memory before watching the world re-shaped into a neighborhood of houses again.
Alex was then curious on what would be on the other side of the road. As he quickly traveled to the other side to explore.
Upon entering another house his surroundings changed into when one of his toys broke the night before they went to the playground.
Alex suddenly realized bad memories were east, and good memories were on the west if the future memories were north and past memories were south.
Suddenly realizing this Alex began traveling North. Hoping to find his memory of his fight with the spider.
After traveling forward and occasionally checking the houses on the left, or the good ones. Alex noticed something.
As once again a giant spider web appeared over one of the houses. Strung across it like a tarp, yet Alex continued forward.