Second Genesis

Chapter 366: Ma Famille

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Name: Mon Amie

Rarity: Mythical

Class: Vector

Accepted Type: N/A

Restricted Type: N/A

Description: You have a severe lack of friends, and that’s kind of lame. Your anti-social tendencies have really fucked you, so how about you try to send out a few olive branches instead? One friend won’t do, so how about five?

Abilities: Borrowed Genius. Form a Party with five individuals, sharing life and death. Using a Frame you have comprehended, distill your understanding and share it with another, aiding their path forward. In return, comprehensions and insights they glean are shared with you as well.

—

Mauve couldn’t believe what she was reading, so much so that she didn’t hear the sudden whistling that filled the air.

Grey, however, did.

He looked up to find Amunet in a position of having thrown something, her party members looking at her with wide eyes and shocked expressions, while a disk was hurtling toward them.

It wasn’t lost on Grey that he could actually see her party members now. They weren’t shrouded in shadows like they had been before, which was both odd and somehow made sense to him given the disk that was moving rapidly toward him.

That disk... looked a lot like Mon Amie.

Grey’s gaze was almost placid. He caught the disk, but he didn’t seem to react to it very heavily at all. He looked at Amunet for a long moment before he looked back down at the disk in his hand.

—

Name: Mon Frere

Rarity: Mythical

Class: Vector

Accepted Type: N/A

Restricted Type: N/A

Description: No friends, but blood is thicker than water, and genes are thicker than—well, I guess that depends on how big your mother’s ass was. But you don’t have any of those either. Family, that is. So how about some bribery and selfishness instead? Earn yourselves some brothers in arms by tricking them into subservience and dependency.

Abilities: Absent Presence. Be present without being present, forming a silent alliance with those you’ve adopted in your party. Your selected members share life and death and your abilities. However, in return, portions of their Stamina and stats are shared with you, bolstering your power.

—

Grey’s eyes narrowed. This must be how Amunet had managed to get 15 people with the same exact abilities as herself. They hadn’t all just run into the same place, but instead they had just been given what she had already gained herself.

But this thing was also useless to him as anything more than a gesture. He didn’t want to snatch the Stamina and stats of other people, especially not if it meant harming them.

Though, he could probably pick out people he hated, that would just give them a chance to get stronger. This was more one-sided than Mon Amie, but it was still a net benefit for whoever he picked.

Grey was too strong. Just a portion of his abilities would turn anyone here into a monster compared to what they had been before.

That should mean he could help out Mauve, at least. But he wasn’t sure about tying himself down either.

Suddenly, a strong suction force came from Mon Frere. Mauve lost control of Mon Amie first, though. It slipped out of her fingers and snapped at Mon Frere until the two were fused into one.

A complex series of circuits and pulsing neural connections formed between them until they had fully combined.

—

Name: Ma Famille

Rarity: Mythical

Class: Vanguard

Accepted Type: N/A

Restricted Type: N/A

Description: The best families share both blood and friendship.

Abilities: The Head of the Table. A Party formed through Borrowed Genius may designate one individual as a Silent Member. The Silent Member does not share Life and Death, but their comprehensions are broadcasted to the family regardless of time or distance. From their position, they carry a vision of objectivity and compounded comprehension, allowing them to view their own enlightenment through the eyes of their family and thus view things from differing perspectives they would have never considered, enhancing their PER and comprehension severalfold.

Set Bonus: Frame Enhancement. Higher percentage of chance of perfect and boosted advancement for all members of the family.

Family: 0/20

—

Grey’s gaze flashed.

Now this... was useful. He was especially interested in the increased PER and comprehension.

What often separated intelligent people from unintelligent people was the flexibility of their thinking. How well someone could think outside of the box and often how well they could pivot from one form of thought to another.

However, there was only so much flexible thought a single person could have. But what if you had a hive mind of people instead?

This item didn’t allow Grey to borrow their comprehensions, that was useless to him. What it did do was allow him to borrow their frame of thought and flip his way of viewing things to a completely different perspective for a moment.

That would be invaluable for quick advancement and ensuring that he left as few holes in his foundation as possible.

This wasn’t bad at all.

Grey looked up to find that Amunet was already walking away. Her group was pale-faced and stricken by the horror of it all. They had suddenly lost their greatest reliance and had no idea what to do about it. At the same time, Amunet herself had become several times weaker. Grey could feel it.

He had already known she felt guilty, but this was just stupid on her part. It took her Zone from the strongest overall to one of the weakest here in an instant.

Of course, her presence alone probably bridged that gap much the same way Grey’s own did for Zone 234. But still.

"Hm..."

Grey spun the disk on a finger, his lip quirking into a sneer as Amunet vanished into the forest.

After some thought, he handed the journal back to Mauve for the moment.

"Hold onto this for now."

"Huh?" Mauve was still in a daze. What was happening?

But Grey had already vanished.