Cave World.
Mechanical Ruins, underground passage.
A flashlight beam wandered over the damp walls. A Lan remained in combat mode in his fused form, with his teammates attached to his body in their monster forms.
After their experimentation over this period, fusion mode had been upgraded again.
Besides gaining more teammate attachments, his Star Meridian combination had also gained a new Life Soul.
The addition of the "Insight" Life Soul helped him quickly pinpoint weak spots on mechanical life-forms, improving hunting efficiency.
He had originally intended to socket the newly contained Siphon Life Soul to improve his endurance in combat.
But mechanical life-forms had no mental energy to drain, making it unsuitable for this hunting environment.
In fact, as the main body of their Fusion Vajra playstyle, he still had many Life Souls he could socket. Each additional Life Soul would boost their overall strength considerably.
Unfortunately, upgrading his Star Meridian Level was far too expensive.
For his next Star Meridian upgrade, he also planned to socket the "Gold Coin" Life Soul to increase the Gold Coin Chamber of Commerce's earnings. No matter how he looked at it, he simply did not have enough Star Meridian Slots.
Once they finished exploring Mechanical Ruins City, he planned to get his teammates back on track.
They would leave Fusion Vajra mode behind for good and return to mainstream gameplay.
That would allow him to remove some Life Souls used for fusion gameplay.
For instance, the Life Sharing and Scattershot Life Souls would have to go once fusion mode ended.
His teammates could also free themselves from attachment mode and officially begin exploring Monster World.
As they walked along, his boots made squelching sounds in the standing water. The air here smelled of machine oil and rusted metal.
Everywhere he looked, broken mechanical