Chapter 15: Lion’s Generosity (Patreon)

Pride status

Level 4 Pride (progress to next level 29/35)

Current information shared:

Health, Abilities

Dominic was pleased to see that the Pride level had increased twice – honestly, if it hadn’t, he would have been very surprised. They’d been sitting at 9/10 towards level 3 before Sekhmet had tiered up. Since a Tier 2 member counted for two Tier 1 members, that alone would have pushed them to a level 3 Pride. With the nineteen new members, they had now crossed into level 4 and were well on their way towards level 5.

What a long list of members…. Dominic marvelled to himself. Quite different from what it had been when the pride started, and it would only get longer. He decided that there needed to be a better way of organising the list otherwise the useful information would be lost. 

I don’t think I really need to know their health all the time, he thought. In battle, I can see their health bars, and don’t have time to check this screen anyway. If I want to see their maximum health to decide whether to take them on a particular hunt, I can probably check that at another time – the system seems quite responsive to requests of showing information in a different way.

Next, he decided to group the members in terms of level – that made it quite easy to see who was in need of more training, and who was soon going to be hitting Tier 2. He kept the Abilities present, but tried to group the information as much as possible. Afterwards, he sat back and looked at the list of current members in satisfaction. 

Current members:

Tier 2, Level 20 x1 (Leader – Dominic: Quick Strike, Second Wind, Group Attack, Crushing Bite, Pounce, Powerful Swipe, Sharp Nip, Rapid Attack, Acidic Bite, Sure Feet

Tier 2, Level 10 x1 (Sekhmet: Pounce, Sharp Mind, Telepathy)

Tier 1, Level 9 x2 (Menhit: Pounce, Sure Feet) (Anuke: Pounce, Rapid Attack)

Tier 1, Level 8 x4 (Hathor: Pounce, Rending Bite) (Neith: Pounce, Keen Senses) (Jenkins: Pounce, Quick Strike) (Isis: Pounce, Protective Mother)

Tier 1, Level 5 x6 (Lion: Pounce)

Tier 1, Level 4 x9 (Lion: Pounce)

Tier 1, Level 3 x4 (Lion: Pounce)

Pride Enhancements:

3% increase in Prey Points for all Pride members – level 2

Increased damage for Pride members fighting together by ((number of enemies/number of pride members in the fight)*level of enhancement)% – level 1

Equally shared Prey Points for all Pride members (within a single fight) – on

Less information, but significantly clearer to read, Dominic decided. No doubt the other lions would be separated the way his original pride was when he managed to name them all, but for now, it would do. 

Now to have a look at the Pride Enhancements – we must have had a windfall of points from all those lions joining at once.

[Pride enhancements

(Points available: 22) 

Lion’s Share – the leader will take 90% of the points of all kills made by pride members. (4)

Increase the number of Prey Points gained by 3% (repeatable) (3)

Increase the damage done by the members of the Pride when working together ((number of enemies/number of pride members in the fight)*level of enhancement)% (repeatable) (3)

Increase the chance of Pride members gaining a higher tier Ability on their next Tier or Half-Tier by 5% (repeatable) (4)

Increase the chance of being able to determine the type of Ability a Pride member will gain on their next Tier or Half-Tier by 5% (repeatable) (5)

Intra-group communication system (repeatable to extend range) (3)

Lion’s Generosity – give one of your Pride one of your Abilities (note: Ability will be at level 1 regardless of your original ability. Additional note: for every level above 0 you have raised the Ability, you have a 20% chance of retaining the Ability and/or its level. (repeatable) (4)

Note: more options may be added later depending on your actions with the Pride.]

How interesting! Dominic thought to himself as he looked through the new Enhancements available. Intra-group communication system…is that like a group chat or something? If it required typing words, he was SOL since there was no way the lions were going to be able to do that, even if they did seem to be able to talk past a certain level. 

If, however, it was more of a telepathic communication that all of the Pride could use….that was something they were going to need more and more. Sekhmet had already experienced the frustration of not being able to communicate with her pride-sisters when she wanted to tell the story of how they had gone and got more powerful by hunting.

As the messages they wanted to communicate to each other became more and more complex, some other form of communication would be needed. Dominic and Leo couldn’t be the go-between all the time. Perhaps this would be the solution. 

And the last one! Lion’s Generosity, eh? Why do the ones with ‘lion’ in the title seem somewhat customised to our situation? he wondered. Perhaps the System was working in the background, interpreting his desires into possible enhancements he could ‘buy’. That would be…pretty cool, actually. 

As for the Ability itself, Dominic was in two minds over it. While part of him was leaping with glee at the thought of loading his pride up with awesome Abilities, the chance of losing one of his own wasn’t all that enticing. 

Then again, if I have twenty percent more chance of keeping the Ability per level above zero, then I only need to get them to level five before it’s guaranteed that I’ll keep it. Though, it did seem like there was a chance of losing some levels with it even beyond that point, which would be annoying. 

Imagine if all the Pride members had Group Attack, for example. That could get pretty powerful. Powerful Swipe, Crushing Bite, and Rapid Attack were all good contenders for being offered to his Pride members. While Second Wind could also be a good one to share, its drawbacks if the user didn’t have super-powered regeneration made it a bit of a two-edged sword. 

Plus, another advantage, he realised after thinking about it, was potentially offloading Abilities which didn’t suit his build, but could suit another creature. Like Rock Skin, for example. He had no desire to slow himself down with a heavy defensive Ability, but perhaps it would suit one of the other Pride members. 

The only downside of the Enhancement, as far as Dominic could see, was that it was quite costly and only appeared to work one time for one Pride member. Even if it was repeatable, what if it went up in cost? That could start getting very expensive, very quickly. 

It was definitely something Dominic wanted, but he might wait until he had an Ability over level 5 or one which he didn’t mind losing but which could be of major benefit to the other Pride member. 

For now, he’d definitely had a windfall of points; after a moment of thought, he managed to work it out. Nineteen new Pride members at Tier 1, pre-Half-Step Evolved meant nineteen points there. Then, Sekhmet had tiered up, meaning that the Pride earned another point. Finally, they’d earned two points for the Pride level rising. 

They’d probably get another large dollop of points when they got all the new Pride members into level 6 – though that would take longer than getting his original pride members there, it shouldn’t take that much longer – the number of Prey Points was far lower per level, at least. 

After all the lions were in Tier 2, though, the Enhancement Points would probably slow to a trickle – unless they expanded the Pride, of course. But he couldn’t bank on that. 

So, they were looking at about forty points usable within the relatively near future. 

Dominic decided to drop back into their shared mental space and see what Leo thought about it all. 

‘How’s it going?’ Dominic asked as soon as he’d properly reconnected with their physical senses. 

‘We’re almost at the prey,’ Leo replied with a hint of anticipation. ‘You have good timing.’

‘Huh, well, this is what I’ve learned,’ Dominic started, then explained what he’d seen, done, and thought. ‘So, I was thinking that the group communication Enhancement is definitely something we need, but that we should probably hold off on Lion’s Generosity for now.’

‘I take it back,’ Leo said after a moment. Dominic was a bit confused at the aggrieved sound in his voice. 

‘Take what back?’

‘You don’t have good timing. You have the worst timing.’

‘What?’ Dominic asked, now completely bemused. 

‘We’re about to start a hunt, you grass-eating idiot. Why did you come and distract me with all this?!’ 

‘Well, I was thinking that one or more of the options might be useful for the fight,’ Dominic explained, feeling a bit on the back-foot. ‘Like the communication Enhancement – how much better would our hunts be if we can communicate properly among members while actually in the middle of the action?’

‘And you think that all the members of the pride will just start being able to use it like that? You don’t even know what the communication system is – maybe it will put our thoughts into words in each other’s heads! Just a little distracting, don’t you think?’ Leo asked scathingly. Dominic was silent for a moment. 

‘So you think we should look at these options after the hunt?’ he asked finally. 

‘Yes!’ Leo growled back at him firmly. 

‘Alright, alright, don’t bite my head off,’ Dominic replied, irritation now creeping in. ‘I just thought it might help, that’s all.’ Leo apparently didn’t feel like dignifying that with an answer, if his annoyed huff was anything to go by. ‘So, which part of the fight are we going to join?’ Dominic asked, trying to move onto another subject. Fortunately, Leo appeared perfectly willing to oblige him. 

‘The ambush part,’ he answered. ‘We’ll be in the centre of things, offering an obstacle to the prey.’ Dominic considered that.

‘Might it not be best for us to be on the side-lines? From what I understand, the prey is easier to catch in the centre. If we’re on the sidelines, perhaps we’ll be able to use our speed to catch the outliers.’ Leo was silent for a few moments. 

‘That is…not a bad idea,’ he admitted grudgingly. ‘Very well: we shall be on the sidelines. I’ll communicate that to the females.’ So saying, he did exactly that, sending messages to both Isis and the other matriarch, the ones who were apparently directing the hunt. 

As they got closer to the wildebeests, Dominic started to smell the scent of the herbivores drifting on the wind: they were obviously approaching from down-wind. 

The lions settled in the grass, then went still. The cubs were off to one side, well out of the way with several lionesses protecting them. The protectors appeared to be a few of the mothers, Isis apparently deciding that her presence wasn’t necessary. Dominic figured she should know. Still, the majority of the hunters were part of the group now laying a trap. 

The tension was high, the ambush almost ready. 

*****

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Chapter 16: A Nice Set of Horns