《A festering world》 Prologue I was in my bed listening to my music, It was nearly 5 PM, I would have to take my sister out of school and but I received a message from my childhood friend, Sarah, she was my neighbor when we were young, we were friends since the age of 6 but she had to move out of the city when we were 12. She came back 5 years later. When before she was a normal 12 years old girl with strawberry blond hair and dark brown eyes, she was now completely red-haired and a lot more mature, she never told me what she doing overseas but I can guess that it was not easy. After nostalgically remembering these moments, I checked her message, she said she saw my girlfriend, Marie, going to a hotel with a guy, she sent me a picture and indeed, this was her, I also recognized the guy with her. His name was Alexandre de Vivier, her French correspondent, she also sent me a message earlier, saying she was going to the library with him to study. I''m not hot-headed, I was not going to go on a crusade, I needed to be more subtle, I sent her message to say that I was on my way to the library. I took another road so that I can see her get out of the hotel and I saw her, she hurried herself to reach the library before me, this was not going to happen if she arrives first then she could say that Sarah was lying and modified the photograph, My (ex?)girlfriend and I know that Sarah was a bit jealous of my relationship with Marie so she could use this argument, It won''t work since I trust Sarah more than Marie but I won''t say that to her since she can be hysterical when flustered. The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.I arrived at the entrance of the library, I looked for her in the case that Sarah was indeed lying but she was not here, so Sarah was truthful and Marie really cheated on me. I saw them at the corner of the street so I hid behind the library door, to surprise them. They reached the door and got in the library, their clothes were a bit messy, they must have dressed in a hurry, I got out of my hiding spot and when they saw me they were startled, Alexandre tried to stay natural but I could sense the discomfort in his voice: " Hey, John how are you doing?" "Hi Alexandre, I was doing fine but something unexpected happened." "Something happened? Are you alright?" Was it genuine concern I saw on her face or was it only a facade? "Yeah something happened Marie, Sarah sent me a message saying she saw you and Alexandre going to a hotel together." "Sarah? John, I know you trust her a lot but she always was jealous of our relationship, she lied to you." "She also sent a picture of you two" I showed her the photograph "Furthermore, you and Alexandre have disheveled clothes and are sweaty, which mean you dressed rapidly, then got out of the hotel and rushed here to arrive before me, so, what do you have to say for your defense, Marie?" She widened her eyes at my explications and opened her mouth but before she could say anything a blue box appeared in front of us.
System Initializing...
Chapter 1- Troubles
System Initializing...
We all looked at this box, unable to understand what was happening when another one appeared:
Your world, Earth has been registered in the system, as it is your first time, you may take a look at the tutorial to help you.
Do you want to read the tutorial: Y/N
Suddenly I was grabbed by behind and Marie began to scream while looking behind me, as I was about to remove the hand from my shoulder I sensed that the person who was holding me began to move and I felt pain in my right shoulder.
-13hp
As I was looking at the little blue box in incomprehension, He threw me to the ground, I turned back to look at him
Zombie Lvl.1
A zombie. Great. Besides the fact that they shouldn''t exist, I hope this is not the contagious type of zombie because this fucker just bit me. Wait a minute, Level? like in some video game? It must be the work of an enemy stand the System. I quickly took my swiss knife ( better than nothing) to slash him.After noticing that it wasn''t very effective, I tried to stab him in the eyes but I tripped, resulting in the knife (and my hand) to penetrate his brain.
Critical hit! Brutal!
He (re)died, seems like the head is their weak point, a bit clich¨¦ but fine by me, it'' easier this way.
For killing an enemy the same level as you with only a trash quality item, you gain +10% Exp +165 Exp 2x Level up
"Status"
John Class: None Lvl 3
Health: 87/100 10/h
Stamina: 78/100 25/h
Mana: 100/100 5/h
Strength 9 Dexterity 10 Constitution 10
Intelligence 12 Wisdom 10 Charisma 11
10 points left
You are the first to kill an enemy and level up on this planet, you gain:Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. Title: The first You are the first of many to walk on the road to power. Are you too fast or are the others too slow? Either way, you find yourself alone on this road that is life. +10% to all stats while you are not in a party
I wanted to spend my attribute points when I remembered that I was not alone, I turned back and Interpelled those two. "Are you guys fine?" Marie ran to me to check my wounds "Oh my god Jake are you okay? This thing has bitten you" "Of course I''m fine, my girlfriend cheated on me and a zombie bit me, Best day ever Marie!" "Jack I kn-" "I don''t really care now Marie, there is something more important going on, like this System shit. I need to go to check if my sister is safe." "Jake I know you are angry but we need to stay together, safety first." Alexander responded. "Fine but I''m not slowing down for you, not anymore." But when I tried to step on the doorway another box appeared:
You must kill the first boss to exit the dungeon.
"Shit" It would have been too simple, of course, there is a boss. As I was only level three I did not want to challenge the boss now, I needed to kill more zombies. After a few dozens of zombies, I was level ten, these guys are pretty simple, they are slow so there is no problem I just have to dodge. There was one time when three zombies attacked at the same time, I managed to kill them but I was left with only 21 hp. The last one dropped a skill book for the mana bolt spell, which was a good thing as I now have a ranged attack.
Mana bolt: Use mana to create a bolt of energy Inflict 25 magic damage
Lvl.1: 5% 10/cast
Alexandre and Marie were apparently too busy denying the reality to help me but I don''t really mind, besides it gives me 10% to my stats. I also dropped some kind of shoulder pad.
Bad quality shoulder pad: These shoulder pads are made of a bad quality leather, they are weak but better than nothing.
+10 health
I decided to spend some of my attribute points in constitution and intelligence, it seems that 1 point is 5 mana/stamina, I spend 20 points in each so I now have 231 health and 220 mana. I think I can challenge the boss now, but I will sleep a bit before that, we can take turns to stand guard.
John Class: None Lvl 10: 350/5000
Health: 231/231(+21) 23.1/h
Stamina: 110/110 27.5/h
Mana: 242/242 10.5/h
Strength 10 Dexterity 10 Constitution 20
Intelligence 22 Wisdom 10 Charisma 11
4 points left +0% physical damage +0% magical damage
Chapter 2- The skeleton knight I woke up early, it was still not daylight, Alexander was on watch and Mary was sleeping, I thought that I should tell them before leaving to fight the boss so to spend some time, I tried to find a way to regenerate my mana more easily.I first thought of meditation but this is not suitable for my current situation, an enemy could attack at any moment, I had to find something else ¡­ I thought that instead of stimulating my mana regeneration I could take the ambient mana, but how should I make this work? Mmmh, yes this could walk, if mana bolt represents the expulsion of energy, I would need something that attracts energy in me, I am going to have to immobilize a zombie to be able to test it, I will try well on Alexander but if I kill him this will pose me of problems. I, therefore, killed zombies to spend some mana, otherwise, I would not have known if my idea works, my skill even passed level 2:
Mana bolt Use mana to create a bolt of energy that will Inflict 30 magic damage Lvl.2: 0% 10/cast
Therefore, I managed to maim some zombies, they now have no member nor jaw (better safe than sorry) and so I began testing my theory. I indeed recovered some mana but my hp also goes down, I wonder why.I then tried to concentrate on the energy which I absorbed when a message appeared:
Negative energy: this type of mana is used to animate the dead, it''s nocive to living being
more information can be viewed
I then proceeded to click on more info
The negative energy will try to stabilize itself by absorbing life energy to become normal mana.
With this I understood, the negative is not inherently lethal, but it will seek life energy, like atoms with electrons. Is it why undead want to devour livings bings as well? To stabilize themselves?
For your comprehension of a new phenomenon, you gain 2 Wisdom.
Oh sweet, I didn''t know I could gain stat like that. I supposed the opposite was possible if I could infuse an undead with life energy it should purify him? I had to try on another zombie, it took me 50hp but the zombie was instantly killed, which was surprising.
Skill learned: Life transfer If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.you can give health points to living beings at the expense of your own. Will hurt the undead. 300% damage to undead
Holy shit, it means the zombie took 150 damage, that''s great, it means that my attribute points spend in Constitution will be useful. Hmm?, It seems that the zombie dropped something, I hope it''s a new piece of armor. Seriously?
Weak wooden slingshot 1-2 bludgeoning damage durability: 3/10 value: ---
I think I will just give it to Alexander, seems like a good fit. I waited a bit to replenish my hp and went to the boss, I will spam mana bolt and use Life transfer when I''m out of mp. I approached the boss from behind and pushed a bookcase on him so that he will be immobilized by it, I then began to cast mana bolt but, how can I say this... these undeads are pretty dumb, he didn''t try to free himself or anything, he just stared at me, like he was waiting for the sweet release of death so I granted it by cast a 200hp worth Life transfer, dealing him a good 612 damage (+1% magical damage per wisdom after the tenth point) He died after emitting a baleful moan (is it even possible?). His body then crumbled to ashes leaving behind a weapon and a book:
Corrupted shortsword This sword has been used to vanquish evil, however, her wielder slowly succumbed to darkness, corrupting this weapon. 15-18 slashing damage rarity: D 1-4 necrotic damage durability: 54/60
Scroll: mage hand tier I spell You can use this scroll to cast mage hand or you can attempt to learn the spell, either way, this will consume the scroll. This spell conjures a spectral hand who can be used like your hands, it can hold ghost-type weapons but possess only 3 Strength points (-35% physical damage (-5% physical damage every strength point under the tenth)) With an expanded cost, you can cast spell with mage hand ( cost decreases with skill level) At higher levels, you will be able to summon multiple hands.
I tried to learn the mage hand spell, as it synergizes with my current skillset, but it doesn''t work like a skillbook, you don''t learn the skill instantly you have to study it first, I can''t do that right now, I will study it later I then returned to where Alexandre and Marie were sleeping, to warn them that we could probably get out of this place. After having reunited with them, we decided to go check if my sister is safe as Marie''s parents are not here and Alexandre''s family is obviously in France. Before we went to my house, I tried to call my sister, as there was no signal in the dungeon, she was really angry that I didn''t call earlier but she calmed herself after I explained the situation to her, I asked her where she was and she said that she was in the community hall, apparently the police established some sort of refugee camp here, I said that I will be here in a few hours and I hung up. Alexandre and Marie were glad after I announced them the news and we went in the direction of the community hall. Chapter 3- Community hall We were on our way to the community hall, the travel was supposed to last about an hour or so be we were attacked by trash mob every 2 minutes.
Kobold Lvl.1 hp: 150/150
I let Alexandre and Marie kill them, as they were low level, I tried to shot them in the legs with mana bolt, to facilitate the operation. The Kobolds dropped their weapons when they died but it disappeared not long after their death, I decided to inspect them.
Kobold bio-weapon This weapon was made of Kobold cells, it''s bound to the kobold who created it, this weapon will evolve along the kobold wielding it. Requirements: you must be bound to this weapon to equip it
But it¡¯s good enough, without proper equipment, Alexander and Marie took a lot of damage, which let me train my life transfer skill AND appreciate this little moment of sweet payback.
Life transfer you can give health points to living beings at the expense of your own. Lvl.5: 31% Will hurt the undead. 304% damage to undead
It seems that it gains 1 % bonus damage to undead per level, but I wonder what the maximum level is?
This information can be viewed in the tutorial.
Oh right the tutorial, with all the shit that happened I forgot about it, let¡¯s read it. ...A good part of the tutorial were things I already knew about but there are some new things. The maximum level for a skill is 100 but once this level is reached, the skill may evolve, the evolution will depend of the usage of the skill by the user, apparently, unique skill and above (mythical, legendary and divine skills) works differently but there are no more details in the tutorial, I think that I need to reach a higher level to unlock it. We then proceeded toward the community hall, at the end of our travel, Alexander and Marie gained 6 levels while I apparently gained 1, I decided to save my points for later, as they may have another use in the future. Alexander wanted to become a paladin and Marie a healer ( I think this man didn¡¯t read the tutorial, as there was no paladin class mentioned, it may be a hidden class but meh, I think he is just stupid. We arrived at the community hall so I decided to let him oblivious to such things.If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement. There were two guards at the door, They asked us stupid questions such as ?Are you enemies ? ? when they first talked to us, a pretty dumb question, I mean yes I am an enemy and I want to eat your babies, better say it to the guards so they can arrest me, I don''t if it''s because I have intelligence points than before but I have the impression that I talk with a bunch of kids. After questioning us, they let us through and there was a lot, like a fucking lot of people, I asked a guard about this and apparently, we have to stay here until a camp is established which will take a few days. I called my sister again so I can know where to look for her, and after talking a bit with her, I knew her position. When she saw me, she hugged me like a koala and did not let go before a good 10 minutes. She was sobbing a lot and I can understand, my sister is a bit claustrophobic and she was alone in a place filled to the brim with strangers. After having calmed herself, we decided to rest in a corner, it would let me study the scroll. After a few minutes, I started to have a headache, I think it''s because I''m not intelligent enough, therefore I dumped all but one point in Intelligence, to make a good 50. Oh god, it was painful, it was like my brain was burned and healed at the same time, it lasted only for a few minutes but it felt like an eternity. Lesson learned, don''t triple your stat in one go. The good news is, I received a popup:
Congratulations, you have surpassed peak humanity intelligence (40), due to this augmentation, the system had to upgrade your brain to prevent death by explosion.
Oh, shit, seems like the pain was due to the augmentation, but, death by EXPLOSION? How does this even make sense? I was interrupted in my rumbling by a lot of popups
You are the first to surpass a normal human potential, as you already possess The First title, another will be selected... After examination of your status and skills, you have been granted the skill Veil of death Veil of death Using negative energy, you are now capable of hiding your life energy, All undead with a lower intelligence than you will treat you as an undead. 50 mana/cast
For reaching 50 Intelligence you have been awarded a random tier I spell Life Drain With a subtle use of negative energy, you are able to attract life energy to you, dealing damage to the enemy and healing you in the process.
The skills Life transfer and Life Drain have merged to form Life control Life control Negative energy and life energy are two opposite elements, like fire and water, yet you managed to bend them to your will. You can now control these two elements and use them to freely exchange negative and life energy.As this skill level up, you will be able to draw these energies from your surroundings.
Ohhh, seems like I will have to train this ability a lot, being able to heal myself by absorbing the life energy from the earth is great.With my newfound intelligence, it was a lot easier to study the scroll, I managed to learn Mage hand after a few hours. After waking up from my meditative-like state, I saw that everybody was asleep and indeed, it was 3 Am so I went to sleep like everyone else. Chapter 4- Of flesh and magic I woke up in a strange world, where everything was black."Am I dreaming?", suddenly something or someone appeared, I could not see clearly due to the darkness, but he had a humanoid shape. "Prove your worth" He spoke with a powerful voice and then everything disappeared and I was back in the community hall, I was confused, prove my worth to whom? and more importantly: against what? I looked around me and everyone was making a confused face, seems like I was not the only one to be visited by some mysterious entity, I heard the earth rumbling and the entity spoke again "Prove your worth, humans!" As he finished speaking I heard gunfire coming from outside the building, the guards were firing on something. All the persons around the entrance moved out, afraid by the commotion outside. After a minute or so, there was no gunfire anymore, the majority of the people calmed down, thinking it was over. The door was rammed by something, was it not for the lock, I think it would have opened. Audrey freaked out and it was like a signal for the people, they all panicked and tried to find an exit but it was the only door as the others were barricaded. The door opened, revealing an abomination, it looked like a mix between a spider and a wolf, I inspected it while I tried to bring my sister in the back.
Spiderwolf Broodmother Lvl.30 hp:867/1000 A legend says that the first spiderwolf broodmother was created by an infamous fleshwarper, Kraudbrosokr. What can everybody be sure of is that this abomination must be cleansed to prevent an infestation.
The guards only dealt this much damage? we are screwed. "Audrey go hide somewhere!" The last thing I want is my possibly last family member to die. As if the boss alone was not enough, spiderwolf pups kept coming, not a broodmother for nothing I suppose but shit I really don''t know how to beat it, close-combat is out but do I have enough mana to take care of it plus the pups? I shot a mana bolt in its head but she lost only 20 hp, she must have a good magic resistance, she lunged at me, I managed to dodge her attack but the pups are pestering me, they deal a pitiful amount of damage but it accumulates very fast. I have to use life drain on the pups to keep my life from dropping but if I can''t continue like this forever, I have to find something to beat her. Wait, I could attune my mana bolt with negative energy, I''m not sure if it will work but I have to try, ok, concentrate on your palm and gather energy "Arghh" I managed to attune but the mana bolt is making my hand rot, fuck it''s not enough I need more energy "AAAAAAHHHH" The pain... oh god it''s awful my hand is only bones now, while I was channeling more energy, the pups retreated and I understand, there is an ominous aura emaniting from my spell, it did not frighten the broodmother however as she lunged at me again, before she could touch me I shot the bolt into her face making her reeling back in pain, she started to scream with such intensity, her face was decaying at an incrediby rapid pace, it was like looking those time-lapse videos of something rotting, her eyes were gain and the brain was even visible, I took the opportunity and stabbed her in the brain with my sword, causing it to rot even more. It was apparently fatal, as she stopped screaming and fell limply to the ground. My vision was blurry I haled myself by draining as much life energy from the pups as I could, I also took the remaining life energy from human corpses, with that I was at 156 hp but my arm could not regenerate since it was eaten from negative energy, I''m a fucking cripple now...No wait the system talked about a fleshwarper, what is it?
A Fleshwarper is an artist of the flesh, using body parts or magic to modify the body.
I think it could work, I mean, I can control life energy so I could potentially attach an arm to my body, yeah I have to try it. I looked for a corpse with an arm similar to mine and found one. Now comes the worst part, I have to cut his and my arm, but I couldn''t use my sword because she inflicted necrotic damage, I will have to use a knife that one of the guards used. I cut the corpse''s arm without difficulty but mine will be another thing.This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report. You can do it, John, it''s nothing, the nerves are gone, inspire, expire everything is alright. "Fuck it''s painful, the nerves are gone my ass" everyone looked at me like I was crazy, I mean, yes I''m cutting my own arm but surely it''s not the worst thing they have seen today. And with that my arm is gone I hurried and took the other arm because my hp was dropping like crazy. I managed to attach the arm despite the pain, it''s very difficult as I have to connect the nerves, bones, and muscle properly. I stopped losing hp and looked at the popup, apparently, it waits the end of the battle to appear, which is a good thing because I don''t think I could have done it if a blue box appeared in the middle of my spell.
You have learned a new spell: Doom Bolt tier II The doom bolt is an overcharged necrotic bolt, due to its unstable nature and devastating effects, it is classed as a forbidden magic. It will cause an intense pain along the rot inflicted on the victim. Damage will change depending on the region of the body 100 mana/cast
Forbidden magic? It sounds dangerous to use, hmm, Is there more information about forbidden magic?
Forbidden magic is a type of magic, it is composed of all the spells which are frowned upon by the society or will cause the caster to be hunted by a religious cult, like necromancy, all necromancers are hunted by the paladins and clerics of Kelemvor, the god of the dead
Which type is Doom Bolt then?
The utilization of Doom Bolt will change your relationship with the followers of the goddess of Life to: Unfavorable: You will not be able to purchase equipment to the members of this religion or enter their religious buildings
What a relief, I will not be hunted by zealots, I- another popup appeared, interrupting my inner monologue:
Due to your actions, you have unlocked the forbidden class: Fleshwarper Do you want to set your current class as fleshwarper: Y/N? This class will change your relationship with the followers of the goddess of life to Unfavorable
Sure why not, It''s not it will change anything, I accept.
Your current class is Fleshwarper As it is your first class, all your levels will count as fleshwarper levels. You are now a level 11 Fleshwarper, you gained the following: skill: graft You can graft body parts to yourself or another person, you can currently graft human parts, additional grafts can be learned after studying of learning new skills Aberrant familiar You can now gain an aberrant familiar, an aberrant familiar is a creature of another plane, beyond your understanding. Suggested aberrant familiar: Imp- small demonic beings from Hell lesser Byakhee- Bird-like creatures, they serve the king in yellow You gained a blessing from the Old Ones: Blessing of Shub-niggurath: Aura of corruption When you activate this skill all that is living will slowly decay, dealing damage over time. The range and intensity of the aura can grow by gaining another blessing of Shub-Niggurath
Ok I know what imps are supposed to be: Annoying, I prefer a bird, don''t care how fucked up he looks.
You have selected lesser Byakhee to be your familiar, you have gained the skill Summon familiar
And Aura of corruption is great, but I think it will be a long time before I gain another blessing, if ever.
The trial as ended, You have proved your worth by slaying the monster.
Everyone was relieved when they saw the popup, they thanked me for saving me and said I was a hero, I must say its good to have people thanking you. After everything calmed down, we burned the corpses outside the building, we can''t take the risk of them turning into zombies. We organized turns to guard the place, I ate something and drifted off to sleep. Chapter 5- Kobolds and sanity I was woken up by my little sister, she was hungry and too afraid to buy food by herself, the shopkeeper (if it can be called a shop) was a big burly man, he got lucky, he was in a supermarket when it began and he obtained a skill called Item Box. It sort of works like a game inventory, anything in it is frozen in time, it allows him to have fresh food available at any time so he took advantage of that and sold food, I don''t think the dollar will stay the main currency for long but hey, good for you man. I bought 4 portions of stew from him for 25 dollars, it''s pricey but it''s the only source of food available, I don''t think people are ready to eat kobolds yet. After finishing our meal ( the food is for me and my sister I will not buy food for those two) we went outside to train my sister because monsters are dangerous but humans are even more dangerous, and they are all around us so she must be able to defend herself. I asked her to tell me her stats to help her choose something appropriate. She has 7 points in Strength, 9 in Constitution, 9 in Dexterity, 10 in Intelligence which is quite good for her age, 9 in Wisdom and 13 in Charisma which is aberrant for her, I mean she is able to wear the same panty for a week because it''s "more convenient this way and it''s not like anyone but you will see them" ( When she says I see them it''s because I do all the chores, which include the laundry, it''s not like I want to see them or something). If I don''t count the fraud on her charisma, her stats are pretty normal, I mean yes, 7 in Strength but she is 12 so it makes sense. If I follow my gamer instinct and the tutorial, it leaves necromancer which is a big no-no, monster tamer which is not a good idea either, she will let herself starve to death if I don''t cook so having a pet is not the brightest idea so it''s Enchantress or nothing. The tutorial says that to unlock the enchantress class, she must induce a debuff to an enemy 10 times, so if I am right, she could potentially confuse someone by sending waves of mana to the brain, it will sort of cause a magic motion sickness? I then tried it on myself and after a few tries I succeeded... oh. fuck. I think the stew is going up, inspire, expire, don''t waste 7.5$ like that. After this painful moment, I said to Audrey that it was safe to do the same thing on kobolds, when we saw a lone kobold, I immobilized him with mage hand and Audrey tried to confuse him, she was having difficulties at first, she may have a better charisma than me but I have 50 Intelligence so I''m much more efficient in controlling mana. After 20 minutes of unfruitful essays, she managed to confuse a kobold, It became a lot easier for her after that, I suppose she gained the skill, she confused a kobold and killed it with the knife I gave her (the one I cut my arm with). And like the tutorial said she unlocked the Enchantress class after 10 kobolds, she apparently gained the spell Fear, by the way, it''s quite funny to see an armed kobold flees before a little girl, I thought she would have gained the skill Charm but it''s apparently forbidden magic because it''s a form of mind control which can have long-term repercussions, the spell last only 1 minute but if you charm a king, in a minute you can make him sign a declaration of war so it''s better this way furthermore I don''t want to see a 12 years old girl seducing an old man or worst a monster just thinking about it sent shivers down my spine. Let''s stay on the main subject, after my sister obtained her Enchantress class, we killed more kobolds to make her level up. After a few dozens of kobolds, it was more difficult, they are not some cheap NPC in a game, they were now in patrols of three to four kobolds so we decided to stop here, we didn''t want a kobold raid on the community hall, not after the trial last night...but if there was a kobold raid while Alexandre was outside after an anonymous person told him to do so, there is nothing we could do about it right? Nah, it would make me the bad guy and if somebody somehow discovered that it was me, Marie could say that she was right to quit me AND more importantly some people would want my death, I mean I''m the hero, the protector of the community blah blah blah but after a week or two, some religious zealots will think that I''m some hell-spawned demon, I''m sure my whole " I desecrate corpses to heal me and use some weird negative energy bolt" already gave me some points in the to-purge list. By the of the training, Audrey was level 7 and my mage hand spell reached level ten when it did I received a popup saying I could use two mage hands at the same time, with this, we could have continued to kill kobolds but like said before we could do without an attack on our base this night. While we were returning, we saw other persons do the same as us, training and it''s understandable, after this night. The thing is, they are stupid, I mean they are human so obviously they are stupid but now it''s like, really really stupid, I mean, no sane human will attack three kobolds without weapons...oh wait a minute, there is two of them, it''s difficult to see with the twilight but I think I can discern their faces.....Of course, it''s those two, they were probably too busy fucking in the bush to stay aware of their surroundings, the question is, do I save them? I mean, I loved Marie but she was not the woman of my life or anything, plus she cheated on me, and Alexandre is an asshole soo this is quite the dilemma...Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author. Ah, they saw me, I suppose I will have to save them now doesn''t I? Ok let''s save them, I will be some hero again and it will give me more time until they want to burn me alive for being evil. These guys were attacked by 5 kobolds, 2 warriors, 2 archers and one Elite. I rushed in and activated aura of corruption ( five enemies and 2 "allies", worth it) everybody in the radius ( which is approximatively 30 feet) writhed in pain, I cast two mage hands to drain the archers and slashed at the Elite kobold, the archers were weak so they died in less than 10s but it cost me 100 mana, it''s okay since I now have 550 mana due to the intelligence and the bonus from not being in a party but man, casting spells from the mage hands sure cost more mana. when the two archers died, I sent the hands of the two warriors, who were trying to attack me, when Life Drain is cast from the mage hands I do not regain hp but it sure is handy. Audrey arrived so I deactivated Aura of Corruption, the two others are okay but I don''t want to hurt her, she cast confuse on the Elite Kobold seeing that, the two warriors tried to attack her but I finished them with two well-placed Mana Bolt in the neck, these little jewls now do 50 damage for only 15 mana, I Could kill the Elite kobold this way but it''s more fun to kill him with a sword and every time I slash it looks like the sword is less rusted, shinier, must be due to the necrotic damage who restore durability. With the confusion spell and the pain from my necrotic damage, he was in a serious disadvantage but he still put up a good fight, he once managed to slash at my wrists, which disarmed me, at the end of the battle I had only half of my life left, before I delivered the final blow I sent an invitation to a party to my sister, I didn''t do it until now because we were against small fry but now the exp she would lose is not negligible. She quickly accepted it, it looked like she wanted a lot to be in my party. Anyways, I dealt the final blow by thrusting my sword into his left eye and he died Instantly.
Announcement A party consisting of Audrey and John have defeated the Elite kobold roaming near the city, the kobold tribe will be less aggressive until a new Elite kobold is born.
I leveled up three times and Audrey five. I spend ten points in constitution, for more hp and 6 in wisdom because I think I''m weak to mental attacks, I also leveled up mage hand one time but I wonder I didn''t gain a sword skill, I stunned him during the fight but no skill gained
You can''t gain a physical skill if you only have a magic class
Does it mean we can have multiple classes?
You can have five classes maximum, to gain another class, you need to have your current class at level 100 and you must have fulfilled the requirements for the new class.
It''s great! I felt a bit sad to be limited to magical skills but no-
For being the 57th to kill an Elite monster, you gain the following reward: Aura of the righteous: You are a slayer of monsters, a protector of humanity, all those around you will be awed by your prestige and good nature Error: You can''t possess Aura of the Righteous(good) while possessing Aura of Corruption(evil) Aligning rewards.... Aura of Despair: You may be a slayer of monsters but you are a monster yourself, all those around you will be frightened by your presence. Fusion possible: Aura of Corruption + Aura of Despair = Aura of decaying hope: It is said that when you stare into the abyss, the abyss stares back at you, but the monster you are doesn''t even need to look back, all living entities in your vicinity will feel the powerful gaze of the abyss. Your aura now slowly erodes sanity as well, bigger effects on those with lower wisdom. Do you want to merge the two skill Y/N? success chance:68% Should the merging fail, you will lose one the two skill
68%? I will take the risk, aura skills are awesome and you can only activate one at a time, I choose yes!
Merging....
Successful, Aura of Corruption and Aura of Despair lost, you gain Aura of Decaying hope
Sweet! this was one damn lucky encounter I made. No, it was those two who encountered the mobs, I will be a kind guy and give them the weapon the boss dropped, its stats worse than my sword and Audrey is not the physical type anyways so I don''t care. "Thanks, John I think we would have died without you, really thank you if there is anything we can just t-" "It''s okay Marie it''s normal, you may not love me anymore but that''s not the case for me, of course, I would protect you." Oh my god, this face filled with guilt, it''s beautiful I can''t get enough "John I just want you to know the-" "No it''s okay Marie, you are more happy with Alexandre, I only want your happiness, it''s enough for me." And here it is, if it continues like this I think she will gain an aura or something, oh shit I can''t stand it I have to go before I laugh "Let''s go Audrey" "Hmm? Yes coming, big brother". After leaving the place, I checked to see if I was far enough then I burst out laughing "It was mean big brother you know?" "Yeah I know Audrey but she cheated on me first so it''s only justice" "You may be right but still, it''s not good". After that we arrived at the community hall, we ate more stew and then we went to sleep. Chapter 6- Friends or foes? After Audrey and I woke up, we ate something, we were about to leave for thr outskirts of the city to train when a guard came in saying there was a group of persons coming in our direction, it was good news, they must have information about the exterior and we now have more space with all the makeshift houses we made, we waited for them to arrive, a lot of people were trepidating from excitment, there was potentially someone they knew in this other group, while waiting, I summoned my familiar, I didn''t do it earlier because he must look evil blah blah blah but with the death of the Elite kobold, people respect me more so I summoned my lesser Byakhee, abd indeed it looked like a bird, if we didn''t count the bat-like wings and the six legs which, by the way, were not the sames, the two first legs were bird-line, the two middle ones were dog-like and the last two were frog-like oh did I mention the fact that his beak wad turned 45¡ã to the left, if this is some lesser abomination, I don''t want to imagine the bigger ones, my mind couldn''t stand it. After a good hour, the group arrived, they were better-looking than our group, each person was equipped with weapons and armor, makes me think that I will have to get better armor because this shoulder pad is not very good in durability and it''s not worth the repair. but now that I think about it, I could probably make an armor out of bones with my control of life energy, heck I could even do an armor with my bones, by injecting life energy in it, I could thicken it or even make it grow outside with spikes or something like wolverine claws, it would look cool, I will have to try that later on. Anyways after the group arrived they wanted to buy food so Ted (the burly shopkeeper) sold them for a hefty price, he looks like a goblin, rubbing his hands like that hmmm no with his height it would be a hobgoblin...Stay focused John, A man who looked to be the leader of their group wanted to talk to our leader, now that I think about we don''t really have a leader, there was the guard captain but he got killed by the Spiderwolf Broodmother and now nobody wants to be the guard captain, wait... why is everyone pointing their fingers at me? I''m not the leader, I don''t even know the name of anyone besides Ted, which is not even is a real name! Aaand now the coming near me, great, A good day indeed. "Are you the leader?"He asked me like it seemed illogical to him, I know my Charisma stat is only 11 but it''s not a reason "Yes, it seems this task has been given to me." "I don''t think you are qualified to be the leader, I sense evilness when I look at you...and what this on your shoulder, I sense evil coming from him as well" Oh great a holier than thou-type, they are SO easy to handle "My name is John, I''m fine thanks for asking and what is your name?" "Ah you are right, excuse me for being unpolite, my name is Peter and I''m a Paladin of the goddess of life." Wow, that''s not even funny, how slim were the probabilities for this to happen? "Like I said before, I sense evilness in your heart, you must have strayed from the right path, I challenge you to a duel, should I win, I will be the leader of this place." "Oh.ok. And what happens if I win?" "Hmmpf, you have no chance to win but in the extremely improbable case it happens, I will owe you a favor" It just HAD to be some pompous brat who thinks he is above anyone else because he is a paladin, I''m sure this guy has a party exclusively composed of girls who love him or are religious zealots.
You have been challenged to a duel, do you accept the challenge: Y/N? When in a duel, you will lose when you are reduced to one hp, you will be regenerated to full life after the duel. No experience will be gained but you can level up your skills.
I accepted it''s not like I will lose anything should I be defeated since I''m not the leader in the first place. And here comes the harem, five girls came out of the crowd, there were two warriors, a rogue, a healer and a magician, they all looked the same, green (yes fucking green) hairs and eyes, they must be sisters and, I don''t know if it''s because of the goddess of Life or something but it''s a bit creepy, imagine the twins in shining but five of them, urghh. "You can use your party, in the case an evildoer like you has friends." "No thanks, I''m more than enough to beat you and your harem." Besides, I don''t want to take the risk of her being hurt."A HAREM! YOU DARE CALL THESE HOLY MAIDENS MY HAREM!" I did not listen more of his toxic speech before the countdown began 3...2...1... and the duel started.Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. I activated Aura of Decaying hope but I did not unsheath my sword, I preferred to have one more hand for magic I then invoked two mage hands and I shot 4 mana bolts at the healer, it costs 120 mana but the damage is just astounding, she just finished recovering from the sudden pain so she couldn''t dodge my bolts and died instantly "Samantha!! You scoundrel, I WILL KILL YOU!" It''s pretty funny how the challenged me to a combat without knowing my capacities. Harem Warrior#2 lunged at me. I dodged her attack and cast a double life drain, she got to her knees due to the pain and the sudden weakness, I thin now is the time to test my idea about bones, I concentrated life energy in my hand to thicken and enlarge my nails, I bleed a little but it''s nothing compared to the pain when I cast Doom Bolt, the cost is apparently 25 mana (converted to life force) per hand, it''s pretty smal but I guess it wiwll cost a lot more with bigger ameliorations. With my new claws, I slashed her jugular and made a Sparta kick in her face, she fell on the ground but did not get up. It''s funny how the rogue kept trying to assassinate me, she used stealth to disappear but every time she entered my aura radius she took damage thus the stealth skill deactivated. The harem warrior #1 was busy dealing with my familiar, this thing is a lot more dangerous than it looks like, he is pretty fast and he has very sharp teeth. I then decided to kill the rogue but how? I mean this duel is pretty boring, the paladin is on the defensive and I can potentially one-shot anyone, I know, I will try new things, maybe if I modify my body enough I can gain a skill related to this, hmm no not now, I will be even more "evil" if I look like a werewolf or something, so new spells it is. First, let''s see what happen when I send a wave of negative energy onto someone, I gathered mana and converted it to negative energy, I then threw it to the rogue but she managed to dodge it, too bad I had already a mage hand on the neck of everyone (literally, these shits are incorporeal, only I or someone who can detect mana can see them) I gathered energy and this time she couldn''t dodge it so what does it do? Ah, she is coughing blood right? Yep, must be this way ''cause I cast it in her neck, she also seems very slow, is it because of my spell? I think it is, a good spell indeed. Ah, there is foam coming out of her mouth, I guess the spell was a bit too effective at point-blank range I think I must- Ouch, it seems that the paladin decided to attack, I will kill him last so, for now, I will "just" cripple him, now let''s see what happen when someone is overcharged with life energy, magicians don''t have a lot of hp so it will be easy. I transferred 300 hp to her leaving me only with 16hp, I suppose she didn''t spend points in the constitution so it''s 300% of her max hp and apparently, when you are overcharged in life energy, you explode (not before screaming in pain due to your flesh ripping herself), good to know, ah, the paladin is crying, I think my "good guy" facade is gone, the spectators screaming is a good hint. I finished the paladin by throwing a Doom Bolt in his face. I was not this cruel before, I mean, I was not a saint either but finding joy in inflicting pain? It''s a bit too much, maybe the class and skill can passively change your thinking but it''s a bit fast, fleshwarper must be a pretty evil class. With the paladin dead it''s the end of the duel and indeed, the Harem party is back to life and I gained two new skill
You have gained the following: Curse tier I spell, you curse the opponent by sending a wave of negative energy towards them, will cause a debuff in Strength, Dexterity or Constitution (random), the debuff can be increased if the target is hit with more negative energy. Current max debuff: 30% (before debuff resistance) Alter self tier II spell, you can change minor aspects of your body, you can currently create: claws, horns, and teeth. As the skill level up, there will be more options (like changing the shape of the body) and less pain will be felt. This spell has a maximum level of 10.
The harem party was looking bad, the magician was in fetal position, crying, the System may bring you back at the end of the duel but they will be traumatized for a good time. "Are you satisfied now, paladin?" I did not remember his name so I called him like that. "Yes, John, we will go now;" Ah, you can''t leave this soon, paladin."Not so fast, you remember our agreement, right?" "Ah yes excuse me, what do you want, you can''t have their virginities, they must remain pure." What. He thought that I was some kind of clich¨¦ bad guy or something? "Nah I will pass on that, do you have scrolls or something related to magic instead?" "We have a heal scroll but you must be a cleric to learn it but, now that I think about it, we have a map of a dungeon, you may find something worthwhile yourself in it." Yes, that will do, thanks, Peter." I finally remembered his name. He fiddled with his status for some time and after that, I received a package of data, apparently, you can digitalize maps and they will appear when you open your status, it''s quite useful. The dungeon is located under a church, 2 miles to the east. I think I will go in a few days, I need to prepare myself for the travel and level up, the dungeon is housing level 15 monsters so nobody ever cleared it before. The Harem party and the group of survivors then left and I decided that the next thing to do is train Alter Self and find new spells, after eating of course. Chapter 7- Legion I woke up early, I had many things to do before going to the dungeon; There are two possibilities: I could stay here to kill kobolds or I could go back to the library dungeon to train, the first floor is only level 1 zombies and the skeleton knight but I thinks the dungeon has more to offer than that. After thinking about it and asking Audrey, we concluded that the best choice was to go back in the library, the zombies are slow so Audrey is relatively safe and I can deal a lot of damage using Life Transfer. We departed at 9 AM, we were ambushed a few times on the way to the library but it was only goblins or wolves, I could have killed them with my aura only, but I didn''t want to hurt Audrey or make her stay too far from me, she knows a few spells but they are one target only, if she was attacked but four or five monsters I don''t think she could survive. I was training mage hand but I didn''t level up a single time during that. It was only when I used Alter Self that I leveled up. It made me discovers something when you have no class you gain exp and level up by slaying monsters, but when you have one, you gain exp by doing something related to your class, I gained exp not from killing monsters itself but by killing them with a modified body and even with that I gained less than normal. I thought about it and concluded that I gain exp by modifying a body with Alter Self (or graft but I didn''t test it yet) and killing monsters with this modified body, but only a portion, perhaps it depends on the body modification used to kill, I don''t know yet. I spend my five attribute points in Constitution, I planned to focus on it until I hit 50, to gain a skill, after that, I will spend a bit more in Strength, Dexterity, and Wisdom. After two hours of travel, we reached the library and entered it.
You are now inside the Rotting Library, a tier II dungeon You can''t leave until you defeat the first boss.
The first boss? I thought I killed it, Do they respawn like in a game?
In a dungeon, the basic monsters respawn (zombies for this dungeon) but not the boss, a new boss is created when a monster rank up, the process is similar to an Elite unit outside.
Oh so it works like that, but what is a rank up, I understand what it means but I would like to hear the details.
Monsters have no class (there are exceptions, like the lich), when they reach their maximum racial levels, they will evolve into another monster, a zombie can evolve into a skeleton knight, a ghoul or a ghost, more rank up can be unlocked through special actions but this is generally reserved for intelligent species.
So if I''m correct, the boss will not necessarily be a skeleton knight, I don''t think a ghost will be a problem since I can use magic but the ghoul might be more difficult, they are supposed to be the agility type of undead, like the monsters in I am a legend, if confusion works on him it will be a piece of cake but if it doesn''t work... I will have to find another strategy. Audrey and I scouted the place, it was not too difficult as the zombies are slow and not very reactive. We found the passageway to the second floor and it made me wonder, do we have to kill the boss to advance? In a typical RPG, you kill the boss who is in front of the stairs but the boss is not here. "Audrey, do you want to kill the boss first or go to the second floor?" I asked her but she said she will do as I want, I think she needs to be less dependent, I mean, what will she do if I die? I decided to go forward as the first boss will not give us a lot of exp.
You now are on the second floor of the Rotting Library You must kill the boss of this floor to go back on the first floor
This dungeon is weird, it''s generally the opposite but, after thinking about it, it''s not as weird as it seems. Undead are tireless, they can attack you forever to wear you down and you must kill the strongest to leave, it''s a good strategy against first-timers such as earthlings, you go in, you die and you can''t warn the others. After scouting, we saw that this floor was huge, maybe 1 mile, it''s hard to judge when there is not a lot of light, it was also crowded (not as much as the community hall but almost) of various undead, there were zombies, skeletons, and some ghouls, the difficulty raised a lot, this dungeon really is guileful, the impossibility to leave coupled with the rise in difficulty is an efficient combo, there must be more than 3000 undead in here and I can''t even see the boss. We established a strategy, we will hunt the stray ones to weaken the horde. We killed a lot of undead this way, maybe 200, after that we encountered a strange one. He was not human looking, His skull was elongated, with two red lights where the eyes should be. He also had some kind of bone armor with spikes and wings, wings made of bones, I thought he was the boss so I inspected him.
Nathaniel, the traitor Lvl.11 Unholy general He was an angel before, he was labeled as a traitor by the gods and cursed when he tried to warn humanity of the upcoming changes,
Only level 11 for an angel? Did the curse weaken him? He is the second-floor boss, after all, it couldn''t be something too powerful, but a general? Does it mean he can command the undeads here? I then inspected the undeads, I did not have a reason before because I thought they were normal undeads but if they are capable of following orders they must be specials.
Undead Legion These undeads are powered by the energy of Nathaniel, although weak when alone, they are a force to be reckoned when together.
Powered by Nathaniel, does it mean I must kill him to beat them? We killed the strays but now that I look carefully, it doesn''t look like there are fewer undeads, do they respawn until Nathaniel dies? It must be that but how can we kill him when he is surrounded by zombies? My aura and the majority of my spells aren''t effective against undead, I could change the negative energy in Life energy but it would cost me too much mana, the only solution would be to kill zombies and grind levels like that to gain more mana capacity but it would too much time, we don''t have enough food...Ah, we have right? Just to think about it makes me want to throw up but if we starve, we could always eat me, since I can alter my body and regenerate my wounds but fuck man I don''t want to eat human flesh and, more importantly, I don''t want to make my sister eat my body parts. No! take yourself together man, there are others solutions before this.The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings. I think I could create a Doom Bolt but with Life Energy instead, it should be possible I kind of already did it on #Harem Magician but this time it would be a ranged attack. I don''t want it. It''s too painful, Doom Bolt was horrible but based on the reactions of #HM (shortening it) being overcharged with Life Energy was excruciatingly painful. I will have to level up first to hit 40 Constitution. After a few hours of killing small groups who strayed from the horde, I leveled up, I also gained a level of Alter Self, I can modify my body in bigger proportions, like the totality of my arms and legs so I made some kind of defense by growing scales like the kobolds, I think it can defend me against the bites of the weaker zombies. When I got to level 15, I spent my points in Constitution, making it 45 and then another message of the System appeared
Congratulations, you have surpassed peak humanity Constitution (40), due to this augmentation, the system will upgrade your body to prevent death by explosion.
Suddenly I felt pain. A lot of pain. It wasn''t like when I reached 40 Intelligence, at this time, the pain was only in my brain but now all of my body is being upgraded at once, it''s not as bad as the Doom Bolt though so I can stand it, but its fucking painful, imagine hitting your toes on the corner of your table but with all your body at once. I don''t think there is a pain resistance skill, otherwise, I would have learned it with all this shit coming at me. Audrey is looking at me with a worried expression, guess I should have warned her, but it''s too late now, I can only greet my teeth to avoid screaming and alerting the horde. The transformation finished after only a minute but it felt like it was much longer, when the pain stopped, a message appeared:
Congratulations, as your body is now of a better quality than a normal human, it can tolerate more advanced modifications, such as new limbs. For being the first human Fleshwarper to reach peak-human Constitution, you will be awarded a free graft from the list below: -Undeads graft: Arm (weakening, paralyzing or incorporeal); these arms have a special effect on the livings, the weakening arm will act like the Curse spell on hit, debuffing one random physical stat of the target. The paralyzing arm will paralyze the victim ( vs Constitution) and the incorporeal arm can interact with spectral beings but not with physical entities. Bone armor: An exoskeleton that will reinforce your defense, the hardness of these bones will increase with your Constitution stat.
- Humans grafts: Anything from the human body
-3 random grafts: Aboleth graft; Piercing tentacle Fiendish graft: Membraneous wings Wings like that of a bat, using them, you can fly with good maneuverability. Dragon graft: Metabolic fire The implantation of this graft within your chest leaves no casually visible effect. However, exposure to the energy within your body darkens your teeth and bones until they become solid black, like obsidian. A faint gleam of your main energy (negative energy in your case) might be seen around your teeth when you show them.
As much as the piercing tentacle or the extra member have their own usefulness ( for combat, what were you thinking?) I will choose the Metabolic fire, first because dragons are cool, but more importantly I think it is possible to create the Bone armor and the wings myself with Alter Self, a new organ which I don''t understand how it works at all would be far more difficult to recreate. I selected Metabolic fire and another wave of pain assaulted me, I did warn Audrey before this time though. The pain was not that huge honestly, seems like even without a pain resistance skill I managed to withstand it, my insides are being torn apart to make space for a new organ after all but it seems...lacking, I''m not a masochist or anything but I thought it would be far more painful. Maybe it''s because of my newly upgrade body that it''s less painful.
+1 Intelligence
Uh? Ah, yes I forgot this thing existed, but more importantly, MY 50 INTELLIGENCE IS GONE, it was good and even but now it''s a disgusting 51, it may seem neurotic from me, but hey, the apocalypse happened less than two weeks ago, let me cling to what I can to keep a semblance of order in my mind. Anyways, after my inner monologue, the pain stopped and a new popup is in front of my face:
You gained a new skill: Metabolic fire This skill is named after the ancient dragons of old, who lived in seas of magma and could breathe fire, however, this skill does not breathe fire but the element of your race as a dragon-Error, race not set as dragon, this skill will use the energy you are the most attuned with.
So I suppose it''s negative energy, I breathed a bit and negative got out of my mouth but since the organ responsible for this is inside my body, I think I can modify it into Life energy. For now, let''s focus on My new Doom bolt, I told Audrey to step back as this will probably be dangerous, I condensed energy in my pam but this time it was Life energy instead of the negative one, a ball of greenish light appeared in my hands and t began to grow in size as *Insert explosion sound here* my fingers are gone, they exploded and it''s. Fucking. Painful. The pain is even worse than before as I have to continue to channel energy in my hands, after a few seconds my mana bar is already halved, I can sense that it''s almost ready, by the time I was finished, my right hand was completly gone and my hps were draining rapidly so I hurriedly threw the bolt towards Nathaniel, he tried to dodge when he saw it but he couldn''t with all the undead near him, he took 300 mana and 300 hp converted in Life energy, with him being an undead, the damage were quite powerful, the bolt exploded upon conact with him, leaving a cloud of dust and undead body parts, even the ghosts were affected by my magic.
You learned a new spell: Overkill Life bolt tier IV You defiled what was a ranged healing spell by overcharging it with Life energy to the point of making it unstable and dangerous for the target instead of being helpful. Every beings int the radius of explosion will get 1% of his hp in raw damage by every percent of damage above 200% of his maximals hp.
Holy shit tier IV? I suppose it''s logical since it can kill very high-level beings if I have enough energy, besides, it''s an AoE spell so it nor-
Defiler! You have gained the title Defiler by using a healing spell to kill something, relationship with the goddess of Life and his followers is now: Hated A party will receive the task to kill you. By being a Fleshwarper and gaining the Defiler title, you unlocked the Scourge sub-class, do you want to equip it: Y/N?
Hunted? meh, if it''s Peter and his harem I will manage but what is a sub-class?
Sub-classes works like a mod, it will tweak your class to gain more special bonuses than the main ones, the bonuses will be in accordance with the theme of the sub-class ( Death and decay for the Scourge class.)
In that case, it will be a yes, I already have skills like that so why not upgrade them? I selected yes and my vision went black. Chapter 8- Nexus When I opened my eyes, I was in some kind of antic ruins, with stone pillars, burning torches (legit) and an assload of dust, what surprised me the most, however, was the skeleton of some kind of knight right next to me.
Level 15 Trial Get out of the crypt to pass the test
What the fuck? Don''t they have something else to do? I had one a week ago! Why in the world do you keep imposing trials on people?
The trial faced at level 15 will, should you succeed, let you unlock diverse functions such as: - Teleportation to your Nexus ( The Nexus is a HUB for all natives of a designated planet) -the trading system, You will be able to buy, sell and exchange various equipment, components. After this trial, you will be considered as an active member of your planet.
Oh, ok. Easy right? I just have to escape the crypt and it''s over. I cast Veil of Death on me, better safe than sorry. "Is that you Sir Fortesque?" No it''s not me but I will not say it, this talking gargoyle head is probably some kind of overly powerful monster, he probably can kill me by talking. I was almost right when I said that, this thing''s speech was so long and boring that I fell asleep and impaled myself on a sharp rock, I only lost 50 hp but damn, I wonder if these heads are just some caregivers NPC or the real enemies. The best thing is, at the end of his monologue, he discovered that I wasn''t Fortesque and made some spiked gates fall in front of me, barring me from leaving this place, I will have to find another way to leave, Audrey must be worried. The best solution I could come up with was reading what was inscribed on the walls, it took me hours before I learned to read this language, it''s a strange mix of French and Polish, 51 Intelligence really do the trick. He apparently was the knight of a king, he fought against an evil sorcerer and managed to kill him but died after that. There is, however, a small issue, he fought against a sorcerer but he ha no marks on his bones, no burns, no black spots, nothing, the only thing of interest is a physical mark, probably inflicted by an arrow, given the dimensions.
You discovered the truth about the death of Sir Daniel Fortesque +5 wisdom You gained the passive skill Investigation. This skill let you discover abnormal things such as secret rooms or passageways, at a higher level this skill will let you spot invisible opponents.
Oh, sweet, it''s a good skill but I think it will be difficult to level it up, but aside from that, an arrow in the eye? Seriously? This epic tale about killing the sorcerer is a lie then? It''s sad, I pity him, he died ridiculously and they put him in a crypt, was it because he was the knight of the king? WAIT, the gargoyle said "is it you sir Fortesque", does that mean that I have to resurrect him to leave the crypt? How can I do that? I mean I could give him negative energy but it would make him an undead, I can''t resurrect a corpse yet... Yep, undead it is, no better solution. I then channeled negative energy to the corpse until depletion of my mana, I used my hp to continue as I thought that it would cancel if I stopped to regen. I had only 110hp left when I finished, this guy needed 1000 energy, he must have been a great warrior (as great as a warrior can be when he is killed by an arrow in the eye). 30 minutes after my channeling finished, he started to move, he looked at me and it seemed he waited for my orders but when I was about to order him to go near the gargoyle head he talked "Who are you and what are you doing here?" Do this guy know he is dead or is he asking that because he doesn''t where he is himself? "I''m John and I resurrected you, I''m here because the evil sorcerer is back." He seems na?ve so I will take advantage of that. "He is right Sir Fortesque, the evil sorcerer Zarok is back and Gallowmere needs your help!" I should hate you for talking but it goes with my- Huh? Is he really back? Talk about luck. "Are you sure about this, Information gargoyle?" He asked as he equipped himself with his sword and shield. "Yes Sir Fortesque, you need to get out of the crypt and go to his lair to vanquish him" Now this is what I''m talking about, the spiked gate is now open, I can leave- Seriously? zombies again? Aaaand he is talking again, giving swordsmanship counseling to Fortesque, this twat can''t even wield a sword and he is giving advice to a knight. Nice. I went to the exit and was extremely surprised to see another gargoyle who told me that I must find a kind of rune to put in this big red hand on the wall to leave. I swear to god(s) I will kill them, I will not leave before destroying them, even better, Fortesque will kill them. As I was fomenting evil plans, Daniel came back with the rune, he places it on the hand and the door opened, everything was good but it talked again.This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it. "Daniel, kill them, kill the gargoyles!" Everyone looked at me and then Daniel threw knives on the gargoyle but it didn''t do anything, I tried to cast Mana Bolt on them but nothing worked. I saw the gargoyle opening his mouth but I fleed before he could say anything, I couldn''t stand it anymore, the mission is done so let me get the shit out of here. When I got out of the crypt, another message appeared saying that I succeeded, it asked if I wanted to leave now and I accepted. I fell unconscious again but I saw a popup before drifting off to darkness.
You succeeded the trial, calculating rewards... Due to your actions, you gained the following skills: - Animate dead tier III forbidden spell You can animate a corpse to do your bidding, it will cost you 50 times the highest stat of the corpse in energy. - Investigation For finishing the trial, you gained a skill following your stats and allegiance and a graft due to your class -Infuse chaos forbidden ritual A ritual used by the cultist of Shub-Niggurath. This ritual will infuse a living organism with chaos energy, provoking random changes to the entity. This ritual is forbidden due to its unpredictable results. far-spawn graft: chaos receptacle You can sense and absorb chaos energy, this energy can be used to create various effects of improving an organism or empowering a spell, you cannot regen chaos energy, it must be found elsewhere.
It''s a good thing that I was unconscious because the addition of a new organ is really painful.
The first thing I saw when I opened my eyes was the face of Audrey, she was crying. She placed my head on her lap so when I raised it, she realized I was awake and hugged me "John! you are awake, I was so worried, you were unconscious for 30 minutes you know?" Only 30 minutes? I''m pretty sure I stayed in the crypt for a day or so, must be the legendary time-dilated training ground. "It''s okay Audrey, I was sent to a crypt for a test but I''m here now." It sufficed to calm her, I then went to search for loot but my spell destroyed everything organic, I hate leather anyways. I told Audrey that I needed to check the Nexus for a moment as I did not think it was possible to bring her but when I teleported she was here too so, all the better I guess?
You are the second to unlock the access to the Nexus, you gain the following reward: -2500 Np (Nexus points) Nexus points are the currency used in the Nexus, you can spend them to buy weapons, spells, skills classes or dungeons entries.
2500 Np? Neet, I will be able to buy decent armor (finally) for me and Audrey but second? Who is the first then? It''s not a big deal, he must have gained more points and The First title. We reached a mini-map of the place, a pop-up asked us where we wanted to go, there was the market district, the divertissement district and the housing district, I selected the market district and we were teleported to it. It was empty, it''s evident it would be empty as I am the second to unlock the access but still, there is no vendor or anything, is it automatized? [What would you want to buy?] A robotic voice asked from behind, I turned back and saw a very human-like robot (it looks like the T-1000 from terminator) wearing a smoking when he finished talking, a menu appeared
-Weapons -Armor -Skills and spells -Other
I selected armor and surfed through the various articles available, I bought standard enchantress clothes, in total, they give 10 Intelligence and 10 Charisma, 5 for the robes, 3 for the headset and 2 for the bracelets, it cost me only 450 points but Audrey couldn''t equip a higher quality armor, she is only level 13 after all. I searched a good armor for me but apparently, Fleshwarpers can only wear specialized armor (wearing generic armor such as my shoulder pad is possible but with the grafts and body alterations, a full set is more trouble than anything.) I decided to buy two dungeons entries (it will teleport you to a random dungeon of your level and will transport you at the Nexus when you finish it) a spell and a graft, yes you can buy class-related "objects" in this shop.
tier II spell Icicle You throw an icicle at the enemy, dealing frost and piercing damage (can slow the enemy)
This spell was much needed, only having Life and Negative energy spells is not the best, and I can further experiment, the best thing, however, was the graft
Far-spawn graft: Chaos generator You can now produce Chaos energy by expanding Life energy (1000 for 1 Chaos energy) You can sense Chaos energy much farther.
This graft is amazing, it synergizes perfectly with my Life Transfer skill, I don''t know what a Far-spawn is but it''s great.
A Far-spawn is the child between an Abomination from Outer Space and a Sapient race such as humans. They can also be created artificially by the Outer gods'' faction, in which they serve as soldiers.
Oh, and what is the Outer gods'' faction? I think Shub-Niggurath is one of them but...
The outer gods are cosmic horrors living between two planes of the universe, the most known are: -Azathoth and Yog-shothoth, they are the two "rulers" of this faction - Shub-Niggurath, the black goat of the woods and Hypnos, Lord of Sleep -Nyarlathotep, the crawling chaos, the Herald, he is the only one ever saw in the Material Plane. Note that there are probably other outer gods but they are not discovered yet. The outer gods rule over the old ones (such as Hastur, Cthugha, and Cthulhu), they are at war with every other faction but especially with the elder gods, the only ones capable of standing against them (their leader being the Lady of Pain).
This faction is probably the one I will join, I already have Shub-Niggurath''s blessing and a familiar who belongs to Hastur, I doubt I will be accepted in other factions. After I finished shopping, Audrey and I decided to go back to the community hall. There was a lot of things to do, I will have to train my new skills and create chaos energy, I want to see what happen if I infuse some on a kobold. Chapter 9- Leadership and infusions The path to the community hall was boring, I think the monsters have some sort of danger sense because nothing approached us, we must be too strong for them to risk their lives. I decided to test the limits of Alter Self, now that it leveled up I should be able to do much more. I took off my clothing as I did not want to tear them, I then reinforced my legs and modified the form of my spine to become a quadruped. I now have horse-like legs and I grew bones and flesh on my back to make a seat, I then told Audrey to climb on my back, she was grossed out when I started to morph but accepted it pretty fast, on the other hand, she saw things that were more disturbing than this. I was much faster in this form, having four legs really help. We finished our travel in 45 minutes, when we reached the community hall, we were surprised to see a rudimentary wooden wall surrounding the building, seems like they did a lot while we were gone, I doubt it will stop the bigger monsters like the broodmother but fir smaller monsters like kobold it will do the trick. I returned to my human form before being seen as I did not want to be confused with a monster. When we were near the wall''s door we yelled to attract attention and couples of seconds later a guard came. "Who are you?" Oh god they are doing this again "I''m supposed to be the leader of this place." "The leader is Alexandre, you better stop lying and reveal who you really are." Seriously? Was this guy not here when the trial happened? Hmmm, it''s a possibility that another group came during our absence, but Alexandre the leader? I''m not biased or anything, not at all but this guy is the less qualified to be a leader, he is weak and a coward, it would not be an issue before but now the leader must be the stronger and the more experienced one. "I''m John, the one who saved this place less than one week ago, open this gate!" I don''t want to sound arrogant or anything but he should know who I am now, I''m quite famous around here after all. "I don''t know you, and if I don''t know you then you can''t enter." What the fuck? Okay, I have enough. I concentrated on my back and grew feathered wings, it worked, this skill seems to work well when I have a clear representation of what I want to modify, and since angels are known of everyone, I can grow wings easily enough (it doesn''t mean it''s not painful though). The guard was shocked to see me growing wings so I took advantage of that, I grabbed Audrey and flew above the wall, I was not proficient in flying, however, so I fell pretty quickly after that, but it was enough to cross the wall. After crossing the wall, we walked toward the hall entrance but the guard yelled to ask help from the other guard and we were surrounded before reaching the door. Are all these guys new or something? Because if that''s the case then the ''leader'' is pretty stupid, who puts new recruit to guard the place, they may be spies from another group or even shapeshifted monsters, if I can do it then the monsters could do it too. I prepared myself to cast Mage hand but Marie intervened "Don''t attack him, he is an ally." After she said that, all the guards relaxed, is she a figure of authority here? Oh... yes, if Alexandre is the leader then Marie would be the co-leader or something. "Marie, what is going on? And why is Alexandre of all people the leader?" It''s not like I care that I''m not the leader anymore but if the community electsme as the leader and then throw me away when I''m no longer useful, it will piss me off." "Not long after you went to the dungeon, another group came here, they wanted to meet the leader immediately so, you know, it just happened." It just happened huh? Well if he doesn''t try to boss me around, he can keep his leader post. "This little incident aside Marie, how is everyone doing?" I don''t really care about these peoples but I will try to stay polite. "The situation is good, there was a kobold raid three hours ago but nothing too serious, nobody is dead." "Oh, great." And with that I resumed walking, Audrey and I ate something and we went to sleep. For today, my priority is to create Chaos energy, I need to see the effects of a spell. After a few hours I produced 3 Chaos, it''s a lot easier with life transfer since I could drain trees and other living things, I did not suck them dry of Life energy, it''s not efficient, I take about 10% of their hp, which is approximatively 30 hit points. Weaker plants like grass are only worth 1hp but there is so much that it''s okay to drain a few of them. The first spell I will test is icicle, I will first cast it while infusing life Energy and I will cast another one with Chaos energy. I began to infuse Life energy into the ice but it immediately exploded, as I thought, there is an opposition between conflicting elements, is it the same with fire then? I will have to learn a fire spell to be sure. After this unsuccessful experiment, I cast another icicle but this time I infused one Chaos energy, the ice began to glow a deep blue, almost black and cracks started to appear on the icicle, this was not good news, I tried to stabilize the spell as much as possible but to no avail, the ice was glowing even more than before, I began to lose control so I released my spell, it went crashing against a tree. There was an explosion of ice but the best was the rapidly expanding ice formation, it looked like an ice-made tidal wave.
Your chaos-infused spell was a minor success, would you like to gain the skill associated, which will reduce the cost of Chaos energy and allow you to cast it with a guaranteed success (instead of random), however, if you accept, you will not be able to improve the spell. Y/N?
Hmm, I think I will accept it, Icicle is a basic spell so it won''t be as useful in the future, even reinforced like that, besides, if I have difficulties with a minor success then I couldn''t do something better. I chose yes.
You gained the spell Ice Burst, a tier III spell.If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. Ice burst now cost one point of Chaos energy instead of two.
You successfully cast a tier III spell with a tier I incantation, you gain the Practical Mind title Practical Mind Due to your superior mental visualization, you are able to cast spells with more ease. -can cast spells using other limbs, like fingers or foots (the smaller the appendices used are, the less powerful the spell will be.) -can shorten the spell formation (casting time) by spending more mp.
Oh nice, would it means that I can pretty much spam a weak spell like mana bolt to be like an automatic rifle? Neat. The next thing on the list is using Chaos energy on living subjects (with their consent of course) but I will have to create more Chaos energy because if a tier I spell took two, I cannot imagine how much a kobold would be.
I spent a few days creating more Chaos energy, while I was doing this, Audrey trained her mental resistance but casting spells on herself, it was apparently working since she gained a passive skill giving one wisdom by skill level (but only when resisting a spell), I will probably have to do the same thing since it''s a useful skill to have but being constantly in a confusion effect for hours is, I think, not a good experience. Anyways, I now have 30 points of Chaos energy, it''s a lot but it was easier after I discovered something with my investigation skill: Chaos energy is basically just a concentrated mass of Life energy but more ordered, I thought it was a bit contradictory for chaos to be an ordered version of something but after thinking about it, when there is a lot of Life energy, the entity just explode, Chaos, however, control this energy and focus it to produce something (randomly but still). When I realized that, I received the following:
You grasped the basic nature of chaos, +10 Intelligence, and +10 Wisdom.
The gain in Wisdom was great news but the next message was even better,
You now comprehend the ways of Chaos and with it the creation of life You are the first human to learn the truth about life, and as such, you have been invited to the Outer gods'' faction, would you like to join: Y/N?
I obviously selected yes and another screen appeared saying that I could now teleport to the Outer realm (it''s basically another Nexus) but that I should wait until I''m stronger because the cultists of this faction are all mind-breaking horrors or human eating monsters, a wise advice indeed. I then proceeded to conduct an experiment on livings subjects, a kobold would be good but anything will do. I searched the outskirts of the town for kobolds since they tend to live in the abandoned houses (it''s far more comfortable than living in a cave) but there was no kobold, there was, however, humans also searching kobolds to level up, are these guys not aware of the existence of the dungeons? It''s not it bothers me, but with that, impossible to find a kobold outside of their base, of which we don''t know the exact location. I decided to go into the woods, after scouting, I found a small pack of seven wolves, I don''t think there normally are wolves in this area but that must be due to the recent apparition of other predators, or maybe they just popped like other monsters. I cast two mage hands and then ten mana bolts from the hands'' fingers, the bolts flew towards the wolves, injuring them without killing them. This was too easy, it''s only two weeks since the apparition of monsters and they are already no challenge for me... but, maybe the towns and their surroundings are considered newbie zones?
+1 Intelligence
With this pop-up confirming I was right, I resumed my task of immobilizing the wolves by shooting them in the legs. Now that the wolves are no longer a threat, I will have to select the one to experiment on, I don''t have enough energy for all of them. After pondering about it for a while, I decided to take, a female, a pup and the alpha of the pack. I began with the pup, I infused Chaos energy in him, making him whine, which made the female growl, it seems she was her mother. After a while, he grew rapidly, after ten seconds, he was as tall as his mother but he was warped, like a deformed picture, his fur was now a reddish purple, Chaos energy sure is- Ah no, the fur wasn''t reddened by the spell but by the blood, he started to bleed from all his pores, dying in a matter of seconds.
Your Chaos infusion spell was a failure
Duh, thanks for telling me, I could not have guessed that, but damn, this cost me 4 Chaos energy and it''s gone just like that. I approached the alpha and retried to infuse Chzos energy, this time it was much easier since he was much stronger, it''s the alpha after all. Like the pup, he grew, he was approximatively the size of a grizzly bear but other than that, there was little change, his fur darkened a bit but it was all.
Your Chaos infusion spell was a lesser minor success. Alpha Wolf (Lvl.6)-----> Chaotic Alpha Wolf (Lvl.7) This Wolf has been infused with Chaos energy, he now deals a bonus random elemental damage with his attacks.
That''s not too bad for only 6 points of Chaos energy, I then quickly killed him by stabbing my sword in the neck, they are not tamed, after all, I did not want them to attack me after I''m done. When I killed the alpha, the female wolf looked at me, I did not know what kind of glare it was but probably not a friendly one.) I approached the female wolf, she was my last chance to make something really good. Like for the others, I began to infuse her with Chaos energy, it was much more taxing than the last two times, she did not grow, heck, she even shrunk a few inches, her head, however, was proportionately bigger than before and two small goat-like horns grew on it, her fur now looked like greyish grass and her claws were like black wood, there was even the occasional line of greenish light on it.
Your Chaos infusion spell was a lesser major success. Female Wolf (Lvl.4)-----> Chaosborne Wolf of blight (Lvl.9) - spell curse gained -spell telepathy gained This creature is capable of reasoning and needs a name, as she has acknowledged you as her master, you can choose a name for her.
She even gained a skill I don''t have, that''s Chaos for you but me, her master? I killed her child in front of her, isn''t it somewhat...No I guess it''s the norm for monsters, but a name...Hmmm..."Lisa, how does that sound?" ''I think it''s a good name, yes, I will now be called Lisa, you have my thanks, master.'' Oh shit that surprised me, that''s right, telepathy, but why do I... Suddenly feel so tired... How... Much Chaos energy did this cost me... Why do I have no mana and only 136hp? Ahh, so sleepy... And with that, I fell into the sweet embrace of darkness. Chapter 10- A strange duo Chaos. death, fear, and despair. This was all I could see around me, the base was under attack, a lot of peoples died, horrible deaths, mangled corpses everywhere. The sight was gruesome, so why was I so calm? I always was the cynical type of person but not to this extent, why does their death doesn''t affect me? ''Traitors'' I could hear sinister whispers in my head, repeating this word but I didn''t understand, were the dead the traitors? And if that was the case, who did they betrayed? It was at this moment that I looked at myself, but it wasn''t me. A writhing mass of festering flesh with many tentacle-like appendices and mouths with big, warped teeth. I was devouring the fallen humans, there were humans who were still alive and retaliating against my rampage, especially Alexandre, who was holding the corpse of Marie, he was talking to me but all I could hear were the voices who were now screaming inside my head, he was crying. This was strange, like watching a movie or playing a game in virtual reality, it''s super realistic but it doesn''t affect you like reality would. Ah, Alexandre is dying now, he has a tentacle through his stomach, in his death throes, he managed to say something, ''master''. Huh? Master? Why did he say that? ''Master!'' The corpse-ridded ground was gone and all I could see was Lisa, poking me in the face with her muzzle, she looked worried. "I''m fine Lisa, I.. was just having a bad dream." What was that anyway? Is it supposed to be a premonitory dream? I never believed in that but hey, I didn''t believe that magic and gods existed either so for all I know, it could be some sort of divine intervention to tell me my future
+1 Wisdom
Oh, well hum... It''s only a possibility. If a god showed me this, it''s because it wants me to change my future right? I mean, my future will probably change just because I had this strange dream. ''You aren''t fine Master, you slept for 14 hours!'' Holy shit 14 hours? I have to find Audrey but still, master? Didn''t I kill her pup earlier? "Why are you so calm Lisa? I killed your pup, you should be aggressive, no?" ''Maybe if I was human, sure, but us monsters think differently from humans, by using your spell on me, you let me access a higher level of existence, and for that, you have my eternal gratitude.'' "What do you mean by a higher level of existence?" ''Ah yes, you are not familiar with the System, I forgot. Basically, every monster race have genetic memories, we wolves know that our lifespan is only 15 years on average, so we hunt prey to unlock the possibility to become something more, I do not know for the higher races, but we are judged as cannon fodder by the System, like the Kobolds or the goblins so we try to evolve before the second phase.'' "The second phase?" I do not know why, but it looks like bad news. ''I''m afraid I can''t tell you what- oh wait I can, it''s strange, there should be some sort of restriction hmm... I guess the System did not expect someone would be able to communicate with a being who knows of it. The second phase is when your planet will fuse with a multitude of other planets from the multiverse to form a super-planet combining the best places from each planet." Wow, this is some big news but why in the name of all that is holy do a wolf knows more about all this shit than me? ''We come from another planet which was implemented in the system not so long ago, well it was before my birth but I''m only 8 years old, in short, as we are weak, the System offered us to go on this planet early to gain a head-start on the more powerful beings, it decided to explain to us what would happen in the following month.'' Oh right telepathy, I forgot you could read my mind, but in this case, I have to warn everyone that stronger monsters will appear soon
You gained a quest Never heard, never knew. rank A quest You learned confidential information about the upcoming changes, your objective is to take an oath, repeat: "I swear to the System that I will not reveal any information about the second phase to any sentient being of the planet Earth." rewards: 6 levels worth of experience and a skill evolution token. failure: death this quest can''t be refused or abandoned
Hm, it''s not like I have a choice "I swear to the System that I will not reveal any information about the second phase to any sentient being of the planet Earth."The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.
Your oath have been witnessed
You are the first to take an oath, you gain the title The First 10 attributes points.
For having completed a quest, you gain: 6 levels, you are now level 21, 40 attribute points available. 1 skill evolution token, you can use this token to upgrade one your skill, the change will depend on your class.
40 attribute points, wow what should I do? It''s tempting to put all of this in Intelligence to have 100 but with the upcoming changes, it would be wiser to put it in Constitution, yeah let''s do that. I spent 30 points in Constitution to have a good 75 and 10 points in Wisdom cause outer gods faction, I have to be capable of withstanding at least the sight of lesser abominations, even my own familiar is giving me goosebumps. As for the token, I should probably use it on Alter Self since I always use it, with my Fleshwarper class, it could give me the ability to recreate grafts, it would be awesome.
You decided to upgrade the active skill Alter Self... You lost the skill Alter Self and gained the passive skill Amorphous Form. Amorphous Form: passive racial skill: Your body no longer has a defined form and you can adopt any form you want if you have the required biomass, you can obtain biomass by eating anything that is organic. Current biomass: 100 Error, human is not an adequate race for this skill, beginning race change...
Race is now Mhulpan. The Mhulpan are shapeshifting monstruosities, and as such, they serve the crawling chaos. +5 Strength +5 Constitution +5 Dexterity -10 Charisma
As a reward for getting closer to your faction and being the first human to do so, your thrall, Lisa, will evolve.
''Master, the System says that I can evolve but there is a problem, it isn''t the usual text, this one is dark and radiate power.'' "I saw that Lisa, my faction decided to reward me by giving you an upgrade, you should accept it." She nodded and began to transform, a dark mist started to spread around her, it was obscuring my vision but I could see all her fur falling and her maw splitting into three distinct parts but the most important was that she grew, a lot, she was now the size of a grizzly bear, just a lot thinner, with tentacle-like legs and tail. Spoiler: Lisa
The evolution was a legendary success Chaosborne Wolf of blight (Lvl.9)-----> Hound of Tindalos (Lvl.18) -teleportation skill gained (only through angles) 5 chaos energy The user can teleport to the desired location - mist form 2 chaos energy/h The user transforms itself into a cloud of dark mist, the cloud can condense or expand itself until it 10x or a tenth or the user original size, the cloud can cross small openings like a keyhole but it can''t cross a liquid. Due to the massives change, all of Lisa''s attribute points were refunded.
She was... Beautiful, not like a beautiful human which would attract you physically, but more like a beautiful piece of art, it just satisfies you to look at it, I know I think that because of my race change and my class, but she was just p-e-r-f-e-c-t, my thanks to whatever was responsible for this change. ''You have my gratitude master, was it not for you, I would have stayed an ordinary wolf for the rest of my life, but now? I am a higher being, and for that, I will always stay loyal to you.'' "Aww, thanks, Lisa, but now, we should consider where to spend your attribute points, with your skills, you definitely look like the assassin-type so you should invest in strength and dexterity". She pondered and decided to let me see her status screen, as there is think I do not have.
Lisa Race: Hound of Tindalos Lvl 18 Health: 200/200 20/h Chaos energy: 500/500 1/h Strength 26 Dexterity 30 Constitution 20 Chaos affinity: 50 (10 et 0.02/h /point) +0% physical damage +0% magical damage 90 points left
"You should double your Chaos affinity, this way, you could stay in your mist form forever and after that, maybe 20 points in Dexterity, 14 in strength and 6 in Constitution, I don''t know, it''s strange that you don''t have Intelligence, Wisdom and Charisma stats." ''I think you are right for the points distribution but Master, I never had any of the stats you mentioned, monsters only have stats who are used by them, it''s the reason why we are refunded our points when we drastically change, oh, just sentient monsters, the others don''t have access to the System and their points are automatically distributed, I gained the stat Chaos affinity so I was refunded my points in case I wanted to invest in it.'' Wow, that''s pretty unfair to humans or other sapient races, I guess there must be advantages at being something hunted by everybody, but do I get the same treatment since I''m no longer human (it should definitively affect me more by the way). Lisa and I decided that it was for the best that she stay in her mist form inside my body (I could create a hollow space inside me for her now, with my racial skill) After eating grass for a few points of biomass ( definitely not worth), we went back to the base. Chapter 11- The second phase On the way to the base, Lisa and I tested our newfound capacities, her Mist Form really is full of potential, she can go through almost everything and even stay inside of my body, it''s not convenient, however, as she can''t see anything, I wondered how she could normally see in this form since she had no eyes but apparently she can perceive the flow of Life energy, my body is jamming her senses since I''m full of Chaos. Her teleportation is useful but she is too strong for the current monsters to actually need strategies, she can just rush and kill them in an instant. As for me, we discovered that I can separate myself into different parts (if I have a sufficient amount of Biomass), it''s really weird and vomitive to see two different things, even just having two bodies at once is disturbing but with sufficient training, I could create a shell for Lisa to make her look like a wolf (a big wolf but still), it would be better since Aberrations and Abominations are not welcome everywhere. I also managed to improve a bit in shapeshifting, it''s weird because there is no shapeshifting skill (or at least, I didn''t learn it yet), now I can create other organics tissues such as bones, it''s a really good news, because it''s really weird to have bones and hairs made of flesh, I was able to harden it to the point where it was possible to walk but I looked like a drunk man with a broom in the ass, not very practical in a fight or even in general. On the road, I ate two kobolds (after having killed them of course) to gain Biomass, it''s definitely better than grass, in taste and in productivity, where I had to eat a square meter of grass for one Biomass (did I say that it was not worth? Because it definitely isn''t !) , one Kobold is worth ten to twenty Biomass depending of the size, I now had 132 Biomass which, to be honest, doesn''t change anything, I mean, I can fell that my flesh is denser but for it to actually be useful, like stopping a sword or a bullet, I would have to get at least 1000 Biomass, it''s impossible in the near future because I still have a stomach, I''m not like a black hole who could eat and eat indefinitely, I ate two kobolds, which is still a huge amount of meat for a human, but I feel like I''m gonna explode (not figuratively but literally, I can definitely hear the sound of my flesh stretching and tearing) and here comes the dilemma, do I have to eat more to have a bigger body so that I will be able to eat more or do I just puke semi-digested kobolds? Ah! maybe it''s why some cosmic horrors just keep devouring planets, because of a stomach or whatever they use to digest-ache.
Congratulations, you now understand the painful life of World Devourers +5 Wisdom
... Seriously? I was just joking but the System consider it like a full-fledged thesis? Doesn''t that mean that I could potentially keep saying bullshit until I luckily say something true and be awarded for it?
The System thanks you for discovering this bug, it asks you to forgive this error, as it is still in beta-testing, now, you have to be sure of what you say before being recompensed. To reward you for discovering this bug, the System grants you 10000 Nexus points, however as you are from the outer gods'' faction and an Aberration, you have to pay the income tax of 99%, you gain 100 Nexus points.
Okay, a lot of discoveries today, World devourers have stomachaches and the System is a sentient and racist entity who talks of itself at the third person, it''s pretty sad.
-3 Charisma
Congratulations, as you have a negative Charisma and a habit of mocking people, you probably want to hide in a hole hmm? Fear not for you just gained the Stealth skill!
Thanks for the generic skill that everyone can gain easily, as long as you give something in return you can say what you want, you are clever aren''t you System? ''What are you thinking Master? You have been making a funny face for a while.'' "Oh, nothing important, The system took 99% of a reward away because of my allegiance, and took away some of my Charisma because I kind of insulted it." ''Hmm, so shouldn''t you be angry or something then?'' "Yeah probably but no, the reward was Nexus points which are pretty useless since we have the Far Realm, it will have more adapted stuff for us as we are Aberrations, as for the stats penalty yeah I''m pissed off but my charisma was pretty bad from the start, maybe it''s because of my racial change but I feel like Charisma is not that important anymore, I pretty much can shapeshift into a better version of me after all." I wonder if I could recreate grafts at a higher level, it would be super powerful to have a dozen of mouths with metabolic fire or something. We arrived at the base around noon, Lisa was in her Mist form inside me since I can''t efficiently disguise her yet. The guards let me pass this time and I went to find Audrey. She was training on small critters near the base, after crying a bit cause I was away and she was scared, I asked her why she was doing this training, apparently, it''s a common occurrence for control-type magician to improve their focus and precision by using spells on small targets, I later discovered that I can''t access the tutorial anymore because of my allegiance, I call that racism but it''s the strong who write history, after all, I would not be surprised if half of the stories about aberrations are propaganda bullshit.Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on. After this little setback, we ate lunch and I conducted a little experiment to test my Amorphous form skill, I created a piece of meat for 10 Biomass and ate it to discover the absorption efficiency, turns out I only get 5 Biomass back, I wonder if it will get better when I level up or it''s a fixed amount (maybe it will even get worse, who knows?). Audrey was grossed out by me eating my own flesh, but after a little explication she accepted it, peoples'' mindset can adapt really fast when needed, we are eating kobold, after all, it''s not humanoid but it''s pretty close since it''s bipedal and capable of speech. After eating we resumed training but this time we went outside the base, it''s better since my abilities can... disturb peoples, I also took advantage of the situation to talk to Audrey about Lisa, to not scare her when she pops out of my body, we resumed training, Audrey was casting spells on insects, while Audrey and I further explored the possibilities of our new bodies.
Time Skip: 1 hour before the second phase These two weeks were rather uneventful, I leveled up two times but after that, Kobolds didn''t give me a good amount of exp anymore since I was 20 levels above them, it was better to leave them to Audrey who was now level 14, she will soon have her trial, as for my points, I spent two points in Wisdom and eight points in Intelligence, to make it 50 and 70 (even after my race change, my TOC is still here). The most important part, however, was that I leveled up Icicle to level 10, it now do 140 (40 from the wisdom) frost damage and as much piercing damage, it'' pretty high when you don''t really think about it but it''s before the damage reduction, in fact, against a Kobold, the spell remove 105 (70 frost damage and 35 piercing damage) And Kobolds aren''t even wearing armor, they take less frost damage due to their distant relations with dragons, who have an innate elemental and magical resistance, they also take less piercing damage due to their scales. During these two weeks, I warned everyone that something was about to happen, the majority didn''t trust since I couldn''t give any proof or details but I don''t care since Audrey believe it. I also reinforced our house (more a tent than a house but whatever) with my bones, it''s much easier than camouflaging Lisa since the bones don''t have too much or be comfortable I ate all I could during these two weeks and now have 257 Biomass (plus 103 being used for the house). Lisa did not level up but she her Mist form skill, she can now choose to form a quasi-solid mist which can be used as a weapon. We could have gone into the library dungeon but we had no idea of what was in the 4th floor so we preferred to not take the risk; instead, we waited patiently, counting the seconds until the start of the second phase. The Earth began rumbling and the sky shattered like glass, at the other side of the rupture, we could see plains, deserts, and seas, all at once, like superposing images, everyone was dazed, looking at the sky in stupefaction until a message appeared to inform us of the changes.
The second phase is currently occurring, the planet Sol III-a from the solar system #452 759, known as "Terra" has begun merging with 17 others planets, planes or demi-planes. Please wait until the end of the fusion.
After a couple dozens of minutes, the earth stopped rumbling but the rupture in the sky grew, with each second passed, the rift expended and we could see multicolored glints. After two hours of waiting, the rift was not here anymore. No, it would be better to say that there was no more sky, we could only see the other worlds approaching rapidly, like a gigantic comet, some people thought that it was gonna crash but no, it flew through us and went in the ground, after that, a huge earthquake raged and the landscape changed. Mountains and trees grew out of the ground, the entire city, except our base, was swallowed by the earth, near instantly replaced by a forest. After all this change, a message appeared before us once again.
Merging finished, you now have access to new features such as: -The quest menu: A menu where you can accept and, if you have a high enough level, give quests. -The village feature: You can create a village using the Brain of a monster at least level 30. A village is an extremely important feature since it can protect you from monsters rifts. Further explanations will be given once you have established a village.
The quest menu is rather self-explanatory, as is the village feature but what is a monster rift? Of course, since I don''t have the tutorial anymore, I will have to leech information from my friend. ''Lisa, do you know what a monster rift is ?'' ''''Of course, monsters rifts are portals leading monsters in this world, you know that my race was elected to participate in the first phase right? Monsters rifts are for all the races who were not chosen, they have a quota of sentient to send through the portal, it''s generally used by the poor peoples as a means to achieve power and wealth, it''s only for the weak races however, Dragons or giants never really need money to this extent, it''s why there are not a lot of them, the ones who are sent are either working for the System or Slaves sold to it by other monsters.'' "Oh so it was like that, but wait doesn''t it mean that pretty much every living beings are sentient?" '' Yes, except anything that is smaller than a cat, like insects or rabbits, they don''t have self-awareness, they can gain sentience by evolving but that''s rare for them to survive long enough. More importantly, I advise that we leave this place immediately, monsters rifts have a tendency to spawn when there is a lot of humans together, it''s why villages are so important.''
Global warning A monster rift has been detected in the vicinity : - Ogres from the Feywild, average level: 31 Escape is recommended.
Crap...