With a quick glance at his status screen, Jed notes that he has just under half of his mana left and his decision is made. Gathering up every bit of courage he's got, he steeled himself and glared into the sea of green. Then he spun around and started running as fast as he could back to the exit where the plants were more sparse.
Upon arrival at his makeshift barricade from earlier, Jed dives into the massive stack of stone and curls himself into a ball. Already tired after the fight, the sprint to his current location left him exhausted but he couldn't rest yet.
'I'm a rock, I'm a rock, I'm a rock...'
Jed repeated that thought over and over in his head. To his great surprise, his body began to shift and rearrange itself bit by bit, when finished he fit in quite nicely with the rest of the pile.
*Bloop!*
Congratulations!You have acquired a new skill.Masonry (Active) Lvl 1The art of shaping or building with stone.
'Well that's convenient, looks like I can learn skills by figuring out how they work.'
Jed realizes that they must still be looking for him because the battle hasn't announced its end yet. Resolving himself to hide until they either give up or a decent amount of his mana regenerates, he starts planning his assault.
(Random Lizard's POV)
'No idea who that guy was but he left us all this food and just took off running before we could even thank him! Must be shy or something.'
He gulps down another bat and turns to watch the others of his kin. A few are gorging themselves along with him, but most of them are combing the area over and over.
'I wonder why they are so worried, anyone who brought us a bat buffet is okay in my book.'
(Back to you, Jed!)
Bursting out of the pile of rocks, back in his regular form, Jed takes a second to process everything. There are two of the reptiles close by and luckily one of them is turned away from his position, the other stares at him with wide eyes. Further back he sees three of them snacking on the bat corpses that still littered the floor and who knows if there are more in the tangle of glowing weeds.
An elongated stone in the shape of a stake, courtesy of his new skill combined with earth magic, pierces the throat of the lizard that first saw him and it gurgles out a broken cry of warning to the others, right before getting smashed with a much larger but shapeless rock from above.
Trying to maintain his ranged advantage, Jed sends a flurry of stone splinters right into the face of the second lizard, who had just turned around to charge him. The small shards dug their way past its scales, stabbing holes into its front legs, neck, and eyes. It hisses in pain as its charge is halted, clawing at the spikes in a vain attempt to remove them. The finishing move isn't even noticed until a spherical rock impacts its skull, cracking it and leaving the creature prone on the ground.
Of the three remaining lizards that he'd seen, two are noisily making their way right for him, while the third must have vanished into the greenery while he was fighting the others. They're fast, and the bursts of pebbles he sends their way are almost all dodged, pinging uselessly across the room. One of them was hit with a few, doing little more than stunning it, but that was enough for him to finish it off with a final shotgun blast of the tiny stones.
Jed sent a kick at the reptile that had finally arrived but it dove right over the top of his foot to bite at his shin. The venom starts slowly eating away at him, leaving Jed no choice but to use earth magic to snap that chunk off of his leg. Surprised by the sudden lack of resistance, the lizard falls off of him with the piece of melting rock in its mouth.
He gets that joyful gleam in his eyes again as what's left of the acid covered stone blows up inside the things mouth, tearing off its lower jaw and spraying green blood onto the tip of his toes. Jed decides that his new paint job just isn't enough yet and squishes it a few times with his foot until it stops moving.
Twirling around in search of the last enemy he'd seen earlier, he catches a glimpse of its tail sliding around the corner of what looked to be a small side passage he hadn't noticed with his first search of the room.
'Shit, I hadn't even noticed that was there, I wonder where it leads?'
*Bloop!*
Battle ReportYou have slain the following:26x Bat Lvl 1
3x Goliath Bat Lvl 5
4x Toxic Cave Lizard Lvl 7The following enemies escaped:1x Toxic Cave Lizard Lvl 7
*Bloop!*
Congratulations!Your level in Earth Magic has increased to level 7!Intelligence +6
Wisdom +3
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Congratulations!Your level in Assimilation has increased to level 5!Vitality +4
Strength +2
Congratulations!Your level in Masonry has increased to level 2!Dexterity +2
Wisdom +1
*Bloop!*
Congratulations!You have reached level 5!+20 Unused stat points.
'Awesome! So many level ups, time to take a look and spend my points. Status.'
Status Information (Unspent:20)NameJedAge23RaceLesser Earth ElementalGenderN/ALevel5ClassN/AHealth235/280Mana167/220Strength34Agility10Vitality28Dexterity12Intelligence27Wisdom22
After spending a minute or two thinking about the pros and cons of each stat and where to spend his points, Jed finally decides and afterward looks at his status again.
Status InformationNameJedAge23RaceLesser Earth ElementalGenderN/ALevel5
ClassN/AHealth270/300Mana283/320Strength34Agility15Vitality30Dexterity15Intelligence27Wisdom32
'That should help with some of my mana problems and coordination.'
Satisfied with his progress, Jed was about to pull up his skills screen when a roar sounded throughout the cavern. Across the room from him was a lizard whose size put the others to shame. It might be taller than Jed, and he won't even try to guess its length. Its scales were a deep blue just like the other reptiles but the speckles on this one where a neon green and if he wasn't imagining it, they looked to have a dull glow similar to the plants.
Acidic drool dripped from its opened mouth, the length of its fangs looked like they might even be able to pierce Jed's rocky body. On its back rode the lizard who'd managed to escape, with a smug, toothy grin across its stupid face.
'You! Did you really go and tattle-tale on me to your mom!?'
That's what went through his mind and what he wanted to say, but all that came out was a deep grumble and the scrape of stone. For the first time in his new body, Jed realized he could make sound. Maybe that means he could learn to speak some day!? Tossing his excitement of this new revelation to the back of his head, he prepared himself for what looked like it would be a very dangerous fight.