“First things first, Mike. We need to prioritize your weaknesses over your strengths,” Carlos says. “You can build your Strength quite literally any time you want, and you get an insane amount of points for every Level so that shouldn’t ever get invested in. Instead, give me an idea of how you want to fight. You seemed to be comfortable waiting for the enemy to bring the fight to you, so a tanky mutation with a Defense and Vigor investment might be something you consider.”
"I've been thinking about it for a while, but I'm not sure I always want to allow enemies to rush me. I think for a lot of enemies, I’d prefer being able to rush them and catch them off guard if I can,” I respond. “I’ll still look into the option, but I’m not sure that’s what I want to do.”
“Well, alternatively, if you want to be quicker and do more of those fancy maneuvers you did to slide past that Minotaur’s guard, you could always go for a mutation that gives you faster movement or reactions and dump your points into Dexterity. That would buff you defensively and offensively, but would require dodging around while wielding huge, heavy weapons, which would hinder you slightly. There’s a bit of give and take in pretty much any option you pick, though,” Carlos says.
I open my Mutation window and am shocked to see there are nearly 10,000 entries that I can choose from. While I’m sitting in shock, Carlos continues, “There’s also the option of not taking a defensive mutation at all and instead choosing an overwhelming offensive one that allows you to take down enemies before they can do anything. Then, however, you run the risk of running into an enemy who can withstand that without having the ability to escape or tank the hit. Like I said, there’s pros and cons with every choice you make; it just depends on how you want to fight.”
“How am I supposed to choose when there are over nine thousand options?” I ask with a bit of bewilderment.
Carlos looks at me, once again slightly confused. “Mike, have you not spoken to the system a single time?” he asks, and as I shake my head, he sighs, ”It responds to you. You can view more details about stats; you can view more details about your skills; there’s so much you can do. Say ‘Filter by Defense’ and watch what happens,” he advises.
“Filter by Defense?” I say, questioning myself more than a little bit as I do. The list quickly rearranges itself and filters down to a little over twelve hundred options this time. “Filter by Defense and Dexterity?” I say, with more than a little awe at this working. As I’m wondering if there even are any options that effect those two stats, I watch the list clear itself out until only around fifty are remaining. It looks like, for the most part, they don’t work together well, and quickly glancing through the options, none of them look very enticing other than [Inferior Kinetic Energy Storage Organ] that would allow me to get hit and absorb 10% of all damage I would take from blunt weapons and use the energy I was hit with to increase my speed whenever I want.
It’s not a bad option, but I don’t really want to get hit if I can help it, and I think I want to lean into being faster and avoid getting hit at all. Carlos seems content at this point to sit back and wait for me to figure it out and answer any questions I may have. “Filter by Dexterity and Strength,” I say, creating a list of six hundred mutations. I think for now, I’m going to try and get a mutation that will help me keep from getting hit and will make me stronger offensively in the process.
I scroll through for a bit before I find a few that I like. [Surgeheart] would allow me to enable the condition [Overcharged] that would be like nitrous for my heart and body; for a short time, my Strength and Agility would be boosted by 50%; the major downside, however, is that it would also inflict [Exhaustion] on me when the effect ends, slowing me and weakening me by 35%. [Partial Fast-Twitch Muscle Conversion] would allow me to convert a decent portion of the muscle fibers in my body into ones that are more heavily suited for quick burst movements. This will increase my Strength scaling by one and my Dexterity scaling by two, but it will decrease my Vigor scaling by two since I’ll have less stamina.
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I keep scrolling through until I stumble upon [Inferior Latch Spring Muscles]. This one looks promising. It would allow me to lock my muscles into place while exerting some force on them before I decide to let go of the latch and let off an extremely powerful attack or enable me to use extremely quick movement for quick getaways. It won’t improve my Strength or Dexterity scaling or give me a lasting boost, but it will give me quick bursts that effectively double my power and dodging ability.
Carlos notices me smiling to myself and asks, “Found one you like?”
“Ever heard of the mantis shrimp?” I respond as I lock that option in. “They’re these little guys that can lock their muscles in place and fire them off with enough strength that they’re able to create small vacuums underwater that are strong enough to kill their prey even if they miss their punch. I took a mutation that basically allows me to do that with every muscle in my body.”
I ignore the small itch that forms at the base of all of my muscles as I dump my remaining stat points into Dexterity and suddenly feel much faster and nimbler as it hits 189. I look around at the grassy plains for a decent opportunity to show Carlos what these bad boys are capable of, as he says, “I’m not quite sure I’m following, but it sounds like you’re happy with your choice. Keep in mind, a lot of mutations can be taken again to improve upon them, but I’d heavily recommend a defensive choice for your next one. There’s only so much dodging you can do.”
“That’s kind of what I was thinking. Also, let me give you a quick demonstration of what these new muscles are capable of,” I say as the itch fades.
I squat down and jump as high as I can, easily reaching higher than twenty feet in the air. I land on the balls of my feet with my knees slightly bent to absorb the shock and say, “That’s just my Strength. Now, look over there; you see that hill?”
“Yeah, I think so. You can’t be serious, though. You don’t really think it’s going to make you strong enough to jump thirty yards?” Carlos says, laughing slightly at the prospect.
“Well, I won’t just be jumping to be fair,” I say with a sly grin.
“Go on then; let's see what this mantis shrimp ability can do,” Carlos says with a roll of his eyes.
I crouch down and draw back my arms, locking my chest, triceps, and the front of my shoulders in place. I hold the position as I lean forward and lock my quads, glutes, and calves in place. I begin straining against the latch mechanisms in my body as I lean just a little bit further. The moment I begin to fall forward, I release the latches in my arms and chest, followed immediately, at the moment my fists slam into the ground by all of the ones in my legs.
The immediate effects are a bit painful, as even with only punching the dirt, I definitely punched harder than I ever have before, and my knuckles are going to be bruised at best based on how they feel. My legs straighten faster than I was prepared for, even with knowing a good bit about how they should function. Magically altered strength and the biomechanical peak of force generation in the animal kingdom combine into a jump that has me shooting well over a hundred feet into the air.
Unfortunately, even with my new Dexterity boost, aiming a new ability like this isn’t the easiest thing in the world, and I undershoot the hill by a solid 20 feet. I splatter into a nearly dried-up pond that’s almost solely mud, taking a sizeable chunk of damage as I do.
“Fucking ow. It’s, uh, kinda hard to aim your body when you’re firing it like a gun,” I say as Carlos walks up laughing at me covered in mud from head to toe. “I’ll get the hang of it, and it’ll be worth the learning curve!” I assert confidently, “If there’s one thing I know how to make work for me, it’s muscles, and these are just new muscles!”
-
After I clean up, Carlos continues coaching me through different battles against eight more Minotaurs, emphasizing different ideas and combat styles so he can figure out which ones work for me. It seems he actually thinks I’ll be able to keep up with the rest of The Misfits.
After the last Minotaur he has me fight, I’ve acquired nine [Minotaur Greatsword], [Minotaur Shield], and [C Grade Mana Crystal] each, and also an [Amulet of Protection] that allows me to block the first attack I receive per day with a magical barrier as long as it deals less than 5000 damage. I’ve also gained five more Levels leaving me at fifty. “I think that’s probably enough training for you today. I’ll let your thick seventeen-intelligence skull slowly absorb everything, and maybe I’ll take you diving again in a week,” he says as he laughs at his own joke.
“Yeah, I really put the meat in meathead with my Intelligence that low and my Strength that high,” I say with a laugh. I walk past him as he suddenly stops. I turn to him and ask, “Everything good, bro?” Suddenly a notification pops up interrupting me.
[+1 Charisma]
We both say to each other in sync, “Why did my Charisma stat just go up?”