Xavier gripped the Rhinoceros Monkey horn in his hand.
Dismantle has reached Rank 21!
Dismantle has reached rank 22!
He grinned. The horns were sharp. Sharp enough that he could use them to cut through the beasts. He was working on cutting through the tenth beast now, gaining roughly two ranks for every beast he carved through. The properties were gathering beside him in a pile. Horns. Claws. Teeth. Tails. Eyes. Bones.
It was gruesome work, but each time he gained another rank, with that rank came something else… understanding. Not just of how to cut and where to cut, but of the beast’s anatomy.
This is a strange feeling.
He kept at it. Hours must have passed within that bubble as he dismantled every single one of the three hundred beasts he’d slain. The Dismantle skill’s ranks started to slow right down once he’d reached Rank 50, to the point where he didn’t know how he was going to keep pushing it up. Something told him the skill would need to be used on different beasts for it to get stronger than it was.
But to have gained forty-nine ranks in a single skill while he was in the time bubble? Well, that seemed like an amazing enough feat on its own.
The pile of fragments and parts only grew until it was something that looked… rather unmanageable. He didn’t know how many of the things he wanted to keep and sell to the store. He supposed all of it. There was no point letting any of it go to waste.
He had two of the more perfect horns on the ground near the pile, stuck fast in the earth. He would have a use for them soon.
But now that he had dismantled every single beast corpse he could reach, there was something else he needed to do.
He needed to use his Assimilate Properties skill.
He ground down one of the horns, using another horn to do so. It was painstaking work, but it was something that he relished. When he had created a thin powder of the stuff, he withdrew a bottle of water from his Storage Ring and put the powder inside of it. He swirled it around and tried to pretend it was some kind of protein drink.
Aren’t rhinoceros horns considered an aphrodisiac? he thought before downing the bottle, wincing as the contents hit his taste buds.
It didn’t go down easy. God, it tasted terrible.
But he’d consumed it.
He tilted his head from side to side and felt the skill work. Felt his body adapting to what he’d just done. Eating the fragments tended to be the easiest way for him to assimilate them. He’d done the same thing on multiple occasions when he’d been fighting the Endless Horde back on the fifth floor.
Xavier frowned as time passed with nothing happening, until…
Attempting to assimilate Rhinoceros Monkey horn into muscular structure.
The material you are assimilating has various properties.
You may only draw from one.
Choose from the following:
1. Piercing Damage
2. Headbutt Damage
Xavier frowned. Headbutt damage? He shook his head and couldn’t help but chuckle at the thought of him using such a tactic in a fight. He didn’t think it was normal for Denizens with a class in the Reaper line to fight with their head… at least, not literally.
No, Headbutt Damage didn’t seem like something that would come in handy for him.
But Piercing Damage… that would definitely help him, especially when he had his Midnight Scythe back.
Xavier chose the one he wanted.
Assimilation is complete.
Biological impurities of Rhinoceros Monkey Horn have been assimilated into muscular structure.
You have gained the trait: Piercing Damage
You have gained +20 Strength!
You have gained +20 Toughness!
You have gained +20 Willpower!
Assimilate Properties has reached Rank 26!
Xavier took a step back. Shook his head. That felt good. Really good. He hadn’t gained as many attribute points as he wished he could gain, but those points had been essentially free, and there were still more different properties from the beast that he could use to infuse into himself.
He could also infuse the same property multiple times. When his skill had been Rank 25, he’d been able to assimilate the same property ten times. The Elemental Hydra Fang had given him +4 to each attribute it boosted every time he assimilated the property again.
Xavier grinned, and kept working.
He assimilated the Rhinoceros Monkey’s claw, its tooth, and finally, its tail—and he assimilated each of them up to his current cap of ten.
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The claw and tooth provided him with the same bonus as the horn—with each part he gained that gave him piercing damage, it strengthened the bonus that trait had.
And more Toughness and Strength was always welcome.
The tail, however, was different. It had only one quality to choose from—Grip Strength.
It wasn’t on the top of Xavier’s list of things he thought he needed to improve about himself, but something told him it would come in handy…
Especially when it came to tearing his Midnight Scythe out of the hands of that damned Alpha Rhinoceros Monkey.
Unfortunately, once he had assimilated the different properties from the Rhinoceros Monkeys ten times each, he couldn’t keep using the Assimilate Properties skill. He didn’t have any more properties to assimilate. It had gained ten ranks, bringing it to Rank 35, and that he was grateful for, as with each rank of the skill he gained, it strengthened all of his assimilated properties, giving +2 to every attribute that was boosted with each rank.
He took a moment to stop and look at his Assimilate Properties skill.
Assimilate Properties – Rank 35
This is an epic skill that grants you the ability to assimilate foreign properties into your body, mind, and soul if the perfect conditions are met.
List of Current Assimilated Properties:
F Grade - Wolven Fang - +96 Strength
F Grade - Wolven Claw - +96 Speed
F Grade - Crucible Steel - +96 Toughness
F Grade - Sandstone - +96 Toughness
F Grade - Winged Bear Fang - +96 Strength
F Grade - Winged Bear Claw - +96 Toughness
F Grade - Winged Bear Feather - +96 Speed
F Grade - Giant Spider Pincer - +96 Strength
F Grade - Giant Spider Eye - +96 Intelligence
F Grade - Chimera Fang - +96 Strength
F Grade - Chimera Tooth - +96 Speed
E Grade - Elemental Hydra Fang - +124 Strength, Toughness, and Willpower
Trait: Tissue Regeneration
E Grade - Elemental Hydra Claw - +124 Intelligence, Willpower, and Speed
Trait: Passive Elemental Damage (Fire)
E Grade - Rhinoceros Monkey Horn - +124 Strength, Toughness, and Willpower
Trait: Piercing Damage
E Grade - Rhinoceros Monkey Tooth - +124 Strength, Toughness, and Willpower
Trait: Piercing Damage
E Grade - Rhinoceros Monkey Tail - +124 Strength, Toughness, and Willpower
Trait: Grip Strength
E Grade - Rhinoceros Monkey Claw - +124 Strength, Toughness, and Willpower
Trait: Piercing Damage
Reading through all of the attributes he’d gained from the skill, Xavier couldn’t help but shake his head. The skill, for sure, was overpowered. Why he’d ever stopped using it…
But as he’d assimilated the properties, and as the skill had ranked up, he’d felt changes in his body—not just the changes that came from gaining more attributes, though they had been there as well.
When he had first used this skill, it had changed him. His fingernails had grown longer and sharper, as had his teeth, and his skin had gained a grey tint.
Much of those changes had been smoothed out when he’d advanced to E Grade, but now that he was using the skill again—and with E Grade components… it felt like something was changing within him once more.
He looked down at his fingernails. Had they grown longer? Tougher? Sharper? He ran his tongue over his teeth. Did they feel different?
He was struggling to tell.
Xavier looked at his hand. The skin… it did look more grey.
The older version of Xavier he’d encountered had looked perfectly human. Did that mean this would not ultimately change him, or did it simply mean that version of himself had walked down a different path?
If it’s the latter, whatever path he walked down led him to seeking me out because he failed. If this path is different, then I should walk it.
He turned to the pile of dismantled beast parts, pushing away thoughts on how he might be changing. He could address those later. Right now, he had a job to do. As all of the items in the pile were touching each other, he was able to gather them into one of his spare Storage Rings with a single touch.
With that done, Xavier walked toward the edge of the time bubble. When he’d dropped to the ground, he’d fallen into the middle of the stampede. There were still many hundreds of Rhinoceros Monkeys left. He could see his soul puppets among them—every single one of them was frozen.
Xavier contemplated his plan. As he’d been dismantling all of the beasts and assimilating their properties into his body, he’d also been thinking about how he was going to get himself out of this mess.
Hours had passed within the bubble, but his Time Alteration spell was strong enough that he still had many more at his disposal. He would have to use them wisely.
He tilted his head from one side to the other, cracking it sharply. He’d used Soul Strike to kill the beasts within this bubble, but that wasn’t something he wanted to keep doing. That Alpha Rhinoceros Monkey… Soul Strike might end up being the best spell for Xavier to use on it, even if it did mean depleting much of the reserve he’d been trying to regain.
Better to deplete my reserve than die trying to guard it.
The two horns that he’d left stuck in the ground were still there. He grabbed them now, pulling them out of the dirt. He held them tightly, one in each hand. He tested his grip on them. It felt strong. Stronger than before? He couldn’t tell—but it must have been with the Grip Strength trait that he’d gained, not to mention all the extra points in Strength.
Stepping back to the edge of the bubble, Xavier mentally prepared himself for what he was going to do next. It certainly wasn’t what his class was designed for, but what else was he going to do right now? He needed to kill every single one of these damned Rhinoceros Monkeys, and he needed to do it without the alpha’s interference.
This was the only way that he could think to do that.
Xavier expanded the bubble of time. Only slightly—just enough to let in the nearest pair of Rhinoceros Monkeys.
The Rhinoceros Monkeys charged at him. Up this close, he could see the unmitigated fury written on their faces. There was a deep anger in the beasts, one that the Alpa Rhinoceros Monkey had shown the most.
Xavier had had the audacity to disturb them, and now every single one of their number wanted him dead.
Xavier met the anger with a grin. His fingers wrapped around the horns in his hands, he burst forward, using his superior speed to easily dodge the beasts’ joint attacks. Tails whipped toward him; horns tried to skewer him. He avoided it all, and he did it with ease.
With his right hand, he plunged the horn into the head of the first beast. The horn pierced the beast’s tough grey skin, driving through its skull and sinking into the brain hidden within.
The beast’s death was not instant—Xavier wasn’t able to one-hit these things with physical attacks.
Not yet.
Xavier drove the second horn into its skull, piercing its brain once more.
That’s when the beast died.
Xavier watched the light in its eyes dim and widened his own. Two hits? He had killed this beast in two hits? He hadn’t expected such a thing to be possible. He didn’t currently have his Spiritual Trifecta spell active, so it wasn’t boosting his attributes. He also hadn’t used Telekinetic Enhanced Strike. He didn’t see the point in using either one of those skills. Stuck within the time bubble, neither of them would be able to cooldown. He would only be able to use each of them once—it wouldn’t be worth it unless he was in some kind of trouble, and using the spells got him out of it.
He didn’t have time to stare at the beast and ponder what he’d done. He moved swiftly, taking out the other Rhinoceros Monkey.
He’d only let two of the beasts into his bubble of time. He’d needed to test how effective these horns were. The two beasts dead on either side of him, Xavier’s chest rose and fell, his breathing heavy despite the fact that he wasn’t out of breath.
Even with his scythe staff, his physical attacks hadn’t been that strong unenhanced. He had gained many attributes… but was it the Piercing Damage trait that had changed so much for him?
Or was there something else going on here?
His heart thudded in his chest. His blood surged through his body. He had a lust for battle, one he hadn’t felt in a long while. It was threatening to take him over. There was a part of him that wanted to drop the time bubble altogether, so that he could face the entire herd at once.
These beasts were beneath him. He could crush them all.
Patience. Order your thoughts.
Xavier took a deep, intentional breath, and instantly felt calmer.
He looked down at his hand. At his fingers. His eyes widened at what he saw—his nails had… turned into claws? But right now, they were shortening, almost retracting.
What’s happening to me?
He’d definitely gained more than he’d bargained for with the Assimilate Properties skill.