“Well then, five points to Dexterity it is.“ Alan said with a shrug, none too confident with his decision. He knew he needed to start allocating his Free Status Points with care. Having left the (G-Stage) behind, it was probably not the best look that he had yet to start working towards a more permanent build. Hells, he couldn't even be sure that Dexterity worked the way he assumed it did.
Which was another issue he was leaning towards bringing up to Suong. Maybe. Well, honestly, probably not... I already know the gist of what my Stats do. Besides, counting on Su'ong to provide me with all the answers just feels... Lazy. The Tutorial Town will most likely have have the information I need to fill in the gaps of what I've already figured out, and Dexterity is one of my lowest Stats... Fuck it. Definitely can't be worse than Luck. That, at the least, made him feel a little better about the decision.
His Points allocated, there was still something bothering him. He'd only been given a total of five Free Status Points. Reaching Level 2 in the (G-Stage) had provided ten after all. Perhaps he was just being greedy, but he felt like a naughty child who recieved a lump of coal for Christmas. It seemed a bit of a low blow.
“What's that all about?“ He couldn't help feeling short-changed. After receiving forty Free Stat Points for his last Level in the (G-Stage), it was fair to say that he'd likely become spoiled.
Even to his reptilian senses, the Chub's innards smelled awful. No matter how furiously he scrubbed his hands, it just wouldn't go away. The stench was making it hard to concentrate. Reminiscent of an intense mixture of sickly-sweet fruit, and an overused and under-cleaned outhouse, it didn't even smell like fish. Any thought of collecting more for food purposes were immediately scrapped.
“Yuck. Yeah, no thanks.“ He turned up his nose, and wrapped the the ripe remains in a piece of Plantain leaf. While the wretched-smelling thing was certainly not fit for human consumption, the Banded Roc seemed to like them just fine.
Speaking of Banded Roc's, he now had fresh, cleaned meat. Only there was still nothing to cook on. Alan was going to have to improvise. After some thought, he decided to keep it simple, and get it done quick. Stacking up a tall pile of stones on either side of the fire pit seemed to be the best solution for both the short, and long term. A quick way hang a few spit roasted Rocs was the main benefit, but later on, they could be repurposed to build a proper stove of he felt so inclined.
It wasn't like he had any seasonings to work with, so all that was left was impaling the cleaned Rocs on a long stick. Each end of his Roc kebab was balanced on one of the stone piles, placing the prepped birds directly over the open flame.
“That should work just fine!“ Alan said with a grin. A few more sticks were added to fuel the fire, now it was a waiting game. Aside from rotating the kebab every so often, there wasn't much he could do. The rest was up to the flames, and the sizzle of roasting fat let him know they were already hard at work. The smell of smoke, and cooking meat filled the air For just a moment, Alan could almost let himself pretend that he was back at home.
It was all just a bad dream. The Tutorial, the Sandstone Palace Dungeon, that meddling dickbag Zalbohg The Impure, all of it. Uncle Alex was roasting up some Flash-foot rabbits, and perhaps later on, he would talk the boys into smoking a bit of reefer.
“I could do a joint or two right about now…” Alan mumbled wistfully. Alas, there would be no joints anytime in the near future. Not only could he not afford the lapse in focus, but with his luck, the moment he sparked up would be when the next trap was sprung. With my Stats, who knows if it would even work...
The side of the Roc kebab facing the fire was already turning a nice golden brown. Droplets of grease were starting to drip into the flames, releasing a savory scent, and causing the fire to sizzle and pop.
Once the birds were starting to look a bit charred, Alan realized he needed to figure out somewhere to allow them to cool. Spotting a solution, he grabbed the massive, velvety plantain leave that he'd already torn the corner off of. It was easily big enough to use as both a bed and blanket, so it would be more than enough room to cool his meal.
As far as food went, the Rocs were absolute trash. They smelled great, but the meat was dry and tasteless. Some seasoning would've been a welcome addition, though he knew it would do nothing to help with the dry, stringy texture. If he wasn't so hungry, he would've happily hucked them out into the lake.
Complaints aside, Alan's hunger saw him stripping the first Roc down to nothing but bones. “The Scorpions taste so much better than you do.“ Alan complained to a fistful of bones, and tossed them, along with the rest of the scraps out into the lake. “Y'all can have this shit too.“ Alan snarled and discarded the leftover Rocs. Two splashes preceded the remaining roasted birds being torn apart in a brief, yet chaotic feeding frenzy.
It was wasteful, and he knew it. Hells, the sad truth of it was that he'd prefer to tire out his jaw gnawing on some jerky than to eat any more of that crap. “There has GOT to be something better to eat around here…” Alan groaned. The plantains were good enough, yet the thought of another bout of explosive diarrhea was too much of a deterrent.
A sudden pulse of energy drew Alan's eyes to Su'ong's cocoon. The unexpected outburst was strong enough to flatten the grass in a wide area, rudely awakening the Roc sleeping atop the cocoon in the process. The groggy bird was blown backwards by a wall of pressure, and landed upside-down in the grass with a confused squawk. Several minutes passed by, yet for a while, no further pulses followed the first. It seemed she wasn't quite ready to wake up, but it was enough for Alan to comfortably assume that it was only a matter of time.
As he watched the disgruntled Roc pick itself up off the floor and glare up at its uncooperative perch, Alan knew he should probably do something to help. If it kept falling, that stupid bird was going to injure itself. He wasn't quite ready to admit it, but he was growing attached to the Roc. With a Class Scroll that had a focus on beast taming, it seemed like a perfect opportunity to start getting some practice in.
Besides, while the bird might've been a greedy, thieving asshole, it was pretty damned good in a fight. That crazy movement Skill could really come in handy for sneak attacks. And Aan needed any advantage he could get. While he might not know what that Skill actually did, Alan would have to be blind to not realize the Roc's potential usefulness.
While he still had a fire going, Alan picked a suitable branch out of his wood pile and fashioned it into a spear. For the next ten minutes he hardened the tip of his poorly-crafted spear in the dying flames. When Su'ong's cocoon emitted another, far more powerful burst of energy that flattened the surrounding grass in a much larger area, and nearly toppled him over, Alan knew the time was near. There's no way it's been twelve hours already...
When another surge of power was released, Alan tossed his confusion, along with his spear, aside and watched with squinted eyes as the cocoon lit up with a dazzling inner glow. As the pulses grew more frequent, the leathery brown surface soon glowed like a small amber sun. The Roc shrieked in what he could only assume to be fear, and before Alan realized what was going on, the stupid thing had already flown over, and perched itself on the top of his head.
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Facing what it once considered a fine perch, yet was now the object of its sudden distrust, the Roc lowered its head far enough to obstruct Alan's view of the unfolding situation, and chirped nervously.
"Don't you shit on me again," Alan covered his eyes and muttered. Despite how large it looked, he was surprised by how light the Roc felt. Without waterlogged feathers, he doubted it weighed more than twenty pounds at most.
When at last the light faded, Alan found it was hard to believe what his eyes were showing him.
******
When Su'ong opened her eyes, her brain couldn't comprehend what she was looking at. Had she woken up in a dream? It didn't feel like one, but it wouldn't be the first time she'd woken up, only to find she was still asleep. While infrequent, the occasional lucid dreams were nothing new, or surprising. Especially when taking into consideration that the majority of her time during the last few years had been spent sleeping away her ceaseless boredom.
When something green brushed against her face, Su'ong noticed that she was laying in a bed of crushed grass so soft, it might as well have been silk. The whole situation immediately struck her as odd, yet quickly grew to be unsettling. Perhaps this was a dream after all. Because aside from a layer of suprisingly powerful energy shields separating her from the false sun and sky above, a curtain of tall grass was all she could see.
It was everywhere. No matter which way she turned her head, a slightly swaying wall of pale green grass blocked off all details of her new surroundings. One thing was certain. Someone was standing out there. Watching her, while staying hidden just out of sight. She wasn't sure how she knew, but there was no mistaking it. Some instinctual sense, like a warm glow in the pit of her navel that clearly stated that this wasn't an ominous presence.
In fact, the more she thought about it, there was something distinctly familiar about whoever it was that was out there. A sudden torrent of memories stormed through her mind, clearing away the fog of sleep. The Earth Wyrm's attack. Gaea's Realm, and agreeing to undergo a Soul binding ritual. Those were the last things she fully remembered. Everything else was little more than a blur of pain and confusion.
Though it took a moment, her brain finally put two and two together. It was Alan. It had to be. Though something was definitely off about him. The figure she was sensing gave of an energy signature the likes of which she had never before witnessed, and its presence almost felt like that of her own. She couldn't help but wonder, why did Alan suddenly feel more Beast-Folk than he did a Human? Had Gaea's worries actually come true?
Alan… What happened to you? Were you forced to endure the harsh side effects we were warned against?
As her worries grew, more than ever, she hoped it was all a dream. Yet as the seconds ticked by, it became more and more obvious that the System didn't much seem to care about her wants. The obscene flashing of unseen system notifications finally caught her attention. That was new. As far as Su'ong knew, never before had she recieved a notification in her dreams. Unless, like the vast majority of everything else, she had simply forgot all about it after waking up.
With a wary eye on her surroundings, Su'ong skimmed over her notices, hoping to glean enough information to make a proper assessment of exactly what was going on. Unfortunately, the notifications were enough to prove that this was all too real. Her plans of skimming turned into an in-depth search for answers.
*WARNING!* You have permanently bound another Soul to that of your own! This has brought about mutations in the fundamental make-up of your Spirit, and altered the trajectory of your Evolutionary Path! An influx of Spiritual Energy far below your Evolutionary Grade has decreased the potency of your Spirit! Your physical form has been adapted to mirror the Spiritual alterations.
*WARNING!* Due to a severe loss of Spiritual potency, and an abrupt departure from your individualized Evolutionary Path, All (F-Stage) Evolutionary progress has been lost.
*WARNING!* All accumulated Experience Points, and All Skill Levels have been consumed to provide the requisite Evolutionary energy needed to reset your Evolutionary Path. You have once more ascended the first step of the Heavenly ladder. Your body has been reacclimated to the Energy-rich environment of the Multiverse.
*WARNING!* You have been forcibly returned to Level 1. CALCULATING BASE STATS… ERROR! Due to binding your Spiritual Wellspring to that of System User Designation (Alan Gerald Robbins), your very existences have been inextricably linked. Unable to accurately gauge the the appropriate baseline for your individual Base Stats.
CALCULATING LEVEL 1 BASE STATS OF USER (ALAN GERALD ROBBINS) FOR USE AS A BASELINE… SUCCESS! Lowest Base Stat determined to be 115. Median Base Stat Determined to be 128. Highest Base Stat determined to be 206.
CALCULATING AVERAGE STATS… SUCCESS! Average determined to be 150.6 Unable to allocate partial Status points.
Remarkable! Your base Stats have been set to 150!
*WARNING!* Your contract with the Sandstone Palace Dungeon has been annulled. The Earth Attunement provided to you by the Sandstone Palace Dungeon has been revoked. You have lost access to the (Basic) Class Wandering Mini-boss, and All Wandering Mini-boss Class Skills.
Remarkable! Due to the Effects of Binding your Soul to a member of a different Race, your Race (Beast-Folk) has been modified to [Beast-Folk (Variant)]!
[Beast-Folk (Variant)]- As a Race birthed from the progeny of Evolved base monsters, they are considered by some to be the unwanted Children of the System. Because they still possess Beast Cores, they are widely distrusted among the Races of the Multiverse. In the more populous sectors, they have no more rights than any other base monster. Known to be a proud, tribal Race. A (Variant) Beast-Folk is a member of the Beast-Folk Race who has assimilated one or more characteristics of another Race. +2 to all [Beast-Folk (Variant)] Stats.
Remarkable! Due to the divergence in your Race, you have gained the [Beast-Folk (Variant)] Racial Trait- [Metabolic Shift]!
[Metabolic Shift] Many of the Reptilian variants of Beast-Folk have been known to possess the ability to not only lower their Metabolism to better endure times of famine, but some even possess the ability to raise their metabolism. Provides immunity to most diseases, poisons, and toxins. Increases Recovery rate. Increases pain resistance.
Remarkable! Due to a divergence in your Race, you have gained the [Beast-Folk (Variant)] Racial Ability [Right eye of Hygieia]!
[Right eye of Hygieia] Lvl 1- Within your right eye rests a bottomless spring of vitality, and purification. Once activated, can be used to apply the (Regen) or (Cleanse) Buffs to any target within view. You will be provided with new Buff options every 10 Skill Levels.
Strength and Duration of Buffs increase with Skill Level.
(Regen) Buff- Targets Health regeneration is increased by 1% for Duration of Buff.
Current duration: At current Level, this Buff only takes effect when wholly focused on a living target. To activate this Buff, you must first be able to see the target in its entirety.
(Cleanse) Buff- Removes longest active Debuff from target. If target has no active Debuffs, nullifies targets next Debuff.
Current duration: At current Level, this Buff only takes effect when wholly focused on a living target. To activate this Buff, you must first be able to see the target in its entirety.
Remarkable! You have been reissued the (Hidden System Quest) Ascend the Heavenly Ladder! (0/??)
Su'ong had been so caught up with worrying over the strangely new, yet also unmistakably familiar presence that she could feel watching her, that only after reading the notifications did she realize she could no longer sense her connection to the Dungeon.
Not only that, but everything she had worked for since gaining System access at sixteen-years-old had apparently been lost. There was nothing more than a raw emptiness in her chest where she assumed the Class, and maybe even the attunement that the Dungeon had provided for these last several years had once resided.
It felt uncomfortably similar to a bad case of acid-indigestion.