Mathew

No matter what dark part of his mind the idea came from, Mathew acknowledged the merit of the concept of a barbed weapon. It was the best idea so far to cause even more massive damage so that his wraith would actually die before fading away. To this end and the improved armor, Mathew worked ceaselessly to gather more reserves.

Realizing that the wraith had been wielding fear powers against him and continued to learn better fighting technique… well, it left him thinking there were more mechanics in the world than he'd discovered.

So he thought about it. Remembering the encounters wasn't all that difficult, given the monotony of scrounging through the fog did nothing to mute his memory. Crush the wraith's throat and she came right back. Break her face or stab her and he had peace for hours. Simple stuff really, but somehow the realization was lost to him in the craziness of it all.

Clearing his mind with an iron hand, Mathew looked for more connections and information. Methodically, he went through all of his status fixtures and tried to guess what the wraith status would look like. Every time he came back to reserves, it baffled him. She had to be doing plenty of healing but where is all that new mass and fuel coming from? Other than that, so much just became speculation. Was its magic why it repelled the ground or was its magic the bone-breaking aura? Still, Mathew persisted. If he could discover the wraith's weakness, he was sure he could undo it. With the wraith getting smarter, Mathew would rather end the arms race before it invented mutually assured destruction.

Having gathered a little over 500 more reserves, Mathew got back to crafting his body again. Mirroring his design from his left arm to his right, the process only needed minor adjustment to accommodate his arm blade. Ignoring the first notification that popped up as he worked, the second mere minutes after drew his full attention.

[New skill awarded: Living skeleton weapon 7. Living skeleton weapon 7 overrides Living skeleton weapon 6]

[New trait gained: dual skeleton.

Possessing both an endoskeleton and an exoskeleton, you gain hybrid bonuses. Increased natural durability. Species cultivation spectrum adjusted. Human -10%, unknown +20%]

What the f- "Fixture," Mathew growled. Diving into his status fixture Mathew understood the changes, including some old ones he hadn't noticed.

[Mathew Gains Starling

Otherworld Human/Unassigned Beast Hybrid

Health 295/295 (+35)

Reserves 47

Magic digestion:

Digestion points 190/260

Body Total 22 (+3)

Strength 6

Agility 5

Durability 4 (+2 trait)

Endurance 7 (+1 training)

Mind Total 15 (+1)

Willpower 4

Cognition 3

Resistance 5 (+1 body mind reflection)

Resilience 3

Combat skills

Living skeleton weapon 7

Bone regeneration 3

Mental resistance 1

Crafting skills

Living skeleton weapon 7

Utility skills

Digestion 9]

Written in black and white, there it was. Mathew was losing his humanity. Honestly, he'd thought it would be impactful. Maybe Mathew's lack of care was due to growing up with super-powered mutants as his fictional childhood heroes. In his mind, the man he was had a lot more to do with what he chose than what he was. Also, he'd kind of seen it coming. Each crafting of bone armor made him feel less uncomfortable about the cold, just a bit less. Mathew still felt cold but it became more tolerable.

Mentally Mathew dove into Otherworld Human/Unassigned Beast Hybrid. Understanding this information was aided as much if not more than everything else he had read so far, except this contained concepts beyond words. At least beyond words in his language.

The clear words came through first. Like magic assigning a hybrid species was a permanent decision. One option would be available based on his current form. If he didn't like the option available, he'd have to change his anatomy to get closer to something else.

After the easy-to-process information came the foreign aspect. Looking at Mathew's current option of Hybrid had his mind jumping around.

First he became a hungry egg floating on the wind. Already the instinct to devour drove his boneless mass with a feral madness. A mad hunger tempered by equally mad patience. Even with the aid of the fixture, the next transition was a jumble of blood and raw flesh. Rotten mixed with fresh. Feeding from every part of his boneless body. Jumping a final time, Mathew began to build an amalgam of muscle-bound tentacles. Reaching out to the nest around himself, he latched those muscles to the bones by tendon-like webbing. Finally he grew a toothy maw, inside of which a barbed tongue ossified.

"Holy shit!" Mathew gasped for breath. His only frame of reference for this experience was a bad drug trip. Mathew's status updated.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

[Mathew Gains Starling

Otherworld Human/Unassigned Carrion beast Hybrid]

After a moment to collect himself, Mathew filed that option under desperate decision. The trail end of his understanding from the status fixture clarified that he would wield strengths and weaknesses from both lineages. Depending on the ways his form borrowed from each origin. Mathew had no clue how Leternum decided what lineage to graft onto his history.

After that, the rest of the changes seemed far more mundane. His new trait caused his durability to double. Durability caused a higher energy requirement to break an atomic bond among the molecules that made up his body. Further, it would strengthen forces and chemical reactions to overcome this new energy requirement, so long as it was part of his bodily process. Becoming too durable wasn't going to be a problem.

Looking the information over, it was far more in-depth than any he had received so far. The first time he had read it, he took it for granted. Leternum would provide status information as it did, and that was all there was to it. Now Mathew felt a need to digest the information and really understand the world around himself. This was life and death and he was leaving cards on the table.

Just like everyone who had a modern American education, he'd been exposed to the fundamentals of matter so the status fixture could explain chemical bonds, as he already had the foundation to understand. The status was shy on explaining how the magic of the world made that change happen. Mathew took that to mean he didn't have enough foundational knowledge to understand that aspect of the process.

In fact, that would explain why the notification brought up some cultivation spectrum nonsense but his status was absent that information. A mixture of pre-made messages and responsive notifications. Mathew didn't know when this information would become useful but a better map of the systems would help him navigate it better.

Training improvement to endurance was essentially him filling out to the potential he could achieve. An improvement gained by effort but it had a limit based on what he was. Would becoming a Hybrid change his limits?

Mathew didn't like the uncertainty of any answer he came up with.

Finally Mathew focused on the ball of wholeness. He'd have said it was within his chest but that also seemed wrong. Finding his health was far more accessible than tracking where it resided in relation to himself. Mathew's health had grown in size. Further, the once sandy-colored ball had taken on pearl spiral patterns. Tracking the numbers, Mathew found the easy rule of 10 health per point on body and 5 health for every point in mind.

Having done all that he could to absorb the information, Mathew went back to his mission of completing the transition phase.

Vanquishing the wraith was top on his list. So far, his attempts left what he would have called mortal wounds. Given his lack of success, he would have called them wrongly. Revising his understanding of what a mortal wound meant, Mathew, considered how to finally put his wraith in a coffin. Crushing her skull and killing the wraith in a single blow was the best option. Though he knew he couldn't make it work. Any weapon large enough to break a skull would be too slow to dodge her 'loaded' hammer strike.

Even knowing that the idea of a barbed sword may be due to some Hybrid influence, it just seemed like his best option. His weapon had to be fast. After maybe one or two stabs, the wraith would fade. Making those attacks do the most damage would give him the best chances.

So Mathew activated living skeleton weapon and began adjusting his arm sword. Repairing the old damage was a fine start but not good enough. Curling his lip, he wondered what in the world he had thought when he made this. Reinforcing the structure, more bone grew from the original arm sword. Making it sharp and pointed had been a good start but it needed some good fishhook barbs to really sink in. Molding the pale material, he added barbed blades along what had been the flat sides of the blade. It wasn't nearly long enough either.

Mathew growled when his reserves bottomed out. His weapon needed more! Gripping his health with his mind, he flexed, pouring his unnatural frustration into the act. Cracking apart the outer layer, his ball of health broke. Mathew began to question the instinct he'd fallen under as the welcome wholeness of his intact health evaporated. Channeling a begrudgingly small amount of health into the arm sword, it began to change.

Extending to a foot and a half past the end of his hand, the barbed sword took on a nastier edge. The once sharp continuous edge now serrated by vicious hooks, the effect reminded him of a spine turned weapon. The rear side of each 'blade' section widened out at the bottom splitting into two hooks. Seperating apart enough for the next 'blade' section to start.

Color began to bleed into it after its form took on a disturbing combination of spine and sword. The color reminded Mathew of a thermal image where the core changed color as it got hotter and then the edges slowly equalized. For the barbed sword, its natural pale bone gave way to a sharp silver that blended with black waves like that of a damascus knife.

Mathew traced his fingers over the barbed sword. Its edges were now sharp in a way he hadn't been able to manage before. Deep inside the core and within the black lines, he felt channels for his hunger. As his magic currently resided home within his stomach, his magic could also be here, ready to release into his prey.

My prey? Get a grip. I've got to stop thinking like that.

With trepidation Mathew looked into his status fixture

[Health 275/295 (25 reserved: Barb sword)]

Glaring at his status fixture with a very human feeling of rage, Mathew cursed in his mind.

This had better be fucking worth it! The first small series of hunger shivers ran up his spine. Sooo not worth it.

Shivering for almost half an hour before he found a patch of 'food,' Mathew resolved to never let some stupid instinct take control. This was just like his first date all over again.

Lashing out, he stabbed the pile of muck with his new barbed sword. Hunger channeled ever so naturally through the blade. His magic didn't have to travel from his stomach to the sword. It was almost as though the core of the sword and his stomach were the same space. For all he knew, they were now.

Black lines lit up purple from the inside and tiny wisps of purple hunger fog leaked out across its length. Most of the hunger magic though was pulled along inside the blade itself. Guided without the force of his willpower, it concentrated over the scum with precision and control Mathew hadn't managed yet. One moment his food was skewered, the next it was gone.

Mathew let out a manic laugh. All this time and finally, he felt he had a lethal weapon. He was sure of it now, he was ready to kill his hammer hand wraith.