After going through the Cores and absorbing them, Dominic was pretty pleased with their haul. He hadn’t thought that Sekhmet would go as far as to collect the Cores for him, but he was very grateful she had.
Encountering some of the creatures who had given him his first Abilities had been quite profitable in more ways than one. There had been a fair bit of crossover between the secondary and tertiary Abilities of the trodils and meerkats, particularly for Abilities already on his list but not yet fully acquired. It was a good thing they had a level up ready and waiting for them.
Frankly, he was very glad that he’d be able to reduce one of his lists – at the expense of extending the other. Then again, when that meant he had more Abilities to choose between, was it a bad thing?
Temperature Tolerance (100% to level 1) Level up to acquire Ability
Rage (100% to level 1) Level up to acquire Ability
Bleed (100% to level 1) Level up to acquire Ability
Enhanced Fertility (100% to level 1) Level up to acquire Ability
Fleet Foot (100% to level 1) Level up to acquire Ability
Flash Step (100% to level 1) Level up to acquire Ability
Pack Attack (100% to level 1) Level up to acquire Ability
Tearing Bite (100% to level 1) Level up to acquire Ability
Sharp Tooth (100% to level 1) Level up to acquire Ability
Camouflage (100% to level 1) Level up to acquire Ability
‘I’m going to get them mixed up,’ Leo rumbled as he looked at the list of Abilities they would be able to acquire.
Well, that could be a downside of having too many Abilities, Dominic supposed. Though if Selessa’s words were right, the Place of Power might be useful with that too.
‘We don’t have to use them all together, and certainly not all the time,’ Dominic pointed out. ‘But if the time comes up when, say, having an extra boost of speed and strength for a short time would be useful, it would be good to have Rage.’
‘As long as we don’t mind becoming literally enraged,’ Leo pointed out. Dominic sent him a feeling of ambivalence.
‘If we need it, we need it. We’ll face the consequences after. At least it’s not as risky as Bloodied Stalwart. And I’m rather excited about Camouflage.’
‘Good for hunting alone, less good for hunting together,’ Leo, aka Party-Pooper said.
‘Unless everyone else has it or something like it too,’ argued Dominic. ‘Several of our Pride already have Stealth. We’ve also got the possibility of sharing Abilities through the Pride Enhancement system, and if we can get Group Enhancement somehow, we’ll be able to do it through that too. Or potentially even through the Place of Power later on.’
‘I suppose,’ Leo agreed begrudgingly.
‘And look! You’ve finally got Enhanced Fertility.’
Dominic hadn’t managed to get any full Abilities from the crocodiles – there were too many different Abilities and not enough Cores which gave the same ones. Still, he’d managed to make a good inroads on Extended Breath.
Keen Senses (98% to level 1)
Dominant Chirp (69% to level 1)
Burrow (42% to level 1)
Ambush (21% to level 1)
Death Roll (44% to level 1)
Extended Breath (66% to level 1)
Quick Snap (22% to level 1)
Famine (22% to level 1)
He was rather intrigued by Famine – it allowed a creature to slow down their metabolism to endure long periods of time without food or water. They wouldn’t be able to react quickly to an attack and it would take time to get into and out of that state, but it could be an interesting response if there actually was a famine or risk of overhunting. Unlike Wide Diet, he might be able to share it with others in the Pride if he managed to get it. Unfortunately, there hadn’t been many Cores with it and only one of those had given percent towards it.
As well as the new Abilities and working towards gaining previously encountered Abilities, Quick Strike, Crushing Bite, and Enhanced Stamina had all received a boost beyond what they’d earned from use alone. The higher level Abilities required more Cores to make a difference to the percentages, but every little helped. None had increased by as much as a level, though.
Deciding to get all the Ability-related business out of the way, Dominic inspected the Ability orb from the other room.
[Ability orb: Mapping (T2)]
‘Well, that’s intriguing,’ Dominic commented. ‘And very different from anything else we’ve seen so far.’
[Mapping (T2): Become able to recollect places visited more easily and to build a personal mental map of them in relation to other places.
‘Hah,’ huffed Leo in amusement. ‘Even the dungeon knows you’re bad with directions!’
‘Shut up,’ Dominic told him defensively, already absorbing the orb. Teasing from Leo aside, it definitely sounded like something handy to have. ‘I bet it offers this to everyone coming through.’
‘Don’t you remember the gorget? And how the bracelets have been made for beasts specifically? We concluded ages ago that the dungeon does adapt some of its rewards to us. Face it, brother, you need a map to get anywhere and the dungeon knows it.’
‘Anyway,’ said Dominic, trying to change the subject. ‘We haven’t got time to waste. How about two enhancements to Enhanced Regeneration? I have to admit that I’m very nervous about the venom of this boss,’ suggested Dominic.
‘I’d agree to one enhancement to Enhanced Regeneration, yes,’ Leo agreed. ‘But I think we still need to dedicate another enhancement to Nervous System or Brain, especially with all these new Abilities to consider.’
‘Or,’ said Dominic thoughtfully, ‘perhaps to Wings. Being able to drop down on this spider from above might come in useful.’
‘Are you listening to me?’ demanded Leo. ‘We need to have the ability to actually use these Abilities we’re going to have. And have you forgotten about space issues? How do you suggest using our massive wings in that small room? We’d be better just jumping on top of it, if you insist on attacking from above.’
‘Good point,’ Dominic agreed, feeling a little embarrassed about having forgotten to take that into account. ‘Alright, so Regeneration and Brain?’
‘Do you think that Brain will be a better choice than Nervous System?’ checked Leo.
‘For the reasons you’re talking about? Yes. It will allow us to think faster in the middle of the action, which would help with the coordination of Abilities – something we’ve already struggled with a bit. Nervous System would only improve our reaction speed itself. We’ll have to test out the Abilities themselves to see whether we need physically faster reactions too in future level-ups.’
‘Then we are agreed,’ responded Leo with an air of satisfaction.
‘Alright, here goes,’ Dominic answered, activating the level up. He quickly selected Enhanced Regeneration and Brain, then quickly moved onto the Abilities.
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[You have 9 new Abilities available to be acquired. First new Ability: Rage (T0). Would you like to acquire this Ability?]
‘Yes.’
[Second new Ability: Bleed (T1). Would you like to acquire this Ability?]
‘Yes.’
[Third new Ability: Enhanced Fertility (T0). Would you like to acquire this Ability?]
‘Yes!’ answered Leo with excitement. But since Dominic was still in control, it didn’t do anything. Sending the leonine presence the mental equivalent of a glare, Dominic echoed his companion.
‘Yes.’
The next two Abilities – Fleet Foot and Flash Step – followed the same process. The only difference was that Flash Step required some minor physiological changes which Dominic agreed to, deciding to keep the actual Ability the same.
The next Ability, Pack Attack, was slightly different. Honestly Dominic had expected it.
[You have chosen to acquire Pack Attack. You have an Ability which has adequate synergy with Pack Attack: Group Attack. Would you like to combine these Abilities? Note: features of these Abilities may be changed or maintained. Note: the final product may be better, worse, or equivalent to the Abilities singularly.]
Dominic hesitated for a moment in case Leo had something to say. However, all was quiet in the peanut gallery, so he quickly went ahead. So far the System had always improved the Ability when they were combined; why not now too?
The next Ability had the same notification appear when he agreed to go forward with it.
[You have chosen to acquire Tearing Bite. You have an Ability and an Ability in the course of being acquired which have adequate synergy with Tearing Bite: Sharp Nip; Sharp Tooth. Would you like to combine these Abilities? Note: features of these Abilities may be changed or maintained. Note: the final product may be better, worse, or equivalent to the Abilities singularly.]
Once more Dominic paused for a couple of seconds, then went ahead. Interestingly, neither of those Abilities required any physiological changes.
Accepting Camouflage was the last of the new Abilities, and his level up quickly took over.
The pain was minor and drowned out by the pleasure of the level up itself. When the blurring around him resolved itself, he stretched luxuriously and then decided to check out his new Abilities. There were always a few changes compared to the System descriptions when they were only Cores.
Starting with the first combined Ability, he saw that ‘Group’ and ‘Pack’ Attack had now become ‘Pride’ attack, fittingly. And it turned out that the addition had changed it in several ways, the least being increasing it by a level.
Pride Attack (T0 –> T1) level 4 –> 5 (7% –> 44% to level 5) – 12% –> +30% to offensive damage dealt when you fight with other members of your Pride during an attack or defence. +5% to all beings in the same attack or defence who are registered as being in the same Pride as you.
‘Am I reading that right, Leo? Does everyone in the attack get an increase in offensive damage, as long as they’re part of my Pride?’
‘When they’re in the same attack or defence, I would say so,’ Leo agreed. ‘And look at how much the offensive damage has increased.’
Dominic looked at it, first impressions seeming great. Then he thought back to what it used to be.
‘Wait, actually, I don’t think that’s as good.’
‘But it’s thirty percent instead of twelve percent.’ Leo sounded confused. ‘That’s better, isn’t it?’
‘On the face of it, yes. But didn’t the old description say that it was ‘per other being’? This is just a flat rate as long as I’m fighting as a group. That’s worse.’
‘Well, it does warn that combining Abilities can lead to them getting worse,’ Leo reminded him, though Dominic could tell he was a bit grumpy about it too. Hopefully. being able to buff his Pride members would at least partly make up for that, though. ‘What about the other combined Ability?’ the lion asked curiously.
Sharp Bite Attack (T0 –> T1) level 3 –> 4 (0% –> 50% to level 5) – Active effect: When using your teeth to attack an opponent you may consume stamina to offer a burst of speed. At level 4, consuming 1 SP will offer +40% speed. Consume 3 SP for +65% speed. Passive effect: The sharpness of your teeth are enhanced during an attack: +30% to sharpness. Passive effect: Wounds made with your teeth will be 10% more damaging and harder to heal.
‘That looks pretty good,’ decided Dominic. ‘Not only can we lunge forwards, combining this Ability with Quick Strike to boost our speed even more, but whenever we use our teeth we’ll do more damage. This probably makes up for the way Group Attack has been downgraded.’
Leo grunted in agreement and they moved on.
Rage (T1) level 1 –> 1 (0% –> 0% to level 2) – Double your base speed and strength for (Ability level + 1) minutes. After the enhancement time elapses, you will undergo a period of recuperation which lasts (½ Ability level +1) minutes. During this period you will only be able to use half your base speed and strength.
Rage was much as expected. The fact that the time increased based on his Ability level was good but that the recuperation time increased too was a little annoying. That the increase was calculated according to his ‘base speed’ wasn’t something he’d seen before, but he supposed it made sense. By this point, he had several movement enhancers for different situations, so it would be hard for an Ability like Rage to take that into account. On the upside, that meant that the recuperation time wouldn’t be quite as impactful.
Bleed (T1) level 1 –> 1 (0% –> 0% to level 2) – Use 2 SP per attack to apply a bleed effect to any strike which draws blood from the opponent. A bleed effect will increase the rate at which blood flows. At level 1, this increase is +10%. The bleed effect will last (Ability level) seconds. Bleed effects can be stacked.
Bleed was much as expected, though it was good to have actual numbers to look at. Having it written in the description that the effects could be stacked was also great. At the moment, he probably wouldn’t be able to stack too many of them since they would only last a second, but if he could get it to level 10? Then he could definitely get quite a few piled on top of each other.
Enhanced Fertility (T0) level 1 –> 1 (0% –> 0% to level 2) – Multiplies the chance that a mating session will successfully conceive offspring. At level 1 this offers +10% chance that a mating session will be successful in comparison to the unaltered chances.
‘Excellent, and just in time,’ was what Leo said as they looked at Enhanced Fertility. Dominic really didn’t feel very strongly about the whole mating thing – unless ‘uncomfortable’ counted, but he was glad Leo was happy.
Fleet Foot (T0) level 1 –> 1 (0% –> 0% to level 2) – Use 3 SP per second to increase your speed by 50% in both combat and non-combat situations.
The two new movement Abilities were both interesting. Fleet Foot was the least interesting – a flat 50% increase for a stamina cost per second. Still, he could see where it would be useful, and it was his first movement Ability which didn’t require him to be in combat or trying to attack something. It would have definitely come in useful when trying to escape the crocodiles at the end of the water challenge!
Flash Step (T2) level 1 –> 1 (0% –> 0% to level 2) – Use 15 MP to flash forwards by a desired distance (within limits of the Ability level), ignoring all physical matter in the way. At level 1, the limit of the distance is your body length. Warning: if you rematerialise within an object or another being, you may do and/or suffer damage of varying levels from minor to lethal.
Flash Step, however, was far more intriguing. The only problem was that it used mana points rather than stamina and Dominic didn’t have many of those, nor could he easily regain what he did have. A single Flash Step would completely clear him out.
That said, a single Flash step was clearly a rather powerful tool. If he was interpreting the description correctly, it was basically a magical step forwards which could go through solid walls. The only problem was that if he misjudged the distance and was in a solid wall at the end of the step, he might be cut in half. He also wondered whether ‘body length’ included his tail or not – that was at least another metre to his length.
It was curious that the description also talked about ‘beings’. What if he ended a step with his paw through, say, a spider’s head? Would the spider’s head explode? Would his paw explode? Would they both explode? Because he was willing to temporarily sacrifice something to kill a creepy dog-sized spider.
And did Flash Step take anything he was carrying with him? Could he end up with the ball of his mace inside said spider’s head? Or could he grab something heavy, flash forward up into the air and then drop it?
There were lots of things he wanted to experiment with using this new Ability, but first he’d have to fix his Mana Heart and Soul.
Camouflage (T1) level 1 –> 1 (0% –> 0% to level 2) – Blend with your surroundings to reduce the chance of being spotted by an observer. Blending is more effective in areas which match your exterior in colour and pattern. At level 1, +10% to previous effectiveness of blending in all environments. Use 10 MP to reduce the chances of your opponent from spotting you by 50%. Warning, certain Abilities and Skills may not be affected by this Ability.
Finally, there was Camouflage. This one seemed to be the upgraded version of the one he’d seen all that time ago in a tiger’s Core. Once more, it required mana, though it seemed like it had a passive component that did not require anything.
He also had the two Ability orbs he’d absorbed: Temperature Tolerance and Mapping.
Temperature Tolerance (T2) level 1 (0% to level 2) – Increase your ability to tolerate different temperatures and resist temperature related effects. At level 1, you are able to tolerate +10% temperature extremes and you have a 10% resistance to temperature related effects.
Mapping (T2) level 1 (0% to level 2) – You are able to recollect places visited more easily and to build a personal mental map of them in relation to other places. At higher levels, you may be able to share your map with others. At level 1 the area mapped extends ten body lengths around you in all directions. Warning: this map is not active and therefore changes to the area after your visit will not be reflected in it. This Ability does not work in dungeons or other folded spaces.
The map would only get updated as he moved around and a quick check revealed that it would only start from now, not showing any of the places he’d been before. While not surprising, it was still a little disappointing. At least Temperature Tolerance was much as he’d expected – he guessed he would suffer a bit less under the strong midday sun, though heat-stroke might still be a concern.
Pulling up the aspects of himself that he enhanced, Dominic had a quick look there too.
- Enhanced Regeneration level 4 –> 5 (2.75 –> 3.25 HP / second)
- Brain level 6 –> 7 (Cognition speed standard measurement 8 –> 8.5)
‘Looks all present and correct,’ he commented to Leo. The lion grunted. He seemed eager to get on with it, perhaps because Dominic had outright rejected trying out Enhanced Fertility until they got out of the dungeon.
With his new Abilities, a few possible strategies had come to mind. He quickly went through them with his Pride mates. Then, all the Cores absorbed, level up completed, Abilities examined, aspects enhanced, and plans made it was time to take on a spider.
‘Please, let none of us die…’ Dominic prayed to whoever might be listening.