For sure, the lioness was fully healed and cleaned, her coat unmarred by the injuries which had previously been decorating it. Other changes would have to reveal themselves in time.
Dominic padded around the area, collecting the Cores from the resorels which had already been Consumed. In total, there were ten just lying there, glinting in the sun which he quickly licked up. The rest of them would have to be absorbed after he’d Consumed the bodies.
Though should he? After all, his health regeneration would bring him back up to full in a few minutes. Maybe he should store them for later use. He’d need to get the Cores out first, though. But perhaps he should check just how many Cores he’d need to gain their Ability – from what he remembered, he had already made progress on Sharp Nip.
Opening his status screen, he was met with a welcome surprise.
Progress to Evolution: 406/382 PP level up
‘We’ve got enough Prey Points to level up!’ he exclaimed to Leo happily.
‘Indeed. Do you have an idea of what we should improve this time?’ the lion asked.
‘Stamina, and Regeneration,’ Dominic responded immediately. ‘We’ve already established that we keep running out of stamina points and regeneration will offer us more buffer with our health.’
‘Very well, I agree,’ replied the lion. ‘Though perhaps we should consider improving our telepathy at some point.’ Dominic sent him a mental shrug.
‘We seem to be communicating with Sekhmet well enough. But yes, perhaps in the future when we don’t have more pressing concerns.’
With that so easily decided, Dominic was about to trigger the level up, when he suddenly paused. Hadn’t he gone onto his status screen to check something else?
His progress towards gaining Sharp Nip! Of course!
Dominic felt relief go through him that he hadn’t actually levelled up – he was sure he had enough Cores to gain the ability. He would have been kicking himself for the rest of the day if he’d got it to 100% but then not actually be able to acquire it because it required a level up to be fully incorporated with him.
Looking down the page, he instead looked for Sharp Nip.
Sharp Nip (50% –> 99% to level 1)
Only a single percent away! Dominic thought to himself with exasperation. He’d have really been angry with himself if he hadn’t gained it on this level up. You can take the phone away from the human, but you can’t take away the habit of being easily distracted, he thought to himself. The number of times he’d gone on his phone for one task, only to see notifications and get distracted, forgetting what he’d wanted to do in the first place….
Only needing one more percent was annoying, but Dominic had an idea of how to get it. Consuming a single resorel’s body turned out to tip the balance and he once more went to level up, choosing Heart and Enhanced Regeneration. That done, he looked at the changes to his status screen.
Status of Dominic Martin Cole / Leo
Species: Lion (body) / Human (mind), Two-Souled, Chimera
Level: Evolved Beast Level 18 Tier 2 (Path of Evolution)
Progress to Evolution: 24/420 PP level up
Satiation level: 100%
Hydration level: 100%
Health Points: 600/600
Stamina Points: 260/260
Mana Points: 15/15
Quests: A Noble Endeavour; Regain what is Lost
Acquired Abilities:
Sharp Nip (T0) level 1 (0% to level 2) – When lunging to bite at something, consume stamina to offer a burst of speed. At level 1, consuming 1 SP will offer +10% speed. Consume 3 SP for +20% speed. If the bite is to a flesh and blood creature, a Bleeding effect may be applied.
General abilities:
- Muscular Body level 8 (max speed 34 mps; max speed duration 15s) (210 –> 260 SP)
- Enhanced Regeneration level 2 (1 –> 1.75 HP / second)
He hadn’t really used any of his Abilities in that fight, so it was unsurprising that none of them had progressed at all. Sharp Nip was kind of like the watered-down version of Quick Strike – more costly and with less benefit. Though, that said, Quick Strike was at level 3 already. Sharp Nip would probably increase its benefits as it rose in level.
But honestly, the main strength of Sharp Nip, and the unique benefit it offered, was that it had the potential to apply a bleeding effect. Dominic didn’t know exactly what that meant, but he could guess – a damage over time effect which should work well with his bite attack.
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Pity it doesn’t seem to work with claws, he thought to himself with a sigh. It would be interesting to see whether he could use it together with Quick Strike. Or even better, if he could work out a way of combining the Abilities….
But that was for later, not when he was currently surrounded by blood.
At least he’d gained a nice chunk of stamina – fifty more points was more than his original pool had been in total! The benefits definitely got larger as he spent more enhancements in a certain area.
Perhaps that’s how the rhinos had had such high health even at a relatively low level: if they’d started with a good health pool, then dedicated almost every upgrade to increasing it, having almost two thousand health points wasn’t so surprising.
Speaking of his own health, he was a little disappointed that his regeneration rate hadn’t increased by two, but he supposed that a seventy-five percent increase wasn’t bad at all. That meant that in four seconds, instead of gaining four health points, he’d gain seven.
‘I still think we should put a couple more enhancements into Regeneration,’ he commented to his co-pilot.
‘Agreed, but we cannot forget everything else in favour of our health regeneration,’ the lion reminded him.
‘That’s why I think we should dedicate one of each of the next two levels’ enhancements to increasing Regeneration, and then spend the other one somewhere else,’ Dominic replied firmly.
While arguably he could become a troll of the new world – with a scary regeneration rate that would heal from most injuries in seconds – if he fell behind in terms of the damage he could deal out, he would stop being able to advance. And that could ultimately be fatal: even if he could recover from a wound in seconds, that wouldn’t help if the attack was instantly fatal. Or if he suffered from a poison which outstripped his health regeneration rate.
After all, he knew that Africa had some very scary snakes, as did Australia. And who even knew what the other planets had brought in terms of venomous blighters? Perhaps he should hold himself lucky that he hadn’t been faced with a venomous enemy yet.
However, one thing regeneration did offer: the possibility of leaning more into his speed build rather than needing to focus on defence. After all, even if the attack took a good portion of his health pool, it didn’t matter if he could regenerate that within the space of the fight.
He’d still add an enhancement here or there into his skin or fur, but mostly he would aim to enhance his speed, power, and regeneration.
‘Don’t forget the mane,’ Leo reminded him, clearly following along with his thought process. ‘Not only do the females appreciate it, but it offers good protection to one of our most vulnerable areas.’ Dominic sent him an eye roll.
‘No, I won’t forget about the mane. But don’t you want to see what it will become like naturally before enhancing too much? What if we keep lengthening it and then it ends up going all the way to our paws?’ Leo sent across the feeling of a shrug.
‘Darkening the mane won’t cause that issue.’
‘Darkening it won’t improve its defence rating, either,’ Dominic pointed out.
‘But it does improve our charisma,’ Leo returned. ‘If we wish to convince the females to come with us to take the Place of Power, a bit more charisma is surely only going to help.’ To that, Dominic had no rejoinder.
‘Alright, fine,’ he said after a moment. ‘We’ll darken our mane on one of our next level ups. Happy?’ Leo didn’t respond, but he did send the pleasurable feeling of a luxurious stretch. Dominic took that to mean that he was.
With his level ups done, Dominic started padding around the area, stopping at each resorel to crack its skull into pieces and get at the Cores within. Once he’d removed the Core, he tucked the rest of the body into his storage space.
Sekhmet, who had been watching him in interest after spending some time grooming herself, apparently decided to follow his example. She moved forwards and went for one of the resorel’s bodies.
Dominic, not wanting to lose the Core to someone who would be unable to use it, stepped into her path and blocked her route to the body. The lioness growled a little at him, trying to push her way past.
The lion just stood his ground, letting out a snarl and revealing his teeth.
‘Mine!’ he tried to project through telepathy, letting possessiveness colour the word. The lioness hesitated and backed away a couple of steps, then took a step towards another of the bodies.
Dominic once more went to block her path, growling again.
‘Mine,’ he projected a second time. Sekhmet stopped, and this time returned his communication with some frustration. Then she sent him an image of her own.
This one showed Dominic eating little shiny balls and then shimmering and getting bigger. Then she followed it up with another: herself eating the same shiny balls and equally shimmering and getting bigger. She attached the feeling of a question to it.
This was the first time that the lioness had sent Dominic an image, rather than the other way around. The lion had to put it down to her recent level ups – maybe even because she’d reached Half-Step Evolved.
The message the lioness was trying to communicate was clear. Sekhmet was pointing out that either she had seen Dominic get stronger after eating the Cores, or she was theorising that he would, and then questioning whether she could do the same. Or was questioning why she wasn’t being allowed to do the same. It was actually impressively complex; better reasoning than many young human children would be capable of.
Letting out a huff of air, Dominic responded. He sent the same image back of himself getting stronger after eating the Cores, but changed the one of Sekhmet. Still showing her eating the Cores, he removed her shimmering and getting bigger. He hoped that it would communicate well enough that they wouldn’t help her.
At least, he was pretty sure that that was the case. The knowledge of him being able to gain ‘perks’ from the creatures he killed had been written in the original System message which informed him about the ‘special circumstances’, at least. Which implied, to him, that it wasn’t something every creature could do.
Sekhmet took a moment to respond, and then sent another set of images back. The first showed three of Dominic all eating Cores and getting stronger, and was followed by the females from the pride all eating Cores and nothing happening.
Dominic took a moment to puzzle out the meaning.
‘She’s asking whether it’s a difference between males and females,’ Leo translated for him.
‘Oh. Thanks,’ Dominic told his companion.
So, in response, he sent the same image he’d sent previously, and then followed it with other images populated by male lions, female lions, and even a zebra and rhino. All of them were eating Cores, but none of them were getting stronger. It was hard to focus on so many at the same time, so he had to resort to only showing a few at once.
Sekhmet took a moment to think about it, but then sent across a feeling of acceptance. Obviously not hungry, she lost interest and went to lay down under a tree while Dominic cleared up the rest of the resorel carcasses.