Despite his severe wound, Jake remained reasonably calm as he searched the tenth floor of the building for any overlooked mana consumables. He moved swiftly, taking broad steps and occasionally checking his wounded shoulder. He could see the ragged hole gradually but slowly healing. He was acutely aware his body was consuming mana at an accelerated rate while he remained so active, but there was nothing he could do about that. He needed to find some mana consumables ASAP.

After finding nothing, he sprinted toward the staircase and bounded down the steps, taking several at a time. Upon reaching the ninth floor, he was about to begin searching but stopped himself, opting to pause and think instead. Searching was futile. He had thoroughly combed through the entire building from the first floor up to the roof, so he couldn’t have overlooked any mana consumables. He had been meticulous in his search, and his Enhanced Senses would not have allowed him to miss such valuable items.

So the only thing he could do was calm down and let his body heal naturally. He lowered himself to the floor, sitting down and leaning against the wall behind him. Now that he was completely still, his body’s mana consumption rate slowed down. Jake had noticed this pattern before—his body consumed mana at a faster rate while he was active, but when at rest, the mana consumption was much slower.

He looked at his wounded shoulder. Now that he was no longer frantically running around, his body could give its full attention to the wound, intensifying the healing process. He watched as his flesh was reconstructing itself before his eyes and the ragged hole in his shoulder was closing at an accelerated rate. About a minute later, the wound narrowed enough for the mana to cease seeping out of it. The Profuse Bleeding negative effect no longer affected him either.

A couple of minutes later, the wound finally sealed shut, leaving no scar or any mark on his obsidian-black skin at all, as if he had never been wounded. Once again, Jake couldn’t help but marvel at his body’s astonishing regenerative ability. As long as he had enough mana, it could heal even severe wounds within minutes.

He closed his eyes and summoned his character sheet to see how much mana he had left. After checking the mana count, he realized the healing process had consumed a few hundred MP—more than he had anticipated. Mana deprivation was already causing him to experience a sensation similar to hunger, which had become familiar to him by now.

Since he had his stats open, he took a moment to check them out.

Name: Jake Turner

Race: Ex-Human Morphus

Evolution Stage 1: “Primordial Form”

Level: 3

HP: 100%

XP: 320/500

SP: 0

MP: 235

Body: 3

Mind: 1

Magick: 0

Claws: Rank I (34%) (Common)

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Enhanced Senses: Rank I (46%) (Common)

Enhanced Agility: Rank I (73%) (Common)

Enhanced Intelligence: Rank I (28%) (Common)

Body was now at 3, having increased by one point after he completed the hunt. Jake realized that this was likely another reason the grave wound in his shoulder had healed so quickly—the Body attribute not only made him more resilient to damage but also improved his body’s regenerative abilities.

Jake continued to study his stats and noticed that all his skills had improved. It wouldn’t be long before he would be able to level up some of them to the next Rank. He then shifted his gaze to Claws and, with a thought, expanded the list of available upgrades.

Ability: Claws

Upgrade Options (Common):

1 - Strengthen Claws to cut through solid materials like metal. Cost: 1 SP

2 - Extend Claws by two inches for increased reach. Cost: 1 SP

3 - Significantly reduce transformation time from hands to claws. Cost: 1 SP

Completing the hunt should have granted him a free upgrade for the ability. Yet, no matter what he tried, he couldn’t seem to obtain any of the ability’s three upgrades. What the hell? What was he doing wrong?

After another failed attempt to acquire one of the upgrades for Claws, Jake closed his stats and summoned the quest menu.

Type: Hunt

Objective: Track down and defeat an elite ex-human walker.

Reward: +1 to Body (Received), +1 to Claws (Not Received)

Status: Complete

When he focused on the Claws reward, he was finally allowed to pick one of the three upgrades for the ability.

He gave the matter some thought. Each of the three upgrades was extremely useful. Which one should he choose?

He could strengthen his claws, but after pondering for a moment, he decided against it. While his claws didn’t seem overly effective against the elite walker, elite mutants were quite rare. Most of the time, he had to deal with regular mutants, which his claws could easily rip apart.

He wasn’t inclined to choose the second option either. His claws were already of adequate reach, so he was satisfied with their current length. Though he could acquire the first two upgrades later, he felt no pressing need for them for the time being.

It left him with the third upgrade, which appeared to be the most useful to him at the moment. He had already noticed that it took a few seconds for his hands to transform into claws, and vice versa. In critical situations, this upgrade could make the difference between life and death. Besides, he knew he would be able to obtain other weapons in the future. The quicker he could switch between them, the better. So he went for the third option, issuing a mental command to select the desired upgrade.

You have received an upgrade for Claws.

Jake then switched back to the info on the ability.

Claws: Rank I (34%) (Upgrades: 1 of 3) (Common)

He could obtain two more upgrades. Jake wondered whether this was the total number of upgrades for the ability or if more would be unlocked later on. He also noticed that Claws were currently of common rarity, suggesting that he might be able to upgrade them to the next rarity level at some point. At the moment, he didn’t know what requirements needed to be met before he could do that. He figured he would find out at a later time.

He opened his eyes, and all the information disappeared. He morphed his hands into claws to test out the upgrade. Now, the transformation took less than a second to complete. It was incredibly fast. One moment, he had his normal hands, and in the next, they became claws. It was amazing.

Although there were no enemies nearby, Jake chose not to morph his claws back into hands because each transformation consumed some of his mana. With less than 200 MP remaining, he wanted to conserve every bit of that precious magical energy.

The sensation of hunger intensified within him. His body yearned for mana. Descending the stairs, he realized his movements had slowed and become sluggish as it always happened when his body was running low on mana. He had to fix that fast.

After reaching the first floor and exiting the building, he saw night had already descended. His eyes could see quite well in the darkness, though. He saw there were no enemies nearby, which was a good thing. Since the little remaining mana within him was solely used to sustain basic bodily functions, he was in no condition to fight right now.

Choosing a direction, he set off on the hunt for mana.