When I opened my eyes again, I was back in the Rusty Pitch, exactly where I’d sat down, except I was drenched in cold sweat, with many towels draped over my shoulders. I needed a moment to reorient myself, confirming that the bar was empty save Isia, who sat opposite to me, gaze staring off into something only she could see, hands moving in front of her. She was clearly doing something with her neuralink. I was a bit more bothered by the extreme thirst, however, and found a large water bottle sitting next to me. I emptied it out without a second’s hesitation, then proceeded to realize a lot more had happened while I’d been out cold.
Mainly, that I wasn’t just drenched in sweat, I’d drenched the whole area. There were towels on the seat, on the floor, and on my shoulders. “What in the…?”
“Grandma Cate’s cleaning up the front, says the place’s going to open soon.” Isia spared a glance, hands suspended midair for a second. “Said if you want more water, the bathroom tap is drinkable.” There was a question in her eyes, but she was holding back from mentioning anything.
“Thanks.” I croaked, dragging myself off towards the restrooms, feeling like I needed to drink my weight in liquids. Again. I was extremely thankful the place was clean, otherwise I might have felt a bit worse at latching myself to the tap. “God, what’s wrong with me?” I asked my reflection, trying to make sense of the weird dream, and… why was I sweating so much?
And what did that ‘I see you’ mean? It had felt as if it’d been the system, and yet… not. The strangeness was not helped by the fact that all of it felt like some dream from very long ago.
Whatever the case, it didn’t look like the system had answers for me, it just waited patiently, a singular prompt floating at the corner of my vision and waiting for me to acknowledge it. Though I honestly felt like I ought to ignore it for the time being, I could practically feel the tiny prompt at the corner of my vision vibrating impatiently.
L̸e̵v̵e̸l̵ U̸p̵!
AP Storage Limit: 150 -> 200
Passive AP Per Hour: 0.25 -> 0.5 Mode Base Stat Gain (per AP): +5 -> +8 Mode Shift Penalty:
First Mode: -0
Second Mode: -1 -> -0
Third Mode (and onward): -1
I blinked at the text, trying to piece together what it meant.
From the looks of it, it looked like the system had become more efficient at its job. For one, rather than gain +5 on a stat for every AP spent, it was now +8. Similarly, where before the moment I changed modes it would impose a penalty, it looked like it would now only start penalizing starting off on the third mode onward.
The fact that the storage limit had increased was also nice, if only it’d done so proportionately to the passive AP gains… but I guess I couldn’t complain too much. It was a definite improvement all around, and it should make it far easier to get my hands on the initial round of achievements.
The system, however, was not done.
U̸̜͒p̶̤̄g̢̬̓r̘̋͡ȃ̯́d̩̅͢e̡̤͊ ̩͗͜U̴̳ͮn̙̓͘l̴̺̅o͓̓͝c̰̾͟kͩ͏̞e̛̱̍d̯͛̕ Pick one
Now that I had some marginal experience with the “backbone” of what the system did, I could sense a build-up of power that was waiting to take form. I wasn’t entirely certain what that power “was” exactly, or how it worked, but I could feel there was a build-up in need for release. No wonder the system was practically dancing as if waiting for their turn to use the restroom.
“Alright,” I muttered, splashing some more water on my face. “Show me what you’ve got.”
[EZ Mode]: While Monster:
Achievements require 75% of original requirements to be met.
Ex: Aural Sight [Req: +200 AP to senses] -> [Req: +150 AP to senses] While Human:
For every achievement unlocked, gain 50% progress to relevant stats
Progress is lowered for every reactivation, but no lower than 5%
Ex: Aural sight 1st time -> +50% senses -- 2nd -> +45%
This was… this was insane.
The example text was a nice little detail, still… “The name is kind of insulting, not going to lie,” I mumbled under my breath. The upgrade itself was kind of absurd in a way I couldn’t quite believe. First off was the 25% discount on requirements definitely had to be worth a lot under the right circumstances. I wouldn’t be surprised if it could potentially unlock certain achievements that wouldn’t be available without bumping the ceiling-cap on certain things. If there was such a thing as an achievement for reaching +500 AP on a stat, then this could make it possible to get it with +375 AP… certainly a tempting option when my current limit was 400 (thanks to the Bear quest reward). Combined with there being two new stats, I could potentially push and get an achievement for…
But then came the second part, the effect that for every time I activated or won an achievement, I would get a bump to the % of the corresponding stat or stats. Sure, it was diminishing returns, but even at the lowest minimum, merely activating “Master of None” meant I’d get +5% from that achievement plus the 5% from the requirement achievements, effectively bumping at least 4 of my stats by 10%.
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I could understand why the system might call it “EZ”, it meant I could effectively just do nothing, passively gather AP, and then transform and bump my baseline stats over and over. Not that I’d be that lazy, but still.
Just what sort of upgrades was the system throwing my way? Was this truly the difference between what it should’ve been doing but hadn’t due to being injured? I turned my attention to the next offer.
[Jumpstart]:
Pick a Preferred Stat.
While Monster:
First mode will consume all AP and instantly provide +500 to that stat.
Ex: 2 AP -> Velocity Mode -> +500 to Speed. While Human:
Lowest Achievement of that stat becomes permanently available.
Ex: Strength -> Concussive Touch
Another powerful contender. Even if I had 1 AP, I could effectively transform and push one stat all the way to +500 instantly, effectively going over my theoretical +400 limit as well as saving me the time needed to get the stat that far up in the first place. But on the flip side, with 200 AP storage capacity and +8 per second… any stored AP beyond 63 would be effectively going to waste. There was one other possibility in mind: the speed. To get to +400 I needed to spend a little over a minute while transformed. In the eventuality of an emergency of some kind, I might not have a full minute. Certainly it was an option that could prove life-saving under the right circumstances.
It was a painful reminder I just might get jumped when I had no time to prepare.
The fact that the “human form” passive provided an ever-active achievement was also nothing to scoff at. Shame I couldn’t take “Aural Sight”. Transforming inside New Francisco with +500 to senses would no doubt prove torture under just about any circumstances.
For now, though, the option was not looking so hot.
[Trait Evolution]:
Pick a Preferred Trait and a Preferred Stat.
Trait Is raised in Class by 2 tiers (But not higher than D-class).
Trait becomes permanently active.
The higher the Stat, the more powerful the quantitative effect of the trait.
This applies to both human and monster forms.
That… huh. I cocked my head in thought.
The second to last line had caught my attention. “Quantitative” specifically was a word I didn’t know what to make of. Mainly, what would this mean? Would a “very strong” F-class trait trump a “weak” E-class? Or was the “quality” of the trait something less direct? If I, for example, took shimmer at D-class, and tied it to “speed”... What would be the performance differences between having 6 Speed and 400? I’d imagine it would be a noticeable difference in some shape or form.
I had six traits, and though something like “shimmer” might be incredibly tempting to take, the fact that it remained active even in my human form would be… I’d likely look like some fuzzy company mascot, walking about the place and drawing all the attention. This drawback also took out the other candidates such as prickly, corrosion, and blades.
Which left unbreakable bones and stomach.
What would D-class stomach look like? I knew of a few D-class monsters that could go about eating whatever they wanted, a rather tempting proposition if my wallet ever became tight enough I’d be willing to eat rocks. Certainly something I might make use of out in the wilderness, but what could it provide I couldn’t account for with some foresight and preparation?
I put the option aside for now. The prospect of locking myself into a trait-stat merger made me hesitant.
I turned my attention to the final option on the offerings from the system.
[Core Attunement]:
Pulse - Active Skill: [5 AP] - Detect nearby cores, range scales with senses.
Trait Acquisition raised from +2 to +3 per kill.
While Monster:
Once per transformation, you can merge two traits that like each other. While Human:
Can apply a G-class variant of a trait for an hour [30 AP]
The description immediately caught my attention. For one, it didn’t just offer a singular active skill, but effectively made all my traits active even while in human form. I had to read that again just to be sure I was getting it right, because by the looks of it, I could… oh geesh.
Leaning away from the mirror, I was certain that this upgrade proposal was, specifically, something the system had cobbled together in acknowledgement of what I’ve done so far. Detect cores and make it easier to tell if Shadow was there? Check. Attempt to fuse traits into something new? Check. Have a resource sink I could spend to lower AP while human? Check. Get access to monster-traits I might need in a pinch? Check. It even bumped the value of finding traits to help upgrade the ones I had.
It ticked every box on the list of things I’d been thinking about.
And yet, as I leaned away to look at all four options with a little more perspective, I got this distinct impression they were all trying to blur the line between my human and monster selves. Was this what it meant for the core to become stronger?
Not that I was in a good spot to refuse anything that might make me stronger.
Biting my lip, I glanced between the four options.
The easiest to dismiss was [Jumpstart], it provided great “in case of emergency” value, but aside from that, I just could not put it to use properly. Not when each transformation could mean getting overwhelmed by every little sound and smell. Next in line was [EZ Mode]. It provided flat bonuses to my human self, and made getting achievements cheaper and faster, but it also felt like it was setting me up for something I did not want. Mainly, it was because the options for growth it provided were entirely reliant on grinding my way through hundreds upon hundreds of transformations.
That left [Trait Evolution] and [Core Attunement]. Both were great options in their own way.
[Core Attunement] was objectively better in every sense of the word, devoid of drawbacks or any requirement for commitment.
But it also felt empty. It was like the system had hurried to stuff everything it could find into a singular drawer, regardless of whether it made sense or not. I didn’t have a shadow of a doubt that the system was trying to help, but the more I looked at the [Core Attunement] option, the more it felt like it was trying to lead me to something… else. I couldn't help but feel as if it was a trait that moved me closer to whatever that thing had been in my vision, I couldn't explain it, as if I were looking at a piece of juicy steak right in front of a cave entrance. A cave that led to that deep dark vast infinite ocean and the mountain-sized behemoth.
But despite the lack of apparent drawbacks, [Core Attunement] lacked one very fundamental thing: It would not give me a D-class protective trait by the end of tomorrow. This was, exactly, what the current F-class “Unbreakable Bones” would become if I picked it for [Trait Evolution]. And if the system had made one thing abundantly clear, it was that qualitative increase was a different story to quantitative, and I was going to do both.
“I choose Trait Evolution.” I spoke out. “Indestructible bones, and durability.”
It would, potentially, be even better if I could find a way to put my bones on the outside.
But the thought had to be put on hold, however, when my whole body began to freeze, burn, and itch from the inside out all at the same time.