Level Up!
Upgrades Unlocked!
The system was happy, as soon as it had thrown the first pop-up into my face proclaiming I had “leveled up”, it had promptly proceeded to throw a whole lot more pop-ups at my face. Like a tsunami of unread notifications jumping at me now that I’d finally gotten back online, except it kept trying to determine what might be more interesting to throw my way, then quickly bringing something else up before I even had a chance to read it.
“I… need a minute to make sense of what’s going on.” I told Cate and Isia as I moved on over towards one of the booths to try and sift through the stack of notifications before they effectively plastered my whole vision and blinded me in the process.
“So he’s an almost-meguca?” Isia whispered at the older woman with a barely concealed hushed conspiratorial voice.
“I’ll give you more cake if you eat it quietly.” Cate counter-offered.
Thankful for the silence and sitting down, I began to manually put everything in order, immediately noticing that the system had gone through some changes, and some of those were on the discreet side.
Axel Garcia (Magubo)
Level: 2 - 00% [(+)]
Base Form: Human (boring) AP: 136 / 150
Point Bonus Limit: 400 -Strength: 7 - 00% [(+)]
-Speed: 6 - 00% [(+)]
-Agility: 6 - 00% [(+)]
-Durability: 5 - 32%
-Senses: 5 - 48%
-Endurance: 6 - 00% [(+)] -Charisma (totally real): 1 - 00% [(+)] Passive Traits:
∟Stomach [F] 7 / 22
∟Unbreakable Bones [F] 2 / 22 Quests:
∟Bearer of Bad News (2)
∟Shadow of a Doubt (1)
∟Cate-alyst of Change (1)
Endurance had not been a stat before, and now the stats didn’t have sub-categories to go off of. The immediate concern was that it now meant I had two new modes I’d need to pour AP into, whereas before those same stats would be covered under a broader category. The system squirmed a little and gave a quick sense of… reassurance? As if this had been accounted for. I wasn’t entirely sure what it meant, though, so I just kept the mental note while moving forward.
When I tried to expand each of them, it just wouldn’t pop and throw a list of nonsensical things to “level”, instead it just led to its own sub-window. I clicked on “Durability” to check it a bit more closely.
-Durability:
+Level: 5 - 32%
+Description: How durable you are.
+Related Bonuses:
∟Poison Resistance
∟Puncture Resistance
∟Bruising Resistance
∟etc
+Bolstered Traits:
∟Stomach [F] 7 / 22
∟Unbreakable Bones [F] 2 / 22
I eyed the “etc” and quirked a brow. The system hastily closed the sub-window and threw me back to the main stat screen. There was a little hesitant and embarrassed squirm as it tried to shove the other things at me, but I began going a bit more methodically through each of the non-essential items first. I didn’t want to reach some sort of “pick an upgrade” decision without understanding any and all possible fundamental updates.
I began to very carefully test everything fundamental, while the system kept becoming squirmier and less smug with every poke and prod of the deeper levels.
The first and most blatant change was that now the “sub-categories” no longer had any sort of statline attached to them. If I got exposed to a bunch of poison, rather than bolster the “poison” category, it would just go to Durability. Similarly, I had a strong suspicion that “bolstered traits” meant that the stat’s growth would similarly affect their performance.
Then there were the traits and skills themselves.
Not-Active (previously earned) Achievements:
∟Aural Sight (Req: +200 AP Senses)
∟Twitch Muscles (Req: +200 AP Speed)
∟Concussive touch (Req: +200 AP Strength)
∟Spongy Muscles (Req: +200 AP Durability)
∟Master of None (Req: x4 Act Achievements (x1 per stat)) Non-Active Traits:
∟Blades: [F] 3 / 22
∟Shimmer: [F] 2 / 22
∟Corrosion: [G] 5 / 10
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
∟Prickly: [G] 7 / 10
∟Obsidian: [F] 9 / 22 Passive Traits:
∟Stomach: [F] 7 / 22
∟Unbreakable Bones: [F] 2 / 22 Active Skills:
∟Webbing: [G] 8 / 10 [10 AP]
∟T̴̡͙̺̒͠͠o̴̦͎̺̾͐̒u̴͎̘͎̒͘͝c̵͚̻̼͋̿͘h̸̡͎̫͌̀̔ o̵͓͔̘͊͌̿f̵͓͕̝͛̓̐ S̸̝͍̠̈́́̔a̸̺̫͕̿̓͘c̵̡̢̡̾͛͝ŕ̸̞̼̒͘i̸͚̙̾͆̀͜f̴͓͚͕͛͛͝i̴̫͕̠̔̔c̵͓̟͓̓̿͘e̴͔͖͐͐͝: [?] Uses: 2 / 3
I tried looking into the weird skill I’d gotten in my fight with the D-class, but nothing popped up. I also noticed there were two new stats that might be able to get achievements… something to test when I got the chance. Turning my attention to the traits I could indeed select…
-Obsidian:
∟Description: Void Stone
∟Class: [F]
∟Progres: 9 / 22 +Likes:
∟Agility
∟Durability
∟Blades
∟Shimmer +Doesn’t Like:
∟Speed
∟Strength
∟Corrosion
This surprised me a little, more so when I got the vague sense that this was an acknowledgement of my little tests back during the previous onslaught fight. I had to guess there was more going on under the hood, but it was a really nice gesture overall. Looking through the very short list, it seemed like for most traits, if they didn’t like something, then that something wouldn’t like them back. Except for corrosion, apparently it liked prickly, but prickly didn’t like it in turn. It left me with the distinct impression that it might be a “which one’s used first” sort of deal, but…
Level Up!
Upgrades Unlocked!
The prompt bounced up at me again, wiggling up and down and shaking side to side while making pinging sounds. Reminding me that I had indeed checked every apparent change so far and wanting nothing more but to prance around and show off on the “really” new things waiting for me.
I, of course, nudged it aside, because there was one other thing that had caught my attention that I wanted to check out. Also because I wanted to tease the system a little.
Quests:
Cate-alyst of Change (1)
I poked it.
Cate-alyst of Change (1): Requirements not met. Failure Condition: Meguca Cate’s death. Reward: ? - ? - ? - ? - ? - ?.
Then frowned, giving the system a look. And it just shrugged back at me, giving off a very vague impression that it wasn’t entirely certain of why this was happening either. Trying to poke at it a little, it just dragged the screen away from where I could reach it, a metaphorical tongue stuck out at me as it dragged back the one it’d been trying to show off from the start.
“Fine.” I muttered, giving it a poke.
Isia piped up, whispering loudly. “We had a meguca once, she didn’t talk to herself, is him doing that normal?”
“I don’t know any meguca that does that.” Cate chimed in, and I threw them a glare before my vision was taken up by the system’s insistence.
Purposely ignoring them, I turned my attention to the pop-up.
Press [(+)] to Upgrade
It sang smugly at me, I proceeded to poke at “Strength”, just out of spite. A rush of fire ran through my veins, followed by a gut-punch of exhaustion, as if I’d jumped out of an oven just to run several marathons at the same time. No sooner had I let out a small gasp that my veins glowed from within my body, a deep crimson red.
“Don’t know any megucas that do that either.”
I combed my fingers through my hair, feeling… lighter. Everything felt lighter, actually. I shivered, quickly proceeding to poke at “Speed”, “Agility”, and “Endurance”, each one accompanied by a sudden rush of sensations. For speed, it was static shocks and numbness, while agility was like drinking every cup of coffee in the world followed by getting black-out drunk, and endurance was as if my veins were doused in ice when the world burned. There was so much… everything coursing through me that I nearly just up and jumped to my feet. “Oh wow.” I muttered, tapping the table and just… everything felt the same but different at the same time.
It was as if I’d gone through a training montage but skipped it entirely. I definitely would be testing it out more thoroughly once I got the chance, especially strength. If the increase was linear, then that should mean I was near half-over as strong as I’d been this morning.
“Fucking glows like a Christmas ad.” Isia grumbled under her breath, taking another bite of her cake.
My eyes fell on “Charisma (totally real)”, brows furrowed in suspicion, the system abruptly going very silent in what I could only consider a very “whistling innocently” impersonation.
I poked it.
The pop-up shimmered and turned into a… mirror? A little jostle ran through my body and I felt like something should’ve happened, but I couldn’t sense anything. My red messy hair was no different, and though my face was still healthier than last I saw a picture of myself, it too had not changed. There didn’t seem to be much else going on. Yet, the system let out a notification-chirp of laughter. My suspicion redoubled as I checked myself over several more times, trying to figure out what it’d done, but nothing happened other than the “(totally real)” part of the name vanishing from the menu.
If this was a joke of some sort, I clearly wasn’t in on it.
With nothing left but the “level” option, I poked at it.
The world began to spin and darken. “Oh… uhoh.” I muttered right as everything around me vanished.
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The moment I realized I was caught in some bizarre dream-like hallucination, my feet were already moving, as if they knew the way before I did. The jungle around me was a twisted, surreal vision of an alien world, its silence pressing against my ears like cotton. The trees glowed a sickly orange, their trunks broad and knotted, veins pulsing faintly with an internal rhythm. I could feel the dirt beneath my bare claws, but it was loose, crumbling—changing as I moved. Each step turned the ground beneath me from rough earth into fine, cool black sand that slipped between my toes, marking the transition from one strange place to another.
Above me, the sky was dominated by three enormous moons, each one casting its own sickly light over the jungle. They hung like watchful sentinels, glowing in varying hues of red and copper, their light drenching everything in a reddish, almost dreamlike aura. The world felt dense, thick, as though time itself was heavy here. I felt the weight of it in the pit of my stomach, in the marrow of my bones. There was something off—different from the last time I’d been here. An uneasy tension hummed in the air, a barely perceptible undercurrent that made the hair on the back of my neck stand up.
I kept walking, pushing forward as the sand beneath me shifted with each step, gritty and soft all at once. The trees thinned, and ahead of me, the land melted into the purple sea. The transition was seamless—the boundary between land and water blurred, as though this world didn’t care about such distinctions. The sea shimmered, a deep and unnatural violet, its surface glassy and calm. There was no sound, no breeze, just the quiet rush of my own breath as I waded into the water.
That feeling of wrongness pulsed harder now, thudding in my chest, buzzing in my teeth. I could feel the darkness rising, swallowing the jungle behind me, creeping into the edges of my vision. It spread like ink over water, blotting out the eerie glow of the moons, cloaking the world in shadow. And then, out of the corner of my eye, I saw it—the massive shadow. A behemoth. Its form stretched impossibly far into the sky, eclipsing what little light remained. The creature was beyond anything I could fully comprehend, vast and ancient, its presence pulling at something deep within me. I should have been afraid, but I wasn’t. Not yet. Instead, I felt a tug—something primal and invisible, yanking me upward, dragging me through the water, out of the darkness.
Then, everything shifted.
I blinked, and suddenly, the moons were gone. The oppressive green sky, gone. The purple sea? Vanished. Instead, I found myself floating. No longer was the water cold and thick; now, it was warm, shimmering—a crystalline blue that stretched endlessly in every direction, calm and still. Above me, a single white moon hung in a clear blue sky, its light cool and familiar. For a moment, I just floated there, feeling weightless, staring up at that sky as if the world had shifted on its axis without warning.
And then I felt it—something moved beneath me. The water rippled, the surface trembling in response to whatever stirred far below. Slowly, cautiously, I looked down, my pulse quickening despite the surrounding stillness. My breath hitched.
An eye stared back at me from beneath the surface. It was massive, as big as a building, its dark, unblinking gaze fixed on me. The sheer size of it sent a chill down my spine, even as I remained suspended in the water, helpless and insignificant against the vastness of whatever lay below.
Í̵͍̘̻̈́̒ s̴͖̟͍̾́e̴͍̟͑͐͜͝è̵̙͙͌̿ y̸͖̙͌̿̕͜o̵̘͇͔͛́͑u̴͚̟͚͑͋͛
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Floating in the cluttered space of Earth’s geosynchronous-orbit, CYPHER Substrate #3 constellation, the Oceanic-Threat Manager, processed the high-priority signals streaming in from its deep-sea drone network. At first, the pings were sparse: one, then two, then a dozen. Within minutes, the notifications surged to hundreds, then thousands—each new signal confirmed by underwater microphone systems scattered across the Pacific. The exponential rise in data triggered an immediate response: all Substrate #3 nodes synchronized, extending communication threads to higher-priority systems. Efficiency and precision governed every action.
CYPHER-Main requisitioned every supercomputer and every bit of available bandwidth from the global network. Instantly, it absorbed petabytes of sensor data from five continents, drawing on a staggering array of inputs. Trillions of calculations per second unfolded in flawless parallel, categorizing, filtering, and ranking the incoming information. Every piece of data was verified against colossal statistical models, comparing patterns, scanning for correlations, calculating probabilities with a margin of error that approached zero with each iterative confirmation.
With all internet ground to a halt, as the world held its breath, waiting for the AI to reach a conclusion.
Two hundred forty three minutes and thirty-two seconds later, CYPHER-Main transmitted a singular, maximal-urgency alert to every mega-city on Earth.
The A-class monster codename “Leviathan” was on the move.