Down in the hole he slithered. His tentacles were ready to turn him around for a hasty retreat. The hole was dark the moon’s light had long since faded and only his sense of touch guided him. As he moved deeper, a light appeared in the dark. The cave opened to reveal a large spider drinking from a struggling pelican chick. Silk wrapped around the pelican keeping its struggles to a minimum. The spider stopped its feeding and looked up. It blinked eight eyes at Jack.
His instincts yelled at him to communicate instead of retreat. Why what was happening? He wracked his brain for anything that could help but settled for picking up a bird bone with a tentacle. The spider continued to wait its body leaned back to throw its sticky silk on Jack at a moment’s notice.
Slowly Jack scratched, “Hello do you understand me?” The spider watched him write in the sand the whole time ready to attack. When the spider looked over his work it blinked and leaned its head up and down.
Do you wish to trade chat information?
y/n
Jack accepted at once.
Clare has been added to your contacts. Do you wish to open the chat function?
y/n
Then Jack heard the most beautiful sound he had ever heard. Ringing.
“Hello, this is Clare. You are Jack, correct?” Clare said in a screeching voice.
“Yes,” its good to finally talk to someone.
“Good, yes well if you wanted a free meal, I’m not on the menu nor is my prey.” Clare shouted.
“I don’t need your food I’ve eaten my fill and then some. A place to stay in this dangerous world would be amazing. We could form a partnership of sorts.” Jack said.
“Oh, you are homeless. Well I can’t say I’m surprised. Not everyone can be as resourceful as me. But do tell me why I should let you stay with me. What’s to keep me from simply capturing you while you rest and add you to my web?” The feeling told him all he needed to know. She was starved for attention and if he could prove himself trust worthy. Clare would make an ally.
“I trust the pelican chicks remain more appetizing than one scrawny leech. I’m hardly worth your time.” He had no idea if his words would work or not. Clare had home field advantage. If he had the pours he would sweat.
“No, I disagree you look juicy enough to me far fatter than a simple pelican but perhaps its all water weight. Still we are talking, and you haven’t pissed me off yet. Conversation or a juicy leech, I suppose you would make me fat anyway. Fine, you’re safe so long as you act like a guest. No touching my prey, don’t lead any others in here, and keep our conversations pleasant.” Clare said. Jack raised a tentacle to her slowly. She raised one of her legs and they touched. The looked at one another and some of the cave’s tension vanished.
“I haven’t rested since I was born.” Said Jack.
“Really that sounds quite exciting. How did you manage to make it to Pelican rock?” Clare said.
“I hid on a fish and a pelican snapped us both up. I barely got out of the bird alive.” Jack muttered. She went back to her prey draining the pelican chick slowly.
“Lol, lol, lol, lol hahaha that is the best thing I’ve ever heard.” She rubbed her front legs together and walked over to a smaller hole in the cave. “I’m going to bed don’t come near my bedroom or our deal is off. Good night.” The spider said and went in the smaller opening. Jack thought about rising and closing the hole with his sucker. He could then pull the spider out and crush her with his throat. But he valued a place to sleep more than a quick meal.
He clicked yes on his evolution and looked over the options.
Feeding Tendrilled Eldritch Leech
Description – A leech with tentacles capable of growing tiny needles. These needles inject an acid like poison to allow the quick absorption of prey. Once piercing a target, the tendril can suck up nutrients.
Rose Tentacles Leech
Description – A rose red leech with multiple thorn covered tentacles built for piercing.
Exoskeleton Tentacled Eldritch Leech
Description – A leech that has devoured high amounts of calcium and gained an armored exoskeleton as a result. VIT +20
He chose feeding tendril Eldritch leech and let himself fall into rem sleep.
On first awakening, he felt cramped. His eye opened and all around him silk. His many tendrils were pinned to his sides. The webbing felt sticky and strong. At the edge of his vision he saw Clare scuttle out of her hole.
“You betrayed me.” It was a statement.
“No, you looked cold, so I took some initiative. You don’t seem angry.” Clare said.
“Will you free me?” That was the question would she continue being a friend or would she make her real nature known.
“When I saw you changed. I forgot it was you. You evolved, Jack this is a dangerous world. I thought you might attack if you woke up and found me removing my webs. One might confuse the removal with cocooning.” Clare said and winked three eyes. For a second, he was distracted.
“Could you untie me I won’t attack?” Clare did the spider’s equivalent of a nod and crawled to his side. She backed her rear to him and with four legs kicked him over on his side. From there she pulled something and began recollecting her web.
Once freed, he stretched his multiple limbs feeling the tiny hair like needles surrounding his tentacles. There were hundreds of them hidden within pour like holes. All he needed to do was wrap them around a gull and it would liquify from the inside out.
“I’m going hunting. Do you want me to bring you back a seagull chick?” Jack asked. Clare looked over to her slightly spasming prey.
“Yes, if you bring a fresh one then, I’ll finish him today.” Jack nodded and left Clare to her feeding. Looking up at the glowing rocks all around the little cave he spotted a few males of her species. They were tiny.
“How many of your kind are in here?” Jack asked.
“Too many to scare off. They all want to mate and end this life cycle. None want to apply themselves, they only want the reproduction bonus.” Clare said.
“What reproduction bonus?” Jack asked.
“Oh, you must be rather new here. When we complete our life cycles and die, we are reborn as the same species. If we managed to reproduce before dying, then we start with a bonus. Sometimes a new skill tree, a class, or even AP. Classes are the rarest outcome, but it happens.” Clare said. “Now get out of here momma needs to eat.” Clare said.
“Fine,” Jack said and slithered out of the cave. He looked at his stats.
Name: Jack
Age: 1day
Evolution line: Eldritch Leech
Stage: 3
Species: Feeding Tendril Eldritch Leech
Mutations: Hormone of the Gods, Fallen, Anarchist, Eldritch, Cannibal, 1 in 1000, 1 in 10,000
lv1 10xp to next
xp0
Levels Until Evolution 1 of 10
Mutation descriptions
Hormone of the Gods – Multiply all strength gains by three, all skills increase 300% faster from repetition, and 300% xp when competing or crushing competitors.
Fallen – You are no longer a mere human. After being reborn in hell your soul has adopted the SAT App. (System Application Template)
Anarchist – Your skin has been blackened by your will to escape the system and search for true freedom. While others exist, you believe you will never be free. -50% charisma when dealing with people of authority.
Eldritch – The mark of one of the five sentient species in Hell. The eye of insight has appeared upon you head. A sign of your relation to the eldritch. Mutations appear 50% more often.
Cannibal – You devour your own kind to gain strength. +50% damage to enemies with the same species name as you.
1 in 1000 – The world bends backwards to accommodate your survival within reason. Your desires can reshape probability. +50% to positive outcomes.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
1 in 10,000 – You gain more loot, win more poker games, and stay alive in the wild. +100% positive outcomes. Fate is much kinder to those born lucky.
Attributes:
HP 80/80
SP 20/20
MP 25/25
VIT 16 STR 32 DEX 10
END 4 INT 5 WIS 2
CHA 1 LUK 100
AP:50
Skill Trees: Parasite 0/5, Predator 0/5, Survival 0/6, Gluttony 0/2
Skills:
Parasite:
Leech Life lv15
Stealth Feed lv15
Latch lv20
Suck lv20
Stealth lv10
Predator:
Ambush lv30
Consume Flesh lv30
Digest Meat lv30
Swallow Whole lv30
Throat Crush lv30
Survival:
Endure cold lv1
Endure heat lv0
Endure shock lv0
Endure acid lv10
Endure force lv4
Endure poison lv0
Gluttony:
Stomach Expansion lv30
Fast Digestion lv30
Jack snuck out of the cave only to see the gaping mouth of a seagull as it lunged for him. Seeing the wide mouth of the gull as it swooped down shocked Jack into leap up in the air. This allowed the gull to swallow him in a single gulp. The second he entered the throat Jack unleashed the needles full of acid hidden within the mucus covered pours of his tentacles. The powerful throat of the seagull halted as it was filled with burning acid. He felt the seagull fall before they hit the water, they were hit from the side. Sudden force sent Jack deeper within the seagull as forces around the seagull started to crush him.
He was never more thankful for being an invertebrate if he had bones they would have long since been crushed. But even he was reaching his limit, so he made a decision.
New Quest
Survive the depths
A powerful aquatic creature has just swooped up and devoured the sea gull you hitched a ride in. Find a way to get out of your new acquaintance and make it to the surface alive.
Rewards
+5DEX
Random: Skill Tree
The body of the seagull was spasming as the powerful throat of the fish crushed them into the stomach. Jack bit the bullet and decided to invest heavily in dexterity. It might be his only way out of this mess. He put 40 points in to get the mutation.
Ping!
50DEX
New Mutation
Latex being – Your body has been infused with artificial materials granting you a greater range of flexibility. With greater flexibility come greater health regeneration. Your body seeks to keep itself together. X2 health regen.
Every ten points in dexterity was another 1HP per minute before. At 6HP regained per minute at he was doing well enough now double that he he can regenerate 12 per minute. That didn’t seem like much but to Jack it might as well have been the difference between life and death.
At 80 health, he could recover completely in less than 7minutes. That wasn’t perfect, but it was much better than 14 or the 2 he had beforehand. Why would he worry about such a thing? When he fed, he regenerated 50HP every second he drained a target. The answer to that is simple. He was in a corpse full of acid.
Crushed on all sides by the stomach of whatever ate the pelican, his only hope for survival lay in his predator. What oxygen remained in his prey’s blood filled him and kept him alive but soon he would have to seek out the predator of his predator to gain the oxygen he needed. Jack’s gills could work but there was no water in his predator most likely.
While he fed acid continued to fall all over his body damaging him at a constant rate. 20HP per minute. That was the strength of the pelican’s stomach acid. Mucus mostly protected the pelican’s crumpled corpse from the acid excreted by Jack’s tentacles.
Ping!
New Skill Tree
Feeding Tendrils 0/2
Acid Damage lv0 – +1% acid damage x DEX x lv
Absorption lv0 – +1% tentacle feeding x DEX x lv
He paused for a good long couple a minute even with the pressure coming in and crushing him. It was exactly what he needed. But what did the skills mean? Did his other skill trees work off stats? Or did they only work off their minor increases? He never had the chance to check that out. It seemed that every second of his new life was spent running, killing, or hiding.
He also had fast digestion. How did that interact with Absorption? “Damage report.” Jack thought to the system.
65xp/minute/tentacle
-20HP/minute/ square meter covered
Health regen 65/minute/tentacle
Basically, every minute within the pelican being doused with acid does 20HP of damage. With his health regen and while feeding he can heal faster than he’s damaged. Best of all he was gaining xp on top of that. When stretched out his body was less than 2feet long not even close to a meter. He could feel the pelican becoming soup around his tentacles. His own acids had little effect on him thanks to the mucus his body natural secrets.
So, what now, what could he do to get out of here. Well the answer to that was nothing as he was. Jack closed his eyes slithered about enjoying the greater room before the fish’s stomach crushed the space. He was honestly terrified. There were so many creatures down here much larger and more terrible than this fish. What if something larger at the fish? He might never escape.
He slowly began to climb his way up the pelican’s now lax throat. He had to time it just right. The fish’s stomach wasn’t kind to its occupants. Every other heart beat the stomach crashed down against him nearly crushing him under its pressure. If not for his flexibility, he would be dead.
He was glad not to have been reborn as a sex toy. Being some fat bitch’s dildo for the rest of eternity was worse than being a leech. He could only imagine being crushed day in and day out with no way out. Ping! A new message appeared.
Jack had adjusted his system to only show increases in increments of tens.
Feeding Tendrils:
Acid Damage lv10
Absorption lv10
+2DEX
Level up
Jack lv10
AP:60
Getting crushed was an issue. He was in the bill of the pelican now. Not a friendly sight. The sides of the appendage felt flimsy. No, he had to adjust that declaration it felt like wet paper. It was going to give at any minute now and then he would have to face the fish’s unfriendly acid. The way the pelican melted convinced him it was doing more than 20DPM with acid.
He had no idea if there was some connection to VIT and DEX. If there was then investing in one would help another. Since there was no evidence for a connection, he had to think up a solution for his incident. The mucus covered throat behind him kept the fish’s acid out for now, but it was climbing up. Soon the bill would be full.
34 points in vitality brought it up to 50. Ping! The sound of the update was getting annoying maybe he could change the alarm.
50VIT
New mutation: Franchise
Franchise – Your cells have joined together in the franchise Jack. In doing so they are almost impossible to break up. This new conglomerate has doubled your health and increased your growth rate.
Only now, he realized how horrible a decision he had made. His health went up to 500 but his size also doubled. He went from a mere two feet to four feet. He could feel his tentacles growing and they were tougher for it. His body digested the mush he managed to absorb from the pelican and no new health or xp was coming in. Only his health regeneration countered the acid his body was covered in. Not only that but the pressure from the stomach would get much worse.
The second the stomach flexed to prepare to slam back on the pelican Jack launched himself swerving through the acid filled stomach and latching on the stomach wall. He cut at it with his needle covered tentacles before latching on to the wound and feeding.
-99HP/min/meter cubed
His body was much larger but still not quite the volume of a square meter. It was a must to keep his eye closed and feed. As he fed, he looked at the recovery. With his larger body, he could suck in more blood.
Ping
Endure acid lv30
+5END
That’s the thing, he was fighting acid much stronger than any he dealt with before. With 30 in endure acid he only took 97 damage instead of 99. Basically, he was fucked. He could only recover 60HP per minute from feeding. Health regeneration only recovered 12 a minute. It would be a slow death, but he would die.
19 minutes later his body felt like it was becoming goop. He didn’t dare use his blood trick on the fish.
Ping!
Endure acid lv100
+49END
58END
New Mutation
Shonen Archetype – This mutation is said to be the key to obtaining eternal power and other wishful idiocy. You refuse to surrender even when your eaten and dying in an acid bath. Stamina doubles as well as all regeneration. From this point onward Endurance will add to any regeneration stats.
He didn’t hesitate to slam two more points into END to bring it up to 60. There was no reason for this to happen. Form what he heard normally, he would have died and been reborn. That was how this world worked. His system was created by his own soul. His soul said fuck the rules. Jack agreed.
13 x 4 equals 52 health regen + 60 from the blood Jack was quickly burning through. Despite the acid Jack was healing within the bath. Most of the xp, he gained from the blood went into healing but there was still plenty. Let’s face it the fish wasn’t dying soon.
Slowly, he flexed his tentacles. The acid had eaten away at them until they were only bits of muscle. Now, they were regenerating, and Jack could finally move forward.
Before he did anything rash he remained in the belly of the fish for another hour. There was no since wasting a grinding opertunity. The acid had long since burned away his nerves so yea no pain until they grow back.
Endure Acid lv150 MAX
Survival 1/6
Unlocked Survival skill
Reflect Acid lv0 – +1% reflect acid
+65END
Ping!
128END
New skill Tree
Adaption Under Fire 0/10
Mutate END – +1% chance to increase the endurance stat under when under attack.
Mutate STR – +1% chance to increase the strength stat under when under attack.
Mutate DEX – +1% chance to increase the dexterity stat under when under attack.
Growing in power was great Jack didn’t really feel the pain from the acid anymore and his body had grown large while he fed. Yea, his body was around 5ft long and about as big around as an apple.
Ping!
Gluttony skills lv50 0/2
+18VIT
VIT68
He moved through the acid ignoring the damage now wasn’t the time to remain here. There was a way out if he was willing to take a little damage. His stomach was full of blood granting him more than a few minutes of boosted health recover. Unfortunately, this would cut into the xp he should get from engorging himself with so much blood.
Jack used his multitude of tentacles to feel around the fish’s stomach until he found a hole leading to the fish’s small intestines. Once found he used the barbs on his tentacles to gain enough traction to pull himself in. He was literally going up shit creek without a paddle.
When he hit the intestines, he had to lengthen his body to his absolute limit to fit. He decided to reset the update to only inform him if his skill went up by fifty. All the updates were getting annoying.
Minutes passed as he slowly made his way through the fish. Nothing updated which was good for him he didn’t want to close a constant stream of pop ups. Jack was glad he couldn’t smell things the same way humans did. This fish probably stunk. It was filled with blockages, balls of hair and fat, feathered pelts, and bones. Only after bypassing each obstacle was, he able to reach the end. His heal leveled out and he no longer took any damage.
Ping!
Reflect acid lv50 – 5% acid reflected in leu of taking damage.
+15END
END138
He needed more power, so he added 18AP to STR.
Ping!
50STR
New Mutation
Power Store – The user can limit his strength and store it as energy for later usage. The longer this power is stored the larger the increase. Restricting 5STR for 1 minute will result in +5POW for 1minute or +25POW for 12secounds. This power though great can damage the user. POW can be used to augment any action.
He opened the fish’s exit port and left as fast as he could. The second he touched the ice-cold water of the deep lake he knew he had to get to the surface quickly. Jack’s health began to drop as he used his tentacles as a ruder. A change swept through the water. This lake was filled with predators and his squishy body was an inviting meal.