“A bubonic what?” Tim asked.
After hearing that name, his explorative urges went down for a second. He was really intimidated by the name, and considering that the reward for killing one of them was decent, he could only guess that they were really dangerous!
He frantically repeated, “Bubonic, huh? I'm not planning to get sick for some points, system.”
[It's called a bubonic shifter, mind you. Odds are that you won't get sick from them, as long as you play it safe. Use your deflective magic, you have the extingus breath ability for a reason, it deflects magic, use it more often.] She followed along.
“What should I expect from a bubonic shifter then? Help me be more prepared, system.” He tried to pressure the other.
[They shift,] She answered, [Shapeshift, to be exact. That is one of their main powers, and also, they can shoot plague darts out of their nostrils. They're interesting creatures, but bubonic nonetheless, so it's a good deed to kill one, or more of them.]
“Nostrils, huh? Bloody hell!” He fixated on that one thing, and then he sighed. “I gotta admit, that sounds pretty cool. Let's hope that they're rare, though, because I don't want to deal with bastards like that everyday.”
[They are rare,] She confirmed, and then added. [But before you kick the sand and get a move on, may I interest you on the only two remaining purchase options on the list? It's best if you buy them as soon as possible.]
“Oh, hell no! I'm not getting tortured again! My anus feels cramped, system, that's not supposed to happen!” He complained.
Timothy associated upgrades or system-based purchases in general, with utter pain, and rightfully so. He didn’t want to get tortured several times a day, so naturally, he was hesitant towards what the system had to say about the purchases.
Yet, she insisted, and assured. [If you buy them, these two purchases will be practically painless for you! Worse-case-scenario, you'll feel a headache, but that's about it.]
With that said, Tim couldn’t refuse the purchases any longer. He had a bunch of points to spend as well, so he simply agreed to buy them both, just like that!
The system went into action immediately, too! She made those ~beep boop~ robot noises, and implemented one of the purchases, all within seconds!
Then, she added. [Upgrade number four complete, and you've spent 350 points as a result of said completion. Your IQ, otherwise known as your intelligence quotient, has been upgraded by 10 points, and now you sport a total of 65 IQ points! Congratulations!]
Tim didn’t know what this intelligence quotient truly meant, even after the system talked about it a little, but it sure was expensive. He wanted to ask questions, but since he knew that the system wouldn't answer his questions until she finished her job, he remained quiet, and allowed her to work properly.
Within seconds, she also announced. [Upgrade number five complete, and you've spent 700 system points as a result of said completion. Your sight, scent, and overall senses have been upgraded to level four, and this upgrade was pricey, because the growth sprout you had recently, had already altered your senses for the better.]
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Furthermore, she added. [Congratulations on these couple of improvements. As of now, 1,963 system points remain in your sum.]
There was a lot to comprehend here, but Tim focused on a couple of things the most. He noticed that a lot of his attributes, and powers have changed along with the growth sprout, which wasn't really a bad thing on its own, no. He didn’t really like it, however, how this set of changes across his attributes was pretty selective!
For that matter, he asked. “System, you say that my senses upgraded, just because of the sprout… hell, I appreciate that they did! I can see way better now, and I can smell the mana out of every bum-hole out there! It's cool, but why was the most important upgrade of mine so tiny, like my intelligence? I'm sick of having the brain of a fish, it's not fun, it's inhumane. Sixty-five points is still nothing, I know it's nothing, because I don't understand what intelligence quotient means, hell, I don’t even know what quotient means!”
This was perhaps the most well put together question and complaint he had ever made, so the system took the time to analyze his words properly. She wanted to give him a good, thorough answer.
After a moment, she said. [The average brain contains a lot of fat, Timothy, and this fat has to be more honed, in order for one to reap intelligence points out of it. That is the science behind it, and it's what intelligence upgrades do to your brain, you can’t rush them. In your particular case, your brain did expand along with your body, yes, but considering that you're quite anorexic right now, your brain in turn, is very malnourished, which in turn mimics actual retardation. You'll be way smarter at some point, especially after you gain a couple hundred kilos, that would be really helpful. You need food, protein, as anorexic creatures such as yourself, are prone to things such as brain fog and literal brain degeneration. You have to eat, and then we can make bigger upgrades if necessary.]
What the system said made a lot of sense, so he didn’t question it. In fact he felt happy that he'd be smarter one day, it helped him become more hopeful.
Anyway, with such topics aside, he then focused on what was more important, and actual. He focused on the recent, system given tasks! These tasks required him to get a move on, he couldn’t hide under the sand anymore. He had things to do.
Tim emerged out of the sand, and then approached the reef in front of him. Once he floated above the reef, his car-sized, pancake shape, casted a vast shadow across a fraction of the reef! If this place hadn't been reaped out of most life already, he would've intimidated quite a few critters. He was huge!
Since he couldn’t fit into his prior, pit-like home either, he decided to explore the reef further. His senses were pretty honed right now, so he wanted to figure out if he had missed out on any details within the reef before. Tim was willing to look across the layout, in order to discover something new.
Five minutes into this exploration session, he was approached by a rather familiar figure. He saw this round, characteristic pufferfish, and noticed that it was very willing to communicate!
"I am Koob Tonon Bonon, very pufferfish. Do you want to join sex?" It blurted.
It was hard to forget a pufferfish like that. This guy belonged to the Blistering Mana sect, and it doesn't look like his vocabulary had expanded all that much over the days. It also wasn't a surprise, how Koob the pufferfish didn't remember Timothy either, as he was pretty huge now, he wasn’t a tiny stingray anymore!
Tim acknowledged the invite, but he didn't know if it was worth it to visit the sect right now, considering that he had a bad experience with a group of stingrays before, who associated themselves with the very same sect. In fact, he had forgotten about the sect completely for a while, but even though he was hesitant, now seemed like the best time to handle the matter directly!
Since he felt less scared and vulnerable of the sect itself now, it was about time to visit them. He had to address the past bad experiences.
Therefore, he answered. “I’m already part of your sect, Koob. Find Marlo for me, we need to talk, it's been a while.]