L woke up the next day slightly confused.

Debuff: Minor Sleep Deprivation

Lack of sleep has decreased all of your attributes by 10%.

Duration: Infinite.

Debuff: Minor Exhaustion

Lack of rest in comparison to activity has decreased all physical attributes by 10%.

Duration: indefinite

That’s odd, he thought, feeling his stiff body confirm the status screens. I could have sworn I went to bed yesterday.

These occurrences had been increasing ever since the day of the operation, and it had only progressively worsened. Locked screens, failing memories, stray thoughts escaping his mouth, and apparently sleepwalking had been added to the mixture.

With a grimace, L checked his status screen.

L

Class: None

Profession: None

Titles: The Worm Who Picks A Fight With An Omniscient, Reality Altering, World Creating, Literal God Creator. And Dies. Quickly. And Painfully. In a pile of gloop.

Limit Tester.

Dungeon Seeker.

Parameters

Strength: 14.12 (.82 Scaling X 16 base)

Dexterity: 20 (Dark Superiority .25 X [1.6 Scaling X 10 base])

Endurance: 17.8 (1.2 Scaling X 14 Base)

Perception: 12 (1.2 Scaling X 10 base)

Constitution: 10.4 (.80 Scaling X 13)

Intelligence: 22.5 (Dark Superiority .25 X [1.8 Scaling X 10 base])

Wisdom: 13.5 (1.5 Scaling X [10-1] base)

Will: 18.75 (Dark Superiority .25 X [1.5 Scaling X 13])

Idiocy: 19.8 (1.8 Scaling X 10+1)

Fame: -1 

Debuff: Death’s Bargain: 2.5% Stat decrease.

Traits

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Character Traits: Arrogance, Idiocy, Educated Gambler.

Racial Traits: Shadow’s Embrace, Dark Superiority.

Soul Traits: X Multi-001010.

Skills: C Darkling Dark Weaver,  B Darkling Stygian Cocoon.

Passive Skills: Darkling C Dark vision, C Fortitude,  B Flow.

Proficiencies: E Creator, E Darkling Battle, E Darkling Mana Circuits, E Darkling Mana storage, E Archery, E Swimming, E Tracking, C Shadowing, D Ax Weaponry, D Blacksmithing.

Perks: Body of The Half-Darkling.

Alignments

-30/100 Good Alignment

-15/100 Neutral Alignment

+15/100 Evil Alignment

+15/100 Chaotic Alignment

He nodded. His Shadow proficiency had increased noticeably, meaning he had done some night hunting during the preceding night. Who did he stalk, however, and for what reason? It was not that difficult to figure out, as all he had to do was list any targets of value, and there weren’t that many of them that he knew, but by that time the incident buzzing noise blurred in his skull, warning him otherwise.

Fine then, L cursed, then tried another line of thought. It was more important to figure out the reason of why it was kept a secret from L. Rarely did such events transcribe, of which all of L’s minds were mandated to be in full agreement in their decisions. L had power over each one of them individually, but not on a whole level; one mind has nearly inconsequential effects, beyond the original, two was a split choice, and three and his body was barely his, such as now. Then, L followed his logic as he stood up, all three minds must be in accordance.

What has occurred in such cases, in the past? Nothing good, L thought, nothing good. In all cases, every L had fought against the unified agreement of his inner minds.

The last question in which L gritted his teeth for, was what was the thing itself that his minds all desired? It must be a basic instinct, one core feature that any human character desi--

The buzzer sounded again, this time with increasing tempo and myriad of different types of disagreeable sounds that the ears could not hear, but that the mind could create. He stumbled for a few steps, feeling liquid running down his ears, and the world shifting on its toes downwards and sideways. His sights were blinded with countless dots of tiny colors, most of  variety that did not exist. They filled his vision with hot quantities and with dizzying proportions, twisting and combining upon each other in nonsensical ways. Triangles appeared, turned into horses, then flew away.

One of his hands, which L did not know, reached out to his sides for support. He heard a sound, some type of high-pitched yelp from where his hands stretched to. Through the distortion of his senses, his fingers hinted at something soft and warm. The image of a breast popped up, of whose, L could not recall, but he felt as it was vitally important to squeeze tightly.

A chilling noise cut through the buzzing that was resonating in his head. It was the oddest and most inexplicable sound of metal and stone being grated in between something harder; he had heard it before, in a different world where when one of his fellow guild raiders had the unfortunate displeasure of being caught in between one of Hecatoncheire’s many mouths.

When L’s sight returned to him, he was staring at the rough ground. Looking up, he found nothing. Looking to his left, he found the head of horse casually mawing on his left hand. L stared curiously into its huge half-opened eyes. It seemed almost unimpressed, its jaws opening and closing lethargically. On one hand, the one that was in good shape, L was incredibly offended that his flesh did not live up to the standards of horse substance. On the other, the one with the broken armored crust and crushed meat, he was hurt, and was hurting. The pain registered and was responded by a squeal and a pumping all of the mana in his body into enveloping his crippled hand.

The horse neighed widely, threw its head around as if to shake the horrible taste off, and then spat out a mangled hand. L fell back, clutching his wrist as it burned fiercely. Crumbs fell off of his palm dripping with inky red blood, and a few of his fingers pointed the wrong direction. Dark mana oozed out in large doses, revealing raw skin. Spitting to the side, L heavily layered dark mana around his hand, attempting to glue back the outer layer of his hand and the skin back together.

It was a poorly done work, with jagged edges and uneven thickness throughout his palm. Stifling a scream, L twisted back his fingers into shape. He groaned, half out of embarrassment, half out of discomfort resonating from his twisted bones. L could control his skin at this point, to toughen it or to change its material somewhat, and he could have some minor effects on his flesh, but his bones structure not be changed. Yet.

He tried to recall the same emotion and line of thought he had, when he had hosted up Kullburd by his shirt, and to recreate the shape of his limbs; this time, for it to be real, and not a makeshift illusion. His claws back then were hollow, as if he put on a light piece of armor. Now, L was attempting to recreate the very fabric of his flesh. Unless he was able to reform his hands into working conditions, his plans (what plans? Whose plans?) would be ruined.

It was thus that all three minds and L were in agreement. He stood up and returned to his chamber, hoping that a higher dark mana concentration would be more readily available. Each different body had different amounts of dark mana in them. As L grows stronger, higher densities a higher percentage of dark mana could be filled in his body. Other than that, and other items to supply the specific mana, L could as he had observed, pull mana in from his surroundings, a skill he was currently attempting to gain, and one that would be needed for any further advancement.

Sitting down on the hay and staring at his quivering hands, L began to wave it around, as if to envelope the shadows. The shadows quivered, and some of the dark mana residing in their embrace was whisked away by L’s hands like a gravitational force, which was the theory behind the usage of magic, as far as his sources could go. Having Dark Vision, L could see that there were now different pitches of dark around him, depending on which areas he was able to whisk the mana away.

He sucked in a sharp breath, and began to ponder how he could use this power to his advantage.