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Registering deceased Individual: [Mari]
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Conditions for [Hidden Reward] have been met: [Death is not the End]
[Death is not the End]
Revive. All Wounds, Body-Parts and Malign Effects will be cured. Cooldown: 100 Years
Revoking Registration for deceased Individual: [Mari]
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4152 [Legendary Grade] Life-Essence has been Absorbed!!
Level Up! You have reached: Level 10!!
Additional Racial Bonuses for reaching: Checkpoint (1 / 10):
[Camouflage] has been Improved!
[Quick Dash] has been Improved!
[Ink Spray] has been Improved!
Maximum Tentacle Length Increased!
Level Up! You have reached: Level 11 (4007 / 100)!
Level Up! You have reached: Level 12
Level Up! You have reached:
Level Up! You ha-
...
Level Up! You have reached: Level 20!!
Additional Racial Bonuses for reaching: Checkpoint (2 / 10):
[Camouflage] has been Improved!
[Quick Dash] has been Improved!
[Ink Spray] has been Improved!
Maximum Tentacle Length Increased!
Level Up! You have reached: Level 21
Level Up! You have reached:
Level Up! You ha-
...
Level Up! You have reached: Level 30!!
Additional Racial Bonuses for reaching: Checkpoint (3 / 10):
[Camouflage] has been Improved!
[Quick Dash] has been Improved!
[Ink Spray] has been Improved!
Maximum Tentacle Length Increased!
Absorbed Life-Essence is compatible with [Fast Swimming]: 4152
[Fast Swimming] has reached: Level 29 (205 / 300)
[Humanoid Pursuit] -- 78 / 100%
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[Legendary Grade] Reward:
[[Unique Skills]] found: 5
Compatibility: Good (7 / 10)
Absorption will be Attempted, Rate of Success proportional to Absorbed Life-Essence and Compatibility:
[[Endless Growth]]
Chance: 0.003%
Failed
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[[Ancient Dragon Scales]]
Chance: 0.08%
Failed
[[Wings of the Water Lord]]
Chance: 0.4%
Failed
[[Circuit Awakening]]
Chance: 0.001%
Success!!
[[Disaster God´s Breath]]
Chance: 0.00005%
Failed
Total [[Unique Skills]] Successfully Absorbed: 1
[[Circuit Awakening]]
Your Maximum Mana-Pool grows with you. Mana will now be shown as [Mana]. Addition of Spell-Cost Indicator.
´Aaah! Ha- W-wha-?´
Panting heavily, to the point that black dots start dancing in her vision, Mari feels her heart strike the inside of her chest so strongly it hurts. The memory of unbearable pain comes rushing back into her mind to which she tightly closes her eyes once more, feeling a tear dissipate in the salty water around her.
A... tear?
The girl needs a few minutes to calm down, then another few to realize what had happened to her, that she is still alive.
´This... was weird´
She hesitates
´But, at least it worked´
The girl straightens up, then looks down at her body, quickly feeling her own face turn into a grimace
´Alright, so this... I didn´t just imagine things...´
It´s changed again, not as much as in the first transformation, but still quite noticably so. Her hands further evolved to look more like... Hands. She still feels the many suckers there, but they've kinda sunken into her skin and got so much finer that they´re barely visible by the naked eye. That doesn´t mean they don´t do their job anymore, quite the opposite; Mari focuses on her right hand and clasps it together only to find out that her fingers are stuck to her palm now. She slightly tilts her head and stops the suction — yes, she can do that — to which her fingers easily separate. She then repeats the process a few times, a stupid smile forming on her face.
´So I decide what I want, that´s interesting´
Next she touches her head, much smaller now than she remembers. Her tentacles are still up there, but instead of being wildly placed, they flow down like perfectly braided hair. She was always fond of her tentacles, not only because they were so useful, but also because she thought of them as beautiful. They were a body-part she was proud of, and since early on she felt hers were much prettier than the other girls' from her school. Now, they´ve become even more charming. She moves them around and adjusts their size a little so they fall into something close to a hime cut, then strokes them gently with her hand, almost in disbelief this is actually her.
She feels her heartbeat quicken and her face turn utterly red.
Her face...
That´s also the place where her largest change seems to have taken place: She now finds a second mouth there, a little below her pitch-black eyes, and below the cute snub nose that decided to join the party as well — though the new addition doesn´t find much use at the moment, maybe later. The teeth aren´t any different from the ones that are still on the back of her head, long and sharp and bloodthirsty, but the shape of this new mouth is much more defined and coated by soft lips. It´s a bit weird, but she´ll take it?
Mari continues to check on the rest of her body, which wasn´t spared from the changes either: Her legs got longer, her feet actually look how they´re supposed to now and her figure has become taller and took some shape. Her body filled out — and by that I mean the right parts did — especially her lower end and the two mounts that are now also decorated with dark-blue cherries on top and compliment her otherwise bluish body-color. Though, compared to actual Humans she would still be considered small, in all of the above aspects. Not that she knew, or particularly cared, but the girl's beauty was still on a good way considering her [Humanoid Pursuit] wasn´t fully reached yet.
´This is so cool, somehow,´ Mari quietly laughs to herself and settles her self-inspection.
She stands up and decides it´s time to get to the important bits. And as if on cue, the translucent screen flickers before her eyes and so many messages appear that they don´t even fit on there. Mari squints her eyes and tries touching it with her finger so she can bring the cut-off messages into focus. She looks a bit surprised when it actually works and her hand doesn´t simply slip through the thin veil. Seconds later she's got 'scrolling' all figured out. Then, asking herself if the window stopped being intangible for good now and wondering if this could become a problem in fights, her hand suddenly loses resistance and falls through the screen. Her five fingers appear behind the illusory field.
´So, it's like, at the thought of it? Weird,´ the girl grimaces somewhat confused and tries to make it so she can touch the screen again. It works. She then wipes up so that new words come into view from below. Mari smirks, then continues to scroll through the messages that had bombarded her earlier.
´[Hidden Reward]... 100 Years cooldown? Wow,' she whistles as good as you can whistle underwater 'And I have 4 more of them, right?´
There´s much to take in, and even more to understand, many questions like what why and how need answers but probably won't get any. Take the whole deal with those ´Checkpoints´ for example and what would happen after she reached the last one.
But fortunately, there were a few things she got immediately too: First, she actually died and was resurrected thanks to what she could only call a miracle. Second, she became much stronger after successfully — Really Mari? Successfully? — Absorbing the remaining Life-Essence of the Leviathan. Though, she didn´t feel any immediate changes in strength, not that she could say, or maybe she could? All these body-adjustments played with her senses of self-perception more than she'd like.
What surprised Mari the most was that she stole a [Skill] from the enormous beast. If she understood correctly, the chances for that should have been awfully low.
Like promised in the [Skill´s] description, she could now see a number that apparently indicated her [Mana], and she also instinctively knew how much of this [Mana] it would take to use some of her [Skills], like for instance spraying her black ink. She thought about it for a little, how her ink was a spell apparently.
´Wait, then what if I...´
Mari changed the amount of ink she wanted to use and saw that the numbers changed accordingly.
´Ok, this can be pretty useful. But, is that really it?´
She felt a little underwhelmed by the effects when she compared them to her [[Life-Essence Administrator]], which apparently was of the same category. [[Unique]] or something.
She didn´t realize at the time how groundbreaking the ability to increase one´s Mana-Pool actually was though, and that there was a strict hierarchy under [[Unique Skills]], with her first one being very high up there.
So, the girl only shrugged.
-- -- --
´Ugh, finally, I can´t remember this was so deep,´ Mari complains and rejoices at the same time as she crawls out of the abyss. Before, she thought it was a place of escape and safety, but after a while it started feeling more like a prison, cold and unnerving. And let´s not forget the Leviathan down there, though Mari couldn't quite tell if it was still alive after she´d absorbed the remainder of its Life-Essence. It shouldn't be, right?
Right?
Thinking more carefully about it, if she was able to revive, it wouldn't make sense for such a being not to have the same or similar ability as well. Hell if she knew, she was just glad to finally get out of there. If it were to come back to life, she hoped it wouldn't be mad at her for taking some of its Life-Essence...
Well, more importantly, there were other more pressing and immediate problems she had to worry about. The memory of another way too big fish that is very probably very alife flashes in front of her eyes.
´Let´s get out of here, I won´t be picking any chances, not anymore. And I still got bones to pick with them´
The girl takes a deep breath. Experiencing literal death wasn´t something she´d expect to happen so soon — or hoped that she´d ever experience — but there it was. The event was shocking, nerve-wrecking, but with the change of scenery that unfolded before her, Mari´s thoughts were ever-so-slightly pulled away from the nightmare.
´Nightmare... this word doesn´t quite fit,´ the girl puts her own thoughts into queation.
In a sense, she gained more out of it than she´d ever hoped for. Sure, the experience wasn´t what you'd call pleasant, but the rewards more than made up for it. She was conflicted how to feel about all this. The girl sighed, hoping that her daily-life would bring her back to high spirits. It sure would, eventually.
´Well, now that that´s sorted out...´
Mari made her way out of the boss-fish-territory where she was chased to by her pursuers, or at least tried to as she didn´t have the faintest idea where it started or ended. Well, this wasn´t quite true: When she was chased by the [Lance Sharks], her senses were heavily dazed by the poison, but now she could sense a nasty pressure squeezing her quills, making it hard to remain calm. She guessed this was also reason for the [Lance Sharks] to turn tail and give up on her.
It took her a few hours for the feeling to finally lift. She turned around and looked behind her, wondering what was so different from the place over there from here where she now stood. Visually, they were the same, but she was certain she didn´t just imagine the feeling.
´I... don´t even wanna know´
The important thing is that she's out now, and there's nothing urging her to return into danger, for now at least. What mattered to her now are two much more important thoughts: Namely revenge and hunger.
The girl puts a finger to her lips.
´How did I put it again? "I´d kill all of you fuckers one day," or something. Yeah, I like that, guess the day arrives sooner than expected,´ Mari thinks to herself.
She grins, her razor-sharp teeth on full display, and sets out for the eradication.