That hurt way more than he thought it would.
Grunting, Hans swatted away a fanged rat, and with some effort pulled his claw back and slammed it into the shell of the scuta who charged at him, throwing it into the wall. He hissed in pain as cracks appeared on his claw with trickles of blood leaking.
The tip of his claw was missing, his arm was numb, and not to mention the rest of his body was a fucked up mess. A bloody, broken, fucked up mess.
He only had one arm, one of his eyes was missing, he had some of his legs gone, and part of his carapare had melted off, exposing burned flesh. Every inch of his body hurt and overall he just wanted to lie down and go to sleep.
Too bad he can’t.
The turtle is coming our way.
Leaping back, the scuta rushed past him, clearing a path of blood and gore as it plowed through fellow monsters.
Not a moment later, Hans' sidestepped another charge. The damned thing was relentless with its attacks, before it was manageable, but now? Not so much.
Right now the only thing he has that wasn’t in a mess was his stinger but killing the scuta with it was going to be a pain in the ass. He might need to sacrifice his remaining arm.
…
He better get an evolution out of this shit.
Just stab it in the eyes.
Fuck off, Asger. He already knows, you godforsaken brain ghost. Now shut up if you have nothing better to say and let him concentrate.
Said brain ghost made some fuss about how they were not a brain ghost as ghosts don't even exist in the first place, something that Hans dismissed as nonsense. If there’s magic, there have to be ghosts.
Because ghosts are magical things.
Hans twitched before he dodged yet another charge from the scuta as it blew past him, causing another path of blood and gore in its way.
This was getting old, fast.
Unfortunately, he wasn’t able to do anything about that as the scuta had gained some bottomless well of energy when it fired off that laser cannon of theirs. Which wasn’t fair!
It should be tired! Not running around killing things to its content!
The damned thing was breaking the rule!
As he was deep in thought, the scuta crashed into him, sending the scorpion flying in the air before falling to the ground. Growling in annoyance, he flipped himself over, ignoring how uncomfortable his bruised internals felt.
That fucking smug son of a bitch! When he gets his claw on that rule breaking bastard, it’ll be wishing for death!
Wait a moment, what rule? What was he even talking about again? No, focus Hans, focus, or you’re going to die here! You need to kill the turtle, not think about some made-up rule!
The scuta charged once again, to which Hans dodged as usual, though this time he activated his trump card, [Slow Down]. Time slowed down for him as he found himself moving in slow motion. Rising his arm, claw open, he slammed it down on the charging scuta.
It dropped to the ground, causing a crater to be made on the ground as Hans drew his hand, which was shattered in pieces. Rattled by the impact, the scuta poke it head out, dazed.
Taking his chances, his stinger shot forward piercing one of its eyes.
The scuta roars in pain, throwing its head around trying to bite. Hans avoided such attacks by retreating back, watching as the veins around its eyes grow bigger, the flesh becoming more and more necrotic.
Heh.
“How does the venom feel, you fuck?” Hans sneered as he looked at the scuta who was now writhing in pain, kicking up dust as it did so. Spits spray out of its mouth as it repeatedly slammed its head into ground, trying to get rid of the pain.
Then, its eye glazed over, becoming cloudy, and it ceased moving.
[Venom Slash - Lv. 7] Leveled Up!
[Slow Down - Lv 3] Leveled Up!
You have slain [Scuta - Lv. 22]!
You Have Leveled Up! [Sandstream Scorpion - Lv. 17 —> Lv. 18 —> Lv. 19 –> Lv. MAX]!
…
You have obtained the max level, please choose a path.
Path of the Goliath: Increase the size, strength, and hardness of your exoskeleton.
Path of the Survivor: Increases stealth, takes less damage and be able to survive killing blows, along with granting a way with nature.
Path of the Brute: Increase strength and grant the skill [Lesser Rage]
“Oh thank goodness.”
You should pick the Goliath path.
Wait, let him check out the other options first before choosing.
…
Alright, Path of the Goliath it is then. The other paths don't really offer him anything that he needs or want and he already took a path that could be considered defensive. Although, not really
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So, it was best he pick one that boosted both his strength and his exoskeleton as that was what saved his life.
See, I’m smart.
Shut up.
Picking his chosen path, the boxes disappeared. Soon, his vision became engulfed by a flash of light as he passed out.
…
…
…
“This is going to hurt.”
______________________________
This was becoming more annoying than it needed to be.
Their defenses were now nearly shattered and the damned thing was still clinging to life. Its flame may be dwindling but they were certainly making good use of its limited time. Nevertheless, this was all to end soon.
Reinforcing their defenses, Em braced themselves as the thing crashed into them, shattering the walls and revealing them to its feral eyes.
That wasn’t good
Stone spikes rushed forward, hitting it and shattering on impact with a few breaking through and leaving cuts on its body. It growled and Em made further distance as a stone slammed into it, throwing it far away from them.
It fell into a pit full of spikes and Em pulled down a portion of ceiling to crush it into paste. Embers gathered in its mouth before it released a giant fireball toward the ceiling falling down on it. The explosion engulfed their vision as a plume of smoke soon took its place.
But they could still see its spark.
And it was nearly extinguished, now barely alight. When the smoke cleared, the monster pitfully crawled out of the pit, puncture wounds littering its body, its jaw burned and broken, and patches of its furs were missing.
Without hesitation, they impaled the monster, cut it, crushed it, and smashed it until the world itself declared its death
[Stone Manipulation - Lv. 3] Leveled Up!
You have slain [Juvenile Magic Devourer - Lv. 20]!
You Have Leveled Up! [Life Crystal Golem - Lv. 17 —> Lv. 18 —> Lv. 19 —> Lv. MAX]
….
You have obtained the max level, please choose a path.
Path of the Magic: Increase mana and increase proficiency at magic.
Path of the Artificial Life: Grant the skill [Life Magic] and strengthen the body.
Oh? What was this?
A closer look revealed what seemed something similar to that of a job upgrade? That was the closest thing that they could come up with after going through the memories. Although, it wasn’t related to one’s job but rather to one’s species.
How interesting.
Anyway, they needed to pick a path. Path of the Magic was mildly interesting but it was likely to be a generic path for anyone able to use magic. The other path, on the other hand, caught most of his attention.
Life magic.
The name of the skill implied that one could manipulate life, something that was very interesting to them. In fact, even the name of the path itself was interesting.
Artificial Life. Two words that were not something one would see everything. It was an idea that was closely related to alchemy with homunculus, artificial humans made with the power of alchemy.
A rather far-fetched idea, that was out right impossible to achieve.
But alas, that was something to think about at a later time. They had to pick a path and Artificial Life was their choice. When they made their choice, the message disappeared, leaving them by themselves, surrounded by debris and corpses.
Nothing happened for a moment.
Then, their vision began to blur. Alarmed, they began to erect walls around them in a panic but found themselves unable to do so. They were frozen in place, unable to move, and unable to use their magic.
That wasn’t the worst part.
The worst part came when their body began to expand, violently and painfully. Their core within the crystal began to contort and twist. The memories screamed and begged for the pain to stop, something they hold no control over; moreover, they too were writhing in pain.
How unfortunate, they realized, that they don’t have a mouth to scream with.
Thankfully, the pain subsided just as quickly as it appeared leaving them to mentally breathe a sigh of relief as the memories slowly quieted down, no longer screaming, leaving them alone to examine their new form.
You have gained the skill [Life Magic - Lv. 1]!
[LIfe Magic - Lv. 1] - Grant you the ability to manipulate life with magic.
Yes, it was exactly as they expected. Though, the description can be a through in its limitations in what it can and can’t do. Although, it wasn’t that much of a problem, since they could just test the skill itself.
They paused.
An unpleasant sensation could be felt around their neck. It was sudden and annoying. Glancing through the memories revealed that it could be either a stiff or sore neck. One way to get rid of it was by simply moving the neck itself.
Unfortunately, that is likely an impossible task to do since the only part of their core that they could move was the eye on the forehead of their core. Alas, it would seem that they’ve to let the sensation go away on its own–
Crack!
Hmm?
Crack!
Crack!
Crack!
The unnerving sounds of bones creaking and popping of bones echoed throughout the cavern. With each creak and pops, they found their vision shifting. The only conclusion they can draw was that they were subconsciously moving their neck on its own, in order to relieve themselves of this discomfort.
Ah. Now the second half of the path makes sense now. They had skimp past it in favor of focusing on the skill that was offered due to how vague it was. The ‘body’ that they speak of seems to refer to their core as they could feel any difference to their outer shell apart from perhaps an increase in thickness?
No, if anything it decreased. How odd, wasn’t the outer shell part of their ‘body’? Then why was it not strengthened? Did the path not consider it to be part of their ‘body’? If so, why?
Still, hmm, wait, this surprisingly feels quite good
Crack!
Was there any more of their core that could be moved? A quick examination revealed that aside from their neck, their hands can also be moved, although the only things they could do was clenching their fists. Aside from that, they could feel that their ‘core’ had grown larger.
Huh, putting that aside, they began looking around for the scorpion and his companion. During the battle, they had lost track of where the two went but now that things have settled, they should regroup. After all, they still had many things to talk about.
Fortunately, it didn’t take long for them to find the two.
However, they seemed to be…different from how they were before.
Hunched over, the lower of a scorpion while the upper half took on a more humanoid look, two pairs of arms, with one pair being the claws of a scorpion, a tail with a stinger that was more like a blade and golden carapaces covering his body. It didn’t give him the same polished and sleek appearance but a more barbaric appearance instead, with how jagged the carapaces were.
His head was carapaces like the rest of his body, looking like that of a scorpion. His eyes were black, devoid of pupils, and pincers around his mouth, clicking ominously.
Before Hans had looked like a scorpion, a rather large scorpion with a few abnormalities to his face and head.
But now?
Now he has transformed into looking like a monster with such drastic changes to his body. Was this the effects of the path?
They quickly began reestablishing a mental link between them. Hans paused before turning toward them, a red glint in his eyes that vanished just as quickly as it had appeared. Still clicking his pincers, he turned his whole body around with some awkward moment before giving a response.
"EM! ██ to see you! How have ██ been?"
How ██ thing █ your end?
Ah, thank goodness. They were still the same.