Mind Core (Class-specific, 20LF): Crystalized Magic Power, able to channel and amplify certain Mental powers. It is unclear if there are more effects. Connected (formerly dormant) skills are now available: Waking Nightmare: You can disrupt the perception of your enemies. Your Nightmare’s heart channels your Mental Power and disrupts the sensory organs or your target, resulting in a skewed perception of your appearance. Unclear mode of operation. Nightmare’s Target: You can track a Magic Power Signature. The Magic Power Signature of your target is saved inside your Nightmare’s heart, through which you can track it down. Unclear mode of operation.> With a wicked grin, Sarah immediately activated her new skills and eagerly searched for a reaction in the big lizard. But it simply kept staring at her. She was just about to be disappointed when she noticed a new kind of sense inside of her mind. She knew where the lizard was. It was more than just her regular perception. She felt the very presence of it. She was sure, that she would know exactly where it was, even from a big distance away. While this would certainly come in handy in the future, at this moment it didn’t matter that much. With a shrug, she initiated the fight. Dirt and snow exploded behind her, as she pumped her legs full of mana and shot in a beeline towards the lizard. At the same time, she wanted to disrupt its mind shortly but failed miserably. Not only did the Lizard not even twitch, but she stumbled from the insane amount of mana this attempt had drained her off. She saw its pupils dilate upon her sudden approach. Its throat started to swell quickly and she had a hunch, that something bad would follow. At the last second, she kicked off from the ground and threw her to the side right as a billowing turquoise flame coated the ground where she had just stood. After the fire followed an acidic-smelling grey cloud, which burned like fire in her lungs. Stumbling on her feet again, she had to cough heavily and spat out dark blood. Not good. Her clothes and immediate surroundings quickly disintegrated in the cloud, and she lept out of it to escape it. But when she exited the cloud, the lizard stood at the ready for her. And its claws were slicing through the air, trying to rip her to shreds. As she was flying through the air, there was no way to change direction. So she huddled up and protected her head with her arms. When she impacted something, she was expecting great pain. But it didn’t come. The only thing she felt as she was rolling around was cold snow and wet dirt. She sprang to her feet in confusion and looked at the lizard. She saw it snarling and its throat swelling again. But it looked in the wrong direction. As it spat out its flames again, they missed her for such a great distance, that the grey clouds didn’t even reach her. The lizard looked around in confusion until its eyes locked onto her again. With an angry bellow, it started running towards her. “So that’s what it does,” Sarah mumbled and smiled slightly. It was strange, that her attempt to disrupt its mind didn’t do anything, but this ability worked completely fine. She would have to look into this later. Then she began probing the limits of her new and strange ability. It seemed that as long as she was constantly moving from place to place, the lizard would have a hard time figuring out where exactly she was. It also went into a frenzy as time moved on, as it was unable to hit Sarah, even though it was sure she should have been dead many times over. When she stood still for too long or moved a straight and predictable path, the lizard was able to properly focus on her after a few moments. The funniest thing about the whole thing was when she was making sounds on top of the movements. It appeared to her, that the sounds were also dislocated from her exact position and also from her illusory one. So the lizard was getting sensory information from multiple directions at once, confusing it completely. As the lizard roared with unbridled rage, Sarah saw her chance to go in. Most of the body of the lizard was wreathed in the turquoise flame, but its throat and belly seemed to be mostly free of it. So she pumped her legs full of mana again, ran towards it, and skidded underneath it. With savage glee, she ripped into its soft belly with her claws and pumped a good amount of poison inside of it with her tail. And just for good measure, she infused all her attacks with as much disintegrating energy as possible. The energy burned as it pulsed through her hands and tail, but she couldn’t hold back from this enemy. Sarah was bathed in its blood and other bodily fluids, as she tore through its skin and a little bit of its guts splashed out. Sarah sputtered and had difficulty seeing, as the burning substances ate into her skin. She felt a hard impact on her side and shot away like a stone thrown over a calm lake. She hit the ground a few times before she skidded to a halt. Searing pain shot through her side and she noticed with shock, that the fluids she was doused in had somehow caught fire. She rolled herself in the snow until she stopped burning. After that, she shot onto her feet again, ready to take on the lizard. But it just stood there a distance away, looking at her with mad fury in its eyes, while it tried to shove its innards inside its belly again. If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it. “As if.” Sarah snorted and channeled mana through her whole body, pushing the ravaging pain to the back of her mind. She had a monster to finish first. She ran right towards it and the lizard’s eyes widened. She saw its throat swell again, but before it could shower her in its flames again, she jumped on top of its head, wrapped her arms around its mouth, and squeezed. Bones cracked and flesh squelched, as she pressed with all her might. And then, with a loud pop, fire gushed out of its eyes and nostrils. She had no time to bathe in her victory, as the top of its head exploded and she was flung away by the shockwave. She slammed into a nearby tree and fell to the ground. Half-conscious, she noticed, that she was burning again. With a titanic effort of will she warded off the balance of unconsciousness and started rolling around in the mud around her. As the fire went out, she didn’t need to open her status screen to know, that her health was way too low. As she received the system message, she started doing the only thing she could think of at the moment. She crawled over to the messy remains of the lizard and started eating its sizzling and stinking flesh. She ignored the foul taste and burning acid in her mouth, as she ate more and more of the colossus. While she did that, she sucked out all the magic power it had left in its body. The only possibility for her to survive this was to somehow integrate the poison of the thing into her powers, so it wouldn’t eat her up from the inside anymore and to get as much energy from it as possible. It was a race against time. She also damaged herself by doing this, but eating things was the fastest way for her to assimilate a new poisonous substance. And finally, the message she was hoping for came into view. With a content sigh, she rolled over and leaned her head on the carcass of the lizard. The pain had subsided by a substantial amount, and she could feel her regeneration do its job slightly faster than usual. She lifted her badly burnt hand to look at it and creased her face in disgust. “Oh boy, that’s disgusting.” She murmured as she looked at the ruins of her hand. What was even more disgusting as the injury itself, was the visible wriggling and healing of the flesh due to her regenerative powers. “I truly am a nightmare.” She mumbled with a sigh and closed her eyes for a moment. “At least to my enemies. And my appetite.” She didn’t know how long she lay there, or if she was even conscious for the whole time, but as she stood up again, she felt a whole lot better. Her skin was mostly healed by now, but she knew, that her insides were still badly messed up. To see what the bad had gotten her, she went to take a look at her status screen. Details: Level: 41 (+1) Name: Sarah Anna Fischer Class: True Nightmare Race: Mutant Status: Internal injuries (healing) HP: 145/700 (+5) SP: 320/710 (+10) MP: 870/1230 (+25) Achievements: * How the hell are you still sane?: Resistance to mind damage increased by 10%. * Poison gorger: Resistance to orally consumed poison increased by 30%. * More than a human: Higher success rate on special mutations. * Budding Reaper (upgradable): You are able to slightly sense weak points in your enemies. Affinities: Mind (Mid) Body (Mid) Energy (Low) Specialisations: Mind (2/2) Invasion Nerve Control Body (2/2) Adaptation Mutation Energy (1/1) Disintegration Basic Stats: Strength: 34 (+1) Dexterity: 35 Endurance: 37 (+1) Resistance: 31 Intelligence: 29 Force: 25 Special Stats: Magic Power: 41 (+1) Life Force: 110 (+1) Mental Power: 81 (+1) Pure Energy: 2 (+1) Active Skills: Mind infiltration (Invasion) Disintegration Infusion (Disintegration) (NEW) Waking Nightmare: You can disrupt the perception of your enemies. Your Nightmare’s heart channels your Mental Power and disrupts the sensory organs or your target, resulting in a skewed perception of your appearance. Unclear mode of operation. (NEW) Nightmare’s Target: You can track a Magic Power Signature. The Magic Power Signature of your target is saved inside your Nightmare’s heart, through which you can track it down. Unclear mode of operation. Passive Skills: Poison Being (Adaptation) * Poison and acid resistance * Walking Calamity * Mutated glands * Poisonous Magic Power Metamorphosis (Mutation, 100/110 Life Force used) Skin: * Dense skin (1 LF) Bone structure: * Predator’s bones (4 LF) * Vital organ shielding (2LF) Muscles: * Strengthened Magic fibres (2LF) Brain, nerve system, and sensory organs: * Predator’s eyes (1LF) * Predator’s nervous system (15 LF) Organs and processes: * Magic Power nourishment system (5LF) * Acid Gland (not recommended, 4LF) * Extension: Gaseous acid (1LF) Special mutations: * Nightmare’s tail (class specific, 5LF) * Nightmare’s Stalwart Horns (class specific, 10 LF) * Restoration (30 LP) * (NEW) Mind Core (Class-specific, 20LF): Crystalized Magic Power, able to channel and amplify certain Mental powers. It is unclear if there are more effects. Tempered Soul (Unique) Suppression (Nerve Control) Struggle (Conditional passive) Slightly crazy Mean eye Even though a level up was a good result, she couldn’t help but be a little bit disappointed. In comparison to her early days, her level up speed was abysmal. Especially considering what she had just gone through. She had also hoped, that she had assimilated the weird fire ability of the monster, or that she would be able to make a special mutation. But nothing new had popped up. She scrolled through her ignoring system messages to see if there was some more information buried there. With a heavy sigh, Sarah turned around to the stinking corpse again. She smacked her lips and lamented her situation as she knelt again. “Getting new powers is great and all. But why do I always have to eat disgusting things?” She wondered as she started ripping out junk from the thing. She closed her eyes while doing so, as she didn’t want to know what exactly she was eating. The less she knew, the better. After quite a long time, she couldn’t continue anymore. With an aching stomach, she looked at the new system message. “Damnit.” She swore and started rubbing herself off with snow. She had hoped for the analysis to be complete with her extended… meal. As she was rubbing herself off with the cold snow, her mind started waking up from the cold and her usual perception snapped back into action. And she promptly noticed someone near her. Her head snapped around and stared at the person, who had been lurking around near her. And what she saw made her speechless. It was a child.