Chapter 4: Item Evolution

I couldn’t believe what I was reading. Get sent to another world. Check. Get overpowered abilities. Check, Save the world from the demon king. Buzz, wrong answer. I don’t know what the system was thinking, but it didn’t want me to save the world, it wanted me to rule it. During the second life initialization, I had been told that my classes would be based on the three backgrounds I received. I may have a tortured soul, but even a deviant hero is still a hero. How the hell is conquering the planet being a hero?

“Fuck that! Just because I have this quest doesn’t mean I have to complete it!” I shouted out into the universe. I don’t know if the system could hear or understand me, but I had no intention of ever finishing this quest. Looking over my abilities though, I knew I couldn’t turn away from making use of the potent abilities my classes gave me. Not if I wanted to survive and thrive. Now that I had unlocked my access to my levels, classes, and traits though I decided to review my updated status screen.

Name: Leodon Xavier Walvin

Race: Fel-Human: C

Level:0

Class: Dark Monarch

Title: Apocalypse King

Status

Health: 100%

Mana: 100%

Stamina: 15%

Active Effects: Crippled 100%

Passive Effects: [Locked]

Free Attribute Points: 45

Attributes

Strength: 7

Vitality: 5

Agility: 6

Perception: 6

Intelligence: 7

Charisma: 2

Wisdom: 3

Luck: 2

Free Skill Points: 65

Skills: None

I felt some relief as I looked over my new status. The system may have been an asshole by giving me evil classes, but it hadn’t lied about being able to retain all the free points that I had earned before my level reduction. The gamer in me was eager to begin investing my points immediately, but reluctantly I pushed myself up from the ground. I had to pick up my items and see how they had changed. After that, I still needed to gather plenty of firewood before the sunset, especially if I had to have a large enough fire to survive whatever the howling damned were. It didn’t help that my thoughts were too chaotic to focus on the details. If I was going to make life-altering decisions like raising attributes and getting skills I wanted to make sure I was level-headed. What person in their right mind would be able to focus after that kind of fight? I had never killed a man in my life, but now I killed eight?

Slowly I rose back to my feet and looked at my surroundings. Nausea overtook me for a brief moment at the sight of all of the corpses, blood pooling around their motionless bodies. The queasiness disappeared quickly as my nose caught the strong scent of blood and a powerful hunger took over my body. My stomach audibly growled and without thinking I knelt and took a bite out of the last man I had killed. I chewed for only a moment as his flesh was extremely salty. But once I swallowed the intense hunger I had felt faded. Regaining my senses I reeled back from the body horrified by what I had done.

That horror turned into surprise as memories started flashing through my mind. Images flooded by as I saw brief glimpses of faces, and remembered names from this person’s life. I felt like most of the memories lacked proper context to understand, but the big details I picked up on was that there were more of these priests out there. It was their ancient duty to patrol the shores and hunt down the howling damned. For most of the men here, it was their first journey into the sands, many barely having any weapons training. I saw their home prominently in his memories. A mostly ruined city thirty miles up the coast. It was the capital of the now-fallen coastal kingdom.

The potency of the memories faded quickly, but their presence lingered in the back of my mind. Waiting for me to call upon them for future use. As the experience ended I was left sitting in the sand staring at the somewhat chewed man in confusion. What the hell was that? I asked myself, the disgust at what I had done replaced with curiosity. None of my classes mentioned eating people, and the only other big change I had undergone was my race. It had gone from locked to rank C. With a quick thought, I pulled up my racial information screen to see what the changes had done to me.

Race: Fel-Human

Details: Variant Humans were either born with or corrupted by dark energy until it altered their nature. Different variant bloodlines have alternative traits.

Rank: C. (First-time race rank notification. Gain access to one racial trait per rank.)

Fel- Human Racial Traits: Fel Endurance - No longer human, your body processes energy more efficiently, slowing the rate of stamina depletion, and reducing the need to eat and drink as often. Fel Potential - Gain 2 free attribute points, and 1 free skill point per level. Fel Regeneration - Injuries and Stamina recover at an accelerated rate. Fel Resistance - Your body now acclimates to extreme temperatures and harsh climates.

Variant Racial Trait: Omnivore: Can now consume anything without suffering adverse effects. Monstrous Evolution - Can gain skills, power, or knowledge from consuming the biomatter of a lifeform. This has increased effects on humanoids. Predatory Senses - Your senses will now highlight weaker prey. You can detect your prey’s vital points. Metamorphosis - You can change your physical appearance as long as your form remains humanoid and maintains the same relative mass.

“Of course of course. You can’t be a demon lord without needing to feast on human flesh.” I grumbled sarcastically. Fortunately, the bite I had taken had been enough to meet whatever requirements my body now needed for sustainment. Already I could feel my strength and energy returning. Revitalized I rose and spent only a couple minutes digging around the corpses to recover my items. Every discovery made me feel like a kid at Christmas. I don’t know why the system seemed bent on making me an evil overlord, but at least it was giving me good stuff. Each time as soon as my hands touched the item it glowed momentarily and then transformed into a new item. I looked over their new information with joy.

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Item: Grimoire (evolved from Cell Phone)

Item Name: Tome of Lost Echoes

Item Rank: SSS

Item Description: All functions have been modified for the current location. All applications now operate according to current needs. While the grimoire is summoned and within reach, all magical effects and damage are increased by 1% per level

Item: Chains (evolved from Controller)

Item Name: Fetters of Manipulation

Item Rank: SSS

Item Description: This item has two different functions, allowing it to augment the capabilities of its wielder. The first function is its shaping function. The chains can change size, length, and shape depending on the user's will. In their passive shape, they can be a necklace, a ring, or a bracelet. When in use the controller can turn into any tool the wielder can conceive of. The second function is its controller function which allows the wielder to control and manipulate anything capable of movement. This function does not work on anything with the will to resist the wielder’s commands.

Item: Satchel (evolved from Dice Bag)

Item Name: Satchel of Guided Destiny

Item Rank: SSS

Item Description: This bag contains three sets of game dice. Each numerically different die has a different effect when used. The effects of dice are also based on the intentions of the user. When expended the dice will disappear and then reappear within the bag after a certain amount of time has passed, based on the outcome of the roll. Regardless of the outcome, all dice will return to within the bag no later than 6 hours later.

Item: Scythe (evolved from hunting knife)

Item Name: Abyssal Ruination

Item Rank: SSS

Item Description: When a target is killed by Abyssal Ruination 10% of the target's highest attribute is infused into the weapon. While being wielded the user has access to the accumulated attributes. Abyssal Ruination is capable of absorbing other weapons allowing it to gain additional enchantments and forms. The form can be directed by the user's will. This weapon can channel the mana of the user allowing it to have increased potency or augmented capabilities.

“This is more like it,” I said, holding up my new scythe appraisingly. Now that I was properly armed I felt more secure in my ability to defend myself. It seemed as if the system was trying to make me relatively overpowered, but if the types of challenges I faced included being greatly outnumbered then I would accept it. Besides, if the system is trying to make me conquer the world it most likely is giving someone a quest to stop me. That thought disturbed me and I pushed it away deciding to focus on playing with my weapon.

I tested out my scythe's ability to absorb weapons and change shapes by having it feed on the weapons of the priests. In short order, I had managed to turn it into a spear, a pair of short swords, and even a crossbow that fired magical bolts of dark energy by infusing it with 1% of my mana per shot. The chains didn’t have the absorption limitation and smiled broadly as I turned them into a hammer, an ax, and then a shovel. While they could technically be used as weapons, the system allowed the difference in intended purpose to count in my favor. Contentedly I knew it was time to build my fire. It had been well after noon when the priests had attacked and I only had a few hours left of sunlight and didn’t want them to go to waste.

Three hours later the sky had grown noticeably darker but was colored with brilliant shades of red. Unfortunately, as the sun rapidly sank over the waves the temperature dropped dramatically and the cold winds began biting at my flesh. The wind was still chilly, but unlike this morning it was only uncomfortable. Like leaving the air conditioning on too high. Looking around my shelter I had dug out six different fire pits and filled them with all the wood I could find. In the morning I could make my way to the city the priests had come from, but I never would have made the distance in time.

I had reluctantly decided to take a bite out of each dead man, but the flashes of memory didn’t help me much besides revealing that there were at least twenty other priests and priestesses still alive within the confines of that ruined capital. There used to be more, but hunting the howling damned could be dangerous. They were weak to holy energy and could be vanquished with it, but occasionally a mistake was made and a priest was slain.

As for the monsters themselves, not only were they weak to the holy magic of the priests, but they had a strong aversion to fire and heat. Which is why they only appeared at night, riding on the ocean’s winds. They would chase the cold ocean air as it was powerful enough to put out most fires allowing the damned to move in on their now defenseless targets and rip them to shreds. Resisting the urge to shiver in fear I set to work at building a flame.

I had learned how to build a fire out of rubbing sticks together at a point in my life when I was homeless and needed to fend for myself. It had only been for a week, but the nights got cold and I needed warmth. It took a little bit of time, but soon my first fire was roaring to life and I felt myself relax greatly. Using a self-made torch I lit the other five fires and waited. I had only seen the beasts through the vague memories I had taken from the dead priests and wanted to see them for myself.

I didn’t have holy power so I wasn’t sure if I could actually defeat them, but I did have a variety of classes now to work with, and a few related to monsters, so it could be possible. If I was lucky I might be able to start raising my level before I had to face off with the priests. From the memories, they didn’t seem horrible. They were just a small group of monster hunters. Yet something felt off about them and it was clear that they were tied to whatever quests were keeping me locked in the starting zone. While I waited for the sun to set I lay down between my fires and stared at the readily darkening sky.

Pulling up my status screen I decided it was a good time to invest my points. The first thing I did was raise every attribute to 10. With only three points left over to spend I put two points into wisdom, and one into luck. I checked how the diminishing returns affected the points I put in wisdom and it had dropped the percentage I gained from investing in that attribute from 10% to 9%.

After I had invested the last point I received a system notification asking me to confirm my decision of attribute points. I mentally confirmed. In the future, I might have to be more selective with how I spent my points, but with having such a head start with attributes I thought it would be a good idea to at least make sure I was at the peak of normal capabilities. With the confirmation, I felt a storm of energy build up and begin flooding my body. I started to shake uncontrollably as every part of my body seemed to be exploding with power. At first, the sensation felt amazing, but it was soon too much for my body to bear as pain tore through my flesh, causing me to go blind in agony. Then I was unconscious.

When I awoke it was the sound of howling. It was loud, terrifying, and everywhere. Opening my eyes I gasped as I could see a veritable swarm of the creatures surrounding my shelter. They were screeching as they stared down at me from their perches. I counted at least fifty all mounted on my walls refusing to get closer because of the heat of the fires I had surrounded myself with.

I rose to my feet and was blown away by how light and powerful my body had become. My thoughts seemed clear and concise, and the entire world now seemed clear and crisp. Like before I had been staring at everything through a dirty window my entire life, and it had now become clean for the first time. Even though I was surrounded by monsters I couldn’t be more excited. I bounced up and down a few times appreciating my elevated stats before I returned my attention to the damned that had cornered my shelter.

Their bodies were nothing but humanoid skeletons, but instead of normal hands, their finger bones extended in large claws. The skulls resembled a normal human’s but the holes that indicated where the eyes had been were more elongated than round. From the way they were clutching the stones of my shelter, I could tell they were corporeal, but the bones themselves seemed spectral and translucent.

I watched as several more climbed onto my walls, and howled. They stared at me with empty eyes and just kept releasing their jarring cries continuously. They kept shuffling and my breath caught as I noticed the top layer of my roughly made fort was beginning to crumble. If the walls started coming down I didn’t doubt the wind would quickly kill my fires leaving me defenseless.

Despite my new classes, I had the crippled debuff and I doubted the perks alone would get me out of this mess, and I didn’t have time to see if I had any skills that could be of use, as I noticed another section of wall crumble in. It caused the damned on that wall to howl with more excitement.

“I am so fucked.” I cursed, as the others seemed to notice their ability to dismantle my shelter. I watched in horror as they began to seal my fate.