The "taste" of attribute points were unlike anything I had ever tasted, or really, ever even sensed. As I began to haunt the prison I grew accustomed to the "taste" of the points, thanks to my constant feeding on the prisoners within the penitentiary. 

Might points tasted like an energizing drink one might drink after a particularly intense workout. They were exciting and refreshing to drink in. Toughness points tasted like a hearty breakfast one might eat after a few weeks of fasting. Devouring them filled my cells with energy and endurance. Grace points felt like finishing a dance for the first time, all while knowing you did it perfectly. It was an exciting, pride-instilling sensation to feast on them.

Wisdom points tasted like coffee, but only to someone with a caffeine addiction. To devour them was to receive a sudden burst of insight, of awareness, to feel one's perception suddenly shoot up. Intelligence points reminded me of how it felt to finish a good book. Charm points felt like the rush of joy one felt when making new friends. 

The sensations affiliated with each sort of point were incredibly exciting to me. As I made my way through the prison, I focused on assorted bigwigs throughout the department of Francisco Morazan's criminal underbelly. In time they would play other roles in the plans that were steadily coming together in the back of my mind, but for now, they were little more than a meal. 

As I took in their points I felt myself beginning to grow in power. I felt my muscles beginning to incrementally, and then not so incrementally expand. I felt my intellect steadily increasing. I felt my poise and innate grace steadily improving as well. Even my senses were slowly, and then not so slowly, expanding outward, allowing me to steadily be able to hear even more distant conversations than I had previously been able to. 

A few minutes after having entered the prison proper I was filled with points that weren't mine and had left behind several nearly unconscious prisoners, and a rare few corrupt guards, in my wake.

At the moment my stats were far higher than they were normally. After having feasted on no less than seven prisoners and three guards I had a might score of 110, a charm score of 109, wisdom and intelligence scores that were both at 107, and grace and toughness scores of 111. As a result of that, I was radiating power at the moment. 

I could easily hear conversations occurring in the southern United States, and Venezuela alike. I knew that I was capable of such feats of grace that if I wanted to, I could walk on dust particles, or on clouds. I could lift up cruise ships, without relying on my super-strength power if I needed to. 

At certain point-milestones, I had innately gained certain powerups that were themselves quite intriguing to me, the first of those powerups occurring when I hit one hundred points in any attribute. The moment I hit one hundred points in charm I gained the ability to vocally command humans who lacked ten or more points in intelligence, which was an astounding power for someone like me. With one hundred points in strength, I gained the power to launch attacks that could cause visible shockwaves to radiate out of me at will, and my attacks could cause earthquakes. I looked forward to the day that I could permanently steal points from others and add them to my own scores. 

For the moment I was quite disappointed that unless I spent my points in some way they'd be soon fade out of me. That said, this only emphasized the importance of upgrading my powers in a healthy, evenly distributed sort of way. I couldn't just focus on absorbing attribute points to gain physiology abilities, I needed to upgrade my changeling powers as well so that I could more feasibly gain real, permanent increases to my base attributes.

My hands were on the head of a male guard, one who had willingly done the bidding of one of the older criminals. I was feeding on his charm, which was unusually high at thirteen, and delighting in devouring his suaveness. 

So far, of all of the scores I had drained, charm was always my favorite to feast on. The guard whose head I was touching had a surprisingly high charm score of thirteen, which meant that I'd be able to gain a grand total of ten charm points from him. As his charisma and style began to bleed out of him, I smiled beautifully at the almost unconscious figure. It was while I was doing that that the figure gazed up at me confusion visible on his face since he felt my hand but couldn't see my invisible form. 

Each of the attributes had side effects and additional, indirect qualities. The side effects of having a higher charm score were boosts to one's attractivity. At high enough levels of charm, someone could cause others to fall for them, or want to become their best friends, with literally nothing more than a single unguarded glance. I was at roughly that level of charm, but since I was invisible the guard was spared that effect of closeness to me.

When I finished feeding upon the man's charm I released him from my grip. As I did, I heard a voice begin to whisper in the back of my mind. 

"Congratulations, in feeding upon so many different people in such a short interval of time you have unlocked access to the first set of upgrades to your changeling abilities!" The voice uttered, before causing my mind's eye to be filled with a number of text boxes that contained exciting information on how to upgrade my current changeling abilities. 

[Ravenous Feeding:

Costs: 25 of each attribute point

Benefits: This is a holistic boost to your 'Attribute Drain' power. With this upgrade, you can drain creatures of their attributes faster and for longer. Before you purchase this upgrade those you drain will recover their statistics in a few days or weeks at the longest, with creatures with more intelligence recovering their stats the fastest. If you purchase this upgrade it will take those you have drained at least a month to recover, and this applies retroactively as well.

This also results in you gaining the ability to feed on secondary attributes, and in you gaining the power to feed on statistics possessed by objects or corpses. You can feed remotely on corpses or objects but not living creatures. Attribute points taken from objects and corpses will permanently boost your scores. This power also allows for its wielders to recover while feeding on the attributes of others and is a requirement to become both a vampire and a demon.]

[Improved Appraisal:

Costs: 25 of each attribute point

Benefits: This ability allows you to see someone's secondary attributes. With this you can also see the statistics of any object which possesses statistics, as well as statistics possessed by corpses.]

[Light Elemental Physiology:

Costs: 400 of each primary attribute point

Benefits: This ability will allow you to become a light elemental. Light elementals are potent spirits of light that can utilize an array of light and light-themed abilities. Their basic physiologies are such that they can freely move at the speed of light, become invisible, intangible, and can attack with an array of lasers, including utilizing homing beams that can track even targets that can move at the speed of light. They can also heal themselves and others, illuminate areas, and have greater light manipulation skill than those who merely possess lumokinesis.]

[Darkness Elemental Physiology:

Costs: 400 of each primary attribute point

Benefits: With this you can become a darkness elemental. Darkness elementals are potent spirits of darkness that can freely manipulate darkness. Their basic physiologies are such that they can ensnare things in darkness, freeze things by stealing thermal energy from them, blind living creatures, and manipulate darkness in precise and cruel ways.]

I mentally glanced at the two abilities that I could currently afford and "purchased" them with little more effort than I might have used to remember a password when logging onto a website I regularly used, before I gained superpowers. As I did, I felt my awareness of my surroundings subtly and not-so-subtly change. 

Certain objects around me, such as the walls that surrounded me, began to faintly take on a pink hue, and I chuckled as I studied them. I instinctively knew that that hue meant that I could absorb points from them, but I also knew that if I took points from such objects then I ran the risk of causing them to become structurally unstable and potentially collapse. 

Beyond that I also found myself far more aware of the corpses that were buried in the hill. I could faintly feel them in the back of my mind, almost as if they were calling to me, and fresher corpses "called" to me far more loudly than older ones did. For the first time I almost wished I had necromantic powers. Fortunately for me, I could feed remotely on corpses and so I opted to bloat myself on the litany of corpses buried in the hillside. 

I willed myself to feast on the corpses that were situated under my feet, and sighed in pleasure as I felt their points beginning to flow into me. They possessed incredibly few points compared to living creatures, due to points rapidly deteriorating in corpses, but there were dozens of them and so I gained a pleasant buzz from feasting on them.

As I did that I also acquired my first "Secondary" attribute points, which, at least from the corpses I fed on, came in two categories: faith, and sin. I knew what faith was, but "Sin" points felt a lot more ominous and so I opted to question the system about them. Fortunately, the system had answers for me. 

"Sin points are a localized translation of a sort of energy source that stems from evil acts. As humans, or other sapient living beings, commit evil acts their souls begin to generate a potent sort of energy that accelerates their corruption and makes it easier for them to give into temptation in the future. 'Sin points' are just my way of making that concept make sense. Sin points are useful for you because they are a necessary part of earning access to a litany of 'Demon physiology' powers, as well as for earning the power to utilize 'Sin' powers, such as power over gluttony." The system explained. 

That understanding filled my head with various images of demonic powerhouses. I imagined mighty demonic overlords leading armies of lesser demons into battle. I also imagined myself subtly utilizing various corruption-based powers to spread my influence elsewhere, like a super villain of sorts, but for positive reasons. Having power over wrath and the ability to induce rage could be handy if an elusive enemy of mine were somehow about to escape from a pitched battle, as could having power over sloth. There was also power in having the ability to acquire and control someone's soul through pacts and deals, which I sensed was a part of at least some sorts of demonic physiologies as well. 

That knowledge served to excite me and speed me back up as I continued to make my way through the prison, ready to feed on more and more people. I was only feeding on those who really deserved it, but that was plenty of people throughout the prison, dozens of prisoners whose stats would serve me better than they would serve them. I delightedly ran rampant throughout the prison, utilizing my powers such as super speed, my "Attribute Drain", and others such that by the time I was done changing the prison, less than an hour had passed from the moment I first arrived in the place's courtyard. 

As I looked the last prisoner I would feed on in the eyes, I knew that it was time that I do the more mundane parts of establishing myself as a real presence in the city that I intended to steadily influence, Tegucigalpa. I studied the prisoner with a smile, before gently smacking his cheek and smirking at him. Once I did that, I almost instantly warped back to the prison's courtyard, and from there utilized my "Levitation" power to float up out of the confines of the prison's one area for socialization and for idle-activity. 

I gazed at the area and chuckled. The courtyard was filled with men who were on the floor, drained nearly to the point of no return, who moaned in pain and confusion. They were confused, and would be harmless for at least a month before steadily beginning to recover from my parasitic touch, but when that time came I intended to return and feed on them again, and keep them in a state of helplessness. It wasn't nice, but they weren't nice, and oftentimes the real world wasn't nice. If it meant protecting people I could embrace a coldly rational approach to being a hero.

I turned my gaze away from the courtyard and flipped in the air so that I could more properly see Tegucigalpa in the distance. I took off towards one of the several national banks throughout the city, eager to continue to use my powers to pursue a surprisingly pragmatic approach to justice, hope, and combatting corruption and crime. To do that I planned to steal from the corrupt, and utilize the sort of wealth collected by the most skilled and influential criminals to combat them. 

As I reached the skies above Tegucigalpa, still invisible, I began to target the national banks located throughout the city and to scan the minds of those who worked in them. I was looking for the most corrupt bank in the city, and I was ready to begin utilizing my powers to their fullest potential. It only took me a split second to determine which bank was the most corrupt, and to go ahead and land not far from it, while finally relaxing and undoing my invisibility and silence spells.

Boosted by the effects of my incredibly high charm and grace scores I began to beautifully walk over to the bank. As I made my way to the prominent building I got a chance to watch the sun begin a slow descent to the horizon, and noted that it was only four thirty in the afternoon.