[Arc 1] Chapter 19: The Second Evolution
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Okay, I've decided. I'll go with Reha Zera. 

From the usable evolutions, it's the one with the highest rank. Rank E means it's just as strong as the Glavras spider. It also has the best compatibility with my current skills. It may not be a humanoid like the Goblin Shaman, but I have a secret plan in case I won't obtain a humanoid evolution in the Reha Zera tree.

Even if I say it's a rank E, I'll have way more skills than a normal E ranker, plus I got the items I looted from the bandits. I won't become as strong as the T-Rex boss that devastated the former bridge-and-river area, now just river area, but I'll become the strongest non-boss monster in the dungeon! Then I can leisurely search for the exit.

I've even lost the annoying light weakness that came with [Albino]. There is nothing else left for me to do in this dungeon, so as soon as I find the damn exit, it's sayonara dungeon and hello outside world!

Yosh! Let's get the show on the road!

 

SYSTEM MESSAGE:

Individual [Grey Demon] has chosen to evolve to the [Reha Zera] race.

Accept evolution?

Y/N

Yes, please! 

SYSTEM MESSAGE:

Individual [Grey Demon] will now evolve to the [Reha Zera] race.

Okay. Good nig-ZZZZZZ.

---

*Yawn*

That was a great nap.

SYSTEM MESSAGE:

Congratulations!

Individual [Grey Demon] has evolved to [Reha Zera].

Through evolution, 1.0 Skill Point obtained.

Due to evolving to a higher-ranked race, the amount of skill points obtained is increased from 0.2 Points to 0.3 Points

Through evolution, acquired skill: [Ultima Thread LV.1]

Through evolution, acquired skill: [Shadow Magic LV.1]

Through evolution, acquired skill: [Medicine Synthesis LV.1]

Through evolution, acquired skill: [Lesser Darkness Element LV.1]

Through evolution, acquired skill: [Shadow Element LV.1]

 

Skill [Ultima Thread] has reached LV.6.

[Resistance Reinforcement] has been unlocked for the skill [Ultima Thread LV.6]

That's a lot of messages. And I'm hungry. Good thing I still have lots of goodies from the bandit camp. But what about my current body?

I've got eight spider-ish legs. Unlike my body, which is white, the legs are pitch black like tar. The legs are of the slim spider type of course, with no fur or hair or whatever. It's smooth like metal plates, but still flexible like human flesh. That's a fantasy world for you. Or maybe 'a demon for you'? Completely ignoring the anatomy of regular creatures.

The two front legs can also be used as hands, where the tip of the legs transforms into hands with pointy fingers. I can still use [Shape Change], so I can make hands with the rest of my legs, but it's more natural in using those I have.

I can reduce the length of the legs, but I can't increase it. More legs are also out of the question. It's useful to reduce my front legs so that I can focus on using my hands since the legs are damn long from the beginning. Typical spidery, you know. I'm glad that [Shape Change] is okay to use even now, or else my secret plan would go poof. 

 My abdomen is around half the size for a regular spider of my size, if it's regular for a spider to become my size. The other strange part is that my head isn't fixed onto the body like with a regular spider. I have a neck with the spider head on it. It's like the head of an ant, without the ant parts, I guess?

The all-important head hasn't those extendable fangs that spiders have, but fangs like a vampire. The fangs are part of the outer armor-like layer, kinda like the fangs and my lips are melded together. The rest of my mouth is surprisingly not that different from a human's mouth, with a tongue and rows of teeth.

I was able to take a look at my face by using a puddle made from the dungeons crack-water as a mirror. There is just one pair of eyes. Bummer. And said eyes aren't the sphere-like type that spiders have. They are kinda like the eyes that humans and other mammals have. The reason I say 'kinda' is because there are no pupils in them. The eyes are burgundy colored instead of pure red that is usual with albinos. The skill did only mentioned the pigments, but I thought it would include the eye-color as well. Guess not.

What about my stats? Please, don't let me be weaker now than before.

Name: Nameless
Race: Reha Zera   | Gender: none
Level: 1
Karma Value -103
Skills: 33
Titles: 10
Skill Points: 5.7
Main Class: Assassin LV3
Sub Class: none
HP: 52/52 MP: 42/152 SP: 32/57
STR: 51    VIT: 32    MAG: 87
RES: 65    SPD: 159  DEX: 161
INT: 120 LUC: 150

Wow! My MAG doubled! And my MP has almost caught up with the SPD and DEX stats. Those two have also increased, but not on the same level as MAG and MP did. Everything else is much the same as before evolving, only with higher values. I still need to learn to use magic while moving, or at least use magic while being able to keep an eye on my surroundings. My titles haven't changed, so I'll just look at my skills for now.

SKILL LIST
Ability Skills: [MP Reinforcement (Small) LV.MAX] UP2
Attack Skills: [Assassination Arts LV.6]  [Poison Bite LV.18]  [Steal LV.2] 
Magic Skills: [Light Magic LV.1] NEW  [Shadow Magic LV.1] NEW
Crafting Skills: [Thief Tool Creation LV.1]   [Assassin Tool Creation LV.4]   [Poison Synthesis LV.17]   [Medicine Synthesis LV.1] NEW  [Thread Synthesis LV.21
Active Skills: [Stealth LV.9]   [Thread Control LV.39]   [Ultima Thread LV.6] NEW
Passive Skills: [Surprise Attack LV.9]   [Free Movement LV.22] UP1  [Battle Continuation LV.2] UP1 [Parallel Thoughts LV.5] UP3  [Throw LV.31]   [Concentration LV.49] UP2  [Language Adaption]
Resistance Skills: [Poison Resistance LV.25]   [Paralyze Resistance LV.13]   [Heretic Immunity]
Perception Skills: [Magic Sense LV.16]   [Appraisal LV.8] UP1
Racial Skills [Albino]  [Demonic Storage LV14] UP2  [Shape Change LV.46] 
Elements: [Lesser Light Element LV.1] NEW  [Lesser Dark Element LV.1] NEW  [Lesser Poison Element LV.9] UP1  [Shadow Element LV.1] 

I got all the skills [Appraisal] talked about, and [Ultima Thread] reached even LV.6 thanks to [Cutting Thread]. The new ability, Resistance Reinforcement, means that [Ultima Thread] can add my resistance skills to my threads. Too bad I only have poison and paralyze resistances, and heretic wouldn't be possible for threads. But if I could get some fire resistance... oooh, I'll love that. Probably expensive as a private jet for me though. 

I tested the new threads out. The cutting threads are weaker than before *sob*. [Cutting Thread] was at LV.21 before I evolved after all, but [Ultima Thread] is just at LV.6. Of course, Ultima has a wider selection in how to use the threads, while Cutting just lets me, you know, cut stuff.

The impact thread could work against armor and such since the force of the attack would penetrate the target body. The piercing threads turned the boulder I tested on into Swiss cheese. The threads didn't penetrate through the rock, but these threads can be thrown longer than cutting or impact threads. If I combine that with [Thread Control] and [Throw], I'll be able to aim for an Olympic medal in thread throwing, not that there is such a genre. 

Among the old skills, some have increased again, thanks to the raptors probably. [Battle Continuation] of all things reached LV.2. And [Concentration] isn't so far from reaching LV.50. If I can evolve that skill, as well as training [Parallel Thoughts], I'll be so much closer to use magic in battle! I'm even training [Parallel Thoughts] at this moment, by eating and confirming my skills at the same time. Talk about one grinding friendly skill.

The only magics I have are Light Ball and Dark Shadow though. Dark Shadow is the initial magic you get from [Shadow Magic]. Like the name says, you turn your own and the surrendering shadows darker. Kinda lackluster, no pun intended. Well, nothing stops me from trying it out, except that my MP still hasn't recovered yet. Guess I shall check out the evolution of [MP Reinforcement (Small)] first. Skill shop.

SKILL SHOP

Available skill points: 5.7

Search by word: MP Reinforcement

Search by skill []

Available skills: No hits.

'No hits'? Why? Maybe I need to use the search by skill option. Ehm, writing the skill into the window and...

SKILL SHOP

Available skill points: 5.7

Search by word: 

Search by skill [MP Reinforcement (Small)]

Available skills:

  • [MP Reinforcement LV.5], Evolution, 1 skill point.

Skill at the highest level. Cannot strengthen the skill any further. 

I found the evolution, but something important came up as well. 'Strengthened'. Does this mean I could use skill points to level up my skills all this time? TELL ME THAT SOONER! Or maybe not. I would have used all my skill points on that and never gotten any new skills. A [Thread Control]less life, that would be my doom back in the days.

This must be why all those humans didn't have that many skills. They were saving their skill points so that they could beef up their skills instead of obtaining new ones. The current me would have more skills than just focusing on a few, but that's a question of personal taste. Quality or quantity. You can never know when either of them will be the right answer. 

I've seen a creature that has specialized their few skills into high levels. I'm talking about the T-Rex boss. That's undeniable proof of focusing on just some skills isn't that bad. Don't know if the T-Rex used it's skill points for that.

Anyway, I'll continue to grind my skills the old, hard way. There are too many skills out there to just focus on a handful. I'll aim for a million skills! Okay, maybe not that many. 

Thinking about it, won't I get 0.3 skill points from now on? Then with the first level up, I'll have 1.0 skill points again? Shouldn't I rather look for an expensive and useful skill and evolve [MP Reinforcement] later? Let's do that. I ain't in such a rush for MP at the moment either, just enough to train the magic skills. And I only have beginner spells anyway! *sob*

But what kind of high-ranking skill should I look for? Better yet, what kind of skill do I need? Since I'm looking for the exit, something related to mapping? Yeah, I'm in desperate need of that. I tend to turn lost without a thread showing me the way. Having a real map would be great. Let's see here, m, a, p.

SKILL SHOP

Available skill points: 5.7

Search by word: map

Search by skill []

Available skills: 

  • [Map Creation LV.1], 3 skill points
  • [Auto-Mapping LV.1], 5 skill points

I got two hits, and both of them are damn expensive. The first skill is...

Skill: Map Creation
Skill Type: Crafting Skill 
Attribute: none
Effect:
  • Improves the skill holder's ability to create maps.
  • Improves the skill holder's sense of direction

I called it! A crafting skill, just as the tool creation skills! The crafting effect isn't that important, but the part about improving my sense of direction sounds good. 'Cause, my sense is senseless. I can't hide that fact. And for the other skill.

Skill: Auto-Mapping
Skill Type: Passive Skill 
Attribute: none
Effect:
  • Improves the skill holder's sense of direction
  • The skill holder can create Mental Maps.
    • A Mental Map can be seen from the Map Menu
    • Any places the skill holder visits gets recorded and added to the Mental Maps.

STOP THE PRESS! This skill is a perfect fit! Not only the name for it, but also as the skill I needed. ]Auto-mapping} is like the mapping function in some games, while you would need [Map Creation] for those older games without mini-maps and such. Not gonna diss the old-school way, but I want to get out of this stinking dungeon already! 

SYSTEM MESSAGE:

Do individual [Reha Zera] want to acquire the skills:

[Auto-Mapping LV.1] 

for 5 Skill Points?

Y/N

Grrr. If it wasn't this expensive... AAHH! Who cares?! YES!

SYSTEM MESSAGE:

Acquired skill from Skill Shop: [Auto-Mapping LV.1]

Ugh. I haven't used that many skill points on just one skill before, even counting the bonus skill I got from my reincarnation. Let's hope it's able to justify that cost. [Auto-Mapping], ON!

Hmm, hmm, I see. It works just like game maps. There is no mini-map, but the felling is like seeing the map on the game menu. I don't physically see the map, but I know all the information on it. I need to focus to get the information, therefore the previous description.

The map is kinda lonely since it's only showing my base. I guess I should start filling it up.

Ya-hoo! I'm gonna rampage- no, no, no, no! Stay humble, stay humble. Or else a new Berserker's gonna show up!

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