Over the next few days, Jake leveled up several times, moving from level 63 to level 72 and accumulating 45 skill points in total. He allocated some of them to his attributes.
Many of his skills and abilities underwent some changes as well. Those that were Common—Swords, Bladed Tentacles, Smashfists, Enhanced Reflexes, Enhanced Strength, Enhanced Regeneration, Feral Instincts, and Enhanced Durability—were ready to be elevated to Uncommon, which would give them an additional upgrade to unlock. These skills and abilities did not need to be at Rank II when he evolved to Stage II, meaning they could be manually upgraded from Common to Uncommon by allocating 1 SP to each. The only requirement for the upgrade was that he needed to have evolved to Stage 2: “Savage Ascent,” which he had done quite some time ago. He spent 8 SP to raise each of these eight skills and abilities from Common to Uncommon and then allocated another SP to each to increase them from Rank II to Rank III. Each of these skills and abilities could now progress once more and had an additional upgrade to unlock. He also spent three more skill points to upgrade Gravity Leap, Cloak, and Adhesive Secretion from Rank I to Rank II, making them more powerful. To perform an upgrade to the next Rank, specific attribute requirements needed to be met, but by that point, he had raised all his attributes to a sufficiently high level, easily fulfilling every requirement for Rank upgrades.
At the moment, Jake clung to the front wall of a high-rise building, positioned at the third-floor height, Adhesive Secretion securely holding him in place. Cloak was active, blending him seamlessly with his surroundings and making him appear transparent and virtually invisible. It was high noon. He had just returned from the depths of the sewers, where he had spent the morning hunting down mutated rats and devourers. Before continuing with his day, he wanted to check his stats. He closed his eyes and summoned them with a thought.
Race: Ex-Human Morphus
Evolution Stage 2: “Savage Ascent”
Claws: Rank III (34%) (Upgrades: 4 of 4) (Uncommon)
Swords: Rank III (27%) (Upgrades: 3 of 4) (Uncommon)
Bladed Tentacles: Rank III (17%) (Upgrades: 3 of 4) (Uncommon)
Mind Reader: Rank II (85%) (Upgrades: 4 of 4) (Uncommon)
Smashfists: Rank III (13%) (Upgrades: 3 of 4) (Uncommon)
Gravity Leap: Rank II (4%) (Upgrades: 4 of 4) (Uncommon)
Cloak: Rank II (11%) (Upgrades: 4 of 4) (Uncommon)
Enhanced Senses: Rank III (30%) (Upgrades: 4 of 4) (Uncommon)
Enhanced Agility: Rank III (33%) (Upgrades: 4 of 4) (Uncommon)
Enhanced Intelligence: Rank III (39%) (Upgrades: 4 of 4) (Uncommon)
Enhanced Reflexes: Rank III (15%) (Upgrades: 3 of 4) (Uncommon)
Enhanced Strength: Rank III (13%) (Upgrades: 3 of 4) (Uncommon)
Enhanced Regeneration: Rank III (17%) (Upgrades: 3 of 4) (Uncommon)
Feral Instincts: Rank III (15%) (Upgrades: 3 of 4) (Uncommon)
Enhanced Durability: Rank III (18%) (Upgrades: 3 of 4) (Uncommon)
Adhesive Secretion: Rank II (11%) (Upgrades: 4 of 4) (Uncommon)
He noticed that the Mind Reader ability was currently at 85%. When it reached 100%, he would be able to upgrade it to Rank III. In the past several days, he had ambushed and slain several groups of Los Demonios, using Mind Reader on some of his victims. Currently, this ability allowed him to view only a few hours of a target’s most recent memories, which was why he had so far failed to glean anything useful about the gang. He still didn’t know where their base was located, where to find the gang leaders, or where captured survivors were kept, let alone what the gang needed them for. However, Jake hoped that by upgrading Mind Reader to Rank III, he would be able to view much more of a target’s memories and therefore learn more about the gang.
He then checked once more the requirements he needed to meet to evolve to Stage 3: “Apex Manifestation”.
Requirements for evolving to Stage 3
Attributes: Body 70, Mind 70, Magick 70
Enhanced Senses - Rank III
Enhanced Agility - Rank III
Enhanced Intelligence - Rank III
Enhanced Reflexes - Rank III
Enhanced Strength - Rank III
Enhanced Regeneration - Rank III
Feral Instincts - Rank III
Enhanced Durability: Rank III
He was getting there. Each of his attributes was at 70, and all of the required skills were already at Rank III. So all that was left to do was level up three more times to Level 75, and he would finally be able to evolve into the next form. He couldn’t wait. He figured it would take him only two or three days to gain those three additional levels. He was really excited about the next stage of evolution.
Over the past few days, he had accumulated a substantial amount of MP, and he decided it was time to use some of it to purchase new skills and abilities. With a single thought, he summoned the second section of the Genetic Development Interface.
Evolution Stage 2: "Savage Ascent" (Level 25)
Requirements: Body 45, Magick 45
Ability: Serpentine Form
Requirements: Body 50, Mind 45, Magick 50
Requirements: Body 60, Magick 65
Skill: Toxic Resistance
Requirements: Body 45
Skill: Adaptive Armor
Requirements: Body 55, Magick 50
Requirements: Mind 30, Magick 25
Skill: Enhanced Durability
Requirements: Body 30
Ability: Gravity Leap
Requirements: Body 43, Mind 40, Magick 37
Skill: Adhesive Secretion
Requirements: Body 40, Magick 35
Requirements: Body 45, Mind 55, Magick 60
At his current level, he aimed to keep his MP above thirty thousand. Therefore, he decided to make only two purchases: the Acidic Spit ability and the Toxic Resistance skill, spending a total of 43,000 MP, which left him with 38,775 MP. He noticed that only two abilities—Serpentine Form and Spikes—and one skill—Adaptive Armor—remained in the second section of the Genetic Development Interface now. He planned to review them later when he was ready to purchase them.
One by one, he examined the ability and the skill he had just acquired.
Acidic Spit: The mutant gains the ability to spit a glob of corrosive acid that can dissolve obstacles and enemies.
Upgrades: 0 of 4 (Uncommon)
Requirements: Body 45, Magick 45
He had high hopes for this ability. It was his first ranged ability, and if it performed as well as he hoped, he would be using it in combat pretty frequently.
Toxic Resistance: The mutant acquires resistance to acid and poison, enhancing their ability to withstand chemical-based attacks.
Upgrades: 0 of 4 (Uncommon)
Requirements: Body 45
Each of these two was Uncommon and had a total of four upgrades available for unlocking. However, since he didn’t have any more skill points at the moment, he decided to examine the available upgrades at a later time.
The last thing Jake did was check his current resistances.
Elemental Resistances:
Thanks to Toxic Resistance, his Corrosive and Poison resistances increased from 10% to 30%. He also noticed that Pierce and Mana Bleeding resistances had also gone up a little, the former from 12% to 14% and the latter from 7% to 9%. Pierce and Mana Bleeding resistances increased automatically each time he invested skill points to Body and Magick respectively.
After reviewing the information, Jake finally opened his eyes, making all the details vanish, and then he resumed his journey.
Happy holidays all! :)