Multiple enemies killed. +1135 XP
Immediately, another system message flashed through his mind.
You have gained enough XP to level up. Your level went up from 72 to 73. You have gained 5 SP.
Jake stood in the center of a large room, surrounded by the dead bodies of various ex-humans he had just defeated. For the past few hours, he had been venturing into one building after another, fighting mutants and gaining XP, and he had finally leveled up, gaining five skill points.
Now that he had increased the ranks of some of his skills and abilities, each of them had an additional upgrade to unlock. However, Jake decided to use four of his skill points to acquire all the available upgrades for Acidic Spit instead. He had used it multiple times in several recent battles with mutants. While it was a very useful ability, it certainly needed some improvements. So he checked out the available upgrades for the ability.
Acidic Spit: Rank I (14%) (Upgrades: 0 of 4) (Uncommon)
One by one, Jake acquired all of them. Acidic Spit should be significantly more powerful now. There were no enemies left around him, but he could still test out the first two of the newly acquired upgrades. He turned toward the wall that was farthest from him and utilized the ability.
As he had learned some time ago, his mana pool was located in his midsection. Pathways extended from this mana pool throughout his body. The moment he activated Acidic Spit, he sensed just the right amount of mana flowing from his mana pool to his mouth. There, it transformed into acid. While the ability was called Acidic Spit, what formed in his mouth was actually a glob about the size of a golf ball. It levitated inside his large maw, held in place by magical energy, awaiting his command to be expelled.
Jake couldn’t help but notice that thanks to the first upgrade, the entire process—from pulling the right amount of mana from his mana pool to his mouth through one of the pathways to forming a glob of acid—now took less than a second. This was a pleasant surprise. Before the upgrades, it took several seconds for the whole process, forcing Jake to fend off his enemies while the acid formed. By the time he was ready to spit it out, his target was often already eliminated or gone. Now, he could create an acidic glob in no time and fire it almost immediately afterward.
When Jake opened his jaws and mentally commanded the acidic glob to be ejected, it launched from his mouth at incredible speed. The projectile soared across the vast room, smashing against the farthest wall and sending splashes everywhere. Before the upgrades, the acidic glob could travel about fifteen yards, gradually succumbing to gravity, which wasn’t very far at all. With the recently acquired upgrade, the distance an acidic glob could travel had significantly increased. The ball flew across the room without showing any signs of descending, so he figured the distance was at least twice what it had been before.
As for the other two upgrades, they could only be tested in battle. Jake had one more skill point at his disposal. After giving it some thought, he decided to use it on the fourth upgrade for Bladed Tentacles. Since he had obtained the first three upgrades some time ago, he didn’t waste time rereading those and focused solely on the new one.
Bladed Tentacles: Rank III (21%) (Upgrades: 3 of 4) (Uncommon)
4 - Increase the length of the bladed tentacles by a few more feet. Cost: 1 SP
Jake acquired the upgrade and decided to test it right away. He activated the ability, and three tentacles burst forth from his back. They were noticeably longer than before, which would definitely prove to be quite beneficial in future battles. For a few seconds, he slashed at invisible enemies, astonished by the tentacles’ impressive reach, now stretching at least a dozen feet. Yet he quickly realized that deploying such long tentacles demanded significantly more mana than in the past. This insight prompted him to reflect on the implications.
Every level-up, every upgrade he acquired, and every elevation of a skill or an ability to the next rank increased the amount of mana his body consumed—a price he had to pay for greater power. Jake remembered that at the beginning of his journey as a mutant, he struggled to gather enough mana to sustain himself while also acquiring new skills. However, after obtaining Mana Vision, that problem was resolved, as the perk allowed him to easily locate various mana consumables. Now, though, the issue of insufficient mana seemed to be creeping back. He sensed that the mana he accumulated at night from collecting mana consumables would soon fall short of his daily needs.
With his Mana Vision perk at Rank III, he could now see not only the locations of mana consumables but also mana clouds and the mana contained within human beings. Unfortunately, he still couldn’t absorb mana clouds or extract mana from living beings. To achieve that, he likely needed to learn a special skill or perk. As he grew stronger, his body demanded increasingly more mana each day. He hoped he would be able to find a way to extract mana from sources beyond mere mana consumables before he began to suffer from the shortage of his mana needs.
He continued to explore the city. When he encountered another group of ex-humans in one of the buildings, he immediately employed Acidic Spit, eager to test out the upgraded ability in a battle. He launched the glob of acid at a chaser, one of the strongest ex-humans he had encountered so far. The agile mutant tried to dodge the projectile, but it failed to do so.
The glob hit the chaser in the chest, and the acid immediately kicked in. It ate through the mutant’s chest in mere seconds. The powerful ex-human took a couple of steps before collapsing to the ground, dead. Just like that, the chaser was dealt with. The Acidic Spit was definitely a powerful ability, but it depleted a hefty chunk of his mana with each use, so Jake knew he wasn’t going to use it in regular fights one too often.
Once he had dealt with the group of ex-humans, he exited the building and continued to prowl the city.