by Noam Oswin
[You have attained the skill {Burrowing Lv. 1}]
[You have {9999+} copies of this skill.]
[Combining copies...]
[Copies Combined]
[{Burrowing Lv. 1} has undergone massive evolution into {Earth Control Lv. 9}]
More. More and more.
[You have attained the skill {Fire Ant Bite Lv. 1}]
[You have {9999+} copies of this skill.]
[Combining copies...]
[Copies Combined]
[{Fire Ant Bite Lv. 1} has undergone massive evolution into {Excruciating Toxic Bite Lv. 9}]
I could think of nothing less than a hundred different ways I could immediately begin utilizing my abilities. Hunting would go from being a challenge to being light exercise. Increased speed, strength, defenses and the ability to manipulate earth against ordinary forest animals?
There was no contest.
[Notice!]
[You have unlocked one or more of the necessary criteria required to constitute a formal Monster Classification]
Pardon?
[You are now classified as a {Monster} and will be treated henceforth accordingly]
[Your evaluated Monster Rank is: {Tier 2}. Your evaluated Threat Level is {Devil}]
Monster Rank? Threat level?
Note: There are (Ten) Tiers of Monsters, Poisons, Potions, Remedies, and Threats. Tier {1} is the weakest, and {10} is the strongest. Threat Levels are used to classify monsters, each level is given a name.
Threat Level 1 is [Vermin], Threat Level (2) is [Pest], (3) is [Fiend], (4) is [Hellion], and (5) is [Demon]. Monsters of Threat Level Demon (5) and above are universally considered dangerous.
Threat Levels, however, are not always a direct indicative of the Tier a Monster may be in or the power they may possess, but often of their potential ability to cause death, destruction and/or suffering.
My Threat Level was [Devil]. There was no indicator of what level that was supposed to be, only that it was most likely higher than five.
It mattered little to me.
My goal was unchanged. Monster or not, so long as I ascended back to a being with two walking legs capable of the finer arts of speech and laughter, I would be satisfied. Once this was complete, my search for Oblivion would commence.
With my latest armada of skills and titles, the first thing I needed to do... was test them.
/∞/
Skill: [Herculean Strength] Lv. 9
Details: This skill enables the user to lift and withstand 105,000 times their own body weight without effort. The user’s striking force is also significantly increased as well.
The poor, pitiable rabbit looked up at me with what was most certainly confusion within its eyes. I gazed back at it, unable to stop the triumph that overcame me as I crossed the clearing faster than it could turn around and hop away, and with a mighty crash of my tail against the back of its neck, the rabbit dropped to the ground, immobilized.
Skill: [Cheetah Sprint] Lv. 9
Details: This skill enables the user to move with the speed of a fully sprinting cheetah, without the need for recuperation.
It was common knowledge that Cheetahs were the fastest land mammal. The little rabbit may have been fast by its own right, however, I was a lizard that could move at the speed of a cheetah. There was quite literally no way for it to beat me in the aspect of speed.
I climbed over the back of the rabbit’s head, precisely targeting its neck, where I believed its spinal cord should be, and with a small recitation of the grace, for irony, I sunk my teeth deep into it.
Skill: [Excruciating Toxic Bite] Lv. 9
Details: This skill enables the user to deliver a bite with the same bite force of a rampaging crocodile. Upon completing the devastating bite, the user injects a Tier 9 insect-based paralyzing neurotoxic venom into the victim. The user is immune to the venom. Inflicts [Fatal Poisoning] on creatures with no Poison Resistance, Weak Poison Resistance and Average Poison Resistance. Inflicts [Severe Poisoning] and [Paralysis] on creatures with Strong Poison Resistance and Superior Poison Resistance. Inflicts [Minor Poisoning] and [Paralysis] on creatures with Master Poison Resistance.
The rabbit went utterly still. Even now, I knew not if the rabbit died because of the sheer pain of the enduring what was essentially a crocodile bite, or if it was merely the poison which immediately spread throughout its entire body rapidly that killed it instantly. Or perhaps it was both, a combination of the pain and the poison.
[Common Rabbit x1 Killed]
[250 Experience Points Gained]
It was somewhat harder to gain experience now, or it seemed that my experience threshold would only count depending on the difficulty (or the numbers) of the kill. Killing a single rabbit did not seem to be viewed as a difficult task anymore, hence, I would not be gaining massive experience from doing such.
The title [Genocidal] has come into effect for the Species: [Common Rabbit].
One of my titles? I wondered if it knew what I was going to do before it activated. I went forward, effortlessly stalking and catching up to another rabbit, crashing down on it and unleashing a devastating bite on its neck. I did not wait to confirm my kill, and moved on to another one, and another, and another. The more I killed them, the easier it seemed to become to kill them. Sometimes, I’d merely slap them with my tail and they would die, other times, I would land on them and they would die. It was... odd.
[Common Rabbit x5 Killed]
[1250 Experience Points Gained]
[You have gained a level]
I was not sure how many hours I spent hunting rabbits before I grew tired of them, and before the eventual experience returns started diminishing.
[Common Rabbit x10 Killed]
[1000 Experience Points Gained]
Now, I was only getting a mere 100 Experience for a single rabbit, which was far lower than the initial amount I started with. Deciding to call it a day, I turned my attention towards scavenging and foraging for items and materials I could take back to my domain.
I knew I must have made for an unusual sight. Several rocks, pines, sticks, leaves and vines tied and steadily secured on my back, to which I barely felt the impact as I deftly made great strides through forest, relying now on sight and my numerous senses to navigate properly.
Racing at the speed of a cheetah at full sprint, and doing so with luggage on my back made most creatures dart and flee away from me the instant they sensed me coming. I was a skink, I doubted I was larger than the size of an average human palm, but there was no longer any doubt about my ability to outrace creatures far, far larger than I.
Within a manner of minutes, I pushed past a clearing and returned to the sight of still, clean water. My Domain remained unbothered, and thus, I strode across the surface of the water, and immediately set myself to work.
Skill: [Earth Control] Lv. 9
Details: This skill enables the user to be capable of swimming, bathing, and burrowing unobstructed through earth, rock and stone. For a cost of [0.5MP/sec] the user may mold dirt, mud and clay into whatever shape they desire. For a cost of [2.5MP/sec] the user may mold rocks, stones and granite. For a cost of [5MP/sec] the user may change the composition of the earth and rocks. For a cost of [10MP/sec] the user may create and mold earth, stones and rocks where there is none. The clearer and precise the knowledge and details, the sturdier and better the earth created.
There was no need to be excessive with my fortifications. The worst I would be facing would be wild animals without a lick of intelligence, however, I decided to be prudent.
Picking up a pebble I gathered from the woods, I felt for my [Earth Control]. The object became mushy in my claws. Soft, malleable, almost like I was holding a lump of meat or fat rather than I was holding a stone. I molded it, stretching it out as much as I could, until the pebble’s shape turned distinctively conical, and its point extending like a pencil and reaching a fine-tuned level that I was comfortable with.
It was the first time using
a skill that cost “MP.” There was a drain I felt that was unexpected. Not a physical drain, but a mental one, as though I spent several hours solving a taxing puzzle or writing challenging examinations. Once I was satisfied with the shape, I stopped using my skill, and the object returned to its regular hardness. Harder, and stiffer, with a clearly defined point, it was an oddity of nature. A perfectly smoothed rock in the shape of a perfect cone.
Perhaps I should make it jagged? Like an arrow head instead...
The power to mold the earth as I wanted. I was limited by the amount of MP I possessed, but that was an arbitrary limitation. For the first time since I was reborn, I could confidently feel that things were looking up.
Chapter 9
Opposition
I awoke to the sounds of heavy growling. Thick, malevolent roars and the rapid pounding of feet against the surface of the earth.
Before night fell, I’d spent hours molding the rocks within my care into sharp dagger-like stalagmites and creating an area of pointy rocks around my Domain like a cage. The sticks, leaves, twines and vines I collected made for a roof, crafted by layering together the leaves and standing the sticks, it was something that was designed to help me against rain.
It would not help me against my invaders.
Silva Wolf Pack
Level ?
The serpent attacking me was merely a run of bad luck. The ant attacking me when I was a worm was merely a chance occurrence. However, the sight of six, seven – nine wolves gathered around the Creek was most certainly not.
Each and every one of them was at least ten times my size. Even if I were to have been a fully grown adult male, the wolves would still be large, with the smallest amongst them reaching over five feet in height.
The nine wolves circled the creek. There was no ‘Alpha’ wolf for that was mere human conjecture that had been disproven time and again. Regardless of the lack of a clear Alpha, the wolves still seemed to possess one amongst their nine that was larger and more ferocious than the rest. Scars littered its form, and its unerring gaze fixed upon my rock.
This is ridiculous, I thought to myself. A wolf pack, a pack of wolves, gathering, to hunt a lowly lizard. Why? For what purpose? Clearly it was not to eat me for I was less than an entrée in relative size to the creatures. Yet, they surrounded the edges of the creek, one after the other, snarling.
OBLIVION!
What else could it be? Who else, but the being whose idea of fulfilling my desires included turning me into a worm? No doubt, he set motions into event once more in order to spite me, to teach me “humility.”
The wolves did not seem inclined to move or to attack, yet, they watched me, warily. I took this as a chance to prepare a plan that would not kill me. Perhaps I possessed something in my titles –
My titles –
It seemed I only ever reviewed the information of my titles when I was in mortal danger. One of these days, I knew that it come back to punish me.
Title: [Jonah]
Details: A rare title. Can survive within the stomach of any living being without being digested. Staying for three days within the stomach of any living being grants +30% Damage Dealt to all beings of that type in the future. Staying for three weeks grants +60% Damage Dealt and +30% Damage Reduction. Staying for three months grants +90% Damage Dealt and +90% Damage Reduction.
I had no intention of staying within the stomach of any of the wolves if I could avoid it. This led me to checking the next title.
Title: [Parasite]
Details: An uncommon title. Constantly absorb 10% of a host’s health and magic and have it added to yours. Lingering on the host increases the percentage absorbed by 0.5% every twenty-four hours, for a total maximum of 99%.
No. This was not it either – there would be no opportunity to ‘linger’ on any of the wolves. I moved on.
Title: [David]
Details: An epic title. For every ten levels your opponent has greater than yours, you are granted +50% Damage Dealt, +25% Damage Reduction, and +20 Attack against your opponent. This effect is doubled for opponents more than twice your size. This effect stacks for multiple enemies. However, facing an enemy ten levels below you or more deducts –90% Experience Gain and –25% Damage Dealt.
I read the details of the title again and again, and I found myself wondering if this was why my attacks on the rabbits always seemed to kill them so effortlessly. I wondered, if this was to be my saving grace. Extra damage, reduction in damage, and it worked even well against multiple opponents?
David indeed. The biblical allegory did not slip my notice. The shepherd boy who felled a giant with but a stone. Was I to take it then, that these wolves were my own personal Goliath?
One of the wolves answered with a reverberating howl. It was deafening from my perspective, as it wound up on its hind legs and sent its body to the air, the declaration of the start of the hunt being proudly conveyed to the rest of its species.
The howl was the battle-cry and the army’s trumpet. Nine wolves charged straight into the creek, splashing water into the air from their collective assault. Ripples raced across the water’s surface as did waves follow. The calm reflection of the moon distorted in lieu of charging wet canine.
I knew I should be worried. I knew I should be bothered by the attack. I knew, that the wolves would swim and reach my rock within the center of the creek in very little time. However –
They were slow in the water. Painfully slow. On land the wolves would have been a nightmare to face, yet, they all charged straight into a creek, knowing full well about the fact that their movements in water was restricted? I could stride across the water faster than they could swim.
[Earth Control] burned to life as I picked up one of the small pebbles I had left over from my scavenging. I molded it into the shape of a needle, and with literal [Herculean Strength], slapped it in the direction of one of the Silva Wolves with my tail.
The title [David] has come into effect.
The makeshift spear struck the wolf’s left ear, tearing a portion of flesh and tinting the water red. It howled, snarled, its attempts at swimming immediately becoming frantic.
I picked up another pebble, keeping an eye on my MP as I molded it into a spear, and this time spat out a glob of poison with [Strong Venom Secretion] unto the weapon. I hoisted it into the air with ease aimed, and fired.
I missed. The poisoned spear of rock sailed past my target. It wasn’t easy firing these things with my tail, [Herculean Strength] or no.
MP: 13.5/20
Water splashed against the rock as the wolves converged, closer than ever. I decided that firing rocks at them was not feasible with my aim, and leapt straight onto the water’s surface. [Water Striding] blurred to life along [Cheetah’s Sprint] and my first target appeared before me in seconds.
Why?
It was pitiful, watching the wolf attempt to bite me while in the water. The depth of the creek was about eight or nine feet, and half of its energy was focused on swimming and trying to stay afloat. A wiser strategy would have been to simply wait for me on land than try to converge on me via the water.
I was beginning to doubt if this was Oblivion’s work. Surely, the being was oblivious, but certainly not to this extent?
The wolf in front of me opened its mouth again, and I released a glob of poison from my own straight into it. [Strong Venom Secretion] did its work, effortlessly, and I possessed no doubt that my [David] title also contributed to the damages. The wolf sputtered, coughed and hacked in the water. Its eyes burned a brilliant red as it panicked frantically in the water. Blood poured deeply from its nostrils and eyes as it thrashed and splashed, desperate, confused – hurting.
I landed the back of its neck and took one, [Excruciating Toxic Bite].
The wolf went still in the water.
[Silva Wolf x1 Killed]
[15400 Experience Points Gained]
You have gained a level]
[You have gained a level]
&nbs
p; [You have gained a level]
[You have gained a level]
[You have defeated an intruder within your Domain]
[You have defeated an intruder above your level in your Domain]
[Your Domain’s Level has risen]
[Your Domain’s Level has risen]
[Your Domain’s Level has risen]
[Your Domain’s Level has risen]
[Your Domain’s reach has expanded]
[Your Domain has evolved!]
This was... too easy.
Nonsensically easy. This was a wolf, a proud, ferocious creature that took down opponents with coordinated tactics and possessed an impeccable survival sense. Charging headlong into a creek to face an unknown enemy was not something it should do. Not something that any animal living in the wild should do. I was not even something worth dying for.
The other eight wolves mourned the death of one of their members by letting out group howls, as they collectively swam to my location.
This does not make any sense.
The title [Genocidal] has come into effect for the Species: [Silva Wolf].
This again?
There was no time to pay heed to the details of the title. One of the wolves to my left charged at me, drool and water slipping through sharp fangs as it attempted to bite down on my nimble form. I did not bother trying to dodge or run or evade this time around, instead, I focused on my [Herculean Strength] and a skill I had never used before, [Steel Exoskeleton].
The canine’s jaws came down upon me –
The sound of shattering bone resounded through my body as teeth imitated glass.
Blood rapidly filled the creature’s mouth as it attempted to cry out in pain, and I shot another dose of poison directly into its mouth. Unlike with its predecessor that thrashed around upon swallowing the poison, this one merely went still as its eyes became vacant.
[Silva Wolf x1 Killed]
[15400 Experience Points Gained]
You have gained a level]
[You have gained a level]
[You have gained a level]
[You have defeated an intruder within your Domain]
[You have defeated an intruder above your level in your Domain]