Chapter 154

  Multiple enemies killed. +1135 XP

  Immediately, another system message fshed 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 ter of a rge room, surrounded by the dead bodies of various ex-humans he had just defeated. For the past few hours, he had beeuring 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 avaible upgrades for Acidic Spit instead. He had used it multiple times in several ret battles with mutants. While it was a very useful ability, it certainly needed some improvements. So he checked out the avaible upgrades for the ability.

  Acidic Spit: Rank I (14%) (Upgrades: 0 of 4) (Unon)

  Quick Charge: Decreases the time o create a glob of acid. Cost: 1 SP Extended Range: Greatly increases the dista which you unch a glob of acid. Cost: 1 SP Improved Stability: Signifitly lowers the risk of your ability being celed when utack. Cost: 1 SP Enhanced Potency: Makes your acidic spit signifitly more powerful, allowing it to dissolve various nanic materials with ease. Cost: 1 SP One by one, Jake acquired all of them. Acidic Spit should be signifitly 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 turoward 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 midse. Pathways extended from this mana pool throughout his body. The momeivated 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 rge maw, held in pce by magical energy, awaiting his and 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 t a glob of aow took less than a sed. This leasant surprise. Before the upgrades, it took several seds for the whole process, f 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 one. Now, he could create an acidic glob in no time and fire it almost immediately afterward.

  When Jake opened his jaws aally ahe acidic glob to be ejected, it unched from his mouth at incredible speed. The projectile soared across the vast room, smashing against the farthest wall and sending spshes 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 retly acquired upgrade, the distan acidic glob could travel had signifitly increased. The ball flew across the room without showing any signs of desding, 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 Bded Tentacles. Since he had obtaihe first three upgrades some time ago, he didn’t waste time rereading those and focused solely on the new one.

  Bded Tentacles: Rank III (21%) (Upgrades: 3 of 4) (Unon)

  4 - Increase the length of the bded 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 lohan before, which would definitely prove to be quite beneficial in future battles. For a few seds, he sshed at invisible enemies, astonished by the tentacles’ impressive reaow stretg at least a doze. Yet he quickly realized that deploying such loacles demanded signifitly more mana than in the past. This insight prompted him to refle the implications.

  Every level-up, every upgrade he acquired, and every elevation of a skill or an ability to the rank increased the amount of mana his body ed—a price he had to pay freater 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 ables. Now, though, the issue of insuffit mana seemed to be creeping back. He sehat the mana he accumuted at night from colleg mana ables 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 ables but also mana clouds and the mana tained within human beings. Unfortunately, he still couldn’t absorb mana clouds or extract mana from living beings. To achieve that, he likely o 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 ables before he began to suffer from the she of his mana needs.

  He tio explore the city. When he entered anroup of ex-humans in one of the buildings, he immediately employed Acidic Spit, eager to test out the upgraded ability in a battle. He uhe glob of acid at a chaser, one of the stro ex-humans he had entered 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 seds. The powerful ex-human took a couple of steps before colpsing 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 k of his mana with each use, so Jake knew he wasn’t going to use it in regur fights like this ooo often.

  Once he had dealt with the group of ex-humans, he exited the building and tio prowl the city.