Chapter 166

  His body used just over 5,000 MP tee his left arm, which was about what he had expected. Once his arm was back, Jake began his regur up of the sewers, taking down every monster he entered. By the time he finished, he had leveled up once more, earning 5 skill points. He was now at Level 78, with a total of 14 skill points at his disposal.

  As pnned, Jake purchased the st two abilities and one skill from the sed se of the Geic Development Interface: Spikes, Serpentine Form, and Adaptive Armor. Each of these three abilities was categorized as Unon and had four avaible upgrades. He immediately unlocked all upgrades for them, spending a total of 12 skill points.

  Ability: Spikes

  Description: You sprout spikes from your body, capable of impaling foes upon tact or creating obstacles.

  Upgrade Options

  1 - Signifitly increase the amount of spikes you protrude from your body.

  2 - Signifitly increase the length and strength of the spikes.

  3 - Allow spikes to be unched as projectiles, enabling ratacks that impale enemies from a distance.

  4 - Add venom to the spikes for extra damage and the potential to paralyze on tact. To use it, you need any skill that allows you to gee or keep toxins within your body, such as Toxic Resistah the fourth upgrade. Requirements: Magick 65

  This ability was quite intriguing. When Jake activated it, numerous spikes erupted from his body—his legs, arms, and even his head were covered ihere were quite a lot of them, and since Jake acquired all the upgrades immediately after obtaining the ability, he had no reference point to determine how many spikes were inally inteo sprout from his body. However, with the first upgrade, the sheer number of spikes protruding from his body was undeniably impressive.

  He stepped toward one of the walls and struck it with his right spiked arm, testing the spikes’ strength. As it turned out, they were not easily breakable. He then made his way to the middle of the tunnel he was currently in and stood still. He gave a mental and to unch the spikes, and all of them immediately detached from his body, zipping through the air in different dires like arrows. Although they didn’t travel far, some hit the walls with enough force to shatter upon impact.

  This ability could definitely e in handy when fighting rge groups of mutants. However, it likely wouldn’t be as effective against humans, as they mostly relied on firearms rather than engaging mutants in cle bat. heless, ung spikes could still be useful against humans, especially when they were close enough.

  The fourth upgrade could infuse his spikes with venom, but he would oxins in his body to do so, which he currently cked. His Toxic Resistance allowed him to obtain toxins from a caustiviro, so he khat eventually, he would be able to test out the fourth upgrade for Spikes in a.

  Ability: Serpentine Form

  Description: You gee flexible, preheendrils from your body, granting the ability to ensargets.

  Upgrade Options

  1 - Enhahe strength of the tendrils, making them difficult to sever or rip away.

  2 - Signifitly increase the number of tendrils that be geed at the same time.

  3 - Allow the tendrils to extend reater distances, enabling longer read increased maneuverability.

  4 - Ehe tendrils to produce Adhesive Secretion. Requirements: the Adhesive Secretion skill

  Jake tested out Serpentine Form as well. Over two dozen tendrils sprouted from his back. Unlike Bded Tentacles, they were thinner but longer, each reag several meters ih. He was surprised at how easily he could trol each of the tendrils as if they had always been a natural part of his body. He extended some of them upward, reag the high ceiling of the tunnel. Mentally, he activated Adhesive Secretion, and the tendrils adhered firmly to the ceiling. He flexed them, lifting himself off the ground and elevating all the way to the ceiling. Once he reached it, he positioned both his feet and hands against the surface, creating additional points of taake sure he was securely anchored.

  So he could use Serpentine Form for tasks like this as well. Sure, he could have just jumped up to reach the ceiling. It wasn’t all that high, so he probably wouldn’t have even o use Gravity Leap. Still, it was good to have various ways to achieve the same result. He then unstuck himself from the ceiling and dropped to the tunnel floor, twisting midair and nding smoothly on his feet. With a mental and, he detached the tendrils from his body, and they fell off, quickly withering away. Some of them dried up and turned into bck dust even before hitting the tunnel floor.

  Skill: Adaptive Armor

  Description: Your skin adopts defeing, providing enhanced prote against physical harm.

  Upgrade Options

  1 - Instantly gee additional armor ptes at points of impact where pierg ons attempt to pee.

  2 - Increase the thiess and durability of the armor ptes, improviance against both sshing and blunt attacks.

  3 - Ie a reflective property into the armor that deflect projectile attacks back at the attackers.

  4 - Greatly enhance resistao energy-based ons, with a ce to reflect such attacks babsp; Requirements: Body 65, Magick 70

  This skill basically made him more resilient to various types of damage, for an additional mana ption cost, of course. One of the upgrades could even make bullets bounce off his body, which was really good. He imagihe shocked faces of humans when they saw the bullets they fired ricochet back at them from him. The fourth upgrade gave him increased resistao energy-based ons. Even though he hadn’t entered anyone armed with such a o, he had decided to acquire the upgrade anyway.

  At some point during the sewer up, he received two notifications stating that Acidic Spit and Adhesive Secretion had reached 100% and were ready to advao the ranks. So he allocated his two remaining skill points to upgrade Acidic Spit to Rank II and Adhesive Secretion to Rank III.

  He now had only 11,000 MP left, which was evehan the 15,000 he had expected to have after acquiring the two abilities and one skill from the sed se of the skill store. The other four thousand mana points had beeed during his battles with the sewer mutants. His skills and abilities were very powerful and therefore depleted signifit amounts of mana when used. At his current level, even when he was idle, his body ed lots of MP. He also noticed that Spikes and Serpentine Form each had ed a hefty k of his mana, even with just one use. Thus, he should probably avoid using them too often.

  So Jake decided not to evolve into the stage for the time being. He khat evolving would make him stronger, which meant his body would need signifitly more mana to simply fun. With only eleven thousand mana points left—not much even for his current form—he opted to postpone his evolution. While he was eager to evolve and unloew skills and abilities, he could afford to wait one more day. After all, as far as he knew, running out of ma certaih.

  He decided to take it easy for the rest of the day to preserve his mana. After nightfall, he would go on a regur mana hunt, and once he collected enough mana, he would evolve into the stage. For now, he opted to make his way back to the Los Demonios base he had retly located. The HQ should have finished upgrading to Level 6 by now, so it was time to find out what ges it had brought about.