Chapter 42

  Despite his severe wound, Jake remained reasonably calm as he searched the tenth floor of the building for any overlooked mana ables. He moved swiftly, taking broad steps and occasionally cheg his wounded shoulder. He could see the ragged hole gradually but slowly healing. He was acutely aware his body was ing mana at an accelerated rate while he remained so active, but there was nothing he could do about that. He o find some mana ables ASAP.

  After finding nothing, he sprioward the staircase and bounded doweps, taking several at a time. Upon reag the ninth floor, he was about to begin searg but stopped himself, opting to pause and think instead. Searg was futile. He had thhly bed through the entire building from the first floor up to the roof, so he couldn’t have overlooked any mana ables. He had beeiculous in his search, and his Enhanced Senses would not have allowed him to miss such valuable items.

  So the only thing he could do was calm down a his body heal naturally. He lowered himself to the floor, sitting down and leaning against the wall behind him. Now that he was pletely still, his body’s mana ption rate slowed down. Jake had noticed this pattern before—his body ed mana at a faster rate while he was active, but when at rest, the mana ption was much slower.

  He looked at his wounded shoulder. Now that he was no longer frantically running around, his body could give its full attention to the wound, intensifying the healing process. He watched as his flesh was restrug itself before his eyes and the ragged hole in his shoulder was closing at an accelerated rate. About a mier, the wound narrowed enough for the mana to cease seeping out of it. The Profuse Bleediive effeo longer affected him either.

  A couple of mier, the wound finally sealed shut, leaving no scar or any mark on his obsidian-bck skin at all, as if he had never been wounded. Once again, Jake couldn’t help but marvel at his body’s astonishing regeive ability. As long as he had enough mana, it could heal even severe wounds within minutes.

  He closed his eyes and summoned his character sheet to see how much mana he had left. After cheg the mana t, he realized the healing process had ed a few hundred MP—more than he had anticipated. Mana deprivation was already causing him to experience a sensation simir to hunger, which had bee familiar to him by now.

  Since he had his stats opeook a moment to check them out.

  Name: Jake Turner

  Race: Ex-Human Morphus

  Evolution Stage 1: “Primordial Form”

  Level: 3

  HP: 100%

  XP: 320/500

  SP: 0

  MP: 235

  Body: 3

  Mind: 1

  Magick: 0

  Cws: Rank I (34%) (on)

  Enhanced Senses: Rank I (46%) (on)

  Enhanced Agility: Rank I (73%) (on)

  Enhanced Intelligence: Rank I (28%) (on)

  Body was now at 3, having increased by one point after he pleted the hunt. Jake realized that this was likely another reason the grave wound in his shoulder had healed so quickly—the Body attribute not only made him more resilient to damage but also improved his body’s regeive abilities.

  Jake tio study his stats and noticed that all his skills had improved. It wouldn’t be long before he would be able to level up some of them to the Rank. He then shifted his gaze to Cws and, with a thought, expahe list of avaible upgrades.

  Ability: Cws

  Upgrade Options (on):

  1 - Strengthen Cws to cut through solid materials like metal. Cost: 1 SP

  2 - Extend Cws by two inches for increased reach. Cost: 1 SP

  3 - Signifitly reduce transformation time from hands to cws. Cost: 1 SP

  pleting the hunt should have granted him a free upgrade for the ability. Yet, no matter what he tried, he couldn’t seem to obtain any of the ability’s three upgrades. What the hell? What was he doing wrong?

  After another failed attempt to acquire one of the upgrades for Cws, Jake closed his stats and summohe quest menu.

  Type: Hunt

  Objective: Track down a ae ex-human walker.

  Reward: +1 to Body (Received), +1 to Cws (Not Received)

  Status: plete

  When he focused on the Cws reward, he was finally allowed to pie of the three upgrades for the ability.

  He gave the matter some thought. Each of the three upgrades was extremely useful. Whie should he choose?

  He could strengthen his cws, but after p for a moment, he decided against it. While his cws didn’t seem overly effective against the elite walker, elite mutants were quite rare. Most of the time, he had to deal with regur mutants, which his cws could easily rip apart.

  He wasn’t ined to choose the sed optioher. His cws were already of adequate reach, so he was satisfied with their curreh. Though he could acquire the first two upgrades ter, he felt no pressing need for them for the time being.

  It left him with the third upgrade, which appeared to be the most useful to him at the moment. He had already noticed that it took a few seds for his hands to transform into cws, and vice versa. In critical situations, this upgrade could make the differeween life ah. Besides, he knew he would be able to obtain other ons iure. The quicker he could switch betweehe better. So he went for the third option, issuing a mental and to select the desired upgrade.

  You have received an upgrade for Cws.

  Jake then switched back to the info on the ability.

  Cws: Rank I (34%) (Upgrades: 1 of 3) (on)

  He could obtain two more upgrades. Jake wondered whether this was the total number of upgrades for the ability or if more would be unlocked ter on. He also noticed that Cws were currently of on rarity, suggesting that he might be able to upgrade them to the rarity level at some point. At the moment, he didn’t know what requirements o be met before he could do that. He figured he would find out at a ter time.

  He opened his eyes, and all the information disappeared. He morphed his hands into cws to test out the upgrade. Now, the transformation took less than a sed to plete. It was incredibly fast. One moment, he had his normal hands, and in the , they became cws. It was amazing.

  Although there were no enemies nearby, Jake chose not to morph his cws bato hands because each transformation ed some of his mana. With less than 200 MP remaining, he wao serve every bit of that preagical energy.

  The sensation of hunger intensified within him. His body yearned for mana. Desding the stairs, he realized his movements had slowed and bee sluggish as it always happened when his body was running low on mana. He had to fix that fast.

  After reag the first floor aing the building, he saw night had already desded. His eyes could see quite well in the darkness, though. He saw there were no enemies nearby, which was a good thing. Sihe little remaining mana within him was solely used to sustain basic bodily funs, he was in no dition to fight right now.

  Choosing a dire, he set off on the hunt for mana.