Chapter 59

  After departing from the dungeon door, Jake roamed the sewers for a couple more hours. He engaged in bat with every group of mutated rats he came upon. Now and theumbled across a devourer and had to fight it as well. At some point, a system notification popped up in his mind.

  You have gained enough XP to level up. Your level went up from 9 to 10. You have gained 1 SP.

  Jake now had two skill points at his disposal, so he decided to take a moment to allocate them. First of all, he checked his attributes: Body was at 3, Mind was at 1, and Magick was at 1 too. He had retly advanced Enhanced Senses, Enhanced Agility, and Enhanced Intelligence each to Rank II, so they were slowly progressing: they were at 22%, 31%, and 15% respectively. After he elevated them to the level, each of these three skills had beore acute and powerful.

  His Cws ability, however, remai Rank I, and because of that, the progression bar for the ability was still stuck at 100%. A thought occurred to him that if he raised the ability to the rank, perhaps his cws would bee strong enough to pee the devourers’ scaled skin much more easily.

  He focused on the ability.

  Cws: Rank I (100%) (Upgrades: 1 of 3) (on)

  He shifted his gaze to the rank of the Cws ability, and a piece of additional information emerged.

  A raise to the Rank is avaible.

  Requirements: Body 5

  Cost: 1 SP

  Raise to Rank II: Y/N

  He wao increase its rank, but he didn’t meet the requirements to do that just yet, with Body standing at only 3. He could i both his current skill points into that attribute, and after he leveled up again, he would be able to raise Cws to Rank II.

  However, after giving the matter some thought, he decided to do something else. Instead of allotting the skill points to his attributes, for now, he opted to acquire some upgrades for his skills and abilities. He accessed the upgrade menu for his current sole bat ability.

  Ability: Cws

  Upgrade Options (on):

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

  Having previously obtaihe reduced transformation time upgrade, Jake now had two additional options to choose from. He didn’t see much reason to increase the length of his cws—at least for now—so he went with the first option. He opened his eyes and morphed his hands into cws. They did look nastier now. While their length remaihe same, they noeared more intimidating.

  He closed his eyes and called up his stats once more. He had another skill point to allocate, which he wao use to acquire anrade for Enhanced Agility.

  Upgrade Options (on):

  1 - Master acrobatic skills for climbing, jumping, perf aerial maneuvers, and navigating challenging terrain. Cost: Already Owned

  2 - Enhance body coordination for faster movement and speed by 20% as well as exeg rapid direal ges. Cost: 1 SP

  3 - Sharpen reflexes for quicker reas in bat, enabling agile dodges, swift maneuvers, and precise terattacks. Cost: 1 SP

  The decision was made pretty quickly. He allocated the skill point to the third option to sharpen his reflexes. It would definitely make him even more dangerous in bat than before. With that, both skill points were allocated. Before opening his eyes, he took a moment to review his stats.

  Name: Jake Turner

  Race: Ex-Human Morphus

  Evolution Stage 1: “Primordial Form”

  Level: 10

  HP: 100%

  XP: 20/1375

  SP: 0

  MP: 1,025

  Body: 3

  Mind: 1

  Magick: 1

  Cws: Rank I (100%) (Upgrades: 2 of 3) (on)

  Enhanced Senses: Rank II (22%) (Upgrades: 0 of 3) (on)

  Enhanced Agility: Rank II (31%) (Upgrades: 2 of 3) (on)

  Enhanced Intelligence: Rank II (15%) (Upgrades: 0 of 3) (on)

  After that, he opened his eyes and tio explore the sewers. Now and then, he entered mutated rats and ehem. The newly acquired upgrade for Enhanced Agility made him even mile in bat. The mutated rats deftly attacked him from several dires, but he swiftly dodged every attad retaliated with lightning speed.

  At some point, he entered another devourer. He charged at the huge monster, eager to test his strengthened cws on it. As it turned out, with the retly acquired upgrade, his talons improved signifitly, slig through the monster’s tough scaled skin effortlessly. Dealing with a devourer was now a much easier and faster task. The upgrade had proven to be pletely worth the skill point ied in it.

  After spending a few hours in the foul-smelling sewers, Jake realized that the underground tunnels were not as extensive as he had initially believed. More often than not, he entered blocked paths obstructed by massive piles of crete and rebar colpsed from the streets above and was forced to backtrad search for alternate routes.

  Eventually, every avaible tunnel had been explored, every creature sin, and the spshes from his footsteps were now the only sounds to be heard. It was time to asd back to the street level. It should be evening now. Tomorrow, when the system refreshed the world, respawning monsters and loot, he might return to the sewers to gain more XP. For now, there was nothio do down here, so he headed back to the se of the sewers where the ceiling lit open by huge cracks.

  Thanks to his Enhanced Intelligence skill, Jake easily retraced his steps back through the sewers. As he made his way back, he took a moment to evaluate his remaining mana.

  MP: 935

  It was quite low. He recalled his previous calcutions on the amount of mana his body ed in idle and active states in a day. At level 3, he estimated using about 1080 MP daily while physically aally active. However, now that he’d leveled up a few times, increased his skills in ranks, and acquired upgrades for some of them, he needed a signifitly higher amount of mana on a daily basis to support his increased capabilities.

  Finally, he reached a tunnel with a split-open ceiling. Only he quickly discovered he couldn’t jump high enough to reach the edge. He tinued expl until he stumbled upon another crack where sturdy vines cascaded down from above. He took hold of two of them and tugged to test their strength. They seemed tough enough to bear his weight, so used them to deftly asd back to the street level.

  Upon reag the surface, he took a moment to survey his surroundings to reorient himself. The street he stood on was quiet, and not a siant was in sight. As he’d predicted, the evening had arrived. The sun was setting, gradually casting the city into shadows. He picked a dire a off on the mana hunt.