Chapter 107

  Jake sailed across the gap between two buildings, the wind rushing against his body. A sed ter, he nded oher rooftop and immediately sprioward a shaft of light rising from the ter of the roof—a oint.

  As soon as he reached the bea, it disappeared.

  +15 seds

  Jake slowed down a bit to locate the oint. In the distao his right, he spotted another n of light emanating from the rooftop of a building several high-rises away. Jake wasted no time adjusting his course.

  He quickly summohe status of the challenge.

  Speed Trial Progression

  oints: 11/15

  Remaining Time: 17.72 seds

  He was nearing the end of the speed trial, with just a few more oints to go. While the difficulty of this challenge was hard, he actually found it retively easy. His speed and acrobatic skills allowed him to reach each oint with several seds to spare. All the beas appeared on rooftops, so all he o do was run and jump from one rooftop to ahere were no mutants or anomalies along his path, allowing him to focus entirely oask at hand. Upon reag a oint, fifteen seds were added to the tdown, giving him just enough time to reach the ohout the timer pletely running out.

  Finally, there remaihe st beam of light that he o reach. Unlike all the previous ones, it was a different color to indicate it was the finish line, as it were. It didn’t take Jake long to reach it. Notably, the final oint was located on the roof where the anomaly that had triggered the speed trial was. Once he reached it, a notification appeared in his mind.

  Speed Trial plete! You have received 5,000 XP. You have received the Mana Vision perk.

  Immediately after that, another notification popped up.

  You have gained enough XP to level up. Your level went up from 31 to 32. You have gained 5 SP.

  pleting speed trials was defihe easiest and fastest way to level up. Jake hoped he would enter more of them iure. Perhaps, now that he was at Evolution Stage 2, more anomalies would have challeo offer. That would be really nice.

  Then something strange happehe anomaly began to shrink as bluish energy flowed out of it toward him, being absorbed by his body. A sed ter, the anomaly ceased to exist.

  You have received 20,000 MP.

  So he now had 10 skill points to allocate and over 30,000 mana points. He’d also gained Mana Vision, but before figuring out what this perk was for, he wao assign his skill points and maybe use some of his MP to obtain new skills. He closed his eyes and summohe Geic Development Interface. For a moment, he browsed through the sed se of the skill store.

  The skill that was the most affordable and had the easiest requirements to meet was Enhanced Durability: it cost only 12,000 MP and required his Body attribute to be at 30. came the Adhesive Secretion skill and the Gravity Leap ability. The former cost 15,000 MP, and its requirements were Body at 40 and Magick at 35. The tter cost 17,000 MP, and its requirements were Body at 43, Mind at 40, and Magick at 37. Although both of these skills piqued his i, when he reviewed his attributes, he realized it would be a little while before he could acquire them.

  Body: 27

  Mind: 25

  Magick: 25

  For now, he could put three skill points into Body and buy Enhanced Durability. However, after p for a moment, he chose not to do sht now. Instead, he opted to use his current skill points to obtain some new upgrades for the skills and abilities he already possessed. Later, he would acquire Enhanced Durability and then work toward Adhesive Secretion and Gravity Leap.

  So he decided to obtain some upgrades for the skills and abilities he already had. First, he checked the avaible upgrades for Cws. He’d already acquired two upgrades for this ability: othen his cws and ao reduce the transformation time from hands to cws. Anrade was avaible to increase the length of his cws, but he’d never obtai because he saw o increase their reach.

  After raising the rarity of the ability from on to Unon, a fourth upgrade was unlocked. Jake checked it out.

  4 - Enhance Cws to be capable of tearing apart solid materials like metal with ease. Cost: 1 SP (Requirements: Body 25, Enharength)

  It was an unon upgrade, so while it cost 1 SP just like on ones, it had its ow of requirements. Luckily, his Body was at 27, and he’d already acquired Enharength, allowing him to get the upgrade. He spent one skill point to acquire it.

  He’d obtained all three avaible upgrades for Swords, and sihis ability was still on, it didn’t have a fourth upgrade yet. Enhanced Agility, oher hand, had already beeed to Unon, unlog a new upgrade. Jake checked it out.

  4 - Achieve superior band coordination, gaining precise and fluid movements while maintaining trol and stability in various dynamic situations like battles or climbing. Cost: 1 SP (Requirements: Body 22)

  He acquired it by spending another skill point. He’d never obtained any upgrades for Enhanced Senses or Enhanced Intelligence, so it was time to fix that now. Both of these skills had beeed to the Unon rarity, ealog a fourth upgrade. He first checked out the Enhanced Senses skill.

  Upgrade Options (Unon):

  1 - Heighten sensory perception to detect faint sounds and subtle movements, disc secrets, hidden enemies, or potential ambushes. Cost: 1 SP

  2 - Develop nearly perfeight vision. Cost: 1 SP

  3 - Improve the sense of smell to identify sts from great distances and differentiate between various odors. Cost: 1 SP

  4 - Enhaactile sensitivity for better touch perception to detect vibrations or subtle movements through touch. Cost: 1 SP (Requirements: Mind 25)

  Jake used four skill points to acquire all of these upgrades. He then checked out the avaible upgrades for the Enhanced Intelligence skill.

  Upgrade Options (Unon):

  1 - Greatly enhance memory for faster information processing. Cost: 1 SP

  2 - Analyze the behaviors of various living beings to predict their moves and learn their iions, motivations, and potential reas in various situations. Cost: 1 SP

  3 - Quickly e up with effective strategies for defeating enemies and overing challenges. Cost: 1 SP

  4 - Develop a heightened sense of intuition to predict possible outes in various situations, quickly finding solutions and adapting to ging circumstances. Cost: 1 SP (Requirements: Mind 25)

  Jake used his st four skill points to acquire all these upgrades. With that, all ten skill points were spent.