What did this mean? Was it saying that my ability would be improved just like that? This was amazing, I could not believe my luck, I was beginning to think my real skill was being lucky.
(EVOLUTION OF ABILITY REQUIRES EVOLUTION OF BODY AND MIND FOR MAXIMUM EFFICIENCY.)
Okay.
(PROCESS MAY BE EXTREMELY PAINFUL, PREPARE YOURSELF.)
Wait
AAGHH!
An overwhelming pain began to assault my body, my head felt like it was trying to force its way out of my skull. I could feel my muscles ripping themselves apart over and over again. My blood rushed through my body so hard that I thought it was going to shred my heart into pieces.
After what felt like hours, I finally began to tolerate the pain until it vanished all together. I sat up and immediately noticed something odd, I felt the air. Not as in feeling wind or something like that but I could actually feel the presence of the air that surrounded me. It was warm and welcoming, almost like greeting an old friend.
(EVOLUTION OF BODY AND MIND COMPLETE.
BEGINNING EVOLUTION OF ABILITIES.)
Oh no. I braced myself for another wave of pain, dreading the feeling of what was to come. Only it didn't come, instead I felt an energy gradually rise from within my body. It was incredible, I felt so much power condensing itself into my body at once, I never wanted it to end.
(EVOLUTION OF ABILITIES COMPLETE.)
(ABILITY: MIST, A DUAL ELEMENT ABILITY HAS EVOLVED INTO THREE SEPARATE BRANCHES.
-WATER
-AIR
-MIST.)
I slapped myself to make sure that I was not dreaming and it appeared that this was actually happening. This was crazy, I had gone from an H Rank nothing with a garbage ability to now holding three! I kept reading to see what kind of enhancements I had gotten when I finally noticed that there was a huge blue screen like image in my face.
Was this part of the evolution? Normally all of the information for abilities just downloaded into a person's mind like with my original ability. But now it was projecting itself in front of me. I dismissed it for now and checked my ability starting with the water branch.
(WATER:
Absorption (Passive)- From poisons to dirty streams, any harmful liquid consumed will automatically be purified from the body. Things like healing potions will have double the effect. Small chance for poisons to merge with ability to form new skills. Cost- 0 Spirit
Hydrokinesis (Active)- Control the flow of any liquids on a small scale. Cost- 2 Spirit per second.
Hydro Bomb (Active)- Summon a ball of liquid to a set location and wait for a blast of destructive force. Remember to run as you will only have thirty seconds to get clear. Cost- 5 Spirit
Water Affinity grants +10 Agility.
AIR:
Air-Detoxification (Passive)- Whats that in the air? It doesn't matter! Any and all harmful substances in the air will be purified from your lungs. Small chance for poisons to merge with ability to form new skills. Cost 0 Spirit
Aerokinesis (Active)- Control the flow of air on a small scale. Cost 2 Spirit per use.
Wind Slash (Active)- Upon activation, unleash a powerful air attack when performing a kick, punch, or any swing attack with a weapon. Cost- 3 Spirit.
Air affinity grants +10 Agility.
MIST:
Mist Veil (Active)- Evolution of Mist Blanket, mist is now twice as thick and covers 50 feet instead of 10. Cost- 4 Spirit
Mist Form (Active)- Become the mist, while in this form your body becomes intangible. Physical attacks will be ineffective while in this form. Cost- 5 Spirit per second.
Leech (Passive)- 1 use per month. Any and all creatures killed within the confines of your mist will have one attribute stolen from it and absorbed into your arsenal. Note that attributes are not permitted to exceed level cap. Ex- level 1: 10 attribute points. Cost- 0 Spirit.)
Mist affinity grants +10 Stealth.
Holy crap! Did this mean that I was over powered now? Looking at all of the skills I had gained I couldn't believe my eyes, and then I saw something else on the display.
(Inventory- Keep items in here so they don't get lost or stolen.)
(Status Screen- Stay up to date with your status as you grow in power.
Jake Miller (Lvl-5)
Race: Human
Ability: Mist (Air +Water)
HP- 500/500
SP- 500/500
STR- 25
AGI- 30
DEX- 10
INT- 10
STLTH- 20
CHRM-10
LCK- 15
Skills:
WATER- Absorption, Hydrokinesis, Hydro Bomb.
AIR- Air Detoxification, Aerokinesis, Wind Slash.
MIST- Mist Veil, Mist Form, Leech.)
How convenient. I was in need of somewhere to store my items, I held the duffel bag up to the display and it passed into the display, presumably into the inventory. I checked the inventory to make sure it was there and sure enough it was in one of ten slots.
It was time to get on with the test as I had a little under an hour to collect twelve beast cores which I was hoping would be easy. I retrieved my sword and crawled back out into the forest.
(TOXIC ATMOSPHERE DETECTED, PURIFICATION IN PROGRESS…COMPLETE. ATMOSPHERE IS 100% SAFE FOR BREATHING.)
That must have been my aero-detoxification skill kicking in. I wondered what was so toxic about it, I was breathing just fine before. Then it hit me, the wendigo transformation must have been triggered by the air in the dungeons.
Speaking if my furry friend, I still needed to extract the core from it. As I approached the emotional body of my fallen foe, I got another notification.
(LEECH! AS A REWARD FOR YOUR FIRST KILL IN THE MIST, YOU RECEIVED TWO ATTRIBUTES.
Agility +10
Hunter's Instinct (Passive)- Your human senses can only take you so far, but with the instincts of a wendigo, you will have the advantage in battle, hunting or even detecting a lie. The uses for this skill are endless!)
The Leech skill was proving to be way too powerful. I had just absorbed two attributes from the wendigo instantly. I felt myself become much more familiar with my surroundings, all of my senses were now heightened to another level. I could sense exactly where the core lied within the wendigo and used wind slash to try and open its chest up. Unfortunately it seemed like my new skills were still too weak to handle the Wendigo.
Instead, I opted to use my new sword to cut out the core. The color of the stone was purple, suggesting that the wendigo was A Rank. I had to move on, I placed the core in my inventory and started to walk back towards the clearing. I sensed a low leveled beast to my right and activated mist veil and wind slash simultaneously. The blast of air passed right through the beast's neck, killing it instantly.
(LEECH!- Strength +1)
I felt the power of the beast flow into me and smiled. Collecting the core and placing it into my pouch, I decided to test my speed as agility was my highest stat. I got into a sprinters stance and burst forward with all of my effort. I sensed other beasts in the area and decided to take care of them on my way. I readied my sword and struck down the beasts in my way, killing them and collecting the cores before their bodies hit the ground.
As I approached the clearing I could see a horde of beasts devouring the ones that I had killed earlier. I didn't even stop, deciding that this would be the perfect time to test out my hydro bomb. I ran and leaped into a tree and jumped into the center of the beasts, placing a hydro bomb on a random corpse. One of the beasts tried to grab me but I was way too quick and I leaped out of the crowd and back into my tree.
I watched the group with great anticipation and thirty seconds later I witnessed the power of my skill.
BOOM!
It was incredible, bodies went flying everywhere, bits and pieces of beasts were scattered around the clearing like rain. I stood in awe, a skill like that took out nearly sixty beasts in one shot. I knew then that I had to read the journal from the bag and figure out what exactly the evolution orb was and why it was here instead of being used by the academy.
I gathered the cores and buried the excess bodies deep in the trees, I didn't want anyone to find out about my new skills, not yet. In total, I had acquired a whopping ninety six beast cores. I checked the time and decided to leave the dungeon one minute early to impress Pain.
As expected, he was waiting for me when I entered the arena.
"What happened to you? You look like you fought for your life in there. I hope you came back with fifty beast cores though." Pain said with an air of indifference.
I tossed him the pouch which was stained with green blood and smiled, "It's all there, count them if you'd like."
"Impressive for a shrimp!" Pain exclaimed as he burst into a laugh.
He counted them out and looked at me once again, outstretching his hand, he said "I think you are going to go places kid, I now appoint you as my pupil."
I smiled again and walked toward Pain, shaking his massive hand. With my new evolution and the help of Pain, I would skyrocket to the top of this academy.
"Meet me here in three days and we will begin your real training, you may want to get going now though as I understand you have some business to attend to." Pain gave me a wink as he said the last part of that statement.
"Thank you sir, and you're absolutely right, I have an assassin to kill."