[Nexus Gland has evolved to the {Luminal Bud} stage.]
[You have what is now called a Pseudo-Soul, it's not quite a soul but it has a presence in the universe now.]
[You have been awarded 1 skill token.]
[Skill Level up: {Nexus Affinity lvl.2}]
[Your evolution has unlocked the next ten levels, and you were given the stats you missed due to unlocking your Nexus Gland originally. Because your gland has evolved, your multiplier has been consolidated within your body as a baseline, meaning those are your stats without the use of energy. Your stat {Nexus Wisps} has become {Nexus Drops} with 1 drop equating to 1000 wisps.]
[Your stats will now display in 10s, for example, if you see a stat that says '21' you would multiply that by 10 and have your real stats]
The wall of text stopped continuing, Kaz snapped out of his daze and looked around, there were many fried corpses littering the ground. He heard a screech and could see more husks coming, causing KAz to use his first backup plan.
[Temporal Shift has been activated.]
Kaz shifted to a bunker-like room with equipment sprawling around.
"Show me my stat screen."
Name: Kaz
Race: Awakened Human
Nexus Gland: Luminal Bud
Nexus Drops: 1/100
Skill Tokens: 1
(Stats are counts of 10)
Level: 10
Unallocated Stat Points: 10
Experience: 10000/20000
Physique level: 30
Health: 234/570 ({vitality + physique} x 10)
Vitality: 27
Stamina: 30 (physique level)
Intelligence: 42
Skills:
Photographic Memory lvl. MAX
Knowledge Absorption lvl. MAX
Prospecting lvl. MAX
Fabrication lvl. MAX
- Material Science
- Architecture
- Electrical Engineering
- Mechanical Engineering
- Weapon Manufacturing
Alchemy lvl. 2
Temporal Shift lvl. MAX
Nexus Affinity lvl. 2
Basic Spear Mastery lvl. 4
Tower Defense lvl. 2
Basic Rifle Mastery lvl. 2
???? lvl. 1
Kaz examined his stat screen, doing the math, he realized he was close to twice the strength of before this evolution. Kaz also noticed something else, his range had quintupled again from 5 meters to 25 meters, allowing him to peer through the thick metal walls of his bunker, and allowing him to feel the energy of husks running by. He could feel them and felt their senses lock onto his energy.
'Shit, they noticed me, maybe I can figure out what I did earlier.'
Kaz felt the pressure of time dawning down on him, urging him to comprehend the mystery that just saved his life. The husks' sensed presence felt like serrated knives scraping along his consciousness. Each tick of the clock, their energy signatures grew stronger, terrifying and oppressive as they relentlessly sought him out.
His mind raced, exploring the mechanics of his newfound capabilities. Kaz cast his mind back to the flash of radiant light that emanated from him, the birth of the nexus drop that transformed night into day. It was nuclear fusion, it had to be. The way the nexus wisps combined to form something more potent and radiant and it mirrored the process of nuclear fusion where immense pressure and heat could merge atoms, releasing unparalleled energy.
Kaz brought out dozens of nexus crystals and began to manipulate the energy within them, attempting to compress it as the scratches and bangs on the bunker grew. As he compressed the energy more and more, he felt something similar to the pull of his nexus cores. He pulled one out and was able to channel the wisps into the nexus core from the crystals, watching as a faint light emanated from the crystal. The wisps weren't enough from the crystals for a full drop to manifest but it was the process that mattered.
Kaz started thinking of a way to connect this to his lights, but the amount of energy required would be immense, but then he remembered something, the bullets shot by the turrets had been absorbing the energy of the husks. And because they were within range of his compound he could access them through his tower defense system. He opened up his tower defense system and was entranced at the number of crystals he had filled.
[3255 Wisp filled Nexus Cores]
Another thud against the bunker door, denting it in and revealing a small hole brought Kaz back to his senses. He had to act quickly. He pulled open his fabrication menu and started to integrate the cores into his lighting system but powered the lighting from the compression of the wisps within the cores. He quickly started to run an update of his lighting through the tower defense menu and initialized them only to receive a huge wave of notifications.
[Enemy defeated by base defense.]
[Enemy defeated by base defense.]
[Enemy defeated by base defense.]
[Enemy defeated by base defense.]
[Enemy defeated….]
[...]
These messages went on for a few minutes as Kaz readied himself for the issues barging down his doors. He pulled out his spear and rushed the door right at the moment it started to cave in, catching the husks on the outside by surprise. A claws swings past his face, he ducks under the pounce of another husk, his spear spinning in a manner that was similar to a blender as he flew out of the first group like a blood propelled rocket. He turned his attention to the other groups of husks and began his dance.
A thrust here through the hand coming at him from his side into the face of another husk, he pulls out as he jumps in the air, being chased by a few awakened husks, only for then to get a rain of kicks and stabs, causing them to fall back down in surprisingly more of a corpse like state. He landed on the head of one that was still moving to finish it off, but there was no break from the combat yet. He continued his engagement for what seemed like hours but only lasted a few minutes. Through all this combat, Kaz has been slowly cementing his close quarter combat style, relying on kicks and his spear at a distance. Finally, as the last one fell in his compound he could take in a breath of air, now seeing his notifications that had been flooding in during the entire fight.
[Skill Level up: {Tower Defense lvl. 4}]
[Skill Level up: {Basic Spear Mastery lvl. MAX}]
[Due to reaching the max level of {Basic Spear Mastery} a stance has been chosen by the user. Once you cement the style of fighting, the skill will evolve.]
[Skill Evolution: {Basic Spear Mastery} has evolved to {Intermediate Spear Mastery lvl. 1} with your stance level being that of Initiate.]
[Level up!]
[Level up!]
[Level up!]
[You have reached level 13]
Kaz stashed his spear after catching his breath and reading through the notification. As he started making his way to his walls, he started hearing a humming sound making him slightly wary of the situation. When he got to the wall, he stared at the edge of the light shadows reaching further than he had expected them to have reached, and on the edge, thousands of glowing eyes staring at him, from them emanating the humming sound. He then realized, the light stretching so far out wasn't from his lights, but a light source from behind him.
As he turned he saw a sun in the sky, or what looked like one, and it descended closer to him before a being giving off unimaginable amounts of energy landed in front of him.
"Now how did you get onto my planet?"