Apophis had finally reached Rank B-!
This was an incredible boost in power. Even the next-most-powerful player in the game would have barely reached C-. Apophis's lead in power was truly absolute!
It was time to exit the Dungeon—but just as everyone prepared to leave, Apophis fell to the ground and screamed in pain!
His team stopped immediately. Chocolate frantically prepared to purge him of the debuff she assumed had been cast on him…
But on the ground, Apophis knew perfectly well what had happened.
This had been known to occur in his original life, but only rarely, when a character made such a dramatic change in a short period that they were permanently altered.
Killing the divine child had caused his Alignment to collapse like a black hole, and it would have very painful consequences…
Server: Your aberrant negative Alignment has triggered a chaotic mutation.
Apophis's perfectly white skin turned dark gray in a wave of corruption that spread outward from the center of his forehead. His beautiful eyes shifted, their purple irises warping around pupils that were slits, like those of a snake. Curls of red energy appeared around his eyes and all over his body, searing his skin for a moment despite his mastery of fire.
The other party members were amazed! What was going on? Chocolate was targeting Apophis with her strongest restorative Skills, but nothing was happening!
Lotus, worried sick, buried her head in her arms and shouted, "What's happened to you?! Apophis, answer me!"
Server: Mutation completed. You gained the race "Fallen Zetark."
The pain stopped.
Though they often occurred because of huge influxes of power, mutations were not usually considered good things in his old life. They seemed to be downgrades as often as they were powerups. Apophis had heard of more than one character being rendered useless after mutating.
It was commonly known that allowing your Alignment too high or too low could trigger a mutation, so most players tried to prevent this. In fact, it was common to keep Alignment as close to Neutral as possible, unless some Legendary item or Skill gave a benefit to high or low Alignment. These were very rare, however.
After pulling himself back up from the ground, Apophis said a few words to reassure his friends, then called up his character menu.
╔══════════════╕
╟─╼ CHARACTER
║ ╰╼[Name] : Apophis
║ ╰╼[LvL] : 26
║ ╰╼[Tier] : B- {Space Warrior}
║ ╰╼[Class] : Esper
║ ╰╼[Biology] : Male Fallen Zetark {Evolution Level: 3 (mutated)}
║ ╰╼[Guild] : Eclipse (Leader)
║ ╰╼[Bounty] : 15,000,000
╠══════════════╡
╟─╼ SOUL
║ ╰╼[Host Soul] Enclabossa
║ ╰╼[Energy] : 3000 (+50%) x2 = 9000
║ ╰╼[Alignment] : -2000 {Very Dark}
╠══════════════╡
╟─╼ STATS
║ ╰╼[Strength] 400 (+10%) x2 = 880 STR
║ ╰╼[Intelligence] 400 (+10%) x2 = 880 INT
║ ╰╼[Agility] 400 (+10%) x2 = 880 AGI
║ ╰╼[Dexterity] 400 (+10%) x2 = 880 DEX
║ ╰╼[Luck] 1 LUK
╠══════════════╡
╟─╼ BOOK SKILLS
║ ╰╼~Berserk (lvl 1)~
║ ╰╼~Cosmic Materialization (lvl 1)~
║ ╰╼~Dark Cosmic Meditation (lvl 2)~
║ ╰╼~Demonic Wing (lvl 1)~
║ ╰╼~Eternal Flame (lvl 3)~
║ ╰╼~Lord of Flames (lvl 1)~
║ ╰╼~Susanoo (lvl 1)~
║ ╰╼~Zooanthropy (lvl 1)~
╟─╼ TALENT TREE SKILLS
║ ╰╼~Energy Regeneration (15 pts)~
║ ╰╼~Firebending (50 pts)~
║ ╰╼~Telekinesis (10 pts)~
║ ╰╼~Waterbending (25 pts)~
╟─╼ PASSIVE SKILLS
║ ╰╼[ Archaeologist ]
║ ╰╼[ Genocidal ]
║ ╰╼[ Warrior-Esper ]
╠══════════════╡
╟─╼ EQUIPMENT
║ ╰╼[Galactic Coins] : 2,013,000 GC
║ ╰╼[Complete Zetark Battle Armor (Rare)]
║ ╰╼[God Tzeentch's Rings of Power (Legendary)]
║ ╰╼[Ring of the God-Emperor Apophis (Common)]
║ ╰╼[Zetark Nobility Uniform (Epic)]
╠══════════════╡
╟─╼ SUMMARY
Congratulations! You've reached the power level of a Space Warrior and can now fight directly in the vacuum of space! Nevertheless, your incredible ascension comes only as a result of the suffering and the death that you spread in your wake. Your body is proof of your evil for all the galaxy to see!
╚═══════════════╛
Well, that was certainly better than Apophis was expecting. This wasn't just any powerup, but a very good one! He now had such an incredible amount of Energy that he could activate ~Susanoo~ almost permanently!
Of course, his new physical appearance surprised him the most. Apophis didn't look like a Zetark at all anymore. Besides the graying of his skin and his snake pupils, the cracks which outlined his eyes emanated a space-distorting crimson light that was absolutely nothing like the normal appearance of a Zetark.
Only Apophis's white hair and noble facial features remained as evidence of his base species. Beyond that, he looked like a true demon.
And, of course, the huge bounty was astounding! Sure, it was common for famous players to have some kind of bounty on their head, whether from side quests with big consequences or from jealous players… but for all of that to happen at once and for it to be so staggeringly high was almost unthinkable.
Since he had to rest for another moment before they could leave, Apophis decided to spend his Skill Points right then. He had a hundred of them, which was more than he'd ever seen at one time in his old life!
Apophis's first thought was to upgrade ~Susanoo~, which would use up all 100 Skill Points at once.
Then again… did he really need to upgrade this? He was already immensely powerful, probably close to hitting Rank B even as he was. Sure, he'd encountered a few threats recently which had been able to break his skeletal defenses, but it was almost always enough for the job already.
In addition to that, ~Susanoo~ was becoming less useful as a defensive measure in general. ~Ghost~ let Apophis avoid physical damage completely, so ~Susanoo~ was only useful against enemies who could unleash huge amounts of cosmically enhanced damage or to protect other players.
No, it would be a good idea to bolster different parts of his arsenal instead of just upgrading one particular Skill.
Therefore, Apophis spent 50 Skill Points to improve his ~Lord of Flames~ Skill.
╔══════════════╕
╟─╼ [Skill] ~Dark Lord of Flames (lvl 2)~
║ ╰╼[Dark]
║ ╰╼[Rare]
╟─╼[Summary] : Gain perfect mastery of the flames around you!
╟─╼[Effect (1)] : You can control all flames within 1000 kilometers.
╟─╼[Effect (2)] : You can teleport to any presence of flame within this range.
╟─╼[Upgrade Cost] : 100 Skill Points
╚═══════════════╛
He spent the rest of his Skill Points in the Esper Talent Tree. 25 went to ~Waterbending~ to match ~Firebending~, since the combo had already been so useful in the Dungeon. Now both of them had 50 points invested. Apophis spent his last 25 Skill Points to power up ~Energy Regeneration~ so that it reached 40 Skill Points.
At last, the party teleported out of the Dungeon.
Over three hundred of the SuperGuild Hyrule's strongest players were waiting for them outside.