I chewed a piece of the meat in my mouth, my eyes widening just seconds later.
"Mhmm!"
It wasn't so bad, on the contrary, the fresh and soft meat of the dangerous-looking Abyss piranha was mild and savoury.
Granted that it was nowhere near cooked fish, which offered a much oily and juicy flavour, the heat bringing out the best of its taste, but this didn't taste bad either.
It carried a slightly acidic taste with it and the flavour was pleasant to my taste buds.
[You have consumed Abyss Piranha's raw meat.]
[Metamorphosis has activated. The characteristics of the Abyss Piranha are slowly getting integrated in your body.]
[Achievement unlocked: The Glutton.]
[Achievement Rewards - Gluttonous Fiend (Title).]
[Agility has increased by +1.]
[A foreign racial trait has awakened inside your body, a new section has been added to your status.]
[The amount and rarity of the consumed meat is very low. There won't be any major changes.]
[Metamorphosis Lv 1 Index: (0.3%----------100%)]
Nice!
When I saw the notifications, my insides bubbled with happiness. This was a very cheat-like skill. A skill that could change someone's race, that too indefinitely. In simple words, it didn't exist.
I slowly started understanding the value of Abyss. And one thing that I knew for sure was that me falling in here was just a big stroke of luck. As Abyss was still in its developing phases and was surely a location that would play a vital role in the story later on.
Not only that, if the Emperor of Abyss was so strong, he must already have ways to go to the land. But he was most probably scared of the big shots of the land, and hence all this farce about a competition every ten years for the emperor's throne was a setting that would make the NPCs called generals strong in the upcoming years.
Strong enough to contend with the emperor himself! That means they all will cross the level three hundred mark and that's when they will attack the lands.
Of course, all this was a mere guess and even if it were true, it wouldn't affect me much if I was the same old adventurer.
But now I had joined the world of [Mayhem], and had become one of its key factors in the overall worldview. And although it sounded funny, for some reason, I felt like I was somehow connected deeply to [Mayhem] itself.
Putting all those thoughts aside, I checked the achievement reward that I had just gotten.
[Gluttonous Fiend
Type: Buff Title
Every time you taste a new kind of meat, you'll absorb some of the target's highest stat.
The skill is limited to only the first consumption of any type of meat. Continuous consumption wouldn't bear any benefit.]
"....."
Was I some kind of protagonist?
I had gotten such cheat skills recently that I couldn't help but have that question. This, coupled with [Metamorphosis] could give me so much power that I could only imagine.
Instead of wasting any more time, I started cutting and eating chunks of meat after cutting it out from the Abyss Piranha. What was left of it was its skin, bones, tails and its monstrous jaw.
*Burp*
I let out a burp, after eating a full watermelon-sized piranha raw, I felt like a person from the stone age. Which didn't feel that bad.
[Hunger Index - Very Full.]
I brought up my hunger index and couldn't help but chuckle. This was the first time I had gotten the 'Very Full' hunger scaling.
There were a total of eight types of hunger scaling in the game, with 'Starving' being the lowest and 'Very Full' being the highest.
After I was done eating, I looked at the metamorphosis index and couldn't help but smile.
[Metamorphosis Lv 1 Index: (7%----------100%)]
After eating the whole fish, it was already at 7%. Of course, it was still the first level. But I was very expectant of the race that it'll turn me into after it reaches a hundred percent. Since it would be a combination of the races of monsters that I eat, I couldn't help but be more expectant about it.
My own race!
This [Metamorphosis] skill was clearly not supposed to exist. And even if it did, it should have come way later into the game, not this early. But due to the butterfly effects of me meeting Zultan, running away from him and then getting to the mountain only to fall on some kind of space distortion and then landing in Abyss.
I was really grateful that I ended up in front of Zultan again, otherwise I would have missed out on this fortune.
'That's why I must pay you back with interest as soon as I get out of here.'
I commented inwardly as I resolved myself to give Zultan the beating of his life whenever we encounter each other the next time.
'Before that, I need to get strong, really strong.'
Otherwise, I would just get plummeted again. Although I had thick skin, it still hurt my pride somewhere deep down in my consciousness.
Looking at the bones and skins that were left of the Abyss Piranha, I was about to leave them as it is before I suddenly remembered something.
'Night Alchemist's Appraisal.'
[Abyss Piranha's Skelton
Type - Material
Grade - Normal
A normal skeleton of the piranha living in the abyss. Can be used to create basic jewellery items if mixed with some better materials.]
[Abyss Piranha's Jawbone
Type - Material
Grade - Normal
A Jawbone of the piranha living in the abyss. Can be used to create basic jewellery items if mixed with some better materials.]
[Abyss Piranha's Skin
Type - Ingredient
Grade - Normal
The skin of the piranha living in the abyss. It's too thin to create clothes or equipment, but it has some medical properties. If mixed with better materials, a potion can be created.]
"Wow!"
I couldn't help but exclaim.
So this is what a production class's appraisal skill is like!
I had heard that production classes can verify even little materials and even trash with their appraisal skill. People with different classes didn't have this kind of appraisal skill unless the item was owned by them.
Looking at the bones and skin of the piranha, I suddenly felt like testing out my alchemist class. Although alchemists weren't popular, that also made them scarce and rare among the other normal class. Not to mention my [Night Alchemist] wasn't like normal classes but was a special grade job.
It was a special grade, which meant it was just below the legendary grade and that was not a small thing.
I went through all the alchemist skills and decided to use the Night Alchemist's Elemental Exchange skill.
'Okay, we are gonna do this! Let's go!'
"Night Alchemist's Elemental Exchange skill!!"
I shouted out the skill name, expecting it to take effect. Normally, you would just have to think about activating a skill, or say out their names. Some skills took chanting out mantras or spells to work. Mostly for classes like Wizards, Witches, Mages, Magicians, etc.
"....."
Nothing happened even after I tried saying the name once and twice. After that, I had to check the skill's 'how to use' guide to finally understand what was going on.
"Bruh, now I know why people don't pick the alchemist job!"
It was fucking complicated! It wasn't as simple as saying a skill's name.
Sigh!
Even for basic alchemy, I had to prepare intricate circles of proper size that were proportionate to the item and it differed for every kind of item. Not to mention that the circles that guaranteed a higher rate of success weren't pre-added and I had to find the formulas for them.
"Fuck, is this a game or maths class??"
I couldn't help but curse. But soon after, I decided to give it a proper go since I didn't need much effort for this type of alchemy.
Drawing two circles, one inside the other from Eclipse, I drew a large star that overlapped both the circles. Then in the middle of it, I placed the skeleton and jawbone of the Abyss Piranha and backed off.
Now, I needed to say a chant that would correspond to the item I am trying to change the materials for.
"Gaia, hark to mine own commandeth and conv'rt this mat'rial to gold coin!"
I said out loud, good thing I had a good understanding of Shakespearean language, or else I would be struggling to say the chant.
"....."
Nothing happened even after the command.
[The conversion rate is not equal.]
Oh, so that's how it is. There were quite some conditions to Alchemy, the first one being that I could only convert one material into another only if I owned the other material formerly. Secondly, the value of the materials should correspond to each other or else the conversion would fail.
Tsk! These bones aren't even worth a gold coin!
"Gaia, hark to mine own hest and conv'r this mat'rial into silv'r coin!"
As soon as I changed the chant, the lines that I had drawn started emitting light, and after a few seconds, the skeleton and jawbone of the piranha disappeared and a small pile of silver coins appeared.
I immediately rushed and picked up the coins, and as I stored them in the inventory to count, I couldn't help but feel like cursing.
"....99 silver coins. A gold coin is worth 100 silver coins, this stingy alchemy!"
With this incident, few things were clear.
First of all, the law of equivalent exchange was strong in alchemy, and the exchange would fail if I lacked the materials even if it was just a nail's worth.
Secondly, my future was very bright as long as I mastered alchemy and kept on improving. A production class was called a dollar mine for a reason after one has mastered it.
Thirdly and most importantly. I had to level up as fast and gather as many materials as possible during the process.
I firmly decided in my heart to catch up with my existing level and surpass it as quickly as I could. That was the only way to save Jeze and clear the quest.
...
//DreamNote//
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