It has been a few weeks since Ethan has taken out the large monsters, in fact he has basically cleared out the whole forest. He has cashed in on his mutations, they are now plus 10 for each one. He was about to choose his secondary mutations.
Just as Ethan was about to open the mutation menu he heard Hiamel speak up.
" hold your horses pony boy, got some things to talk about regarding mutations and mutogene."
Hiamel paused and then continued after a few minutes of sighing and Ethan gesturing at the menu as if to say I was almost there.
"Firstly, you already know that you get mutations for your body parts at level 5, it stands to reason you would get the same at level 10 and 15. However, there is something to be said about sticking with mutations you already grabbed and doubling down on them."
"Each rank of the mutation is quantitative in power, each rank is at least 10 times more powerful than the previous. Not only that, most Mutations have 3 ranks. If you make it to rank 3 it will actually be 100 times as powerful as an incentive to go all the way to rank 3. Not only that, but it permanently unlocks it for that body part and will let you revert it back to level 1 and choose a different mutation to add to what you have currently unlocked. Think of it as prestiging your rank, but you keep the mutations and have to build up that body part again. This also plays a huge roll in what evolution's you get"
"One last thing, at this point you won't get any mutogene from monsters weaker than yourself any longer. Your going to have to go further down the bowl and face stronger monsters in the desert area" Hiamel finished explaining.
Ethan paused "cheap skate says what now? I don't get anymore mutogene here? Why!"
Hiamel narrowed his eyes ''here I am helping you out of the kindness of my heart, and you call me a cheapskate? I'll remember that. Looking at you telltale! But to answer your rude question, yes in this world there is something called a power deficit. Basically in layman's terms you lose a ton of mutogene to your dark master that grants you this power and it goes up for each level the monster is under you in power level. Basically anything 2 levels or more underneath you? Not worth it. Hence why you need to go further down to fight bigger monsters."
Ethan sighed and started walking to the edge of the forest as he walked he noticed a sharp decline in the ground as he began making his way down. "I definitely don't want to help him out, so I need to fight bigger monsters so I can get out of here and get stronger and prevent him from getting what he needs to take over everything."
" I won't let him come into our world and kill everything... I will be the one to destroy Zaggoth."
Just to recap, this is what Ethan's stats currently look like.
Ethan
Species: Cheiracanthium inclusum (swarm queen)
Gender: Female
Power level 10
Strength: 80
Agility: 70
Intelligence: 80
Luck: 55
Vitality: 110
Mutations:
sparking Mandibles +10
Armored legs+10
Paralytic Webbing +10
mind control Venom+10
Rapid Swarm-ling hatchery +10
Compressed swarm-ling ducts+10
As he cemented those skills with the mutations he chose, it increased the power and also made them full versions hence the loss of paraphrases.
Ethan was walking out of the forest area down an embankment when he felt something was off he wasn't sure what, or how he knew.. but he just did. Soon the feeling was unbearable and he just had to jump so he jumped over to the right 15 ft and spun to look where he was. Which shortly thereafter turned to a giant smoking crater.
"What the hell!" Ethan said to himself and he heard a noise pop up *ding!* "you have unlocked spider sense! This skill is a passive and you cannot upgrade it, it scales with you as you grow, growing more precise and timely with each power level you are "
Ethan shook this off as he was in danger at the moment. He was looking for his enemies when he looked up.
Floating there in mid air were two people! At first Ethan was excited! He thought this place was only filled with monsters. Then he remembered why he was here and what he was..a monster.
The two people were a man and a woman, the woman had her hand on the man's shoulder and they were standing in the air effortlessly.
"Poor misguided soul, let us ease the suffering of your soul and put you to rest! Poor pitiful creature! You should have let the first blast hit you so that you not suffer any longer"
The woman had long blond hair in a braid down her back and carried herself like a priest or cleric.
She had a long white robe that was form fitting and her vital areas were covered in what looked like white plate metal.
"Cassiopeia, you talk too much. I just want to fight and kill this monster and get back to my duties. Hopefully this monster will at least prove... entertaining before I rip into bite size chunks and feed it to our newbies."
While Davek was continuing this monologue. Ethan took the time to check over their stats to see what he was dealing with.
Davek The fist of faith
Strength: 100
Agility : 60
Intelligence: 30
Luck: 20
Cassiopeia
Strength: 20
Agility:40
Intelligence : 110
Luck: 20
"Man, they have some inflated stats. But I can take them... just have to play smart."
Cassiopeia stared daggers at the man "you dare say my name in front of this...unclean creature Davek! You'd speak of our practices so openly in front of our target, does your hubris know no limit?"
Davek simply smiled like it was a game to him. Davek was 6' 3" and was extremely well built. He was wearing nothing on his chest except a bracer that covered his shoulder and jutted out in jagged glee from his body. Other than that the man wore a gi from the waist down and was barefoot with a bald head.
"It matters not, it won't be living much longer." Davek said while narrowing his eyes at Ethan.
"Wow, they really really want to kill me... I am not sure if I can just switch to killing humans.. I wanted revenge on Viktor, but that was different, he killed my parents. Can I really just immediately switch to killing other humans? If I want to get home. I can't lose here, I have to take them down..."
Ethan thought of everything back home and what was riding on him... the only one who could stop Zaggoth would be him wouldn't it? He couldn't let him have his way! No! Not after what he did to him!"
A darkness seemed to overtake Ethan as he viewed Davek and Cassiopeia, he stopped viewing them as enemies and more like... stepping stones, a resource to be exploited. He thought of all the evil he had seen and he began to look over Davek and Cassiopeia in a new light. He saw their ugliness ... on the inside, they were monsters in human flesh. They needed to die.
" Might as well eat them when I'm done, especially considering they are planning to do the same to me" Ethan wasn't sure if that was his human mind saying that or the cool calculating mind of the spider.
Ethan readied himself for their attack. Cassiopeia began rising with Davek into the air higher and higher, speaking as she rose.
"You know, you should probably cover your trail better. Once you cleaned this area out. We knew you had to come to the next ring, that's how life works here. So it was child's play to find you." Cassiopeia said with a sneer as she let go of Davek.
"Thanks for the tip, I'll keep that in mind after I kill and eat you " Ethan thought with a smirk.