Three weeks passed by without an incident. Simm's body began to recover quickly, and her reduced stats started climbing closer to the peak of the Mutant Rank. Their four children were crawling and sitting up by themselves easily now. And their initial ugliness had also disappeared, now replaced by soft, smooth grey skin and tufts of grey hair growing on their heads. Any day now, one of them would stand up holding on to something, and the rest would follow.
Their stats had also gone through some minor changes in this time. Like the adults, they also earned experience points for exerting their bodies.
[ Level: 1] [ Warrior Class: Locked ]
[ Exp: 50/50 ]
[ Upgrade: Now/Later ]
[ Attributes: Strength (0.1); Speed (0.1); Stamina (0.2); Dexterity (0.1) Magic Affinity (1) ]
This was the progression panel for Kenshi, the liveliest of his children. After yelling, crying, crawling, and rolling on the bed for weeks, he had finally earned enough experience points in the Physique category to reach the peak of level 1. And Ken wasn't surprised to see the upgrading option pop up in front of him, the father.
The rest of the children in the world couldn't upgrade their level by themselves even if the counter became full...because they were still babies. And their parents couldn't see their progression panel. It was only after reaching the preteens that most children were taught to operate and control their progression panel. Multiple level Enhancements by the early teens wasn't abnormal at all.
So Ken made the choice for his children. He chose to upgrade Kenshi's level.
[ New level reached. Rewarded 1 Attribute Enhancement Point. ]
[ Level: 2 ] [ Warrior Class: Locked ]
[ Exp: 000/200 ]
[ Attributes: Strength (0.1+); Speed (0.1+); Stamina (0.2+); Dexterity (0.1+) Magic Affinity (1+) ]
All the attributes had an increment sign glowing next to the numbers, and Ken had only 1 point to invest. He could even choose to increase Kenshi's bloodline talent, the Totemic Magic Affinity inherited from Simm, but that would be pointless when the boy was so young.
He chose the Dexterity option first hoping that would boost Kenshi's movement quality and body control.
[ Due to the child's lacking foundation, the maximum ceiling for enhancement will be 0.2 points. ]
Ken saw the strange message popping up on the panel and felt that it made sense. Entering a whole point into one attribute when the baby barely had a body developed enough to stand would be unnatural and illogical. The world spirit would not allow it. 0.2 points were fine, too, because now he could invest in all five stats, spreading the enhancements equally.
[ Level: 2 ]
[ Exp: 000/200 ]
[ Attributes: Strength (0.3); Speed (0.3); Stamina (0.4); Dexterity (0.3) Magic Affinity (1.2) ]
[ Alert: The early enhancements will affect the child's growth! ]
Ken was caught off guard by the new alert. Affecting the child's growth?! How?
Out of caution, he decided not to repeat the act with the rest of his children, all of whom were close to the limit of level 1 as well.
Handing the children over to a sleepy Simm, Ken walked out of the tunnel under the dim light of dawn. It was time to go fishing again. Simm wanted to start training to get back to her peak form. That would require expensive equipment, pricey resources, and rare medicines. She also needed a weapon. The money in the hideout could not sustain them for long.
Ken had made sure to amass an average of 25 experience points every day, putting his spirit just a handful of spells away from burnouts all the time. He was very close to the peak of level 3 as a mage. The only reason he hadn't broken through by now was the fear of being so close to a burnout that in an emergency situation, he would not be able to cast a spell and become a burden to Simm instead. That would be far too dangerous and irresponsible when they had four children to protect besides themselves.
[ Class: Mage ]
[ Class Aptitude: Mana Affinity (2) ]
[ Class Grade: Ordinary ]
[ Grade Level: 3/9 ]
[ Level Exp: 490/500 ]
[ Spell Library: Bluevenom Ant Totem (Common); Snakehead Fish Totem (Common); Viper Totem (Common);... Talent Transformation (???) (unusable) ]
When Ken's figure popped into view inside the forest, a cacophony of sounds rang out, his army of totem beasts sending him signals from their positions. The top of the trees were occupied by totems of ferocious monkeys that Simm had caught and tied up for him to experiment on. The bushes were filled with hundreds of venomous insect totems whose swarm could make even Mutant Rank warriors retreat in fear. Above the canopy of the woods, a murder of crows guarded the sky when the sun was up, while dozens of vampire bats patrolled during the night.
This area of the forest was already gaining a reputation for being comparatively dangerous. Ordinary people were starting to avoid venturing in deep after several deadly encounters with unreasonable beasts.
Ken was making his routine rounds in the nearby area as a safety measure when he stumbled upon a surprise.
A large feline creature was lying at the edge of the forest, heavily injured. Its white fur was dyed red, and clumps of its skin and meat were spread all over the ground. Judging by the injuries, the beast had probably been attacked by his totem army.
It was still alive, but barely breathing. The totem beasts hadn't been very thorough, an issue that had resulted from their low level of intelligence.
The problem was, Ken could tell that this beast was definitely a spirit pet. He himself used to own a few back in the day. Whoever it belonged to, they would sense its peril and come charging towards the forest. And when they discovered the culprit, the situation would spiral out of Ken's control.
Grimacing, Ken ordered four of his larger totems to pick up the injured beast on their backs. Since he had prepared an army so murderous, he was prepared to deal with the consequences of being discovered as well.