Chapter 14
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In a battle at this level of intelligence, it was hard for someone from Earth to be wrong. And just as predicted, the enormous Micro Jellyfish saw each other and instantly went at each other's throats. Using dozens of static tentacles, they lashed at one another and applied paralysis over and over again. Eventually, it reached a point where they were only working at 10% of their previous capacity.
Taking advantage of this period of weakness, Astaroth undulated toward the Micro Jellyfish that attacked him earlier. Above the creature's head was a system tag that read:
[Micro Jellyfish (Lvl 1) - Status (Weakened)] - [Threat Level: Green]
"Ho? So its weakend state has caused its threat level to go down by a tier… How intriguing…"
A cold gleam flashed past Astaroth's piercing eyes as his perceptive thoughts drifted his hands into action.
|Undulation Zoom| |True Absorption|
After casting these two abilities in repeated succession, Astaroth pulsated around the Micro Jellyfish's line of sight and absorbed its energy!
One blink. Two blinks. Three blinks. Four blinks.
Four blinks flashed by before the Micro Jellyfish realized that it was being drained dry. Turning around in a split second, it was going to lash out at whatever was taking away its lifeforce.
But as if Astaroth had stuck himself to its body using an impossibly sticky glue, he followed along with the twists and turns of the Micro Jellyfish. If it weren't in a weakened state, it would be able to spin around fast enough to fling the leech off of its body, but in its current state…
Eight blinks. Nine blinks. Ten blinks. Eleven blinks.
[Ding! You have absorbed 1,058 Energy from a Lvl 1 Micro Jellyfish!]
The Micro Jellyfish was no more, and all its Energy had been transmitted to Astaroth.
Now the size of the other Micro Jellyfish, he pulsated and appeared behind it, then he used |True Absorption| and devoured it in one blink.
[Ding! You have absorbed 1061 (G6) Energy from a Lvl 1 Micro Jellyfish!]
"Although I consumed those two, it does appear that six more of them were attracted by the scuffle…"
Two came from the left, one from the middle, one from the right, and two from behind. Half of them were similar in size to him; however, the other half scaled up three to four times his size.
[Micro Jellyfish (Lvl 1) - Danger Threat: Green]
[Micro Jellyfish (Lvl 2) - Danger Threat: Yellow]
[Micro Jellyfish (Lvl 2) - Danger Threat: Yellow]
With such a lineup of enemies, Astaroth did the most logical thing and went after the weakest links of the group. Planning to devour them first, he would then amass more strength and make quick work of the larger Lvl 2's.
After doing just as he said he would, a few of the most important system notifications passed by his sight.
[Ding! You have absorbed 4,850 (G6) Energy from a Lvl 2 Micro Jellyfish!]
[Ding! You have absorbed 5,120 (G6) Energy from a Lvl 2 Micro Jellyfish!]
[Ding! You have absorbed 5,750 (G6) Energy from a Lvl 2 Micro Jellyfish!]
By the end of this brief killing spree, Astaroth was able to pass over the 50,000 cumulative Energy mark. From there, he only needed the other 50,000 to evolve once more. But contrary to his previous evolutions, he believed this one was going to be quite different.
However, to verify his speculations, he had to devour a few more Micro Jellyfish…
|Undulation Zoom| |Undulation Zoom|
With his energy storage now multiple times what it once was, Astaroth was able to use his movement ability in an almost spam-like way.
In no time at all, he had already transported himself to a new area. In this area, there were even greater numbers of Micro Jellyfish, some tiny and some thousands of times his size.
Astaroth looked up at these massive Micro Jellyfish and saw them violently tearing at each other's throats, causing their body parts to litter the sea and reach the mouths of lower-level Micro Jellyfish.
Honing in on the system notification tag above the Micro Jellyfish, Astaroth saw:
[Micro Jellyfish (Lvl 8) - Threat Level: Black]
Seeing the black-colored tag was all Astaroth needed to know to understand that his death was all but guaranteed if he tried to fight that creature as he was.
"For now, stick with what I can manage," he uttered.
As he looked around the aquatic scenery, he saw many Micro Jellyfish under Level 4. These would be the ones he would target and use to go through another Energy Overflow…
After a few milliseconds of quick absorption, Astaroth finally saw the last few system notifications he needed.
[Ding! You have absorbed 11,350 (G6) Energy from a Lvl 2 Micro Jellyfish!]
[Ding! You have absorbed 12,880 (G6) Energy from a Lvl 2 Micro Jellyfish!]
[Ding! You have reached a point of Energy Overflow! Would you like to go through with the evolution process?]
"Yes," Astaroth answered without hesitation.
BLING!
Similar to all the previous Energy Overflows, this one also caused a bright iridescent light to erupt and surround his body. But different from the times before, this one did not force his body size to spiral out of control. Rather, it merely surrounded his body for a couple seconds and then vanished without a trace.
"I knew this Energy Overflow would be different from the last ones, but what exactly changed?"
First and foremost, Astaroth sensed around inside his own body. But upon seeing nothing worthy of notice, his senses drifted toward his exterior, slime-like body with hanging tentacles and an upside-down-shaped bowl head.
From what he could tell, there was only one thing that had really changed about his appearance…
"My tentacles… They now have sharp, protruding objects in their edges… Is this some form of evolutionary ability?"
As if reading his mind, a system pop-up materialized into view!
[Ding! From here on out, the host will go through multiple 'Minor Energy Overflows' before going through a 'Major Energy Overflow' that will ultimately change the race of the host. Along with the Minor Energy Overflows come special or unique racial traits.]
"Ahh… So it's like this. Then, the Ability I received from this Minor Energy Overflow is…"
BLING!
Opening his system interface, Astaroth saw:
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{[Infinite Energy System]}
[Host: Astaroth]
[Evolution Stage: Micro Jellyfish (Rank 2)] - [10,580/10,000,000 (G6)]
[Evolution Area: Jelly Sea]
[Energy Level: 3] - [10,580/10,000,000 (G6)]
[Energy Storage: 3,200/1,000,000 (G6)]
{[Current Energy Abilities:]}
[Level 1 (Spore): (Energy Absorption), (Unlimited Energy Absorption), (Spore Slash), (Spore Propulsion)]
[Level 2 (Micro Jellyfish): (True Energy Absorption), (Jelly Lash), (Undulation Zoom), (Razor Whip)]
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