Ch. 4 out of the frying pan
When I opened my eyes I saw nothing. Oh there was bound to be something to see but I couldn't see it. My eyes couldn't adjust because there was no light. I looked onto my market page there were only three upgrades.
Market page
[Increased muscle density – strength+1] $400ep
[Greater elasticity – agility +1] $1000ep
[Shark skin – reduces bludgeon, slash, and pierce damage up to 10psi] $2000ep
[Third eye – intelligence +20%increase speed] $8000ep
[New product randomized] $100ep
I continued to look at the market app. It was strange how expensive each upgrade was. But I shrugged it off. There would be time to get new upgrades and grind for 5429 or evolution points as I'm calling it now.
Lucy are you there. I'm kind of stuck here for now and am in the middle of moving out. Just telling you oh and beginning to wonder where you have been while I was stuck in my head. "….." I rolled my eyes same old same old Lucy. She was always one for the theatrics. I know your there Lucy I felt the ….s. You do know that right. "Fine talk." What crawled up your butt. "Nothing Samuel don't worry about it. How was your mind is it as riddled with porn and other guy things as you hoped." It was a blank canvas covered in golden electricity. But I redecorated a bit. "That's nice." Are you tired. "Yes I haven't slept in days and I'm still going at it trying to keep back the parasitic hive minds."
Quest obtained – There can only be one over mind.
I will handle it as I go through then. Be careful and don't take any chances Lucy. "Oh, you're the one who likes to take the chances and I'm the one who keeps you out of trouble. Bye and get here. I miss you." I miss you too dear.
With that conversation out of the way I put my hands against my cocoon like tome. It was a crystalized congregation of my blood adapted outside of my body and changed from my original body. Each cell was so changed from my original that they no longer resemble me. I began to chip through one of the sides of the cocoon. Then for good measure I hacked a clump of spittle it hit me in the face. I'm upside down.
Turning over in the limited space I began to chip through the wall and then the frozen chum. It was difficult and it took seemingly forever but eventually I landed into a corridor of the flesh mountain. I started to feel around until I felt the walls they were slimy with a mucus like substance. Rubbing it across my fingers it became apparent that I was in a tunnel.
A roar unlike any I had truly heard before came from behind me so I ran. Straight ahead of me there was no choice in the matter I had to move. The sound of squelching came up from behind me. I didn't dare to turn around and risk getting caught by whatever it was. I still couldn't see only run and hope that the tunnel didn't end or my foot getting caught in a groove.
Eventually I hit a wall and had to turn around. It didn't just ram me like I expected it instead stopped I could feel its breath right in front of my face. With a sudden buzzing sound what I could only assume was a mouth closed over me. Needle like teeth cut into me and my body was being ripped. I fought back ripping and tearing at the strangely soft flesh of the creature. The creature tried to clamp down on me and rag doll me. But I wouldn't couldn't let it. My arms were soft enough for the teeth the pierce but I knew that the creature wouldn't have teeth farther inside. I move further inside the creature its teeth began to aide me in the process. When there were no more teeth I began to claw at the creature and rip its flesh.
The creature was thrashing turning in this way and that in an attempt to break my body. Its blood burned at my skin as I held. Biting chunks from the creature and swallowing them whole taking what I can from the creature as I fought it. My body digested the new flesh rapidly and burned through ep just as quickly. Blood flowed like a river around me it smelled of the most putrid of rot and tasted like the sweetest of candy. The thrashing started to slow and I bit off more flesh to increase my recovery rate.
Every chunk bitten off gave me another 10ep though I used up most of it to heal myself. Overall I was netting more than I was losing. [10ep] to minus [8ep] over all I was fortunate. Soon even the thrashing stopped.
With the creature finally dead I went through the long process of moving its mouth open so I could climb out. It took some maneuvering but eventually I got out. Still I was punctured many times by the still very sharp teeth. I turned to the row of outer teeth more like talons half as long as my arm. Gripping one I broke it off. [New skill created – Scavenge: take what you can you can't give any of it back.] Shrugging at my apparently snarky subconscious, I felt around to the side of the creature.
Once I walked around it and took stock I noticed that it had no appendages, it was slimy, and wrinkled. The world was still pitch black. With no light anywhere I was trapped here now with the corpse of a giant worm from my guess. I glared at where the beast was I reared back my hand and plunged it into the corpse. A small splash of its somewhat minor acidic blood caught me on the side of my skin burned from the contact.
I ripped the chunk I cut from the beast from it and tossed it in my mouth it burned my tongue, my gums, and even my teeth but I fought the pain and swallowed. It was agony down my throat but when it hit my stomach the pain began to go away. I waited for a pop up to show how many ep the little morsel would grant me.
"No that isn't me I don't see things as only food. That isn't me I'm not a monster." I said out loud. "Not a monster. I am not a monster." I repeated over and over again my mantra my new religion. [150ep] My evolution points gauge read. The corpse of the giant worm probably weighed four to five tons if not for its need to stop and adjust its mouth I would be paste.
With a huff I started to shove more of the meat from the worm down my throat not bothering to chew. [scavenge 20/1000] I ripped off another few chunks and tossed them in my mouth chewing this time. [scavenge 25/1000] This time when I ripped off a piece I gripped the chunk tightly and twisted it. Blood flowed from the meat and burned my hands I held it like that for a few seconds. When the last of it dripped on the ground I bit into the meat. It was still raw but the burn wasn't as bad more spicy than anything. [scavenge 35/1000] I smirked, so better strategies increase my skills faster. What else would increase them faster I wonder. [230ep] With that much ep I switched on the market.
I hit create new mutation twice.
Current ep 10
Market page
[Drainer – You now feed off of the very ep of your prey. This mutation unlocks the skill drain and grants a bonus from the consumption of blood +5ep per cc.] $500ep
[Thermal organ – An organ that creates heat. Survive in the coldest of conditions. Cold debuffs are moderately less effective.] $300ep
[Increased muscle density – strength+1] $400ep
[Greater elasticity – agility +1] $100ep
[Shark skin – reduces bludgeon, slash, and pierce damage up to 30psi] $2000ep
[Third eye – intelligence +20%increase speed] $8000ep
[New product randomized] $140ep
I whistled a long loud tune at the improvement of the prospects of the mutation market. A loud ping resounded in my ears. [new quest] Looking at the icon I swapped over to the quest page.
[Quest – Navigate through the cave.]
Bonus quests
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[rewards – unlocked]
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"So there is no telling what I will get or how I will get it. Just great." With a sneer adorning my face worthy of a video game villain I began to use the tooth to carve up the cave worm. The stinging from the acidic blood seemed to have stopped by the time if finished my task of cutting the creature from mouth to end. I took the pieces to my nose and began to smell them trying to discern if one held more ep than another.
My nose wasn't my sharpest tool but it was much stronger than it was when I was just a normal human. It was difficult but I started to smell tiny differences between each piece of the worm. I took one of the worms hearts. A gem like organ adapted to be hard and resistant to the creatures acidic blood. I took a deep whiff of the organ. It smelled different. There were It felt sturdy almost rock like. The smell was indescribable it smelled of strength of power. I took a casual bite from the organ the acidic blood ran down my mouth like the juice from a large apple. The burn was hardly noticeable anymore.
[+65ep]
[-8ep]
[new skill unlocked]
[Alchemy – You have become a connoisseur of ingredients you now can record their effects and hopefully mix certain materials together. Needed material chemistry set.]
[Alchemy skill – 5/100000]
[new passive mutation unlocked]
[acid resistance – You have bathed in so much acid that your body has begun to fight it. The more powerful the acid you are exposed to the more your body will adapt to resist it.]
[acid resistance – 1/1000]
[New passive skill mutation unlocked]
[physical resistance – You have taken so much damage that your body has begun to build up resistance to being broken down.]
[physical resistance – 10/10000000000]
[Alchemy note book created – With the Alchemy note book you may record all data on creatures you do battle with.]
Scavenged worm heart – +20s minor acid resist – ep units 65.
My stat sheets and my adjustments of skills were finally completed so it was time to move on. In the darkness of the worm's tunnels. I scavenged another nine hearts from the creature and consumed them. I relished in the cold feeling of ep flowing through my veins more than I have felt in a long time. Now with 652 ep I could get one of the mutations from my market page.
The cold air nipped at my body as I zoomed through the stat page. Passing cleanly through my now tattered lab coat. The coat that was once white was now slick with blood, bile, who knows what else. There was very little protection from it now. Both the sleeves were gone and most of the lover seams were torn out. With a heavy heart, I clicked on the heat organ. I felt it in my chest around my near the center. It started with a simple pulse. Then pain red hot in intensity shot through my body. My formally numb skin now began to feel like pins and needles as the feeling slowly returned to them. The blood that had frozen shut my wounds began to thaw and slowly creep out as the wounds itched.
The floor of the cave smelled of death and grease from fats congealed and frozen over. My hands barely found purchase on the frozen floor of the tunnel. With a heave I picked myself up off the ground. I still felt the heat organ as it pulsed at a steady rate much like my heart. I no longer felt cold. Oh I could feel the difference as my feet touched the cold fleshy ground and blood seeped up before refreezing wetting my feet and coating them in the thick liquid.
Warm now but still in the dark I placed a hand on one of the walls and started out in a random direction. The walls were bumpy and the occasional bone seemed to mark my path rather well. I started to carve a triangle on sections that led to dead ends and a triangle to forks in the tunnels. Soon I had mapped out a large portion of the area. It wasn't till I had traveled maybe three miles when I found another worm. This one was smaller than the last a mere ten feet in length.
I heard it instead of saw it. It made a loud screeching sound and charged at me or at least I think it did. The rumbling it made as it crawled towards me shook the tunnel. The worm was covered in spines unlike the last one it made it difficult to strike at anything but its head when it charged me. I stabbed it on the head with the tooth I pilfered from the last worm. The hard bone pierced the relatively soft skin of the worm. There was nearly no resistance as the tooth sank in. I felt the acidic blood splash against my hand. The feeling of burning but it didn't go as I planned. The worm thrashed away from the attack and hit me with its spined tail. Just a glancing blow but enough to prick my skin a few inches. Most of my wounds from the last worm were still unhealed only sealed up enough to make me combat ready.
The tooth was still in the worms head but it hadn't been stabbed deep enough to finish it off. Back peddling to a safer distance I had to wait for the near invisible creature to make a move. I felt the creature charge at me again. There was little choice in how I could fight it now. With a jump I aimed a kick for the monsters head in effort to force the tooth home.
My poorly carried out kick just wasn't accurate in the dark of the cave and the creature rose up and bit down on my leg. The creature immediately began to ragdoll me. Shaking its body back in forth. "Damn you. You fucking worm die already. Just die. Damn you." I yelled, as I pounded on the creature with my fists not sure if my blows would do anything against its spongy flesh. Somehow I found the tooth and beat against it. Shoving it in another few inches. The creature stopped abruptly and began to spasm.
When the creature was finally dead I opened its mouth slowly. My leg was a mangled mess. Tooth holes riddled it all no bigger than a nickel but there were dozens of them. Slowly I began to pull out the teeth that had broken off and stuck in the bone.
I just sat there feeling the teeth deep in my leg. I gripped one that was stuck in my femur. With a twist agony shot through me with the force of a thousand power plants. Another twist I didn't dare shout lest more of them show. One final twist and with a crack the teeth finally released from my leg. I felt the fracture in my leg. There was no way I would be going anywhere for at least a day now. No matter how much ep I have. The other teeth were relatively easy to take out few had purchase in my bones like the front teeth did.
With the teeth gone I tried to stand. I fell with a crack to the ground and laughed. Soon I felt I could laugh no more and tears began to trail down the sides of my face. Sure I felt my body knitting itself back together stitching itself like some invisible hand was putting my flesh back in its rightful place. What am I doing here? It isn't right this whole world this place. It isn't right. All I wanted was some extra money for college why is that so wrong. Why can't I have just had a few simple tests like a normal lab would give. Why did I have to pick the place that was too good to be true. "You know the reason for that Samuel." Because we never choose the easy way out we scrape and fight until we are on top. That is what being human is all about. "So what are you going to do now?" Lucy, I don't rightly know it feels so strange to be without you. Talking isn't enough you know. And these creatures they are ridiculously powerful. I just can't handle it sometimes. "Of course you can't Sam it's not something easy to deal with if it was then anyone could handle it. But hey your better than this. Better than me. You can give up now Samuel if you dig upward there is a secret tunnel that will lead to the ocean with your thermal core you could survive the frigid waters and escape. Leave me behind Samuel I'm already dead here in this machine anyway." I got up and dusted myself off I ignored the burning from my leg as it protested. I ripped out a spine and used it to open up the worm. You know that isn't true don't you Lucy. I can't abandon you and I won't.
I ripped a heart out and devoured it hungrily feeling the surge of ep and the now slight immunity to acid. "Why can't you just leave me like I ask you too." I ripped another heart from the worm with a blorp sound. And took a bite savoring the putrid bitter taste the organ held it was necessary in exchange for power. You mean more to me than I do to myself in a way Lucy. You know that we have had this argument many times in the past. I ripped out the last of the hearts and devoured them. My ep was now up in to [994ep] a level I never had before. I invested it in [drainer] and [muscle density] then I fell over in pain once more. "You know your stubborn don't you." Of course but so are you. I felt a mental smile from her before the pain finally knocked me out.
Stats
E.P. 94
N.E.P. 200
Hp 125
Strength 4 – Physical power and the durability of the body. A stronger body can withstand more mutations without breaking down. Strength also increases H.P. or hit points.
Agility 5 – This stat controls the speed of the user as well as how easily the user can survive a fall and works in tandem with dexterity to allow faster reaction speeds from the body.
Dexterity 2 – This controls balance and reaction time.
Wisdom 4 – This stat controls the use of knowledge and how much N.E.P. or natural evolution points the body can contain.
Intelligence 3 – This attribute controls how fast someone can gain knowledge from books and how quickly skills can be picked up. It also controls mental stability.
Skills
Alchemy 10/100,000 – reward [+5000 intelligence]
Close combat 80/1,000 – reward [+50 strength]
Throwing 2/100 – reward [+5 dexterity]
Running 40/50 – reward [+3 agility]
Stealth 30/500 – reward [+25 dexterity]
Drain 0/100 – reward [+5 wisdom]
Scavenge 50/1000 – reward [+50 intelligence]
Weapons 50/200 – reward [+10 dexterity]
Passive skills
Resist acids 10/1,000 – reward [mutation major acid resistance]
Resist physical damage 12/100,000,000,000 – reward [+5,000,000,000 strength]
Mutations
Humanoid – The user won't ever forsake their human form. In return they retain a higher amount of sentience but lose a large amount of power from mutations.
Minor healing factor – The body will slowly burn through its natural ep in order to heal itself.
Gamer mind – The user is a gamer through and through. They won't lose their cool when facing a giant boss type abomination. Their psyche is safe from most inner threats.
Over Mind – The user has forced every cell in their body to take on the same functions as a human brain.
Feeding pores – The pores of the users skin filter feed form the environment. Absorbing microbes that hold small amounts of Ep.
Drainer – You now feed off of the very ep of your prey. This mutation unlocks the skill drain and grants a bonus from the consumption of blood +5ep per cc.
Increased muscle density – strength+1
Harmful mutations
Viral gums – The fangs within the users mouth are coated in a horrifying flesh eating virus. If not removed the user will become consumed by the virus.
Random mutation - The user has been experimented on for too long and has his cells have changed from what they once were. They no longer hold as much resistance to radical change.
Current ep 10
Market page
[Drainer – You now feed off of the very ep of your prey. This mutation unlocks the skill drain and grants a bonus from the consumption of blood +5ep per cc.] Purchased
[Thermal organ – An organ that creates heat. Survive in the coldest of conditions. Cold debuffs are moderately less effective.] Purchased
[Increased muscle density – strength+1] Purchased
[Greater elasticity – agility +1] $100ep
[Shark skin – reduces bludgeon, slash, and pierce damage up to 30psi] $2000ep
[Third eye – intelligence +20%increase speed] $8000ep
[New product randomized] $140ep