ALL NOVEL Chapter 56: Shaggy the Lion
Decision made, Dominic jogged away from the bunch of kesh. He had some strange sense of the direction in which he ought to go. At first he’d just thought that it was because he was heading uphill, but as time had gone on, he’d realised that it wasn’t just that. There was a…pull. An attraction.
He still paid attention to the kesh, of course. He didn’t want a rock on his head, even if it would only remove a few health points thanks to his improved defences of fur, skin, and hardened bones. Dodging to one side or the other seemed to be pretty effective: able to throw rocks, the kesh might be; being able to predict exactly where he was going to be when he varied speed and direction was another matter.
He did still take a couple of injuries here or there, but since they were usually glancing blows, they didn’t cause much damage. And the occasional kesh he managed to nab more than made up for the damage caused by the odd blow.
By the time the troop of kesh stopped following him, he’d taken five more of them down. After a time of him not attacking, only dodging the attacks, the kesh had become a bit overconfident and dropped closer towards him, perhaps thinking that it would be easier to aim if they were closer. Which was true, but Dominic had been unable to resist reaching for the low-hanging fruit.
Each time it happened, the rest of the kesh quickly ascended higher and pelted him with a load of projectiles all at once, only to then grow over-confident again and repeat the cycle. It was when he got his fifth catch that the kesh just disappeared and no more stones came flying at him.
Consuming the body and licking up the Beast Core was almost reflex by this point. Now that he didn’t seem to be surrounded by enemies, Dominic wondered if he could dare check out his new gains.
His progress to the next level was pretty satisfying.
Progress to Evolution: 406/237 PP level up
Of course, he could immediately see that he wouldn’t be able to make two levels, and he almost started playing with the idea of going back and aggravating the kesh a bit more. Even though the Prey Points required for Evolution were increasing every level, surely he wouldn’t need more than two or three even after he’d levelled up?
Then he reminded himself of what Leo had said – he had other objectives right now. Ah well, I know where they live, he told himself, unable to avoid trying to give a creepy laugh. When he heard the strangled grunt that actually came out of his mouth, he immediately resolved never to do that again. Or not unless he managed to get his human body back, anyway.
Besides, he told himself consolingly. Unless something else comes and rips through here, they’re only going to increase in level; they’ll be better to hunt later. They might even have two abilities to choose from once they started hitting the half-step evolution level. On that note, Dominic checked for the new ability in his list.
Acquired Abilities:
Quick Strike (T0) level 2 (87–> 92% to level 3) – 3 SP for +25% speed; 6 SP for +40% speed.
Second Wind (T1) level 1 (8% to level 2) – activatable when under 50% health or stamina. Gain 50% of your maximum health and/or stamina for the duration of the timer. Timer: 05:00. At the end of the timer, lose 50% of your max health and stamina.
Crushing Bite (T0) level 1 (3% –> 8% to level 2) – Use stamina to enhance the crushing power of your jaws. +5% - 50% Crushing damage for 3-60 stamina per second.
Powerful Kick (52% to level 1)
Rage (24% to level 1)
Charge (12% to level 1)
Sharp Nip (50% to level 1)
Stunning Roar (19% to level 1)
Easy Landing (48% to level 1)
Hmm, interesting, he thought as he looked through the list. Both Quick Strike and Crushing Bite had gained something in that battle; Quick Strike was getting pretty close to level 2. As for the new ability Easy Landing, Dominic had to make some guesses about what that meant since he hadn’t had a chance to request information about one of the Cores due to being pelted with rocks whenever he stood still long enough.
I suppose I could have put the Cores in my Inventory for later consumption, Dominic thought to himself. Actually, maybe I should do that in the future. Then if I don’t think the ability will be something I ever want, I can keep the Core for giving or selling to someone else.
Too late for these Cores, of course, but no doubt this kind of situation would come up again in the future. Heck, it had sort of come up with the hyenas, though he’d wanted enough Cores to gain Crushing Bite then, so eating them made sense.
So, Easy Landing…given that it’s a creature which belongs in the trees, perhaps it’s a way of reducing the damage they take if they fall out of the tree? Certainly that would explain the way the kesh which had fallen at least twenty-five feet hadn’t lost more than a third of its health bar. Perhaps it also improves their ability to jump in the trees: that would have been a very useful ability for me to have just now, he mused.
In the end, he just closed his screen and pushed himself to his feet again. At least the short break had allowed his stamina to refresh itself a bit. Though, he did notice that his maximum was reduced again.
Stamina Points: 102/167
‘We need to sleep soon,’ he remarked to Leo. At least, that had solved the issue the last time his maximum had been reduced by a few points. ‘I guess that stamina regeneration has its limits.’
‘In this forest, I wouldn’t recommend it,’ the lion snorted. Dominic huffed in amusement and started moving forwards again.
‘No. I wasn’t really considering that. Actually, while we’re considering things, any requests for our next enhancements? Not the mane.’
‘Not even lengthening it this time?’ asked Leo hopefully. ‘I’m pretty sure that offers defensive benefits too.’ It was Dominic’s turn to snort.
‘Nice try, but enhancing Fur or Skin would have the same or better benefits.’
‘Then maybe we should lengthen our fur instead.’
‘Wouldn’t that do the opposite of what you’re trying to do?’ asked Dominic dubiously. ‘I mean, a mane is only obvious when it sticks out because of its length or colour. If all of our fur is long, then how does the mane stick out? We’d just look like…Shaggy the Lion or something.’ The lion was silent for a few moments.
‘I sense that that would be a bad thing,’ Leo said finally. Dominic passed over the mental sense of a shrug.
‘I mean, if you’re trying to project the image of a magnificent lion…perhaps? I’ve never heard that shaggy is a good look on a lion, and I think I’d struggle to use a shaver in this form.’ Dominic couldn’t help the surge of amusement from going through him as he imagined trying to grip a shaver in his paws and then using it to trim all his body fur, leaving just the mane like a human man would leave a neatly-trimmed beard.
‘Then perhaps we should not do that. I will think on it,’ Leo said finally, then subsided into thoughtful silence.
Dominic himself wasn’t sure exactly what he should enhance. He’d wanted to improve his mana capabilities, but Leo had been right earlier when he pointed out that at this moment, any changes he made to the parts of his body which affected mana would be better used somewhere else.
The thing is that he always needed more combat power, and more defensive capabilities, but should he enhance those again? Or should he shore up a weakness somewhere? Or was there something he could enhance which would indirectly help him in many areas?
He paused for a moment just to pull up the list of possible enhancements again. It had been a while since he looked at them in detail and it had expanded greatly since his tier up.
[Heart – improve your stamina]
[Muscles – improve your speed]
[Eyes – improve your sight]
[Touch – lengthen your whiskers or improve your sensitivity to touch]
[Sinuses – improve your sense of smell]
[Mouth – improve your bite power or sense of taste]
[Teeth – sharpen, lengthen, or strengthen your teeth]
[Digestive system – widen your diet or improve your constitution]
[Claws – sharpen, lengthen, or strengthen your claws]
[Coat – thicken, lengthen, or harden your coat]
[Mane – thicken or darken your mane]
[Vocal cords – enhance your roar]
[Feet – harden or soften your pads]
[Bones – strengthen or grow your bones]
[Skin – render your skin harder or more flexible]
[Strike – improve your speed or power when attacking]
[Brain – improve your processing speed or your mana capacity]
[Soul – improve your resilience to mental attacks, your resistance to magical attacks, or your mana regeneration]
[Mana Heart – increase your pool of mana or increase the quality of your mana]
[Flesh – improve your resistance to physical damage or magical damage]
[Nervous System – improve your reaction speed or change your reaction to stimuli]
Maybe I should improve one of my senses? It was a thought. Lions were sight hunters so being able to see his prey better could help him in multiple ways: spotting weaknesses, seeing camouflaged prey, seeing creatures from further away. Or, alternatively, he could improve one of his weaker senses.
Given that he was trying to find a pride of females, being able to scent them from a greater distance could be useful. Heck, even once he’d found the pride, he was probably going to need to hunt down certain animals in order to gain the abilities he wanted; a better sense of smell could help him with that.
He was fairly satisfied with his sense of hearing, but being able to hear better might easily improve his ability to know when an enemy approached – while he was distracted with looking at his stats, for example.
Or what about improving my Brain? Although he hadn’t had a repeat of the moment, he still remembered hitting his head against a stone wall because his reactions had moved faster than his thoughts in the temple. Actually…. Why is improving my mana capacity a possibility when enhancing my Brain, yet my Mana Heart also offers increasing my pool of mana? Aren’t those two things the same?
Checking his status, he looked at the two relevant entries.
- Brain level 1 (Cognition speed standard measurement 5)
- Mana heart level 1 (15 MP) - 75% penalty
Nothing about mana linked to my brain; maybe that’s because only the speed of my cognition was affected? What does ‘standard measurement 5’ mean, anyway?
Leo stayed silent, not that Dominic was expecting his input here. While there were arguably other options to choose, Dominic was feeling more and more curious about what enhancing his Brain – with either or both options – would be like.
‘Leo, had any thoughts yet?’ Dominic asked his companion.
