Chapter 28: Evolution

Chapter 28: Evolution

Isaac glanced down at the dark orb in his hand.

Aspect of the Wraith:

This is the distilled essence of what makes a Wraith a Wraith. Create weapons from mana with a thought, find the living at a glance, become a ghostly presence and leave behind mortality, clad yourself in magically resistant plate at a whim.

Requirements for Activation:

2,000 XP

Open Aspect Slot

Grants:

+10 Strength

One of the following Skills:

Ghostly Arsenal

Hunt of the Damned

Body of the Wraith

Plate of Darkness

It offered several interesting options, including a powerful and magically resistant armor, the ability to sense the living through walls and create the same kind of magical weaponry the Wraith had used.

Lastly, it had a [Skill] similar to his existing [Spectral Shift], though it was also very different in some respects. It was intended for more of a long-term transformation, turning the user’s flesh into a pale mass similar to what the Wraith had had, providing significant protection for their internal organs. And with a little more mana invested, it also allowed for phasing through walls like [Spectral Shift].

Near total immunity to blunt blows, combined with a some rigid armor to transfer most other kinds of impacts into blunt hits in turn, made for one hell of a tanky combination.

But it was a [Skill] for [Knights], [Warriors] and the like, not him.

Isaac sighed as he tossed it from one hand to the other, thinking. You could stack multiple Aspects in the same slot, if and only if both came from similar creatures and the new Aspect had a [Skill] similar to the one the old one gave.

Doing so would upgrade the old [Skill] to the one the new Aspect had and give one the option of picking a second [Skill] from the new one.

One could stack a grand total of four Aspects like that, one from a Tier 1-3, 4-6, 7-9 and Tier 10 monster, under the above conditions.

For a moment, he considered slotting this thing, but then solidly decided against it. [Body of the Wraith] was technically an upgrade over [Spectral Shift], but given how its core purpose differed, it would be a downgrade for him.

Then again, he hadn’t been fighting the Wraiths for the Aspects, so this thing was really just a bonus to give to someone who could use it, sell for cash on the newly emerging markets for [System] related things, or trade to Calise for something hard to get via legal means.

Isaac pulled up his Status.

Name: Isaac Thoma

Class: Rogue

Species: Human

Level: 7

XP: 3023/800

Health Status: Healthy

Mana: 150/150

Stats

Fortitude

30

Perception

25

Strength

20

Agility

20

Magic Power

15

Magic Regeneration

30

Free Points: 0 Stat, 18 Skill

Skills

Hundred Faces VII

Stealth IX

Power Strike XII

Piercing Strike XIII

Sundering Strike XI

Blades XII

Sneak XII

Sweeping Strike I

Far Strike VI

Manifold Strike V

General Skills

Gralloch I

Alchemy I

Aspects

Aspect Skills

Specter

Spectral Shift

Hydra

Hydra’s Regeneration

[Stealth] and [Sneak] had gone up after one Wraith he’d mostly attacked from stealth, sneaking around instead of facing it directly like he’d done the others.

Most of the [Strike] type [Skills] had also gone up a few times, with the ones above Level 10 obviously gaining the least.

Lastly, [Knives] had gained another Level and the name had changed to [Blades] from his use of a proper sword. Well, sort of sword, the name still translated to knife, but the [System] didn’t take that into account.

The new [Skill] was basically the same one as the old one, just expanded to granting skill in all edged weapons, not merely knives.

Not that Isaac needed much help with raw skills, countless years of training had put him above what the [Skill] provided at its current Level.

2700 XP vanished in a hearbeat, bringing his Level up to 10.

Congratulations! You’ve managed to reach the first Evolution Threshold.

Based on your current achievements, Skill Levels and Aspects, you have unlocked several new Classes. If these options do not satisfy you, you may choose to leave this screen and continue to rack up more prerequisites, but you cannot increase your Level beyond 10 until you evolve your Class.

Here are your possible Class Evolutions:

Rogue (common)

The Rogue is the most basic of the stealthy Classes, specializing in sneaking around and inflicting high damage from out of sight.

It grants Skills related to being unnoticed, setting traps and proper knifework.

Active Skills, meanwhile, improve the force of attacks, bypass armor, and make detection more difficult.

Assassin (common)

The brief glint of metal, a flash of movement, blood spraying from a severed throat, the assailant long gone by the time the body hits the floor. That is how an Assassin kills.

Unknown, unseen, unstoppable, those are the characteristics of those who choose this Class.

It grants Skills related to human and monster anatomy to hit the most vulnerable points with ease, poison making, and massively expands on the basic knifework and stealth of the Rogue.

Trapmaker (common)

Nowhere is safe. Not if a Trapmaker was in the area at some point in the last decade, at least.The inaugural upload of this chapter took place via N0v3l-B1n.

This is a slight change from the normal modus operandi of a Rogue, but this makes you no less dangerous.

Countless Skills related to crafting, gaining materials, making deadly constructions and hiding them.

Also comes with a set of Darwin Awards to hand out to whoever is dumb enough to go after you in your workshop.

Thief (common)

This is yours? Too bad, it’s mine now.

A simple philosophy, but an effective one.

The Thief Class massively improves stealth related active and passive Skills, combined granting Skills related to climbing, lockpicking, safecracking and literally anything else one might need to break in somewhere.

Deathstrike Assassin (rare)

Not content to merely be a basic, cookie cutter Assassin, the Deathstrike Assassin uses a myriad of mystical energies to enhance his blows, countless Strike type Skills to tear any armor asunder and obliterate anyone in his way.

This Class grants countless variants on the typical Strike type powers, and enhances them to a significant degree. A simpler powerset, but vastly deadlier.

Bladed Trapmaker (uncommon)

Bear Traps? You mean a pair of steel jaws with dinky little spikes on them? Nah, I’ll put a bunch of impossibly sharp blades on there instead.

Undying Focus (epic)

...

General Skills

Inspect (common)

Privacy (common)

As all [Classes] did, [Undying Wraith] had an absolute fuckton of available [Skills].

And it being one past Level ten, it also had [Central Skills]. They were what lay at the heart of their [Class], the strongest ones, but they also cost twice as much.

There were actually [Classes] with a single [Core Skill] that cost three times as much as a normal [Skill] of the same rarity, but was insanely powerful.

Of course, Isaac had an epic [Class], meaning all [Skills] were, at a minimum, at the same rarity and therefore cost 4 [Skill] points each.

... he was really glad he’d saved all those points.

What was a little surprising was that the analysis Skill harped on about in the [Class] description was actually just the [Class] specific upgrade to [Inspect], but that was fine.

Inspect (common)

This Skill allows the user to look at another’s System given powers, including things such as Class, Stat distribution and Skills.

This Skill is free and can be toggled on and off at will, though attempting to see through any kind of privacy Skill requires the user to spend 5 mana on each attempt.

The effectiveness of this Skill increases with Perception and Level superiority.

Inspect --> Gaze of the Hunter

Gaze of the Hunter (epic)

There are many possible upgrades to the basic Inspect Skill. Some allow for improved examination of details, others are far better at piercing information protection Skills.

This one is different. It loses any ability to gaze past defenses for raw details unless the defenses are very weak, but gains an incredible power at getting rough information on the user’s foes.

Barring an incredible Level disparity, the user will be able to sense whether someone’s Stats are higher, lower or comparable to the User’s, how many Aspects they have and what their overall affinities are.

But by using the information gained via this Skill, an Undying Wraith will be able to deduce anything Inspect could grant, and more.

The power of this Skill increases with both personal and Skill Level, as well as Aspect count and Perception.

Five [Skill] points later, one for the common rarity basic [Skill] and four for the epic upgrade, a massive grin appeared an Isaac’s face.

On the surface, it was a downgrade, one that would give out far less information unless the target was absurdly weak, but that was completely ignoring what appeared to be an absurd level of defense penetration. The information that [Gaze of the Hunter] would give was rather unspecific, but it would always give it. And using that as a basis for his deductions, there would be very little he couldn’t eventually figure out. Still research, but a kind Isaac much preferred.

He was also very glad to have saved all those [Skill] points, given that even just those two [Skills] would have required most of the points gained by two Level-ups. In fact, Isaac could pick up almost all of the [Skills] he wanted right off the bat, rather than having to wait until almost Level 20.

Privacy (common)

This Skill is used to protect the user’s privacy by blocking hostile use of the Inspect Skill.

It will block any Inspect Skill of the same Level unless there is a massive disparity in Level or relevant stats, as well as almost all upgrades of said Skill unless they are a significantly higher rarity.

The power of this Skill increases with the user’s Level, as well as this Skill’s Level and the user’s Fortitude Stat.

The basic anti-[Inspect] [Skill] of [Privacy] came next, though Isaac decided to postpone the upgrade until after his next Level up. Between having a fairly high Fortitude for a [Rogue] and the fact that he was at a pretty high Level for how long the [System] had been around, it should suffice for now. That being said, the upgrade did look awesome.

Unknown Fear (epic)

There are many things that people are afraid of. Mostly, those things are definable, specific things. But there is another kind, the fear of the unknown.

With this Skill, the user becomes the embodiment of this fear. An unknowable entity, become fear itself.

It will block out any same Level and rarity Inspection Skills as a matter of course and is boosted by any stealth Skill, gaining strength as if it were one Level higher for every two Levels in a stealth Skill. Further power is gained based on Agility.

Between [Sneak] and [Stealth], it would start out at effectively as if it were at Level 10 from the beginning.

Well over half the [Skill] points he’d had at the start and almost all of the ones he had left disappeared as Isaac bought both [Central Skills]. They were the strongest [Skills] offered by his [Class] and a core part of its skillset.

Form of Horror (epic)

There are many sides to the Undying Wraith. The impression they broadcast out into the world and show others, the hole in the world no one will ever perceive before it devours them, and lastly, the face someone only sees in the moment of their death.

The form granted by this Skill. A monstrous alternate body based on the user’s Aspects, and gains a 5 % boost to all physical Stats for each one.

Current Aspects: Aspect of the Specter, Aspect of the Lesser Hydra

If the user also has the Skill The Chosen Weapon, this weapon will be incorporated into the user’s new form.

Furthermore, while in this form the user’s Strength and Fortitude are increased by 25 % while Agility and Percpetion are increased by 35 %. Magic Power and Magic Regeneration will remain unchanged.

This Skill can only be activated every 12 – 0.5*n hours, where n is Skill Level and lasts for 30 seconds for each Skill Level. It also requires 1,000 mana to use, which it siphons off from the user’s mana regeneration so long as the mana pool is full.

And there it was, his new ultimate attack. For a transformation [Skill], it was incredibly powerful, but also had an incredibly short duration. That made sense, though, given that it was meant to be used for a blitz attack to finish off the target after a while of observation and once the weak points had been determined.

The whole ‘cooldown and separate mana pool’ shtick would be a surprise for many people, but it was actually rather standard for those kinds of fight ending ultimate [Skills]. After all, what kind of [Rogue] had a mana pool above a thousand this early, or even by the time of the evolution after this one?

The cooldown itself was an unfortunate side effect of that, though.

The other [Skill] wasn’t any less impactful, though.

The Chosen Weapon (epic)

There are many things that determine the power of a warrior. Training. Physical Prowess. Skill. Raw Talent.

But there is one more thing. A weapon. Having the right one to carry into battle can be the difference between life and death.

And that is what this Skill is all about. The user may choose a single weapon and make it soulbound. This weapon then becomes a part of them, inextricably and eternally bound together, able to be summoned at will, and will never harm its user.

As this Skill’s Level grows, new forms and abilities will be gained.

In addition, consecrating this weapon in the blood of legendary foes will grant it new strength and powers.

The chosen Weapon has its own mana pool to use its own Skills, separate from the user’s, drawing power from the environment. However, the user may also choose to divert their mana regeneration to refill this pool once their own is full. It starts out with a pool of 100, then increases by 10 with every Level in this Skill.

Upon purchasing this Skill, the weapon must be selected immediately.

A weapon that was always ready, always available, always strong enough to be useful. Now he just needed to pick one. There were a couple of options available, one strapped to his belt, the second resting against his leg.

The large and powerful Kriegsmesser, a sizeable weapon more suited to traditional blade to blade combat.

And the smaller kabar, the weapon that had been by his side since the very beginning. A slightly less useful weapon when fighting a powerful or large foe, but oh so much more familiar. What was theoretically a few days more of experience with the weapon, felt like so much longer on an emotional level.

It was the weapon that had brought him to this point, the weapon he would bring up to the very peak of power.

He could also hide it far more easily, something that might be needed, given that society still frowned on the open wearing of lethal weapons and having to waste half the weapon’s mana pool to warp it into his hands for a fight was a tad suboptimal.

Besides, he’d be able to pick another form soon enough.

As to what consecrating the weapon in the blood of legendary foes meant, a secondary tooltip helpfully explained that, though Isaac didn’t have to read it. Basically, that meant either fighting [Bosses] or punching even further above his weight class than Isaac was normally comfortable with.

Another [System] window popped up as he chose his knife as the first weapon to become his for the rest of eternity.

Would you like to name your weapon?

Obviously. Isaac grinned, picking the name he’d had in mind for his soulbound weapon since the very beginning.

Weapon: Old Reliable

Once merely an ordinary Ka-Bar, this weapon has been refined and strengthened by the Skills of a Rogue, bathed in the blood of countless powerful monsters and finally claimed as The Chosen Weapon of an Undying Wraith, transcending its old purpose and limitations.

Ever-growing with its wielder, the Old Reliable will not only gain strength, but entirely new powers as it is used in legendary battles and bathed in the blood of the enemies that fall in them.

Mana Pool: 0/100

Skills:

To Me: Calls Old Reliable back into the wielder’s hand in a straight line, costs 10 mana, at a range of a maximum of 10 meters.

Always Armed: Teleports Old Reliable into the wielder’s hand from anywhere in the universe. The minimum cost is 50 and scales with distance and interfering effects.

Eternity: Old Reliable is as eternal as its wielder. So long as he is alive, this weapon has the opportunity to be reborn. Doing so will require all of the materials used to build it in the first place, as well as 500 mana. This cost will have to be paid by an external source.

The kabar, no, Old Reliable, was now a [System] recognized Item, something that was also the case for potions or pieces of gear used by craftsmen so highly levelled that anything they touched gained preternatural properties.

And to round out his new build, he picked up the most immediately useful movement [Skill], leaving him with just a single point.

Phantom Step (epic)

A single step is the beginning of a journey of a thousand miles. And if this Skill’s Level is high enough, then a single step can be a journey of a thousand miles.

You are a phantom in the dark, an unseen shadow that streaks past in the night.

With this Skill, the user can make a single step take them far greater distances than it would normally ever be able to. As a stealth Skill, it is vastly more efficient when used unobserved.

Cost: 15 mana to initiate, 1 mana per meter of unobserved travel, 5 mana per meter of observed travel, with a maximum range of 10 m +2 m per Skill Level

Really, Isaac wanted all of the [Skills] that [Class] offered, from the passive, trace obliterating, [Fleeting Presence], to [Tools of Terror], which allowed him to grow some of the natural weapons belonging to the monsters from whom Isaac had sourced his Aspects.

Then, there was [Cripple], another [Strike] kind of [Skill] that reduced the useability of any body part hit.

Even more impressive was that those were just the first few [Skills], ignoring the countless ones lower down on the list.

And lastly, now that Isaac knew what kind of [Skills] his evolved [Class] gave him, he could start making plans for picking up specific Aspects.

something for flighta few to let him survive in other environments, such as underwaterthe upgrades needed for both of his existing Aspectsan Aspect to give him a spatial affinity to improve his quasi-teleportation [Skill]if possible, something to get him a good source of alchemical ingredients

If it was at all possible, he’d try to stack as many Aspects into each of those slots, which threw up another problem. Now that he was at Level 10, the drop rate for Aspects from weaker monsters would be a good deal lower, but there was a very simple solution. Isaac could just trade the powerful materials from high Level creatures that he could now fight. The kind any ambitious fighter below Level 10 would jump at in a heartbeat.

As far as upgrading his existing Aspects went, he already had a couple of creatures in mind, namely a regular Hydra and a Poltergeist, though those would be beyond him for a short while still.

But all of that was something to truly worry about later. For now, it was time to try out his new transformation [Skill].

Isaac set up his phone against a nearby tree stump to use as a mirror and activated [Form of Horror]. In a heartbeat, his clothes vanished as his body expanded, gaining another meter in height, skin turning deathly pale. Arms lengthened until they hung down to his knees, his entire body becoming more and more muscular, appearing like the body of a serpent.

Despite the sheer power of this new form, it felt light and ethereal, as if a simple breeze could blow him away if only he let it.

Claws like steak knives extended from the tips of his fingers, forged from the weapon that had become a part of his very being, shredding the wood of a tree as he laid his hand against it and flexed his fingers.

Teeth forged from the same material filled his mouth, the razor sharp edge clearly apparent as he ran his tongue over them. Isaac just knew that if it hadn’t been for the fact that his soulbound weapon couldn’t hurt him unless he let it, otherwise, he’d have had a mouth filled with blood, gore, and minced meat. Cool. Not that he was planning on biting anyone, but it was still cool to have.

In the glass screen of his phone, Isaac studied his new face, the flat front, the two triangular slits that were now his nostrils, the mouth so wide it would have reached up to his ears, if he’d still had any.

Meanwhile, his eyes had turned into black voids of nothingness, dark pools that seemed to stretch into infinity. Creepy as fuck.

Isaac grinned at that, the face turning into something straight out of a horror movie. Perfect. Just perfect.

All too soon, the duration of the [Skill] ended and he, once again, turned human, his clothes reappearing as he did so.

In that moment, Isaac resolved to upgrade that [Skill] as quickly as possible.