Chapter 8 – Skills and Requirements

Chapter 8 – Skills and Requirements

He chose [Burrow] and moved to [Bite]. There were similar options to [Dig]. It seems you are offered a greatly enhanced option, a slightly enhanced option and a passive option. He chose the greatly enhanced option. [Crushing Bite].

[Dash] was changed into [Sprint], which had a lower top speed, but could be kept longer because of decreased Stamina usage.

[Jump] turned into [Quick Jump], which didn't change the distance, but greatly increased the activation time and speed of the Jump.

Each of these upgrades cost him 5 points, leaving him with 80 Skill Points.

He browsed the store, now that his Vitality was too great, with miniscule regeneration, so he had to find a Passive Skill that would allow him to Recover Vitality. Fortunately, he found one... Unfortunately, he didn't know what to think about it...

[Vitality Devouring #### Technique]

[Intimate contact with #### will allow you to Devour their Vitality, recovering some in the process.]

[Cost: ####]

The cost couldn't be seen, nor certain parts, but he felt goosebumps on his body when he read it.

He looked in the shop for something else and he found one, but the cost was a bit...

[Vitality Recovery]

[Recovers one Vitality per Hour and additionally 0.01%pH of Max Vitality.]

[Cost: 10,000 Skill Points]

Yep, that's right. 10,000 Skill points. He still had no idea why that was shown to him while the other wasn't, she might be missing something, but she didn't know what that was. She was very 'smart' now, but that didn't mean she was all-knowing. That's right! The book! He can read the book! Let's get some help from it!

He pulled the [Introduction to the Mortal Realm] before him. If he said it looked like the bible... that was an understatement. It was so thick that it almost couldn't fit in his Den. That was not how it looked previously and he had eerie feelings towards it, but without opening it, he wouldn't be able to answer his questions.

'OH? It has a search function?' He looked at the incredibly densely packed words that even he couldn't read. He stared at the Search function and thought about the [Vitality Devouring #### Technique].

[Vitality Devouring #### Technique]

'... That doesn't help...' He thought, but he was mistaken.

[####]

[####]

[####]

[Cultivation]

[Cultivation in Mortal Realm is separated into 'Cultivation', 'Demonic Cultivation' and 'Beast Cultivation']

[Those are further separated by the type of Cultivation Technique. Mainly 'Energy' or 'Qi' Cultivation Path, and 'Body' Cultivation Path. There are more niche Paths, but those are the main and most spread ones.]

[Normal Cultivators harness the 'Essence' and 'Energy' of Heaven and Earth to cleanse their bodies and enrich them with newfound Vitality.]

[Demonic Cultivators prefer to harness 'Vitality' by itself. Often seeking pleasures through Torture or Rape. Most, if not all their techniques are focused on extracting their Victim's Vitality and they rarely Cultivate the Heaven and Earth Energies.]

[Beast Cultivators are Beast that harnesses Energy from The Beast Cores of their fallen prey. They indulge in hunting and killing enemies to increase the Internal Energy of their own Beast Cores]

[There are some beasts that developed different techniques by seducing Humans and sucking their Energy out of them. Very few do this since the danger is often not worth the effort as there are many Humans that stick together, while Beasts rarely stick together.]

[There are even a few Beasts that get into intimate relationships with Humans. Those beasts can, in theory, Dual-Cultivate with their mate, but are often killed, since the Energy is not as rich as when Humans take it straight from their Core.]

'Whoa... a lot of information. Cultivation eh? Sounds exciting, I read a few books myself, but I don't remember them anymore, which is a pity.' he shook his head sadly, then he looked at the Skill Shop.

[Vitality Devouring Demonic Technique]

[Intimate contact with Cultivators will allow you to Devour their Vitality, recovering some in the process.]

[Cost: As this is a Cultivation Technique it can't be bought from this store]

'Aha, figures.' He nodded with a hint of sadness, but now he knew what that thing was.

He look at Beast next.

[Beasts are separated by Ranks]

[Animal Rank: In this Rank, normal Human beings without cultivation can take care of the Beast without worrying about their life.]

[Beast Rank: In this Rank only those that started Cultivating can have any chance of defeating them and it would take a lot of time to kill them. They have very poor intelligence but are good enough to employ more advanced tactics. This often comes at the expense of their natural senses, as such not many survive through this phase since they often pick the wrong enemies to anger. They are also often hunted because this is the first Rank that creates Cores in their Bodies.]

...

He saw that it was night outside and went to drink from the river. It was quiet, but life was slowly returning.

Status System

[

Name: Aiko

Species: [Ordinary Fennec Fox Cub(Female)]

Age: 0.08/10

Beast Rank: Animal

Level: 100 (1st Evolution)

Title: [Foul-mouthed], [Agile], [Brave], [Courageous]

Stats:

HP: 35/412 -> 51/417 (1pH & 0.01%pH)

ST: 34/315 (2pH & 0.01%pH)

Vitality: 15/312 -> 15/317

Vigour: 215

Toughness: 211 -> 216

Strength: 312 -> 317

Agility: 621 -> 621*1.2

Dexterity: 110

Mind: 1010

Insight: 10

Beauty: 1010

Luck: 110 -> 250

Stat Points: 155 -> 0

Skill Points: 100 -> 80 -> 0

Skills: [Burrow: Lv.1], [Crushing Bite: Lv.1], [Scratch: Lv.1], [Sprint: Lv.1], [Tracking: Lv.1], [Quick Jump: Lv.1], [Climb: Lv.1]

Passive Skills: [Hide: Lv.1], [Danger Sense: Lv.1], [Enhanced Sight: Lv.5], [Health Recovery: Lv.1], [Stamina Recovery: Lv.1], [Prehensile Tail: Lv.4], [Dark Vision: Lv.3] ,[Enhanced Speed: Lv.1], [Enhanced Manoeuvrability: Lv.1], [Enhanced Flexibility: Lv.1], [Enhanced Agility: Lv.1], [Enhanced Smell: Lv.1], [Predator Sense: Lv.1], [Temperature Regulation: Lv.1]

Passive Ability: [Desert adaptation: Lv.1]

Blessings: [Blessing of the Ancestral Nine-Tailed Fox], [Blessing of the Ancestral Phoenix],

Items: [Introduction to the Mortal Realm]

]

[collapse]

He went outside with a smirk, he got bonus agility from the [Enhanced Agility: Lv.1]. This made him even faster than before and would allow him to outrun his predators or prey.

He sneaked around during the night. He already verified that he could bask in the Moonlight, which was perfect and he didn't need to worry that it would reset his counter. That also meant he could hunt only during the night, like right now.

As he sneaked around, his hide ability went up surprisingly fast before slowing down eventually. It seemed like he had entered some kind of beast territory when it was going up so fast.

He spotted his next target, another nest. He was aiming for revenge on another innocent bird! Which his [Predator Sense] guided him to.

He took his time sneaking around, as those eggs looked big and delicious, allowing him to recover quite a bit of stamina. He used his [Climb] and he was surprised at how easily he got up the huge tree! He didn't even spend half of his stamina and was already high in the crown!

The bird moved, but he was already hidden with his Level 5 [Hide]. As he wasn't spotted, he crawled closer, only moving when his [Danger Sense] and [Predator Sense] would allow him to. He increased their Level by 1 doing so and it was much easier to guess the bird's location and intention with his senses. It felt magical for him, to be able to feel it so clearly.

He positioned himself as closely as possible and waited for the right time.

'Now!'

He used [Quick Jump], not to jump up, but forward, shooting like a bullet towards the bird, the speed surprising both Aiko and the bird. He should've practiced and tested his current limits, but didn't as he wanted to hunt as soon as possible.

*BANG*

He collided with the bird and they both fell down. Fortunately for him, his toughness was already great, and he was able to use his [Enhanced Manoeuvrability] to gracefully land on his paws, while the bird crashed down like a rock.

He didn't dilly dally and killed the bird with [Crushing Bite]. It was very easy since the bird was stunned and almost didn't have any Toughness at all. As such he was successful with his first proper hunt. Unfortunately, this wasn't counted as his first hunt, but the previous was too... wrong.

He licked his... lips? 'Not bad, while clumsily executed I have not suffered even a single HP of damage.' He praised himself, but he was already hidden with his [Hide]. While he was proud, he was not stupid. He climbed the tree again, spending most of his Stamina before gulping down the eggs. They could barely fit inside his mouth, but he was still able to swallow them... with some difficulty.

He then jumped down again, increasing his [Enhanced Manoeuvrability] and [Enhanced Flexibility]. With this kind of speed, he would master them soon... unfortunately, he won't be able to upgrade them, since he didn't have any Skill Points to his name... How unfortunate.

He left the bird there, although he had a sensitive nose, it was not the most sensitive and even he could smell the blood from quite a distance, more sensitive predators would definitely be able to smell it.

He returned to his Den, sleeping the night and day away...