Chapter Thirty - Eye of Newt

Chapter Thirty - Eye of Newt

Why dont intelligent Demihumans Evolve into other Species more often to take advantage of their racial abilities? Ha! Everyone asks that when they learn how Horizontal Monster Evolution works! From the smartest [Wizards Apprentice] to the dumbest [Thug], everyone gets an image in their head of a monster with enough racial abilities to make them invincible and the brains of a Demihuman backing it up. Nevermind that many Demihumans find the idea of Evolving into a monster repulsive - even if they can Evolve back into their own Species - there is actually a very, very good reason why they dont do this more often.This chapter is updated by nov(e)(l)biin.com

Every Level costs more than the last, and that counts for Species as much as it does Classes. Sure, a powerful and smart enough Demihuman could Evolve through several different races to pick up racial abilities, but they would undoubtedly stunt their future growth. At a certain point, the lower Evolution state monsters just stop giving experience altogether for the higher stage Demihumans. They have to hunt stronger and stronger monsters to get a single point of experience and that means that even an extra fifty points of experience might mean months of work.

Anyway, it is never as easy as that. No Demihuman or Monster besides Dragons are born strong and smart enough to do something like this until they have Evolved a couple times, and the increased experience costs are far worse than a mere fifty by then.



-part of a lecture from S-Rank Adventurer Dre the Massacre given to new Adventurers.

In the morning, I had two problems. The first was my health, although I had restored a fair bit last night. [Regeneration: Minor](lesser) was a lot better than it sounded just from the name. The actual Skill read:

[You heal faster and can regenerate limbs and organs! This is a lesser version of the Skill, so you heal slightly slower than the full Skill.]

[Your natural regeneration has increased to (1 hp + 1% of missing hp) per hour.]

I heal more than twenty four times faster, and in the past nine hours I have regained ten health! Id be at full health in less than a day, and that was an incredible relief. I wouldnt have to spend weeks being mostly dead anymore.

However, speaking of the dead, my second problem was that I had ninety-two dead Boreal Toads lying around. What the hell was I supposed to do with them? Obviously, I couldnt leave them where they were. Aside from the fact that it would be disgusting to let them rot outside my house, I could already see a couple of Green Lizards eating them. Obviously it makes sense that they would attract predators.

They were just hatchlings though, so a couple of minutes later I had another two experience in the bank. The only question now is, what the hell do I do with them? It would take me all day to drag them away and who knows how long it would take if I tried to bury them all. There was nothing for it though, it had to be done. Which meant a trek through the forest, dragging a corpse behind me, while trying to avoid being ambushed by literally everything that moves.

Fun, fun, fun! This life really is excellent Podi, thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to do this! Oh by Podi, I got their blood in my mouth! At least my poison abilities mean that the Boreal Toads arent dangerous to me. Those two lizards actually had red and swollen eyes, youd think they would have stopped eating the toxic corpses before that.

Of course, it isnt like Hatchling Boreal Toad toxin is deadly. So maybe they dont care? My [Toxin Control: Minor] allows me to make my poison more deadly, among other effects, but since I have to focus to use it I dont have a use for it outside of traps. Unfortunately, I dont think I can make the poison deadly enough to kill on skin contact or make a trap that can get the poison inside my targets.

...I feel like I am missing something, but I keep getting distracted before I can complete the thought. Hmmm I wonder if I could try Meditation again to try and see if that helps? I can take a few minutes to try and figure out this niggling feeling inside my head.

[Meditation has Leveled up! Meditation is now Level 2!]

Oh Podi, I am an idiot. I am surrounded by bait and I almost didnt realise it. I just need to add my toxin to the dead toads and then the monsters will just eat them and die! How the hell didnt I think of that sooner?

Right, new plan. I am going to drag these bodies off into random places, poison them all, and then let the idiocy of lizards and slimes do my work for me. Well, presuming toxin works on slimes, I have no idea about that. Worth a shot anyway.

[Toxin Control: Minor] was a frustrating ability for me to use though. Most of what I could do was through instinct. I dont know how I do it or why it works, and I am certain that if I could understand either I would be able to do a lot better. As it was I did something and that changed something with my skin which allowed me to secrete a toxin that I knew did something deadly from my tail, which I then wiped on the dead toad.

This was after a good half an hour dragging the toad body through the forest that had made me realise: even if I didnt poison them, it would still take me days to dispose of all the bodies because of how small I was. If nothing else, this life would instill in me a great respect and appreciation for hands. I never thought about how useful they were until I had to drag a dead toad through some woods for half an hour using my mouth.

Between dragging the toads away, poisoning them, and then coming back each trip took me nearly an hour. I often came back to find more monsters at Newthome, which added to the amount of bodies I had to move. Plus, my stamina wasnt up to the task of working constantly, I had to stop to rest every so often.

At least I got [Trap Making] Levels from my work. I had a suspicion that I got more of whatever hidden experience ruled the Skill from making complex traps, but the amount of traps I was making made up for the difference. After two days of work I had reached [Trap Making] Level three.

I also was getting a good amount of general experience as I worked. My plan was killing a lot of creatures, even some Young stage ones. Ever since I Evolved, I stopped getting any bonus experience for monsters above my level - although I still got the penalty for the ones below it - and I only ever got bonus experience for Young monsters. When one of them died in my trap, plus a few extras, I was able to Level up again!

At the rate I was going, I might be able to Evolve again within a week! My excitement over that though was helping me keep working despite my newt instincts, although I suspect it only worked because it caused my instincts to conflict with themselves. All monsters, I think, wanted to Evolve. So my newty brain was trying to decide between hiding under some leaves and working to Evolve more quickly.

I spent the monotony of my work thinking about what Evolutions I could get. My plan was to pick something not naturally slimy, if one was available, because I was confident that I could activate my poison if I needed to. After all, apparently I kept all my racial Skills when I evolved into something different.

It was hard to think strategically about it, mostly because of my low Acuity and Willpower, but also because I didnt have a way to check what Evolutions were or could be available. How was I supposed to plan for the future without any information? Eventually, I gave up thinking of the future entirely for now, instead redirecting my efforts to meditating while I worked. I knew that improving my skills could give me more Evolutions, after all.

Unlocked by:Having above 4 Endurance.

Hatchling Black Lizard:(Common) Black Lizards are related to Green Lizards and for the most part are largely the same. Aside from the difference in color, the only notable difference is the rather weak toxin that the Black Lizard has in its bite. +2 to all Stats, +1 Str, End, and Vit per Level, [Scale Armor: Minor](racial), [Envenomed Bite: Hatchling Black Lizard](racial).

Unlocked by: Having above 4 Endurance, having used poison to kill an enemy.

Hatchling Komadus Lizard:(Very Rare) The Komadus has a fearsome reputation for aggression and toxicity, but this is not entirely warranted. While it is true that the Komadus can and will hunt and kill both humans and monsters considerably larger than itself, they will generally avoid hunting humans unless humans go deep into their territory. While the Adult Komadus will display a standoffish attitude when confronted, Hatchling and Young Komadus will generally go out of their way to avoid humans. +4 to all Stats, +2 Str and End per Level, +.4 to all other Stats per Level, [Scale Armor: Minor](racial), [Envenomed Bite: Hatchling Komadus Lizard](racial), [Poison Resistance: Major], [Disease Resistance: Minor].

Unlocked by:Having above 15 Strength, Endurance, and Vitality, having above 10 Agility, having the Skills Ambush, Charge, Digging, Swimming, and Taunt, having used toxins to kill, having killed an opponent twice or more your size.

Note: Horizontal Evolution (Evolution into a new species but not into a higher Evolution stage) will not reset level experience costs. You will retain all Racial Abilities you currently have after Evolution.

It is interesting how much stronger the Very Rare Evolutions are compared to the other ones. The HypnoToad, the Hunter Newt and the Komadus Lizard were head and shoulders above my other choices in terms of Stats and racial abilities.

Honestly, it made my choice pretty easy this time. I chose to be a Komadus without hesitation; finally I would get to stop being slimy and I would get a lot of other bonuses as well! Just like last time, I blacked out and when I woke up I eagerly checked my menu.

Name: - Species: Hatchling Komadus Lizard Level: 0/5 Experience: 000/110

Class: -locked- Health: 69/69 Mana: 6/6 Stamina: 100/100

Statistics:

Str: 24 End: 23 Vit: 23Agi: 18 Dex: 13

Per: 22 Acy: 27 Wil: 15 Cha: 21 Mgc: 13

Lck: 163

Abilities:

[Breathes through her Skin](racial) [Toxic Skin](racial) [Toxin Control: Minor](racial)

[Regeneration: Minor](lesser)(racial) [Scale Armor: Minor](racial)

[Envenomed Bite: Hatchling Komadus Lizard](racial) [Poison Resistance: Major]

[Disease Resistance: Minor] [Better First Impression] [Healthy Thoughts]

[First Words][Killing Blow]

Skills:

Ambush: 1 Analysis: 1 Charge: 2 Crafting: 3 Digging: 5 Dodge: 3

Jumping: 4 Meditation: 2 Sprinting: 1 Swimming: 2 Stealth: 3 Taunt: 1

Throwing: 1 Trap Making: 5

I was starting to feel strong now. Confident that I could take on whatever the forest had to throw at me! It was time to explore without fear.