Man is a child of Heaven, not the child of Heaven; many overlook this distinction, proudly proclaiming their ignorance to their Father. It is no surprise to me when such ‘chosen’ fall prey to terrible calamity one after another; spils of misfortune, death of family members, brushes with death, and even Heavenly lightning. Remember this, dear reader: the Heavens hate the proud and lofty but reward the just and humble; do not be like the Cultivators of the East, who rise in rebellion with their wicked arts that plunder the essence of Heaven.
They are like dry twigs, lacking in moisture and substance. Heaven pays no heed to such things and cumbusts them with a snap of his fingers.
–Excerpt from Heaven and I, biography of Immortal Star.
Harry bit down on his left hand, gently at first but with increasing pressure. He wanted to test the limits of his new exoskeleton, and it didn’t take long for him to find it. The rat lifted his mouth off his hand and gazed at it, inspecting the deep, teeth-shaped indentations and the small pool of green blood that formed in the middle.
He was indeed tougher than he was before, but not by much, only barely. He didn’t like it. Harry liked his old skin more, but there was nothing he could do about it, at least now. He couldn’t revert to skin and fur, but he could enhance the new one to be more useful.
Fifty units of precious biomass vanished from his interface with a thought, pouring into the newly acquired trait, upgrading it.
-Trait upgraded: Wooden Exoskeleton (0) → Wooden Exoskeleton (1)
-Please select an upgrade option:
-Thickness (0): Increase Exoskeleton thickness by 5%
-Regeneration (0): Imbue the Exoskeleton with the ability to heal from damage at the cost of stamina.
-Thickness (0): Increase Exoskeleton thickness by 5%
The choice was obvious: [Regeneration], it was the only useful upgrade of the three. Harry selected it, and rumbling sounds echoed in his mind, followed by a burst of engulfing crimson light.
His entire body itched for a split second before the sensation vanished, replaced by an odd sensation of expansion and contraction. The bite marks on his hand rapidly healed before buffing out as an additional layer of wood overlapped with it, followed by several more before the surge sensations finally ceased.
Harry tensed, then flexed his entire body slowly. It felt….odd, but not in a bad or annoying way; he just wasn’t quite used to having an exoskeleton, a wooden one at that.
The rat glanced at the newly healed arm and bit down once more, blinking in surprise when he felt a great deal of resistance. Harry knew that he was doing damage, but the exoskeleton was actively fighting back using its ability to heal and upgraded defence.
This pleased Harry greatly; his fifty units of biomass hadn’t gone to waste, and the upgrade even came with a boost in defense.
Next, the rat shifted his attention to the most useful trait in his arsenal: [Adrenal Burst]. It was his only real trump card, one that had saved his life numerous times and was Harry’s most treasured and used trait.
He poured 100 units of biomass in it without hesitation, blinking in anticipation as the upgraded window unfolded alongside the upgrade options.
-Trait upgraded: Adrenal Burst (1) → Adrenal Burst (2)
-Please select an upgrade option:
-Fight or Flight(0): Gain the ability to shift the boost to the [STR] stat.
-Cost (0): Reduce [STAM] consumption by 1%
-Cost (0): Reduce [STAM] consumption by 1%
Harry’s mind spun when he saw the first option; it was as if the heavens had heard his plea and granted his inner wish. The trait was great, but Harry wanted versatility. The idea came to him randomly as he fled from the depths of the forest when a burst of inspiration and memories hit him.
He saw himself reading a book, one about a concept called biology. Harry didn’t know what that meant, nor did he recognize anything around him; at least, his conscious mind didn’t, but his trait [Wall] certainly did and quickly smashed the memory apart, leaving only bits related to the concept of adrenal glands in humans and mammals, fragmented and broken.
He suddenly knew about the concept of adrenaline and the concept of fight or flight. Still, Harry didn’t expect to see it as an upgrade; he never thought anything from his dreams could manifest so directly in reality.
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
In his mind, everything he dreamt about was nonsense, even when it seemed logical in the context of the dream. His authority disproved that, though, for better or worse. He still didn’t know what to make of it, nor did he want to concern himself with such thoughts at the moment.
He selected the upgrade and felt fire explode in his brain, and the world shifted and blurred, then returned to normal. He didn’t feel any different, but Harry knew that his trait had changed and was itching to try it out.
He also wanted to test the spiritual awareness trait when he had the time, but Harry knew that such a trait would take a while to get used to.
Harry shifted as he rose from his seated position, using his left paw to shift the piece of rotten wood that blocked the entrance to his temporary hiding place.
That’s right, he still hadn’t left the forest; he was no longer in its dangerous depths, though. A large part of Harry wanted to stay; he liked being on edge, not knowing where danger would come from next.
It sharpened his mind and intuition, something city life had dulled considerably. The rat knew that to survive in this world required strength, immense and domineering strength. What he possessed currently could hardly be classified as strength; it was hardly enough to keep him alive.
Growth was possible within the safe, enclosed walls of towns, but not true growth, hence why he decided to stay.
Harry crawled out, standing on his hind legs as he surveyed his surroundings, ears perking up as he stretched out his perception and listened intently while his eyes scanned ahead of him.
His head suddenly snapped to his right, focusing on a piece of rotten log a few meters ahead. It was in the middle of the clearing, away from all the surrounding trees and bushes, and it was also a shade lighter than the surrounding pieces of rotten logs and was strangely uniform. It had no mushrooms growing on it, no cracked parts or holes; it was perfect, too perfect.
That wasn’t the only reason Harry suspected it, though; he didn’t remember seeing it there before, and his ears picked up a faint but rhythmic beating sound, reminiscent of a heartbeat coming from it.
The ‘log’ suddenly shifted as if it had sensed his gaze. Pieces of rotten wood rapidly fell off it as it rose, revealing its true form. It was a plump brown rat slightly smaller than Harry with thin, wooden whiskers and a white underbelly.
It looked around, seemingly confused, then its eyes locked onto Harry, and a hint of viciousness and confusion flashed within, and its fur began to shift, transitioning into something akin to a wooden exoskeleton as it prepared to attack.
Harry gave it no chance, though, and blurred from the spot as he triggered [Adrenal Burst], shifting the boost to his [STR] and [AGI] stats. His paws bulged as power flowed through them, and Harry shifted to the left and punched out with all his might, aiming for the rat’s head as that was the only place that hadn’t fully become wood.
It connected soundly, and a wet crunch filled Harry’s ears as the rat’s face simply caved in under the might of his strike, sending gray matter and blood in all directions. His authority manifested a second later, gobbling up everything, even the specs of blood far away.
-Predation was partially successful-
-Trait acquired: Fat storage (0)
-Trait acquired: Kin link (-)
+300 biomass
Harry’s mind suddenly warped as it stretched outward to touch and connect to something unseen and ethereal. He could suddenly sense thousands of links connecting to his mind, possibly hundreds of thousands, from all over the forest.
If it wasn’t for his [Wall] trait, Harry felt like his mind would’ve caved in already due to the alien nature of the trait; it still wasn’t something he should logically posses and his brain still wasn’t fully adapted to handling so much threads of connection, even with the aid of his power.
Harry felt the trait itself was strange, too; he couldn’t invest biomass, as if it weren’t fully his, it felt incomplete and fragmented.
The rat wasn’t sure what could’ve caused such a thing, but he had a bold idea, one that he was going to test after he fully digested the spoils of war.
Harry summoned his status page with a thought and began pondering where to distribute the newly acquired biomass.
Name: Harry [####]
Species: Common Rat
Authority: Predation
Facets:
HP: 0/1 (1HP/D)
STAM: 0/100
AGI: 10
STR: 13
INT: 10
WIS: 10
DEF: 1
Biomass: 350
Souls:
Traits:
Iron Stomach (0) (0/50)
Iron teeth (0) (0/50
Adrenal Burst (2) (0/300)
Wall (0) (0/1000)
Wooden Exoskeleton (1) (100)
Spiritual sense (0)(1000)
Photosynthesis (0)(50)
Fat storage (0)
Kin link (-)
Harry whistled inwardly. 350 units of biomass was an impressive sum; the fact that one creature gave him 99% of his entire savings was almost absurd, but he loved it.
Now he just had to decide where all of it would go; he wanted to upgrade [Adrenal Burst] again, but held off, while he loved the trait the mos,t Harry knew the importance of balancing, investing too much into one thing while neglecting other aspects was the path of a glass-cannon.
The first thing he did was invest fifty units into his [DEF] stat, bringing it up to 11. It was the most lacking of all his stats and could save his life one day, so Harry didn’t feel bad when he invested in it.
Popping sounds rang out in his ear as twisted power flooded his body, clawing at his mind as he underwent yet another transformation, but thankfully, [Wall] held strong. Harry felt his bones dissolve into white goo before re-forming, then the power reached his exoskeleton, which began to rapidly harden in response, growing more pronounced and robust.
Harry exhaled sharply, shocked by the drastic change; he never expected his bones to dissolve, nor did he expect his own power to try to drive him insane. If it weren’t for the [Wall] trait, Harry felt like something bad would’ve happened to his mind.
It was absurd, so absurd that Harry began questioning if this power truly belonged to him. Now wasn’t the time for such deep and existential questions, though. [Iron Teeth] was his very first trait, and although Harry didn’t use it as much as [Adrenal Burst], his intuition told him that the trait had immense potential; he just had to invest and get lucky.
-Trait upgraded: Iron teeth (0) →Iron teeth (1)
-Please select an upgrade option:
-Jaw Strength (0): Increase your jaw strength by 1%
-Living metal (0): The nature of your teeth begins to seep into other places.
-Jaw Strength (0): Increase your jaw strength by 1%
Harry gazed at the upgrade panel in shock. The second upgrade was exactly the type he was hoping for. He selected it without an ounce of hesitation, feeling his power flare up once more, though its strength was significantly weaker this time and didn’t seep far enough to reach his [Wall] trait.
He didn’t feel significantly different after that, but felt a slight tingling sensation slowly spreading across the left side of his head.
With that done, the rat shifted his gaze back to his status sheet and began contemplating what he’d upgrade next.
