Gods are not of Heaven and Earth; they are….abominations, ones that take from the world but do not return, disrupting the immortal cycle and the workings of Heaven. Within them dwells a Godflame, the source of their twisted power. With it, they can turn wisdom into madness, and madness into cunning, twisting the laws so much that they merge into a domain, a twisted replica of Heaven.
They are vile beings and exist solely to counter our immortal arts. What a wicked world we live in.
–Excerpt from On God and Heaven, by Immortal Shi Lu.
Subject #187329
Species: Low-Goblin
Mana: Low
Harry gazed at the holographic screen before him, then at the goblin in the glass tube. It was a low-Goblin captured from the forest of T’aula, one of the few mortal realms with low mana on the Wizard Map.
“This is better work; I spent all my contribution points on this.” He muttered before snapping his fingers. A white holographic screen of pure mana manifested a second later, filled with countless runes and unknown symbols.
His fingers slid across its ethereal surface as he performed a series of quick motions before dismissing it, shifting all his attention to the goblin floating in the glass tube.
Nothing seemed to happen at first, but then the liquid began to change; a red, crimson liquid began pouring in from the top, rapidly diffusing into the substance the goblin floated in until it was no longer visible.
Bubbles filled the tube as the goblin trashed about, wailing silently as the crimson liquid seeped into it, bit by bit, until nothing was left in the tube.
Despite all this, the goblin remained the same, that was what Harry thought, at least.
The chains binding it snapped, and its neck twisted backward as it scanned the room, eventually coming to a pause once it caught sight of Harry.
“??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ??????:????????????)???????? ????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????”????????????
∞
Harry woke up feeling incredibly clusterphobic, cramped, warm, and wet. His eyes snapped open in alarm and confusion; he didn’t recall falling asleep in such a place, especially one as dark and wet as this.
The last thing he recalled was dozing off in a hastily dug burrow that he barely managed to conceal properly.
Suddenly, the darkness shook, and an impending sense of doom began filling Harry as the space around him shrank rapidly until he was being pressed against the fleshy walls of this strange place painfully.
[Adrenal Burst] activated fully, and Harry shifted the two boosts to his [STR] stat before pushing out with all his might, buying himself enough space to move his head. The rat stretched his jaws to their limits before clamping down hard, ripping out a huge chunk of flesh, which was promptly swallowed.
Harry heard something akin to a hiss of pain before the space around him shook even more violently, and the crushing force intensified tenfold.
An even stronger sensation of deadly crisis filled Harry, causing his pupils to dilate as nothing but calculative instinct and intuition took over.
Harry bit down wildly, not even bothering to chew; he just wanted out, nothing else mattered. He trashed about wildly as he worked, taking advantage of this tough wooden exoskeleton and sharp claws to rend and bruise the surrounding skin.
At some point, thick crimson blood began to coat Harry’s body as he hacked and slashed away at the soft pink flesh of the creature’s belly, but he didn’t dare stop; though the crushing sensation grew weaker the sense of impending doom Harry felt didn’t disappear completely as he wasn’t out of its belly yet.
Suddenly, the force lessened even more, granting Harry more room to move, and the rat immediately began using his claws to slice through the surrounding flesh. They slid through like a hot knife easing through butter thanks to the new trait [Sharp claws], which made his claws supernaturally sharp.
Blood gushed forth like a crimson tide, splashing on Harry as he bit and sliced through seemingly a seemingly endless amount of pink flesh.
Harry didn’t cease until he felt his authority flare up greatly, illuminating the darkness with bright crimson light that slammed into everything around Harry.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
-Predation was successful-
-Trait acquired: Venom Glands (0)
-Trait acquired: Thermal vision (0)
+3100 Biomass
Then, the crimson light vanished, and Harry found himself in a massive circular burrow that led to a familiar field of grass. It wasn’t where he’d fallen asleep, though; it was further than that. Harry wasn’t exactly sure how far he’d traveled from the edge of the forest until he heard the clip-clop of horses and the crackling of whips as numerous carriages sped past.
Only then did he realize that he’d traveled all the way to the north side of the city, and was now in the heart of a thick field of grass he felt a great sense of danger from when he was scouting.
That sense of danger was now gone, though, and Harry knew why; he’d eaten it.
He had no idea how large the snake was that he ate, but from the sheer amount of biomass his authority extracted from it, Harry knew that it had to be massive, or be extremely special, but the rat quickly ruled out that possibility.
The message said the predation was successful, not partially successful, which meant he’d gotten everything the snake had to offer, so the only thing that could’ve granted him so much biomass was its size.
Harry remained doubtful, though, how did such a large creature move unnoticed? Surely it had at least one special trait that gave it an advantage over everything else, right?
It made sense, but he hadn’t gotten it from his authority, so there was nothing he could do about the matter other than drop it.
The rat dismissed the window with a sigh, got up, and scanned his surroundings thoroughly before returning to the snake’s burrow.
Then he checked with his intuition and saw that it was silent, which meant that the area was safe enough for Harry.
With a thought, Harry summoned his status menu.
Name: Harry [####]
Species: Common Rat
Authority: Predation
Facets:
HP: 1/1 (1HP/D)
STAM: 100/100
AGI: 20
STR: 13
INT: 10
WIS: 10
DEF: 11
Biomass: 3600
Souls:
Traits:
Iron Stomach (0) (0/50)
Iron teeth (1) (0/100)
Adrenal Burst (2) (0/300)
Wall (0) (0/1000)
Wooden Exoskeleton (3) (600)
Spiritual sense (0)(1000)
Photosynthesis (0)(50)
Fat storage (0) (50)
Kin link (-)
Fast clotting (0) (50)
Sharp claws (0) (50)
Thermal vision (0) (50)
Venom Glands (0) (50)
Harry gazed at his biomass total for some time, lost in deep thought. To him, biomass was the most precious; not even traits mattered to him as biomass, as without biomass, traits were just static powers he could collect.
Harry’s mind was alight with the flame of excitement as he thought about the numerous possibilities; he could do a lot of things with so many units of biomass, a lot of things.
Indeed, he could now upgrade all his current traits, but Harry knew better than to do that. The first trait that came to mind was [Wall]. Harry now realized how precious it was, it was more integral to his survival than even [Adrenal Burst]. Without it, he might’ve survived the Rat Kin ambush, but he wouldn’t have remained Harry; the power of predation would’ve consumed and replaced his mind.
Mind made up, Harry invested a thousand units of biomass into it, watching it tremble then vanish as the upgrade menu popped up.
-Trait upgraded: Wall (0)→Wall (1)
-Please select an upgrade option:
-Sturdy Boi (1): The wall becomes 15% sturdier.
-Smart Boi (1): The wall gains some intelligence and a taste for unruly memories.
-Clingy Boi (1): The wall clings to your mind even more strongly than before, even in your dreams.
Harry gazed at the three upgrade options, not quite sure what to make of them. The first one was quite standard, despite the name, but the last two were….odd and not only in name. Both seemed potentially useful, especially the smart boi upgrade. Harry couldn’t recall what happened to him in most of his dreams, he only knew that they tended to be odd, very odd.
Sometimes, particularly strong memories came back with him, too, like the incident with the [VOID] memory, if he had the [Wall] trait back then, along with this upgrade, that incident could’ve been prevented.
Now that it appeared, it only made sense that he took it, so Harry did just that.
Harry felt his power flare up and seep into his mind, breaking down [Wall] before reshaping it into something more, something grander and smarter. Rumbling sounds echoed in the rat’s mind as the upgraded trait got to work the instant it was reformed, spooling out metaphysical tentacles of pure willpower that lashed and devoured the memories underneath it.
The difference was great; Harry felt as if some unknown weight had been lifted off his back, his mind felt clearer, faster, and more sturdy than before.
Satisfied, Harry shifted his attention back to his floating status screen, and his eyes immediately landed on [Wooden Exoskeleton]. Harry wasn’t sure he would’ve made it out of the spike maw if it wasn’t for this trait.
It was the only reason he dared to pull the stunt he did when he realized how insidious the Rat Kin trap was.
He invested the 600 units of biomass with a thought, watching in anticipation as the upgrade menu popped up.
-Trait upgraded: Wooden Exoskeleton (3) →Wooden Exoskeleton (4)
-Please select an upgrade option:
-Regeneration (1): Enhance regenerative capabilities by 15%
-Iron touched (1): The nature of your [Iron Teeth] trait made manifest.
-Sun touched(0): Sun affinity +10
Harry’s eyes glazed over as he pondered; the first one wasn’t bad, it was a straightforward upgrade, but that didn’t necessarily mean that he wanted it. It was the second one that piqued his interest the most, Harry didn’t even bother looking at the last upgrade option as he had no idea what that meant or did.
He selected the iron-touched upgrade without an ounce of hesitation, feeling a familiar surge of twisted power that seeped into his flesh, blood, and skin, then exoskeleton, transforming them into something stronger yet distant from this world.
The already dark wooden plates seemed to grow even darker, more defined, and now glinted with a faint metallic sheen, even in the darkness of the burrow. The entire exoskeleton was more metallic than before, yet not at the same time; it was still made of wood, but seemed to be directly imbued with the concept of iron itself.
Harry shifted his gaze to his right hand and bit down without an ounce of hesitation, blinking in absolute shock when his teeth made contact with his armored flesh. It felt like he had bitten into iron rather than actual wood. He didn’t even manage to leave a dent this time. The rat knew he could damage it, but it would require greater force.
This pleased Harry greatly, his excitement grew even further when he realized that the upgrade had also affected his attributes, specifically his [DEF] attribute, which shot up from a measly 11 to 15 in one go, which was a significant upgrade in Harry’s eyes.
Harry shifted his attention back to his status screen, where he singled out the new [Sharp Claws] trait. One of the biggest disadvantages he faced in the Rat Kin fight was the lack of a suitable and reliable weapon.
Sure, his mouth could work, but not all the time; his teeth would never be as versatile as his claws, which made this trait a godsend. With it, Harry had overcome one of his biggest weaknesses and now wasn’t afraid of having his teeth snapped out of his head if he tried to bite off more than he could chew one day.
This trait wouldn’t eliminate that, he’d still use his teeth, but now in conjunction with his claws.
