NOVEL NEXT Chapter 11: Apply Changes
The three trodils required to bring Quick Strike up to 100% were gratifyingly easy to kill. Finding them was actually the most difficult part as it seemed like Dominic was close to clearing this area of the roving trodils – had maybe achieved it already. The last one actually must have taken him more than an hour to find: he actually had to use some tracking skills Leo nudged towards him to find it.
Dominic still didn’t know why his leonine passenger was helping him, but he wasn’t looking a gift-horse (gift-lion?) in the mouth. Maybe Leo had got as bored as he had in the search. When he no longer saw any evidence of fresh tracks or smelt any fresh scent, he decided that he’d cleared the area sufficiently.
Taking a break, he looked at his status screen with pleasure.
Status of Dominic Martin Cole / Leo
Species: Lion (body) / human (mind), Two-Souled
Level: Basic Beast Level 3 (Path of Evolution)
Progress to Evolution: 287/116PP level up
Hunger level: 15%
Thirst level: 6%
Quests: A Noble Endeavour; Regain what is Lost
Acquired Abilities:
Quick Strike level 1 (100%) level up to acquire this ability
Powerful Kick level 1 (44%)
Crushing Bite level 1 (30%)
Defensive abilities:
- Fur level 2 (2-4 Slicing damage reduction, 1-2 Piercing damage reduction, 3-4 Crushing damage reduction)
Offensive abilities:
- Claws level 2 (6-11 Slicing damage, 6-8 Tearing damage, 3-5 Piercing damage)
- Bite level 1 (32-50 Crushing damage, 27-50 Tearing damage, 25-35 Piercing damage)
General abilities:
- Muscular Body level 3 (max sprint speed 25mps; max sprint duration 10s) (57 SP)
- Carnivore Constitution level 1 (300 HP)
So I have to level up after the ability hits 100%, Dominic mused. Fortunately, that wasn’t an issue: he had at least one level up waiting for him, maybe even two depending on the PP required to get to level 5.
Quickly activating the level up, Dominic spent a little time perusing the list of enhancement options once more.
He still felt the same about purely aesthetic things, so mane was still out. He wavered a little over Touch – his previous experience trying to travel through the dark tunnel coming back to nag at him. Then again, he managed to get through it OK, so he wasn’t sure it would have helped much.
Frankly, he hadn’t really struggled against the trodils at all, so it was hard to know where he needed enhancement. Then again, I’m not only enhancing myself for fighting trodils, he considered.
It came back to the same question: enhance what is already good to make it better - i.e. offence - or enhance something that was weaker?
Given that he probably had two level-ups to play with – or would do in the near future – Dominic decided to take a risk for the first one.
<You have chosen to enhance your Skin (harder). Apply changes?>
Yes. Expecting to feel the shiver of energy pass through him like normal, he was surprised when another message appeared instead.
<You have 1 new ability available to be acquired. New ability: Quick Strike (T0). Would you like to acquire this ability?>
Dominic already knew what his answer would be, but he was glad to see that it was a choice. Not that any of the abilities he was in the process of acquiring were rubbish, but he could imagine that he might be offered something truly trash.
The abilities seemed to be linked to the animal’s natural advantages: even before the System hyenas had one of the most powerful bites in the animal kingdom, so the fact that their ability was ‘Crushing Bite’ seemed natural. Equally, kangaroos had always had a powerful kick. Perhaps trodils had always had a quick attacking ability. If they’d existed before the System came, anyway.
So what if, say, he took down something like a llama and suddenly was offered the ability to spit? Yeah, no. Not interested. It was therefore good to know that he wouldn’t be lumbered with a whole load of useless skills.
This one, however, he was interested in. Although he already had a good idea of what Quick Strike did, from the name if nothing else, he was curious as to whether the System would offer him any more information about its details before he acquired it.
Focusing on the name, he was pleased when a new message box popped up.
<Quick Strike (T0): Consume stamina to offer a burst of speed when striking in a single direction. At level 1, consuming 3 SP will offer +20% speed. Consume 6 SP for +30% speed. These values may change as the skill level increases. Acquire ability?>
Yes, Dominic assented and he felt the shiver of the almost electric feeling pass through him, making his fur stand on end. Ultimately he was pleased with the ability. It was pretty weak right now, but it also didn’t cost much. A 20% increase in speed was much like he’d had by enhancing his muscles in the previous level up, and he’d already experienced the difference that made. And since it was a percentage increase, it would scale with his stats.
As for his other gains from the level, he checked his status screen again.
Status of Dominic Martin Cole / Leo
Species: Lion (body) / human (mind), Two-Souled
Level: Basic Beast Level 4 (Path of Evolution)
Progress to Evolution: 171/121 PP level up
Hunger level: 15%
Thirst level: 6%
Quests: A Noble Endeavour; Regain what is Lost
Acquired Abilities:
Quick Strike (T0) level 1 – 3 SP for +20% speed; 6 SP for +30% speed
Powerful Kick level 1 (44%)
Crushing Bite level 1 (30%)
Defensive abilities:
- Fur level 2 (2-4 Slicing damage reduction, 1-2 Piercing damage reduction, 3-4 Crushing damage reduction)
- Skin level 2 (2-3 Slicing damage reduction, 1-2 Piercing damage reduction) Flexibility -3%
Offensive abilities:
- Claws level 2 (6-11 Slicing damage, 6-8 Tearing damage, 3-5 Piercing damage)
- Bite level 1 (32-50 Crushing damage, 27-50 Tearing damage, 25-35 Piercing damage)
General abilities:
- Muscular Body level 3 (max speed 24mps; max speed duration 10s) (57 SP)
- Carnivore Constitution level 1 (300 HP)
Some was as he’d expected: he still had another level up waiting for him; his Quick Strike now gave more information.
Skin had been added to his defensive section, offering reductions against Slicing and Piercing damage, both of which made sense. I assume the damage reduction is additive? Dominic mused to himself. Otherwise it wouldn’t be much use.
Not so expected was the fact that the details linked to his Muscular Body had changed: instead of talking about ‘max sprint speed’, it was now just ‘max speed’. Worse than that was the fact that the value represented had gone from 25 to 24mps. I guess that is the result of hardening my skin, he thought dismayed. There was also that damning -3% to his flexibility.
Well, nothing I can do about it now, he concluded. Actually, what would happen if on the next level I chose Skin and flexibility? Would I lose the defence rating? He was tempted to try, but talked himself down for now.
I need to try out my Quick Strike first, he decided. Testing it both in and out of combat would be necessary; fortunately he knew exactly where he could find a group of trodils.
Moving towards them, he tested out his new ability. Quick Strike, he called mentally and found himself suddenly lunging forwards, his body almost moving without his consent. Whoa, that was disorientating! He mentally grinned. Let’s try again.
Trial and error proved to be a good strategy to get to grips with his new ability. He did find himself stumbling and almost falling on his nose several times as the sudden burst of speed was difficult for him to get used to.
Although the description hadn’t given him any sort of time limit, the ability only worked with a single movement. He found that he could use it combined with a pounce, a swipe, or a lunge. He could even use it sequentially, bounding forwards quickly by triggering it each time he pushed off.
The last consumed a lot of his stamina, though – the 3 SP cost was only apparently for the first strike and the cost mounted more and more each time. By the time his SP were down to 10, he decided he’d got sufficiently to grips with it and lay down to rest.
Overall, Dominic was fairly pleased with this new ability, feeling like it matched with his offensive capabilities. The proof would come in combat, when he live tested it. And he had a perfect test in mind, one that would kill two birds – or three trodils – with one stone: test his ability, gain more PP, and acquire another of the five keys.
For now, though, he needed to recover a bit. Lying down, he rested his heavy head on his front paws. Closing his eyes, he found himself drifting.
He’d thought it would be difficult to fall asleep, in such an alien body from what he was used to. It wasn’t. His body was used to sleeping, and this position was very comfortable as well as quickly defensible. And his body and mind were tired.
It had been a long day. Or had it even been 24 hours yet since everything happened? In this dungeon where the ‘sun’ remained stubbornly overhead, it was hard to tell how much time had passed. Either way, Dominic soon felt the blackness of sleep take over.
For a moment he resisted – he was in a dungeon, after all. Not the safest environment. Then his leonine instincts reminded him that a lion was never safe. And that now he was a cat, he could engage in the wonderful activity of sleeping with an eye half-open. Even if not literally, the feeling he got was that he would be immediately aware if anything approached.
With that reassurance, he gave into the tempting embrace of a cat-nap.
His dreams were restless. Flashes of being chased, or being the one chasing mixed with memories of his previous life as a human. There was a confusion over his body. In one moment he was trying to speak to his mother over the phone only to be unable to make any more sound than a growl or a grunt; in another, he was surrounded by other lions all bigger than him and he felt terrified that they were about to eat him.
Dominic snapped into awareness.
Something was moving nearby. Pretending to still sleep, he used his other senses to detect where and what it was.
Based on the scent that drifted to his nose, it was a trodil. The slight shifting he heard of paws on hard earth put its position just behind him, to the left. The trodil stepped closer, seemingly wary of approaching too quickly. Perhaps it hoped to catch him unawares.
Curious about how close it would attempt to come, Dominic waited his muscles slowly tensing in preparation for his strike.
Closer, closer, closer.
The trodil reduced the distance between them an inch at a time.
If he had still been wholly human, Dominic would have exploded into action already, the patience required to wait for his prey to approach beyond him. As it was, Leo was there in the back of his mind, urging him to wait, to let his prey put itself into a vulnerable position.
And then, as the trodil reached striking range, Dominic finally erupted from his lying position like a spring.