NOVEL NEXT Chapter 8: Touch-starved
The first thing that Dominic noticed was the number of Prey Points to his name. Since he’d been 28 points away from levelling up before killing the lions, and he’d earned 30, he was expecting to only have 2 Prey Points now. But instead, he had 82. Not that he was complaining, but why?
‘Isn’t it obvious?’ scoffed Leo. ‘It’s because of the challenge.’
‘Sure, I realise that,’ Dominic told Leo with a mental eyeroll. ‘But is it just because of the challenge itself, or have my Enhancement Points been somehow translated into Prey Points?’ That made the lion pause.
‘I think it must be from the challenge,’ he said after a moment of thought. ‘We gained extra Prey Points after the chimera too, and we didn’t have any Enhancement Points remaining.’
‘True,’ admitted Dominic. That was a good point. Oh well – more Prey Points was always a good thing.
He continued looking down the list, feeling a sense of pride as he looked at his progress. Considering how he had started out without an Ability to his name, he now had ten of them with another five near or over 50% of the way towards being acquired. Not that he wanted to acquire all of those on his list, but still.
Most of his already-acquired Abilities had improved as a result of the recent battle, though he grimaced as he looked at the little progress Lightning Discharge had made to the next level. Seeing only a little more progress made to get Second Wind to the second level just reinforced what he’d been saying to Leo about needing to do more work with that one.
Pounce was a nice surprise, though – it had leaped to level 2 and gained some more damage capacity. He was a little limited by the fact that its best damage came from an ambush, and that generally only worked well once per battle. Though if I could gain some sort of stealth or invisibility or something, I might be able to use it multiple times, he considered thoughtfully. Of course, that would require him killing enough of that kind of creature to gain it.
He remembered the Cores still lying on the ground nearby and quickly went over to absorb them. As expected, they were all Pounce but that was OK – more progress there was definitely a good thing.
His actual stats were looking pretty good though, even if he said so himself. It would be interesting to see if there was any noticeable difference to his interactions with the lionesses because of his increased charisma. For a moment, he castigated himself for levelling up before checking out his rewards: if he’d known he was going to get a boost to his mane, he would have chosen Roar on level up.
Hindsight is always 20/20, he thought to himself ruefully. Then, trying to keep his mental voice ‘quiet’ enough that his companion wouldn’t hear him, he thought that perhaps Leo would stop bugging him about his mane now.
At least it also gives much better defensive bonuses now, he mused. Each aspect the mane protected against had more than doubled; in some places even tripled. Interestingly enough, it hadn’t been increased in level. Well, it had increased from level 2 to level 3, but that had to be from him levelling up and choosing it as one of his enhancements. But it hadn’t increased any more as a result of him taking the mane as a challenge reward.
Nor, actually, had his teeth or reactions, though they had been affected a little. Eyesight had also now been added to his list of enhanced – and enhanceable – areas. He would have to think about the implications of that.
As well as the changes from the challenge rewards, he also had the changes from actually levelling up.
‘Hopefully we won’t run out of stamina so quickly now,’ he commented to Leo. ‘Though if we can bring stamina up to the level of our health, that would make it even better.’
‘If the amount by which stamina increases with a dedicated enhancement to it continues, that should happen sooner rather than later,’ commented Leo in tacit agreement. ‘Have you looked at the new Abilities yet?’
Frowning a little in confusion at the eagerness in Leo’s mental voice, Dominic did so. Then he sucked in a breath.
‘Leo, is it just me, or does that Ability seem to have two aspects to it?’
‘That’s what I see,’ the lion agreed gleefully. ‘Being able to spit acid and coat our teeth in it. Those scavengers aren’t going to know what hit them.’
Dominic’s mind raced. Though it didn’t give him exact damage, he already knew how much the acid had hurt. If he could get it into the bloodstream of a creature, have it pump the acid straight to its heart….
While he probably could have had a similar effect just with the acidic spit, spitting into a wound which he already had his teeth buried within would have been good; injecting acid directly in via his teeth was even better.
Curious about the ‘enhanced’ Dominic tried to get more information about it.
[Enhanced: This Ability has been modified due to being acquired by a species without the necessary physical structures usually required. As the species is more than a full Tier above Ability level, Ability has been enhanced.]
Interesting. It seemed that he changed the Ability as much as the Ability changed him. At any rate, it had started off as a T0 Ability and was now a T2 one. Maybe that was also part of the reason for why there were two effects – higher level Abilities were more complex?
‘Why didn’t Sure Feet get changed then?’ he wondered at Leo. ‘That’s saying the same thing as the description did before.’ Though it was good to have numbers defining the amount of improvement he saw, as well as indicating exactly what ‘moving at speed’ meant. ‘And what about all the other Abilities we’ve acquired? They didn’t change either.’
‘Maybe because we didn’t have to change our body to gain it?’ suggested the lion.
‘But then what about Powerful Kick? That’s a T0 Ability.’
‘Perhaps it was because fewer changes were required to our body? Then, our muscles grew and our shoulders became more powerful. Here, we’ve gained a new gland under our tongue and our teeth have been changed significantly. Perhaps there wasn’t the opportunity for the Ability to be enhanced in the same way.’
‘Maybe,’ Dominic replied slowly. ‘Or maybe it’s something of a lottery? Perhaps, just like how we’ve come across creatures in Tier 1 with T0 and T1 Abilities, we have a chance of getting T1 or T2 Abilities. Except that we don’t gain Abilities like the other lions, and so it only affects us when we have to make physical changes to our body?’ It seemed a bit of a tenuous argument, but then so much of the System seemed to defy logic that he might as well accept it until he had more evidence.
Though it did have some implications: if he gained the greatest possible benefits from absorbing Abilities which didn’t work with his body as is, that might affect the Cores that he chased after.
I still want Enhanced Stamina, Bleed, Charge, Rending Bite and Stunning Roar at a minimum, though, he thought to himself.
‘Don’t forget Enhanced Fertility,’ chimed in Leo, clearly paying attention even to his ‘private’ thoughts. Dominic sent him a mental eyeroll.
‘Alright. And Enhanced Fertility, if we can find enough creatures with it, that is.’
‘Maybe those ‘rabbits’ of your memories would have it,’ Leo thought hopefully.
‘Probably,’ Dominic admitted. ‘Though there aren’t many rabbits around here. Maybe rats instead.’ Then he realised something. ‘You’re going to make me go on a fetch quest to kill rats, aren’t you?’ he moaned with humour.
‘Don’t forget I’ll be along for the ride too,’ Leo growled playfully.
‘That’s a good point – you can hunt the rats then, and I’ll relax in the study,’ laughed Dominic. Leo sent him a picture of a lion about to pounce, and Dominic took it in the spirit that it was meant – that if they’d been together in the mental space, he’d have just been leapt on. ‘We should retreat into the study for a bit together,’ he said, a little wistfully. ‘It was nice to actually be physically in contact.’
‘Later,’ Leo promised him. ‘When the situation with the females is less tense.’
‘Good point,’ Dominic agreed. Turning his attention back to his status screen, he eyed the description of his new Ability. ‘I wonder how to coat my teeth, though,’ he mused. ‘It says that my teeth have become resistant to acid, but what about the rest of my mouth?’
‘Why don’t you try it out a little,’ suggested Leo. ‘We know that our Regeneration will fix any soft tissue damage. With our teeth now being acid resistant, we should be fine whatever happens.’
‘I’m not keen on having holes eaten in my lips,’ Dominic groused.
‘Stop whining. I feel it too, you know,’ Leo told him pointedly. ‘Just get on with it.’
‘Alright, alright,’ Dominic agreed.
Time to experiment a bit.
He pushed himself to his feet and wandered a little, looking for somewhere to try out his new Ability. To his surprise, the lions lifted their heads as he walked past, and the seven of his original pride actually got up and approached him.
He paused, eyeing them as they approached. There was no aggression in their body language so he wasn’t worried, just wondering why they were suddenly so interested.
They approached him one by one, rubbing their cheeks against his – he had to lean down a bit so they could, but did so on prompting from Leo. Then, after rubbing his cheek, they rubbed their way along the whole of his body. Once all of them had done it, they did it again.
It wasn’t long before he had several lionesses rubbing against his head at one time. No, not my head, he realised. My mane.
‘Took you long enough,’ Leo jibed, though it was without malice; Dominic could sense how much he was enjoying the attention. ‘I told you that upgrading our mane would be a good idea.’
‘What, because it’s made me catnip for lionesses?’ Dominic shot back at him, then gave up the conversation. Honestly, it did feel nice. The bodily contact with others of his pride made him satisfied on some visceral level. Perhaps he was getting a bit touch-starved or something – or his body was. Lions, after all, were a lot more tactile than most humans.
After what seemed like a long time the lionesses lost interest and went back to what they were doing before – eating, sleeping, playing with cubs. The lions from the other pride hadn’t dared come over, but Dominic had noticed their interest – it seemed like +100% charisma was nothing to sniff at.
Once all the lionesses had finally left Dominic, Sekhmet and Anuke the last to go, interestingly, he shook himself. His fur ruffled back into place, the scents of his pride filling his nostrils. Feeling somehow more settled than he had in a while, Dominic padded off to test Acidic Bite somewhere he was unlikely to accidentally cause collateral damage.
