NOVEL NEXT Chapter 23: Full Capacity
If you guys would like to support me or get access to more chapters, consider joining my patreon.
www.patreon.com/TeaDragon1
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
‘More’
Only one thought filled Ren’s mind.
He wanted to consume more.
He slithered forward and killed Durant after Durant.
His bioenergy continued to grow. His body grew stronger and his scales grew thicker.
Ren’s body was nothing like it was before.
His purple scales had become darker and darker. His body’s diameter had grown significantly from 3 cm to 4.5cm. This was a 50% increase!
His body was longer and more muscular. He could feel his muscles, brimming with energy.
More than anything, his mind had become sharper. The experience of killing Durants made his reactions faster and his thoughts quicker.
‘I am stronger.’
From a weak 30cm snake, his body length had more than doubled.
By now, the ants had become more cautious.
They had long been alerted of the predator that continued to hunt their kind. More and more ants from the ant colony had been attracted to the battlefield.
Ren had to be more careful.
Rather than travelling individually, the ants travelled in groups of two or three, all aiming on getting revenge for their fallen comrades.
Ren did not care.
He continued hunting!
This was an opportunity and he did not want to miss it.
As the hours dragged on ambushed ant after ant, his stats and skills continued to grow. His body rapidly digested bioenergy, while his body grew longer.
When he ran out of spirit, he would evade the ants and recharge.
It was the continuous cycle.
Despite the pain that he continued to feel from the bioenergy , the barrier that he had placed with [Limit Breaker] continued to hold on.
In fact, Ren was glad that he experienced the pain.
Through experiencing this pain, his body’s parameters continued to grow.
[Ding! Your defense has passed the second barrier!]
The voice of the system went off in his head.
‘The second barrier…? Where have I heard of that before?’ Ren pondered
It was when he had first been in the egg. It had said something similar when he was in the egg and when he fought the high tier monsters on the beach.
Except back then it had been the ‘first barrier’.
‘Is this important…?’
If he remembered correctly, before he underwent his first level up, all of his stats had breached the ‘first barrier’.
He did not know what these ‘barriers’ were, but he wanted to break through them all again!
Ren brushed aside those thoughts.
If he hunted more ants… he would eventually reach his goal.
Ren grit his teeth and continued onwards.
***
‘Die… you fuckers!’ Ren exclaimed.
Three Needles surrounded him.
With great manipulation, Ren controlled all of them simultaneously, striking them into the necks of the three ants underneath him.
‘Needle barrage’
They grew limp.
Ren sighed out in relief.
He quickly consumed them.
[Ding! You have gained three bioenergy. Would you like to evolve?]
Ren rejected.
‘Status’
Host Name: Ren
Species: Ekans (Infant)
Element: Poison
Level: 1 [Limit: 5]
Bio-Energy: 38/20
Length: 69 cm
Spirit: 5.3
Power: 5.1
Wisdom: 4.4
Agility: 4.9
Defense: 5.2
Skills: Breathless Breathing Technique [10.3%], Poison sting [9%], Terrorize [20%], Acceleration [37%] Tier 2 - Limit breaker [10%] Pokémon Appraisal [30%]
Passive Skills: Spirit Manipulation [87%]
Racial Skills: Shedding [8%]
‘Only a little bit more…’
His status had grown substantially.
Now, most of his stats had breached past the 5.0 mark.
‘Only my wisdom and agility are left…’
They were slowly increasing.
He could also feel his limit approaching. His body was beginning to tire out.
His bioenergy had reached its current limit. He had to finish up.
***
He hunted another group of two ants.
[Ding! Your Agility has passed the second barrier]
Ren started at the corpses of the two ants.
‘This is it… its time to finish this.’
He quickly consumed their bodies.
Almost immediately, the spirit in his body surged.
A soft bell like sound rung out from within his body.
The pain exploded.
‘What… fuck… is… this…?’
Ren could not even formulate complete sentences.
He could feel the tremors that rippled across his body increasing in severity.
Muscles were ripped apart, his bones began to creak.
‘Endure…’ Only one thought was left within his mind.
His body was falling apart.
[Ding! You have achieved the impossible! Your body has reached a state of perfection. All stats increase. All physical stats have surpassed the second barrier. Criteria has been met. Host has unlocked the skill ‘Draconic Body’]
The short burst of pain was accompanied by a message.
Ren gasped out in relief.
In an instant, the pain that he had been experiencing disappeared.
His mind entered a state of tranquility.
His body began to change.
His muscles bulged.
His ripped flesh and body repaired itself but they did not return to their original condition.
His body… changed.
His aura and spirit expanded.
Ren’s muscles grew more concentrated. His muscle power increased.
Ren slowly moved his tail and brushed it against his body.
‘My scales… they feel different.’
Although he was not able to test it he could sense it. His scales had gotten harder.
He could feel it… his body had undergone a metamorphosis.
‘Status’
Host Name: Ren
Species: Ekans (Infant)
Element: Poison
Level: 1 [Limit: 5]
Bio-Energy: 40/20
Length: 71 cm
Spirit: 7.2
Power: 6.8
Wisdom: 5.0
Agility: 7.3
Defense: 7.8
Skills: Breathless Breathing Technique [10.3%], Poison sting [9%], Terrorize [20%], Acceleration [37%] Tier 2 - Limit breaker [10%] Pokémon Appraisal [30%]
Passive Skills: Spirit Manipulation [87%],
Racial Skills: Shedding [8%], Draconic body [1%]
His stats had rapidly increased.
Ren could feel the power surging throughout his body.
He had even gained a new skill… [Draconic body]
He was now confident in fighting multiple ants at once.
Ren brushed away his stray thoughts.
This was his body’s true limit. He had stored double the amount of bioenergy that could ordinarily be stored within a body.
Consuming more ants would be suicide.
He would really die.
‘I have finished everything I need to do…’ Ren assessed
He had scouted his surroundings, hunted ant after ant and surpassed his limits.
More than that… Ren saw hope.
‘I have a method that I can use to beat monsters of higher potential.’
With his human intelligence, constantly growing wisdom and his new skill [limit breaker], he was sure of it.
If he had enough time, he could surpass all others and become the strongest.
Ren slithered away.
The screams of the ants resounded behind him.
‘I will see you guys later…’
***
The cavern was dark.
However, it was not silent.
The soft scuttling of ant legs against the ground echoed out.
Past the winding tunnels and within the deepest part of the mound lay a grand room.
The room was circular in shape.
A single large hole on the ceiling of the room connected the room to the outside world, while also allowing the sun’s rays to fall on the room.
The most eye-catching feature of the room was not the environment of the room, but the large monster sitting in the middle of it.
It was a Durant.
No, that was not accurate.
It was different. It was a Durant yet was at the same time not a Durant.
The general features of the monster resembled a Durant. Its metallic colored skin, its large mandibles.
Two things distinguished the monster from a normal Durant.
For one, the monster was much larger. Unlike the normal 20cm Durant, the monster was more than 2.5 meters tall.
Its body was oddly shaped. A large sac connected itself to the creature’s thorax.
Occasionally, the sac would ripple and an oval shaped object would be excreted.
In addition, the large Durant was surrounded by more than a dozen normal sized Durants.
Some of the normal Durants collected the oval eggs excreted by the Large Durant and carried them off somewhere.
Others placed corpses of the prey that they had hunted on the ground in front of the queen.
Other Durants messaged the body of the Large Durant.
It was a Queen! The leader of the Durants, and the Yellow Monster that Ren had felt.
The Queen’s eyes were closed.
Its attention was focused on the eggs that it was laying.
The Queen ant had one main skill.
[Create Ant].
It was an overpowered skill.
The queen would ingest bioenergy gathered by its followers before using that bioenergy to create new offspring.
The Queen was able to control the abilities of the ants that were created.
Of course, there were limitations. The creatures that she created had to be of the Durant species and the skills that they obtained and their own power levels were limited by her own level.
Furthermore, only a certain amount of Durants could be created. In order to increase, this limit, the Queen had to level.
No matter the limitations, the queen’s abilities were overpowered.
The Queen’s eyes shot open.
One of its offspring… or more precisely clone had appeared in front of it.
The queen started at it.
She slowly extended her long antennae towards it.
The two monsters communicated.
The queen could feel the Durant’s emotions.
Fear.
It was the main emotion the Queen felt.
Pure fear and death.
The queen had never felt such emotions before.
What could have caused such an emotion?
The queen opened her mouth.
An object as red as blood emerged from the Queen’s mouth.
It was a tongue!
The scuttling of ants around the Queen seemed to stop.
In a flash, the tongue pierced into the brain of the Durant before the queen.
The brain of the Durant was pried away from its skull and engulfed by the queen.
The Durant queen processed the information.
Images appeared in its brain
Pool after pool of blood.
It was nothing new.
Except this was not the blood of prey. This was the blood of its offspring!
Pure red blood.
She could hear the mourning screams of the Durants around the pools of blood as they cried for their fallen comrades.
The anguish.
Although the Durants were artificial creations, they maintained some semblance of emotion.
The Queen experienced another emotion that it had never felt before.
Humiliation.
This followed by anger.
A mere snake… did this to its creations.
The Queen opened its mouth and screamed.
The ants surrounding the Queen scuttled away.
They were soon replaced by larger more muscular ants. These ants were larger, reaching more than 50 centimeters long while their bodies were coated in a blue metallic substance.
Most importantly, their mandibles were coated in sharp metallic thorns
The guards.
Most of the time, these ants were protectors of the nest.
The queen decided to mobilize them.
The queen shrieked at the guards.
The guards tapped their antennae together in understanding before dispersing into the tunnels.
They were to come back with the corpse of the Snake!
Hope you guys enjoyed.
Please comment your thoughts. If you enjoyed, do not forget to hit that star button (favorite) this fanfiction.
Thanks for the support,
TeaDragon1