Chapter 40: Become Stronger (Patreon)

As he passed through the tunnel in which he’d once fought a pack of hyenas, Dominic became utterly convinced that he’d grown - and not only a little, either. His head was much closer to the ceiling of the tunnel than it had been, and his body was nearer the walls of it too.

Excellent, Leo purred as Dominic made the observation. We will easily overcome the protector of a pride like this.

Unless they’ve also grown, Dominic pointed out. The trodils grew a lot faster than we did as they increased in level. That gave Leo pause for thought.

Then we shall have to become stronger than they are in other ways, he said finally, as if that was the only acceptable answer. Which, Dominic supposed, in the law of the jungle, it was.

Well, let’s just see what’s happened here first, shall we? he asked, though more rhetorically than as a real question. He hadn’t wanted to pause for too long in the dungeon - not without trodils to hunt, anyway - so hadn’t yet gone through his log of notifications to see just what had happened to him down in that final dungeon room.

Stopping just inside the entrance, Dominic sat down. It was day outside, sometime in the morning, he guessed and Leo concurred. How many days have gone past since the System arrived? he wondered. Two? Three? More? Without any way of telling the time in the dungeon, he’d found the hours blurring together more than a little.

But that wasn’t what he’d come here to do. He’d chosen to stay in this spot for multiple reasons. It was hidden, so he might avoid most attacks without even trying. If something did decide to attack, either he could use the tunnel defensively, as he had with the hyenas, or he was close enough to the entrance that they wouldn’t be able to immediately box him in, if he decided that the threat was worth retreating before.

He could even retreat to the dungeon, if he wanted - he’d tested whether he could re-enter before leaving through the tunnel. The answer was that he could go in the dungeon, but it wasn’t clear whether he could redo it - the trodils hadn’t suddenly respawned in the seconds between him exiting and re-entering. Perhaps I should try again later - the outer area was a good place to grind, even if I didn’t go inside the temple, Dominic mused. Something to consider later if he didn’t find better hunting spots.

Starting to catch up on everything that had happened by opening his status screen, Dominic stared at it.

Status of Dominic Martin Cole / Leo

Species: Lion (body) / human (mind), Two-Souled

Level: Evolved Beast Level 10 Tier 2 (Path of Evolution)

Progress to Evolution: 52/196 PP

Satiation level: 97%

Hydration level: 95%

Health Points: 500/500

Stamina Points: 170/170

Quests: A Noble Endeavour; Regain what is Lost

Acquired Abilities:

Quick Strike (T0) level 2 (71% to level 3) – 3 SP for +25% speed; 6 SP for +40% speed

Powerful Kick level 1 (44%)

Crushing Bite level 1 (30%)

Rage level 1 (24%)

Defensive abilities:

- Fur level 3 (12-16 Slicing damage reduction, 2-4 Piercing damage reduction, 6-8 Crushing damage reduction, 2-4 Tearing damage reduction)

- Skin level 3 (4-6 Slicing damage reduction, 2-4 Piercing damage reduction) Flexibility +2%

Offensive abilities:

- Claws level 2 (12-22 Slicing damage, 12-16 Tearing damage, 6-10 Piercing damage)

- Bite level 2 (55-87 Crushing damage, 62-102 Tearing damage, 48-70 Piercing damage)

General abilities:

- Muscular Body level 5 (max speed 28mps; max speed duration 18s) (170 SP)

- Carnivore Constitution level 2 (500 HP) +40% health regeneration

- Brain level 1 (Cognition speed standard measurement 5)

- Mana heart level 1 (15 MP) - 75% penalty

- Soul level 1 (Resilience to mental attacks standard measurement 7) +2% mana regeneration (-80% reduction to mana regeneration)

- Bones level 1 (growth + 10%)

- Flesh level 1 (growth +10%) +5% resistance to basic magical attacks.

- Nervous System level 1 (reaction speed +10%)

Spells:

Lightning Discharge level 1 - 1:1 mana / unit of static electricity to damage ratio. Coat your weapons with electricity and discharge it into your opponent on contact. Electrical resistance is effective against this attack. Magical resistance is partially effective against this attack.

Equipment:

- Leather Gorget (T1) - +12 to Piercing/Tearing/Slicing damage reduction and +6 to Crushing damage reduction to attacks to the neck. 6m² storage space (non-stasis)

- Tail Armour + Tail Morningstar (T1, Common) - Tail armour offers +20 to Tearing/Slicing damage reduction and +12 to Crushing and Piercing damage reduction to attacks to areas covered. Tail club offers +10-24 Crushing damage and +5-12 Piercing damage. (Not currently equipped)

That’s…a lot of change. He didn’t really know where to start. With his massively increased, well, everything, or his greatly expanded list of abilities. Or with the two massive penalties he seemed to have accrued somehow.

Maybe I ought to check my log, Dominic wondered to himself, the wave of agreement he felt from Leo startling him a little - he still wasn’t used to the lion being so active a participant in his head.

Going into the log, he scrolled down until he found the last notification he remembered seeing - the one about absorbing his new spell.

[Initiating spell absorption. Parameter testing…..testing….testing….]

[Results of test]

[Base Intelligence: barely adequate]

[Nervous System: barely adequate]

[Flesh: inadequate]

[Mana Heart: absent]

[Initiating Mana Heart installation.

Probability of flawless installation: 34.46%.

Probability of minor consequences following installation: 58.23%.

Probability of serious consequences following installation: 7.31% ]

[Do you wish to finish spell absorption? Warning, cancelling spell absorption at this point will lead to the loss of the spell scroll.]

[Respond within 10s or automatic action will be taken: continuation of spell absorption process.]

[Spell absorption continued.]

Dominic wasn’t sure whether he was happy or sad that the automatic action seemed to be continuing the spell absorption process. On the one hand, at least he hadn’t lost the spell accidentally because he hadn’t been able to see the messages. On the other, a 7% chance of ‘serious consequences’ might have given him enough hesitation to choose not to continue. Not to mention the much higher chance of having at least some issues afterwards than a ‘flawless’ installation.

Well, I guess I wasn’t too unlucky, he thought to himself. I do have those reductions on my status screen, which I hope will be explained soon, but they don’t seem too serious. And I am alive, at least.

Continuing scrolling up through the notifications, Dominic looked at the next one.

[Second Wind Triggered. HP and SP boosted. Timer: 04:59:59]

That was the only message about Second Wind, though Dominic hoped that it had come with some sort of HUD clock at the time. Otherwise how was he supposed to keep track of it during a fight? Maybe he’d test that just before his next level up.

[Mana Heart installation successful! Congratulations, you now have access to mana!]

[Warning, some complications suffered during the process:

Incompatibility with host flesh has resulted in damage to 3 senses (healable)

Barely adequate affinity of all other facets has resulted in a penalty to your Mana Heart’s capacity (non-permanent)]

Well, Dominic thought to himself, that explains a lot. The penalty to his mana capacity, the damage to his senses…even the fact that Brain, Nervous System, and Flesh were now appearing on his status sheet - he wouldn’t be surprised if that was linked to this whole process, even if it hadn’t said so explicitly. Though it didn’t explain all the other weirdness there.

I guess the fact that the damage to my sight and so on was ‘healable’ was the reason I got them back with my level up, he mused. That was rather fortunate - living blind, deaf, and without a sense of smell was a good way to end up dead before he even got started.

That the penalty to his Mana Heart’s capacity was not permanent was something that gave him hope - perhaps he’d find a way to get rid of it later. He didn’t really have any ideas as matters stood but since he’d only encountered his first spell today, that wasn’t really surprising.

Getting answers to why his stats had taken such a leap was more important than theorising without any information.

[Congratulations! You have reached Tier 2. In the process of becoming an Evolved Beast, you have improved in many ways. All previously enhanced parts of yourself have become more powerful and future enhancements to them will be more impactful.

A single other enhancement will be chosen according to your fighting style.]

[The enhancement chosen: Bones, lengthen.]

So that was where all the extra stats on his page came from - tiering up from 1 to 2. No wonder the warthog had such a large health pool. It made sense - since the warthog had probably enhanced mostly physical stats, it had clearly gained a lot more to them at the point of levelling up to level 10.

And since he’d done a lot of physical fighting and throwing his weight around, he supposed it made sense that the System had chosen to award him more mass to do it more effectively. And it makes sense why I didn’t feel the option to choose something else to enhance: the System chose for me.

[Warning: at level 10 User ‘Leo’ has gained sufficient consciousness to challenge user ‘Dominic Martin Cole’ for control of the shared body]

Yes, tell me something I didn’t know, Dominic thought to himself sarcastically. Still, he supposed it was good to know that it was as a result of tiering up, not because he’d absorbed the magical spell or something. I guess that’s why Leo seemed smarter - he is.

Am I supposed to take that as a compliment or an insult? Leo’s voice inquired, making Dominic jump again.

I’m going to have to get used to that, he reminded himself quietly before projecting so Leo could hear him. Take it as you like. Leo waited for a moment, perhaps to see if he was planning to continue. When he stayed silent, the lion mind settled back with a quiet grumbling grunt.

There were only a few notifications left to go.

[Soul Battle commenced. Reward: control of the shared body]

[Warning: intruder into Soulspace: Dungeon Master]

[Dungeon Master has made an offer: become his primary Guardian. Would you like to accept?]

[Soul Battle has completed

Winner: Dominic Martin Cole]

[Results of Soul Battle: Damage sustained to soul from intruder’s attack

Consequence: -80% penalty to mana regeneration rate.]

After reading a single other notification about having entered the dungeon, which had to have been when he re-entered, Dominic was up to date. Though the fact that he received that notification at all indicated he might be able to do the dungeon again, if he chose to.

Dominic was a little surprised that there was so little about the attack he and Leo had suffered, and nothing about what Leo had done to offer him strength in the middle of it all. Why? He didn’t know. It didn’t seem like much good to be warned about an intruder but not actually see the message until the ‘soul battle’ was done.

Ah well, he thought. I know it’s possible now; I’ll be more wary next time.

We will be, growled Leo in his mind, this time not startling Dominic.

The former-human couldn’t help but feel warmth go through him at that. It was nice to think that, despite being in a foreign body, in a foreign environment, he wasn’t doing it alone.

We will, he agreed. Alright, let’s go and get some more Prey Points for our next level up!

And find some females? Leo replied hopefully.

And find some females, Dominic agreed with amusement.