Chapter 16: | Assessing My Growth
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It's been a few days since we ventured out of the cavern.
Liora has been doing nothing but just watch as I battled with interest, as if she were watching a theater.
Funny, I couldn't help but chuckle at her attitude.
My body regenerated, then was wounded again, battle after battle.
It was interesting to find stronger opponents here.
I fought a gargantuan crab, another mantis shrimp that could attack at hyper speed, and some interesting seahorse or abominations.
I was happy with my encounters.
I leveled and leveled until I broke through to Tier 7.
It was exhausting, the fights were fun while they lasted, but painful in the end.
A few days ago and earlier, I tried to evolve Accel Dash and Phantom Shift, but they were rejected by the Dimensional Records for an unknown reason.
My gaze shifted toward the hologram that depicted my status window.
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Name: ALISTER VON FAI
Titles: Kinslayer, Kin Devourer, Predator of the impossible, A Mortal with Mana?!!
Race: [★] Whark
Stage: 0
Tier: 7
Level: 7/35
EXP: 137,000/206,000
Class: (Locked)
Subclass: (Locked)
Inventory: (Locked)
Equipment: (Locked)
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Stats
Health: 100/100 (+1 per level)
Stamina: 100/100 (+1 per level)
Mana: 36/36
Physique: 1.00 (+0.1 per level)
Mystique: 0.25
Charm: 1
Luck: 1
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Bloodlines
mundane Bloodline
1. Harbinger of Myth - Sealed [9/10]
Lesser Bloodline
Normal Bloodline
Greater Bloodline
Noble Bloodline
Emperor Bloodline
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Bloodline skills
1. Myth Voracity (Weakened)
The core ability of the Harbinger of Myth, allowing them to devour the myth—skills and stats—of others. However, a powerful curse has severely weakened it. Now, rather than guaranteed absorption, it only grants a chance to consume these traits. Despite this, it still feeds on the myth of those the Harbinger consumes.
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Affinity
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Skills
1. Apex Predator Physique (Passive) Level 2 (Tier 9)
Your body has undergone further refinement, enhancing strength, endurance, and agility without unnecessary bulk. Muscles have become denser and more efficient, bones harder to break, and tendons more elastic, allowing for greater speed and control. Your vision processes motion faster, stamina recovers more efficiently, and wounds close at an accelerated rate, ensuring sustained combat performance with reduced fatigue. Your digestive system has also improved, breaking down food more quickly and efficiently, neutralizing toxins, and accelerating nutrient absorption for faster energy recovery. Though not yet at its peak, your physique has evolved into a near-perfect balance of power, resilience, and efficiency.
2. Diamond Maw (Passive) Level 5
Your teeth have fused with dense mineral deposits, making them nearly unbreakable. They retain a razor-sharp edge even after continuous use, allowing you to bite through bone, armor, and hardened materials with ease. Each bite delivers immense crushing force, capable of splintering even reinforced structures.
3. Titanic Bulk (Passive) Level 5
Your body has reached an overwhelming level of mass and density, granting immense durability and stability. You are nearly impossible to knock back or stagger, and your sheer weight amplifies the force of your strikes. Even without active defense, your natural bulk reduces incoming damage, making you a walking fortress in combat.
4. Accel Dash (Active - 1 stamina per seconds) Level 5
The Whark can suddenly burst forward at immense speed, closing gaps near-instantly. It can also use this skill defensively to escape or reposition mid-fight.
5. Phantom Shift (Active - 5 stamina per activation) Level 5
A rapid, unpredictable maneuver that allows the Whark to momentarily blur out of sight before striking from an unexpected angle. It works best in open waters where there are fewer obstacles.
6. Gleaming Scales (Passive) Level 5
Its scales have a natural metallic coating, reducing water resistance and allowing it to move faster while providing moderate resistance against slashing and piercing attacks.
7. Crystal Core (Passive) Level 5
A mana-rich core embedded in the Whark's skull, enhancing its strength, regeneration, and mana control. It passively absorbs energy and, when critically wounded, can unleash a burst of power for a temporary boost in combat.
8. Apex Reflex (Passive) Level 5
Possessing monstrous reaction speed, the Phantom Mirage Whark perceives and responds to danger with unnatural precision. Its body adjusts mid-movement, dodging attacks with effortless fluidity, as if instinct alone guides its every motion.
9. Mirage Veil (Passive) Level 4
A natural cloak of deception, the Phantom Mirage Whark bends light and distorts sound, shrouding itself in illusion. Its form flickers between reality and mirage, making it appear as nothing more than a phantom drifting through the abyss.
10. Shadow Skin (Passive) Level 2
Your scales absorb and distort light, making you harder to see in darkness and murky waters.
10. Dread Presence (Passive) Level 3
Your aura exudes raw intimidation, making weaker creatures hesitate or flee before combat even begins.
10. Molten Core (Passive) Level 2
A dense, heat-generating core within your body continuously refines stored mana, increasing its purity and efficiency. This enhances the power of fire-based abilities and improves overall mana control, allowing for more precise and potent attacks. Prolonged combat raises internal heat, gradually amplifying your offensive capabilities.
10. Icefang Rend (Active – 8 Mana) Level 3
You bite down with freezing force, numbing the target's flesh and making the wound brittle, increasing its vulnerability to further attacks.
12. Reactive Carapace (Passive) Level 3
A segmented, shock-absorbing shell that bends with attacks, dispersing force rather than resisting it.
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Unique skills:
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A few days ago, when I confirmed my ascension, that same option I got every time I ascended was still there.
It asked me whether I should fuse or tier up a skill.
And my answer was pretty much obvious.
I chose to tier up my Apex Predator Physique, as I could feel it.
That once it reached Tier 10, something interesting would happen, and it would be beneficial to me.
I couldn't help but ponder what it would evolve into after those skills had fused into one.
I couldn't evolve this skill like a normal skill, and I couldn't evolve the skills that I've stolen.
It was confusing, and I couldn't understand why the Dimensional Record didn't approve of its evolution.
Was it because those skills were not biologically mine?
Or perhaps those skills were not registered as mine?
If I named the skills that I stole from the monsters I devoured, I'd say that these skills' identifications should be false.
False Skills should be the best way to define these skills.
Why, you may ask?
Because these skills don't have the ability to tier up or evolve, which means these skills are pretty much useless in the long run, meaning false skills have no potential.
And this means that I would have to devour and stack up the effects of countless others just to contest with some monsters.
I pondered at my discoveries.
Liora hummed like an angel.
Then her eyes perked up, interested in what I had been thinking about.
"Hey, young guy, are you perhaps worried about your growth, or maybe your skills?"
I ignored her as I glided across the currents.
Minutes passed.
I stared down below at the sandy ground.
There stood a swarm of crabs, scuttling and scavenging for food.
I ignored their pitiful existence.
There was nothing of value in them.
I couldn't devour a skill or anything from them.
It was a meaningless endeavor to mind them.
But wouldn't it be better for me to amass more skills?
I lowered myself, then opened my maw.
Sand and crabs got into my maw as I munched them.
Crunch!
It was crunchy, yet earthy at the same time.
A pitiful amount of EXP flooded my vision.
Holograms and holograms appeared as I devoured groups of crabs again and again.
But I couldn't get a single skill after devouring nearly a thousand of them.
I looked around, devoured anything in sight, and fought anything noteworthy.
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Three days have passed since I hunted around like a maniac.
In these three days, I gained a few levels and four skills.
A hologram hovered before my eyes.
My gaze shifted onto the hologram, and I couldn't help but smile.
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You've Successfully Devoured]
• Stage 1 Tier 1 Level 3 [Translucent Octupos]
• Stage 1 Tier 2 Level 6 [Jade Crab]
• Stage 1 Tier 1 Level 2 [Giant Adamat crab]
• Stage 1 Tier 4 Level 1 [Deep Stalker]
[You have gained a skill.]
• Compound Perception
• Ghost Veil
• Adamantine Carapace
• Silent Descent
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Fighting the translucent octopus was hell.
Just finding its location was extremely exhausting, as its presence was nearly invisible.
Then there was the Adamantine Crab, a difficult opponent, if I say so.
Its carapace was incredibly tough, like adamantine.
Then there was the Jade Crab, a crab with compound vision and an excellent, yet flashy, exoskeleton.
And lastly, the Deep Stalker, an opponent that was extremely difficult to find, since it would only attack when its opponent let their guard down.
Those guys were fun opponents.
And the skills that I devoured from them were just exactly what their names implied.
My vision became fractured, it now allows me to track multiple opponents at once.
The structure of my exoskeleton became nearly as tough as adamantine.
Then, my hide became nearly translucent.
And lastly, my movements have now become more ghostlike.
Their skills were useful.
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