So it really cannot be a trick of his imagination.
It seems by being the first at destroying a Lair, no matter how accidently, caused the creation of the Lair Destroyer title. To oppose it, the curse was generated along with it. Looking between the two, he could easily figure out how and why they balance out.
Still, it isn’t exactly comforting to find out that he’ll be stuck in a forever repeating cycle that’ll most likely end in his death. Hell, he isn’t even sure how death works anymore, given how crazy the world has become. That said, he doesn’t close the window until he’d read over it all a couple of more times.
Getting more EXP was a nice thing, as was loot drops and the a bonus to skill training. Facing harder monsters and situations on the other hand was less so. All told the bonuses outweigh the negatives… unless the Lair that is spawned is already massively overpowering.
Just having that thought makes him go pale and break out in a cold sweat.
“Oh gods…”
He mutters before a new sound catches his attention. Unlike the usual ‘dings’ that represent the appearance of a new system message, this one is a softer ‘chime’.
Nothing pops up however, and for a moment he thought he might have imagined it. Until exactly thirty seconds later something chimes again. Still, nothing obvious pops up, but he does whip his head around just to make sure he wasn’t missing anything.
Then thirty seconds later it chimes again, but this time is followed by a more traditional sound.
*DING*
“Hey, that’s rude!”
Kolan cannot help but yell out, even though he’s basically yelling at a ruined, empty bathroom. After a moment of fuming he finally blows out his breath and finally thinks the thought as instructed.
< MAIL >
The window that pops up is almost like an email, and is written out like a letter… A letter from some fucking lawyer firm, at any rate. It is clean, crisp, and precise. It is almost enough to make Kolan gag as he reads it.
The only thing worse than a world-ending Apocalypse are fucking lawyers.
Still, he manages to swallow his instant need to gag and close the window long enough to read the entire thing. As you can imagine, several large ???’s appear overtop of his head for a moment before he blows out another breath then re-reads the mail again.
The want to monitor him by putting something inside of his body? The thought makes his blood run cold, but on the other hand what they are offering in compensation could well mean the difference in life and death for him. A hard level cap on the weekly random lair spawns means that no matter what, the lairs should always be within his potential ability to deal with.
That by itself would take a large weight off of his shoulders.
The second offer however was what really got his interest. An ability of his choice! Many people would give up their own parents for the chance of getting something like that!
Then he realizes that he isn’t sure what he’d want. Abilities are powerful, for sure. In other games, they can be quite world-shattering if a good combination of abilities and skills are found and trained. Plus there are things like unique attacks, defensive options, and survival traits that can only be gotten through special abilities.
He quickly pulls up his status screen and looks through everything he has, trying to figure out what he wants. He’s so focused on it that he doesn’t even realize that he’s no longer in any real pain. His wounds have already scabbed over and many of them have already crisped up and dried off, revealing smooth flesh beneath.
His regeneration was already working on repairing his body, except for the stump of his right arm, which is being regrown to be a smooth thing instead of the jagged mess the explosion had left. There isn’t even any scars left from the burns.
Still, the choice eludes him even as he reads through everything a few times. Especially in his Abilities section. Gaining monster abilities is cool though, and his eyes stop on the one thing he’d not really had the chance to look at before.
Evolution.
The ability of slimes to change and grow and evolve as they consume things. Even Kolan knew about that, given the horrendously vast amount of different types of slimes that games have put forward.
Fire Slimes, Water Slimes, Earth Slimes, Lightning Slimes… and of course that Sewage Slime he’d blown the fuck up.
It was cool, if a little unsettling given that he’d have to ‘eat’ various things to go through the process. But there is one thing missing from it that he finally notices.
It doesn’t say anything about being able to choose which evolution he goes through. That doesn’t sit well with Kolan, not one bit. Eating the wrong thing could make him progress backwards, if that was the case. Devolving is still a part of evolution, after all.
Thinking it through clinches it for him, and he nods his head after finally coming to his decision.
“I accept! I want an ability that’ll let me choose when, where, and what to evolve into when the Evolution ability is active!”
He yells it out loud, which actually ends up a bit embarrassing once his rough and thin voice echos back to him inside the small men’s restroom. He is at least able to keep himself from blushing.
*CHIME*
You got mail! Okay, he cannot help but grin a bit like an idiot when the different tone sounds. He does pull it up quickly this time though.
Kolan barely had any time to read the new message before he felt it. It was like something had been slammed into his chest with a long ass needle. There isn’t a whole lot of pain, but a dull force that pushes him back and makes him feel kinda… bloated.
As soon as that force comes, it disappears. Then the pain starts. Bad, bad pain that starts in his chest but also ends up spreading down into his abdomen and then up into his throat. Worse than the pain however was the sort of wiggling sensation he feels squirming throughout his body.
No doubt it is the Watcher Parasite, but the feeling is so unnatural that he gets sick anyway, which only adds to the mess on the floor that he’s already covered in. A shower is definitely required. That, and an incinerator to burn his clothing.
There’s probably no way to remove the stains!
Just as the message said however, the pain soon disappears, along with the weird sensation inside of his body and the feeling of bloatedness that signified the presence of the -thing- that had been implanted into him. In fact, once he sits up he couldn’t find any sign at all of anything having happened.
Thankfully there isn’t any freaky eyeball sticking out of his chest.
His search does lead him to finally notice the state of his body. Most of his wounds are gone, along with any sort of scarring that’d normally occur. More than that however, it looks like his normally rather chubby (fat) stomach has shrunken a bit, as if being deflated like a balloon.
And his right arm no longer pains him at all, even though it ends at a smooth stump just below the elbow. There also isn’t any sort of ghosting sensation. It is like his nerves just end and no longer feel torn or disconnected.
‘Regeneration, huh? I wonder if it’ll grow my arm back,’ is one of the thoughts that float through his head before he shakes it off. Probably not, because he gained the ability after the damage had already been done. It is still possible, however.
That thought however leads him to several others, which ends up bringing a crazy idea to mind. He doesn’t test it here, though. He was starting to get more than a little tired sitting in shit and sewage, especially after three fucking chapters!
Kolan does finally push himself to his feet and waits for the feeling of dizziness to pass before he glances around at the destruction again. If this single restroom is any indication of what he is to expect with the world outside, then he isn’t sure that he doesn’t just want to go hide in a hole somewhere and wait for everything to quiet down.
Not like there is any real choice for him, but he could at least dream, right?
*DING*
Well, it doesn’t take them long to get something working. The message at the end was totally out of line though.
“A freak, really?! Bah! If that’s the case I’ll become the strongest freak alive!”
Okay, so that really blows Kolan’s top, having made his face go red. If anyone was nearby they’d almost be able to see the steam coming out of his ears.
*DING*
Great, now even the System… Or is it the World Seed itself that is bad mouthing him? He isn’t sure how to tell between them. At least the messages from the Collector’s tend to be at least apologetic in tone. And make you want to smash a head into the wall, but that is besides the point.
Yes, lawyers are still the worse.
+|+|+
The rest of the Minut Mart is totally trashed. There’s blood, gore, and parts and pieces of bodies all over the place. Almost as soon as Kolan had entered the men’s restroom he’d been set upon by some giant ant-looking things that are probably the reason why.
< Killer Ant (Worker Variant) | Level 2 | 15 / 15 HP >
They seem to wander around the place in groups of between three and five, but their only redeeming feature are the knife-like blades at the end of their front forearms. The rest of their limbs look just like regular insect limbs. They also had one glaring weakness that Kolan is able to capitalize on almost instantly upon seeing them.
Their large insect eyes are front and center and not protected at all.
Using the mop he’d picked up on leaving the bathroom, he’s easily able to smash the ants right in the head. The eyes would pop like water balloons, causing the ants to jerk and convulse and collapse onto the floor.
-10 (CRIT!)
Almost every time it is the same, although the first time he ran into the ants they nearly gave him a heart attack. For something the size of a dog and actually fairly heavy in all of that chitin-like exoskeleton plates, they make almost no noise at all. Fucking ghosts ants, really.
Not that they were really able to gang up on him due to his Sense Presence skill. Even with it being at the lowest level, he can still feel them coming, as if being pinged off of a radar in his head. It was cool, but definitely felt a little weird.
The first group of four that attacked him right outside the restroom ends up disappearing in a sudden release of sparkles, leaving behind two arm-blades and a single piece of Killer Ant shell.
He picks them up curiously, but isn’t able to spy any other information about them other than the names.
Well, whatever.
Going through the store, he hunts for any survivors or anyone left alive and only finds death, destruction, and gore all over the place. Thankfully he cannot smell it through his own stench. That said, he still ends up running into rummaging groups of those ants every couple of minutes as they seem to patrol the aisles.
It is only after he’s already halfway across the store does he realize that the lights are off and the sounds of the air condition is gone, leaving the place echoing a bit like a cave. Which is odd, cause he can look over his shoulder and still see the lights from the restrooms he’d only just left.
A little further on, and having beat another group of five ants, he realizes that he doesn’t have enough space in his pockets to carry any more of the drops. It is at that point that he realizes that he’s being stupid. Absolutely an idiot.
He’s in a seemingly destroyed store. He knows where the backpacks are, along with a seemingly endless list of things that could be potentially useful, if not life saving. Like a rather nice first aid kit.
And matches, oil, along with other survival gear.
Hell, there’s an entire aisle with nothing but outdoor stuff and cookout/BBQ equipment nearby.
So he turns around and makes his way in that direction. Most of the aisles have been gone through, but instead of taken it is more like shit had just been knocked off the shelves and left scattered across the floor.
He does end up heading back towards the back, where he encounters a totally different type of ant.
< Killer Ant (Soldier Variant) | Level 4 | 25 / 25 HP >
These guys are bigger, more heavily armed and armored, and have protective bony crests that partially cover their eyes as well as sharp mandibles. Thankfully they are also rather slow, and stupid. At least the worker ants tend to attack in groups.
These guys however only attack one on one, as if they were knights or some shit.
That works out well for Kolan, cause it takes him a bit to figure out how to beat one after receiving a gash across his chest.
-7
It made him mad enough to break the end of the mop across the ant’s head, stunning it and leaving him with a jagged end to the mop handle. It turns out to be almost perfect as a spear, which he jabs into one of the ant’s eyes.
Instant Death!
Nice! Although when he pulls his makeshift spear back, he realizes that the end of it is holding a chunk of ant brain at the end. He’s still staring at it when the ant he’d just killed disappears, dropping a larger piece of it’s shell.
But the brain matter at the end of his spear doesn’t disappear.
It does gross him out a bit when he touches it to remove it as the next ant moves up to attack him.
Okay, that’s new. And then he almost face palms, but is stopped by the soldier ant who is already rushing at him.
“Great, now I feel like an idiot again!”
Yep, this world has definitely gone fucking crazy.
+|+|+
Hi hi! It is that time again. I hope you guys enjoy the chapter!
Next chapter will feature a real boss battle! Hahahahahaha.
Or maybe not. Really depends on how it goes.
Also, there will be more information on just about everything. I have left things a little vague on purpose, but that'll clear up soon!
I hope you guys enjoy it! And as always, feel free to leave comments, suggestions, criticisms and other such nonsense!