Chương 37: Chapter Thirty Six

Bob continued staring at the entry for more than a few moments, only interrupting himself by briefly checking 'Treasure Sense' to insure he wasn't about to be overrun by a sudden mass of enemies. Admittedly, some of his prior Skill options had been a bit odd.

'Lesser Crushing Tongue' not exactly being an expected evolution for 'Constrict', after all. However, they'd all previously had at least some connecting tether to the Skill currently being transformed. And he wasn't sure 'Viscous Form' did. Turning into a lump of ooze, in fact, possibly being the antithesis of 'dodging'. As well as not being something he expected from a Skill evolution in the first place. Still, it wasn't like staring at it any further was going to give him an explanation.

And, luckily, he had a far better Skill to choose in place of it anyway.

'Mindful Evasion' seeming like an excellent choice even if it wasn't the only decent one available to him. Especially when you considered the addition of 'Battle Meditation' to his roster. The two of them seeming custom built to work with each other. And, with that said, there wasn't really anything to do but finalize his decision. Ding! You have chosen to evolve Dodge (E) into Mindful Evasion (D)! Reaction Time Massively increased! Restricted to 'Clairvoyance' route for 'Dodge' Skill Congratulations!

Bob smiled at the window, already feeling like he'd massively increased his combat strength with just the addition of the last two skills. Before he then noticed something that had that smile quickly disappearing. He didn't gain any bonus attributes from the evolution. He had with all of them so far. Both 'Bite' and 'Constrict' giving him four bonus points each from their transformation. So, what had happened here?

It took only a few moments of Bob puzzling it out before he realized the common factor his other two skills, and perhaps options like 'viscous form, had that 'Mindful Evasion' lacked. And when he did, a sudden shiver of anxiety zipped through his joints. A feeling that perhaps he'd overlooked something he shouldn't have. Because, unlike 'Toothless Grasp' or 'Lesser Crushing Tongue', 'Mindful Evasion' remained just a Skill. An ability he could toggle on and off.

At least if the requirements for its activation were met. The other two weren't. They were something more. Something that had become part of his Body. Their abilities active in his every movement. And Bob was beginning to think that maybe he hadn't considered the full implication of that until now. With a thought, he swapped 'Mindful Evasion' out for 'Beginner Rope Weapon Mastery'. The sensation of a Skill Transfer slapping him in the face like it always did.

Leaving him dizzy and unstable for a few moments afterwards. Then, he tried to do the same thing with 'Toothless Grasp'. The agony which immediately ripped through him was extraordinary. A horrible tearing sensation which eclipsed every other pain he'd so far encountered. One which echoed through his mind and body simultaneously. One which, something deep within him knew, would result in egregious damage if not stopped. His mind screamed at the system to cease its attempts and, luckily, it listened.

The iron grip it had on fragments of his soul and anatomy suddenly released. Leaving Bob slumped over on the ancient tile floor. Wooden body shivering despite lacking the nervous system required for such an autonomic response. It took almost ten minutes before he felt well enough to pick himself back up. And, even then, parts of his body still felt numb. Like he'd gone to the dentist and gotten a dose of Novocain, but somehow stopped them before they'd gone through with ripping his teeth out.

All of which left Bob deciding that, perhaps, he had made a fairly serious mistake. And not just because of the torturous amount of pain he'd just gone through. Once he'd regained the ability to broadly function, Bob realized that he had essentially lost himself two Skill slots. Skill slots it would cost immense fortunes to replace. Skill slots whose occupants seemed likely to top out at or before rank 'C'. With him now unable to ever change them. At least not without potentially killing himself during the process.

Fuming and not currently willing to evolve another Skill without a decent amount of thought, Bob began storming his way back up the stairs. Intent on processing all of this information in a safer setting. Though that didn't stop him from also furiously ranting to himself about it on the way up. For 'Toothless Grasp' he could almost forgive himself. Though the option sounded weird, it was also the only one he had access to that could further evolve.

He also had no idea until it happened that the strange skill would 'merge' with his body. Though the fact that he didn't question it, and had in fact even celebrated it during the moment, certainly didn't leave him blameless. Unfortunately, none of this was true when considering 'Constrict'. Not only had he already been aware – and should have been suspicious – of the transformative nature of some of these evolutions, but he also had access to numerous other choices! Good ones too!

Ones which might have worked just as well without stripping him of his options down the line. He imagined this… whatever it was had something to do with him being a sapient monster. It was almost like he had halfway transformed a 'Skill' into a 'Trait', after all. With the resulting product now being permanently grafted to his body. Something he'd just gormlessly accepted as a 'normal event' without giving it any other consideration Not that he could even say that with any authority.

He was still broadly ignorant of the System and its functions, much less how anything else operated in this insane universe. It being hard not to be when the vast majority of his time here had been spent both at the bottom of a cave and underwater. By the time Bob finally made it back to the fourth floor, his burning rage had mostly died down to a few glowing embers. Him still being furious with himself, but now far more able to view things in an objective manner. Which is what he attempted to do.

Pacing up and down a long corridor as he tried to reevaluate his situation with a slightly cooler head. If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. Eventually realizing that, much like with the Class Ranking situation, he needed to do his best to try and think about this from a positive angle; rather than a negative one. Those two Skill slots weren't gone. They were just permanently occupied.

And frankly, though he would admit to some fears for the future, they happened to be permanently occupied by two of his more useful abilities. The value of 'Lesser Crushing Tongue' was fairly indisputable; given that without it he wouldn't be able to kill anything past low E-Rank. And while 'Toothless Grasp' might, from a distance, seem less than vital, the malleability it granted his body was made use of in almost every action.

Calmed slightly, he could accept that even when ignoring the attribute boosts these 'merged' Skills seemed far stronger than their similarly ranked counterparts. Both 'Dodge' and 'Taunt' being nowhere near as powerful or versatile as what 'Bite' and 'Constrict' had become at rank 'E'. But that power, versatility and the… augmentation of his body came with a price. That being a permanent change to his form and two Skill slots likely to be halted in growth at 'D' and 'C' rank respectively.

Something he still couldn't help but feel more than a little enraged about. He only had five total, after all. One seemingly inherent and the rest granted each time he gained five species levels. He'd hoped to gain an additional slot when he evolved back to level one, but was left disappointed. Still, at least now he knew what to look out for. The 'merger' options being quite apparent, in retrospect. And, to be fair, he wasn't certain that the two Skills would be capped at 'D' and 'C' either.

It being entirely possible that there could be multiple evolution choices even when restricted to a set path. And, after a few more moments of pacing, Bob realized that perhaps he shouldn't be so focused on trying to avoid these 'merged' Skills anyway. Perhaps instead he should be seeking them out. Not the pointless or disadvantageous ones, of course. He didn't want to turn his body into an ooze or waste a Skill slot over something that would only be useful in combat. But he did want to transform his body.

And he was feeling less and less certain that any 'Trait' he could select on the 'Mimic' tree was going to get him where he wanted. Not to mention the massive exponential cost that each level would require. Even doing his damnedest, Bob wasn't certain that he'd be able to make it to his next evolution. And that would only bag him two traits in the first place. With Skills though, he could acquire a seemingly infinite number. Only limited by which ones he could actively use at a given time.

And who's to say that one of those infinite Skills wouldn't have an evolution to make him more… human. Or at least less like a box. There was still the issue of his current merged Skills, of course. It being a bit hard to pass as human with a massive, engorged tongue and wide, engulfing lips; but Bob decided that those issues could be left for further down the road. And until then, he had another Skill Evolution to take care of. One he was feeling much more excited for than he had just a few minutes ago.

Even if he realized that the chances of him instantly happening upon an evolution which fit his still largely undefined criteria were slim to none. Ding!

You have Chosen to evolve ' Taunt (E)' Possible Evolutions: Improved Taunt (D) The basic evolution for Taunt (E) Improved luring and aggravating ability as compared to Taunt (E) End of evolutionary route Requirements: Taunt (E) Level: 20 Remote Provocation (D) (Astral Projection) Path based evolution for Taunt (E) Allows 'Taunt' to be activated from a remote location Opens (Astral Projection) Path for (Taunt) Skill Requirements: Taunt (E) Level: 20, Willpower: 80, (Detection) path Class Skill, use of 'Taunt' from a distance.

Tempting Display (D) (Aura) based evolution for Taunt (E) Upon viewing the possessor, creatures will be affected by 'Taunt' Opens (Aura) route for (Taunt) Skill Requirements: Taunt (E) Level: 20, Possession of a 'Mind Control' Trait Calming Words (D) (Taming) based evolution for Taunt (E) Makes affected targets unwilling to attack the user Opens (Taming) route for (Taunt) Skill Requirements: Taunt (E) Level: 20, Use of Taunt (E) to illicit help from a creature As Bob looked over his options, he honestly felt his excitement begin to drain.

Especially once he got to 'Tempting Display'; the obvious 'merge' Skill being very, very far away from any requirements he might one day have. Part of him honestly being terrified to have it still on the screen in front of him at all. Worried that he might doom himself by accidentally selecting it. Which might be something of an issue, since Bob wasn't sure he wanted to pick any of the options he currently had access to.

Considering, for the first time, trying to see if he could get any different possible evolutions to pop up later. Of his choices, 'Remote Provocation' definitely looked the best on paper. Heck, it basically just reformatted the Skill to fit his current usage. With Bob expecting that at the very least the potency loss over distance would likely disappear. Unfortunately, that seemed to be all the evolution would do; with the ability's general strength remaining unchanged.

Bob being forced to grind it up an additional who-knows-how-many levels just to get it up at the same power as 'Improved Taunt'. Which, functionally, meant he'd be better off to just chose 'Improved Taunt', tank the potency loss over distance – considering it would still put him at around the same strength level as 'Remote Provocation' at range – and save himself the time and effort of trying to grind the Skill all the way to Rank 'C'. Which, frankly, he probably would have done.

That is, if it wasn't for the very idea of choosing a dead-end, base level Skill making him feel sick to his nonexistent stomach. A sense of nausea which wasn't lessened as he turned his attention to his final option. He supposed a certain sub-set of people would have jumped for joy at seeing a 'Taming' Skill pop up, but Bob wasn't one of them.

Setting aside the fact that choosing the evolution would deprive him of his ability to draw enemies in, all his memories of attempting to tame monsters in rpgs were that it was time extensive, finicky and annoying. Plus, he had no interest in acquiring a pet crab. Eventually, Bob decided not to make a choice. For experimentations sake, if nothing else. He wouldn't find himself in any way weakened by sticking with the original 'Taunt' after all, so he might as well see if he could get something better.

Besides, it wasn't like he didn't have other Skills he needed to focus on leveling. Especially since, given his injuries, he doubted he'd be leaving the fourth floor anytime soon.