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Chapter 63- A New Skill
🕑 Added 2023-03-14 23:59:00 +0000 UTCEther: 2910/3230.
It was time to get this show on the road.
With the fact that he had already regenerated so much of his reserves after the healing operation, he was practically full, though he couldn't really disclose that piece of information to anyone.
He wasn't quite ready to explain his absurd ether supplies to the government yet, especially after the most recent stunt they had pulled with Artemo, irrespective of the fact that it apparently wasn't a prearranged action. He was sure the bracelet of monitoring aligned with a lot of their agendas and they wouldn’t be so averse to using it if Alyssia hadn’t caught them red-handed. Heck professor Jhonson would probably be getting rewarded right now if that was the case instead of going through the 'interrogation' he was currently in. Arthur shook his head, trying to clear his mind of all the distracting thoughts racing through them. He wasn't strong enough to change how the world worked, and people operated however they wanted to. To be honest, he didn’t even want to. His own abilities and skills, however, were things he was very keen on upgrading and that was why he was so excited to use the core in front of him. Bryan had said that it was apparently from a level 140 Water-claw Kingfisher, a rare evolution of the more mundane kingfisher that utilised devastating water and wind magic to bring down their prey from a long range. Such abilities would suit his repertoire very well if his luck netted him any water-based magic skill from consuming the core.
The primary purpose was, of course, the Perception attribute he dearly hoped the core would net him.
It only took him 30 seconds to have enough blood prepared within his trusty Ikea bowl that had somehow evolved over the past few days. That tool had some terrifying growth speed apparently. One day, it may even out-level him if he didn't get his game up.
Placing the greyish, silver core into the red liquid, he waited the 20 seconds it took to liquefy before identifying the now light blue solution.
Elixir of the coming tide (Rare) - An elixir created in the hopes that through its consumption, one can gain a portion of the strength that produced the core within it. Chance of success 96%.
Arthur smiled for a second at the badass-sounding name, before drinking the elixir. The taste honestly amazed him. It was like he was drinking from the purest water he had ever had the blessing to encounter, all other beverages piss-poor in comparison and he felt all his cells energise as if he’d been injected with some high-octane fuel.
The experience was so amazing that he felt as if the entire world suddenly opened up to him properly like he had been observing it with his eyes half-closed the entire time. Wait, no, he really was seeing things he never had before. He was pretty sure he shouldn't be able to count the hairs on a fly almost 200 meters away as it was flying through the sky. Even his hearing seemed to have gotten better and the sound of his heartbeat was like a loud drum in his chest, his blood like flowing streams of vitality.
Arthur felt himself get dizzy and nauseous as he tried to adapt to his heightened senses. Is this what a trip feels like? Did it work? Am I gonna spontaneously explode?
Nothing of this sort had happened any of the previous times he had consumed a core, and for a brief moment, he thought something had gone terribly wrong. Or terribly right.
Arthur sat down on a chair and closed his eyes trying to calm himself down as he slowly breathed in and out. It took him 3 minutes before he felt well enough to re-open his eyes, but he had to quickly close them again when his brain was bombarded with a slew of visual stimuli it wasn’t able to handle. It felt like a needle was being driven through his pupils. Arthur’s breathing rapidly intensified as he felt himself begin to panic. Oh shit! Did I fuck up? He thought to himself, mentally reviewing everything he had done while creating the elixir. There were no inconsistencies compared to his prior works and he could see nothing wrong in his methodology.
Suddenly, he felt another infusion of energy enter his body, though this one was much more subdued, more a consolidation of energy than an absorption if he was being perfectly honest. Yet it felt like his soul and body had changed at a fundamental level.
The next time he opened his eyes, Arthur was relieved to find that he had no troubles with his sight besides his absurdly advanced vision. He however had no idea what to make of the system message that lay before him. It explained away his enhanced senses, though he wasn't sure if that was a good or bad thing. Congratulations! You have absorbed a portion of the Water-Claw Kingfisher’s powers for yourself.
Error...
Cannot assign stat points...
The attribute does not exist...
Error...
Detecting changes in the host’s soul. The host's soul is undergoing significant changes...
Congratulations!
You have gained the stat: perception...
Assigning stat points
Perception- 92
Arthur wasn’t entirely sure what to make of the new attribute he had just unlocked. On the one hand, he knew it was useful from what Alyssia had told him, and yet he wasn’t certain exactly how much it would help him.
Sadly, time constraints hadn’t allowed Alyssia to go into too many details on what exactly perception entailed. He’d gotten the gist of it. It’d help him perceive things better, and absorb sensory data at a rate that honestly broke the laws of physics a little. It’d let him hear sound while travelling faster than it if Alyssia was to be believed.
The core that he obtained the attribute from was found inside an animal whose entire build must have revolved around that specific attribute, which meant something. It couldn’t be all bad if that was the case, could it? But then again, the creature had died to some relatively weak humans which wasn’t too reassuring.
Arthur was worried that he now had another sinkhole into which he would have to pour his stats when he levelled up. Whilst the attribute was currently his lowest at 92, he had no doubt that that wouldn’t remain the case when he started to level up and he wasn’t sure if his soul affinity advantages would be able to handle the extra expenditure.
The new line of growth that Arthur had also opened the door to many new questions. He had no idea just how many different kinds of attributes there were out there and he didn’t want to get stuck with something useless like ‘likeability’ or ‘friendliness’ just because he couldn’t control his gluttonous appetite and penchant for strange monster cores.
Arthur now knew that the number of cores he could consume was limited and he didn’t want to spend his remaining few unlocking attributes that he’d never invest in. It was the fifth so far and Arthur felt that he’d be able to probably stomach one or two more before he had to go for the ‘superior’ one and fix up his soul.
Arthur had no idea how he knew any of that, only that it was what his gut was telling him, and he wasn’t one to ignore its warnings. Perhaps it was his soul affinity feeding him this information. He wasn’t too sure.
Mathematically speaking, it seemed that he could only stomach around one monster core per ten levels that he had and then maybe a little more due to his soul affinity.
He had no idea and absolutely no way to obtain any information regarding it. Arthur sighed wearily, why did things have to be so complicated in life?
Now even the simple-seeming diet he was on had to be regulated. Still, Arthur was glad that the new attribute he had unlocked was apparently very useful. It would be a great boon in the future, but as it was currently, it would only help him see and hear things better than before. He wasn’t quite finished though, as Arthur still had another notification to check from the system. He prayed that it was the water skill he had so ardently wished for and wasn’t disappointed when he read the blue message.
It was just the skill he needed in his arsenal.
You have gained the skill: Water Bullet (Uncommon+)
