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Brutalis: The crucible of life

Ethan, was a young boy was thrust from his childhood into one of loneliness and despair due to the actions of a dark cult that he was raised in. After the cult that he grew up in called Tenebrosus used him as a sacrifice to bring forth their dark god Zaggoth. He was broken as a person due to the stress of watching his family being eaten in front of him. This was set up to become the vessel for the dark god Zaggoth, Zaggoth wanted a new host to bring the world into despair and darkness. This is the story of Ethan's journey into the world of Brutalis, a world of brutal monsters and evolution. I am going to put a warning here, the first couple of chapters are very dark. If you cannot handle that, I would suggest maybe skimming it. However, it does play a part into why Ethan is the way he is as they are important to the story. But chapter 3 and on is more light hearted in certain scenes.

Jason_Coonce · Fantasy
Not enough ratings
26 Chs

Chapter 15: Q&A

Ethan got his answers, as well as a snack. Ethan had gathered quite a bit of mutogene, especially since he had just upgraded all of his skills to 10. Which had cleaned him out, which sounds good and all. But the information he had gathered was not so good, it sounds like Cassiopeia and Davek were tier 2 cult members.

Which honestly, if Ethan had not been working on upgrading himself so much and was so careful to hide his abilities. It would not have played out the way it did, that just goes to show that these "cultists of light" do not mess around. Especially since apparently they eat and use monster remains to get to freakish powers.

" Honestly, if they were only Tier 2 I would hate to see what Tier 3 and above would look like.. Especially with my current level of strength. I really need to lay low and grow my strength until I do not need to be worried about showing myself."

Little did Ethan know that this was just the tip of the iceberg.

"This cult is way larger than it looks, not only that. But well equipped and well informed... a veritable army. Also, it sounds like they can gather information about this world at a startling rate... in fact they found me rather easily, and it seems like all they did was watch the populations.... Oh, if I slowed my rate of eating monsters and cherry picked the larger ones and kept underground as well as utilizing my swarm-lings more for hunting and made it so only a few of them would go missing and allow the population to build back up , So that I will be harder to track down until I am ready. I cannot let them find me until then, if I do? I will be dead especially after killing some of their people. I cant let myself get a big head just because I took down some of their members."

"That was my mistake, maybe there are some mutations on buffing up my swarm-lings? I will have to look into that." Ethan ended his monologue.

As Ethan was digesting the information about the Church of light he realized something. If he was going to survive here... and get his revenge. He would have to kill and consume humans... they would be trying to do the same to him, in fact had he been any weaker... this would have already happened. They place themselves over others morally but in truth... they are no better than monsters in Ethan's eyes.

" I cant feel bad about killing them, If I let my emotions govern me I will be killed. There is no other way currently, once I am strong enough I can change my policy. But you need strength to protect yourself, those without strength cannot protect anything. Let alone themselves."

In fact, they may even be worse due to the fact that they feel morally superior while they are killing and devouring monsters, at least monsters do not kid themselves they know what they are doing is not exactly looked kindly upon. But you do what you need to if you want to survive.

Ethan decided to look at his stats to see how the best way to super charge his growth.

Ethan

Species: Cheiracanthium inclusum (swarm queen)

Gender: Female

Power level 10

Strength: 80

Agility: 70

Intelligence: 80

Luck: 55

Vitality: 110

Mutations:

Sparking Mandibles +10

Armored legs+10

Paralytic Webbing +10

Mind control Venom+10

Rapid Swarm-ling hatchery +10

Compressed swarm-ling ducts+10

Mutogene bank : 1000

Ethan was thinking to himself " okay, I have a couple options. I could upgrade everything to lvl 13 which would give me great overall stats and power. But, if I am trying to go for a particular build. Like in this case, I would need to focus on my swarm-lings and things to hold creatures down until they are finished off. If I do that, I will have to let my other body parts fall to the wayside. But I would be way more efficient in that field, so it will be a gamble... but I think it will be worth it. It's better to go for a tried and true build and then build around the weaknesses. "

" I will double down on swarming everything with numbers and poison for the time being. After those skills are powerful and can hold their own with higher tier monsters, I can focus on the other portions of my skills. " Ethan thought to himself " I am going to make myself into a walking siege engine."

With that, Ethan planned out an attack plan. I will go ahead and focus on upgrading on the hatchery and the ducts as well as the webbing. If Ethan did that, his other stats would only make it to 11.

With that being thought out, Ethan made his choices and instead of branching out on the mutations. Ethan decided to stick with the same ones but enhance them to get the 100 percent bonus on those skills. Plus the fact that the stats would become permanent and unlock that upgrade and allow me to add an additional upgrade on the next milestone.

Now Ethan's stats looked like this.

Ethan

Species: Cheiracanthium inclusum (swarm queen)

Gender: Female

Power level 11

Strength: 80

Agility: 70

Intelligence: 80

Luck: 55

Vitality: 110

Mutations:

Sparking Mandibles +11

Armored legs+11

Paralytic Webbing +15

Mind control Venom+11

Rapid Swarm-ling hatchery +15

Compressed swarm-ling ducts+15