Webnovel / Fantasy / Brutalis: The crucible of life

#SYSTEM #WEAKTOSTRONG #OVERPOWERED #SURVIVAL #GENIUS #ANTIHERO #VIDEOGAME #HIGHIQ #MUTATION

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 6: Baby steps

Ethan looked through the screen that popped up in his vision, apparently he had gotten 5 mutogene from the mouse and 10 for completing the mission. Ethan wasn't sure how to use this, but he for sure was going to find out.

The system showed several menus that Ethan could go through. The first one was mutations, the second one underneath that was grayed out but it listed evolutions, the one underneath that was also grayed out it was listed as quests. " interesting, this is just like a video game... but with much higher stakes. I will not be able to take any chances this early on." Ethan pondered to himself.

Ethan opened the mutations tab and a new screen popped up and the lady robot voice came back. " Congratulations! You have made it past the initial tutorial you have exceeded what <35%> of subjects... I mean soldiers, have done. You have unlocked the ability to mutate your body and enhance your killing potential. You can afford to upgrade mandibles, your legs, and or your webbing. Please choose an option. " The screen opened up and it showed the three options, an upgrade to his mandibles that increases the damage they do by 5 percent. His legs, which allowed him to move 5 percent faster and were 5 percent stronger. Or lastly, his webbing that allowed his webbing to slow and capture enemies 5 percent faster..... "Being as I am an ambush predator and I am pretty weak at this moment I should probably lean into the stealth aspect and go with webbing." Ethan chose webbing and he felt a burning sensation that was NOT pleasant as he felt things churning and moving back there. As soon as it started it was done.

"Congratulations! You are now 1% percent harder to kill! Well on your way slugger" The female robot voice said as the screen closed. Then another screen popped up, You have now unlocked the quests feature. " Please accept the following quest, I am a big boy now! " As the female robot spoke, that same demeaning quest popped up. Ethan looked at it and accepted it. The quest asked him to kill and devour 20 creatures.

" Oh, well I am getting hungry again. It's time to try out this whole web thing." Ethan thought to himself.

Just then a new screen popped up with the cartoon style once again " This again?" Ethan said, sort of chuckling.

Hiamel spoke up as he appeared next to Ethan " Hey..... shut up and listen, these are skills that you will need."

Before Ethan could retort the robotic female voice chimed again as it projected knowledge of how to build a web into Ethans mind as well as showing him how to do it on the screen. A cartoon spider appeared and started building a web. " Build a web to trap your food and foes, once the target comes into contact with your web, it will alert you and stick to the target allowing you to finish the target. " To showcase this, a cartoon moth flew into the web and the spider sped out towards the moth and the moth held a thumbs up towards the screen just before the spider was going to bite down it held a thumbs up as well.

"Okay that is easy enough I suppose, nothing to do except do it." Ethan said to Hiamel as he left the hollow with Hiamel in tow.

Ethan didn't think he could take any of the larger creatures that seemed to fly above the treeline, so he went to the forest floor and began building his web.... It sucked. " Well, try again." Ethan kept working on it and reinforcing it until a serviceable web showed up in the place of the janky one Ethan then pulled a strand of webbing from his gland and attached it to the web and pulled it with him as he moved around and up the tree a bit.

"Now we play the waiting game," Ethan said to himself as he waited.

20 minutes later Ethan felt a tug on the web, soon enough another and another and frantic tugging. Ethan rushed around the tree and saw that he caught what amounted to a small snake. Trapped in the web. Ethan rushed out and immediately started wrapping the target in webbing and then biting down into it to inject venom into it. " This is too big to carry back up there, I will have to remove it and eat it here." Ethan inserted that hard tube from his mouth into the snake and started enjoying his smoothie. Once Ethan was done, he removed the snake husk from the web as he received a notification that he had received 30 mutogenes from the snake and another odd notification. "Venom has been upgraded due to finding a stronger venom to enhance it, Venom is now +3 and is now 3 times as powerful." Ethan froze as he read that " Wait what??! I can enhance my abilities by finding and eating stronger versions?... my growth is going to be quick if I am careful." Ethan started looking at each roar and movement in the giant forest as possible food.

Ethan then heard Hiamel speak up, " say stats. It will give you an idea as to where you are at."

"Wow, literally like a video game. Stats" Just as Ethan thought it, a screen popped up and gave him a list of stats that belonged to him.

Ethan

Species: Cheiracanthium inclusum (infant)

Gender: Female

Power level 3

Strength: 25

Agility: 30

Intelligence: 45

Luck: 15

Vitality: 30

Mutations:

Mandibles +1

Legs +1

Webbing +2

Venom+3

"How am I level 3 from just killing a mouse and a snake?" Ethan pondered, " wait, is it because my venom is level 3? If it was level 2, would I currently be at level 2?" Ethan said to Hiamel.

"Wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong, Wait.... No your right, i'm surprised. " Hiamel replied back with a sad tone " your power level is from the highest skill and or mutation in your body." Hiamel said.

"Interesting, okay let's look at what options I have available." Ethan said to Hiamel.

Ethan opened up the mutation screen and took a look at what options he had to upgrade. Being as his venom is already +3 I should focus on the others to round them out." Ethan looked at the mandibles and the legs first, as he was adding them to be upgraded he noticed the species and his gender... " What is a Cheiracanthium inclusum?... also what in the absolute hell, I am a girl spider?!" Ethan sounded quite dismayed.

"Well of course you're a female spider!" Hiamel said matter of factly. "Female spiders have the most options for evolution and not only that, they are usually sturdier and more powerful than male counterparts. So for the best chance of success, you were made into a female spider."

"I am not completely convinced that this isn't some sort of joke, but no use crying over spilt genders." Ethan said to himself as he purchased the legs and mandibles upgrades bringing them to level 2 each.

His new stats look like this.