CH26: Skill Trees

Black slippery flesh covered in mucus stretched and expanded continuously as he finally hit lvl100 in rank 1. Cracks echoed through his body as fortify adapted to his growing body using his human skill as a blueprint. It had been a day since reaching lvl100, and his body continued to stretch and lengthen. D+ charisma altered his face from a rubbery mask to a semblance of his former self. Unfortunately couldn't do anything for his oversized nose or big lips. Instead of ears, two lumps grew on his head, bulging and seemingly open like the mouths of wells. His shoulders thickened like a bodybuilder's, and his thighs had a gap. It was the first time in either life experiencing the sensation of a gap between his thighs. He had been a bit of a fatty back in the day. His weak impulse control had made buying sweets easy.

He stared at five cows lying unmoving after his feeding. Parasyte reached the initiate rank and opened the door to a new facet of the skill. Silas had a draining instance focused on health on top of the stat drain instances from leech.

Health: 450 C

Mana: 200 D 120%

Stamina: 150 D-

Constitution: 175 D 130%

Regeneration: 75 E+

Strength: 425 C

Speed: 75 E+

Charisma: 175 D 107%

Skills: 25 E-

Stat Points: 140

Cows didn't have a lot of charisma to give someone with 175 charisma, and they didn't have many points in skills. However, health, constitution, and strength were things cows had in spades, which made draining them more than worth it. C rank strength was nothing to scoff at. Of course, the little bit of mana he gained from them also helped. Without it fortify or no, he would have fallen apart under his own growing strength. Still, that didn't change the fact that he had become incredibly powerful in a short time.

After days of agonizing, his growth settled, and Silas slowly got up. The world around him was still large, and he couldn't reach the top of the cage, but he had grown. It was more than he thought possible. He went from 8 inches tall to 2 and a half feet. While it wouldn't put him in the same weight class as a human, it was better than being tiny.

He felt at his head and poked the round earholes that grew on the sides of his face. Silas rubbed the roof of his mouth with his tongue, then stuck it out nearly 3 inches before reeling it back in his mouth. His strength stat had worked overtime by the size of his thighs and arms. Muscles bulged across his body thicker than ever, and he was only in C rank strength. It was still a long way to B rank, even with a 5 times multiplier on his strength potential. Stella said big players made big plays; what would he have to lift to up his strength.

Something else was different with him as well. He opened his mouth and spoke. "Hello, world." It wasn't the sexy baritone he was hoping for. Instead, his voice sounded squeaky, like he imagined a goblin might sound.

"Wow, you can talk; that's impressive," Zacharia said.

"You're nearly the same height as goblins are at the lower end, so with some growth hormones, you should rise to about 4ft."

"You asked about stat point allocation the other day. What was that about?" He asked.

"Survival goes to those who are most adaptive. So the smartest thing to do when you have free points is to put them into your skills stat. It will help your skills improve more quickly and grant you access to skills rarely given by the system."

"So it's to give me more options, alright."

Silas dumped 100 points into skills

Skills 125 D-

"Oh, someone willing to follow my advice that's rare. That makes me feel bad about what I'm going to do next."

Silas turned to see that the wooden wall had been slid out of the way and the bars separating him from the goblins opened. One of the bug-eyed creatures flashed its fangs before shooting off toward him. He stumbled back on large clumsy feet as the goblin closed in. It lunged without hesitation and chomped down with its black teeth.

Despite their similar height, the goblin had a few pounds over him, and the other goblins were hot on the first one's heels.

Silas struck out with his fist and punched the goblin biting him in its big, crooked nose. He felt the monster squawk, but it held on as Silas bashed it hard against the ground in a rage. His C rank strength cracked the goblin's head open like a rotten melon bursting sour-smelling brain matter all over the floor of his cell.

Silas rose and turned to the two goblins lunging for his arms. He turned to the side and flashed his thick meaty tail. The long appendage rammed through the air like an out-of-control train. He felt their weak bodies break when his tail connected, shattering their bones and launching them across the cage.

He felt a sharp pain in his back and lashed out, barely clipping his attacker. Blood seeped down his back and wouldn't stop. The last goblin looked at him with a grin that made her long nose and floppy ears all the more hideous. The creature didn't have much charisma judging by her appearance.

After a moment of bleeding profusely, his regeneration finally kicked in, and he felt the wound close. She lunged again, and he swatted the knife out of her hand and caught her with his tail. The bone dagger in her hand had been inscribed with strange symbols. He had no idea what it meant and didn't want to deal with it any longer.

New Skills

Pugilist: 2% Beginner – Gain instances of harden on the user's fists when fighting hand to hand.

Initiate Threshold – Defeat 10 enemies with hand to hand.

Smash: 1% Beginner – Inflict instances of weaken when attacking while unarmed.

Initiate Threshold – Defeat 10 enemies by smashing them into things.

Crowd Control – Inflict instances of Intimidate when fighting multiple enemies

Initiate Threshold – Defeat 10 crowds of enemies.

Function Unlocked Skill Fusion

When the user has 2 or more similar skills, they can be combined to form a skill tree.

Silas looked and found that not all skills could be combined, so he decided to handle his three new skills.

Skills Fused

New Uncommon rarity Skill Tree

Onslaught 1% Beginner – Gain instances of indomitable for every active unarmed skill.

Initiate Threshold – 5 unarmed skills reach initiate.

He was really getting some skills, and hopefully, they would help him in the Colosseum.