Chapter 0021. Metamorphosis

After landing on the squishy mushroom, I was still trying to comprehend my situation when I got another message.

[HP has been regenerated to the max.]

[Mana has been regenerated to the max.]

'Woah!'

Now that's called speed!

The increased HP and mana regeneration were already doing wonders.

'Wait, when more people discover this place, won't this become like an Eden for the duellers?'

It was true.

Many people liked duelling in the game, yet when they fought in the duel mode, it wasn't as thrilling.

What if they found a place where their mana and HP regenerated by 200% more than what they are used to? They would go insane with happiness.

Putting all that aside, I looked around to see if there were any people or monsters nearby, but I couldn't find any.

Then I started thinking about the quest.

'What is this prophecy? And what candidate position am I even fighting for? Is this some kind of government job joke that I don't understand?'

Not to mention, it was a chained quest with an 'S' level of difficulty. Common sense would say to turn down the quest and get the fuck out of this Abyss. Even if it looked like a paradise, there was little to no chance that an 'S' ranked quest would not be unimaginably difficult.

The ratings of quests in-game weren't for show, they were directly proportional to what a player can face while trying to complete a mission of this rating.

On top of that, a chained quest of 'B' or 'A' grade can be as difficult as a normal 'S' grade quest, that's how rare and absurdly hard chain quests were to complete.

The only good thing about chained quests was the amount of story, and world lore that one could understand while completing it, and the enormous rewards that came with it.

The quest acceptance reward seemed really lucrative, its name alone was enough to warrant my curiosity. But what made me even more sure about the quest was the quest cancellation penalty.

If I canceled the quest, I would be thrown out of Abyss.

Again, common sense would say that's for the best. Who would want to stay in the Abyss, but…

"Fuck common sense! Sanity is overrated anyway."

It was time to go crazy!

"I accept the quest!"

[You have accepted the quest!]

[You have gained 'Metamorphosis (Limited)' as the quest acceptance reward.]

To me, that quest cancellation penalty seemed like missing out on a once-in-a-lifetime chance. And I really didn't want to miss out on it, no matter what the sane mind inside of me was telling me.

But first.

"How the fuck do I get down from here?"

I looked at the scenery below me and the height was the same as when I was falling from the mountain. Falling from here would mean death. My character wasn't on a level where it could handle a big free fall without dying.

Slowly walking at the edge of the mushroom, I looked below. On the other side of the mushroom was the stream. The stream didn't look deep enough to balance a fall, so I would need to think of something else.

Just then, I saw a bunch of giant leaves by the stream and just a bit far away from the mushroom.

"That's a bit too far."

What should I do?

Suddenly, an invisible bulb formed just above my head. Instead of thinking things through and hesitating, I activated [Camouflage].

Running to the other end of the giant mushroom, I stopped for a second. Looking directly at my front, I ran again, my speed faster than ever.

Without stopping at the edge, I tried to create momentum from the mushroom's fluffiness and jumped with both my arms spread like a wing.

"Woohoo! I am a bird!!!"

This was one of the many things on my to-do list before dying. I always wanted to try to act like I am flying and shout that line.

But my friend gravity wasn't being very kind to my wing, as I started falling at a rapid pace.

I curled my body, and without trying to resist, kept falling. Then my body landed on something which perfectly balanced my momentum. It was a giant leaf that I had hit, thanks to [Camouflage] and the momentum that I gained from the fluffiness of the mushroom, I managed to reach the leaf without breaking any bones in the process.

As my body hit the leaf, the leaf bent and bent until it couldn't handle my body anymore and gave up on me, making me slide to the stream slowly and gracefully,

Chapak!

I landed inside the stream, perfectly fine and in one piece.

"Sometimes my genius… it generates gravity, heh."

I meant it literally since I managed to go against gravity and safely land on the ground.

But why do I feel eerie suddenly?

Looking at my left and right, I knew why.

[Abyss Piranha]

[Level - 70]

[HP - 20000/20000]

I wouldn't be scared of this small fry, after all, if I combined all my stats, and skills, it would be more than enough to kill a monster with less HP.

What scared me was the amount.

Hundreds of Piranhas were swimming toward me from both sides of the stream.

"Were you only hiding so that I can jump in and you can have food?"

I felt a bit indignant, after all, I had clearly checked the stream from above for any possible abnormalities, but it was as clear as it could be. Now, these bunch of carnivores appeared like ghosts suddenly.

By the time I was thinking all this, I was already running out of the stream.

[Skill: Multi Blades

Type: Active

Cost: 5 mana on every replica per second

Cooldown: 30 seconds.

All the blade-type items you carry can be copied into similar replicas. They'll replicate 50% of the weapon's original strength.

Their skills can be copied as well, but they share the same cooldown as the original item.

Multi-weapon wielding is possible during the time the skill is activated.

You will need 50 mana to maintain a single copy for 10 seconds.]

Although I was fast enough, the water made it hard to run in, and so the Piranhas were already at my foot.

Taking out Eclipse, and making three copies of it, I held two blades in both my hands as I started massacring the shit out of these small fries, all while trying to slowly back off from the water.

[You have lost 10 HP.]

[You have lost 10 HP.]

[You have lost 10 HP.]

"Fuck, do you guys have some kind of feet fetish or something."

The piranhas had low damage output and were easily killed in 2-3 hits, but what was annoying was the amount of them.

They kept jumping, and since they were barely able to reach above my torso, they all started attacking my legs, making it seem like a strainer.

"Ouch… fuck! Not again."

When two of them were close enough to attack my family jewels, I suddenly remembered my bladesman skills.

Till now, I had only been depending on the skills from Eclipse due to the low mana requirement and low cooldown and had yet to use any of my class-specific skills.

[Skill: Sage Blade Throwing (Lv 1)

Type: Passive

Cost: 50 Mana per throw

Cooldown: None

All blade-type items you carry can be used as a disposable throwing weapon. Enemies attacked by a thrown blade will suffer 150% + (User's total physical and magical attack + the thrown blade's total damage).

Deals more damage if the enemy is more than two meters away and within a radius of 10 meters.

The blade weapon has to be retrieved manually if the item does not belong to the user.

Multiple blades can be thrown at once, and the mana requirement would increase with every extra blade.]

I threw two of the replicas at the piranhas that were trying to go for my jewels and to my shock, they perished in a single hit.

"This is amazing! Hahahaha."

I finally discovered a new way to attack my enemies, and I didn't necessarily didn't have to be in close quarters to use this skill either.

"Kekeke!"

I laughed like an evil child who had just learned the fun of bullying people. I put the real Eclipse in my mouth, while I kept creating one replica after the other and threw them at the piranhas, all of them dying in a hit, sometimes two or three of them would die in a single shot.

Before I realized it, I was already on the ground and the piranhas who jumped to the ground couldn't control their bodies and kept on jumping without any aim.

I kept throwing one blade after the other and the piranhas kept on dying.

Why did I still bother with the piranhas when I was already out of the water and they couldn't do me any potential harm? Simple!

[You gained a level.]

[You gained a level.]

[You gained a level.]

[You gained a level.]

These piranhas were basically an experience factory that had popped up for me to butcher them. Mana wasn't a problem due to how fast it recovered and when I ran out of mana too much, I used a small mana potion to recover all my mana instantly.

After a while, there was no piranha left alive.

Thump! Thump!

I threw another blade at the piranha that still seemed to be alive.

Now, there was no piranha alive.

Thump! Thump!

"Fuck you!"

Sigh!

Wait… what in the world was going on?

All the piranhas' dead bodies were still there.

How?

Aren't monsters supposed to disappear after you kill them? And the only way to get their meat and items from them is when they drop them off after dying.

How come they had dead bodies, not to mention, blood was clearly flowing out of them.

Do these monsters not disappear after dying in Abyss? Or was there some other reason behind them not disappearing after dying?

Wait…

I suddenly remembered the reward that I got after accepting the quest.

What was it again?

[Skill: Metamorphosis (Limited) Lv 1

Type: Active & Passive

Cost: None

Cooldown: None

As the first foreigner in Abyss, you have been rewarded with the powers of a chimera.

Passive: Any monster or NPC killed by you will leave its body behind instead of disappearing.

Active: You can consume a monster's meat to gain their body traits. The higher the level of the monster, the more visible the changes you will feel. Your race will transform into an independent race after you have eaten enough types of monster meat.

Consumption bar: (0%----------100%)

Note: Eating raw monster meat will give you higher chances of gaining more benefits.

The skill is still limited, you need to meet hidden conditions to unlock its full potential.]

...

//DreamNote//

2nd chapter of the day. Please support this novel with your power stones :)