I Have Powers?!

"Infinity Devouring! Activate!"

Instantly, there was a loud slurping noise. Everything around me seemed to twist, and all of a sudden, it all funneled into my still-open mouth. The slime was completely gone, and a crater was left in the ground.

'You have gained 47 Monster Experience. You have gained 16 Earth Experience. You have gained 9 Consumption Experience. 90 more experience until Evolution become possible.'

"That was… exhilarating," I said, "I feel kinda weird though." I shook it off and crawled my way over to a nearby stick.

"It said it would increase my eating speed by 20%... adding that to my other improvements after evolution, I wonder if I can eat the wood itself now?" I thought. I decided that the only way to know was to try, and so I went ahead and bit down on one end.

My mandibles easily dug in, and I managed to rip a splinter of wood off of the twig. Swallowing it, I proceeded to slowly eat the wood. Suddenly, after earning 11 points of experience, a wave of exhaustion flooded through me.

"This must be the backlash thing. Oh well," I muttered, "Hey Guide, can you tell me about these skills?"

'Certainly. At the moment, you do not have many skills, only 3. First is [Bite]. This one is self-explanatory. Activating it causes you to release one slightly stronger bite. It was gained when you evolved and obtained those mandibles. However, the increase in bite strength does not yet provide enough of a difference to be particularly useful for anything except quickly chewing through something small or thin. The passive effects of your third skill has made it slightly more useful. Your second skill is [Spit]. This one is also self-explanatory. Activating it causes a tiny globule of slightly sticky liquid to come out of your mouth. Before now, it was not useful in the least, except for potentially annoying an opponent. The passive effects of your third skill has made this skill more useful. Your third and final skill is [Infinity Devour (I)]. This one allows you to instantly eat anything within a certain radius of your mouth. It also provides a series of passive effects, which include attaching a weak paralysis effect to your [Bite] and a poison effect to your [Spit] skill.'

"Alright, that's decent, I suppose. Thanks, Guide," I said, "Can you elaborate a little on those paralysis and poison effects?"

'Certainly. The {Paralysis} status causes an individual's movement speed to decrease by about 50% for 24 hours. However, the status given by your [Bite] has the "weak" modifier attached to it, causing the effect to be halved, only slowing them by 25% for the duration of 12 hours. The {Poison} status causes an individual's vitality and health to be drained over the course of 24 hours. After six hours of being poisoned, they will experience great fatigue. After twelve hours, they will experience severe nausea, resulting in vomiting and diarrhea. After 18 hours, they will fall into a coma. After 24 hours, there is an 80% chance of death, a 10% of falling into a vegetative state, and a 10% chance of survival. If they do survive, however, they will gain a resistance to poison. Unfortunately, poison easily wears off, and the previously mentioned numbers only apply if the poison is not treated. Since poison antidotes are essentially ubiquitous, death from normal poison is rare.'

"Got it. This is feeling more and more like a game world to me," I laugh. Slowly gnawing on the bark of the stick, I ate up bits and pieces while I waited for the backlash of [Infinity Devouring] to end. By the time it finally wore off, I'd obtained 4 points of Wood experience. Feeling refreshed again, I tried eating the actual wood again. My strong mandible dug in, and I was able to tear off a small chunk, earning two wood experience. However, it took more effort than it did just a minute ago.

"This is gonna take a while, isn't it?" I sigh, "Well, while I eat… Hey Guide, could you tell me about magic? I think the summary told me that I learned something already?"

'Certainly. Magic in Gradivous is based on two principles: Mana Sense and Mental Fortitude. Mana Sense lets you innately feel magic around you and therefore gives you a natural ability to harness mana and cast magic. But, you must be born with Mana Sense; it cannot be learned. However, it only lets you use a single type of magic. Mental Fortitude may be trained and built up. This is simply strengthening your brain to the point that it is able to comprehend the complexities of magic and thus control it. Doing so is difficult and does not provide as strong of a magical ability as Mana Sense does, but it does allows you to use pretty much any magic. Training both would let you use any magic proficiently, but few Mana Sense users see the need to train for years just to use another variety of magic when they can use their own type effortlessly.

'You are a special case. You can obtain Mana Sense by obtaining sufficient Magic Experience, which already goes against the notion of it being a birthright. You will also have a relatively easy time building Mental Fortitude. In case you haven't noticed, you are have your human intelligence with the extremely simple brain of a worm. This was achieved through making your brain supernaturally powerful, which also means you already have a degree of Mental Fortitude.

'The magic that you know right now is "Synthesis." More specifically, it is "Ingestion Synthesis." You can take the materials that you have consumed and, by using Ingestion Synthesis, create compounds with them. For example, if you consume certain herbs and then drink some water, you can create medicine that can be stored within your body. The amount will be dictated by the physical size of your body.

'The act of casting magic is important as well. Generally, just willing it to occur is enough for most spells. Some spells require verbal chants, but those are highly complex processes that you do not have to worry about right now. Anyway, casting magic requires Mana. All beings are filled with Mana, and the size of something frequently described as the "Mana Body" determines how much Mana you have. Casting a spell uses up some of that Mana. Over time, the Mana will replenish. The rate at which it refills depends only on where you are; certain locations have more Mana in the air than others, and certain materials, like Mana Crystals or Mana Fluid, release Mana naturally, allowing you to absorb it. It is difficult to quantify Mana, so you must depend on your own judgement to determine how much magic you can use.

'Now for the bad news. You currently do not have either Mana Sense or Mental Fortitude, and so you cannot perform Ingestion Synthesis. By the way, you have gathered 22 points of Wood Experience and 1 point of Consumption Experience from persisting in this endeavor.'

I listened carefully to the entire explanation, eating the stick as I did. "Thank you Guide. You're the best," I said, swallowing my mouthful of wood. Clacking my mandibles, I asked, "How many points do I have right now?"

'You currently have 31 Earth Experience, 29 Wood Experience, 10 Consumption Experience, 21 Magic Experience, and 49 Monster Experience. This adds up to 150 Experience Points. You have 50 Experience Points left until you evolve.'

"Oh, nice. I'm almost done. Well then, let's just fill up the rest with Earth and Consumption Experience," I decided. Making up my mind, I faced downward and, opening my jaws up wide, dove into the ground, munching on the dirt.

'You have gained 1 Earth Experience. You have gained 1 Earth Experience. You have gained 1 Consumption Experience. You have gained 1 Earth Experience…'

Over the next half hour, I ate myself a long tunnel. Just as I decided to come up for air, I heard Guide speak again.

'You have gained 1 Earth Experience. You have gained 1 Consumption Experience. You have obtained the minimum 200 points necessary for Evolution. Would you like to begin Evolutionary Metamorphosis?'

I had my answer ready to go.

"No thanks."