Nathan continued about his way to the mountain. Someway between, the sky started to go dark and black clouds swaddled over from the horizon swallowing the blue sky in mere moments. In just a few short minutes, sheets of rain were pelting the trees in all directions.
Nathan ducked into a reclusive cave he stumbled across and sat down on the cold ground. The cave led deeper, but he did not think about exploring much in there. If there were no monsters inside, his vision was as good as any normal person. Although insight had increased his senses, if there was no light, he would still be blind.
As he listened to the pitter patter of the rain in the forest and smelled the petrichor wafting off the ground, a smile slowly stretched over his lips. He opened his status again and checked the point.
9.3
9.3
9.3
Important things should be said thrice.
Nathan barely stopped a creepy chuckle from escaping his mouth and looked at the screen again.
Calming himself down, he thought about upgrades.
He could either upgrade any one of his stats using 5 points and use the remaining 4.3 on a skill or perk or make something new. He could also save up until he got 10 points and upgrade Hunter's Instincts. Or he could use all 9.3 stats to make himself something new; perhaps a weapon or a skill or even a physical enhancement.
Looking at the rain that seemed non-stop, he figured he could take the time to experiment a bit.
Opening up the Custom Order, he began modelling.
The first thing he made was an injection with some liquid inside. No, it was not intravenous drugs... well, depending on the definition of drugs. It was the super soldier serum.
The way Nathan understood Fitness worked, was that it fundamentally changed his muscles' strength and nature, but it was an additive increase on top of what you already have.
Imagine something like this. If your muscles were graded between a ranking system consisting of materials, then normal human muscles would be wood. Now, if you upgraded your fitness on top of that, the muscles would then be pushed to the next level, being copper.
But if your muscles were already copper, they would be pushed to silver when you upgrade Fitness. Fitness was a measure of the nature of your muscles and how well one could use it. It merely increased the quality of your muscles, making them stronger over all but not give them any more power beyond that point.
It was a gross generalization and over-simplification of how stats actually functioned, but it was a good way to explain it.
And that was exactly what Nathan wished to cover up on. Using the previous analogy, if his muscles had been upgraded to copper, then any gained strength increase now through items would be that much better in the long run. Super Soldier Serum which was meant to unlock all your potential was perfect for this task.
There were a lot of such objects and items in fiction, but Super Soldier Serum being the simplest in it's workings gave Nathan confidence that it's price would not be too bad.
As he finished the model and described the characteristics, the cost flashed before him. 50 points.
That was pretty tame.
Erasing the model, he tried more such things.
Extremis Virus(Perfected) - 90 points; T-virus(Perfected) - 105 points; Transmutation Cube - 70 points; Living Lightning - 900 points; Mystical Steel Skeleton - 100 points; Hell Forged Muscles - 7,000 points; Wings - 20 points; Magical Wings - 70 points; Power of Hope - 100,000 points; Infinitely Replicating Nanites - 4,000 points; Light Saber - 15 points; etc etc.
He tried a lot of stuff. By the time he had finally run out of ideas, the rain was still going without any signs of slowing down.
Some things he noticed about the way the system functioned, was that the price of items and skills scaled up exponentially. Something like Hell-Forged Muscles; which had the description of - Muscles Forged in the deepest pits of Hell, provides immense strength and resistance to all mundane and magical flames; were only 7,000 points(Basic Form as Item Effects can still be buffed using points) while something like the Power of Hope climbed way way higher to 100,000.
Now, provided, the two weren't even worth considering. One was an immeasurable power that allowed one to kill Immortal Gods and the other was a bunch of Muscles that gave a strength. Now provided, that strength increase was monumental, but it couldn't compare to the Power of Hope.
But take the example of the infinitely replicating nanomachines. Only 4,000 points and they could be used for a lot. Protection, offense, utilitarian purposes, making stuff, destroying stuff; anything goes. But the difference between them and Hell-Forged Muscles was a staggering 3,000 points.
But perhaps that too was an unfair comparison.
Then take the skeleton as an example.
A normal steel skeleton was 10 points. A Mystical Steel Skeleton was 100 points. If he went beyond that, like Celestial Bronze, Imperial Gold or other mystical metals, the price skyrocketed. The most expensive he could make it was Mystical Orichalcum Skeleton being a full 10,000 points.
Nathan wasn't very creative, and he couldn't think of anything that would increase his power in the long run that also would also cost low points.
But he had two choices - invest the points now or save them up.
He scratched his chin, feeling conflicted.
Then, an idea came to his head.
He opened the Custom Order tab again and drew a compass.
For the description he wrote; points to what the user wants.The price flashed before him. 50 points.
Furrowing his brows, he edited it again. 'Points to the closest monster.'
And instantly, the price fell to 10 points.
"Just out of reach." He mused.
Points weren't exactly easy to get, but they weren't too difficult either. He had chosen to hunt in the forest because it was out of Public Eye and he wouldn't have to do any damage control afterwards. But more than that, it was because there were a lot of monsters associated with the forest in every mythology.
He would find more monsters here than he would in the cities... or at least that was supposed to be so. After the war, the monsters had gotten unruly and were wandering into the major cities without fear. It was an expected and reasonable outcome, but it also meant there a lot of monsters he would have seen wandering around in the woods were now moving to the cities, leaving him with a small pool to hunt from.
I've only been in the forest for an upwards of 3 days. I have a lot of time still, I will come across more points in the mean time. He reasoned. But having that compass would really help. Argh! Whatever, I'll hold off for now.
He waited for half an hour more and the rain began to slow to a light drizzle.
Getting his bow and adjusting the Quiver on his back, he moved ahead. The ground had become muddy and water droplets poured down from the canopy.
Without thinking too much, he again readjust his course towards the mountain. Although the rain had wasted a lot of time, he would reach the mountain before noon tomorrow. He didn't know what he was expecting to find when he got up there, bit he at least expected something.
Maybe there will be more Wampus Cat's there. 1.1 points each... I wish. He shook his head.
Heh, considering one almost killed me and almost did some major muscle damage, I probably shouldn't be too happy about that.
Just as he thought that, his senses began to swell.
His eyes widened and he looked to the back, deep into the forest. He heard the creaking of wood and trees getting uprooted. Heavy breathing accompanied the sounds and he could not mistake the squelching of wet soil.
His jaw tightened and he moved without thought. He positioned himself towards the right and moved 30 meters away. Then, he climbed a large tree, about 10 meters high and waited.
Creak!
Boom!
The trees parted and fell like a natural disaster was moving through them. Heavy footsteps dragged across the ground and a shadowy phantom moved across the forest.
The first thing Nathan noticed was the size. It was large, larger than any monster he had seen until now.
It stood to a staggering 15 meters tall, taller than he was perched, and it walked on four legs. It's head was pointed down, and two massive horns jutted out from it's head. It's back was lathered with moss and greenery that hid it's otherwise brown fur and a thin tail was at it's back.
It looked like a wildebeest, and as it breathed, green fumes dropped from it's mouth in small waves, the grass right below it's mouth withering and turning black and brown.
With a gulp, Nathan realized what he was looking at right away.
It was the Catoblepas.
...
...
A/N: In case you were wondering what it looks like:
Catoblepas Image Here