A.I.N.A.P33.33%

Crafting Materials

The first sightings of cascas were well over 200 years ago. At first, humans just shrugged the tales as myth or just plain heresy made by the Alters to further scare off the puny humans.

It was like that until years later when a village was ravaged by a single monster. The monster was not like anything they have seen before. Then, few people recounted what the tales said about the cascas' appearance. It has glowing bloodshot eyes, a meter long claws, an enormous fang, a hunched over body with blue and red patterned fur and it stood like a human.

That particular village was then wiped off the map. Many people died while some escaped, it was unclear if they survived the dangers of the dense forest full of monsters. Then, the cascas just left after killing anyone it could find like it just satisfied its gluttonous hunger.

Some speculated that the cascas was an experiment gone wrong made by the Alters. Although, it might be true that Alters love to experiment on humans with affinity with magic they wouldn't dare to create an abomination that can potentially bite them on their necks. Some even think that the cascas was a freak of nature that just spontaneously appeared out of nowhere. After the convergence happened, countless monsters appeared throughout the world but cascas was not one of them instead, it appeared long after the convergence so where can it possibly come from? Then, the last speculation stated that cascas were actually humans turned monsters. They said with the help of demons these people traded their life to gain enough power to oppose the Alters and avenge whatever they wanted to avenge but instead of achieving their goals, they lost their free will and became the wild monsters they are now.

In any case, Bug just shrugged off these thoughts. The only good thing about cascas is that its skin if made into a pelt fetch a really good price enough for him to last for weeks without doing anything. Its pelt was prized so much because of its magical abilities. Although it's just a rumor, many people still buy it anyway.

Although the humans and Alters somewhat coexist, the Alters still view humans as inferior species that they can trample on. The Alters doesn't like humans on their kingdoms so the humans just built villages and shelters around the kingdoms far enough for the Alters not to notice them. These villages and shelters although small, still have some functioning economy and use money. Trade routes still exist for village to village transactions keeping the villages in contact every now and then.

Bug was planning to sell the pelt to a merchant but changed his mind immediately when NAP also noticed its value. When he looked at the cascas the fur was glowing along with its other body parts like claws and fangs. He can also see text hovering on top of the glowing body parts. NAP recognized these parts as crafting materials.

Since the sun was going down now and it's really dangerous outside when it's dark, Bug quickly drags both the cascas and deer back to the underground place.

When Bug was roaming around the place he stumbles upon a kitchen. Although he didn't know how to use the stove, he at least knows how to start a fire with just a stick. After he finishes preparing the deer meat, he started a fire from the firewood he collected earlier. Luckily for Bug, there were still tools for cooking in the kitchen. A few hours later, he finished eating.

Bug stared at the dead cascas lying on the table, he thought about eating the cascas meat to see what it would taste like but he eventually shook his head "I might get poisoned if I eat it...wait, why am I even considering eating a cascas?" Bug shrugged off the thought. He then started skinning the cascas. Although he is not an expert at skinning, he already has experience doing so by skinning the deer earlier. The final product looked low quality which made Bug frown.

He then proceeded to remove the fangs and claws from the body. The final loot was a single pelt, two enormous fangs, and 10 claws. Bug held the fangs on his left hand and said the magic word. "decompose"

By now, he was already used on seeing the metallic liquid seeped out of his skin.

[DECOMPOSED MATERIAL - CASCAS FANGS - UNIQUE - CRAFT]

[CAN BE USED TO CRAFT BLADED WEAPONS]

[+20 NUP]

[UPDATING DATABASE...]

Bug's eye widened when he saw a new word attached to the notification. Then, he remembered that he can substitute materials he decomposes for his NUP to create items. He did the same to the claws which both can be substituted for NUP. Bug got 25 NUP for the claws and 30 for the pelt. This earned him a grand total of 75 NUPs!

"This is good! now, where shall I spend this?"

Bug opened his status board. "status"

[STATUS]

[USER: BUG]

[JOB: SUPER SOLDIER]

[ATTRIBUTES]

[VITALITY - 10 +

STRENGTH - 13 +

AGILITY -8 +

DEXTERITY - 5 +

STAMINA - 13 +]

[NANO UPGRADE POINTS AVAILABLE]

[76]

[SKILLS - PASSIVE]

[PREDICTION - MASTERED]

[EXTREME REGENERATION - MASTERED]

[SKILLS - ACTIVE]

[ANALYSIS - MASTERED]

[DETECTED AILMENTS - PHYSIOLOGICAL]

[Acne - Fix: 5 NU]

[Gut parasites - Fix: 10 NU]

[Scabies - Fix: 5 NU]

[Weak bones - Fix: 15 NU]

[DETECTED AILMENTS - PSYCHOLOGICAL]

[Insomnia - Fix: 10 NU]

With this much NUPs he can readily fix all of his ailments but that wouldn't be worth it. He still plans to fix some of it though. First, he fixed his weak bones and gut parasites. Bug quickly felt the effect of being relieved from his gut parasites, his previously bloated belly was now flat. He didn't feel much when he fixed his weak bones though.

15 NUPs had gone the drain for fixing his ailments, now he aimed for his attributes. He planned to raise his other attributes to 10 points to minimize the NUPs spent because he knew that past 10, the cost per point is increased to 2.

His agility and dexterity quickly reached 10 points each. With it, his body started heating up once again to the point of making him drenched in sweat. With his agility reaching 10 points, he felt that he can now easily dodge any attack aimed at him. His reflexes and thinking speed also increased. He felt more in control of different parts of his body with his increased dexterity. He felt like if he skinned another cascas, he can definitely produce a higher quality of pelt.

54 NUPs remaining, he was thinking of checking out his skill board but before that, he first checked the item shop. "shop"

When he decomposed the pelt, it said that it can be used to craft an armor which made Bug excited. He quickly tapped the armor category. There, on the right side of the board, he saw his available materials which only contained 1 cascas pelt. Then, the rest of the space displayed the images and names of different armors most of which he never saw before. Bug tapped the cascas pelt then most of the displayed armors vanished and was only one left, it was a leather vest.

He tapped the vest and his eyes almost bulged out of his eye sockets. The cost of buying the vest was 500 NUP!

[LEATHER VEST]

[ALTHOUGH IT LACKS THE PROTECTION FOR BOTH THE ARMS AND SHOULDER, IT STILL OFFERS SOME PROTECTION FROM ABRASIONS AND YOUR SPINE. IT ALSO FEELS COMFORTABLE AND EASY TO BREATH IN.]

[A MATERIAL CAN BE SUBSTITUTED TO CRAFT THIS ITEM]

[SUBSTITUTE - CASCAS LEATHER]

[COST - 500 NUP]

Bug frowned at the description of the vest, it was literally a trash armor. Bug rolled his eyes in disappointment. "what's the point in wearing this trash!?" Then, he tapped the substitute button to see if anything will change...and it did change and it was better than Bug hoped for.

[CASCAS LEATHER VEST]

[ALTHOUGH IT LACKS THE PROTECTION FOR BOTH ARMS AND SHOULDERS, IT STILL OFFERS SOME PROTECTION. CASCAS' PELT MYSTERIOUS PROPERTIES MADE THE MATERIAL MORE RESISTANT TO SLASH ATTACKS. THERE IS ALSO A CHANCE OF RELEASING SHOCKWAVE OF ENERGY WHEN HIT MULTIPLE TIMES]

[COST - 1 CASCAS PELT]

"By the graces! the cascas vest is amazing! I can even use the cascas' power!"

Without much thought, Bug quickly tapped the craft button like his life depended on it. His hands were shaking from excitement while his face grew a wide smile, it almost looked creepy.

[CRAFTING CASCAS LEATHER VEST...]

Moments later, liquid metals started forming the leather vest on his left hand. It took 2 minutes to finish crafting his vest. In front of his eyes materialized a blue and red patterned vest. It was a buttoned vest making it easier to wear. The vest was soft to touch like it was made from high-quality silk often sold by a traveling merchant.

Bug wore the cascas vest on top of his grey tunic. He immediately felt its power coursing through his whole body. The vest fitted to him perfectly to the point of any position he made was not met with any discomfort.

"This is the best thing!" Bug chuckled while feeling the vest. Bug was getting more and more excited when he thought about the effects of the fangs and claws if used to craft bladed weapons, he immediately left the armor category and went to the weapons category. There, he tapped the bladed weapons.

Like in the armors category, the fangs and claws rested to the right side of the board and the rest displayed various bladed weapons. He first tapped the cascas claws then, the displayed weapons quickly changed. The remaining weapons were a short and long sword and a samurai.

Bug dismissed the other weapons and focused on the short sword, after all, it's his favorite weapon.

[CASCAS SHORT SWORD]

[WITH THE MYSTERIOUS PROPERTIES OF CASCAS CLAWS OR FANGS, THIS SHORT SWORD BECAME SHARPER AND TOUGHER THAN NORMAL SHORT SWORDS MADE WITH OTHER METAL ALLOYS]

[COST - CASCAS CLAWS OR FANGS, IRON]

If he bought the normal short sword, he would have to spend 500 NUPs! it was simply too expensive for him at the moment. Luckily, he can substitute the claws as a crafting material, but when he looked at the description, he learned that he still needed to mix iron with the cascas claws or fangs to use it as crafting material.

Bug frowned at that. He either needs to mine the iron himself or he can buy it directly in his village. Mining iron seems to be a good idea, with his increased strength and stamina he can easily mine all day if he needed to. The only problem is he didn't know where the mines are! so there is only one possible solution "I have to buy, even just a single ingot" the problem with that is he needed money to buy some, but he didn't even have a single penny on him right now and an ingot is a bit expensive.

Then, Bug thought of a great idea. He looked around the kitchen and picked up a metal knife then he decomposed it.

[DECOMPOSED MATERIAL - STAINLESS STEEL - UNIQUE - CRAFT]

[KNIFE MADE OF STAINLESS STEEL. CANNOT BE MIXED WITH OTHER MATERIAL. CAN BE USED AS A MATERIAL FOR GADGETS]

[+5 NUP]

[DATABASE UPDATING...]

"ugh, really? you're making this too hard for me, NAP" Bug rolled his eyes and sigh in frustration. It seems he doesn't have a choice. Now, he's planning to gather some kitchen tools here and sell it to his village. The kitchen tools were all in pristine condition and looked high quality. Selling this will earn him money to keep him alive for several days and will still have extra money to buy an ingot, this is like killing two birds with one stone! Bug checked his status board.