Body Mutations (edited)
Shara took a moment to recollect herself, now was not the time to cry, finding a safe place to recover was more important.
Now that she has calmed down a bit, the sting coming from her broken right arm became more painful. The energy she had managed to manifest in the battle was now all dried up.
She was surprised by how much stamina her tiny shrimp body had.
Does the features from the game also apply to her here? If it does, then it explains how her reaction speed was able to keep up with the monsters attacks...
Curious as she was, her mind wasn't in a very good condition for thinking at the moment.
Shara was tired, both physically and mentally.
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[You have killed a monster. 500 Body Upgrade Points has been rewarded.]
Execution Points: 1
Time Limit: 11 hours
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She simply took a short glance at the game window that popped up out of nowhere before weakly glaring at the Velosteos corpse. Using the remaining strength she had left in her body, she painstakingly draged the body back to her hiding spot, the coral reef.
Hooking her left scythe on the Velosteos' mouth, she made sure her grip was secure enough and swam slowly.
Because the monster was three times bigger than her own body was, it took a whole lot of effort to bring the body back to her destination.
Fortunately, the waves during nighttime was stronger than the ones in daytime. Since the area they were in was close to a nearby shore, every time her antennae felt a wave coming she would hop unto the Velosteos and let the waves carry the corpse for her.
By the time Shara got there, she immediately collapsed on the floor, feeling sore all over. Shara sighed in relief, the sand has never felt so good before.
She let herself lay down immobile for a few good seconds before twisting her body to take a glance at the dead Velosteos.
The bleeding had stopped a while back so she wasn't really that worried about random monsters coming towards her hiding place because of the smell of blood.
Now comes another problem, how the heck does she eat this thing?
She couldn't chip off it's hard scales, so she was in a difficult position.
Should she try eating it from inside its gills?
Shara pulled the gills with great difficulty, but the gills was just too tight for her to enter.
She slapped the corpse in the head with her tail angrily. "You problematic idiot! First you try to kill me and now you wont even share your dead body to me? The audacity!"
Then, an idea appeared in her head.
"Should I just enter its mouth and eat it from the inside out?" Shara perked up. Right! Why didn't she think of this sooner?
She swam towards its mouth and took a peek inside.
Behind the fishes protruding large front teeth was many small, sharp needle-like teeth all over inside its mouth all the way down to its throat. Every tooth had additional hooks on them to ensure that once the prey was inside it mouth, it would hook inside its preys body to avoid it from slipping off and make sure it stays inside for good.
Shara closed its mouth. Maybe this wasn't such a good idea. What if she gets stuck inside? Right, she wont do this one.
She then looked at its hollow eyes. She could see small chunks of flesh floating on the inside. Was that the brain or the remaining pieces of its eye?
Shara swam towards its empty eyes and picked on the flesh, tearing it out roughly before munching into it.
Ding!
[Congratulations, a Body Part has been discovered!]
[The Velosteus Body Part, Veiled Scales, will be added to the Body Mutation list.]
Shara froze as she stared at the notifications.
…Silence…
Then, "A Body Part?!" Shara yelled in disbelief. She didn't even notice her mandibles have accidentally dropped the piece of meat in her mouth because of the sheer shock that hit her.
A Body Part was a special item that could mutate a part of the Players body with, not only greater stat levels, but new functions and additional stat buffs. Depending on the type of monster or how strong the monster was, the Body Part being dropped can be a game changing item for most Players.
Since a Body Part has some properties taken from the monster it had been dropped from, the Player can inherit these properties through mutation. It is indeed a very precious item to obtain.
Although the probability of a monster dropping a Body Part was rare, it wasn't to the point of impossible. If getting a Body Part was so hard, many Players would not have made progress in ranking up.
'So early?' Shara thought in a pleasant surprise. For low level Players such as herself, she would at have to spend a long time to get an item of this value. That's why she was shocked that a Body Part appeared at the very first thing she barely even managed to kill.
Like a kid who was gifted a cool new toy, Shara's excitement was soaring through the skies. "Holy crap... System, show me my Body Mutation list!" she shouted in impatience.
The Body Mutation list was a type of upgrade system for players to mutate parts their body into something more advanced. Of course, the collected Body Parts will be stored in here.
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[Store: Body Mutations]
[Mandibles]
-Strong Mandibles (+12 crush damage) BUP needed: 200
-Sharp Mandibles (+12 damage) BUP needed: 200
[Eye]
-Greater Vision (gives a wider range of underwater vision) BUP needed: 100
[Antennule]
-Acute Smell (gives a wider range of smell) BUP needed: 100
[Antennae]
-Acute Sensitivity (gives a wider range of vibration sensory) BUP needed: 100
[Carapace]
-Hard Carapace (+12 defense) BUP needed: 200
-Veiled Carapace (+12 sneak / 5% additional defense buff) BUP needed: 200 // [Velosteus Body Part, Veiled Scales]
[Dactyl]
-Barbed Club (+12 crush damage) BUP needed: 200
-Thorned Scythe (+10 damage / the Impaling effect will last for 5 seconds. 1 damage is done every one second.) BUP needed: 200
[Legs]
-Strong Legs (+8 strength/+4 stamina) BUP needed: 200
-Sharp Legs (+12 damage) BUP needed: 200
[Swimmerets]
-Boosted Swimmerets (+12 speed) BUP needed: 200
[Tail]
-Boosted Tail (+12 speed) BUP needed: 200
-Firm Tail (+13 damage/-2 speed) BUP needed: 160
[Abdomen]
-Hard Abdomen (+12 defense) BUP needed: 200
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BUP collected: 500
(Tip: By consuming more monsters, you can gain more Body Parts.)
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"It's really here!" Shara let out a high pitched screech of glee. Her excitement was barely contained as her body practically vibrated in place.
"Okay, let's calm down first." Shara forcefully stopped her vibrating body.
Take a deep breath... and exhale... Another deep breath... and exhale...
"Good. Now let's think." She calmed herself.
'Well, mutating my body is good and all, but I should eat first to get some energy up and going so I don't pass out in the middle of choosing what body part to mutate. Then I'll sleep when the mutation process takes place and wake up when it's complete.' she carefully pondered upon what to do next.
Since she had already completed the conditions of the Main Scenario, all she needed to do now was sit still on her shelter and take a rest, let the time countdown pass by as she sleeps.
"Alright, that sounds like a good idea. I'll do that then" she murmured to herself. She then picked up the piece of meat that fell from her mandibles and continued eating it.
Shara continued to eat absentmindedly until she felt too full to stomach more. She had only eaten about two-fifth of the fish but there was still a lot for her to munch on for later so she's not really worried about food running out.
Although there was an abundant amount of corpses floating around everywhere outside, she didn't wanna go back out there lest she gets bitten in the butt again so, no thanks!
Besides, she had plans to do with the leftovers later on.
As the Velosteos corpse had too much chonk for her to lift up and hide, she dug on the sand and buried the body carefully, just in case a stray Player or another monster finds her here and eat her food.
"I'm taking shelter in the coral reefs after all. No way there won't be other residents taking shelter here as well." What was she going to do if someone entered here and saw the Velosteos corpse and then proceeded to eat it? It would be a complete waste of effort!
Nodding to herself, Shara continued to dump more sand on the corpse, making it look like a huge bump majestically rising on the sand.
After that's done, she also started to dig a burrow for herself just a few feet forwards from the Velosteos corpse so that the moment she senses something entering her shelter, she would know in advance.
"There we go." She made herself comfortable before opening the Body Mutation list again and purchasing her desired mutations.
[You have purchased Veiled Carapace! 200 BUP has been paid.]
[There is a +12 increase in your sneak!]
[You have purchased Acute Sensitivity! 100 BUP has been paid.]
[Your area of senses has expanded!]
[You have purchased Thorned Scythe! 200 BUP has been paid.]
[There is a +13 increase in your attack! The impaling effect will be activated when the target has been impaled.]
"That should be enough..." Shara muttered under her breath. Although the decrease in defense was troubling, at least she wouldn't have troubles fighting off monsters like the Velosteus again.
Of course, the difference in ranks was still there, but with the Body Part mutations, her strength would be on par with them!
She has been killed by these troublesome monsters again and again when she was still human. Being the experienced player that she was, it was only natural she would know her way around this problem.
'But do I really have the guts to fight them? Can I win?' A small doubt appeared in her mind.
Shara stilled.
No, she wasn't sure. In terms of real life fighting experience, she was at the very bottom. She was not confident in herself. This was a 50/50 bet and she was taking the risk of favoring stronger attacks rather than safer defense.
. . .
Well, all this thinking and problems is for the future me to solve. Current me is going to take a blissful nap and run away from all thinking and responsibilities!
Shara nestled down her burrow and laid down immobile. Her mind was too worn out to function much longer and she entered a state of torpor, which was similar to sleeping in human understanding.