Chapter 8: The Path of the Abomination

Col shouted and crawled backward, trying to get as far away from that… thing as possible. The being just stood there and looked at him with pure innocence and curiosity, which made the fact that it did not stop eating even worse.

There was no malice there, just childlike curiosity. In fact, now that Col had gained some distance, he saw that the thing had a stature that was no less than that of a child, though it stood with a hunched posture like the apes.

It was a 7-8 year old child. Col would have been inclined to call it human if not because everything in his body told him it was not. That it was… more.

The creature didn't attack Col. They just spent a few minutes in a stare-off where Col's heart wanted nothing more than to escape the rib cage of its prison and run from this place. The entity looked away and Col felt the sigh of relief in every corner of his mind.

'Talk about a good morning.' Col sighed 'Hey System. I used the Boon so you should be back to functioning right? Tell me. WHAT. THE. ACTUAL, HELL. Is going on. Okay? Can you do that for me?'

'DING! Of course host' The system's feminine voice answered.

Col sat down as he heard the explanation. The system seemed far more…. tame than before. It wasn't so snappy and had fewer insults. That might have been because of his reaction of barring his mind or it might have been because of what the system just told him.

Col had gained a Path.

And oh boy, What a Path it was.

His Path was called the Path of the Abomination. And it did exactly as advertised.

The more Col walked, the more of a monster, no, an abomination he became. It created an existence meant to break the rules of existence and do the impossible. The Potential was limitless, but it had drawbacks.

Because it was something to become antagonistic to the laws of existence, existence would be antagonistic to the abomination. It would be it against the world. Fate, Luck, Karma, Destiny. All of those forces would be against the abomination.

They would work their utmost, across time, to bring it down. Even the gods would fight an abomination. Why? Because an abomination is a natural godslayer. There would be no refuge and it would only get worse the more powerful the abomination became.

'I,' Col thought, 'am so, so, so SCREWED!'

He was supposed to keep a low profile and now destiny was on his tail?

The system, however, had said there was hope. These forces would only work in the purview of their Authority. Young abominations had a shroud so that the race not be wiped out.

So it wasn't like things were going to get bad, at that time. Not that they were good before. Col just sighed, again. He had just woken up and he had already sighed more times than he cared to count.

The good news was that the path would let him get strong. And quickly at that. The essence of an abomination was to steal. It would steal the progression of others, their comprehension, their essence. Strangely, the more perfect the abomination, It was a path that could even steal the dominion of the gods. That's how broken it was.

Col was relieved and scared at the same time. He decided not to worry about what he could not deal with at the time. He left the gods up to future Col to worry about. Right now he had to worry about what his arsenal was like. How his body had changed and if it could allow him something to use against…. that.

A quick back and forth with the system showed him that he had indeed changed.

His race had changed. It was no longer an inferior human. It had changed into the grand name of… Nascent Inferior Abominus.

WHAT. THE. MOTHER. OF. ALL HELLS??!!?

He went from something inferior… to the baby version of an inferior version of a cursed race. Talk about one step forward two steps backwards. Though when he heard of what that entailed he'd rather be what it was than a normal human.

His strength had taken a quantitative leap. It now stood at a solid 20. That was more than double his previous stats. That was past the average for a superior human and straight into the realm of the finest elite humans.

His agility had doubled to become 14. The gap between it and strength kept getting wider and wider. He had to work on that and keep his build more balanced. That would help him. He would be running away from the gods after all.

Vitality had outshone strength and was now sitting cushy with a 26 decorating its slot. It had grown by a whole 20 points. And if these points weren't just accumulative but exponential that would be even more mindblowing.

Intelligence had, by far, seen the most improvement. It had grown to be 5 times its previous standing. It was now sitting at 40.

Col chuckled. "Guess abominations are a mage build huh?" he said aloud. The irony that he'd be a mage when he had been trained in the sword was not lost on him. His earthly foundations had counted for nothing huh?

The mana and health had raised accordingly and he was better equipped to not die on Origin.

His physical changes were way more obvious and mysterious at the same time.

The system said his flesh was now mana-infused. This had many applications that the system was not at liberty to say. It would be up to him to find out. That didn't bother Col as he had learned not to just put stock in what the system said. Maybe that had been its intention in the first place by telling him all that dubious knowledge.

Col's bones were now made of a new material. It was an organic metal that was electromagnetic. It was made from the same material as the ape bones. It came from the same family of metals as mithril but heavily leaned towards the element of thunder. It was called ferroflux. In other parts of the world, it was called magnithril, although that was only among crude and isolated people.

The metal was known for its use as a supplementary ingredient in the creation of rare-tier electric weaponry. The metal didn't have much of a claim to fame aside from that.

It was little known, however, that ferroflux was a living metal, mostly due to how long it took to mature. Its path was an interesting one. Any being with ferroflux as a genuine part of its body such as Col would be able, with training, to control electromagnetic fields.

It was through this ferroflux that the apes were able to develop the technique where they would accelerate their entire body using electricity. The system did mention that Col's version was a lot more advanced than the apes'.

This was because the ferroflux had first been reduced to the essence and removed of impurities before being used to make Col's bones. Due to this his bones were less dense and wouldn't top a bullet as the sternum of the ape had done before.

When the system told him this, Col realized that his bullets hadn't left a flesh wound due to the skin of the apes but the metallic bones. Of course, his bones were weaker because less essence had been left after purification but they had way more potential.

The entire human body is synergistic. This means that it is interlinked and depends on every part of each other. That means that an improvement in one part is most likely to cause an improvement in other parts.

Col was no longer human but he was a human-based abomination. His body still functioned in pretty much the same way. This meant that his entire body was heavily influenced by his new bones and the ferroflux of the mana-rich flesh.

It still bore to witness what further mutations this would bring. At present, Col's nerves fired just a bit faster than they should have, he was way more sensitive and his mind could handle more.

Strong bones meant that he could exert more force than usual, as his body limits were higher. He also had a much higher threshold for electric shock. That was why the apes could supercharge their bodies. It was synergistic in that way.

The last and most important change was his mana veins, That is, he didn't have any anymore. They had expanded so much that they had covered his entire body. He had received that much high-quality essence. A true abomination indeed.

They were no longer mana veins but energy veins. His whole body could channel energy. This was more of a problem than it was an advantage to the current Col. He would have to learn control to not lose energy.

Veins helped to guide where the energy was supposed to go. That was how skills, techniques, and spells were executed. Now he had to find a way to make it work.

And it was all the fault of the spirit, which had just finished eating its way through a mountain of bodies, and was now in another staring contest with Col.