His stats appeared before him. First of all, he checked the Enhanced Senses skill.
Enhanced Senses: Rank I (100%) (Upgrades: 0 of 3) (Common)
He focused on the rank of the skill, and a piece of additional information emerged.
A raise to the next Rank is available.
Raise to Rank II: Y/N
So he could raise Enhanced Senses to Rank II right now since he had one skill point at his disposal and his Mind attribute was 1. However, he decided not to do it right now. He first wanted to check something else.
He shifted his gaze to another line in his stats to see how much mana he currently had.
The last time he checked his mana, he’d had 1,450 MP, which he’d collected during his mana hunt. Over the course of the last hour or so, he’d consumed 60 MP, exploring the city and fighting mutants emerging from the replication pods in the building. The last time he’d measured the mana consumption during one hour of active physical activity, he found that he used up a total of 45 MP. So he just received another confirmation that the more active he was, both physically and mentally, the greater the amount of mana his body burned through.
He then reviewed the current status of his abilities and skills. Claws currently was at 78%, Enhanced Agility and Enhanced Intelligence at 92% and 71% respectively. It wouldn’t be long before these skills reached 100% too. The new ability, Bladed Tentacles, was nowhere to be seen in his character sheet, however. It was understandable. He recalled the note from the quest description stating that Bladed Tentacles would be integrated into the Genetic Development Interface upon quest completion.
To ensure everything was in order, he accessed the quest menu. The menu, which stored records of all his quests, both active and completed, appeared in his mind. With no active quests at the moment, the list displayed only the two quests he had finished earlier. He focused on the one listed at the top.
Type: Mutation Research
Objective: Analyze replication pods with three different types of mutants.
Reward: Bladed Tentacles (Received)
With a thought, Jake then closed his character sheet and switched to the Genetic Development Interface, which was basically a skill store. A list of abilities and skills available for purchase materialized in his mind.
Genetic Development Interface
Evolution Stage 1: “Primordial Form”
Ability: Bladed Tentacles
Requirements: Body 2, Magick 1
Skill: Enhanced Strength
Skill: Enhanced Reflexes
Requirements: Body 5, Mind 3
Skill: Feral Instincts
Requirements: Mind 5, Magick 3
Skill: Enhanced Regeneration
Requirements: Body 7, Magick 5, Mind 3
Skill: Enhanced Senses
Skill: Enhanced Agility
Skill: Enhanced Intelligence
Jake scanned through the list. Abilities were listed first, followed by skills. Those abilities and skills he already possessed were placed at the bottom of the list. When he became a mutant, he’d been given three skills—Enhanced Senses, Enhanced Agility, and Enhanced Intelligence. Later on, he’d acquired the Claws ability. The Bladed Tentacles ability had been added to the store, joining the other abilities in the top half of the list. Jake was kind of disappointed. He’d hoped he would get the ability for free, but as it turned out, he had to buy it for MP just like any other. Still, if he hadn’t completed the mutation research quest, this ability wouldn’t have become available for purchase at all.
He focused on the ability to get additional information about it.
Ability: Bladed Tentacles
Description: The mutant can grow tentacles ending in double-edged blades from their back. The tentacles last for a brief period before detaching from the mutant’s body.
Upgrades: 0 of 3 (Common)
Requirements: Body 2, Magick 1
Jake wanted to acquire the ability, but he couldn’t do it at the moment. It was way too expensive for him right now. He wished he knew a more efficient way of acquiring mana consumables instead of simply scavenging for them. So far, he had learned about two types of quests with different objectives—Hunt and Mutation Research. The reward for the former was points for his attributes as well as free upgrades to his skills and abilities. The reward for the latter was new skills and abilities. He wondered if there were quest types that offered mana rewards. He hoped such quests existed.
He was also aware that before he could acquire Bladed Tentacles, he would need to increase Magick to 1. Up to this moment, he hadn't invested a single skill point into that attribute because he hadn’t yet found a compelling reason to do so. He wasn’t even sure about the advantages or effects of this attribute on him.
After giving the matter some thought, Jake decided that raising Enhanced Senses to Rank II would have to wait a little longer. He planned to do so after leveling up again and obtaining another SP. Choosing to invest in Magick instead, he did a final review of his current stats.
Race: Ex-Human Morphus
Evolution Stage 1: “Primordial Form”
Claws: Rank I (78%) (Common)
Enhanced Senses: Rank I (100%) (Common)
Enhanced Agility: Rank I (92%) (Common)
Enhanced Intelligence: Rank I (71%) (Common)
After that, Jake opened his eyes, and all the information vanished. He surveyed the room, which was littered with the remnants of the replication pods and the bodies of the mutants he had slain. Having nothing left to do in the building, he walked across the slippery floor, now coated in the pod liquid that had spread everywhere. A few seconds later, he exited the building and resumed his journey.