PenguinKills
patreon
Chapter 75 - Possibilities
🕑 Added 2024-07-10 20:00:06 +0000 UTCChris
"This is how humans are able to assimilate bloodlines when others cannot."
What now?
I was just told that humans could turn into anything we wanted. What the actual fuck? There had to be something I was missing here.
"Now, there are limits. Full transformation isn't something that you can do, but it is still possible with extreme circumstances and only for a limited time." The alien added.
That worked to pour water on some of the more enthusiastic of us. I knew that there were going to be restrictions, it sounded too good to be true.
"Why don't we backtrack so I can explain it a bit better."
With no complaints, Cypteris continued.
"Beginning at the evolution to E-Rank, Humans can take on the traits of certain other creatures. How it works is during the evolution genetic material is introduced to your body and the system aids in making your body adapt and incorporate said genetic material.
"This means you can only take on the traits of something you have available. Say the claws of a lion are present, you might grow claws. The hide of a Rhinoceros, your skin will thicken and harden.
"It all depends on the materials you have available and what is around you when you evolve. You can push it with your intent but generally, the adaptation is based on the material. That also means you have to be careful where you evolve. Evolving in the middle of a battlefield can lead to unintended consequences.
"Also, it starts small. For the first evolution at the E-rank, the most you can do is small adjustments or augmentations. There is only so much change your body can handle and going over that doesn't end well. It's the building on top of previous evolutions that makes this power really shine.
"Typically, humans stick to one type of animal or a group of animals. You can use other sentient races but that is frowned upon and can get you killed if people find out. Mixing and matching from a bit of everything is possible, but most often doesn't lead to the best results. Sticking with the same animal throughout will let more and more adjustments be made since the body is already conditioned to it."
What the fuck? This was turning out to be a wild and somewhat gross ability. I knew that we had all sorts of mythologies about half-human hybrids and almost every mythology had a human variant of some sort.
Was that where this power came from? Or were our mythologies modeled after it? Centaurs, satyrs, demi-gods. Werewolves, vampires, gorgons. All of them were human with a mix of something else.
Did that mean that we could become actual werewolves?
The rest of my family had the same reservations and started to ask clarifying questions to the alien.
Things like how does it change us? Does this affect mentality? Is it permanent? And others regarding everything else. Cypteris answered what he could but he said it mostly depends.
If the genes of the animal were too strong then it could have detrimental effects, including mental changes. Or if the material itself had a certain disposition, it would be hard to get rid of. An example he used was demonic material. It would be hard to get rid of the side effects that it brought and he cautioned against any use of it.
It seemed he wanted to say more about it but something made him stop and redirect to something else.
"This leads to two main paths that Humans take this power. Temporary, explosive power, or permanent sustained power.
"Some humans don't want to change and that is perfectly fine, so instead, they go a different way than permanent physical changes. There are also the purists who abstain from any change but that is different.
"By far the most common is a mix of the two but that's up to personal preference. Permanent sustained power was what I explained before, every evolution making small changes staying within the same animal family.
"Building on top of what is already there with the same genetic family pushing your body further and further toward being that animal or creature. E-rank is a small change, D-rank a little more, C-rank, a little more. Finally, reaching S-rank where the body is near a perfect mesh of both."
Hearing that made me think of how expensive beast parts would get. Like the really important bits people used for evolving.
"This permanent change is also the hardest to reverse. Temporary power is different. It works with the current bloodline that you have and draws out more power from it. Even full transformation is available in later ranks for a limited time.
"Every evolution works to purify, evolve, or somehow add to your current bloodline. Similar to what an actual beast goes through for evolutions. With the required materials of course. These changes don't outwardly affect the body and will not show up cosmetically unless called upon.
"This process also makes removing the bloodline exceptionally hard and dangerous because not only are you removing the bloodline, but everything added on top of it during evolutions.
"Our time is coming to a close so I'll end it with this. All of this is typically done with the system's assistance during evolutions. I do not advise trying to do this manually as it will lead to quite gruesome results and cancerous growths without proper guidance." Cypteris ended his lecture and fizzled out soon after. It reminded me of the end of commercials when the warnings were sped through in the last second.
Instead of 'may cause nausea and vomiting', it was 'can be gruesome and cause cancerous growths.'
All of us in the room sat in silence for a while mulling over what was said. It was a shock to find out what humanity had for a racial trait.
Usually, in fantasy stories, humanity wasn't given a strong racial trait and was left to the wayside for others. Our only saving grace was that we reproduced fast.
It seemed reality was different. I didn't know a lot of other traits that other races had but ours didn't sound that bad. Taking on the aspects of other beings sounded powerful.
The only thing was if I wanted to give up being human to do it.
Permanent changes sounded like it would change who I was and alter my mentality to be more in line with whatever I picked and I didn't know if I wanted that.
Sure, augmenting my body to become more powerful sounded good but I wasn't sure the cost was worth it.
"What are you thinking about?" Austin came up next to me and asked.
The silence in the room made it so everyone would hear our conversation.
"I don't know what to think. It sounds like a powerful ability but I don't know if it is worth it." I said to some agreement of some based on their nods.
"But that option sounds powerful," Austin answered.
"At what cost though?" I said. "If the changes fundamentally alter who you are? When do you stop being who you were and become something else?"
He didn't answer and let the silence come back. We all chewed on what we heard.
I was sure many on earth would take that option. People would jump at the chance to gain wings of a bird, or cat-like features for fighting. Defensive options that were tied to a turtle shell or rhino hide.
All of it sounded too good to be true to me and I wasn't certain I liked it. Bloodlines were one thing, physically altering my body was another. Would the instincts of the beast carry over?
Would draconic changes make people want to hoard things? Would canine changes instill a pack mentality? Feline hunting instincts?
How would it affect reproduction? I wasn't a parent but I wanted kids at some point in the future. Would this make that impossible? Or would I only be able to have kids with people who had similar changes?
There was too much risk involved in the process and that scared me. Maybe I wouldn't change who I was the first time, but what about the second? Or the third?
Then again, ignoring the option was an equally bad idea. Losing out on the power from the trait wasn't something I wanted to do either.
It seemed like the temporary option was designed with that in mind and was my answer, but I knew too little about it to say for certain. It was something I would have to look into extensively before my evolution.
I didn't even have a bloodline yet and that was something I had been looking forward to.
We could buy them from the store but the costs were something I still couldn't afford. I would have to find a way to make more than I had been currently if I wanted to get one in a timely manner.
I knew Austin wanted to go explore the next-door pylon that we had found, killing all of the monsters there would give me a lot of points. It would also make my decision about the evolution come faster than I would want.
Being level 39, I only had 11 levels to make up my mind. The evolution to E-rank happened at level 50 and it was coming fast. Especially with the monsters coming every wave being higher level than me giving me more experience. There was also the option to defer my decision till the D-rank and keep being 100% human, but I would miss out on the first change.
"Did he say that demons were real?" Abigail pointed out.
She had been reading over the notes she took and pointed out something that all of us had glossed over.
The alien mentioned how using demonic material led to bad results and that meant that there were demons to get material from. That sent us on an entirely different tangent, and with most of my family being religious, not one I wanted to go on.
The confirmation that demons existed gave credence to the possibility of angels and that wasn't something I wanted to think about right now. A multiversal war of angels vs. demons was a distraction I didn't need.
While they babbled on about it, I left the room to get some air. It was a lot of information to dump on someone and it was difficult to work my way through it.
I pulled up how many points I had to see how close I was to a bloodline.
Points: 165,332
Since the 11th wave when I blew all of my points on upgrading the wall, I had been saving everything I got. I had earned well over 200,000 by this point but my expenditures brought it down.
The rune I bought was 25,000, metal and tools for the forge were expensive. I blew nearly 50k on the metal slab I just bought. Another skill was available for 25,000 but I decided against it. One skill wasn't worth it and there were other things I was saving for.
The latest wave, Wave 23, netted me nearly 50,000 by itself.
A bloodline was expensive though, and if I was going to keep it I needed to choose wisely. Bloodlines could be evolved and changed, in the worst case removed, but I wanted to make the right choice the first go-round so I didn't have to deal with that.
Decent bloodlines were expensive. Bloodlines tied to an affinity more so.
I knew I wanted something with my affinity but I wasn't sure what. Obviously, dragons sounded cool and powerful but that wasn't something I could buy. Ice Phoenix sounded equally as good but again, not something I could buy.
It was frustrating to be limited to something that I could afford. There were devices I could buy that could be used on anything I killed to gain its bloodline, but those were up there in cost too.
Plus, I wasn't sure what kind of beasts were out there and if the time spent looking would be worth it. The devices didn't have a 100% success rate as well so I could fail and be a waste of time.
All of this was so much to think about and it was making me want to go and hit something!
Austin must have sensed my mood for he walked up decked out in his gear holding my armor and hammer.
"Want to go on an adventure?" He said with a smile.
I knew he was thinking along the same lines I had been and felt the urge to get more points. We had a wave tomorrow and doing what he had planned could get us injured.
I thought about it for a bit-
"Come on, it'll be fun!" He added.
Fuck it! What's the worst that could happen?
"Let's go," I said.
Austin cheered and we made our way toward the overrun pylon Austin had found. At least I was going to get to hit something.
--AN--
I know this chapter was a bit exposition heavy, but I wanted to clearly explain the trait for humans. We're nearing the end of book 1 and soon will have a lot more action.
Regarding the trait, I wanted something different than what most books do for humans. Most of the time they get a shitty trait that pales in comparison to what others get and I felt that was stupid. Humans are the most adaptable species on the planet and they should get something regarding that. It was somewhat modeled on the sheer amount of half-human things mythology has and the propensity humans, in fantasy land, have to fuck nearly everything. (I mean things in fantasy like, half-elves, half-orcs, half-literally anything.)
If there are questions about it I can clarify in the comments below like I have done before! Don't hesitate to ask because if you have a question, someone else probably is thinking the same thing.
Also, if it wasn't clear from Chris' thoughts, he will not be going the permanent change route. I feel like I should preface this now before anyone feels put off. He will stay human throughout the entire series. Going that route is fine, though, I don't want to hate on it but that isn't the direction I want to take the MC. Other characters will and some will take it too far, but Chris will abstain from changing his race.
Comments
Gus
I feel that with the current stat's he has this would be the best option it would be cool to see him go toe to toe with boss monsters by himself.
PenguinKills
It depends. I have no plans for him going permanent but that might change. As a reader, I'm not a huge fan of when an MC changes race so if it ever does happen, it will be minimal.
sn0_0ker
Cypteris said the most common is a mix of the two paths, Chris will go purely temporary or he might dip a little into permanent but go mostly temporary?
Voiset
I assume Chris will go for like an ice giant bloodline, both because of the references to nifflheim but also because of the front covers on both patreon and RR. Would be very badass if he could swing a humongous hammer around fending off likes waves on his lonesome after getting a skill like gigantification or something with the bloodline.
PenguinKills
It depends on use. For certain people, a bloodline will affect them a lot more than for others. A rogue with a shadow panther type bloodline would use it every time they fight. A smith with a fire giant bloodline would use it a lot for smithing. Someone who doesn't use their bloodline often will have it color their evolutions less. Also, it will only be one of the options. It wouldn't take over all 5 evolution choices if it does affect class choices.
MrDragondude5
will bloodlines affect class choices?
James Faulkner
“What’s the worst that could happen when we leave our outpost without the two strongest fights??” Fuck lol
