Chapter 50 50: Notification Overload
'Right…if this doesn't have anything then I don't know what to do.' He took one last deep breath before he checked the reason for his notifications. Hopefully it held the answers for the ball in his hands.
But he wasn't prepared for the amount of information that he was about to be bombarded with.
[+1 spirit]
[+1 stamina]
[+1 spirit]
The long list of the accumulating attributes continued long enough to make him dizzy from reading. As quickly as he could, he made his way past the attributes to get to the rest of the information.
[Level UP! +5 attributes]
[Achieved the first limits of 50 stats in constitution, perk based on class 'Monster Tamer' obtained;Unity through Pain]
[Unity through pain- What can show the trust more between the bond of a tamer and his creatures than the two to bear the other's pain? When activated, the tamer can choose to allow his creature to bear 10% of the damage dealt to him or choose to receive part of the damage given to his creature. Can only be upgraded by increasing constitution.]
[Detecting genes of a higher strain from the host zombie trait! Trait is being upgraded! Regular zombie genes have mutated into the genes of the unique zombie consumed. The zombie trait has changed to Zombie Lord! Your abilities experience has been increased, new skills have been added due to your traits evolution.]
[Skills; Subservient Hierarchy, Decree of equivalent exchange obtained]
[Subservient Hierarchy(Lvl 0)-When it comes to the undead, just like humans, the weak submit to the strong. When an Undead of a higher bloodline appears before another, the lower bloodline has a chance to become submissive. The degree of submissiveness depends on the bloodline and Level of the user.]
[Decree of equivalent exchange (Lvl 0)-Only usable with other Undead. Through the will of the user, you can temporarily recieve or grant your subordinates stats of a specific attribute of 10%. Number of attributes affected and the percentage given/taken will increase based on skill level.]
[Death of tamed creature Grim has been confirmed, initializing penalty. Loss of 70% of physical stats for 48 hours. Loss of stats decreases with higher spirit and level differences of tamed creatures.]
[Killing instinct reached 100% progression, can level up]
[Stamina regeneration reached 100% progression, can level up]
[Immortal body reached 100% progression, can level up]
[Budding feeder reached 100% progression, can level up]
[For the first unique zombie to be slain, you have been granted a unique grade of equipment! Your title 'The Fallen' allowed you to fit the criteria for the ring of the Fallen]
[Unique ring, The ring of the Fallen-Can not equip without having the title 'The Fallen' and can not unequip. Your physical appearance still retains the qualities of your original race, your DNA is already slowly changing that. The quality of your mana is already tainted, what's left is your soul. No one knows the changes that will develop within you now that your soul has fallen from its original race.]
[Upgrade Lvl 1 stone detected! Choose an upgradable skill to level up!
[Level UP! +5 attributes]
[Tamed creature Arachne Level UP! +5 attributes]
Player: Noah
Race:Human Chimera
Class: monster tamer
Gold: 1740->2616
Lvl: 9
Exp:751/1600->46/6400
Health:90%->49%
Stamina:62%->16%
Mana: 4/24->6/62
Attributes
Defense: 25
Strength:18->24(25) [12]+5
Agility:18->26(27) [13]+7
Constitution:38->53(55) [27]+10
Stamina:22->27(28) [14]+5
Magic: 20->30(31)
Spirit:74->95(99)
Unassigned Points: 10
Skills
Active
Monster taming(lvl 0)progression:50%->75%
Killing instinct (lvl 0) progression:4.8%->100%
Decree of Equivalent Exchange (lvl 0) progression: 0%
Undead Webbing(Lvl 0)0.7%->1.9%
Passive
Rodelros(lvl 0) progression: .6%
Soul cage(lvl 0) progression: .76%
Stamina regeneration (lvl 0) progression:5.9%->100%
Immortal body (lvl 0) progression: 1.76%->100%
Budding feeder (lvl 0) progression: .4%->100%
Subservient Hierarchy (lvl 0) progression: 0%
Genetic Synergy(lvl 0) progression:25%->50%
Taming proficiency(lvl 0)N/A
Unity through pain(lvl 0)N/A
Insatiable Hunter(lvl 0): N/A
Spiders Alertness(Lvl 0)1.3-3.7%
Sensory Spines(Lvl 0): .9->2.5%
Titles
The Fallen, Subjugator
"..."
For a moment, Noah had almost forgotten the reason he was checking through his notifications. If this really was a game then he broke it on the first day, the amount of skills were becoming harder to keep up with. And the comparison of his skills and stats to when he first awakened this morning made him feel like a pay to win character.
However there were still some unsettling things said within the information, especially the ring. But even though it was unsettling to read, he quickly accepted it. Was there anything left for him to want to cling onto his humanity? Briefly the thought of Ailetta emerged, but his bond with his creatures felt more real than what he could have with her. He didn't have to doubt whether they would stick by him or have any hidden intentions.
His shock lasted more than he wanted it to, but when he also saw the penalty for Grims death, it was a depressing reminder for what he came here for.
"If I had no guarantee of turning this around before then now at least I won't let Grims death be in vain…"
He looked down onto the stone ball still gripped in his palm. His first thought was to upgrade his most faithful skill, Killing Instincts, however would he be able to tame the wolf if he did? And with his lowered stats, would the upgrade be enough to kill off the beast that continued to heal its wounds? He couldn't be sure, he would prefer a skill that would always be useful for him. It's not like he couldn't find a way to upgrade it after this, there was always the store if it had any. With the wide variety of choices he could choose from, something told him that he would definitely find some there.
'This could work then!' He thought to himself before he strengthened the grip on the stone and chose to upgrade a skill.
[Immortal Body level up confirmed to Level one! The skills level up has increase the passive stat increase from 5% to 10%]
[Your spirit has reached 100 stat points, your skill 'Taming Proficiency' has leveled up, providing you a 20% increase in taming a creature.]
'…..Wait…' Confusion was written all over his face. 'Skills gained this way can level up without the stones? It feels as if I'm actually being rewarded for choosing to throw away my humanity!'
"NO! Ailetta! Don't go, there's nothing you can do!"
"!"
Noah abruptly snapped his head over to see what was happening. He didn't expect himself to become so distracted, thankfully the yells caught his attention.
When he looked over, at first he didn't see Arachne, his heart thumping loudly due to his fear that something horrible happened to her.
He only saw the werewolf clutching Paul in its mouth, attempting to chew through his hardened ability and was slowly succeeding. But whenever it focused on the human in its mouth, two people with spears attempted to circle it while prodding it. The two were Bailey and Blake, Blake would only go in whenever Bailey grabbed the wolf's attention which she was able to do surprisingly easily. Whenever she went in for a stab, her spear emitted a loud vibration before drilling into whatever spot she targeted.
The two were coordinating extremely well together, but the main hero of it all was the squirrel Blake had tamed. Even though it was bigger than normal, to the wolf, it was still just a small rodent. However it didn't expect for the squirrel to climb atop of its head and burrow its two huge knockers into its head.
Even though they were slowly damaging it, they still continued to wear anxious faces.
"Arrrggh!"
They heard another grunt, comparable to a scream coming from Paul within its mouth. They tried to increase the tempo of their attacks but it wasn't helping.
Bailey was sweating intensely and her pupils were huge while her worry was increasing. Frantically she looked up into the sky, everyone but Noah knew why.
"Please help us! We are friends of Noah! Your tamer! What would he think if we died?"
When she screamed up at the ceiling, Arachne, who had escaped from the wolf's constant attacks, pondered about the words from the female human.
She didn't know how her master would feel if they died, but she also felt conflicted about running away. She felt weak when she should be a queen! She could at least use the humans to take down the beast to show her master how powerful she is.
The rest of the group stood away and watched, they weren't close to Paul and they were too afraid to die, even Mark chose to stay back using the excuse that he never got the chance to rest so he wouldn't be of any help anymore.
After Grim died and Arachne first decided to run to the ceiling, the werewolf managed to kill 6 more people from their group and now no one was brave enough to fight.
If they didn't see Noah fighting against such a creature then all of them would believe all hope was lost.
But that's when Jasmine saw Ailetta approaching the fight and screamed for her to stop. She didn't believe Ailetta could achieve anything with her skill besides reanimating one of the people who fell, but what good would that do?
No matter how much she screamed, Ailetta didn't turn back, the way Ailetta continued to move forward, Jasmine wasn't even sure if Ailetta was even aware of what she was saying.
Ailetta herself didn't think there was anything she could do, but she had to try. She saw grim die, she saw the way his death affected Noah. After Bailey pleaded for Arachne to help, she felt she needed to do something. She didn't really care if Arachne died, but she didn't want Noah to go through that pain again.
With every step, she became more determined. The memory of discussing with Jasmine resurfaced in her thoughts.
"That skill wasn't a skill given to me by the system. It was one I was able to create and the system gave me the option to integrate the spell with it or to advance it on my own…" The line 'I was able to create' played itself over and over.
She wouldn't say that since Jasmine was able to do then she should too. But now that she knew that making her own abilities were possible, she now believed that she had to do it.
Not only to prevent Noah from feeling any pain, but to also reaffirm herself that she too can become stronger.
Having stopped before she reached Bailey, Jasmine sighed in relief, thinking that Ailetta finally got cold feet and decided to come back.
However she then saw Ailetta spread her arms while still holding onto a simple small rod in one of her hands. The rod didn't have any special characteristics besides increasing magic by two. Considering that, Jasmine just couldn't understand what Ailetta was planning to do.
They all observed the familiar scene of her activating her skill before, a dark tar like substance emerged from thin air and hovered next to her. Jasmine expected to see the slime submerge itself into another corpse, but Ailettas arms never returned to her side and while observing, she could see her body fidgeting.
On Ailettas face, there could be seen traces of sweat emerging while she held a visible frown that deepened by the second.
She knew that her skill could re-animate the dead, but she also thought that if zombies were also considered undead then doesn't that mean she should be able to control them too?
She didn't practice with her skill enough to determine this, however she knew her thoughts were on the right path.
Draining her mana for everything she had, she willed herself to force the continuation of her summoning. Normally when the slime is summoned, she could feel the disconnect from her mana supply. So instead of allowing that to happen, she focused on the feeling of her mana being drained to force it to continue.
Soon, the slime didn't become bigger, but it began to generate gaseous mist around it before it zoomed in the direction of the werewolf.
The werewolf noticed the incoming blob, but it was too distracted with the other three to mind it when it didn't sense a threat. The slime quickly made contact with the wolf's fur before disappearing. For the ones unfamiliar with her skill, they believed the skill to be a dud.The long time of casting her spell, the weird appearance of her summon.
Everyone felt that it was very anti-climatic, but before they could continue to Judge her, they all witnessed a difference in the werewolf's actions.
"It….It stopped moving!!" The onlookers continued to observe while flabbergasted with Ailettas' results.
Paul used this moment to desperately crawl out of its jaws before crashing heavily into the ground.
"Paul!" Blake rushed to his side to help him up. Paul undid his ability, but it wasn't pretty. The numerous amounts of white scratches that showed on his body during his skill, turned into small cuts making him appear as if he went through a shredder.
Thump!*
Not even ten seconds passed before Ailettas limp body came crashing to the floor. The exhaustion of mana was enough to tire her out, but trying to control a unique zombie was a tall task for someone of her level and lack of stats.
"Awhooooo!"
Jasmine wanted to help her friend, but was held back by Mark when the sound of the Wolf regaining its functions roared.
"Ailetta! Somebody help her! Mark! We can't let her die!"
Jasmine continued to wail while being held. Blake was now attempting to remove the injured Paul out of range. Bailey also wanted to retreat, but then she noticed the wolf gazes. Even while it howled, its gaze never left the unconscious girl that attempted to control it.
Bailey prepared herself to give her all for the person that would sacrifice so much just to save her friend.
However before she could advance, she saw a bloody figure walk past her. For a moment she considered attacking, but when those four dark empty pupils laid eyes on her. Her body stiffened and her voice got lost in her throat. She was struck with dread that if she continued to look into his eyes that she would die.
She couldn't help but exhale deeply when Noah no longer paid her any mind and continued to walk past her. No one else was concentrating on Noah until a loud domineering voice echoed in the room.
"Lay down mongrel!"