Day 2
Taking almost a full minute to scout out the situation, I flew back to the back of the stowler. But this ti I made damn sure that I was appropriately positioned right under the nape of its thick neck.
With the height and wide fra of the stowler, I don't need to worry about the frogs below. Funnily enough, it would seem that the back of these massive beasts was probably the safest place in this swamp for right now.
Well, I must apologize big fella. I'll be making use of blood and the safety of your back for the ti being.
***
For the rest of the day, I leisurely drank the stowler's blood many tis over. Only once did I have to swap stowlers because the one I was feeding off trodded over to the tree line to graze a bit, which would've undeniably been quite dangerous with unseen reptiles looking for snacks in the vicinity. But switching stowlers, I discovered sothing that made regret not surveying these big creatures a bit more before I settled down.
The ones I had been slowly draining were simply normal stowlers, but when switching to the next one, I noticed that this one, in particular, had a much more build and firm fra. Intrigued by it, I bit into its flesh and imdiately figured out why. It was a goddamn alpha, giving a substantial increase in EXP compared to the ordinary ones.
Well, I couldn't cry over spilled milk, so I continued wallowing in my bloodsucking paradise. Luckily the continued digestion of the blood beca faster and faster. Effectively lowering my downti between feeding. I wasn't sure if it was purely because of the level and stat increases or sothing else, but it was sure as hell welco.
By doing that for the rest of the day I easily reached my goal without much trouble.
And here were the fruits of my labor.
[Siphon]
[You've consud the blood of a Swamp Stowler]
[92 points of EXP has been acquired and stats have been added]
[Congratulation! You've reached level 6]
[You've been rewarded with 1 skill point for reaching level 6]
[Blood profiling has advanced the profile of "Swamp Stowler"]
[Siphon]
[You've consud the blood of a Swamp Stowler]
[89 points of EXP has been acquired and stats have been added]
[Siphon]
[You've consud the blood of a Swamp Stowler]
[102 points of EXP has been acquired and stats have been added]
[Congratulation! You've reached level 7]
[You've been rewarded with 1 skill point for reaching level 7]
[Hiding has reached LVL:4]
[Siphon]
[You've consud the blood of an (Alpha) Swamp Stowler]
[168 points of EXP has been acquired and stats have been added]
[Congratulation! You've reached level 8]
[You've been rewarded with 1 skill point for reaching level 8]
[Puncture has reached LVL:4]
[Blood Profiling has advanced the profile on "Swamp Stowler"]
[Blood Profiling has reached LVL: 3]
[Siphon]
[You've consud the blood of an (Alpha) Swamp Stowler]
[195 points of EXP has been acquired and stats have been added]
[Congratulation! You've reached level 9]
[You've been rewarded with 1 skill point for reaching level 9]
[Siphon has unlocked more information]
[Siphon]
[You've consud the blood of an (Alpha) Swamp Stowler]
[202 points of EXP has been acquired and stats have been added]
[Congratulation! You've reached level 10]
[You've been rewarded with 1 skill point for reaching level 10]
[You're currently at the level threshold, you can choose an evolution path!]
[Blood Profiling has advanced the profile of "Swamp Stowler"]
[Heat Sensitive has reached LVL: 2]
Looking imnsely satisfied with my exploits, I first checked my new current size. I had grown to a full 23-ish centiters (9 inches) in length. I was quite a massive fucking bug when I thought about it, and couldn't help but chuckle mirthfully at the reactions humans back at earth probably would've given if I suddenly appeared.
Next, I checked my status for the increases in my attributes.
-Status!-
[Status]
Na: "???"
Race: Lesser Sanguinite
Sex: Male
Rank: K
Level: 10/10
Health: 20/20
Stamina: 9/9
Mana: 0/0
[Attributes]
STR - 1 3
VIT - 2 5
AGI - 6 8
DEX - 4 5
INT - 12 13
CHR - 0.20 0.30
WILL - 11 12
MAG - 0.09 0.11
[Trait, Titles, and Skills].
Skills - 7
Traits - 3
Titles - 0
Skillpoints - 5 10
[Resistances]
Phy. Resistance - 0.155 0.302
Mag. Resistance - 0.030 0.050
n. Resistance - 5
Fuck yeah! That's what I'm talking about!
For a minute or two, I just stretched and inspected my new body a bit more. Once again feeling the intoxicating surge of power and success flooded my mind and body.
I had massive gains this ti around, all my stats having been substantially increased. I even managed to finally increase my intellect and will by one point. I was a bit unsure exactly how the stat distribution is from Siphon and leveling worked since they seed to change direction at tis. My guess was that it had sothing to do with what stats the animal specializes in of whose blood I drink.
Oh yeah, in one of the prompts it said that my Siphon trait had unlocked more information about it. I could already guess, but it seed that the descriptions for attributes, skills, traits, and so on, didn't fully describe all of the effects and implications that they provided.
-Traits!-
[Traits]
-Siphon- ( )
A natural ability of monster-type mosquitoes. Consuming blood provides the user with EXP and attribute increases. The stats that are added by siphon are the two highest attributes of the selected creature. A higher difference power will either garner fewer or more stat points to the user depending on which way the difference swings. Drinking the blood of a rare creature or drinking blood a great number of tis of the sa creature with similar or higher power level to the user provides the user with a very small chance of acquiring a compatible skill from said creature.
-Skill shop-
A unique trait that provides the user with skill points at each level and allows the user to use the system to open a shop, where they can purchase skills with said skill points.
-Limit breaker-
A unique trait that allows the user to be unhindered by the limitations of levels, evolutions, and skills.
Aha! It was as I guessed. The Siphon skill only increases the two highest stats of whatever creature I'm slurping on.
Thinking a bit more about the things that might be left out in the descriptions, I suddenly thought of sothing that showed it quite clearly. If you took into consideration my health points, which were currently at the maximum value of twenty points, that was almost the sa as an average horned rabbit's max health value, twenty-two points of health. But that didn't an I could take as much damage as the rabbit could.
This would be because my stats, resistances, skills, and many other variables probably not even listed on my status, all played into the whole picture. For example, due to my pathetically low resistance, I knew with no doubt that a single strong punch from a grown male adult would be able to make go splat. The realization while good to have, also inadvertently brought my glee of stats increased down a peg.
I did not want to splat...
With that out of the way, I checked up on my skills and began to figure out what to do with all of these skill points I had saved up for this very mont.
-Skill list!-
[Skill list]
-Blood profiling-
LVL: 2 -> 3
Consus the blood of biological creatures to create a profile on the creature.
-Flight-
LVL: 2 -> 4
Enhanced speed and maneuverability.
-Heat sensitive-
LVL: 1 -> 2
Allows the user to better detect heat sources.
-Hiding-
LVL: 1 -> 4
The basic level of hiding makes it harder for creatures to notice your presence and form.
-Muffled Flying-
LVL: 1 -> 2
Reduces the sound produced by flight.
-Puncture-
LVL: 2 -> 4
Increased penetration.
-Sll-
LVL: 1 -> 3
Enhanced sll capabilities.
During downtis, I tried to grind so skills while digesting. But it was a bit tricky finding out what exactly could further my skills without putting myself in more danger than needed.
I focused mainly on trying to level both my Heat Sensitive skill and Sll skill. But I only managed to level up Heat Sensitive since I tried various ways of feeling the heat from the stowler and surrounding stowlers.
For Sll, I tried to do sothing similar, but nothing really seed to work. My guess was that Sll levels a lot faster when experiencing different slls and actually following scents, and since I've already slled the scent of these stowlers and followed their odor here, I doubted that I could make more use of them in that departnt.
Moving on from that, I had to do sothing about these skill points that I've been saving up.
I at first thought of saving these skill points up to spend them on Appraisal since it was ten points in the skill shop. But now that I found more of my shortcomings in terms of things like defense and resistances, plus I might now have to look at more combat-oriented skills due to my rapid size increase, I might want to look into getting so of those instead.
So do I go with Appraisal or find sothing that can bolster my defense or attack?
I already had Blood Profiling, but it wasn't doing much for . When it hits a milestone, I should be able to advance it might beco more useful, but right now I don't have the slightest idea.
I should at least take a glance at the defensive and combat-oriented skill at or below the cost of ten points.
[Skill shop]
Search: > Defense, Combat 10
Lesser Enhanced Exoskeleton: Cost - 5 / Requirent; STR - 2, VIT - 5
Enhances the exoskeleton of the user. Increased toughness and resistance.
Weak Headbutt: Cost - 10 / Requirent; STR - 12, VIT - 10
Consus stamina to steel the user's head as they attack a target with it.
Lesser Paralyze: Cost - 3 / Requirent; None
Creates a gland at the user's mouth that produces a weak poison that can be injected into a target.
Lesser Poison: Cost - 3 / Requirent; None
Creates a gland at the user's mouth that produces a weak poison that can be injected into a target.
Weak Charge: Cost - 5 / Requirent; STR - 3, VIT - 4, AGI - 8
The skill user consus stamina to gain a boost of speed to charge and ram into a target.
Lesser Enhanced Organs: Cost - 5 / Requirent; VIT - 8
Enhances the inner organs of the skill user, providing them with increased toughness of their insides and also a slight increase in the effectivity of those organs.
Hmm, these skills seed very useful, excluding the Weak Headbutt and Weak Charge because of my fra, and the fact I'm a very squishy mosquito. Wait... Weak Charge seems to fit the stat points of the horned rabbits, was it that skill the rabbit who lunged after used when it found ?
It made a lot of sense since the description and stat allocation all matched. Well other than that, we could also exclude the Lesser Enhanced Organs skill since I didn't currently et the requirent.
Then there was Lesser Enhanced Exoskeleton, Lesser Paralyze, Lesser Poison left. I saw a hell of a lot of use in the Paralyze and Poison skills, and for the Lesser Enhanced Exoskeleton skill, it could help with my problem of having low toughness and resistance.
Urgh! I can't decide.
Defense, combat, or reconnaissance?
If I chose defense I could probably take an extra hit or two by glancing attacks. But being pierced by just a simple Horned Rabbit would still spell a certain end for as I had no real way of dealing with the wounds. If I chose combat I will probably be able to more effectively feed and maybe even kill smaller prey. But then again, I had no need of combat with these lovely bags of blood with legs that I've found.
And lastly, if I chose reconnaissance I might be able to escape certain death before I even get too close, not even needing to risk my life in the first place. My current situation bartered no need for conflict, so for now, those skills would be useless.
Hmm... It's decided, I'll take Appraisal.
After I get so more skill points, I'll definitely return to Weak Paralyze.
-Skill shop! Buy Appraisal!-
[Skill - Appraisal has been added to the skill list!]
Itching to try my new skill out, I turned to the giant chunk of at beneath .
-Appraisal!-
[Existing profile of "Swamp Stowler" has been combined with profile from Appraisal]
[Status]
Na: "???"
Race: Swamp Stowler
Sex: Male, Female
Rank: F
Level: 0/25
Health: 330/330
Stamina: 295/295
Mana: 0/0
[Attributes]
STR - ???
VIT - ???
AGI - ???
DEX - ???
INT - ???
CHR - ???
WILL - ???
MAG - ???
[Trait, Titles, and Skills].
Skills - ???
Traits - ???
Titles - ???
[Resistances]
Phy. Resistance - ???
Mag. Resistance - ???
n. Resistance - ???
Damn, even with my Blood Profiling combined with Appraisal could only get this much information in the swamp stowlers. But it is, after all, to be expected since they're massively stronger than .
Lastly, about my next evolution... I wasn't sure if I should even do it right now. Because the size increase most likely promised in the next stage of my evolutionary path, will probably make too big and noticeable when feeding on the stowlers and pretty much any other creature.
Although I would lose so EXP, I could still farm my stats a bit more on these swamp stowlers.
I wasn't kidding when I said they were goldmines, so I'm not ready to give them up yet.
Slightly noticing that dusk has almost fallen, I decided the next course of action and I promptly went back to slurping on so overgrown cow blood.
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