Labyrinthine Shadows

Flayed Crawler Abomination Slain +45 Exp

You have leveled up +5 stat points

You have leveled up +5 stat points

You have leveled up +5 stat points

You have leveled up +5 stat points

You have reached the level cap for your race, evolve to continue leveling!

Title Gained: Saboteur

I blinked twice, staring down at the creature I had just killed. A true grin broke over my face, trained instinct and genuine, if minor, emotions putting the expression in place; I fucking knew I could evolve! Hahaha!

I quickly skittered back down the tunnel; I need to be somewhere (relatively) safe to input my delicious points and go through whatever process evolving probably requires.

Scrubbing my scent once more, I found a shallow corner to bury myself under a pile of detritus laying about. I raised my Strength and Agility to twenty each, put one point in Fortune (because better luck is always a good thing), and put the remaining three into Endurance bringing it to fifteen.

The electric, visceral pleasure of such expansive improvements left me shuddering for several seconds before I could recover myself. While the feeling of increased Strength and Agility was familiar (if no less electrifying), increasing my Fortune felt… strange, difficult to describe. It was as if my cosmic weight had increased and something almost like gravity had deepened around me. Somehow I got the distinct feeling that while this was a good thing, it had the potential to draw the gaze of things that resided in whatever plane my new weight on the ethereal fabric of fate exerted itself on.

The thought sent a shiver down my spine. Not that I was going to stop; risks of horrific eldritch abominations rending my mind, twisting my flesh, and devouring my soul never stopped me from doing something potentially stupid before and they won't start now!

Paranoia +1

Will +1

Somehow, that doesn't make me feel any more safe.

Still, regardless of existential dread creeping up and down my spine, I have evolving to do!

As soon as I accepted the prompt to evolve the world slipped away, all my senses fading until I had no awareness of even my own body, let alone my surroundings. All I was aware of was what I could become.

It was not a long list, unfortunately. It wasn't even wholly my fault either; there just aren't a lot of things a rat can become. All the variants of rats that were kind of notable were only possible with the patronage of a higher being, something I neither have nor want. Hell, I couldn't even see most of the options, only being peripherally aware they existed by some unknown mechanic; the only way I clearly knew about the blessed rats was because the system informed me they were defunct with the death of the associated entity.

The fact the gods of this world appeared to have been massacred at some point gave me mixed feelings; most of me feels vicious glee as I've always hated gods and nobles and the like (little is more satisfying than seeing someone who's always had power crying, broken on the ground as their gold-plated little world burns around them), the rest of me is deeply concerned about what had happened to them and if I was in a post-ragnarok type world.

Being on a dying husk of a world is not conducive to long term health, after all.

As I looked over my options I found only three choices of real interest, the rest being useless or worse (some were actively worse than what I have now): Burning Plague Rat, Shadowy Plague Rat, and Mighty Plague Rat.

The three choices were all tempting, but even as my metaphysical eyes looked them over, I had to truly consider what I wanted to be and what I needed to be. Burning Plague Rat would give me weak pyromancy but in exchange my fur would be constantly smoldering and occasionally flickering with small flames; as much as I longed to get my hands on magic and as hard as the pyromaniac in my was at the thought of setting shit on fire, I knew I couldn't afford to be a damned light and heatsource if I ever wanted to be stealthy again (not to even mention the description hadn't mentioned if I would be in constant pain from literally being constantly on fire and the risks of setting my environment on fire by accident). Stealth is the only thing that's kept me alive thus far, and I can't just abandon it for a flashy power that will likely get me killed in an instant.

Mighty Plague Rat was rather boring compared to Burning Plague Rat; it was simply a flat boost to physical power, if a rather significant one, but when it comes to survival, boring is often better than complicated. It would make my Strength and Endurance stats immediately increase by thirty percent, but in exchange my speed would actually drop somewhat due to my body becoming bulky and inflexible, as if every newly bulging muscle was constantly flexing. Once again, pure power was simply not good enough, especially with that penalty (though it was labeled as a buff due to increasing physical resistance); a boost like that simply wasn't enough to put me on acceptable footing with any threats I was likely to come across. A slightly stronger than average rat wouldn't be able to kill a man alone, pure strength can't give me an edge against creatures of vastly greater strength, so for much the same reason I barely considered Speedy Plague Rat and dismissed Giant Plague Rat out of hand, I couldn't become merely Mighty.

Shadowy Plague Rat was not perfect; it gave no stat buffs, no destructive magic, and a negligible change in size. What made it superior to the others was one simple factor; it buffed stealth significantly and came with certain darkness and stealth related abilities. It would turn my fur pitch black, make my outline fuzzy even under direct light, and all around improve the only reason I survived this long.

I want magic, I want power, but I need to survive right now before I can worry about fulfilling my lust for such things. I had no choice.

Choice Selected:

Shadowy Plague Rat: Slightly larger but sleeker than a normal Plague Rat, the Shadowy Plague Rat easily blends into the shadows and can utilize minor shadow magic to hide themselves better. Their fur seems to blend into darkness naturally, even in direct light they appear blurry, as if hidden in shadow. The end of their tails are sharp and hard enough to pierce flesh.

The feeling of leveling had nothing on the feeling of evolving. It was like my every cell was orgasming, my very soul writhed in ecstasy, and my mind simply went white, fading into an ocean of pleasure. I couldn't say how long I spent like that, I don't even know what my body was doing while I changed; my mind had gone well and truly blank from the sheer, unbridled pleasure flooding through me.

When I did return to my senses, my body was wholly changed and yet mostly the same. I was still a rat, if a slightly bigger one with a few other changes. Strangely, I both immediately understood what was new about my body and needed a few moments to gather myself and discover the changes. The changes were exactly as the species description stated; bigger, sleeker, a hardened tail tip, void black fur with a hazy outline. Interestingly, two features that stuck out to me was that even my claws were as black as my fur and (as a glance in the puddle of something I deeply hoped was just water showed) my eyes were the same color, making it appear as if I had no eyes at all.

Even the distant inhuman wails echoing through the cramped corridors I had found myself unwillingly inhabiting couldn't bring my mood down (at least not much).

Grin firmly in place, I set out with death in my eyes and lust in my heart; power could be had here, and gaining it was the greatest of pleasures. I will make it mine. I slipped through the impossibly dark hall before me, advancing the only way I possibly could until I came to a crossroads. I barely gave it a thought, to high on the euphoria of evolving to truly contemplate anything but how to regain that feeling, and simply proceeded to the right as some vague memory told me was a good idea.

My distraction nearly cost me my life, the only thing that stopped me from blundering straight into a wall of razor sharp threads was my Paranoia informing me they were there. That, and the drops of drying blood I could smell coming seemingly from the middle of the air. The stark reminder of how easily life can be lost in this fucking hellhole brought my inflated mood crashing back down to reality, much to my displeasure.

With the haze of pleasure faded I realised I hadn't actually checked my status after I evolved; an idiotic mistake to say the least.

Name: Whitetail

Race: Black Eyed Shadowy Plague Rat (Blight)

Level: 1/30

Cultivation: Restless Darkness

EXP: 10/30

HP: 15/15

SP: 5/5

MP: 19/19

Strength: 20

Agility: 20

Endurance: 15

Wisdom: 13

Intelligence: 30

Charisma: 2

Will: 12

Perception: 21

Fortune: 35

Points: 0

Perks:

Blighted: Your very essence is infused with pestilence. While this soul deep corruption influences your mind towards darker pursuits and actions, it can also be brought to the surface to add the Blight to your magical and physical attacks. It corrupts your flesh and blood, making your every cell deadly to consume. Godsblood runs through your veins.

Sociopath: You have no empathy and muted emotions. Immune to emotionally manipulating attacks.

Paranoid: You are suspicious of everything, even yourself. Total awareness of your own condition and access to the passive skill: Paranoia. Stealth bonus to enemies nullified; you cannot be taken by surprise.

Cast Iron Stomach: You can digest almost anything with no repercussions.

Shadowy: Fur appears as if made of shadow and even in direct light your outline appears blurred as if you were hidden in shadow. Improves darkness affinity.

Black Eyed: Your eyes are pitch black and capable of piercing even supernatural darkness as if it were bathed in the light of dawn.

Skills:

Death Roll: Lvl 1: Can shake bladed attacks to inflict wider wounds and cause bleeding. Increase wound size and damage by 5% and adds a 10% chance to inflict bleed. Blade must be embedded in target flesh for 1 second to activate. Costs 5 SP

Night Vision: Lvl 10: You can see perfectly in near no light conditions.

Dark Vision: Lvl 10: You can see perfectly in absolute darkness.

Piercing Dark Vision: Lvl 10: You can pierce even the strongest mystical darkness effortlessly.

Stealth: Lvl 5: Increases your ability to move quietly and conceal your presence. 200% damage bonus to unaware enemies.

Bend Shadow: Lvl 1: You can exert slight control over existing darkness, primarily to further hide yourself or distract others. Cost 2 MP per second of use doubled by every foot of Shadow manipulated.

Scent Scrubber: Lvl 10: You can mask your scent for one hundred minutes.

Scent Killer: Lvl 1: By scrubbing yourself down thoroughly you can remove your scent completely. Lasts ten minutes.

Observe: Lvl 4: You can see some information about a subject simply by staring at and observing it.

Throat Ripper: Lvl 1: Attacks aimed for the throat and neck deal 10% more damage and have a 25% additional flat chance to cause bleeding.

Tunnel Sense: Lvl 1: Allows you to vaguely orient yourselves whilst in tunnels and somewhat remember where you've been.

Paranoia: Lvl 9: Passively gives total awareness of space nine feet around you.

Pain Resistance: Lvl 2: Your sense of pain is lessened somewhat and you are able to operate as normal even when under some duress. Does not affect other physical senses such as touch.

Poison Resistance: Lvl 1: You have a one percent resistance to all poisons.

Titles:

Cannibal: You have consumed the flesh of your own kind. Others of your race will feel uncomfortable around you but you now gain a permanent 10% bonus damage against your race.

Giant Slayer: You killed something at least thrice your size and at least two evolutions above yours. 33% damage boost against those higher level than you and those larger than you.

Self-Named: You chose your own name. 10% damage resistance from all sources and immunity to mind binding magic.

Saboteur: You killed something by strategically destroying the environment. 20% increased damage to secondary effects and shrapnel.

Well, now I have several questions.