You have killed a T4 Lv. 4 Reaper Snake

You have been awarded 6800(13600)XP

You have been awarded 166 Data Points

You have leveled up twice!

Your skill Lethal Poison Shot has reached Lv. 10!

You have unlocked the spell Lethal Poison Spear!

You have unlocked two achievements!

You have successfully completed your bonus objective of killing one Tier 2 creature!

Holy shit! Would you look at that? The amount of XP this thing gives is insane, at least on my current level. This would have gotten me from level one to ten multiple times! Which reminds me, did I just lose out on an incredible amount of XP because I hit the level cap? I was a bit miffed at the prospect of missing a huge chunk of XP, but hey, I’m sure the system would compensate me somehow… right?

At least my bonus objective counted as completed with this kill. If the system pulled a fast one on me by invalidating my effort because the reaper snake was technically not a tier-two, I’d have thrown a hissy fit.

And then there was my Lethal Poison Shot upgrade! Did all skills evolve once they got to level ten? If so, I’d have even more reason to level them up as fast as I could. Let me check out the new spell.

Lethal Poison Spear

Conjure a spear made of poison and launch it at your enemies. Decent chance of poisoning the target without the need for ingestion. Causes piercing damage.

Cost: 20 MP

Yes! Finally! An actual attack skill I could use! Piercing damage AND inflicted poison? Fucking sign me up for that! Of course, the MP cost was pretty steep and there was still the issue of my less than sub-par aim, but hey, I finally had a proper offensive skill! I did a celebration wiggle and decided to check out my new achievements when the system updated me on something else.

Congratulations on reaching level 10, as well as completing all bonus objectives!

Detected immense amounts of surplus XP, unlocked hidden quest.

Hidden Quest:

Reach level 20 as a Tier 0 creature

During this quest, you’ll be subjected to increased XP requirements to level up. You may reject this quest to evolve immediately.

Rewards:

All rewards from the previous Evolution quest.

???

???

There it was! Looks like the huge amount of XP I received from the Reaper Snake wasn’t completely wasted! Though when I checked my level, I was still stuck at level ten. So it’d seem like the XP were consumed to activate this hidden piece. I only briefly considered the option to evolve immediately and rejected it immediately. My resolve to take every opportunity I could to get stronger was no joke, even if it meant being a tiny slug for a lot longer.

Adding to that, I could now actually attack my enemies, which would make this quest a lot easier than it would have been before the upgrade!

The system was being all mysterious about the rewards for this quest, but seeing how hard it was supposed to be to even unlock the quest, they should be amazing. Everybody in their right mind would choose to evolve the moment they hit level ten, not even considering to keep collecting XP for seemingly no reward. The monsters on this planet were probably also evolving at the first chance they got, so it was entirely possible that I was the first one to discover this quest!

Speaking of quests, the emergency quest was still waiting to be turned in. Depending on what I’d get here, maybe this new quest wouldn’t even be that difficult… I’d like to think that I did very well in this “Emergency” Quest, so the rewards shouldn’t be small.

You have successfully completed the emergency quest!

Rewards:

You have received 3000(6000) XP

You unlocked the Stealth skill.

You have unlocked the Turret skill.

You may choose one poison-related mutation.

Absolutely fantastic! I mean, just look at that! A ton of XP, two skills, and a mutation! If I could’ve, I would have started crying. I had never gotten this lucky in my entire life. Was my bad luck streak finally over? Was I finally being rewarded for all the years of suffering? And all this, just from killing one monster!

Looking back on it, maybe this wasn’t luck… After all, I did spend a ton of time and effort on bagging this kill. Yes, maybe some luck was involved with the reaper snake even emerging from right under me, but it felt more like bad luck at the time. No, these rewards definitely were not due to luck. They were a direct result of my hard work!

Satisfied with myself, I decided to take a look at my level, only to discover that the quest reward took me all the way to level 19! Fucking hell, why did this become easy mode all of a sudden. I couldn’t stop the happy wiggles as I looked at my rewards, and there was still so much more to go!

For now, I’d take a look at my new skills.

Stealth(Passive)

You blend into the environment and others will have a hard time spotting you, as long as you intend to stay hidden.

Turret(Passive)

Doubles your offensive power after keeping still in the same spot for at least ten minutes.

So it’s two passive skills this time around, eh? They both seemed very useful, and there seemed to be some synergy as well. If I stood still in order to activate the bonus from Turret, Stealth would make me harder to spot until I was ready. And if I then used something like Giant Spike, I could potentially do massive damage!

Well, first I needed enough MP to even cast the spell, though.

Curiously enough, passive skills didn’t seem to have a level attached to them. Did that mean that I couldn’t upgrade them? Or was there a different process involved somehow? Considering that my Bottomless Inventory was a passive skill as well, it might be possible to upgrade through the shop… or maybe that only counted for traveler-related skills? Bottomless Inventory was supposed to be a tier-three version of the inventory skill after all.

I looked at the free poison mutation before deciding to put it off until later. There were still more rewards to check out!

First up: Achievements. Considering how amazing my first achievement was, I had high hopes for the bonuses these two achievements provided.

Achievement: The bigger they are, the harder they fall. (SS)

Kill a creature that is at least three tiers higher than yourself.

Reward: Passive skill: Giant hunter

Giant Hunter:

As long as the enemy you’re fighting is one tier higher than you, all attributes are increased by 100%

Another SS-Grade achievement showed up! And the passive skill it provided was completely nuts! This was already on the level of a cheat, and it would only get stronger as time passed. Of course, not every enemy I faced would be of a higher tier than myself in the future, but I could now face them with a lot more confidence!

Giddily I checked the detail of the next achievement.

Achievement: Nothing is impossible. (EX)

As a Tier 0 creature, kill something you absolutely shouldn’t be able to.

Reward: Permanently increase access authority to the next tier.

Freely choose one SSS-Grade skill.

Wasn’t this too much? I started questioning what the hell the system was doing. All these things I was given here… wouldn’t they completely break the balance? These seemed like end-game-tier rewards, but I was only a little tier-zero slug for crying out loud! Or was what I did really so unfeasible that this level of reward was warranted?

Considering what a tier-zero monster was, I might have actually done something completely insane after all?

The weird feeling persisted only for a few seconds before I shoved it from my mind. Whatever the case, getting all of this stuff was amazing and helped immensely with my continued survival.

I wasn’t entirely sure what the system meant by increasing my access authority, but I’m sure it was amazing. Since it refused to elaborate further on the issue, even when asked, I would just have to wait until I found out myself. What I did understand, was that I got to choose an SSS-Tier skill! Contrary to my free mutation, I just had to see what there was on offer!

I mentally opened the reward, which opened another window containing the now-familiar list. This system really loved listing things, didn’t it? This one was comparatively short since SSS-tier skills were probably a rare thing to have, but still quite sizable.

While reading through this list in its entirety could probably be beneficial, I already had an idea of what I wanted, so I just needed to look for skills that did what I wanted. First off, picking a passive skill was probably my best option here. Giant Hunter was most likely an SS-tier skill, and it was already insane, so what kind of broken would an SSS-tier passive need to be?

I was lamenting just how badly these lists were always organized when I spotted a new button that I’d never seen before. I mentally clicked on it, bringing up another window. Sorting? Search? I almost couldn’t believe my eyes when I read this incredibly convenient function.

Maybe this is what it meant to have a higher access authority? More parts of the system got unlocked?

Not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, I immediately sorted the skills so only the passive ones got displayed. This cut off about seventy percent of the list, and what I was left with was a lot more manageable. I started browsing the skills and realized that each and every one of them was incredibly useful.

Apparently, the double XP I was currently getting was also an SSS-Grade skill and I put that one down as a definite maybe. Double XP was always nice to have, but the other options were nothing to sneeze at either.

There was a skill that gave me extra attribute points with every level up. A skill that increased my skill damage by 100%. A skill that reduced all MP costs by 50%. A skill that raised my passive regeneration by five HP/MP per minute. And many more.

After reading through all of the skills, I was automatically drawn to a specific bunch of skills. These particular skills caught my attention because they were named after the seven deadly sins, and all of them were absolutely fantastic in their own rights. All of the passive skills in the list were cheats, but these outshined them all by sheer versatility.

Lust, Gluttony, Greed, Sloth, Wrath, Envy, and Pride.

Some of them did exactly what you thought they’d do. For example, Wrath upgraded everything to do with combat. More attack power? Check. Stronger skills? Check. Easier time acquiring combat-related skills, and then leveling them? Check.

Then there were some more obscure ones, like Envy. Envy gave you an ability that would seal a random skill of your opponent, and if you defeated them while the ability was in effect, you’d literally steal the skill. At the same level that it already was at, to boot.

But the one that interested me the most, was Gluttony.

Gluttony

Creates an infinite space in your stomach so you can eat forever.

Boosts the regular amount of HP healed when consuming your foes.

Adds MP recovery when consuming your foes.

You can use this effect to heal up to 10% above your max HP/MP.

Absorbs some of the XP from the consumed foe.

Medium chance to obtain the attribute points of the consumed foe.

Low chance to upgrade one of your skills by one level, if the consumed foe also possessed the skill.

First off, apparently, you could restore your HP by eating dead monsters. That was something I didn’t know since I usually was at full health when eating. If I had known that, I wouldn’t have had to stick to the wall for hours in the beginning.

This skill would upgrade this function, then add a bunch more, all of which were useful. And since I could store as many corpses in my inventory as I wanted… this seemed like a perfect skill for me!

Happy with my choice, I locked it in. A lurch went through my entire body, followed by an immense pain in my stomach region. Oof. I guess that’s what it feels like to have your body altered while you’re still awake. The pain continued for a while and eventually receded to a dull throb that I could mostly ignore.

All of a sudden I wasn’t looking forward to my poison mutation.

I pulled up the menu for the poison-related mutations. Originally, I’d probably have gone for something that’d let me inject the poison, instead of it needing to be swallowed. But now I had the poison spear spell to help me with that. So instead, I wanted more potency!

Thanks to the new sorting function I found what I was looking for relatively quickly.

Fatal Poison Mucus

Tier 3 Poison is generated.

The skills Poison Shot, Poison Spear, and Mucus Armor have been adjusted to the new tier.

As I suspected, my poison magic somehow used the poison my body generated and the skills were adjusted to reflect that.

I was really gaining so much just from this one kill, it was insane. And I even still needed to distribute my new attribute points, of which I currently had eleven. Since I wanted to be able to use my spells more liberally in the future, I put eight points into Wisdom in order to raise my maxMP.

I then put two points into strength and one into intelligence just to even it out a bit. This took my MP up to eighty, which was nice. Yet, it was still far, far away from letting me use the Giant Spike. Just how crazy was that skill? At least I was halfway there now. Maybe I could pick up a skill that raised my maxMP at some point…

And that was everything! The amount of stuff I gained this time was truly ridiculous. But on the other hand, I still maintained the mindset of deserving this. I worked hard, alright?

Now, I was getting pretty hungry, and that mountain of Reaper Snake next to me was looking mighty delicious right about now. The Snake had cleared out most monsters around here before going to sleep, and as far as I was aware, none dared approach the mountain while it slept anyway.

Oh, I was going to enjoy this!

Name: Gary

Traveler Tier:0 Type:Monster(P2W)

Species: Poisonous Slug

Level: 19

Max HP: 90(99)

Max MP: 80(88)

Strength: 5

Agility: 1(permanently fixed)

Intelligence: 11

Wisdom: 15

Constitution: 15

Data Points: 223

Skills: Fatal Poison Mucus Armor Lv.2, Compress Lv.2(defensive)

Magic: Fatal Poison Shot Lv.10, Fatal Poison Spear Lv.1, Giant Spike Lv.1

Passive Skills: Bottomless Inventory, Stealth, Turret, Giant Hunter, Gluttony