Evan sat there, reading the notification over and over again.

I can evolve? Satan! Why do you hold back so much crucial information you cunt!

This is good news though.... I won't have to be an egg for the rest of my days. Let's see here.

"Status, let me evolve."

Congratulations! You have met all necessary conditions for your first evolution!

You can decide which path you want to take.

Path of steel (common)

Effects: The standard path upon which most armorlings tread. This path focuses on defense, and physical attacks of all kinds.

Physical stats (+++)

Mana stats (~)

Requirements: standard requirements (lvl5, 2 lvl5 skills, Ap 30)

Path of magisteel (uncommon)

Effects: The path taken by the smartest of the armorlings. I combines both magic attack and defense, as well as slightly raising physical defense.

Physical stats (+)

Mana stats (++++)

Requirements: Standard requirements (lvl5, 2 lvl5 skills, Ap 30) + 1 attack spell at (lvl5)

Path of corrupted steel (rare)

Effects: The path taken by corrupted, mindless armorlings. Raises corrupted stat significantly, but inflict the mindless and insane status ailment permanently on all who tread this path.

Physical stats (~)

Mana stats (~)

Corrupted stat(+++++)

Requirements: Standard requirements + 1 corrupted skill and 1 Cp

Path of challenger's steel (rare)

Effects: The path taken by the wildest armorling champions. It increases all stats moderately, and the strength stat significantly.

Physical stats (+++) (exception: strength (+++++)

Mana stats (+++)

Requirements: Standard requirements + defeat one enemy 3 levels or more above you.

Path of genesis' steel (super rare)

Effects: A path meant for those with a death wish. It increases all stats, even corruption, significantly.

The one treading this path receives increased exp from enemies above your level. (an extra 15% on top of the previous 10% per level) Gain no exp from enemies at or below your level.

All stats (+++++)

Requirements: Standard requirements + defeat an enemy 5 levels above you + have a skill in all 3 mayor skill classes (physical, magical an corrupted) + have a title + have at least 3 achievements

Uhhhh.... that last one is definitely the best. But it does come with a major downside, I won't be able to farm weaker enemies. But still....

Evan weighed his options, and after a while he decided to follow through with Path of genesis' steel. He thought that since he wats to be king, he might as well pick the best class. Go hard or go home, as they say.

Soon all the mortals will witness my eternal might!! The genesis path.. hopefully it's as badass as it sounds.

"I choose Path of genesis' steel!"

Evan felt his mind going blank, before passing out for the first time since coming to this world. He slept for what felt like at least several days. When he woke up, he'd undergone a giant change.

{Status}

LVL

5

Hp (health points)

65/65

Ap (attunement pints/ mana)

75/75

Sp (stamina points)

80/80

Name

Evan Willsborough

Titles

Fate of corruption

Species

Cursed armorling (genesis evolution 1)

Alignment

Dungeon Spawn(100%) True neutral(100%)

Blessing

None

Creations

None

Ailments

Cursed(100%)

STATS

Strength

1.3 (from 0.2)

Agility

0.6 (from 0.001)

Dexterity

0.7 (from 0.1)

Intelligence

4.3 (from 1.5)

Attunement

0.093 (from 0.021)

Wisdom

1.6 (from 0.5)

Corruption

0.01 (from 0.001)

Skills (available skillpoints)

4

Passive

Curse of the dungeon(lvl ~) Though armor(lvl 2)

Mana Echo(lvl1)

Active

Sense mana(lvl 2) Sense corruption(lvl 1) Levitate(lvl6) Minute mana pulse(lvl6) Cardio(lvl1)

That's more like it! I should be about as strong as an adult human now. Some of my stats even surpass the average human by leaps and bounds.

Evan woke up to a new status, and a new body with it. His body, now no longer egg shaped, had the shape of an actual set of armor. His new body kind of reminded him of the body an earth golem would have in most fantasy novels he'd read. It wasn't quite human, but he had a torso, two stubby, thick legs, which seemed a little too short to use, and two arms, with three fingers each. The fingers were thick and large; he could grab stuff, but wielding a weapon wasn't quite possible, Evan felt. His body, limbs included stood straight at about 1.5 meters (5 feet). He was bulky though, and with that metal layer surrounding his unknown inner body, he could probably tank a bullet, no problem.

I can finally do stuff now! If I meet another grasshopper I can punch him in the face, without having to rely on magic.

Evan went over to the corpse of his dead grasshopper enemy, and carried it over to where the corpse of the hound was: a little corner of his nest, with a boulder about half his height. The boulder had a flat surface, it would do it's job as a table.

He intended to make this place his crafting spot. Maybe he could harvest something from these corpses that would be useful to make something new. His dexterity had gone up to a respectable number, possibly because of his new arms. His agility had also gone up, but every time Evan tried to stand up his legs would buckle and he would fall backward. Luckily his levitate skill solved this problem. He was essentially a floating torso with little legs hanging down.

Well I guess the legs were unnecessary in the first place. Moving around by floating suits my royal ego just fine. Still, my attunement and corruption stat are still kinda low. I should probably focus on raising those for now, before heading out and exploring the cave system.

Evan sat down, and started using sense mana. He played around with the mana particles, and brought them in and out of his body until he received a notification that his attunement had gone up. After repeating this process for several hours he switched to sense corruption, and followed the same pattern.

Congratulations! Your attunement has increased by 0.01.

Congratulations! Your attunement has increased by 0.015.

Congratulations! Your attunement has increased by 0.01.

......

Congratulations! Your corruption has increased by 0.01.

Congratulations! Your corruption has increased by 0.01.

Congratulations! Your corruption has increased by 0.01.

Congratulations! Your sense corruption has grown to (lvl2).

......

After a while Evan saw that he was gaining less and less stat points. He decided that it was probably best to lay off on that for now and focus on other things. Not before checking his total stat gain though.

Attunement 0.258

Mana sense(lvl8)

Corruption 0.315

Sense corruption(lvl7)

Evan was pleasantly surprised that his mana echo had also leveled up, reaching (lvl3). His levitate skill had also finally reached (lvl10).

Congratulations! You have leveled your first skill to the skill cap!

By spending a skill point you can evolve the skill.

Evolve levitate(lvl10)? YES/NO

Levitate(active) has evolved into Defy gravity(passive)

Defy gravity(lvl~) (passive)

Effects: The wielder is not chained by the effects of gravity while this skill is active.

There are, however, limits. Speed of the wielder decreases depending on how far away the wielder is from the center of gravity. This basically stops the wielder dead in his tracks when he tries to fly above the clouds, since speed decreases to 0.0 at that point.

Most elementals and spirits are not chained by the laws of our reality. Gravity, for one, can be completely negated by several skills. Humanoids can sadly not gain these skills, since they are always a derivative of a racial skill. Our flying spells more than make up for it though. ~Samuel Brakko, Rogue elementalist, Fucul continent. (central continent)

Evan tested out his new passive skill, and found that he was much faster than before. He rushed through his cave, left towards the spring and came back in less than 10 minutes; at least twice as fast as before. Satisfied with his new gains, Evan prepared himself for his new journey. He left through the cave entrance that the grasshopper had used and followed the long, winding cave. Eventually he arrived in a clearing. It seemed to be a valley of some kind, surrounded by steep cliffs on all sides. The most surprising thing though, was that there was sunlight! This valley opened up to the outside. Evan could have used his new skill to head over those cliffs, but he wasn't really in the mood to leave his home just yet. Furthermore, since there was a valley right here anyways, why would he leave?

As he was thinking to himself, he noticed a small bird, flying away from a tree, heading upwards into the sky. As it reached the height of the surrounding cliffs, a black shadow rushed past, straight towards the bird. Sure enough, after it passed, only a few feathers were left, drifting downwards.

Thank god I didn't try anything. I couldn't even make out what that was! A giant raven? A wyvern? I'm not in the mood to find out, maybe some other time. Anyways, this valley is nice. A normal, green forest, a few birds; what could go wrong? Well the trees seem green, since that's the color the surrounding mana has.

Not knowing what else to do, Evan headed into the forest. He passed by trees and bushes, trying to find anything useful or interesting. He arrived at a clearing, with a single bush in the middle. The bush had black berries.

"Satan, what's that?"

Congratulations! The system has grown tired of you asking for answers all the time, and has awarded you with the skill 'Inspect(lvl1)

Inspect(lvl1) (active)

Effects: Utilizing this skill allows to you to see the status of objects, plants as well as creatures.

The amount of information shown depends on the skill level.

The inspect skill is the staple skill of any adventurer worth his salt. It guarantees both survivability and growth. Besides, how are you going to find the best treasure without knowing what you're looking for? ~Querian Lerio, platinum rank adventurer, all surface continents.

Ah finally an inspect skill! I was wondering when I would get one.

"inspect"

Blackthorn bush: a rare berry bush, prized for the sweet taste of its berries.

Berries huh. I guess I'll harvest some, despite the fact I can't eat. Who knows maybe I can tame some rabbit with it. Probably not much else that likes sweet berries.

As Evan approached the bush, the ground started to rumble. On the other side of the clearing, a grass-overgrown boulder started to rise out of the ground. The boulder is shaped like a turtle, and about the size of a truck.

Not another grasshopper....

A head in the shape of a rams head pops up, made out of stone, with green, gleaming eyes.

Inspect!

Earthen drake(lvl26): This drake species relies on its bodyweight and surprising speed to charge at competitors for its food: anything sweet.

Are you serious?! Dragons like sweet food? And this guy... hates me... Huh, let's see you try big guy.

The drake charged forward like a rocket, but Evan dodged it by flying upwards at the last second. Evan wasn't planning on fighting this guy, but letting him get away with assaulting his royal self was another matter altogether. Evan went over to the berry bush in the center, and ripped it out by the roots. At this point the drake had slammed into a tree, and was shaking off the shock. It turned around and saw what the enemy had done to its berry-generating treasure.

"........"

What's wrong big guy? Not gonna charge?

"........"

Earthen drake(lvl26) has been inflicted the fury debuff.

It charged at him again, but much faster this time. Evan felt like a matador as he barely dodged the charge for the second time. He flew back to his cave as fast as he could, all the while holding the berry bush. One 5 minute high-speed chase later, the duo arrived back at the entrance. Evan rushed in, and just like he had hoped; the drake didn't fit. It's bulky body was too wide for the entrance and crashed into it, only its head successfully entering the cave.

I wonder if I can replant this bush in the center of my clearing, near my home.

I wonder what that drake will do for its favorite berries, and I wooondeeer whether I can tame a certain giant, brown rabbit with these berries..... hehehehe... HAHAHA, MY ROYAL GENIUS ASTOUNDS EVEN ME SOMETIMES!!!!

You will be the new royal dragon by the end of the week, turtle!