Armored Carapace*(R): A passive active skill learned from Devouring an Armored Black Beetle. The skill condenses User’s unattuned mana on the surface of the skin which strengthens and increases the density of the skin and also uses mana in the atmosphere to coat the user’s skin thereby providing further strength and durability. Increases resistance to all forms of physical damage. In passive state the skill increases physical defense by 10% and provides a small resistance to physical damage. In active state the skill uses 20 mana/min and forms armor plates all over the body which increases physical defense by 30% and provides an increased resistance to physical damage. Effectiveness increases with proficiency and mana cost slightly increases with proficiency.

This is exactly what I needed. Adam thought, I’m butt naked and with my class restricting me from using equipment I had to shelve the question on what to do till I found some armor or equipment but this skill is just the fix that I needed. I have my sword arm and now a suit of armor. And now all I need is a horse. Adam found the thought funny. But seriously though this skill rocks. I just hope its strong enough to handle the creatures out there.

Adam was excited about his new skill and after amusing himself with thoughts of a certain Japanese show with masked vigilantes in bright armor, he decided to activate it and test it out. The skill was both an active and passive skill but he didn’t feel any different even after he had gained the skill. He touched the skin on his arms and other than leaving dirt on the skin it didn’t feel any different and as a far as he could tell there weren’t any physical change to his skin.

So he activated the skill to see what it does. Armored Carapace. As soon as he activated the skill, mana from his core started to move though out his body using the pathways connecting to the core and moving through the channels till the mana reached the surface layer of his skin where it stopped and best he could make out, fused with the skin. There was a noticeable upward bulge where the mana had fused with his skin and the mana in the atmosphere started congregate into the bulge and fuse with the skin, it wasn’t a lot of mana but it was still noticeable to Adam as he focused on the skill, with the influx of atmospheric mana, the skin didn’t bulge out more but instead grew darker and darker till it was completely black. This was happening all over his body except for his joints and soon most of his body was covered in the black armor.

It had taken an instant for him to become completely encased in armor. He looked down in to the water and saw his face reflected back, even his face was covered in black plates leaving holes for his eyes, ears and nose. His throat was also covered by the black plates which had somehow formed a gorget like plates that covered his throat in places, leaving just enough room for mobility. Even his mouth had become completely encased by the black plates and he hadn’t even felt it, although it could have been because he was hyper focused on how the skill had activated and initiated and he had chosen to follow just a small part of the mana used in the skill to see how it affects his skin. He had been so focused on that single interaction that he had become oblivious to the thousands of changes that had been taking place simultaneously. The sheer complexity and scope of the skill effect filled him with awe.

This is so fucking cool. I look badass, like a knight in obsidian armor and it doesn’t even weigh much, in fact compared to my stats this weight is negligible. Adam reached his hand out and touched his face. Ah. So there is a downside to the skill. The nerves on the surface have either been numbed due to the skill or something, either way it’s hard to feel anything from touch. Feels incredibly muted but shouldn’t be an issue. The fact that it provides me protection is worth the small inconvenience.

I’m so fucking glad I was wrong about the evil AI overlord scenario. Moving back to the skill, I feel solid like a rock with the skill activated but it does feel stiff. Adam thought as he stretched and did mobility exercises to tests out how much the skill effected his flexibility and mobility. There wasn’t anything mentioned about the loss of mobility and flexibility in the skill description. Either the system didn’t know about it, which is laughable, or the system left that part out for me to discover by myself. Which it has continued to do since I first got here and it makes more sense. So that begs the question, just how much does it leave out from its descriptions?... NO answer huh!

Adam let it be seeing as he had no way to make the system answer. All he knew was that, after seeing the skill at work, he was sure that the system could wipe out his existence, turn his cells into mush if it wanted to, but it hadn’t and he was sure that it wouldn’t. If he took what the system said at face value, then all it wanted was to help sapients gain power and fight against “universal threats”. And Adam needed to grow powerful in order to find a way back home. Even if the system had other goals that it was working towards, Adam was still weak and he needed the system to get stronger. For now.

After testing out his new skill and getting used to the slight difficulty in mobility, Adam felt that he was almost used to the skill but was slightly put off by the cost of doing so. The skill was a continuous drain on his mana and within 10 minutes, he had emptied nearly half his mana reserve. Adam felt relieved after testing out his new defensive skill, his skin which had bulged outward and malformed into plates of black armor and the skin on his face which had turned into small scale like plates, filled him with confidence and a sense of safety.

After having satisfied his curiosity Adam deactivated the skill before it used up too much of his mana and once again made his way through the forest and towards the pond. Adam may have gotten himself a defensive skill but he wasn’t foolish enough to think that, the one skill would allow him to face everything the forest had to offer. He was still very much new to the forest, he didn’t have enough information and he was still far too weak to face anything the forest had to offer in a head on fight.

And so, Adam made his way towards the pond, content on being an ambush hunter till he was strong enough to try other more dangerous methods. He made it to the edge of the reeds and proceeded to observe the opposite bank of the pond. He still had enough time to hunt before it got dark and so he settled down in the water with just his nose barely above water.

Adam stayed in the water for quite some time and used Analyze to observe everything that came to the pond, he saw the usual boars, foxes and even a few birds which had stayed above the water, he even saw a species of deer and a hedgehog like creature. The hedgehog was almost 2 meters long and had bristles that had a metallic sheen and even though it moved slowly, Adam had no illusion how dangerous the walking pin cushion was. Even the fox that had come for a sip of water was as long as he was tall and its fur was grey ash and its presence had scared off the herd of pigs which themselves had scared off the deer.

As soon as it came into view the fox looked at where Adam was hiding before it huffed and sat on its haunches to sip water. Once it had its fill it took one last look at him before slowly walking off into the forest. Adam had never sweated that much in his life. The Ashen Fox’s level was shown as question marks when Adam observed it, it was even higher level than the bear and the pack of Wargs and he guessed that it was similar in level to the Sonic Hawk.

The fox had seen him and had completely dismissed him, to the fox he wasn’t even worth the effort to kill, just like the Sonic Hawk. And just like last time, Adam felt relieved and pissed off. It completely dismissed me like I wasn’t even worth the effort to kill. Goddamn I feel like shit for feeling glad it didn’t decide to kill me, but that pisses me off so much.

After his brush with death Adam decided he would to wait a few more minutes, the sun was setting but there was still enough light left for at least an hour, so he decided to see what would come out once the fox left. 20 minutes later he was rewarded for his patience. He felt a pressure in the back of his head, a pressure which was accompanied by a buzzing sound before stopping abruptly along with the building pressure which also disappeared and in their stead he received a notification. He opened it.

User has been affected by Confusion Aura

Your Title One who cheated Death has rendered you immune.

What the fuck! What attacked me and Confusion Aura? A mental attack? From where? Adam was caught off guard with the attack and almost panicked and blew his cover. His experience prevented him from needlessly moving about and giving away his location. He continued to observe his surroundings as thoughts raced through his head. What attacked me and from where? He couldn’t see anything on the far bank and he couldn’t detect anything behind him and so his confusion only grew worse.

And then he felt it before he saw it, whatever had attacked him before tried the same attack again but this time he honed in on the location it came from. The creature was on the far bank, he was sure of it but he couldn’t see it. Is it camouflaged? Invisible? I could sense the direction the attack came from but there’s nothing there. Where is it hiding?

Adam was wrong the creature that attacked him wasn’t hiding. He saw the foliage on the far bank start to shake and move before he saw a skinny furry creature emerge. It looked like a monkey cadaver that was left too long in water. It had a bloated belly and long thin limbs supporting a wide bulbous head. It was completely naked and only its coarse black fur served in any way to protect it from the elements. He Analyzed it.

Mindflayer Simian(15): A simian monster 1.5m tall and possessing weak physical abilities but exceptional mental abilities. Even though Mindflayer Simians are physically weak, they possess mental control abilities and a passive mental skill which causes anything with weaker mental abilities than the Simian to fall under Confusion and depending on the skill level the skill can reach a hundred meter radius from the Simian. Once a creature has been affected by the skill, it will often give itself away even if it was hiding and depending on how strong the creature is, the simian will decide either to kill it or leave the area. Once The Mindflayer Simian decides to attack it will use its mental abilities to lock the creature in place and then releases a powerful mental attack which would destroy the creatures mind and kill it. The simian is extremely intelligent and will always avoid attacking anything it cannot kill. They are lone monsters and due to their intelligence and a fear borne of weak physical stats, they are extremely cautious and cowardly compared to other monsters. Powerful MIND and mental attributes. Weak BODY and physical attributes.

A mind controlling emaciated monkey monster. Fuck me sideways! It looks terrifying, like a giant starved rabid monkey. Real observant Adam! Maybe it looks like that because it is a giant starved rabid monkey with mind control abilities. That passive skill is downright horrible, if I hadn’t earned that title, I would be so fucked right now. Adam continued to think and observe the approaching monkey, it was moving slowly probably because of its weak physical stats or its cautious nature. From the way it stopped every few meters and observed its surroundings and sent out mental pulses, Adam figured it was mostly due to its cautious nature.

I thought monsters were supposed to be like rabid animals, with no higher brain functions, that fucking goes out the window now. That thing is clearly intelligent and cautious, I need to be more observant and not be so quick to judge monsters next time. If I had attacked something powerful while believing it was dumb, I don’t even want to think about the hundred ways shit could go wrong. Adam mentally berated himself for having previously judged monsters as nonintelligent and thanked his lucky stars that he got lucky so far and managed to survive. Adam you need to seriously step up and keep your mind open, observe but don’t jump to conclusions, this isn’t earth or your universe. Shit will fuck you up here. Shit has already fucked you up, so do better.

After having admonished himself for being foolish, Adam set about deciding on what to do with the monster. He weighed the pros and cons and ultimately reached the conclusion that the monster’s main weapons were ineffective against him while it was vulnerable to Adam’s attacks. From what he could infer and from what his Analyze provided, Adam only really need to be worried about the mental stunning attack and it was going to need time to stun lock him. Time that was usually provided by its passive skill, a skill that didn’t work on him. That was the deciding factor, he was going to hunt it.

His body was already in motion by the time he had finished his thought process, he was gliding along the bottom of the pond at a speed and grace that would put Olympic swimmers to shame and he reached a spot underwater near to where the monkey had stopped. It was using its paws to scoop water out of the pond and drink instead of lowering its muzzle and lapping up the water.

Adam waited patiently for the right moment and just as its paw entered the water, he activated Bolster at full power and grabbed it, using all his strength to pull the creature into the water. The monkey shrieked in surprise as soon as it was grabbed and before it could do anything else it was already inside the pond, but then it lashed out with mental waves of pain and fear, the pain was a surprise and made it difficult for Adam to concentrate but the fear didn’t stick to him, most likely because of his title effect.

Adam had activated Armoured Carapace as the monkey entered the water and he continued to drag the monkey deeper into the water and in its struggles to escape him, it became hysterical with fear and started mentally lashing out at everything, although the creature was physically weak, its psychic abilities were strong and it managed to hurt Adam with its psychic waves, thankfully it had lost its mind in panic and was lashing around mindlessly instead of concentrating its attacks on Adam.

Just my luck! I get a physical defense skill and I end up attacking a creature who uses mental attacks! Real smart Adam. Note to self; stop being dumb! He thought to himself as he struggled with the creature and tried to get close to it. He was taking damage and even though the creature was physically weak relative to its mental abilities, it was still higher level than him and was managing to prevent him from closing in with its wild thrashing, the only thing preventing the creature from getting away from Adam was his grip on one of its paws.

Adam finally managed to get close enough to the creature after deflecting one its flailing limbs and activated Giant Killing and Penetrate, his hand stabbed through the creatures oversized head like it was butter. From activating his skill to his fingers going through the creature’s head took less than a second. And as soon as his hand penetrated the creatures head, its struggles stopped entirely and a moment later he received a notification telling him the creature had died. Adam wasted no time and Devoured the creature before quickly heading back towards the reeds.

He was hurt, he had lost nearly 80% of his health but the fight hadn’t been a fear fueled experience for him. In fact he was calm and cold as he set up about overpowering the creature and delivering a killing blow. There had been no doubt in his mind that he would kill it even though it was 11 levels higher than him, Adam had all the advantages while the creature couldn’t really do much against him. In fact Adams titles made him the natural predator of mind controllers like that creature. From the beginning of hunt to the killing blow, Adam had everything under control. Although he had been surprised by its ability to lash out mentally and its ability to cause pain and deal him so much damage, which had damaged him a lot but not as much as it would have had the creature managed to stun him and hold him in place to deliver a focused mental blow, that no doubt would have been lethal to him, but Adam had managed to keep his cool and kill it before it ever got close to killing him.

Adam reached the reeds and proceeded to mud himself up before quickly making his way back to the cave. He was excited and wanted nothing more to settle down and check out his gains but the sun was setting and he was sure he didn’t want to be outside at night. So he made haste as he stalked through the bush, all the while trying to be careful and observing his surroundings for threats. He hadn’t recovered from the fight and would require a day of resting to get back to 100% and so anything that came along could potentially remove the last of his Health.

Luckily that did not happen and in fact throughout his journey back he didn’t even see the beetles that had been common during the daytime nor did he hear any of the woodland sounds, no birds nor sounds of animals, in fact the forest was eerily quiet and it unnerved him. The unease was compounded by the fact that the sky was quickly growing darker and he had this ominous feeling, like something bad was about to happen. That sense of an impending threat was getting stronger by the second and he almost ran the last few meters back to his cave.

He stayed near the mouth of the cave to observe the last few rays of light before darkness took hold of the forest. He couldn’t see anything beyond a few meters and there were no sources of light nor any ambient light and he couldn’t see any stars either and there wasn’t any moonlight either. It was pitch black and deathly silent. Adam felt safe inside the cave but he felt it, deep in his guts, he knew that the moment he stepped out of the cave, he would die.

Something was out there. It was waiting and watching.

This doesn’t feel good at all. The whole forest and everything in it is dangerous but this feels like death has come for a visit. There isn’t any sound of life, and there isn’t any light, no stars or moon and the forest feels like it’s holding its breath in fear. Fuck. Something is out there, something terrifying enough to scare the rest of the creatures into hiding, I’m sure of it.

Adam had already gotten nervous making his way back from the pond and now he was more worried as the darkness settled over the forest. I’m in a safe place, right? The cave is a safe place because the system transported me here and so far nothing has even come close to the cave. So I should be safe. Right? Ok enough of pointlessly worrying over something that might or might not happen, either it comes and finds me or it doesn’t. So lets just go back inside and try and get some sleep. If I wake up tomorrow than its all good. If I don’t, well at least I won’t have to worry about shit anymore. And with that thought Adam turned his back to the forest and went inside the cave to rest. He had completely forgotten about the fact that he would be resurrected while undergoing the trial.

Adam settled down near the pool of water in the cave as it had an ambient glow due to mana and used that as a source of light as he opened his notifications