Chapter 514
Chapter 514
Jake drove his chainsaw through the ravagespawn before him, splitting its body in half. In his peripheral vision, he saw two more monsters charging at him. He extended one of his arms toward them, firing two rotary saw blades in quick succession.
Both projectiles adjusted their trajectories, locking onto their respective targets. One drilled into a monster’s skull, slicing the top of its head clean off. The second embedded itself in the other ravagespawn’s throat. Both were dead almost immediately.
Jake occupied the center of a large four-way intersection, fighting waves of ravagespawn. There were plenty of monsters all around him. Still, their sheer numbers did little to help them. The ravagespawn dropped like flies. Most of them were regular foes, making them absolutely powerless against him.
Multiple Enemies Killed. +18,355 XP
XP: 132,125 / 382,795
Finally, the fight was over. Jake stood among the bodies of the monsters he had just killed. For the past several hours, he had been hunting down one group of ravagespawn after another, steadily gaining experience. During that time, he leveled up four times, going from 205 to 209 and earning a total of 20 points.
He decided to take a moment to check out the upgrades for his abilities that he had yet to acquire.
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Chainsaw Arms: Rank V (MAX) (Upgrades: 4 of 5) (Epic)
5. Head Chainsaw: Extend a third chainsaw from your forehead. Cost: 1 SP
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Drill Gauntlets: Rank V (MAX) (Upgrades: 4 of 5) (Epic)
5. Tunnel Burrower: Combine both drills to create a much more powerful one that can even carve a tunnel through rock. Cost: 1 SP
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Grappling Hook Arm: Rank V (MAX) (Upgrades: 4 of 5) (Epic)
5. Anchor Swap: Instantly swap positions with any hooked enemy. When swapping with an enemy, they are briefly disoriented upon arrival. Cost: 1 SP
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Rotary Blade Launcher: Rank V (MAX) (Upgrades: 4 of 5) (Epic)
5. Fragmentation Burst: Upon destruction or timed detonation, blades shatter into high-velocity fragments that fly in all directions. Cost: 1 SP
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Cinch Net Blaster: Rank V (MAX) (Upgrades: 3 of 6) (Legendary)
4. Deadly Squeeze: Nets can now constrict upon your mental command, applying great pressure and dealing damage. Cost: 1 SP
5. Adaptive Mesh: The net adapts to the target’s physiology: against mechanical foes, it emits EMP pulses; against armored foes, it deploys micro-cutters to weaken plating; against living targets, it injects sedatives. Cost: 1 SP
6. Containment Field: When a net successfully captures a target, a localized energy field can be formed around it, preventing teleportation, phasing, or any other magical extraction for a limited duration. Cost: 2 SP
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Ground Strike: Rank V (MAX) (Upgrades: 2 of 5) (Epic)
3. Seismic Vestige: Targets caught in the shockwave take damage over time and have reduced mobility. Cost: 1 SP
4. Shockwave Shards: The shockwave ejects jagged stone shards from the point of impact that shoot through the air in every direction and embed themselves in enemies and terrain. Embedded shards explode after a short delay or upon mental command, dealing additional area damage. Cost: 1 SP
5. Damage Boost: Upon impact, all your attacks deal additional damage for a short period of time. Cost: 2 SP
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Shardflare: Rank V (MAX) (Upgrades: 2 of 5) (Epic)
3. Cluster Burst: Shardflare splits into several smaller projectiles upon mental command or when hitting hard surfaces, each triggering an additional but smaller explosion. Cost: 1 SP
4. Piercing Power: Shardflare projectiles gain increased penetration, allowing them to punch through multiple enemies or thin cover before detonating. Their blast radius is somewhat reduced. Cost: 1 SP
5. Homing Missiles: After a Shardflare detonates and splits into smaller shards, they can lock onto nearby targets. Cost: 1 SP
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Restoration: Rank V (MAX) (Upgrades: 1 of 5) (Epic)
2. Additional Protection: The energy shield generated upon completing a full rest now equals your total health points. Cost: 1 SP
3. Detonation: When your shield shatters, it triggers a powerful shockwave that spreads in every direction, dealing damage to any enemies or structures caught in its path. Cost: 1 SP
4. Vital Transfusion: Sacrifice a portion of your current shield to massively accelerate health recovery, allowing your wounds to quickly knit themselves back together. Cost: 1 SP
5. Reflect Damage: When you complete a full rest, your shield generates a ward that reflects a certain amount of melee damage back to attackers. Cost: 2 SP
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He acquired each of these upgrades, spending all twenty points in one go. Now every ability and skill in the third section of the Genetic Development Interface was maxed out, with every upgrade unlocked and each having progressed to the final Rank V. There was nothing left for him to acquire or improve there. The next time he leveled up, he could focus on acquiring abilities from the fourth section, which had been unlocked after he evolved to Stage IV.
Some of the new upgrades he had just acquired could be really useful. Others, not so much. For instance, Anchor Swap immediately stood out to him. Being able to instantly switch places with a hooked enemy opened up all sorts of possibilities. The more he thought about it, the more applications came to mind. This upgrade would definitely be extremely useful during combat.
Head Chainsaw, an upgrade for his Chainsaw Arms, on the other hand, didn’t impress him all that much. Sure, a third chainsaw protruding from his forehead could add to his overall intimidating appearance, but whether it would be all that useful in combat was hard to tell.
He briefly imagined charging into battle with three roaring chainsaws protruding from his body like some deranged mechanical nightmare. Would it be useful or necessary? Probably not. Still, at the very least, the extra chainsaw couldn’t hurt.
Pushing the thought aside, he took a quick look around. The battlefield was already rebuilding itself. The pulsating organic masses that covered the surrounding streets continued to swell and writhe. Bulbous growths emerged all around him like tumors, rapidly increasing in size. New ravagespawn were being created.
He watched the swellings with detached patience. Since it had taken him a little while to study the new upgrades, the creatures were nearing completion, so he decided to wait for them to finish developing to eliminate them for more XP.
Just as the first several monsters finished developing, Jake heard a familiar mechanical whir from somewhere behind him. The sound immediately caught his attention. He already had a pretty good idea what it was. More importantly, Feral Instincts remained completely silent, indicating there was no danger behind him.
Whatever was approaching wasn’t a threat, so he focused on the monsters approaching him from the front. Jake casually stepped forward and drove a chainsaw through the freshly spawned ravagespawn before him. The creature barely had time to screech before it collapsed into a mangled heap.
Dealing with the others was just as easy. Only then did he turn around. Sure enough, he saw exactly what he had expected. It was a small flying drone. It flew toward him and came to a stop at shoulder height.
“Jake, it’s me,” Mick’s urgent voice emanated from the small drone’s speaker. “There’s something we need to talk about. It’s important. The Grafters are coming back for you.”