Much like last time Stygian was allowed to choose a bonus for filling up a gene pool. This time however Stygian had filled them all. So instead of three choices from one species Stygian a single choice each. Our bug chose Cytonic Patience, Pool Expansion, and Consuming Knowledge. All the bonuses were great, except maybe Aqua Affinity, but those three fit Stygian better than the rest. That out of the way the real fun could begin.
Stygian immediately dived into the Subspecies section eager to see what it could become.
Unlike last time there were no helpful descriptions, but based off the last time Stygian went through a metamorphosis it would be pretty straight forward. Dev?k Middling was probably a regression, a form trying to seek out Av?k purity that had been long since lost. The Morphling would probably be a haphazard combination of all the gene pools. Which means that the rows going across would be Arthropod on top, Mammalian/Amphibian in the middle, and Morphis/Annelid on the bottom.
Based on that guess Stygian wasn't too excited for what Purest would offer, since it was the Av?k subspecies. So when Stygian selected Purest and was greeted with a semi adequate looking bug. It stood straight and proud, with gleaming chitin and it even had the clacking face mandibles that every other race found repulsive. Comparing it to the Dev?k Middling Stygian was even more surprised. The Middling was horrid and weak looking slouched and skinny the chitin was brittle and looked to be flaking off. Stygian couldn't understand the difference between the two, until the bug looked around at the internal structure of the Purest.
The Purest was anything but pure. Under the chitin was a dense layer of bone helping to strengthen them. It would seem that the Purest was helped in little ways by every other species, increasing the bug's quality of life while having every appearance of being a pure Av?k. Making it a somewhat useful choice, well that is if Stygian was planning to hide out amongst Av?k's.
That was a very strange ability, albeit useful. Stygian decided to move forward. Next up Stygian took a peak at Psyking it took all the willpower that Stygian possessed to look at Psyking first. The Dev?k that appeared definitely looked like a bigger, more badass Stygian. The Psyking was twice again as big Stygian, with fluid chitin that seemed to scream elegance and danger. Instead of the clumsy and somewhat childish design that Stygian had first colored its chitin with, the Psyking chitin was glowing with and shifting with psychic mana. To top it off the Psyking had three eyes, which looked really cool, but it also was a part of the Psyking's racial trait.
Stygian was surprised to see that the Psyking actually had a racial trait. Traits were, well, physical traits. The bug already had a few traits, Monsters Vitality and Thick Plate were both weak traits, but traits nonetheless.
That trait alone made Stygian want to just pick this one and be done with it. However, the shelled savage decided to weigh it's options and moved on to the next selection, Dev?k Cytonic.
This one honestly seemed uninspired. It was basically Stygian, but spider. The Cytonic was still covered in chitin, but it was hairy, and lightish blue. The Cytonic also had four legs with curved spikes on the end, probably to help stick into the wall. Though that seemed unlikely with its size and weight. The only interesting thing about the Cytonic, was that it seemed to emanate an aura of cold. While not powerful and barely noticeable it was fairly neat.
Next up was Magi, which judging by the greyed out window there was something odd about it. Sure enough a window popped up blocking the slowly forming figure of the Magi.
The Magi was the strangest choice thus far. It looked like a pale skinned human, with chitin covered forearms, hands, shins and feet going up almost to the Magi's knees. It looked very human, but far more impressive at least biological. The chitin that normally supports the bug's exterior was condensed down to shield the bones and internals of the Magi. Actually, should the Magi have all of its outer flesh stripped away the Magi would be just fine. Only breaking that inner chitin layer could you truly hurt the Magi. Out of curiosity Stygian tried to pull up any information it could.
Stygian was actually in a bit of shock. Magi was an amazing subspecies, or it would've been if Tekanis hadn't sealed all those damn threads. Stygian screamed into the void, or mind space or whatever. It was unfair, but life was unfair, besides Magi was an extremely short term power boost. Sure Stygian could out class any basic or even mediocre mage, but true masters or even grand masters would wipe the floor with Stygian. So with a bit of regret Stygian moved on. Next up was Waterking.
Much like Psyking was a bigger badder Psyling, Waterking was a bigger bad Waterling. It was entirely white, the majority of it plated with chitin, there were gaps on the back and legs where fur jutted out. Behind the head were a series of fronds like gills, like the Mudlings' had. Except these were longer, skinnier, and more numerous. Like a weird parody of human hair. The Waterking was cool but seeing how Stygian was currently in the desert, under a few metric tons of sand...
Still every little bit of information helps.
The Waterking was nothing special, but still having an above average charisma modifier would be nice. Stygian moved on and checked out the Tunneler. It was deformed to say the least. It was crouching near the ground it's posture wrapped, four limbs supported the thing off the ground. Its scales were an oily, grease black. It seemed to have no eyes, but it had a gigantic mouth made for grinding and crushing rocks. Inspecting the internals Stygian found that the Tunneler was actually covered in eyes. They weren't very advanced eyes, but they were extremely sensitive to light. The Tunneler was extremely fast, and nearly every limb had locking joints. Meaning that it could burst into motion even faster.
If Stygian understood the prompt right thing the bug could literally eat iron or something similar and have it reinforce the bug's body. A tempting trait even if the metamorphosis wasn't appealing.
Stygian wasn't expecting much from the shape shifter row, and sure enough it wasn't anything special. The Dev?k Shifter was pale with worm-like limbs, with thin plates of chitin, and a blob for a body. The Wormking was the same except it had bark like plating, and had brown skin. The Stemling was green, and you guessed it, it had worm-like limbs and a roundish blob for a body. The only thing special about the Stemling was the eyes, they were constantly shifting color.
All three were pretty good, but Stygian was definitely tempted by Flesh Memory. It would help the bug isolate mutations, allowing for a greater understanding of said mutations and an easier time recreating mutations. Basically it would power level Mutation. Once again Stygian was allured by the idea of increased charisma, but it wasn't enough to commit to the subspecies. The idea of being a Wormking was also intriguing, Stygian hadn't ever thought about it before, but the easiest way to find a species that fit into all of the gene pools would be to have children.
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It wasn't a half bad idea, but Stygian decided to move on to the last subspecies, Morphling. However instead of a new subspecies appearing, the option for Dev?k Middling and Morphling disappeared, and a new header appeared.
This was better than Stygian could have hoped for, the only question was, which three to choose from. Nothing was finalized yet, so Stygian decided to play around a bit. Which took a very long time. The bug could combine any three Subspecies, any. Around the twentieth variation Stygian got a little bored. Yes they were very neat, but they were less powerful than the original choices, and they were far more unstable. That's what Stygian believed up until it combined Purest, Waterking, and Stemling.
The charisma bonus from Waterking and Stemling was only 80%, but for some reason when all three were together, the Morphling would have a 100% bonus. Not only that but a completely new trait was created.
Stygian began to search for more traits like these, but it was time consuming. Another twenty in and Stygian had no luck. Then another twenty combinations went by, and Stygian found a trail for Magi, Cytonic , and Stemling. But it was greyed out so Stygian didn't bother reading it. Finally on the 84th and final try Stygian found another one. Psyking, Tunneler, and Stemling.
Stygian truly had found the best last, the free upgrade to all its mind-altering spells and to see the truth of another's words would be neat. Okay Stygian didn't really care about that, but it did care about; one the fact that Psyking was included in this Morphling, two the charisma bonus from Stemling, and three free upgrades. When Stygian decided it was happy with this Morphling a new screen appeared.
Stygian chose custom knowing that in the end the bug would probably tweak the original blending anyway. Stygian worked from the inside out starting with organs. The three Subspecies were basically free reign, so Stygian chose organs from the Tunneler, the Psyking's oxygen absorption, and the Stemling twin hearts. The bug hadn't realized that the Stemling had two, but it did. Apparently it was a shifter-hybrid thing, no true Shapeshifter had no heart, or organs for that matter. The Shifter flesh functioned like an omniorgan, doing all jobs of all organs simultaneously. Hybrid Shifter flesh, was like fluid muscle, powerful and efficient. Stygian was the only hybrid shifter it had ever met, that is at least until it met the Mez-mur's. A heart from a hybrid would pump the blood strongly and slowly, accomplishing more for less. With twin hearts the bug could feel safe in having a back up, and be able to significantly increase its endurance.
Stygian had hoped that it might get away with not having a stomach, because it had Gluttony, but the sin needed a physical anchor. Being done with the chest organs, Stygian added bones from the Tunneler, a spinal column and ribs, and built up to the head. That was almost all Psyking, except the eyes Stygian mixed the Psyking and Stemlings eye's together. The bug created eyes or rippling purple going through every shade of purple imaginable. Stygian wanted to increase it's brain size, but was too worried about fucking up to do anything to it.
The Tunneler didn't really have that much of a skull, being a giant gaping maw, so Stygian made one. Angular like a rabbits skull, but less exaggerated. Stygian decided to do away with the nightmare mouth it had been rocking, and went for shifter flesh that way Stygian could have any kind of mouth it wanted. The shifter flesh removed the need for vocal cords, and an esophagus. However Stygian left a passage running from its nose to its lungs. It was easier that way.
And this is where Stygian took a departure from normal anatomy. Well a greater departure. Stygian decided to use the Stemlings limbs, which were floppy and worm-like. Painstakingly Stygian molded and shaped a chitin and bone fused plate. However in the center of the plate was a spike of bone. The bone would stick into the shifter flesh and Stygian would have a fully articulated exoskeleton. It would with excellent defense, and insane power plus the flexibility to well to become almost anything. The only downside was that the spikes didn't want to stay inside the shifter flesh.
After a great deal of tinkering, Stygian discovered that a nexus point of bone that the plates were attached to solved that problem. The nexus was just a sphere of bone and the plates hooked on too. Stygian then put Tunneler scales in any gaps. Having grown deeply attached to having armored shape shifting tentacles Stygian put the customary tentacles on its back. Instead of armoring the tentacles Stygian left them scaled. This way they would be more flexible, and could support in any way the bug needed. However, the bug did add a fully armored tail. As a trump card the bug could doubly empower this limb many wouldn't expect the bug to have. The tail wrapped up around the bug's waist being thin and inconspicuous.
The bug was trying to look like a human, or a halfling in armor. The bug was tired of hiding in the wilderness, our shelled friend wanted to go into a city and kill hundreds of humans at once, without anyone the wiser. So our Dev?k's new form looked like a three foot tall halfling in full black plate armor with a purple magical sheen. Sure there were two tentacles, three eyes and a tail, but with the goblin rags Stygian got earlier the tail would be easy enough to hide. The tentacles were retractable, and the third eye had a flush eyelid that appeared to be a part of a helmet seam. Or the bug could just say that the armor was cursed and half alive. Either way Stygian felt satisfied.
It was a hefty cost, but Stygian accepted it excited to spend the remaining 1250. Opening up sacrifice eager to see what it was.
Which basically meant that Stygian could get whatever it wanted if the bug was willing to sacrifice. Well anything within Stygian's knowledge base. Stygian decided to open up the combine tab, having a suspicion that it would be equally exciting.
The 'try' in the prompt was a bit of a let down, but Stygian desperately wanted to combine. Merge and Meld were the obvious first choice for the job skills, it took five attempts, but Stygian was met with success. Next Stygian sacrificed Match after learning that skills and abilities couldn't be combined this way. Sure the bug could hold on to it in hopes of being able to find a use for it one day, but we'll it could be an asset now. Stygian sacrificed the skill for 15 free stat points. Next up was Shaping and Mutation, Stygian wanted a more controlled Mutation skill. Plus Stygian was confident that it could regain just plain Shaping in the future if it wanted. This time it took seven attempts. That was 300 points right there.
Finally Stygian couldn't put it off anymore, the bug tried to combine Splicer and Shaper. Surprisingly the bug succeeded upon the second attempt creating the Flesh Shaper job. Then finally Stygian combined Flesh Shaper with Geneticist. It took fifteen attempts, but Stygian succeeded. 425 points and 725 points down the drain but Stygian was left with a wildly altered page.
Stygian had never seen the hidden distinction on a job before, but since they were no longer active their specializations showed up. It didn't really mean much but it was interesting to see. Consuming Knowledge was good, so Flesh Knowledge was likely to be even better. Stygian was excited to be down to two classes, Soul Eater and Flesh Lord. Both were so powerful that they changed the skills under their job if Stygian could combine these two together just how powerful could Stygian become.
But enough looking forward, Stygian still had 525 points left to spend. 75 immediately went to combining Disguise and Lurk, into Blend. This way Stygian would always look unassuming like a background character. 450 points left and Stygian opened up Modifiers, and this time Stygian could change it's Modifiers. However, it was 20 points for one percent. Opening the attributes tab was even worse, 30 points for one attribute point. Not willing to admit defeat, Stygian checked the price for sacrificing stability. It was 150 points for every percent more unstable Stygian became. So Stygian decided to look at its page to see what it really needed to upgrade.
However after looking it over, Stygian came to the conclusion that the only thing that it really needed to do was to bump up its Attributes. A mere 15 points wouldn't be enough for our bug, and it may have gone a little overboard. Stygian initially sacrificed 60 percent of its stability, and gained 9,000 points which were promptly spent to buy 300 stat points. Then 17 more percent to round things out a bit more.
Admittedly it was pretty stupid to make oneself that unstable, but it was satisfying to see all hundreds. Plus Stygian had plenty of genetic material to restore stability after metamorphosis. After that Stygian looked over all the changes and accepted. However instead of everything fading to black, the void around Stygian began to lighten turning a bright white.
"Hello there, my name is Kor and I'll be your magical instructor until you awaken. Shall we get started?"
