As I finished dismantling the last Lycoph corpse, a massive weight seemed to lift itself off my shoulders. Finally, I had avenged my fallen colleagues. I hadn’t known them or particularly spoken to any of them, but their gruesome fates had weighed heavily upon me. Perhaps both mine and their souls could rest a bit easier now.
One issue still lingered in my mind however; the total loss of control I’d experienced earlier. Nothing like that had ever happened with any of my previously grafted parts.
Even now, the Onisha’s flesh whispered to me, urging me to destroy everything that lay before me.
If I was consumed by my impulses in an actual life and death battle, it could very well spell my doom. Not only that, but any potential allies nearby would be swept up as well, as I no longer became able to distinguish friend from foe.
My biggest worry was that this “side effect” wasn’t just limited to the Onisha’s body; would other high tier races be able to influence my thoughts as well?
There had to be some way to mitigate these effects... otherwise I’d eventually be utterly consumed by my parts, with only my outer shell remaining.
I carefully considered the root of the issue – that the muscle memory and instincts embedded within the Onisha’s DNA were able to override my own brain’s commands. If that was the case, all I had to do was increase my brain’s output, so that it could have absolute authority over my body.
My intelligence stat, which I’d neglected until now, would have to be increased.
Unlike the other stats, which had been rather self explanatory, I still wasn’t fully sure of what the intelligence stat represented. Neither the Onisha or the beastman, both of whom had much higher intelligence than me, had actually seemed much different from me in that regard.
Well, only one way to find out. I now had roughly 10,000 points from hunting the Lycophs, so I purchased a cheap accessory from the Shop as an experiment.
With my intelligence now increased to 13, I immediately felt the whispers in my mind quiet down, though I could still feel their presence. Finally, blissful silence.
However, this wasn't the only boon my increased intelligence offered. My thoughts seemed to process much faster than before and my reaction speed had improved. I wasn’t necessarily smarter; rather it was more akin to time having accelerated within my mind.
I immediately purchased additional intelligence boosting equipment, trying to juice my brain up as much as possible to quash any possibility of losing control. I equipped another ring on my other hand as well as an intelligence charm around my neck.
As a sidenote, I’d already attempted to equip multiple rings and charms on each finger and on my head. Unsurprisingly, there was a System restriction that only allowed one accessory per hand and around my neck.
Once I’d finished, I pulled up my Status screen:
Hm? Why was my intelligence stat only 21? With my additional 2 accessories, it should have been 23 instead. Hey, don’t try to scam me you damn crappy System!
No matter how I played around with the accessories, equipping and unequipping them or moving them around, my intelligence refused to go above 21. I even purchased additional intelligence equipment, thinking that perhaps the ones I’d received were defective.
Utterly perplexed, I decided to ask the only other scammer I knew.
“Hey Melchior, why does it seem like my intelligence stat is stuck at 21? Is this some sort of glitch or visual display issue?”
Now back to his usual orb form, Melchior responded, “There is no error with the System, Master Adun. It would appear that 21 intelligence is the limit of your race’s brain. In order to improve it beyond that, a fundamental change in its structure would be required.”
So it was a hardware issue.... the human brain apparently wasn’t built to be able to process “speeds” above 21 intelligence.
This was rather worrying; my low intelligence wasn’t an issue at the moment, but it would quickly become a bottleneck in the future. If my suspicions were correct, my brain would require ever increasing amounts of processing power to keep up with higher tier body parts. Not only that, I imagined that future battles would eventually require a certain amount of intelligence to just keep up and react to the speed of attacks.
The only solution it seemed would be to somehow transfer my consciousness and memories to another brain.... but how? Replacing my own brain with someone else’s would simply be killing me and reviving them instead.
No matter how I pondered, this seemed to be a quandary that had no solution at the present. I scoured the Shop for any equipment or futuristic technology that remotely resembled what I needed but none could be found. I asked Melchior for any suggestions but even he remained stumped.
Begrudgingly, I decided to temporarily set the matter aside as it wasn’t yet a life-threatening issue. Maybe I could request the Heretic God to give me an ability augment that would help alleviate the issue somehow once I gathered enough Law fragments.
As was tradition at this point, I again spent the majority of my points, this time on a helmet. My human head was a clear weak point compared to the behemoth Onisha body and needed to be protected at all costs.
I spent about an hour browsing through the list of helmets in the Shop and after careful consideration, purchased one.
With how many points I had, this seemed to be the most efficient option- the passive would help stop my head from turning into mush from any stray blows. I wasn’t sure how exactly durable an armor value of 130 was, however.
I retrieved Harmonic Guard from my Mail, and closely inspected it. It was a round, chrome colored object with various runes etched into its surface that echoed like a gong upon striking it. I grabbed a small corner of the helmet with my meaty Onisha hands and began to apply force, gradually increasing it until it bent.
Hm, based on how much strength I’d used, it was roughly around the Lycoph arm’s durability, perhaps slightly higher. Still a far cry from the rest of my body, but much better than before. It would suffice for now.
I equipped the helmet and looked around, testing how it felt. Luckily, my field of vision didn’t seem to be impacted with some convenient magic, and the only downside seemed to be was the stench of my own breath.
With the most pressing issues having been settled, I decided to make my next priority to accumulate a large bank of points. I’m tired of being broke!
“Alright Melchior, what’s next on the list?”
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Over the next few weeks, I spent my time hunting down as many different native species as possible. I collected a myriad of different limbs, appendages, and organs that I might find useful in the future, though none were a direct upgrade at the moment.
As I dismantled a massive, grey beetle, I belatedly realized I’d already been on Bellona for well over a month.
Not even 2 months, and yet it had felt like a lifetime. How long would it be until I finally conquered Bellona’s 9th layer, I wondered?
With a heavy sigh, I pressed forward once more.
During my forays, I also spotted several groups of Tier 5 otherworlders hunting the creatures as well, but as always, I managed to scare them away. No higher Tier races could be spotted amongst them, as it seemed hunting down the native fauna was not worth their efforts.
I also spent 20,000 points on an Inventory upgrade to accommodate the vast amount of extra parts I was collecting, leaving me with approximately 85,000 points. A small fortune, the most I’d accumulated so far.
Between our combined efforts however, it seemed that the point farming spree had come to an end; the Species tracker now displayed the closest available creature as over 10 days of travel away.
Hm, what should I do now? I think I’ve basically extracted all the useful parts from the Canopy’s creatures, and I’ve got a decent supply of points stored up. Maybe I should start looking for the exit to Bellona’s next layer? I’d have no idea where to start looking though.
The Heretic God did instruct me to collect as many Law fragments as possible, but finding groups of Tier 5 otherworlders roaming about was an unreliable prospect. Not to mention, I’d likely have slaughter them to take their parts and absorb their Law fragments. This was a line I wouldn’t cross, nor would I try to deliberately provoke them into attacking me.
Actually.... perhaps there was a way. An ethical, harmless (virtually) method of farming these cute little Tier 5 races.
I only eat grass-fed, non GMO, free-range meat!
With a villainous laugh, I dashed through the trees once more, heading to the new D-rank Objective spawn point that had appeared on the Map.
