A Rattling Monster - Chapter 104：The Flying Ratman
-Marc Cassidy chooses: Manifestation of Death!
“System acknowledge the choice of the user, the evolution: Manifestation of Death has been chosen.”
“Attributes:
Name:Sleek
Race: Elemental
Class: Manifestation of Death
Level 0/35
HP: 300/300
MP: 1100/1100
Strength: 24.1
Agility: 52.0
Vitality: 30.0
Wisdom: 60.0
Intelligence: 60.0
Active skills:
[Create Acid lvl Max] [Create Plague lvl Max] [Deadly Shadows lvl Max] [Domain of Mayhem lvl Max] [ Nightfall lvl 9] [Magical Orb lvl Max] [Cursed Winds lvl Max] [Raise Undead lvl 5] [Blood Touch lvl Max] [Veil of Darkness lvl 8] [Undead Touch lvl Max] [Death Ray lvl 1]
Passive Abilities:
[Language of Aria lvl Max] [Ethereal Vision lvl 5] [Status resistance lvl 4] [Magical resistance lvl 1] [Physical resistance lvl Max] [??? Resistance lvl 1] [Ethereal Body lvl Max] [Self-Healing lvl Max] [Magical Restoration lvl 9] [Magical Efficiency lvl 9] [Magical Handling lvl 9] [Cause Terror lvl Max] [Essence of mana lvl 5]
Titles:
[Forsaken of Aria] [Blessed by Oslo] [Butcher] [Nemesis of Krieg] [Followed by Hades] ”
Wow, that’s some new changes, even my body is weird, I wonder what …
“Two similar skills have been found, would you like to merge them into one? Yes/No?”
Ok, I wonder what it is but, let’s go for it, can’t really hurt me. I will see the rest later anyway.
-Marc Cassidy Yes!
“[Raise Undead lvl 5] and [Undead Touch lvl Max] has been merged into [Raise Undead* lvl 7]”
Ok, thank you. I have no idea of what does this mean, but I am happy that you decide to do something System. That’s very nice coming from you. And the description of [Raise Undead] is … never mind, it was created by me. So there is no description, oh, there is one now. My bad.
“[Raise Undead*]: allows the user to create any undead that he can imagine, the cost of this invocation depending on the level of details provided by the user and the strength of the undead invoked. *The user can now turn regular bodies into undead, with a cost reduced. But the body needs to have a link with the undead that will be created, a dwarf corpse can’t be turned into a spirit.”
So that’s what I wanted to try before, and I failed miserably. But now, I should be able to create my zombies, directly from the corpses laying on the ground. And with that, each death in battle will make my army grow. Or at least, it won’t be like now, when only four adults allow me to create the most basic zombie. But let’s not go ahead of ourselves, let’s see everything logically and carefully.
(So, what do you have now, what do you got? Something good I hope, because I heard you mumbling about an upgrade of your spell that creates undead? Can you create a skeleton dragon?)
No, at least not for now I think, I will say everything in my mind at least once, to allow you to participate. That’s really a shame that you can’t directly see the System, that would be a lot easier for me.
(That’s still a gift from Aria, an enemy god, so that makes sense that I can’t utilize. I heard that one time, a god gave a trapped sword to his Hero. Later, when the Hero was defeated, his enemy recover the sword and use it. He only had to detonate the trap at a critical moment, killing the enemy representative and most of the officers in the army. That’s why, the gift granted by every god is either trapped, linked to a problem only known by the god, or a one-time usage.)
The backstabbing and treacherous mentality of your friends will always amaze me. But first, let’s talk about my benefits. Ok, so I have 300 HP and 1100 MP!!! That’s huge, thank you, new evolution, you really are the best of the best. Besides the fact that my body is feeling a little weird, let me take a step and … why am I not moving?
(You are no longer a ratman, you are an ethereal body, maybe an elemental or something like that.)
Yes, it is called elemental, but why when I try to walk I … I don’t touch the ground? Am I floating? Yes, I am floating, that’s why I was feeling weird. I mean, I am still in a ratman shape, and I can still see my odd clothes on me, but, at the same time, I am no longer in a physical form?
(Ok, don’t panic, I will explain since you can really see it from your side. Right now, you are floating in the air, don’t, DON’T DO IT! Don’t fly, you will get lost to easily, I saw in your minds the fact that you were trying to fly, don’t do it right now. It is serious.)
Ok, fine, but I will be able to do that latter, right? Fly in the sky or at least above those houses?
(Of course, I will just teach you how to get used to your new body, I have some knowledge about that, I had two other Heroes that were in the same situation as you are.)
Suddenly turned into a spirit against their will and not born that way?
(… Ehh, ok, not exactly in your situation, they were born as an elemental for both. But, since I was in charge of an entire race of elementals, I have learned some tricks. First, you don’t have to think about walking or moving your feet and arms. Just think of them as useless for now, you will probably barely have anything to do with your limbs. To advance in a direction, think about your entire body, floating and accelerating toward that point, you get that?)
Yes, I have to think that I will fly to a point. No need to walk or run or even jump, just my mind is enough. There we go, body, go toward that shop in front of me. Float, fly? Do something? Ok, new thinking, I am Sleek, I am a ratman shaped elemental, I want to fly in front me, I accelerate to do that, I gain speed, and I arrive at that shop. Yes, I AM FLYING. I BELIEVE I CAN FLY. I BELIEVE I CAN TOU… STOP! HOW DO I STOP?
(Think of you stopping right now, you lose speed, do it now, no, no, no you are leaving the city. Do it before you pass the first wall, dammit. STOP!)
I am trying, you think it is easy. Oh, the ramparts are in front of me. I want to stop; I am losing my speed. Please? HELP! My ratman body is not moving at all, I am stuck a meter before the stone wall. I have not enough speed to pass through the wall, and … I STOPPED! HOURRA!
(I have no idea if it is a good or a bad first try. But at least, the next time I have someone turning into an ethereal creature all of a sudden, I will know what to do. Thank you for your expertise Sleek, that was very useful.)
Ok, now, I think I know how to move. I try to turn; I am really slow while doing this. Maybe if I accelera…. NO SLOWER! SLOWER! SLOWER! That’s better. Really, when you see the spirits do that naturally you think it is easy. But bloody hell, that’s hard, really hard. All the creatures that have to learn that have my eternal respect. Now, I am getting used to it, but the first time, it was a nightmare. Good thing you really warn me about flying to the sky. Otherwise, I would have float toward space, and I don’t know if I would have died.
(Probably, not because of the lack of oxygen, just for you to know, before you didn’t need anything because you had that System, now it is normal. A spirit doesn’t need a single thing to survive for millenniums. But you still are weak to a lot of things, like magic, sun rays, especially if it is a direct contact, for example, that’s what would have killed you in space.)
Good thing to know, but on the other hand, I have not a single problem traversing houses or physical elements. So that means, I can’t attack with my body, but no one can fire a bolt at me and pierce my heart with it. So I am immune to any assassination with normal weapons.
(Yes, but the dagger of the ratmen assassins are all magically enhanced, to pierce through holy shields, reinforced armors. So that won’t save you from their attacks. Even with your improved resistance and bigger HP pool, like you call it.)
So now, that I have managed to control my body, let’s see what are the new wonderful surprises granted by the evolution. But that’s a little weird, why do I have the feeling that I have lost some important things in the bargain?