The Arcane Archer - Chapter 23 Evolution

Seeing as I wasn’t actually scammed, I started working on it a bit more, however I also started to run while doing so. Eventually got the hang of it when it was starting to become night.

The entire premise for it to work was that I had to manipulate the mana into what I wanted it to do with my thoughts, actions, feelings, etc. etc. It didn’t work previously as I wasn’t manipulating the mana, just trying to get my desired effect.

Stopping for the night, I looked around for someplace to hide/stay so that I could sleep without worry. It took a while but eventually I found a small little indent on the side of a hill. I checked it out for any secret entrances or objects to make sure I would get caught in something unlucky when I wasn’t paying attention.

Pulling out a few sticks and rocks, I started setting up a fire so that I could cook some of the meat that I had in my inventory. Checking my water, I only had 3 or so liters left as well so I would have to refill that at some point if possible.
for visiting.

After setting up the fire and something to keep the meat over the flame, I got to work on evolving the next few evolvable skills I had.

‘System, list all of the possible skills that I can evolve at the moment.’

[Affirmative.

1. Running

2. Archery

3. Perfect Metabolism and Body

4. Infinite Growth

5. Adaptability]

‘Guess I’ll work from the top down then. System, evolve the {Running} Skill.’

[Evolving {Running} 2 possible evolutions found.

1. Super Speed- Allows for you to increase running speed by an exponential amount for every level.

2. Quick Step- Allows you to instantly move a certain amount of feet per level.]

Once again, a very hard choice. Super speed in general would allow me to get to place quicker but with the exponential amount, I don’t know how easy it would be to control unless it also improved my reaction timing and what not. Quick steps are an instantaneous teleport to a certain distance that would increase per level which is great for combat but I’m not sure if I can specify how far I want to go within the distance I could move.

I mentally went back and forth over and over constantly between the two of them because I didn’t know which one would be better. Finally, I picked one. Not because of what it could do, just because I decided to pick at random.

‘Evolve into super speed.’

[Confirmed. Evolving {Running} into {Super Speed} level 1. {Running} has been retained and is still usable.]

I was about to get up and test it but immediately sat down as it was becoming dark and I had to stay here to make sure I didn’t burn my food. Though I was a bit dishearten upon hearing this, I reminded myself that I would have all day tomorrow to test it out and level it up.

‘Ok, next skill! System, evolve {Archery}.’

[Evolving {Archery} 2 possible evolutions found.

1. Marksmanship- Increased precision with projectile weapons and gives a higher chance of critical hits.

2. Mana Archery- Allows for creation of a bow made out of pure mana to be created and makes arrows of pure mana when the string is pulled back. Can be used with a regular bow or with regular arrows. Uses mana to create.]

For this one it wasn’t even a question of which one to pick. Mana archery sounded awesome and would probably be awesome once used.

‘Evolve into Mana Archery!’

[Confirmed. Evolving {Archery} into {Mana Archery} level 1. {Archery} has been retained and is still usable.]

Thankfully, this one I didn’t have to get up to test. Using my hands, I put them into position as if I was holding a bow. A purple mana seeped out of my hands as it took the form of a very simple bow. Every now and then, little wisps of blue mana came out as well.

Pulling the bowstring back slightly, an arrow formed immediately as if it was there the entire time. Pulling it all the way back this time, I met a sort of resistance when I got to what would normally be the normal for a regular bow so I assumed that it was as far as I could go instead of trying to go further.

Letting the bowstring go then, the mana arrow in it instantly disappeared. In the distance where I was originally aiming, I heard a loud bang which was then followed by me feeling extremely exhausted from the lack of mana.

[Thanks to your {Adaptability} and constant use of {Mana Archery}, the skill has leveled up!]

[Thanks to your {Adaptability} and constant use of {Mana Exhaustion Resistance}, the skill has leveled up!]

Leaning against the nearby wall for a second so that my mana could quickly refill, I felt better after a few seconds. I focused on my food for a few seconds before making sure that it would be fine without my attention for the next minute or so, so that I could focus on the evolution of my next skill.

‘Ok, next up is {Perfect Metabolism and Body}. System, you know what to do!’

[Evolving {Perfect Metabolism and Body} 8 possible evolutions found 4 possible evolutions found 1 evolution has been found. All other useless options have been removed

1. Apex Body- With a combination of {Adaptability}, {Infinite Growth}, and {Perfect Metabolism and Body} an impossible grade skill has been made. Your body is able to do almost anything given time. It is always evolving and will stay at the new apex it created. It’s possible to evolve in a certain direction if desired and your body will adapt overtime. If a something bad were to happen, you can change your body according to however you want to fix it.

BONUS FOR MAX LEVEL IN ALL 3- After a long rest (8 hours of sleep) your body will automatically improve the lowest stat by your current level.]

Upon seeing this possible evolution that was a combination of the three skills I asked from God, I audibly yelled out, “HOLY SHIT THIS IS AMAZING” because who wouldn’t?

This skill literally improved my lowest skill every time I went to sleep and made it so that my body was constantly evolving and if I get an evolution I didn’t want, I could just get rid of it!

‘Evolve into Apex Body!’

[Confirmed. Evolving {Adaptability}, {Infinite Growth}, and {Perfect Metabolism and Body} into {Apex Body} level 1. All other skills have been retained and are still useable.]

Just then after confirming and seeing the message, my body was racked with a really weird feeling. It wasn’t a feeling of pain or something similar, it was. Undesirable.

But one thing I did know about this feeling, was that I was hungry. Grabbing the meat from the fire, I started eating it as quickly as I could and only stopped once the entire thing was gone.

Once again, I leaned against the wall and took a second to gather myself from what just happened. I was about to get some more meat out to cook but before I could even think about stopping it, I fell asleep.

~~~~~9 Hours Later~~~~~

[Thanks to {Apex Body}, you’ve gained 8 points in {Wisdom}. Total is now at {49 Wisdom}]

The first thing I noticed when I woke up was that I felt exactly the same as before I evolved my god skills. I looked around to notice if anything else has changed over the night but saw nothing that stuck out. Next, I looked at my body to see if anything else has changed about it.

After a through search, nothing stuck out to me that anything was different. My muscles were still the same, my looks stayed the same, all my powers were the same strength (Except the ones I evolved), so it seemed like nothing really happened.

At that moment my stomach then groaned in hunger.

‘Guess I was wrong.’

I got off of the ground and did some morning stretches before I went to look some fruits or something to eat. While stretching, I mentally complained about the constant need to eat with all of these evolutions and skill usages (Like Regeneration).

[Thanks to {Apex Body} less nutrients and calories needed are a possible body evolution. Would you like for your body to start evolving? Y/N]

I paused my exercising and stared at the option I was seeing on my HUD. Immediately, I tapped yes mentally and started feeling something in the back of my head working on something.

[Time till evolution finishes 3 days.]

I raised my arms up in victory.

If I could return to eating the regular amount of food that I did just a couple of days ago, I wouldn’t have to focus so much time on keeping myself full so that I could use my abilities. But at the moment, I was still hungry. Even more so because I initiated a physical Evolution and I could feel myself getting hungrier and hungrier by the second.

Quickly looking around a few trees, I spotted a few trees here and there with a bit of fruit hanging off of them. I grabbed a few and threw them into my inventory so that I could eat them when I became hungrier later on.

While going between tree after tree, I ate some of the fruit while constantly using the {Inspection} skill to make sure each and every single one was actually edible. Because of me doing so, the skill leveled up twice, making it level 5 in total.

All level 5 did was enhance the description and everything inspect told me. For example, when inspecting something that looked like an apple, I saw this-

[Item Name- Poisonous Crab-apple

Poisonous- Yes

Description- This fruits poison is spread throughout the entire crab-apple itself. If ingested, it can be very fatal to creatures who are unable to resist the poison inside. People who have come across this fruit and eaten it, have described a swelling, burning sensation in their mouth, throat, and chest; which often makes it difficult to breath, which can sometimes lead to internal bleeding.

Requirements to eat Safely- 30 Constitution]

My constitution at the moment was a solid 48 so I obviously took a few because who know if they would be important later.

I continued to binge eat while searching for more and more food and eventually after gathering a decent amount, I started heading in the direction of the dwarves again. Thankfully since it was day and I was in the clear, I was finally able to use my newly evolved skill, {Super Speed}.

Getting into a running position, I then kicked off the ground and stared running in the direction of the dwarves. At first it seemed like a normal run to me.

Trees where passing me, I saw a couple of animals here and there, and it seemed as if everything was the same.

It eventually took a while, but I eventually did find out that it was actually working. Since it was only at first level, I was only in a slightly super speed mode. Everything around me looked a bit slower and I discovered this when I was able to watch as an animal’s head slowly turned towards me at a speed that was half of what it normally should’ve been.

I stood still as well to see if it would still work, and everything continued to be half the speed as it normally was. When I thought about ending it, it simply ended and when I thought about it starting up, it started.

The only downside was that once again, I was getting hungry. This seemed to be a new side effect of physical skills that didn’t use mana or something similar. I had hoped that I would’ve adapted by now, but it hasn’t happened for some reason.

Might be that I have to literally starve myself almost to death for me to adapt to it. But hey, who knows.

So, I continued running while using super speed to contemplate how it might work.