Crinis is still vaguely wobbling in the corner as she also grapples with the problem of upgrading herself. She won’t have nearly as many Skill Points or Biomass as Tiny to chew through, but the fact she has yet to spend a single thing makes me a little worried. Even with my orders hanging over her head, she’ll probably struggle to make choices. I think she’ll be awhile.
Time for me to spend a few points myself!
I’ve got thirty-six points of Biomass to spend and another fourteen Skill Points. The Biomass will go quickly, but the Skill Points, I’ll need to spend a little more time on. I’ve got enough that I can branch out a little and perhaps allow myself a little leeway to pick up a few non-essential skills.
All right then, Biomass first!
This one’s easy enough, fifteen points are needed to take my Inner Carapace Plating to +5, leaving me with twenty-one points to spend. I think I’ll spend the extra on my acid gland. The fact that I can spin magic now shouldn’t take away from the ease of use and deadly restrictive properties of my business zone. I’m also pretty hopeful that there might be some juicy advancements to choose from when I get to +10. I’ll keep my tiny little claws crossed on that one.
[Do you want to upgrade Inner Carapace Plating to +5 and Restrictive Acid Gland to +8? This will cost 36 Biomass.]
Right on the money!
[At this level, you are able to choose a mutation advancement. Please select from the menu.]
Then pow! The menu hits me right between the eyes with a plethora of options. I start picking my way through, searching for something that makes sense for me and what I want from my Inner-Plating. What exactly do I want from it?
More defence, I guess? I mean, as far as I see it, there are two options for improving defence, tougher shell or faster healing. Generally speaking, I like having a mix of both. The tougher the shell is, the more valuable the healing, right? I have the Regeneration Gland to provide sweet, sweet healing in the event I need it, and I have my Diamond Carapace to provide the hard outer shell.
The bone plating is basically a reinforcing layer underneath the carapace, supporting it and making it more difficult to break through. I don’t mind if the plating serves a double role, reinforcing the outer shell and helping to repair it at the same time.
Let’s see if I can find something along those lines…
Bingo!
[Regenerating Inner Carapace Plating: Helps to regenerate damage done to the carapace in addition to improving its defensive properties.]
Nice!
With this my shell is capable of healing itself even more than before. Muahahahaha! All I need now is to bolster my defence against magical attacks in some way. I need to start investigating and training my skills.
[Would you like to confirm these choices?]
Yep!
FFFFFFTAGN!
All over the inside of my carapace! Noooooo!
Ugh, that’s horrible… Now for skills.
For the first time in ages, I bring up the skills menu and start pouring through it, looking for options that might help me out in the current situation.
I saw one skill in Tiny’s list that I thought looked helpful, so I go straight to confirming what that might be.
[Stamina: Reduces the cost of actions or skills that drain physical endurance. The amount of reduction increases with skill Level.]
Hot damn, that is handy. Consider it bought!
Ok, what else is there?
I check through the pet-related skills again to see if there’s something I really want. Increasing growth speed doesn’t really appeal, being able to view status…
Well, if I think about it in terms of what the skills will turn into when advanced, rather than what they are currently, how does that change my thinking?
Growth Speed could become… Levelling Speed? Increase in XP or Biomass gained? That could be really handy.
Viewing Status would become… Changing Status? Being able to spend Skill and Biomass points?
The second one still doesn’t interest me but the first one could become useful. It’s worth spending a point on. Purchased!
The joy of spending points and growing stronger is filling me! Or is it just the knowledge being dumped into my brain space?
87. Upgraded and Ready to Roll
The rest of the pet skills don’t interest me right now. I don’t need to take the skill to increase the number of available pets until the system refuses my attempt. I may as well try and find a third now that I have the faster pet growing skill. Presumably I won’t be able to Level it up unless I gain a new pet.
At that time, perhaps the system will refuse to allow me to reconstitute a monster and I can easily pick up the skill then. For now, let’s look about and see what other skills there are.
Scrolling through the menus takes a significant amount of time. They don’t seem to be organised in a properly logical way. Movement skills are mixed with mental skills, and magical skills are sometimes tucked away amongst physical ones. It’s almost as if you need to know what you’re looking for and where to find it ahead of time, otherwise your only choice is to trawl through the lists checking every entry until you find something you like.
Which is exactly what I’m doing. And it sucks!
This one? No…
How about—No…
Hmmmm… No.
Who would want to get better at that anyway?
Madness!
There has to be some juicy new skills here somewhere. I need to look a little more carefully. I remember when the skill list had only five options on it. I don’t know how, I don’t know why, but that’s ballooned out to over one hundred at this point. I’m not sure exactly what causes the skills to become unlocked. There must be some sort of prerequisite that needs to be met. Perhaps with stats… or even actions in the world?
For example, the pet skills. I don’t exactly frequently check the skill list, but they didn’t appear until after I reconstituted my first pet. I didn’t go looking for them until after I’d met Formo the Sophos, but it stands to reason they were unlocked somehow.
Which means other skills must also have prerequisites before they become available. I suppose humans and civilisations like the Sophos would have had hundreds of years to learn all this stuff and map it out. Uncovering the most optimal paths, planning the best combinations of skills.
Well, the ant kingdom will also have to compile this knowledge! Starting with the first twenty of the new generation, I’ll begin the process of learning the secrets behind the entire skill tree. Not a single leaf shall remain unturned!
With renewed determination, I start reading through the skill descriptions one by one and I manage to uncover a few gems.
[Mana Miser: Allows the user to be able to do slightly more with slightly less when utilising Mana. Effect will increase along with skill Level.]
[Cerebral Endurance: The user will be better able to marshal their mental resources, reducing the mental exertion for complex Will-based tasks slightly.]
[Meditation: User will be able to relax the mind and achieve clarity of thought. Each Level will make the state more effective and easier to achieve.]
Each of these three makes a lot of sense to me from a magic user perspective. More efficiency with Mana, better mental endurance and a clearer, more focused mind? Perfect for my spell slinging ways!