Free Web NovelChapter 18: Praying Mantis; Doesn’t pray, it punches
Jimmy was three purchases deep this morning, and yet his points were far away from getting spent.
"I shouldn’t have gotten this many points in my hands..." he sighed, as a fresh headache developed from the raging storm in his head, "I love that I have them... but this feels like cheating. If we compare shit, I’d have to kill over 360 rats to get the same points I have now... wow, I can do math now? Nice, nice, it’s not helping me get to a decision quicker, though."
[The point of evolving is to be able to bring down big game. Killing humans may seem morally wrong, but you chose the evolutionary path of an Assassin Crow. Your body goes through drastic changes every time you evolve, to follow the path of an assassin. Being able to kill two humans is a reward for the effort you put in.]
[You assassinated one of them. The average crow cannot do that.]
[If you would’ve preferred to kill 9,100 bugs to win the same amount of points, then that’s up to you, but you’re not meant to peck at bugs.]
"Very inspiring," he joked, "If anyone saw me though, those couple of kills will blow up on my face today... doesn’t matter, let’s focus on the upgrades."
Since he was far from making a decision regarding his next purchase, Jimmy decided to read more into the Helping Hand ability.
It was based on the Arts of the Arcane, or mana, basically, so there were several statistics tied to this single skill. Yet another system tab popped up in front of him, entirely blocking his already crowded line of sight.
[Mana-based Skills: Helping Hand]
[Mana Realm: Pale Jade, otherwise known as the first realm]
[Mana Quality: Level 2 out of 8]
[Mana absorption: Low]
[Mana quantity: 200/200]
"What’s different here?" he asked, "I don’t remember it like this."
[You’ve accumulated the maximum amount of mana you can, for one thing. Second, your Mana Quality, based on your current Pale Jade realm, went up by a level when you bought the Helping Hand skill.]
Jimmy could not understand that explanation. His heightened IQ didn’t help. He didn’t even know what question to ask, so he just stood there, looking at his statistics.
At last, he asked, "So the Helping Hand skill is a one-time purchase? I can’t upgrade it?"
[You can upgrade it, just not directly with system points. Your mana-based skills advance in intensity the more you improve the quality of your mana.]
[Relatively, they’d be more effective if you weren’t stuck in the first realm of mana quality. This branch may seem expensive, but I recommend you look into them.]
"I’d rather not," he said, "I bought the Helping Hand ability, and it knocked me out for twelve hours. It threw all my plans in the mud."
[Shouldn’t that give you a hint of how weak you are in terms of the Arts of the Arcane?]
"Right," he sighed, albeit irritated.
Afterwards, he got rid of all the tabs that were jumbled in front of him, and started flying.
"I’m hungry. All that thinking zapped my energy more than flying ever did." He said, "I’ll look into the arcana branch after I eat a couple of rats... or, like 67 bugs? Bugs look disgusting, but they’ll help me keep a low profile."
Jimmy found a bug shortly after. This time, it was a Praying Mantis.
"Look at you, trying to fight me, arms up and all," he chuckled, "Adorable."
He then pecked at the mantis, his back arching as he bent over to land the blow, but to his surprise, the mantis avoided the attack!
It beamed to the left in the blink of an eye, and then it pounced on him!
Jimmy was tossed a foot backwards, utterly shocked.
"What the fuck?" he shook his head.
A single blow from the mantis gave him double vision. He didn’t want to discover what the second punch would do to him.
He backed away, and said, "Are mantises supposed to know Kung-fu?"
[I’m not sure what Kung-fu is.]
[We have to assume that this particular Praying Mantis has evolved exceptionally well.]
"I never thought that bugs could evolve..." he kept blinking, as he tried to shake away his double vision.
The mantis did not attack a second time, it kept its distance, but it didn’t take its eyes away from him.
"He doesn’t want to fight," he said.
Jimmy observed the mantis for a solid ten minutes. He nearly forgot that he was hungry, for one thing, but as his double vision slowly cleared away, he noticed something important. The mantis was hurt.
"Who on Earth could’ve hurt you?" he said.
One of its hind legs was torn off, half of it, at least. The other half floated around like a useless stump.
Jimmy was intrigued by this odd creature, so he felt enthralled to help it.
"Come closer, little guy," he said, and reached one of his legs out.
The mantis backed away, though, its stoic face guaranteed that it would attack again if it felt threatened.
"This damn mantis doesn’t pray much, does he? He just punches. Touching him would probably get me knocked out." he held in his breath. "Maybe I don’t have to touch him?"
Jimmy concentrated as best as he could, and after a minute of giving the mantis a horrifying montage of a crow farting out tiny bands of black smoke, he managed to summon one of the skills he recently bought.
A dark mist poured out of the leg he stretched out, and it engulfed the mantis in seconds. Although it took him a while, he put the Helping Hand ability into use, and once he got to the point of actually summoning it, it felt as natural to him as simple movements, such as pecking or flying. He didn’t have to chant fancy spells, he just had to focus.
The mist faded away three seconds later.
"Wow," he nodded, happy with his work, "You have four legs again, little guy. But don’t punch me again, I don’t want to know how much that hurts when you’re in your prime."
The mantis watched Jimmy caw and grumble as if he was suffering from some sort of disease. Confusion was a given, but when the mantis saw that its leg had regenerated, the mantis thought about flying away.
A crow couldn’t be this friendly for no apparent reason. Not for long, at least.
Above his head, Jimmy heard someone shout, "Look at that! Gnegor’s new kid is a Necromancer!"
"What a shame," another said.
Jimmy looked up, and spotted two crows. They appeared to be female, and that aside, he could sense that their intentions were bad.
Confused, he asked, "Neck romancer? Why would I romance necks?"
