Chapter 117: Nonstop Growth (Part 3)

The soft muffled sounds filled the whole room, echoing through the walls.

Magna was gritting his teeth so forcefully at the moment that his teeth started to crack, a few chips even breaking off.

Currently his whole body was going through a complete anatomical change.

His bones were expanding and contracting, his muscles kept shifting and moving without stopping, and he could even feel his internal organs rebelling, as if none of them liked where they were positioned and were forcing radical changes inside him.

[Your Stamina increased by 1.]

Through all the pain he was going through, he managed to catch a new system message, one he had never seen before, popping up in front of his closed eyes.

"Wha..." Before he could even react, the pain clouded his mind again, making him squirm on the ground like a snail doused in salt.

[Your Stamina increased by 1.]

[Your Strength increased by 1.]

[Your Stamina increased by 1.]

...

..

.

The system messages kept popping up nonstop until the pain finally started to fade, and it stopped completely along with the mutation process.

Magna, finally finding room to think, quickly opened his stat panel.

Strength: 15

Agility: 16

Reaction: 16

Stamina: 31

Mana 14.3%

When he saw his Strength had increased by 5 and his Stamina by 10, he felt a mix of shock and excitement.

"Wait, wait, wait... back the fuck up." He murmured, quickly realizing something groundbreaking. "My stats are now increasing every time I go through intense pain?"

He had just realized he could turn this pain into solid stat gains every time, thanks to his new trait.

He quickly opened the pouch and looked inside, and when he saw the pills still glowing gold, he started laughing, wanting to go call Celeste mommy right to her face.

It was probably the happiest day of his life, even more so than the time a pandemic had struck Earth and everyone had to spend long months at home.

It had been an especially good time for an asocial shut in game developer like Magna, since his game sales had skyrocketed back then.

He was feeling so satisfied and excited that he didn’t even wait for his body to rest after two mutations, taking out four more pills and throwing them all into his mouth to trigger the next set of options.

Mana 112.1%

’Okay, next time I’ll probably need 8 or 9 pills to fill it up completely.’ He realized the effect of the mana recovery pills had dropped quite a bit, with one pill now only filling around 23% of his mana reserve on average.

[Energy accumulation threshold reached.]

[Please select a method to utilize the gathered energy.]

—

[Option 1: Expend 100% of accumulated energy to gain the trait to suppress all body odor and scent traces for 30 minutes.]

[Option 2: Expend 100% of accumulated energy to enhance your night vision.]

[Option 3: Expend 100% of accumulated energy to gain the trait: Intimidating Aura.]

There were again two options listed as trait gains, though this time Magna felt the choices were a little weaker compared to the previous ones.

Or maybe his expectations had just gotten too high, since when he actually thought about it, every one of them was still very good.

For option one, Magna could guess what an intimidating aura actually did.

It had to be something that made enemies or monsters feel fear with just a single glance. Maybe, if it was strong enough, even something like in that anime he used to be a fan of, a trait that could knock someone out cold with just a look.

Option 2 didn’t give any specifics about exactly how much it would enhance his night vision. But it could still be quite useful for versatility, letting him fight and move just as effectively at night as during the day.

Option 3 could be very useful for staying hidden, but the 30 minute duration made Magna a little hesitant about it, since it seemed fairly short.

The mention of a duration also implied there was a cooldown, one that could be a single day or a whole week for all he knew, which made this option feel like a complete gamble

’’Let’s go with option 3, since I haven’t picked option 3 for a while." He made his choice as if he were taking a university entrance exam, drawn more by how fun it sounded than by its actual usefulness.

The thought of scaring any enemy with just one look, maybe even knocking them out with foam bubbling from their mouth on the ground, was reason enough to get him excited about the trait.

[Option 3 selected. Utilizing gathered energy to gain the trait: Intimidating Aura. Prepare for sudden physical pain...]

3...

2...

1...

Magna was unsure which part of him, and what kind of pain, would hit this time, since he wasn’t sure where an ’Aura’ should even be located inside a physical body.

As he hadn’t expected, the pain hit his spine all at once.

This time, though, something felt different, since it wasn’t just physical pain. All at once he felt an overwhelming, senseless fear starting to rise inside him.

His body suddenly broke out in cold sweat, and an uncontrollable trembling took hold of him, even his teeth chattering against each other.

Soon his chest started to tighten, as if he were having a heart attack, his heart feeling like it was about to burst.

His eyes widened, and his temples started throbbing with an unbelievable migraine.

But along with all of this, some physical changes had also started taking place in his body.

His facial features started to gain sharper detail, his eyes in particular growing sharper, and his features started to take on more maturity and a somewhat wild look.

It wasn’t like his appearance was turning into that of a ferocious beast, but more like he was leaving his still childish look behind and taking on the appearance of a charming, sharp featured young man.