NOVEL NEXT Chapter 3: A Mouthful Of Weirdly Sharp Teeth
With time seeping away, Dominic had to decide what was the most urgent task. He decided that getting the elves sorted and the rest of the beasts settled in was important, as that was a big part of ensuring they were prepared to withstand the coming attacks of dungeon beasts. To that end, he asked a group of Pride members including Sekhmet to go to the elves and help them decide on a good place for their town. Sekhmet would inform him when they had done so.
After he'd sent her off with a small group of Pride members to meet Hathor and the elves, Dominic went over to the other beasts to help settle them in.
'We don't like being in this forest,' the buffalo leader grumbled with a toss of his head. 'Our horns keep catching on everything. I almost wrenched my neck when running through the forest earlier.'
'We don't like it either,' the ulla leader agreed. 'Though the grass here is much tastier than in most places.'
'That's true,' the buffalo accepted.
'Then perhaps the best thing for your groups to do is to stay here, rest for a bit, eat the grass that's here, and then I'll give you an assignment on the edge of the forest. And you can always come back to the centre to give your report and eat more grass. Sound good?' The two herbivores thought about Dominic's suggestion for a moment and then agreed. He warned them not to get too close to the central tree and then turned his attention to the others.
The queerbs were happy enough spreading out into the forest itself and rooting through its dirt – it was apparently their favourite kind of habitat anyway. The red-nosed lillips also seemed happy enough to roam through the forest and look for small animals and insects to eat. The rest of the predators were happy enough to relax in the centre, especially when Dominic pulled out some of the carcasses of the ex-matriarch's forces and put them out to snack on. He'd have to think about how best to deploy them against the dungeon beasts, though that would be easier to figure out when he had an idea of what they would be facing. He also warned them against coming too close to the tree. A couple of them looked curious, but hopefully they'd heed his warning. Just in case they didn't, Dominic asked Anuke, Neith, and Leona to keep an eye on them to make sure that none of the allies were getting too close to where they might be able to see the stone.
After making sure that his own Pride members were happy and were having a well-deserved rest, Dominic returned to the foot of the central tree – he had the rewards from the Challenge to deal with, as well as the Beast Cores. The fact was that he had at least two level ups waiting for him too, but it would be best to go through the Cores first – with as many Cores as he had, it was quite likely he'd be able to earn a few more Abilities from them and it would be stupid to do that after his level ups. Looking at what Pride Enhancements he could get would be a good idea too if he got a free moment – they'd had quite a few new additions to their Pride and things like an increased Pride chat range or higher Prey Point bonuses would help them all – and who knew what new options might even be available.
Heading back over to the base of the massive central tree, he sat down next to the bodies of the kesh leader – Long-Tooth, he gathered – and the top veten. Pulling up the notification about his waiting rewards, he looked at what he had available.
[Kesh: Evolved, level 17, 34 EP. Veten: Evolved, level 18
36 EP (total: 70 EP)]
[Enhancements available:
Ripping teeth (4 EP)
Increased speed (4 EP)
Increased perception (6 EP)
Increased agility (5 EP)
Finger dexterity (7 EP)
Increased balance (5 EP)
Quick reflexes (2 EP)
Muscular shoulders (3 EP)
Flexibility (2 EP)
Powerful voice (4 EP)
Powerful Kick (2 EP)
Bleed (2 EP)
Piercing Bite (10 EP)
Easy Landing (6 EP)
Strong Throw (10 EP)
Conviction (15 EP)]
Considering that the fight with the two leaders had been significantly easier than that with the matriarch, Dominic was a bit surprised that he'd earned far more EP this time than he had back then. Perhaps it was because of the influence Clan Matriarch had had? It was only because she'd been able to call in a whole load of her clan members and then benefit from their deaths that she'd ended up being such a tough opponent. Maybe if they had fought in a true one-on-one, Dominic would have found the kesh and killer-rabbit combination to be harder than her. Or if he hadn't managed to separate them.
Still, considering that the two leaders were so much lower than his own level, he kind of felt that he'd been over-paid. Not that he was complaining – perhaps it was because it had been a battle over the Place of Power? Well, maybe he'd find out at some point by comparing creatures of a similar level within and without the Place of Power's influence.
It looked like there were some decent options available which was good. A pity that neither of them had had Keen Intelligence, though – he was still annoyed that neither he nor Leo had realised that they were thinking of two different Abilities when making the decision over the matriarch's enhancements.
Dominic took a moment to add up all the costs. 'Well, with seventy Enhancement Points, we can't get everything on the list, but we can definitely get most of it. I'd say the question here is what we don't want. We need to find seventeen Points to save.'
'Finger dexterity can be immediately eliminated,' Leo suggested without hesitation. 'We don't have fingers.'
'No, we don't,' Dominic agreed. 'Though we might get some in the near future.'
'We don't even know for sure what will happen when we reach level thirty,' Leo pointed out. 'And in the meantime, if it changes our body, we might have to deal with disgustingly dangly bits on our paws. I don't want monkey paws!'
'I mean, they might make it easier to climb and to do things that would normally need fingers,' Dominic countered, then felt Leo practically glare at him.
'I. Don't. Want. Monkey. Paws. They're horrible for running with, or pouncing with, and they would look terrible.'
'Alright, I get the point,' Dominic accepted with a hint of exasperation. 'But I think you're overreacting – it probably won't have such a drastic effect. If anything, I reckon that it's more likely to just give the fingers we do have more dexterity. It might help us to control our claws better.'
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'Or it might give us horribly dangly monkey paws,' Leo growled.
'Alright, fine, I get it – you don't want to control your claws better and be more agile,' Dominic grumbled. He looked through the list again. 'Well, Strong Throw is definitely out,' he commented a moment later. 'I doubt it would apply to our acid balls so there's not much point to that one.'
'You're not going to argue that if we took Finger dexterity, we might end up able to throw with them?' asked Leo warily.
'No,' Dominic replied with nonchalance. 'From what I remember of a documentary I watched, it would be our shoulder joints which would need changing to allow us to properly throw things. If we manage to get to a human form again at some point – at level thirty or later – then it might be useful at that point, but that's so uncertain that there's no reason to miss out on something else just for a 'maybe'.' He was silent for a moment. 'Honestly, let's say we do end up back in a human form on level thirty as the quest seems to hint at. How are any of our enhancements going to translate? I mean, are we going to have, like, a mouthful of weirdly sharp teeth.' He shuddered at the thought of meeting his father again looking like some tooth-filing cannibal. Or vampire-shark wannabee.
'Human teeth are the weirdly shaped ones,' Leo answered pointedly. 'Why even have teeth if they're not sharp?'
'Well, we don't tend to go around biting everything that moves,' Dominic snapped at him.
'Which is why lion teeth are so much better – because in this new world, if you don't bite something, it will probably bite you,' Leo pointed out.
'We're getting off topic,' Dominic replied, trying to bring them back on task. 'Even if we take Strong Throw away from the list of potentials, that means the whole lot would cost … seventy-seven points and we have seventy to spend. We still need to eliminate seven points' worth of options.'
'Which we would do if we choose not to have Finger dexterity,' pointed out Leo irritably.
Dominic cast another glance over the list. 'Alright, fine,' he said finally. 'We can eliminate Finger dexterity along with Strong Throw. And I definitely think we should add Powerful Kick to that rejection list too – I'm concerned about how it might play with our other Abilities since its original form was transformed into Powerful Swipe.'
'You think it could disrupt Powerful Swipe?' Leo asked with concern. 'Wouldn't it be more likely to transform into Powerful Swipe again and then add to it?'
'I think it's a possibility. We've seen how adding Abilities together emphasises certain aspects, haven't we?'
'Yes, but there is no kick left in Powerful Swipe. The Abilities we've taken have never negated previous effects. If anything, it would just add something extra.'
'Then you want to risk having hind-quarters that look like a horse's?' Dominic asked wryly.
'I can accept this decision,' Leo replied quickly, as always trying to appear like he wasn't actually agreeing with Dominic's idea.
'The rest of the Enhancements do look pretty good, though, and many of them play to our strengths. Speed, extra damage, better perception, better agility, all Abilities we already have…. I am curious about Conviction, though,' Dominic commented thoughtfully. 'What, does it mean that we become more convinced of our own abilities or something?' Leo hesitated and Dominic's attention was drawn to him. 'You have an idea?'
'I… There was a moment when we were fighting the stupid monkey,' Leo replied slowly. 'It said that it was stronger than we were, and, for a moment, you seemed to think that it could be true. Even though it was patently obvious that it couldn't be. And then a moment later, it told you to stop moving, and it was suddenly harder for you to do so. Only for a moment, but enough for us to notice – do you remember?'
'Now you mention it…. You think that that was caused by Conviction?'
'I don't see what else it could have been,' Leo admitted. Dominic thought about it for a moment.
'I suppose it could be,' he replied slowly. 'We have Telepathy, and a suspicion that Alwen and Berion have some sort of ability to encourage people to feel certain emotions. It's always possible that others too have Abilities which influence people's minds.' He felt slightly unclean at the thought. 'I mean, technically the albuhas' Howl and our Roar kind of do that already. But I'm not sure I want an Ability quite as blatant as that.' Telepathy was one thing. Controlling people, though….
'We can always get rid of it in the Ability Forge,' Leo reminded him. 'Or just not use it. Don't you want to know what it is? And what others might be able to do?'
It was the last argument which changed Dominic's mind. Because yes, he did want to know what it was, but the thought of someone else having some mind-altering ability which might one day affect him again without him being aware of what it was or how to avoid getting caught by it…. This time, it had only seemed to have affected him for a moment. What if next time it was someone much more powerful?
'Alright, so we get everything except those three options we previously eliminated? That will leave us with two Enhancement Points left over – maybe this way we'll be able to confirm whether it translates into Prey Points afterwards.'
'Precisely,' Leo agreed. Dominic made his selection, and they immediately felt the effects.
A sensation like ants scurrying under his skin made Dominic want to practically tear it all off. Pain spiked through his shoulders and then made his teeth ache in his mouth. Some quiet cracks rang out and every joint in his body felt briefly as though it had been just shoved out of place and then back into it. He couldn't stop himself from flinching a few times.
As those sensations were dying down, new ones came to take their place. Dominic felt physically nauseous, as if he were on a sea which was lurching in unpredictable directions. He felt like he was on the verge of falling over and had to spread his front paws out wider to stop that from becoming a reality. It was entirely unnerving. Then, a moment later, his sense of balance returned and his nausea vanished completely. He couldn't tell much difference between now and before but perhaps he would when he stood up.
Next, he moaned slightly as his senses abruptly exploded. It wasn't exactly pain, and it settled back down after just a moment, but it was hard for Dominic to identify what had exactly changed, only that something had. Everything felt…deeper, somehow. Like he was seeing more of it than he ever had before. Except everything was still the same. Though, he did notice one thing – he could feel more through Spatial Awareness than he had before. Not in the sense that he could feel grass where he couldn't feel grass before – he'd always been able to do that. But in the sense that he could feel grass and his lionesses and Nyx and bugs in the air all at the same time. He hadn't realised how much his Spatial Awareness relied on his perception before it had been enhanced.
Finally, it seemed like all the changes were through – no new pains or odd sensations came to assault him. He wasn't sure whether he'd have preferred having it all at the same time, getting it all over and done with in one overwhelming wave, or if the staggered waves actually were a better way of experiencing the changes. Then again, he could have made it even more staggered by waiting enough time in between accepting each Enhancement option for each change to have whatever effect it would have rather than selecting them all at once. Perhaps next time.
He wasn't surprised when he opened his eyes to see a notification waiting for him.
Error: the user has no vocal Aspect.
Solution: enhance the Ability containing the vocal Aspect.
The content of the notification wasn't particularly astounding either – it wasn't the first time he had seen it. Apparently combining his Roar Aspect with an Ability all that time ago was still causing issues for the System to make sense of any time he chose another Ability that should have affected his voice.
Interested in seeing the new changes, Dominic dismissed the notification and waited for a moment to see if there would be any more. When nothing else appeared, he pulled up his status.