Finding a hole to hide in had become significantly easier since I’d regained my eyesight. So I quickly found myself a suitable hiding spot, but instead of hiding, I took the recently killed crab out of my inventory. I wasn’t exactly hungry, but since I’d gained my Gluttony skill, eating felt more like I was doing it for recreational reasons than out of a need for survival.

So I started munching on the big piece of meat while pulling up my status. Both the buttons for the shop and the skill trees tried to get my attention by pulsing with blue light, but I still went for the skill tree first. What greeted me was a skill tree, more or less how I’d imagined it. The tree itself was split into three paths of subsequently more costly unlocks, with what I presumed to be some sort of “ultimate” skill.

The tree was segmented into seven segments, of which the first and last segment only contained one unlock each. The first unlock was a freebie, apparently, which made all my poison spells 10% stronger, as well as my poison 10% more potent. Very convenient. The last one was the ultimate, which was only purchasable if I bought all the unlocks of each of the three paths.

All unlocks in the first segment cost one skill point, in the second segment two skill points were needed, and so on until they cost five skill points each at the sixth segment. The ultimate cost five skill points as well.

Each of the unlocks was either an active skill, a passive effect, or an attribute bonus. The only thing that needed more explaining, was the passive effects. Those apparently weren’t like the passive skill I’d come to know, but more like effects that were just kind of… there. They either enhanced my spells or my poison directly, so they’d definitely be worth buying.

Seeing as the unlocks from the first segment were relatively cheap, I decided to get all three of them, and then start to specialize down a path for a while. For now, I purchased a passive effect that made my poison last longer.

Having my poison linger for longer was always good since that directly translated into damage.

All in all, the skill tree seemed like a very powerful tool that was now available to me. Especially since this system was apparently traveler exclusive and not used by regular monsters. This would give me even more of an edge over the competition.

Satisfied with yet another upgrade to myself, I continued eating my food, which was rapidly disappearing into my endless belly. It took me less time than I thought, but eventually, the last piece of meat disappeared from this world, giving me another three XP... not a lot, but I'll take it.

You have completely consumed your prey.

Due to the effect of Gluttony, you have gained the following attribute points:

1 Agility

Whoa, hold on! Agility? Did gluttony actually allow me to put points into my agility stat? I quickly pulled up my status and checked. Truly, my status now displayed a shiny two next to my agility stat, yet the message that my agility was locked at one still persisted. Damnit!

It would seem like my agility stat was allowed to go up like this, but unless I found a way to uncap it, I would be stuck at one regardless. Slightly miffed that my hopes were raised, and then crushed so expertly, I decided to go back to the hunt.

At least my agility stat wouldn’t be so low once I finally uncapped it.

I leisurely made my way through the maze of stalagmites, carefully paying attention to the vibrations in the ground until I finally picked up signs of a fight in the distance. I changed my course straight towards the battlefield, intent on being the third party to take it all in the end.

As I got closer, I slowly realized that this didn’t seem like a normal fight, and indeed, once I got close enough to see what was going on, my hunch proved to be correct.

I would appear to be about the tenth party turning up to this fight, instead of the third. I immediately regretted not taking the active skill from the first segment of my skill tree: Poison Mist. A skill that would have let me generate a cloud of poisonous mist, depending on how much MP I pumped into the skill. If I had this skill right now, I could just sit back and watch all ten of them slowly succumb to each other and my poison.

It was truly a free-for-all over there, with two crabs, one toad, three wolves, and four giant bats duking it out with each other. The wolves were apparently working together, which was bad news for every other participant. Glowing limbs announced the use of skills left and right and blood splattered all over in this mindless melee.

Intent on testing out my poison spear, I carefully summoned one of them but waited on shooting it for now. The spear was about twice times my length and was pretty wobbly all over since it was made from a liquid. Suddenly curious, I summoned forth a second spear, which actually worked out to my surprise.

Having to spears at the read put quite the load on my brain though, as I had to concentrate like mad to not lose control over the spears. It was actually getting a bit much, so I took careful aim and let one of them fly, directly into the thick of the fight.

Since I was still a respectable distance away, my agility stat messed with my accuracy, but there were so many participants in this fight that it was almost impossible to not hit anything. Which is, of course, exactly what I did. The spear threaded the needle between three combatants and impacted on a stalagmite on the other side of the battlefield.

I mentally cursed out my agility stat but was still decently impressed by the fact that the spear did a decent amount of damage to the stone it hit. Apparently, the spear held a decent amount of kinetic power.

Luckily my attack wasn’t noticed, or just mistaken for the attack of somebody already in the fight. I waited a bit for them to bunch up some more before firing off my second spear. This time I hit the toad square in the back. The spear pierced deeply into the flesh of the toad, causing it to falter. I assumed it screamed as well, but I couldn’t hear anyway.

My MP was thankfully completely restored and overhealed due to my meal earlier, so I still had poison spears to spare. I took my time and launched three more spears into the fray, missing two and hitting one of the wolves with my last one.

The wolf was looking pretty worse for the wear now, but unfortunately, one of the bats that were swooping in and out of the fight had noticed my presence. Thankfully, I’d noticed its approach in time, and activated both of my defensive skills. It had been some time since I’d used Compress and Mucus Armor, but they finally had an opportunity to shine again.

The bat swooped in, two clawed feet in front. Apparently, it deemed me small enough to pick up, because I could feel the razor-sharp claws try and dig into me, but my mucus atoms caused it to slip off and crashland to the ground.

I quickly conjured up another spear while the bat scramble to get back on its feet. Thankfully I could move my eyes freely, which allowed me to keep my defensive skills active while aiming behind me.

The bat started a mad dash to get to me, its teeth glowing brightly, most likely due to some bite skill activating. Since I had a bit of trauma against bite skills, I immediately chucked my spear at the charging bat, spearing it straight through the head.

At least agility wasn’t messing with my short-range throws.

The bat had its entire head ripped off so it died on the spot, comically sliding up to me. I took my attention off my assailant and back to the big melee. They had decimated their numbers quite a bit, and only two wolves, one bat, and the toad were alive. The corpses of the rest were decorating the ground, ready for the winner to claim after the fight.

I wanted to get some more XP out of this fight, so I started chucking more spears down the lane. The guys over there were in such a frenzy that they didn’t even notice me harassing them from the distance. What they did notice though, was the two spears that met their mark.

I hit both the toad again, and another wolf while they were still scratching and biting at each other. At this point, I only had enough MP to cast one more spear, which I decided to save in case things went south.

The two wolves capitalized on the opening my spear created and both attacked the toad, eventually defeating it. The bat got a bit too cocky after that, and one botched dive attempt later ended up pinned under the paw of a wolf. Its fate was sealed as soon as that happened, and its head was bitten clean off.

The wolf lifted its bloodied head to check on its companion, only to find that it had succumbed to my poison. Apparently unfazed by having lost both of its friends, it started eating since it judged the fight to be over. And, oh lucky me, it did so with its back turned towards me.

I slowly approached, since that was the only speed I was capable of until I could practically touch the wolf’s tail with my tentacles. It was finally time to use my last poison spear. At this distance, it was impossible to miss, so my attack hit home and took the wolf completely by surprise.

The spear went clean through the wolf, the tip emerging from the other side as the poison dissolved into the wolf’s bloodstream. It scrambled to find its attacker, which proved difficult since my spear severed its spine. It couldn’t move its hind legs at all, and since it was already pretty banged up from the battle royale that had taken place, all I needed to do was wait until my fatal poison did the rest.

You have killed a Lv. 7 Monster Bat

You have killed a Lv. 4 Monster Wolf

You have killed a Lv. 8 Monster Wolf

You have been awarded 130 XP

You have been awarded 19 Data Points

You have gained 2 levels!

Your skills Compress, Fatal Mucus Armor, and Poison Spear have leveled up!

Aces! Two levels, even without double XP, not bad. I didn’t want to stick around here, so I quickly gathered up all the defeated monsters and crawled off to hide. Since I had Gluttony as a skill, eating made me stronger. And, right now, I felt like having a feast!