Skills
Theresa stretched as she slowly walked out of the pod room, feeling refreshed.
All her injuries and aches had been mended in record time, and she was left feeling incredibly satisfied after.
Ability users naturally had a higher Vitality than normal humans, and realistically speaking, Theresa would have healed from those injuries in the morning, but she'd have been sore for a while.
Healing pods pretty much helped cellular activity increase substantially, allowing the body to heal faster than normal, and some higher-grade models could even facilitate limb regrowth, but those were absurdly expensive.
Anyway, Theresa chose to use the recovery pods as she didn't feel like going through the hassle of healing normally. Moreover, it felt nice, and it was only 30 credits for 3 hours, so it was worth it in her eyes.
She rounded the corner and paused.
Three hours was a decent amount of time, and by then, almost everyone had left the infirmary/hospital. It was mostly staff around at this time.
Yet Mike could be seen sitting in the waiting area, his legs swinging back and forth as he waited, his expression thoughtful.
'... He actually waited.' She blinked, a bit surprised. She'd expected him to leave after a while, but he truly waited.
When she saw him, he seemed to perk up and turned straight at her with a genuine smile on his face. The simple gesture made Theresa's heart skip a beat.
'Why... is he so damn cute?!' She quickly covered her face to make it look like she was thinking, but in reality, she was hiding her faint blush.
She shook her head and quickly walked towards him. When she got close, Mike started.
"Hey, how are you-" Theresa ignored him as she grabbed his wrist, pulled him to his feet, and stalked outside the building.
"Uh, okay?" Mike tilted his head with clear confusion, but Theresa refused to acknowledge him as they walked.
Mike decided not to question it, and the two of them walked in silence, the various paths quite empty aside from the occasional bot.
Soon enough, the two of them reached their dorm, and they got on the elevator.
"... You didn't have to wait." Theresa finally addressed him, and Mike offered a small smile.
"It was the best I could do." He scratched his head. "I know you told me not to worry, but I'm still sorry for losing it like that..." He said, genuinely apologetic, and Theresa briefly glanced at him before huffing.
"That's how things are here. Fighting is common, and injuries are even more so. Will you escort me to the infirmary every time we spar and I get hurt? What if you have something to do after?" Mike was about to protest, but she cut him off.
"You're a good person, I see that now. But trust me, if you want to survive in this place, you have to be a bit more selfish and ruthless. I'm not saying you should be cold, but as you are right now, a lot of people wouldn't mind taking advantage of that personality of yours." She shook her head.
"Even now, I wonder why you're so intent on sticking with me. You're obviously averse to people from the different families. Why am I different?" She didn't truly direct the question at him, but it still sounded that way, and Mike just shrugged as the elevator doors opened, and Theresa started to step out.
"I have a feeling that you wouldn't harm me. At least, not intentionally. You seem pretty nice." He said it honestly, but he watched Theresa freeze, almost flinch at his words, and he sensed a myriad of emotions from her before it settled on forced indifference.
"Goodnight." She said, her voice clipped as she walked ahead with purposeful steps.
Mike frowned and scratched his head.
'Did it say something wrong? Or is she still mad?' He wondered, more than a little confused.
He watched her turn to her door, her red braids hiding her face as she unlocked it and stepped in, leaving Mike alone in the empty hallway.
He sighed.
'I read online that females can be confusing. Is that what they meant? I can get a feel for people's emotions towards me now, and I'm still perplexed.' He shook his head as he walked over to his dorm room door and unlocked it before stepping in.
He was about to go to his room, then winced as he was hit by a particularly intense hunger pang.
He sighed and went to eat for what felt like the millionth time today.
Meanwhile, Theresa was sitting with her back against her door, her face buried in her hands, and if one could see past them, they'd see that her face was bright red.
'I have a feeling that you wouldn't harm me. At least, not intentionally. You seem pretty nice.' The words repeated in her mind, and she stifled a small squeak.
'Why... did you have to say that?' She thought quietly.
***
The next morning, Mike woke up with a yawn and stretched by putting his arms forward and arching his back, a lot like how a dog would stretch. Another of the numerous behavioral changes that came with his transformation.
His blue eyes were unfocused for a moment, and then he got up and decided to take a warm shower.
As he showered, he considered his routine for the day.
'I'm gonna take more commissions, and then I'll ask Theresa if she's up for another spar today. If she isn't, then I'll just look through the library.' He mused as he turned up the water and dried himself off.
A bit later, he was in his uniform again. Well, a new set, considering that yesterday's set got shredded by the fight.
He was about to open his room door when he paused. He heard movement, and he subconsciously froze. It was his roommate.
True to his words, Mike stayed put as he listened closely, not wanting anything to do with the strange guy. Luckily, he didn't waste time with whatever he was doing as he quickly entered his room.
Mike still waited for a few minutes before he stepped out. He quickly made his breakfast and left the dorm room, the commissions he'd wanted to do already picked out.
Like yesterday, he'd selected three commissions, all of them labour-intensive. The first one required him to transfer destroyed practice weapons from the training wing to the disposal site, making him wonder if it was the same equipment that he'd transferred there the day before.
After that, he had more cores to dispose of, but it wasn't for the Biology lab and was instead for the Engineering hub. The payment was a whole 100 credits more than the one the Biology lab offered, making him wonder if there was more work to do, or if it was simply due to the distance between it and the disposal site, and the Engineering hub was quite a bit further away than the Biology lab.
However, Mike was just happy to do it, as that meant there were more cores for him to absorb. Even though he reached his cap on the number of dead cores he could absorb, he still occasionally got a small amount of stats from them after a long round of absorption.
Moreover, Mike read that the Engineering people usually used cores of a higher quality compared to the ones at the Biology lab, so he hoped that the dead cores they disposed of were more likely to grant him stats.
It seemed tedious, but compared to killing things and leveling up, it felt fair in his opinion.
The last task was actually for the infirmary. Apparently, they'd gotten a batch of new recovery pods and needed help swapping them in with the old ones.
Altogether, these tasks would net him 1,120 credits by the end of the day, which sounded great to Mike if he was being honest.
As he walked towards the first spot, he suddenly had an idea.
'Yesterday, when I improved my control over my Aura, I reached a sort of roadblock when I nearly got it to liquify. I made great progress in a short amount of time, but I still lack experience using it. So what if I...' Mike closed his eyes and concentrated.
He kept his senses attuned to his surroundings as he focused, and gently, he released his aura at a very low output.
He immediately felt the augmentation to his body and senses. However, compared to his regular output, the enhancement was pretty low. Noticeable, but low.
What's more, controlling it at such a low output was surprisingly...
'Hard.' Mike noted with some surprise. He had a grip on it now, but he felt that if he slipped up a bit too much, he would either accidentally let it spike or just stop being released.
Hence, he had to find a fragile balance, and keeping that balance wasn't simple.
'It's kinda fun, though.' He thought with a small smile as he reopened his eyes and inspected his body.
As opposed to him using his Aura normally, now, there's a faint blue sheen covering his body. One wouldn't notice it at first glance, but it wasn't exactly the most subtle either.
Moreover, the energy expenditure was so negligible that Mike almost didn't notice it, and he felt like he could keep it active indefinitely, or at least for a considerably long period.
Mike decided to look at his stats to see just how small the increase was and... wow.
STATS
Strength: 24.2 → 24.6 (+0.4)
Agility: 27.4 → 27.9 (+0.5)
Endurance: 26.0 → 26.4 (+0.4)
Vitality: 30.6 → 31.1 (+0.5)
Perception: 23.6 → 23.9 (+0.3)
Ferocity: 5% (Stable)
Allocatable Stat Points: 0
'Kinda trash.' He noted. Then again, it's not like he was trying to achieve a huge boost, just to keep it active at low amounts.
It took some conscious effort, but as he approached his destination, it gradually became easier and easier, and about 20 minutes later, he barely even noticed that his aura was active.
And then...
[Ding. Through the Host's efforts, he has successfully created a new skill.]
[Skill Name: Aura Modulation
Description: Through disciplined control, Host can regulate the intensity and spread of his aura at will, reducing waste and maintaining longer active periods without strain.]
Mike perked up, surprised.
'Oh yeah, skills are a thing... wait.' Mike suddenly remembered something and pulled up his stat window.
STATS
[Name]: Mike
[Age]: 17
[Race]: Lupine
[Level]: 3
---
STATS
Strength: 24.2
Agility: 27.4
Endurance: 26
Vitality: 30.6
Perception: 23.6
Ferocity: 5% (Stable)
Allocatable Stat Points: 0
---
SKILLS
> (Active Skills)
• Primal Awareness (Level 1) – The Host can precisely direct his instincts to warn of danger, incoming attacks, or nefarious intent.
> (Passive Skills)
• Bestial Adaptation – Physical stats (strength, reflexes, stamina, and senses) are heightened even in human form.
• Cellular Recovery – Slowly regenerates minor injuries and recovers fatigue over time.
• Aura Modulation – Through disciplined control, Host can regulate the intensity and spread of his aura at will, reducing waste and maintaining longer active periods without strain.
---
ABILITIES
• Primal Surge [B+]
A combat-type aura ability absorbed from a fallen foe. Enhances physical performance, reinforces strikes, and can be shaped into offensive bursts or barriers.
> [Hold to Expand for Details]
---
EVOLUTION
Locked
> Requirement: Unknown
Mike looked through his status and instantly focused on the skill under his active skills, the single active skill he had.
He read the description and remembered that faint chime he heard when he managed to increase the precision of his instincts as he was fighting Theresa, then he smiled to himself.
'I should seriously focus more on acquiring skills.' He thought just as he reached his destination.