[Confirmed]
Clayton did not know what to expect when he agreed to buy the IQ upgrade.
He could've read the side-effects of the upgrade, specifically, while it was initiated, but the drawn example of the brain caught most of his attention. He didn't read most of what was written on its dedicated page.
Such carelessness came with consequences. He was hit with a splitting headache seconds after he asked for the upgrade, and the side-effects didn't stop there.
His world went dark for a second, and this was enough to force him to lose his balance. His motor-functions shut down, just for a second, and so, he fell on his knees, and then landed on his face.
When he opened his eyes shortly after, he heard the system chirping in his ear.
[-90 Life Essence Points]
[Total Life Essence Points = 4,560]
"By the Gods," He grunted, and then he slowly stood up. "Hell of a bite."
"What the hell bit you?" Rufus asked, and he initially wanted to help Clayton stand up, but he walked over after that point. "Was it a snake? God damn, I hate snakes! Kill it!"
Even though Clayton was the one with the splitting headache, it was hilarious that Rufus was the one who panicked the most. At the burdening age of thirty, he jumped around like a little girl who had seen a spider.
Clayton didn't know if he should laugh or cry, but at last, he knew how to respond. His body had automatically fought the most horrendous side-effects of the IQ upgrade, which would otherwise leave him unconscious for hours, so every other problem after that point was easy to handle.
"There is no snake, Rufus," He said, "It was just a spider, a big one. It bit me, but I killed it. Stepped on it."
"You got knocked out by a spider? Hahahaha!" Rufus broke out laughing, started walking away, and from afar, he shouted. "Man up! Hahahahahaha!"
A lesser man would be offended, and rightfully so, because Rufus was being disrespectful, but Clayton did not care. He had bigger fish to fry, fish in his head, so he focused on that.
Besides, he was happy that his friends didn't ask him any further questions. They seemed to have bought the idea that a big spider knocked him down.
His white lie was effective, because it was not unheard of to run into large spiders, or other terrifying creatures across the mountainside. No one saw the 'dead spider' within the depths of the night, but they didn't question him on the matter either.
With that said, he could focus on the upgrade at hand. Though his vision was blurry from the headache, he still tried to read the black book in front of him.
'So that's what a side-effect is?' He asked the system, through a thought, of course. 'I imagined that it was a brain bone.'
[Brains don't have bones within them.]
'Oh?' He followed along, 'I can't lie, system, it did feel like I grew a bone within my head.'
[That's just your brain lobes sloshing around.]
[Now let me finish the upgrade.]
Clayton, although late with his efforts, tried his best to figure out what was going on. He knew that he was undergoing an upgrade, but the details on the matter were a blur to him, literally. His vision was blurry, he couldn't focus, so this wasn't nearly the best time for him to try and piece a puzzle together.
Considering the severe brain fog he was suffering through, the purpose behind the IQ upgrade seemed hypocritical. He was far from feeling smart right now, and when he had to fish a small beetle bug out of his nose a couple of minutes later, a bug that he had likely picked up when he crashed face first into the ground a couple of minutes ago, he felt a lot less smart.
This was an unusual process without a doubt, but in about fifteen minutes, as he walked along with the flying lectern in front of him, trying not to trip again, the upgrade was finally finished.
[-2,100 Soul Points]
[Total Soul Points = 4,720]
[IQ upgrade complete]
[New IQ = 145 Points]
'Finally,' He sighed, 'I must admit that I am feeling better now, system, but not smarter. I see two moons now, is that a sign of intelligence?'
[No, it is not. You just have double-vision. It should go away eventually.]
'Right,' He nodded, 'Teaching an old dog new tricks is a hard job, I suppose?'
[I don't have to teach you anything. You're now considered a genius, so you should see its benefits soon.]
[You'll be able to think quicker, more clearly, piece ideas together at rapid speeds, and you'll see patterns that the common man will surely miss. Your previous IQ was decent, but judging from the thought processes I picked up on your brain, although your previous IQ was helpful in understanding slightly difficult concepts, you wouldn't have ever been able to master anything, no matter what you tried. As a genius, that'll no longer be the case, but I'll let you discover the full list of the benefits by yourself.]
'Oh? Alright, then, I'll take your word for it.' He gave a slight nod, 'I'll see what my brain is capable of after the second moon goes away, but I'm hoping that you're right, because otherwise, you hit me in the head for nothing, system.'
The system did not indulge in his paranoid perceptions that the system was out to 'get him'. She ignored him completely, and started flapping the pages across the black book that stood on top of the floating lectern, reaching for a few of the first pages.
[I figured that you're not interested in buying other Secondary Purchases, since you already spent plenty of points on one upgrade, so take a look at the Cloning Upgrades.]
[Although it's not its official term, you should consider cloning upgrades primary.]
'Hmm…' He rubbed his beard stub, 'The words are swimming across the pages, system. How about you tell me what these Cloning Upgrades are about?'