Catpurr 35: CRABS! CRABS! CRABS!

Catpurr 35: CRABS! CRABS! CRABS!

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHH!” Adam screamed, brushing his arms that were coated with tiny bugs and stomping on them as they hit the ground.

[Optional Sub Quest 1: Exterminate Crabs 12/25]

WHAT?!

A notification suddenly hit Adam’s screen, distracting him from all the pinching and burning sensation. Looking down, Adam took out a glowing crystal from one of his pouches, inspecting the bottom of his boot as he lifted it up.

“SERIOUSLY?! BABY CRABS?!”

The revelation stunned Adam for a moment yet his stupor lasted only for a second as the persistent pinching continued, making Adam shake and pat his body all over.

“AAAAHHHHHHHH!”

****

After rolling around on the ground for an hour swearing and smashing tiny baby crabs. Adam was finally free of the swarm. Allowing him to plop on the ground and take a breath.

[Optional Sub Quest 1: Exterminate Crabs 25/25]

[Optional Sub Quest 1: Exterminate Crabs 100/100]

[Optional Sub Quest 3: Exterminate Crabs 235/1000]

[Optional Sub Quest 4: Exterminate Crabs 235/10000]

He pulled up his quest list, looking over the subquest and realizing why the quest requirements were so high.

“Damn crabs.” Adam huffed, whipping his sweating brow before his eyes darted toward what he had at first assumed was a large boulder, only to turn out to be the carcass of an adult morian crab, filled with hundreds of tiny baby versions of itself.

He turned his eyes away from the corpse, looking instead toward his skellie cat that was busy hopping around and crushing little crabs as they tried to flee, contributing to Adam’s crustacean genocide.

If only I had raise undead. Adam sighed, imagining using the corpse of the morian to fight the still living massive crab that was just a few caverns away.

"Oh how simple life would be if I just had my skills…"

Standing up, Adam paced around, occasionally stepping on tiny crabs as he tried to contemplate his next move.

"Can't rest on land. Too much risk. Can't keep swimming, I'll get tired and I'm already vulnerable underwater with the curse." Adam paused, one hand subconsciously moving to the hole in the side kf his leather armor while the other bit his thumbnail.

He needed a way to offset the curse, or at the very least to defend himself.

Fighting underwater was tantamount to suicide, especially against amphibian monsters.

Suddenly Adam paused as his foot stepped on a tiny crab. His eyes shifted, looking over to the side where a tiny +5 XP showed up at the far edge of his vision.

Huh.

Adam pulled up his system, eyeing the experience bar and it's halfway completion.

EXP BAR: [1275/2000]

Neat. Adam said to himself, realizing that each crab he killed contributed to his experience bar.

An evil glint suddenly appeared in Adam's eyes as they shifted. Moving to look at the crab corpse teaming with baby morians.

"Perhaps my diet could use a bit more crab." Adam said, laughing evilly as he approached the carcass.

****

Dropping the large rock stained with crab guts, Adam wiped his brow. as he stared at the message that filled his interface.

“Note to self. Next time. Get a club.” Adam huffed, plopping down onto the slick cavern floor after hours of crab smashing.

[Level Up!]

[ConiCATulations Level 5 reached! System functions unlocked!]

[Titles can now be swapped out!]

[Median level reached! +5 Bonus stat points]

[Passive Ability: Adherent of Death Obtained!]

-You are a practitioner of Death. As a necromancer you deal in undeath. Not just with raising the damned, but also by sending others to their graves. By violently and ruthlessly snuffing out at minimum a hundred living beings, you have proven your ability to not only give life, but to take it. +20% potency to all Necromantic related skills. Living creatures will be more wary of you.

[Please select Two skills from the Nekomancer Skill Tree!]

-Upgrade Summon Minor Skeleton

-Locate Bones

-Upgrade Animate Bone

-Elemental affinity

-Necro Heal

-Drain Mana

-Mana Claws

-Double Jump

-Mana Dash

-Upgrade Mana Bolt

-Upgrade Cat Claws

-Upgrade Eyes of the Predator

Eyeing the notifications, Adam smiled. This was definitely a bump up he needed. But his smile seemed to widen further when he realized that he’d gotten ten free bonus points to spend rather than just five.

Adam tapped on his interface, pulling up the upgrade path for summon skeleton and immediately tapping on the mana optimization.

Upon confirming his selection, the tension in Adam’s shoulder visibility released. Eyeing his available mana that had changed from 000/100 to 20/100 giving Adam the ability to fire two mana bolts.

With one skill point left, Adam eyed the mana bolt upgrades, scrolling through a list of available augments that could improve his ability.

[Upgrade Mana Bolt]

[Available Upgrades]

-Upgrade Mana Bolt to Mana Bolt V2

-Empower Mana Bolt (+20% Damage +50% Mana cost)

-Optimize Mana requirements (-20% REQ)

-Extend Range (+50% Effective Range)

-Shorten cast time (-Reduce cast time by 50%)

-Add Multi-shot (-20% Damage +1 Projectile)

-Increase projectile speed (+50% speed, adds impact damage)

-Imbue available elemental affinity. (Change mana make up to empower with available elemental affinity)

Adam stood there for a moment, pondering before he made his choice.

[Upgrade Increase projectile speed selected!]

Adam chose the projectile speed augment, only because after having tested the ability in water during his first day in the cave, Adam had found that it suffered a velocity penalty when traveling underwater. Now though, with a fifty percent upgrade, he’d at least be able to hit something.

Next Adam pulled up his interface, eyeing his stats.

BETA SYSTEM v1.03

TITLE: IDIOT NOVICE OF ELI (?????)

NAME- Adam F. Glow

SPECIES: Nekoboy

LEVEL- 5

EXP BAR: 00015/4000

MAIN CLASS- Nekomancer

HP: 110/110

MANA: 020/(100)125

[SEALED FUNCION]

Free Points: 10

STR: (8)10

CON: (10)12

DEX: (10)12

ARCANA: (20)25

SENSE: (7)9

CHAR: (8)10

Buffs: Loved by Undead(Unique), Minor Blessing of Eli(Unique), Eyes of a Predator V1, Corrupted Blessing of Nyx(Unique), Adherent of Death.

Debuffs: Ha! You Sacrificed Your stats for a Cat?!V1(CURSE) Catsification V1 (Curse), Wet(Casification)

Skills: Animate Bone V1, Irritating Touch V1, Cat Claws V1, Identify V1. Summon Skeleton V1(++), Mana Bolt V1(+), Artificial Linguistics{Rigellian}

[Main Quest: Find Pirate King Laffy's Treasure! 0/1]

[Optional Sub Quest 3: Exterminate Crabs 380/1000]

At first Adam wanted to dump all of his points into mana, yet fishing out the gold and pink coin, Adam hesitated. With his ten points he could dump them all into con and unlock the gatcha system. Whatever that was. But he didn’t, choosing instead to spread out his stats so that he could stand a better chance at surviving.

STR: 10->12

Con: 12-> 14

Arcana: 25-> 30

Sense: 9->10

With his mana now at 120 due to his curse, coupled with his optimization, Adam could now fire off four bolts.

Adam sighed, looking down at several baby crabs still crawling around, an idea blossoming in his mind as he eyed the oversized crab carcass.

If there was one dead giant crab. Who's to say there were dozens of others. Although that also meant there were probably crabs of various sizes skirting around, Adam decided to risk it. After all, if he could find another colony of baby crabs… He’d have another source of free XP.

A murderous glint appeared in Adam’s eyes, borderlining madness. He turned, picking up the various oxygen crystals on the ground before hovering his foot over the edge.

It was time to go crab hunting.