Chapter 51: MQ Upgrade
Jimmy was stunned. He did not expect to be out-performed to such a great degree. The symmetrical beauty of Virena’s blazing sphere was overwhelming! He figured that it could cut through a human at a surgical level. Deadly and precise!
The toasted bugs sounded delicious too, so he gave them a shot. He grabbed a beetle with his beak, kept it in his mouth for a little bit, and then he swallowed it.
The beetle had been sliced in half by the fire sphere. Its ends were toasted, and the part in the middle was still gooey and soft.
To his surprise, that was the perfect combination of flavor. The warmth of the recently cooked bug added to the flavor.
"Not bad at all," Clicking noises pierced the air as he talked to her, "I have to say, you evolved better than I did. I don’t think I can make that sphere even if I had a decade to learn it."
"The evolutions the core gave me channeled into my weapon skills." She said, "I can’t shoot fireballs yet."
"Let’s make it happen, then," He smiled, "We should have another bite of the core. It hurts like a bitch to absorb it, sure, but there’s plenty of it to go around. We’ll chip it off one tiny bit at a time until we eat it all."
Virena nodded. She liked the idea of becoming more powerful than she already was. The Arts of the Arcane had always deluded her, they were never part of her formal training, but absorbing this core was something she could get behind.
With that decided, she cut out two pieces out of the Flesh Core. One was for Jimmy, and the other was for herself. She was very mindful of how small she cut out the pieces, because she dreaded the idea of the core immobilizing either her, or her friend.
Jimmy inhaled the tiny piece. Virena did the same. Her portion was as thin as a strand of hair. A soft gust of wind could sweep it away, and she was aware of this.
For that matter, she used the spikes of her raptorial forelegs to grab a hold of it. She then inhaled it as well, as that was easier than actually grabbing the piece with her mouth.
The effects of the absorption process hit them right away. The guaranteed, and hardly welcoming gut-punch nearly knocked them out!
Virena needed ten minutes to absorb her portion thoroughly. The pain didn’t go away as quickly as she hoped, but it was better than her previous absorption process, which took shy of seven hours!
As for Jimmy, he managed to absorb the piece in five seconds! It was so quick that he barely registered the pain that came from the initial punch in the gut.
"What did that get me, system?" He asked right after, in his own tongue, so Virena wouldn’t understand what he preferred to keep a secret, "You’re awfully quiet."
[You did not undergo any changes. The fragment you absorbed was too small to help you advance.]
"What?" He cocked his head, "That doesn’t make any sense. I wasted hours earlier because the piece I ate was too big, and now, it’s too small? What am I supposed to do here?"
[I recommend that you try and absorb a piece four times bigger than your previous portion. Your foundation of Arcana had already improved a little bit once you obtained the Red Fireball skill, so a slightly bigger portion shouldn’t weigh you down as much as it could have. You might hallucinate, but it’s worth the shot.]
Jimmy caught up with what he was supposed to do, he was clear on the matter, but he had to wait for Virena. She wasn’t done absorbing her portion of the core, and he needed her tiny forelegs to cut him a precise piece.
While he waited, he got an idea. Magic, when boiled down to its core, required the caster to be intelligent.
Jimmy’s IQ was close to that of a genius. He was way smarter than the average crow, but his current intelligence revolved around problem solving, memory recall, and spatial awareness. It had nothing to do with mana, and what was required to comprehend skills or evolutions regarding mana.
As he explored some statistics, the system confirmed that he was nowhere close to the middle of the bell-curve.
[MQ indicates intelligence regarding mana, or Arcana in general.]
[Current MQ: 15]
"Damn," He sighed, "I’m a vegetable. Less than a vegetable... I’m a seed."
The fourth branch of the Evolution Tree that offered him options to improve his intelligence, was barely touched. Only now did he realize how big of a mistake it was that he hadn’t bothered to explore its sub-branches properly.
The sub-branches it offered seemed infinitely useful now. Greater means of intelligence were within his reach! Expensive, but available nonetheless.
"I have to upgrade my MQ, system." He said, "Will it knock me out? This core is still beating, but it’s starting to stink. I don’t think the salt is keeping it fresh enough. I don’t want to wake up what, a day later? And see the core rotten."
[You’re confusing MQ upgrades with your absorption issues.]
[Intelligence upgrades are designed to help you without overwhelming you. The window attached to the MQ upgrade option is very clear. Post upgrade, your MQ will only increase by a few points.]
"I can see that," He said, "It’s too expensive, though. Twelve-hundred points for an upgrade as small as this looks like a bad deal, but I don’t have another choice I guess? Give me the upgrade, system."
[Confirmed]
[Initiating...]
Jimmy instantly felt sick. He wasn’t struck by any sort of pain, just like the system promised, but he got so nauseous all of a sudden that he nearly threw up!
Arcana, be it when he absorbed a core, or when he upgraded his MQ, always seemed to target his stomach, and his guts. It never gave him a break, even if the progress he made was microscopic. It wasn’t fun, but at least this time, it was quick.
Two minutes later, the process met an end.
[Complete]
[MQ: 15 >>> 20]
[-1,200 system points]
[Remaining points: 5,327]
"Upgrade it again," He said, after he swallowed his vomit.
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