Another Improvement
Black opened his eyes only to be greeted by the familiar ceiling filled with white jewels resembling stars.
"Looks like I'm still in the same.."
Black's voice trailed off and his eyes widened realizing he could now speak.
He checked over his body only to discover that his fur was gone, replaced by slightly pale dark brown human skin which reminded him of his old appearance in his previous life.
Turning to the lake he thought of going to inspect himself, but remembering its condition he took out a small silver hand mirror out of his inventory instead, a drop from one of the depth bears.
In the mirror he saw a handsome Afro-Asian youth with two black bunny ears atop his head. His hair was long enough to reach his ankles and as dark as the abyss, sucking whatever remaining light out of the surroundings.
He had a chiseled body covered in muscles, they weren't overbearing to the point of making him look like a bodybuilder nor were they something like the famous swimmer's body.
They looked to be perfectly crafted for his agility like style, he even had a 6 jack. Though he wasn't entirely sure, he looked to be 6'2.
Around his eyes were a natural black eyeliner, highlighting his eyes that resembled a rare artifact, bright purple with an alien/machinal appearance, beautiful in a way.
Opening his mouth, Black exposed four sharp fangs replacing his canine teeth and a purple tongue.
"I look better than I did in my previous life.."
Black smiled a bit then looked at his body, he was naked.
"System, any chance you have some clothes for me?" Asked Black.
[Answer:
The host can buy necessities from the system shop. Such as clothes, medicine, bandages, potions, manuals, materials, weaponry, and much more.
The host is advised to stick to killing enemies for loot due to a wide range of items being available that aren't in the system.
Such as mysterious arrows, breathing techniques, character summoning tickets, skills, and more.]
Black nodded his head. "That explains the crystals from earlier..alright, open the shop."
A window appeared in front of Black exposing various items ranging from basic swords to armor, noticing the search bar on top of it all he searched for clothing.
[System Store - Clothing:
Gold: 20,000
--------------
White Traveler Cloak - 25G
Gray Traveler Cloak - 25G
Blue Traveler Cloak - 25G
Red Traveler Cloak - 25G
Merchant Robes - 30G
Skeptic Pioneer - 35G
Hired Mercenary - 40G]
The window showed the appearance of every set's appearance.
After looking through them all, Black decided to go with Skeptic Pioneer.
[Are you sure you would like to spend 35G on Skeptic Pioneer?]
"Yes."
[Purchase Successful!]
Black closed the windows and shop then opened his window, pulling out a set of clothes.
The Skeptic Pioneer set consisted of a brown tunic with straps, a gray overcoat, gray pants with a belt, some underwear, and black boots.
'Wait.' Black threw the clothes back into his inventory then turned towards the lake.
He was covered in sweat, dried blood, dirt, and smelt like fish. He wasn't sure if the lake was clean or not but it was better than being in his current state, there was also the shark problem but he wasn't as worried about them.
After collecting the loot from the megalodons and storing their corpses, Black bought a bar of soap from the shop then jumped into the water, beginning to clean himself without worry.
While cleaning himself, Black discovered he had a rabbit tail as well and was able to revert back to his rabbit forms whenever he wished.
[Would the host like to see the cards and system messages that appeared when unconscious?]
"Show me." Said Black, now floating on his back atop the water after finishing his bath.
To Black's response 4 cards appeared, all being common causing a sigh of disappointment to involuntarily escape his lips.
[Pitcher:
"Three swings!"
Allows the host to throw things further ignoring the strength scale.]
[Concussive Force:
"He got knocked the fuck out!"
Opponents knocked unconscious by the host will remain down longer.]
[Scaredy Cat:
"Your legs yell for you to run."
Whenever someone initiates a fight the host will gain a speed boost.]
[Sightless Still:
"Blinded."
The more a person is affected by the host's shadowcall attacks the more obscure their vision will be.]
Black read over the cards, slightly surprised to see scaredy cat was back.
After a bit of thought he began to assume cards would always come back, as long as he worked on the certain stat it originated from, in this case, agility. Scaredy cat would always return until he accepted it.
With this in mind Black went with Sightless Still, now that he had shadow enhance he was sure his physical attacks would cause some blindness.
The cards disappeared, allowing multiple purple windows to take their place.
[Host has evolved into a Cursed Abyssal Rabbit! (+10 in all physical stats)]
[Due to Shadowcall being exposed to abyssal energy Shadowcall has evolved into Breath of the Abyss. (+20 Elemental Intensity)
Noticing elemental Intensity, Black became curious about it but he basically understood the gist of it.
His mana imbued attacks would do more elemental damage, so if he had fire magic his flames would burn more or something along the lines.
For him, it would be how fast he could steal the enemies' mana to increase his damage and how much he would blind them.
Leaving the elemental intensity, Black continued to read the remaining notifications.
[King of Despair has evolved into King of Horror. Due to the host awakening his abyssal lineage, King of Horror has evolved further into King of the Abyss.The previous stats belonging to King of Horror will now be boosted from 10 to 15.]
[Aura of the Despair King has evolved into Aura of the Horror King. Due to the title King of the Abyss, Aura of the Horror king has evolved further into Aura of the Abyss King.
The host will now be able to pressure beings stronger than himself no matter their willpower, Aura of The Abyss King can now be used passively. Aura of the Abyss King has been intensified due to the title King of the Abyss.]
[Horror of the Depths has evolved into Horror of the Abyss. Overall strength has been increased while inside the Depths and dark areas, the weakness of leaving the Depths is now removed.]
[The other monarchs have acknowledged your existence, the host is advised to be prepared to be transported at any moment.]
"These are good improvements, it also looks like I was right.." Black quietly muttered to himself. Shaking his head, he stepped out of the lake.
The system did tell him before that any monster species could nominate a certain monster as their ruler, initiating the birth of a monarch in the process.
This left Black to assume he wasn't the only monarch, and if there weren't any others then it would have left many questions.
Drying himself with a towel he got from the system, he opened his inventory then put on the Skeptic Pioneer set.
Once he was done, he pulled multiple different weapons out of his inventory and looked down at them with contemplation.
There was a broadsword, a bow, a spear, a dagger, and a greatsword.
'My light weapon stat should've gone up already, right?'
Remembering that he had been using his legs to fight, he should've gained a ton of light weapons xp.
[Answer:
A point is invested into whatever stat the host desires to improve. So far, the host has only wished for greater strength and speed, leading xp to be sent to the two.
If the host wished to refine his attacks then xp would have been sent into whatever weapon stat the host was trying to improve.]
Getting his answer from the system, Black made a sound of understanding.
So far he had killed many creatures of the depths, just now fighting one that drained his sanity.
His willpower should've improved through all of that but it didn't, same goes for charisma for leading the rabbits into battle.
Looking at the weapons in front of him Black was more drawn more to the greatsword and dagger compared to the others.
He had nothing against the other weapons. A broadsword had good flexibility, range, and was great for beginners. it was a jack of all trades some would say.
However, it didn't specialize in anything, a spear had farther reach and a dagger could outmaneuver it.
A bow was nice as well but he never considered himself a ranger, preferring to get close and personal to an enemy, to him that was more exciting. There was also the issue of if he ran out of arrows or an enemy got too close.
A spear had better maneuverability compared to the bow and more range than a longsword, if it weren't for the greatsword and dagger Black was sure he would have most likely chosen it.
What drew Black to the dagger was its maneuverability and speed. He was a race that specialized in agility so a dagger would be more iconic, however the greatsword caught his eyes.
Greatswords were infamous for being slow, requiring a great amount of brute strength to wield. Disregarding this, they held a great amount of range and power, causing the deadliest of injuries.
Black released a sight, not knowing why, he began to remember a group of tall individuals in dark armor wielding a greatsword with a dagger in their left hand.
The image of them made Black know exactly what he wanted, throwing the longsword, bow, and spear back into his inventory; he picked up the greatsword alongside the dagger.
[Requirements met!]
[Host has potential to learn the ways of the Abyss, does the host wish to learn?]
Reading the window that appeared once he picked up the greatsword and dagger, Black chose to accept the proposal.
The beautiful voice of a woman sang in Black's ears as two sea green cards took the window's place, Black couldn't help smiling a bit at their arrival.
'There goes all my luck.'
[Way of The AbyssWalker:
"Fear those who walk the abyss."
The host has obtained the combat knowledge of Artorias the Abysswalker.
Whenever the host wields a greatsword, he will take an untamed beastly mannered fighting style.
Note: Each time the host takes damage his strength will increase but at the cost of his sanity decreasing, allowing the abyss to slowly swallow up the host until he is nothing more than a beast with no rationality.]
[Way of the Abyss Watchers:
"Careful, those monsters of the abyss are watching."
The host has obtained the combat knowledge of the Abyss Watchers.
Whenever the host pairs a dagger with a greatsword he will take on a wild, unpredictable fighting style, instead of using the dagger offensively or for parrying it is used as a hook to utilize the fighting style.
Warning: Way of the Abyss Watchers has been exposed to Way of the AbyssWalker, due to this each time the host takes damage his agility will increase at the cost of his sanity decreasing, allowing the abyss to slowly swallow up the host until he is nothing more than a beast with no rationality.]
'This is pretty good, the sanity problem isn't that big either considering it's like a berserk skill and I have the ability to increase my sanity, for now I'll just have to be careful.'
Sheathing his dagger, Black put it on his belt then threw the greatsword into his inventory after closing the notifications and cards.
Before Black could take a step back home the world around him became black and white. Everything froze in place as a dark portal appeared in front of him and quickly sucked him inside leaving no trace.