5 Becoming a Bat Murderer (1/2)

I put yet another point into endurance, leaving me with (27.5). A set of perks appeared right after,

Perk Selection. Choose One.

[Unstoppable(endurance over 25) - Your endurance is incredible. +5 health regen, +50 to stamina regen, +5 total health and stamina gained per point in endurance, another 1/10th of your endurance is converted into willpower.]

[Willful(Willpower of at least 10) - Your willpower is good. Doubles mana regeneration.]

[Fledgling(Reach level 5) - You've just started learning. +10% to experience.]

[Beginner(Reach level 10) - Now you know a little. You can step out of the tutorial zone now.]

Perfect. When I selected the perk, I gained over 138 health and stamina from it. No amount of exertion on my part could ever make me tired either. Days of sprinting would be nothing for me now. That meant that the stamina gained from endurance was useless now. The extra bonuses more than compensated for the difference.

Agony's pain had lessened until I hardly noticed it. Instead of the constant pressure, it was a slight malaise. After a few moments of enjoying the extra energy, I checked out my skill trees.

| III Determinator(Have Tireless, unyielding, unrelenting, and unstoppable perks unlocked by level 20, Endurance of 25 or more, willpower of 15 or more)[0/500] |

Aww fuck yeah. I ran away from the other bats before glancing at my tree points. I needed 12 to finish the ancient tree. I ramped up agony until it matched my hp regen, making several bats in the cavern fly away. Agony wasn't considered an attack apparently. Probably because it hurt me as well.

Regardless, I trained for a three or four hours, shifting my weight and my fists flying. I became a blur of movement, faster than I could keep up with. With the twelve points finished, I finished the ancient tree.

You are one of the few to leave a lasting mark on this world. You are living history. +20 health, mana, and stamina. +20% to exp and skill gain.

With a quick level up in mathematics, I invested a point into the determinator tree. Now I couldn't lose it once I leveled over 20, which would be happening real soon.

I threw a rock towards another bat, and it dashed towards me with the same easily read charge. However, when it entered agony's enlarged aura, it visibly cringed. I struck out towards the beast, as it struggled with focusing under the onslaught of pain. Within fifteen minutes, it died.

Level up! [340 exp](BloodHollow Bat(lvl 34 exp)X[1.4](Underleveled Bonus)1.5(Ancient Wisdom) = 714 exp gained. 1 level gained.

I quickly put another point into endurance before lobbing another rock at another bat. I dodged, weaved, and kited the bat to death within ten or so minutes. The thing died fast.

Level up! [350 exp](BloodHollow Bat(lvl 35 exp)X[1.4](Underleveled Bonus)1.5(Ancient Wisdom) = 735 exp gained. 1 level gained.

Another point into endurance and I killed another bat in ten minutes. Then another, and another, and another. The bats fell like flies. Flies with huge teeth, and ugly, ugly faces. Like I mean fucked up ugly.

Regardless, I gained level after level, putting all my points into endurance. Over several hours I gained enough levels for level 25. At that point, it took four or five bats just to reach from 24 to 25. My leveling had leveled off. It didn't matter though. I put my points in endurance and checked out my perk list.

Perk Selection. Choose One.

[Unbounded(Endurance over 30) - Your endurance is without end. Movement impairing effects, poisons, curses,and radiation are 75% as effective. Add 2 health, stamina, stamina regen and .2 health regen per level, -50% to sleep and sustenance requirements, lifespan doubled]

[Willful(Willpower of at least 10) - Your willpower is good. Doubles mana regeneration.]

[Headstrong(Willpower of at least 15) - Your willpower is admirable. Willpower adds extra internal motivation per point. +1 mana regen.]

[Fledgling(Reach level 5) - You've just started learning. +10% to experience.]

[Beginner(Reach level 10) - Now you know a little. You can step out of the tutorial zone now.]

I had to admit, Headstrong was a pretty damn interesting perk, but my choice was obvious. Unbounded didn't have quite as many obvious advantages as the previous perks, but it was still good. Lessening the requirements on food and sleep was huge. I selected it. The change was more slight than with the previous level up, but the rush was still there. The level ups had stopped giving an enormous surge of strength a while back.

At least, until I began investing in other attributes. Once I had 35 endurance, I'd see if I get access to another perk like unbounded. If not, I'ma start investing in constitution. Their bonuses synergize amazingly well.

I doubt I could get a constitution much higher than 30 or so, but it would help tremendously. Besides, I'm sure the perks would help a lot. If I could get the damage resistance high enough, I could cut agony up to absurd extremes. It would be awesome.

My entire setup revolved around agony in fact. I can't imagine being able to kill the bats without it. Even though it hurt like hell, it had saved my life. I would make it out of here due to this painful skill.

With that pain in mind, I began the process of killing bats. I eventually found that my punches did speed the process up, though by a slight bit. The main difference was that I leveled up my skills quickly while fighting. The struggle, the adrenaline, the danger, it culminated in a much higher sense of urgency. That urgency pushed my skills forward.

Several hours later, I reached level 27. The level gain slowed down tremendously. When I'd checked it out, I found out it would take over 2500 exp for one level. I'd finally started to hit a wall. It took well over an hour of grinding against bats for one level up at this point.

Still, killing them had become trivial. Even if they hit me, I could take 4-5 of their full on charges before I'd die. My health pool had become massive. I kept sharp. I didn't want to starve to death before I could find a way out, yet I didn't want to bite off more than I could chew either. Finding the balance was difficult.

I went to sleep with quite a few skill points and level ups under my belt.

I woke up the next day. Despite my usual grogginess in the mornings, I powered through it with ease. The extra willpower really paid off when it came to stuff like that. Without missing a beat, I began killing bats again. Two hours later I reached level 28, putting a point into constitution.

The narrator voice rang out all badass'n'shit. I'd almost forgotten it existed.

'And their fists shattered against my skin.'

Awesome. Unlike endurance, constitution had a very slight effect on how I felt. My body was denser and harder, like I was becoming a rock. Endurance felt more like I was harder to pull apart, like my flesh was rubber. With a high constitution, my flesh would be moving stone. Combined with my pugilist skill reaching 44, I noticed a dramatic increase in the hardness of my hands. So did the bats.

I reached level 29 later, putting another point in constitution, further hardening my hands. In fact, at this point, the constitution did more for agony than endurance. I'd forgotten how it helped agony. In fact, it helped more than willpower thanks to those fighter trees I considered useless earlier.

Another couple hours of grinding out the bats later, I finally gained another level. I put another point into constitution and opened the perk menu once more.

[Willful(Willpower over 10) - Your willpower is good. Doubles mana regeneration.]

[Headstrong(Willpower over 15) - Your willpower is admirable. Willpower doubles internal motivation per point.]

[Fledgling(Reach level 5) - You've just started learning. +10% to experience.]

[Beginner(Reach level 10) - Now you know a little. You can step out of the tutorial zone now.]

Headstrong seemed pretty good, so I selected it. There was a massive increase in my motivation. Whatever I wanted to do, I could. My body became an engine of my will, a device for my cause. And my cause is killing the shit out of bats.

So I went about my business. I had to kill dozens of bats to level up now. Fortunately, agony had become a force by level 32 with 11 constitution. I had 742 health, 1.3 health regen a second, 16.5 willpower, and 13% damage resistance. Agony was stacked. Stacked up to a whopping 107 damage a minute. I could kill a level 35 bat in seven minutes without beating the shit out of it with my fists.

The main difference agony caused now, however, wasn't damage. It was the control it gave me over the bats. They would howl in, well, agony when they got in its now enormous radius. Even with this increased speed of about five minutes per bat, I could only manage about 1 level every two hours or so. That didn't bother me though.

The willpower really helped now. I was hungry, starving even. I hadn't spoken to someone in seven days. I was in this god forsaken, endless cave, yet I was fine. My will never wavered. My will was like steel by now. I had all the confidence in the world that I would crush these bats and get the fuck out of here.

And crush bats I did. By level 34 I had piles of corpses near me. Bat's kept coming to cannibalize their kin. I would murder them as they came. I even fought them when they started swarming. The bats wouldn't approach me unless I attacked them first with a rock or fist. It made the farming process relatively safe.

By the time I got sleepy, I'd killed at least a hundred bats, finally reaching level 35. I put another point in constitution, leaving me with (13.2). Enough for the perk involved with it.

[Willful(Willpower of at least 10) - Your willpower is good. Doubles mana regeneration.]

[Tough(Constitution of at least 10) - Your constitution is good. Adds +0.5% damage reduction per point in constitution.]

[Fledgling(Reach level 5) - You've just started learning. +10% to experience.]

[Beginner(Reach level 10) - Now you know a little. You can step out of the tutorial zone now.]

Now it wasn't an enormous bonus, but with the fighter's multiplier, it was starting to add up. It was at 21% damage reduction now. The first thing I noticed was that my skin and body didn't feel normal anymore. I was less soft and plushy, more wooden.

The bats became softer as well when I hit them. I kept drinking out of the pools, so I wasn't thirsty. But damn I was starving by now. I thought about eating the bats multiple times, but I decided against it. They looked disgusting, and agony left them looking like gelatin after I killed them. Not the most appetizing meal, even for a starving man. Hell, it may even make me sick.

So for the first time since I entered this god forsaken cave, I planned an exploration. From my backpack, I got several clear plastic bags. I filled them with the glowing cyan water, giving me some makeshift light. I wanted a couple extra just in case.

And I finally moved away from my little cove of rocks. By now I'd shit and piss enough in a nearby pool that it was murky brown. I had to slip into a pool of water so it didn't make a sound. I used the same one over and over since I didn't want to ruin all my water sources. It was disgusting as fuck. I was disgusting as fuck. But alas, that is all behind me now.

I trekked down the corridor, where multiple bats assailed me. I dispatched them over fifteen minutes, being careful of where I was. The closer to the wall I was, the easier the fights were. They couldn't come at me from all directions then.

With that I walked out into dimly lit caverns with little bags of water as my guides. The cave was nothing like I remembered when Micheal and I first came here. The stalactites formed sharp points like teeth. The ridges of the walls molded into twisted, warped faces. Any insects I saw curled up and died.

That was likely due to agony though. I got a notification at that point.

Skill lvl! Pain Tolerance(lvl 86)

I smacked my forehead. I've forgotten to distribute my skillpoints into the determinator tree. I checked out my skills, catching even a few new ones.

Pain Tolerance lv86, Desperation lvl 37, Hail Mary lvl 7, Death's Dance lvl 51, Dodging lvl 28, Pugilist lvl 44, Physical fitness lvl 21, Focus lvl 27, Scorn lvl 52, Sneak lvl 13, History lvl 7, Biology lvl 9, Mathematics lvl 11, Patience lvl 5, Throwinglvl 13, Momentum lvl 8, BloodHollow Bat Slayer lvl 16, Coarsened Hands lvl 11, 446 total, 336 spent.

[Momentum(lvl 8) - You swing with momentum behind your blows. +8% to weight and power when using momentum for attacking.

[BloodHollow Bat Slayer(lvl 16) - You've murdered many of their kind. They become easier to kill. +16% damage to BloodHollow Bats.]