Chapter 92: Tiny Bulldozer
After cussing under his breath about twenty times, Jimmy ended up exactly at where he started. At the bottom of the tunnel.
Virena created a wonderful tunnel for him. It was too good, even, or too stable, which in turn made the ground of the tunnel a bit slippery.
Jimmy was not big, or strong enough to drag the fifteen kilogram staff up the tunnel.
After such an epic, lengthy, one-hour long fail, he decided to be strategic about the matter. He didn’t want to waste energy trying again, only to fail once more.
The strategy he thought of, in this case, was to throw a few hundred system points at the Evolution Tree, and become bigger.
As he tried to catch his breath, overheated beyond bounds and with no way to sweat it out since he was a bird, he slowly shattered the illusion that being bigger was the solution.
Jimmy looked at the two-foot wide tunnel, and simply by eye-balling it, he could tell that if he grew any bigger, he wouldn’t be able to fit in the tunnel, which would create another problem.
"That wouldn’t work," He sighed, "I guess I have to settle for strength, then."
Strength, thankfully, could be upgraded directly. The option to do so was available within the first sub-branch of the Phisyque Branch in the Evolution Tree.
Irritated, tired, and hungry, Jimmy didn’t think about the matter any further, and threw hundreds of system points at the problem.
[Confirmed]
Pain engulfed him, but at this point, he was used to pain, so it hardly weighed him down.
With the Sentient Feather merged in his body, he fought against pain as if it was his last battle on this planet. His body attempted to regenerate itself, even when there was nothing to regenerate.
The pain he felt came from the fact that muscle mass was being added across the entirety of his body. It was a burning sensation, and it was impossible to shake it off, but otherwise he was fine.
He could move, he could talk, and he could think.
The pain lasted for half an hour, before it abruptly stopped.
[Upgrade complete]
[-3,100 system points]
[Strength: Level 6 >>> Level 9]
[Strength can be upgraded up to level 40.]
Jimmy made a big purchase, because he didn’t want to do the math in regards to how much it would take in order to drag the staff up the tunnel. He assumed that upgrading his strength three times was the safe way to face the matter, especially since a single strength upgrade may not mean much when forty of them, in total, were available.
"It doesn’t feel right," He said, "I feel stronger, but my legs feel the same. Or almost the same? Fucking hell, the system distributed the strength too well. I’m gonna need stronger legs if I’m going to drag this bastarding staff."
With that considered, he didn’t even touch the staff, and instead, got another idea.
He threw some more points at another upgrade, one that did not feature strength as its primary function. Instead, it targeted his legs, primarily his claws.
"Now that’s strategic," He said.
After another episode of searing hot pain, albeit shorter in duration, his legs increased in mass. Muscles that did not exist in his claws before, were added, and a helpful bonus out of this was that he’d also be able to wield his hammer better from this point onwards.
[Upgrade complete]
[-800 system points]
[Remaining points: 7,555]
[Warhammer Comprehension evolution: Level 2 >>> Level 3]
[This evolution can be upgraded up to level 11.]
"Yeah, I don’t really need to max it out right now." He said, "I got what I wanted."
Jimmy stretched for a moment, and this time, he realized that he actually felt stronger. His grip on the ground was stronger, at least, and he felt as if he could crush a rock with his claw!
Impressive feat for a crow.
[Weight: 2kg (4.4 lbs) >>> 2.5kg (5.5 lbs)]
"Hmm... yeah that makes sense." He silently celebrated, "That should help me, but god-damn, I’m so hungry."
[Muscle mass is difficult to maintain. Your metabolism was already quite taxed before your recent upgrades. I recommend that you target meals that even your very demanding body takes a while to process, such as Venison, or meat from apex predators.]
"No kidding," He said, "The last time I ate deer meat, I almost shat myself into a brain aneurysm. I don’t think I’m supposed to eat them, but I don’t have another choice, do I?"
The system did not answer. She already said what she had to say.
As for Jimmy, he felt as if he wasted a day’s worth of calories after he took a few steps. Of course, his hunger exaggerated things, but his body did become a bit more difficult to maintain.
At this rate, he dreaded the idea of being a bigger crow, or at the very least, he wanted to figure out a way to reduce his caloric intake. He was not meant to be a hyper-carnivore.
"That damn treasure Gundor promised me, it better be worthwhile." He said, "Other than my claws working better, I have no use out of this extra pound I gained."
Jimmy hated that a mere tunnel defeated him, and forced him to make unnecessary upgrades, but he had no other choice. This was not a problem he had expected to face in his mission.
Anyway, he grabbed the stone staff by the tip, and started dragging it up the tunnel once more.
"Oh, hell yeah!" He celebrated right away, "This’ll work!"
The staff continued to try and slip from his grasp, and down the tunnel, but he didn’t let it.
Despite that he hated the fact that he was bigger now, it was actually useful. He could put more weight on every step he took, and more weight on the staff too.
In the middle of the tunnel, he started feeling the effects of gravity the most. The staff nearly urged to slip back into the ruins behind him, but he didn’t let it.
The task was at least half as easy now compared to earlier on. He powered through like a bulldozer. A very tiny bulldozer, granted, but an effective one nonetheless.
At last, he made it to the other side of the tunnel.
The first thing he did was leave the staff in the fields, and rush towards the Dry Eagle carcass a few meters away.
"I’m fucking hungry!" He nearly started salivating. "Those eyeballs I nibbled on weren’t as filling as they looked."