Seed of Titan-Chapter 132: Two Unique Skills at Once

Without waiting for a reply, Max stepped forward and put his hand on the rock formation in front of them. Then, he simply stood there, as if waiting for something.

Drai didn’t have a clue what Max was doing, so he just watched in silence.

Moments after, numerous small sections of the rocks shifted open, and dozens of huge spiders crawled out almost simultaneously.

Drai flinched and took a few steps back. Even he felt a bit dizzy seeing all those hairy legs and beady eyes.

Max, on the other hand, remained unfazed. Raising his hands, he released countless white threads that shot out toward the spiders.

The large arachnids didn’t have time to react—before Drai knew it, Max’s threads had wrapped around them all.

With a wave of his hand, Max pulled them in, dropping them beside Drai with a series of dull thuds.

"Here you go," Max said, snapping the threads from his hands.

Drai stared speechlessly at the dozens of tied-up spiders in front of him. Their maws and legs were completely bound, not twitching even a single bit.

"Come on, Drai. Do your sucky thing you mentioned earlier," Max urged, snapping Drai out of his daze.

With slight hesitation, Drai approached the nearest spider. He chose a soft spot on its abdomen and stabbed his hand into it. Within seconds, the spider withered and died, its essence completely drained.

"Uhm, it’s good that I drained it alive to keep the essence fresh, but quality seems quite low," Drai remarked.

"Then it’s a good thing I brought plenty," Max replied. "Well, go ahead and suck them all dry. I’ll wait."

Drai nodded and moved on to the next spider.

Minutes later, he finally finished gathering all the essence. It had taken about half the time he’d spent draining the ten or so apes earlier.

’System, do I have enough essence for another assimilation?’

[No, unless you intend to use it all.]

’You mean including my reserves for recovery?’

[Yes.]

Drai mulled it over briefly before deciding to forgo his reserves. He was fairly certain that he wouldn’t need them with Max around, but he would still put aside at least a single portion after he was done with this whole testing.

He then picked a spot on a rock and sat down.

’System, proceed with assimilation.’

[Are you sure?]

’Yes.’

[Authorization acquired. Commencing assimilation of various essences. Please refrain from moving excessively until the process is complete.]

"I’m assimilating the essence now," Drai informed Max. "It probably won’t take more than an hour."

Max, who was standing on guard nearby, simply nodded.

But Drai had miscalculated. The process ended up taking almost two whole hours. By the time he was done, the sun had already set, covering the valley in darkness.

Once again, Drai felt a shift within his body. However, when he checked his notification screen, his excitement quickly turned into dismay.

[Assimilation complete.]

[Experience and skill points acquired.]

[Unique skills acquired.]

[User has leveled up. Stats have been adjusted.]

[Constitution +2]

[Transcendence +0.1]

[SP +2]

’...Only two points of constitution?’

Drai closed and reopened his notification screen, thinking that there had been a mistake. But nothing changed—this was truly his entire reward for leveling up.

"What’s wrong?" Max asked upon noticing Drai’s expression.

"Uhm... Give me a minute, I need to check something," Drai replied, opening his status screen.

’At least let me have some powerful skills...’

[Name: Drai Varz]

[Class: Seed of Titan]

[Level: 6]

[Strength: 58]

[Constitution: 62]

[Agility: 20]

[Dexterity: 15]

[Intelligence: 14.5]

[Transcendence: 9]

[Skills:]

{Titan’s Fortitude} {Colossal Augmentation} {Lesser Titanic Physique} {Training Freak} {Bio Drain} {Basic Combat Sense} {Pain Tolerance} {Storm Formication} {Arachno-Sense}

[SP: 3]

Drai’s eyes quickly locked onto the last two skills in the list.

’Storm Formication! Arachno-Sense!’

His eyes widened, and his mouth curved into a pleased grin.

’Hehe... They sound really cool, unlike that weird Universal Grandson. These must be quite powerful.’

With high expectations, Drai opened up the first new skill.

[Skill: Storm Formication]

[Description: A unique skill obtained by assimilating Voltharic Primeapes’ essence]

[Effects: You can sense approaching storms through a tingling sensation across your skin.]

"..."

When Drai finally recovered from his disappointment, he turned to Max and asked, "Max, what’s ’formication’?"

Max was momentarily baffled but quickly replied, "Consensual sex."

This time it was Drai who was stupefied. He looked at his new skill again but couldn’t see how it was related to sex.

"Are you sure?" Drai asked.

"Yeah. Fornication, right?"

"No, not fornication—formication, with an ’M’."

"Oh, hahaha! My bad. Formication means a crawling sensation on your skin, like pins and needles."

Drai was finally enlightened. He thanked Max and returned to his screen.

’I thought ’formication’ here meant that I could ’form’ lightning arcs just like the apes, turns out it has a totally different meaning...’

Feeling that he just got a useless skill, Drai immediately closed the sub-screen and opened the next skill.

[Skill: Arachno-Sense]

[Description: A unique skill obtained by assimilating Silkfang Spiders’ essence]

[Effects: You can sense vibrations through the ground by remaining perfectly still and breathing minimally.]

Reading its effects, Drai frowned, but he still decided to test it out. He quickly froze in place and slowed his breathing.

Immediately, Drai felt the presence of various creatures around him. He couldn’t visualize their shapes, but their vibrations registered like pulses on a mental 3D map, allowing him to estimate their positions, both on the surface and underground.

Suddenly, Drai leapt off from the rock and reached toward the ground, grabbing a handful of soil.

"What are you doing?" Max asked.

"Just trying out my new skill," Drai replied as he pulled a fat bug from the dirt.

Max’s eyes widened. "You got a new skill from your assimilation?!"

"Not just one—two. Though the other one is kind of useless. Oh, I also leveled up."

Max’s eyes instantly lit up. But before he could say anything, Drai continued explaining his results, including the horrendous SP and stat gain.

However, regarding his 0.1 increase in transcendence, Drai didn’t mention it at all. His recent experience with the Crimson Order had taught him to be more cautious of revealing anything unique to his titan class, such as this particular stat. In fact, Drai planned to avoid transforming to maximum size after getting out of this place unless he was absolutely necessary.

After hearing Drai’s explanation, Max fell into brief contemplation.

"Looks like we can’t abuse your sucky ability," he finally said. "I don’t want to sacrifice your potential just to get out of here faster."

Drai sighed in relief—he also didn’t want to miss out on the bonus stats per level. But if Max had decided otherwise, he probably had to comply regardless. Thus, Drai was grateful that Max wasn’t selfish despite his longing to return to his family and civilization.

"I think I need to prioritize my usual training and only assimilate when I feel the time is right," Drai continued. "And I think I’ll consult the System about this before each assimilation so I don’t get these meager rewards again."

"I believe you know what’s best for your development," Max reassured, patting Drai’s shoulder. "Now, let’s return to the cave. There’s a lot you have to learn if you want to earn your own food, equipment, and shelter."

Drai nodded. He also wanted to learn the ropes and not be a freeloader.

Soon, the two returned to the crude dwelling. While preparing their supper, Max informed Drai about the myriad of creatures of the valley, including their characteristics, common locations, and uses.

From this brief lesson, Drai realized that Max was very resourceful, a bit too much, even. Aside from the salt purification from wildebeest pee, there were many other things that Drai found to be rather off-putting, such as eating a certain kind of wasp raw to lower a fever, fermenting baby moles to concoct invigorating tonics, and mixing in some beasts’ droppings when eating a certain fish to neutralize their toxins.

But Drai didn’t want to judge Max too much. He had barely been here for two days, so his standards were still adhering to those of the civilized world.

’The wilderness is savage, so I must become a savage too if I want to thrive here,’ Drai resolutely thought amidst the crash course.

After supper, Max settled in for the night while Drai headed outside to train. He made sure not to stray too far and kept his activities within 500 meters1 from the base. His training was fairly straightforward, focusing on weight resistance exercises and combat techniques.

It wasn’t until midnight that Drai finally returned to the cave. His sleeping place was a hastily prepared wooden bed close to the warm fire pit.

The next morning, Max roasted some jerky for breakfast before they set out. His plan for the day was to guide Drai around and help him get accustomed to his new environment.

They spent the entire morning exploring the valley, with Drai making a conscious effort to memorize the notable creatures and landmarks they encountered. At noon, they stopped by a small stream for lunch, where Max roasted some prickly fruits along with some fish—which, to Drai’s relief, didn’t require any unpleasant additions to be safely eaten.