Dark Fall

New Friends, New Abilities

Alex and the group immediately began moving away from the place and just like he thought, a few aliens arrived in the area not long after to check out what was happening.

They had been drawn by the sounds of battle and a few aliens were there. Alex was observing them gathering there through the scope of his weapon and he immediately signaled to Maxie and the rest who were waiting on the ground that it was now safe to move.

The group hadn’t immediately left the area and instead went into hiding. The aliens’ scanning ability wasn’t omnipotent and it wasn’t like they could keep it on all the time. They also needed to be stationary when they used it so as long as they weren’t seen, the aliens wouldn’t know where they were or where to look with their scanning ability.

They didn’t escape the area just yet because Alex told them to wait for the aliens to gather in one place, so it would reduce the risk of them running into one of them on the road.

At least once the aliens have gathered, the group would know which direction not to run towards.

Going into the subway was an idea Maxie brought up but Alex immediately shot it down because the subway was underground and in a constrained space. It would be hard for them to escape since there would only be one direction they could move in.

If an alien found them, then they’d be dead because they wouldn’t be able to outrun the alien or find any cover.

So instead of moving to the subway, Alex pulled out the map he got early on from the soldier that had saved him and placed it on a table in an abandoned house that they had decided to rest in after running away for so long.

Unlike Alex, the rest of the people were still human so even though he wasn’t tired after all that running, they were definitely exhausted so they had to rest but this was the perfect opportunity to give the group an objective to work towards.

Throughout the entire trip, however, Jesse had been constantly keeping a suspicious eye on Alex which sort of unnerved him. However, Alex didn’t say anything because it was only natural that anyone would be suspicious of him.

Some people would be in awe of his ability to kill an alien but then there would definitely be those that were wary and suspicious of him.

“Before I left the area, I ran into a few soldiers who were saving and evacuating citizens. Here’s a map that shows the evacuation sites all around the city. I was trying to move to one of them before I ran into you guys, so if you don’t have any good ideas, why don’t we move to one of these sites?”

Maxie took a chug on the water bottle he had brought with him before he ran from his home. He took a look at the map and noticed that one of the red marks on the map was at Central Park.

“Are these danger zones or the evacuation zones?”

“They’re evacuation zones.”

“There’s one at Central Park…”

Alex nodded and said, “The precise location was at the park’s field hospital, but by the time I got there...it was completely destroyed and aliens were patrolling all around the area…”

“Ugh...did anyone survive?”

Alex shook his head at his question. He didn’t know if any did, but from what he saw back then, likely no one was able to leave the place safely.

“Since we’ve got no plans, I say we follow Alex’s objective. At least in these places, we’ll be able to find other survivors...maybe.”

“Regardless of your group’s decision, I plan to head to one of these evacuation zones. I don’t know if they’ve been attacked or not, but at least it’s better than running around in the city like a headless chicken.”

Maxie turned to the others in his group and they all nodded, “Alright, we’ll follow you then, Alex. Is there a particular evacuation site that you’re trying to head to?”

“The farthest one from here, the evac site that’s located somewhere near the border of Bronx and Manhattan.”

“It’ll take us a while on foot…When the aliens invaded, all of the cars stopped working as well as any other electrical or mechanical device.”

“Well, we have no choice.”

“Why don’t we try making it to the closest evac site first to see what’s happening there? Honestly, Alex, the people in our group can’t make such a long trek...”

Alex turned to look at Diane and her family before he understood Maxie’s point. Maxie himself wasn’t that fit and he was a little bit fat. They weren’t like him who was a hybrid alien-human and was previously already an athlete.

Making such a long trek with them might slow him down but it would be too heartless of him to abandon them now.

“Alright, let’s do as you suggested then. The closest one should be the evac site at Fort Jay and Battery Park.”

“Yeah, thanks for understanding, Alex.”

“Hm.”

Alex could see that everyone was still exhausted from everything that had happened so he decided that they should remain in the house and fully rest their exhausted bodies and minds until the next day.

He also needed the short break since he needed to take account of all the things he obtained today.

First of all, the weapon he had created, the Alientech Barrett M107 was working just as he intended. It was capable of killing an alien though he still needed to learn and grow a bit more adept at wielding the weapon.

If he became more proficient, he’d soon be able to accomplish his original plan for the rifle to be a one-shot, one-kill weapon.

However, there was something that he wanted to look into even more than the usability of his weapon and that was the Menu that Scourge had developed for him inside of his Heart Realm where he could see all of the skills he currently possessed.

Alex quickly entered his Heart Realm after making sure that there was no danger in his surroundings.

“Let me see it, Scourge. You said that I needed to develop my brain’s capabilities so absorbing that alien from before should have done something for me.”

[Don’t worry, I’ve organized all of our new capabilities and even given you a skill tree that you can see the future development paths for our abilities. The knowledge in your mind regarding these ‘Video Games’ has given me a lot of inspiration and with our brain’s development thanks to the recent absorption of biomass has given me enough resources to develop this new and improved Menu.]

“Good.”

Alex quickly brought up the Menu and was quite surprised to see it have much more detail than before and even a few sub-menus. There was also a Menu that showed his attributes, which was rather convenient.

[Status Menu

Alex Crowe

Human-Zaegnid Hybrid

Constitution: 20

Strength: 15.3

Agility: 17.5

Stamina: 19.1

Intelligence: 18.1

]

[Ability Menu

Physical Abilities

[Hard Skin] - Ability Level 1

Provides a protective layer of biomass above your skin. Increasing [s***h Resistance] and [Pierce Resistance].

[Hard Skin] can be developed into [Stone Skin]

[Symbiotic Transformation] - Ability Level 1

Transform your body into a form that’s most optimal for battle. While in this form, all physical capabilities will increase greatly.

[Symbiotic Transformation] does not possess a further development stage, but its enhancement trait can be continuously upgraded.

Mental Abilities

[Analysis] - Ability Level 1

Provides insight towards a certain object or organism. Information is displayed directly in your mind.

[Analysis] can be developed into [Inspect]

[Radar] - Ability Level 1

Scans the area with your psychic energy and provides a rough map of the areas you’ve scanned. The map will display any living, inanimate, and dead object within a 200-meter area. (Detection Range Upgraded) +

[Radar] does not possess a further development stage, but its detection range and map detail can be continuously upgraded.

Unique Abilities

[Devour] - Ability Level 1

Absorbs the target’s biomass to permanently enhance your own capabilities. Each increment is determined by the quality of the organism that is absorbed. There is a chance to absorb a skill from the target.

Unique Abilities cannot be developed.

[Drain] - Ability Level 1

Consumes a target’s life force to immediately repair injured body parts and replenish energy. Can be applied to another target at the cost of biomass.

Unique Abilities cannot be developed.

[???] - Ability Level ?

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?????????????????

Unique Abilities cannot be developed.]

“There’s still that unknown skill...but this [Status Menu] sure is handy. What do those numbers represent? Are they good?”

[By our standards, it is rather mediocre but by human standards, it is extremely good. A typical human being will have a stat value of 5 to 10 with 10 being the limit. Yours were around the human limit of 10 for a few stats like Strength and Stamina but after our merger, those values have surpassed that limit already, and from using [Devour] a few times, we’ve developed our capabilities far beyond that of any normal human being.]

“With these stats, I can kill an alien with my rifle and destroy monsters with my bare hands so that’s fine already.”

[It is indeed fine, but we MUST get stronger.]

“Indeed, I agree with you on that one.”

[However, you must know that in our current state, we have a limit to developing our physical capabilities.]

“What limit?”

[Our Constitution Stat is 20 so our other stat values cannot exceed that number.]

“How do we increase that number?”

[By Devouring other similarly powerful monsters or aliens. Once we absorb enough energy from such entities, we will be able to evolve and increase our Constitution value.]

“...I see...So we’ve basically become a humanoid P***mon…”

[Pardon?]

“Never mind...Anyway, our target is to kill all of those damned aliens so we’ll evolve sooner or later in the future. For now, let’s just focus on trying to max out our stats.”

[Our stats will be limited to 20 but if we use our [Symbiotic Transformation], we’ll be able to increase our Strength, Stamina, and Agility values beyond our limits.]

“Hmmm, that’s good, but can I ask, what’s the average stat value of a Zagranid?”

[Around 20 to 25.]

“What? H-How did we kill one of those?” Alex exclaimed in surprise.

The average human had a limit stat value of 10 for all of their stats so a 20 to 25 stat value was practically 1 to 1.5 times higher than a human. His values were obviously lower when he had fought against the alien earlier so how did he even win that battle?

[Alex, I think you are missing something very crucial here.]

“What?”

[Stats do not determine the outcome of any battle. Those numbers are only there as an indicator, it will NEVER show our true combat capability as there are many factors at play during a battle.]

“Ah, that’s true. This is reality and not a game, after all…”

[Yes, in those ‘Video Games’, the stats of your character will determine whether you can win a fight or not, but in reality, those stats are just a basic indicator. They are not absolute and will not be a representation of our battle prowess. Please keep that in mind.]

While Alex was alone in a bedroom on the second floor of the house they were in with his eyes closed as his mind was currently inside his Heart Realm, Jesse was keeping watch on him as his children slept in another room.