Chapter 5: Chapter 5: Fifth, grow your skills

I hold off on selecting the new skills. There’s a larger variety of them to select from this time, but I want to have a better idea of how I want to take EV11 down before I commit to anything. I don’t want to end up with a half-assed build cobbled together from hastily-selected skills. Earlier, I needed to, but now…

EV11 hasn’t given chase, which I am beyond grateful for.

That does mean that it’s likely even more powerful now, but oh well. There’s nothing I can do about that except build my own strength.

I got a new objective, a logical progression from the first one, and it states that EV11 is no longer a baby. Obviously, that’s at least in part because it’s double my size now, but that can’t be all. After all, the objective didn’t shift until after I left, and it hit that six-foot size way earlier.

That means that something else happened. My best guess is that its class changed. Every single one of us has—well, had—the Bloodspawn class, which I suppose is an easy way to quantify us as babies.

That’s the only metric I can think of that would indicate a major shift. I know class evolutions are possible, though I don’t know how I know that. Then again, I don’t know how I know anything. As far as I know, I was born under an hour ago, but I have decades of information that feel like they come from lived experience.

Maybe some of the lab rooms will help me out. Since EV11 isn’t following me, I have plenty of time to explore.

Not that there’s a ton of super interesting corridors. You can only see the same style of off-white corridor dotted with a couple dozen identical doors differentiated only by their marking before you go insane.

No wonder the lab techs here ended up making us.

I run into a bunch of dead ends before I find anything interesting. Despite all the knowledge clogged in my mind, there’s a lot of missing parts.

Like, for instance, languages. The first four rooms I find are full of books and documents packed away in steel drawers, but I can’t read a single one of them. I fail to read enough of them that I get rather worried that I’m illiterate, but when I enter the closet-sized armory that I gathered my knife from, I’m surprised to see there’s a few manuals in here, and all of them have recognizable text.

I sigh in relief. I’m going to have to learn the other languages at some point, but I can’t afford to spend time on that for now. I’ll have to do with my ability in… Common? That’s the term that comes to mind when I look at this text.

Introductory Knifefighting

An Idiot’s Guide to Handling a R-Class Firearm

Mastery of the Sword Arts

None of them look like scientific texts, so I assume that they’re here to… what, help the nonexistent researchers hone their close-quarters fighting skills?

The reasoning could be anything. Whatever the case, it’s convenient for me.

I crack open Introductory Knifefighting. With a high Mind (Speed) stat, it’s easy for me to skim the text and grasp the basics of it. Some of them don’t apply, since my use of Shape Self hasn’t progressed far enough yet, but even with one functioning human arm, there’s a lot of principles I can apply.

When knife fighting, always execute movements with the knife blade within a box, shoulder-width across from your neck down to your waistline.

The stances are awkward with my stunted body, but I can fix that given enough time. All I need to do is survive long enough to Shape Self myself.

There’s a set of basic stances and strikes, targeting arteries and weak points in the bodies of various species. They’re adapted for human bodies, but I can approximate them.

I start practicing, pausing after every set of exercises to scan the hallway with my eyes and ears, confirming that EV11 still hasn’t pursued me.

It tires me quickly. Despite a decent durability stat, the exercises are hard work, and it doesn’t help that I’m really, really not built for this. There’s a few parts of the exercise that involve stabbing straight into a target, but there’s no training dummy. I use the wood of the armory closet instead, and even with all of my force behind each strike, the sharp blade just bounces off the wood, jarring my hand.

I can’t wait for Shape Self to come off cooldown.

Still, I stick to it. I could just take the skill from my level-up, but I have a sneaking suspicion that I don’t need to. Given that every sneaking suspicion I’ve had so far has proven to be generally correct, I continue forward with it.

By the time I’ve completed four dozen sets, I’m sorely tempted to quit, but I continue. I keep at it, religiously following the text, and eventually something changes.

Knifefighting skill unlocked!

Knifefighting (Common)

Tier: Bronze

Level: 1

Your knife-based attacks are 50% more effective and consume 50% less stamina.

The notification is a welcome one, and it confirms the thought I had. Skills are trainable, after all—I leveled up Appraise earlier just by using it a bunch—so they should also be unlockable through means other than leveling up.

I think that this means I can theoretically unlock a lot more. In order to do that, though, I’ll have to do more intensive training, and while I’d like to pick up skills involving the powerful-looking rifles, I’m still not built for that.

Yet.

There’s plenty of room in this building. By casting Appraise every now and then, I can create a very basic security net. I don’t know how the skill will interact with stealth, but I can only hope that it either spots my target out or that EV11 doesn’t have any stealth skills.

I run through the knife exercises one more time. This time, when I stab into the closet’s wooden side, the blade sticks, sinking three inches deep into it. The wood splits satisfyingly, and my hand stays steady.

The motions felt smoother. Does Knifefighting give me benefits other than the mentioned ones? It’s possible.

Either way, I intend to train it as much as I can.

I spend six hours at it, repeating the same monotonous series of exercises and pushing far past the point where my arms and legs are screaming at me to stop. Pain is just in the mind, after all, while the level my skills are at can and will have an effect on my ability to survive the week.

Knifefighting advanced to level 2!

Knifefighting advanced to level 3!

Knifefighting advanced to level 4!

Knifefighting advanced to level 5!

After another hour of training Knifefighting at level 5, I’m forced to admit that I’m not seeing any progress. Either I need to increase my overall level or training against empty air and an increasingly pock-marked wooden closet just isn’t enough.

I’m honestly surprised EV11 still hasn’t moved at this point. Is it still in the main lab room? I thought that it would’ve been hunting me for sure by now.

I shrug. If it’s not going to act, that’s fine by me. It might still be powering up, but so am I.

Leveling Knifefighting up hasn’t had any influence on my XP, I notice. Skill and overall experience are separate pools, then, which means that it’s possible that I can go into the next fight with highly overleveled skills despite only being level 2. I don’t think I’ll be able to push myself to level 3, since there’s not exactly an overwhelming abundance of XP-rich beings that I can kill and eat.

I’ll have to do with the skills I can get.

After I conclude that I’ve leveled up my knife ability as far as it’ll go, I seek other pursuits. None of the other weapons work in my hands, so I don’t bother trying to learn the way of the sword or the club or the rifle. There’s not much else I can do from that.

But that’s not the only skill I can train.

As I make my way around the abandoned facility, I move with specific attention paid to my steps. Everywhere I go, I try to blend into the shadows, mask every sound I make. It’s a good practice to get into—I’m reasonably sure that if EV11 improves at the same rate, it’ll just straight up kill me when it next sees me. As such, I need to ensure that it doesn’t see me.

Sticking to the shadows comes naturally, and I have to wonder if that’s part of the knowledge that apparently came pre-installed with me. I won’t complain, though.

Despite a couple hours of sneaking around, I don’t actually manage to unlock anything. It’s a little disappointing, but I keep the practice up anyway. I don’t want to accidentally wander into EV11’s line of sight and get spotted, after all.

I explore the building while I can, searching through empty room after empty room as I try to find literally anything that might be able to get me a leg up against my enemy. Most of the rooms have files compiled in places, but none of the devices seem to be operable. Broken, maybe, or just out of power.

It doesn’t help that most of the papers are in languages I don’t recognize. There’s a few that I can parse, but they’re not really useful. We are, after all, not the only experiments in this vast laboratory. I still read the papers anyway—who knows what useful information I might find?

Not much, the answer apparently is. I manage to glean that we’re in “Underground Site 17”, which implies the existence of at least 16 other complexes. That’s a bit disturbing. I also gather from a few half-torn articles that this place is built to manufacture living weapons. Beings like me.

That doesn’t help either. Every other tube, cube, or other containment vessel is long dry. Shriveled corpses reside in some of them. The first time I see one, I spend half an hour cutting through glass to reach it, and then I find that Devour refuses to take it. Too long dead, I suppose.

Any information on my actual situation is probably back at the cavernous lab where I emerged, but I can’t access that. That’s EV11’s territory at the moment.

A day passes before I even realize it. I don’t hunger, and any thirst is easily slaked by the sinks that dot every lab room—still functioning, somehow.

As soon as I sense Shape Self is available again, I use it. This time, I equalize my arms, making my right arm as human as the other. At the same time, I stretch my body, making it longer—but I can’t force myself all the way into a human form. It stops at an altered arm and about an extra eighteen inches in height, putting me at a respectable four and a half feet. Looks like Shape Self only allows for a certain amount of change at level 1. Makes sense.

You are reading story Demonic Devourer: First, I Eat the Babies [LitRPG] at novel35.com

I wonder what I look like. I can see the front of my demonic body, of course, and I was one of the more humanoid ones, but it’s got to be weird seeing me. Shame there’s no mirrors lying around for some reason.

At least I can dual wield knives now. Doing a set of exercises with that manages to get the skill up to level 6.

My next skill comes when I least expect it. As I read yet another pamphlet—the first one in a while to show some promise, actually—I casually slip into a darker part of the poorly-lit room, taking advantage of the flickering light to wreath myself in shadow.

Stealth skill unlocked!

Stealth (Common)

Tier: Bronze

Level: 1

Your steps are 50% quieter when this skill is active.

Excitement sparks through me, not only from the skill unlock.

I finally found a room that contains something living.

As I keep reading, I flick my eyes over to the vat at the center of the room, which stores green liquid so viscuous that it looks like vibrating jelly when it shakes.

Technically living.

Name: VEV1

Age: ?

Race: ???

Class: None

Level: 0

Last used skill: Amplify

The pamphlet in my hands reads A Brief Summary of a Study on Organically Enhancing Venomous Effects.

Through the creation of this life-form, we hope to ensure the efficacy of poison-based assassination techniques as well as mass suppression solutions…

That goop there? It’s not meant to attack anything on its own. Its purpose is to track down the venom in another being’s body and spread it.

And I just so happen to have a skill that synergizes with it.

I select Venomous Bite as my level-up skill, happy to do so now that I finally have a plan.

Venomous Bite (Uncommon)

Tier: Bronze

Level: 1

Activate this skill to inject deathadder venom into a bite wound. Can be used twice per hour.

Sadly, I don’t have anything convenient to practice it on.

I mean, I could try biting myself, but I don’t think accidentally fatally poisoning myself with my own attack is the way I want to go. Pain aside, that would be brutally embarrassing.

I try biting the slime, which involves a really awkward angle and me shoving myself face-first into the tube. The sensation of liquid venom spurting forth from my jaw is certainly a new one, but the skill does nothing to the slime.

Figures. I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s immune.

Just in case, I try it five, six more times. No skill-up.

Unfortunately, this means I can’t really level Venomous Bite up. Instead, I’m going to have to rely on planning.

It takes some time to set up. As well-equipped as these places are, it still takes time and effort to set everything up, especially since my body still isn’t much larger than the average eleven-year-old child’s and not set up to carry heavy weight.

I manage anyhow, finding a knapsack stowed away in a closet and a set of glass jars. Scooping out the green goop takes more effort than I thought it would. It’s resistant to my human fingers, and the viscosity isn’t its only unique trait—every time I almost manage to dig my hands in, it slips right out.

Eventually, I give up and start going at it with a knife, hacking and slashing and shoving it until I can get pieces of venom-enhancing slime into my jars. Even within them, it doesn’t want to cooperate, clinging to the sides and somehow slipping upwards. I cap each jar as fast as I can, and I manage to get six messy containers roughly half-full with the slime.

Hopefully, that’ll be enough.

I spend another day practicing my skills. Knifefighting increases one more level when I spend a few hours just hacking away at the slime, but it ardently refuses to bridge the gap from 7 to 8 afterwards. Stealth is significantly more boring to level, but I manage to get it to 4 by perfectly timing a thousand flickers of the light. Now, it almost completely cloaks the sound of my footsteps.

At the end of the second day, I use Shape Self again. While on an excursion, I managed to find a few basic biology manuals, which include the shape of the human body. Now, obviously, I don’t actually want a fully human body—there’s a lot of strengths to this demonic one that help—but I want its shape.

So this time, when I work to turn both my legs into human ones, I pay closer attention. Painstakingly, I fold muscle and flesh over itself, shaping two lithe legs while keeping the demonic musculature underneath.

It’s not perfect, but it doesn’t have to be. I can fix it later.

Faint aches are plaguing my stomach now, and it takes me a bit to place the sensation as hunger.

Well then. Looks like my time here is up. I tried eating the slime, I did, but it just doesn’t fill me. Even Devouring a portion of it only gave a point of XP, not contributing any satiety.

Just for good measure, I shatter its containment vessel before I leave, slicing thin glass into pieces with my lethally sharp knives and watching green goop flood onto the floor.

And I Devour it. It’s not easy. The slime is not the most intelligent living creature, so it doesn’t fight back much, but it does fight back. It pits its will against mine, but it can’t act as I tear into it with my teeth.

Devour granted +7 XP!

Very little XP, given its size. I suppose it breaks some rules, being a man-made monster.

I don’t manage to consume all of it. I don’t try. I’ll come back for it later, but I want to keep some of it here just in case I need to use more of it.

With a single exertion of will, I fade into the shadows, my Stealth in full gear.

I’ve gotten what growth I could. I’ve found a plan. I still don’t have enough information about this place, but I’ve learned some things.

I start making my way back to the lab. To EV11.

As I do, I consider which stats to invest in. I put it off for too long, since I didn’t actually know what my plan was.

Hmm… I don’t know what Magic (Meta) does, so that’s out, and Mind (Resistance) is probably unnecessary. Mind (Speed) saved my life a few times already, but it’s already at 9 points. I could invest more in it, though, and try to rely more heavily on it to improvise.

On the other hand, increasing my body’s strength or speed could also be helpful. Durability is also an issue, which a stat point could fix.

Urgh, too many options… investing heavily into anything means committing towards it, and that shapes the style of combat I’ll be using for a very, very long time.

I’ll scope the situation out before I pick a build. After all, I’m in Stealth right now. I can afford to take a look at things before committing.

One more baby—ex-baby now—to eat.

Let’s see who kills who.

You can find story with these keywords: Demonic Devourer: First, I Eat the Babies [LitRPG], Read Demonic Devourer: First, I Eat the Babies [LitRPG], Demonic Devourer: First, I Eat the Babies [LitRPG] novel, Demonic Devourer: First, I Eat the Babies [LitRPG] book, Demonic Devourer: First, I Eat the Babies [LitRPG] story, Demonic Devourer: First, I Eat the Babies [LitRPG] full, Demonic Devourer: First, I Eat the Babies [LitRPG] Latest Chapter