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Chapter 767 - The gang mutates
🕑 Added 2021-04-27 06:32:52 +0000 UTCIt's not only the pets that need to get some mutating done, I'm in the same boat myself! Whilst I haven't been packing on the Biomass at the moment, I've been making sure I keep a steady intake in order to continue accumulating points and there's plenty that I can do with them. I'm not planning on pushing anything to +30 just yet, not even my precious carapace, since there's still much lower hanging fruit that I can reach up and grab with almost no effort. Upgrading my stomach would be good, but still too expensive at this stage. It's a whopping 140 Biomass to take a single organ from +25 to +30 and when I still have parts of my body without any upgrades at all, it just isn't going to happen.
That's right! I'm talking about my brains!
All four of them, to be precise. The main mind, main sub-brain and the two lackeys, the regular sub-brains. I actually spoke fairly at length with Torrina about mutations for brains, at Granin's suggestion, since he thought that she might have more expertise than he did as she specialised in 'spell-casting wimp monsters', in his words. I quickly learned that when it comes to brains there is way too much to know and very quickly had to ask the enthusiastic shaper to tone things down for me.
In the end, despite the plethora of possible options, combinations and builds that can be done with brains, there are only a few that are particularly relevant for me. In the end, what exactly do I want my brains to do? The focus is fairly narrow when it was put to me in those terms, and Torrina was only too happy to spell out the strengths and weaknesses of each choice at a level that I could comprehend it.
Still, I wistfully look down the list at the many intriguing options that I'll never get the chance to pick.
Rapid brain for faster processing of information. Very useful for speed type monsters like Vibrant. A mutation like this, as well as a nervous system upgraded similar to mine are almost a necessity for her as she gets faster and faster. Moving at that kind of speed without being able to think fast enough to keep up with it, or react fast enough when something jumps out at you, is a short cut to getting yourself splatted on a wall somewhere. I was sure to sit Vibrant down and press this point upon her as soon as I got the chance, which took a little doing. Gravity mana is a great leveller when it comes to catching her.
Motion Prediction brain? Another handy one. Develops and improves the section of the brain dedicated to motion tracking and prediction. I remember hearing that jugglers on Earth were found to have larger examples of this sector. It might seem like not much, but when you think about the amount of motion tracking that goes on in combat, you'd begin to realise just how important it can be to be able to accurately trace and predict the path of things in motion. I'd love to take this as a defensive option… but my heart is set on another path… Maybe if I get another brain…
Hormone control brain? Turns out even monsters have hormones that help regulate their body. Being able to exercise some level of control over them would be more than a little handy… Need an adrenaline kick at just the right moment? POW! Delivered right into the system when you want it.
Emotion regulator? This one seems a little weirder to me… The meditation skill does something similar once ranked up, but I can see there would be some synergies. If you were a rage monster like Sarah then you could use something like to make you angry all the time. Apparently she isn't able to purchase this mutation due to a restriction of her species, which is something I've not yet run into. Though I suppose if you literally turn yourself into an unstoppable avatar of berserk rage then the System isn't likely to just let you turn it off whenever you want to. It'd be like allowing Vibrant to purchase a 'calm' organ. It's just wrong.
But it's in the magical options that the real juice of the brain mutations can be find. Better mana manipulation, or perception, or handling, or sensitivity, or even absorption are here. You can improve the brains capacity to handle specific types of mana, or utilise particular types of construct.
It's even possible to select mutation that will, after enough upgrades, permanently engrave a construct into the structure of the brain itself. Wild, I know. The advantage of not having to make and then maintain the construct are nice and all, but you could just get the mana organ if you wanted to. Of course, taking this option only takes up a mutation slot, rather than a new organ, essentially passing the cost onto Biomass rather than precious evolutionary energy. The drawback being that the brain you purchase this mutation for won't be able to utilise any other form of mana, which is a problem, obviously. I suppose if you were a specialist, it would be fine, but I have other plans.
When looking at it logically, what am I going to be using my sub-brains for? Creating mind constructs! It'll be the constructs themselves that go on to do the actual spell-casting, and I can't mutate those, they aren't physically part of my body. There's no point making my sub-brains better at casting any spell other than mind constructs, it's simply as waste of resources.
This is the point that Torrina was most determined to press upon me, not to be distracted by the shiny offerings but focus on the boring truth. The future of my sub brains is a grim one, they will be mind construct batteries and little else! The better they are at making mind constructs, the more spells I can sling! There simply isn't any way to overcome the difference by going down any other path!
So naturally, the option I choose for them is the Mind Mana Specialisation.
All three sub-brains are to be upgraded to +15, taking the mind mana mutation both times, then reinforcing it. With this, all three of them will become much more adept at handling mind mana, as well as using the mind mana construct. This will help my training speed as well as improving my ability to form new minds. Which leaves me with my main brain. Obviously, there's a few ways that I could go with this one. I could leave all the spell casting to the sub-brains and have my main mind be set aside just for processing combat information and moving the body, but that's boring! I didn't pump so many stats into this brain to have it handle all the simplest tasks! No! I pumped all the stats into this brain so that it could handle the biggest, most awesome magic of all!
Whipping through the menu, I find what I want and grin to myself.
Gravity Mana specialisation. I take this mutation at +5, then I scroll through and find the other mutation I want: Condensing Mana handling. Take that mutation at +10, then fuse the two together at +15. Gweheheheh. That's right, my main mind is for dropping bombs, literally. Of course, the sub-brains can cast the gravity bomb now, but that doesn't mean that's what I want them to do most of the time. Nope, they're reserved for creating mind constructs that will focus on elemental casting. When it comes to gravity magic, the main mind is going to be my go to and I'll continue pouring evolutionary energy into it until it can throw around gravity spells with contemptuous ease.
With these two mutations, my main mind has grown better at condensing mana and handling gravity mana. I can't wait to see how they work together!
With everything selected, I confirm my choices and almost gleefully allow the rising itch to take over, throwing my body to the ground and spasming my legs in the air like poisoned spider. Just wait, Dungeon! My power will never stop growing!
Comments
Melancholyforus
Honestly your brain itching sounds like a elsritch abomination is eating it because you don’t have any nerves that can detect anything besides presseure specifically blood pressure any other sense is either redudunant or bad
Jadedknot
The Gravity Bomb isn't a Black Hole just yet.
Gonvas
Magic itch :p
Edgar maya
What I don’t get , the brain feels no pain, yet there’s an itch?
Nathan Quitugua
Im really hoping thats the case, hes really only used about 3 different gravity constructs so far and they werent even the ones specialized for it. He just jury rigged a construct together and threw gravity mana into it.
reji
He should check skill list after mutation. Probably Gravity Magic skill is appeared after mutation? Who knows
McMax
What does it feel like to itch in the brain?
Kieran S.
Egad! Did Anthony forgot protocol and neglect coverin himself with Crinis and Tiny? What if someone sees The Itch?? What would happen to his dignity??? ... oh wait that was already gone chapters ago carry on 😅
Nathan Emerson
I really want Anthony to tell someone about the itching and for it to be a really simple fix.
Aidan Mcarthur
I wonder if he can pick individual ones of the backup brains or it they are grouped as a single organ to be upgraded. If they are individually available..he could dedicate a small brain to mind magic or to projectile magic etc. That way he would be able to combine them to make full use of gravity mana and some weaker attacks to serve as distractions
