Chapter 197: Breakthrough

    Derek removed his clothes and sat cross-legged. He took in a deep breath, then decided to increase his Endurance first. Even though increasing Endurance had felt much worse at 1,000 points than Vitality did, he knew that the Vitality threshold had a much higher chance of causing real damage to him.

    He prepared himself, then put one stat point into Endurance. He waited for the skin crawling and itching, but it never came. Derek snorted. I guess 1,500 points isnt a threshold or breakth- Instantly, the pain hit.

    It started at the bones. At once, they cracked, and he felt as if they turned to dust. From his seated position, Derek fell onto his back. It was as if he had nothing to hold his body together. The pain it was pure agony.

    Derek did his best to keep breathing, but he couldnt take in a breath. It was like his lungs had collapsed. Soon, however, Derek felt the rebuilding. New bones replaced the old, still agonizing as they formed and moved the muscle and organs back into place. Finally, the bones were back in place, and Derek was able to gasp in a breath.

    A single breath was all he was able to draw, as his muscles were next. Just as the bones had, his muscles collapsed and turned into jelly. The pain wasnt near as bad as with the bones, but it was a different feeling altogether. He was paralyzed, but could still feel. It was like he had sleep paralysis for an extended time.

    Slowly, the muscle reformed, and he could move again. Derek took in another breath, then closed his eyes. He knew the skin would be next. Sure enough, a burning sensation fell over his entire body. Light invaded Dereks eyes as he realized his eyelids had disappeared. Curious, he raised his forearm to take a peek.

    What he saw was something straight out of an anatomy book. No skin covered his muscles, his taut, dark, almost metallic muscles. The pain was very bearable. He never thought that he would say that having no skin, along with no sense of touch and feel would be bearable. But, compared to everything else, losing his skin wasnt bad.

    Then the itching started. It started at his feet and worked its way up. Metallic skin weaved itself over his bones and muscle before tightening and changing to his natural skin color, one that didnt shine in the sun. Derek recalled the itching to be worse at his previous breakthrough. Though, it could have just been that his mind was too fascinated by what was happening in front of him to care much about the itching sensation.

    He watched as his skin formed over his feet, then legs. Soon, the skin was forming over his forearms, which he brought close to his face to take an even better look. It was like he was seeing millions, if not billions, of molecules forming together to create his skin. It was something he imagined having nanobots healing a cut would look like.

    Soon, the skin covered his hands and fingers, creating new nails in the process. Then he blinked. That was when he realized this part of the breakthrough was finished.

    Derek curled his hand into a fist and grinned. His body was stiff, extremely so, but the flexibility would come with time.

    Then, it felt like he got the wind knocked out of him as his remaining organs began the process. Next came his kidneys, then liver. When it happened to his heart, it was scary. Luckily, instead of disintegrating his organs, then rebuilding from the ground up, it seemed that it was more of a reinforcement.

    His heart stopped beating for a minute, or beat extremely slowly, Derek wasnt sure. He was just happy when it started up again. Finally, the reinforcement came to his brain. Dizziness washed over him. A dizziness hed never experienced, not with concussions, nor with anything else. The entire dungeon was spinning until it wasnt.

    Finally, he went blind for a few moments. That wasnt too bad, as he had lost his senses before during meditation. Derek waited, then he was able to see again.

    Then he waited. He wanted to make sure that the breakthrough was completely finished before he chose to do anything else. After five minutes of nothing happening, he breathed a sigh of relief.

    Derek hopped up and did some stretches, loosening up. After a half hour or so, the stiffness receded and his control of his body was back to normal no it seemed his control was even a little better than it used to be. He couldnt wait to see his control when he broke through with Dexterity.

    Derek looked back to where he was sitting, then laying. There was a small puddle of blood, much less than he thought there would be. I guess its because the process worked from the inside out. Derek shrugged, then found a new, clean piece of land to sit on before starting the process all over again.

    Just to make sure what the system said was true, he tried to add a stat point into Endurance. To his shock, the point went in, and one of his stat points disappeared. However, the 1,500 didnt increase. Instead, it changed to 1500 (???). Confused, he tried adding another, then another. After adding five stat points, it no longer accepted points anymore.

    Since it was only five stat points, Derek did the same with Vitality. Again, it accepted five points, but no more. He looked over his stats.

    Stats

    Strength

    Dexterity

    Endurance

    Vitality

    Intelligence

    Wisdom

    Stat Points Remaining

    825

    825

    1500 (???)

    1500 (???)

    825

    825

    63

    Derek shook his head. What the fuck is going on?