Still stripping scales?
[Here, take over for me.]
Hard pass.
The scale-stripping is gonna take a while yet.
In the meantime, I'll spend my Skill Points on a new Evil Eye.
I leveled up four times, so I've got 200 now. That should be enough for a higher-tier Evil Eye.
The Evil Eyes available for 200 points are: 'Lightning Evil Eye (200): Inflicts lightning-attribute damage on anything within your field of vision.' 'Wind Evil Eye (200): Inflicts wind-attribute damage on anything within your field of vision.' 'Earth Evil Eye (200): Inflicts earth-attribute damage on anything within your field of vision.' 'Gravity Evil Eye (200): Inflicts gravity-attribute damage on anything within your field of vision.' 'Dark Evil Eye (200): Inflicts dark-attribute damage on anything within your field of vision.' 'Soulbreak Evil Eye (200): Inflicts the Heterodox attribute effect "Soulbreak" on anything within your field of vision.' 'Self-Loss Evil Eye (200): Inflicts the Heterodox attribute effect "Self-Loss" on anything within your field of vision.' And those are my options.
The ones I could get for 100 were status-ailment types, while these are all elemental attack types.
Evil Eyes with attributes that clash with me, like fire, would cost even more points, so no thanks there.
The two Heterodox attribute ones are insane performance-wise, but I'll probably learn those through Heterodox Magic eventually, so I'm skipping them again this time.
That leaves the elemental Evil Eyes. Which one should I go with? Honestly, it's a tough call.
Dark is probably the best match for me, but I don't want too much overlap in attributes.
My attack options have diversified since the early days, but back when I only had thread and poison, getting those countered would've left me dead in the water.
Sure, I doubt anyone could come up with counters effective against all of my current attacks, but still — I'd rather have a wide variety of options.
So, dark is out.
That leaves wind, lightning, earth, and gravity. Four candidates.
But what even is an Earth Evil Eye?
What would that look like?
I can't really imagine it.
Part of me wants to find out, but earth-type attacks seem like they'd be useless against airborne opponents.
Probably not, but you never know.
I'll pass on earth.
Three left.
Tough choice.
Wind would probably blast shockwave-type effects at whatever's in my field of vision.
Would that work defensively too?
Like, could I intercept an incoming Fireball and cancel it out?
Since it affects anything within my vision, it should be theoretically possible.
Lightning is purely offensive.
Its power is probably the highest of the remaining three, too.
What I'm wondering is whether lightning comes with paralysis as a bonus effect.
If it does, combining it with my Paralysis Evil Eye would boost the paralysis rate.
But chances are it doesn't come with that.
Gravity means gravity, obviously.
While the other attributes are probably single-hit attack types, this one looks like it's sustained.
It should work by increasing the gravitational pull on the target.
Every option has its own strengths. This is agonizing.
Hmm.
Alright, I've decided!
[Current Skill Points: 200.
Skill 'Gravity Evil Eye LV1' can be acquired for 200 Skill Points.
Acquire?]
Yes.
[Acquired 'Gravity Evil Eye LV1'. Remaining Skill Points: 0.]
After all that deliberation, I went with the Gravity Evil Eye.
I figured I could use it to hinder my opponents' movement.
Slow them down with the Gravity Evil Eye, weaken them with the Cursing Evil Eye, and finish them off by locking them in place with the Paralysis Evil Eye.
The Evil Eye Triple Strike is complete!
So I went with an Evil Eye loadout focused on restricting enemy movement.
Besides, I've got plenty of other attack options.
If it really comes down to it, I can just grab some random magic Skill for 100 points.
Wait.
Wouldn't that have been the better choice all along?
I was so fixated on Evil Eyes, but my stats make me a magic-specialist type, don't they?
Should I have grabbed a magic Skill instead?
Nah, it's fine.
Let's just say this was the right call.
I absolutely did not go on a reckless spree because I was dreaming of deploying all eight Evil Eyes at once.
I said I didn't, so I didn't.
Well, either way, I'll probably be hoarding points for a while.
No idea how many I'll get from the Evolution bonus.
I'll adjust my strategy depending on how generous it is.
If it's a lot, maybe I can afford to pick up some skills I've been putting off because the point cost was too steep.
Anyway, moving on.
The reason I picked the Gravity Evil Eye isn't just for combat advantages.
I also wanted to test it out. Evil Eye, activate!
[Gwah! What do you think you're doing, Intel Division?!]
What am I doing? I applied gravity to myself.
[It's heavy!]
What I thought was: what am I missing? The answer — muscles!
[Here she goes, monologuing again.]
Those Z Warriors trained under countless times normal gravity and gained the power to defeat the mighty enemies that stood in their path!
[Ahhh. I get what you're saying, but could you not do this while I'm trying to strip your scales?]
Gotta get used to it somehow, or what's the point?
{Ooh, nice! Hang in there, Body Division!} <Aim for 1,000 times gravity!> [You'll die!]
And so, I decided to keep the gravity on myself at all times.
Yep.
This Evil Eye works exactly as I expected.
It increases the gravity on anything within my field of vision.
If I keep it on myself constantly, the Proficiency of the Evil Eye should rise, and my physical stats along with it.
With any luck, maybe my Brute Force Skill or others will level up too.
Right now it's only Level 1, so it's just a bit heavy, but as it levels up, the burden should get serious.
And then, in combat, when I release the gravity — it's like removing the limiters.
Love it.
When that time comes, I really want to shout something like "Limiter release!"
Can't actually make sound, though.