Nexus Awakened (An Isekai LitRPG Gender Bender Story)

882. Jury’s Taste-Enhancing Enzymes

Jury’s base stats alone were enough to instantly kill a Monsoon-Levelled Corrupted. The Listening Bird for example had 75,000 HP. A single full-powered slash, punch, tail whack or even a slap would reduce it to a plume of red mist.

“I’ll go down the list for you. Take a look at this first~”

Frost didn’t know how to describe the oozing gland that protruded from her tail. It was wet, slimy, and the hazardous red goop ate into glaciers beneath their feet. Ice instantly sizzled, and rock was reduced to a bubbling, slag-like form.

“Well, what do you think!?”

What am I supposed to say here? If I look at it in a certain way, then I guess it doesn’t look too bad. It’s fleshy. Reddish, like a pure mass of muscle. But it’s a part of Jury, so I’m morally obligated to love it. Am I being thrown off because it’s a needle and an acid dispenser?

“It’s kind of…”

“Cute, right!?” Jury exclaimed, hugging her tail. “I bet you could eat it too! My [Taste-Enhancing Enzyme] makes it delicious!”

“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves here. I’ll chomp down on anything, but willingly drinking acid from a Beholder…” Frost shuddered.

Jury’s ear flaps drooped as her eyes softened. She looked like she was on the verge of crying, instantly causing Frost to raise her tone to a cheery one.

“– Is what I would say if it was anyone other than you! Still, I’d rather not have to swallow acid. Sorry Jury.”

“It doesn’t have to be acid! I can make smoothies too! Wanna try?”

“Smoothies?”

This was where Jury’s [Douse] and [Chemical Synthesis] came into play. [Douse] was the power to dispense liquids from her tail. The range and pressure varied depending on how much strength she put behind it. She could fire a large ball of goop, or a highly pressurized spray like that of a water jet.

[Chemical Synthesis] allowed Jury to create certain types of liquid depending on the ‘materials’ she had gained through [Harvest Material]. [Analyze Synthesis] also let her determine what materials or ingredients were required to create the analyzed liquid. Furthermore, analyzing known liquids also gave her mental recipes.

For example, analyzing fruits, milk and sugar granted the ability to create a smoothie-like concoction.

The green goop that spilled was replaced with a thick, orange sludge. It was a smoothie, and Jury ran a finger across the opening and tasted it.

“See? Wanna try too Nav?”

“I’ll hold off. That tail looks like it personally belongs to Frost.”

“You think so too?”

“The hell are you two talking about?” Frost couldn’t grasp what they meant by that. “Alright. I’ll give it a shot. Gimmie some.”

“Say ‘aaaaahhh’.”

She was not about to take a mouthful of that. Instead, she also ran a finger and had a taste of the liquid.

“You’re right. It’s kind of nice actually. Numbing as well.” It was an orange, milky smoothie. “This will be handy if we ever run out of food during an expedition. Or if we have mouths we need to feed. Pretty good.”

“The Neurotoxin gives it that extra kick~” Jury hummed.

Frost was sold on this version of Jury’s tail. It could produce toxins and consumables. Not only that, but it had an injectable mode and now a dispensable mode. Her tail was the opposite of Jury. It fed others instead of constantly eating.

“What else can it make?”

Jury gave her a mischievous smile.

“I’ll leave that to your imagination~”

* * *

She had six more tail-related Skill.

[Inoculation]; the power to directly inject liquids into a target’s system, whether it be through her tail, her claws, or her weapons.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

[Tail Impact V]; a skill that enhanced the strength of physical attacks dealt by her tail by up to 2x times.

[Tail Transformation III]; another Offensive Skill that determined the forms her tail could take. So far, there were only 3 forms: base (empty), needle, and the dispense gland.

The last three were Passive Skills.

[Maturing Tail]; an indication that her tail was in the process of maturing. What it entailed was unknown.

[Taste-Enhancing Enzyme]; the reason why Jury’s liquids tasted good, even if they were deadly.

Finally, [Medicine or Poison?]; which granted a 50% potency bonus to poisons and synthesized medicines.

Indeed, Jury had the potential to create medicine. The problem was that medicine was far from easy to create. It did not exist in this world in its synthesized form like that on Earth. Natural remedies and potions were the closest things to medicine.

Elysia had no need to create medicine when Healers already existed.

Her next set of Skills were focused on her body and newfound powers, such as [Heavyclad Body] which increased the weight of her body up to 10x. Jury demonstrated its true potential using the Gravity Cores that lined her inner suit like a circuit.

This increased her mass by 5x upon activation. When combined her mass was multiplied by 50x. Jury’s weight was anywhere between 80kg to 135kg, making her weigh several tons at 50x her weight. What did this translate to in terms of ATT?

A 50% increase in ATT. With considerable momentum, she could deal 100% more raw damage. The amount of weight she increased directly correlated to the amount she had to withstand. 50x her weight was immense, but extremely manageable. Yes, several tones were nothing to Beholders.

Elephants were around that weight for comparison.

Jury demonstrated its effect by launching herself towards a mountain. Then, she increased her weight to 50x to further enhance the impact. Gravity did not cause her to drop. A large crater formed on the side of the mountain as though a large bomb had gone off.

Next was her first Mastery Skill – [Lacerate V]; [Spatial Tear].

Her claw could tear through the fabric of space itself. Armor was rendered useless in the face of it, as it ignored all DEF stats aside from MAG DEF.

[Bloodrush] was also part of the Lacerater Profession. Keeping her claw, tail or body part lodged inside of a target would activate Blood Drain.

Blood Drain

< Target loses 10% of total available blood supply every 5 seconds. Reduces the targets maximum HP by the percentage of the total amount of blood lost. Ineffective against targets that produce large quantities of blood >

“[Extended Stab] is a weird one. It works just like your [Double Punch]. If I stab my claw or tail in a direction, then a magical version appears anywhere within a 2-meter radius in front of me.”

“A better version of [Armor Piercing], huh. Can you rummage a target’s insides using that?”

“Absolutely!”

Jury put on an innocent face as she answered. It slightly unnerved Frost with how quickly she responded as well. Was her innocent Jury corrupted by the war?

Next was [Repulsion], a new Defensive Skill belonging to the Divine Works Profession. Miniature shockwaves could be produced by stray feathers along her body. They vibrated with an intensity that made the air impossible to breathe, forming a paper-thin veil of compressed air. The force caused projectiles and incoming attacks to be repelled, granting Jury a window of opportunity to counterattack.

[Impact Negation] was the last of her Active Skills, and it came from the Omnidynamic Profession. Nothing was more disruptive to the enemy’s tempo than to defy expectations. This Skill fulfilled this by allowing Jury to disperse incoming kinetic energy. This meant that it was far more difficult to send Jury flying, break her posture, or even stagger her.

This paired with her weight-increasing Skills made her an immovable object, and an unstopped force when charging at her foes. Jury needed these Skills to stand shoulder to shoulder with the Beholders. She was still lacking in some areas, namely raw strength and strategy. Other than that, she had grown into an excellent Beholder.