As terror roared through my limbs, my helm split open, the jagged teeth of ruptured metal sharpening. With a bite, the helm tore into the tentacle surrounding me. From its teeth, tendrils of metal coursed like writhing worms. The monster’s grip on me loosened, letting me pull myself up. Level with its face, I pulled my fingers together and shoved my right hand into its eye. My whole hand pierced the clear lining that protected it.
A forest of armor needles erupted from my arm, pinning me to the monster. The massive eyelids of the creature came crashing down from above and below. They slammed against me, knocking me sideways. Before it could blink again, I punctured my other arm into the monster. Another forest of needles appeared, locking me in place.
The giant creature writhed in pain, and glowing purple tears creeped over it. I gawked at the wounds. It was as if its blood was a violet magma. The fluid from the monster floated in the water like globules of heavy oil, and the monster darted its tentacles at me.
I pulled myself into its eyeball by forcing my own arms apart while pulling myself in. The monster dashed backwards in agony, but my armor kept me attached to the monster. The sea creature shot its gargantuan tentacles at me once more. I slipped into the gaping wound, and it grasped my heels.
It pulled on me, but it lacked the will to dislodge me. It wounded itself further before loosening its grip, and I grimaced. I was a swallowed porcupine, and despite my worries about suffocation, I had about half an hour before I needed another breath. All that endurance paid off, and I pulled myself deeper into the eye of the creature, the entire organ shivering in pain.
I held down the urge to vomit as the monster reached into the painful tear, but I was a living bullet lodged in its skull, one that fought for purchase. I found it as my armor expanded the collection of needles. With a burst of effort, I ripped and tore with my arms, and legs, letting me reach further into the beast.
Within a minute, I pierced through the eye of the monster, tearing into the optic nerve. I wrenched the tissues apart, shearing it with raw strength. Another minute passed, and the inside of the creature’s skull turned to mush. Its health ate away as I swam in the thick blood of the monster. I reached the soft brain before crawling through it.
Grotesque and horrifying, I reached upwards, dealing tremendous damage all the while. A few seconds later, I reached a thick layer of bone. Moving through the thick, pressurized mush of its insides, I reared my fist back. A flood of fury and ascendant mana rushed into my right arm as I slammed it forward. Like tearing through a block of wood, the bone snapped. I gushed outwards.
From the skull, I floated out before sinking to the bottom of the pool. The dark water was red now, and it was only marginally visible by the glow of my runes. Bits of brain and mush bumped me as I sank, and I reared back in disgust. I landed on the floor of the cavern with my eyes and skin burning.
The violet, glowing blood corroded my armor, and it held onto me even underwater. I wiped it off, and once my feet landed, I ran along the bottom of the pool. My density let me move quickly since I had enough weight holding me down to push myself forward along the ground. If anything, the water didn’t feel that different from air.
Well, aside from the fact that I could breathe air. That’s why I rushed through seaweed and corals as I ran along the cavern’s base. My pace increased before I burned through more of my health for my ascendant mana. My runes grew in brightness before pieces of my armor split and ruptured. The cracks crept across me, letting out my blood.
The strange blood and wounds piled up, but after a few minutes of traversal, I lifted my hand. It skimmed the surface. I jumped, my face and body darting out of the water. I breathed before opening my eyes. A wall of stone appeared in my vision, and I headbutt a wall of rock.
A wave of white flashed over my eyes and I flopped back down toward the lake. I belly flopped into the pond and sank like a stone. I waved off my confusion before readjusting my nose. I pulled myself together, and with a few more stomping steps, I sprinted out of the pond.
For a moment, I praised the dry land I walked on, my steps light despite the level of damage I took. Glancing backward, a giant hump was left floating in the pond. According to my notifications, the krakowgan queen perished alongside its dreams of dominion. Its blood still burned like a weak acid, so I walked up to a wall and wiped the gunk off.
It took about ten minutes, and I left behind patches of my skin and blood. Wincing at the sight, I walked away with my health sitting at one fourth its maximum. Sitting down, I leaned my arms against my knees and watched water drip from my hair. Taking a hand, I hit my forehead.
This entire journey had been a huge mistake.
I came out on top, but that had been luck and circumstance. I nearly died multiple times, and if I’d been incapacitated, no one would save me. I would’ve died here before crabs ripped out my entrails. I put my hands on my head, reflecting on how volatile I’d acted. I wasn’t utterly safe and always composed, but I didn’t run in like a maniac all the time like this.
After a bit of contemplation, I found the source of my fervor - the ascendant mana. While it gave power, it robbed my sanity in kind. When channeling the thrumming energy, I raced into dangerous situations instead of thinking them through. I continued fighting instead of falling back to take advantage of my endurance and regeneration. Hell, if my armor hadn’t bit the tentacle, I’d have been chewed into a thick paste by its grotesque maw.
If anything, my eagerness to grow my levels and status nearly killed me. I took a breath before slapping my cheeks. I fought and lived many times, but that didn’t guarantee anything. Like anyone, I could die, and that sense of mortality arrived alongside determination. I resolved myself to gain more control over my mana, and in doing so, I’d regain my finesse and battle sense when I fought.
Otherwise, I’d devolve into some mindless, albeit powerful, berserker. After a few minutes, I finished my mental lashing before standing up. Behind the lake, a corridor continued deeper down the tunnel. One of the tentacles of the creature flopped onto the edge of the pool’s side. Getting over there would let me absorb the creature’s mana, something necessary albeit offputting.
I walked along the edge of the pool. As I passed through the pond, one of the shell-spearing slugs from earlier crawled up to the edge of the water. After lurching twice, it vomited into the gloomy lake. Eager for a meal, many once repressed species of fish in the ponds rose from the depths, snipping at the nutrient rich soup.
Once I came closer, my aura hit them, killing a few and making the stronger fish dart to the other edge of the pond. Even the slug crawled away, leaving a mucus trail behind it. Killing it would grant experience, but for now, consuming the krakowgan queen’s body came first. Otherwise, the fish of the pool would feast on it in my place.
I reached the back of the pool a minute later. I grabbed the tentacle and pulled. It didn’t even budge. Taking a deep breath, I flared ascendant mana into my runes. Once more the frenzy returned, and I tempered it to maintain my focus. Despite my attempts at finesse, I growled like some rabid animal while heaving the beast.
Foot by foot, I pulled the behemoth closer to the shore. Most of the monster’s body was still in the water, but I could reach the leviathan’s main body. From the red light of my ascendant mana and its glowing purple blood, the monster was a kraken. Eight tentacles jutted out its sides, though several were torn to stumps from our fight earlier.
At the top of the creature, there was the giant eye. Below it was the hole in its bone skull. Even further down along its lower side, its maw hung slack. My skin prickled and I scratched my side as I gazed at the endless and myriad insectile legs. It would’ve been a brutal death to be torn into pieces in its jaws.
I shook my head, trying to remember not to run in like this again. Taking a breath, I stabbed my arm into the monster and absorbed the mana from it over the next few minutes. As I drained it, the corpse emptied like an old wineskin. Once floating, the other fish ceased nibbling on it. Once I finished, the corpse crumbled to ash, the once mighty monster nothing more than a lingering memory.
Finishing another part of my stay here, I walked toward the mucus trail of the snail. As I reached the back of the pond, I glanced back at the pool. A few bones floated in the water. They were from humans. I turned back towards the mucus trail and remembered what Yawm’s named ones had done earlier.
I raised a fist, staring at it. Yawm’s minions had converted humans and fed them to the eldritch. By doing so, they strengthened these monsters, but why? What purpose did it serve outside of eradicating the humans here? Even though I didn’t understand it, I sent that information to Torix before turning to the bones. I bowed to them and sent a prayer to anyone that would listen.
I hoped those we lost were doing well, wherever they were.
The solemnity lingered over me as I followed the snail’s mucus trail to the back of the cavern. A minute of running later, and the snail hunched beside a tiny crevice. The hole led outside, and the snail was halfway through. It couldn’t quite squeeze to the other side, leaving it stuck and vulnerable.
A few strikes later, and the snail converted into a pile of bloody mush that I promptly drained. With that monster killed, I tried passing through the crevice myself. Oddly enough, I barely fit through. The size gains from constitution nearly worked against me, though I could always snap the rock walls if need be.
After passing through the crevice, I reached a room full of clear eggs and the dungeon core on a pedestal. I walked up and snatched the core. It sank into my palm before coming out less energized than before. Glancing around, the tiny squids writhed within their eggs, the smaller ones already withering.
Oppression would kill them soon without me needing to lift a finger doing so. Needing to wait a few minutes for the eggs to all die, I checked my status screen. Over the course of this dungeon, I gained nowhere near the same volume of experience as I had from Gabriel. This near death series of battles put me at level 563, only nineteen more levels than before the fight.
Almost all of those levels came from the boss who had its experience doubled by the Obliterator tree. If I lacked it, I’d have gained only ten levels. It put humanity’s situation in perspective. To reach level one thousand, a normal person would need to fight and kill nearly a hundred bosses well above their own level.
Even for me, Schema’s system wasn’t forgiving, and that was despite my advantages. For a normal person, Schema forgave mistakes even less. For a while, I wondered what I would’ve been like without my armor and beginning in BloodHollow.
Would I have ever achieved this level of prowess? I doubted it. Beating a boss over one’s level was already difficult, and doing so time and time again was a daunting prospect. The amount of monsters someone would need to kill at their level was also outright menacing. It was an absurd amount of combat and would require years of consistent, diligent grinding to achieve a high level.
I kept a note of that as I tapped my chin, having a few points to invest. I dumped them all into endurance, once more grateful for the duality of the stat. As I had hoped, my endurance, armor, and blood magic gave me an enormous working pool of mana. Like Kessiah mentioned, I still had to dart a fine line of burning my health for explosivity, but I had more leeway than most.
Some slack or not, I could still end myself by burning through my body. My last fight demonstrated that well. I considered methods to improve my chances for next time. For instance, having full health wasted some of my potential. I could probably use my mana to get my health regenerating close to the beginning of a fight before backing off to regenerate further.
In fact, using enormous portions of my health at once was well within the realm of possibility. Talking with my friends and allies could enlighten me on some of my other options too. With that in mind, I opened my status.
Level 563
Strength - 252.6 | Constitution - 562.1 | Endurance - 868.5 | Dexterity - 100 | Willpower - 405.8 | Intelligence - 145.7 | Charisma - 39.4 | Luck - 67.7 | Perception - 54
Daniel Hillside, The Harbinger of Cataclysm
Health - 44,979/44,979 | Health Regen - 11,980/min | Stamina - 19,955/19,955 | Stamina Regeneration - 279/sec | Damage Resistance - 98% | Mental Resistance - 98% | Physical Power - (+)3,576% | Damage Increase - 7% | Evolution: 0/65.5 Billion Ambient Mana
Aura - Oppression | Current Damage: (15,000 + 40% of your health)/minute within a 200 ft radius.
If I wasn't looking wrong, my health regen scaled up faster than my health now. It wouldn't even take four full minutes to heal any wound. It would look like I was reversing time as my enemies tried cleaving me apart, each second undoing their efforts. The increases in health and resistance also made me tankier in general.
I might’ve been able to walk after taking a hit from Dakhma, which was a good thing considering my next armor evolution was miles away. It would take months if not years for it, but that was fine by me. My armor already gave me more than I needed to succeed. When I finally got the next bonus for it, I'd be looking at it with surprise instead of expectation.
I lifted a palm, letting the mana ebb from my hand. It poured up and out, a red glow of energy. I kept urging it out until it matched my health regen. It was as if I held liquid nitrogen that bubbled in my palm, though red and electrically charged. It arrived alongside a pressing desire to kill and destroy, and I held it close for a moment before letting it go.
After letting the mana fade, I appreciated the rush of wellbeing and health. Endurance gave a sort of vibrancy after investing into it, like waking up after a good night's sleep. Using that vitality, I spurred to action and glanced around at all the eggs. They devolved into mush already. Sitting in a cross-legged position, I leaned forward and pushed off my heels. I didn't need my arms to stand anymore since my balance was excellent. A few tries later, and I stood with one leg via pistol squat.
Having appreciated the gains, I crawled up a stone tunnel leading to the sewers. On both sides of me, collapsed rubble locked me in aside from a narrow corridor. The only way out was the manhole above me. I climbed the metal rungs of the sewer ladder before reaching a set of bars holding the cover down.
Grabbing two bars of metal, I pulled them apart. They didn’t budge. Ready for the rush of anger, mana exploded into my limbs in a burst. I wrenched the metal apart, two bones in each hand breaking and my shoulders protesting. The metal gave out a light squeal as I did so.
I pushed the manhole out in a slow, controlled set down before squeezing out. There was no light leaking in from outside. I assumed the canopy cover of the yellow forest blotted out the stars. When my head banged on a piece of metal, I winced from headbutting a dumpster.
As I rubbed my head, I was glad brain damage wasn’t a thing in the system. It had been one of my cardinal worries from boxing, but so far, the system didn’t leave lingering imperfections after the healing faded. However, that wasn’t absolute.
I gazed at a few scars on my hands before tracing a hand down my face. I liked my scars them. They reminded me who I was before the system and who I aimed to become. Maybe the system felt that and kept the imperfections. If I remembered to ask Kessiah or Torix, I might get a solid answer.
Either way, I moved the dumpster from over the manhole. After stepping out, I glanced around. I was at the bottom of some hilly residential area. Even then, no one was here. I dashed across a street or two before slipping into the sewers again.
As I crawled into the manhole, the sun crept up along the horizon, the first inklings of a sunrise cascading onto the rooftops. With that in mind, I dashed back towards our encampment while shutting oppression off. Once I reached the encampment, the vibrant levels of activity were a welcome sight.
The tents folded against a gust, the wind enough to send a stack of papers flying. The early risers already got to morning training, many going through a variety of exercises and training. As I reached deeper into the encampment, voices came into focus.
I didn't need to lean over and focus to listen as comments rolled in.
"Over level 500...A freak."
"He's a monster."
"What the hell man."
I thought I’d feel only pride, but it came alongside shame. I’d risked my life several times for a small slice of levels, and it was to show off. To me, their comments meant more than they should’ve, and I struggled to hold my head up high. That is until I passed the recruitment area.
There, Isa and the other people I saved rested on sleeping bags. Isa gave me a wave and a smile. I waved back, and I couldn’t help but stand tall after that. It was easy to forget, but I’d saved a few people by choosing to fight. The solo boss fight hadn’t been the sharpest decision, but helping them had been.
That sense of purpose washed over me as I stepped into Torix's current hideout. No more homely furniture lingered in the living room of the suburban home. Data points, charts with data on followers and enemies lined the walls. A map of Springfield with the moving dots was taking up an entire wall now, segments separated into specific sector names based around sewer composition.
Torix wrote a giant ritual onto the floor, some of the runes familiar. As I walked in from the door's entrance, Torix looked up from a tiny fly he froze at the center of the ritual. With ink and other dust all over his robe, he patted himself down as he stood,
"Good to see you. I take it your roaming was successful?"
"Yeah, I suppose so."
His eyebrow raised, dry skin cracking.
"Level 563? That's...incredible progress."
Noticing a shade of suspicion in his voice, I decided to try and stay casual about it. I shrugged.
"Eh, I think it's the quarantine zone combined with this obliterator tree I have. It doubles my experience gained from unique boss enemies."
He nodded.
"Experience gains are quite powerful early on as they accelerate one’s progress. Regardless, I thought over your previous messages and thoughts. I find myself as confused as you are."
He walked over towards the map on the wall and pointed at one of the dots. Each of these dots had different sized circles surrounding them of a different color, some green, others yellow and red.
Torix pointed at one of them, "This is a color-coded map. Each of these dots represents a dungeon. I tallied all the dungeons in Springfield, and I noticed a worrying trend. Each dungeon had missing parts of Yawm's jungle around it. This is due-"
I waved my hand, "To Yawm feeding the nearby population to the eldritch."
Torix raised a finger, "Precisely. Each dungeon has a varying size of missing forest depending on how ravenous the eldritch are. I color coded them based on danger levels. Green meaning benign. Yellow means dangerous. Red implies malignance. The shift in our current plans involves taking out the highest priority dungeons that we can before they spiral out of control."
I nodded.
"Sounds good. I was planning on suggesting that too."
"The best solution to a problem often presents itself to more than a single party.” Torix turned to the map, “Though I will relent a misgiving of mine. This feeding strategy they’ve employed, it could be an attempt to redirect our focus.”
My gaze hardened.
“If so, it worked.”
“Indeed. Deflection or not, it is a problem we must address before the dungeons crack open and spill forth their contents onto an unready world. Now, you've taken out two of the highest priority dungeons already. But that leaves seven left, each of them dangerous and invasive. If you can carve them out before they can spread too far, then we may be able to turn Yawm's plans against him."
He pointed towards a giant tree etched on the map. Torix tapped it, "Yawm is stuck in here, trapped into absorbing the nutrients of the planet to feed and control his growing army. Our team will whittle away at what he has created, using them to grow stronger before assassinating each of his named, disciples, and followers. One by one, they shall fall."
Torix’s fire eyes dimmed as he sighed.
"Hopefully, by the time we reach Yawm, you and Althea will have strengthened enough for us to cripple or assault him directly. Either way, we will have a sentinel's rights by the time we get that far into the plan. Perhaps that shall change things, unless the reward is deceptive. If the situation spirals out of control before then, we'll use the dimensional slicer rewarded to Sentinels to go towards our planned fringe world."
My gaze deadened.
“Leave earth for a fringe world?”
“But of course. Do you wish to die here?”
I remembered the faces of the people I saved.
“I...I think a piece of me will die if we leave.”
Torix tilted his head.
“I understand that, but better a piece dies than your entirety."
I gazed at my hands, and the sharpened tips rippled.
“I’ve already had to sacrifice a lot of who I am. If I abandon humanity, then I won’t have any part of who I was left.”
Torix stood straighter, his attention rapt.
“There’s nothing wrong with defining who you are and will be.”
I squeezed my hands to fists.
“Yeah, and I’m saying I’m not leaving my planet behind.”
Torix’s voice took on a lethal tone.
“Do you believe it’s wrong to leave a home planet, or are its natural citizens beholden to where they were born?”
I walked over to the map of Springfield. I put a hand on it.
“I’ve lost my home, my body, and my family. I only have a few people left in Colorado, and who the hell knows if they’re even still alive. I know I can’t check on them or anyone until after Yawm is disposed of. Even then, travelling across an eldritch laden land is dangerous. Still, I want to stay as human as I can. If that means I have to pull humanity out of the depths, then so be it.”
Torix’s tone grew gentler.
“Ah...I believe I understand now. In that regard, I will say my piece and leave your motives as your own. Firstly, your death doesn’t ensure your humanity. Neither does our success in this mission. In fact, humanity is simply a species among many in a wider galaxy. By protecting it, you aren’t even guaranteeing they will accept you as you are.”
“I-I know.”
Torix crossed his arms behind himself.
“I was born into a clan, one in a world with very limited resources. We called it Xanathar. While I’d rather not bore you with the details, I worked tirelessly for the glory of my clan. In doing so, I outplayed our worst enemies and achieved lichdom. Do you know how my clan repaid my sacrifice and achievement?”
I gulped.
“No.”
Torix’s eyes turned red.
“I was scorned. It just so happened that they never wanted someone to overthrow the other enemy clans unless they were that someone. My success left their positions uncertain, so they campaigned against me. My reputation was dismantled, and my love for necromancy did me no favors. In the end, my blood, sweat, and tears were repaid with exile from my homeworld.”
I peered down.
“I’m...I’m sorry.”
Torix squeezed one of his wrists before walking over. He put a hand on my shoulder.
“You have nothing to apologize for. My story isn’t for mercy, sympathy, or even understanding. It is a warning. These people you aim to save, know that they may never accept you regardless of what you accomplish. In that regard, this mission you’ve taken upon yourself, ensure that its completion is for your benefit regardless of what other people may believe of you.”
Woosh. Mana surged through my runes.
“I will.”
Torix took a step back, and he tilted his head at the energy.
“Do be careful. Ascendant mana...It is a dangerous energy.”
I remembered breaking my body in my battle.
“I know, and I’ll keep the warning in mind.”
Torix walked over to the center of the room, "As for our plan moving forward, I'm remodeling my spies so that we can continue to plan and adjust as needed, depending on the circumstances of course. It should give us a greater understanding of our enemies movements."
Torix walked over towards the center of the ritual circle and pressed a palm into the ground. The complex runic inscriptions glowed with light before rising from the ground alongside the fly. They formed into a circle, shining a bright blue for a moment before collapsing onto the fly.
Torix stood, wiping imaginary sweat from his forehead.
"That should enable greater clarity for future messages and lower overall latency. I wouldn't want you all running into another follower again. Organizing these events will likely have certain timed intervals between the dates of them as well. Perhaps a week or so between each outing. Aside from that, I believe Althea is growing weary of this mission. She needs some time to relax, otherwise she's going to fall apart at some point."
I walked up and raised a fist, "Hey man, I just wanted to say you're doing a damn fine job. It's good to know we're in the hands of someone who knows how to handle this kind of thing."
Torix stared at my hand for a moment before fistbumping. After doing so, he glanced up at me.
"Are you...Are you taller than me now? Since when did that occur?"
"Probably after defeating Gabriel. Anyways, I need to show you something else."
I pressed my fingers into my palms. The ascendant mana roared in my veins, turning my flesh and blood into pure energy. The rich, powerful force surged through my runes, resonating in the confines of them. There was wobbling in the runes, like an engine that needed some screws tightened.
The energy inside them wobbled like an off-center wheel, making the rune convert the mana less efficiently than it should. Using some freetime, I’d remake my runes later to better match my current mana and volumes. Torix would be vital in learning that.
Before bridging that project, I raised a hand, and the ascendant mana poured from my palm. Several planks of wood cracked under my foot before I poured more mana into my silent casting. The wood sheared, taking several planks of wood and circling them around me.
My mind exhausted at the sheer volume of magic, I released the sorcery. The planks fell to the ground before the room returned to the normal morning light. I gasped.
"Hazzah...How was that?"
Torix pointed at the boards.
"Was that...Telekinesis?"
"Uh, yeah. I think so."
Torix adjusted his robe before reaching out a hand.
"Ah. I simply must have this cleaned. Now, would you mind letting me control a portion of the mana?"
I reached out a hand, pouring the mana from my palm.
"Er, sure...Am I doing this right?"
"You are." Torix bended the mana before squeezing his fist. The mana sunk in before Torix nodded. "This is a potent cocktail you've mixed, isn’t it?"
He pulled the mana from him before pressing his fingers together. As he outstretched his hand, the broken planks all bent in the same direction, forming a spiral that completed a perfect circle of missing wood. His hand lowered.
"This is much like one of the Agrayal berserker’s mana from my home world. Volatile, dangerous, yet thrumming with power. It’s more piercing than my own ascendance, almost as if it’s trying to claw out of one’s skull."
I tilted a hand up and down.
"Eh, more or less, and yeah, I know I have issues."
Torix shrugged.
"It’s better to have a potent strength that’s difficult to wield than a weakness that’s easy to use. Regardless, you'll gain a more precise handling of it over time. In that regard, it’s an excellent tool to have. Hm. In fact, it feels perfect for gravity wells. That's what I just used it for, a reversed gravity spiral.”
My eyes lit up.
“What? Reversed gravity spiral? Woah.”
Torix’s eyes flared bright.
“It's difficult to maintain without a high constitution as gravitation draws upon one's gravitational field. The heavier the gravity mage is, the greater their ability to use the energy without bleeding into their mana reserves."
“How does that work?”
Torix swirled his hand.
“You’ll understand if you unlock the magic. Regardless, the weight requirement shouldn't be a problem for you given your inclination towards constitution as an attribute."
I laughed.
“Sure, and I’ll pair it with a ton of mana regeneration. I mean, with my armor, I regenerate at a pace I doubt any mage could match. Well, most mages, anyways."
Torix rolled his fiery eyes, the orbs shifting at the center of his dried sockets.
"Really now? You'd be surprised how many tools there are out there for enhancing the regeneration of mana. What would yours be per minute? A thousand?"
"Eh, eleven."
Torix scoffed, "Ah, eleven-hundred you mean? It’s nothing exceptional for a pure mage of your level, though I will say it’s commendable given your warrior roots."
"No, I meant eleven thousand."
Torix leaned back, his face scrunched up. He shook his head. "Lies are unbecoming of you.”
“I mean it.”
Torix threw his arm as if dismissing an unruly child.
“Enough remarks. Simply show me your status."
I opened it, centered it over my health regeneration, and I twirled it to him. He gawked at it.
“How on earth is your health regeneration so utterly and astoundingly absurd?”
I raised a thumb.
“Specialization.”
Torix coughed into his hand.
“Do you mind if I view the rest of your status?”
“Sure.”
Before I spun it over to him, he raised a finger.
“Do be mindful with who you share your status with. It exposes one’s weaknesses.”
I waved off his concern.
“I’ve put my life in your hands countless times. If I can’t trust you by now, I’ll never trust anyone.”
A silence passed over us. Torix nodded my way.
“I thank you for your assurance.”
The interface flew in a semicircle before stopping in front of him once more. Torix's jaw dropped. He glanced back up at me, then back down at the status. He whispered,
"40,000 health...11,000 thousand health regeneration...98% damage resistance...Seven attributes totaling over 100. An enormous amount of bonus physical damage and stamina pool. Your aura, it's improved dramatically in strength. How...How have you gained so many tools and stats?"
I tapped my armor.
"This gives me the bonus resistance, most of my health regeneration, and the aura. My obliterator tree basically doubles my stat points per level. My determinator bonuses give me a ton of extra willpower, endurance, and regeneration. Finally, my genesis of potential tree lets me unlock the level 100 perks for seven of my stats. It’s all coming together, and I think the fact my armor was designed by someone is helping with that.”
I winced at the memory of breaking my arm from hitting the krakowgan queen.
“Though learning how to use this mana better would be huge for me in more ways than one."
Torix blinked, stunned to silence for a few moments. He nodded a few times before laughing. His laugh grew until it was nigh maniacal. He met my eyes.
"Yes, gravity magic will be perfect for you. After unlocking it and mastering your mana, you'll take steps to actually living up to your title."
He nodded, his grin growing till his grew almost evil,
"Except you won't be a mere harbinger. We'll turn you into the cataclysm itself."