Kessiah murmured.
“Why would you want him to?”
I leaned closer, trying to learn more from their tones of voice. From below, the ground rumbled. I dashed sideways before a giant set of pincers raised out of the ground and clamped onto my waist. An enormous, glinting beetle smothered in runic plates rose out of the ground. It dashed toward the house. Like chucking a sack of flour, the beetle tossed me through the window.
The glass shattered, wood cracked, and bits of drywall popped as I tackled the floor. Tearing through a few planks of wood, I glanced up, and Kessiah had her hands on her hips while Torix crossed his arms.
Menace crept over Torix’s face.
“Oh, for shame, disciple. Were you spying upon your benevolent teachers?”
Kessiah leaned against a wall.
“And here I thought you were trustworthy. Tsk, tsk, tsk.”
I stood up, lunging from one foot. Torix glanced at Kessiah, and the lich said,
“As trustworthy as a snake.”
I rolled my eyes.
“It’s not polite to talk behind someone’s back either.”
Torix gazed at his hand.
“That would depend upon the culture.”
I brushed myself off.
“Semantics, and besides, you got to admit you were both being suspicious.”
Kessiah pointed at me.
“And what are you so suspicious about, little man?”
I looked at them.
“What did you mean by exile?”
Kessiah propped her weight onto one hip.
“Oh, that. You remember the Sentinels?”
I shook my shoulders, more debris clattering to the ground.
“I do. They’re not someone you want to mess with. Pretty much ever.”
Kessiah opened her arms,
“You remember how they’re level 5,000 with spears that tear through dimensions?”
“It tends to be a hard thing to forget,” I said.
“Well, it just so happens that Sentinels have a common tactic they use against anything that’s dumb enough to attack them. Sentinels will grab you, slice a hole in the fabric of space-time, and toss you in there like a garbage pile.”
I frowned.
“And that’s exile?”
“Bingo. It’s when you’re trapped in that great, endless darkness.”
Torix’s hands interlocked behind himself.
“You’ve been there before. Whenever we opened the portal using the ancient ruins in BloodHollow, you exposed yourself to it. They were Baldag-Ruhl’s creations I believe. He is the maker of that rift and your armor, alongside Alfred, of course.”
Torix’s voice caught ever so slightly on that name. I nodded,
“Yeah. I remember it felt like dipping my hand into ice water and needles.”
Torix raised a palm to me.
“While a harrowing experience, we now know you can survive exposure to the dimensional energy that infests those liminal areas. You can survive it, something no one else has done.”
A bit of anxiety welled in my stomach,
“I mean, I only put my arm in there. Shoving all of me in there is a big second step.”
Torix paced back and forth, a worn spot in the floor indicating he did this often.
“That is more than enough proof. Your armor, it somehow assimilates that energy as if starving, and its consumption prevents you from dying. In that regard, your armor acts as a means of refining that energy. Even Yawm will die exposed to it, though we can’t be certain he lacks some means of surviving contamination.”
Kessiah placed a hand on my shoulder.
“In other words, you’ll pull Yawm into the space between dimensions with you. So, what do you say?”
I spread my arms.
“Absolutely not.”
Kessiah frowned,
“Well, I wouldn’t wanna go in either, but we don’t really have any other way of killing Yawm. You and Althea are going to struggle to get over level 1,500, even with doubled experience. That’s nowhere near enough to defeat Dakhma, let alone Yawm or Ajax.”
I sighed, raising both hands.
“We’ll see what we can do to find stronger enemies later. First off, I have problems with the strategy itself. Like, why not shove him into that space using a ghoul or something you directly summoned?”
Torix turned to me, his weight pivoting on a heel.
“The issue with using one of my summons comes with how the sentinel’s spears are designed. Think of them as enemy specific. They aim to destroy eldritch and to cleave apart space-time. My minions, while not actually eldritch, are registered as unknowns. They enable the most powerful defense systems of the spears to activate.”
I raised an eyebrow.
“So uh, how did you figure that out?”
Kessiah laughed.
“Because the dumbass tried capturing one once.”
Torix’s fire eyes flared red.
“An entire army of minions was disintegrated in seconds. It was a waste of years of planning. In that regard, Sentinels are much stronger than their level would supposedly indicate. For instance, their gauntlets carry stasis magic that can freeze an individual in place. Their shoulder pauldrons are enchanted to absorb kinetic energy and redistribute it into anything they touch. Even their sabatons offer temporal dilation to hasten their speed and reactions.”
A mountain of questions swam in my mind. The first of them spilled out,
“What in the world is temporal dilation?”
Kessiah tapped the wall.
“Time magic. It makes you faster and your enemies slower. Really, it does a lot more since it slows down how fast forces or chemical reactions take place against you, but really, you go fast and enemies slow down. That’s the gist of it.”
Torix waved his arms, dismissing further questions.
“While this discussion offers an excellent source of thought for later contemplation, we must stay on task. The point is that you’ll be able to sustain yourself within that transposed space. My minions mutate into uncontrollable, writhing abominations when exposed to that interdimensional domain. In the end, we may end up fighting more monsters instead of eliminating one without your help.”
I gnarled my hands.
“Look, I know I talk about being tough and pushing through, but…I don’t want to die. How am I going to escape that space if I fall in?”
Torix flourished a hand, and a thread followed behind him.
“Using a bit of nuanced sorcery. In your case, we’ll create a condensed tether of marking magic.”
The thread wrapped around me. In a second, it disappeared. I looked at my waist,
“So…This is going to let you guys know where I am?”
Torix pulled his arm back.
“Precisely.”
I tugged forward.
“Ohh, I see. This…It could work, though it feels like the plan could fall through at any moment.”
Kessiah scoffed.
“Of course. Most plans can, but this won’t be the only strategy we’ll be using. It’s going to be our backup plan if a more direct approach doesn’t work.”
I grabbed the thread, able to grasp its invisible surface.
“So this is our hail mary?”
Torix tilted his head as I grasped the thread.
“That...How are you doing that?”
I pulled back.
“It’s a rope, right? I’m just holding it.”
Kessiah and Torix looked at each other. I spread my hands.
“What?”
Torix waved his hands.
“You interact with dimensional magic oddly. Now, I’m sorry the burden of this task belongs to you. The fortunate piece of this puzzle is that you have time. Time to forge yourself into a warrior that even Yawm may fear.”
Kessiah suppressed a laugh. I met her eye,
“I proved you wrong once already.”
Kessiah took a breath.
“I’m skeptical because of Yawm’s tools. That’s all. Aside from that, I’d love it if you proved me wrong again.”
The mirth in her expression faded.
“Because we might actually get out of this alive if you do.”
Her words sank in, and I breathed out for a moment. Despite how insane the backup plan sounded, defeating Yawm by whittling away his entire army of followers sounded even more insane. After all, Sentinels had dozens of incredible magics, enchantments, and physical augments all coming together to create a juggernaut in battle.
And Yawm had killed one.
Beating him in direct combat may not even be possible. Besides, I didn’t want to spend the next 50 years reaching Yawm’s level. I leaned over, resting my hands on my legs. I banged my fists into my knees, the force of the strikes breaking the planks of wood beneath me.
My dexterity and heightened senses let me disperse the impact better. Otherwise I’d fall through the floor. I lifted myself up out of the debris.
“Alright, I’ll do it, but I have a better option.”
One of Torix’s eyes flared and the other narrowed. It gave him a quizzical air.
“Ah, and what might that be?”
I raised a fist.
“We kill one of the followers, get Sentinel rights from Schema, then use the spear they give us.”
Kessiah leaned back, her lips pursed,
“Heh, I guess we could do that.”
Torix mulled over my words.
“Indeed we could. We could then send each of his other followers to random worlds or dimensions. That would leave Yawm all alone, ripe for the breaking.”
I opened my arms,
“I know right? Look at me, I’m a genius.”
Torix lifted out his hand and thumped my nose from afar using telekinesis. With my armor reinforcing my flesh, Torix’s finger clanged against the skin and bone. Torix pulled his finger back,
“What in the name of Schema is that?”
I tapped my head with my gauntlet. A dull clang echoed through the room as if I banged a piece of metal covered in playdough. I grinned,
“The armor reinforces my bones and muscles. What’s wild is that I still feel as if I could die against most eldritch despite that.”
Kessiah walked over.
“Most fights are decided in seconds, and an equally levelled eldritch is usually about as likely to win as the sentient sent to fight them. That’s kind of why your long, brutal slogs aren’t just unusual.”
Torix nodded.
“They’re unheard of.”
I grabbed one of my wrists.
“Huh. Well, let’s hope the past won’t define what happens next. And who knows, maybe I’ll rewrite the rules?”
A sad, slight grin traced Kessiah’s lips.
“That’s true. If you keep living in the past, you’ll never have a future.”
The depth of some unseen pain lingered, giving weight to the ensuing silence. It was a quiet breaking of joy, the kind of recollection that stole your breath and heaved you over. Kessiah stood in that pain, and we waited. Shattering the tension, she took a step forward, her sadness suppressed. She ruffled the hair on my head,
“Come on, big man. We have a mission we need to finish. You need the dungeon cores right? You gained a few levels.”
I glanced at Torix. He was pokerfaced, so I just turned back to her,
“Uh. Yeah. I forgot to mention it, but one of my trees lets me get more dungeon cores. I need, I don’t know…At least ten of them.”
Kessiah nodded, unzipping the gray knapsack at her side. She pulled out her storage ring and opened its starry, dark portal. Reaching her hands into it, she pulled out five dungeon cores. She handed them to me before reaching into the portal and taking out a few more.
The cores sank into my armor on contact, notifications popping up in the corner of my vision. It took a total of seventeen cores before my armor ceased absorbing them. Torix sighed,
“This is a fortune you just gobbled up. I hope you’re willing to pay that debt in time.”
Not being absorbed, one of the cores clattered against the ground. The black sphere rolled, but the inside never changed orientation or appearance. It felt like a glass sphere holding an immutable vision within, something that could never be changed. I picked up that encapsulated image before tapping it. My hand bounced off, and the core no longer fell in once I hit my dungeon core cap.
I grasped it, squeezing something denser than stone or steel.
“I’ll pay this and then some. I promise you both that I pay whatever I owe in full.”
I handed the core back to Kessiah. I said,
“I mean that, and I’ll put them to good use.”
Putting the core back into the portal, Kessiah pocketed the ring,
“You damn well better. That was a couple years in a fringe world that I just handed you.”
I stood a bit taller.
“I should be able to get my own red cores at this point, so hopefully, you won’t ever need to get them again. Besides, I’ll be able to pay you back with interest later. How does a suit of Sentinel armor sound?”
She laughed, the expression light.
“You know what? I might take you up on that offer.”
She walked towards the doorway, but her steps looked heavy and tired. She waved,
“I’m going to get Althea. You can do whatever with your status till we meet back up here.”
Kessiah left before closing the door. A minute later, I turned toward Torix,
“Not trying to pry here, but why did she seem so upset when I talked about the past?”
Torix scoffed.
“That question is prying, disciple.”
I rubbed the back of my neck.
“I’m asking because I want to avoid digging into an old wound. After all, Kessiah’s been good to me, so I want to do right by her.”
Torix nodded, “I won’t go into details, but she is…Grieving. It’s a painful process, and aside from that, neither of us have shown particularly apt inclinations toward moving on from loss. In that regard, immortality can act as an insidious temptation. When time is limited, one may address a sorrow out of urgency. What if there is no limit to the time one may devote to grief?”
I gazed at the broken floor boards.
“They become trapped in the past, like she said.”
A quiet rested over us. Torix sighed,
“Precisely. If enough of those tiny pains accumulate, then life becomes a kind of curse. Combine that with Schema’s oppressive labeling of us as unknowns, and existence itself can be quite…Tiresome. That’s why this entire venture was revitalizing for both of us. It gave Kessiah and I something to direct ourselves towards outside of ourselves.”
Torix inspected the back of his dried palm.
“And at times, the best means of handling one’s personal tragedies is to invest outside of one’s inner world. In that regard, it is through helping others that one may help themselves. Upon my homeworld of Xanathar, this was called the cure of kindness.”
I gazed up at him, remembering how great it felt to help other people in the bunker dungeon,
“That’s definitely the truth, though I don’t know how much you want to throw around charity or kindness. Keep it up, and it will ruin your reputation as an evil lich.”
Torix raised a hand,
“Ah, but there’s a balance that can be maintained. In fact, an ounce of kindness amidst a pound of pain makes it all the worse.”
“Uhm, is that a phrase too?”
“No, but it’s an undeniable truth. Hope allows people to persevere. Give them hope amidst their suffering, and they shall survive far more of it. In that regard, hope is dual edged. It’s best you remember that.”
I winced as Torix stepped away from the broken floor. He snapped his fingers, and the floorboards reconstituted. After opening a portal, he pulled out a brush made from hair, a feather, and runically enchanted bone. Alongside the pen, he grabbed a bowl full of red liquid. After the brush dabbed into the sanguine pool, it changed from ruddy red to a bubbling black.
Torix marked the floor, designing a new ritual using the tools. I watched the lich while in a daze, my focus splintered from watching Kessiah’s expression crumble. I wondered what she lost to give her suffering so much gravity. Even moreso, I couldn’t help but be impressed by how she held it together even when experiencing a resurgence of those memories.
Taking a while to think, I walked over towards a wall and sat down. The drywall groaned against the pressure I applied. A second later, and it cracked. My back pressed an inch into the gray wall, leaving an impression. I sighed at the break before opening my status. Up until that point, I’d invested all my core derived skillpoints into a Boundless Storm. It was my only mythical skill after all.
It exposed an oversight on my part. I had never focused on the levels of my skills. I figured it was a hell of a lot more productive to hone in on learning them rather than assessing my status all the time. However, talking about Yawm made me eager to reevaluate my plans for progression. I figured it was time to give them a look.
Most of the skills related to my studies made decent progress, capping out around the sixty to seventy mark. The only standouts were pain resistance and a Boundless Storm. Pain resistance was at one hundred, giving me 99.9% pain resistance. On the other hand, a Boundless Storm was at level 167. I turned to Torix,
“Can skills go above 100?”
“They absolutely can. In particular, mythical skills are the first generic tier to do so, though there exists a tier above that known as legendary skills. I’ve also read of other accounts where skills can be developed above even legendary tier through classes and the like.”
My eyes widened.
“Classes?”
Torix peered down at his ritual, considered continuing it, thought better of splitting his attention, then stood. He interlocked his hands behind himself.
“Indeed. There are three primary classes - the Speaker, the Breaker, and the Fringe Walker. Each carries a different specialization, level cap, and prestige. The Speakers act as Schema’s agents, and they are the weakest of the three. They devote themselves to noncombat roles such as assigning quests, bounties, and organizing guild operations.”
Torix’s pitch rose, his enjoyment for teaching obvious.
“Breakers are the bounty hunters of Schema’s system. They act as an anarchistic police force, each of them motivated by their own gain. Their skills specialize in bringing down individuals via assassination or when isolated. Fringe Walkers are those sent to fringe worlds to fight hordes of monsters. They are Schema’s anathema against a world torn asunder by the eldritch.”
Torix turned to me and stood.
“In general, all three of these classes are necessary for a functioning Schemic society, but I’ll save the brunt of those accounts for a different day. For now-”
A streak of dominion mana hovered beside Torix, and the lich drew from the blot to power sorcery on command. He spoke while marking and casting spells to continue writing his ritual.
“Mythical skills have a cap of 1,000. In other words, you may increase them nigh endlessly, and they are often the most potent sources of sustenance for the many trees you have, no doubt, already obtained.”
I leaned forward, kind of in awe at his multi-tasking.
“I knew they were a big deal, but woah. They’re worth ten skills in points alone.”
Torix glanced up from his dominion orb,
“Of course. Why else would you be willing to sacrifice 15 different skills and half the points you gain from them? Otherwise, there’s no other reason to aim for their creation.”
I leaned up from the wall.
“What about legendary skills? Do they have a cap? Is it 10,000?”
Torix tapped his feathered pen into his bowl.
“It’s a matter of discussion, though I believe they carry no limit. My reading implies that a legendary skill is both difficult to obtain and decisive for a sentient’s path. Once gathered, few can gain more than one of these potent skills. Given that implication, your chosen legendary skill is a nigh deterministic aspect of your build. It can be as telling as a class or your chosen leveling perks.”
I nodded along.
“Then people must carefully pick and choose the skills that are selected into their legendary skill.”
Torix’s gaze fell upon me, piercing as a dagger.
“I quite like that you are trying to answer your own questions through forethought and analysis. That is a skill that will serve you well in unveiling the world. Continue doing so, and see what you may uncover.”
I nodded, glancing back down at my menu screens. With so many dungeon core derived skillpoints, I could max out a few skills if I wanted to. I peered at Torix,
“Is it ok if I continue asking some questions about skills?”
A playful amusement entered his voice as Torix resumed his markings,
“What else do you need to know, disciple?”
“What would happen if I maxed out ascendant manipulation? Wouldn’t I become some sort of savant in an instant?”
He cackled.
“Quite the contrary. Some skills give bonuses that are absolute. Pain Tolerance is a perfect example. You may max it and gain it as an ability. On the other hand, some skills act as multipliers to the potency of learned magics or techniques. However effective you are with the ascendant mana, your skill total will multiply that. In that regard, even Schema cannot zap knowledge into your brain.”
Torix stood tall.
“Knowledge is one of the few things that cannot be bought. It must be earned. Remember that as well.”
I clicked through a few menus.
“So if I maxed out ascendant mana, it would double how effective I am with it, but I would still need to actually know how to use it?”
Torix nodded.
“Think of Althea when she first sparred with you. Her aiming skills were top notch. They allowed her to shoot precisely wherever you were. You found the cause of her aiming, and by jerking in random directions, she couldn’t hit you at all. That is the difference between having a Schema derived skill and gaining one on your own. Your mythical skill, a Boundless Storm, is another example of that.”
Torix dabbed the brush into the thick, black sludge, “It’s a powerful skill, even by mythical skill standards. However, it would be useless if not for your baseline understanding of how to coordinate your body, time your blows, and apply force at various angles. It simply augments what is already there.”
“Alright, cool. Thanks for the explanation.”
“Keep one fact in mind. Just as it is the responsibility of the tutor to give good answers, it is the responsibility of the student to ask good questions. As annoying as it is to be interrogated by you, I must say, these are the right questions to be asking.”
Despite his words, he carried a pleased note in his voice. I nodded his way before glancing back down towards my status. I dove into thought. Putting points into knowledge centric skills wouldn’t do much for me based on what Torix said. They would amplify how quickly I gained knowledge in the field, but they wouldn’t give me the knowledge I needed. It made them pointless.
Plus, focusing on higher leveled skills gave greater returns anyway. With a level one skill, gaining a point in the ability was simple. On the other hand, bridging the gap from 99 to 100 took a very long time. Efficient, optimized allocation of my skillpoints would save me time while giving more bang for my buck.
Just like with allocating my attributes, I kept my focus geared towards maximizing general results. I would wait until a skill was level 90 before I invested into it. Well, besides for my mythical skill. I’d wait till it was at least over level 200 before increasing that one further.
With that handled, I came to the far simpler business of using my attributes. It seemed like stacking endurance would remain the end goal for now. Over time, I would find some sort of balance between that and constitution. Once I had a firmer grip on how gravitational and telekinetic energy worked, making these decisions would be easier.
Honestly though, constitution and endurance were all I needed. Since my leveling perks ensured a solid baseline in seven of my nine attributes, I only needed to beef up what already made me strong. Which meant I needed some more health. It was the solution to all my problems, after all.
I furiously allocated the points into endurance, needlessly pressing on the virtual button. I could just use thought to put the points in them if I wanted to, but the satisfaction of pressing the button was simply too great. After quite a few clicks, a perk notification appeared. I gawked at it.
[Devotion to the Enduring(Endurance over 1,000, Current level below 1,000) – Upon your back, a thousand challenges have burdened you. In the face of adversity, you could’ve chosen any means of solving those obstacles, yet a singular concept roared in your mind as the answer - to endure. To persevere. To rise by never faltering. When others collapse from exhaustion, you are the unyielding vanguard who protects them. Where most would die from a splintered body, you are the one to hold yourself together and show a bloody smile.
And in never falling, you outlast them all.
Every eldritch killed over level 1,000 adds another year of life expectancy.
Resistance to eldritch based sickness and disease.
+10% more health, health regen, stamina, and stamina regen per 1,000 points in endurance.
You may choose to add 1/10th of endurance to any attribute of your choosing, besides endurance itself. You may now unlock a legendary skill.]
I gawked at the perk, my mind spinning at its possibilities. Before I even considered another means of distributing my points, I selected and finalized the perk. Another message appeared.
Select an attribute for the 1/10th addition:
Strength+
Constitution+
Dexterity+
Perception+
Willpower+
Intelligence+
Luck+
Charisma+
Taking a moment, I considered my options. I could put the boost into constitution or strength to balance my build. The attributes would feed down their separate attribute chain, saving me a lot of level ups for those attributes in the future. At the same time, every aspect of my build flooded into endurance.
It synergized amazingly well, and sending these attributes to constitution or strength wouldn’t take full advantage of my current set-up. Even moreso, mana acted as my biggest limitation. It wasn’t from having too little of it but from having too much. To that end, willpower would help me control the rising emotional surges from ascendance and other mana types.
In the back of my mind, I feared those emotions. They could rise from any moment like a firecracker, and they reminded me of darker days in my life. I remembered moments where not only I lost control but moments where people in my life went wild. I still vividly remember one day when my father and mother fought each other, wrestling in the kitchen and shattering glass.
I cut my foot on one of those shards, and I wept as they hit one another. After they gave me that mental scar, I vowed to never do the same to my children or children that relied on me. The mana that surged from my sorcery…It could rob my sanity if I let it. That terrified me.
And I would never allow that to happen.
So, I placed the extra bonus into willpower. Upon that selection, my current stats rushed in. A surge of energy coursed through me. I held up a hand, watching my blood heat from the cosmic force flowing over me.
Shining veins streaked through my palm, the glow burning like a cleansing wildfire. As I took a sharp breath, energy radiated through me. A palpable, potent power pulsed through my body. I was a reactor, mana flowing in voluminous waves from my glowing body. It came with the cry of madness, and I took a few minutes to silence my coursing mana flows.
After calming it, a voice rushed into my ears.
“Are you quite alright?” Torix asked.
I stood in his room, the walls singed behind me from the heat of my reformation. I fell backwards, breaking the floor again.
“I…I got a level 1,000 perk.”
Torix’s fire eyes widened.
“W-what? That…At level 563? That kind of perk arrives nearer to the 900 mark if someone chooses to only invest in a singular attribute. You’ve already unlocked it?”
I nodded.
“Yes. I have the trees and perks to make it happen. That, and a touch of stupidity.”
Torix shook his head.
“Perhaps more than a mere touch of it, but this…This shouldn’t be.”
I nodded at him, my expressions monotonous and jilted from exhaustion.
“I need a second.”
I waited a few minutes, the lich giving me time. After a while, Torix sat down cross-legged beside me. He said,
“You’re quite ahead of any normal leveling or attribute curve. You might be able to obtain multiple level 1,000 perks at the rate you’re going.”
I rubbed my temples.
“I will, but that’s not the problem. This mana is overwhelming me. It’s so bad that I don’t think I can actually use all of it anymore.”
Torix’s eyes flared.
“Ah, you’re experiencing the beginnings of mana poisoning. You’ll lose your mind should you overdo it, and given your current growth, you’ll be forced to handle an absolutely absurd pull from your summoned energy. That isn’t the worst problem to have, though it will stop you from achieving your latent potential. For now, that is.”
I moved my hands through my hair.
“I don’t know if you understand. The pull is so strong anytime I even surge my mana in any way. It’s like…It’s as if I’m being taken by some otherworldly force. How am I supposed to fight while dealing with this kind of, I don’t know, mind invasion?”
Torix sighed.
“We’ve laid the groundwork, but I’ll teach you a few meditative techniques alongside a few means of emotional dissociation. It allows you to act while feeling emotions coursing through you. That being said-”
Torix’s eyes met mine.
“You will need to pace yourself. Only use the amount of mana that you can currently handle. Anything that is excess beyond that, don’t worry yourself. It simply means you’ll be nigh indestructible in battle since your mana serves as health.”
I blinked.
“Huh…That’s right. I don’t have to use it all at once. It can heal me whenever I’m not using it.”
“Precisely. Aside from that, you can also invest into the willpower perk next. It should be quite simple given your current trajectory.”
I scoffed.
“I don’t have any options aside from getting it. Otherwise, I’m going to lose my mind here.”
Torix put a hand on my shoulder.
“We’ve all lost our minds a time or two. If anything, it’s the mark of a powerful wizard. This is simply a rite of passage that you experienced earlier than most. In time, you’ll suppress and control the mana as easily as breathing. Until then-”
He raised his hand.
“Do not push your mana abilities unless you’re close to death. Mana poisoning is nearly irreversible, and you’ll become a puppet for the energy you released. Don’t allow that to happen, understood?”
I closed my eyes.
“Yes. Absolutely.”
Torix gave my shoulder a shake.
“Good. Now, prepare yourself for your battle. There’s still a few moments to acclimitize yourself with your newfound abilities.”
“Oh, I still have stat points to allocate.”
Torix stood.
“Oh…I suppose you should obtain that willpower perk forthrightly?”
Torix fixed the floor again before returning to his ritual. After waiting a few minutes, I poured points into willpower. After selecting finalize again, the pressure eased somewhat, though I found even more health regeneration waiting for me. Once I finished taking advantage of my status, I set my eyes onto my status screen.
Like the slow coming of an ocean’s tide, the amount of health and health regeneration I gained was awe inspiring.
Level 563
Strength - 252.6 | Constitution - 562.1 | Endurance - 1,000.5
Dexterity - 100 | Willpower - 723.3 | Intelligence - 241
Charisma - 43.4 | Luck - 96.3 | Perception - 54
Daniel Hillside, The Harbinger of Cataclysm
Health - 55,962/55,962 | Health Regen - 15,990/min | Stamina - 24,948/24,948 | Stamina Regeneration - 327/sec | Damage Resistance - 98% | Mental Resistance - 98% | Physical Power - (+)3,826% | Damage Increase - 20% | Evolution: 0.07/65.5 Billion Ambient Mana
Aura - Oppression | Current Damage: (15,000 + 40% of your health)/minute within a 200 ft radius.
I generated an unbelievable amount of mana, and I gazed at a hand. A wave of energy radiated through the limb, and it came alongside the urge to slaughter. I held it down while taking deep breaths and holding my wrist. From a few weeks ago, my mana regeneration increased by another 30%, and I was already struggling to contain myself under its influence.
My current mana exceeded my limits for control. Continuing my deep breaths, I resolved myself to tackle this problem. It would be a recurring one due to how mana worked, and so, I took a few minutes to write out a few ideas for handling the insidious influence. Meditation, mindfulness practices, and continuous research would be required.
With that handled, I began practicing telekinesis while waiting on the others. Something I figured out early on was that this tactile magic pulled on me as well. For example, if I tried pushing a boulder in the distance via telekinesis, it would push me back. It was kind of like Newton’s laws of physics. For every action, there was an equal and opposite reaction.
That made all my constitution much more valuable. Otherwise, strong telekinesis would fling me around like a ragdoll. In fact, the reason I hadn’t noticed it yet was because I only did small things, like parrying arrows or lifting rocks. During these experiments, I tried moving a car. As I had, my feet would slide back and push into the ground. It wasn’t that different from actually lifting the car.
Even more limiting, the further away I was, the greater the strain on the telekinesis would put on my mana pool and body. Strength and constitution both became limitations because lifting even small objects from afar was very difficult. In that regard, a small pebble became a mountain if I tried throwing it from several blocks away.
The telekinesis also couldn’t lift anything from inside an object, and the magic changed depending on how I ‘held’ something. If I was lifting a block of wood, the solid grip made moving it far easier. Shifting some sand was much more difficult. I couldn’t understand why until I tried the same on a cluster of rocks.
To get a reasonable grip on a single rock, I only needed a thin line of telekinesis. To grab sand, I had to create a kind of panel that supported it all. It carried a mental stretching I wasn’t used to, and it mirrored the telekinesis I wielded on accident. That magic operated on will and effort, and I had plenty of both.
However, I would never lift a mountain using that method. I had to understand this inside and out. For example, each part of the magic required a different thought process. The first portion was bounded by exertion. That’s how I created telekinesis in the first place. I had taken my will and forced it onto reality.
The next part required the distillation of that will, converting the raw mass into a tactile application. By converting telekinetic energy into something more precise, I could convert a raw blob into a hardened bullet of energy.
The last part of the sorcery involved predicting the returning force. If I shoved something while midair, I could flip myself back around or control my descent. I could also ruin my sense of balance if I didn’t predict the blowback. At first, this seemed like a limitation, but I quickly learned it was anything but.
It gave me a means of fighting that evolved my melee from brute force to something more refined yet unpredictable. A bit of playing around showed me how even minute adjustments let me use the repercussions in odd ways. A turn or subtle shift completely changed my center of balance, letting me dodge along alien angles or perplexing patterns.
A few awkward stumbles brought my dreams of physical mastery to Earth. Still, it was a path worth pursuing. More explosively, the most effective use of telekinesis so far was close range amplification. In other words, using the telekinetic power to enhance my own strikes and defenses. After the last few weeks of practice with Torix, I could extend my punches by a few inches.
I know, huge.
Even better, with a bit of focus, I could condense the surface of said telekinetic burst. The smaller it was, the more force I could put into it. From test runs, my magic gave the telekinetic application more piercing power, like I was using a sharp point of a sword instead of a dull hammer. In fact, telekinesis worked a lot like extending my limbs with needles or blades.
Even a few demonstrations left Torix floored, but I guessed that some of my intuitive understanding stemmed from a Boundless Storm. It saved me a lot of otherwise grueling legwork as Torix had said. He told me most people had to learn vector calculus at the very least before being an effective psionic. Instead of running calculations in my head, I just felt my way through the power.
Of course, I had to understand some of those mathematics, but I couldn’t manage realtime calculations. Apparently, that’s what telekinetic mages did, and masters of the craft wielded enormous potential by finishing equations during battle. That sounded just about impossible to me, but Torix gave me a telekinetic flick as an example.
He held up a hand,
“I calculated a few, what was that measurement your kind used? Hm…Ah yes, Newtons. That carried close to seven Newtons of force. If you manage a similar kind of calculation, you can take forces through your magics they otherwise couldn’t handle. This becomes essential at higher volumes of force. Otherwise you’ll shatter your body into tiny pieces.”
I gazed at my forearm.
“What if I’m unbreakable?”
Torix waved a hand at me.
“Then you’re praying for an outcome rather than ensuring it.”
I cracked my knuckles,
“I think I’m hedging my bets based on my specialties.”
“I dare say you’re simply giving up on an avenue of growth. It is a path you can take.”
I squeezed my hand into a fist.
“I’d rather find my own.”
That conversation illustrated a brilliant point - magic was insanely dangerous. For that reason, my massive health pool worked in my favor. It allowed me to survive testing and sensation centered magic that other sorcerers would die from. Telekinesis was dangerous for that reason. If a mage worked within the bounds of their strength, then the mana cost was minimal and the impact was profound.
The fine line came to bear when a mage broke their arm or caved in their ribs midfight. Oftentimes, that consequence settled the conflict in seconds as the sorcerer writhed in agony. I wouldn’t have to worry as much about breaking as I had made myself to do just that - to survive a shattering.
To follow this idea, I asked Torix to discuss several magics related to physical toughness. There was an entire subclass of sorcery dedicated to the topic, from heating one's body to enveloping battlefields in gravitation.
I daydreamed about those feats, but for now, it was easier to use my runes to increase my strength instead of trying to use mana considering how insidious the mental effects were. All these little tips and tricks are what we focused on most over the last weeks. It let me come up with a few ideas for power.
Despite my calm, I itched for another fight. I trained every waking moment, and that left me excited for a conflict. I couldn’t help but feel a bit guilty at that joy, but it sang to my soul no matter its ethos. To that end, I was a warrior, and I would live as one.
Taking a piece of that spirit, I walked outside, pacing past a block or two over to another house. Beside the ugly, yellow building was a thick oak tree. Beside it, I set into my normal fighting stance. I wanted to test a few ideas, and my inspiration derived from karate classes I took while still a child.
Their punches involved turning your wrist and palm to twist your arm, drilling the punch forward. Honestly, for a normal punch, this drill effect was nigh useless. Your fists simply weren’t sharp enough to get anything from the extra twisting in the strike. My telekinetic powers changed that paradigm. If I extended out little energy fields just in front of my fists and ended them in sharp points, then they acted like wedges on my fists.
It required focus, but I held the semitransparent constructs in front of my fists. The tiny triangles extended from my hands like brass knuckles made of lavender glass. I hoped they wouldn’t be so fragile.
Standing in front of the tree, I let my right fist lay beside my hip. My palm faced upwards. Before I stomped forward to add power to the punch, I let out tiny, invisible fields to the edges of my feet. They were like snowshoes made of telekinetic magic.
It was a strategy I thought up after dealing with the softness of dirt and mud. It was a problem that mounted by the day; dirt mushed under my feet like a dense fluid. I was compact and hard enough that raw soil didn’t give me enough grip to use my full strength. Instead, my feet would bore into the ground as if trying to stand on mud.
I mean, I still got enough resistance from it to add serious torque to my punches but not quite my full potential. It was akin to punching while standing on eight feet of snow. Your feet dug into the white powder once you tried getting some power from the ground. I used my telekinesis to make my feet effectively larger, just like wearing snowshoes.
It gave me a better grip on the soft earth, letting me slam my fist harder. They slowed me down when running, but they were easy to dismantle. If I was on sand, it would make an even bigger difference, but it would help even on concrete. While seemingly inconsequential, there was something I learned from fighting to the death.
Every little bit counted. Every inch. Every mile. It all amounted to the inevitable outcome of a battle, and I would take every incremental advantage I could. Testing my theories, I stomped forward, my feet barely digging into the earth. Cracks webbed through the ground. My arm shot straight forward as the force moved through my core and into my shoulders.
Mana surged in a maddening burst. Like firing a cannon, the built-up force exploded into my arm and hand. My arm twisted as it bolted forward, my fist clasping as my palm turned to the ground. With the telekinetic wedge at the front of my fist, my arm drilled. It spiraled right into the wood, crunching through the outer bark with ease. The tree cracked down the middle before my fist stopped.
Force coursed back up my arm from both the impact and the telekinesis. I held my breath as my skin split over my forearm. Blood squirted in every direction, and my bones creaked. However, a portion of the tree blew out the back of the trunk. I sighed as I pulled my fist out of the hole. Holding my numb hand by my side, it began healing, and I inspected the damage.
My fist almost pierced the tree like an actual drill. There was a six-inch deep circular impression made in the tree as if a tornado of force burrowed into it. At the back of the tree, it was like the exit point of a bullet wound. My fist had blown the back of it away, leaving a missing chunk in the trunk.
I had wanted my hand to drill all the way through. It would give me a piercing move against armored foes, which were my biggest weakness. If I faced Gabriel without using these new techniques, I may not be able to get through his armor. With a few of these punches though, it may be possible.
It still wasn’t perfect as my shattered arm demonstrated. In a few minutes, my limb regenerated which let me test other hypotheses. After a few tests, I uncovered my limits. I could drill through the walls of houses, but trees were still a bit too much. It also required intense focus to pull off. If my mind wandered, the telekinetic rebound shattered my bones or the constructs collapsed altogether.
The move would be difficult to master, but it was more than possible. In general, it was a combination of all my skills and stats up till now. Strength and constitution’s assistance was obvious. Dexterity helped with the tiny adjustments mid strike and the flexibility helped me torque my arm more than a normal human.
Perception let me spot the weakest parts of the tree, striking at tiny, minute cracks in the wood and bark. All my health gave me the robust build to survive the attack. A Boundless Storm helped smooth out all the different parts I was working on. I mean, even imagining using all fifteen different skills was a nightmare. On the other hand, a Boundless storm was as easy as breathing to use.
It let me focus on incorporating new techniques into my fighting style. It even made most skills easier to use while it was activated. The skill really showed its worth over time but especially when trying to amplify my fighting style with telekinesis. Those thoughts raced in my head as I wiped some splinters off my arm.
I already heard a set of steps landing on the pavement of a nearby street before I even punched. I turned around, Kessiah and Althea walking up. Kessiah put her hands on her hips when they reached me,
“Well I’ll be damned. What was that?”
“Something Torix and I’ve been working on.” I turned to Althea, “Are you ready to destroy some eldritch?”
Althea sighed,
“As ready as I’ll ever be.”
She seemed tired despite the break. I kept that in mind as I walked forward, the grass ripping underfoot,
“Then let’s crush them to powder.”