Seeing her shot coming, I dropped from the pillar before slamming into the ground. The spear whizzed overhead, and my landing’s echo rippled through the chamber. Around my feet, bits of rock rose into the air. I glanced up,
“What was that?”
Althea’s hands shook, fear crawling across her skin. She was like a war victim who couldn’t handle the sound of gunshots. I walked towards her and raised my palms,
“Hey, calm down. Focus. You can do this. You’re strong. Capable. In control. There’s no reason to be afraid.”
After a head twitch, she gripped her rifle. A tense moment passed before she closed her eyes. She sighed, and her hands steadied,
“Yeah, ok. Just, when you reached for it, something rushed through me, and I didn’t know what to do.”
Her arm remodeled into her average limb, the many plates of bone melting into her body. Her jumpsuit rippled against the flow of her reformation,
“So, I…Don’t touch that thing. Something is telling me that.”
I crossed my arms,
“Alright, let’s think about it. Do those thoughts seem to be your own or someone else’s?”
She grimaced.
“I don’t know.”
I sighed.
“I do. This thing is messing with my head even while I’m talking to you.”
She writhed for a split second before gasping,
“It’s going to try and change you. It’s-”
I flashed my aura over her, and she yelped. She glared at me,
“What was that for?”
I narrowed my eyes on her.
“Are you feeling better?”
She blinked.
“Huh…I am?”
I nodded,
“We need to remember to cleanse you from time to time. I think that eldritch virus began building on your skin or something.”
She pinched the bridge of her nose.
“I…Ugh, I forgot all about it.”
I smiled.
“It happens to the best of us, and I did too. But, if you could, try not to fire at me.”
She peered away.
“I will. And sorry about that.”
“Don’t worry about it. All is fair in love and war, after all.”
She blinked, thought about her words, gulped, then looked at me.
“And which is this?”
The core radiated out a pulse of energy. I sent out my aura, protecting and harming Althea simultaneously. I raised my hands.
“We’ll talk later?”
She shook off a bit of exhaustion.
“Sure. I need a nap anyway.”
We headed out again before she raised a hand.
“Wait, do you think you’ll be safe grabbing the core? It seems infested.”
I tapped my armor with a knuckle,
“Oh yeah.. Why? I’ll just absorb the energy…Probably.”
“That sounds risky. What if the virus takes hold?”
“Eh, we’ll cross that bridge whenever we get to it.”
“Do you think that’s a good idea?”
I blinked. Stopping myself, I shook my head.
“No. It isn’t. I…Hm, I’ll have you pour your acid on me.”
She reeled back from me,
“I wouldn’t do that. Ever.”
I met her eyes.
“It’s the same as me using my aura against you. It’s like a saying from my old world – a bitter pill to swallow. It means some medicines taste awful but are what you need.”
Althea frowned before nodding. She shook her arms for a second before raising her hand and reforming her rifle. Bone and plates reformed across her wrist and into the provided slots of her rifle. She fired several spears at the pillar beyond me. They aligned into a makeshift staircase.
“You can use those to climb the pillar. And sorry again about the freakout. Just…A bad reaction, I guess.”
I nodded, “Don’t apologize too much. It could definitely be a good thing for me to have a bit more wariness, right? Besides, you gave me plenty of warning.”
Turning to a sudden burst of noise, two beetles cannibalized one of their own, fighting over the corpse. They ripped it apart as I sighed,
“Besides, this place can’t be good for either of us.”
Althea raised her rifle, firing two more bolts at the beetles. The insects died while she nodded,
“Yeah, let’s get out of here. I’ve had enough butchery for one day.”
I turned and jumped up the spaced-out steps that Althea made with her spears. She could control how deep her spears pierced, something I hadn't known about till just now. It gave her some useful utility in the future. Once I reached the top of the steps, the spire of white light blinded me.
The core rippled, and the horns grasped for anything that dared touch it. I channeled a telekinetic clamp over the core to try and push it out. My magic fizzled against the core alongside the energy pouring around it. Gritting my teeth, I reached out my hand as my armor smiled..
When my hand touched the energy, a cold leeched in. An icy numb pierced through my skin like frozen needles. It cut until it reached my bones, and I trembled. I breathe out a red mist, and my bones shivered under my skin. I clenched my jaw, suppressing my rattling teeth. My armor awoke before feasting on the energy.
Even my skeleton joined the sudden banquet, the metal disrupting the flow of energy pouring out of the dungeon core. With a quick jolt, I shot my hand into the flow of energy and grasped the core. The frigid numb crawled up my arm, into my shoulder, even etching a few inches up my neck. My armor caught up with the sudden flux of energy, gorging to appease an open appetite.
A few moments later, the horns of the core scratched my armor. The core voraciously gored my hand, attempting to tear my limb to pieces. My body held up to the onslaught, but the core sliced my arm to ribbons. Blood poured onto the ground as I let out a low growl. The core stopped turning after a few more seconds like gears in an engine breaking.
Once my hand gripped across the whole thing, I dredged out the core. It screamed, the noise paralyzing like an ambulance’s alarm blaring inside your ears. I kept yanking before the core ripped out. I fell backwards before catching myself on the pillar. My fingertips scraped the sides, slowing my descent.
I let myself swing downwards before my feet planted into the pillar. For the first time, a persistent telekinesis supported my back. Before I could celebrate the subtle innovation, the core’s red vibrancy died down in my hand. The red rescinded its fierce power as the inner black of the core expanded. By the time I lowered myself from the pillar, the core looked like a normal red core from any other dungeon.
Well, besides for the steam and intense heat radiating from it. Glancing up, the flow of energy radiating above destabilized. Wobbling like a guitar string, it shifted back and forth. With each vibration, the fluctuating flow turned more and more chaotic until it could no longer sustain itself. The energy snapped.
Once the energy disappeared, the roof collapsed along with the pillar. With a surprising finesse in my movements, I shot out a series of telekinetic bursts. Each wave hit boulder after boulder of rock, deflecting them away from me. Althea ran my way, getting inside the safe zone I created.
A bead of sweat poured down my forehead before I barely deflected the last boulder falling on top of us. The shell of rock that made the top of the mountain was gone, piles of blue magma pooling up in the crater. Glancing up at the sky, a perfect square of blue energy formed. It changed the red sky to rock. Another square appeared, outlined by blue energy.
Hordes of these squares appeared in sync moments later. They webbed outward from where the beam of white light crashed against the sky moments earlier. Within seconds, a cave formed around us. The air changed in scent and flavor. It hardened, an orderliness overcoming the previous fervor. The ground grew softer until it imitated normal rock. Before I knew it, the giant cavern closed in, tightening into a corridor.
It was surreal watching the matter warp with such ease. Althea gawked at the wonder as well, her eyes glazed over at the spectacle. The changing space mirrored my first day of the system, and that nostalgia crashed over me.
Reinforcing that reminiscence, a cave surrounded us, and the blue magma created strange patterns of light across the tunnels. The strange colors echoed the mana pools of BloodHollow. The cerulean lava traveled in streams overhead and underfoot. Sheets of clear crystal exposed them, keeping the blue magma from pouring on top of us.
Glow worms hung from the roof, mixing the blue light with a green glow. The beautiful transition harmonized everything. In that strange cavern, we watched order crush chaos under its heel. A moment later, a finger appeared out in the center of the air. It hung on nothing before pushing downward. An almost casual rip in dimensions appeared beside us.
From it, the Overseer I found talking with Torix walked out from the portal. With giant hands, the enormous figure nodded my way. Like hair made of electronic cords, cables along its back rippled.
“Impressive. I stand corrected. The lich wasn’t lying of your potential. Good.”
Althea and I continued gawking like stunned children. Everything happened so fast. The Overseer glanced at us,
“Excellent work, Harbinger. Being able to stabilize an opened rift already…Impressive.”
I shook my head, clearing my head. I glanced up at the overseer,
“Uh, yeah. Of course. Glad to help.”
The overseer opened a menu screen just like ours. Instead of being blue though, it glowed red and outlined itself in marbly white. The edges of his menu screen drew itself out using liquid light. The Overseer tapped its screen,
“I will add this feat towards your total reward after Yawm is dealt with. You will receive Schema’s favor for clearing out the infected, killing named ones, and clearing out the opened rifts here. Perhaps there is still hope for your planet. Unlikely, of course, but you present a maybe to what would otherwise be a certainty. Interesting.”
I nodded my head, my focus coming back after the initial shock subsided,
“Why wait until after I kill Yawm? I could use the rewards to help with, you know, killing Yawm.”
Four other screens appeared, the Overseer multitasking,
“Most of the rewards are related to galactic status and protection. They will not assist in destroying Yawm.”
“Oh.” I glanced at Althea. She kept her head low. I turned my gaze back towards the Overseer, “What-”
The Overseer spoke at the same time, but his voice overwhelmed mine. It wasn’t an interruption, however. His words exceeded my own via importance, not volume.
“That…Armor of yours. It does offer quite an advantage when paired with an ambitious mentality, doesn’t it?”
For once, I wasn’t the one asking questions. I took a hesitant step back,
“I suppose.”
The mighty giant of metal loomed over me.
“I read your file. This was supposedly the creation of an eldritch…A shell for someone else that you supposedly stole?”
I frowned.
“Saying I stole it is a bit of a mischaracterization. It’s more like I grabbed it from him before he stole it from someone else. It was a free for all where I happened to come out on top.”
The Overseer glanced at the rock walls of the cavern. He nodded, taking his time before speaking once more,
“In time, you will become one of the many swords that Schema has at his disposal.” He glanced at Althea, “You may become that as well. Keep this in mind, children.”
To this bionic creation, we had lived for moments on a newly systemized world. Perhaps we were children to something as old and influential. He glanced up at the glowing lights of the cavern’s roof,
“There’s plenty of beings that despise Schema. They believe him cruel, uncaring, and unkind. In a way, they are correct. Schema is a force of nature, like wind or rain. The question isn’t whether or not Schema is bad or good. The question is if you choose to work around him as a sailor would the waves and tides of a sea.”
He waved a hand. A hologram appeared around us, lifelike in its detail. A valley presented two rustic houses. On one side, the house of sticks wobbled against a breeze. On the other side, the stone house buffeted the wind that would otherwise crush the stick home. Above the stone house, a windmill spun.
“Do you see these homes?”
Althea chimed,
“Yes sir.”
“Now watch as I introduce rain.”
The rain poured in a torrent. The insides of both homes appeared, a man and woman in each of them. In the stone home, water doused off the sides of a well-made roof. Gutters and a drainage system guided the other portions of water away as well. The wind above battered their house but also their windmill, powering a stone mill as they sat beside a warm fire. Behind their house was a well. The view of the house panned above it, showing how it filled from the storm, and the ground filtered the dirty water.
“This home uses a well to wield the water of the rain. Their windmill is powered by the storm’s wind. They will rest easy, protected by the sturdy walls they built while spending time in each other’s arms. The gentle crackle of the fire and the pattering of the rain on their roof will be a symphony of ease to their ears. This is an offering of plenty.”
The perspective melted before the other home solidified. Wind and rain leaked in through cracks in the walls. Water soaked every nook, cranny, and possession. With no fire, the man and woman chilled to the bone, each of them huddled for warmth in the driest spots they could find. They found different spots, so each of them balled up alone. Their house lacked a foundation, and it hugged the bottom of the plain at the bottom of the hill.
Therefore, a portion of their house was flooded. They shivered, each ofh them alone and dirty.
“Two families given the same circumstance, yet one triumphs among adversity. The other wilts into nothing. One family took the time to work until their future was assured. The other did just enough to live. The two of you can decide if Schema is the wind keeping you cold or the rain that chills your bones.”
The image melted away in falling, dreamy dollops. The warm fire sprang to life. The Overseer’s voice hummed in an electric whirl,
“Schema can be a force that grinds the grain you bake to bread, and he may be the rain that waters your crops to give you plenty.”
The Overseer turned to us, the hologram melting back into the backdrop of the cave,
“How I do love telling stories. Now, farewell, and good hunting.”
Althea and I watched as he stepped back into his tear in dimensions. As quickly as he came, he left, leaving us there in silence.
Althea nodded,
“Wow. He sounds a lot like you.”
I nodded, staring at where the Overseer had been,
“Yeah he does…Hell yeah.”
A moment later, another tear in dimensions appeared. Instead of a finger, a spearhead tore through this dimension. Instead of being a black abyss, the portal opened into a world of violet light. A sentinel stepped out, standing two heads taller than me. It glanced down at us as the dimensional tear closed behind it.
It slammed its spear, a line spawning in front of us. It crawled open, revealing an area just outside of the dungeon’s entrance in the field. No longer a fleshy, disgusting crevice, the entrance altered into an orderly set of stairs leading to a runically augmented doorway. The sentinel pointed at this dimensional opening,
“Leave.”
Not wanting to argue, Althea and I stepped outside through the portal. Flowing through the stadium, the wind brushed against us. The soft feel of earth and grass pressed against our feet. The warmth of sunshine held us close. A series of notifications appeared in the corner of my screen. I glanced around, finding Kessiah and the guards still standing at one of the entrances to the stadium.
Kessiah yawned into one of her hands,
“Well, that was fast.”
I cupped my hands around my mouth, “How long were we gone?”
“You guys weren’t even gone for fifteen seconds. You jumped into the portal then walked out a few seconds later.”
I lowered my hands and furrowed my brow. It looked like the eldritch portal might have dilated time a bit. The dungeons could be hyperbolic time chambers. Though more than a little interesting, Althea and I ran to the others. The dungeon core hummed in my hand like a ball of radiance, light, and power.
We jumped up through the stadium bleachers before reaching Torix’s guardians. Kessiah grabbed me under her arm, and a tattoo flared to life on her arm. The elegant lettering held my attention as it creased over her skin. Kessiah picked me and Althea up, hugging us both as she said,
“See? Told yah you both could handle a little exile. You’re gonna be fine.”
The stone beneath her cracked. She set me down,
“Damn. You both leveled quite a bit, huh?”
I raised a hand holding a tiny space between two fingers,
“A tiny bit. We both need to handle our status, but before that, what made you think we could handle it?”
Kessiah glanced around like she said something she wasn’t supposed to. She tapped the edges of her hips, her violet skin radiant in the sun,
“Well, the cores inside of rifts are notoriously difficult to take down. They signify that the baseline dungeon has begun altering well beyond the norm. In that case, the eldritch are close to spilling out onto the unsuspecting world around it. They also have added difficulty, from microscopic eldritch to poisonous ambient mana to sapient monsters.”
Althea dislodged her hand from her rifle and slot it onto her back.
“So it would be kind of like BloodHollow? Or, uhm, what I heard about it.”
Kessiah ruffled her hair,
“Oh yeah. Anyone who can clear one gains a title: Rift Closer. We figured you’d both conquer one no problem considering how your armor works.”
I raised a fist to shoulder level,
“Now that’s what I’m talking about…But yeah, what are titles?”
Kessiah pointed above her head.
Kessiah Crow | Remnant | Level 2,587 | Status: Unknown | Title: Despoiler of Unknowns
Kessiah smirked.
“Your titles and levels are status symbols. My title is in the middle of other tiers. There’s lists of them if you want to check them out on message boards. Some people obsess over which title is better, and the tier list is constantly changing.”
Althea leaned closer to Kessiah. Althea murmured,
“It sounds like you know a lot about them.”
Kessiah grinned, scratching the back of own head. Kessiah’s white hair flowed between her fingers,
“Yeah. Guilty as charged. I check them out from time to time. Rift Closer is kind of a wildcard title. It means you have some unique ability that lets you close rifts. Whether that ability is useful in combat is a different story altogether though. It’s hard to tell at a glance, but paired with a high level, and the title can really hold some merit. It’s good to get it this early on.”
My helm flowed off my face, and I smiled,
“Well, cool, I guess. I will say, I’m kind of wondering what’s the point in them. Why try to appear powerful when you can simply be powerful?”
Althea chimed,
“I’m sure plenty of people thought the same thing about charisma builds. You can’t get more power by killing monsters with Charisma really. You obtain influence by talking, organizing, and inspiring. I think that’s powerful in its own way. Titles are like that, but you don’t have to talk at all. The title speaks for you.”
Kessiah pointed a finger at her, holding her hand like a gun. She fired it at Althea while saying, “Bingo.” Kessiah lowered her hand,
“It’s incredibly useful while roaming the galaxy too. Imagine Yawm walking around with such a high bounty on his head. You see his title, Sentinel Slayer, then his high level, and 99% of people turn the other way. It wins fights before they even begin. It gets deals you respect for deals with other mercenaries or offers verification of lofty claims. That’s because you can’t fake a title, though many have tried.”
I pointed above my head.
“So can you make one appear?”
Kessiah crossed her arms.
“Sure.”
With a bit of intuition, I thought about making my title and status appear overhead. A little notification rang out beside my ear, letting me know I succeeded. It could be useful in the future. Kessiah let out a snicker before eyeing me.
“That title is such…It’s just absurd. The Harbinger of Cataclysm. That’s the most powerful title I’ve ever heard of, and you got it at level one hundred. Hah, and they say Schema’s fair.”
I clapped my hands,
“Pshhh, it came alongside an unknown status, and you know how obnoxious that is. Besides, surely there’s something for titles that sound good but are all show.”
Kessiah furrowed her brow.
“Wow. There is. They're called hollow titles, but I didn’t think you both were ready for that, hm, nuance I suppose. I know I get overwhelmed when people introduce too many ideas at once.”
I internally scoffed. If anything, Torix and Kessiah drip fed ideas to us both, but I chose to keep that to myself. I pulled my hair back.
“Eh, probably. Are you guys ready for the next dungeon?”
Kessiah shook her head, “We gotta kill the rest of the guards here. They may not be the smartest enemies, but leaving them behind isn’t a good idea.”
I nodded.
“When your enemy is disorganized and splintered, you strike. It’s common sense.”
Althea cocked her rifle, steam hissing as she loaded a bolt into the firing chamber,
“Then let’s hurry. I don’t know how much longer I can last before I pass out.”
We set off towards the outer layer of the stadium. Using her perception, Althea smelled, saw, heard, and even tasted the air for anyone nearby as we walked. One by one they fell, each of them easier than the last. The experience they offered was much lower now, partially because none of them were over level 800 and our levels rose into the stratosphere.
After killing the guardians of the rift, the rift’s monsters, and the scorpion queen, I achieved level 740. It just so happened that today we were walking home. It was one of those days where Althea and Kessiah chatted away. I loved it when they talked like that. It sped up the quiet times between battle, and it eased my nerves.
Each of them told simple stories about everyday stuff. During one of Althea’s stories, Kessiah gave out the dungeon cores we needed. It was a good time to stock up on any bonuses we had since everything slowed down after closing the opened rift. As they chatted away, I absorbed the dungeon cores and began checking out my stats.
They left me behind while I stared at my status screen. The last time I’d maxed out my dungeon cores was over a hundred levels ago. With the Genesis of Potential tree, I could earn half of my level’s worth from dungeon cores. They still granted the bonus skills from cores, letting me level my abilities fast.
That gave me a solid boost of attributes on top of all my levels. With that in mind, I selected the willpower perk before a message I’d been waiting for appeared.
[Army of One(Willpower over 1,000, Current level below 1,000) – Most assume that to achieve anything, the will of many is necessary. Further still, greatness becomes relegated to the masses. These short sighted people move mountains through the labor of thousands. These narrow minded sentients create an empire on the backs of mighty armies.
They know nothing of their own hands and their own toil.
You are a testament to an opposite truth. Your self mastery testifies to the overwhelming power of a single man. You embody control, your every movement and thought decided. You’ve arrested dominance over your form and mind, becoming an embodiment of ambition.
And within you, the might of many is made one.
Every eldritch killed over level 1,000 adds another year of life.
Increases personal resilience against psionic attacks. Magnitude determined by current willpower.
Increases potency of psionic attacks. Magnitude determined by current willpower.
Reduces the mental load of using, storing, or manipulating mana. Magnitude determined by current willpower.
+10% more mana regen(Converted to health regen due to Blood Magic), internal motivation, and all mana affinities per 1,000 points in willpower.
You may choose to add 1/10th of willpower to any attribute besides Endurance or Willpower.
Second 1,000 perk bonus: You may now unlock a class.]
Even a cursory glance exposed a lot. For one, many of the benefits copied the endurance perk from the life span increases to the increasing bonuses based on willpower. That redundancy seemed strange as if whoever designed these perks assumed a sentient wouldn’t obtain more than one.
But even then, the perk granted a class unlock because I had multiple of these cardinal perks. They presented a question on how Schema designed them in the first place. Either way, more personal research would be required. For now, I couldn’t help but get excited about unlocking a class. Torix mentioned three of them: a Speaker, a Breaker, and a Fringe Walker.
I remembered my ideas of a Fringe Walker and clearing planets. I would cleanse a world while saving an entire civilization. On a more selfish note, I recalled the euphoria of surviving the insect swarm. I wanted that tantalizing sensation of success and survival. For that reason, I aimed myself toward becoming a Fringe Walker.
I would clear the blight of eldritch and be better for it.
By comparison to the class unlock, the other benefits from Army of One exposed themselves for all to see. Even with the overlapping bonuses, the perks were worth getting if only for the increased scaling they offered. For example, the 10% extra regen per 1,000 willpower ensured extreme yields from investing in endurance. The other bonuses helped me use the mana it gave me.
The extra 1/10th for any attribute was worth chasing for all by itself, and speaking of-
Select an attribute for the 1/10th addition:
Strength+
Constitution+
Dexterity+
Perception+
Intelligence+
Luck+
Charisma+
For a second, I thought about putting the extra 1/10th of an attribute into constitution. I could use the additional mass, and the attribute proved vital in combat. It also started the chain for many of my physical attributes, enhancing its efficiency. However, after a few seconds of number crunching, I learned something important; I could obtain five level 1,000 perks before I passed the level 1,000 mark if I continued this chain of stats.
It sounded crazy, but most people would be able to get at least two of them before hitting level 1,000 because of how stats fed into each other. Well, assuming the point investor knew about the perks in the first place. Since I invested so heavily into endurance and maximized my total stat count as much as possible, I’d gain far more than two.
The Obliterator, Genesis of Potential, and Determinator trees granted me this opportunity as well, especially Determinator. That chain of trees granted an enormous amount of raw stats, and it guided me down this path since the system’s arrival. Aside from that, I chose to pursue other aspects about myself aside from my fighting.
It was time to go all in.
With that in mind, I put the extra 1/10th of willpower into intelligence to continue investing in my mind. After that, I poured all my extra attribute points into intelligence. If I pulled this off, I’d expose why Schema decommissioned the Determinator tree in the first place. Ok, so Schema made the requirements for the tree specific and impossible under normal circumstances, so it wasn’t a true decommissioning. I digress.
Before finishing my screen work, I appreciated Baldag-Ruhl and his greed. He set me up for success to try and wear my soul as a carrapace. In doing so, he sealed his fate, and I thanked him for his investment. My final thoughts settled, I took a breath and mentally prepared myself. I pressed finalize.
Will, clarity, and mana surged through me like an electric jolt. My armor snapped once more as energy filled my limbs. I molted from my previous, tight shell, and a layer of mana infused flesh built on my bones. My shoulders grew broader, my hands larger. My structure thickened as more energy filled into my frame.
Seconds later, I compacted from an unseen, cosmic pressure. The energy hummed in my blood as a liquid. The pressure crystallized the power, and the mana bonded to itself. My armor grinned as mana deluged all of my being. It screamed in my mind as a living thing, a monster unbounded by its previous limits.
And I silenced it.
My mind roared out as a primordial force. My will exploded in a torrential downpour of self mastery, and I smothered the beast's cries. My helm frowned, its joy stunted by my force of will. As I gripped my hands, the teeth faded, and it flowed back down my neck. In moments, the howls quieted to whispers of potential. A potential I owned.
I lifted an arm and flexed it. The muscles within my armor enhanced, thickening to slabs. The cells contracted with greater force as mana flowed in unimpeded streams. This surge of strength was a dangerous and delicious cocktail, something short and fleeting. The high faded before I sat in the resounding radiance it left behind.
I turned my hands, inspecting them for differences. A subtle glint infused my armor, the dull, matte sheen giving way to a more reflective surface. A strange sensation effused my flesh as if mana bonded it together. It carried a pliable rigidity, and the energy held little to no actual weight.
Actual streams of energy held me together, and they would continue pulling tighter as I gained more mana. I smiled at that thought. It looked as though intelligence would do something similar to endurance. After noticing all these changes, I glanced at my status screens. They were glorious.
Level 740
Strength – 252.6 | Constitution – 562.1 | Endurance - 1,000.5
Dexterity – 100 | Willpower – 1,000.8 | Intelligence – 682.3
Charisma – 62 | Luck – 228.7 | Perception – 54
Daniel Hillside, The Harbinger of Cataclysm
Health - 74,140/74,140 | Health Regen - 22,942/min | Stamina - 27,171/27,171 | Stamina Regeneration - 378.5/sec | Damage Resistance - 98% | Mental Resistance - 98% | Physical Power - (+)4,640% | Damage Increase - 20% | Evolution: 0.987/65.5 Billion Ambient Mana
Aura - Oppression | Current Damage: (15,000 + 40% of your health)/minute within a 200 ft radius.
My intelligence rose dramatically alongside my health regeneration. In fact, health regen rose by leaps and bounds, each stat point enabling otherworldly streams of energy to course over me. Raising a hand, I summoned the volatile power.
It hummed into my hands like liquid violence. Ascendance surged in my mind, its roar a palpable force. It carried anger, rage, and hunger. In a rush, I quashed the surge, my mind adapted for the strain. To my astonishment, I held the insidious manipulation down more easily than before gaining the willpower perk.
The amount of ambient mana I received from the rift exceeded my expectations as well, though a bit of thought dispelled that surprise. Considering the sheer volume of enemies in the dungeon, the ambient mana kind of explained itself; we killed thousands of eldritch in hours. This mana converted into power as I squeezed my hands.
Thanks to my leveling perks, all my other stats marched upward as well. I coiled mana into my fingers and runes, and they billowed streams of ascendence. When I clasped my hand into a fist, it tensed with the pressure of a hydraulic press. It blew my mind how powerful I’d become.
It was all because of my armor when I thought about it. My armor gave me the extra edge that always kept me one step ahead of Schema’s established leveling curve. It was like Schema’s system was balanced around the idea of someone having only the stats that Schema gave them. If you had even a marginal amount more, then you could use that slight bonus to snowball into more and more bonuses.
I was a snowball, and I tumbled down the mountain as an avalanche at this point. With that in mind, I caught back up with the others. As I ran, my feet cracked the ground a bit from my charged steps. It was like the rock wasn’t as solid. It wasn’t like water or anything, but like a thick, brittle putty.
If I pressed against it, my hand would sink in some. At this point, I was heavy enough that figuring out gravity magic would be downright diabolical. It made me bubble with excitement as I caught up with Althea and Kessiah. Trotting up, I aligned myself beside them. As I did so, Kessiah turned to me. She frowned.
“Is…Is that mana oozing off you, little man?”
I grinned, the satisfaction clear as day on my face as I peeled my armor off it,
“Ahhhhh, it feels good to hear that name. I’ll make it sound ridiculous here soon.”
Althea giggled before Kessiah’s frown deepened. For someone so old, she maintained a pretty petty side to her. A stubborn, petty side, though it held an aged wisdom nested at its depths. Kessiah crossed her arms,
“We’ll see when we get back to the camp. I’m not letting you get out of that spar now.”
I slammed my fists together,
“Oooh, I look forward to it.”
Kessiah grinned,
“Hah. Looks like I need to beat some more fear into you again.”
I shrugged,
“We’ll see, won’t we?”
We chatted as we walked, a bit friendlier after Althea commented on how ridiculous the two of us were being. Althea had a way of calming the people around her without being unlikeable. It was a skill I lacked since anytime I tried calming someone down, I ended up making them even more angry. I shook my head as a few awful memories surfaced.
I reminded myself of Torix’s words. Those memories scarred me, but they would never define me unless I let them.
By the time we reached the camp, the three of us were having an animated conversation about our builds. Althea already gained a level 1,000 perk as well. She invested heavily in strength since it allowed her to lob spears better. Her rifle operated on muscle to power the steam, and it reminded me of the pistons in an engine.
Her next goal was dexterity so that she could fire and move with more precision. According to Althea, it was a standard rogue set up. Kessiah kept pretty standard, investing almost entirely into constitution and strength. She knew all about how the stats ‘fed’ into each other. It was why she decided to become a warrior in the first place.
Of course her skill layout was entirely different from mine. I focused more on striking hard and fast, with compact hooks and straights. I took advantage of opportunities if they arose. Otherwise, I stuck to the basics. Kessiah had quite a bit of her latent power hidden behind a few hard to access skills, at least according to her.
If I could, I’d bring some of that power out of her the next time we fought. We reached the sewer nearest to the camp before raising out of the ground. Once we’d had a short rendezvous with Torix, the four of us went towards another intersection bridge.
The day was waning, the orange glow of a sunset peaking over the horizon. That orange light bathed us in light, the wind keeping us cool. The ground chilled my feet, my sense of touch going straight through my armor. Kessiah and I walked up beside each other.
The place reminded me of our battle against Dahkma. That felt like a lifetime ago already. The traffic lights still flickered in the distance, and the solar panels powered the efficient, low maintenance lights. To me, they once symbolized our dying world. Now, they changed into symbols of humanities defiance, a demonstration of our will to survive.
Walking out from under them, our lich’s robes flowed in the wind. He interlocked his hands as a red stoplight loomed over our heads. Torix turned to me,
“I’m amazed you wish to be destroyed so soundly once more.”
I shrugged, speaking with a quiet confidence,
“We’ll see.”
Kessiah grinned,
“Good. I can’t wait to show you what you’re made of. Again.”
A magic aura passed by us before lengthening a great distance. The magic ensnared sound, sealing us in a saran wrap of sorcery. Torix wielded it anytime we had secret conversations, but it helped contain sound from a destructive fight as well. Perhaps a battle loud enough that we might attract a follower or two if we didn’t silence the sound some.
On the other hand, Althea had raided a movie theater, harvested a bag of popcorn, and munched away while holding a canned soda. Though rarer these days, you could still buy the stuff on the market for a pretty penny. For the occasion, Althea splurged. As they stood, she tugged on Torix’s sleeve, and he snapped his fingers.
Chairs of black mana formed beneath her and him before Torix waved at us,
“Now give us a good show.”
His voice echoed from several hundred meters away. They were giving us quite the breadth for the battle. I aimed to give them a damn good reason for it. I clasped my fists, my ascendant mana roaring in my veins, pulsing through my runes. The energy radiated off me, a thick mist radiating onto the ground. Subtle sparks of red lightning erupted from my shoulders and across my back.
I grinned with my armor forming a jagged grin of its own. From between the teeth, the same ascendant mana poured outward. It strengthened until the air hummed around me. I stomped forward, and the ground cracked underfoot. The telekinetic lining wrapped around my fists like invisible steel. The sensation of fear crept up my back. Kessiah decimated me last time we fought. Even if my mind forgot, my body remembered.
I grit my teeth. A grin traced my lips as adrenaline laced my blood. My hands shook, but fear held no sway. It was an absolute and delectable excitement. In a way, it was a fight I knew I couldn’t win. It was a fight with no holds barred. I could unleash my full potential. Every tactic, every dirty trick, every ounce of anger and hatred, I needed them if I was going to challenge her.
That prospect enraptured me once more. Kessiah shouted,
“Don’t burn through your mana too quickly.”
I hadn’t dipped into my mana at all, merely using up most of my mana generation. I pulled my fists up, setting into a stance. It was amazing how fighting against the weak made you pick up bad habits. While a good experience, the swarm lacked Kessiah’s lethality. A battle rust shone on my form, and I tried polishing it away before the battle did it for me.
Staring at Kessiah, there was a bottomless abyss. I walked right along the cliff’s edge, darting the line when I faced her.
She mouthed while cracking her knuckles,
“You ready?”
The ascendant mana roared in my fists. I found a sea of calm amidst the mana storm,
“Always.”