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Chapter 122- A Goal Achieved
🕑 Added 2023-12-20 23:59:01 +0000 UTCArthur floated in limbo, a dull ache suffusing his entire body. He was wide awake, he’d never lost consciousness in the first place, but it was taking him a while to get himself moving. Trying to call out for water resulted in unintelligible grumbles you’d need an epic translation skill to understand.
He could feel someone, Alyssia, touching him on the hand which meant that he wasn’t spasming around anymore at least. It felt like he’d been put through a meat grinder and then put back together as an Arthur-shaped kebab. Still, he couldn’t help but feel excited. He had felt it, could still feel it. That moment when something in him had fundamentally changed. A shift in his person as significant as the one produced by the very first core he had consumed.
He’d passed the 1,000 vitality mark.
He hadn’t checked yet but Arthur was certain that it had happened. Even as crippled as he currently was by his fractured soul shell, he could feel the massive wellspring of health and regeneration that flowed through his veins. It dwarfed his previous maximum utterly and he was almost certain that without it, he would’ve been a bubbling wreck until he finally consumed the dragon's core, unable to even consciously invest his remaining stat points before being forced to choose a class.
His massive healthpool was keeping his soul damage at bay, a feat that should frankly be impossible without a special skill or artefact helping him along. He could feel it trying to stitch his broken soul together but failing to deal with it. If he’d had access to his soul affinity, then maybe he’d have been able to do something. It was an annoying conundrum, he had the tools to solve his problems, but it was just locked behind a door that held the key on the other side. Still within his soul but barred from him.
Groaning, Arthur slowly opened his eyes and was met with a concerned Alyssia hovering over him, way too close to be comfortable. Placed carefully beside her, was the Ikea bowl, cleaned and filled with a fresh dosage of his blood which explained what she’d been doing with his arm. “Hurry up. You’ve got a lot less time than we hoped for. Thirty, maybe forty minutes. Check your system quickly and finalise your choices. Ask questions after you’ve read through them if you're unsure of anything but only then.”
Arthur nodded his head, with the limited range of motion his body currently gave him access to. It was like his nervous system had been corrupted and no longer carried information to certain parts of his body, something he’d been warned may happen by Alyssia. It was annoying but he’d have to deal with it until he ate the dragon's core and fixed himself up.
As impatient as he was, Arthur wanted to see everything that had happened to his body over the last few minutes and so he didn’t just call up notifications pertaining to any titles he’d received, no matter how much he might’ve wanted to.
You have consumed The Making of an Apocalypse (Epic).
Warning! Your soul is being put under significant strain.
And don't I know it?
It is strongly advised you visit your nearest system administrator. Soul-shell damage has progressed past safe limits. It is strongly advised that you isolate yourself from sapient society and contact the relevant authorities to inform them of your current state.
Turns out the system took a damaged soul very seriously. After what he’d learned about soul burn and its catastrophic capabilities for destruction, it made sense. The following system message he’d received justified their concerns completely. He’d received a title and if it wasn’t right at the top of the forbidden list he’d eat his non-existent hat. It was also his first title with a negative effect, though calling it a mere negative effect was the understatement of the century.
You have gained the title Primed Soul (Soul-shell integrity has dropped below 50% ??? ??? ???) Your soul will detonate with an approximate force of 13,000 tons of TNT. Time till destruction: 36 minutes.
Even as Arthur watched, the timer ticked down a minute. This didn’t look good.
Automated message [ Protocol IV ] {Written in the standard year 347. Last update 5Y 1204 } You have gained a title few survive. We cannot force you to do anything and nor can anyone else. If you have been set up in some way and forced down this path, we only ask that you make the ultimate sacrifice, soldier.
Your death is certain but you can save the lives of millions. Time is of the essence and soul damage is difficult to heal. The improbability of success cannot be balanced against the certainty of lost life. If you are far from civilization, then take your chances but know that our estimations of destructive potential are not always correct. Otherwise, isolate yourself as best you can, as far from others as possible. You have been granted temporary administrative access to the system messaging network. Any information you wish to share, any individual you wish to report for crimes against civility, any loved one you wish to address.
We are waiting.
We are listening.
In your final moments, should you wish it, you shall not be alone. Make your choice soldier, and may the ether take you kindly.
The automated system message was written very strangely which he attributed to its translation into a language he could understand. It also told him a few things and confirmed a few others. Primary amongst them was that he hadn’t been flagged and put on a list because of his newest title. It was a part of his status, a very, very deep part considering the tier of the title- a description of the scarring on his soul- and so it was protected by his soul defences. It explained why he’d received an automated message written long ago instead of a more personal one as he had for the Hydra's extermination.
The automated messages were part and parcel of the system, the one he’d just received was probably generated when he’d first unlocked the system all those weeks ago as a precautionary measure. It had merely become visible to him when his soul had gained the Primed prefix and so didn't raise any red flags. Every tragedy had a silver lining and Arthur was grateful no one else had learned of the latest ‘crazy’ he got himself tangled in.
The next thing he’d learned was that the system had a standing military force, or at least they'd had one when the message was made. What were they fighting against that made them so susceptible to becoming nukes? It was either that or he was reading too much into a mistranslated word. And people can be forced into this state. The magical equivalent of a suicide bomber.
At the end of the day though, the system message didn’t matter much to him. Sure it hinted that contrary to what he’d been told, certain titles could actually be ‘gamed’ but besides that, nothing else really mattered. After all, he had with him an item that could probably fix his soul's damage ten times over. The next notification on the list, however, was certainly a curveball, something he hadn’t expected but welcomed all the same.
Lesser Hydra core's energy is resonating with your Water affinity.
Congratulations. Your Water affinity has evolved into the ‘Dual-affinity’ Poison/Water.
‘Dual- Affinities’ may hold four skills under them instead of the standard three.
Congratulations on gaining a ‘dual-affinity.’ The system welcomes those who push the boundaries of possibility and foray into the frontiers seen only by those with great potential. You have been awarded 20 stat points as an incentive for further growth.
Note: Awards that make changes to your status page such as stats or skill enhancements become exponentially more difficult for the system to award as one's level grows. The energy expenditure required to enhance such souls becomes far too great to remain a reasonable expense and so rewards may be substituted with items/ tools in the future.
Future awards may pass the appointed Primordial ether enhancement package assigned to host Arthur Ward and so may require that you visit your local system administrator to cash them in. If you wish to keep these parts of your status unknown at the time, a fee will be deducted to ensure your secrecy.
Arthur grinned. This was amazing. It seemed he’d been wrong about dual affinities all this time. He’d thought they were merely people with two affinities, not individuals with a single one that governed two domains of magic. Does that mean that the policewoman had a wind /fire affinity instead of the two separate ones I thought she did? Isn’t it better to have them separate, you get two extra skills that way.
Whatever the answer was Arthur wasn’t going to complain about the extra affinity he’d gained. Not when it came with a shiny new skill.
You have assimilated a portion of the Hydra's potential for destruction. You have gained the skill Poisoned Fang of the Hydra [Epic]
Poisoned Fang of The Hydra [Epic]- The hydra is notoriously renowned for its deadly poison. You have learned to replicate that power. Channel your energies to release a single devastating strike. Damage is dependent on the target's magical and physical defences. Attack ignores 10% of target's defences. inflicts debuff [Hydras ire] and [Slowing Heart]
[ Hydras ire ]- Inflicts ongoing poison damage to the target over a twenty-hour period equivalent to 75% damage dealt by the initial attack.
[ Slowing heart ]- Reduces target's stamina, health and ether regeneration rates by 30% for 30 hours.
Cost: 3,000 ether or 10,000 health.
Cooldown: 3 hours.
Cooldown can be ignored but each subsequent usage of the skill in the cooldown period will double the remaining cooldown period and increase the skill cost by 25%.
Arthur read through the skill description once and then again to see if he’d missed anything. It was his first epic skill and it served to fill a glaring hole in his current build, his ability to deal damage. This right here was built to fulfil that purpose, a skill made only to kill things as fast as possible.
Its costs were insanely high, at 3000 ether a cast, he only had enough energy in the tank for a single usage. Coming from the hydra, it made sense that Health could be used to fuel this skill, and at a much more reasonable conversion rate than if he’d tried to force the skill to accept the energy instead, a little over 3 to 1. The next system notification came in the form of a tier-2 title. It was gained by passing the threshold of a hundred points in every stat before reaching level 100, something he’d suspected existed, but always kept for later testing.
Thankfully it seemed like the hydra had given him attributes in more than just vitality so he’d no longer have to waste his precious points on a test he hadn’t known would even succeed.
You have gained the title (Tier-2) Jack of all trades (Possess 100 points in all stats before level 100 ) Gain an extra stat per level. [works retroactively]
With this title, he’d just gained an extra 94 stats to work with and with the added boon of his latest system award, he had a total windfall of 114 stats he hadn’t expected to see. The evolution, prodigious title bearer meant he’d gained an extra 9 on top of that, the equivalent to an extra level's worth.
Considering his goal to become a stat monster, he couldn’t have asked for a better boon right now. All of this, however, was just the cherry on top. The true reward, the goal he’d been after, was still waiting to be read. The thousand vitality milestones. Alyssia saw the massive grin on Arthur's face and couldn’t help but grin too. “You reached it, huh, so what's it say,” she asked.
Drinking from the water flask she’d offered him to wet his parched throat, Arthur began to read.
Congratulations! You have gained the (Tier-4) title Source of vitality
Source of Vitality- (Possess 1000 points of vitality before reaching level 100 ) Increase the effectiveness of the vitality stat by 50%. May appoint designated individuals (One/100 vitality) Designated individuals have their health regeneration increased by 10% whilst within a Kilometre of the host. Allows the usage of health to fuel skills instead of ether at a 5:1 rate. Note: The chances of a similar title being generated for another stat are below 5%.
It was beautiful.
