EmEs_etherious
patreon
Chapter 119- Heart Breaker
🕑 Added 2023-12-11 23:59:00 +0000 UTCThis is Saturdays chapter which was delayed a bit. Next Chap- Wednesday
The moments following Arthur's dangerous skill use were some of the strangest in his life. Something happened, he knew that but his low perception and intelligence meant that the little he perceived made no sense to him. If he were asked to describe it, the best description he’d be able to give would land him in a mental asylum pre-system era.
There was the darkness of the cavern and the sudden appearance of a black that seemed to exist in a higher plane of reality. The layering of one above the other created a contradiction that he couldn’t comprehend. The reality of it was far more bland and simple, and it was only a mixture of ether exhaustion, adrenaline and low visibility that made things seem so extraordinary. Put simply, it was just a really fucking big explosion.
Arthur knew one thing though. The hydra was dead and he’d been the one to kill it. Sure, it had been on its second life, and he’d fought it whilst it was at thirty percent power, but that still amounted to over 300,000 hit points. It was something he’d do well to remember that irrespective of how large your health pool was, a strike to your vulnerable point or something as mundane as a decapitation would still kill you.
One would wonder then, why Arthur was so keen to get his vitality to 1,000 points. If a massive health pool wasn’t enough to protect you, wouldn’t it be smarter to invest in something like constitution that increased his physical and magical defences? The answer to that question was twofold. Firstly, having a shit ton of health came with a lot of benefits. Alyssia had explained things to him when he’d asked about the difference between vitality and constitution.
Vitality, she’d said, was how big a mountain was and constitution was how strong the material the mountain was made of. It was a confusing analogy but she’d helped him understand it. No matter how high your constitution was, it wouldn’t mean jack against certain spells and modes of attack. Using her analogy, it would be like dumping a tough rock into the ocean. No matter how strong it was, the rock would not be coming out of it.
n the two. Similarly, if you were a mountain made of sand, all it would take was a little rainfall to completely destroy you. In the end, she’d told him they were more like two halves of a single attribute but still different enough to be separate. Oh, and she’d also told him she didn’t know shit and to take everything she said on the topic with a grain of salt. Arthur made it a priority near the top of his list to get someone to properly explain the difference between the two.
The main reason, however, why he wanted a large health pool, was because he’d learned it could be used as a fuel source instead of ether during his fight with shade. Heck, he’d just done that a few seconds ago against the Hydra. With all the titles he had boosting his vitality, it made so much more sense to invest in it if he wanted to become a more powerful mage. And that was without taking into account how his primary healing skill scaled off his health pool. If he could replicate that across a few more of his abilities, well… he’d be onto something special.
That explosion had done quite a number on him. Why else would he recall his conversations with Alyssia so vividly? Right now, he had much more important things to worry about, namely that his ether pool was at a flat zero, half his nose was missing, the flesh on his soles had melted to the point his heel bone was visible and oh, he was on a direct collision course with the flesh caverns wall at seventy miles per hours.
There was nothing he could do about it, he had no magic to work with and he was fresh out of fucks to give. Sure it would hurt like a bitch, but what was a little more pain on top of the agony he was already in. Closing his eyes, Arthur braced for the impact.
Three seconds later, when he still hadn’t hit anything, he reopened them to see that he was back in the outside world, in the disgusting swamps the hydra had made her home.
The hydra had disappeared completely, just as it had the first time Alyssia had killed it, except she’d actually disintegrated the creature's flesh with her attacks whereas he’d merely killed it, the disappearing here was just a prelude to its final revival at fifteen percent strength. It was honestly a miracle that he hadn’t crashed into anything yet and it took a moment for his exhausted mind to realise the air around him was behaving strangely, cushioning and slowing down his descent at a speed low enough that he could barely feel it.
He was grateful for this, as a sudden stoppage travelling at the speed he had been would have hurt a lot. Eight seconds later, he was deposited into Alyssia’s waiting arms, where she swiftly but gently lowered him to the floor. She looked at him with concern and something else, a cocktail of emotions far too complex for Arthur to make sense out of. Finally, she seemed to settle on a smile though it did little to mask the true feelings she was trying to hide.
“Drink this,” she ordered, pushing an unstoppered flask into his hands. “It's a numbing agent, It’ll help with the pain until your regeneration deals with the damage.”
Arthur didn’t say anything, quickly putting the flask to his lips. He couldn't drink it fast enough. It tasted like brain freeze in a bottle, but Arthur welcomed the cold numbness it brought. The effect was near instantaneous and he could barely feel the missing gap in his nose any more. Even as the seconds passed, Arthur's prodigious regeneration made fast work of his injuries. Whilst they looked bad and felt worse, he’d barely suffered any damage. Health: 13,981/ 15,840. The number ticked up in real-time. With a regeneration rate of 1758 per hour, he’d be good as new in around fifty minutes.
You have consumed pickle dew honey- You are numb to physical sensation for the next 31 minutes [effect significantly reduced to constitution] Your agility is dropped by 20% for seven minutes. (Effect reduced due to Constitution)
The system notification helpfully let him know just what it was he’d ingested, some strange variant of honey. The reduced effect was intriguing but it made sense, constitution made his body more resistant to external stimuli and foodstuffs fell within those parameters. He was worried if that reduction translated over to beneficial elixir potions but dismissed it out of his mind for now. It wasn’t like he could lower his constitution now and besides, Mira’s elixirs had worked perfectly well on him even though she’d been new to the alchemy business at the time he'd drank her concoctions. Most likely he was worrying over nothing.
Arthur briefly wondered if he could use his health pool to fuel his healing skills. Wouldn’t I end up with an infinite source of energy? Someone had certainly thought of this before him and there was a reason it wasn’t widely publicised. It most likely didn’t work and he wasn’t willing to test it right now. Would the pickle dew honey block the pain of using your healthpool as an energy source? He wasn’t sure if it was classified as a physical sensation.
“Arthur, I’m seriously-” Alyssia began but cut herself off. She took a deep breath before trying again. “I’m glad you're okay, Arthur,” she said, smiling weakly. “I thought you were going to die. Jumping into a Hydras mouth, well, throat actually,” she corrected. “It’s insane. They're some of the most toxic creatures that exist. You're lucky the locus didn’t use its energy replicating that. It’d be a waste of a finite resource. No one in their right mind would jump into the damn monster. Except you."
She shook her head and laughed, but it was a morose sound. “If you hadn’t come out in the next minute, I would’ve grabbed those golden apples and prayed you were awake enough to accept the trial's rewards so we could move on to the next layer. The only reason I didn’t was because the hydra was screaming so much."
“Don’t do something so risky without talking about it first. Please.”
Arthur nodded his head in agreement. It’d seemed reasonable at the time, but it probably looked downright suicidal from a bystander perspective. What would he have done if he was in Alyssia’s position? The alverin woman was angry. He hadn’t been sure at first but now he was certain.
Honestly, he was surprised she held her tongue and spoke so reasonably. He wouldn’t have felt any guilt if she had started this conversation screaming at him but now he genuinely felt bad. I guess she took her apology seriously before. She’s started to think before she speaks.
“You might want to check your status page.” Alyssia interrupted his meandering thoughts. “Your auras changed a little, a minor one but still noticeable. Who knows, you might have earned a title of your own.”
Arthur rushed to pull up his notifications, all thoughts of his guilt and worries left on the wayside. Tier two system access came with several benefits, primary amongst them being that it was far easier for him to manipulate. Before, he’d had to consciously reject notifications that popped up in battle whereas now, he could put his system on a do-not-disturb mode and inspect his battle logs later at his leisure.
Reading through them all, he ignored the ones that informed him of poison debuffs of any kind. Turns out taking a bath in Hydra guts wasn’t good for you. Eventually, he came to the one Alyssia must have been talking about. He smiled widely. She was right, he’d gotten a new title, and what's more, it was tier-two. As he read through it, though, his smile quickly faded, replaced by a look of confusion.
Congratulations! You have gained the new Tier-2 title, Heartbreaker
Heartbreaker (???..???) Enhances the effect of your actions on the hearts of others by 5%.
It was the first title he’d received where the system couldn’t tell him about its unlock conditions. He knew it certainly involved his destruction of the hydra's primary organ in one way or the other, but what was with its affect description? Its name was embarrassing too. Does it increase my damage against my opponent's heart by 5%? No, that can’t be it. The description would have just said that otherwise.
With a sinking feeling in his chest, Arthur began to suspect exactly what his latest title entailed. The description was left deliberately vague for a reason. The damn thing worked on everything, sure he’d do more damage, but people would be quicker to hate or love him, and his words would be 5% more effective in swaying people's hearts in his favour. At least if the system was being metaphorical with its description.
“Wait here,” Alyssia said. “The hydra’s about to revive for the final time”. I've regenerated enough ether to finish it off. I’ll be back in a minute. Be ready for a massive influx in levels."
Arthur had barely finished nodding his head before she was already off. Thankfully, she’d used a deft manipulation of wind magic to dampen the sound of her sonic boom to a barely audible pop. It was a waste of ether, but Arthur appreciated the kind gesture nonetheless.
He smiled. Their fight was about to be over and he was about to get his final core. If things went well, he’d be getting a legendary class in the next two hours and reach his 1000 vitality goal. They’d spent a relatively equal amount of time in the first and second layers, but their stay in The grasslands of the Tree of Life felt far shorter to him. Maybe it was because of how much work he’d gotten done here.
Every moment had been engaged in enhancing his skills and developing his talents, it was a far cry from the near-leisurely training regime on the first floor. Even without the class he was looking forward to, he’d be leaving this layer a changed man. He’d pushed himself hard, harder than he had in a long time and came face to face with his limitations. Some, he’d managed to overcome, and others remained as obstacles in his way.
For now.
The presence of his latest title on his status page marred his good mood a little but he tried to ignore it for now. The thing felt slimy, something a manipulator or politician would possess. Sure it had combat applications, but that only scratched the surface of what it was capable of. Five percent wasn’t much, but it was something. He could only hope it wasn’t on the list of restricted titles. Unless he was completely wrong about its effects.
His musings were instantly brought to an end when felt a sudden influx of power filling his soul. It was so massive, that he briefly feared it would push him directly to level 100 and make his plans for maximum potential futile. Thankfully his fears weren't realised. Arthur grinned as he read through his latest system notification. Few people would ever get to see one like this.
Congratulations. You have slain (lesser) swamp hydra. Level 99
