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CH 37: Secret Unlock
🕑 Added 2024-11-21 17:45:58 +0000 UTC+ Reid +
Reid distinctly heard and felt cracking bone - he wasn't sure whether it was the knife, or another one of his teeth. He made himself spit out the knife just in case.
Reid was full of shrill, burning pain - even with Danny healing. And Reid could tell he was being healed. The issue was that every increase he was wringing out of himself felt like it was miles more advanced and difficult than the earlier points had been. The process was longer and more painful - but Reid knew it would be entirely worth it. When he'd finished, his body screamed at him to take a break, but he ignored it.
It wasn't time to rest. It was time to try something new. Reid tried to focus in on his body's systems the same way he'd done when he gained perception. He wasn't quite sure where to start on this one. The thing that had kickstarted his growth earlier had been the sedative he was injected with, and Reid wasn't about to pump himself full of drugs just for a chance at stat gains - at least not while there were other things to try.
The only other things he could think of that might act in a similar manner were what he was ingesting. The protein bar was only half-digested, and he figured he could probably find some water inside him that he'd just drank. But there was something else - something that was continuously entering and exiting Reid that he could consider. Air.
Reid forced himself to travel from his mouth down into his lungs, then followed a bit of oxygen as it was carried off into his body. He got a bit turned around, though, and decided to head back to the lungs. There, he followed the carbon dioxide out of his lungs, then out further and-
Water splashed into Reid's mouth and completely broke his concentration. He was pissed. That had felt like the verge of something really interesting, and now it was gone, and Reid was out of himself - and incomplete. There was something there. Something waiting to be discovered. He knew, now, that he could raise another stat. Maybe not by much, but he could do it. Reid sputtered and spat out the water, then quickly brought up his status. Danny was yelling something from the cage, but Reid ignored it for a minute.
-
STATUS
Name: Reid Oliver Calderwall
Affiliation: "Earth"
Race: Human
Grade: G
Level: 12
Health: 286 / 300
Experience: 77,819 / 102,400
STATS:
Constitution: 20 -> 30
Dexterity: 2
Intelligence: 6
Perception: 6
Power: 24 -> 32.5
Control: 65
Stat Upgrade Points: ERROR
SKILLS:
Strengthening [Basic]
Hardening [Common]
Calcification [Uncommon]
Petrification [Rare] (CORRUPTED)
Skill Upgrade Points: ERROR
RESISTANCES:
Substances - Sedatives
Active Skill Effects- All
RESTRICTED:
???: UNAVAILABLE
???: UNAVAILABLE
???: UNAVAILABLE
-
It was a good gain. His constitution had gone up further than before, and his power had taken a large leap forward. His gains elsewhere were... well, they were nonexistent. But Reid felt like he was onto something there.
He finally turned his attention to the panicking healer.
"You have to get up! Please! Let me out! Something's coming!"
Reid was about to ask the man what he was talking about when the all-too-familiar low pitched screech of a high leveled salamander echoed out. That wasn't right - they should've had another day before the damn things attacked again. Reid cursed, and quickly searched for his weapons. He swore again when he realized he'd cracked the dagger with his teeth. His dagger looked ready to shatter as soon as he used it, so Reid left it on the floor. If only there was a way to repair his weapons, he mused. Reid shook away the thoughts and grabbed the only other thing in the rec hall that stood a chance at damaging the salamanders. He marched towards the door, sword in one hand - and a shovel in the other.
Reid had already told himself today he wasn't going to pass up chances at power. And there were a group of power-ups waiting for him outside the walls.
#
The salamanders were not waiting outside the walls.
They squeezed themselves through a break in Sanctuary's immensely thick wooden walls. Every one that Reid could see sported the telltale aquamarine claws and glowing orange eyes of a level 10 version of the beasts. Reid set his jaw. The last time he'd fought these things, Oscar died and Marlene was seriously injured. The first time he took one on, Reid had suffered a severed bone in the fight. But he was more than twice as powerful and twice as durable as he had been during those fights. He'd even had some actual combat training. This time, he told himself, is going to be a lot different.
Reid swapped the shovel to his right hand, and sprinted forward. When the salamanders noticed him, they charged. All four tore into the dirt as they approached - and Reid was ready. He stopped himself and shifted his grip to the very end of the shovel's handle, then swung it out at the beasts. It whipped through the air and cratered the side of one's skull - but no kill notification popped up. The force of the blow did send the beast careening into its brethren, and two salamanders hit the ground in a tangle. Two out of the immediate fight on the opening strike wasn't a bad thing at all. Reid let momentum carry the shovel up and around his head in a full 360, and lashed out with it again at the next closest beast.
This time, he tilted the shovel so the edge would connect - and it did more damage than Reid was expecting. The salamander's arms were cut nearly all the way through, and a good portion of its torso was sliced open. Reid swapped to the sword and managed to thrust up into the wounded salamander's brain from the chin while the thing was still stunned from the shovel cut. The salamander fell to the ground as the kill notification appeared.
Reid ducked and rolled to avoid a clawed strike from the fourth original salamander inside the walls, and lashed out with the shovel like it was a spear. It sunk deep into the salamander's back, and Reid was able to lift the creature up and throw it into the still-recovering duo from earlier. If only he'd made a spear instead... Reid felt a tingle of possibility as he looked at the bone shovel, but he didn't have time to explore it. The thrown and injured salamanders were recovering. Reid ran over and stabbed through one's eye before it could get vertical. Another died to a shovel thrust up into its brain from below. The last one, Reid stomped to death.
By the time he'd finished, a fifth salamander was just about through the crack in the wall. Reid smiled. They were serving themselves up on a silver platter, and he was all for it. Reid was going to end this wave. And then he was going to unravel a mystery.
--
~ Marlene ~
Marlene - and everyone else in the truck - nearly had a heart attack when the walkie talkie squawked to life. They were still way too far out of range from the settlement, so no one had expected any communications.
Toby's voice crackled through.
"...had to evac-...-forces. We're-...-woods, repeat, do not go to Sanctuary, it's controlled by Bertrand's forces, we had to evacuate... Hey Walt, how long do we need to keep doing this?"
The walkie talkie clicked off and Marlene jumped on the opportunity. She demanded to speak with James, and after a bit of an energetic kerfuffle with the boys, her husband was on the other end of the conversation. Marlene let him clarify the situation from his end without adding anything in return. She'd been keeping the state of things from her team in the truck, and it wouldn't do now to reveal too much all at once. James, though, was horror-struck. He'd had to leave Reid behind, alone and captured - and Louis had died. Marlene now knew where the further losses portion of her system messages came from. She swore quietly - Louis was a bright kid with a bright future, and she hated losing him.
The realization felt like it happened in slow motion, and accompanied a growing horror in her gut. James had left Reid alone, captured by Bertrand's forces. Which meant Reid had escaped - there was no way the man had talked himself free - and then went on a rampage against an army. Every tick she'd seen on the enemies defeated tracker was Reid, fighting alone. It was insane.
Reid hadn't killed a person prior to the awakening, she knew. And almost everyone had trouble dealing with their first. The only exceptions were for those well trained - which Reid wasn't, if someone was desperate, or that they'd always been capable of true violence and the mask had finally slipped off.
From what Marlene could tell, going back through the changes in the counters, Reid had gone from engagement to engagement in short order and taken out nearly everyone in a relatively short timeframe. Maybe there was desperation there - but it didn't seem like Reid had struggled too much.
Whatever he'd done to the army had convinced this Bertrand to give up all of his controlled beacons. Marlene tried to swallow, but her mouth was dry. Reid had done everything. That meant he was also responsible for all of the secret challenges.
After Bertrand had turned over all of his beacons, after he was defeated, Reid had still killed him.
There was grey area to every other enemy kill. They could've been necessary, or at least justifiable. But killing the enemy leader after they'd turned over everything? That seemed a hell of a lot like murder. She knew Reid was capable of incredible violence, but - Marlene shuddered. If Reid had snapped mentally, she didn't want to be there to experience it. And if he was in that state and learned about Marlene's indecision on giving Sara power she needed? She shook her head and quickly awarded the xp from the beacon defense and secret challenges - all 95,000 of it - to Sara. There was no point in sitting on the experience right now, especially not if she needed to placate Reid.
Marlene turned ideas in her mind. Reid had kept one of the attackers alive - which meant he shouldn't be completely off the rails. She could reserve judgement on his mental state until she spoke to Reid directly - and ideally, questioned the survivor. There were too many unknowns to fully plot herself a path forward, but one thing was certain. She wasn't going to let anyone else inside the walls until she'd gotten a chance to speak with Reid. She needed to control this situation, as much as she could.
The notification hit a few minutes later.
-
Quest Completed: Defend Sanctuary from enemy Salamanders (30)
Congratulations! You have achieved high performance. Difficulty increased for all other quests.
NOTICE: You have completed all standard pre-tutorial beacon defense quests!
Bonus experience awarded for finishing a questline. Finishing a questline with high performance has unlocked secret events. New secret event Quest assignment pending. Please wait...
-
"What the fuck!?"
Marlene's outburst drew the attention of everyone in the truck, and she realized she was also holding down the talk button on her walkie talkie. Confused squawking came through the speaker, and she was forced to steady herself.
Reid, after running through an entire army and taking almost no rest time, had finished off the salamander wave in less than 20 minutes. Even more worrying was the new special message about secret events. What the hell was their next quest going to be after salamanders? What could the system possibly throw at them now?
Everyone was staring at her, she realized. Marlene centered herself and pushed forward a plan.
"Something strange happened with the system, and it might have unintended repercussions for us. There shouldn't be an enemy threat at Sanctuary anymore, but we still need to be careful and investigate. James, I'll have two of our vehicles stop and pick up the people with you that most need rides. My truck and my team are going to forge ahead and investigate what happened. We'll let you know when it's safe to come home."
There - simple. Marlene could figure out what kind of state Reid was in, take stock of their settlement itself, and steer any following narrative however it needed to be done.
The "Please wait..." message was still active in her view. What kind of challenge would they have to face next?
And, what sort of menace would they be coming home to?
--
+ Reid +
Reid sang to himself in the Rec Hall as he did a disco-dance in celebration. Danny rocked back and forth inside the cage, clearly feeling the effects of the half-empty whiskey bottle he was holding.
Maybe giving the healer alcohol wasn't the best idea, but Reid needed someone to celebrate with. He'd made a hell of a breakthrough, after all.
Reid picked up where he'd left off following the air in his body following the uneventful fight with the high leveled salamanders, and quickly got himself back into the in-out rhythm of the air. When he inhaled, the air was there outside of him, but it was different from his body - almost like it was less tangible.
When he exhaled, though, he could follow the air right up until it exited him - and then could still feel it, outside of himself. He tried to affect the air outside of him, but failed. No matter how hard he pushed, or how much he tried to will energy to do something to the gas, it wouldn't work.
There was something there - he knew it. Parts of him that were sent out into the environment, that were still things he could influence and investigate. He could feel the air, but he couldn't touch it.
Reid nearly slapped himself on the forehead. Something he could touch. Something that was outside of him, but was ostensibly part of him. Something he could control and affect.
He scrambled up and found his cracked dagger, then sat cross legged as he held it in his open palms.
Reid pushed his senses down into his hands, and let himself - his sense of self - build in the flat and into each finger. He felt the weight of his weapon. Felt the outline of it on his skin. Felt the surface of it - but just the surface. Reid pushed a bit of himself up, towards the weapon. It felt... off. Like he was standing in front of a door that should be pulled, but he could only push.
He tried sending in less of himself, then more, then tried to make multiple tendrils of force and energy to touch the dagger with. The last part seemed like it was more on track. He refocused efforts there, and sent more, then more, then even more of his self-energy out and to the dagger in his palms. He could nearly feel the entire thing now - his energy was almost enveloping it, and he felt close. So close.
Reid exerted even more of his energy. The strain was giving him a headache, but he ignored it and pressed on. He could sense it. He just needed to fully wrap the dagger with his energy. No gaps, no holes, no unexplored or unknown sections. He needed to be aware of the entire weapon, all at once.
Everything shifted into place with a jolt of clarity that nearly made Reid lose his focus. The dagger in his hand was him. It would always be part of him. And if he could manipulate himself with his energy, he could manipulate things that were him, no matter where they were. Excitement took him, and Reid plunged himself down into the weapon properly. Where before he could see the damage, now Reid could feel the cracks and weaknesses. He could sense the chips on the blade where it had started to wear, and the tiny fractures that threatened to break the weapon over time. Every imperfection and bit of wear were like injuries within his own body.
With a shuddering breath, Reid pushed energy and his will into the bone dagger. If his body was injured, he could repair it. If the dagger was part of him...
He told the dagger to repair itself, to grow connections between the cracks and close the fractures. He told it to fix the edge of the blade and leave it sharper than before. A massive amount of energy was pulled from somewhere deep inside of him, and Reid felt the weapon knitting itself back together. It was slower than his internal healing, but not by much. Another difference was even more notable - healing his weapon didn't put Reid in unbearable pain. There was only the usual headache, and even that felt a bit subdued. When the dagger was fully healed, a series of notifications popped into view.
Congratulations!
Secret Calcification Enhancement Unlocked: Osteal Smithing!
NOTICE!
Prerequisite Conditions Met - Possess One Enhancement!
Status - Enhancements - Unlocked!
Control: 65 -> 70
Perception: 6 -> 11
Reid was ecstatic. He danced, and drank, and let his prisoner drink. When the energy faded, he told himself, he'd go back in and take advantage of the extra control points. For now, he just needed to bask in the accomplishment, just for a moment. Reid had done something that he didn't think was even possible, and it opened up a world of new opportunities.
After all, if Reid could manipulate bone outside of himself - what else could his skeletal powers do?
