71 Another World (1/2)
Checking out my status screen, I placed all my remaining points into strength. Strength coursed through my flesh, might filling my bones. I grinned, stomping a foot to the ground. Cracks formed beneath me. The quickness of my nerves sharpened, as if my control tightened. My body balanced, staying stable as a mountain.
I rolled my shoulders, enjoying the enhancement of my own limits. Every piece of me felt on point, like one of those days were everything goes right. I opened my status screen. Its magnificence explained why.
Level 997
Strength – 830.6 | Constitution – 1110.7 | Endurance - 1077
Dexterity – 273 | Willpower – 1000.7 | Intelligence – 324.2
Charisma – 71.3 | Luck – 121.3 | Perception – 151
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Daniel Hillside Totals Regen Buffs/Debuffs
Health 84,350/84,350 26,258/min or 438/sec Oppression Damage- 15,000+(80% hp)/min
Stamina 28,647/28,647 459/sec Elemental Res - 98%
Harbinger of Cataclysm 1.48 Billion/56.6 Billion 69.4/per min(conduit) Plasma Res - 98%
Phys Dam Reduction - 98% Rad Res - 98%
Phys Dam Bonus - 8591% Mental Res - 98%
Total Damage Bonus 20% Boundless Storm
It had been a long time since I took a long, hard look at my status. I didn’t see a point in checking it every ten levels. What difference would two hundred more health make? Damn near nothing. The difference now was immense. I closed in on 100,000 health, and my health regen almost outpaced my stamina regen now.
Other stats had become ridiculous as well. My physical damage bonus neared ten thousand by itself. Just as impressive, Oppression was insane with the bonus scaling from Cosmic Soul. It made sense why I could burn through someone’s health with a condensed version of it. Last and least, Harbinger of Cataclysm looked like it would take years before it finally maxed out.
Taking another look at my attributes, I was a jack of all trades now, except charisma. With all other attributes, my confidence was absolute. My build balanced out over time, making me into a tanky generalist. My only weakness was talking to people, and it just so happens that was what was waiting for me.
Maybe Torix could cut me some slack after what this mission turned into. Explaining it would be hellish enough as is. Before leaving though, I walked over and absorbed what was left of the boss’s corpse. I headed back towards the encampment, checking for left over bodies or remnants. I found a few, using my armor to soak them up.
After that, I covered the area with oppression, killing anything that remained of the massacre. Letting the insects of Yawm or the hands of Bloodbull escape wasn’t on my priority list. After basically salting the earth, I headed out with nothing gained but levels. A mission made for honing my charismatic qualities devolved into one of my most brutal yet.
Pulling in oppression, I sprinted through the forest, heading back towards the base. I kept my head held high. Even though the mission didn’t work out like planned, I learned a few lessons. The first lesson learned was that while I was strong, fighting head on wouldn’t work forever. Second, I would gather information before any fight from now on if possible.
My build and armor stopped me from dying, but it didn’t make me invincible. Maybe, in the back of my mind, the risks I’ve taken were because of this revival passive I had. Way back when, I got the leveling perk for luck. It included a way to come back after death. Ever since, the desperation and struggle I put into surviving waned.
While I couldn’t force those feelings to return, I could fight smarter, not harder. With all my intelligence and willpower, the problem didn’t stem from being unable to think quick or smart enough. It came down to being lazy. I focused so intently on becoming stronger during my training, that maybe I believed it made up for poor battling. Who knew, maybe it was a sense of entitlement, like I deserve this ease in battle after training my heart out.
That’s the thing about life though. Just because you work hard, that doesn’t mean you’ll get a damn thing. You have to be methodical, focused, etc. I couldn’t just work hard and live forever off it. I needed to use the brain between my shoulders too.
At least that’s what I thought as I reached back towards the steel legion. Once I was back, I jogged up towards Kessiah’s tent. Hers was closer than Torix’s tent anyway. Besides that, I figured she’d be easier to worm the cores from anyway.
As I walked up, I kept the telekinetic pads under my feet. Instead of converting all my weight, I converted most of it. My footsteps still made sound, making my approach a bit less eerie. Even if I did redirect all the force into my armor, it still ebbed sound now though. With so much constitution, I simply weighed too much for utter silence.
Considering my damage now, a telekinetic sneaking ability would pair well with my power. Silencing those racing thoughts, I tapped on Kessiah’s tent,
“Hey, you in there Kess?”
“Hhmmm, what?” A second later, it was like her brain caught up to her lips, “Oh, Daniel. Yeah, sure.”
I unzipped the tent, bending my head as I paced in. Even though Kessiah’s tent was specially made for her height, I stood taller than it now. Kessiah sat at a desk. Under the desk, a square plate of steel had been placed. Every piece of furniture in the tent shared that quality, the steel supporting the ground she slept on.
She pushed herself from under the desk while setting down a thick book. She stood from the reinforced chair, propping a hand and weight on her hip. She liked wearing a black leather jacket that stopped an inch or two above her bellybutton. She knew she had a good figure, and she was proud of it. Flaunting off some skin came off as casual. Combine the skin-tight leather chaps and the edgy haircut, she might as well have been a biker chick at this point.
Of course, she wore different clothes whenever she went out on missions. She preferred form fitting, carbon fiber suits that could handle the unreal stress of combat. All those observations and thoughts flooded my mind with crystal clarity as I looked at her. From what I could tell, the change in level and attributes was the cause.
As I walked up, my armor peeled off my head without me thinking about it. I suppose it had become a habit, but I never really took note of it. Starting with my now exposed face, Kessiah looked up and down at me, checking me out before raising an eyebrow,
“You’re taller again. Here I thought Torix sent you to go get some pawns or something like that. What gives?”
I frowned, “Uh, it turned messy.”
She glanced above my head, “Yeah, it did.” She met my eye, “Wanna talk about it?”
I shrugged, “I’ll just have to tell the story to Torix after telling you. If you want, we can meet and talk to him. You can hear the story there.”
She pursed her lips, “What did you stop by for?”
I scratched the back of my head, “Well, to let you know about the story, and to ask for some more dungeon cores.”
Her face shot up, “Ahhhhhhh.” She grinned at me, “Really now?” She pressed a finger against my chest, “You know it’s been a while since I stared a man in the face who was taller than me. Shouldn’t a man like that carry his own weight around here?”
My heart rate rising, I raised an eyebrow, “Hmmm. I guess so.”
She tiptoed her fingers up my chest plate, “I’ve got a few ideas of how you could.”
I grinned, my heart pounding in my chest, “So do I.”
She leaned closer to me, “Like what, big man?”
Suppressing my desire, I pushed her away by pressing two fingers on her forehead, keeping casual, “How about I make you something?”
Her curiosity peaked, Kessiah’s eyes opened wider as she pressed my hand away from her, “Really? I saw what you made Althea. It looked-” Her excitement died down, like she was trying to suppress her it, “Yenno, uh, pretty.”
I nodded, “Yeah, I can do something like that. It’ll probably be something more like jewelry then. Working on something like that could help with my precision with my carving.”
Kessiah nodded before she frowned. A second later, she snapped, “All you ever talk about is training. Training this, training that. Why don’t you let loose every once in a while?”
I breathed deep before letting out a long sigh,
“Because I can relax after we’ve dealt with Yawm. Hell, based on my perks, I could relax forever if I wanted too. I’m only seventeen…damn. I’m eighteen now. Shit. Anyways, I’m eighteen years old. I got a lot of life left in me. It just so happens that it’s on the other side of a mountain. That mountain is killing Yawm.”
Kessiah’s eyes narrowed, “What if we die when Yawm busts out? What then? That means you lived your last days of your life working like some slave.”
I shook my head, “No. It means I spent my last days fighting.”
I held my tongue, not saying anymore. I wanted to go off about how she didn’t give a shit about dying, about how she just floated through her endless life. I didn’t though. I needed her help. She crossed her arms, a tense moment passing. It stretched out, turning into a rather painful set of seconds.
Kessiah uncrossed her arms, locking them behind herself. She balanced on her heels, breaking the silence, “Hey, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to go at you like that. I don’t know why, but watching you work so hard…sometimes it’s sexy and sometimes it just pisses me off. That time it pissed me off. No hard feelings?”
Not really knowing what to say to that, I nodded, “Yeah, no big deal. Times are tense. We don’t have much time, and the pressure’s getting to people. It’s alright.”
She tapped her crossed hands against her back, looking awkward. She glanced away, then back at me. She unlocked her hands, grabbing the at the satchel on her side, “Oh yeah, that’s why you came here. Sorry, I got sidetracked.”
I let out a chuckle. It was rare to see Kessiah flustered. She handed me a few dungeon cores while saying, “You sure do use a lot of these.”