His strategy for the fight was restructured in his mind. He sensed attacks from Perumah and Clever charge again, but sent a quick message to stop. It wouldn’t be useful to just repeat the same tactic.

  Dei began charging heat within his body as he deflected a wild strike, punching Edward in the face with a loud thump that released a shockwave. Edwards neck bent backwards at an awkward angle, then immediately righted itself as he released a flurry of strikes at Dei, each getting faster.

  Dei reacted accordingly, blocking and deflecting each as he tried to think of what to do. There wasn’t much he could do with a literally undying enemy, but there was one thing: Soul strain. It was the hard cap of everything as far as he knew, the catch-all for even the most bullshit of powers.

  It strained the soul to pull mana from affinities or use Skills. There were sure to be some terrifying synergies out there that would be utterly unstoppable, if not for soul strain.

  Edward could rebuild himself from scratch, but how much did that strain him? How many times? And this was where he imagined Edwards state as a Prime Human came in. This was why they were so powerful… because it was likely that all of their Racial abilities were focused on minimizing the damage from soul strain, pushing their limits further than any others thought possible.

  So was this it? Was he just screwed? His only real tactic was to outlast Edward, a man who’d clearly built his entire powerset around being an undying beast that focused on outlasting everything else. He had to endure longer than someone who specialized in doing exactly that

  No, not yet. While it was true Edward had more endurance when it came to his soul, Dei did not need to strain his soul at all for most tactics. Dei didn’t need Skills when his regular physical body was enough to push Edward to his limits.

  If Dei simply cut loose and did as much damage to Edward as possible, he’d only tire himself. He would play right into Edwards hands.

  He took on another tactic, cutting back on the force of his strikes so that they didn’t damage him severely, but did still deal lethal damage with every strike.

  Edward couldn’t keep up with Dei’s reaction speed as Dei repeatedly smashed the mans heart and ribcage, as he punched clean through the mans lungs and made him puke blood every second.

  Dei shattered Edwards skull and shook the brain more times than he could count, but every time ended in the same result. Edwards eyes would flicker with unconsciousness, before lighting up again stitching himself back together at a visible pace.

  He tore Edwards limbs off, only for that to be an even more dangerous tactic as they would pop into existence faster than he could react, already placed around Dei’s neck. Edwards nails managed to scrape Dei’s throat only once before he wisened up to the tactic, either keeping a distance when limbs came free or avoiding their destruction entirely.

  After an hour of straight fighting, Dei was ready to hunker down for months if need be, when he blocked one of Edwards strikes- feeling a slight change as he was pushed back. Only a foot, but the punch was clearly more powerful than all the previous. It was not a one-off either, as Dei had to start redirecting strikes if he wanted to remain on steady footing, each blow now just enough to keep him aware.

  It wasn’t enough to push past his defenses, but it wasn’t easy anymore. Same with his regular blows- they were doing less and less damage.

  Two hours in, he had to focus on dodging most strikes and each of his own were no longer dealing damage, Edwards body becoming resistant to it. He’d built up enough heat within his body to use more explosions, so he started the process of using small pieces of it, creating micro-explosions to rip into Edward.

  He didn’t have the dexterity to get the perfect amount, but he did have the time to practice. Time was the only resource he couldn’t imagine himself running out of soon.

  He considered completing Alorans “homework” right now, as he was clearly not being pushed to the limits, but decided against it. Edward was changing, adapting in some way to Dei, and he wanted to remain on guard and conscious just in case.

  * * *

  A full day had passed, the cavern they fought in going from dim to bright once again, and Dei was sure he’d figured out Edwards tactic.

  He couldn’t match Dei’s Physical stat, but he didn’t need to. He would always deal just enough damage that Dei had to use High Mind to redirect or dodge strikes, and force him to keep Growing Rage active. Both were passives, but he was utilizing them to the fullest, and it was a slight strain on him.

  Even if he wanted to out-endurance Edward, it wasn’t an option- his powerset was based exactly around that. There was, however, one loophole Dei noticed. Edward would pick one person, and adjust to that person, specializing into the best way to endure their attacks.

  Through the night, they’d taken turns. When Perumah would be the main damage-dealer, he’d switch targets, completely ignoring Dei’s main body to focus on his hand- the one holding Perumah. When this happened, her soul attacks would begin to deal less damage and he began emitting a weak intangible attack based on his anger, Rage mana pouring off him in a sphere and attacking Perumah.

  Perumah, with her low Spiritual stat, was vulnerable to this. Dei protected her by heightening her stat slightly, which was enough to stave it off when it first started because the attack was comically weak, but it also scared her bad enough that she immediately requested someone else take up the reins.

  Clever was next, and he realized now that a full-blast beam would be far too much. He tried to limit how much of his plasma attack he released, with moderate success, but he still had to reverse the changes after three or four attacks, whether he’d used all the heat in his body or not. If he didn’t he’d slowly eat away at his reserves for the attack, because he stated it wasn’t even meant to be used multiple times- it was a one off attack that he sort of cheated his way into using by undoing the cost with his Time affinity. After four reversals, Clever had to stop or risk some of his other powers. Clever was still looking into future timelines for danger, providing bleak news that he couldn’t see the end in sight.

  The only good revelation from that testing was finding how Edward genuinely couldn’t adapt to Clever, at least not in any reasonable time frame. His body was fully incinerated with every beam, no matter how weak.

  Fendrascora… tried. She wasn’t very good in a direct physical confrontation, so all she could really do was restrain him with her body and try to drown him, but one swipe from his hand caused three of her tendrils to explode, making her reel back and quickly give up.

  Back to square one, Dei wished it was possible for him to do a deeper scan of Edwards soul. He couldn’t properly get a read on Edward because his soul would heal itself faster than Dei could look into it, trying to calculate how long it would be before soul strain made his enemy drop.

  From the few glimpses Dei could see, he wasn’t hopeful. It pushed Edward more to actively adjust to something, but not enough. The most efficient thing to do would be force Edward to adjust to each of them in rotation, continuously, but Dei was the only person here with even a remotely endurance-based build. Perumah and Clever were ambush predators more than anything, with a few limited attacks, and Fendrascora wasn’t a real predator at all- she was very slippery prey.

  So Dei needed other powerful creatures to attack Edward and make him adjust. Other monsters he didn’t have.

  This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  ‘Damn… I should’ve been collecting allies this whole time’ he thought to himself, but knew it wouldn’t have made a real difference. He hadn’t run into anything particularly strong that would’ve been able to stand up to Edward, so it would’ve been like throwing them into a meat grinder.

  Though there was one being Dei thought might have the chance to put up a fight, that being the guardian in the center of the Convergence.

  Dei had kept the fight, generally, in the same area of the bog. The result of this was notably lower water on the ground and strong humidity in the air as it continuously evaporated from their movements, strikes, and Skills. It filled back up of course, but not fast enough as the heat produced by their bodies would boil everything.

  He wanted to stay in one place so that they could avoid the Convergence in the middle rather than accidentally entering it. The Decay mana, when they entered the actual convergence, was lethal. It was incredibly dangerous, similar to how Clevers original Convection Convergence was, with all the mana imbued with a concept from the Anchor itself.

  Dei realized that if there was a time for desperate plans, it would be now, when he was well rested and could easily plan on the go.

  So he thought of something else. Rather than fight Edward on his own, He would get Edward to aggravate the guardian and let them duke it out, giving Dei a break.

  The fight would almost be boring if it weren’t Dei’s life on the line. Edward didn’t have any flashy Skills or dangerous moves. All he did was swing his hand really hard and hope it hit. He supposed that’s what it meant to be the prey of an endurance creature though. There was no one moment where he would be hit with a crippling strike and killed. He’d just slow down as his soul hurt more and more under its own weight, until he dropped dead.

  So he began the process of making his way to the center, to the guardian. He wouldn’t turn his back on Edward, but he was more than happy to just block and dodge, giving up ground and having Edward follow him. While he did this, Dei realized that now was a good time to earn a few more levels of his Profession. He was not only in active danger, but he certainly had a lot of “Intent” as Aloran said, because he really needed some more Spiritual stats if he was going to resist the Decay.

  He’d need a way to protect Clever and Perumah from it as well, so he- with their permission- hit them with a Wrath version of his Identify, forming a [Connection] between them. His plan was to take control of all the Decay mana invading them, and pull it into his own body so he could resist it with his higher Spiritual stat.

  Fendrascora was fine though. She had more than enough Spiritual.

  As he moved backwards, he started thinking over everything Aloran told him, deciding to get the information on Classes out of the way.

  ‘He told me to think of what else functions on a scale from zero to one hundred. Lets see… for one, affinities. They function on percentages though, from zero percent strength to one hundred percent. When I hit one hundred, they roll over into the next tier and the process begins anew. Skills, of course, also go from zero to one hundred and, at one hundred, they become slightly stronger- much like affinities. Does that mean natural processes of magic are from zero to one hundred? More than that, Skill levels aren’t actually measuring in base levels, are they? They’re measuring in PERCENTAGES. So each level of a Skill is one percent to the next evolution, like affinities. The only reason it doesn't say percent is perhaps to distinguish it from the affinities? Or to show exactly how many times its been strengthened? Such as level two hundred and four means its been completed twice, and is four percent of the way to the next completion.

  ‘They also differ in benefits. When Skills reach one hundred percent completion, they gain a new function. When affinities reach one hundred percent completion, they get stronger.’

  [Profession Leveled Up: Pondering Sage (Level 17) -> (Level 18)]

  [Stats gained: +5 Spiritual]

  ‘I’m on the right track. So percentage based scales, affinities, only get stronger with each completion, but fixed numbers gain extra functions or change in some way. That’s why Classes use a fixed system too. The Class itself doesn’t get stronger, it changes. So what is a Class? It’s based on the Skill system but it’s not an actual Skill… Is it? Oh my God, it is! It’s a Skill that the System designates as something else! [Growing Rage] can give me stats, and my Classes and Professions do too! The reason why I can’t see my Class in my soul is because in reality, my Class is an Outer Skill, something the System keeps track of for me.

  So the System invented Classes and Professions by creating a Skill that would attach to my soul and give me stats as I level up rather than getting stronger themselves. That’s why the Classes and Professions don’t become more powerful with each level, despite being Skills. The System rerouted the strength that would normally go into the spells, instead focusing it on my soul!’

  [Profession Leveled Up Pondering Sage (Level 18) -> (Level 22)]

  [Stats Gained: +20 Spiritual]

  It felt like he’d glimpsed into janky coding to find an absolutely ridiculous way for the developers to come up with something, such as making a train move by turning it into a hat and making an NPC run.

  His logic was sound though, and it even explained some other wording in the System. The System clearly used both the words Skill and spell, so it differentiated between the two, but Dei still struggled to find examples of something that was a spell but not a Skill.

  He now knew of two spells that were not Skills. The first was, of course, Classes and Professions. The second was when he created a Skill that the System couldn’t keep track of, such as his Living Barrier Skill that supposedly no longer existed, yet he still used frequently.

  Spells were the process of his soul connecting to the mana into the universe, usually through affinities or sometimes, weirdly, through his HP, MP, or SP. Skills were a simple sub-category of spell, something that the System named and called a Skill.

  So it wouldn’t be accurate to say that Classes were Skills. They were spells that the System attached to his soul and worked into a weird, mutually beneficial relationship. All Skills were spells, but not all spells were Skills.

  [Profession Leveled Up Pondering Sage (Level 22) -> (Level 24)]

  [Stats Gained: +10 Spiritual]

  ‘Aloran you absolute genius. This is the most incredibly efficient tactic I’ve ever used to level up my Profession. All it took was to zone out DURING combat, rather than after it. Admittedly dangerous, but not the worst.’

  He wasn’t within range of the actual Convergence yet, so he decided to keep up with gaining more Profession levels, thinking of the next few things Aloran told him about the planes or realms or whichever.

  He knew the four stats were based around the Primordial Children’s planes, with Physical, Mental, Spiritual, and Magical based on Dragons, The Mother, Leviathans, and Titans respectively. He’d refer to the four big planes by their stats, for simplicity sake.

  Between Physical and Spiritual was the Spirit Realm and all its layers. Between Physical and Magical were the Conceptual Planes of Existence, which contained the affinities.

  This was something Dei was still confused about- he felt like Conceptual Planes should be between Mental and Magical, because the affinities did have minds of their own. The reason why this might not be true, though, is because affinities were dependent on physical space to exist as a concept. The affinity of Wood needed actual wood to exist, Earth needed earth and so on. Because of that, they needed a physical base to exist.

  What did this tell him? Well, this told him that any plane disconnected with the Physical plane wouldn’t have affinities. Without something to anchor itself to, affinities couldn’t exist. The Spirit realm still had affinities because it was partially physical. Figuring out the properties of the lesser-planes, or the in-betweens or whatever he should call them would be absolutely vital to deducting what they were.

  [Profession Leveled Up Pondering Sage (Level 24) -> (Level 25)]

  [Stats Gained: +5 Spiritual]

  Because the Physical realm was also the one he knew best, he decided to try and figure out the last Physical one he didn’t know: the one between Physical and Mental.

  He knew, based on the other examples, that it had to have a partially physical component to it, but it was also based on the mind. The Mothers realm was located entirely within her mind, so what was between her mind and the physical world? Well… the minds of all monsters. Dei knew she held a connection to all monsters- except for apparently Perumah who’d cast her off- and he hadn’t questioned that until now, but why? What would she do with a subtle connection to all monsters?

  There was a theory back on Earth, one that proposed the idea of all humans being subconsciously linked together. The Collective Unconscious. It was a fun idea on Earth, but that may very well be true here, with the exclusion of all sapient races.

  The idea of a completely imagined reality, one dependent on the subconscious minds of all monsters, was fascinating to him. Would there be idea monsters in this world? If he found a way to send his mind here, would he be able to kill ideas for experience?

  [Profession Leveled Up Pondering Sage (Level 25) -> (Level 27)]

  [Stats Gained: +10 Spiritual]

  That essentially confirmed a reality existing in the minds of all monsters, but he couldn’t think about it anymore, nor could he spend any more mental energy trying to figure out the next plane of existence between Primordial Children, as he received an urgent notification.

  [You have entered a Convergence of Decay]

  ‘Showtime I suppose. Let’s see if I can shake this guy and give myself a few minutes to breathe.’