When he was closer to mended than broken, he decided it was time to start going over his notifications. They’d need to move soon, and it would be better to have all of the information he could.
[Skill Leveled Up: Call for Help (53) -> (62)]
[Skill Leveled Up: Good Samaritan (35) -> (37)]
[Skill Leveled Up: Growing Pains (127) -> (142)]
[Skill Levels Lost: Solidity (91) -> (74)]
‘What the hell?!’ he thought as he stopped looking at his notifications for a second. Did seeing another perspective harm him mentally? But that wasn’t even what the Solidity Skill was meant for! It helped bridge the gap between his mind and body… and he’d just grown nearly a foot.
Ever since he’d gained the Solidity Skill, his supernatural growth had been put on “Pause” for lack of a better word as he stayed slightly over five feet tall. He believed that was the Skill trying to prevent the schism from widening, wanting to get his mind and body synchronized before letting him continue growing. Now he’d been forced to grow, and lost some levels.
The setback irritated him, but there was nothing to do about it. At least he was still doing well-enough mentally, despite his new growth. A thought occurred to him though, was he as tall as his mother? He would need to check later, when he could reach her satchel.
At the thought of her, he remembered the pink glow that still permeated his soul. Closing his eyes for a moment, brought up the cracks once more. “Love you, mom. Dont forget to tell dad I love him too!” He sent her a quick message, then opened his eyes.
He’d solved the mystery of his lost levels, so he decided to move on to the next notification.
[Skill Leveled Up: Homeostasis (88) -> (96)]
[Skill Leveled Up: Meditation (93) -> (97)]
[Skill Leveled Up: High Mind (87) -> (89)]
[Affinity Strengthened:
[Kindness: Mid-Rare: 99% has strengthened into Kindness: High-Rare: 14%]
[Affinity Strengthened:
[Wrath: High-Uncommon: 99% has strengthened into Wrath: Low-Rare 2%]
His affinities were becoming incredibly strong. Hesitantly, he decided to lift the limiter he’d placed on Soul. He would need more Soul mana, and he felt like his “Human” affinities were strong enough to stave off its effects. Especially his Fortitude, which would directly fight against it.
Finally, he got to the really important Skill notifications
[Skill Leveled Up: Pandora’s Box (Contained) (100) -> (273)]
[Skill Altered: Pandora’s Box (Contained) has been altered into Pandora’s Box (Sealed)]
The first two were, of course, his Pandora’s Box. When he was overcome by the vision of Lani’s past, his box had been absorbing the excess mana, cracking and growing over and over again, quickly repairing itself. The entire vision had taken around ten minutes, which was absurd time to have so many levels, and he was very, very glad that the majority of his mind was somewhere else while the pain rocked him. His soul was still very strained though, and he’d need to avoid using any Skills for a few days.
By now, Dei had a significant amount of presence to protect his soul with. He was almost always increasing it, usually with multiple minds at once. It formed a solid barrier around the fragile part of his soul, letting him do stupid things like this and come out alive.
The important part was that, when he was under, his sub-mind had chosen an evolution for him to help contain the mana. He knew what the evolution was, because it was him that chose it, but he looked over the full Skill now too.
[Pandora’s Box (Sealed) - Level 273 - Kindness Affinity - 108871/10920 Mana Stored
To contain your sin, you have created a tangible field within the world of concepts. To resist giving in to your anger, you refuse to lash out. You refuse to express your Wrath as you rise above your base instincts.
Creates a pool within your soul that contains the excess Affinity Mana produced by the various affinities of the user, unless otherwise specified
Contains (2)*((Spell Level)*10) mana
Also contains twice as much mana within the Spell
Also concentrates the mana within the pool, giving a conversion rate of 6 Affinity Mana to 1 Concentrated Affinity Mana (mild concentration)]
Level 100 evolutionary upgrade- grants the ability for you to form certain sub-boxes within your Skill, allowing for the full release of smaller, pre-designated pools of mana. Accelerates how fast the user can section off portions of their mana with each successive level]
Level 200 evolutionary upgrade- Gain the ability to compress mana that has been sectioned off into a concentration of 6 Concentrated Affinity Mana (mild concentration) to 1 Concentrated Affinity Mana (middling concentration)
It was a really good upgrade. Not just because it allowed him to concentrate his mana further, but because he wasn’t forced to. It was a manual process, and he could choose not to.
The other important aspect of this new box was that it’d changed from “Contained” to “Sealed.”
Now that it was fully repaired, he’d need to use his Sectioning upgrade any time he wanted to use the mana, preemptively setting some aside in designated amounts. No longer could he draw from his box any time he wanted, but perhaps that was for the best. If it had still been damaged, then Dei would have begun to emit Lani’s hateful aura, rather than having it simply disappear. He checked how much was in his box now.
[Pandora’s Box:
8250/10920 Wrath
981/10920 Kindness
532/10920 Soul
824/10920 Fortitude
300/10920 [NULL] ]
Before, he had around a thousand six hundred Wrath mana at mild concentration. Doing some quick calculations for both the new concentration and total mana, he found that Lani was filled with 287,400 Wrath mana before he’d pulled it all out. Dei even felt like some extra mana had been absorbed directly into his body to help fuel his growth and healing.
No wonder Lani lost his mind…
Looking at the severely damaged helmet, still completely radio silent, it was hard to see Lani being the source of so much hate. But the same was true for Dei himself, wasn't it? In his previous life, he’d tried to avoid being defined by his rage, leaning into his Kindness. It hadn’t worked out. If Leven had cut loose a few times, made people a bit scared to piss him off, maybe life would’ve been a lot easier for him.
Dei wouldn’t make the same mistakes. When he was back in society, he was going to make sure people were hesitant to hurt him. He didn’t want everyone to be afraid of him, of course, but maybe a little cautious.
Done with Pandora’s Box for now, he looked at the next notification.
[Skill Gained: Fortress of Denial]
[Skill Leveled Up: Fortress of Denial (1) -> (36)]
[Fortress of Denial - Level 36 - Fortitude Affinity
Control. You fight it, you demand it. Your entire life, you’ve exerted control over yourself, and resisted the control of others. In every instance where others attempted to control you, you have denied them their goals. The only one to control yourself is you. More than any person, affinity, or magic, your body is yours alone.
Creates a Domain of Denial where all intent is muffled, making control over all magic more difficult.
Variable mana cost.]
He’d already used this one, and he could tell that it had to be a more esoteric Skill because the System was missing a few of its functions.
For one, the System didn’t specify it but he knew that this domain could only extend as far as his control over magic would. For some reason, Dei’s control over magic was heightened within his body, but heavily stunted outside of his body; this meant that the “domain” was only present within himself.
Stolen novel; please report.
That wasn’t to say it was a bad Skill of course. He already knew there were many things in this world that tried to invade his body to kill him, so he doubted this domain would go unused.
Second, it worsened his control as well within that domain. It took both his and Lani’s effort combined to push through his domain and get the Wrath mana in his Box, but the Domain was the only way to slow down its violent and sporadic intent. With the mana moving slower, it was easier to grab onto and hold it, even if his intent also moved slower in the domain. Not only that, but his and Lani’s intent was much more direct than the Wrath’s, meaning the Wrath mana wasted significant amounts of energy moving in random directions yet never exiting his body, because his new Fortress Skill gave him the time to redirect it at the last moment.
Third, his sense of the mana around him was cut off even further when [Fortress of Denial] was activated. Normally he had a very rudimentary sense of mana around him, but even that was gone when he activated the Skill. Dei bet that his soul sight would disappear too when he activated the Skill. The third aspect made him wonder if the Skill was ever even meant to be used outside of his body, or if it was specifically for people like him who could sense mana easier inside them.
Nothing else to do except wait for his body to heal, he just continued to sit there. Normally he would train if he was idle, but he was still afraid of backlash from his strained soul.
It actually didn’t hurt as badly as he thought it would, but just because he didn’t feel the damage to his soul, didn’t mean that there was none.
* * *
The physical pain had fully abated, but his soul still hurt. He noticed a slight throbbing that stemmed from various points around his soul. Looking closely, it was all the points in time he’d gained passive Skills such as [High Mind], [Growing Pains], [Good Samaritan], and more. The soul-strain ran deep enough that even his passive Skills were too much, so he needed to cut back on them a bit. Fang and Fendrascora wouldn’t be able to drink up his blood anymore without Homeostasis either, temporarily at least.
[High Mind] had to stay active, so he could react to any danger quickly, and [Good Samaritan] would stay up as well for safety reasons to continue working on resisting the tracking mark. Everything else was deactivated.
He immediately got vertigo as [Solidity] turned off, but it passed quickly. More pressingly though, his healing Skills were gone now too, and Meditation stopped producing Soul mana. Standing up despite his dizziness, he cradled Lani in one arm and walked back towards the main portion of the group. Clever and Fang stood beside Fendrascora’s garden, Clever looking slightly afraid of the Helmet and Fang scanning him, searching for any manipulation. She was back to her fully-bladed self, rather than the camouflaged gray nub she once was
“I take it you appeased the cursed artefact? I sense the spirit still persists, yet the dreadful aura is gone, and I sense no manipulation. You are still Dei, yes?”
“Yes, I’m still me. The helmet just didn’t have a way to burn through all the Wrath mana it produced, so its anger simply built up, and the nature of its rage made it hostile to the world around it. I simply stored it away.”
“Stored it… away? It is not gone?” Fang asked hesitantly.
“No, I think I might be able to use it somehow. That much Wrath mana shouldn’t just be dumped into a random Skill until it’s gone. It can be a dangerous weapon to pull out at the right time.”
“Yes, hmm, how do I say this? You are an idiot! Why are you trying to use such horrible energy? I don't know what you intend to use it for, but it’s going to go wrong! As soon as you can, you must expend this energy towards smaller endeavors.”
“What would be the difference between doing something useless with it rather than waiting for it to become useful?” he asked, defensive.
“Because as soon as it ‘becomes useful’ as you say, it will be for desperate reasons. You will use it in a half-thoughtout, zero-tested plan to succeed, and the curse will take control over you.”
“It isn’t a curse, it was just a lot of Wrath mana with strong intent imbued into it that attached itself to Lani’s mind” Dei responded smartly.
“Is that… I don’t know for sure, but is that not a curse? Would that not be what a curse is?” Fang asked, genuinely confused.
Dei had to admit… she got him there. “Okay, maybe, but you argued against yourself anyway! You said that I would use it when we are desperate as a last resort. Sure, it might go badly for me, but it would be better than no resort at all, wouldn’t it? I’ll still be desperate either way, the only difference is that I will have options if I set the mana aside.”
“Not so! You will be desperate either way, but if you have the mana, then you will seek to use it rather than searching for an alternate path. The less harmful options will become obscured as you are blinded by pride, while the absence of the curses mana would ensure your mind is clear.”
“It’s pretty ‘clear’ to me that we aren’t going to agree on this. Let's get some outside opinions, Clever and Fendrascora?”
“The opinions are unbalanced! You have rescued both Clever and Fendrascora, they will side with you!”
“Not really” Fendrascora jumped in “I think you should throw that curse energy away as soon as you can, please?”
“I recant my previous statement, Fendrascora is a paragon of neutrality. You are outvoted Dei.”
“Not yet, Clever?” Dei looked to his little lizard buddy, hopeful.
“Power! More power! Keep the power, destroy foes!”
“HA! Two to two. Now we’re even again.”
Fang let out feelings of exasperation “Yes, and the original predicament is perpetuated. Now how is the circumstance to be resolved?”
“Simple. It's my mana, I decide what to do with it. While I value all of your opinions and would have thrown it away if it was three to one, I am the last say in what I do.”
“... I begrudgingly agree that is a fair assessment”
Clever cheered him on and Fendrascora shifted nervously within him, fearing the curse's escape from its box.
Dei went on to explain everything he’d learned about Lani. Aloran, and Jasmine, as well as the other two spiritual signatures in the area. The plan was to get them as quickly as possible now, help them out from whatever prison they’d found themselves in, and reunite them all.
Getting everything ready to leave, Dei put on his moms satchel first, to check whether he was as tall as her. There were six notches, and his mother was on the fourth. Previously, he’d been on the second, but he was now at number three.
his mother was still taller than him. Did each notch represent one more foot in height or build? Was his mother seven feet tall?
Running his hands through his hair and sighing. He didn’t think it was just his mother either, was it? He’d already learned that Earth mana tended to make things larger. Clever said his sister had an Earth affinity, and she was large for Korgonda’s. When Clever ate those Earth crystals, he became larger.
A lot of the monsters in the caves were massive, was that because they all had an innate Earth affinity? That meant that Gem Dwellers, who had a natural Earth affinity, were much larger than average humans. He thought his father was a surface-human too, but now Dei was starting to think he was a third variant human if he was bigger than even Gem Dwellers. So far there were: Prime Humans, probably what Dei was in his previous life; Gem-Dwellers, what he was now; and whatever his dad was, larger even than his mother. Dei wondered how many there were total.
Once the satchel was on his hip, Dei had to find a place to put Lani. Quickly, he tapped Jasmine (the red sword he’d found) and Lani (the red helmet) together to see if Aloran (the Garden) added any sort of function to his barrier for making other armors easier to transport, but no such luck. Jasmine and Lani didn’t interact at all.
Instead, he decided to stick Lani and Jasmine to his left side, as his moms satchel sat on his right side, and have Fendrascora secure the two spirit weapons there with a few tendrils of blood-water.
Fully geared up with Clever on his shoulder and a large roiling garden behind him, Dei moved towards what he now knew was Amaya, the spiritual chest piece.
* * *
Far, far above on the surface, the door to an abandoned house in the middle of the forest opened and shut behind the ragged man. He’d spent a couple weeks in jail for causing a ruckus after another drunken fight.
He didn’t know why they kept letting him out. He’d done the same song and dance so many times, he thought he should stay locked up forever at this point, but the pity in their eyes told him that’d never happen.
People knew what happened to him. How just last year, monsters had torn apart his family while he was out on a hunt. Nobody liked him, but why couldn’t they just retaliate. He wished they would. At this point, his life was over. He had nothing else to live for, but one single thing kept him going…
A little alarm that Gods-damned Shaman gave him. Tir put an alarm on the beast that started it all. The alarm would sound if the prison was being taken apart, and the monster was still alive. Once it did that, a tracking mark would be placed on the person who touched the crystal, ensuring that no intelligent being would help the monster trapped there.
Eddy didn’t know why someone would rescue the monster, but he’d kept vigil over it nonetheless. Frequently, he would pull it out from the drawer of his nightstand and look at it for hours as he just sat on his bed.
He did so now… and was shocked to see something different.
It was blinking.
Red.
It was blinking red.
He did nothing for a long moment, too stunned to see it actually activate. Then came the fury.
It built now, that unquenchable rage. He quickly put on all of his old hunters gear and weapons, as gently as he could he put the blinking tracker in his pocket, turning off the alarm. It beamed directions into his head, locating his quarry.
The signature was obscured slightly, but he still had a clear view and guide on where it was. It seemed whoever it was that saved the monster thought to conceal themselves, but it would do them little good in the face of a level three hundred tracking mark.
Finally, he was ready in record time. Shining metal armor and sword, rations he’d kept ready just in case, every tool he thought he might need.
With a thought, his knotted beard caught fire and burned away. The flab he’d built up in his sedentary lifestyle flexed and reworked itself into pure muscle. In moments, he was in fighting condition.
Long ago, he had a Wrath affinity. After the death of his family, it evolved into the Rage affinity. It granted him power, but his mind was consumed far more than any Wrath users would.
That never mattered. He let it consume his mind, because he didn’t care anymore. His next thoughts would either be his death as the monster slew him as well, or he would stand upon the corpses of any who stood between him and revenge.
Opening the door to his old empty cottage one last time, red overtook his vision, and Eddy was off to hunt one final time.
