Putting his knife away as the body of the snake dissipated, Lor looked around the cave he had just cleared. Over the past week of practice, the snake had become trivial to defeat. Gathering some water with a small use of Telekinesis coupled with a cup made of Dimensional Shield, he sat down and focused on using the energy from the snake.
Name: Lor Telmrin
Tier: 2
Rank: 5
Stats:
Power: Kinetic (T2 R0)
Body: Dimension (T2 R5)
Mind: Space (T2 R0)
Energy: Time (T3 R0)
Skills:
Active
Discharge (P) (T3 R2)
Telekinesis(P) (T1 R8)
Inventory (B) (T2 R5)
Dimensional Shield (B) (T1 R4)
Blink (M) (T3 R5)
Scry (M) (T1 R2)
Time Stop (E) (T2 R1)
Time Dilation (E) (T1 R4)
Revision (E) (T0 R7)
Passive
Absorb (P) (T3 R6)
Redirection (P) (T0 R8)
Dimensional Body (B) (T5 R2)
Out of Phase (B) (T0 R1)
Spacial Awareness (M) (T3 R2)
Disjointed (M) (T0 R4)
Looped Energy (E) (T3 R8)
Thought Acceleration (E) (T1 R0)
Artifacts:
Eye of the Traveler (Bound)
Over the last week, Lor had been fighting as often as he could. When he ran out of monsters to practice on, he trained his Skills in his small room. Something he had worked out, was what each of his Stats corresponded to in the real world. Power was tied to physical strength and ability damage. Through some testing he worked out that the same amount of energy from Discharge did more damage after he increased his Power than before. Body was tied to the physical state of his body, including its ability to withstand the force of his own abilities. Lor had a feeling that if he greatly increased his Power without increasing Body, the next time he swung his knife he would break his arm. Mind was tied to how he processed information. Even without his skill of Thought Acceleration, he could react far faster than before. He was fairly confident that increasing Power without Mind would make him unable to properly move, his capabilities exceeding his ability to process. Energy was tied to how much energy he had to use, and that was all as far as he could tell.
Every day, Lor had spent some time drinking the water in his room, followed by writhing on the floor in pain as he healed and Dimensional Body increased in Rank. Eventually Dimensional Body stopped increasing and he no longer experienced pain from the water. Sadly, he no longer healed anywhere near as fast from the water as well.
This increase in the Rank of Dimensional Body saved him the next time he attempted to fight the spider. He had already cleared out every other monster in the caves, and felt confident enough in his new strength to brave the spider again. The fight had been quick, and without having raised Dimensional Body above the Tier of the spider, he would have died. Coming out of Time Stop, the spider reacted faster than he thought possible, managing to spear him through the center of his forehead before being destroyed by Discharge. Lor staggered away from the monster before bringing his hands to his head. What he found was a hole going straight through, but not bleeding in the slightest. Carefully poking it, he found that the inside felt like smooth glass to the touch, and conveyed no sensation.
Immediately after inserting his finger into a hole in his head, Lor proceeded to vomit up his lunch of crab legs in followed by his breakfast of jerky. After that experience, he decided that he was very glad the healing water counted as a poison, for without Dimensional Body's ability to ignore lower Ranked critical hits, he would have died in that instant.
One of his new Skills also happened to compensate well for the reduced healing of the water. Revision allowed him, for a considerable amount of energy, to undo wounds he had received, as long as they had happened within the last few seconds. Something else he had discovered during his training, was that the type of Skill received was determined by what Tier you were receiving it for. Tiers 1 and 3 had given him a new active skill while Tier 2 had given him a new passive. He had also learned that what Stat the Skill came from only determined what type of effect it had, not what aspect it affected. For instance, his new Energy passive, Thought Acceleration, affected his mind not his energy but was in the type of time.
Finished with the snakes energy, Lor bent over the pool and spent some time attempting to clean up. He hoped that after defeating the bear he would be able to leave the cave and he didn't want to seem like someone uncivilized. After a decently successful bath, Lor redressed in his monster drop clothes and began making his way towards the chamber containing the bear, charging Absorb as he went. He had gotten some new clothes during his week of slaughter, including another pair of stoneskin pants, two more pairs of boxers, and a phase silk shirt which made his upper half slightly hard to see.
Arriving at the bear's chamber, Lor closed his eyes and focused on Spacial Awareness, instantly gaining a perfect understanding of most of the bear's room. The bear was facing away from him, and was large enough that he couldn't see all of it. Switching his focus, Lor activated Scry and focused his view on the chamber ahead of him. Suddenly he was looking at the front of the bear. The surprise of seeing the bear seemingly staring back at him caused Lor to stop concentrating on Scry and take an involuntary step back.
Steeling himself, Lor prepared to attack the bear with everything he had. Since the bear was awake and watching the exit, he couldn't simply slip by it. Taking a deep breath, Lor activated Blink, appearing behind the head of the bear. Holding the knife forward, he activated Discharge, the blade springing from his hand to lodge itself in the thick neck of the bear. Landing on its neck, he leapt backwards to avoid the retaliatory claw swipe before Blinking to the side of the room.
Whirling, the bear found him quickly and lashed out with a paw. Burning energy, time slowed down around Lor as he ducked under the swipe before time resumed its normal speed. Suddenly Lor twisted and raised his arms over his head as the left claw of a second set of legs collided with him. Without Spacial Awareness' warning and Thought Acceleration's processing, he would not have been able to react in time to turn, let alone block. Lor felt the force of the blow ripple over him, causing the ground below him to indent in a circle around him as his forearms shattered.
Rolling to the side, Lor burned more of his energy, using Revision to repair his arms before creating a shield above himself just in time to block another overhead swipe. The shield shattered in one hit, but bought him enough time to teleport to the far side of the chamber. Upon arriving, Lor immediately had to slow time to allow himself to block the kick the bear unleashed. Once again he felt the attack ripple over him as the wall behind him crumpled in a circle and his arms shattered. Using Revision, Lor repaired his arms before teleporting near the top of the chamber. Forming a shield, he kicked off, activating Time Stop in a gamble as he saw one of the bear's paws moving to intercept him. Flying past the paw, Time Stop expired just before he collided with the knife he had embedded in the neck of the bear and activated Discharge, expending the energy he had gathered from blocking the attacks of the bear into the handle.
The knife disappeared and Lor felt a shudder pass through the bear before it began to dissolve. Lor collapsed to the ground, breathing heavily, as a rush of energy flowed into him. Concentrating immediately, he focused on his Body Stat, feeling gratified when it increased twice. He quickly looked over his notifications before rolling over.
Body: Dimension has reached Tier 2 Rank 6
Body: Dimension has reached Tier 2 Rank 7
Blink has reached Tier 3 Rank 6
Scry has reached Tier 1 Rank 3
Time Stop has reached Tier 2 Rank 2
Time Dilation has reached Tier 1 Rank 5
Time Dilation has reached Tier 1 Rank 6
Absorb has reached Tier 3 Rank 7
Discharge has reached Tier 3 Rank 3
Dimensional Shield has reached Tier 1 Rank 5
Redirection has reached Tier 0 Rank 9
Redirection has reached Tier 1 Rank 0
Redirection has reached Tier 1 Rank 1
Revision has reached Tier 0 Rank 8
Revision has reached Tier 0 Rank 9
A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
Looking around, he found that he was still lying on top of the bear’s fur. Carefully standing up, he dusted himself off and picked up the fur, discovering that it was a soft leather cape, the dark grey fur giving it the appearance of hard metal. Swinging it around to his back, Lor fastened it around his neck with the clasps that seemed to be made of the bear’s claws. Walking around the chamber, he found that the cape weighed him down noticeably and decided to store it in his Inventory for the moment.
After his quick perusal of the chamber, Lor exited and carefully began making his way through the caverns beyond. Sneaking as quietly as he could, he made his way through empty chamber after strangely empty chamber. Just as he was starting to wonder where all the monsters were, he saw a light from around the corner ahead.
Creeping forward carefully, Lor peered around the corner, his eyes widening in surprise. Ahead of him was a torch lit tunnel that was clearly cut from the stone, not formed naturally like the rest of the cave. He carefully crept down the tunnel, listening for the slightest sound. He picked up his pace, losing some stealth when he heard chanting from ahead. Turning a corner, the tunnel opened up into a large cavern lit by flickering torches and a strange red glow. That was all he managed to see before something collided with the back of his head, somehow bypassing his Spacial Awareness, and his vision went dark.
~~~~~
Elise and Almer had not been having a good week. For some strange reason, the creatures in the cave were taking far longer than they should to reform, it was as if someone was constantly killing all of the creatures below the midway point. Due to this their progress slowed dramatically, only resulting in a small increase in Rank. Even with Tier 3 taking twice as much energy as Tier 2, it should not have been this slow.
At the end of the week, after a day of boring battles and terrible progress, they began to make their way back to their tent. As soon as they exited the cave, Almer suddenly lunged forward in front of Elise, activating a skill that turned his skin to metal as a spear collided with him pushing him back ever so slightly.
Elise tried to react by conjuring a wall of stone, but found that she was strangely low on energy. Looking past Almer, she saw several robed figures, one of which was holding an orb pulsing with a strange red light. Every time the orb pulsed, she felt a little more of her energy leave her.
Suddenly one of the figures finished activating some form of skill, and the cave entrance became absolutely silent. In the silence, neither Elise nor Almer noticed someone sneaking up behind them until a rag was pushed in each of their faces. Inhaling the mid Tier poison caused them both to collapse immediately.
Elise awoke in the dark with the feeling of cold metal against her back. Groggily, she attempted to conjure a light, only to find that she had no energy at all. Fumbling around in the dark, she quickly discovered that not only did she have no energy, but she was only wearing her undergarments and had a thick metal collar around her neck. Reaching up to touch it, the feeling the collar gave off almost made her throw up. Shivering with revulsion and fear, she backed up against what she now realized were the bars of a cage and sat down heavily.
A groan came from under her and she quickly scooted to the side, no longer sitting on Almer. Almer slowly sat up and rubbed his head, groaning again. His hands found the collar and he doubled over retching before looking around. "What is this?" he asked, barely managing to make out Elise in the dark.
"Suppression collar. Prevents energy recovery. If we still had energy we could use skills but we would not gain any back. Do you have any idea who those people were? I didn't get a good look."
"Not really, though the attack that hit me was around Tier 4, it managed to overwhelm my Skill. Not Tier 5 though, that would have outright killed me even with Iron Skin. Do you know how long we have been here?"
"No idea, I woke up only a minute before you. What do you think they want us for? And how did they know about this area?"
"I'm guessing they heard about the Place from someone, possibly someone we know, and are planning on draining it. Now that I think about it, one of them did have the Mark of Consumption on his face. Possibly they plan on absorbing the Place."
"Isn't that the sort of thing you need sacrifices for? I really hope that isn't something you need sacrifices for. What if they plan on sacrificing us!?" Elise was beginning to panic when the door to the chamber they were in swung open and they both shielded their eyes from the bright light. The door to their cell was opened and someone was thrown in before the door was locked again and the captor left, leaving the torch this time.
Using the new light, Elise and Almer got a good look at their new cell mate. He had shoulder length brown hair that looked like it had not been properly cared for in a month, a plain face with a slightly pointed chin, and was wearing only what appeared to be silver boxers. Like them, he was wearing a suppression collar. Using his foot, Almer poked him in the side a few times. With a groan, their new cell mate came to, opening his eyes and staring at them. His gaze unsettled Elise for a moment before she shook herself. His right iris was almost entirely purple, with a small sliver of brown remaining at the top, while his left eye was golden and almost seemed to glow.
Seeing them, he scrambled away from them and back against the bars of the cage. He opened his mouth and said something, but neither Elise nor Almer could understand him. "Do you speak Corninth?" Elise asked, sitting back.
As the words left her mouth, he let out a cry of pain and pushed his fingers into his temples as if he had a headache. It seemed to last only a moment before he raised his head and said, this time in Corninth, "What did you say?" before looking incredibly confused and saying something in the strange language from before.
"I asked if you speak Corninth, which you just did so that answers my question." Elise said before holding out her hand. "My name is Elise, this is my friend and bodyguard Almer. What is your name?"
"My name is Lor," he replied, shaking her hand, "and to answer your question about speaking Corninth, the answer was no until you asked. Nice to meet you. Do you have any idea who these people are? They appear to have dug out a huge space in the caves here."
"Our guess is Consumer cultists. They plan on consuming this Place of Power." Almer said, scratching his head. "We also think they might need sacrifices."
"Wait, like human sacrifices?" Lor asked incredulously. "Why haven't you broken out yet? You're both Tier 3."
"Yeah, human sacrifices." Elise replied, pausing before seeming to do a verbal double take. "Wait, how do you know our Tiers? I don’t see an identification crystal on you and if they have managed to create a lens I would have heard about it."
Lor looked a little surprised at this. "I thought everyone would have an item that let them do that. Huh. Well, I have an artifact in place of my left eye that lets me use identification. I'm also pretty sure it is allowing me to speak this language as well." He leaned back against the cage and some crab legs appeared in his hands.
"You have an artifact!?" Elise and Almer exclaimed simultaneously. "And how the hell do you have crab legs?"
"I have a Skill called Inventory that lets me store stuff." Lor replied. "Also, yeah I have an Artifact, I found it on my first day here."
"How can you use your Skill with a suppression collar? If you have enough energy for that you should be trying to break out, not get food. Also, what do you mean by first day here? How long have you been in these caves?" Elise rapidly questioned.
"Slow down." Lor held up his hands placatingly. "Why wouldn't I be able to use my Skill? What's a suppression collar? As for breaking out, I'm waiting for my energy to come back before I try anything. I'll tell you how long I've been here when we get out."
"A suppression collar prevents you from gathering energy, thus preventing you from using Skills." Elise explained, gesturing to the collar around her neck, identical to the ones on Lor and Almer. "You can't gain any more energy than you have already, and your 'Inventory' Skill should cost energy."
Lor looked at both of them with a puzzled expression. "My Inventory Skill is free. Is that weird?" he asked. "Are free skills something that doesn’t exist?"
Elise was a little stunned, sitting for a moment before replying. "Free Skills aren't unheard of, but a free storage Skill is exceedingly rare."
Lor looked a little relieved, before asking a question the stunned Elise and Almer. "So the suppression collars stop you from gathering energy? Good thing I don't do that. I just need to wait for it to come back. It should start coming back in about an hour, though only about twenty percent."
Elise and Almer just looked at him with their mouths hanging open. Lor looked at them before holding out his hand. "Want some crab?" he asked with a grin.
~~~~~
Name: Lor Telmrin
Tier: 2
Rank: 5
Stats:
Power: Kinetic (T2 R0)
Body: Dimension (T2 R7)
Mind: Space (T2 R0)
Energy: Time (T3 R0)
Skills:
Active
Discharge (P) (T3 R3)
Telekinesis(P) (T1 R8)
Inventory (B) (T2 R5)
Dimensional Shield (B) (T1 R5)
Blink (M) (T3 R6)
Scry (M) (T1 R3)
Time Stop (E) (T2 R2)
Time Dilation (E) (T1 R6)
Revision (E) (T0 R9)
Passive
Absorb (P) (T3 R6)
Redirection (P) (T1 R1)
Dimensional Body (B) (T5 R2)
Out of Phase (B) (T0 R1)
Spacial Awareness (M) (T3 R2)
Disjointed (M) (T0 R4)
Looped Energy (E) (T3 R8)
Thought Acceleration (E) (T1 R0)
Artifacts:
Eye of the Traveler (Bound)
Inventory:
Stoneskin slacks Tier 3 x2
Vial of Recovery Tier 1 x3
Water x4 gallons
Healing Water x4 gallons
Quicksilver boxers Tier 2 x3
Phase silk shirt Tier 3 x1
Quicksilver mirror x1
Discharge (Active): Release stored kinetic energy in a single blast targeted with a touch. Precision increases with Rank. Cost: Minor energy
Telekinesis (Active): Using your stored kinetic energy, you can move objects with your mind. Efficiency and range increase with Rank. Cost: Minor energy
Inventory (Active): You have an extra-dimensional space capable of storing inanimate objects. Size increases with Rank. Cost: Free
Dimensional Shield (Active): You conjure a shield of dimensional fabric. Capable of blocking most attacks. Area and durability increase with Rank. Cost: Minor energy
Blink (Active): You are able to teleport a short distance. There is a short period of time between uses of Blink. Distance increases with Rank. Cost: Minor energy
Scry (Active): You are able to view a location remotely. You must have at least some knowledge of the target beforehand, or have something from the target. Range and accuracy increase with Rank. Cost: Low energy.
Time Stop (Active): You pause time for a short moment. There is a period of time between uses of Time Stop. Cost: Moderate energy.
Time Dilation (Active): You slow down time. You can interact with the world while time is slowed. Dilation scale increases with Rank. Cost: Low energy.
Revision (Active): You rewind time, undoing damage done. Efficiency and duration rewound increase with Rank. Cost: Moderate energy.
Absorb (Passive): Every impact, both attacks and getting attacked, store kinetic energy. Maximum capacity increases with Rank.
Redirection (Passive): Some portion of the kinetic energy you receive from any impact is redirected around you to any surface you are in contact with. Does not interfere with Absorb. Amount redirected increases with Rank.
Dimensional Body (Passive): Your body is not of this dimension. You are immune to lower Ranked poisons and critical attacks.
Out of Phase (Passive): You are slightly out of phase with this dimension. You are harder to affect with crowd control abilities. Difficulty increases with Rank.
Spacial Awareness (Passive): You understand the location of everything within a short distance of you. Distance and accuracy increases with Rank.
Disjointed (Passive): The space around you is slightly warped. Single target abilities have a chance to miss you. This chance can be adjusted between never and the maximum. Chance increases with Rank.
Looped Energy (Passive): After a time, any energy you expend is returned at the rate you spent it. Time before reset decreases with Rank.
Thought Acceleration (Passive): You can think faster than normal. Speed increases with Rank.