The feel of arctic pond water seared across Luke’s skin, shocking him awake.
A familiar waterfall sound colored the background as the Reaver attempted to get his bearings. Wet stone supported his back, and a set of white robes replaced the gear he wore. Luke iced his mind, flowing essence to his left eye.
The blurry vision reset to normal once he allowed himself a few blinks. The Reaver slowly shifted his head as water lapped up against him. Across the pond were three items and three people watching, each with different expressions. Red-black flowers dotted the grassland nearest to the shore. A pagoda was the sole building within the portal dimension.
Coughing out the water that managed to get into his mouth while waking up, Luke sputtered, “Musai? Iona?” Luke focused his left eye on the last person standing there, a monic woman with black rune etchings on her cheeks, flexible leather armor, and abnormally long legs, “And…you?”
Cracking her neck and rolling her shoulders, the monic woman “Who are you? Ya’ got shit for brains, newbie? I’m your dazzling senior, Aruna. If that’s too hard to remember, call me big sister instead.” Aruna put her wrists to her hips, elbows pointed out in pride, “I’m the best Enhancer tank you’ll ever meet. And don’t cha’ forget it, little brother.”
Iona smiled, amused, before chortling at Aruna, “That happy you're no longer the lowest rung in our little group, Aruna? You better watch out, ‘big sister’ or that little brother over there in the water will pass you up in a flash.”
Flustered for a second before returning to her prideful self, Aruna blushed for a split second, “Big sister Iona, wait! I don’t have to do that anymore, Iona. You can’t ruin my first impression like that. It’s not fair.” Aruna pointed a thumb back at herself,
“The youngest will never pass me, my genius pride is at stake here.”
As Iona and Aruna prattled on with each other, Luke gathered ambient thoughts. The unrealistically cold water pricked his skin. Yet compared to how it felt yesterday, now that he’d broken three different attribute thresholds, this could be considered mellow.
Luke began to put up a finger with each name that popped up in his mind, That makes it Musai, Iona, Annika, Eldacar, Tanniv, and Aura I’ve met. Iona has mentioned Aloysius, and Annika said a ‘Jovan’ helped Authoria in the past like I did. When will I meet the other two?
Voicing that part of the thought out loud, Luke suppressed the slight chatter to his teeth, “When am I going to meet the last two Defiers?”
Snapping her attention to Luke, Aruna raised an eyebrow and strode into the water, showing no hint of being affected by it; she bent down, “Your new big sister couldn’t hold your attention for even a few minutes? Now you want to meet two others?” She grabbed Luke by the robe and put him under the waterfall, onto the smooth sitting stone. The monic woman jumped onto the water and danced off it, like a water strider, “Put all those wasted questions into your training, like a good little brother.”
A faint fire blazed within Luke as he felt crashing water, brain freezing his mind to numbing calm.
This new ‘big sister’ of mine could learn to be gentler.
Caught in the whirlwind of a new acquaintance, Luke’s last vestiges of grogginess vanished. Across the pond, Xera was stabbed deeply into the soft dirt, Wayfinder wrapped around her, and the Whispering Tome gently floating beside the two. A nod of approval and elation overcame him as he detailed the cover with his eyes. A replica of Whispering Edge imprinted to the front, a circle around it, changing colors slowly. Usually between black, white, and blue.
The last of the three people stopped his characteristic silence, “The most willful branch, Annika, informed me of your feat, new leaf. Treat it as your first real act of Defiance to that which would bind you.” Bending over to the pond, free hair loosely moved with the wind as Musai touched the freezing water with a reaching palm, “Tepid,” He commented.
“You’ve accelerated your growth beyond my expectations, newest sapling. Allow me to adjust the water to one who has fully shed the first coil.” Musai clapped his hands once, and the previously green blue pond water changed into a deep azure and black mix.
Immediately Luke found the water pressure and temperature of the waterfall envelope his body into a deep freeze, ambient thought dissipated as the Reaver focused all efforts to withstanding the new cold.
Sagely straightening himself, Musai back stepped from the pond waters, “As you’ve expanded the vessel, the previous warm waters now hold no promise of growth. New streams must flow for new challenges.”
Lulu scored across the open sky with Sooty, both birds landed next to Musai. The grand swordsman stabbed his shorter sword into the dirt between them, “Growing Defier, in a mere day, you accomplished what others would struggle in the course of years. Stay your hand from a dungeon this waking period. Use this time to absorb what you’ve rapidly achieved, and” Musai glanced down at Sooty, “Do not leave behind what is precious.”
Allowing Luke to ruminate on his guidance, Musai took measured paces to where Aruna and Iona were undergoing a mock spar, with Timber taking a lazy nap a dozen yards away in that direction.
Managing to open both eyes, the right still carried blurred vision. He shut it out of precaution.
The damage from back then was no joke. Luke felt an unnatural covering on his chest, hands, and upper neck. Observing the source, he steamed out cool air, “Bandages, but of a quality I’ve not seen before.”
Things were more dangerous than I realized. That said, I’d do it again in a heartbeat. Luke timed his breaths by gradually controlling the waves of shivers across his body. A sort of heat arose from the Spectral Heart.
Busy with Lulu, Sooty had gone off doing a sort of aerial training with the owl. Iona thrashed Aruna with a wooden dagger. Aruna heaved air rapidly in and out. She cycled, drawing a vanishing blue vitality from her legs and arms, giving excess power past what Luke would expect. Yet, if Aruna managed that technique by altering her legs and arms, Iona used granular control across her entire body. Each muscle would vibrate or bulge calculatedly, overdrawing power on contact with Aruna’s fists.
One such contact sliced into Aruna’s palm, and the Enhancer tried to keep her position by altering her legs. Perhaps the tactic would've managed if both fighters were of the same tier.
They were not, Aruna flipped back to try and deal with the excess force. Iona took the granular control to her back leg, zooming in, planting a fist to Aruna’s stomach, crushing the Monic Defier to the plain dirt ground. Bits of spit and blood involuntarily flowed from Aruna, who struggled to keep conscious. A green sheen enveloped the tank-type class, and Aruna was practically as good as new.
“Can’t ya hold back a little? Damn Beastmaster.” Aruna wiped her mouth with an arm, getting back up. Iona stepped back to the opposite side of the practice area, in front of the three practice dummies to the very edge, “I am holding back, ‘little sister’. I’m neglecting to use my bow and either of my companions against you. What more could you want? Let you win on purpose?”
Luke paid close attention to their spar for awhile longer, their interchange of move sets so quick his working eye barely kept up. An aura whisper washed up to Luke, from Musai, “Their training is suitable for them, and yours for you. Return your attention to where it’s best used.”
An air slice horizontally cut the waterfall, slamming into Luke before fresh water replaced the gap half a second later. Part of Luke had become used to freezing. Rational thought no longer strained him when under the influence of excess cold. A stray thought entered the trance he attempted to enter.
How did I manage that black ice? It felt, no, it was, the next stage. The penetrative power made the typical Frost Essence akin to training wheels. The Reaver commanded ice to encase his right hand, it certainly portrayed a deeper shade of blue, nearly indigo, but black? Not in the slightest. Fresh subzero water minimized the thought. Luke pressed his left hand into the stone out of frustration.
The wet flat stone began to spiderweb, and a deep gash fissured beneath where he sat. Luke hurriedly clutched his hand to control it, believing he’d ruin his seat before long.
I should check my status, hard to know my limits if I don’t recognize what powers them first.
A silver inlaid screen expanded from the left corner of Luke’s vision, eventually occupying roughly half of what he could see, including the periphery.
[Class Interface]
Level: 42
Class: Essence Reaver
Tier: 1
HP: 6,684
Stats: 537 Agility, 500 Intellect, 612 Strength
Special Stats: 15 Fire Resist, 15 Frost Resist, 2 Poison Resist, 17 Resilience, 15 Mental Resist, Water Resist 5, 17 Ether Affinity, 4 Wind Affinity
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Active Abilities 5/5: Infusion Tier 1 Rank IV, Essence Bond Tier 1 Rank II, Essence Lance Tier 1 Rank II, Essence Fissure Tier 1, Siphon Tier 1
Passive Abilities 1/3: Roll of the Reaver Tier 1
Skill points: 27
Resource: 120 Essence 11/s regeneration
[Equipment]
[Inventory]
[Heart]
[Profession]
A few of the resistance numbers were lower than usual, due to Luke’s lack of combat gear at the moment. His health pool had ballooned, strength may as well have doubled, with a dramatic increase in intellect and agility. Calculating the advantage his class gave him, that being exaggerated stats, Luke surmised to prioritize gear for its special affixes, effects, or rarer attributes. Rather than what their baseline offerings were.
What did five extra strength on a pair of gloves matter if he could steal that amount from another monster within minutes? Assuming he found a suitable target, that is. Instead, an item with special stats or a unique effect would prove far more valuable with barely any drawback for a Reaver like him. When the man centered his attention on the Ether Affinity special attribute, the faint feeling of ‘belonging’ returned to the forefront. A thin white line connected from him seated under wet stone, and pointed to where Wayfinder lay.
White wisps circled before his eyes, and Luke stepped out into the pond, a sharp paint shot to his brain once he sunk in. Luke stepped forward slowly, grasping Wayfinder once he was within suitable reach. Activating Polar South, he dropped the compass back to its position at the pond’s bank, aware that Musai desired to prevent items from easing the training. The Reaver allowed insights to guide the training. His level of flow too high to register Wayfinder’s grumblings at the rough use or Xera’s teasing in return.
Righting himself into a proper sitting posture, Luke actively began to fight against the waterfall. Frost Essence freely coated him, attempting to freeze the rushing water. The effect proved vastly more difficult than expected. Bits of water froze before more moving water replaced it. The ‘resistance’ within the waterfall too extreme for him to counteract the constant cycle.
Still, trusting this would be a way to hone control, efficiency, and potency with Frost Essence; Luke would push out as much as he could before the familiar mental fatigue overtook the resource expenditure. Without the effects of his armor, and the environmental boost in the Ruined Realm, after roughly ten minutes, Luke’s Essence use would exceed what he regenerated, even at this steady, controlled rate.
He recovered his abilities at an accelerated pace compared to how it was before he broke through the first Intellect threshold. A small minute break and he could return to the output. The amount of water froze at a time inched forward. Iced steam shimmered off the Reaver constantly. Subconsciously, he closed the remaining open eye. Within his mind’s eye, a disembodied view of a transparent model designed itself.
The phenomena copied Luke’s appearance, before showing the Spectral Heart attuning to release more potent Frost Essence in greater quantities. Almost like it was batching itself. His body began to sync closer with the Heart, and gradually, frost of deeper shades emerged. In an endless cycle, the Reaver reached ever more for depth, allowing natural greed to overtake caution previously present in his nature.
Sometime later, the ceasing of crashing water snapped Luke out of the near epiphany state. Both eyes opened, the smooth wet rock that was his seat now stuck in a deep freeze. A shell of ice covered over him, with water forced to flow around it.
Musai stepped onto the pond, his energy rippling across the water, “The intended session has long passed. Have you enjoyed your artificial enlightenment? This old blade had hoped you would reach that state naturally. Perhaps this is best with Yuriel’s declaration. Slower, more stable methods will require time we do not have for you.”
Flattening out his grey vestments, Musai flared out a hand, both his swords sheathed into their predetermined slot within his belt. He lightly tapped the ice shell around Luke, a faint energy sliced the surface to ribbons, and continually kept back the waterfall threatening to pour on Luke once more.
“You’ve peered further into your most honed technique. Come, youngest leaf, you require additional guidance today.” Musai turned around, starting a steady gait towards the flattened area with training dummies, taking care not to ruin the red-black flowers along the way. “Leave the confused sword, and ancient soul with the compass at their position. Your youngest companion, the tome, will remain in place.”
Hit out of left field, Xera asked Wayfinder, “Did he just subtly insult me, compass?”
Teetering a needle, Wayfinder responded, “Up to you to take confused as an insult or a hint, lass.”
The Reaver shook off fragments of ice as he stepped into the pond, he managed to freeze where he stepped, creating a path of frost to the pond’s edge. Once on solid ground, he stopped radiating the attributed essence. Noting the rest of his gear resting in the center of the pagoda for a moment, Luke stood an arm’s length away from Musai on the rough dirt ground training area.
Musai shoved a foot out slightly, and a sizable boulder shimmered into existence between Luke and the grand swordsman. Placing both arms behind his back, Musai turned away from Luke, “Strike the boulder, ignore your mind telling you it is a foolish move. It no longer understands you.”
Gripping a hand, Luke asked, “I’m not going to shatter my bones from doing this, am I?”
“Perhaps yesterday, but not today. Strike.”
Exhaling deeply, Luke spread out his legs in a sort of stance. He set his eyes on the boulder and balled up a fist. Finally, in one swift motion, Luke rocketed his left arm to the stone. The fist sunk in, coming out the other side, the boulder’s top blowing apart half a second later, Luke suppressed the dull pain while otherwise gaping at the result.
Snatching the hand back, rubble flowed off as Luke flexed and unflexed it before his face, inspecting the barely harmed extremity, “That was rather unexpected, I was so sure that I’d fracture my wrist or worse.”
Snapping a finger while facing Luke again, Musai had the boulder disintegrate, strands of grey hair streamed across his face due to the gentle wind, “As I’ve guided you, the mind ceases to understand until you teach it. Young leaf, I am to make a request of you, allow your status to be seen by me. The legacy of greed is unyielding, making an exact assessment of your accelerating growth complex.”
In the upper right corner, an orange request line popped into Luke’s running log. It expanded once Luke allowed it attention.
[Musai Ioto requests to see your status screen. Y/N?]
Shredding any doubt, Luke pressed the ‘yes’ option, leaving Musai to peruse the requested information as he wished. To Luke’s surprise, an additional screen popped up,
[Would the user wish to blank out parts of his status? Y/N.]
The Reaver assented the ‘no’ out of the two, if Musai had real ill intent, Luke would be in no position to resist. A slight distrust like this would likely end up harming him more than helping.
After a short silence, Musai slowly nodded, “You’ve surpassed all four possible thresholds within the first ascension. As expected from sin, your attributes are multiple times what is expected of one at your level. Already you’ve reached into the following step.” Musai swept out a wooden sword, “I will slowly speed up my strikes, notify me when your eyes are no longer able to track the blade.”
Silently nodding, Luke concentrated on the wooden sword, a twinge of green still within the weapon. As mentioned, Musai struck in the air at a snail’s pace, yet each following strike sped up. Gusts of wind picked up as Musai cut into nothing rapidly. Finally, roughly sixty-three strikes in, all Luke could discern was a faint blur.
“My eyes can’t keep up anymore, Master Musai,” Luke said as Sooty settled onto his upper back, with no sign of Lulu.
Dropping the sword, which vanished before touching the ground, Musai corrected Luke, “Your brain is what cannot keep up, sapling. Breaking into the first intellect attribute wall allowed you to adapt to a faster pace of battle, your processing evolving for efficiency. All to survive a flow previously beyond you.”
Circling Luke, the old swordsman continued instruction, “Without proper intellect, control over your agility and strength becomes unreachable. Your faculties unable to handle proper finesse to inhuman ability.” Pointing out into the distance where small rolling hills lay to the pond’s east, Musai said, “Rush from here and to the furthest you can go before the roiling clouds prevent your travel. Return, then repeat three times. Go now.”
Keeping back questions, Luke pounded against the ground with his feet. Rapidly increasing in speed, grass tore up in heaps as he ran beyond previous records. While Luke couldn’t assign an exact measure, the Reaver had the confidence to keep up with a car back on Earth. Poor Sooty had to hang on for dear life, her beak biting into Luke’s robe, while her talons ripped into the back.
Layers of clouds entrapped him once roughly two miles out, believing this is what Musai meant, Luke turned and returned to Master Musai. Preventing Luke from rushing off to a second lap, Musai clamped a hand onto Luke’s shoulder, “One attempt proved fruitful enough. You are ready, young leaf. Sit.”
Taking a seat in a criss-cross, Luke oriented to Musai, “Am I to leave Wayfinder, the tome, and Xera behind? What am I ready for?”
Clasping a hand into the air, Musai answered, “Your concentration is important, allow yourself peace. My student, you find yourself in an unusual spot.”
Tilting a head, Luke said, “How so? There’s too many variables to know which one you might be thinking of.”
Releasing a faint grin, Musai agreed, “In that case, I’m speaking of your qualification to join the Defiers, elementalization. None of the other eight joined with that technique, instead, each had their own, honed through incessant practice, desperation, and weakness.” Musai opened a palm and a white tome with a lightning symbol rotated above, “Each Defier is gifted an elemental tome that shows them the way to adept with their most compatible element. Naturally, that is useless to you.”
Closing the palm, the tome turned into motes returned to from whence it came. Luke saw Musai flex his calf muscle before the swordsman reappeared a quarter mile from his previous position. Half a second later, Musai flashed inches away from Luke, “A large portion of this speed is due to the tier and attribute difference between us. The foundation behind it is my technique, Triple Step.” Using a finger, Musai pressed up against Luke’s forehead, “You’ve reached the minimum requirements to make it into your own. This will be your gifted ‘elemental tome’ as the typical one is a decoration to you. Stay still, and endure the pain.”
An electric shock wrecked Luke’s insides. Ignoring the urge to scream as sweat poured out, Luke heard Musai’s following words, “Look within, see what this electric signal is doing within your body, copy it. This is the faintest knowledge needed to adapt Triple Step into your range of possibilities.”
Struggling to comply, Luke couldn’t help but shut his eyes, and breathe in ragged breaths, as the electric motions never ceased, eventually liquid pooled from Luke’s mouth. Sooty rattled at Musai in an effort to protect Luke, alerted. The man shoved out a hand in front of his companion, “No, Sooty. Thi-”
Another jolt interrupted his tongue muscles, preventing further speech. That sparked an insight into Luke, and he began to inspect himself. The weak lightning, while painful, made a recognizable pattern to the same sets of muscles, starting from his neck, down his back through his hips, all of it condensing in one leg to his calf muscle.
The agility and strength at Luke’s command seemed to respond to the motion, begging for release. A faint glow of yellow left the Reaver’s eyes. Musai retracted his finger, “The basis of the technique has been imprinted to you. Return tomorrow morning to practice Triple Step. It’ll show rare utility should you reach adept in its mastery.. Stepping once, the swordsman dissipated, and then a pile with Xera, Wayfinder, the Whispering Tome, and Luke’s combat gear took his place. An aura whisper echoed across the realm in Musai’s voice, “I cannot spare you more of my time, young branch. I’ll be leaving first. Exit my realm when you’ve gathered your wits.”
Turning his head to Sooty, Luke said, “That was a hell of a lesson. I hope Lulu was a gentler teacher to you.”
Sooty picked at her feathers before responding with a proud rattle. Through their link, an intention resembling ‘it was easy’ came to Luke’s end.
“That’s good to hear,” Luke said as he laid back, observing the calm clouds, forcing a short recovery before facing the rest of the day’s challenges.