Before Anton could answer, he saw his sister Amelia rushing toward them from the hospital. She called out, “Don’t touch her!”
Anton looked at her like she was crazy and waited until she stood before Felix and himself before he answered, " I wasn’t planning on it, but I have to ask why?”
“The Goddess bid me to convey that request and to also commend you on not trying to absorb the artifacts yourself or give them to me or the other family members,” Amelia said.
“She said all that?” Anton asked.
“She did,” Amelia agreed.
“What is Amelia talking about,” Felix asked.
“Caitlyn almost died when that powerful Death Mage captured her. Well, when I saved her, I gave her the four Artifact Node Stones I gathered from the Nodes that popped up near Dover Air Force Base,” Anton started to explain.
“Yeah, you told me this already. So did she,” Felix said impatiently.
“We may not have been completely honest about what happened. I didn’t so much give her the artifacts as she absorbed them,” Anton said.
“She absorbed them?” Felix said
“Yes, she absorbed them,” Amelia affirmed, “They opened up more abilities based on the five elements she absorbed: Air, Earth, Fire, Water, and Death.”
“Just before she was covered in the kaleidoscope of light in front of us, she told me that she’d also found the Life and Darkness node gems, which I can only assume she also absorbed,” Anton said
“Then why is she like this?” Felix asked.
“I found the eighth-element Node gem for light. She just absorbed it?” Anton said with a shrug.
“And you didn’t think to use the gems for yourself?” Felix said as he looked at Anton.
“They were worthless to me. They were artifacts, so they retained some of their abilities while I held them, but I had no access to those abilities nor could I absorb the….” Anton’s thoughts paused. He could assimilate artifacts. He had, in fact. He just hadn’t thought to absorb the node gems. Why? It wasn’t like Caitlyn and him were a thing. No, he wasn’t helping her for that reason, though she was very appealing, and he would… No, the way his life had been going, getting involved with anyone was asking to either bury them or be disappointed when they grew tired of him. If he was being honest with himself, he was helping her because she might be able to help his family if he disappeared again.
On that subject, this was the longest he’d been in any single place since Antarctica. He couldn’t explain it, but something felt off. Tons of XP for killing other humans, the Gods were reappearing. Was that Trial of Transcendence that had been mentioned still going on, or had it concluded? He just felt that something was about to happen, and he wasn’t sure what it was.
Amelia interrupted his thoughts when she asked, “Anton, what’s on your mind? You look like you're thinking pretty hard over there.”
“Not much, just wondering what’s going to happen next?”
“Happen next?” Felix asked.
“Why would you think something is going to happen?” Amelia asked.
“I can’t explain it; I just have a feeling,” Anton said.
“Women have intuition,” Amelia said.
“I’m in touch with my feminine side,” Anton quipped back.
“You’re in touch with something, all right,” Felix added with a laugh.
“A joke from you, wow,” Anton said with a genuine look of surprise.
“It happens from time to time. “Amelia, did the Goddess indicate how long this was going to take,” Felix asked.
“No. She just said that Caitlyn would be undergoing a race and possibly a class evolution.
“I’m just going to post some guards for now; why don’t you go get something to eat and rest up, Anton? You just returned, didn’t you?” Felix said.
“Sounds like a great idea,” Anton agreed.
“I’ll keep an eye on Caitlyn from the hospital across the street,” Amelia said.
“Thank you, Amelia. Anton, why don’t you get some rest? She’s not going anywhere.”
Felix knew the moment Felix stated that Caitlyn wasn’t going anywhere, he’d fucked up. He looked Felix directly into his eyes and tried to convey the depth of his thoughts as he said, “You’re really going to say that now?”
“What are you talking about? She’s not going anywhere, is she,” Felix said with a hint of indignation in his voice.
As if summoned on cue, a SYSTEM-wide announcement appeared, though it wasn’t exactly what Anton had expected.
SYSTEM Message
The Gods have Returned, Old and New alike.
The Trial of Transcendence has ended.
All SYSTEM-assisted growth is removed. All creatures are worth Base Experience Points equal to their level times 100 as modified for variations in rarity between the winner and loser of any combat.
SYSTEM-based Storage is no longer supported, except during specific events. If you’d like dimensional storage, you can acquire spells or skills or create items that provide it yourself.
You will retain access to SYSTEM-based Dimensional Storage for the next 30 days. Items, including physical coins, may be removed from SYSTEM Storage. Nothing may be added, however.
Skills, Spell, and Item-based Dimensional Storage remain unaffected.
All Sentients and Monsters that have achieved level 100 or higher in one or more classes are offered a choice.
Choice One: Remain where you are as you are. Note that if you are significantly higher in level than monsters in your area, level progression will slow down considerably.
Choice Two: Transport to a location within your Universe where creatures at least one-half your level exist. Creatures above your level, even far above your level, may also reside there. The SYSTEM guarantees that you will arrive in a safe location. No safety is guaranteed more than one mile from your starting location, however.
Choice Three: Battle Royal. The Trial of Transcendence has concluded. Even so, there are roles that must be filled. Any individuals who have reached level 100 may participate in a hunt or be hunted event. The last person standing may request one Ability, Skill, Spell, or Item from the SYSTEM in addition to any other gains you make during the event.
Possible Outcomes of the Battle Royal.
Anyone can leave at any time if they fear the competition is too hard. If they do, they will be treated as if they chose Choice Two. You may not leave the Battle Royal while in active combat or being actively tracked. If you choose to engage in combat or are engaged, you must either win, surrender, or evade your opponent.
You win an encounter if you kill your opponent or they surrender to you; there are no draws.
You may surrender to an opponent with whom you enter combat. Surrender requires you to sacrifice Experience Points equal to your level as well as all but 100 credits, a primary nonmagical weapon, and nonmagical undergarments. If you do not have a nonmagical weapon, one will be created for you by The SYSTEM. After this, you will be treated as if you made Choice 2 as you are removed from the Battle Royal.
You will be considered to have Evaded an encounter when the individual you have encountered fails to locate you for five minutes.
To Win the Battle Royal, you must be the last entity standing that has decided to participate. Local creatures and monsters do not count toward this. For the duration of the Battle Royal, everyone will automatically recognize participants and local creatures on sight.
NOTE 1: Regardless of your choice, The SYSTEM Recommends that you review your Status immediately after reading this notification before you make your choice. Major changes have been made to balance Abilities, Perks, Titles, Skills, Spells and equipment.
NOTE 2: If you are going to choose Choice 3, do not take too long to review your status; every moment counts.
Anton closed his notifications. He knew exactly which choice he was going to make; it was almost as if he’d been built for such an event. He turned to Felix as he said, “Felix?”
Felix’s eyes focused on Anton, “Yes.”
“I don’t know if Caitlyn will be participating; if she does not, could you ask her to keep an eye on my family.”
“Are you at least level 100? I know leveling for you is kind of slow.”
“Oh yeah, I broke level 100 when I killed that death mage,”
“Really?”
“Oh yeah, by a couple hundred. Anyway, the notification seemed to indicate that going for Option 3 sooner than later would be better,” Anton said.
“It did,” Felix agreed, “and?”
“Please look after my family. I do not know how long it will be before I return.”
“If you return.”
“I’ll make it back,” Anton said as he chose Option 3 and confirmed his choice, and vanished.
Anton felt himself getting yanked out of the material plane, momentarily passing through various dimensions before he appeared on a flat, dusty plane inside what he could only describe as the bottom huge empty crater. He couldn’t be sure, but the sides in all directions looked to be at least a mile away from where he stood. Also, the air was thin, which meant that he was at least a couple thousand feet above sea level but well within the tolerance of a normal human body to adjust to.
Anton hadn’t pulled up his Status before he accepted Option 3, so he did so now. As he did, another SYSTEM Message appeared.
The SYSTEM has become fully integrated.
Changes have been instituted.
For the most part, those changes are for you to figure out.
In General Terms, Abilities, Perks, Titles, Skills, and Spells that may not have been balanced correctly have received scrutiny and adjustment. As this statement pertains to you, Immortal, Specter, Manifest, Spectral Reach, Planar Shift, and Annihilate Life have been adjusted.
Immortal – You are immortal. You may not be permanently killed.
Update: Your Physical Form has been adjusted by your Class to the Race Human Pseudo-Specter, which has adjusted your physical form to Specter.
You may not be killed normally.
Hit Points represent the adhesive property of your True Form. If your Hit Points reach “0” your true form is dispersed and you are considered unconscious. It will require one hour plus 1 minute per point of – excess damage you accrue upon death. Excess Damage is any damage that the final blow that killed you did in excess of your current Hit Points.
Example: If you had 10 Hit Points and received a blow that killed you for 20 points of damage you would have 10 Negative Damage and it would take you one hour and ten minutes to reform.
If your Hit Points and Psychic Energy both reach “0,” you are disincorporated and considered unconscious. Normally, this would permanently kill Specters; however, the ability to immortalize prevents this.
Psychic Energy regenerates normally while Disincorporated. Once Psychic Energy has reached capacity, you are treated as if you were dispersed and will reform after one hour plus one minute. For every point of excess damage.
Note: if Psychic Energy Reaches “0” but you still retain hit points, you are rendered unconscious. If Manifest is active, it ceases and your physical body fades away. You will remain in this state until your normal Psychic Energy Regeneration rate refills your Psychic Energy completely. At that point you wake up normally.
Once your True Body has reformed it has one Hit Point and Regenerates at your normal Rate. Healing spells and skills can increase the rate at which your True Body recovers Hit Points normally.
Specter:
Your Natural form is incorporeal and invisible on the Material Plane. You no longer eat or breathe. Instead, your existence in the mortal realm is maintained by psychic energy at a rate of 1 per second.
* Specter Benefits:
Movement: (Flight Based):
Physical Combat: You must Manifest to Interact with the Physical World.
Note: While sleeping or unconscious, you float in place.
* Specter Disadvantages:
You may not make Physical Attacks.
Energy-based attacks usually hurt you. Note: Anti-Mage still affects Magic Normally.
See Immortal for more information about Dispersion and Disincorporation for the effects of damage to Hit Points and loss of Psychic Energy.
Loss of Stamina has no permanent effect on you other than you will not be able to take actions or move without Stamina.
Manifest
As a Specter, you may Manifest a Physical Form. This form acts as your Physical Body within the Material Plane. The Hit Points of your True Form now represent a Manifested Body. While Manifest, Damage to you damages your Manifested Body and your True Form. If your Hit Points reach “0,” The Manifested body vanishes, and your True Form is Dispersed.
Note about your True Form from Skill Specter:
Hit Points represent the adhesive property of your True Form. If your Hit Points reach “0” your true form is dispersed and you are considered unconscious. It will require one hour plus 1 minute per point of – excess damage you accrue upon death. Excess Damage is any damage that the final blow that killed you did in excess of your current Hit Points.
Cost to Manifest: 10 Psychic Energy Per second.
Spectral Reach
Spectral Reach has been modified Considerably. Range follows normal limitations based on skill level. You may not reach across dimensional barriers with this skill. Instead, you can reach out and grab things as if they were inside your normal reach for 5 Stamina and 5 Psychic Energy per use. Items may be placed into and drawn from any inventory skill, spell, or storage device you have. Utilizing weapons at range is possible but will take practice and may require training in specific skills dedicated to those types of attacks.
The Strength of your Spectral Reach hands is equivalent to your normal strength.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
Planar Shift
Is NOT Teleport. You may not Planar Shift within the same Universe or Dimension. In fact, lateral movement of any kind is prohibited.
Planar Shift may be utilized to shift to an adjacent Universe or Dimension.
You may activate Planar Shift for yourself for 100 Psychic Energy
You may activate a Portal to allow others to travel to other universes and dimensions for 1,000 Psychic Energy. The portal may be kept open for an additional 10 seconds for 100 Psychic Energy.
You may not push others to other Dimensions with this ability,
SYSTEM NOTE: You know why this rule was added.
Annihilate Life
With a touch, you cause living creatures to decay. This is a higher-spell energy-based attack.
Range: Touch
Damage At Skill Level 1: 6 hit points. Damage increases normally as Skill Level increases.
Cost at Skill Level 1: 10 Psychic Energy. Cost increases normally as Skill Level Increases.
Anton closed his Notifications. What the hell, “Hey SYSTEM, what the Fuck man, you can’t just change my skills like that?”
Anton waited for a moment to see if the SYSTEM would answer. He’d heard himself, so he must have vocalized his statement, right? After a few moments, he looked down and noticed that he could see through his body to the ground below him. So he was now a Specter, and he was burning his Psychic Energy Regeneration to remain alive.
Anton flew straight up for a few seconds until he was at least a mile above the crater in the ground because it was a crater that appeared to be at least two miles in diameter. Unlike the meteor crater in Arizona, this crater was in the center of a forest that went off into the distance in all directions. Various tree types reminded Anton of Pines and Oaks, but they were just different enough for Anton to realize he wasn’t on Earth anymore.
As Anton looked around and got his bearings, a flash of movement in the distance caught his attention before an explosion rocked the forest. A moment later, another explosion rocked out, and a body flew through trees and then plowed into the ground, through the edge of the crater, and down into the area Anton had just been standing.
“Come now, you can do better than that. You even attacked me from Stealth.” A man dressed in black called out.
The other man in black leathers with a wicked-looking short sword picked himself up from the ground and turned back toward the hole he’d created in the side of the crater as he yelled, “I will kill you, Ci’less. You didn’t have to kill Becka!”
Ci’less had been running toward the crater but stopped when he reached the edge. He looked down and shook his head as he called back, “Matt, you read the same Notification I did. She either had to surrender or die. I gave her a choice, and she made it.”
“But she was your friend, Ci’less.”
“We have no friends in the pursuit of power!” Ci’less responded.
“Who told you that?” Matt asked.
“The SYSTEM. Now, Surrender or Die, Make your Choice!”
Matt didn’t respond. Instead, he moved faster than Anton could see as he drew his sword and rushed to attack Ci’less. That was a mistake.
With an ease that surprised Anton, Ci’less moved faster than Matt could compensate for and delivered a strike with the side of his hand, slicing Matt’s head right off. It was devastating, brutal, and efficient.
Ci’less moved to the corpse, activated an ability, and the corpse of Matt disintegrated. Anton was pretty sure he’d used a looting power of some kind. Just as Anton considered this, Ci’less looked directly at Anton and then flew up to where he was floating.
“And who are you?” Ci’less asked in a much more reasonable voice.
Before Anton could answer, Ci’less’s head vanished. The only thing Anton saw was the afterimage of a beam of dark light traveling close to or at the speed of light. Anton immediately adjusted his location by going vertical another mile as another man burst out of the forest and flew up to catch Ci’less’s body, which also vanished into a cloud of smoke, which quickly disappeared. Then he flew up to where Ci’less had been floating and looked around as if looking for something.
Anton watched as the man looked around, heard an explosion off in the distance, and flew off to investigate. Did everyone have a looting ability? He would later find out, after his first kill that, yes, everyone was granted a temporary looting ability.
***
When it was all said and done, Anton was delighted with the changes to all of his powers. It seemed that the SYSTEM was trying to bring some order to chaos. At first, he had felt that Specter had been nerfed by removing his ability to travel to and from the adjacent dimension. Now, though, he was more than satisfied with how things had turned out. Besides, he could still get to that dimension with Planar Shift.
When he used Planar Shift, he found that some fundamental rules had changed in the dimension Specter had allowed him to enter. He could still see people on the Prime Material Plane, and he could even see the light radiating from their Soul Core, but he could no longer Identify it. To do that, he had to use Aura Sight on the Prime Material Plane.
Also, Spectral Reach could no longer reach through the dimensional boundary, and he could no longer use Possession on someone while he was in that adjacent Dimension. It seemed the dimensional barrier had been strengthened, and while he might be able to see and sometimes hear through a dimensional barrier, trying to utilize a skill or spell was a big no.
The last thing he noticed in the adjoining dimension was that his movement was now completely will-based. His maximum speed was now based on his willpower. It seemed the SYSTEM was changing some of the rules to mimic things he’d seen in tabletop games.
Anton laughed to himself at those thoughts floated through his mind. He’d learned so much over the last…he didn’t even know how long. The last contestant in this Battle Royal wouldn’t surrender. Anton hadn’t been able to track him down, at least not yet. His target's ability to evade detection was as good as his own, which made finding his target nearly impossible. If this continued for much longer, he was going to have to do something crazy, he knew it. While he kept looking for his target, he considered the other things he’d learned.
Anton had also found out that a few other things about his Specter skill had been changed. He could hear everything that went on around him. He couldn’t speak unless he Manifest, though. If he tried to speak, nothing happened as far as he could tell. He could hear his voice, but no one else could. Of course, he could use Telepathy to talk to those near him if he wanted. One nice thing: others couldn’t detect him unless they had a way to detect spirits or auras unless he Manifest.
Moving was fun. He didn’t have to worry about atmospheric friction or running out of stamina. His regeneration rates more than compensated for his Psychic Energy and Stamina consumption. He could also use Spectral Reach to deliver any touch-based attack, even Possession. That made it easy for him to reach out and touch someone if he wanted to without having to Manifest, though his range was only 80 feet currently.
Speaking of Manifest, the changes to it were nice and worked very well in this Battle Royale, which he attributed to his insanely high Luck. If he Manifest and the body was killed, his killer watched the body disperse and, in most cases, automatically thought that they had killed him and looted his body.
During the beginning of the Battle Royale, things were hectic, and he’d even been killed by a Shaman who’d been able to trap and drain him of his Psychic Energy. Unfortunately for that asshat, he’d been so sure of his victory and so happy that he’d “killed” Anton that someone else had killed him while Anton was Disincorporated. It had taken a bit for him to reform, but his Immortal ability had ensured that he did, and because he hadn’t surrendered, he was still in the Battle Royale.
Anton was pretty sure that if he didn’t surrender, he would win the Battle Royal no matter what. The SYSTEM had to know that, so the question was, why had the SYSTEM allowed him to participate if he had an unfair advantage? Unless it was trying to get the high-level people off of all those worlds. Anton wasn’t sure what was going on with the system and how it was handling things, which felt, for lack of a better word, chaotic. One moment, things were crazy; the next, the system was balancing itself, overbalancing, and then adjusting the fundamental rules that it followed. It was definitely chaotic.
To Anton, it looked like only one reckless contestant would be left after this Battle Royale. Anyone else who survived would be the kind of person who would rather surrender and live than try for greater glory and die. Anton wasn’t sure that was a good thing. The SYSTEM was culling a large percentage of the risk takers with this event.
Another problem Anton had. His Clock function in his Status was not working, and he’d lost track of time during the Battle Royale. He’d been here for over a month, probably two or three. In all that time, he’d only killed one contestant, and that had been a weird opportunity. That’s when he found out that everyone had a Temporary Looting Power and a Temporary Dimensional Storage where everything that was found and earned during the event was stored.
Everything in his SYSTEM Storage had been transferred to his Maggen’s Exceptional Storage Skill. He could look at his stuff, and he could even pull items out of it if he felt he needed them, but he couldn’t place anything back in it. Everything went into what the SYSTEM termed Event Storage. If he died or surrendered, all of his items and gear would be transferred to the victor's Event Storage.
That meant that when he finally beat the other contestant, he would get a lot of loot. He wasn’t sure how many contestants there had been, but this world had at one time been full of combatants, and Anton was sure it was about double the size of Earth. He’d found that out when he went up into orbit to see if that would affect his Specter body. It hadn’t, except that it had been really quiet and cold, neither of which bothered him.
Another week passed before Anton decided it was time to end this cat-and-mouse bullshit. He returned to the crater he’d first appeared in, Manifest, and sat down as he activated Battle Meditation.
Less than an hour later, an illusion appeared five feet directly in front of Anton’s sitting body: " It smells like a trap.”
Anton smiled, “Coming from someone who has relied on their Stealth and Traps to take out their major opponents during this event, I’ll take that as a compliment.”
The apparition was formless, but Anton felt that the man controlling it smiled as he asked, “What is this then?”
“This is the end or the beginning of a very long fight sequence, “Anton said
“Explain”
Anton didn’t bother; instead, he converted a portion of the text for his Immortal ability into a notification and pushed it to appear in front of the apparition.
The apparition froze for a moment while its controller read before Anton heard it mutter under its breath, “Bullshit,” before, in a louder voice, it said, “I can go until you grow tired of this and give up.”
“I don’t think so.”
“I’ve broken level 5,000. Your power is insignificant to what I can do!” The apparition declared right before a dagger struck from stealth and wrecked Anton’s Manifest body.
With his last breath, Anton stated, “Long game then…”
When Anton woke up, he was floating in the bottom of the crater. He immediately shot upward at maximum speed just in case that rogue tried to do something when he had only one hit point. The change to the way he respawned was more reasonable and balanced toward others, but it sucked if his enemy was smart enough to wait for him. He’d been killed three times in a row, one time, which had tied him up for almost a day. He’d learned that lesson well, though. When he came back to consciousness after he died, he now made it a habit to move at maximum speed for a complete combat turn, which put him over seven miles from where he reformed.
Anton continued straight up once he was sure any attacks had failed until the sounds around him faded away. Once he considered himself safe, he opened his Notifications.
You have Died.
You have been Dispersed.
Excess Damage Taken: 10,062
Time until Dispersion ends: 168 hours or 6.98 Days
Anton laughed. That idiot had killed him and then had to sit around for 7 days. Served that asshole right. Anton considered his options, and then an idea came to him. Something he’d learned in school: Passive Protests. If this asshole wanted to fight, Anton wasn’t going to give it to him. He was going to make the asshole get bored and surrender or get bored and let his guard down. Anton wasn’t even going to bother with him. Sure, this approach wasn’t going to do much for his family, Felix or Caitlyn, but Caitlyn was probably still on Earth, which meant that his family was perhaps still safe because there had been a lot of idiots that came to this event.
To Passively Protest, Anton was going to activate Meditation and remain that way until the little shit surrendered or he reached skill level 100, whichever happened first. The SYSTEM wasn’t pushing him to act so maybe slowing down was the way to go. Besides, if all he had to worry about was getting bored, he would win this contest of willpower long before his opponent.
Anton closed his eyes in the peace and quiet of the upper atmosphere and activated Meditation.
***
Meditation has reached Skill Level 100
Anton pulled himself entirely out of Meditation and checked to see how long he’d been meditating. He couldn’t tell how long he’d been on this planet because he hadn’t thought to set a timer at the very beginning. This time, though, He’d set a timer before he started Meditating. It had been 171 days and 13 hours plus a couple of minutes since he started meditating. It looked like the Rogue had a little bit of Willpower after all because he hadn’t surrendered yet. Now, it was time to hunt his opponent.
In the end, it wasn’t even hard to find his opponent. He hadn’t thought to use Planar Shift because of the changes to Specter, but he could still see Soul Cores in the Material Plane from there, so he figured why not try. Anton activated the Planar Shift and searched for the Rogue. For some reason, the idiot thought Anton would come back to the crater, so he was keeping an eye on it. To Anton, all the stealth in the world wouldn’t shield his Soul Core from Anton’s notice in the adjoining dimension. Once he had him, it was quite easy for Anton to keep track of him.
Anton tracked him back to his lair, which was in a cave system he’d found near a stream in the forest. He’d even used some of the items he’d acquired from the others he’d killed to set up a makeshift home, complete with a bed, dining room, and even a lounge area. Thus began the second part of Anton’s surveillance and skill training.
Two skills that he’d been severely negligent of were Analyze and Identify. Once Anton knew where his opponent was going to be, he’d go off into the forest, Planar Shift back into the Material plane, and identify as much as he could. He’d also attempt to identify the man once a week, but those always failed. He could read his emotions with Aura Sight so he’d check on him once in a while to make sure he wasn’t getting to distraught.
Now that he’d decided to go after the guy, he was going to, and there would be no getting away for him. If he showed signs of depression Anton would engage and at least try to keep him interested while he tried to kill him. Besides, he didn’t want someone this powerful to be his enemy for all eternity. He needed to get rid of this guy, here and now.
First, though, he needed to figure out who this guy was, and to do that, he needed to level Identity. His intelligence and perception should have allowed him to burn through whatever was protecting his identity, so his failure to do so must have had something to do with his skill. Anton went to work.
When Identity reached level 10 he was able to at least get back the race of his opponent, Human. At skill level 20, he received his class, Rogue. At skill level 30, the class switched to Shadow Rogue and informed him that it was a Master rarity class. At skill level 40, he finally received a name for the prick, Vincent Woodrow. At skill level 50, he even determined that the guy had been lying. His level was all the way up to 9,164.
Vincent must have killed quite a few of the high-level people before he started this event. Anton did some quick math in his head. At Master Rarity, he’d have had to earn at least …210 Billion. What the hell! Anton only had just over 777 million XP right now. It was too bad he wasn’t going to earn half of the XP that guy had. Still, he was worth 916,400 XP, which would get him closer to his next level. Maybe there was an XP reward for completing the Event?
Anton brought his mind back to the present. It had taken another 25 days to get Identify high enough so that he knew who he was up against. Now, it was time to end him.
Anton used Planar Shift to shift into the Material Plane while Vincent was out looking for him. Then he carefully started creating voids in the cave wall around where Vincent slept with Assimilate. Anton didn’t know a lot about how creating a nuclear reaction worked, but he knew it had something to do with compression. Anton was putting Vincent’s sleeping quarters at the center of an area that would have approximately twenty 500-pound bombs going off. If he was right that should amplify the explosion and hopefully overcome any of Vincent’s Physical Damage Resistance. At his level, he should definitely have some. Anton made sure that all the bombs had a C4 package on them, and he also made sure to Assimilate the walls toward Vincent’s chamber so the explosion would follow the path of least resistance. He made sure to leave no trace of his work in the caves, though. A couple of days later, he was ready.
Anton found Vincent in the crater again. He had thought to at least offer the guy a chance to surrender, but he couldn’t see and target him when he was in the Prime Material Plane. While in the adjacent Dimension, he could see Vincent’s Soul Core just fine, but once he came into physical reality, he could not detect him with any of his skills. It was a missed opportunity, but there was no way Anton was going to give the shit a chance to knock him out for seven days again. If he couldn’t reach out with telepathy from a long way away, he wasn’t going to reach out at all.
In the end, It wasn’t even a fair fight. Anton watched Vincent from the adjacent plane and knew exactly when Vincent was in his bed. Anton shifted back into the material plane under his lair and floated up until just his eyes came out of a wall behind a stone column. From that vantage point, he activated Spectral Reach twice, once for each hand, and sent one to the center of the room. He then shifted his other hand to come up right beside his leg, where it floated.
With a thought, he pulled the detonator from his inventory into his right hand and pressed the button to detonate the C4 he’d planted on each warhead. As he did that, he also reached out with his left spectral hand, wrapped it around Vincent's right ankle, and activated his Loot ability.
There was a tremendous flash as the walls crumpled around Anton. A secondary explosion erupted, pulling everything except Anton toward a sphere that had popped into existence. It lasted for a few moments before it disappeared. Where the lair had been, only a rounded hole in the bedrock remained. Anton floated in the open air with an opening to the sky above him. He could see the stars shining down on him. Anton continued to look around as his Notifications blew up.
Congratulation! You are the last man standing in this SYSTEM-sponsored Battle Royale.
New Title gained.
There can Be Only One!
You have won a SYSTEM Sponsored Battle Royal with all participants above level 100. All Attributes +100, All Attributes +10% Efficiency. Additionally, The final XP award earned is multiplied by ten
New Title gained
Backstabbing a Backstabber
Through Trickery and Deceit, you have trapped and killed a Shadow Rogue who specialized in assassination. All Attacks from Stealth and Traps you set automatically double all damage they do after all modifiers. Additionally, any creature killed by you that was unaware of you before the attack is automatically looted.
XP Earned 916,400 for killing a level 9,164 level Shadow Rogue.
XP award, one-time multiplier: x10
XP Earned 9,164,000
Congratulations! You have reached Levels 441 and 442 for your Vampiric Pseudo-Specter Class.
Congratulations! You have earned 91,640 Platinum for killing a level 9,164 Master Shadow Rogue.
Congratulations! You have acquired all the Treasure Carried by Vincent Woodrow in his Event Storage. A full list is available in a new Tab created for that purpose in your Status.
Congratulations, as the last man standing in the Battle Royal Event, you may request one Ability, Skill, Spell, or Item from the SYSTEM.
Anton automatically disregarded Skills and Spells. If need be, he could find those later. He zeroed in on the word “Ability” and asked, “SYSTEM, please list available Abilities.”
SYSTEM RESPONSE: Infinite
Well, crap. The SYSTEM was telling him that the number of abilities available was unlimited or so variable that there was no limit. That brought up another question, “SYSTEM are abilities classifiable by Rarity?”
SYSTEM RESPONSE: Yes
“SYSTEM: please list all Mythic or higher level Abilities.”
SYSTEM RESPONSE: No
Shit, the system had said something about being less helpful with its information, hadn’t it. Very well. “SYSTEM, Can I broadly define the type of ability I would like to get and designate its rarity and then allow you to decide?”
SYSTEM RESPONSE: Yes
Okay then, he could do this, “SYSTEM I would like a Mythic Rarity or Higher Ability that is compatible with my current abilities that will allow me to utilize Magic Normally.”
Anton held his breath as the SYSTEM was silent for a moment before a Notification Window physically appeared before him, and computer coding text began scrolling down the blue screen faster and faster. Anton started to grow concerned when the edges of the notification window began to turn red and he could swear steam began to rise from the top corners of the screen. The SYSTEM could have a meltdown, who knew?
Suddenly, the screen disappeared, and a new notification appeared in his vision.
SYSTEM RESPONSE:
First, Is that All?
Second, Made you look.
Third, One Moment Please.
One minute later, a new Notification appeared.
Ascendent Ability Learned. Master of Magic –
Master of Magic - You may utilize and influence all spheres of magic, even those to which you are immune. As a being with the Ability Anti-Mage, you may not use mana. You have overcome this requirement and may now control magic with the power of your mind. Instead of mana, you may use Psychic Energy to create and cast spells that you learn.
You may now learn spells from the eight basic spheres of Magic while still being immune to those spheres of magic.
Spells that you cast, including buffs, may be targeted at you if you desire.
Holy Shit! There actually was an ability that would allow him to use magic.
SYSTEM Message
Awards have been distributed.
Prepare for transfer.
There was a flash. Anton found himself standing on a dirt road next to a cornfield that had been planted in rows. So he knew there were people here somewhere. He just had no idea where he was or what kind of people were there. As he looked around, he hoped that his family, Caitlynn and Felix, were doing okay. In fact, he could ask Keres if he spent some Conviction to do so couldn’t he?
SYSTEM Message:
You have left all Realms under the purview of the Goddess Keres.
The Mark of Keres may be utilized within this Universe to earn Conviction but will not allow you to commune with your Goddess until a Temple has been created and dedicated with ten million Conviction. The normal cost of one million Conviction has been increased by ten times due to the presence of a pantheon hostile to your Goddess.
Anton sighed, “So that would be a ‘No’ then.”