Kal fell into his mediation with almost no delay, this time his Birthright not needing to guide him. He immediately noticed many things. First was that his awareness seemed to have grown by a huge degree allowing him to view a much larger portion of his core space at a time but at the same time, everything in that space was much more easily identified and studied. The moment he concentrated on anything it immediately grew more distinct and vibrant.
He immediately wished everything looked like this back when he inspected his broken core. It likely would have helped him make a better copy. The next thing he noticed was that his cloud form had changed shape to appear like an almost identical copy of his physical form, though this form was still coloured crimson making him appear more like a red statue than a cloud or a human.
Kal shrugged. He assumed both changes were due to his increase in Will since his last meditation session.
The third change Kal noticed was the lack of a huge torrent of hostile energy. He had assumed it would be gone but it was nice to confirm it. He moved over to his self-crafted core, he couldn’t help but feel proud as he inspected the crimson ring. Looking at it now he could see that it was nowhere near the complexity of his original core but he didn’t really care. He had finally ascended, even if he was trapped in this hellscape he felt that he finally had a true path to walk. Thinking of the creation of his core, Kal remembered the first skill he had gained and moved to pick it out from the energies rotating around his core. The skill he was looking for was quite easy to make out once he started searching. It shone with a radiant blue glow shrouded by the crimson red of his core's energy. It moved calmly around his core in a perfect line.
Soul Forge was a mystery to Kal. He had received it by creating his first shape out of his cloud stuff during his very first attempt at meditation. He opened up his status and read the description again.
Soul Forge [Corrupt]
You have gained a modicum of control with your soul space, your vision dark and core fractured. You walk fractured into the cosmos, to forge your own path. Corrupted this skill has little effect over your ability to manipulate your soul but grants +5 to Perception, Will, and Wisdom increasing by 1 each level. Tread the dark waters of your soul and forge your own path forward. Your potential Unknown.
At first, he figured that the reason the skill was corrupted was the fact that his core was damaged. He had hoped it might have changed since he ascended but apparently not. He examined the skills thread more closely but couldn’t determine anything from it. It didn’t look corrupted, far from it really. It shone a purer light than any of Kal’s other threads.
Perhaps it was corrupted by the fact that he even had the skill. Especially since he should not have been able to gain a skill at all without leveling. It did lead Kal to the idea that it may be possible to create skills completely separate from the system's skill choices every ten levels. He would have to look into it further once he got out of whatever hellscape he was in. He didn’t think he would be able to figure something like that out in the timeframe he was currently looking at. He needed to recover enough to really explore the place he had ended up in.
He wasn’t going to find a way to get home by sitting down in the dark waiting for rot and hunger to take him. So he located Wrathful Regeneration and inspected it carefully. It was clear to Kal that it relied on his new Wrath resource to function at all. With his Wrath at zero, the skill barely glowed at all amongst the moving threads of his core, and because of that, it was quite hard to look at closely as it was easily drowned out by the other threads. He didn’t give up though and carefully watched the skills thread swirl around his core. Kal wasn’t sure how long he inspected the thread but he eventually decided that on its own it definitely wasn’t going to help him here. Without a source of Wrath it was useless, so how did he get more Wrath without killing something? Then it hit him. “Dammit Kal, you’re an idiot.” Why it hadn’t come to him earlier he had no idea.
But Kal had used the hostile energy in this place to help him ascend and replace his Mystical Energy. Did that mean he could use it to power himself? Well, he didn’t know but thought it was worth a shot. Kal reached out to the edges of the void and attempted to pull in some of the dark energy, but nothing happened. Of course, it can’t be that easy. He couldn’t sense the energy while in this state when it wasn’t actively trying to kill him. Kal guessed he may have to be in a state similar to when he was inspecting his other energies but even they were internal views.
Kal exited his deep meditation and simply sat still for a time taking in his surroundings. He was blind down here and the place was almost utterly silent, the only sound was the dust carried by a weak breeze moving through the passages. The lack of stimuli helped Kal concentrate on searching for the energy that had so liberally assaulted him on his entry to this place. He felt that it should be easy to find but apparently, he was wrong. Kal spent hours just waiting for something to make itself known. He was close to giving up but then he saw it. It was like something was squirming across his eyes in the darkness. It was only a subtle change of shade from the pitch black all around him but it was definitely there.
Suddenly filled with excitement at the discovery Kal immediately tried to reach out for it only for it to immediately vanish from his perception. He grunted and tried to relax again. It took at least another hour before he could see it again.
This time he was much more careful as he tried to slowly reach out with his mind and pull it into himself. Suddenly the shades of black and gray brightened into the strange mix of purple, black, and red energy of the storms above the wasteland and slowly began to merge with him.
The moment it began, it was like his skin caught fire as the hostile energy still didn’t quite mesh with his body. Its apparent makeup was different enough to still hurt him. He held on as long as he could but eventually, the pain disrupted his concentration and the flow stopped. His skin continued to burn for a few moments but that also eventually stopped. He checked his status and smiled.
Health:
43/450
Stamina:
630/630
Wrath:
12
“Now we are getting somewhere,” Kal said as he activated his regeneration. It worked. He managed to gain twelve points of Wrath by siphoning off the energy in this place. It hurt but didn’t seem to actually cause him damage, he supposed it might have other side effects but nothing obvious had happened once he stopped siphoning the energy. It didn’t give him very much but he had only been doing it for around ten minutes once he managed to get it to work. Now Kal had a plan. He would continue to practice this method of recovery until he fully recovered. Then perhaps he could find another way this energy could assist him down here.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
Kal spent the better part of the day siphoning off the energy around him. It hurt a lot, even more than his regeneration but it had to be done. He had to relocate the power several times as the pain continued to forcefully pull him out of his concentration, but each time it was getting easier to find to the point that it only took him a few minutes to find and begin his recovery again. From what he understood about vitality, eventually, everyone would begin to slowly recover from their wounds.
People who focused heavily on vitality would recover much more quickly than those who hadn’t, even during combat a high-vitality fighter could regenerate debilitating injuries while continuing to fight. Of course, they still lost health like everyone else but their body would remain at peak performance for longer. Kal’s current condition was quite good considering his many injuries, likely because of his higher-than-average vitality for his level.
If he had a more serious wound though he would be unable to recover from it naturally. So, he decided that vitality would be a focus of his while he was in this place. His regeneration did wonders for ensuring his body kept working but after getting swamped by all those kuroxet on the plateau he knew the risks were high that he could get disabled without a fast way to recover. Kal’s discovery of his ability to siphon energy from the air around him was amazing but he couldn't see himself using it in battle any time soon.
As his health slowly began to reach more acceptable numbers Kal started splitting his attention to other uses for the energy around him. First, he began trying to extend the distance he could actually make out the energy. It took some time but he started reaching further out away from his body and the energy began to react to his will, lighting up to his sight. In a small radius around him, he could see the energy slowly drifting past him, almost like it was pushed by a draft.
Being able to see the energy in the area around him helped him in a few ways but the most important was that he could now in a sense see the area around him. Instead of seeing the actual wall, he could see the absence of the energy. It was still very disorientating but if he could manage to keep up this perception as he moved he felt that he would be able to make much better time while walking through the passages.
Content with his new plan he continued his recovery and between regenerations, he would attempt to move as he searched for the energy. It was hard but with practice, he improved. It made it easier once he realized the energy permeated every open space down in the passages and that it seemed to have a direction of flow. He wasn’t sure if it would be that easy outside of the passages since it being so dark down here helped him find it in the first place.
Kal had been recovering and practicing his new perception for over a day by now. Well, he thought it was about that long. It was hard to tell in the darkness. Now he was finally fully recovered.
Health:
450/450
Stamina:
630/630
Wrath:
26
He was starting to finally feel stronger now. His injuries directly after his ascension had weakened him more than he realized. Despite being hungry and thirsty Kal felt better than he had in a long time. There was only one more thing for him to do before he started moving again. Distribute his attribute points. Kal opened up his status and looked over his attributes.
Kalum Lesta
Status
Class:
Slayer [Epic]
Level:
4
Race:
Human?
Health:
450
Stamina:
630
Wrath:
26
Attributes
Strength:
55
Agility:
20
Endurance:
63
Vitality:
45
Intellect:
15
Perception:
30
Will:
52
Wisdom:
25
Titles
Ascendant, Core Bane, Core Smith, Defier of Dhinir, Planeswalker
Skills
Soul Forge [Corrupt], Wrathful Regeneration [Common]
His endurance was his highest attribute by a decent margin. From what Kal understood from his discussions with Melisia and chats with Dalen over the years. Endurance directly affected your stamina but it also increases your body's physical resistance. High-endurance fighters could literally have skin stronger than armor if they had invested highly enough and had the skill to assist them. Kal was happy with the level it was at for now. His low intellect stuck out like a sore thumb. He honestly hadn’t bothered to ask either of his friends about that one. He knew it affected spell skill potency but other than that he wasn’t sure. Did it actually make him smarter? He threw a point into it to see if he felt a difference and of course, he wasn’t sure if it did anything. Just in case though he decided he would put a point into it at each level anyway, he was sure every attribute had its uses. The other glaring flaw he saw was his low agility. That was something he would definitely need to fix at least to some degree. Especially if he needed to climb out of this bloody passage. Kal put the last five points into agility and immediately felt a small rush.
“Now which way do I go?”