Kal sat on the stone away from the stream so he didn’t have to deal with the heat, holding the pair of garghound legs in either hand. The meat honestly looked pretty good. Its coloring was the same as any beef he had ever cooked. Before he could dissuade himself he took a bite.
He had kind of expected it to taste horrible, but honestly, it was fine. It had lost most of its juices from the way he cooked it but it otherwise kind of just tasted like very tough beef. Kal swallowed the first mouthful and went to take a second when it hit him.
His stomach clenched, and he felt like he had just swallowed a glass of magma. Kal fell backward as his stomach revolted. He tried to roll over and throw up but his arms and legs wouldn’t listen. Fuck, fuck, fuck. Bad idea. Kal moved his perception inwards to see what damage was being done.
It wasn’t good. Kal could see the chunk of meat sitting in his stomach and it was literally brimming with hostile mana, a lot more than he would have guessed. He was foolish to not have checked the bodies for something like this but it never crossed his mind. This mana was different from the atmospheric mana, it seemed more feral. The mana looked like a turbulent maroon mist and everything it touched became inflamed and almost looked charred. It was getting worse. The mana continued to move through his organs, infecting everything it made contact with. Kal could see his vital energy working against the infection but it was unguided. Wherever his vital energy worked, the infection simply spread elsewhere. It needed direction.
Kal had never tried to actually direct his vital energy before but he was sure it was possible. If he could use Wrath with a skill, there had to be a way to use his other resources. Kal bent his will to the task and to his surprise the vital energy responded immediately. It felt almost exactly like when he weaved his core threads. Kal knew what to do and targeted the meat in his stomach, by forming a circle of vital energy.
The concentrated energy was definitely more effective but he noticed an issue immediately. His vital thread was as a two-dimensional shape and the infection simply spread out around it. He would have laughed at his idiocy if he wasn’t trying to stop his guts from disintegrating. Kal rushed through several attempts at creating a sphere by simply creating more circles but it was starting to become clear it would take far too long doing it like this. He thought back to his earlier thoughts on creating a framework that could be filled in with cloud stuff, or so he called it back then.
Kal’s entire abdomen was charred and sickly looking by the Kal and formed a kind of wire framework for the sphere. His Health had dropped significantly so he quickly began the next step and began trying to pour some of his remaining vital energy into the frame. He thought it was working but then the frame suddenly lost coherence and shattered, the structure turning back to unformed energy. That’s not good. Kal checked his status to see how much time he had.
Health:
354/720
Stamina:
443/970
Wrath:
320
“Fuck!” he grunted, Kal was running out of time to find a solution and the infection didn’t look like it had weakened at all.
He needed to figure this out in one last attempt. But how could he make sure the frame didn’t collapse? When it collapsed on the last attempt it looked like the vital energy of the frame began to fade, merging with the membrane he added after. Maybe each thread type would try to mimic whatever it touched of the same type. It made sense. It was like pouring water over ice. It might take time but the ice would melt and become one with the poured water. So what if he used his stamina as a framework instead? Endurance affected the actual resistance of his body. Would that mean it would work in a similar way on a more metaphysical level? It was worth a shot so Kal began its construction.
His physical energy flowed under his command just like his vital energy. It took longer to construct the frame but when it was finally in place Kal grew more confident. The frame had a feeling of solidarity that the previous one lacked. In fact, he was pretty sure if he left it as it was it would simply remain there until he chose to unravel it. Now it was time for the final step. Kal began slowly feeding in a steady stream of vital energy, and to his relief, it slowly began to fill in the gaps between the threads of physical energy. The poisonous mana was slowly being cut off from the rest of the spreading infection. Kal could see that the infection began to retreat back to the source. Finally, the sphere was completed and a pleasant warmth spread through his stomach as his body was finally cleansed. Kal received a notification but he ignored it for now, still concentrating on the sphere.
The moment it had fully formed its color had changed. During its construction, it looked like a green-striped red ball of light. After it had finished forming however it had become a single color. It shined a vibrant orange color. Now with its concentrated shape the new merged energy was successfully confining the hostile mana from escaping the meat. Kal was pretty sure he would have to somehow completely purge the mana from the meat before he could actually digest it, but for now, he had survived.
Kal sat up and checked his status again.
Health:
125/720
Stamina:
250/970
Wrath:
320
It was a lot closer than he would have liked but he had made it. He activated his Wrathful Regeneration and gritted his teeth while it began to work, but to his surprise, his health didn’t increase.
“What’s going on now?” he muttered, looking back to the sphere. It was lucky he looked immediately or else he would have missed it. The sphere was now an inferno of orange fire as small crimson streams rushed around and through the flames. Somehow the skill was empowering the sphere. He tried to look closer but suddenly the flame vanished and the sphere collapsed in on itself. Kal panicked for a moment but then he saw that the meat had vanished as well, and he received another notification. Intrigued, he opened his log.
Skill Evolution: Soul Forge [Corrupt] -> Soul Forge [Rare]
Title acquired: Planar Appetite [Rare]
Kal smiled. Sure he had nearly killed himself again, but the rewards were damned good so far. Kal opened the first notification immediately.
Soul Forge [Rare]
You have gained a modicum of control with your soul space, and have brought this control beyond your core. You now walk whole but altered into the cosmos. Depending on the rarity of this skill your energy constructs will become more easily controlled by your will and require less resource investment to maintain. +3 to Perception, Will, and Wisdom per level. Tread the dark waters of your soul, and the matter of your shell, forging your own path. Your potential unlimited.
The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
Kal had expected an improvement but this was insane. With three extra points in Perception, Will, and Wisdom it was like he had a second class. He would need to test his constructs some more now that the skill would actually assist him. Soul Forge was a special case when it came to Kal’s few skills. He had managed to awaken the skill even while his core was broken. From what Melisia had told him, awakening skills outside of an ascendant’s choice every ten levels was impossible or at least had never been documented before. Kal had simply mediated an experiment with the cloud stuff in his core space to unlock the skill. It appeared bringing that skill outside of his core space was enough to evolve it without choosing to do so when he got to level ten. It made Kal wonder what else was different about his leveling process compared to the people back home.
Forging his own core likely had many consequences that he wasn’t aware of yet, but so far they had all been beneficial. Kal moved on to the new title, but he could already guess why he had gotten it.
Planar Appetite [Rare]
You have consumed the flesh of an abyssal entity and survived. Very few could say the same.
+5% Vitality, Strength, and Endurance.
Well, eating the meat might have been stupid, but it was one hundred percent worth doing it for a title. Another five percent to his main attributes would be incredibly helpful. Opening up his status Kal could see he now had a total percentage boost of forty percent to his Endurance and thirty percent to both his Strength and Vitality. His titles were a major boon to his attributes.
Kalum Lesta
Status
Class:
Slayer [Epic]
Level:
9
Race:
Human?
Health:
255/750
Stamina:
423/1000
Wrath:
0
Attributes
Strength:
89
Agility:
35
Endurance:
100
Vitality:
75
Intellect:
28
Perception:
53
Will:
96
Wisdom:
47
Titles
Ascendant, Core Bane, Core Smith, Defier of Dhinir, Planeswalker, Planar Appetite
Skills
Soul Forge [Rare], Wrathful Regeneration [Common]
Race
Birthright: Slumbers
His Endurance was now reaching incredible levels, just hitting one hundred now. It wouldn’t be long until his Strength and Vitality got to that point either. His other attributes still needed improvement though. With the increased benefits of his Soul Forge skill his mental attributes had kept up but they were still lower than his physical attributes by a fair amount except for Will. Kal decided he would continue to split his free points between Agility and Intellect for now. His other attributes would increase enough on their own.
Kal looked at his health and sighed. He would need to siphon for a while before heading out again. He was confident he could kill most packs with relative ease now but there was no point risking it all just to rush out now. So he once again began the cycle of annoying agony to recuperate.
Kal spent the next day hunting along the edges of the dome. It had taken him a while to find another pack, it was starting to seem to Kal like they had begun to move towards the center of the dome. He was forced to go far way deeper into the dome before he found his first pack of the day. His new attributes made killing this pack a cakewalk. There had been a level ten garghound but the difference in strength was minimal so it died like the rest.
You have slain [Garghound | Abyss Spawn 10] - Bonus experience award for defeating a higher leveled entity.
You have slain [Garghound | Abyss Spawn 7]
You have slain [Garghound | Abyss Spawn 7]
You have slain [Garghound | Abyss Spawn 9]
Level up!
Kal smiled at the feeling of experience flowing into him and the rush of his attributes increasing once more. He opened his status and split the free points between Agility and Intellect. He had truly come far since his arrival in the abyss. Kal pulled up the comparison menu and smiled again.
Statistic Comparison
Health
410
Stamina
600
Wrath
0
Strength
56
Agility
19
Endurance
60
Vitality
41
Intellect
17
Perception
27
Will
57
Wisdom
26
Total
303
Including all his bonuses he had gained a total of three hundred and three attribute points. Kal wished he could have seen Leo’s attributes, so he could compare them to his current level. From what he remembered of Melisia’s attributes he was already way above her physical attributes at least, but she had clearly focused on her mental attributes. Now Kal couldn’t wait to get back out there and complete this quest. He needed to grow stronger so he could find a way to return home. But before he left he still had one more thing to do. Kal opened his notification log and read the latest entry.
Select Class Skill: