Wrath Incarnate [Uncommon]
[Soul Forged] [System Assisted]
A Slayer’s wrath is as much a physical presence as it is a mental state.
Active Effect: Empower your form with your Unleashed wrath and wade through the masses unimpeded. While in this state your inner self is let free, crushing all emotions it deems as weaknesses. In addition, all attributes are increased by 40% at the cost of wrath until you deactivate this skill. If your wrath is exhausted it will instead use three times more stamina until you deactivate this skill.
Passive Effect: Your very presence is unnerving to all but the strongest of will and those you choose to leave unaffected. All living things can sense the wrath deep within you and will fear you. The more affected by this aura the less wrath is consumed while using this skill's active effect.
Warning, due to manual manipulation of core and an abnormal resource, this skill is being used as a seal for the abnormal resource. If the abnormal resource’s value ever exceeds the maximum value of your stamina resource this skill will break and all of the abnormal resource would be left uncontrolled.
“Well that is definitely an improvement at least,” Kal said, relieved that he had broken the skill or somehow weakened himself. The strange additional tags interested him but he skipped over it for now and read the rest of the description. The warning at the end was concerning but honestly, his new wrath limit being based on stamina was definitely worth the extra risk involved. Even if that was the only benefit it would be an improvement, but that was the least of the skills improvements. The skill now seemed to literally seal his wrath or at least his rage within the skill, preventing it from affecting his thoughts like he had just experienced. And though it didn’t say it exactly, it seemed to suggest he would be able to simply deactivate the skill and return to normal. That was an amazing improvement. Despite the obvious danger of caring little about his own safety and the darker urges his wrath produced, Kal couldn’t simply throw the strength and efficiency of that state aside. It was way too useful. He had just gained six levels from being in that state and killing relentlessly for at least a few days.
Hopefully, the skill wouldn’t degrade like the threads that were originally in place. So his wrath and skills would begin to behave more consistently from now on. Obviously, the attribute boost now being at forty percent was a monstrous improvement and the fact that it now drained stamina instead of health when he ran out of wrath was great two. Ultimately the skill was much less risky to use now, running out of stamina was still risky of course but at least it didn’t mean instant death.
Now for the passive effect, Kal was intrigued. He had never heard of skills having both active and passive effects before. But his knowledge of anything past level ten was honestly vague at best, so he had no idea how common this kind of thing was. Kal had felt some of this effect happen before, during his brief moments of memory during his rampage. He could sense the fear of the garghounds even before he had attacked them. But for the second part of the effect, he honestly couldn’t tell if that was the case. He had clearly been attacking as many demons as possible, his wrath was high right now but was it so high that it could have only reached that point by already having this effect naturally? Kal didn’t think so. That would mean that part of the skill had to originate from the changes he made when merging the skill and the construct.
But then he brought his eyes back to the top of the skill and read the tags again. Were the additional effects his doing or the systems? It was probably both. Kal had gotten everything he wanted and more from the evolution, but the system-assisted tag made him unsure if he had truly achieved it on his own.
Next Kal opened up his skill select menu and was surprised to see the description had changed.
Select Class Skill:
Warning, due to fundamental changes to core structure and abnormal resource management, newly selected skills may require manual integration to be used safely.
Well, that was concerning. Apparently, however, his wrath was originally sealed allowing for any system-granted skills to automatically work with his wrath. Now that he had changed how his wrath was used that would no longer be the case.
That made Kal think about his Wrathful Regeneration. That skill had still worked fine but maybe he was missing something. Thinking he better investigate further before perhaps making a dangerous decision Kal meditated once more and entered his core space.
His core space had changed since the skill evolution, It all appeared so stable now. His crimson ring glowed instead of actively burning and Wrath Incarnate hung by its cord of Will and wrath almost like a lantern. Glowing brightly but tightly controlled. Seeing it this way was actually incredibly relaxing, he almost wanted to just stay here and simply rest. Kal sighed as he approached his core and located the thread representing his Wrathful Regeneration. It was only after he had separated from the rest of his core that he noticed something concerning. The thread was also leaking wrath. It was in tiny amounts but it was clearly there, so Kal activated the skill for a moment and wasn’t surprised when he saw significantly more leak out.
It obviously wasn’t enough to alter his thoughts much but the fact that was leaking wasn’t a good sign either. He suspected it was because the skill used his wrath so inefficiently that it converted more into healing than it leaked. Kal figured that for now, it wasn’t too much of a risk, but if he was to improve the skill later he may need to reinforce the skill in a similar way to what he did with Wrath Incarnate.
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
If it leaked too much he would rampage again and only his Will and a bit of luck would get him out of it again. And what if it happened when he was back home? Would he just start killing people? He didn’t like many people back home, only a bare handful could he call friends but he still didn’t want to be some kind of psycho. Kal promised himself that he would ensure that couldn’t happen before he went home if he ever could.
Content now that he understood what the risks were, Kal reopened his skill selection menu and read over the options.
Wrathful Strike [Common]
A Slayer wields their wrath in many forms, this is just a first step. Channel your wrath through your weapon and cleave your enemies asunder. Increase melee attack potency by a small amount. Scales evenly with Strength and Will.
He had been offered this skill three times now, and now that he had gotten Wrath Incarnate and Wrathful regeneration it was definitely more appealing than it once was. But he still had other options to look over first.
Mage Sight [Uncommon]
See beyond the physical and begin to witness the essence of the universe in your surroundings. While this skill is active you will be able to see atmospheric mana that is sufficiently aligned with you, up to a radius of 15 feet.
Eh, Next…
Abyssal Consumption [Rare]
A slayer must feast and one in the midst of battle has limited options. Your past consumption of abyssal flesh has provided sustenance for now, but are you willing to take it further? Upon reaching a certain threshold of flesh consumed, gain a particular passive trait associated with the consumed creature.
Once gained a trait can never be removed, and only one trait can be gained this way per tier.
“Ok, now we’re getting somewhere,” This skill was interesting, a little disconcerting, but it was a rare skill so either way he should give it some thought. He wondered if it meant that if he ate enough garghounds he would get either their regeneration or their heat resistance. Its limit of one trait per tier wasn’t great but if he was smart about what traits he acquired the skill could be an amazing boon. Just getting heat resistance would be massive and benefit him in many situations.
He also had to wonder what counted as passive traits. Things like regeneration were kind of in a gray area. Kal knew that eventually, one’s vital energy would eventually get strong enough to straight up heal wounds, and even regrow limbs. That would be passive in Kal’s mind but it was doing active work on his body, unlike heat resistance which simply strengthened his body against that type of damage. Either way, it was a major contender for his pick, but there was one more skill to read.
Flame of Hatred [Uncommon]
Manifest your rage as an external flame of hatred and smite your foes. Potency scales equally with intellect and will.
This one was far less flashy than Abyssal Consumption but it immediately brought to mind dreams from his childhood where he would throw balls of fire at his enemies and conjure weapons of lightning. It sounded amazing, but Kal hesitated in picking it. The skill sounded like it was the most basic kind of spell skill but instead of using mana it simply used his wrath instead. He had already learned to do so much with his internal energies without any skills, and with his Soul Forge skill he was fairly sure he could find other ways of achieving similar effects. It was things like Abyssal Consumption that he had no idea how they worked that would benefit him most in the long run. Giving him insight into the ways his internal energies interacted with his body.
Was creating an external effect simply the next step in his steady growth in his energy manipulation? He had figured out how to siphon the abyssal energy and painfully convert it into wrath, so why couldn’t he do it in reverse and manifest his wrath outside of his body?
Kal decided to go with Abyssal Consumption. If he couldn’t figure out how to manifest his wrath outside of his body, Kal was pretty sure he would be offered a similar skill again in the future. Kal mentally selected the skill and felt the rush of the skills thread manifesting in his core. To be sure he hadn’t sprung another leak Kal inspected his core carefully. The thread of Abyssal Consumption seemed to have flawlessly merged with his core, leaving no leak at all. He must have gotten lucky and selected one that didn’t require wrath to activate, which made sense judging by the description.
The skills thread was much darker than the other skill threads Kal had. It reminded him of the abyssal mana that was all around him when he used his mana sight. Dark shades of gray and violet.
Finally finished dealing with all of his gains since his rampage, Kal opened up the final notification in his log.
Garghound Eradication: Completed!
These demons were once a scourge to the people of Kartha. Avenge them by eradicating their most hated foes. 127/120
Reward Received: Title: Demon Slayer
Bonus Objective Added!
You have proven yourself a capable slaughterer and have drawn the attention of the ruler of this territory. Slay the Bestial Lord, and show the abyss that your wrath only grows.
Reward: Uncommon Chest
Kal raised an eyebrow at the last part of the bonus objective. It was oddly direct, and clearly, it was made with his wrath in mind. The system had to be actively paying attention to him right now for him to get such a personalized quest objective. From the little he knew about system quests, they tended to be solely location-based and for lack of a better term generic. If someone entered a long-forgotten ruin and there happened to be a quest there, whoever got there before the quest was completed would likewise get the quest. The bonus objective seemed different like it was only just created after it had watched him complete the first part of the quest. It would have to be added to the pile of things to ask Mira, whenever he went back to the bunker.
With all his notifications out of the way, Kal remained seated for a time and began his slow recovery to full health and stamina, siphoning what he could from the hate-filled atmosphere. After that, it would be time to test out his new skills and find this Bestial Lord.