Mathew

Having the right tool for the job gave Mathew wind for his sails. Usually, that would be a good thing, but he felt like his sailboat was tied to the pier right now. Weight from every second spent in this barren oppressive cold added up.

One second a shiver, next a fight to focus his vision through the damn fog. Every second, a small moment of discomfort building together into a monument of daunting nettles. After hours of pushing through them, taking the pricks and cuts against his tolerance, he was motivated enough to get out of this trap that he began to understand why coyotes would chew their legs off.

This brought him back to his predicament. All this motivation and nowhere to put it… yet.

Ohhh… when she arrived, Mathew would rip her heart out and eat it, still beating and bleeding. He didn't care. He'd… focusing on the here and now he let the violent fantasies go. Worried again that he was losing himself or finding a dark shadow of himself. Both were equally worrisome, but he had enough on his plate for now. Those debts would have to wait for the collectors.

Squeezing his eyes shut, he made room for a plan. Keep getting reserves. Maximize his advantages while the wraith recovered enough courage to step into the other corner of the arena.

Putting one foot in front of the other, he soon found himself settling into the search pattern he'd adopted. Finding the scum under the fog was either dumb luck or a real pain in the ass. Given he didn't want to rely on dumb luck, Mathew got creative. Until recently, he had to look through 'windows' in the fog to see the surface of the wasteland he wandered. Based on that, he came up with two ways to look. Either moving slowly and thoroughly checking as he went or racing to look through more 'windows.' The lazy way just didn't pay. Hurrying along brought more returns on net.

His barbed arm sword had changed that though. As a conduit for his hunger magic, the sword gave him the perfect leverage to do the job right. At walking speed, Mathew prowled the fog. Spreading a tightly controlled blanket of hunger magic across the ground. His purple fog looked like the coming of night against the subtly glowing backdrop. Crawling across the floor of this endless space, his hunger relayed all the knowledge of what it found. Spread out more than twenty feet in both directions, this was by far the best search method so far. After another hour, he'd gathered 500 or so more reserves and a new notification.

[New skill awarded: Digestion 10. Digestion 10 overrides digestion 9

Hint: you can spend perk points every 5 skill levels]

“RAAAAAAA!” Throwing his head back, Mathew announced his improving strength, a promise of violence to come.

Compressing his motivation, Mathew willed the world to show him the perk menu.

[Active perks none

Pending perks

Living skeleton weapon 1

Digestion 2

Disabled perks none]

The weight of this menu was a lot lighter than his status menu and less than half the effort was required to maintain it. Digging deeper, he opened the living skeleton weapon perk options.

[Living skeleton weapon ~ perk tier one

Controlled Reconstruction - Increase control over bone modifications

Infinity bone - Increase bone strength and durability by investing reserves

Living ability - Empower any ability used in conjunction with a valid weapon]

"Infinity bone." Mathew snorted around his smile.

Jokes aside, it would give purpose to his gathering of reserves aside from more armor and generically being ready. Turning the options over in his mind, he still wasn't sold. Dual skeleton and the skill itself already provided that. His bones were what, four times stronger than a normal human's? Doubling down on that again, was it what he needed?

More control over the bone modifications would let him live more human. Controlled reconstruction could also equip Mathew with more dangerous weapon designs and better armor precision. Overall, it held the most utility for someone to optimize their skeleton equipment. Mathew wasn't that someone though. Honestly, who actually knew about ancient weapon design? With some experience, he'd learn it, but it wasn't a strength he could leverage yet.

Clawing his mind into living ability, its secrets were laid bare for consumption. He skimmed over the part where the perk would do what he expected, further improving his hunger magic. A simple treasure caught his attention. The way this menu fixture translated 'ability' to his mind gave him a glimpse of body-fueled abilities.

Comparing and contrasting the two made a lot of sense. Right now, he slowly converted reserves into hunger magic. To actually use it as an ability, he willed the target resource of magic to fuel an effect. In the same way, an ability lets men and beasts convert their bodies' effort as fuel for an effect. This had to be what the wraith did with its downward hammer attack.

Finally, something to spend his time on other than prowling the fog like a rumba let loose in a car garage.

Selecting living ability Mathew felt a chaos within his bones, something he ignored like background white noise, the sound shifted, becoming quieter. Aligned. More echoing, less static. Again Mathew wondered if this process had fundamentally rebuilt him or if these layers of himself were always there on Earth just locked out of reach.

Having spent his point, he moved on to the next selection.

[Digestion ~ perk tier one

Breakdown - More powerful digestion. Increase valid material digestion, significantly reduce or eliminate threat of food born diseases, parasites, curses, and poisoning. Destructive power of digestion magic increased

Conversion - Efficiency of reserves processed increased by 100%. Use digestion magic to metabolize reserves

Storage - Soft cap on reserves increased 500%. Transfer reserves to a creature by touch]

Having magic based on the skill overrode a lot of the benefits of digestion. From what he could tell, that made him immune to food-borne diseases, parasites, curses, and poisoning as long as he had magic. Along with magically efficient processing of everything he consumed, these passive buffs were something he hadn't even noticed. Now that he thought about it though, there was no nausea from eating the slime stuff. Further, he hadn't had to uh, excrete anything since the transfer. Getting stressed and backed up wasn't new to him, but now he thought the cause may be totally different. Now he could tell Jenifer he was 0% full of shit.

His little smile broke. Damn! I miss her.

Turning back to his menu, he selected breakdown. Mathew's feelings seemed to come alive as his throat and stomach started to act out. Burning from his stomach spread upwards. Clamping down on the urge to vomit, a bile taste filled his throat and mouth. A blooming ache in his jaw gave way as teeth came loose. Spitting them out, he found his tongue brush up against a new set of chompers. The disturbing feeling of teeth floating around his mouth was what did it finally. Vomiting up dark purple plumes of magic, he emptied his digestion points over the familiar gray stone.

Why does everything change me? Let me be who I am! Mathew forced enough of a cold edge into his mind not to scream his thoughts out loud. If anyone was listening, they would only celebrate anyway.

Feeling his new teeth, Mathew couldn't tell too much different. All his teeth were a bit sharper but not as a new design, more like new teeth that weren't worn down any. Certainly not any difference worth this fanfare. Taking a deep calming breath, Mathew leaned into a newfound malevolent patience. He would wait to find out who did this to him, and they would get to see his shiny new teeth in action. Here and now first, his patience demanded back.

Dropping his perk menu, Mathew tried cracking his knuckles and getting to work. Interlocked fingers stretched to the limit of his joint locks.

Glowering, Mathew played combat tactician. Last fight, he almost took a hit from the wraith's hammer ability. Even while pushing his feinting and speed to his physical limits. She kept improving, if he didn't as well, the margin of success would disappear. Dodge? Block? Attack faster? He wanted so badly to say sneak attack but the environment didn't support the strategy in any way.

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

Blocking was a risk because he didn't have the tools to judge attack strength. Dodging was by its nature a high-risk strategy. World-class tactician. State the obvious and take the credit. What the hell, why not?

Lowering into what he hoped was a ready stance, Mathew willed his action to become an ability. Lunging forward and stabbing reminded him of children pretending to have a job they didn't understand. So very sincere they'd tell you they owed you money for your buying a whole cart of pretend groceries.

Trying again, Mathew focused on willing his body to convert power as he moved. Again he was just lunging around the stone. Sincere, but clearly not getting it. With a grimace, Mathew considered that he may not have enough mind stats to get the job done. He'd avoided looking too deeply at what those cold numbers seemed to indicate. Is the wraith smarter than me?

Doesn't matter! She deserves to die, and I deserve to live! Imagining his wraith appearing, he lashed out, willing power to store and build. Resistance on his will formed like sand slipping through his fingers; the resistance faded away. Lunge completed, he couldn't feel any particular difference. Still, this was a start.

Practicing the skill again he couldn't grasp even the feeling he had before. Lunging again he forced his will as hard as he could. Without resistance it felt like he was just making shit up. Again! And again nothing. Again, failure. Either he was missing something or… or he didn't know what.

He could gather up more reserves though. Being shown perks felt like finally being given a bone. A fire pressed him forward to do something. So he did what he could do. Spreading out his hunger mag- no digestion magic. Details matter. Mathew tried to figure out why his ability almost worked. His memory of that edge of success may hold a key for him.

So he remembered and walked. Occasionally stopping to give a new idea an attempt. This pattern repeated until he checked his reserves and found he had 1243 reserves.

Time to craft.

With his arms armored as shields, he should protect his vitals. Rationally he knew his brain was on the top of that list of vital organs. Tossed around on a storm of promises to survive and vows to punish those who made him suffer. His ocean of motivation slammed him against this wall he wouldn't abandon or compromise yet. It was stupid, his face was never going to win him any awards. But dammit it was his!

Raging at his own weakness, he funneled will into living skeleton weapon before thinking too deeply about it. Plates of bone exploded, taking the shape of full plate armor across his chest and back. It wasn't interlocked or even tight-fitting but he didn't need that against a hammer attack.

A thousand reserves were spent in a few seconds. The effort left his body hot. Full body warmth for the first time since arriving in this hell hole. It was too lovely. A threat to his focus. Later he would find time to relax, another time he promised himself. Keep making promises as if it makes a diff-

As the first notes of his wraith's song took form, Mathew launched himself across the space he'd scoured clear of slipping hazards. His wraith's forward action pulled back sooner than he expected. Still out of reach, Mathew closed the gap between them. Leaving her hand, the white nimbus of light speared through the gap between them and caught him center mass. Layers of his bone chest pieces flaked off and disintegrated as he took the blow. Slammed against his durable bones, the light splintered like a lone tree in a hurricane. Legs pumping, Mathew continued to close the gap.

Speeding up in a straight line, the wraith's retreat pulled away faster. Mathew stopped chasing.

He was being kited.

Twin nodes of light traveling through the fog. Accompanied by the hellish screaming, it circled back in at Mathew.

It was going to shoot at him again. The rational part of his mind stripped the situation apart. He would be whittled away. After finally having a weapon worthy of killing his wraith, he'd never be able to land a hit.

Facing his attacker, Mathew waited for the inevitable.

Racing at his face, the aura was brighter but more compressed than the last pass.

Mathew ducked under his raised arms, this attack gouged out his forearm exoskeleton before deflecting into the distance. Raw and red, Mathew felt his health breaking to keep his arm from bleeding him dry. Bone regeneration already going to work, converting reserves into his exoskeleton.

His wraith circled again. Looking closely, he could see its glow charging power for the attack.

That had to take a lot of willpower or something. He couldn't do that with his magic until he'd built the barb sword.

His health and hunger reinforced sword batted at the offending light. Cutting the attack caused it to unspool violently, and fragments of the aura spiraled out like a grenade. Chips of bone flew off his armor and cut into his unprotected face.

Like a shark in bloody water, she circled him once more.

Throwing his will against the limits of his attempted ability, he tried storing power for a reckless assault. The only thing more ridiculous than his plan was his dedication to it.

Seeping around his hold like mud, his will held back significant energy.

His wraith closed again. Its scream was unnaturally steady, not picking up speed as its arm whipped around.

Mathew felt the muddy energy flow into action. His will latched onto that flow and pulled his body fast enough to dodge the attack. His right arm trailed behind him, pulled along by this ability. Mathew hooked the bone-breaking ball. For a moment, it clashed against his health and magic. The moment ended in an explosion.

Flung forward by the explosion and ability, Mathew's barbed sword shot forward faster than even his body. Distantly he noted durability reinforced muscles in his arm tearing under the force. Impaling the wraith's raised shoulder instinct took over.

His will lashed out at the wraith's will and for a moment, he could feel the malevolent claws of her willpower. Hammer raised over his unprotected skull her skill was a rock of power held in a greedy clamp. Like a scalpel, his will cut the base of her will's clawed hand. Her grip evaporated.

All the while her ability unraveled, his hunger magic lanced and spread through her. Barbs biting into bone his sword locked her into his death hold. Latched together, he stared deeply into her eyes. Even dying, she never blinked. Mathew could feel by his magic that only bones and her head remained and even that was being eaten away by dark purple fog.

Victory hooked, like a crafty fish his wraith faded back into nothing.

[New ability crafted: Conditional ambush

For every valid condition fulfilled the ability may take a unique action, gains power, and reduces cost

For any valid condition unfulfilled the ability will increase cost]

[New skill awarded: Mental attack 1

Improves effect of compelling the will of another]

She got away. No.

Pressure settled on his mind. Arresting his downward spiral, Mathew heard a polite knock on the door of his mind. Never mind, I've cracked.

This new pressure increased, stretching the doorway of his mind.

[New skill awarded: Mental resistance 2. Mental resistance 2 overrides mental resistance 1]

Leaks around his reinforced doorway pointed his attention to facts he'd stacked into the corner of his mind.

His wraith was healing. Healing took reserves. This wasteland had no food. Stone, slime, fog and himself. It had an oversized willpower. When appearing and disappearing, it would leave a haze of fear smoke.

Before he could even put it all together, the mind outside his door was gone.

I'm the food. She is strong where I am weak and I'm her food.

"Oh, you are finally fucked! Food is my domain!"

Reaching into his hunger magic, he pulled it as a ravenous blanket around his mind. Accepting the discomfort of being unsatisfied, he 'looked' through his magic. There it was, his monster, feeding off vapors radiating from his mind.

Resisting the feeding, he began drawing those vapor back to himself. First, he stripped one cotton candy wisp of mental energy back to himself. Slowly he got better. Every strand he drew in strengthened his power. Every level up of mental resistance robbed her of control. Piece by piece, he drew back his mind weaving it back into place.

Much more put together than before he made a plan.

The final strand of his mind tucked into place.

Exploding from in front of him, the partially reconstructed wraith launched its final attack. Every animal was most dangerous when backed into a corner. Conditional ambush reacted. Mathew's willpower chained the ability to his body. Stabbing through the wraith smoke and into her brain, Mathew felt her life destroyed by his strike and by his magic.

DING

Welcome to Leternum, your new world. Adapt. Live.

Transition phase.

1) Vanquish the monster.

2) Prove a crafting skill.

After having the basic skills that will be required to succeed in Leternum you will be placed into the main world of Leternum. Enhanced skill growth is granted to aid this transition phase.

With a smile, he pulled her bones and tendons off the end of his barbed sword. Breaking the elbow apart, he held a hammer in his hand. The rest of the skeleton fell. Each bone striking the gray stone shattered into wraith smoke, smoke that stayed around only long enough to mock him. The monster remains in his hand, the key to freedom, dispersed into nothing. Mathew was truly alone.