Mathew

Escorting Harper back to the Hub, Mathew focused on the upcoming confrontation. He didn't know how to evaluate the power levels of monsters and men, but a house-sized baby was still a house-sized monster.

How would they kill it? Would killing it bring back The Night Stalker?

Surviving it may not be quite as tricky. Mathew could put thousands of Reserves into his armor. After upgrading his class from Carrion Soldier to Carrion Knight, Mathew's skeleton compounded to just shy of fifty times as strong as Earth human bones. Since changing over to Living Skeleton Armament, he'd gained access to more information on what Infinity Bone could do for him and anyone he granted this signature skill to.

Each layer would cost the same as the last and add strength less than the layer before. Already having a complete second layer, the armors physical strength was around 80-90 times Earth standard. If they made it through this mess, this process would further enhance the power of the non-prime skill.

Harper interrupted as his thoughts finished going full circle. "Thank you for bringing me out of the Hub. I needed it more than I noticed."

"You're welcome," Mathew said automatically.

"I think I can survive getting close to that monster. But I don't think I can hurt it. At least I'm not sure how to," Mathew let his worry out.

"Maybe we can get away with just holding up in the Hub?" Harper didn't sound confident.

Mathew just looked at her.

"Okay, so probably not, but it's nice to dream," Harper laughed. "Isn't it funny how much a week can change your dreams?"

"Maybe not. I always just wanted to be a good man," Mathew said. "I guess the how to get to my dream did change a lot, though."

They walked in silence most of the way to the glow of their shelter.

"I don't think you used the right ideas," Harper said. "Goals don't have to be clear. Dreams, well, I think you have to be able to see them. Where you are going to be and who is going to be there with you."

"Then I don't think I can dream right now," Mathew chuckled. "Maybe one day."

Following Harper into the Hub, Mathew tried to dig into his pooling ability. It seemed about half as strong as his Digestion magic in terms of raw power but often, how power was applied was more impactful to results. So Mathew explored this new power. His new sense was drawn to many of the reagents gathered for Harper.

They held power pooled within a membrane he could feel. "What's this?" Mathew picked up a stone jar with a lid he'd made.

"Uhm... that's Shield Juice," Harper said. "I've been cultivating a whole crop of them, so there's plenty to go around. What's up?"

"I can feel it," Mathew closed his eyes and focused his senses. He wanted it. Maybe he'd need a shield sometime soon.

Willing a Pooling intelectus together, Mathew sent it to take it for himself. It left from him trailing tubes of transparent membrane. His intelectus began siphoning the power from the liquid in the jar. As it flowed, Mathew could feel what it was. No longer obscured by the boundary of foreign storage, he could understand its makeup and function.

The blue power funneling over was an inert shield force. It would protect, but it didn't have cohesion or physicality. Cutting off the flow, the material consolidated under Mathew's control as a small blue orb within his awareness.

[152/225 Pooling points, 19.7% Pooling power available

9 Inert Shield]

Watching the change in his status, the mechanics of his new magic began to clarify. At least one function would let him steal power from where it was stored and take it for himself. Verifying the cost, Mathew found that his Pooling sense cost 5% of his passive power.

Why am I restricted to 25% Pooling power? He wondered.

Mathew tried sending his Pooling intelectus to gather information on what he could do with the stored energy. It balked at the task returning without a notification. It wasn't just a failure, though. Experience allowed Mathew to gather subtle nuances he'd missed in his early days. The negative response wasn't a "there are no answers right now" it was a "I can't answer that."

Trying a different approach, Mathew willed a new intelectus to form for the Inert Shield. The new mind translated information to him. It wasn't as detailed as Digestion magic or as sparse as Pooling was. Mathew could use the shield energy with his willpower to either give it force or binding.

Force shield was exactly like it sounded. His skill with willpower would determine how much he could make something other than a glob of force. Also, if he wanted to get the full power from the force shield he'd have to use enough willpower.

On the other hand, binding tied the shield energy to an object or body that it would defend. Again, if he wanted to use the full power of the shield he'd have to use enough willpower.

Funneling willpower into the shield intelectus, Mathew commanded it to bind some shield to his gauntleted hand. Nebulous blue energy spread unevenly across his bone hand.

Probably not a noticeable improvement for himself, but this was only one potential option.

He was in a room of them. For the first time since he sat down at Trent's table of free food at The Stash, he felt the urge to be greedy.

"What do you have that should deal damage?" Mathew asked.

"Uh, just this venom from the Five Tail Mouse," Harper frowned.

Mathew let his Pooling sense wash over the jugs Harper gestured at. Only the two on the ends felt like they held anything. Judging by their description, Mathew didn't think he would be using them for damage.

Reagents with properties for bonding, sedatives, growth, insulation, pheromone... Mathew growled. He didn't want to hold just anything; he wanted something valuable.

The essence of fear would be excellent if he didn't already have a mental attack power. Knowing that some options existed that weren't useless made Mathew feel better.

After reviewing Harper's entire stock, Mathew found three things worth further consideration. Chill Powder, Shock Beans and Spine Pods

Ripping each of those pools to himself, Mathew felt his avarice fade. Greed of power. That was the influence of Pooling magic.

Mathew had grown up with most of what he wanted taken care of, and when he moved out and didn't have his needs met, he'd already grown into a man who found riches in good people and good values. This materialistic greed wasn't something he had a suitable coping mechanism for. Thankfully it was nowhere near as strong an influence on him as his Digestion magic.

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

Returning his focus to the new orbs of pooled energy, Mathew created three mini-intelectus, one at a time.

Essence of cold was just like the effect of Chill Powder, except it worked as fast as he'd release it. There was no need for a catalyst. The downside, for now, was that this also wouldn't make viable ranged magic.

The Shock Beans came inside a large pod similar to a cocoa fruit. His pool of power filled with captured lightning. This time his intelectus provided some exciting options. Mathew could direct this electrical charge of magic just about anywhere he wanted by using willpower to create a complete circuit. Long, wide, branching, the only restriction he had to make sure it could return back to him. Its strength would change based on the whole circuit, but this seemed like his best ranged weapon so far.

Finally Spine Pods, they were a cluster of seeds that tapered down to sharp points. All held inside of a grenade-like shell. Fitting given that was how that grass propagated its seeds. The power extracted from the pod was force, raw kinetic power. While this didn't have the range of the pooled electricity, it would add a lot of versatility.

Mathew almost filled up his capacity right then and only just remembered to control himself. "Harper, can I take these?" Mathew gestured at the treasures.

"I don't see why not," Harper shrugged. "We aren't making anything for the Night Stalker right now anyway."

Needing no other encouragement, Mathew drained them until he ran out of Pooling magic.

His plan was to consume all the kinetic energy he could gather, then electricity, and finally, fill up on cold essence. After he'd ripped over 112 kinetic energy and 14 electric, Mathew found his magic was empty. It seemed taking power wasn't a one-to-one ratio. Further, even if it was, his storage capacity was a lot higher than a full tank of Pooling points would let him fill. Maybe in the future, he could develop the skill that would generate Pooling magic.

"Thank you, Harper," Mathew said. "Mind if I take these with me. I can't consume their magic all at once."

"Knock yourself out, big guy," Harper smiled up at him while rapping her knuckles on his armor.

Leaving with an armload of reagents, Mathew made his way back to the hot tub.

There was still more he could do to be ready, and he had some choices to make. With more than 10K Reserves, he could do a lot. Not having time to finish healing from his brief encounter with the Field Cat, Mathew didn't trust that he could make a Health empowered weapon as a replacement. Even then, he'd learned that removing a weapon caused crafting damage against Health.

With weapons out of the way, Mathew was left with reinforcing himself. He'd leave a 1,500 unused so he could Convert more magic or stamina for the fight. The rest he'd work into his armor.

Double-checking to confirm that his upgraded skill would work just like the old one, Mathew got to work. Reserves trickled down from his pool into his Health. He'd felt it before but never directly. His Pooling senses showed him the process in a way he'd never seen before.

Reserves were transported as discrete units, each with its own micro-membrane. After entering the multicolored ball that was his Health it would radiate waves of light that struck his skeleton wherever he was reinforcing. That was the final part of the process that he'd felt before.

Seeing the whole process from one end to the other made him wonder how that knowledge could be used. Hell, he had plenty of fuel to experiment with.

Trying to send a unit of his Reserves into his Health, Mathew felt his intelectus stop at some boundary. Trying the same thing targeting different places, he finally got a single unit to slide into his Health. A tiny bump appeared on his chest plate.

Channeling his intelectus, he had it fix the mistake.

This made Mathew wonder if he used a different method to move Reserves into his Health if it would change something else about him. A storm of fear and excitement clashed within him. Nearly unlimited options met against the harsh reality that he'd have to live with whatever he tried.

In the very long term, he may have to slowly and carefully explore this. Also, he'd have to closely watch every level up and system benefit. If he was a betting man, he'd bet that this was how the system implemented its upgrades.

Making a mental note to ask Grant sometime, Mathew returned his focus to tried and tested applications. Laying his Reserves into his armor two full times, he felt that was as much as he'd reasonably achieve. Still having over 2,300 Reserves, he channeled some through Conversion to raise his Health closer to full.

About halfway through this process, a burbling noise drew his attention. The hot tub was boiling all around him. Mathew could feel the heat, but it felt luxurious instead of fatal. He had taken for granted what it meant that his durability had grown so much. Maybe he was overconfident but he felt like next fight he could ignore defense a lot more and focus on dealing damage.

[New skill awarded: Living Skeleton Armament 27. Living Skeleton Armament 27 overrides Living Skeleton Armament 26]

[New skill awarded: Living Skeleton Armament 28. Living Skeleton Armament 28 overrides Living Skeleton Armament 27]

If nothing else, this confirmed his skills cost more to level as they grew. The journey to a skill level of 400 so he could take his whole armament off whenever he wanted to was going to be a long way off.

Mathew blinked and yawned. Something about dropping his awareness internally so deeply was mentally exhausting. He still had a little more to do, though.

After getting the award of True Cannibal, Mathew never did select a new perk.

[Digestion ~perk tier two

Parasitic Touch - Consume the reserves of another creature by physical contact

~perk tier three

Mental Hunger - Convert Digestion to an idea magic

Living Hunger - Willpower component of magic is enhanced]

This choice held him up a bit. Testing them with his intelectus one critical piece of information was translated to him. Parasitic Touch was magical but didn't cost points to work like when he shared Reserves. This was a weapon he could wield with nothing left in the tank. This option spoke to his fear that he'd get pinned down by a monster immune to his magic and have nothing else to earn his freedom. Being durable without being strong was his fear.

Finally, he decided where to spend his 20% bonus from killing 4-2.

[Agility 16.5 (+2.8 Apex predator 1)

...

Cognition 12.6(+1 Body mind reflection)]

Sure enough, blue system energy flooded his Health before rippling from there as glowing waves. Holding onto that memory, he tried to understand every nuance of the change he could. As the layers overlapped and echoed he knew this would take a while.

Climbing out of the pool and yawning, Mathew found a corner of the room to sleep in.

"Hey Hint?" Mathew spoke.

"Yes, Mathew?" Hint said.

"If we make it through all this, can I get a room of my own?" Mathew asked.

"Gladly!" Hint squealed in delight.

Mentally crashing, Mathew fell into a fitful sleep. Dreams from his mind trying to sort out the crazy experiences of his last day clung to his psyche as he woke. With a flex of willpower, he banished the urge to roll over and go back to sleep.

Looking down to the belly of the spire through the Alpha spectrum, Mathew confirmed he was still contesting the Territory with the baby Night Stalker. The Territory and the powers that came with it would be his. A flare of avarice and anger reinforced his desire to bring war to the Night Stalker.

Mathew was only a few minutes into planning the next steps when he figured out this was, in part, his new magic. Taking a breath, he reworked his plans to be less pushy. Ask if Harper is ready to apply another round of fortification. Ask if everyone else was ready.

Better yet. Mathew turned to the items he'd piled beside himself. After draining his 225 points of Pooling by absorbing what he could, Mathew felt his mind clear some. The constant pull of hunger from his Digestion magic was at least something he'd grown used to. It was a burden he could wait to unleash, given the importance of the upcoming battle.

Leaving the 'conference room' to the main room, Mathew realized he was the last to be up and about.

"Morning," Mathew willed up a Mental Attack intelectus, his new habit for social situations. "Are we ready?"

"As ready as we are getting," Harper nodded. "No more weapons to produce. I've already dumped my magic into the fortification. It's got the Reinforcement upgrade now, for what it's worth."

"Morning scouting found the target has continued a rapid pace of maturation," Ben said. "Its plumage is filling by feet of feathers an hour, and I can only imagine it's maturing deadly ways as well. We aren't getting any stronger, but it is. I was just about to wake you up, actually."

"Let's go to war then," Mathew clipped the crimson curve that was Caustic Resolution to his hip.

Leaving the protection of the Hub, the memory of all the danger he'd been subjected to rolled over him. Maybe it was the poor dreaming, but Mathew felt this was the final hurdle between himself and a safe home.

The urge to make a safe home for those he cared for became barely restrained violence in his mind. Aware this was from the influence of the Alpha spectrum, he pulled more of it in. Mathew refused to let rational fears daunt him. Balancing his mind on the razor's edge of becoming an animal, his pack, his hive stalked to the summit their enemy claimed as home.