He couldn’t hear anything aside from ringing, due to the Cleftfiend’s piercing shriek, but it was difficult to forget that the System-recognized abomination was behind him.
Ethan turned around, but it and the tree it’d struck were gone. Alyssa was standing in their midst, her clothes somehow intact, but waves of heat rolling off of her. Ethan was twenty or so feet away, and yet he could still feel the heat slamming into his face.
“Move back,” Ethan shouted to Dis and Fred, only barely hearing his own voice. The two goblins did, and Ethan tried to move Gadget… but his body was finally starting to give out on him. He couldn’t pick the dog up for the life of him, and he was eventually forced to call the goblins back and have them haul Gadget and, indeed, himself back to safety.
After that, Ethan rubbed his face and tried to think clearly. What the fuck had just happened? Gadget had nearly died to some terrifying, horrible abomination, that’s what. Also, Gadget was overpowered- he’d practically taken the Cleftfiend out all on his own, although he did take himself out to do it.
‘Since he contributed just as much if not more than me, he’s probably a higher level, isn’t he?’ Ethan wondered. He brought up Gadget’s Panel, since he could.
Subject: Gadget
Class: Overloader
Level: 10
Rank: 0
Attributes:
Agility: 1.9
Creativity: 1.7
Fortitude: 1.2
Insight: 1.3
Magic: 1.4
Processing: 1
Strength: 2.9 – 15.2
That was… really, really good. Gadget was firmly within the healthy territory now, even without using his class. Ethan compared it to his own.
Subject: Ethan Cross
Class: Summoner (Uncommon)
Level: 8
Rank: 0
Attributes:
Agility: 1.8
Creativity: 1.5
Fortitude: 1.4
Insight: 1.2
Magic: 2.5
Processing: 2.4
Strength: 1.1
Impartments: Summon Goblin, Summon Hobgoblin
3 Minor Physicality Attribute Points available.
2 Standard Attribute Points available.
1 System Reward available. (Deadline: 4:44)
…Right now, he was weaker than his dog. He hadn’t allocated his attribute points yet, though, whereas his dog’s seemed to be allocated instantly, judging by the colossal numbers and the fact he’d been knocked out since before the Cleftfiend died.
He started with what had a deadline, before quickly allocating the Superior Physicality Attribute Point- he really needed to start abbreviating these- to his Fortitude, bringing it up from 1.4 to 2.4.
Ethan strongly suspected that the milestones were at 2.5, considering his Magic attribute. If that were the case, two of his Attributes were ready to undergo the same enormously beneficial evolution as his mana core… but Ethan wasn’t sure if he was ready for that, yet. He remembered the mind-melting agony only faintly by now, but he definitely remembered remembering never wanting to endure such a thing again.
‘No. I can’t turn down power for pain… it’ll only hurt for a minute or two at most, and then I’ll be stronger than ever,’ Ethan thought, but it was still difficult to make the choice. He decided to allocate some of his other Attribute points first.
He put one Minor Physicality AP- the abbreviation for Attribute Point- into both Agility and Strength, raising them to 2 and 1.3 respectively. The last one would go towards Fortitude, bringing it over the milestone. Ethan didn’t have to think very much to put the Standard AP into Magic, bringing it from 2.5 to 2.9.
Then, he had nothing left to stall with. Gritting his teeth, Ethan put a Standard AP into his Processing, bringing the attribute up from 2.4 to 2.8.
A second passed, and Ethan wondered if he’d been wrong about the milestones. ‘Do they vary for each one?’ Ethan just barely had the time to wonder, before his mind simply… stopped. Ethan’s body slumped forward as he became functionally brain-dead.
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Roughly two minutes later, Ethan shot back up again, looking around confusedly as though he’d just fallen asleep and abruptly woken up. His mind was in no such state, though; an unprecedented clarity was what it experienced, despite his abrupt pseudo-death and revival. Ethan had a billion thoughts in the second or two he lived, and it took a minute to get some measure of control together. Ethan hadn’t been sure before, but he was now- the upgrades to his Processing were double-edged swords.
His mind was better than before, that much was undeniable- but Ethan didn’t seem to have the willpower necessary to keep his mind fully under control. It was perpetually incredibly active and scatterbrained; Ethan didn’t want that.
Even now, as he had these thoughts, some part of Ethan was processing the fact that he had justsort of died.
Congratulations! Your Attribute, Processing, has reached a Milestone and undergone a fundamental upgrade.
‘The Milestones are capital M milestones,’ Ethan corrected his past self, and then immediately shook his head. ‘I… should look into the changes caused by the Milestone. The ones that the last one caused were gigantic.’
The problem was that it was significantly harder to accurately measure mental changes. Doubtlessly, his mind was faster than ever, but he felt like there was something he was missing.
Ethan’s testing was interrupted soon enough, as Alyssa finally moved from her position standing amongst the flames, falling to her knees and clutching at her chest, right above where her mana core should be. The waves of heat stopped rolling off of her, but it would still be a minute or two before they could safely approach, let alone get her out of there or help her in any way.
Unfortunately, he had greater problems to attend to- at least for now. Ethan had finally realized that his mind was split into five different streams of individual thought- so individual, in fact, that he wasn’t even sure what they were thinking about and could only faintly detect them, as their thoughts occasionally seeped into his stream of thought.
‘I think I’ve just developed the most severe case of multiple personality disorder ever,’ Ethan thought- or, rather, some of him thought. The rest was, apparently, bringing his Fortitude up from 2.4 to 2.6, as he faintly noticed constitution become slightly better.
Then, Ethan was besieged by a horrible, unbearable pain. Utter agony engulfed every cell in his body, and Ethan’s disconnected and disheveled mind came together for the first time in a while. And then… the pain stopped, as all of his senses were cut off. Ethan was simply floating within an endless void now; no sound, no smell, no taste, no feeling and no vision. Even his mana sense was cut off- and, by extension, so was his ability to use magic.
His mind began to split again, only the stream of thought that Ethan seemed to be within remaining still. The void began to change. Ethan regained a body, floating through an endless void for only a moment as a disc of ground formed beneath him. Grass and trees sprung from the ground, but all of that didn’t last for long- he was suddenly within his childhood home.
‘What the fuck is happening?’ Ethan wondered, shocked. Everything felt… real, even though he knew this was all in his head. He could feel the air against his skin, could see his house, could smell the familiar scent of his mother’s favorite candle, and could hear the birds chirping… the illusion of reality fell apart when Ethan tried to move, though.
His imagined body was not perfectly remade; his insides were vague and blurry, causing him to stumble when he tried to take a step forward and to suddenly clutch at his chest as an unbearable pain took over his imaginary body, for none of his organs were working properly.
Then, his body broke apart again, and Ethan was welcomed by nothingness once more. A mere moment later, his body was remade, before falling apart again and being remade once more. Ethan struggled to fight against his own mind, but his tiny stream of thought- the most important one, which seemed to bear his personality- failed every time to win against his own mind.
‘How the fuck is this even happening? If I’m able to do this shit, what’s even the purpose of the Creativity attribute?’ Ethan wondered, but no answer came, as his body reformed once more. A second later, every single organ in his body shattered.
Desperate for anything, Ethan reached out for the System- and, shockingly, it reached him even now.
Subject: Ethan Cross
Class: Summoner (Uncommon) (Cursed)
Level: 9
Rank: 0
Attributes:
Agility: 2
Creativity: 2.5
Fortitude: 2.6
Insight: 1.2
Magic: 2.5
Processing: 2.8
Strength: 1.3
Impartments: Summon Altered Goblin, Summon Cursed Hobgoblin
1 Minor Physicality AP available.
‘What the fuck?’ Ethan wondered upon seeing his fucked-up Panel. His eyes were drawn to one thing in particular, though- his Creativity. Not all of this was being caused by his Processing. His Creativity had, somehow, secretly reached the threshold for a Milestone.
“Why the fuck is my Creativity so high!?” Ethan demanded of the System, and, shockingly, it answered.
Accepting the offer for slaying the Nameless Abomination came with side-effects. You have been set down the path of Corruption.
The matter was, apparently, interesting enough for two other streams of consciousness to merge with Ethan’s, and he instantly processed the words.
“What the fuck? Why wouldn’t you warn me about it, bastard!?” Ethan mentally shouted at the System, but no answer came this time. Ethan wanted to scream, but he could not, for he had no mouth. Of course, the System had, ever so slightly, implied that it was negative; it was an offer, to begin with, and it was emphasized that the deadline was to decline it, not to bring it on. He'd not been thinking straight, but it didn't matter to him, and likely wouldn't for a while.
Suddenly, his mental space of torture trembled, and all five of his streams of consciousness temporarily merged once more.
Congratulations! Your Attribute, Creativity, has reached a Milestone and undergone a fundamental upgrade.
And then, a second later:
Congratulations! Your Attribute, Fortitude, has reached a Milestone and undergone a fundamental upgrade.
The moment that the second message arrived, Ethan’s eyes snapped open- in his real body, this time. Ethan did not even have to feel it or look around with any care to know, due to his extreme Processing.
‘Speaking of… my mind seems to be under control now.’ Ethan thought. A few seconds had passed and it still hadn’t split up to go cause him havoc. It was not hard to locate the reason.
‘So, the Fortitude Milestone made the Attribute apply to my mental strength, too?’ Ethan wondered, focusing on the Attribute and bringing up its description once more.
Attribute Description: Fortitude is the Subject’s measured capacity to endure and recover from physical damage and mental afflictions.
The last three words hadn’t been there before- he’d been right, clearly. Ethan’s mind obeyed him now, luckily.
‘Fucking System should’ve warned me about the dangers of Processing and Creativity.’ Ethan mentally complained.
After a few seconds of thought- those few seconds being equivalent to several minutes to his old self- Ethan decided to try and suppress his mind. He did not always need to be thinking at a million miles an hour- right now, his mind felt like it was on the verge of cracking it was going so fast. It was shockingly easy to dampen the effects of Processing and Creativity now, and Ethan let out a sigh of tremendous relief when he was able to think at normal speeds. It was almost equally relieving to have his Creativity dulled, as Ethan was almost certain he’d have gotten lost in countless conspiracy theories if not for his Fortitude reaching a Milestone soon enough.
Even now, Ethan felt like, if he released his two mental Attributes in full force, they’d overwhelm his Fortitude and… well, Ethan didn’t know what, and he wasn’t sure he wanted to know.
‘It’s probably best to save that shit for fights, strategizing and researching.’ Ethan thought.