“How many?” Zeke asked, looking up at Kianma. She stood near the edge of the pool of the Crimson Spring, her hands clasped behind her back.

“Seven-thousand,” she answered. “Mostly beastkin. Then humans. We lost a little over a thousand of the Ak-Kal Ra.”

Zeke shifted, sending ripples through the steaming water. In the wake of the battle, the kobolds had chosen a name for themselves. Ak-Kal Ra. In their language, it meant The Rescued. Or The Saved People. Exact definitions were a little murky due to the limitations of that language. But Zeke knew that the name was meant to honor him as their savior, which made him just as uncomfortable as being referred to as Ak-Toh once had.

Still, he had to remind himself that it was a good sign of their development. It had been close to a week since the fall of Adontis, and the days since then had been filled with clean-up, administration, and integrating the displaced slaves and peasants. Most that had been in Ivern had perished during the battle, but there were still plenty that had managed to make it through. The same could be said for the Knights they’d taken prisoner.

All of that had conspired to give Zeke a massive headache, and one that resisted even the constant influence of the healing springs.

As for his body, it was still a work in progress. His copious use of the Path of Arcane Destruction had destroyed much of his body, whittling it down to a shell of its former self. Since then, Zeke had spent most of his time eating or soaking in the Crimson Spring, and though that had been effective, he knew there was still a long way to go before he’d be back to full strength.

Still, his efforts at inoculation had not been without benefit, and it had only taken him a single day before he was able to move around the tower. That was a definitely improvement from the weeks it had taken him to reach that point after similar expenditures.

Even so, he’d gained quite a bit of his muscle back, and he was beginning to feel healthy enough to move on.

“Don’t get too impatient. You want to be at your best before we push on to the next adventure,” Eveline said.

“Adventure?” Zeke asked. “Is that how you characterize what we just went through? It was a war, Eveline. Thousands of people have died.”

“Bad people. That’s the kind of thing you care about, right? Morality and whatever.”

“They were still people.”

She let out a tired sigh.

Zeke did the same. He knew that Adontis needed to fall. They were, by basically any measure of morality, evil. They’d enslaved whole swaths of people and oppressed everyone but a select few. And even the privileged ones had been practically brainwashed and forced onto a treadmill of ever-increasing power.

“Coming from you, that’s –”

“I know, Eveline,” Zeke said. He knew he was on that same treadmill. But the difference was that he’d chosen that route. Left unspoken was the questions about how he’d pushed his own people to do the same. The kobolds hadn’t chosen their path, after all. They were merely following his example.

But at least the battle hadn’t been for naught. Not only had he gained three levels from killing thousands of people with [Wrath of Annihilation], but finishing Lord Adontis off had pushed him even higher. As he floated in the spring, Zeke looked at his status:

Name

Ezekiel Blackwood

Class

Arcane Colossus

Level

69

Race

Cambion (E)

Attunement

Earth (E), Demon (D)

Alignment

Unchosen

Titles

n/a

Path

Arcane Destruction (C)

Strength (S+)

100

Agility (C)

35

Dexterity (B)

36

Endurance (S+)

100

Vitality (C)

30

Intelligence (A)

50

Wisdom (S)

52

Resistances

Fire

Ice

Water

Earth

Wind

Nature

Arcane

The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Poison

Disease

S+

D

E

S+

E

D

A

C

D

His status had changed quite a bit, and not just because of the four levels he’d gained. In addition to the normal allocation of attribute points for each level, he’d also been awarded eight extra points to do with as he saw fit. He’d chosen to use those points to bring his strength and endurance to triple digits, then used a point to increase his vitality to an even number. The final point, he’d added to dexterity.

Yet, as impactful as those changes were, Zeke was more interested in the rest of his status, which had changed in four notable ways. First, his arcane resistance had increased from B-Tier to A-Tier, likely due to his exposure to the Path of Arcane Destruction. He had no idea how that would impact him going forward, but he liked the idea that he could increase his resistances by inoculating himself against that sort of mana.

“You know that isn’t normal, right?” Eveline reminded him. “Most people can’t do that without decades of exposure. And even then, not when their resistances are that high. It must be a feature of your colossal body.”

“Maybe,” Zeke agreed. However, from his experience, he’d always been capable of developing resistances quickly. All it had taken was a single bout of exposure to a deadly poison to unlock his resistances way back in the Mortal Realm – which was something Abby had claimed was unheard-of.

Either way, it was a nice addition to his power. Hopefully, he’d be able to develop his other resistances in the same way, though he knew it would take quite strong attuned mana to do so.

The next change he focused on was a bit mixed, but it had probably come from the same source. His demonic attunement had increased in grade, going from E-Grade to D-Grade. That would hopefully give him better resistances to the caustic effects of the corrosion, but Eveline seemed to think that any gains in that arena would be offset by a more powerful version of that corruption.

In any case, he’d chosen to look at it as an upgrade.

The third major change was his race, which had improved from F-Grade to E-Grade. That, according to everything he knew, was uncommon as well. It wasn’t completely impossible to improve one’s race without external treasures, but it was so rare that most people considered it to be so. Still, Zeke had done it, and he’d already felt some of the effects. Not only were his senses more acute, but he felt more durable than ever before – even when he wasn’t back to full strength yet.

The most poignant effect was that he felt capable of thinking more quickly and clearly than he had before the racial upgrade. He wasn’t more intelligent, but he could process information better. So, that was definitely a benefit.

But the final alteration to his status sheet was, perhaps, the most important. He’d upgraded his Path of Arcane Destruction from D-Grade to C-Grade. It had already been powerful enough to rip his body to pieces, so he couldn’t help but wonder what it was capable of now.

“Just when I was starting to get strong enough to take it…”

“You will continue to grow stronger,” Eveline assured him. “The divine spark is still there. You are more than your status sheet would imply.”

Zeke hoped so. Even if he wasn’t, his status was incredibly impressive. And he knew it would only grow more overbearing in the future. The reality of it was that he was special. He’d killed a level eighty-six, and without any help. That wasn’t just uncommon. Rare didn’t even cover it. It was supposed to be impossible.

And yet, Zeke had managed it.

What, then, did the future hold? More power, surely. He already held the equivalent of an atomic bomb in the palm of his hand. If he grew even mightier, would he become capable of destroying whole planets? Entire galaxies? Would he become a god, as the divine spark seemed to indicate?

“More,” Eveline said.

“What?”

“You will be more than a god. A god among gods. A titan among ants. You are more than those pretenders could ever be,” she stated. “That much is clear. You only need to walk your path, and the universe will fall before you.”

Zeke started to respond, but he cut himself short. What did he have to say to that sort of declaration, after all?

Suddenly, Zeke felt very lonely. Pudge was still around, though he’d already recovered from his more mundane injuries. Kianma was there, droning on about whatever was going on in the tower. And there were tens of thousands of other kobolds nearby, and each one practically worshipped him.

The others were around, too.

Jasper. Silik. Sasha. Eta. And a host of other people he’d come to know. But in that moment, he still felt alone.

Sighing, he said, “That’s enough, Kianma. I trust that you’ve got everything in hand.”

“Yes, Ak-Toh,” she said. “Do you need anything else from me?”

He said that he didn’t, and the kobold spiritweaver quickly excused herself. More kobolds remained nearby, ready to wait on him hand and foot. Yet, Zeke’s loneliness persisted.

“You’re not alone,” Eveline said. “You know that, don’t you? I’m here with you.”

“I know.”

And he did. Without Eveline, he’d have already gone insane. Zeke was certain of that. In some ways, she knew him better even than he knew himself, and she wasn’t shy about telling him when he was acting contrary to good sense. There was value in that, even if he often found her borderline insulting quips annoying.

“That’s a backhanded compliment if ever I’ve heard one,” she said. “But I’ll take it.”

For a long time, Zeke just lay there in the pool. It was more than soothing, and he knew that he would recover much more quickly if he limited his time outside of it. So, he sank into his skills, searching for ways to upgrade. The most glaring opportunity was [Triune Colossus], but it was such a complex skill that he hesitated to do anything with it. More, it felt more solid than any of the others, probably because it was his class’s defining ability.

Next, he looked at [Cambion’s Awakening], but he didn’t have any solid ideas on how he would improve the skill. Sure, he’d have liked for it to be more powerful, but his knowledge was too limited to figure out how that might be accomplished.

After that, he took a look at the oft-forgotten [Mark of Companionship]. In a perfect world, he’d have already improved upon that skill. It was easily his least powerful ability, so it was ripe for advancement. Yet, he was held up by two things. First, he was hesitant to mess around with it while it was the only link between him and his other two companions. He and Talia would soon be reunited – he hoped – but Tucker was still at large. Without [Mark of Companionship] to point the way, there was little chance of a reunion.

So, given that Zeke didn’t want to run the risk of altering it so much that the effects changed, Zeke had decided not to mess with it. The other contributing factor was the alteration Oberon had already made to the skill. That had changed the structure enough that Zeke struggled to understand every facet of the skill. So, he chose to leave it alone.

Next, he checked [Unleash Momentum], and while Zeke thought there was room for improvement, he knew it would take thousands of hours to make any headway on that complex structure.

Finally, he turned to the most obvious candidate for upgrade: [Bulwark of the Triumvirate]. Not only was the necessity for improvement obvious – after all, he wanted to protect Eveline – but he’d created the skill himself, so there was nothing in there he didn’t understand.

So, with that in mind, he focused on just that.

It would still be weeks before he felt confident enough to even start building the foundations, but Zeke comforted himself with the knowledge that every journey inevitably began with a single step. The same was true with building and adjusting his skills.

So, like that, Zeke occupied himself for the next few weeks. Time passed easily, and without his noticing it. Sinking into a meditative state was a necessity for working on his skills, and doing so had the added benefit – at least in his current state of convalescence – of tuning out the rest of the world.

He came out of that trance to eat and for biological necessity, but for the most part, he remained in the pool, meditating on his skill, for hours upon hours until, at last, he realized that his body had completely healed. Once he had reached that state, Zeke pulled himself from the soothing waters and headed toward his manor.

Once there, he took a few minutes to catch up with Pudge, who’d also experienced quite a lot of growth. That seemed to be the case with everyone in the tower.

“War is good for progression,” Eveline stated.

Zeke couldn’t disagree with that. As distasteful as it was, it seemed that fighting other forces – as opposed to constantly running dungeons or hunting in the wilderness – was the best way to gain levels as well as insight into other areas of improvement. The only downside was that it was far more dangerous.

But that was the case with anything worthwhile in the Eternal Realm.

After that, Zeke took a while to clean himself up, then rest a bit before he descended the tower and headed to the Pillar, where he received more reports on how the end of the war had progressed. As it turned out, killing Lord Adontis had broken the Knights’ backs, and many had fled across the borders to join their allies. Or they’d scattered. In any case, the kingdom of Adontis was no more.

But Zeke was more concerned with finally meeting his goals and reuniting with Talia. She was closer than ever before. Now, he just needed to cross the undead kingdom of El’Kireth to find her.

So, with that in mind, Zeke left the tower via his gate and headed in the direction indicated by his [Mark of Companionship]. After a few days, Zeke felt the atmosphere shift, and in a familiar direction. It was far stronger than it had been in the area around Micayne’s keep, but the ambient mana was similar enough that Zeke couldn’t escape the comparison.

Eventually, his guards were forced to return to the tower, but Zeke felt few ill effects. It was probably because of his high resistances. According to Eveline, undeath was a mixture of arcane, disease, and poison. And while his disease resistance wasn’t very high – at only D-Grade, it was, at best, average – the others made up for it. Couple that with his incredible endurance, and he was minimally affected.

The same couldn’t be said for his companions, who were forced to remain in the tower.

So, he continued on alone until the land visibly shifted. The trees went from normal to some variant with white bark and crimson leaves, telling him that he’d finally reached El’Kireth. Now, he only needed to find his way to Talia. With that in mind, he pushed forward.