CHAPTER 201

Tom forced himself to put one foot in front of the other. His health was improving, he had corrected his eyesight, so he was no longer tripping as often or mistakenly veering off in the wrong direction. His legs were far from fixed and complained with every stride, but they were now working and let him keep pace with the others without requiring all of his concentration.

It let him focus on quality of life improvements.

First, he fully restored his eyes to their base functionality, including rebuilding the tear ducts.

Tom blinked and shivered in relief. The sensation of rubbing sandpaper over his eyeballs had not occurred. Then he focused on reducing some of the incessant pain that shot through him with every step and not by dulling the nerves. One by one he fixed the damage that was creating the most pain.

His body remained in a bad way, but at least he could now run without too much discomfort.

Not for the first time, Tom did a stock take of his body. The skeletal system was intact, but with numerous weaknesses. There were the consequences of his slap-hazard fusing of bones instead of proper healing. Those generated a dull ache with each step. Then there were the spots where he hadn’t purged the impact of the antelope, yet. The bone there was softer than it should have been and often caused jolting pain. Muscular systems, including the tendons, were in the best shape. The majority of them were in prime working order, but after that it deteriorated significantly. Circulatory was a mixed bag with significant damage particularly to the lung. The digestive system was unfortunately a complete write off. His legs had open sores all over them. He had made the effort to heal the rest of his skin but had skipped the legs because he figured those wounds were protected by his tier three pants and if he had to compromise that was the best spot to do it.

He had fought in worse condition and nothing was pressing, so he would start rebuilding his magic reserves. With no other distractions, he studied his surroundings.

The entire team was spread out around him like an honour guard ready to protect him from any threats that might attack. Only Michael had stayed close and that was presumably to guide his steps because Tom could remember the hand tugging his elbows to redirect him when he had gone the wrong way. That and to allow the healer to continue to burn away the decay inside Tom’s system. Something he was still doing.

Michael came from the school of efficiency that Tom liked to occupy. For the delicate energy work that he needed to carry out to purge the decay energy proximity trumped long range magic use, so Michael had made sure he was right next to his patient.

Tom glanced around again. Harry was on the right flank, Toni running ahead of them, Jingyi not in sight. They had abandoned the ten metre restriction in the quest for speed.

“You with us. Tom.”

He tried to talk, and his throat seized up. It wasn’t a surprise to him at all, so with a grimace he gave Michael a thumbs up.

“Good. I have bad news. Jingyi informed us a minute ago that another of those advanced hunting parties has got on trail. We might have as few as three minutes left as many as five.”

Tom realised for this he needed to communicate easily. One mana went to his vocal cords. “Shit.” He forced the words out. Healing Tranquillity triggered and with time almost completely halted he did another mental sweep of his body. There was nothing he could do to patch it before the next fight. Unless a divine miracle occurred, which is not something any of them could conjure, he was going into the next fight hurt.

Fortunately, there were combat improvements available. If they pushed, they could probably fix most of the muscular skeletal problems which would let him fight as normal. Unfortunately, the other issues would remain unsolved. Specifically, the sores on his legs and problems with his lungs would not get mended in time. Tom was hesitant about choosing combat proficiency over barrier protection, which fixing his skin and lungs would grant. But he suspected he had no choice. His spear work was needed to kill the high ranked monsters and if his muscles weren’t working correctly, that would be beyond him. All he could do was hope that the open wounds wouldn’t make him more susceptible to the decay aura.

“The good news is that there’s only six of them.” Michael told him.

“You guys need me to tank them don’t you.”

“Yes.” Michael, answer bluntly. “We’ve done some research while running. But first.” Michael shoved a stone across to him.

“What’s this?”

“A spell. We bought it out of the profit from the other eight corpses. Use it.”

Tom triggered it while running. The download of information was disappointing. All it contained were instructions on how to use what was effectively a new muscle to cast the spell, and it said nothing about what the magic actually did.

He stepped into his system room and the spell description was on the wall in front of him.

Spell: Decay Resistance - tier 0

Create a short-lived shield around the caster that reduces the impact of decay auras.

Cost: 20 mana. Duration 2 seconds.

Tom opened his eyes once more.

“It’s shit tier,” Michael told him. “But we’re pretty sure the antelopes’ aura is only tier two, so even shit tier should work. Theoretically, we calculated that it’ll give you an eighty percent reduction in damage.”

“Only eighty percent…” Tom groaned when he remembered how quickly the decay had hit him, and that had been when his skin was not pockmarked with existing wounds. “And it’s a mana hog.”

“We bought the best available. Second, we don’t know how much experience you got from the antelopes, but there are a couple of decay protection Skills that you should buy.”

Tom frowned. He hated being forced to purchase things for a single niche application. It was the best way to get over an immediate adversary, but long term you ended up weaker for it. “What are they?”

“You’re going to hate them.”

“Spit it out. I’m not an idiot. We need to survive the next skirmish.”

“Good, I feared you would resist more.” Michael said simply. “The best skill is Decay Conditioned. There are tier one, two and three options available. I doubt you will be able to afford the more powerful version, but if you can get the tier two, it will help you immensely. Failing that there is Decay Skin Barrier or Decay Airway Barrier. You can choose which of those are better.”

Tom immediately retreated into the system room, trusting the strange magic of the place to keep him moving forward in a stumbling run and not cause him to immediately face plant.

Skill: Decay Conditioned–Tier 1

Greatly increases resistance to decay energies, but increases vulnerability to elemental and arcane energy fields.

Cost: 9000

The tier two version was underneath it and the description didn’t change at all, but the cost was twenty thousand. The tier three was even more prohibitively expensive at fifty-four. The fact all three skills were at the maximum of the tier range told Tom that they were top level skills despite the significant downside it came with.

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Skill: Decay skin barrier–Tier 1

Strengthens your skin to let it’d be a barrier against decay energy, but increases vulnerability to elemental attack types.

Cost: 7000

He left the system room. “They’re really shit skills.”

“Yes, and we’re all going to need to buy them. That spell isn’t good enough to protect you by itself.”

“I know.”

Tom shut his eyes once more and purchased the tier two skill Decay Conditioning. Nothing overt happened, but he felt like some of the decay energy that was still swirling inside him became more sluggish.

“Which one?”

“Decay conditioning tier two.”

“If you’re lucky, once it’s a higher rank you’ll be able to toggle it off and on.”

“That’s the best case,” Tom agreed.

“I know it’s shit,” Michael apologised. “And outside fighting the antelopes it’s not only useless it’s actually a pure liability, but there’s no…”

“I know,” Tom interrupted. “We need to not die now and this will help that.”

“Exactly.”

“You said three to five?”

“One to three minutes now,” Michael corrected.

“I need to regenerate my mana for the coming battle. Can you and Clare target your healing at combat readiness. Skeleton and muscles.”

“Are you sure… you know other parts of you are almost technically dead at this point.”

“Survive first,” Tom said grimly.

“You’re a masochist. Clare, did you hear that?”

The other healer nodded and Tom felt magic wrap around the bone in his leg that he had crudely fused earlier. He stumbled slightly as it rebroke, realigned and then healed properly.

One of the annoying aches that was occurring with every step was fixed.

They kept running. Ahead of them Jingyi appeared and when Tom glanced back, he saw that the next wave of antelopes had caught them.

He slowed to a stop, and the others ran past. He had regenerated a hundred and forty mana, which should be more than enough for the engagement.

The antelopes were charging towards him, and then his trusty spear was in his hand. It was still the one that Sonya had made for him. To be honest, it was a little weak for his current rank, but he was hoping with sufficient use it would evolve to match his growth. It was an outside chance, but until he got a better option, it was the best he had, anyway.

The monsters charged him and this time they were tightly packed.

Tom smiled.

That would save him mana.

Lightning Engage triggered but unlike previously he only used it at half strength. Sparks exploded around him and spread to only two metres in every direction rather than the usual three and a half, which almost halved the mana cost.

All six of the beasts were in range and the sparks dug into eyeballs and nostrils and the monster’s eyes became even more enraged, if that was possible.

Hooves that he still didn’t know whether they would hurt him lashed out.

He teleported forward to avoid them and destroy their timing. Black dodge did not trigger, and he manually used his new spell Decay Resistance to pump up his defences. Despite both the spell and skill acting in tandem, he could feel his skin tingling and the sores on his legs started burning.

Their aura was devastating in its strength.

He parried an errant hoof, and it was like hitting a wall, which told Tom how strong they were. He did not want to be kicked. Then he became a limbo dancer, swaying so far that his hair touched the ground.

An earth spike skewered one opponent. It caused another to slip as the impaled antelope knocked into it. Tom pushed himself back to standing. He was right over the top of the monster. A half strength Power Strike and the full weight of his thrust penetrated the defensive fur right into the heart and then he was pulling the weapon back.

Time slowed, and the teleport became available once more. He teleported forward and adjusted his hands as he did so. Instead of his spear being out of position he was able to launch another attack. This time he took out a throat and then was spinning and thrusting hard through an eye.

Two seconds had passed, and the pain suddenly intensified. With a mental curse, Tom triggered Decay Resistance again.

As he dodged the last uninjured antelope. An arrow struck it. It squealed and stumbled.

Tom found himself standing over it and thrust down to finish the fight.

Decay energy was still hitting, and he searched for the culprit.

Another earth spike split the skull open of the antelope he had ripped the throat out of. A second arrow smashed into one of the creatures that Jingyi had shot earlier. They had seen that the aura was still active and was trying to finish the fight.

Tom wasn’t sure it was necessary, but he stabbed the last one that might be alive. His Power Strike capacity was almost exhausted and the thrust barely got through the armoured fur. But it got in, which was all that was required. He leant hard on it to drive it in further and then twisted savagely to do the maximum internal damage possible.

The power of decay aura vanished around him.

“That hurts.” Tom groaned and collapsed on the ground. The fight had lasted four seconds and cost him eighty mana, which gave him a small treasure trove to fix the major issues that still affected him.

Healing Tranquillity let him delve into what had happened. The rampaging auras of decay, despite his spell and new skill had interacted with the energies within him. They had amplified each other to create empowered currents primarily focused around the areas that were already damaged.

That meant from a fighting sense he was barely impacted. The muscular and skeletal systems had been fixed almost completely between him and the healer’s efforts prior to the battle. With no decay energy within them, the amplification of the aura had not occurred, which left them virtually untouched. The bleed in of decay from other areas were removed with only five mana.

The problem, of course, was the rest of the body. This was not the last time he would be facing these sorts of fights and from memory of running from similar herds of monsters Tom was confident they would probably engage with multiple smaller hunting parties before the main pack closed upon him. If there were ten or more antelopes, Tom knew he couldn’t afford for the same chain reactions to occur, and he doubted he could purge all the wild energy inside him in time. That meant he needed a barrier to ensure his internal issues did not interact with external ones.

Skin, Tom decided. With his remaining mana, he would need to reinstate that. He didn’t like leaving a circulatory system in its current state and the almost dead digestive systems needed to be addressed before he lost functionality from it and probably vitality at the same time.

However, those were for considerations when his life was not on the line. For now he had to fix his skin and as always Healing Tranquillity let him perform a stock take of his body.

Tom frowned.

Every breach in the skin had a wider, deeper sore associated with it. The efficient way to fix those types of wounds was from the inside out, but his mana reserves were completely inadequate for that sort of approach.

Quietly, he played with one of the smaller sores. First, he grew the outer layer of skin, sealing the sore away, and then Tom saw the problem. These wounds were infected with decay energy. It was not the same as a bacterial infection in his old world, but it was close. Pus and mucus would be created and usually that would be drained out the open wound, effectively acting to push out the growing decay threat. If he sealed the sore like this, then that pus would fill the wound, go deeper and spread the infection.

His frown deepened.

An inner barrier of tissue grew to seal off the infected volume. It came naturally, which meant it was a standard part of the body’s defence. In short order, there was a sealed off section containing simmering angry decay energy and dying flesh.

Tom examined what he had done and decided that while not ideal it was something he could work with. One by one he sealed away each of the open sores. A series of infected hard lumps of contained decay energy lay under a layer of skin that separated them from the outside world. It was a terrible solution and now if he was kicked in the leg those confined wells of concentrated decay energy would split open and spill their contents within him but the important thing is when he was next in the decay aura the evil energy inside him would be isolated and there would no amplification of potency.

He came out of his focused trance.

Michael was frowning at him. “Not the smartest medical thing I’ve seen you do?”

Tom snorted. “It’s only a few abscesses. I can heal them over time.”

“About thirty, by my count, but yes, your solution will buy us time.”

There was a flash of light, and the quickly butchered corpses that had been laid out carefully on the ground vanished.

“Move,” Jingyi ordered.

Tom started running and as he did so, he monitored what was happening in his body. The skill he had purchased was hard at work. He had purchased the skill Decay Conditioning, and it ran permanently in the background. With his body filled with foreign energy, the Skill was active in trying to flush it out. While it did not touch the abscesses, it fought against everything else in him. Even without Michael’s involvement, the residuals would be purged in two, maybe three hours.

Tom glanced at Michael. “Fixing my skin sores this way might not have been the most technically sound approach, but I had no choice. The decay aura amplified the destructive potential of the energy already in me. I had my buffs up during that four seconds and I was still almost torn apart.”

“I know, I saw.”

“I would have been dead without the skill and spell to restrain it.”

“I agree.”

“We’re all going to be exposed to that aura, and the problem is that the impact is exponential. Every second, the damage almost doubles.”

“I saw.”

“Everyone needs to buy Decay Conditioning.”

Michael hesitated. “Yes… you’re right… but we don’t have the experience to spend.”

“Jingyi,” Tom called out. “Is there any chance of us getting experience on the way?”

“It’ll slow us down and they’ll catch us sooner.”

Michael laughed darkly. “That doesn’t matter. We have to risk it because if they close as we currently are everyone who doesn’t have Decay Conditioning will die, anyway.”

“I’ll find us something.”

“Jingyi,” Tom said quietly. “Can you make sure Everlyn hears what we need to buy.”