CHAPTER 247—DECISION MAKING
With a savage thrust, Tom shattered the shield of the last monster. He immediately pulled the blow to penetrate two hands deep into the giant head but no further. Like all the others, it collapsed completely incapacitated by the foreign object in its skull. But it was far from dead.
He was helplessly panting. Eight tier twenties were too much for him to defeat easily even with the favourable matchup granted by his lightning skills and the water elemental summons. The fight had been way too close, but somehow; he had survived. But if there was another round… If more monsters appeared when this one died, then he would have no choice but to spend fate and not a small amount, either.
The puzzle would function in multiples of twos. He had seen the pattern everywhere in the tutorial and here would be no different. One more fight would be many and actually meant that he would need to face two full rounds. He was not looking forward to fighting a single rank twenty two monster let alone eight of them. Hopefully, when the creature he had knocked unconscious died, the challenge would complete.
He focused on his breathing. He sucked in air just as desperately, but in a more controlled fashion. His entire body screamed in pain from the burns left by the lightning. They were mostly superficial because his mastery of Spark had prevented the electricity from going through his internal organs but the energy the monsters had channelled had been significantly. Even restricted to the skin, the streams of lightning had been devastating against his rank fourteen vitality. He was definitely suffering third-degree burns…. Possibly fourth… maybe fifth… was that a thing? Some of the wounds went half a centimetre deep. If fifth degree burns were possible, that is what he had. Without magic, no matter what technology was used he was wounded so badly that he would die on the surgical table.
Tom forced himself to concentrate and focused on the monster he had knocked out. To survive a future wave, he needed to do this right. When the shield had broken on the first thrust, muscle memory had let him check the blow, but was that effort effective?
He examined the creature. The spear had indeed only penetrated halfway into the skull and he sighed in relief. It was perfect. It would not bleed out because of the wound.
That meant he had time to recover. His body trembled involuntarily and for a moment, his legs threatened to give away. Everything was unstable. Muscles were cramping and spasming. Tom forced himself to peel his fingers from the spear shaft.
Carefully, he pulled his hands back and looked at the weapon with side eyes …
Was it teetering?
It was still upright. The angle was not increasing. It stood firm. Embedded and not moving. Tom allowed himself to fall backwards away from it. He watched the spear the whole way as he collapsed, hoping any vibrations he generated would not change the status quo.
It didn’t move; the monster remained paralysed.
He sprawled on the ground with a single elbow, propping him up slightly, to make it easier to watch the spear to ensure it kept the creature unconscious. Sand had gotten into his wounds, but Tom didn’t care. There was time to fix himself. His mana crystal was empty, as was his pool, but regeneration was continuous, which is what he would use. Half of it was redirected to pain and awareness management. He hated that he had succumbed to that weakness, but he needed his brain to function and the agony was too much of a distraction. The artificial adrenaline he was generating served a similar purpose. He had to keep his eyes open, stay conscious to finish his healing and monitor the spear. Most of the rest were directed purely at maintenance. He had to actively combat the damage stemming from the burns. Remove the host of harmful chemicals being released into his bloodstream and to maintain blood flow to his organs because the body’s response to the trauma was to stop blood flow, which would make things worse not better.
A minute passed, and the tide turned. Everything throbbed painfully. He had been forced to relax the pain management to free up mana to actually start healing him. It was a double-edged outcome. All of his stinging, pinching skin worked almost as effectively as the drug cocktail he had generated to keep himself awake. With the various essential mana draws, complete pain suppression was beyond his capability, but he could dull the nerves to take the edge off the agony. Slowly, the harmful internal chemical mix from the burns under his expert guidance were eliminated. The flow-on effects from the wounds were compartmentalised to where they were no longer poisoning the rest of his body and only then did he start to actually heal the burns themselves.
The spear remained upright, not tilting in the slightest, and Tom was paranoid about moving, so he rigorously held himself still. Minutes extended to tens and slowly his skin mended. Then half an hour. If there was another round…He shivered.
Maybe, in addition to spending fate, he would need to rank up. How many lightning bolts had hit him? A dozen partial strikes, but five, possibly six had been direct hits with the full powered version.
He healed the wounds on his back and forced the sand out of him. Now that the major burns were fixed the process sped up. Restlessly, he shifted. His right arm that he had been resting on to prop himself up was beginning to cramp.
Tom turned to relieve the muscle pain.
The sand under the monster moved, which caused it to rock slightly.
The spear teetered… almost falling right out of the creature.
“Shit.” Tom hastily pushed himself to his sleep and grabbed it. It had slid out too far, and the monster was stirring, so he thrust the weapon deeper.
The magic that had started to gather cut off immediately. It’s consciousness was turned off once more.
Tom sighed.
That had been too close, but disaster had been averted, and he was almost done. Five minutes more of healing… than five after that to get a water elemental and a further five to recharge. Then he would risk the next round. With a single monster, even if it was rank twenty one or two he should be able to subdue it cleanly.
If that occurred, and there was another fight he would once again incapacitate the last monster. Then, while it was unconscious, he would recharge his crystal and summon three or four water elementals to help him beat the next challenge. He would repeat that for every battle.
For once, he was praying there would not be another round. He stroked the spear shaft and remembered it almost breaking in one of the first battles. The fact it had had survived as long as it had, especially against stronger opponents was a near miracle.
A near miracle? Tom thought to himself as suspicion bloomed.
It sufficed to send his blood racing. That was not how these things normally worked.
How had the weapon lasted?
Could he risk it? Could he afford to duck into the system room to confirm either way?
The spear poked out and was secure, but it wouldn’t take much physical movement to destabilise it. When it was no longer pointing perfectly up, if it slipped to a slight angle, then its own weight and leverage would help topple it. Carefully, with a hand holding the spear into the wound he lifted the creature and rotated it so that it rested on the weapon. In this position, instead of gravity helping to dislodge the weapon it would do the opposite. The weight of the creature could only drive the weapon deeper into its head. Then, to be certain that entering the system room would not backfire he checked its life force and was pleased to see that while it was now dying as opposed to being stable it still had around twenty minutes to survive.
Ten seconds would not matter. He stepped sideways into the system room and looked at the wall. The text he wanted was written clearly in front of him.
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{Historical Messages}
Congratulations! Your spear may evolve.
The more experience you invest the better the result of the evolution.
You have elected to sacrifice the maximum experience amount of 180,000.
Tom remembered the start of the combat and how time had slowed down when the spear had been in the process of breaking. He recalled his own thoughts and his willingness to spend the experience, and that must have triggered the automatic acceptance. The system was not rigged and it would have known he was in desperate conflict. It was why time had been slowing. That reprieve had been intended to give him time to decide, and he knew that while it had only slowed, it would have come to a halt for half a minute to allow him to read these lines and nominate a number.
His desires had only shortened that process. He was excited by this outcome and kept reading.
You have successfully soul bound an ‘Unnamed’ spear. It has the following properties.
Soul bound Artefact: Living ‘Unnamed’ Spear of Fate - Tier NA
This spear will grow with the user and, if destroyed can be reconstructed from splinters. Physically, it is a tier 4 weapon, but as a soul bound item, physical properties will improve naturally.
Five percent of all experience gained is permanently directed into the weapon.
Tom nodded at that information. It was very much the standard type of description for a soul bound item. Soul bound items often acquired extra properties beyond the physical, through having a tier four weapon to fight with was valuable in of itself, but that bonus was not worth almost two hundred thousand experience points.
He focused, and the text on the wall changed.
Through frequent use, the ‘Unnamed’ spear has developed the following distinctions.
Distinction #1: Shield Penetration
Obtained as a historical result driven by the catalyst event for evolution occurring when the weapon was being used to break a higher tier magic shield.
Benefit: Defences struck from this weapon are more likely to shatter than would otherwise be the case.
It was a useful distinction, but the wording was not precise. That could be a double-edged sword. He didn’t know if more likely meant one percent or fifty percent because the result was not-quantified. He preferred more precise language, but the ability was useful in any case. If he was hitting a defence to break it, then having a passive to make that more likely could only be a good thing. He would get a feel of its power over time.
Distinction #2: Lucky Parry
Earned as a result of being extensively used to parry enemy attacks aided by a significant amount of focused fate usage.
Benefit: When out of combat, fate will build up around the weapon, which will then be used to improve the likelihood of a successfully parrying attack that would otherwise severely injure or kill the user.
Once more, nothing was quantified, but this was potentially a game changer. Theoretically, it was almost the perfect ability for him to get. With his dodge skill, he was most exposed at the start of the battle, and this functionality might protect him in those critical moments.
“Thank you,” he whispered up toward DEUS. That evolution was a great one.
Distinction #3: Focus Medium
Achieved as a result of being used extensively in skill, spell and fate execution of attacks and defence.
Benefit: Spells, Skills and Fate channelled through the weapon are 10% more effective.
Tom hesitated for a moment to absorb all the details. Three distinctions in a tier four soul bound weapon were at best average but probably below. Tom had read that it was supposed to average a distinction per approximate tier. The fact he only had three instead of four was a disappointment on that metric, but he couldn’t complain about quality, or at least their potential. He wouldn’t be able to rate the first two until he got time to quantify the effects. The Focus Medium Distinction, on the other hand was a good one.
Anything that was percentage based was material. He was glad he had entered the system room, but there was nothing more to learn.
Tom opened his eyes. The creature his soul bound spear was impaled in was still alive and remained incapacitated. He couldn’t wait to find out more about the spear. Maybe an extra round wouldn’t be too bad.
He suppressed that thought.
A new round would be a disaster.
Even though he was healed, the memory of fighting those last two monsters with severe lightning burns persisted. He could still feel the ache over his back and down his legs.
Ten minutes later, with full mana and a fresh elemental he killed the monster.
The arena vanished, and he was back in the underground mountain cave.
He almost sagged in relief when he realised he didn’t have to keep fighting. Then he remembered the threat from Selena’s squad and he ducked away from where he stood. Rolling and twisting while he assessed his environment.
The traps on the door seemed to be intact. His team was gathered at the sleeping spot and didn’t appear to be under guard… but there were probably concealment spells that could be a problem especially if they were enhanced with fate.
“We’re safe Tom.”
Tom stood up from his roll and stilled. Everlyn directly communicating with him was one thing that Selena could not spoof.
“Give me evidence it’s you.”
“Fine. Four times.”
Tom got the reference. His cheeks heated slightly. His spear vanished, and he went over to the others.
They were all gathered and ready.
“Longer than an hour Tom.” Michael said mildly. “Run into difficulty?”
“Yeah… It was a hard fight.”
“We can see,” Rahmat said, looking pointedly at Tom’s pants. He glanced down, and he saw patches where the lightning had burnt right through the tier three leather. With his development and the monsters he was going to be fighting, tier three armour was not the advantage that it once was.
“Third most inner ring. Final round was eight rank twenty opponents. They hit like a truck. There’s no way I attempt the fight in the second ring. I reckon it’ll be impossible at my current rank.”
Michael raised an eyebrow at that. “Really. That bad?”
“The jump from ring five to three was… terrifying… The increase from three to two, considering ring three almost killed me.” Tom shook his head. “Nope, no way I’m risking that. I’ll die for sure.”
“Let’s get straight to business, then.” Michael said finally, with a sad shake of his head. “Toni’s already explained a bit about the situation.”
Tom shot Toni an annoyed look. He thought they had agreed that she wouldn’t spread the rumour.
“I insisted Tom,” Michael said hurriedly. “But Selena, I assumed she was better than that.”
“She was against the idea.” Tom said curtly. “Not enough to split the group in protest, so forget her.” He faced the air mage directly. “Toni, I asked you not to say anything.”
“I insisted,” Michael repeated.
“They were jumping to conclusions.” She defended herself hurriedly. “Driving themselves into a frenzy. I had to explain to calm them down.”
The healer scratched the hair behind his ear ruefully. “She’s right. We imagined the worst. Pre-meditated robbery is bad, of course, but… Our minds were going elsewhere.”
“And letting them know early is not harmful.” Toni said confidently.
Tom sighed. She was right and in many ways them having had time to think about things was probably beneficial. “Fine, let me describe the dream.” He communicated all the relevant details.
Michael frowned and cleared his throat once he had finished his description. “That’s a problem. Those artefacts sound problematic.”
Tom nodded. “Yes, I was in the creator’s mind and he was hundred percent confident of success.” They all looked around at each other. “Ideas?”
“Stay ahead of them.” Rahmat said immediately. “Failing that we split up. Make it so they need to use too many of those artefacts to incapacitate all of us. Then if they try to rob us, they’ll be a risking a fight…” Rahmat shrugged. “If they’re smart, they won’t want that. We have two top rankers in our team and I know their teamwork is good, but they’ll be worried about the tricks we have up our sleeves.”
“Beyond Harnessed Meteorite,” Tom said glumly.
“They saw its destructive power.” Rahmat agreed. “Crooks will be concerned that we think like them in which case they’ll be uncertain about what else we have, considering we were willing to show that trump card.”
“There’s also Tom’s elemental skills.” Keikain suggested. “The best thing about them is that the artefacts probably can’t disable them. If you summon a greater lightning elemental, then even if they successfully incapacitate you, if it’s active it can defend your unconscious body by killing them.”
“Nuclear deterrence.” Michael agreed. “Throw your meteorites in the mix as well.”
“If they’re using your bodies as hostages, I can’t use the meteorites.”
Michael chuckled. “They don’t know how soft you are. They probably believe you’re sufficiently unhinged you might take pot shots at them even if it wipes out one of your team.”
“That’s cold.”
The healer shrugged at the accusation. “It’s a deterrent. We all believe that everyone else thinks like us. They’re willing to backstab. It makes sense they’ll imagine others will have a similar attitude.”
“Keeping those spells up constantly is not achievable.”
“We’ll have to time things right. Make sure they’re active when you get close to the others.”
“This is ridiculous,” Clare said. “They’re the ones who are coming for us. They’re the ones who are going to try to stab us in the back. Why are we discussing defensive options. We should just blow them into oblivion.”
“And what? Coincidentally, afterwards you’ll sacrifice the survivors?” Rahmat asked. “Eat their energy?”
“I didn’t say that,” Clare protested indignantly. “It is just waiting for someone to attack first is ridiculous. We’re not on Earth anymore. There is magic now and the first mover’s advantage is so much stronger in Existentia. I don’t believe we’re even considering anything other than a pre-emptive strike.”
“I think your conflict of interest is influencing your thinking.” Rahmat continued to argue.
“No, I’m not. If we hit with everything we have, they’ll probably all be destroyed in seconds. It has nothing to do with getting a ritual victim.”
“But if we’re killing them anyway,” Keikain said quietly. “Then why wouldn’t we use them in a ritual?”