CHAPTER 252 – NON FRIENDLY NEIGHBOURS

The world dissolved and reformed, and he stood once more in his system room. Metal walls surrounded him, and Tom needed to finish reading the details of his spell to make sure he knew all about it.

There was more than enough time left stuck in the arena to do so.

The key details appeared on the wall and he skipped over the threshold four bonus.

Threshold bonus - 8 - Brittleness of all living rock is reduced by 50%.

It was a good but not spectacular bonus that reduced one of the stone’s weaknesses. Having his living rock being significantly less likely to shatter was a plus as far as he was concerned. He imagined experiencing his chest being blown into fragments like what happened in the false memories of his golem crafting apprenticeship would be uncomfortable. Those things had been whole before a single blow had turned them into gravel.

He prepared to read the next line without any expectations, as the evolution had already delivered far more than he expected. In all honesty, it was probably better than Harnessed Meteorite, which he had considered to be a peak tier four spell, though the Living Rock over-performance was mainly due to its synergy with his dodge skill.

Threshold bonus – 16 – Defensive body enhancement skills, traits and titles are applied to the living stone.

Tom thought about the bonus for a moment and was not particularly impressed with what it would get him. He had various skills and titles that improved the resistance of his skin primarily to piercing attacks. What would an increase in eight vitality do to enhanced stone? When his vitality was a hundred, that was an eight percent improvement, but the effective vitality of stone must be in the high hundreds if not thousands. The incremental improvement from this bonus might as well be zero.

But it was something and if he later got a skill that gave percentage boosts rather than absolute, then this threshold bonus would go from boring to extraordinary.

He froze when he noticed that there was another line.

Threshold bonus - 32 - Alternative forms of Living Rock. (Title: Stage Advancement (Earth))

At some fundamental level, Tom guessed that the title being applied made sense, as this was an earth spell. Yet… he knew how unlikely it was that anyone would raise a tier four ability to level thirty two under normal circumstances… that was unless they were hundreds of years old and it was their signature ability.

He knew how precious and rare a threshold bonus with a tier zero equivalence of five hundred and twelve was. They weren’t intended for someone at his rank or for anyone in the competition. They were there for true masters, ancient near immortal spell casters who could dedicate centuries to gain them. Both Spark and Touch Heal had been purchased in the first year and despite continuous grinding they had only got a quarter of the way to this level of proficiency. Higher tier spells on a relative basis were slightly easier to progress but even then if someone had advanced at the same speed he had, and he thought he had gone fast, you were looking at, a hundred to a hundred fifty years of dedicated effort to progress a single signature spell. Thanks to that challenge trial and his lucky title he had two of them.

Tom wondered if this one was going to be good as the one he had gotten from Stone Golem. Based on the name it wouldn’t be, but the devil was in the application.

He kept reading and within a few words he knew that despite everything he had only previously touched the potential power of the new spell. Like the synergy with Earth Sense had transformed the utility of the spell, this new threshold bonus did the same thing.

Eyes wide, he first skimmed over the details and then read it in detail.

Substitute types of living rock are enabled. Instead of being restricted to transform into the generic stone of the base spell the user is granted the opportunity to convert into any stone patterns in their repertoire.

Creating a stone pattern.

* The user will need to find a sample and absorb a kilogram of it.

* Absorption of a rock takes a similar number of days to its tier level but this can be improved if you have high affinity to that type of stone.

* If insufficient slots are available, the user may choose an existing pattern to discard to make room.

* The base cost of converting flesh into living stone is multiplied by the number of slots the unique rock type is stored in.

Slot management.

* The users receive two slots per spell level.

* Number of reserve slots required is based on the following.

* Non-Tiered rock requires one slot.

* Tier 1 requires 2.

* Tier 2 requires 3, and so on.

Tom read the description.

Somehow, his excitement over the new ability had increased. Every additional nugget of information he learned had materially improved the evolution.

It was an amazing day.

This was perfect, and he couldn’t wait to share it with the others.

Ideas rushed through his head, and he was overwhelmed by all the options he had. Thirty-two slots could be thought of as eight different varieties of tier three stone, which was a lot of flexibility.

“What types of advanced rocks are out there?” he asked himself out loud. His reading table appeared filled with books. That was courtesy of the archive that DEUS had sent with all of them. He would read them cover to cover, but not now. This was a topic he had a reasonable amount of knowledge in. Not as much as a trader would possess, but sufficient to theory craft different possibilities.

There were many varieties of higher tiered material. Some were super hard, others were malleable. He remembered once having a chunk of stone that radiated intense heat. For almost twelve months, he had used it to cook his meals before wear and tear had left it unusable. What would happen if he got a kilogram of that?

Then again, unless he got heat immunity, he wouldn’t be able to use it. There was not pointing roasting your enemies if you also cooked yourself… But maybe there was a loophole… If let him combine different patterns when he shifted, he could work around his personal weaknesses. There were multiple different types of rock capable of absorbing heat. Would it be possible to create two layers? One to protect him and the second on the surface to turn him into an environmental hazard and infect everyone around him. Was there a chance that he could end up having his skin be as hot as molten lava?

If there was… that would be some super human shit. He had been expecting to reach the scary territory in a couple of decades. To be somewhere close to that already was trippy.

Then there were the rock types that granted magic resistance, or… he realised with a burst of excitement varieties that granted near invulnerability to specific elements. Could that be the solution to the dragon’s breath? Was there a stone type that could tank that breath attack? By itself, it would never be enough because even if the breath weapon was not a threat, he would still have to face the dragon in physical and magical combat. Activities that Tom was sure that he couldn’t survive even with the help of his lucky dodge. But as part of the plan of defeating the dragon, it was definitely something for him to monitor.

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

Dragons aside, this ability in the wild or in trials, was a different equation. Being immune to lightning and resistant to flames would have made that third ring fight trivial. While the dragon might be so overwhelmingly powerful, taking a single element off the board would achieve effectively nothing that was not the case for most of the opponents he faced. Monsters near his rank were specialised and usually extremely so. If he dedicated his slots to collecting specific magic immunities, then when he met new focused creatures, he could swap to whichever combination nullified its attacks. It would allow him to fight even further above his rank and explode the snowball effect further.

This is so good. Incredible. I can’t believe that this happening. How powerful was it? His mind was keeping up an excited commentary even as he tried to logically catalogue his future actions.

The capability to change his magic resistance profile in a moment was massive.

That ring two challenge?

With the right type of stone absorbed, could he complete it now? Was the generic stone base good enough or was it simply a matter of buying a rock that was immune to both dark and corrosive energy and then he could obliterate it. With immunity to their main attacks, what was currently an impossible battle would become trivial.

He would need a kilogram of whatever magic stone was out there with the right properties, but it was a long-term investment. He checked his storage… maybe… no he didn’t have a kilogram of any rock. Unfortunately, all of his high tier material had gone into the construction of his golem, so nothing was available.

Not that he would of even if there had of been sufficient granite. He was not foolish enough to absorb something just because it was available. There was a need to be strategic with his decisions. He had to create an entire roster of alternatives to give him the flexibility to meet most threats. Something to resist acid was almost a given, the same with fire, but what else should he invest in?

“Repurchase Touch Heal and Earth Manipulation.” He ordered absently, and then left the system room.

With a smile on his face, he walked through the sand, imagining what he wanted to do. Every now and again his hand would go grey, or his legs, or all of him. He leapt in the air went grey and landed with a thud. Then he repeated the same action, but his pants flashed as he activated its advanced weight alteration properties. He landed with a thump and his feet opened up a hole in the sand that went up to his knees.

His spear appeared in grey hands and he spun through the moves of the kata at a full pace without the weapon slipping from his hands. The weapon spun around as he added flourishes to the moves, and he was happy that the new hands did not slip at all.

There was a ding to warn him that the time locked expired.

Instantly, he was teleported back into the zone proper. He had been mid jump, but the trial adjusted for everything. The momentum was cancelled and his feet were firmly on the stone floor.

He grinned.

The puzzle was completed and overall it had been a fun fight and he couldn’t wait to tell everyone. His finger turned grey, and he wiggled it. He knew it was silly, but the transition and the unreality of it amused him endlessly. Earth Sense, as always, was active and there was no one near him and his instinctively visual scan supported that he had no company.

Everyone was going to be so impressed, he thought to himself, and there were so many ways he could casually let slip the nature of his awesome skill. Stuff like nonchalantly picking an item straight out of a campfire. It would be perfectly safe. That type of fire did not burn hot enough to harm stone.

Maybe instead he could shake someone’s hand with a stone hand and give them a moment to feel how hard and solid it was. Then he would toggle its state to turn it into living stone mid shake and they would feel the difference. They would notice how flexible the stone became in contrast to its fixed nature from a moment before. That was a subtle and good way to demonstrate his new skill. It would both creep and amaze them.

He glanced up to see who he could prank first.

There was no one in the usual guard spot…

and …

The dull blue flag had been dropped.

Adrenaline blasted through his system.

That was the alarm flag!

Selena’s squad was here, and he had had been caught up in his head!

Daydreaming instead of acting.

Hot anger flowed through him. In the tutorial, he had not made a mistake like this for decades. He had never relaxed before he had fully verified that an area was safe. It had been a point of pride and the reason he had survived as long as he had. Throw a few people into the mix and this happened. He hated what the presence of others was doing to his mindset.

So sloppy… he thought furiously.

More on instinct than with conscious thought, he took off at a sprint.

“Fuck,” he cursed under his breath and he didn’t look back to where he was sure Selena’s squad was situated.

Run to safety first and assess things afterwards. He reminded himself.

While the mountain had been hollowed out, there was a labyrinth of old tunnels in the walls. They had only explored them enough to confirm that they were safe. The twisting interconnected passages formed a maze, and they were an excellent place to retreat to.

The first stage of the plan they had put together was to escape to the tunnels, then, using Everlyn’s party communication they would link back together and adapt to whatever the enemy was doing.

Each of them had their own target spot to enter the walls, and he believed they had all got a passing familiarity with their chosen tunnel. He personally had. He had taken the time to memorise not one but five different routes that would take him back to another entrance that overlooked the zone doors. Three of them even exited high up on the cave wall where humans wouldn’t naturally be looking for enemies.

Tom wasn’t sprinting in a straight line instead he was weaving through the pedestals and glancing regularly over his shoulder to see if there was anything pursuing him or projectiles heading his way. Out of the corner of his eyes, he thought he saw a group of armoured humans, but they were a hundred metres away and it was hard to confirm.

His mind thought furiously as he ran.

He hoped that his mistake at the start had gone unnoticed. It was not impossible, given how the process of returning from the puzzles worked. It wasn’t a flashy reinsertion into the real world with fireworks in fact it was the opposite. You were returned covertly in a magical way that meant you did not draw anyone’s eyes. The fact he had stayed still immediately after reappearing meant there was some chance he might have evaded immediate detection. But even with the positive outcome, it wouldn’t’ have lasted. Experienced scouts were used to searching for monsters that just appeared because they would have fought in areas on the tutorial where they did just that. Sprinting the moment he saw the flag had been the right decision. His mistake had been in the seconds leading up to that moment. He hoped it wouldn’t cost him.

Now that he was moving without cloaking magic Tom knew they would have seen him.

Spark protections expanded out around him. Tom layered it with more power than usual to let it better resist any attacks that might come his way.

Instinctively, he had sprinted at a cave to the right of the one he was targeting. Two-thirds of the way there, he shifted his course to the correct target. It was a small detail. If they were shooting at him, or preparing a big attack spell, then hopefully the shift in course would throw their aim off. It really depended on the nature of the spell. Most artillery attacks were like his meteorite and pre-aimed.

He burst into the safety of the cave and immediately dug his heals in. His repurchased Earth Manipulation gave him the grip to stop rather than the alternative that would have had him careering into the wall. Then he leapt up through a small hole in the ceiling. It was why he had chosen this cave. His hands dug into the stone and he scrambled up a vertical tunnel that was only a metre wide. He emerged in another almost horizontal cave and sprinted along it to reach another exit to the main part of the floor but four metres higher and to the right of where he had entered.

Before getting close to the cliff, Tom dropped to his belly and then snuck forward carefully to look out. He leant on his experience gained from all those years of positioning himself to be near invisible when looking out from similar spots. Theoretically, he should be hidden in the shadows. He wondered if he should have bought a camouflage skill but his strategy was to save up for traits, costly spear evolutions aside. He stared out of the cave, at the space directly below him, then the rings of tiles and then finally at the zone doors. There were no enemies running at him and no signs that any artillery spells had been used against him while he had run.

They were not in open war yet.

With his immediate safety confirmed, he studied Selena’s squad. They were positioned near the zone doors like they had just emerged from them. There was no way for Tom to tell how long they had been there.

He was not an expert at body language, but for this he didn’t need to be.

They had their weapons drawn. There were spell formations that had been placed down around them. They were positioned for battle.

They knew.

They had figured it out.