CHAPTER 337 – DOMAIN SHAKEDOWN

Tom re-read the line. His body was still shaking slightly from the excitement generated by the domain. He could hardly believe that his psychiatric total collapse had been so beneficial. His only explanation was all the fate that he had invested toward preventing any evolution apart from a domain had come through big time for him. That and the stress of the moment had forced him to combine and use his skills in an unusual way. The result, the domain, was so much better than he expected, and he guessed he had only imagined a small amount of the power it would give him. Currently, he rated it as a two times boost, but he wouldn’t be surprised if it ended up contributing substantially more than that. There would be depths in it that he couldn’t wait to uncover.

Unlike Rahmat, he hadn’t purchased or created a domain in the tutorial, so he didn’t know exactly how this one worked, but it would be fun to find out.

Would you like to permanently remove these skills?

The words flashed in front of him, referring to the earlier offer to remove Earth sense and his manipulation skills. “Yes,” he answered. It was the only choice. Keeping them served no benefit but would make trials harder and could also drive up the cost of future spells and skills that he had to purchase. The lore there was a little hazy. Technically, since all three were acquired from the challenge trial they should be exempt, but there was probably a secondary soft limit somewhere in the system to stop people from farming such trials and receiving a bloated number of skills.

Within him, he could feel the capability being removed. It was more than a little unsettling, but a moment later the ability to separately engage those spells had vanished. It was weird. He could remember using them, but they were no longer there for him to connect to.

The text on the wall reorganised and formed new sentences.

The skills Throw Rock and Defensive Stone Turret are mostly covered by Defensive Earth Aligned Domain.

Would you like to permanently remove these skills as well?

He froze when he read the new question.

What the hell did mostly entail. “Is there any chance you can help me understand what this means.”

Another slight pause and the words rearranged themselves.

The skills will be removed, and you will suffer a slight reduction in battle performance. Over time, no degradation in combat execution is forecast.

“If it is detrimental to me, then why would I do it?”

Statistically discarding the skill is the optimal choice.

That was not an answer. He was about to snap at it when a new paragraph of text appeared like it had sensed his ire and responded with extra detail.

Your domain can already launch rocks faster than you can with Throw Rock and with similar accuracy. However, until you develop full control over the domain, the Throw Rock spell will remain marginally more efficient in terms of damage to mana expenditure. It will also require less mental effort to use.

Once the domain is fully mastered, there is no situation where Throw Rock will outperform the domain and if developed appropriately the new domain alternative could end up being several times stronger.

Tom considered what was being offered. Discarding the spell would get rid of a crutch and force him to develop his domain abilities faster. It was taking bitter medicine that would be unpleasant initially, but help him in the long run. Using the domain exclusively for the function would apparently be mana inefficient at first, and he would probably need to practice extensively to even be able to accelerate a rock to the point it was lethal. But once he cracked the problem…

Tom grinned. Once that happened and launching stones became instinctive, it would allow him to target enemies in every direction. Above him, behind him or to his side they were all spots Throw Rock couldn’t easily target. But if he used his domain, they all become as simple as focusing on which monster he wanted to kill. Better still, he could use the domain to enhance the rock he was shooting. At a blink, he could turn it into a higher tiered stone to do more damage.

The statistical model was right. Persisting with Throw Rock was a fool’s errand. Especially if fate could be used to speed up the new ways of applying the ability.

“Remove it,” he ordered having made up his mind. Yes, given where they were, there was an argument that he should focus on maximising his current strength, but Tom was confident he would be able to replace the spell with skill in a few days. “But what about Defensive Stone Turret? Why is that one superfluous to requirements?”

Your existing domain is equivalent to two defensive Stone Turrets. Over time, this will grow to three or four. The decision to remove this is more line ball and less obvious than Throw Rock. Sacrificing it will mean that if you need greater protection than what your domain offers, you will be exposed.

“Then getting rid of it is stupid. It is a lifesaving spell that is still valuable, even if the opportunity for it to be used is smaller than before.”

The line between your domain being insufficient to meet a threat and this spell making the difference is very thin. In most cases a pre-emptive stone wall would be a better use of mana than the stone turrets. Even in scenarios that you will need to create multiple walls to protect party members, this option will often be superior to Defensive Stone Turrets.

“Throw Rock was removed because ultimately that choice made me stronger while discarding this one is primarily a spell rationalisation. We’re getting rid of it so calculations that check the spells I have don’t find it. Is that right.”

Primarily, yes.

He scratched his head as he tried to articulate the reasoning for the recommendation. “I guess, given the significant overlap with my domain that there are better options out there. Ones that are not so restricted in their usefulness. That’s the primary reason. If extra defence is needed, I should get something else. I also suppose that not having it available will help me grow the base domain faster, so choosing to delete it has benefits beyond optimising my spell profile.”

That is correct.

“Remove it,” he said shortly. He hoped he would not live to regret that.

Tom opened his eyes to the real world.

“Told you it was a domain,” Keikain said immediately. “There’s no way he would have spent that long in the system room otherwise.”

“Yes, it’s a domain.” He sent the information out to all of them. “You can review the details and discuss it amongst yourselves if you want, but I need sleep. Sorry for waking everyone up.”

“Not your fault.”

“We all would have reacted that way.”

“No, no, don’t blame yourself.”

Tom ignored the voices, though their support of him was heart-warming. His sleeping stuff was nowhere to be seen. With a thought, the earth boiled and shifted and his mat and blanket rose to the surface. It was effortless, and they were so clean it was like they had never been buried.

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With a frown, he looked around and saw sprays of dirt expelled by his panicking brain all over the place. Tom flexed again, and it all rose in the air and collected into a neat pile just outside their camp. It didn’t require any mana to do it whatsoever.

“Wow, that’s an amazing power.” Michael said. “The whole domain looks extraordinary. I want to see what that contest other earth magic means.”

“Tomorrow Michael.” The ground churned to leave him with a soft but dry patch of dirt to lay his mat down on.

Everlyn touched his shoulder. “Tom, would you like me to sleep next to you.”

His instincts screamed at him to refuse. To tell her never to offer again. His throat tightened and stopped the words from coming out. Even when exhausted and at his wit’s end, social silence did its culling of thoughtless responses. It went beyond frustrating. Then he remembered the dragon dream. Company would be nice… but even the word yes wouldn’t come out.

“Tom, are you okay.” She asked concerned.

He felt like laughing especially when he tried to blame social silence and it wouldn’t let those words be expressed either. Carefully, he didn’t smile, and then he knew exactly what he had to say. “Evie, you know we’re not getting back together.”

“I know. It’s not why I offered. You almost literally died of fear. I thought you might appreciate a human touch.”

“I would.” The words slipped out surprising him and Everlyn mouthed mirrored an O of shock as well. “Just for tonight and just…”

“It’s okay I understand.” She patted his shoulder, and he burrowed into his bedroll while Everlyn cuddled up beside him.

Then he turned to face her and wrapped his arms around her. He didn’t care what she thought or others thought for tonight he just needed physical contact. Memories of the GOD kept assaulting him and tears were running down his face. But the warmth of human company, a reminder that DEUS backed them was enough.

Somehow, aided by his skills or possibly the leftover touch of his GODDESS he slept deeply.

Everlyn woke him gently in the morning by shaking his shoulder. The wake up was peaceful. Then he remembered the True Dream.

His body went stiff and Everlyn, thinking he was about to do his usual over reaction leapt out of bed and away. She must have been ready for a violent response because her bed clothes didn’t hinder her movements and both of her daggers were instantly in her hands. She was prepared to block his spear.

Tom raised a hand apologetically and then plastered a pleasant but very fake smile to his face. With a deep sigh, he got up to face the day.

As he ate breakfast, he gathered rock to himself. A hundred and sixty kilograms ended up being about the volume of his torso. It settled around him yet his domain meant it was like wearing a T-shirt. It was thick stone that layered his chest area and when he touched it, he could feel how solid and hard it was, but despite that it was weightless and moved with his body like fabric would.

Experimentally, he released his domain and almost staggered under the unexpected weight. His skin hardened as living rock supported him and he braced himself with his thighs burning in protest. He remained standing. Then he flexed his mind, and the weight was gone once more and he didn’t even need to actively concentrate on the stone. His skill took care of it, and it let the rock shift so that as he dodged and spun around, it moved with him. Perfectly mirroring his movements.

It was fantastic.

“Enough showing off,” Michael mock growled.

He laughed. He couldn’t help himself. “My one is nothing like Rahmat’s. His domain increased his damage per second by an entire magnitude. He is at least ten times stronger now than before. My one’s good, but it’s not a ten times boost, more like a two.”

The healer frowned at him. “I feel your domain is more powerful than Rahmat’s, but we’ll have to find out how those properties function in real life. I did my research this morning. Your domain is definitely peak tier six. On paper, it was better than the tier seven ones I looked at.”

Tom waved the compliments away. “We’ll see.”

They headed off with him in the usual role as tank. Toni started singing to attract monsters and soon a whole tribe of monkeys attacked them. He charged forward and got close enough to release Lightning Enrage and tag most of them. They had water affinity and missiles were flung at him.

Hundreds of them.

His dodge skill was fully activated, which gave him time to direct the defensive projectiles. While he was not technically immune to ranged fire, he might as well have been. Multiple pebbles turned briefly into Lilac Calarkite and zipped through the air to deal with the water attacks. The extra magic resistance meant he could afford smaller chunks of stone effectively boosting his anti-magic projectile output. They snuffed out attack after attack and then his Black Dodge did the rest to allow him to evade them almost completely.

He tested launching stone shards out as weapons. Something was wrong with his method because the stones bounced off the skin of the monsters he targeted. Curiously, he included a sharp point to them, but they broke at the tip when they hit the monsters and rarely penetrated.

“Tom, make them less spike like and more spear like.” Rahmat demanded.

“You mean thinner.”

“I mean get rid of the conical shaft. Make that a cylinder.”

The next group of enemies appeared, and Tom launched one of the redesigned missiles. They glowed blue just before striking the monster and cut through skin and bone. A snake got pinned to the tree.

“Tom that was terrible. Make the head shot or go home.” Rahmat mock complained. He adjusted his strategy and while he couldn’t get the speed yet the domain certainly gave him the accuracy. With the glow of blue infusing the miniature caricature of a spear at the last moment, they were tough enough to cut through the monster’s skin.

With him aiming for death blows, the kills rolled in.

The day finished with him having only tinkered at the edge of his domain. He hadn’t tried anything outlandish. The day had been exactly what he needed, a relentless grind against senseless monsters trying to kill him. Better still no one had pressured him for more details on the domain or for a blow-to-blow account of him meeting the GOD. That could not have happened naturally. He glanced at Michael and got a simple acknowledgement in return and no questions. The healer Tom was sure had bashed heads before Tom had been woken up. His peaceful day was only because as a group they had been convinced to give it to him.

They retired to sleep and after dreams of himself and Rahmat destroying an army of swarming abominations a True Dream grabbed him.

It was…

There was…

Tom found he could feel nothing, sense nothing, and had no concept of what was happening or even if he was in a body.

It was eerie and felt unnatural.

He began counting numbers in his head.

When he reached two hundred and forty seconds, the dream broke apart.

In the slightly alert state, before sleep once more took over, Tom was flummoxed.

That was it? That was the entire dream? Four minutes separated from the world without any clues, and then the dream had ended.

His brain tried to add logic and reason to the experience.

Clearly, his dream had pushed up against a blocking shield and the shield had won. The question was who’s defences? And why? Another thought occurred to him. He had suffered a crushing defeat in the first battle having been completely held at bay by the scrying defence, however Tom wondered whether, despite the loss in this first engagement whether he could win a longer war. After all, the wador had won comprehensively the first time they had clashed before eventually being destroyed. This dream had not been directed, which was an important item to note. How the skill worked it meant the dream was genuine. Him seeing that static; his skill presumably pressuring whoever or whatever was creating it was an act which would enrich him.

Who was it targeting and why? There were two broad scenarios he could think of. The first was some critical information was behind the shield or… His preferred scenario was that this was True Dreaming attacking an opponent. He remembered the eye of the wador exploding, that spray of blood, and that it had permanently blinded the creature in one eye. If that was the case, he hoped the dragon had just purchased a precognition blocker, and that he could blind her too.

With an air of hopefulness, he drifted off to sleep.

In the morning, he was once more woken up by Everlyn. It was far more pleasant than it occurring at the end of a spear but also awkward.

He wondered if he could convince anyone else to step in. The shock of seeing a GOD had not worn off yet. It was terrifying to consider going to sleep without human contact. Everlyn however was not the right solution.

They continued onwards, and he focused on the here and now and the continual skirmishes.

In between battles he kept busy by crafting his finger sized spears of stone. They ran into numerous beasts that were casting earth magic and he could claim the spells, but it was rarely useful. Most of them lacked any form of directional control once launched, and all he could do was to crush the weaves to prevent the magic from hurting them. It was kind of like he had a perfect shield to stop earth magic.

He knew that he should change the elemental type driving the golem, but the fights were so easy he didn’t bother. By their midmorning break, it was clear that Rahmat and Tom were getting too many kills. They were split into different groups, and he started fighting to maim. It was considerably harder than just targeting killing blows, but it let him grow his abilities.

The day progressed with them combating standard monsters in three separate groups, the main team only combined together to eliminate the stronger boss monsters. After one such kill, they settled down for their mid-afternoon stop. They were not hobbits. There breaks were few and far between. As a rule they fought from dawn to dusk with three rests and the only substantial one of them was a lunch one which they only spent half an hour at.

The mid-afternoon break was ten minutes and was a chance to relax and recharge.

As it was his job, Thor took the opportunity to check the auction house to see if there were any updates from the other groups.

There apparently was because a loot portal immediately appeared next to him. The big man pulled out a note and read and his eyebrows rose higher and higher as he did. “I’ll be damned. We’ve got a confession.”