-{#-} Loz'ar {-#}-
Beams of red light danced along the white marble walls from a crimson chandelier. An arched ceiling twenty feet above was painted with angelic figures. The room offered no windows, and only a single door. An imposing grey oval table took up the middle of the room, surrounded by low-backed chairs occupied by humanoids of all different species. They peered at info screens, data shifting quickly as dozens of eyes scanned through.
At the head of the table, furthest from the door, a young looking man with tight red skin looked bored. His chair was high-backed, adorned at the top with a pair of baseball-sized rubies. Behind him, the glyphs for "Blasdej Interplanetary Consortium" were carved into the wall.
A crocodilian-faced being spoke. "Magnate Blasdej, the potential damages from a salamander infestation on this planet would be enormous, both on-planet and to the Consortium's reputation. The last infestation to spread..." The screens in front of them flicked to new data and they read from the text, "was twelve millennia ago, and resulted in a purge of... 29 planets with roughly eight-hundred-billion sentient lifeforms. The spread happened when low-level salamanders stowed away on a transport ship." They looked up from the screen and continued. "So yes, this is dangerous right now. I recommend we inform the local CCE officials and follow their advice. Anything else may bring unwanted attention."
Farther down the table, a being that looked like a swirling dust cloud retorted. "Renek, you miss the point. Inviting the CCE into our operations sets a poor precedent. This is early days. If we simply slag the continent with the infestation, we avoid outside investigators and a complete loss of investment. Magnate, let us order the strike and be done with this."
A thin, lanky, orange woman with three eyes set in a horizontal line on her forehead spoke next. She sat to the immediate right of the young man. "Again, I remind you all that calculations show a high chance that the first planetary lord will emerge from a beacon close to this infestation. And it is a single infestation in a single area. If we resort to extremes now, we may lose our chance at a better return later on."
The young man sighed and put his elbows on the table. When he moved, all murmuring in the room died out. "I'm inclined to agree with Finola. We do nothing. If the problem grows, no Enforcers. I'd sooner slag the entire planet than give them excuses to spend more time in our orbit." He turned to the three-eyed woman. "You own this now. If the future planetary lord doesn't kill the threat in its crib, just slag the continent while they're off in the tutorial and send them back somewhere else. If things go poorly, slag the planet. I will not be responsible for letting an EOS designated species proliferate."
The man stood and walked from the room in unhurried steps. Everyone else around the table bowed from their seats. And so, by the grace of Loz'ar Blasdej, Earth would live to see another day.
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+ Reid +
Reid opened his eyes to a black, quiet night. He was tired of nights in these woods. He looked around, slow and sluggish, attempting to peer into the dark. He tried to move his arm, and screamed in pain.
That's right. He had lost a fight. His rational mind worked through the pain, and he inspected himself.
Even in the dark, he could see cuts and holes in his exposed skin. Bone poked through his purple left arm where it was bent at an unnatural angle. His body shook as he became aware of more and more of the pain. The shakes agitated his mangled arm, and sent him into another scream. He hyperventilated, and each breath he took felt like a thousand knives stabbing into his abdomen.
By the time he calmed himself back down, he was drenched in sweat. A cold, unnerving feeling sat in him - just below the pain. It felt like dying.
Thoughts raced through his mind. The salamander hadn't killed him, which probably meant it wouldn't be coming back to finish things - or eat him.
Enough time had passed that some wounds were closed, but he had also lost a lot of blood. His left arm... needed some attention. He didn't know whether he'd be able to continue through the forest with it as-is. If the salamander returned, he would need to escape - maybe climb a tree. That wouldn't be easy.
None of it would matter if he couldn't get himself mobile again. Reid pulled on the status thread and checked his condition.
Health: 3/20
...
Health: 2/20
He cursed inwardly as he watched the number fall, and forced his senses down into his body as quick as he could manage.
Reid started with his organs. His heart muscles were stiff and weak. They stretched unnaturally around the chamber pumping blood through his body. Bits of information hit him - the chamber was enlarged because his heart was overworked. The ventricle was thin, and causing more problems. Reid took his best guess of what his own healthy heart looked like and willed muscle to grow, and cells to repair themselves. Intense, deep pain ached in his chest. His Lego-brain headache threatened his concentration.
But he pushed on harder. He followed his blood out of a probably repaired heart, mentally noting every place he found severe damage. He worked on his abdomen, only stopping once to vomit at the sensation of rearranging his own intestines before closing up a particularly nasty gash. His leg's scrapes were stitched together. Then every other injury he could find.
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Until he couldn't ignore his left arm any longer.
Reid was already drenched in sweat, burning like a furnace and nearly blind from pain. He forced himself to swallow a piece of pocket jerky and tamp down his headache before diving back into himself.
Jagged cuts dotted his arm, each one a small crater of mayhem that sunk down towards the bone. He started with those, willing the flesh and muscle to knit itself together. Then the grand finale.
Swearing at the top of his lungs, Reid grabbed his left wrist with his right hand and wrenched it sideways. The jagged, broken bone grated as he tried to align it. Then it slipped as the pieces pulled past one another. The pain was indescribable.
Reid rolled on his back, screaming and kicking the ground with his heels. This was torture. Unnecessary. He could stop. He'd done enough. He didn't need - Reid smacked the back of his head against the ground as he tried to physically interrupt the weak line of thought.
This was necessary.
Reid braced his elbow on the ground.
He couldn't stop.
Reid picked up a tree branch with his right hand and put it between his teeth.
He needed to do more.
Reid flexed his fingers before curling them back around his wrist.
He would do anything to survive. To reunite with his family.
Reid pulled until the tips of sharded bone were an inch apart from each other. The branch groaned under the force of his teeth. It muffled his scream.
This was just another obstacle.
Reid forced himself to slowly push his arm back together. The grind of bone on bone felt like it rattled his entire skeleton. He didn't flinch. Even as he regrew blood vessels and muscle around the still-splintered bone. He didn't let go as he moved from muscle to skin. Didn't pull back when the burning pain of regrowth threatened to block out every other sensation.
Then, he focused on the bone.
His muscles and skin, even his organs had responded to his will. They all reacted slowly, no matter what. But the bone wasn't listening.
Reid pushed, imagined it healing, growing back together, fusing. Nothing seemed to work. He pulled himself back a bit, and focused on the idea of his bones... but they seemed oddly opaque, like a wall of fog was separating him from his skeleton.
He focused on the fog, and winced when it re-ignited his headache. He took a moment to soothe that pain, then focused in again, pushing into the fog wall. It flexed, then rippled out far to each side of his blow. The headache slammed him back in response.
The branch in his mouth cracked as he pushed through the pain. He slammed his will into the wall over and over, each hit sending mental recoil straight into his brain.
Then the wall cracked. It spidered out from his blow as far as he could see to either side.
He took a breath, centered himself, and smashed through.
That's when something unexpected happened.
Calcification [Uncommon] Fully Unlocked!
Hardening [Common] Fully Unlocked!
Strengthening [Basic] Fully Unlocked!
WARNING: Skills are dangerous for unawakened beings on basic worlds. Please report to your closest beacon to complete your awakening.
The shock had knocked his focus back, and he was again looking at the forest around him. Morning light was beginning to filter through the trees. Reid REALLY wanted to see what he'd just done, but that could come later. Right now, he needed to finish things.
He dove back into his arm, still burning like a furnace. He focused in on the sharded bone, and pushed his will along with images of fusing bone. Tiny dots of growth shot out from each side and connected, then grew into larger and larger points. It was slow, painful, and effective. The splintered break wasn't perfectly healed, but the pain and grating were gone.
Reid opened his eyes again. It was still only morning.
"Holy shit." He said to the trees.
This was monumental. It had taken him hours each time to heal flesh, but his bone seemed like it barely took any time at all to mend. If that was what his skills were really capable of, Reid was going to be unstoppable... if he could ever fix his stat issue. He brought up his status screen to check on his health.
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STATUS
Name: Reid Oliver Calderwall
Affiliation: "Earth"
Race: Human
Grade: G
Level: 4
Health: 28/40
Experience: 357/400
STATS:
Constitution: 4
Dexterity: 2
Intelligence: 1
Perception: 1
Power: 8
Control: 23
Stat Upgrade Points: ERROR
SKILLS:
Strengthening [Basic]
Hardening [Common]
Calcification [Uncommon]
Petrification [Rare]
Skill Upgrade Points: ERROR
RESTRICTED:
???: UNAVAILABLE
???: UNAVAILABLE
???: UNAVAILABLE
???: UNAVAILABLE
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Reid rubbed his eyes and looked again. He hadn't just healed himself - his health pool had grown. His eyes flitted down to his stats and he smacked the forest floor with the palm of his hand.
His Constitution had increased.
Reid hadn't leveled. There were no points available to him, but his constitution had still gone up. And... now that he was looking through things, so had his power.
This was important. If Reid had really managed to change his stats, then could he do it again?
All that happened was healing himself, doing what he could to make his organs work a bit better, and he'd increased blood flow to a few areas that seemed like they would benefit. If that could improve stat points... he could do it again.
Reid breathed heavy as his mind raced. He'd already managed the pain. The heat was something he could deal with. There was no reason not to try.
He dove back into his recently-healed body and investigated. Not for damage, but for potential growth.
Starting with his arms, Reid sent energy into the muscles. Instead of regrowth, he focused on improvement. Density and bulk. More areas to anchor the muscle to bone. More force that could be exerted for each strand. He felt his skin stretch as his arms grew. It cracked in some places, leaking blood. He pushed until the pain became truly awful, then pressed farther. It led him to what felt like a steep hill.
The hill was a real barrier. No matter how hard he pushed, he could no longer gain momentum. It was as if going further would require more energy than he had available. Reluctantly, he let himself stop his progress. The hill was something he could fight another day.
When he pulled away from the arm, all of his changes - no, improvements - stayed. He grinned through the pain and started on his other arm. Then his legs. Reid grew muscles all over his body, in every area that seemed possible - even his tongue.
Then, he repaired the damaged skin. It required quite a bit of regrowth to cover the newly expanded area of his body, then rested.
Reid was exhausted. Completely drained. Hungry. Sore. Still lying on his back with his eyes closed, he devoured the rest of his jerky and fell asleep.