The battle ended with a flash of light from the end of my fist and a low, whooshing groan from the lion Sundercat’s crushed torso when time once more took control over the world’s narrative. The thunderclap of my punch blew leaves off nearby trees and the nine-foot-tall lionman into the wind. Snapping, smashing and tearing through all of the foliage in a line for over twenty yards, the kill experience flowed into me before the creature had even finished moving. With a deep sigh, I dropped to my knees and clutched my ravaged arm.
Allowing myself one final act of release, I shouted out loudly, an angry and fearful scream to expel the tension throughout my body. Then, I collapsed. Between the long day, the fighting, the running and the whole realigning-my-understanding-of-magic, I was more spent than I thought I could be with my Attributes. With my face buried in the dirt, unable to even turn, I daydreamed about placing some free points into Recovery. The battle, though pitched, hadn’t afforded me the level up to seventeen, however.
“You’re quite impressive, you know?” Naea asked from somewhere above me. It sounded like she was on a nearby tree branch. I wanted to reply back with an offended affirmative but all I managed was a grunt. Face down, ass up, covered in blood and with my right side feeling like molten magma from the shattered bone, I knew I was awesome. “Elbow’s sticking out, by the way,” Naea added.
The tiredness which ran through my entire being was not from lack of stamina, mana or anything else the System controlled. Physically, I should have been fine to move. Even while my right side tingled as though lightning was shooting through me, I could feel my resources returning. Except for one. It was the Willpower I had been spending which had faded away to nearly nothing. The last vestiges were the only thing keeping me awake. “Would it,” I panted between gasps of pain, “count as help… if you set the bone?”
The evil smile which spread across Naea’s face replied, “no. No, it would not count as help.” I whimpered as she approached my arm, but my dread was replaced with wide-eyed wonder as the agony vanished. Naea’s voice was gentle as she spoke. “It’s not easy, is it?” She asked, flipping me over so I was no longer on my front. I almost missed the question, my attention stolen by the colours and sights filling the air.
“What is this?” I asked, only half-aware of how slurred my speech sounded. The answer was clear, though it took my brain a moment to catch up. She had placed me into an illusion, and it was a lovely one. The surroundings
“It’s a painkiller,” Naea answered. There was a strange grinding noise and I looked for the source. “Ooh, nah, you just ignore that because I’m taking care of everything here. Have a look at the butterflies instead.” At her prompt, I followed Naea’s gaze to the cloud of gorgeous winged creatures fluttering in the air around us. I giggled. Naea giggled. My arm snapped. I giggled again. Naea mewled, a piteous noise.
Then the pain returned. “Yeah, any more and I would be helping, so you’re on your own for a bit, Grant.” Naea’s explanation was shouted over my own yells and pleading. I felt the air shift a little as Naea vanished, but not before she whispered, “try not to punch anything else at the speed of sound.”
I nodded gingerly, trying to keep my right side as stationary as possible while the System did its work. The pain in my elbow had worsened but I believed it would heal correctly, thanks to Naea. Taking a look at my status, I had come pretty close to the edge there at the end. It had been a few minutes, so my mana had recovered some, but that only made the health section even more jarring.
Health
06/80
0.3 per minute
The pain and damage had accumulated to knock me down to a fifth of my “correct” Recovery rate. My current situation was not conducive to Meditate, either, so the issue wasn’t going to be alleviated for a while. Even if I could completely ignore the pain of a shattered bone repairing itself, the dark forest around me made it impossible to truly relax. What I could do, was look at the new System prompt. I had one for levelling up Heavy Blow to level three, as well as Mana Bolt, but those had happened in the fight and I had already felt their effects and inspected the slight changes to the skill structures.
No, this prompt had arrived after the fighting, right as the final Sundercat faded away.
Title gained: Sunderer
For slaying 25 creatures of the Sunder class.
Following the path through the menus, I opened the deeper System explanation of the title.
Title - Sunderer
Not all worlds survive the trials set before them. The Tree does not cast away valuable life, however. When a world is lost, its members join the Greater Connection forever. One of these variants are Sunder-class monsters, punished for destroying their own home. The value of your soul grows. Hunt well, Sunderer.
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“ …What?” I asked aloud, receiving no answer. Sundercats… were from a destroyed world? It had been done themselves, but the System had saved them somehow? Well, I corrected myself, saved wasn’t necessarily right. Where did monsters come from? What happened to them when they died? “Oh, that’s right, Naea eats them.”
Shoving that mental image out of my head, I chuckled. Don’t try so hard, I told myself, shaking my head slightly and closing the prompt. I can’t figure everything out the moment I’m shown it. Maybe people outside of the dungeon were already handling things, and I would be leaving almost embarrassed as they waited for their turn at the dungeon. The world wasn’t my responsibility to fix. The deep questions weren’t my job to answer. Just do what you can.
In too much pain and potential danger to Meditate, I decided to exacerbate the pain and expedite my movement. The sounds of the battle might have kept other locals away to start with, but the silence would draw curious and hopeful scavengers. It was best not to be here when they arrived. Plus, I wanted my loot. There was a cool sword around somewhere with my name on it.
The promise of treasure was enough to get my first steps started. It was a hobbling, uncomfortable thing, but I managed to get to the closest tree for support. I cast a bleary glance towards the clearing where the fighting occurred. For the most part, the main group were all defeated in the same area, so I ignored them for now in search of the leader and his weapon. I vaguely recalled him not dropping the sword, so I followed the gouge its body had made in the floor.
The churned earth was fragrant as I approached the broken body. Despite its expiration taking the light from its eyes, the lion Sundercat seemed to be judging me on my approach. Its body was draped within the hollow of a tree, its sturdy form burying into the wood and creating a makeshift throne by snapping the trunk. Somehow, the sword rested against its leg. The bloodshot yellow eyes which stared at me unblinking had turned amber from the damage it sustained. As though my mana had marked the creature’s vision in its final moments.
I stood a little straighter upon my approach, despite the pain. Seeing the demolition I had enacted upon the kingly beast made my own stumbling feel rude, in a way. Its gaze said, “if you beat me, then you can’t lose.” Defiant even in death, the words of the System clicked more firmly into place as the weight of expectation upon my back increased.
“The value of your soul increases, huh…” I mused, reaching down to claim the lion’s blade. The flowery words weren’t just for effect. First when I had been used to claim the life of a hidden dragon, and now again after I had beaten back some form of clan. There was a noticeable increase within the density of-
My Willpower!
I pumped my fist as the eureka moment came to me, which was a terrible idea because only my injured side was free to perform the movement. Forgiving myself for being dumb, I slipped the weapon in the Xaverweave Pouch for analysis and storage while I gasped at the pain. An important question had been asked and answered at once. The “value of my soul” was the same place the strength of my Willpower came from.
With some chagrin, I considered the implications. That same Willpower had kept me alive, esoterically affecting my drive and then actively used as fuel for the creation of the Mana Savant skill and the subjugation of the Aspect of the Dragon. Would I have been able to survive the process without the mental strength to control the images? Without the burden of the Dragon Slayer title on my soul, could I have crafted the inner world I had? Most of the ideas for how it worked, and all of the strength used to design the framework, had come from there.
Which meant my success came from Naeboroseax, the dragon pretending to be a doddering old lady. Surprised and annoyed at the sudden influx of obligation I felt towards the creature which had turned me into a murderer, I tapped the lionman, collected the loot and teeth and left. Stomping back to the main fight scene, I nudged each of the bodies and did the same.
One… two… three… four…
If the lion made five… “Oh, shit.”
I whirled around just in time to see the pallid flash of mana in the air. I tried to turn out of the way, but just ended up presenting my weak side to the blow. Damaged as I was, the hilariously timed Mana Bolt hit my shoulder with a nasty crunch. I howled, spinning from the force and falling to one knee from the pain, the strength in my legs momentarily stolen. The timid tiger Sundercat, seeing that it's sneak attack didn’t finish the job, turned and ran away even as I dropped. Watching it go, my eye twitched. “Nope.”
Haste.
It was reckless, but it was only my health which wasn’t recovering quickly. My mana was fine. That tap had stolen all of the recovered health I had gathered in the ten minutes or so since the fighting, and I was going to put it to use. Plus, I liked using Haste. The more I used the skill, the more it felt like the real world was a fake, and this altered time which ran to the speed of my choosing was the truth.
Unable to do more than a brisk walk, I sauntered through the sluggish work at a gentle pace. With my passing, the wind rushed to fill the gap I had created. Feeling a confusing mix of frustration and an almost royal arrogance, I refused to attack from behind. I studied the face of the tigerman, letting it see mine before I finished off this dangerous pack of creatures. Allowing it to see its death from my eyes meant I watched myself in the reflection.
I hesitated, hand half-raised. “Please don’t kill me!” A teenaged voice screamed, cracking with fear. I had watched the Sundercat’s mouth move as the words came out, but I still didn’t believe it had actually spoken until it continued. “I’m sorry! It wasn’t my fault!”