I woke up sometime later that night, seeing darkness from the skylight above the bed. I had crawled here after the fight with the Crucian Elite. My health bar was around a fourth full, my entire body wracked with pain. The regeneration bonus was doing its job but it would still be a few days before I was healed.
Limping out of the bed and walking to the mess hall to get a meal I ate numbly before returning to the bed and forcing down some water. I felt emotionally drained, the falcons' death hitting me harder than even the deaths of my squadmates had. The loneliness was crushing.
I ignored the notifications blinking in my vision, refusing to interact with the framework in any capacity except what I had to do. The event was over and the door leading to the mine from the clearing was fully repaired. I was safe for now, I had plenty of food and water and just wanted to exist for a few days. I knew it was silly of me to ignore the framework but I just couldn’t bring myself to deal with it right now.
Some hours later I again awoke, half eaten meal on the bed beside me. I limped out to the crafting hall and found the body of the falcon. Breaking down again immediately to tears, I cradled its body and headed outside. I wanted to bury it beneath the tree that contained the nest, I would need to retrieve the egg when my strength returned.
I found a small depression located between the roots of the massive tree and dug a hole as deep as I could with my bare hands. I laid the falcon's body down and stood up, staring down in the hole. It seemed so fragile now in death, compared to the powerful and agile bird it had been in life. I replayed the first memory of it in my head, finding it in that clearing trapped by a branch from yet another explosion I had caused. My heart ached and I filled the hole in with dirt. I took out my knife and etched a few words in memoriam in the tradition of the Eteri.
Here lies a brave beast that risked it all to save me, here lies a true friend.
The framework was punishing me for using the explosives. They were too powerful, too easy to use for mass death, or destruction as my title called it. It was showing me that there would always be a cost associated with that kind of power.
I limped back inside the old mine and returned to my bed. Anguish overriding any other emotions. I slept on and off for the better part of two days, at least judging by the skylight above the bed, only leaving bed to get food and return. I replayed the events of that fateful day in my head over and over again.
What would have happened if I had done things in different ways? What other choices did I have? How else could I have survived the wave? I needed to be smarter, I needed to learn how to beat the framework. I couldn’t keep losing my friends in this way. A person could only handle so much grief. Would I turn to a monster like the Norx emperor?
On the third day after the survival event I woke up to a soft early dawn light coming down from the ceiling. I had spent enough time wallowing in my grief, my health bar was back to full, the only damage remaining was mental now. I needed to climb that tree and make sure that the egg was ok, then retrieve my bow. I would do everything in my power to protect the falcons hatchling, as it had protected me. My resolve hardened, the first task was to go over the notifications I had been ignoring. I started from the moment I had detonated the bombs through the portal.
Congratulations! You have slain the Beast Wave Leader!
Congratulations! You have survived Beast Wave Level 7!
Congratulations! You have reached level 21!
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Congratulations! You have slain the Beast Wave Leader!
Congratulations! You have survived Beast Wave Level 8!
Congratulations! You have reached level 22!
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Congratulations! You have slain the Beast Wave Leader!
Congratulations! You have survived Beast Wave Level 9!
Congratulations! You have reached level 23!
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Congratulations! You have slain the Beast Wave Leader!
Congratulations! You have survived Beast Wave Level 10!
Congratulations! You have reached level 25!
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Congratulations! You have a new title!
Congratulations! You have a new title!
Congratulations! You have a new title!
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I condensed some of the notifications that were similar. I had gained to level 25 after defeating the crucian elite. It had claimed to be level 97 which sounded insanely high. I had to reconsider after realizing that I was already level 25 after just a month, if his home had been integrated years ago it made sense how high level he was. I had been granted three title upgrades and one completely new title.
New Title! Unorthodox II! - Defeated beast wave in a way never accomplished on your world! Grants +5 to primary stats, +5 levels to unorthodox crafting ability.
New Title! Punching above your weight class III! - Solo killed an Event Beast Wave Level 10 Leader! Grants +5 to primary stats, +1 to Charisma, +1 to luck!
New Title! Weapons of Mass Destruction III! - Killed multiple beast waves instantly! New Crafting Recipe! +5 to Alchemy Crafting Skill!
New Title! Lord of Destruction! - Kill 1000 beasts! Grants 5 Gold Item Box, 5 Ruby Item Box!
After the stat upgrades another notification triggered for a new title, my well rounded had increased as well.
New Title! Well Rounded III! Reached 200 cumulative stats! Grants +4 to all primary stats. Ruby Item Box!
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I found it very odd that notifications that gave items and stats didn't apply until you acknowledged the notifications. It made it a risky proposition to acknowledge them during active combat and risk being distracted versus risk not getting extra stats that might help you survive. I would need to try to open an item box during combat to see if it was possible. I continued through the notifications.
Congratulations! You have reached level 20! You have a new skill slot and skill choices!
I had 12 skill points to use and definitely needed a new type of combat skill. I tried to mentally order my priorities before bringing up the choices, escape first, offense second, defense third. I took a deep breath.
Creation Synergy - Items created by you receive a damage multiplier
Leave A Mark - Mentally mark a target, allowing you to track them on your map
Beast Companion - Form a companion link with a willing beast
As usual the details were sparse but I almost picked beast companion without even considering the other two. I mentally forced myself to stop and take a second. Creation synergy would amplify the damage of my crafted bombs. I already did insane amounts of damage, I didn’t think that would be super helpful at this point. Leave a mark was always tempting but for the same reasons as last time I left it alone. Beast companion tugged at my heartstrings, wishing I had received this one earlier. I selected it with a heavy heart and dumped all 10 skill points to bring it up to level 10. I checked the description of the skill in my guide hoping for more detail.
Beast Companion - Form a companion link with a willing beast. Bond grows with skill levels. Skill level 1-10 Allows for simple intuitive feelings to be shared over bond.
I already knew what beast I wanted to use this on, I hoped it would grow to feel the same way. I placed two more skill points in remote detonation to bring it up to 20. I gained the ability to detonate up to 4 explosions at a distance of 800 feet.
I received a total of 20 silver item boxes, 10 gold item boxes, 5 ruby item boxes, 1 platinum item box and finally a new type, a diamond item box. I opened all of the silver and gold and ruby item boxes first and received a huge amount of stock of various bombs, completely refilling my inventory. I now had 50 simple bombs, 25 standard bombs, 5 shrapnel bombs, 5 hallowed bombs, 50 poppers, 50 trippers, 50 manglers, and 50 smokers. It was an unreal amount. I was a walking army camp of explosives, I was grateful that they were all framework given and able to be placed in my inventory.
Next was the platinum item box, the last time I had opened one of these was when I received the major bomb. I opened the box and frowned when I saw a small piece of cloth laying on the bottom of the box. I triggered Identify.
Upgrade Patch! Can be affixed to any article of clothing with an available upgrade slot. Grants user ability to change the appearance of all articles of clothing once a day. Warning! Will be destroyed if the entire article of clothing is destroyed.
That was certainly not what I expected. I checked my equipment interface and saw that only one item had a so-called upgrade slot now available, my cloak which had two. All I needed to do was mentally will the upgrade patch to apply to the cloak and watched as it rose to the air and floated over to directly the left side of my chest and affix itself.
It seemed a little underwhelming, changing the appearance of my clothing was more of something I would have expected from the foreman's quarters upgrade or a silver item box. I darkly considered that the framework was playing its games with me again, giving me this for a reason, especially with my charisma at -1. The guide had let me know that charisma was how you were perceived by other people, a -1 would cause everyone I met to consider me untrustworthy at first. I sighed and pulled the diamond box out of my inventory.
Upgrade Patch! Can be affixed to any article of clothing with an available upgrade slot. Grants user ability to trigger limited skill, “Hide”. User will be hidden from plain sight for up to 50 minutes with a 10 minute cooldown period. Warning! Will be destroyed if the entire article of clothing is destroyed! Warning! Hide can be pierced by high level perception abilities and items.
The framework was telling me that I was going to need to be hidden soon. I heeded its warnings and applied the patch in a similar manner to the first one. I wondered if this was related to the emperor of Norx and the dream I had of him. I checked over my character interface and equipment interface to absorb the changes.
Sylar Till
Age
18
Race
Human
Class
Wildcard
Level
25
Strength
31
Stamina
60
Agility
37
Intelligence
35
Wisdom
62
Charisma
-1
Luck
4
I was shocked looking at the character interface. I had completely missed my birthday. I didn’t know the exact date but it had happened at some point in the last week since I last checked the interface. I felt a rush of intense sadness thinking of my mother and father. They would think I was dead, if they were even still alive themselves. I took a deep breath and moved on.
Equipment - Armor/Base Damage - Condition
Head
None
Chest
Stryker uniform
10
Arms
Stryker uniform
10
Hands
None
Belt
Stryker Bandoleer
10
Legs
Stryker uniform
10
Boots
Stryker uniform
10
Weapon
Stryker Bow (0/2)
20
Weapon
Stryker Dagger (0/2)
35
Cloak
Stryker Cloak(02)
25
The (2) was referring to the upgrade patches. I could pull them up individually if I wanted too or leave it condensed in the easy to read form. My bow and dagger were also now showing that they help two upgrade slots. Surely you couldn’t put a patch on a dagger? I would have to wait to find out more. I still had more notifications to go over but I needed a mental break. I had a falcon egg to find and my stomach was beginning to rumble.