Jonathan came to in an unfamiliar location, surrounded by people. He was lying on a bed, uncovered by a sheet.

“His regeneration will get him through this,” one voice said, with the scratchiness of advanced age.

Jonathan tilted his head up, seeing an old woman peering down at him. She clucked disapprovingly at him, and gently pushed him back down into the bed.

“You must rest. Whatever you did out there took a toll on you like no other.”

“Is it… Is it dead?” Jonathan forced out through dry lips.

The woman nodded, before walking away. Another figure raced to his side. This time, it was Edgar.

“What did you do?” The man asked, his voice filled with anticipation. “How did you gain so much power?”

“Free stat points are a resource that many do not use effectively,” Jonathan chuckled, before coughing violently.

Edgar seemed a bit confused, but he remained silent, seeming content to watch Jonathan from his bedside. In any case, he had some notifications to check.

You have passed the Second Threshold of Strength!

In your journey of progression, you have learned that strength gained easily is strength unearned. A scion of a powerful family might be force fed elixirs and natural treasures, but none of that strength can truly be considered their own. Only power, seized with a bloody hand from the jaws of defeat is truly one’s own.

It was a short message, but one filled with meaning. Like the System’s way of justifying the intense pain that crossing a threshold brought upon a person. Jonathan closed it, and clenched his jaw, fighting to avoid a torrent of trauma from the threshold crossing. Every moment of it was etched into his mind with lines of fire, and he knew he would remember it for years to come. Jonathan lay there for some time, shuddering as the memories of world shattering pain coursed through his mind. In order to distract himself, he opened his status sheet once more.

Jonathan Harlowe

Tier 2

Void Human(Advanced)

Divinity Aspect: Void Hegemon

Elemental Mastery: 10%

Elemental Juggernaut: Tier 2 Legendary

Level 124

(0 free points)

Strength

1105

Dexterity

708

Constitution

496

Resilience

554

Intelligence

532

Wisdom

525

Divinity

10

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Health: 7440/7440

Stamina: 24863/24863

Mana: 7980/7980

* Titles

True Unbound Spirit: Unique

Nascent God: Transcendent

Lesser Xenocide: Legendary

Iron Will: Epic

Leader of Men: Epic

Refined Form: Epic

Giantslayer: Epic

Avenger: Epic

Lineage Hunter: Rare

Righteous Killer: Rare

* Skills

Hungering Decay: Mythical

Smite: Legendary

Rune Savant: Legendary

Void Drill: Legendary

Void Cannon: Legendary

Stamina Redirection: Legendary

Channeled Basic Truesight: Legendary

Sense the Weave: Legendary

Warrior’s Trance: Epic

Fists of the Hurricane: Epic

Battle Focus: Rare

Impact: Rare

Focused Scry: Rare

Runes of Power: Rare

Redirect: Uncommon

* Pathway Skills

Mana Manipulation: Journeyman 2

Runecrafting: Journeyman 1

Martial Arts: Journeyman 1

Truesight: Journeyman 1

* Martial Path

Flowing Hurricane: Journeyman 1

* Quests

The Strongest: ???

Hellbreaker: Impossible

Complete Vengeance: SSS

Jonathan choked as he saw the new number next to his stamina. It was no longer a multiple of five, as the multiplier from his threshold was now 2.25 times, but it was still significant. He had almost doubled his total amount. Of course, such a huge boost would not come again for many levels. After all, he would need 10,000 Strength to cross the next threshold. There was one more notification waiting for him as well.

You have gained a new Title!

Forceful Initiate: Mythical

You have crossed the second threshold of Strength while still in Tier 2. This shows one of two things. Either you are a prodigy beyond measure, or an idiot who focused entirely on brute force over all else.

Bonuses: +10% boost to effective Strength utilization

It did not give a stat boost, but it still seemed effective. Clearly the System did not want to reward a massive increase in stats with another boost in that same stat, at least numerically. He could feel that the title gave a different sort of boost to his stat. Rather than being physically more powerful, he was able to use it in conjunction with his other stats. That was probably why he hadn’t killed himself while using his full strength, even though his Resilience was below the second threshold.

With the boosts of his threshold, he was now about 200 times stronger than an average human back on Earth. That was an utterly insane number. On Earth he had been able to deadlift about three hundred pounds. Here he would be able to lift over sixty thousand. That was like an entire semi truck. Then, now that he was thinking about it, that was not that impressive. Compared to comic book superheroes, he was a lightweight. People in those books had been able to destroy skyscrapers with a single punch, or even countries. Jonathan was very far from that.

Now that he had gotten used to his abilities, he slowly got out of the bed. He had to be careful not to send himself flying forwards with a simple step. His Dexterity was quite a bit behind his Strength now, which meant that it was hard to regulate more complicated movements. With a slight effort of will, he limited his strength to the limit of what he could easily handle. Still, he was a lot more powerful than before. Once he got another hundred points or so in Dexterity, he would be better off.

Jonathan spotted his armor propped up against a wall, and he quickly donned it. With a grunt, he let the armor settle by shaking his body out. He had filled out a bit, and the armor was a bit tighter. That reminded him of a question that he had had about the dungeon run with Edgar. All of the suits of armor were the same size, but the two men were not. Did they fit to the wearer’s stature when they were first put on? It was a lot more believable than the idea that it was simply up to luck. However, it seemed that this could only happen once, given the lack of room in his armor.

Shrugging, he walked out of the building. It was time to develop more of his power. Asking around, he found that he had been out for over twelve hours. It was high time for him to go to Tartarus. This time however, he planned on leveling up some more.

After informing Edgar about his plans, he departed. He left without Edgar in case he ended up recruiting any more of the Uthraki. That was not his main goal this time though. With the knowledge of just how much power the second threshold granted, he hungered for more. It was almost enough to override the memory of the pain. Almost. It felt as if the System was increasing the receptiveness of his nerves, as the pain was far worse than he thought possible. Maybe it was simply removing the limiters placed by his high stats. Or perhaps, more frighteningly, the pain was far worse, and he was only feeling a fraction of it. Shuddering, he used the token, wanting to erase that thought from his mind.