Someone shouted at him from the wall, and he looked up to see the enhancer mage tossing a large rock towards him, imbued with his power. Jonathan nodded and backed away, before striking out with the speed of a snake, slamming the rock into the monster’s skull. It exploded, tearing away the final fragments of the broken skull, and Jonathan leapt forwards, before sending a pulse of mana into the monster’s brain. It fell sideways, dying, and he found himself swaying on his feet. A moment later, blackness claimed him.

Jonathan came to in a strange room, one that seemed as if it had been built to house prisoners. There was only one tiny window, and the door was quite sturdy. He was lying on a cot, and a man was hovering over him, whispering something under his breath. The man’s face was illuminated with green light, coming from his hands, and it seemed that he was healing Jonathan’s extensive wounds. He had leveled up from the monster, twice in fact, but the scope of his injuries had been so extensive that they had not healed fully. Landing on the ground under part of the monster had not helped his state either.

Upon seeing that he was up, the man stood up and ran out the door, leaving Jonathan lying on the bed. He tried to get up, but a spike of pain running through his left side dissuaded him, and he collapsed backwards, his mind racing. Had he been imprisoned here, his weakness taken advantage of? Or was this all an honest scenario, and he was merely being healed from his injuries.

A few minutes later, the healer returned, with two men. Jonathan did not recognize either of them, but they had significant auras of power to them, and Jonathan stiffened as he saw what was under their hoods. Both of the men had ashen skin, and had small horns on their foreheads. They were most assuredly demons, perhaps the very servants of Granath that had been distributing the memory stone in the area. They both walked over to his bedside, and one of them cleared his throat.

“We are interested in your potential, Jonathan, and we have an offer for you. We are the servants of the lord of this land, Granath, and we feel that you would make a valuable asset within his legions.”

“I’m not interested,” Jonathan said. He tried to keep the open hostility out of his voice, but some of it remained regardless.

“You would do well to watch your tone, boy,” the other of the demons said. “We are not men that you would want to have as enemies.”

“That doesn’t change the fact that I am not interested in serving Granath. I am my own man.”

“Well, your attitude might change eventually. You will soon realize the futility of your struggle. Many are like you, thinking that they can live a passable life here, but the true wonders of this world are guarde by Granath and are only available to his followers. In any case, I await your acceptance.” The two men walked out the door after that, and the healer shuddered.

“That was not a wise move. Those men will not give up on you now. You only piqued their interest. Do you not realize who you just snubbed?” The man asked.

“Yeah, a giant, demonic worm. I don’t have respect for Granath, and I never will. He is a blight upon this land.” The healer recoiled in shock, and shook his head.

“Don’t say things like that here! You'll bring the master’s wrath down on my head! We are only here at Lord Granath’s pleasure. If he decides that this city is filled with discontent, he will erase it from the map.” The man quickly scurried away, as if he had been infected by Jonathan’s blasphemy. Jonathan shook his head, and opened his stat sheet, eager to see how much he had improved.

Jonathan Harlowe

Tier 1

Human(Basic)

Outsider:Tier 1

Level 30

(45 free points)

Strength

144

Dexterity

95

Constitution

99

Resilience

99

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Intelligence

99

Wisdom

99

Divinity

2

Health:570/990

Stamina:2160/2160

Mana:990/990

* Titles

Chosen of Sarnakthros:Unique

Nascent Divinity:Celestial

Righteous Killer:Rare

Underdog:Rare

* Skills

Smite:Legendary

Unravel:Epic

Mana Drill:Rare

Focused Scry:Rare

Runes of Power:Rare

Meditation:Uncommon

Redirect:Uncommon

Identify:Common

* Pathway Skills

Martial Arts:Student 4

Mana Manipulation:Student 4

Runecrafting:Student 3

Truesight:Student 1

* Quests

Hellbreaker:Impossible

Municipal Discontent:C

Almost all of his stats were at the verge of a breakthrough, and he did not particularly enjoy the idea of doing so. However, he really didn't have a choice. He quickly placed three stat points into Dexterity, bringing it up to 99 as well. He closed his eyes, trying, and failing, to prepare himself for what was to come.

The first order of business was probably to rank up Constitution, seeing as it would most likely heal him from his injuries. Taking a deep breath, he placed a single point into the stat. Immediately, his flesh began to swell beneath his skin, stretching it out past its breaking point. Blood spurted over the bed as Jonathan writhed in silent agony, as his tongue had grown too large for him to keep in his mouth. Every part of him, except for his skin and his bones, expanded, and his body crushed itself on the inside of his skeleton, causing lances of pure pain to shoot up and down his body. It ended barely a half minute later, with the expanded flesh shrinking to its normal size, and the skin healed over as if it had never been damaged. Jonathan quickly opened the notification.

You have passed the First Threshold of Constitution!

Constitution is your body's ability to take damage, but not its ability to mitigate it. Many believe that this concept, and that of Resilience, are one and the same, but they are quite different. Those who use this stat as their guiding star soon find that pain is the only end of their path. Pain, and near immortality.

Jonathan closed the notification, and began to work himself up for another threshold, perhaps one of the mental ones this time. They couldn’t hurt as much as the physical ones, right? He realized that he had been fully healed, as to his intention, and he got out of the bed, making his way over to the door. There was nobody outside, and he quickly returned to the center of the room, preparing to rank up his Intelligence stat. It would make his mana attacks much stronger than before.

Quickly adding the point, Jonathan felt nothing different than before. He looked around himself in confusion, and then as he began to see behind the world around him, his mind started to fracture. Everything near him became a source of profound insight, sending tidal waves of information crashing into his brain. There was no physical pain, but the mental anguish was far worse. Jonathan writhed on the floor as his mind was forcibly expanded, and he could feel his mana core expanding within him as well. Some time later, the process came to a sudden halt, and he was left shuddering on the ground.

You have passed the First Threshold of Intelligence!

Intelligence is one’s ability to comprehend the world around them, and to parse the endless streams of information that come hurtling through one’s consciousness. The greater one’s intelligence, the greater their mental abilities become. However, without wisdom, intelligence is useless. If one possesses all the knowledge in existence, but lacks the knowledge of how to use it, then do they not simply know nothing at all?

Jonathan paused on that last line, which was strangely philosophical. It certainly had a grain of truth to it in any case.

Jonathan had three more stats to enhance, two of which were physical stats. He deliberated on which of them to do next, eventually deciding on Resilience. Perhaps it would render the subsequent thresholds less painful.

With a single thought that would trigger a mountain of pain, he placed the point into the stat. He looked down at his body, and started to scream as his flesh tore apart and reformed in a seemingly endless cycle. The cycle began to dig deeper and deeper into his body, until he could see through his limbs as they broke and reformed. Soon the pain became all consuming, but he was unable to escape, with even his brain being rebuilt. All that was left of him was a disembodied consciousness.

The process ended some time later, and he returned to his body, shaking and gasping for breath. The notification appeared, but he had to wait for a minute to open it. His mind was aflame with memories of the pain, and he cursed himself for having waited until all of the thresholds were imminent. He should have done them in sequence. Still, it was too late now. He opened the notification a moment later, and read it.

You have passed the First Threshold of Resilience!

Resilience comes in many forms. Physical resilience, the ability of the body to resist damage. Mental resilience, the ability of the mind to deal with things that would break lesser beings. Spiritual resilience, the ability to remain hopeful when your entire world is crashing down around you. All three are equally important, and this threshold has tested them in equal measure. Just remember, there is a problem with being too rigid.