“Well that was stressful.” Robin said as he stretched himself on a chair.
The others nodded because of how much the subjects had actually focused on them as well as needing their active participation, especially Robin.
“Honestly, I didn’t think the Seer herself would appear and I’m shocked she sees Robin like that. ‘The one to trigger everything’.” Lola replied.
“Not far from the truth really.” Chasm Might said with a huff.
Mr Atlas smiled and looked over to Kevin, “To be honest, everything Robin has done on his path to fix his own ability had a cascade effect on all his surrounding friends really.”
They looked at Kevin and agreed, who would have thought the simple discovery of the gamer space would lead to such a change.
“Speaking of change… Lola didn’t you make your Devil core? You don’t look much different from before?” Robin asked.
“I did but my stats changed greatly, I’ve just not fought in the school yard.” She said, grinning.
“Wait… did you actually double your stats?” Robin asked.
She was grinning, “Yep. I condensed life force and demon power into refined energy and then condensed the devil core. Now I’m working towards the Psionic core cause the energy is harder to use without it. Regardless, I went through a big evolution and my roughly 6k stats all hit just over 10k except wisdom and intelligence. Now I need to focus on getting those two to grow so that I can keep up with my body speed and properly control my Demonic Divine power.” She said.
“Huh? You call it divine power?” Milo asked.
“Yes, it is divine power. I confirmed that it is made with demon energy instead of holy energy.” Lola explained.
“Are you going to start expanding your demon horde now?” Robin asked.
“Yeah, the number of vacancies is very large now and I have to pick 14 devils to become my archdemons.” She said.
“Why 14?”
“Probably to be able to house the primordial powers.” Robin said.
“Oh that makes sense.” Milo said.
“What about you, Milo? You’re effectively a new lord of death. Now that I think about it, how does the relationship between the netherworld and Hell work?” Lola asked.
The two figures that controlled supernatural beings and realms looked at each other before looking at Robin in hopes of an answer.
He forced a smile, “Uh… lets see…” he muttered and focused but the reaction was pretty quick as the branch right below the divide of timelines, right when these two would have returned to the main world.
Robin saw their return, his happiness to see his friends and catching up and all their changes, their reactions to the events of the ten years and what they both would go on to learn about their innate abilities.
“The Lords of Death are like the Grim reaper. Their job is to organize the netherworld and facilitate the passage of souls. Basically the netherworld is not supposed to be filled with undead, it is a realm of passage between life and death so becoming a God of Death means organizing the flow of souls to make sure they reach heaven or hell properly. In other words, Milo can be seen as the guide of souls and Lola can be seen as the punisher of evil souls.” Robin said.
“Oh, no wonder two realms related to death were so prevalent. Since our world doesn’t have a dedicated grim reaper, the presence of undead is very large in the area dedicated to earth it seems.” Chasm Might said.
“So that was it…” Milo muttered.
“Is something wrong?” Shoji asked.
“Ah… well the mention of demigods of death is very prevalent and very taboo as well in the Netherworld. The book of necromancy I obtained shows that there is a rather… violent… reaction to a new demigod because once one achieves Aether and descends, it will mean the evil souls stuck there are likely to be hunted down and forced to move on. The most dangerous are the ones without bodies like the ghosts I command.” Milo said.
Everyone frowned when they heard that.
“So both realms reject you guys.” Mr Atlas said.
“I think it's more like, Lola is fighting for what she deserves but Milo… Milo is effectively in the position of an invader much like ‘him’. He is a foreign world god relying on their native power to ascend as a god and bridge a firmer connection between the two realms.” Shoji said.
“It’s not something I can do now, I’ve only just achieved the status of an elder lich and I’m very far from being able to fight those other creatures who are also of similar status. From what I know, I will need to kill them and absorb their aether and subjugate them as followers. I don’t have any minions who can fight at that level.” Milo said.
“Well, regardless, you’ve got our support and the support of the gamer system to make and evolve many undead to get ready for that. Don’t forget that your powers depend on their growth and your growth promotes their growth.” Mr Atlas said and patted him on the back.
“Speaking of power… do you think Milo can close the rift now?” Harold asked.
“No, I’m far from being able to. I still have a lot to learn and I need even more to catch up to Sir Vincent. That said, he has also been able to achieve death aether… I wonder why the world picked me to give a divine spark but not him, a person with immense knowledge of death and power to match.” Milo said, uncertain.
“Probably the same reason the world picked Lola. Maybe some things are just meant for some people.” Robin said.
He looked at them and sighed.
RING!
A call came for Mr Might and he answered it.
“Hey Might, get your class and bring them to the development division to test out their new suits. I need to make sure there are no conflicts in the armor.” Techno said through the video feed.
“All of them?” he asked.
“Your homeroom class.” Techno said.
The video feed ended right after and he sighed before getting a phone and a video feed to all his homeroom students opened up and got the call to go to the development division.
He called the kids in the room and they went together.
When they arrived they were met with a lot of noise from the immense machinery needed to process the dense metal.
They proceeded to the back rooms where it was sound isolated and they found far more silent material and a lot of students that worked as support heroics class.
“Alright, you all know the number of your homeroom roll call so head to the station with your number!” Techno said over a loudspeaker.
They looked at one another before going to the dedicated station and Robin met several students.
“Hello, it’s an honor to be working with you.” They said with admiration.
Robin just smiled, “So where is the armor?” He asked.
“Right, it’s this.” one of them said and pulled out a full body suit and held it up for him.
Robin took it and he saw the metallic shine and stiffness and something in his mind made him think and he tried to stretch it but it was as firm as you would assume metal to be.
“Wait… is this metal wire?” He said and his supernatural vision activated, “Digital metal wire?” He asked.
“Yes sir, specifically, it is Psychic Ferrium Digimetal. It was mixed with psychic crystal in a solution of metal ore before it mutated into digital metal making it highly compatible with psychic energy.” They said.
“Why?” He asked.
“Let me see.” One of them said and took out a note. “This is what Techno said “Since Bullet can effectively alter the physical properties of things, there is no need to try and make elastic material with his abnormal extension and morphing capacity. As such, I’ve produced Steel digimetal with a very high compatibility to psychic energy that the effect is spread through. The basic bodysuit has been tested and has an exceptional defensive capacity despite being metallic fiber. It is capable of mitigating even the force from Chasm Might’s punches by 30%.” does that answer your question?” The asked.
Robin nodded and looked at the slightly stiff clothing before channeling Psionic force through it.
The computers on the station began to react and the team quickly started to work.
“What’s going on?” Robin asked.
“The suits are built with an internal system activated by your energy. It is also there to analyze your level 2 refined energy since it is so new and will help us improve the psychic crystals that are going to eventually be used in the future.” one of them said.
Robin nodded and then infused the rubber properties and the suit instantly became elastic. He controlled it and undressed but one of them came up, “Oh right, this is just a common under suit in case the metal fiber is too uncomfortable.” they said showing a very thin material that he could put on but he rejected the offer. He put it on by controlling the material until it was snug against his body. The metal fibers weren’t really irritating and were like silk to the touch. He stopped infusing the Psionic force but he kept the natural flow within his body and that was when he noticed something he hadn’t before.
It was also picked up on the machines, “Huh? Active Flow of Psionic force has stopped but readings say that it is still running through it… wait, the internal sensors have picked up a very small energy field around your body which is constantly affecting the things close to your body. The suit is skin tight meaning it’s under constant influence.” One of the students said.
Robin stretched and morphed his body at will but when he tried to shrink, the suit did not follow.
Robin would have to be active but the suit could indeed follow his size reduction if he actively controlled it too.
“That’s good, I won’t have to be actively doing this besides to get it on or off.” Robin said.
They were happy with the result and then brought him a pair of visors, much like the one he had last year, but the screen was not there and instead it projected an energy one which covered his entire head while the actual thing was just a band around his head. It could be invisible and projected data to him or it could cover his entire face.
After that was the actual armor and weapons.
Robin didn’t need inertia dampeners for his shoes, he had long since learned how to do that himself.
The boots were, instead, much like his old gauntlets and were made with pressure pumps to achieve extra impacts.
“So are arm weapons more advanced now?” Robin asked as he put on a pair of gauntlets and channeled Psionic force.
“Yes sir.” They said and immediately the gauntlet shifted into a very dense psychic blade. “Blade mode active.” the suit AI said.
“Blade mode… are there other modes?” He asked.
“Yes sir, blade mode is the default psychic form but considering you also make gravitational orbs, you also have mortar mode.” one of the support students said.
“Mortar mode.” Robin said.
“Mortar mode activated.” the AI said and the gauntlet shifted and formed a cannon. Robin channeled Psionic force and it began to generate a psychic orb to fire. Robin had not learned to make these but then he channeled divine force and instantly the machine’s function changed and several outlets formed and the Psionic orb turned into a gravity orb.
“Graviton Mortar primed for firing.” the AI said.
“Graviton?” Robin asked.
“Graviton is the hypothetical particle in quantum mechanics responsible for the gravitational field. It is assumed gravity abilities affect the Gravitons of the cosmos so the orb you make are known as Graviton orbs.” one of the students explained.
“Oh so that is what the science community calls it.” Robin said before shutting it down before channeling Life Source and it turned into a fist and projected the energy like an aura around his fist but he could feel it was highly concentrated even without his control. When he took control the form turned very detailed and no leakage was left over.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“So life source is just out right punching?” Robin asked.
“Yes, since it is the most physical of the energies the idea was to make the energy form an aura so that the immense force of your fists don’t destroy it while also enhancing the power behind it.” one of them said but there were naturally other modes.
The gauntlets could actually take his life source and channel it through a hidden psychic gem with a healing ability and return it to his body in case of extreme damage. It was a hidden mode meant to not alert the enemy of their recovery.
Finally divine force was completely gravity related.
“Divine force mode is meant to help levitate and enhance your gravity manipulation but also build an automatic gravity dampening on the gauntlet itself. Since you are able to force nearly 100 times gravity on your fist, it means that there is likely an equal return on your fist. Your natural body can handle it since it's rubber but this is solid metal. Even if you give the gauntlet properties of rubber, it doesn’t do much.” they said.
After that was actual armor over the body suit.
Defensive chest armor to protect his heart and vital organs.
“I’ve never had such heavy armor like this. All of it is digimetal as well.” Robin said as everything slowly had psychic energy flowing through it before he reversed gravity to reduce the weight acting on himself.
“Well, you’ve developed abilities to be able to suit up and still use your powers like this. The second layer is much more powerful but also simpler, being purely for defensive purposes.” the one installing it said.
When Robin was fully suited up, he found that the gauntlet and boots connected mechanically to the secondary suit. Robin soon tried to stop his active flow through it all to see how far his natural aura affected and they were all shocked that the more layers he piled on the more his aura would spread.
All he had to do was make sure he was projecting the Rubber property and then he could stretch as freely as he always could.
When he finally looked at his appearance, he looked a bit conflicted. “I think in the history of comics and heroics, I’m the first elastic hero who has been so heavily armored instead of focusing on mobility and flexibility.” Robin said and extended his fingers at will and the gauntlet followed and then rolled the spring and all the machine followed even under pressure yet everything worked without a problem because they just bent and shifted without pulling at the connection.
When it was unwound, there were no changes.
The others chuckled at the joke but he looked at himself and watched as he moved his body in its strange shapes.
Then he went to the test space and began to test the tools but there was a learning curve to adapt to the tools based on his fighting style. Honestly, because the armor and weapons provided changed so much, Robin had actually thought of just getting armor and leaving it up to his natural abilities to fight because the weapons provided affected his fighting style.
Of course, he showed off just how absurd his control ability was. For instance, when he projected the Psionic blade, it took a small bit to learn that it could actually bend and stretch just like his limbs and he could even project gravity and form a literal gravity blade after some testing.
Another thing he found was that with his psionic force, he could completely close the pressure valves on the gauntlet as if he had punched with full force and keep it primed so he didn’t actually have to punch, all he needed was to let go.
He tried to see how much force it produced on a punch machine and just putting it against the machine and releasing it caused a scary 700k score while his body easily withstood the recoil.
When he put his back into it, he was able to close the valves and it imposed on his own impact. He tried it without the gauntlet just to get a read on his current power and got 900k from his raw punch meaning the gauntlet itself was weaker then his natural punch but it would add the equal force of 90% of Robin’s punch force without any sort of spring action.
When he unloaded a punch with his spring, the value increased by 200k and when he added his heart pumping it increased by another 100k.
Each factor he added on imposed a greater and greater increase.
At the end, he doubled his strength by channeling all three energies and the heart pump technique achieving 1.8M points.
He sighed and pulled up his stats.
Status
Name:
Robin Harrison
Class:
Hero’s Disciple
Title:
Aspect of Preservierance
Stat Points:
1110
Level:
250
HP:
539,484
Stamina:
432,787
Strength
4,614(x1.5)
Dexterity
5,096 (x1.5)
Agility
3,144 (x2)
Intelligence
2300
Constitution
4,234 (x1.5)
Wisdom
1400
Robin looked at the HP and Stamina because he had had a very irritating revelation last year. They had discovered the energy modifiers which would, naturally, cause a boost to the actual values the year prior. Obviously there were different values for Level 2 refined energy which, in sum total, had 2.4x boost for the three raw energies at level 2.
What they hadn’t accounted for is that the gamer space system wasn’t calculating the values to the display page. This means their HP and Stamina had actually not been displayed correctly and had not accounted for the energy multiplier.
This was rectified. Regardless, it was fixed eventually. As for what Robin’s stats looked like if it were displayed with the multipliers already calculated…
Status
Name:
Robin Harrison
Class:
Hero’s Disciple
Title:
Aspect of Preservierance
Stat Points:
1110
Level:
250
HP:
539,484
Stamina:
432,787
Strength
6,921
Dexterity
7644
Agility
6288
Intelligence
2300
Constitution
6351
Wisdom
1400
Robin was already in the upper thousands. That said, he didn’t have a biological evolution like Lola. Currently she was the physically strongest student in the entire academy and it showed. All four of her physical stats were just over 10k while her intelligence and wisdom was the only thing lagging behind no higher than Robin. In fact, hers was much lower because she only just unlocked psychic energy and would have to grind through month's to catch up.
This catch up actually showed very clearly because she can’t keep up with her own speed.
Robin looked at his own stats with a smile. The 50 levels of growth gave him another 500 points to spare.
He looked at his own intelligence and agility. Intelligence was used to counteract agility in a 1:2 proportion. He also felt like his mind was starting to lack behind his top speed. Thankfully his supernatural perception boosted his intelligence by 5 times and his wisdom could support 100:1 points putting him very clearly within control of his fastest speed.
His supernatural vision was just as good even without perception though without it he couldn’t catch his own speed.
Robin thought long about it before putting 900 points into intelligence and allowing his natural sight to follow his natural speed. This would effectively improve his supernatural vision to the lower benchmark as well.
His brain flared up for a while as his brain felt it was rewired through his brain but all the pressure soon vanished and his mind cleared once more.
Every massive boost in intelligence also came with significant changes in how he felt his own body and he took a while getting used to it. If wisdom changed the biology of his brain and nerves, intelligence changed how the electrical pulses traveled through it and his body.
Ruth quickly noticed the change and through their psychic link she asked what happened and all she got was his stats.
She was able to easily see what he had done and he got a feeling of confirmation and he looked to see her grinning like a cat and then soon felt a shift as well.
“Stubborn just like her title says.” he thought to himself.
Her armor was not too different from Robin’s. They both gained a lot more padding compared to before but they both gained a lot of mobility due to their natural inclination to affect things they wore.
After finishing the tests Robin returned to the station where the team was working to compile the information that was gathered.
“Was this only for tests?” Robin asked.
“Everything is always an experiment. After all, we need to always take into consideration what novelties we end up learning and what you implement with your own creativity. Like… who would have expected you to be able to manipulate the psychic blade like a whip sword.” One of them said.
Robin smiled, he had only learned the whip style because of how much he shared and learned with Ruth.
“So it is just tests?” Robin asked.
“Nope, we are preparing the student body for the starting phases of cleansing.” one of them said but their faces grew serious at the mention.
Robin frowned, “So I keep this on?” Robin asked.
“Yes, you are free and can go train and adapt.” one of them said.
Robin nodded and walked out while others were leaving.
As he left, he also saw other classes arriving and among them were the summoners. Zack and the twins were there but they were outside instead. Most, if not all, had the same type of gear. It was like Robin’s under clothing but made of more flexible material followed by something akin to plated armor including a full helmet to protect their heads.
Robin took only a moment to focus his vision to see that this metal wasn’t pure digimetal. After some looking, it was clearly about normal iron with a thin digimetal layer. Even in this form, the defense would be leagues ahead. The only reason it was done like this was because of the weight of the metal.
Robin walked over and saw Zack with dozens of his boss monsters, who had grown a bit in the last month's, and were testing simple things like weapons and some armor for vital spaces like the head and chest for each creature.
On the far side, the twins were with Techno himself.
Robin approached moments before he saw Halohacks groan as he forced his body back into the child state.
“What’s going on?” Robin asked as he arrived.
“Hey Robin. We are going to see.” Oliver said.
“Alright, this is vital to see the effect.” Techno said as his hovering chair levitated a gold digitmetal ring, about the same size as the one on the digital spawn.
It floated over and eventually touched the ring.
They instantly felt a change as the ring began to give off digital anomaly before it was pulled into place and merged with the original one and shined brightly.
A wave of holy power came from the far off monolith and filled the ring with a huge amount, significantly more than they had before and he released the restraints and began to evolve.
The transformation was the same but it was so much more powerful when it crashed down. Furthermore, it didn’t just have holy power and life force, they were merged into Divine essence now.
“Amazing… the power is so much more than before but… my peak strength did not change.” Halohacks said.
“It's because of the biological limit, we will be breaking that next, that said, it is good to know that evolution into an adult form will condense divine essence like the celestials.” Techno said as he was constantly analyzing the creature.
After that, drones came out with two complete sets of body armor in the exact shape of the two dragon creatures.
One stood up and included the basic shape of their staff and the other was the armor and blades of the original hacks.
“Be ready, you two.” Techno said as the suits moved towards them and it began to react.
Their bodies sensed the familiar shape and once it was all released, the parts flew towards them and floated around them.
A large pulse of digital anomaly formed around them both as they almost felt like they saw the skin textures render off them as the armor began to merge.
The weapon merged with Halohacks and evolved as it took up a large portion of the body and radically increased the stability.
Then the armor started to build up from the extremities until it reached their head and the final piece was their head plate.
As soon as the final piece merged, they both roared and the phones of the twins shined.
They both did not hesitate as they released Life source into the phones.
They both exploded with power as they transformed and were engulfed by the energy. Their roaring filled the field as their bodies changed.
Hacks bulked up and grew larger as his front paw changed into hands while his back feet changed into blades and he stood up on his hind leg. A long blade formed over his hands as he stood up and roared.
He was almost double his previous size and he radiated a powerful and menacing aura. Robin felt the immense divine power but there was clearly no core like the twins. When he looked beyond the digital layers, Robin saw that their digital core had taken the role of the life core but it was clearly not the same.
On the side, Halohacks roared as his body changed, his back burst as new wings formed. His clawed hand became more humanoid and his head changed. The dragon body shifted and became dragon armor while a human lower face could be seen just barely exposed.
His size was half that of his prior form but he obtained a more holy knight like form.
They both burst from their bubbles and each of them radiated power.
Although halohacks had grown smaller, no one could say he was weaker and he would definitely be the faster of the two.
The twins, however, were huffing because of the amount of energy it took and making this evolution happen was exhausting. Summoning this form would likely be a big task for them for long periods of time.
“Wow, they look really strong.” Robin said.
The twins smiled and they brought up the stats to check.
“Wow! They went from mid hundreds to low-mid thousands and their potential cap is 15k.” Tristan said.
Techno went over and asked to see and nods, “So evolution really does work as a potential cap. 15,000 would be within hero strength.
“Speaking of that, I remember Chasm Might say his strength stat once.” Oliver said.
“Yeah… what was it… ah! 80,000! That was it. It was during our school’s first camping trip with him there.” Robin said.
“Wah! To think the braveman spectrum is just 5k to 12k or something but heroes are that far apart.” Oliver exclaimed
“Wait, didn’t you say your constitution was in the 10k?” Tristan asked Techno.
“No, I said it was similar. My actual constitution is 53k.” He said.
Their jaws dropped but it made sense that such an amazing power had equal life force to handle it.
Techno’s power also depended heavily on the technology he created so not having the same amount as Chasm Might but dealing the same damage was understandable.
“Alright, I need to go analyze the scans. You two, adapt to your changes and you boys should start distributing their digital potential and accessing their new abilities and testing them out. If they are in the mid thousands then that is nearly 10 times the growth and that is a big shift they need to adapt to.” Techno said and floated away.
Robin followed him before looking at the twins and their armor. “Are all summoners using that armor?” he asked.
“Yeah, it’s got a barrier gem embedded into it so we have some relatively high defense.” They said.
Robin nodded and looked at the giants. “I’ll head off then. I need to finish adapting to the armor and weapons. I wish I had longer to train though, Techno should have come out with this stuff weeks ago to adapt to fighting with it.” Robin complained.
They agreed but they each took their spawns to a different area while Robin headed to the sparring arena where Ruth was waiting and with a nod, the two saved and began to spar. Saving was just in case and they fought so they would properly adapt their fighting style that the suits' weapons disrupted.
With both of their minds working at full speed, they eventually stopped after they had analyzed each other and then traded tips and flaws they saw and quickly began again.
Their forms and fighting style rapidly adapted under the unrelenting analysis their brains processed until they had worked out the kinks and flaws before then started to improve the styles.