Logan hesitated, hovering over [Life Fabricator], his heart in his throat with indecision. Throughout this last week, he’d learned that an overpowered skill could be the difference between winning and losing, but without Lara and the kids, he never would have had the motivation to keep pushing, keep upgrading.
If he upgraded [Life Fabricator], that could make the skill even more overpowered and turn it into an offensive juggernaut. But as soon as he found Lara, he needed to get her to safety, get her to Jack’s. The 24-hour time limit and the Karma cost of [Portal Generation] was too prohibitive.
But wasting this upgrade on a transportation skill was killing him. A greedy gremlin in the pit of his stomach was chanting only one thing. Power, power, power. Logan wanted to overtake Charon and become rank number one in the world. Forget a stealth player, the only way to do that would be to take every advantage he could get.
But Lara.
Fuck, fuck, fuck.
He couldn’t do it.
Lara and the kids were too important.
Growling, Logan mentally hovered over his choice and confirmed his selection.
Ding!
[You have chosen to upgrade Portal Generation!]
[Calculating….]
[….]
[…]
[.…]
[Results calculated!]
[The rare skill, Portal Generation, has been upgraded to the epic skill, Threshold Shift! This epic skill gives you the ability to scan your surroundings and shift from one location to another, both localized and long distance. Transportation capacity power: unlimited. Activation limit: N/A. Karma cost per shift: 500 Karma.]
Logan took in the new skill with greedy eyes, half believing that the System would screw him over yet again. But holy shit, based on the description, for once, he’d received the better end of the deal! If what he was reading were true, [Threshold Shift] no longer had a KarmaCoin cost, and 500 Karma was nothing! Not to mention that he could activate it as many times as he wanted, jumping from place to place.
“What happened?” asked Ernie, shifting closer and staring at Logan in puzzlement.
Logan furrowed his brow. Wait a minute. [Portal Generation] had come from Ernie; Ernie had absorbed the crystal, and Logan had received the skill only because they were bonded companions. Without Ernie, Logan would have exceeded his ten-skill limit, forced to give up a skill.
“Ernie, do you still have Portal Generation?”
Ernie’s gaze became faraway as he examined his stat sheet. He bobbed his head. “Yes.”
What.
How was that fair?
Ernie narrowed his eyes at Logan and stabbed the air with a tentacle. “Did the System upgrade yours?”
Logan winced. “Yeah, buddy. It’s called [Threshold Shift] now.”
Ernie huffed, his cheeks bulging, red blooming on his face. Logan was sure that if he were human, a vein would have been throbbing on his forehead. “Is the mighty all knowing being punishing me? Punishing my kind? Why else would it vex me, vex me so? I demand a refund!”
Logan winced. “Sorry, Ernie. But at least you still have Portal Generation.”
“Ugh! Ugh!” Ernie used his tentacles to sway from side to side, jumping up and down on Logan’s shoulder as if he were releasing tension, his eyes glinting with anger. “Unjust! Unjust!”
Ernie had an ability that Logan didn’t have—he could make minions and create an army, so they already had difference stat sheets anyway, but Logan couldn’t deny that he’d received a shitty deal here.
At the same time, although Logan sympathized with Ernie, he felt breathless with excitement. He did his best to hold it back, sensitive that Ernie was glowering, but it was all he could do to stifle his grin. With no activation limit, it sounded like a true skill rather than a portal. Could he…?
Swallowing, his throat tight with anticipation, Logan eyed the distance between where he was standing and the end of the room, and then glanced at Ernie on his shoulder and hesitated. “I’m going to test the skill. Within the room first. Do you want to come with me? Or sit this one out?”
The horns on top of Ernie’s head jumped up and down. They’d gone back from the narrow, sharp points, to the more normal rounded ends. Logan suspected they represented his emotions, rage being the inducement for the sharp, knife-like shape.
Poking Logan with the end of one of his tentacles, he huffed and then crawled into his pouch. “Where you go, I go.”
“Okay.” Logan pinned Shoot with a firm look. “Stay here, Shoot.” He needed to be quick. Although he’d slaughtered the inhabitants of the room, Logan was under no illusions that more wouldn’t come.
Deploying [Threshold Shift], Logan focused on it like he did with [Idiot’s Inspect], expecting that the System would ask for a destination just like [Portal Generation]. And yet, it didn’t, but at the same time, something within his chest shifted. It was a feeling of vertigo; that same feeling you received as you went up in elevation or dropped a large distance.
But he was standing still. He hadn’t moved.
Narrowing his eyes, Logan concentrated on [Threshold Shift] again, but this time, he focused on a point in the room twenty feet away, thinking, take me there. With a rushing sound, a ringing in his ears, Logan felt an unsettling sensation, a dizziness take hold, and with one blink—really, less than a blink—his surroundings shifted, and he was on that spot.
Logan gasped, shocked, his skin tingling with discomfort, cold suffusing his limbs. It was as if in an instant, he’d stepped through a pocket dimension that was full of nothing but arctic cold. It was like stepping outside, expecting it to be a sunny, warm day, only for a blizzard to blast him full in the face. But the feeling of disorientation was nothing to the excitement that was making him feel jittery.
Ernie peaked his head out of the pouch and looked around. “It worked!”
His heart in his throat, Logan pulled up his Karma.
2,201/2,808.
2,251/2,808.
2,351/2,808.
Holy shit, hell yeah! The skill had cost 500 Karma, and he generated 566 Karma a minute. Even with the drain from his armour, he could deploy the skill at least four times in less than a minute and still not trigger Karma depletion!
All right, all right. Logan blew out a breath of air and tried to calm himself down. Ernie had come along for the ride because he was inside the pouch on Logan’s back, but Logan hadn’t consciously willed Ernie to travel with him. He needed to practice transporting other people for this to work for Lara and the kids.
“Shoot,” he said, raising his voice. “Come here.” She was sitting down on her haunches, her ears perked and her mouth panting as she waited.
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“Aww,” said Ernie. “What a well-behaved vine cat!”
Logan felt a shot of relief. Ernie was acting more like… well, Ernie. He was sure the melancholy would come back; there was no brushing off the trauma of what he’d seen here, but at least his bright personality shone through the heartache.
Shoot blinked, and just like back in the street, in one second, she was sitting there, and in the next, she materialized in front of Logan with her green vine tongue sticking out of her mouth. Wagging her tail, she barked, clawing the floor. “Yes, mother!”
Logan had forgotten that she could teleport as well. “Stay there for a second. I’m going to try to transport you with my new skill. It may feel weird, but it’s safe.” At least Logan hoped it was.
While Shoot stared at Logan as if he’d hung the moon, her green eyes gleaming, Logan concentrated on [Threshold Shift], but this time, he opened his senses, scanning for Shoot’s bright lifeforce. Her aura was a gentle green, radiating a warmth that represented her feelings—trust in Logan, trust in Ernie. Keeping that aura fixed in his mind, Logan looked back to the way he came from, narrowing in on that same spot.
Just like that, in less than a blink, he felt that same rush of cold, that disorienting sensation, and then here was there.
Damn.
That’s what he was talking about!
Shoot barked in startlement, staring in confusion before shaking her head and scrabbling her thorn claws through the slimy floor. “Mother, that was fun!”
Fuck yeah. Logan could do more wizard-shit. Logan was a wizard master.
But according to the description of [Threshold Shift], there was a feature that he hadn’t yet explored.
[This epic skill gives you the ability to scan your surroundings and shift from one location to another, both localized and long distance.]
‘Scan your surroundings’ could be just that, but Logan was hoping for something else. Something that would make this skill as overpowered as he hoped.
Concentrating on [Threshold Shift] one more time, Logan opened his senses as if he were deploying [Life Fabricator]. With that skill, he could sense everything around him, but at a certain point, he’d hit a barrier. A physical barrier. There was no way to scan behind floors or buildings. That wasn’t the purpose of the skill.
But would [Threshold Shift] let him go beyond physical barriers and send him wherever he wanted?
There was only one way to find out.
Keeping the skill active, his nose scrunched in concentration, his fists clenched and his chest tight with anticipation, Logan looked towards the other end of the room, towards the elevator Gal had said would lead him to Lara.
Then, his perception shifted.
Logan had no way to describe it other than looking through a pair of virtual reality glasses. Instead of sensing the auras around the elevator, he could see the inside of the elevator. From the metal grate to the shiny, stone floor, to the elevator buttons that controlled the thing.
Logan wanted to look down.
As if he’d willed his non-existent virtual reality glasses to take him there, Logan travelled down the elevator shaft. There was nothing underneath his feet, nothing but air. He knew he wasn’t actually there; but inching his way down was beyond disconcerting.
He travelled ten, twenty feet, and then narrowed in on the closed elevator door to the next floor. This wasn’t the same building he was in right now; it seemed to connect to another wing, something that was only accessible through this elevator.
Logan travelled through the closed elevator door as if he were a ghost drifting through a wall. On the other side…
Shit.
A feeling of urgency almost swept him away and pulled him back to the blood-soaked room, but Logan ground his teeth and willed himself forward instead.
He may have found Lara and the kids.
The room was immense. The size of a football arena. Glass cell doors lined each wall. They were the size of a small living room, and inside each cell were people. Fifty at least. In a football sized arena, there were hundreds of these cells, which meant thousands of people.
Logan scanned through the glass walls, peering inside, his stomach sloshing with a combination of dread and hope. Hope that he would find Lara and the kids; dread—that he wouldn’t.
Inside of the cells were metal frame beds. Some people were lying down, others were standing up and milling together. There was a combination of different types of people, from children to people Lara’s age, to seniors. You name it. They looked bleak, with weathered faces and dark circles underneath their eyes, their hair ratty as if they didn’t have access to grooming supplies.
And although he tried to look into each cell and scan desperately for a familiar face, there were too many people. Too many to count.
Nausea building and his stomach sloshing, Logan released [Threshold Shift] and opened his eyes.
Ernie had scooted out of his pouch and was clinging to Logan’s shoulder, peering at him in concern. “What is it?”
Logan swallowed. “I think I know where Lara and the kids are. And we can go there. Right now.”
Ernie poked his chest with a tentacle, his touch gentle. “That’s a good thing, isn’t it? We have a noble quest to find your brethren and rescue them! And the sooner the better, yes? Yes. That way, we can get back to slaughtering and crush these monsters like they deserve.”
Right. Logan didn’t know how to explain it to Ernie; he didn’t know how to explain it to himself. He suspected that what he was feeling was trepidation. For the past week, Lara and the kids had been his purpose. No matter what he encountered, he kept pushing and moving forward because he had told himself that he had to, that they needed him. That they were alive and waiting for him.
Now that he’d made progress, if he located everyone that had been enslaved and found out that Lara and the kids weren’t there on the other side? Logan didn’t know what he’d do with himself, but it wouldn’t be anything good.
Logan ran a hand through his hair, pausing when it came back full of gunk. Glancing down at his armour, he winced. He was filthy with blood and guts. His hair was once again gore encrusted, but at least he could collapse the sandstone and reform his suit.
“Ernie, crawl down for a minute, will you? I’m going to change my armour.”
Ernie obeyed, his mouth puckering in distaste as he jumped clear of the blood pools until he found a patch of bare floor.
Logan took out a bucket of sand and reformed his armour, sculpting his pouch again. Lastly, he removed a towel and a bottle of water from his spatial collar, drizzling the water over his head and face, using the towel to wipe away as much blood and grit as he could.
Even after the towel was filthy, he suspected that his hair was standing on end.
Oh well.
But he needed to do one more thing before he activated [Threshold Shift].
Deploy his free attributes. Logan had held off upgrading just in case he ran into another person with a mental manipulation skill, but he couldn’t do it forever. Now that he had another skill that needed high Karma to operate, it made sense to deploy his points. He was betting that he was close to unlocking [Liche Devourer]. Extremely close.
Logan pulled up his full stat sheet.
Name: Logan Hart [Hidden Name: Idiot]
Rank: 2 out of 6,003,001,752
Level: 156
Class: [Epic] Fabled Creation
Grade: E5
Species: Human
Skills:
* Idiot’s Paradox Lv. 28
* Idiot’s Inspect Lv. 10 (capped)
* Deepwater Explorer Lv. 3
* Regenerate Lv. 15
* Mimicry Armour Lv. 3
* Undead Stamina
* Foresight
* Lodestone Creationist Lv. 1
* Liche Devourer Lv. 1
* Life Fabricator Lv. 3
* Threshold Shift
Titles: Eager Beaver; Mass Murderer; Audacious Corpse; Run Until You Drop; Malicious Meat Sack
XP Progress: 225,000/312,000
Karma: 2,808/2,808
Intelligence: 360 + 30% = 468
Constitution: 46
Strength: 116x3* = 348
Agility: 121x3* = 363
Dexterity: 96x3* = 288
Endurance: 147x3* = 441+ 50% = 662
Perception: 35x3* = 105 + 30% = 137
Wisdom: 435 + 30% = 566
Luck: 100
(*Pure Grit Ring)
Free Attribute Points: 85
KarmaCoin: 252,600
He felt a surge of pride as he took in his changes. He’d gone up to level 156—he was halfway to D grade! Regenerate had gone up to level 15 since it scaled with his level. His luck attribute had gone up from 90 to 100, and he was sitting at 85 free attributes. 85!
Again, Logan hesitated. That constitution attribute was looking low against all his other stats, but he was so, so close to unlocking [Liche Devourer]. Plus, if he threw all 85 points into his intelligence stat, his Karma pool would go up, allowing him to use [Threshold Shift] more frequently.
Decision made, Logan allocated his attributes:
[Intelligence: 361]
[Intelligence: 362+]
[Intelligence: 445]
But that wasn’t all. With the 30 percent boost from the True Grit Rings, he’d just upgraded his intelligence attribute to 579. Logan only had a second to do the mental math before he gasped, lurching as his eyes bulged, scene after scene rushing through his mind. From his arrival at Richton’s Tomb, to his climb down the mountain, to encountering Lara’s empty house, to his fight with the rat army. Lastly, his encounter with Brooke and Chase, to the creation of Shoot.
This time, the System didn’t send him a scene from his childhood, but it felt like his perception had shifted all the same.
Feeling like his insides were vibrating, Logan glanced at his Karma pool.
2,900/3,474.
3,100/3,474.
3,199/3,474.
Logan barely held himself back from kicking the wall in frustration. So close. He needed a 3500 Karma pool to unlock [Liche Devourer]. He was barely one level increase away!
Logan scrubbed a hand through his hair and then loosened his shoulders.
“Let’s go, Ernie,” he said, holding out his arm for Ernie to climb onto. Although he hadn’t unlocked [Liche Devourer], his increased Karma pool would allow him to deploy [Threshold Shift] multiple times like he’d wanted. Plus, a 3,400 Karma pool was nothing to sneeze at. “Shoot, get ready. Remember to try to stay invisible, no sudden movements, no noises unless necessary.”
Even though he hadn’t seen any guards outside the cells, there was no reason to risk it. He couldn’t imagine thousands of people being left to their own devices—even if they were in cells.
With one last check—his rope was inside his spatial collar, his talons were deployed, his sword in his left hand—Logan deployed [Threshold Shift], latched onto Shoot, and then with a lurching sensation, sent them through.
To Lara.