Contrary to Markus’ mounting skepticism, Rika actually returned with genuinely useful books.
Before that, however, Markus was left with about an hour to himself. He had three and a half until his fight, and the time he was left alone in his cell he mainly spent planning. Better that than curling up in a ball, and he was past lamenting his situation. He’d gotten that shit off his chest already, or at least as much of it as he was going to.
It was just him and his destined appearance now, and like it or not, he was doing it.
Cyrus was once again missing. He’d been hoping to chat with him about a couple of his options, but they’d taken him once again in the time that Markus had been gone. He had no clue where. He’d have thought there was no chance they’d have him fighting twice in a day, but he’d have considered the same for himself not long ago. He chose to put it out of his mind. Cyrus was strong. He’d most likely be safe.
Didn’t truly stop him worrying, but he had himself to consider right now. He’d always felt guilty if he was considering himself over others, something that had been ingrained in him over a lengthy, shitty past, but that feeling could go fuck itself right now because worrying wasn’t gonna get him through this. There’d be time for feeling bad about other people after he’d saved his own skin.
So Markus set to doing just that. Mana stones got filled. He made a total inventory of his mana.
D Grade Mystic.
C, D, and E Grade Life.
C, D, E, and F Grades Blood.
F Grade Wind.
F Grade Earth (of which he had almost none).
D, E, F, and G Grades Spirit.
G and E Grade Frost.
E and D Grade Flame.
D Grade Shock.
E Grade Caustic.
A Grade Divine.
He was keeping the Mystic Mana in his D Grade Essence Stone. The higher grades of Blood and Life Mana were within him, as was the Divine Mana, the Wind Mana, the Earth, multiple grades of Spirit, the Frost, the Caustic, and the higher grade of Flame.
Each would need an intended purpose. These mana types were his weapons, and while all he currently knew about his opponent was that it breathed fire, couldn’t fly, was larger than him, and was a D Grade monster, he couldn’t make any definitive assumptions about it. Sure, that could be a dragon or wyvern or something, but it could be a million, trillion other things.
And so he needed to prepare for what happened if it wasn’t. The way he’d approach an armored target would differ to how he’d approach a squishy one, and the way he fought a creature impervious to its own flames would have to differ to one still vulnerable to fire.
Then there was the matter of size. The creature was said to be multiple times the size of a horse. It wasn’t specific. Three times larger? Twenty times?
That made a difference too. All these variables made Markus consider harder what to grab and what to hang onto. He knew his opponent could breathe fire, but did it have other tricks he needed worry about?
Regardless, using his Adaptive Resistance for the first time, Markus started setting up the process to building a resistance to fire within himself.
He’d gotten this passive before his third fight, a benefit of all the points he’d put into Arcana, and this was the only time it’d made sense to burn the mana necessary to use it, a moment in which he actually had an idea of what element he was currently up against.
The resistance required D Grade Mana of a corresponding type to generate, and would last until the mana was depleted or until a new resistance was chosen. It was his first time using the passive, and he didn’t have a fuckton of D Grade Flame Mana to spare, so while he was glad to have the option, he realised that such a barrier wouldn’t last under strain for long. He might be able to absorb some flames from attacks and keep the barrier going for a while, but he had a feeling the damage from being breathed flame on would outclass the mitigation of the passive, and would probably give him less mana than it took to block the damage in the first place.
Or, he could be pleasantly mistaken and find this made him effectively able to heal off fire. Probably not though.
That was his Flame Mana all but accounted for. He’d need the rest for maintaining his resistance, meaning he’d have to be frugal with how many Detonates he was willing to cast. He needed at least enough for a couple, though, but the E Grade Flame Mana would be sufficient to pull that off. He had enough within his glaive to do so a few times at max.
Frozen Tomb’s icy field was unlikely to be of use this fight, the creature likely able to smash through the ice or nullify it with heat. Still, the ability the skill gave him to summon icicles could definitely come in handy, and was one of his only current means of attacking from range, so he elected to keep a good portion of Frost Mana within his body.
His current Mana Capacity was over 7000. He had plenty of space to do what he needed.
Spirit Mana was his bread and butter. He used it for almost everything. Rend was important, too, as was staying alive, so the higher grades of Blood Mana stayed within his body for their greater potency in healing and blood-based abilities.
Then there was the Wind Mana…
His opponent was likely to be in the air. He was a Jumpmaster, wearing a lightweight set of armour, bolstered by magical greaves that made him lighter and take less fall damage. He was practically built for aerial combat at this point. The only thing he was missing was a good source of Wind Mana, let alone an understanding of it.
Bat cores…
He had 12. Those were regular monsters. Native to the caves below. No reason to feel bad about using them.
They were G Grade. He could combine them to roll for a higher potency of core.
He did so.
Four combined into an F Grade core. Six more combined into another F Grade core with a different passive, and the final two didn’t combine at all.
One offered a single flap of wind during travel per hour to boost yourself slightly higher, something Markus envisioned somewhat akin to a double jump, and the other offered a basic enhancement on hearing.
…double jump. Who the fuck wasn’t picking that.
Combination options didn’t stop there, however. That hearing passive bat core could be combined with a slime core and a giant core to form a ruined cavedweller core.
Ruined… what the fuck did that mean?
Markus had tried staring at the giant cores since his revelation to determine more about them, but their label had never changed. Casting [Identify] whilst looking within himself at the empty space in which they swirled hadn’t elucidated him much either, but he knew there was something wrong about them. He could feel it, an almost permanent weight on his chest.
Had he felt that way since he’d picked them up, or only since his discovery? It was hard to say. Markus was constantly between some ache or pain or discomfort or other lately. Needless to say, whether it was in his head or not, something about them felt wrong. Like they didn’t belong where they sat, constantly brushing against his spirit, a reminder of what he’d done.
“You were like me, right?”
That’s it. He was talking to himself. He’d told himself he wasn’t gonna get caught up in emotions now, but here he was talking to himself. God fucking damnit, man. Just bottle it up, move on, prepare for your fucking death match and—
“I didn’t know you were people once. I feel really bad about killing you guys.”
He almost swore he felt something swirl inside of him. He clutched a hand to his chest, his fingers feeling numb. Was it… recognition?
He was probably imagining it. Probably just his addled, stressed out mind pushing him away from doing what he was thinking about doing. Or maybe pushing him towards it. He couldn’t fucking tell.
“I can’t imagine how you feel.” Markus rubbed the back of his neck. He stared at the wall as he spoke. “I was kidnapped too, and…” he sighed. Was he really doing this?
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He inhaled.
“I got kidnapped. I got to fight back though. Or at least… feel like I’m fighting back. And I kept hold of my own mind. I mean, maybe not entirely, because I’m sat here talking to you, but…” Markus shrugged. He laughed dryly. “Sounds like you didn’t get any of that. You just got cursed. Dumped in a dark, shitty dungeon and forced to fight for your lives until someone came along and ended them. You didn’t deserve that.”
He felt a pulse resonate through his body. He hadn’t imagined that one, or if he did, the hallucination was really fucking lucid.
He looked within himself. Really felt out the motions of the mana resonating within his body. To think that he was actually getting some kind of sapient response from within was ludicrous, but maybe…
What exactly were cores, anyway? They were markers of a creature’s mana matrix, surely, but was there something beyond that within them? Markus could feel a touch of personality to the goblin core he’d affixed, something that resonated within him during combat…
Was it merely an echo? Were there the makings of a soul within these cores?
“I’m sorry.”
Markus said it loud and clear. He felt a thrum of energy wash through him. It didn’t feel jarring or horrific in nature. It felt calm.
He wasn’t talking to himself. He was talking to them.
The realisation was equal parts crazy, relieving, and nerve-wracking to Markus, but he couldn’t retreat from this feeling now that he’d brushed it. He needed to persist.
“I don’t know what to do. Do you want me to find a way to release your cores?”
Nothing. He didn’t feel a touch of energy from within him.
“Do you want me to try and help you somehow?”
Still nothing. Perhaps he’d imagined it. Perhaps his fever dream was finally coming to an end.
One more question.
“Do you… do you want to help me fight this place that put us here?”
The loudest response yet. So fierce it made his heart palpatate, and he had to grip the post of the bed beside him to remain on balance.
“Fuck… I’ll take that as a yes. Are you sure? What if you change when I do this?”
Another assault of motion from within. There was something internal, intrinsic within his body that was more than simply a spirit, it was the pure and unfiltered desire of one taken from this world, carried solely by the encompassing weight of the mana within his body. Not just one, but many. Their unspoken words and unheard thoughts rang of unilateral syliloquy. He might not have been graced with the specifics of their grievances or with true understandings of their situations, or even be able to determine their emotions beyond the absolute and complete basics…
But he understood what they wanted.
And he understood that what he was about to do was okay.
Markus combined the composite cores into a ruined cavedweller core. He felt a weight lift from him as the differing creature cores coalesced into one. A melodic chime sounded within his mind as the system informed him his combination had been successful, and he felt the effects in full force against his body as a new presence emerged from those cloudy apparitions that had once crowded his mind and spirit, one more powerful and well-defined.
[Cores successfully combined. D Grade Ruined Cavedweller Core complete. +3 to all stats.]
[Would you like to affix—]
No, he wouldn’t.
Markus still had more to combine.
Attaching the other bat core to the cavedweller core wasn’t possible, but attaching another giant’s core to the bat core and combining that with a bear core created yet another ruined cavedweller core. The third giant’s core combined with his remaining cores to make yet a third. In the process of making each, he raised his core stats by a total of 7 each.
Once he’d made all three, he attempted to combine the three of them together into one.
The pressure against his stomach was insane. He never usually felt any resistance when combining cores, but these further refined ones were different. He tried pouring mana onto the area in order to alleviate the pain and the pressure, but it was only when he hurriedly grabbed the D Grade Essence Stone and pulled out some Mystic Mana to pour on the internal flame that the sensation began to cease within his body.
Not a second too soon, either. He wasn’t sure if he could tolerate much more of that without passing the fuck out.
It was a fairly long time before the pain within his stomach finally began to quell. He ran mana through his entire body as he weathered the feeling, processing the pain and using the mana to centre himself, combining it with [Meditation] to keep his mind in balance. He needed to deal with this. It was the only way forwards from here, and the way of pain was the one he’d elected to walk.
The hard path was the only one that could lead him to victory; that he now knew.
And they knew. Body tempered by the raw energy coalescing within him, Markus fought through the pain until he found benefit from it, until it became tolerable to him, until tolerance grew to understanding. He began to feel the contours of this energy that resided within his body, to attempt to understand it, to begin to unearth the fabulous mystery of what held all this incredible and impossible energy together, or at least to bring himself to the point of being able to conceive of that most rudimentary and yet staggering of questions, that universal, eternal quandary.
[Combination complete. D Grade Ruined Cavedweller cores (x3) have combined to form D Grade Eternal Cavedweller Core, Unawakened. +5 to all stats.]
[Would you like to affix this core to a slot? Slots: 2/4.]
Markus didn’t even need to think about that. He selected yes instantly.
[Eternal Cavedweller Core affixed. Please select a Mana Type to generate: F Grade Wind Mana, F Grade Spirit Mana, F Grade Earth Mana.]
Well, fuck. That was new. Markus selected Earth. F Grade was what he needed to cast Stone Barrier, and he was dangerously low on it.
[Generating F Grade Earth Mana at a rate of 190 per hour. Selection may be modified once per day.]
It was amazing that he could suddenly do this, but that would only be enough for a single extra cast by the time he had to go fight…
That said, he had just the passive for this: something he’d gotten back when he’d raised his Spirit to 100, a channel ability called Mana Control that allowed him to increase his mana generation of one attribute by up to 100%, at the cost of 100% of another mana type’s generation.
Markus didn’t need more Frost Mana right now. He had more than plenty. He chose to double his Earth Mana’s output.
That being said, the ability to generate new mana types was one thing, but it was nowhere near to what else the core was currently offering.
He’d been given a list of skills and passives, survivors from the composites that he’d broken down in order to make this combination.
[Wind Blast I: Using 200 F Grade Wind Mana, create a beat of wind around you that carries alongside natural air currents, allowing you to jump further or higher, as well as to cushion your landings or remain in the air longer. One hour cooldown, effective range is local to within five feet of your body.]
Wow, he’d combined that core and still retained that ability, fucking neat. He only had enough Wind Mana for one cast, but with the cooldown, one cast was all he was gonna manage regardless.
[Viscous form: Once per day, using 150 D Grade Life Mana, you may make your skin rubbery and soft for a period of five seconds, assuming the texture of slime and greatly reducing the impact of physical weapons, but greatly increasing the effectiveness of fire against you within that allotted timeframe.]
Okay… that was kinda crazy. He could become human slime for a few seconds? That was fucking insane. Did it affect his bones, too? Would it make him fall over, or would he be able to balance? All well and good using it to mitigate being stabbed, not so grand when he fell over and smashed his face in the second his body reverted.
He’d have to test that one. It sucked against fire, anyways, so that was probably a skill he wouldn’t be busting out unless he was super fucking desperate.
Guess not everything could be perfectly suited to whatever his upcoming fight was. That would be ridiculous.
[Forager I: Your Identify skill has been augmented with the ability to better see food sources, with potential sources of nutrition highlighted in blue while using Identify.]
Had he gotten that from the bear creature cores? Hmm… Combined with Robust, that shit could be pretty solid, but it was hardly what he needed right now either.
Finally, there was the giant passive.
[Guardian: Those who plant their feet and protect their people from whatever perils might assail them are gifted great strength. Effective Constitution is temporarily increased by 10% while standing within a five foot space for more than ten seconds in combat, and doubled to 20% when standing within five feet of an ally. Bonuses expire when knocked prone or leaving an active space.]
That was… possibly really useful. He wasn’t sure how much standing still he could afford to do versus his next opponent, but if he could find a way to take advantage of it…
Markus was already running through the possibilities in his mind. Formulating ideas. Imagining different ways the battle could go, moving him and his nebulous vision of an opponent around the arena within his mind like chess pieces.
When Rika returned to him, three new books in tow, Markus had already come up with about three different plans of how he might take this creature down, dependent on how things played out, and he was almost sure every single one of them would need to be adapted on the fly if he knew even the first thing about plans.
That being said, his entire thought train concerning planning went right out the fucking window when he started tearing into the first book a panting, breathless Rika handed to him, immediately wiping his eyes to ensure that he wasn’t misreading the title, staring at the book and then Rika in turn, who stood with a bemused smile on her face, still catching her breath after rushing back from the library.
“Wh-what? I did good, right?”
Markus immediately nodded, placing the book down on the bed and pulling her into a swift hug.
“Yeah. You did good.”
Rika, for all of her fiery aplomb, squeaked.
Markus felt a hand ruffle the back of his head.
He sighed through sweat and mottled fur. Maybe life was looking up for once.
On the bed, the book’s title read:
The Terms of Holding, Using, Renewing, or Breaking a Soul Contract.
This could be his out.
Markus had two hours to read it.