The scene was just too disturbing to truly understand what was happening. Her mouth took over the entire thing slowly, ignoring all the blood and viscera she was consuming as well. In fact, she eagerly kept mashing and swallowing the gross glowing orb despite it being as big as a basketball. However, her mouth kept opening wide, the orb slowly going down her now extending throat. Then like a strange cartoon, it all immediately returned to normal as the orb managed to enter into her stomach, at least Mikella guessed.
Everyone watched with clear disgust, confusion, and horror. Myra looked like she was ready to hurl, and Zeke had to reflexively hold back his gag. Piker just watched with a dumb look, his face growing pale and gaping at the sight.
“Cloud… what the fuck was that?” Zacharia said, showing for once a slight hint of being disturbed beyond measure.
Out of everyone there, Cloud was the only one who approached her, walking towards with a placid face.
“Honey? You got what you needed?”
He asked, as though it was just a simple question. On the other hand, Val’s body convulsed and shivered as soon as she finished swallowing the orb. Her body wreaked havoc within herself as Zeke stopped gagging and noticed something with his eyes turning turquoise.
This time, he was marveling at the sight, looking almost fascinated.
“Zeke? Explain,” Mikella simply said, way too curious to find out what’s going on.
“It’s… it’s making her channels bigger. Then it just… shrunk in size. But the energy within became a whole lot denser. If she was strong before, she’s stronger now.”
That was enough from Zeke to prove that Val had her supposed synthetic attunement increase a tier. If that attunement increased her overall battle power, considering she pretty much soloed the boss on her own in her wicked state, this only made her a more terrifying opponent to deal with. You have to have an entire army of Journeymen ready to face her in order to win at this point.
“Is that what happens when you increase your attunement’s tier?” Myra asked. Zeke could only shake his head.
“I’m not sure,” Zeke answered. “But more importantly, is Val going to be… alright?”
They watched the scene again as Val groaned. Her body continued to make strange pops and cracks, the bones seemingly breaking and reforming. The veins popped open and blood ensued, but Cloud came in to heal on time. For a few minutes after that, they kept being like that.
After a long agonizing time, her body returned to normal. She breathed long and hard, her shoulders heaving up and down.
Then, finally, she turned back around, and her lovely face and normal beautiful features returned once again. Her eyes returned back to normal and clearly saw everyone watching her. Her cheeks actually turned red as she turned to Cloud.
“So, uhh…” She spoke, sounding normal as well. “I’m guessing everyone saw?”
“Oh they did,” Cloud nodded vigorously. “Every bit.”
Val winced at that, grimacing as she faced the distraught Experts and the clearly disturbed Zacharia.
“Uhh… sorry guys.”
…..
“So, that’s how it is,” Val said, after a few moments of fixing her clothing since they were completely wrecked during combat. She didn’t look inappropriate, but having it filled with holes and blood was a little disturbing so Cloud helped with that.
She explained her situation, much like how Cloud and Zeke did earlier. However, she provided more context as the person in question.
“Again, I’m sorry for what you saw. Normally that hadn’t happened in… what, a decade ago?”
“A few years before that,” Cloud said. “It was right before we founded Eve Glade.”
“Right, right,” Val nodded. There was a clear blush in her cheeks as she spoke up again. “So, that was a little embarrassing for you all to see. Normally I keep that under wraps. But it’s… it’s just been so long since I managed to tier up my attunement from last time. You have no idea how rare it is to find not just a Master-Rank monster, but a Master-Rank with scales that reflect both Strength and Endurance.”
Everyone couldn’t understand the context behind her requirements, but they can understand her meaning. Mikella remembered the time she had to farm multiple bosses in an RPG to get that specific equipment with the right stats. Sometimes, no matter how good you are, that can really frustrate you.
Zeke probably had dozens of stories, being an avid gamer himself, seen nodding to her plight in a measure of empathy.
“And you’re sure this doesn’t happen regularly?” Zacharia asked, crossing his arms. He had a raised brow directed at her to which Mikella didn’t like. “We won’t suddenly find ourselves with a Journeywoman growing scales and launching water beams?”
“No,” Despite Zacharia’s suspicious tone, Val chuckled genuinely. “If that did happen, I wouldn’t even be human right now. No, I just increase more power, and the last time that happened, I got a good increase in all of my physical stats.”
Zacharia nodded, looking pleased with the answer. Mikella always knew that Val would be fine, even if Cloud had to step away from the fight to make sure to keep Val on the boss.
Apparently if he hadn’t, Val would’ve considered everyone an enemy, but with all the time they spent with each other, Val trusted Cloud to handle her even in her monster form.
“Oh, wait a minute,” Myra suddenly asked. “How did you take that… uhh, heart thing, without looting the boss?”
Mikella understood immediately. The system made it clear that you can’t take anything from the monster itself, only through the looting feature. She remembered trying to get that sword after Zeke failed to get it from the first tower, and how frustrating it turned out after realizing that the sword never actually ‘dropped’ after looting the monster.
But Val smiled back. “My attunement is a little special, you see. Since the system regarded it as an official attunement, despite it being synthesized–it recognized its way of powering up. The only way I can do so is to eat the hearts of the monsters I slayed.”
“So it’s still lootable?” Myra asked with hope in her eyes. Val nodded in agreement. “Yes! Alright… so who here has the honor of looting the thing?”
“Uhh, Val?” Mikella pointed with her thumb at her. “Clearly. She did more damage than any of us.”
That, and she took care of the monster while they fought on the sidelines. No matter how much of a warrior Mikella is, she can recognize with glee that Val took most of the credit for the fight. Val, however, shook her head.
“I’m still a bit out of sorts after swallowing the thing. I’ll be fine. Why don’t you guys do it?”
“Shit… umm…” Myra said, rubbing her chin. Mikella spoke first before anyone else.
“Piker.”
“Wha?” Piker said dumbfoundedly, a rarity from him.
“Zacharia and Cloud did what they could, and Zeke is always doing what he can. But Piker, you really proved to be a contester when defending us against the boss. You deserve the loot this time.”
“Uhh… but…” Piker asked, but nobody else intervened as he watched them with slight confusion.
Then he let out a tired breath, a smile showing on his face. “Fine, but obviously we’ll share in the loot.”
“Obviously,” Myra scoffed. “Now hurry up!”
Piker rolled his eyes as he rushed over to the master-rank boss, a clearly gleeful look on his face. Mikella smiled, not really caring who gets the loot.
Besides, she felt that she had advanced so much in just a short tower run that having the honor of looting feels so little now. It was better that someone else who would enjoy it more gets the honor. Besides, if there was anything lightning related, she was gonna get it anyway.
Though since the boss was water-based, that was extremely unlikely. Still, she couldn’t care less. She knew Zeke couldn’t care less either, enjoying his own upgrades as he showed them off to her just as she did with hers to him.
> Level Up! You are now Level 50. You gain 2 free points (2 FP total).
>
> You have gained +3 DEX from your class.
> You have gained +3 INT from your class.
> You have gained +3 SPI from your class.
…..
> Mana Manipulation Level Up! It is now Level 7.
>
> You have gained +2 INT from your skill.
> You have gained +1 SPI from your skill.
…..
> Battle Runecraft Level Up! It is now Level 3.
>
> You have gained +2 INT from your skill.
> You have gained +2 SPI from your skill.
…..
> Steadfast Mind Level Up! It is now Level 8.
>
> You have gained +1 SPI from your skill.
> You have gained +1 END from your skill.
…..
> Parallel Thought Level Up! It is now Level 7.
>
> You have gained +2 INT from your skill.
> You have gained +2 SPI from your skill.
…..
> Barrier Craft Level Up! It is now Level 4.
>
> You have gained +4 INT from your skill.
> You have gained +4 SPI from your skill.
…..
> Inscription Proficiency Level Up! It is now Level 7
>
> Increased accuracy with drawing runes.
> Decrease mana consumption when drawing runes.
…..
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
> Phantasmal Runes Level Up! It is now Level 4.
>
> Increased potency of all created runes based on the Spirit stat.
> Decreases mana consumption of all runes.
…..
> Runic Echoes Level Up! It is now Level 5.
>
> Increases the potency of synchronized runes (x2).
> Decreases proper rune structure needs (x2).
She was more than proud to see Zeke improve so much on all the factors that made him stand out as a support Runist. Still, she also sympathized with his grimace when he realized that not only did his physical skills not advance at all, considering all he did was support, but not even his Recovery managed to level to get to max. It looked like he needed to do something drastic in order to fully evolve the skill, or at least advance it again to make it stronger than Epic.
Still, what goes after Epic? Legendary like in most games? Or is it something less than that but more than Epic? She can’t wait for her own skills to reach beyond Epic at some point.
Once that was done, she and Zeke both showed each other what they got for their Class choice while Piker was still busy with the boss. Apparently he has to get to a certain spot, which is weird as it is. But in this tower, pretty much anything goes.
For this Class skill choice, this time it was pretty serious. It’s the last skill they’ll choose before they have to become Journeymen in order to get another one. And she was sure that her skill choices would be incredible as she opened them up.
The first skill she got was something she expected. It was a skill called Dragon Hide. It was similar to the Armored Skin skill she received from long, long ago, except this one was a lot stronger than average. She wondered if she had picked the skill before, then this skill would either stack up and make her tough as nails, or not work and make it worthless.
Either way, she was more than happy to put it aside. She didn’t want to even think about trying to min-max her own body. She will only do what makes sense to her, and right now, she doesn’t need more defense.
The next skill was something that she might consider. It was a skill called Gaze of the Dragon that targeted a single target and gave them a sort of death glare that would stun them. With her Dragon Eyes, she had a feeling that those two would synergize extremely well, and she definitely would like the idea of stunning her targets to make sure that they don’t run.
She was just about to take the skill, figuring this was way better than the Dragon Hide, but something caught her eye. Another skill option was still available, and it was neither of her old skills she could choose.
It was a third option to take. She was stunned by this revelation as she instinctively checked it out for herself.
> Extra Class Skill: Clashing Energies
>
> Prerequisite:
> -Your General Skill list is completely filled.
> -You have gained Mana Perception as a General Skill.
> -You have at least maxed and evolved one Energy-based Perception skill.
>
> You did not lose control. Instead, you willed your spirit to align with your rampaging energies. This skill allows you to enhance your body and its properties, skill effectiveness, and regeneration of all energies by how many current skills you have learned. Increases overall Clashing Energies Skill effectiveness according to the level of the skill and the amount of skills you currently own.
“Yoooooo!”
Mikella howled like a street punk from New York, unable to hold back her shock and awe. Obviously, everyone saw this and were shown the skill. As expected, each of them gaped at the sight.
“Another class skill choice?” Myra answered. “No way! And what’s with these prerequisites?”
“Zeke, is this possible? Or is the system trying to screw with me here?” Mikella asked, hoping against hope that this wasn’t too good to be true. “It’s not going to try and ban me or something if I take this skill ‘cuz it’s some kind of stupid test, right?”
“I don’t think the system ever plays games like that,” Zeke shook his head. There was that look of want in his eyes, as though he fully planned to explore his own options after this. “Those prerequisites are hard to pull off. I think this is a good skill, and probably the only time you can take it.”
“So I can take it then?” Mikella asked, but Zeke paused as he frowned.
“Hold on,” He said. “It may not come back again, but if you do take this, it might make a big change for your class. It might change its direction. You have Dragon Berserker now. If you keep going the way you did before, it would evolve into something along those lines when you make it to Journeymen. But if you take this skill, it might completely change your class’ direction.”
Mikella remembered what Zeke talked about before, about how his Runecraft turning into Battle Runecraft meant that his Runist would most likely change to something battle-focused now despite being treated as a crafter by the system. It was a choice he gladly made, given his increasing passion for fighting.
So he was asking this to make sure that Mikella understood the grand undertaking this skill would make.
But then she remembered the time when she lost herself when she was leveling her class out in the forests near Eve Glade. How she became someone else without even realizing it. The arrogance, the crazed desire to grow powerful regardless of everything else.
Being a Berserker has some implications that she can’t control herself. She wanted to avoid that at all costs, not wanting to lose herself and end up losing the people she cares about.
She had focused this whole time on controlling her massive power, no matter how much it hurts or how hard it was. And she never walked back on that.
So if taking this skill meant changing into a direction that she fully planned on doing anyways, it might as well be a perfect fit.
She smiled, and she knew instantly that Zeke agreed with her sentiments as he smiled back. There were no words to be said.
She made her choice.
> You have chosen Extra Class Skill: Clashing Energies.
Before she could continue, figuring out how this skill worked, and then figure out what Class Skill Zeke would choose–something happened when Piker called out.
“I can’t loot it,” Piker said, sounding just as confused as everyone else who heard that. “It’s not allowing me to.”
Immediately, everyone went in to try and disprove his claim. Unfortunately, his claim was true as neither of them, not even the otherworlders, were able to loot the creature as they normally could.
However, the otherworlders in particular each shared a single notification when doing so.
> W̵o̵u̵l̴d̸ ̸y̶o̵u̴ ̵l̷i̶k̷e̷ ̷t̴o̴ ̵[̴E̵R̵R̵O̵R̵]̸ ̴t̸h̷e̵ ̸c̵o̷r̵p̷s̶e̸ ̶o̴f̶ ̷D̶r̵a̷k̸e̵ ̵C̵o̵m̷m̵a̸n̸d̴e̷r̵?̷
>
> ERROR!
>
> ERROR!
>
> T̴h̷e̶ ̶f̷o̵l̷l̶o̴w̸i̶n̸g̷ ̵i̶n̵f̵o̷r̸m̵a̴t̵i̴o̸n̴ ̵i̴s̶ ̴c̵o̴r̵r̷u̵p̵t̵e̶d̷.̵ ̷R̶e̵-̸i̷n̶i̴t̵i̵a̴t̴i̸n̸g̷ ̸p̴r̸o̴c̷e̸s̶s̶ ̵o̷f̷ ̸[̸E̴R̵R̷O̸R̵]̷ ̵i̸n̸f̷o̸r̵m̶a̸t̵i̸o̸n̷.̴
>
> T̴h̸e̴r̴e̶ ̵h̷a̶s̴ ̷b̴e̴e̷n̵ ̵a̸n̵ ̸e̷r̷r̵o̵r̵.̵ ̵O̵b̶s̸e̵r̵v̵e̷ ̶t̴h̸e̵ ̸c̶o̶r̷p̵s̶e̷ ̴f̷o̵r̴ ̷[̸E̴R̴R̶O̷R̸]̵.̸
>
> ERROR!
>
> ERROR!
“Well… that’s not good,” Mikella pointed out the obvious. She knew by heart that whenever a computer has these kinds of glitchy screens, it’s totally busted.
But what’s going to happen when it’s the System itself bugging out?
“It’s worse than you think.”
Everyone paused, a new voice appearing out of nowhere. The voice was powerful enough to give the chamber a once-over, but not in the sense of the powerful air pressure as before.
It was denser than that. It reached to the marrow of her bones, to her inner core. She felt… paralyzed, in a sense. Her fingers didn’t even tremble–they didn’t have a chance to.
Everyone looked up, not because of where they heard it from, but what all of their senses were telling them to point at. A small circular portal opened up, a deep chasm of white with gray-tinted swirls formed as a creature flew out of the portal.
It spread its wings wide, revealing beautiful clear-white feathers equaling that of a white dove. Rather, they looked similar to her eyes.
What made her heart drop was the creature itself. It wasn’t some powerful creature–it was her little sister.
“Clara?!”
Everyone gaped at the sight of the eleven year old girl Clara floating above them, her face completely still. While she wore her usual sundress, literal wings expanded wide across her back, equaling in diameter to her own size.
But she knew, deep inside, that it wasn’t Clara. It only looked like Clara, and when she realized who it truly was, her brows knit downwards and her teeth gritted.
“What are you doing here, Zoan?!” Mikella shouted. “And what did you do to Clara?!”
Everyone else immediately got their weapons out. Piker, Myra, Zacharia, Cloud, and Val pointed their weapons at the little girl. Zeke immediately stood in front of them.
“Wait!” Zeke shouted. Though there were also hints of frustration in his expression, he shouted. “Don’t attack!”
Zeke turned back around, facing the angel that suddenly intervened.
“What’s going on?” Zeke added. “We cleared the tower, like you said. So why are you here? And why did you bring Clara, again?”
He added that last part with a certain tone that was unusual for him. Zoan, the angel that was clearly possessing Clara, looked down on him. That already made Mikella’s hair stand on end, and she wanted to bring her sword out–which she only just realized that it was still stuck at the boss’ neck.
Zoan just floated there, completely silent with a face that had no emotion. It was so unnerving, like seeing the actual angel, but this time it had Clara’s face now. That only made her even more enraged, seeing her sweet little sister looking like some disturbing machine.
“I’m here to repair this abnormality,” Zoan stated, her voice the same as Clara but sounding absurdly mature and wise. “Now stand aside, or else you might get harmed.”
Her small delicate hand lifted to the air, palm out as white colored energy coalesced at the center of it. It then flew out like a laser pointer straight at the corpse of the Drake Commander, the entire light beam encasing it in the same color, slowly covering it and deforming it from its giant size and shrinking it down.
If it was just that, it would look almost comical. Instead, a sense of weight and authority landed on everyone’s shoulders the moment that energy beam came out. It wasn’t normal. It wasn’t a skill.
If anything, it felt like the system itself came in and fixed its own bug. As the boss shranked, becoming less and less of itself than ever, Mikella felt something she hadn’t felt before in a long while.
Fear. Fear of the unknown. Something so vast and grand that it would’ve brought her to her knees if she let go of her willpower. She wasn’t alone. It wasn’t just the Experts, but the Journeymen also staying low and keeping themselves far away from whatever the hell Zoan was doing to the boss. Even though they had just defeated a powerful Master-Rank monster, compared to this angel, it might as well be a little beast some kids managed to kill, and now an adult came in and started cleaning up.
It was an unfair assessment, but an unfortunate truth. The corpse soon disappeared into motes of light, and as soon as it did, Mikella received a notification as though the system was eagerly waiting for Zoan to finish up.
> You have received the following:
>
> Skill Unison Fragment
>
> Otherworldly Skill Orb
She’s going to pretend she hadn’t just received absurdly ridiculous items with equally ridiculous names and looked back at the angel still in Clara’s body. When the corpse disappeared, the angel let loose an expression of a woman who had finished her work, letting out a breath of relief.
“Abnormality cleared. Now then, it’s time to–”
The ground shifted and the walls and ceiling began to shake, just like how it usually goes whenever they clear the tower. It was becoming so routine that Mikella actually felt relieved that they could finally leave the tower.
She may have made plenty of progress while she was here, but she couldn't wait to get out and never see this place again. There were too many revelations regarding their circumstances that she’d rather forget about for the time being.
On cue, both she and Zeke glanced at each other, ready to unlock the gateway and get the hell out of here… only to find themselves staring at nothing at the distance, nothing occuring except for the usual shaking of the tower falling apart.
“Zeke? I don’t feel it working. Why can’t I feel it working?” Mikella asked, turning to Zeke before anyone else. To her dismay, Zeke’s eyes also showed confusion and worry, looking back at his hands as though they held all the answers.
“I-I don’t know. I can’t feel anything. You?”
“Nothing either!” Mikella shouted, panic finally encroaching on her.
The others caught wind of this and went into a state of distress. Zacharia shouted, a non-surprising rare look of panic rising in his eyes.
“What do you mean it’s not working? Isn’t this supposed to be your thing?”
“It’s supposed to!” Mikella snapped back. “At least that’s how it worked the last time!”
She’s going to put aside the fact that literally the last two times, the first was completely by accident or design, and the next was when Zeke went crazy with his attunement. It also looked like Zeke was starting to consider using it himself before Myra pointed at the angel floating above them.
“You think it’s her getting in the way?”
She said those words with animosity, turning everyone around her to glare at Zoan possessing Clara’s body. But to their shock, what they saw was not a composed and almost alien little girl with angel wings.
They saw what looked like pure confusion and shock as her eyes were widened, as though she herself couldn’t believe what was happening.
“No…” Zoan said, emotion of surprise trickling into her mature voice. “How is this possible? It shouldn’t be this bad just yet… or did something go wrong?”
“Zoan!” Mikella shouted, anger and fear overcoming each other. “Do something!”
But instead of doing that, she instead glared at Zeke of all things, and shouted the words Mikella really wished she didn’t say.
“Zeke! Barrier! Now!”
Without even waiting for Zeke to ask back the reason why, Zoan flew in with an incredible speed that made Mikella’s usual speed seem like a joke. She flew right towards the group as Zeke, without really thinking, already put up a barrier that covered every single one.
Unfortunately, it was in such a rush that it only caught some of them in pairs and groups before the tower suddenly did something else that was also unexpected.
It didn’t keep shaking to the point of getting sucked into some unreachable void, but instead suffused everything in a vast of light that nearly blinded them all.