When Zeke gave him the fruit, he intended to make a good impression. He wanted to prove to Zyler that teaming up with Eve Glade won’t just help him not die, but instead would be a beneficial friendship.
At least, that’s what he meant to do, but now Zyler was constantly asking him questions such as how the hell he created this enhanced attribute fruit, and if it is possible that Runists from his side can do the same were they able to get more fruits on hand.
He felt that trying to answer them all would be bad for the sort of deal Zeke planned in his head, but the look of sheer joy and want in Zyler’s eyes was like looking at a dog giving him puppy eyes. The dude was just too earnest for this kind of stuff, and Zeke was too weak of a man to put him down.
Apparently Val was right. When it came to attribute fruits, everyone would lose their heads. Hell, he still shivered when he remembered Zacharia laughed like a maniac after finding a barrel full of attribute fruits. So Zeke just told him what he knew, and that it might be possible to recreate what he made. He won’t, however, tell him how he got the excess attribute fruits. That one is until he could find his comrades and a better deal could be made.
Once his curiosity was sated, Zyler looked at his status screen in wonder and relief. He actually looked like an entire world’s weight was off his shoulders, proving once and for all how a stat block can really mess some people up. Now that he remembered, he noticed the plethora of notifications he received, but he winced at the number as he could see some red ones there.
It could be only as bad as receiving a debuff, but he feared that his strange figure of pure mana thing was too much for his channels.
Still, he downed his doubts and opened them up, revealing the large list of notifications that he received once he was knocked out.
> You are afflicted with Extreme Mana Burnout.
>
> Your resources are reduced by 25%, with your Mana reduced by 75%. You will receive damage based on how much mana you regenerate. Restoring mana artificially will not damage you. Your casting ability is vastly impeded, disrupting any spell-craft below Rare rarity and their skill level below 9.
…..
> Mana Manipulation Level Up! It is now Level 8.
>
> You have gained +2 INT from your skill.
> You have gained +1 SPI from your skill.
…..
> Unarmed Mastery Level Up! It is now Level 9.
>
> You have gained +3 STR from your skill.
> You have gained +3 DEX from your skill.
…..
> Pain Resistance Level Up! It is now Level 5.
>
> You have gained +4 VIT from your skill.
> You have gained +2 END from your skill.
…..
> Barrier Craft Level Up! It is now Level 6.
>
> You have gained +4 INT from your skill.
> You have gained +4 SPI from your skill.
…..
> New Title available:
>
> King of Elemental Prison:
>
> You have vanquished the Weaver, taking its throne as King of the Elemental Prison. The world of elemental might and wondrous crystals is now yours to claim.
>
> You have gained +2 in all of your attributes from your title.
>
> Title Skill attained: Prison King
…..
> Prison King (Title), Level 1 (Maxed)
> You are the arbiter of everything within the Elemental Prison. You decide who enters and stays, and you decide who stays and never comes out.
…..
> Your attunement, The World, has ranked up. It is now Tier 2.
>
> You have gained +5 STR from your rank up.
>
> You have gained +5 DEX from your rank up.
>
> You have gained +5 INT from your rank up.
>
> You have gained +5 SPI from your rank up.
>
> You have gained +5 VIT from your rank up.
>
> You have gained +5 END from your rank up.
…..
> Level Up! You are now Level 57. You gain 12 free points (16 FP total).
>
> You have gained +18 DEX from your class.
>
> You have gained +18 INT from your class.
>
> You have gained +18 SPI from your class.
A wave of power fueled him from the ground up, and his current state only made that influx of power worse for wear. His vision swam as he tried to keep everything in. He didn’t want to worry Clara as it is, especially since this was nothing but good news.
Thanks to his mass improvements on his attributes, he gained over 100 points in total. That was definitely not bad, but his Spirit stat finally broke over 300. Thanks to that, his mana seemed to be infused with more power, and his debuff only made the pain worse as he took damage. He hated to say it, but that man hug with Zyler was worth it as the glasses helped him immensely by storing his new excess naturally regenerated mana into the storage feature of the glasses, making the pain less intense.
As it is right now, he decided to put all of his free points into Strength, making his lowest stat at least 1/4 of his highest Spirit stat. He needed to keep his attribute spread balanced after all, even if he benefited mostly from his Spirit stat. Most likely he’ll keep gaining Spirit afterwards either way, so there was no problem with this.
As for the title, according to this, doesn’t this mean he now has total control over the biodome? Since this biodome can move around, according to what Cloud said–can’t he move it himself?
Was that even possible? If so, that would make using the biodome a lot easier for the rest of Eve Glade. It’s not like he always wants to have the barrier elevator doing the work all the time. Having to readjust and pour power into it every day would've been a hassle.
It’s the attunement notification that got him to freeze. How the hell did it tier up? Shouldn’t that require some sort of treasure, like what Val, Myra, and Piker had?
Not to mention, his attunement was considered extremely rare. He had no clue what the hell he did to make it to Tier 2. Was it by defeating the Weaver, the same way that Val tiered up after consuming the heart of the Drake Commander? Somehow he had a feeling that wasn’t it.
Still, does this mean he has it harder to control his attunement? Did it get better? He has no clue, and he is not willing to experiment in his current state.
For now, he could only put it aside. He still had dozens of questions burning in his mind, and it’ll only be answered once his comrades found him. He hoped that once they did, things would make more sense.
“Oh… we have company,” Zyler suddenly said, getting Zeke’s interest.
Just as he said, Zeke could hear rustling beyond from the nearby crystalline shrubs. They tinkled as he flared his senses to find a lot of people running over here. Then he looked up, noticing a small creature flapping above him a few feet away. It was Piggy, Nina’s bird as he heard Nina herself calling out.
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“He’s here! Piggy found him!”
Then a whole crowd of soldiers appeared from beyond the depths of the forestry, revealing the retinue soldiers all battered, bruised, and messy beyond comparison.
But that didn’t matter as he spotted the one person he wanted to find. Mikella showed up, being carried by Myra with Piker by her side to ensure she was fine. She looked worse for wear, just like the times when her lightning would go out of control. Her skin was burnt in places, and blood coated whatever exposed skin she had on hand from her ragged leather armor. But the moment her eyes landed on them, there was a flare of fire in her eyes as she immediately let go of Myra and ran over to them at flashing speed.
She practically bowled over Clara as she hugged her with all of her being. For a moment, Zeke panicked from the tackle, but after seeing Clara holding onto her older sister with tears in her eyes, happy to see her again, he relaxed.
“Clara! Oh, sweetie! You’re okay! Are you hurt? Did those evil bad guys hurt you?”
“Sissy!” Clara cried out, tears running down her face. The moment her older sister appeared, it was as though the dam burst from her heart as she cried out. “It was so scary! But then Bobo grew big! But it was really scary!”
“Yeah, yeah, I know,” Mikella’s own eyes were wetting, brushing Clara’s dark hair as she hugged her deeply. “It’s alright now. I’m here, and I’m so sorry for letting you go through that. Will you forgive me?”
“Yes!”
Zeke could only smile at the crying sisters. The worst thing he could remember was Clara falling to her death somehow. He didn’t know how that happened, but that particular moment will burn in his mind for years to come, so seeing this was a balm to that aching wound in his mind.
Just as he was about to close his eyes to relax, a hand grasped out to his head and forced him down to the hug between the girls. His eyes widened to see Mikella staring hard at him, though there was still that wetness behind her eyes.
“Seriously, why do you always do crazy shit when you’re alone?” Mikella cried out. “I’m glad you protected Clara, but seriously? Why did you have to turn into a freaking giant of all things?”
“It was… sort of out of my control,” Zeke said, smiling awkwardly. The three hugged like that for a moment, just easing themselves into it.
“Oh!” Clara suddenly said, catching Mikella’s attention. “Sissy, meet Brucey! He’s the best bat in the world! Kinda stupid and he’s really lazy, but he’s the best!”
“Uhh… Brucey?” Mikella asked, tilting her head at the sudden name.
Then the very same Brucey’s head popped out from behind Clara’s shoulder, chirping out loud. That immediately got Mikella to make an extremely girly yelp. It actually reminded him of the first time he had ever met Mikella and Clara back at the tower, where she had no levels and skills to her name and suddenly found him while walking around.
“What is that thing!?” She demanded, her eyes scouring the creature and was ready to pull out a weapon. Clara went to hide Brucey’s face with her hands in fright before Zeke managed to explain in time.
After the explanation of what happened after they got separated and had their call, Mikella relaxed and understood the situation. Then she stared at the little bat just behind Clara’s shoulder, giving him the meanest stink eye she could ever give to anyone.
Brucey just stared back at her, his yellowish eyes staring right back at her own brown eyes.
After another moment of just staring daggers at each other, well mostly Mikella to Brucey while Brucey looked like he was confused as to what’s going on, she nodded to him.
“Alright, fine,” Mikella eventually said. “Brucey, make sure to keep Clara safe, alright?”
Brucey chirped back, having enough intelligence to understand her words and even nodding to her. That got Mikella to smile back, then frowned at Clara.
“Clara, now that you have a pet, it is your responsibility to take care of him. No messing around, alright? You have to feed him, bathe him, treat him when he gets sick–the works. You do even one thing wrong, I’m taking him away from you–understand?”
“Yes, ma’am!” Clara shouted almost uniformly. “Nina is helping me, so I’ll take care of Brucey better!”
“Oh, that’s a good idea,” Mikella smiled warmly. “Good to know you’re working hard! Now then… Zeke, mind explaining to me why the hell is Zyler doing here with both of you?”
She glared hard at the man sitting far away from them, her hands balling into fists. She was willing to ignore the potential enemy just sitting there while she had her reunion with Clara and Zeke, but now the niceties were over.
Not to mention, Zyler hadn’t even done a thing as all the other retinue soldiers gathered around him, their weapons prepped and ready to strike him down if he even moved a finger. Zyler, however, didn’t even budge. He just smiled pleasantly as the lords finally came over.
Zacharia came over to Zyler instead, just staring at him with a silent glare that seemed to break stone if possible. On the other hand, Cloud and Val ran over to the three, Val kneeling down and hugging Clara once she got close.
“Ooh, I was so worried!” Val said, giving a kiss to Clara’s forehead as she hugged her. “Thank goodness you’re alright! And Zeke! You’re alive!”
She went ahead and hugged Zeke along with Clara, giving the both of them a good tight hug. Thankfully, it was the kind of Journeymen hug that was easier on the two of them, especially with Zeke in his wretched form. Once the pleasantries were over, Cloud came over and stared at the state he was in.
He winced at the sight, probably understanding what he was going through. “That’s the worst case of Mana Burnout I’ve seen in a while… how are you feeling?”
“Sick, ready to hurl, and I have a massive headache,” Zeke replayed his symptoms, almost like talking to his doctor. “I also feel like I got the worst sunburn in the entirety of all existence. And my mana is nearly being drained if it wasn’t for the glasses here. But so far I think I’ll be fine once the debuff clears.”
“Actually, now that I see it, where did the glasses come from?” Mikella asked, tilting her head. “You look like a buff nerd all of a sudden.”
Zeke was taken aback by the comment. A nerd he can understand (he reads lots of books and was now wearing glasses after all), but looking back at himself, he did see that his upper body made a drastic change over the course of the months. His body was lean and well-toned. It wasn’t really a body-builder type, but it looked like he spent months at the gym doing curls all day. He even got a six-pack coming on. Holy shit.
“Actually, the glasses were… they came from Zyler,” Zeke admitted, getting everyone to finally turn back to their supposed captured heir.
“No need for thanks on that,” Zyler said, raising his hands to show he had no weapons to speak of. Not that the other soldiers even dared drop their weapons after the fact. “It was just an offer of peace for a deal, to show you that I mean well.”
“...What does he mean by that, Zeke?” Cloud asked, fronwing hard as he stared at Zyler suspiciously.
“He wants to make an alliance with Eve Glade, and wants to defect from the Federation,” Zeke finally answered, showing his own frown at the scene.
That got everyone in an uproar, either scoffing at the thought, growling at the man, or just raising their weapons at him closer. None of that even made Zyler flinch as he stared with an impassive face.
“Zeke, you can’t be serious!” Myra shouted, running over to him. She looked just as fine as Mikella, as in she looked like she was shredded to pieces with wounds still pouring blood. Her scowl only made her visage even more frightening. “This is the same guy that sent soldiers to our unprotected town and killed our people!”
Zeke nodded, not willing to give in even after receiving the glasses. “Yes, but remember, he’s just a lackey to the lord who gave the order to do that. As far as I know, Zyler hadn’t made that decision.”
“Decision or not, he’s still one of those fuckers that did that! And also all of this!” Myra shouted again, getting everyone to nod along to her sentiments as she gestured all over the biodome. “We may not have suffered casualties, but they still went so far as to try and kill us just to help themselves. Why should we ever make a deal with him?!”
Zeke stayed quiet, not wanting to further antagonize the people. In the end, he was just a dude who had some sway in the group, but not enough to warrant their loyalty. No matter what Zyler said about him, even at his lord status, he was still considered an outsider.
This was up for the Lords to decide. He looked apologetically to Myra, who somehow understood his plight as she just frowned before he turned back to the lords.
“I know I have no decision to say this, but will… you please consider?” Zeke said, really pleaded, to Cloud. “I know more than everyone here that it’s not easy to forgive… but do we really have a choice in denying it?”
Those words got everyone to pause. None of them were fools after all. No matter how bloodthirsty they were, everyone understood what this signified.
Zyler only looked on with gratitude to him, but Zeke ignored that look as he turned to the Lords who were currently deep in thought, silent. He even turned to Zacharia, who seemed to be glaring hard at Zyler all this while. He turned to him instead.
“Zacharia, me and Cloud went over to the supply depot from the kingdom, and so far, it looks like they were ignoring, or maybe unable, to do anything about Bastion attacking us. Because we’re just small powers compared to them. Because of that, Bastion can do pretty much whatever they want to us. But if we have them defecting and joining ours, that’s all up to the major countries’ problems now, right?”
He didn’t quite know how the laws of this world worked, but when it came to allegiances, towns such as Eve Glade and Bastion have as much free reign than the countries like the kingdom and the Federation. Of course, defecting from one major power to another is still incredibly dangerous for that town, unless the Kingdom they are pleading to can stand up to the Federation. In this case, the two major powers are just as powerful as each other.
As for whether the Federation would take offense to this, it really comes to whether they have enough resources to consider. If it’s just a small city, it might not be all that valuable. But then, Bastion is considered a well profitable city. They might come to blows at some point.
In the end, Zeke had to only defer to the Lords in positivity for the alliance. If they disagree, that’s where he would drop it. He promised Zyler for a chance, and this was the best he could give.
He turned to his family, showing silence to his actions. Without really speaking, Mikella understood what Zeke was implying, not having read most of the laws, but she understood the backlash of what could happen.
“That is certainly true,” Cloud said, rubbing his chin as he stared at Zyler. Despite the circumstances, Zyler was still sitting down and being restrained like a prisoner. “And what about the leader?”
“Dead,” Zyler responded immediately. “He’s dead, and all of his assets go to me as per his will.”
Somehow, nobody, not even the otherworlders, would believe that. But then again, that was entirely Zyler’s business. If he’s capable of making that decision, that was no skin off their noses.
“And I also have a proposition,” Zyler asked, getting their attention. “My pops already told the Federation about the biodome here, but they don’t know that it officially belongs to Eve Glade. If we, Bastion, join you and you relay that information to your kingdom, they would do all that they can to defend us against the Federation’s incoming issues. I guarantee you–they really don’t want to fuck with the kingdom right now.”
That was… something Zeke didn’t consider. They have already planned on reporting to the kingdom, as Eve Glade officially belongs to the kingdom as per Cloud and Val’s contract to the king, about the nearby Biodome. In fact, that was one of the sole purposes as to why they needed to conquer this biodome as soon as possible, before any other faction lay their hands on this place.
With Zeke belonging to Eve Glade and him being the king of this place, the kingdom would surely do what they can to defend this place from any other faction’s greedy little hands. Zyler came prepared, something that still stumped Zeke.
Soon, Cloud let out a tired breath, showing more exhaustion than ever possible.
“Alright… we’ll consider your proposal. But for now… let’s just put a pin on it and rest up.”
Nobody, not even Zyler, disagreed on this course of action.