Westibule mountain chain [western part of the Torrent mountain range], local time [1793.11.19]
Colorful leaves were raining down all around, taken away by warm winds blowing from the south. To their left, distant flatlands could be spotted, flashing with rich yellows between the trees and mountains hiding them. To their right, the peak they traversed shielded the view of higher mountains and the sea beyond.
They have left Barringstone days ago. It wasn’t their place to judge those people, and even less so to fight the whole village by themselves. It was a shame Zeph wasn’t able to alleviate the suffering of the sick, but at least they removed the source of the problem.
Or rather, they took the source with them.
The serene rustle of leaves on this sunny autumn day was broken by the occasional high-pitched screech of an irritated Gremling.
“How can your manipulation be so good, but your craftsmanship so damnable?!” P’pfel yelled into the air, giving up for the third time that day. He threw himself back at the simple bedding made from dry grass and hid his face under a makeshift pillow, screaming incoherently.
Aisha giggled from the front of the cart. “I told you he is infuriating in his joined over-ability and incompetence, no?” she said with laughter in her voice, looking back. “Just bear with it a little longer. We need to stop soon, next is my turn,” she consoled, sending them a thumb up.
Zeph made a sour face and shuddered.
“The sooner you take him away, the sooner I can regain my sanity,” the Gremling screeched, peeking from under his fluffy shield.
“Why do I feel like an unwanted bastard child right now?” Zeph asked in resignation.
Both his teachers snickered in tandem as he sighed. “Have some mercy on the uneducated,” he muttered.
In the end, it was inevitable. P’pfel was informed that Zeph’s situation was a little more complicated – the guy was too intelligent to be deceived for long. Well, at least half of him was. But the news actually had a positive effect. Instead of constantly bombarding him with questions, the Gremling left the topic alone and even started teaching him.
Aisha forced a strict contract on him before that, though. He was obliged to keep his mouth shut about Zeph, or explain himself before her Goddess. P’pfel sulked for three days after signing it.
“I think I will read some more about the Passive Skills instead. I am sick of postponing the decision,” he said after a moment, thinking about the ‘Persistent Form’ and ‘Willforce Morphon’, the two possible outcomes of fusing his upgrades. Ten days have passed after the memorable night, yet he was still undecided.
Zeph knew that he probably was too careful, too pedantic. But he was not under any time constraints. This occasion was something unique for people of this world, something that could dictate his future, so he wanted to make a learned decision, to be as thoughtful as possible.
But he was slowly becoming tired of thinking about it. He didn’t have all of the information, yet, but he felt he had almost enough to not regret his decision in the future.
Right now, though, the truth behind his proposition was quite different. He was already tired after P’pfel’s lessons and wanted a break. Especially because the sheer notion of Aisha’s physical training was draining his Will – it was that traumatic of an experience.
After seeing the Gremling teaching him the proper way of enchanting for the first time—deciding to do so after discovering that all of Zeph’s Soul contaminations were compatible with the craft—Aisha got a great idea to instruct him in the melee arts.
It wasn’t uncalled-for, either. Before that, she gave him a stern lecture about his performance in that fight.
She was mightily dissatisfied with him, despite what she has told him that night. He was inexperienced with properly using the Power Enhancement. The arguments that his weapon was just a weak and primitive imitation of a real deal fell on deaf ears – his muscles were more than three times stronger now, but he wasn’t leveraging that fact at all.
“Oh, thank Gromgar!” the Gremling exclaimed happily, jumping to his feet. “I will go and catch some more critters for the tests then,” he said, jumping off the slowly moving cart and dashing into the trees.
Still so excited, Zeph thought, laying back on a crate as he looked at the little guy. If the blood-brain barrier mechanism is such a big deal for him, I am a little worried how he will react to the idea of cell cultures…
But that was neither here nor there. Zeph closed his eyes, breathed in slowly, and concentrated.
He spent the next few hours reading from his interface. The knowledge links in the notifications, as the Gremling called them, weren’t tiered by the System, oddly enough. Maybe because the access level wasn’t supervised or enhanced? Zeph still remembered his time in the ‘mind space’ the System formed – the reading potential was unlimited back there, unlike reading from the Skills. Without the space, the difficulty of reading raised exponentially.
Tiered or not, following those two specific knowledge links was hard and Mana-intensive. He repeatedly emptied his internal Mana resources, making a step ahead, only to pause and take half a step back. Trying again and again.
It actually reminded him of meditation. Take a deep breath of information in, keep it for a moment, and slowly sort it out.
The exercise was relaxing. Slivers of new knowledge were slowly arranged into a full picture, directed by his conscious and unconscious mind.
In such matter, the rest of the day’s travel passed uneventfully.
Zeph was woken up by the sounds of the tents being set up. They had quite a good haul in the last few villages and their quality of sleeping raised accordingly, but there was as much work to set everything up. He was exempted from the chore duty as his ‘Life ward’ allowed everyone to rest for the whole night, and he would bear the burden of waking up in a case of an attack.
Thankfully, Barringstone never sent new attackers. The first two nights were nerve-wracking.
The knowledge Zeph managed to gather today was enough to make a decision, at least that was his conjecture. Still, he decided to sleep with it first. A clear mind makes for a better judge, after all.
As he jumped off the cart, Aisha suddenly threw at him a heavy, slightly deformed metal rod. He easily caught it midair, redirecting the momentum by spinning it to the side and landing gracefully after turning halfway in the air.
He was already accustomed to its weight.
He redirected the momentum of the heavy training weapon, spinning it above his head and ramming it into the ground.
“You promised we would train unarmed combat today?” he asked, raising his brow.
“Ah, pardon me,” she smirked, “but we need some warming before that, no?”
To his surprise, she meant it. Aisha instructed him to do the basic exercises they developed around his spear-fighting style while she would finish with the tents.
He shrugged and pulled out his so-called weapon from the ground.
Finding an appropriately flat part of the road a few meters away, he started to make slashing motions, using different leverage lengths with each step.
Aisha wasn’t convinced his style would be any good. At least, until their first match. True, it wasn’t employing many moves leveraging the most important properties of the weapon – the range advantage and ability to pierce. But the style’s origin was also different.
It didn’t form from the pragmatical fighting methods of soldiers, it was created by martial artists – people who rarely fought against more than four opponents at once. As so, anything above three opponents was considered a mob in Zeph’s mind. If the crowd control tactics failed, he definitely wouldn’t want to use a spear in such combat situation.
It wasn’t a style rooted in the old military practices, like most of the European ones he knew of. It was much closer to a dueling style. It incorporated extremely precise thrusts after gaining a tactical advantage, complicated footwork, and cutting movements resembling the ‘Scottish quarter staff’ full-blown movements.
If not for Aisha’s expertise, she wouldn’t be able to counter all of his fast strikes, but she was able to even the ground with her unpredictable movements. The head of her weapon weighed more than 20 kilograms. Imagine fighting someone who is spinning something like that in the never-ending cycle of momentum-altering attacks. At one moment, she would attack with the full range of her warhaxammer, only to pull it closer mid-swing to do a pirouette, and change the shaft movement into a vertical defensive spin at the same time.
She used no footwork altogether, it was unnecessary. She could easily strengthen a small jump by exploiting a downward swing, and thus float just above the ground, maneuvering herself midair by changing the swing’s directions, or plant herself firmly in the ground by forcefully moving her weapon upwards. Her upward attacks utilizing varying grip length and hold-techniques were mind-blowing – she could transfer the dangerous attack into a sideways dodge in an instant.
All she used was momentum. If she used her Skills on top of that, he would be overwhelmed instantly. Thankfully, she wasn’t a good representative of humans at level 77, otherwise, he would have forsaken all hope of surviving a close combat fight with higher-leveled opponents.
The three-dimensional maneuvering of this kind showed him exactly why he needed training. But gaining enough experience with such a style would take time, so for now, they concentrated on improving what he already knew.
And so, he swung ceaselessly with his cheap metal rod, trying to imitate Aisha’s movements. The basic movements of his fighting style were close enough to incorporate some of the maneuvers.
He stopped when a small rock hit his head. He glared backwards, massaging the forming bump.
Aisha snickered. “You have lost concentration to such a degree? Or just used up all of your Veil?”
The hidden accusation hit his pride quite hard. “Umm… If I want to train my Skills, I need full concentration, you know?” he said, looking away. “Couldn’t you throw it at my back or something?”
“Nah, you won’t learn until it hurts,” she repeated her motto once again. “The preparations for the night are finished. Come to me when you are ready,” she stated and turned away, walking in the direction of the camp.
Zeph was tempted to return the favor, but it would be useless. Aisha was aware of her Veil’s state at all times. Instead, he checked the progress of his Skill, now a Tier 2 ‘Martial art’.
Congratulations! [Spear (style: E2M1)] is now [T2][L46]! (+1)
The Skill changed its name after the Tier 2 ‘Skill expansion’, Aisha’s training was enough to influence its advancement. He now had full access to the knowledge about her fighting style, besides the one he himself used.
Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.
Nodding to himself at the good progress, he started walking in the direction of their camp. Just as he was coming close, his companion decided to complain.
“Gruuuuu…” came a sad vibration.
“No, Gru,” he calmly said. “You still aren’t finished with processing the last batch of mercury.”
“Graauuu?” it begged.
“No! No matter how delicious it is, I won’t place my nervous system in jeopardy! Prove that the small changes the pre-threshold poisoning is doing aren’t recorded in the Soul, and we can talk about it!” he exclaimed sternly.
It seemed Gru found his first addiction. Mercury not only allowed him to independently experiment with internal enchantments, it directly strengthened the structure of his brain-like construct and body.
The change was even visible in Advanced Enchantments. Gru’s ‘Lowered efficiency’ trait decreased by 3% already.
Thus, Zeph was forced to gobble some of his reward from Barringstone’s commission every day. Gru could do that directly by piercing his skin with a… with its arm. Yes, let’s call it an arm, as we decided earlier. Anyway, a problem showed up.
As they worked on implementing the same quality change in Zeph’s Source Net, Gru became less and less interested in testing the new applications and instead started craving for more of the metal.
Zeph had to put him in a strict diet regime as he worried about his partner’s wellbeing. Gru was angry at first, but a few Soul memories from Earth portraying drug addicts placated him.
The fact that mercury was probably an answer to Gru’s Mana capacity problems, at least according to P’pfel’s knowledge about Mana capacitors, wasn’t helping the situation at all.
Speaking of the Gremling, he was jumping right before Zeph right now.
“I need more Gold, my friend! I think I am close to getting it right!” P’pfel was shouting excitedly in his high voice, circling around Zeph.
His field laboratory was set up in a nearby tent. Dead critters he managed to catch during the day littered the left side, while a few new ones desperately tried to escape from their cages set on the right. A multitude of glassware was populating the only table in the whole camp, a sign the Gremling was working on the new, improved version of DMSA and other chemicals Zeph told him about and showed how to make. Not in the structure sense, though. The Gremling was trying to find a method of safely applying their effects to the brain, which required some advanced alchemy that Zeph couldn’t understand at all.
Add a little bit of Mana and other reagents, suddenly the whole process becomes incomprehensible.
The chaos of the workshop and the noise of Gremling were scrapping at Zeph’s sanity as he looked at it all.
Zeph sighed, already feeling the coming headache. “Pipfel, are you drunk again?” he asked with resignation.
“What? No! I am as sober as on the day I was born! I am just so close to the breakt—”
“You concocted the Auric, again. Didn’t you?” he asked sternly, glaring at the small fella.
“Ugh… I need it to function properly, you remember that?” the Gremling asked defensively. He at least had enough decency to look apologetic.
Finally, he just caught the guy and lifted him by the scruff of his neck. “There will be no more Gold, P’pfel. My stock is low and you”—he looked at the plump body of the Gremling—“are looking in good enough shape.”
“Ugh… I can expla—”
“If you,” he started in a tone cold enough to make the Gremling shiver, “use my Gold,” his silver eyes staring deeply into the beads of the old creature, “once more for the Auric,” his Mana conglomerated, surrounding the guy and compressing his Veil, “I WILL make you my own lab rat. Do you understand?” he finished with clenched jaws.
After receiving a nod, he carefully placed the intoxicated dwarf on the ground, releasing his neck and straightening slowly.
Seeing the guy scamper in a hurry, the headache hit him with full force.
When did I become a drug dealer? he complained internally. Is this even worth keeping them both at bay? … No, I definitely should control them. I saw enou—
This time, he managed to catch a rock flying his way. I need a multitask brain enchantment. Badly, he thought, turning to Aisha.
She was smiling slightly. Her weapon was nowhere to be seen. Her fists slammed together before she asked.
“Ready?”
He was not, but as in their first sparring match with weapons, she charged with her full power immediately.
She was near him already. He panicked a little, instinctually presenting his arm to shield his head. She grabbed it and rotated them both before throwing him right into the sparring ring she prepared.
The flight was enough for him to gather his bearings. He rolled on the hard ground, standing up almost immediately. But she was on him already. It seemed all her Skills were active, white wisps of steam trailing behind her sprinting form.
Shit… he managed to think before redirecting her lightning-fast fist with his right arm. The only reason he didn’t receive the punch was the trained reflex of moving his body and head away while he tried to deflect.
She overextended a little with the punch, which his body immediately recognized. He jabbed a thumb of his deflecting arm under her chin, simultaneously trying to jump to the right.
The needle under his nail lodged itself a few millimeters under her skin.
She was faster and already placed her leg in the ground to spin. He used his free, left foot to intercept her moving leg to accelerate faster.
He couldn’t allow her to grab his body!
Before he was able to jump away, he had to block a wild swing with his left arm, redirecting the force by bending backward.
Her second right-hand punch didn’t have enough reach as he sailed backward. After her fist passed before his face, he folded his right leg, throwing his arms up.
As he started the somersault, his left leg hit her under her jaw with just enough force to activate the small explosive left there a moment earlier.
He was surprised his invention even worked after all this time.
As she recoiled from the painful blow, he placed his hands on the ground, still above his head, and spun his legs.
In a capoeira style, he rotated his legs and destabilized her by hitting just under her knee with a foot. She spun on her other leg, trying to compensate, but his other foot was already in a trajectory of hitting her neck.
There was no crack, to Zeph’s relief.
He disengaged, using the force of the hit. The Power EE surely helped this time.
He did a quick roll and stood up in a boxer’s defensive position, the middle fingers slightly protruding from his fists.
But the fight was over.
Aisha was laying on the ground, massaging her throat. Her sour face explained everything.
“You have won,” she declared with disdain. The fight didn’t last for more than a few seconds, and she had lost. Zeph could understand her irritation.
“Your hidden weapon aside…” she said, sitting up. “I want to learn from you,” she declared, staring at him with an intensity reserved for fanatics.
Ugh, great. Another addicted added to the list… he thought, exhausted.
But he knew the real culprit. Mima, the reflex-based combat style, was really to blame. He sighed heavily, preparing himself for the mental strain teaching such style would require.
Congratulations! [Mima] [Martial art] was successfully derived from—
Shut up!
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The next day has come too quickly.
Zeph was laying on the improvised bedding, looking at the tent’s ceiling he already remembered in its full detail.
Jesus… The more I think about it, the more undecided I am… he thought, looking at the System-created summary of his information gathering.
[Persistent Form]
A Brain/Body/Soul [Enhancement]. Powered by [Will], this [Enhancement] is able to influence your brain activity in a [Major] way. Your [Body] will gain additional [Minor] benefits from the [Spell] component.
This [Enhancement] is funneling you unique [Will] resource to further strengthen all of the compatible [Enhancements]. The framework is similar to a [Passive Skill], as its functionality is unrelated to the external conditions.
Benefits include:
* [Majorly] increased Brain functionality;
* [Minorly] increased Body functionality;
* [Slightly] increases [Will], [Soul], and [Passive Enhancements] effects (maximally by 5%, depending on thresholds);
* Engages all of the processes at the same time, forcing them to rely on each other;
Constraints include:
* Main resource is [Will];
* Independence from [Mana] [Types];
* [Expanding] in nature.
* Requires [Mana pressure] of [% Unknown %].
[Willforce Morphon]
A Will/Soul/Body [Enhancement]. It’s the first ever formed [Enhancement] in this sector that strengthens [Will]. It’s the first ever formed [Enhancement] in this sector that indirectly applies [Will].
Powered by your [Will], metabolism, and [Mana generation], this [Enhancement] changes your physicality. Full effects and ramifications of such change are unknown.
The framework is similar to an [Energy Enhancement], as its functionality is related to the [Willforce].
Known effects include:
* Shielded functionality of [Memory reading] and [Empathy]. Usability will be directly powered by [Will];
* [Willforce] becomes available as [Technique] and [Energy Enhancement]. All known effects aren’t cataloged;
* [Energy reversing] of the resources is possible. Three distinct resources exist: Soul, physical metabolism, and [Will];
* [Will] and its [Magicules] are integrated into the metabolism by the [Spell] component;
* Every [Component] of this [Energy Enhancement] can be further strengthened by [Will].
Constraints include:
* Main resource is [Willpower], secondary resource is [Will];
* Requires [Soul contamination]: [Will (type: H1)], [Space (type: ????];
* [Growing] in nature;
* Requires [Mana pressure] of [1E-10000000000000000000000….#$%]; [Unknown];
The second option was more inviting by the sheer rarity at the beginning. But, as he suspected, both options had their good sides.
The first one included arranged, simulated, and known options with known benefits.
The second one was chaotic in nature and contained many unknowns. But its functionality included an expansion of the ‘Will shielding’, which he very much liked.
The requirements are also defined…
I think the answer is quite clear? he thought after a moment, selecting one of the options.
And changing his future.
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Interface (one level up):
[https://i.imgur.com/X9Y2SyZ.jpg]
[https://i.imgur.com/Rr5xBT1.jpg]
[https://i.imgur.com/jopy7iF.jpg]
[https://i.imgur.com/HQFrDln.jpg]
[https://i.imgur.com/kzplh3K.jpg]
[https://i.imgur.com/mPtXjmN.jpg]
[https://i.imgur.com/23rjer5.jpg]
[https://i.imgur.com/9kWQwLe.jpg]
[https://i.imgur.com/fz24eJT.jpg]