Their group returned to town in short order. There were some formalities to take care of, but Jason found a moment to slip away as soon as he was able. A quick check on the various operations revealed that — regrettably — they needed his help. With a sigh, Jason squared his shoulders and volunteered for whatever task was currently in high demand.
‘ding!’ ‘[Flesh Reconstruction] has reached level 36’
The next day, Jason found a quiet part of the day and took the opportunity to slip past the walls. He walked through the deserted streets. The occasional monster bothered him, but he either dispatched it smoothly or ran away. There were more important things to do at the moment.
He arrived at a small park with a prominent sign reading Union Park. A small square of undisturbed snow lay atop what must have been a grassy field. Several benches surrounded the space, and a swingset-junglegym-slide contraption was prominently featured. Three glittering blue butterflies flickered around the kid’s contraption.
‘ding!’ ‘Coronal Reacher lvl 1’
Jason headed over to a pair of benches where a few fragile Citruna leaves were growing through the snow cover. A butterfly flitted over and landed on his hand with a puff of freezing air.
Mana : 98% |█████████████████████████| 51/52
“Huh...cool.” Jason flicked the creature away, and it burst into motes of glittering light. The touch of cold left by the creature remained for a few more seconds.
Jason turned his attention back to the Citruna plants. He harvested the alien plants, taking extra time to acquire a significant amount of the poisonous lifeform. When he had a sizable handful bulging out of his pockets, he headed back out. This time, he went deeper into the city until he came upon the deserted mall. He entered and easily navigated to a dark sports and fitness store. The store was locked, and Jason settled in front of the door and maneuvered a pair of curled wires into the keyhole.
Fifteen minutes and innumerable curses later, the door clicked open. Jason broke in and immediately headed over to the hiking section.
The Citruna leaves went into a water bladder stowed in a small jogging backpack. Some water, a few mint leaves, and a generous spoonful of honey joined the leaves within the bladder. A quick shake, and it was ready.
‘ding!’ ‘[Flesh Reconstruction] has reached level 37’
Watching Howard cheese the rift had been eye-opening. Jason’s method of power farming [Flesh Reconstruction] was working beautifully, but Starvation cut into his regeneration immensely. While he could sustain the debuff, it would be better to temporarily cure the damage over time during a major battle to maximize his survivability.
On its own, that was trivial to do. The harder part was that fully half of his regeneration came from the first Saf of [Flesh Reconstruction]. It required that he take damage over time continuously.
Which was where the Citruna tea came into play.
‘ding!’ ‘[Poison Resistance] has reached level 2’
Jason grinned as a faint tingling spread down his esophagus. The poison's damage was negligible, even with barely any poison resistance. Now he just needed to eat something, and he could massively increase his effective regeneration in tough situations.
But what should he eat...
----------------------------------------
The front door to Jason’s new hideout slammed open in the distance. Jason blinked awake at the edge of the pool. He lay reclined in a hammock, dangling just beside the artificially warmed water of the indoor pool. The clingy fabric of the hammock fought him and by the time he managed to disentangle himself, his impromptu visitor had found him.
“Hi, Jason,” Emily said, standing by the open glass doors to the pool.
“I know—” Jason flopped out of the hammock and landed face-first to the ground. He jumped to his feet and held two placating hands toward the armored girl. “I know what it looks like, but you don’t get to yell at me this time! I spent all morning helping out and even remembered to bring my phone with me just in case!”
Jason whipped out a phone and waved it at Emily as if it would protect him from her wrath.
“I didn’t come to yell at you,” Emily mumbled, her eyes downcast. “Or whatever. I was just wondering what you were up to. I guess you were just resting.”
Emily gestured vaguely to Jason’s face, which was notably devoid of the dark circles surrounding her eyes.
“Oh...you weren’t?” Jason paused. Idly, he took a sip from his backpack, then he snapped his fingers and grinned. “That reminds me! Here, come, come. I have a gift for you.”
He rushed by Emily and entered the kitchen. Emily followed more slowly and stepped into the central kitchen just in time to receive two long strips of sickly gray meat.
“Tada! Try it!” Jason grinned, handing her one of the strips. The stiff meat was liberally seasoned with spices baked onto it. Emily took the strip of jerky and gingerly took a bite. A ghost of a grimace struggled across her expression.
“You can spit it out,” Jason laughed, exaggerating his grimace as he took a meaty bite of the jerky. “It’s terrible, I know, but it gives a minor stamina regeneration effect that helped me get a good night’s rest.”
Emily’s eyes widened, and she very carefully swallowed the gray lump. “I thought...” she coughed weakly, accepting a cup of water from Jason. “You didn’t eat food.”
“I’m trying something,” Jason shrugged off her question. “More importantly. This stuff grants somewhere between a 30% to 50% increase in stamina recovery rate. Though the number might be as high as 100% if I’m being honest. I swear, there are at least fifty confounding variables that contribute to recovery...”
“And he does it again,” Emily murmured softly to herself. Jason’s ears perked up, not having heard her. Before she could come up with something to say, both their phones buzzed angrily. Emily shook her head and set the jerky down before reading the message. “The ACPD is organizing a raid. The goal is to destroy the smoke factory. Apparently, we lost a granary.” She sighed. “Back at it, I guess.”
“Coolio,” Jason flicked closed his own phone and refilled his backpack from a large blue cooler sitting on the counter. “Took them long enough. Do you think we’ll find any new monster types in the Iron Biome?”
The conversation continued as the pair left the house and joined the raid. It was large, nearly 100 people armed to the teeth. Various vehicles would join them, including two gigantic John Deere excavators that barely fit on the road. The first had a standard bucket, while the second was equipped with a massive steel wrecking ball that swung lazily from its cable. Several other bits of demolition equipment were visible in the bed of a white truck.
“Huh,” Jason glanced at the exceptional preparations. The ACPD had taken a hot minute to get up and organize, but they sure did come prepared. If it had been him, he would have just gone in and tried to deal with the smoke problem, but he supposed it was a building, so getting demolition equipment was prudent.
“Looks like we are with the Detective Sergeant again,” Emily said, glancing at her phone. “Come on.”
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Jason took a massive sip from his reservoir and followed after her.
‘ding!’ ‘[Poison Resistance] has reached level 10’
‘ding!’ ‘[Poison Resistance] has reached the limit of the first Saf. Choose another skill to guide its evolution’
Jason eyed the notification and took another precautionary sip from his backpack. The poison was working. Tingling quietly down his throat, he could already feel his body start to break down the foreign toxin.
And then they were moving. The large excavators roared to life and began rolling down the main boulevard leading up to the waterfront. On Sloan’s orders, Jason was quickly relegated to the front left side of the formation.
It felt strangely akin to a parade, with the press of bodies and the loud background noise. People shouted over each other to be heard over the rumble of machinery. The distance they had to travel was only about half a mile, drawing even more similarities to a parade.
Then the monsters arrived.
Jason raised a brow as the patrol of Ironforged Shocktroopers was obliterated by a barrage of ranged spells on the right side of the formation. The tingle in his throat was waning, so he took another deep sip from his backpack and turned to face the front again.
A storefront on his left shattered open. A pair of Shocktroopers burst out, brandishing their shields and lances. Jason grinned and rushed them. He dodged the first lance, swiping the monster's front two forelegs out from underneath. The monster tilted, struggling to right itself, but Jason torqued its lance over his shoulder and knocked the creature over.
Before it could stand, a weird high-pitched whistle sounded, followed by a concussive boom.
‘ding!’ ‘Congratulations! You have learned the skill [Blast Resistance]: Friendly fire is always a challenge when fighting in groups. You’ve withstood an accidental explosion by one of your allies. This skill will help you withstand other such explosions in the future.’
‘ding!’ ‘[Blast Resistance] has reached level 1’
Jason skidded back, shading his eyes as a detonation practically tore the metallic automaton in half. A moment later, three purple swirling bolts of mysterious energy slammed into the other Shocktrooper and destroyed its shield.
Jason rolled to his feet, took another large sip from his backpack, and rejoined the procession. He barely processed his injuries—mostly because they didn’t exist. Before his skin even managed to tear and burn from the attack, [Flesh Reconstruction] was already knitting it back together. In all honesty, he barely even felt the pain, especially since the persistent ache of Starvation had faded with his last meal.
“Oh my god! Are you okay?” A college-aged girl ran up to him, presumably the one who was launching Class A explosives all over the place.
“What have you done?” Jason gasped, looking at his hands in awe.
“I’m sorry!” The girl squeaked.
“Your attack...it's granted me unparalleled power!”
“Wha...”
Worry morphed into fear, then confusion in a split second across the girl’s face.
“I’m just messing with you,” Jason grinned and straightened. He rapped his dented motocross helmet twice. “I’m solid. Don’t worry about me.”
The girl frowned but nodded and lobbed another barely visible streak toward an enemy. It whizzed by and detonated with an earth-shaking boom as she returned to the line.
Jason also returned to his spot in the line, walking along and distracting any monster that the artillery failed to catch. From this point onward, he was more conservative. Instead of rushing out, he focused on staying close to the line and only rushed out to distract monsters that got too close. Friendly fire hit him a few more times, but it barely mattered. His regeneration was unstoppable.
What did matter was how his backpack was slowly getting torn to shreds. Despite being made of ‘ultra-durable’ material, with a ‘lifetime warranty,’ the constant blasts, fires, and attacks hitting him were slowly destroying the dense weave.
Even more annoying was that the water bladder was emptying. With level 10 poison resistance, the duration of the Citruna poison was counted in seconds, not minutes. That meant he had to drink more often, emptying his stock way faster than was sustainable.
Jason dodged an errant projectile and knocked down another Shocktrooper. Then, it collapsed, and he jumped back as a barrage of missiles obliterated it.
In principle, this poison idea had merit. If he could find a more potent or longer-lasting poison, he could avoid evolving poison resistance and maintain the first Saf of Flesh Reconstruction indefinitely during battles. The poison would need to be long-lasting but not deal a lot of damage. If it did, then there wasn’t much point compared to Starvation.
The problem was he hadn’t yet found such a poison.
Jason grunted and activated [Callous Hide] for a microsecond as another blast staggered him. The Shocktrooper he’d been distracting slammed into his back. [Callous Hide] buzzed, preventing most of the damage and allowing Jason to roll out from underneath the metal machine.
He sprang back to his place in the line, no worse for wear. A glance around revealed that they had almost arrived. The smoke-belching factory was visible less than two blocks down the road.
Jason took another sip from his backpack. Instead of inhaling sweet, tingling tea, he heard a gurgle of air. He shucked off the bag and stared in bemusement at the fluid-soaked bag. Looking inside revealed a fragile bladder with a small rip near the bottom.
“Bah!” Jason tossed the broken bag. A second later, the poison was expunged from his system, and he felt a fading as his stacks vanished. His healing was cut in half, leaving him roughly where he would’ve been if he still contended with Starvation X.
The problem was he wasn’t contending with Starvation, which meant he wasn’t even leveling [Flesh Reconstruction] for his trouble.
“Welp,” Jason muttered to himself, following Sloan's curt commands to form a perimeter around the smoke-belching factory. He rolled his neck and grinned. The experiment was a failure, but that was alright—expected even. The proof of concept was mostly sound. He was basically unkillable by using a weak poison to sustain the first Saf. The only real problem was with the execution.
What he needed was a chronic poison like organic mercury or Agent Orange. Something that cycled through the body or was sequestered for long periods. In theory, a chronic illness like HIV might also work, though that depended on whether microorganisms could even infect him.
Or, if he really wanted to optimize and knew that a fight was coming, he could time a small meal before the fight so that the first stages of Starvation would trigger during the battle. That would drastically improve his overall healing while still maintaining Starvation's reliability as the medium.
‘ding!’ ‘Congratulations! Your level has increased to 18. 5 stat points awarded’
‘ding!’ ‘[Callous Hide] has reached level 9’
Jason hummed happily as he bludgeoned another Shocktrooper to the ground. The notifications vanished, and he straightened. His decision was set. He would return to using Starvation to improve the level of [Flesh Reconstruction]. Gimmicky alternatives like poison were viable but too imprecise and fiddly to be worthwhile. Especially in the long term, where skill levels would obviate the need for separate solutions.
‘ding!’ ‘You have invested 5 points into Constitution’
And with every level, he gained more health, increasing the cycle even further.
It was a solid plan.
A great hollow boom resounded as the excavator with the wrecking ball crashed into the building. Jason eyed the surroundings for more Shocktroopers, and — when he was satisfied that the coast was clear — he turned to observe the demolition.
It seemed a little strange to start demolition so quickly. Why not scout inside? Maybe there was just a lever they could pull to disable the smoke. Obviously, that was unlikely, but—
“Ahh, I’m dumb,” Jason murmured as two scouts rushed out of the factory and reported to Chief Ricci. Another hollow boom resounded, and Jason shrugged. They clearly knew what they were doing. Soon, this whole thing would end, and Jason could return to stacking Starvation. He already missed having periodic notification of [Flesh Reconstruction] levels.
A third crash shook the ground, and everyone stepped back as something cracked within the building. The pillar of smoke rising from the top shuddered, sputtering momentarily. Then, it erupted with an inner fire as the rumble of heavy machinery and spinning crankshafts shook the air.
Jason squinted his eyes at the factory. Dimly, he noticed people scrambling away. The building shook, glass cracking and popping out as metallic shapes moved in the darkness. The roar of an engine peaked, making Jason’s lungs shiver with the force of the noise.
The top of the building exploded.
Twelve mechanical legs with huge reinforced joints shredded through brick and mortar like cobwebs as they slammed to the ground. One of the legs impaled the excavator, and an explosive hiss of escaped hydraulic fluid arced into the air. A second later, the massive wrecking ball crashed to the ground as the arm supporting it lost pressure.
The factory walls fell away, and Jason let his eyes fall on the massive beast.
‘ding!’ ‘Elite Ironforged Shocktrooper lvl 30’
The creature screeched. Tortured metal on metal scratched at Jason’s eardrums as the call washed over him. The black furnace on the creature’s back revved, filling the sky with smoke and providing the perfect environment for the creature to gain reinforcements. Distantly, Jason heard the sound of dozens of crashing metallic feet as every Ironforged in the area swarmed toward their location.
Jason glanced up at the boss and then back at the other humans. They looked scared and hesitant, though some had hard glowers full of determination on their faces as they looked up at the monster.
Jason cracked his neck, grinned, and charged.