Name: Markus Wolfe

Race: Human

Class: Tamer

Level: 12

Energy to next level: 15%

Energy absorption rate: 752u/hr

Energy towards debt: 75%

Intelligence

36

Mana: 334/334 (-7%)

Wisdom

34

Mana regeneration rate: 680u/hr (-20%)

Willpower

42+7 (+20%)

Health regeneration rate: 39u/hr (-20%)

Constitution

19

Health: 95/190

Strength

15

Stamina: 90/90

Dexterity

15

Stamina regeneration rate: 150u/hr

Class skills

Dominate – Novice 1

Tame – Beginner 5

Fade – Initiate 1

Non-Class skills

Lay-on-hands – Journeyman 1

Stealth – Novice 1

Animal Empathy – Novice 5

Meditation – Novice 1

Energy manipulation – Beginner 2

Sensation management – Beginner 5

The first thing that hits me is the level I’ve got to. Level twelve. I was sitting at level four when I entered the tunnel. In one move, I’ve multiplied my level threefold. The sheer amount of Energy which I must have absorbed in such a short time must have been utterly immense; no wonder I feel like I’ve been tortured. Having a few thousand volts of electricity pass through me wouldn’t have felt good either.

The second surprise is how much progress I’ve made on my debt. From single digits to three-quarters completed, it’s a lot of change. And that was only a fifth of what remained after I increased my level eight times, maybe even less than a fifth – it was hard for me to get a clear estimate considering the situation. Frankly, I’m glad it worked at all! Between my significant progress in levelling up and my progress on my debt, it almost makes all the pain and sheer terror I went through worth it. What am I saying? It was worth it, but an instinct inside me warns me that it would be an immensely bad idea to try again. Not for now, at least.

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The third surprising thing is the amount of Energy I’m absorbing per hour – and how few percentage points I’ve moved towards my next level despite that. I don’t know exactly how long I’ve been sleeping, but I’m sure it’s more than a couple of hours. Even if it was only four hours, that would mean it now costs around two hundred Energy units per point! If I slept for longer, it only increases the Energy cost. I have a feeling I’ll be languishing at level twelve for a good long while. That might not necessarily be a bad thing – my body stats seem to be lamentably far behind my mental and soul ones.

In fact, two of my body stats are less than half my lowest mental stat, something that the scholars from Nicholas’ world suggested is a bad thing. Maybe that’s why, despite my thought process feeling faster and smoother, it’s not as much of a qualitative increase as the number of points I just ploughed into my mental stats would suggest. Of course, my mind and soul stats aren’t going to be going anywhere since they’re way over 20 points in each, but then only Wisdom was below that before anyway.

So, all told, I can’t exactly complain, particularly given the fact that I’ve just skipped eight levels and paid off a good portion of my ‘debt’. Not to mention that I survived an event River said most of his legends consider to be fatal. But why is there so much Energy in the environment? I eye the Energy pool questioningly, and then glance at the Energy-Hearts. Maybe one of them is the reason? Or both? I table the question for now: I can always talk to Bastet and River about them when moving; right now I need to be checking out the changes I’ve made to myself.

Looking at my stats next, I nod as I go through them, though find myself mystified at a couple of the increases. The addition to Strength (Endurance) and Dexterity are probably from the climb down here, so logical enough. The additional three points each to Willpower and Constitution is a different question. With what little concentration I had to spare at the time, I remember choosing to double down on the point choice I made in my last level-up. In short, that meant a whopping sixteen points each to Wisdom, Intelligence, and Willpower. I didn’t touch Constitution at all, so why that’s increased by three points, I have no idea. Actually, Willpower has increased more than it should have, thinking about it. Nineteen points instead of sixteen. And as for the subcategories of Wisdom, when offered the choice between Depth and Breadth, I’d once more hedged my bets and split the points equally. Or at least, that’s what I think I did – the memory of the event is a little hazy.

Frankly, I didn’t care at that point: I just cared that I didn’t explode from the sheer amount of Energy pouring into me through the connection I had with my hand – the demand to make a choice between two subcategories just elongated the time before I could level up again and took me that much closer to decorating the walls. Possibly literally. Looking at my pools and regeneration rates, however, I see some of the consequences of what I’ve done to myself.

My mana pool has a reduction of seven percent, which translates to about twenty-six points of mana. It doesn’t sound too significant compared to the one hundred and sixty points of mana I had gained from leveling up, but that is two Lay-on-hands that I won’t be able to cast – if I’m still able to cast it, that is. Given the painful backlash to trying to heal my vocal cords I can only hope that I haven’t permanently messed up my ability to do magic. That would be...frustrating. In classic British understatement style.

My mana regeneration rate and health regeneration rate are a different story. For some reason, they have a full twenty percent reduction, taking a significant chunk off both rates. By this point, I should be earning ten mana units per minute, meaning one every four seconds or so. Instead, I’m roughly earning one unit per five seconds. It may not sound like a big difference, but when it’s the life of one of my companions – or me – on the line, those extra seconds add up. Though, if put in the context of my previous mana regeneration rate of four hundred and fifty units per hour, the net result is one of significant gain. Again, if I can use magic.

Fortunately, my assessment that my body was fairly undamaged is borne out by the lack of reduction to any of those stats. Though I must have taken some sort of damage since I’m actually at half health. Not verging on dangerous territory at all – that seems to be when I’m below thirty units – but worrisome all the same. The reduction to my health regeneration is a bit of a blow and reveals that, indeed, the damage went far deeper than I would have ever believed possible before coming to this world. However, again, I have a better health regeneration rate now than I did before this whole experience so...take the win where I can? Scanning down the screen, I see my next surprise: two new Skills. Sensation management and Energy manipulation, I say to myself thoughtfully. I wonder…

Then as I flick my eyes over my status again, I notice that my health is now sitting at ninety-four. Perhaps one of the benefits of my increased mental stats is improved recall because I know immediately that I’ve somehow lost a point in health just in the time since I opened my status. Checking my notifications has turned into a priority. Deciding to look for whatever answers I can in my messages, I mentally trigger the message box to open. As expected, there are quite a lot of messages waiting for me.

Given that there’s something immediately wrong with me, I decide to try something out which I theorise might work. Closing my eyes, I focus on my dropping health and my need to know whatever is affecting it. Opening it again, I’m greeted by a much truncated message box. Instead of the many unread messages in front of me, I see only three. Well. Time to test whether it’s truly worked. I mentally select the oldest message.

Warning!

You have entered an area of high Energy density. Your level is too low to safely absorb this Energy. Time until Energy poisoning begins: 0:10:00

Next message? Y/N

Energy poisoning? Is that the cause of the reduction in health? And is that ten minutes or ten hours? I forcibly calm myself down. I’ve just lost a unit, but I’m still a while away from being in danger. If I am, I need to get out of here, but panicking won’t help me. I need to gather as much information as I can first to make a decision that I won’t decide later is as moronic as some of the ones I’ve made recently. I go to the next message.

Warning!

You are in an area of high Energy density. Your level is too low to safely absorb this Energy. Time until Energy poisoning begins: 00:00:00

You are being poisoned. Your health will drop by one unit every 36 seconds until either you leave the area, increase your capacity to absorb Energy safely, or expire.

Next message? Y/N

Well. Great. I guess that answers my question. But then I frown, my mind rushing through some mental maths. That...doesn’t make complete sense. If I’m losing one unit per thirty-six seconds, I could only have been sleeping for a bit under two hours. I’m pretty sure I’ve slept for longer than that – I feel more rested that I would have after around two hours of sleep. Then I realise that I’ve forgotten about my regen rate, but a quick estimation proves that that would only have offered me another hour or so. Possible...but I have a feeling that there’s more to it than that.

Hoping the next message might hold some answers, I move onto that.

Congratulations!

You have increased your Wisdom, Intelligence, and Willpower over the first decade. Your body is more able to cope with high Energy density.

Your level remains too low to safely absorb this Energy. You are still being poisoned. Your health will drop by one unit every sixty-six seconds until either you leave the area, increase your capacity to absorb the Energy safely, or expire.

Next message? Y/N

That explains it, then. I underwent a period of more intense poisoning, then increased my level and added points to my stats, and that reduced the impact of the Energy poisoning. If my maths is correct, that means that I must have slept for around five hours, depending on how long the whole Life-blood mess took. By my calculations, I’ve still got well over an hour until I ‘expire’ from the poisoning, more than two when I take my regeneration rate into account.

That doesn’t mean I’m going to lollygag around here for ages, but it does mean that I can give my Bound a little more time to harvest Energy-Hearts while I check through the rest of the mound of notifications: there may be something really important there which I’ll want to know before we continue. In fact, given how many changes there have been to my status, I’d be willing to bet that there is!