“What the hell was that?” Jasmine asked, coming up beside Wyatt.

“Testing a theory,” he answered absently as he stared down at the no-longer-empty orb. He couldn’t believe it had worked.

⦗Overcharged Orb (Bonded), Level 1⦘

When he had hit the giant with it, the monster had been sucked inside the orb. The orb’s color had changed, and glowed slightly, and had a feeling of danger now.

Probably the overcharged part.

Wyatt wasn’t sure if that was because the giant was level 9 and the orb was level 1, but at least it had worked. It had saved them. Though it felt like it had almost cost Wyatt his life. He couldn’t see his own health circle, but he’d felt on the brink of death after using it. It had taken something from him to work, to capture the giant. More than just the Energy he’d fed into it. Camila had healed him, but even that felt like it had only barely kept him alive.

He still felt a little woozy and was having trouble staying on his feet.

“Is it safe to touch?” Jasmine asked.

Wyatt shrugged and bent to pick it up, nearly losing his balance. “Seems like it.”

She shook her head. “No sense of self-preservation.” She handed him some wet wipes. “That puke doesn’t smell, but you look a sight. Almost out of these, so maybe cut down on the getting covered in bodily fluids, yeah?”

Wyatt took the wet wipes and wiped away the giant’s vomit as best he could. She was right that it didn’t have any smell to it. Which was weird. His skill was creating it, so maybe that was why.

Then again, that first ahuitzotl corpse hadn’t smelled either when he’d cut it open. It could be that there really was no smell, or whatever changes had been done to them made it so they couldn’t detect it. The only things he’d smelled since this all started were the monsters themselves.

Though there’d also been that weird smell in the pyramid…

Synesthesia, he realized. Not the smell in the pyramid, but with smelling the monsters. That’s what it was like. A smell triggering a visualization.

Jasmine looked around. “I’m going to check on the others.”

He nodded. Camila was already tending to Tyler, who seemed to be the only one seriously injured.

And Patrick, but he was at least moving around. His Bloodbath skill had boosted his Immune System stat enough that he’d healed mostly on his own. Though he was still far from fully healed, and the boosts from his skill were gone.

There’d only been a few ratapua left when Wyatt had captured the giant, and with that distraction gone they’d been swiftly eliminated. Now the clearing was scattered with even more corpses. But the team was mostly safe. For now.

He thought about how the fight had gone. He’d gotten lucky that the orb had worked.

He let it play out in his mind, running through everything that had happened.

Would there have been a better way to go about it?

All his choices were about as good as he could have made, up till the point where he’d used his shield.

He shouldn’t have stood around for so long marveling at how fast he could move after stealing the giant’s alacrity.

And maybe he shouldn’t have tested out the runes on a monster so much higher in level than he was.

Had that been reckless?

It was hard for him to not do things people considered reckless, because he was pretty sure he didn’t feel the same amount of fear that others did. Or maybe he simply didn’t feel it as strongly.

It didn’t help that he’d come back from the dead. He didn’t exactly expect it to happen again, but just the fact that it had might be making him less risk averse than he already had been, which was not very.

But he hadn’t expected it to drain his Energy. It was what had happened when he’d used the shield before, but this time had felt different.

He’d needed to test out the runes on his shield, and so he did. It had instinctually felt like it would make him stronger, and his new instincts since this started hadn’t led him astray before.

But maybe those instincts were myopic. Yes, using the rune had been a benefit to him in the moment: he’d stolen the giant’s speed. But it was only temporary, and when it ran out, he was basically out of Energy.

So what should he have done? What would he do in the next fight?

I need Energy to use my other skills, so unless I’m out or almost out of Energy, I shouldn’t use the runes. I really want to see what the other two do, though.

The smartest thing likely would have been to kite the giant around, letting Patrick and Tyler wear it down. I probably had enough Energy and Energy regeneration to keep its aggro on me and keep it loaded up with at least Torpor.

So stay out of range, maybe try hitting it from a distance with a hammer or blade-arm from my titan skin, keep it loaded up with Torpor and Devitalize if I can, and Disgorge if it’s closer in level to me.

And make sure I go into every battle with my skill balls fully charged.

He nodded to himself, satisfied with his assessment, and turned his attention to the Overcharged Orb.

What am I supposed to do with you? he wondered, staring at it.

Just running Energy into it seemed like a bad idea, so he used Analyzer on it instead.

It had been only a minute or so since the fight had ended and he’d barely regained any Energy, but he had enough to use the skill.

He tried the new semi-passive permutation first to see if he could use it outside of battle. He could, but it only let him sense the item’s level, so he let that permutation drop and used its active permutation instead.

Overcharged Orb

Contains the essence of .

Level: 1

Value: ?

No hint on how to use it.

Value’s new. I wonder if it will be a number, or something else.

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

Does it mean essence as in Essence Orb?

He headed to the sacellum—which Kevin wasn’t guarding anymore—and tried using it, but it didn’t work.

No free Essence Orb, but he did have one thing left to check that would make him stronger.

Let’s see how much quintessence I got from using my skill on a level 9.

Debuffer

Rarity: 1⁄5

Quality: D-Grade

Scion Capacity: 0⁄2

Arcana:

• Devour

Permutations:

• |Disgorge|

• |Torpor|

• |Devitalize|

He focused on Devour.

Devour

Quintessence Capacity: 186⁄500

It had been at 5 back in the pyramid. So using Debuffer on the quinametzin had increased it by 181.

Definitely non-linear scaling. I used Debuffer on multiple cipactli and mummies—and Kevin—and multiple times on that level 7 mummy and only got a total of 65 quintessence. Yet just using it a few times on a level 9 gave me almost triple that.

He tried increasing his level again, but either it wasn’t possible or he still didn’t have enough quintessence.

I should think more about my build before I spend it, decide what stats I want to increase.

Or maybe it’s better to save to try to level up?

Which option would make me more powerful?

But he had no way of finding out other than experimenting.

For now, he turned his attention back to the Overcharged Orb.

Back in the pyramid he’d tried to use Devour on an Essence Orb and gotten a message that he had a one percent chance of success, whatever that meant.

Can I Devour this?

It seemed dangerous, but on the other hand, it had asked for confirmation first.

He tried devouring it.

Devour ⦗Overcharged Orb⦘?

Certainty: 100%

Those are way better odds than the Essence Orb.

He pulled out his level 1 Essence Orb and tried Devour on it.

Devour ⦗Essence Orb⦘?

Certainty: 2%

Not much absolute difference, though it had doubled since the last time he’d tried. Was that because he’d gained a level? He’d been level 0 last time, now he was level 1. So did level affect skills somehow?

He considered for a moment, then stowed away the Essence Orb and gave his assent to devour the Overcharged Orb.

The orb exploded but before the shrapnel could travel more than a few millimeters, he felt something inside of him open up, and he devoured it all.

His spine was electrified and his vision went to static, his eyes burning and his thoughts chaos.

Then it passed, and he had a feeling like waking up. Like those times when you doze off without realizing it, only to wake up unsure if you actually slept at all.

He looked around, but couldn’t tell how much time had elapsed.

There was a feeling of anticipation inside of him. Of… potential.

He focused on it.

A message appeared, one like he’d never seen before.

Essence Points: 4500

Essence points may be spent or traded in at any Trial Store.

What’s a trial store? And where is it? How do I access it?

He tried thinking of every variation of ‘store’ he could, but nothing brought up a new message.

He also couldn’t use the points on himself like he could with quintessence. And Analyzer didn’t give him any further information.

Sighing, he dismissed the message and pulled out his skill ball.

After using it on the quinametzin, the cohesion had dropped by three percent. It seemed like rather than separate items, the item was a single ball that could split into multiple balls of the exact same size—like the ratapua—since the split-off orbs didn’t have stats of their own.

The two orbs he’d used had returned to him automatically, though he hadn’t noticed it happening.

That’s what he assumed, anyway, since he had ten again and there were none in the clearing. It was also possible they regenerated and the others dissolved.

He sat down in front of the sacellum, and got to work charging his balls.

🞠

While waiting for his Energy to regenerate between charges, Wyatt checked out his newly upgraded Analyzer skill.

Analyzer

Rarity: 1⁄1

Quality: D-Grade

Scion Capacity: 0⁄1

Permutations:

• |Interrogate|

• |Perceive|

There were a few differences from Debuffer. Its rarity, that it had two and not three permutations and didn’t have an empty permutation slot, that it had only one scion slot instead of two, and finally it had no arcana. Though that could be simply because he hadn’t discovered it yet. Debuffer hadn’t had one at first either.

He moved on to what he was really curious about, the integration type.

Please choose integration type:

• Subject inherent

• Experiment inherent (Effect limited by ?)

You may change this selection with the use of ?.

More question marks. At least I know I can change it somehow.

Predictably, he was unable to get further explanation on what either subject or experiment inherent meant.

If I assume it’s as straightforward as most other things, then the integration is either inherent to me or to subjects in general for the first, and the experiment for the second.

That doesn’t really tell me anything though. What even is an integration type? If it’s what it sounds like, then it’s maybe how Analyzer gets its information. Which would make experiment inherent the better choice. But what if it’s more of a reference point? Like a translation. In that case, the experiment one might be incomprehensible to me.

After thinking it over for a bit, he decided to go with Subject inherent for now, since its effect wasn’t limited by some unknown thing.

He could always change it later. Though he had no idea what was needed or if it was something easily obtainable.

The message blinked away, but he didn’t feel any different.

Analyzer’s message still looked the same as well, except for the addition of a line showing the integration type as subject inherent.

Wondering what the integration had changed about the skill, he pulled up his most recent message about essence points and tried Interrogate on it.

Nothing looked different. He tried a few more.

It wasn’t until he used it on Debuffer’s message that something different happened, the message changing completely.

Debuffer

D-Grade enchantment

Casting Time: Instant

Range: 128 feet

Components: P, M (Energy)

Duration: Up to 64 seconds

Rarity: 1⁄5

Scion Capacity: 0⁄2

Description:

When you use Debuffer, choose one of the following permutations to impose on a target within range that you can see. Permutations of the same type stack, while different permutations exist concurrently.

‎ ‎1. Disgorge: The target is wracked with visceral suffering. On a successful level-match, target is incapacitated by forceful regurgitation (unaffected by target type) and takes ongoing poison damage that decreases over time. Regurgitant is created if unavailable. Stacking increases the effect by 10% per stack.

‎ ‎2. Torpor: The target’s movements become sluggish. On a successful level-match, target’s Speed is reduced by 50%. Each additional stack reduces Speed by 5%, to a minimum Speed of 1% of initial.

‎ ‎3. Devitalize: The target feels their existence begin to wither away. On a successful level-match, target suffers a disadvantage on Durability, Toughness, Strength, Recovery, and ?, and has cohesion reduced by 10% for the duration. Each additional stack reduces cohesion by a further 10%. If a target’s cohesion is reduced to 8% or lower while this effect is active, they begin to disintegrate. If the permutation reaches four level-matched stacks, this disintegration occurs regardless of the target’s current cohesion.

Devour (Arcana):

Quintessence Capacity: 186⁄500

Each time a permutation of Debuffer successfully affects a target, you gain quintessence. Additionally, if Devitalize disintegrates a target, you gain additional quintessence. Amount of quintessence gained varies based on target’s level and ?. Can be used directly to consume ?.

At Higher Grades. ?