Chapter 6: Getting in the flow. 

The godly presence just healed him and left, leaving him a bit shaken but a lot less tired and hungry. It also seemed to have removed his need for sleep. Hm. that might be a problem in the future.

So, this would be something that would happen a lot. 

Well that was… good! If he could rely on having his hunger and thirst erased regularly, then he wouldn’t have to try and eat any Velders or other demons. Who knows if they are even edible, let alone palatable. And they might not even satiate his thirst for long if their salt balance was like a human’s. 

Anyways, now that he was healed all up he could get back to working on his Skills! 

Trent was laser-focused on the runic structure inside of him. A twisting bridge of void connected the two Skill structures inside of him. It wasn’t quite complete yet though. Making the correct connections between the two was a lot easier than trying to weave the void into fractals, but that didn’t mean it was easy. 

It was a bit like very complex coding, but that was an unfair comparison in both directions. The ball of runes and lines was far, FAR more complex than any piece of code, but he also had much more control over his ‘edits’ than you could get by typing in code. He was working at the speed of thought, making connections and corrections as fast as possible lest the whole thing collapse. 

Any moment now, one of the imperfections could spiral out of control and the attempt would be ruined like the hundreds before it. He feverishly twisted and reworked the cable of void until…

The bridge started stabilizing. This wasn’t the first time he had gotten this far, but he was doing better than any of his other attempts. He slowed down on his manipulation to carefully check for any errors. He fixed most of them, but at the moment when the bridge started to compress down and become rigid, one made itself known. 

In less than a quarter of a second a clump of strands had twisted around each other and started tearing the structure apart. Trent slammed down his force of will, freezing everything inside of him completely. He could only hold this for a couple of seconds. 

Desperately, he tried to think of a solution. There was no way he could take this much apart in the time frame he had. He had a solution for this type of problem, but the clog was so big… There’s nothing he can do about that. If he failed, he could just try again. No pressure, you got this. 

The construct unfroze, and immediately a huge amount of loose thread spooled out along each of the lines that had tangled. As the whole thing grew rigid, the lines stretched and became taught. Some snapped even with the leeway. Even as this went on, Trent was still making as many minor corrections as possible to help the creation form as smoothly as possible. 

The bridge finally finished shifting and gained a sturdy quality to it. Trent collapsed from where he was sitting with a huge sigh. It was done. 

After catching his breath and recovering, he turned attention to the system notifications awaiting him. 

Title gained! You may now call yourself a Rune Manipulator! 

Title gained! You may now call yourself a Prodigy! 

That was it. Trent quickly checked his status, unsure of what the titles would be. 

Name: Trent

Species: Human

Titles: Rune Manipulator, Prodigy

Lv: 5

Affinity: Abyss

Sub-affinity: Opposition

Stats: 

Physical: 

Vitality: 7

Endurance: 11

Strength: 11

Agility: 7

Mind: 7

Perception: 15

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Magical: 

Capacity: 0

Regen: 0

Power: 0

Control: 0

Connection: 0

Perception: 0

Skills: Voiding, Power Throw

Title Name: Rune Manipulator. 

You have altered a Skill and made it purely better, with no downside. This Title displays your feat to whoever Identifies you. 

Title Name: Prodigy. 

You have attained a Title before gaining the Identify Skill. So, have another one! This Title displays your feat to whoever Identifies you. 

So, no benefits? Also, how would he gain the Identify Skill? Probably levels or age, considering the Title’s name. That also basically told him that few other people could see their Skills in their mind. Rune Manipulator must not have counted Voiding as it wasn’t a rune. Thats what he hoped at least, he really didn’t want to believe he had somehow hurt his cheat Skill. He also checked out the description of Power Throw. 

Skill Name: Power Throw

Increase the physical force of a thrown object by 150%. You can focus on this Skill to increase the effect to 546% and make the thrown object damage conceptual effects. 

Damn, the flaws probably decreased the damage bonus. Well, it made sense. He had created a channel to push in extra power, so why would the result be an even number? Wait, he was complaining? Why? This was more than double the previous power! 

Trent felt much happier with his accomplishment when he saw the craters his rocks now created. They basically exploded on impact, and the extra focus required was miniscule! He wasn’t quite breaking the sound barrier, but it was only a matter of time and levels. 

Speaking of time, it had been 4 religious experiences since he had gotten his new skill. They felt close enough to days that he was measuring time by them. During that time, he had also worked on improving his mundane throwing abilities that the Skill enhanced. 

All in all, he definitely felt confident enough to go after another Velder. Let’s get hunting!

It took a bit of searching and ascending the mountain, but he eventually found another of the grotesque Velders. This one shared most features with the previous one, but it had enough individuality to tell them apart. Huh, Mind must also boost his memory. 

He dug up a bunch of rocks from the uniform ground before beginning his bombardment. The monster didn’t stand a chance. By the time it stopped moving, its body was basically unrecognizable. In this state, it could have been a human that he killed. Well, if he was mindfucked enough to not realize, then there was nothing he could do about it.

*Defeated Lost Velder (Lv. 12). Bonus experience is gained for defeating a monster 5 or more levels above you. Bonus experience is gained for defeating a high-tier monster above your level.* 

That was unexpectedly easy. It was a higher level than the previous one, but it didn't stand a chance. It made a bit of sense though. The raw power behind his throws was over six times what it was before, and he had been practicing so he could actually hit. This was a rather reasonable result. 

So, now what? He supposed he could just continue going up the mountain while working on his skills, but that seemed like too basic of a plan… eh, detailed plans were for battles. Getting stronger was the clear goal he had, leading to the not-so-clear goal of getting out of this place.

Where he wanted to go after getting out of here wasn’t quite as clear. It was quite possible he would have to choose between keeping his powers or going back to earth. Well, he might be able to keep the void power inside of him…

But the ideal goal would be getting to a more normal fantasy world. Somewhere he could use his power to live a good life—ideally with immortality, but that was a bit ambitious—and maybe do some good things along the way. Great responsibility and all that. Not that he actually had great power at the moment, but fantasizing about his eventual escape helped him cope with the boredom and lack of human contact.

So, he continued trekking up the mountain. He encountered more Velders with increasing frequency and levels, along with the now omnipresent Morels. He never had any trouble killing them from a range, but he kept his guard up. If something ambushed him and he couldn’t use Voiding fast enough, even a level 10 Velder could easily kill him.

*Defeated Lost Velder (Lv. 11). Bonus experience is gained for defeating a monster 5 or more levels above you. Bonus experience is gained for defeating a high-tier monster above your level.* 

*Defeated Morel Finisis (Lv. 12). Bonus experience is gained for defeating a monster 5 or more levels above you.*

…

*Defeated Lost Velder (Lv. 14). Bonus experience is gained for defeating a monster 5 or more levels above you. Bonus experience is gained for defeating a high-tier monster above your level.* 

*Defeated Morel Finisis (Lv. 14). Bonus experience is gained for defeating a monster 5 or more levels above you.*

Level up! You have reached level 6. +1 free stat points. +1 Mind and +3 Perception(phys) from Affinity. +1 Vitality, +2 Endurance, and +2 Strength from Sub-affinity.

It seemed that levels would be coming a lot slower now. How he wished this was one of the systems where you could level up by killing a few things at your level. Well, at least it was more realistic… why should he be happy about that? Hm. It… Made things easier to predict? Because they were logical?

It was mostly pointless to think about, once again. But it was less boring than doing nothing but walking, or mess with runes. It had been a few religious experiences since he finished his Skill modification, and he was getting a bit sick of killing and walking. He was honestly surprised by how long it took the dark skies and dull landscape to mess with his head. Normally he was much more affected by the environment.

He supposed that his magical powers might help with the monotony. But it didn’t account for all of his resistance to the depressing atmosphere. The obvious and most worrying explanation would be that his mindset had somehow been altered by that godly presence, or whatever brought him here.

It was really quite depressing! How fun! Well, oh lord may you pray for my mercy if that’s the case. Because I wont give it.

No one messes with my mind. And once I get out of this place, I might well have enough power to do something about it.