Chapter 159 - The Storm King's Executioner

Jack woke up to several flashing notifications.

He stared at his status page, particularly one section, his core type.

Core Type: Omni Core Mk. I [Epic]

When he focused on it, a new menu he had never seen before appeared.

Omni Core Mk. I Interface

Module 1: Condenser [Rare]

Module 2: Empty

Module 3: Empty

He glanced at the Condenser module.

[Adjust Condenser settings?] [Y/N]

He waved away the messages and closed out of his stat screen.

He shut his eyes once more and focused on the spot where his core should be. A large, black circle with faintly glowing edges appeared in his mind. It was roughly the size of a hula hoop.

He tried pulling in mana, but nothing happened. He frowned. Then remembered something. He tried to move his hands to reach down into his void sack, only to realize that he was encased in ice.

“Hey,” Jack groaned, his voice coming out raspy.

He heard two voices talking, and they suddenly stopped.

“Well, if it isn’t the idiot king,” Mortimaxx scoffed, rounding the table and staring at him.

“Jack,” Karlisle said, stepping up next to him. “If you’re going to create the equivalent of a blood fountain while standing right next to me, I need a more clear warning than, ‘Don’t let Karlisle eat me.’ At least give me time to exit the room.”

Jack stared at them for a moment, and then inspected the room. It was covered in several areas in deep layers of ice and completely destroyed. It looked like Mortimaxx had his hands full dealing with Karlisle while Jack was busy riding the rollercoaster of pain and suffering. He didn’t care.

Jack gave them both a lazy smile. “It worked.”

“Really?” Karlisle raised his eyebrows in shock.

“Yep. I’m the proud owner of a brand-new mana core. Mortimaxx, get me out of this thing.” Jack glanced down at the ice cube he was still trapped inside.

“Sorry. You had quite the fever. Needed to cool you down and stem the bleeding somehow. Real shame the only backup you brought is a vampire and a lich. Not a lot of great options,” Mortimaxx chastised, dismissing the ice box and letting Jack drop to the ground.

Jack tried to stand up, but his entire body was numb, and his stomach wound was still mostly gaping. He moved his hand slowly to his void sack, fishing out another health potion.

“How long was I out?” Jack asked, popping the top off.

“At least a day,” Karlisle said.

“Thank God,” Jack mumbled, letting out a sigh of relief as he guzzled down the health potion. It wasn’t top-tier by any means, but the relief he felt was palpable.

He lay there with a satisfied smile, then fished something else out of his void sack.

Lightning Core Module

Type: Core Module

Tier: Rare

A lightning module designed for use with an Omni-Core.

*****

Product of Andurian.

[Use Lightning Core Module?] [Y/N]

Jack selected yes.

[New module detected!]

[Installing…]

[Installing…]

[Installing…]

[Lightning Core Module has been successfully installed.]

[Core restored. Upgrading base class.]

[Class Executioner has been upgraded to Storm King’s Executioner.]

That last notification surprised him a little bit. He had completely forgotten about the fact that he was assigned the ‘base’ version of his class. A part of him briefly wondered what would have happened if he used a different core module, as the Storm King’s Executioner felt lightning related. He didn’t care to investigate further at this very moment; there was something far more pressing he needed to try.

Jack held his breath, closing his eyes once more and pulling on the mana around him. He could feel it this time. Really truly feel it.

“I take it by that smile it’s working? You have access to mana again?” Karlisle asked.

“I think so. I can feel it again,” Jack said, pulling harder and harder on the mana around him.

Nothing was filling up in his core, though, and he frowned. Then he remembered something else and quickly went back to the core interface menu, selecting the condenser once more. It was no longer located in the passive section of his status page but had been moved to his core. I guess it’s been a module this entire time, Jack thought.

[Adjust condenser settings?] [Y/N]

Jack selected yes.

[Current count limit set to: 50]

[Change core limit?] [Y/N]

Jack stared blankly at the notification. 50 core limit? As in, he had been filling up his core fifty times over to get one of those drops? No wonder it damn near killed him every time he tried using a mana drop.

Jack selected yes.

[Please select new core limit: 3-50]

Jack selected three, the lowest it could go.

[Core limit three selected.]

[Warning. Core limit can only be changed every seventy-two hours.]

[Confirm core limit change?] [Y/N]

Jack confirmed the change, then he looked back at his core, thinking through the last time he could create mana drops.

When he first fucked up his core, it took him several days to charge up a single drop. Near the end of the first floor, he was averaging two a day. Did that mean he was filling up his core a hundred times over every single day?

He tried to do some quick napkin math, but the numbers escaped him. Whatever it was, he should be able to create mana drops much faster now, and they would still be at least three times as powerful.

He closed his eyes and glanced at his core. His previous core was the size of a grapefruit. At Epic, it was now the size of a hula hoop. It was still going to take him a minute to fill it up three times over.

He crossed his legs, letting his hands sit in his lap and closed his eyes, focusing on the empty core inside of him, and pulled at the world around himself.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

It felt like he was being greeted by an old friend. He focused on opening every inch of his body up to the mana, even imagining his pores opening up and letting the mana spill inside as he hungrily drank it all up.

A golf ball-sized orb appeared in his core a moment later. He clamped down on it at first but then let it freely ping pong around his core. The core itself felt sturdier, like he could let the mana ball bounce around inside of it all day. He clamped down on it again and turned his attention to Mortimaxx and Karlisle.

“How long was that?”

“How long was what?” Karlisle asked.

“How long was I sitting here meditating for?”

“I don’t know. You didn’t ask anyone to time you. A while, at least.”

“Okay. Time me this time,” Jack said, frustrated. He didn’t like the fact that Karlisle had said a while. He thought it was fast. It felt fast.

Once more, he opened his body up to the world and pulled as hard as he could at the mana.

He opened his eyes once more when a second ball joined the first.

“Time?” Jack asked.

“About thirty minutes,” Mortimaxx said, stopwatch in hand.

“Seriously? It felt way faster,” Jack complained.

Mortimaxx shrugged. “Meditation is like that.”

“Okay. One last time. I can do it faster,” Jack said, focusing on his mana core one last time.

This time, when pulling the mana, it felt like something budged. He stopped, and stared at his core, nervous he had just broken something. He opened his eyes.

“One minute?” Mortimaxx said, confused.

“Sorry, did you guys feel something budge?” Jack asked, looking around.

They both shook their heads, so Jack closed his eyes once more, this time playing close attention to his core as he pulled in mana.

As he stared at the edges of his core, it almost looked like he could actually see the mana he was pulling in. It was flowing like a vortex. Jack shivered, suddenly remembering the painful vortex-like sensation when he first stabbed himself with the new core. Then he stared once more at the faint traces of mana that seemed to be bleeding off the edges of his core as he sucked in mana, swirling slowly inwards.

He imagined gripping his core like a wheel, trying to turn it. Nothing happened. Or, more appropriately, nothing budged.

He felt like one of those guys desperately trying to turn an ancient, rusted valve shutoff that refused to give way. As he tried turning his core, he also pulled at the surrounding mana even harder, gritting his teeth together in intense concentration.

He felt it move slightly, and the intensity of mana around the edges of his core grew a little brighter. He pulled and turned and pulled and turned and, in what felt like seconds, a new ball of lighting mana bright, blue, and beautiful appeared inside his core.

“How long?” Jack asked.

“Twenty minutes. Better. What are we even timing, by the way?” Mortimaxx asked.

Jack ignored him, looking back to his core. Even though he’d stopped pulling mana, there were still faintly glowing traces of mana continuing to vortex inside of his core. He tried rotating his core the opposite direction, like closing a valve instead of opening it. It felt considerably harder to turn back in the opposite direction, like whatever he was cracking open didn’t want to be closed. After several moments of intense effort, the glowing around his core stopped.

He honestly had no idea what that was, but he didn’t want to push it too far with figuring it out. It almost felt like he was unscrewing his freshly installed core.

Next, he focused on his new class. The Storm King’s Executioner.

Class: The Storm King’s Executioner - Epic

Nature’s storms, fierce and impartial, does not discriminate in its devastation. However, the Storm King’s Executioners are different forces entirely. They have been granted dominion over this raw power, bending the raging tempest to their desires. Channeling the storm’s fury, they strike with the wrath of lightning and the authority of thunder, bringing the Storm King’s judgment down on any who might oppose him.

+5 Strength per level

+3 Endurance per level

+3 Vitality per level

+3 Dexterity per level

+ Bolt of Judgement [Ability, Epic]

+ Lightning Brand [Passive, Epic]

Jack stared at the new class, a little concerned. While it sounded pretty badass, he couldn’t help but wonder if he was being set up to work for someone. More than one of his abilities had made reference to this ‘Storm King.’ He vaguely remembered a conversation with Karlisle about how there were no coincidences in the Tower. He wondered what was going to happen if he ever ran into this Storm King person, and what he was going to have to do for him. He glanced over the stats, and those all seemed to stay the same. The abilities, however, had changed. He quickly pulled up the first one.

Bolt of Judgement – Ability, Epic

Unleash a devastating bolt of lightning upon your target. If the target is killed by this strike, they explode, summoning another Bolt of Judgment on a nearby enemy within a small radius. If the attack misses, or the target survives the Bolt of Judgment, then you receive the damage as a backlash with the opponent’s Vitality stat acting a force multiplier for the damage received.

*****

Rain down relentless, unending judgment.

The skill was impressive. He immediately wanted to try it. If it worked like he thought it did, it might be the most devastating tool in his arsenal. With how big his core was now, combined with the fact that he could make the ability fifty times more powerful with his mana condenser, it sort of felt like he had just been given a nuclear bomb. The only caveat was that if he missed, he was one-hundred percent going to die from his own ability. Which would be incredibly embarrassing. He put those thoughts out of his mind and pulled up the next ability.

Lightning Brand – Passive, Epic

After five consecutive strikes, mark your opponent with the brand of lightning. All lightning based attacks will seek this brand. The Lightning Brand acts as a force multiplier for all lightning based attacks. Always know the location of one branded by lightning.

*****

Once branded by the storm, you shall never escape its judgement.

The ability seemed plenty devastating in its own right, especially considering half of his attacks were lightning-based. He did wonder what the system meant by “consecutive hits.” That had potential to be an annoying hiccup. Still, he moved faster than anyone, so hitting his opponent five times before they could react felt like more of a fun challenge.

As far as he could tell he lost the [Blood Scent] and [Mortal Wounds] abilities, but the tradeoff seemed fair enough to him.

“Alright,” Jack finally said. “There anything of note left over here or did you guys destroy everything?” He walked over to where now several broken and empty containers designed to hold cores were. Only two remained. He picked up one, staring at it. Inside was a violent, black, pulsating ball of energy, and Jack inspected it.

Hate Core Module

Type: Core Module

Tier: Epic

A Hate module designed for use with an Omni-Core.

*****

Product of Andurian.

Black mana. Jack salivated slightly at the thought. Black was cool as hell, and fit his motif perfectly. He had no idea what adding a second mana type to the mix would do, but he was very curious, and this one was Epic. He stared at it for so long that a notification popped up.

[Use Hate Core Module?] [Y/N]

He went to select yes but then stopped himself. There was the small hiccup of it being called a “Hate Core.” He wasn’t usually one to get caught up on names and titles, but willingly accepting something called a hate core felt… wrong. Even for him. He couldn’t stop thinking about how much Rodeo would enjoy something like this. Part of him could even hear the man’s gravelly voice in the back of his mind, urging him to use it.

There was also the fact that his hatred wasn’t what helped him survive getting a new core in the first place. He buried that thought down, but not as far down as he usually did. He honestly wasn’t sure what to think of that. The power of friendship had saved him after all. He rolled his eyes. That thought he did bury deep down. So lame, he mused to himself.

Mortimaxx was standing next to him, staring at the other remaining core that was on the shelf.

“I could teach you,” he thought he heard the gnome muttering quietly.

Jack inspected the bright core that was floating inside the container.

Frozen Core Module

Type: Core Module

Tier: Rare

A Frozen core module designed for use with an Omni Core.

*****

Product of Andurian.

A lower tier. He stared at the Frozen Core Module. It was white, but refracted in a sort of prismatic light, sparkling slightly. It looked calm, serene, peaceful, even. Jack glanced back at the hate core and grinned. It looked powerful. So fucking powerful.

Jack stood there for a long time. He wasn’t sure how long, even. Him and Mortimaxx each silently weighing unknown options.

Fuck it. Ice is the opposite of fire. Jack tossed the hate core over his shoulder without a second thought, hearing it shatter on the glass behind him. Better to just get rid of the temptation, he told himself. With that, he used the Frozen Core.

“I’ve had some pretty shitty teachers. You’d better know what the fuck you’re doing,” Jack complained, selecting yes and filling out his third module spot.

“What are you talking about?” Mortimaxx turned to him, confused.

“You just said you could teach me,” Jack said, suddenly realizing Karlisle was standing right next to the gnome.

“I was just telling Lisle here I could teach him to play the violin. It isn’t that difficult.” Mortimaxx shrugged, then turned to look at the broken remains of the hate core. “Why did you break that? That was a very powerful core you just wasted.”

Jack looked over at Karlisle, who he hadn’t noticed standing next to Mortimaxx. He stared at Jack with a raised eyebrow.

Fuck.