Vincent and Lupus stared dumbly at the gigantic purple meteorite that looked like it was sculpted from frozen purple flames. It was jutted and spikey on the back like a comet. The meteor had to have been at least twenty feet wide and twice as long counting the flame-like tails on the end. The duo shook their heads and chose to ignore the alien object in lieu of fixating on patching the massive gap in the jungle wall that typically separated them from the predators of the country.
They pushed their Plante ability to the max but even with an incalculable number of layers, the thorny vines simply couldn't replicate the thickness of the trees comprising the jungle. Anything stronger than a basic mob could tear it to pieces. They exchanged a look, the meaning clear; 'This is NOT working.'
Vincent sighed before motioning to take a break. At the very least random passersbys couldn't just look over and see a snack-pack. Haha. Snack-pack. He chuckled, really feeling like he was losing his mind. Lupus walked over to its progenitor and scratched its head. It seemed that whatever had granted his companion freedom of mobility during the event persisted permanently because his companion could come and go as he pleased from that from the sanctuary of the cave now.
"Alright.. at this point there's only one thing I can think of." He opened his blue window and, thinking of it like a web browser, searched for his plant abilities.
Trials available:
Silva deus+++++ (Planta/plante+UNKOWNvariable Lvl 75)
He frowned as he read how far the trial had evolved. Not to mention the glaringly obvious abnormality in it. Five plus signs was the current highest out of any he had ever seen, and he had a strong feeling it may have been the cap. He may have very well been about to face a level 100 monster and not just any, but one with outlandish potential and talent. He had seen a level 25 take down a level 75 before.. it depended on the skills of the individual fighter just as much as it did the raw stats and match up.
The only exception to the rule seemed to be level 100 monsters. No matter what it seemed only a level 100 monster could stand toe to toe with another, at least when it came to trash mobs. The elites were a bit harder to place into a strict hierarchy. He was sure that Gildarts and Zar-Rhah ranked among the strongest in the whole country, of not the world. However where they stood in comparison to one another, let alone the king, Vincent did not know.
One thing was for certain, there seemed to be a qualitative change provided by the final evolution. When something had struggled through the system enough to reach the level cap thr system placed them on a whole other level from others.
Vincent was somewhat unique and found that he could easily shrug off the Aura of nearly any creature in the Nexus. This was in part due to his constant brush ups with death and training against much more capable opponents than himself. But also because of his abnormal skills and abilities.
Furthermore most beings in the Nexus didn't have Vincent's discipline or raw control of the flows of energy that served as the foundation for his build. Most creatures were simply slaves to the Nexus. Intelligent slaves, but slaves nonetheless. Vincent vowed to make the Nexus a slave to himself.
Sitting cross-legged before the vast ever expanding jungle, he closed his eyes and breathed in a deep, refreshing breath. For all its faults and hostilities, his home here in Garkan was decidedly the only place he had ever truly belonged. He mattered here. He could make a difference.
Vincent initiated the trial within his mind… at first nothing happened. This certainly didn't feel like other trials.. he didn't feel weightless at all. In fact it was suddenly becoming very hard to breathe or even move. It was as if a constricting hand had reached out from the very fabric of space and was now deliberately crushing him.
Congratulations! Trial: Silva deus+++++ initiated!
The very air around you vibrates with intense fear and anticipation. The forest god stirs for the first time in over a millennium. It is an entity that has existed since before the dawn of your world's time. You feel a crushing pressure as you sense the beast's scrutinizing gaze begin to analyze your very soul. Your fear urges you to submit and flee in terror but your body has betrayed you. You are helpless as you realize all that is left is the inevitable conclusion.
Warning this is a unique trial from which the user cannot withdraw until completion!
"No shit.. Now you tell me!" Suddenly all at once tye force was gone. Vincent gasped as he could finally breathe once more. The world he knew slowly faded and was replaced with a vibrant green forest containing millions of life forms of both plant and animal nature.
Unlike the deadly, carnivorous plants and animals of the jungle of Garkan, these life forms seemed inherently peaceful and willing to co-exist. "That was unpleasant.." He mumbled rubbing his chest. Not only had the sensation been painful enough to raise his pain tolerance but it had triggered a psychological response as well that he would just as soon forget about. He hated feeling trapped.
He began to take in the plethora of beautiful shapes and colors around him and spread out his senses when he immediately stopped. His breath hitched in his throat, heart turning to ice. A deep feeling of regret and dread washed over him. He quickly withdrew his senses and did his best to hide but he knew it was too late.
For a brief second his presence brushed up against another. Just as surely as he had noticed the much more ancient and powerful spirit lurking within the jungle, it must certainly have noticed his far weaker and neoteric one. He cursed himself for his stupidity and stood stalk still. He felt it long before he saw it. An emerald mass of brilliant green energy so dense and luminescent that he had to shield his eyes until the light began to die down.
He realized almost immediately that the creature wasn't actually giving off any light at all, and that he was just being blinded by the sheer intensity of the things energies. Still he dared not deactivate his abilities lest the overwhelming pressure he was feeling crush him.
He could feel the insurmountable pressure of the being's will, crushing any remnants of defiance Vincent had without even trying. It was merely observing him and he was helpless before the scrutinizing gaze of the creature. Whatever this thing was.. Even Gildarts's incredible Aura paled in comparison before this primordial monster. It reminded him briefly of a run in with the entity that had forced the dragon to flee the jungle years ago, but even that creature probably didn't have this kind of all consuming power.
There was.. nothing like it.
"This.." his mouth struggled to form the words.. mind reeling st what he sensed before him. He swallowed, tongue lawing in his throat, mouth drier than sand in a desert. "This is what it means to stand before God..?" He wondered in awe and not a small amount of trepidation. As the green energy before him finally receded into a sphere the size and shape of a humanoid, it remained stagnant for several mesmerizing seconds. Suddenly the energy disappeared with a spectacular 'pop!'
What he saw in the place of the green, infinitely dense energy was.. not quite what he had been expecting. Before him was a beautiful jade woman with only her hair and a thin silk sheet covering her. At least he assumed it was silk…
The entire being before him including her 'clothing' and hair were a marvelous emerald green that appeared to be smooth as glass, like crystal. Where his companion was clearly made of plant matter, this being literally looked like something made of smooth, intricately layered emerald gems.
Name:???
Class:???
Lvl:???
Stats:???
Vincent stared dumbfounded for several seconds before scratching the back of his head and finally working up the tiniest sliver of courage. He raised his other hand and gave a single short wave. "Umm.. hi." He said with all the wisdom, confidence and people skills of a rock.
The creature cocked its head to the right in curiosity at him. This was seriously not what he had been expecting at all. How could this thing.. this.. girl be the one responsible for the bottomless well of power he felt smothering every square inch of this place? It was nearly unbearable.
Especially as he felt the attention of the creature caressing his body. He could literally feel which part of him the beings gaze was resting on like a heavy press rolling over every inch of him.
He even felt when the thing pierced deeper than the surface to peer into his soul. Its gaze felt like a vice grip that he wouldn't have been able to escape even if he had a million years to gather energy. It's gaze was both blazing hot and ice cold.. it unraveled the very nature of his existence in mere seconds.. but to Vincent it felt like a lifetime.
The creature straightened its head once more and he was sure this trial was probably an exercise in futility. He hoped he wasn't supposed to fight that thing because.. there was no Goddamn way. This was one of those 'know when to give up and beg for mercy like a little bitch' moments or whatever the balck knight had been talking about a few years ago.
The girl opened her mouth and for a split second Vincent thought she might actually speak. He raised his eyebrow in surprise "oh! Hi I'm umm.." He was cut off by what came next. He could only describe it as what standing right next to the most massive hurricane in the history of the world.
An agonizing screeching and a deafening roar that cut through the hands covering his ears ripped its way through the landscape composing the trial. Vincent felt his entire soul along with everything else in the expansive world vibrating with the force of the roar. Due to the pain and suppressive pressure he was under, the man wasn't sure exactly what the hell was going on. But as his eyes, ears, nose and mouth all began to bleed he really just wished it would all stop one way or another. The world continued to shake harshly.
A slew of skill levels and notifications flashed before his now fluttering eyes. He thought maybe he puked but he wasn't sure. His consciousness faded to black and the last thing he saw before drifting into blissful slumber was the creature closing her mouth and cocking her head at him curiously once again.
When Vincent awoke several hours later with what had to have been the universe's worst hangover ever, he couldn't help but notice he was in a clearing that loomed remarkably like the one that he had stumbled upon during his very first ever day in the system.
"This is where it happened." A young elegant voice suddenly called. Vincent jumped, yelping in shock, or at least he would have if it hadn't come out as more than a whimper with all the pain he was in. Turning as quickly as his aching body would allow, he located the source of the voice. Roughly ten feet in front of him, on a gnarled twisting stump, sat the emerald colored forest god.
Beside her was a petite blond woman wearing a white dress with pink flowers. Vincent sensed a deep power within her. Though she was short, no taller than he had been before the system, she had the experienced wrinkles of a middle aged woman. Realistically she was probably thousands of years old.. He'd be damned if he was going to say that out loud though.
He deduced that the voice he'd heard had come from this girl and certainly not the creature beside her as he wasn't currently retching out his insides again like he had when he passed out from her addressing him before.
As he studied the girl, he noticed with a start that the petite blond was actually the very same emerald goddess before him only in a humanly form. "Wha..?" He asked dumbly, staring back and forth between them. His mind felt like jelly as it slowly chewed over his thoughts. He felt like something was off. Like he was dumb. His mind was literally fuzzy and jumbled. He couldn't focus or use his full power.
The girl giggled in a manner that Vincent had to admit was kind of cute. This was the first human female he had seen in years and honestly even if she wasn't, she was still fairly attractive by most standards. Thankfully, before he had a chance to embarrass himself further the girl continued.
"This was where it first happened, was it not? Where you got your first real taste of the system and what it means to be a denizen of the Nexus?" She finished, waiting patiently for him to put all the pieces of the puzzle together with his severely limited capacity. Though Vincent had no way of knowing it with his current capabilities, when the goddess had spoken to him before it had actually crippled his Soulspace due to the sheer significance and force with which the creature addressed him.
The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
His current condition was the result of his mind, body and soul slowly being pieced back together by the healing properties of the nature around him and the Forest Goddess. "What happened-..?" He asked. He meant to finish by clarifying 'to me' but he grit his teeth and shut his eyes as a particularly uncomfortable wave of pain and nausea rendered him illiterate.
The girl seemed to understand his question in its entirety as she answered without missing a beat. "Ahh yes.. I'm so sorry about that.. when I spoke to you earlier using the voice of my true form your Soulsapce, which.. putting it bluntly is inconsequential to my own, completely shattered. It was all I could do just to bring you here and try to heal you enough to keep your Soulspace from collapsing permanently. That is a fate worse than death." She explained looking sheepish and perplexed as she did so.
She took a brief pause and studied Vincent in thorough detail. He could still feel the force of her presence but thankfully it was much more dulled than before. It was like a gentle yet firm hand caressing his skin. He shivered a bit. Damn hormones.
"Thankfully your body seems.. strangely conditioned to more easily absorb the ambient energies of the Nexus around you, and the atmosphere of my Domain is dense with the abundance of natural energies. Even still I am truly sorry. That could have been much worse.." She tapped her finger on her chin in bemusement.
She continued without fanfare. "When you first appeared within my domain and began to expand your will I thought you to be some glitch in the system… Imagine my surprise when I saw you and came to the realization that you were a sentient being.." The girl's stare seemed far away. Like she was looking at him but also far beyond him.
"I assumed if you had somehow made it into my realm deliberately then you were an entity of significant stature. Hence I did not even think to contain the entirety of my being when I.. well. One simple word was all I uttered really.. I said, hello."
It took roughly am hour before Vincent had finally fully recovered. The forest Goddess continued slowly healing him and asked him to more or less be quiet while she focused. It was all the same to him as he felt like shit, and the system notifications had been bothering him since he regained consciousness.
He received a pleasant surprise for all of his troubles as he openedthe blue window.
Congratulations! Skill: Tempered atomic structure (Legendary) achieved!
Tempered atomic structure (Legendary) Your body, mind and soul have been eradicated and rebuilt even better than before! The hands of a true master have guided your healing and made you stronger. Each near death experience has forced your biological and metaphysical foundations to adapt and evolve in small ways. The cumulative mutation of all of these adaptations combined with the expertise of a master's assistance have triggered an evolution to your very Soulspace. This is a unique skill that doesn't level, but grants a small bonus to all stats and the user's ability to adapt to harmful influences of any kind. Gain the perk: Superior genes!
Superior genes! Your genetics have evolved far beyond your species' intended limits. Some question whether you're even still a human at all as your inexplicable feats of strength paint you in the light of a terrifying monster. Due to your constant evolution and struggle Gain a permanent +10 to all stats!
Congratulations! Error.. warning.. powerful synergy detected.. recalculating..
Congratulations! Your skills and Perks amplify the effects of one another granting exponentially more power as a result! Superior genes perk has received a considerable boost!
As he watched sure enough before his very eyes the permanent plus ten to all of his stats had increased to plus 20 with a massive extra 50 bonus to his agility, and an extra 25 to his endurance and intelligence. He raised his eyebrow.
Superior genes! Your genetics have evolved far beyond… Gain a permanent +20 to all stats! Gain +50 to your Agility! Gain an additional +25 to Endurance and Intelligence.
That was a ridiculous boost compared to the reward before. Would all of his new power ups from here on out receive similar increases as his efficiency rose? He wished that to be the case but he seriously doubted it. The system strongly hinted that the Goddess had somehow played a large part in his gaining such a massive increase in power. He shuddered with excess energy.
Vincent was broken from his musings by the girl who smirked knowingly at the man. "Your growth rate truly is impressive for a mortal. You possess vast amounts of potential and talents. Of that I am sure. Oh, my... Where are my manners? Its been over 1000 years since I've had a guest. My name.. Is Vita."
Vita, which he came to understand more or less meant life in the old tongues, was apparently in the middle of something called 'The deep slumber.' As it turned out there were many gods and goddesses and they typically all entered the sleep periodically for one reason or another.
The Goddess seemed somewhat disgruntled as she put to words something that had been bothering her. "Even as exemplary as you are, you are only a mortal. And if what you say about the date of your arrival is accurate then.. you are one who is merely an infant in the eyes of the Nexus."
Frowning, she tapped her chin. "How could you have possibly entered my domain? Even if it were a 'trial' as you call them, your soul should have simply been transported to what would equate to a mere facsimile of my world.. yet you appeared before me with the entirety of your being in real time."
Vincent for his part just shrugged. "I have a funny way of pissing off the system and coaxing it into trying to smite me or send me to my death or whatever. That's probably what it thought it was doing by sending me here." He dismissed with a wave. At this Vita seemed displeased for the first time since they had met.
"You are bold to speak so casually of your rejection of the Nexus's authority. Even one such as I dare not defy its will.." She finished somberly. Honestly that gave Vincent more pause than anything he'd heard thus far in the entirety of his being within the Nexus.
If a being as incomprehensibly powerful as Vita couldn't even dare stand against the system what hope did Vincent ever truly have? Had he just been fooling himself about his destiny his entire life or at least for the life as he had known it within the system?
The way Vita explained it, her powers were so far beyond mortal scope that stat numbers and skill levels didn't quantify the amount of devastation she could muster and Vincent couldn't help but take her words at face value. According to her upon reaching the max level of 100 the average individual's Aura Manifests for the first time.
Which really just went to show how truly amazing Gildarts was as he had condensed a considerable Aura even before level 50. Auras were the true measure of the powerful for those at the pinnacle of strength within the Nexus, at least for mortals.
There was a process to becoming a God after reaching the level cap, but Vita made it clear that it was quite frankly far and beyond anything for Vincent to worry about. She assumed he would probably die before he ever reached level 100, which caused him to face fault.
Auras could also be measured not just by their physical pressure and intensity but by their weight. Auras were essentially comprised of the very same energies that powered one's Soulsapce, and they were a representation of one's self. It was this substance that the system referred to as… Nectar. Upon deep contemplation Vincent realized with a start just how often the system had been referencing the soul space and Nectar in the same context.
The clues had been there all along. The Nexus essentially told even the newest of players from the very beginning all the key information they needed to know in order to understand the basic foundations of the system, most just probably couldn't decipher what was being said due to the unfamiliar terminology.
Vita explained that upon reaching level 100, the Nectar content weight of the average individual within the Nexus ranged from 1-5 each level being exponentially more powerful than the last. Someone with a Nectar weight of 4 would be extremely hard pressed to defeat someone with a Nectar weight of 5. It was almost 1000 stat points of each stat between a single increase in Nectar weight.
Currently Vita's Nectar weight was a little over a thousand apparently… and she was considered on the lower end of the Nexus totem pole overall. Upon learning all of this, Vincent sat in silence for a multitude of minutes that slowly bled into hours. It wasn't as if time here mattered anyways.
Vincent and Vita made a fire in the clearing where the two of them sat together and conversed for some time. The human man asked some more questions occasionally, but mostly it was casual conversation and getting to onow about one another. It was apparent neither had felt true companionship for a long, long time.
Eventually the Goddess stood from her cross-legged position. "It is good to discover some things for yourself so I will not tell you everything but I will tell you at least this much before I send you on your way." She said with a smile. Vincent raised himself to his feet beside her and nodded down at the blonde avatar of the Goddess.
"..And one more thing.." She began with a contemplative look. "Nectar and the size of your Soulspace more or less determine the limit to your growth. Your body and skills idly consume Nectar to function and maintain their shape. You can call it a debt." She explained.
Seeing as she had the man's full attention she crossed her arms and continued. "Typically Nectar.. plays a large part in the system process that allows you to level up. When you kill something you absorb a portion of their Soul and subsequently, their Nectar. Leveling up and evolving, taking in the influence of others, it mutates your Soulspace and your very existence. It also naturally raises your debt."
She looked at him out of the corner of her eyes, as if she didn't fully trust the man's intentions. "You seem to gain skills and evolve in a way that is very similar to leveling, only without absorbing Nectar from others." She paused and with a flick of her wrist summoned some type of yellow drink which she happily took her time sipping.
With a satisfied sigh and smile she offered Vincentsome but he raised a hand and shook his head. She shrugged. "Suit yourself. Anyways, where was I? Ahh yes.. With each new skill and stat point you will need more Nectar to function. To be quite honest I'm not entirely sure how you've made it this far as you are.. While everyone has a different natural capacity to produce Nectar, yours seems abnormally high. I suspect you have a skill that helps with Nectar absorption." She surmised.
'I kinda already fixed that problem.. System interference allows me to alter my Soul and the system to better suit my needs.. Plus in combination with Yggdrasil and a few other skills it more than covers my Nectar debts..' Vincent thought with guilt while looking sideways and scratching the back of his head.
"Err.. right. So what you're saying is if I don't start killing other sentient creatures near my level and leveling up.. then what exactly?" He asked with a raised eyebrow.
Vita shrugged. "Hard to say. If you just keep raising your debt with no real means to acquire large quantities of Nectar you'll likely become a depraved… On the flip side.. Be careful. It's possible to have both too much and too little."
Vincent's stress probably showed in his facial features. His mind reeled in shock as he took in the influx of information. As far as the body and skills passively consuming Nectar to function, he more or less knew that much already. His skills with observing the flows of energy within the Nexus had grown to the point that he was beginning to be able to peer into his very Soulspace, as well as the souls of others.
He had noticed how his body needed more and more energy each passing year to operate at its maximum efficiency. He figured most people couldn't just keep acquiring skills and stats indefinitely without leveling up, thereby increasing their Soulspace size and subsequently their Nectar capacity. If an individual stayed at level one but kept gaining and leveling new skills, first their growth would slow significantly and then they would gradually become weaker. Eventually one could expect their Soulspace to collapse entirely..
That also more or less explained why he was getting sick at the end of his first year in the system. Before he had unlocked system interference and begun absorbing Nectar from other sources, his own reserves were becoming inadequate.
To have Vita, a literal Goddess of unknown age, fill in all the pieces was more mind-boggling than he could currently handle. And there were still questions he had no answers for. As an example Vita raised a good point. He knew what would happen if you didn't have enough energy to satiate your Soulspace but what if you had too much power?
At one point in time using powerful skills of higher rarity proved too much for his body to handle but anymore it seemed as if any new ability he gained only added to his strength, durability and stabilization. He wasn't technically a depraved and he did not exhibit any of their behaviors but he may as well have been, the way his abilities worked. Even the system labeled him a heretic.
Everything with him seemed backwards and counterintuitive. The more he learned about how the system functioned as a whole, the more questions he was left with. This frustrated the man to no end…
"What is your answer then?" The unfathomably powerful being before him asked through her mortal avatar. Vincent jumbled from his thoughts, sighed tiredly. Not seeing much else of a choice he slapped his cheeks with his palms.
"Well.. This doesn't change anything. Obviously I can't just give up. I've got to find my purpose in this life just like any other person or thing. I don't think I'll ever come anywhere close the likes of your power.. not in a million years. But I refuse to just roll over and take whatever the hell the system feeds me." He scoffed.
Seemingly satisfied with his answer the smiling girl nodded. "Very well then, Vincent of the planet Earth, son of the human race. It is just as I thought. I have sensed your heart and it is pure. Your intentions need neither be noble nor selfish as long as they are true to themselves..." She explained.
"...That is the lesson the system demands for any who seek true power. You must have the will to take what you want and the strength to never give up. You have proven to be quite promising. At the very least you shall be very entertaining, if nothing else. Along your journey.. you shall have my guidance.." As she spoke she had slowly drifted closer and closer to him until she stood on her toes to rest a hand on his chest and plant a kiss on his cheek.
He gasped in shock as a jolt passed seemingly through the kiss and into his body. The world faded once more and he was slammed back into his body with the force of a lightning bolt but strangely there was no pain.. only power.
Congratulations! Unique ability: Blessing of Silva deus (???) User may call upon the blessing of the forest god to achieve impossible feats. During this time, no new skills nor Perks may be obtained. During this time no player nor skill XP aside from those pertaining to the blessing shall be received. For an unspecified amount of time in relation to the amount of power borrowed from the Goddess, users' regenerations will be reduced.
As his eyes snapped open he could feel each of his abilities flare to life. A massive sheen of emerald fire engulfed him and when it cleared a dense green power covered him. The rest of the characteristics for his trademark blue Aura imitation burst to life around him. One of his eyes was a piercing blue and the other a bloody red. The major difference being each eye had green slits at the center rather than his regular black ones.
His multitude of abilities was vastly amplified by the power of Silva Deus, each bursting with the energy of a nuclear warhead. He didn't understand how his body even managed to contain such power. With a hearty chuckle he had the sudden realization that even the multitude of skills that boosted his physical body and allowed him to manipulate energies must have also been amplified.
In his current state the efficiency of his abilities, according to his armor, was 1 million percent! It was incredible.. a power unlike any he had ever known coursed through him. As he stretched out his senses he saw everything around him for half a mile. Every ant, every tree, every giant monster. He could peer deeper, beyond the surface.
He saw the elements that comprised all things at a subatomic level, and the flows of energy that powered them. He didn't even know how it was possible to feel this good! He felt Like he could have turned around and crushed the very mountain he lived in with a single blow. He was even half tempted to try it but he grit his teeth and shook his head.
He wanted to fight the entire world.. the Fang, the Dragon, Gildarts.. The power was most definitely messing with his head. It was amplifying all of his thoughts and feelings to a level that even with all his training he had no hope to control.
He had to focus and complete his task quickly. Before he got carried away. Deftly he noticed that, quite likely because of their soul bond, his armor, sword, shield and companion all had massive boots of their own but he couldn't focus on that.
As he focused his perception to try and understand the entirety of the damaged parts of the Jungle wall, Vincent couldn't help but suck in a breath. The information was like a massive flood that was hard to describe. He was sure if his capabilities weren't being ridiculously boosted by an ability that was similar to something right out of a dragon ball z episode, his head would have exploded with the influx of info.
As it was, it was truly invigorating to suddenly see, hear, taste, smell and practically touch everything around him simultaneously. It was as if he had been missing a piece of him his entire life and suddenly he was complete and whole. He could do anything. He was part of everything. He was finally able to relax... But he didn't. Instead he grit his teeth once more and raised his arm, channeling every bit of power and will he could muster in his super amped up state.
Using his spirit fusion he borrowed the intent and focus of his companion, his equipment and his pack to further amplify his already considerable abilities. His efficiency was skyrocketing with the coalition of effectively four Goddess empowered souls as well as all of his pack support. His efficiency eventually capped at just over ten million percent as he unleashed his devastating ability.
Well.. it could have been devastating anyways. Given the vast control and will power he had over his abilities it was truthfully a smooth and graceful process that was deliberately limited to the intended area of effect.
It was as if the trunk of Yggdrasil itself exploded from the ground, spewing thorny, glowing branches left and right to completely envelop the massive hole left by the impact of the meteorite. With a grace and control that only Vincent was capable of, he twisted and layered the branches so that the defensive Wall surrounding his home would be even more sturdy than ever before.
With his perception based abilities being boosted to such an extreme it was child's play to deftly create an elaborate entrance and exit system that would be much more efficient than the small archway they had to use before to come and go from the jungle. The new archway was more or less the same shape but rather than just being a hole it was covered in what consisted primarily of jagged vines that were sentient enough to recognize friend and foe based on their flows of energy and intent.
As an extra security measure he added an elaborate structure just to the left of his pack's dens. On the surface it looked similar to a bar in Hawaii back in the old world, but its function could not have been more different. The thing was circular and with a canopy of living vines on top.
Each of the vines looked like a muscular tentacle that measured over twenty feet long and most were layered in thorns that were two feet long. It had a singular entrance that led into a burrow nearly 30 meters underground forming what would essentially amount to a panic room for his wolves should they ever need to retreat from a threat to their home turf.
As he finished he let all of his abilities drop, feeling as if he had just ran a thousand miles. Instantly all of his vital energies hit less than 10 percent which was cause for some alarm. Even his mental faculties seemed extremely hampered. A veil of fuzz slid over his vision and thoughts, his ears ringing. It seemed he would be quite vulnerable after using that power. He could literally feel the crushing restrictions purposefully being set in place by the system as the price to pay for using that borrowed power.
"Well.. this isn't so bad." He grunted, brushing off his knees. He looked over toward his companion so as to celebrate their shared victory when he frowned. The reason for this being that his companion was currently on the ground twitching.. last time that had happened.. "Oh son of a bitch..!" Vincent blacked out from pain.
End of chapter 29