Wake up.
Rory stirred, his body aching.
Wake up.
“Hurt. Tired.” Rory grumbled.
Wake. Up.
Eyes snapping open, Rory sat upward with a jolt, his body making its protests known the entire time.
“Oh. Fuck. Broken. Things are definitely broken.” Rory grunted. Thinking for a moment, he nodded to himself. “Ribs. Shoulder dislocated. Also, concussion.”
Checking, his interface appeared, instantly opening to his Physique information.
“Yep.” Grunted, confirming his assessment. “Damn, I’m good.”
Had he been incorrect, the injuries would have been listed as nothing more than ??? on the interface, until they were properly diagnosed.
On Earth, such injuries would be severe, but on Aelia with his superhuman body, a concussion was a single night’s sleep from recovery. A dislocated shoulder was just a matter of popping in back into place-
“Fuck.” Rory grunted in pain as he did exactly that.
-and ignoring the momentary pain. The broken ribs would take two or three weeks to recover from, but he’d had worse rib injuries in the past, the memory of the ghastly Watcher in the Deep coming to mind.
Staggering to his feet, Rory ignored the pain. It hurt like hell, but he had a body that could muscle through something like broken ribs.
Right. So, where was I?
Thinking back, the memories flashed through his mind.
“Oh, right. Took a dive off a cliff. Fun.” Rory muttered. “I’m guessing the Gator is dead, otherwise I’d be dead.”
Looking past the destruction of his landing spot, Rory quickly found the proof he was looking for. Maybe thirty feet away, at the feet of the cliff, lay the broken body of the Alpha monster.
Fall damage, Bitch.
Between any internal damage his arrow had inflicted, and the damage from crashing a mile worth of a fall, the gator hadn’t had the best of time. Hell, the only reason Rory had survived was by breaking his fall with an explosion to cancel out his momentum before he crashed into the hard earth.
Honestly, I’d guess that if it wasn’t for the explosion inside it, the Gator could have simply tanked the landing outright, but it was too disoriented from it to have done so.
Had Rory basically scammed a win out?
Yes.
Did Rory believe there was a chance he would have figured another path forward to achieve victory?
Also, yes.
Did Rory have any shame in therefore taking the “easy” win?
Hell no.
A win is a win.
Letting out a pained, albeit victorious, sigh, Rory approached the dead Alpha monster.
No way I can lug this thing back, and I don’t have my crafting knife with me, which means no easy butchering. Got to keep the looting to a minimum then.
His eyes briefly sparkled with energy as he examined the body, searching for whatever was most valuable about the Gator. Like a solar flare flashed into his eyes, Rory winced as he locked onto something that was shining with brilliant potential.
“The… feathers?”
Of all the things to be valuable about the Alpha monster, Rory hadn’t expected it to be the damn feathers. Curious, Rory quickly examined them.
Radiant Feathers of the Depths
Quality: Rare
The physical manifestation of an abundance of Solar Essence. Stabilized by an inherent containing counter essence of the Depths.
“Damn,” Rory whistled. The rest of the monster seemed standard. Sure, the hide and claws would be very sturdy coming from an Alpha variant monster, but he had no way to harvest them, and by the time he returned with his crafting knife the monster would likely be picked clean by scavengers who could grow stronger by consuming the corpse.
“I’ll just take my trophy and leave.” Rory sighed. Tucking the feathers into the waistline of his pants, he looked around, trying to best determine his next course of action.
The good news was that all he needed to do to return was make his way back up the cliffside and then retrace his steps. He was only a few miles from camp at max sprint, so maybe an hour at a walking pace.
The bad news was, of course, that the cliff was still a mile tall; it hadn’t magically shrunk.
Well, this is going to suck majorly.
----------------------------------------
Climbing up the mile-tall cliff did, in fact, suck, especially when you had broken ribs.
“God diggity damn.” Rory cursed as he finally climbed over the ledge. He’d had to climb for a day straight. If it weren’t for his superhuman capabilities, given he was tier-five, such a climb would have been legendary on Earth, but for him it was more annoying than anything.
Even climbed through the night. What a joke.
His concussion had, thankfully, healed, the constant throbbing in his head gone. His ribs of course hurt like hell, but they were far from life threatening if he wasn’t in active battle against a strong monster.
During his boredom of the monotonous climb, several things had become clear to Rory.
1. He needed a better way of dealing with powerful monsters. The effect of Blood Legacy was extremely powerful, but it took a lot out of him. A direct, full powered shot from Blood Legacy might have killed the gator monster in one shot if he landed it directly in its mouth, but he’d be out of commission after. If it didn’t kill the monster for whatever reason, it would have torn his camp apart with ease, before eating both himself and Apostolos.
2. He really needed to work on developing a combat skill. However, because of Scholar’s Retreat, gaining a combat skill would require him acquiring it the hard way, by blood, sweat, and tears. He was locked out of gaining any combat skills through any other means from what he understood.
3. He needed a larger arsenal. It was a similar point to his first one, but the distinction was that a single strong weapon wouldn’t be enough, he needed all of them to be powerful.
Man, I miss railguns.
Rory would have to address those points soon, especially if he intended to ever tackle high-tier-five monsters, or even tier-six monsters.
In fairness, those were Alpha Variants. I wouldn’t be surprised if they were closer in strength to a high-tier-five of a regular monster.
For the time being, though, Rory would put them on the backburner, his bigger priority to return. He was curious how Apostolos had done it.
What “it” was? Well, that much was obvious based on the nofication Rory had noticed shortly into his climb.
Wave Status: Cleared
Return to Settlement to proceed with rewards.
Rory was glad Apostolos had succeeded in slaying the Golden Shoebill. A single glance was enough for Rory to know that it was significantly less threatening than the Gator of the Feathered Depths. Still, it was an Alpha Variant monster, and killing one was no small feat.
Thankfully, he was behind the wall and had the ballista. In the worst-case scenario, he used Big Bertha, in which case… Well, what happens, happens.
Speeding up slightly, the miles quickly faded, forty-five minutes to make it back while traveling at a slow jog.
Oh, dang.
The first thing Rory noticed outside their walls was the crater in the earth where a javelin had slammed into the ground with explosive force.
The next thing Rory noticed after looking around was something that made his blood run cold.
Oh fuck, oh fuck, oh fuck!
Broken ribs be damned, Rory sprinted for all he was worth toward a tree where Apostolos sat motionless and hunched over.
With a massive hole in his stomach.
“No. No, you fucking don’t!”
The world seemed to blur as Rory kneeled before Apostolos, an interface appearing as he checked the young man's status.
He’s alive! Wait, how the hell is he alive?
“Alive” was doing a lot of heavy lifting. It was more accurate to say he was barely not dead, and even that wasn’t looking good.
Three percent! Wait, fuck, two-point nine percent.
Rory’s brain scrambled to find answers to the situation. The origin of the wound was obvious after a moment, the dead Golden Shoebill at his feet. As for how he was alive, Rory could only make a guess.
Pneuma, maybe? He was always more natural with it than I, perhaps his body has been somehow sustaining itself from it?
It was his best guess for the moment, within the area surrounding their camp the Pneuma was denser after all, as the latent Pneuma was refined by their refinement project. Did it make any physiological sense? No, but few things did anymore.
What matters is he isn’t dead yet.
But he would be soon at things were going.
Think Rory, think!
Brain scrambling, Rory began to pace, before forcing his breathing to slow and his gait to stop.
“Breath. Think. Relax. Do what you can, don’t fret about what you can’t. Panic does no one any good.”
This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.
Taking his own advice to heart, Rory started by letting his shoulders drop and breathing steadily first. Once that was done, he activated his Eye skill to its maximum, the stress it placed upon him a non-factor for the emergency at hand.
Cognition boosted; Rory’s thoughts accelerated.
Alright, I don’t have a way to heal him through any sort of skills, nor do I have any healing potions, if those are even a thing.
He could try to stitch up the hole, but it was a rather large hole, so Rory highly doubted it would do anything.
Wait, back up a second.
As his mind caught onto a fragment of his earlier thought even as he was thinking other things, Rory noticed the strand of possibility.
Healing. I actually do have something that can heal.
Ossified Blood Gem
Quality: Uncommon (+).
The result of several concentrated blood gems being further condensed into a small marble appearance by its creator. Has uses for both alchemy and specialized crafting. Those with matching bloodlines may also ingest it to recover stamina, vitality, and overall status.
It was more potent than the concentrated blood gem version, but there was the small issue that it only worked when ingested by someone of the matching bloodline, which Apostolos did not have.
Alright, but it’s something. So, keep thinking.
Rather than fret about the apparent dead end, Rory let his mind continue unraveling the puzzle before him, looking for the answer to an answerless question.
Blood. Essence. Blood essence. My essence doesn’t match with his… Wait, so why don’t I change that?
You could alter the inherent “concept” of things that much Rory knew. He’d done it before with much of his crafting. So, why not take the Ossified Blood Gem and ‘remove’ his essence from it?
Possible? Maybe?
It would be like an O-negative blood transfusion, just far more… magical.
But will it be enough?
Something told him that no, a single Ossified Blood Gem wouldn’t be enough to recover from such a fatal injury. He’d need something more potent beyond a single Gem.
More than one Gem?
Possibly, but there was the chance of diminishing returns.
So, what then?
Kneeling in front of Apostolos once more, Rory took in the scene, capturing every detail he could, letting every effect of his eye skill capture the possibilities that may exist.
Oh?
Staring at the Golden Shoebill, Rory felt a pull toward its golden blood, which had stained the ground.
Potent. Reminds me of the feeling from the Radiant Feathers of the Depths, just not quite as… solid.
As Rory examined the golden blood, an idea began to bloom, his enhanced mind quickly taking it apart and reassembling it, checking for errors or leaps in his logic. Finding none, or none that wasn’t worth the risk, Rory locked it down.
“It might just work.” Rory said with a heavy exhale. Running with urgency in each step, he quickly sprinted inside their camp, grabbing two small hand sized ceramic vases and an Ossified Blood Gem from their storage shed. Everything he needed, he ran back outside the camp next to Apostolos.
Two-point seven. Shit.
Apostolos was running out of time, which meant Rory had to be quick.
First, Rory removed the spear from the neck of the Golden Shoebill. Using the puncture wound like a faucet, Rory tipped the neck forward so blood began to drain into the small ceramic phial. Once it was filled, Rory dropped the Ossified Blood Gem within. Taking his other phial, he then proceeded to gather as much of Apostolos’s spilled blood as he could.
Alright, go time.
Once more dashing inside the camp, Rory beelined toward their permanent bound circle. It was marginally fancier then when he’d first made it, but Rory wasn’t looking to appreciate its craftsmanship now. Instead, he placed the phial filled with the golden ichor and the Ossified Blood Gem inside, before drawing Pneuma into the circle as quickly as he could. He would he preferred to lay out a detailed rune base, but there wasn’t time, time was of the essence.
Just have to hold the intent together myself.
It was mentally straining, further compounding the stress of his currently active skill, but Rory refused to even consider failure.
Sparks began to abound and buzz within the boundaries of the circle, before being drawn into the phial. Rory held the entire thing together through willpower alone until several minutes later he felt his eye twitch, signaling that his skill had determined he couldn’t draw anything more out of the hastily put together creation.
Next, attunement.
Taking the phial filled with Apostolos’s blood, he poured the little bit within into the first phial, mixing the young man’s blood with that of the Golden Shoebill. Once it was empty, Rory simply tossed the ceramic aside, uncaring about the waste in his urgency.
C’mon, don’t fail me now.
With the hand freed, Rory simply snapped, as the bubbling mass of potential and energy was activated. The small ceramic phial shook violently for a full five seconds, until going still. Peaking inside, Rory was met with a single golden-looking marble with a tiny spark of crimson within. Dropping it into his hand, Rory took a moment to examine it.
Ossified Gem of Radiant Ichor-Attuned
Quality: Rare (-)
The result of several concentrated blood gems being further condensed into a small marble appearance by its creator. It has been further improved through the infusion and cultivation of a succeeding rare form of essence. Due to essence stability only being possible through single use essence attunement, quality is capped at sub-grade Rare.
It was technically Rory’s greatest creation to date, but Rory didn’t care. What mattered was, the process had worked.
Sort of.
There was one specific caveat, though.
What happened to the mention of physique restoration?
A moment of panic flared, before Rory forcibly repressed it.
No. Don’t.
Rather than let panic win out, Rory forced that energy into more productive thoughts.
Alright, worst-case scenario its lost that capability. What ways can I address that?
There were two that Rory could think of.
1. Often in video games, a level up would heal your character. With that logic, there was a chance ascension could achieve a similar result. Which meant, he’d need to accept the wave rewards to integrate the energy grid, which would hopefully result in the windfall of Ascension energy. From there, he’d have to force Apostolos to awaken somehow, and then make him push his ascension.
2. He hadn’t used a Reinterpretation charge in well over a year. With it, he could potentially convince Eon to re-add physique restoration to the golden marble.
Why settle for one answer when you’ve got two?
Opening his interface with gusto, Rory ignored basically everything, mentally spam clicking the wave rewards, skipping every dialogue, before finally being brought to the bird’s eye view of the camp. Without even considering his other options, Rory simply shoved ten waves worth of Ascension Energy toward the buried energy grid, fusing it into their settlement once and for all.
At the same time, Rory activated the Reinterpretation charge he had. In the blink of an eye, he found himself in a familiar space, one he hadn’t seen in a few years.
“Welcome.” A cosmic entity gestured toward the chair sitting opposite of the metal desk it was seated at. “By your understanding of time, it has been some hasn’t it?”
If Rory was in a more observant mood, he would have noticed that Eon no longer was devoid of any facial features, the tiny, small slits that had appeared where would be on a human had become full on pits, black holes in place of eyes.
“Can you add healing back to this-” Rory brought his hand forward, a golden marble appearing.
“It never lost the ability to.” Eon answered.
“Oh. So, it will heal Apostolos after all?”
“No.” The cosmic avatar shook its head. “The injuries the young man has suffered as more extensive then such an item could heal.”
“Fuck.” Rory cursed, standing up and pacing through the void as if it were solid ground. “Wait, what about ascension? Can that heal him?”
“No.” Eon repeated. “Healing capabilities are limited from Ascension, they draw on stored Growth attribute density, but the one known as Apostolos does not have enough attribute density needed to repair the damage.”
“Fuck.” Rory repeated. “Wait…. So, the Ossified Gem still has healing capability, right?”
“Yes.”
“Therefore I haven’t actually used my Reinterpretation yet, have I?”
“No.”
“Alright, change of plans.” Rory sat back down across from Eon. “I want to add healing capabilities innately to ascensions.”
“Not possible, such-”
“I’m not done yet,” Rory said, interrupting. “If you can’t do it for free, and he doesn’t have enough Growth attributes to cover it, what about Ascension Energy overfill? Draw from that instead.”
The cosmic entity was silent, doing untold projections, models, and calculations within the span of a second before it finally nodded.
“Such a change is possible and acceptable.”
“Thank go-”
“On its own, it still won’t be enough.” Eon said, it’s turn to interrupt.
“Wait, seriously?” Rory scowled. “What then?”
The cosmic being seemed to contemplate for a moment before bowing its head ever so slightly.
“Consider this option as a mere observation. Used in tandem, the Ossified Gem may provide enough fuel to bridge the last of the gap needed.”
Rory’s eyebrows perked up, and for a moment he was about to ask if Eon had just done him a favor. At the last second, Rory thought better of voicing such an observation out loud.
“That is… definitely a potential observation.” Rory said, slowly nodding as if he were simply discussing theory. “So then, has my reinterpretation been accepted? Overflow may be used to heal wounds upon Ascension?”
“Reinterpretation accepted.”
Once more in the blink of an eye, Rory was else, back on Aelia. A notification began to pop up, surely about the reinterpretation change made by Eon, but Rory dismissed it instantly.
I’ve got one shot.
Taking a deep breath, Rory soon kneeled in front of Apostolos’s limp body.
“Shit. Less than a percent left.”
There were no more ideas, no more options left. Hoping for the best, Rory did what any sensible person would.
He slapped Apostolos across the face. Hard, all while utilizing Essence Spark, hoping that perhaps the foreign essence might further stir the young, dying man.
Thankfully for Rory, the theory proved correct, or else the slap was simply that effective. Eyes fluttering open weakly, Apostolos seemed unfocused and confused, until his gaze finally locked onto Rory.
“M-master?” The young man said weakly. “W-we won?”
“Yeah.”
“Good.” The young man relaxed. “I-I’m t-thankfu-”
“Save it.” Rory announced, before unceremoniously shoving the golden marble into his mouth. Even in his near-death state, Apostolos was taken off guard.
“Don’t talk, just listen.” Rory said quickly. “You’re perhaps a few minutes if not less from dying. The only way to avoid that is by absorbing that marble and instigating your next ascension. Even though you got less Ascension energy for helping in waves due to being mostly assistance, between that and the completion of our big ass project, you should have an overflow of Ascension Energy. I just made a deal with Eon that such an overflow can be used upon Ascension to heal wounds. So, that’s the plan. You break the tier-five ceiling, and then afterward I can scold you for convincing me pushing ten waves was a good idea, but we all fucking live. So do that for me.”
The young man’s eyes began to water as he nodded, finally showing the cracks in his armor as the fear that must have coursed through him hit him now that he had a shot at living.
Fuck me. I almost let the kid die because I’m a fucking idiot who didn’t prepare well enough.
Closing his eyes, Rory felt a surge from him, the telltale signs of Ascension being breached.
Then, the boy began to convulse.
You better fucking return from this.
----------------------------------------
Darkness.
That was what had become of Apostolos’s world. He’d simply been floating in darkness, his strength waning, unable to do anything but slowly fade into the nothingness of oblivion.
So, this is what death is like.
He’d known death was a possibility, his master had explained how dangerous the world was, but then Apostolos hadn’t ever really grasped it, his master had always been there to protect him from the worst of it.
I’m just sad I don’t get to say goodbye.
Floating in that void for what felt like ages, weaker and weaker he grew, until at last he felt as if he was moments from total oblivion, to stepping into whatever came-
Smack.
Blinking in surprise, Apostolos felt his eyes unconnected, colors, lights, sounds, bombarding him. He could still feel the cold grasp of oblivion clutched around his heart, but for a moment he was back. Things registering, at last Apostolos was able to make sense of the colors and images.
Oh. Master survived. I knew he would.
“M-Master?” Apostolos tested the word, his tongue felt heavy. “W-we won?”
“Yeah.”
“Good.” Apostolos said, relaxing. “I-I’m t-thankfu-”
“Save it.” Rory announced, before unceremoniously shoving the golden marble into his mouth. Even in his near-death state, Apostolos was taken off guard.
What?
“Don’t talk, just listen.” Rory said quickly. “You’re perhaps a few minutes if not less from dying. The only way to avoid that is by absorbing that marble and instigating your next ascension. Even though you got less Ascension energy for helping in waves due to being mostly assistance, between that and the completion of our big ass project, you should have an overflow of Ascension Energy. I just made a deal with Eon that such an overflow can be used upon Ascension to heal wounds. So, that’s the plan. You break the tier-five ceiling, and then afterward I can scold you for convincing me pushing ten waves was a good idea, but we all fucking live. So do that for me.”
Apostolos couldn’t help it. The sudden barrage of information that he could live was overwhelming. The fear of death that he’d so bravely pretended wasn’t hanging like a guillotine overhead, was all at one overwhelming.
I won’t die!
Nodding weakly to his master, Apostolos nodded, closing his eyes as he felt the breach. What was terrifying, was that death felt like it was a mere inch away, even closer than the distance between himself and the boundary between his next ascension.
No! Not today!
Desperate, Apostolos mentally flung himself at the barrier, the fear of death all-consuming as he shattered the boundary in a single frantic strike.
And then he was floating in darkness again. If it weren’t for the metal table with a strange figure sitting there, Apostolos would have believed he’d truly died.
“W-who are you?” Apostolos asked, still afraid it would announce itself as death.
“The avatar before you is known as the Existential Oversight Network or E.O.N for short.”
“Eon,” Apostolos said, testing out the name with a mix of reverence and disbelief. “You’re master’s creation?”
“The assessment is generally correct,” Eon answered. “The Architect is responsible for E.O. N’s initial conceptualization, though under a different name at the time. The current form of E.O.N has long exceeded the original design of what the Architect set out to form, though.”
“Wow.” That was all Apostolos could say. He’d obviously heard his master mention and talk about the history of how Eon was created, but it felt like a story you’d tell to impress a kid. There was no way the all-seeing, seemingly omniscient existence that was Eon could have resulted from someone like his master.
Not to say that his master wasn’t a great person. It’s just that he was still a person, not some divine being who could craft something such as Eon itself.
“Due to the abnormality of the variables of this Ascension, E.O.N has deemed it necessary for an avatar to oversee your evolution.”
“My, what now?” Apostolos questioned, suddenly confused.
“Evolution. Racial evolution.”
Apostolos could only stare in disbelief at the godly cosmic being before tilting his head in a very Rory-like fashion.
“Come again?”