POV Jacob

“I didn't even know you could feel your bones, how do they hurt so much?” I hiss out a whisper to the empty room of the random cottage we found. I let out a low groan of pain, as I glare at the photos of the elderly couple and their grandkids.

The cottage was cosy and implicitly clean with comfortable furniture and even a functioning fireplace. All of which did nothing to ease my pain or building fever. It started two days ago when I finished the final Spider Queen’s crystal and I almost had heart and lung failure from consuming the energy. Since then every single fucking cell in my useless body ached, my joints crunched painfully and it felt like someone was driving a white hot tyre iron through my bloody skull with about as much grace as a car crash into an orphanage.

I take a handful of painkillers I found in the bathroom cabinet behind a mirror and promptly chuck them into my mouth followed by an entire bottle of whisky in an effort to numb the pain, but like everything else it did fuck all.

The only thing that came close to helping was my slowly dwindling supply of healing tonic and even then it

didn't last long enough to let me sleep or relax for more than a few minutes. I haven't been able to sleep for days and the constant pain and mental exhaustion had my mind slowly unravelling at the shoddily made seams. I was becoming more irritable and impulsive by the hour as the pain ravaged my body and sleep deprivation muddled my mind. It was with great effort that I didn't lash out at those around me and I hoped that they hadn't noticed anything wrong.

“Well, that did fuck all” I mutter into the empty room before melting the glass bottle and forming it into a bracelet that I then proceeded to break in my bare hands, letting the shards of glass piece into my hand and draw blood. “Hahaha, why did you do that you half-baked bagel fucker?”

Quickly melting the glass shards out of my hand I wrap it in a hastily made bandage before getting the

weighted armour set out of my inventory. It was made from my broken and failed attempts at amour that I welded together along with a few weights and slabs of stone. It was awkward and unwieldy but it fulfilled its purpose of being heavy and pushing my body further.

Vigorous exercise may not seem to be the best idea at the moment and while I obviously don't know the mystical workings of our new reality and powers I can make logical deductions based on available data and a LOT of fiction. Ok so maybe it wasn't super logical but it made sense to me and appears to be working, albeit very slowly so I kept at it.

My current hypothesis is that consuming the crystals allowed me to strengthen myself through the consumption of the energy trapped within. But it did not, in fact, strengthen my physical muscles, ligaments, bones, etcetera. instead, it just filled them with energy. Energy that they aren't adapted to handle. Like putting acid into a test tube made of cardboard. Or something like that. Anyway, I needed to improve my body so it could handle its new strength, hence the weighted amour and full body workout I was struggling through, once I actually managed to put the unwieldy thing on.

The theory wasn't based off more than circumstantial evidence, a gut feeling and the fact that the pain lessened every now and again, usually after a big fight or adaptive training. But that was more than enough for me to try and lessen the chronic pain. Ella may have been able to speed up the processes but I wasn't willing to slow everyone down. Or, for them to leave me behind once they find I'm both physically breaking and mentally unhinged. Neither of which are partially desirable traits in a teammate or friend.

So I kept pushing myself, breaking myself, tearing myself apart in the hopes of coming back stronger so I could experience this new life to the fullest. ‘Or maybe the evil spirit demon gave me terrible advice in hopes of my downfall?’

“Damn, I get melodramatic when I’m over tired,” I whisper to nobody as I complete my set of burpees as quietly as possible.

The only good thing about not being able to sleep was the fact that nobody else needed to take a shift at keeping watch as I continued my silent workout. Which was why when the others finally got up they were well rested if a little confused and Ella even looked a little annoyed if the scrunched eyebrows directed my way were any indication.

Before I could ponder that particular mystery of why more sleep is annoying, Noah suddenly appeared in my vision and asked to speak to me in private, while also asking those with enhanced senses not to eavesdrop.

I look around briefly wondering how he appeared out of nowhere before agreeing and being led to another cottage across the street and into an almost identical bland yet cosy living room, where Noah takes a seat. I, on the other hand, remain standing as I try not to zone out for incoming conversation.

“You didn't sleep” Noah starts by stating the obvious.

“Didn't need to.” I lie with a straight face.

Noah clicks his tongue against his teeth and tries to look me in the eye as I glance around the room. “You know when my grandpa died my Dad developed sleep deprivation. He had trouble focusing, was more irritable, had hand tremors and very mild hallucinations.” he takes a deep breath before continuing “Neither of us are very good at this kind of stuff so I’m just going to be blunt and direct If that's ok?” he asks me in a pained voice, causing me to stop looking around the room and face Noah.

I give him a nod to go ahead. “Ok, then, um, what is going on with you? You have a pained look that you try to hide, barely suppressed winces of discomfort, you're clearly not sleeping enough.” Noah stands up to look me in the eye before really getting in the flow of it.

“You throw yourself into danger like you don't want to see tomorrow, which given your history is a legitimate concern. Your mental state is all over the state and yet despite all of this you are growing at an unnatural rate like this isn't your first time doing all this shit!” I blink in mild surprise as Noah gathers himself again.

“You're making theories left right and centre, and pushing people as much as possible trying to get them to experiment with their abilities. You don't seem to care about your own pain and shrug off the existence of giant fucking spiders and monsters like it's normal.”

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“Ok?” I asked not sure if he was done yet.

“And before this started you would constantly send me those shitty apocalyptic novels, a fair few of which had Gods take over the world and someone go back in time to do better with a second chance…” He trails off.

“Oh, oooooh, hahaha you think I’m from the future?”

“I don't know, maybe. Are you? Sudden rapid growth and a personality change out of nowhere?” Noah asks more directly while trying to maintain eye contact.

“I’m surprised you read some of those…” I say with a slight smile as I remember sending ‘shitty novels’ to Noah after he told me he was into manga. Turns out it wasn't quite as transferable as I hoped.

“Please take this seriously, I know I’m grasping at straws here but the world is literally ending and I don't know what to do,”

“Right, yeah, sorry. It’s just really not where I thought this conversation was going. No, I'm not from the future, I'd tell you if I were so we could make the most of every opportunity. Not telling you only limits what I would be able to get away with which is not efficient.Plus I would have been far more skilled and would have figured out how to kill wraiths, or at least I hope I would have. ” I try to explain while not laughing.

“Right, but…” Noah trails off.

“I no longer have care or fear what other people think of me. I don't have to fear being a corporate slave anymore or worry about being a powerless individual that most people in our class don't even know existed. In an odd twist of fate the end of the world has given me the hope and freedom I’ve always wanted. I can look forward to exploring my abilities and the changing world to my heart's content.

The old world had me try and take my own life, not because of some profound tragic upbringing but because of how oppressive, degrading and boring it was. But now I want to see what we can become and how far we can go with superpowers and magic in the mix. So yeah I've changed, I’m no longer longing for death and I’m excited for the future. And despite my can-do attitude I am taking it seriously, I'm just not being mopey and scared about it. That along with the potential second puberty to adapt to new comic energy flowing through us is properly fucking up my personality.”

“So you aren't trying to…off yourself anymore?” Noah asks hesitantly. ‘That's what he takes from all that?’

“Nope, twas a one time thing, I just like fighting and that sweet, sweet adrenaline. Although it did make you pity me enough to become my friend so maybe I should give it another go hahaha.”

“Please don't do that, and it wasn't pity that made us friends.” He tries to rebuke.

“Nah of course not, it had nothing to do with you seeing me get taken away by an ambulance and our mums being friends and everything to do with my charming personality and lovely dead eyes right?”

Noah coughs and turns away from me “She did ask,” he almost whispers out before talking much louder, “But we are friends now and I don't regret that decision. And neither do the others” He adds on the last part hastily.

Forcing down a wince of pain I mutter a “Sure buddy.” to Noah and let the uncomfortable silence fill the air as I watched him fidget slightly before he started talking again.

“This ahh, second puberty, you’ve mentioned it a few times in the caves, you really think it's happening?”

“It properly needs a better name” I mutter before continuing, “You said my blood-doping breathing thing should not have as strong of a reaction as it does, and there is mystical godly shit going on all around us at all times. If there is some magical energy voodoo in the air that fuels our powers it’s likely we would start adapting to it. Then when you take into account that our abilities all have a physical side effect, meaning they have a connection to our bodies, and the effect we are all in a very high stress environment that we will have to adapt to and our mental states being left alone while our bodies were fixed.” I pause for a moment to collect my thoughts.

“I see the recipe for chaotic changes happening throughout our bodies to better accommodate our powers and stress levels. The fact that we are all going through rapid potentially hormonal changes would make us more entertaining to these ‘higher powers’” I give brief air quotes “paints an interesting picture.”

“And if you had four powers and constantly pushed yourself to the breaking point…” Noah looks at me again with a look of realisation on his face “You get a second puberty on steroids” He finishes off.

“Yeah, I will admit it doesn't have much evidence and could very well be talking out of my ass but even I can recognise my changes both physically and mentally are outside the norm and I refuse to believe I have main character powers making me better than people. There's only so far manic hysteria and dedication can take you in such a short amount of time. This is the closest I have come to an explanation.” I finish off my rambling and let out a brief laugh.

“Well…shit if you're right then everyone is going to lose their shit eventually and if you're wrong then there is something else going on that we have no idea how to deal with. Then if you factor in the undead, and possibly monsters, get stronger and can keep adaptations after each event…” he trails off again and lets out a nervous laugh.

“You forgot that 10% of the world-altering event remains and the endlessly produced monsters can now come up to the surface whenever they want.” I giggle to hide a wince of pain. “And two of our group mates refuse to do adaptive training due to a self mutilation phobia and laziness.” This time I laugh for real at the absurdness of the situation.

“You know, I’m starting to think we may be fucked,” Noah says with a hint of dispear leaking into his voice.

“Nah, that would make poor TV, plus we tore through those monsters like nobody's business and we are only going to get stronger.”

“So it all comes back to getting stronger for the next event and the one after that, and the one after that.” Noah lets out a sign before his face sets into a determined expression. “We can do that.”

“Yeah but maybe don't be so depressed about it mate. We may have been born too late to explore the world and too early to travel space but we made it just in time to explore a planet the gods plan on making entertaining enough to captivate the higher powers.” I let out a haughty laugh and grin at my friend before a knock on the door interrupts our conversation.

“You guys alright?!?” Calls Ava through the door. “Mia found out where we are, it's like a two hours walk to the house so we are getting out the bikes but her pets need a hood to hide their eyes from the sunlight!”

“Well looks like we are on the move then,” Noah says with a stretch of his back.

“Yeah, it looks like it.” Then with a deep breath, I call out to Ava “Just give us a second to put our clothes on!” I flash Noah a wide grin before taking my top off with the use of my inventory and heading towards the door.

“Wait, no! Why are you like this?” Noah calls out but I just laugh as I leave the house so everyone can see me put my top back on.

“Oooooooh, so that's what we were doing, guess Mia won the bet.” Ava laughs as I follow her back to the others who are standing outside the house while Noah splutters in indignation.

“Sadly, or luckily I suppose, I can smell that their conversation was completely PG, plus you know Noah doesn't like dudes, like that.” Mia quickly interjects, “And Jacob, well I have no idea you refuse to tell us but have turned down everyone who tried.” She sends Ella a quick glance while I start to make blindfolds for her pets.

I just shrug “ I don't like being touched and I don't understand or like people so I don't know what to tell you.” I fuse a piece of leather around a spider's head before moving on to the next one.

“But you don't mind touching others?” Ella asks as she shoots at an approaching undead with her bow and arrow.

“Yeah, but that kind of sounds like a very unfair relationship.” I finish off the last spider's hood as Ava finishes off the undead with water bullets.

“So you just plan on dying alone?” asks Sam while he mounted his bike.

“Don't we all? Unless you plan for a mass group suicide?” I chuckle and stand up after finishing up the last of the hoods for the Cave Crawler.

“Can’t say it was really on my 25-year plan, are you getting your bike out?” Sam asks as he notices that I am still in my weighted amour with no bike in sight.

“Boring” I mutter, “Nope, I’m going to run. I want to see if I can melt the floor for more traction for my feet or even ice skating.” I say proudly ‘Plus it should force my body to adapt, I hope.’

“So lead the way chief” I grin at Mia who just rolls her eyes and starts to peddle away. She was quickly followed by the others allowing me to finally let out the cough in my throat. I cover my mouth with my hand to muffle the noise but it flinches away when it is splashed with something wet.

I quickly look at my hand to see it speckled with a bright red liquid, my blood. ‘Well, that's not ideal.’ I let out a small giggle before running after the others.