Night 64

My awakening was slow and hazy. My mind swam with incomprehensible thoughts as my psyche attempted to reorganize itself. My eyes slowly opened, revealing a dark grey sky and dark leaves stretching across it. Dull orange flicked across a nearby tree, warmth radiating from the same direction.

I attempted to turn my head, but was stopped by a sharp pain. The pain made me remember everything. The battles, the injuries, the victory, the pain. It all came back to me like a slap to the face, chased by a miserable feeling of weakness.

Attempting to find the problem by opening my status proved to be a mistake as I was assaulted with a slew of messages.

<[Awakened] Half Blood Demi-Star (Inferno) lv87(+50) Slain 13,700 XP acquired>

< Attained 1 Soul (Large)>

< Soul is far too pure for its size >

< +6 Large souls >

< You leveled up! LV45 -> Lv46 | +1 SkP +3 StP>

< Bonus stats from [Assimilation Bonus] have worn off! >

< Due to a large amount of stats being removed all at once, condition: Form Depression has been acquired. >

< Skill Creator License acquired. New tab created. >

< [Spirit Drive] Experience threshold Reached. Lv1 -> Lv4>

< [Death Resistance] Experience threshold Reached. Lv7 -> Lv8>

< [Power Boost] Experience threshold Reached. Lv9 -> Lv10>

< [Penetrate] Experience threshold Reached. Lv5 -> Lv6>

< [Wrecking Smash] Experience threshold Reached. Lv3 -> Lv5>

< [Cleave] Experience threshold Reached. Lv3 -> Lv6>

< [Skirmish] Experience threshold Reached. Lv5 -> Lv11>

< [Health Pulse] Experience threshold Reached. Lv13 -> Lv15>

< [Narrow Evasion] Experience threshold Reached. Lv15 -> Lv18>

< [Rumination] Experience threshold Reached. Lv5 -> Lv7>

< [Convergence] Experience threshold Reached. Lv9 -> Lv12>

< [Block] Experience threshold Reached. Lv1 -> Lv4>

< [Grand Pain resistance] Experience threshold Reached. Lv17 -> Lv19>

< [Greater Force Resistance] Experience threshold Reached. Lv8 -> Lv10>

< [Paralysis Resistance] Experience threshold Reached. Lv4 -> Lv5>

< [Baleful Heat Resistance] Experience threshold Reached. Lv1 -> Lv4>

< [Strafe Lith] Experience threshold Reached. Lv9 -> Lv10>

< [Brash Dash] Experience threshold Reached. Lv17 -> Lv18>

< [Launch] Experience threshold Reached. Lv2 -> Lv3>

< [Journeyman] Experience threshold Reached. Lv1 -> Lv3>

< [Way of the Wind] Experience threshold Reached. Lv4 -> Lv5>

< [Seeking] Experience threshold Reached. L8v -> Lv10>

< [Take Down] Experience threshold Reached. Lv4 -> Lv5>

< [Vice Grip] Experience threshold Reached. Lv2 -> Lv3>

< [Stone Mind] Experience threshold Reached. Lv4 -> Lv6>

< Acquired skill: Stamina Swell >

Class - Thresher | lv 46/50 | 9007/9200 xp **

Party Composition: Max (Dealer lv6 | -22% Skill cooldowns) | Lily (Leader lv3 | Clarity Buff) | Oldren (Crafter lv2 | 10% Material Efficiency)

Name - Maximilian | Race - Modular Human m

Achievements- The Special | Self indulgent | Sure Kill | I'll be watching you | (+8)

Hp- 7000/7000 (1/2) | St- 3170/9900 (+100) | Condition- Curse of Soul Fray | Nutrition deficiency (Greater) | Partial Stomach Destruction | Cauterized (Lesser) | Shell Shock | Overgeneration | Marasmus (Lesser) | Burned | Scorched (Lesser) | Form Depression

Legacy: Sky Wyrm ( Wind | Draconic )

Ability's: Chaos Potential | Overload | Resonation | Mana Sense

SkP- 6 | Stp- 3 | Souls- 292 79 11

Assimilation Bonus:

Stats - (+44 phys)(+8A)

Strength 106

Speed 111 (+5A)

Stamina 98

Dexterity 105 (+74)

Intellect 88 (+32)

Insight 17.6

Sense 140.8 (x3.2)(+10)

Vitality 70 (1/2)

Charm 21 {locked}

Overload / Special / Class Skills

Spirit Drive |||| lv4/40 - Death Resistance \ lv8/99 - Corruption Resistance ||| lv2/20 — Desperate endurance || lv4 - Schematica (4/11) || lv5 - Hades Hound || lv5 - Defense Vocation || lv4 - Imitation || lv2 - Petrify || lv1 — (Sen) Nascent - (Dex) Recreation - (Spd) Hyperspace 1/2 - (Str) Concussive Blast

Offense Skills -

Power Boost || lv10/10 - Penetrate || lv6/10 - Wrecking Smash || lv5/10 - Cleave ||| lv6/20 - Sharp Shot ||| lv6/20 - Spectral Arrow ||| lv5/20 - Skirmish ||| lv11/20 - Dismembering |||| lv6/40

Defense Skills -

Health Pulse ||| lv15/20 - Narrow Evasion ||| lv18/20 - Break Fall || lv5/10 - Nocturnal || lv3/10 - Conceal || lv7/10 - Rumination ||| lv7/20 - Nimble Hands ||| lv10/20 - Convergence |||| lv12/40 - Block | lv4/5 Grand Pain Res ||| lv19/20 - Darkness Res || lv2/10 - Greater Force Res || lv10/10 - Paralysis Res | lv5/5 - Greater Cutting Res || lv1/10 - Baleful Heat Res || lv4/10 - Sleep Res | lv3/5

Mobility skills -

Strafe Lith || lv10/10 - Brash Dash ||| lv18/20 - Launch 12/12 ||| lv 3/20 - Journeyman |||| lv3/40 - Stamina Swell | lv1/5

Knowledge Skills -

Complex Crafting ||| lv18/20 - Chisling ||| lv13/20 - Lethal Toxicology ||| lv1/20 - Bark Runner || lv3/10 - Terrain Memorization || lv7/10 - Knitting || lv3/10 - OLL ||| lv7/20 - Way of the Wind || lv5/10 - Seeking ||| lv10/20 - Take Down | lv5/5 - Vice Grip || lv3/10 -

Magic Skills -

Stone Mind || lv6/10 - Mana Grasp || lv2/10 - Mana Shifting || lv2/10

Stocks - +103 Str | +57 Spd | +19 Stm | +71 Int | +7 Fer | +3 Stl | +20 Wis

Piercing chomp lv1-2 x2 Crushing Bite lv1-3 x13 Ripping Snap lv2-4 x5 Healing Rush x5 Feather Faint lv4 x1 Snipe lv7 x1 Thread Spin lv7-12 x34 Scale shot lv2-9 x28 Six-Fold Smash lv23 x1 Fore-Blade lv19-34 x5 Shadow Sting lv4 x8 Arcanokinesis lv58 x1

Modularity-

Special: Assimilation

Nervous 300% Immune 300% Robust Integumentary 300% | Ardent Muscular- 300% ||| Absorbing Skeletal- 300% | Circulatory 300% Reproductive 300% Primal Assimilating Digestive 300% || Burst Vacuum Respiratory 300% ||

Brain 300% Heart 300% Lungs 300% Stomach 200% Intestines 200% Muscles 200% Bone marrow 200% Arteries 200% Veins 200% Enriched Blood |

Eyes 200% Ears 200% Jaw 200% Nose 200% Mouth 200% Tough Neck 200% | Supportive Shoulders 100% | Forked Tongue 200% | Arms 200% Stomach 200% Hard Hands 200% | Fingers 200% Condor Thumbs 200% | Demolishing Teeth 200% ||| Hard Hands 200% | Soft Feet 100% | Vigorous Legs 200% |||

Another ridiculous stat growth, as I hoped. Sigh. I have so much to do. Skills to upgrade, and level. Reinforcements and modifications to consider and acquire. I can probably afford an affixation now too.

I stare at the sky and try to think up a decent time. The moon was completely hidden, giving me no way to tell. I was frustrated, and grew even more so when I remembered all the other times I've struggled on this exact thing.

Ughhh! Skill shop! Is this a waste of- no! I'm sick and tired of not knowing what time it is!

< Purchased skill: [Internal Clock] >

< Internal clock- Always instinctively know the time of day, even without visibility of the sky. >

Well, that was a totally worth it purchase.

I began searching through my menus, attempting to find something that could fix my current predicament. No, not the paralysis, but my lack of stomach. I'm out of nutrients, so I can't regenerate. But I also don't have a stomach, so I can't eat to replenish those nutrients. Do you see the problem?

I am in fact healing, but ridiculously slow. Thanks to [Desperate Endurance] I probably could just wait for it to regrow. My regeneration is fatally stunted, but not completely halted. It's biologically impossible, the [Health Pulse] skill being based almost entirely on my biology.

Almost. The skill is still magical, so some of that healing energy also replenishes the nutrients in my body. Somehow. I'll be fully healed eventually, however that will take actual weeks, making me a complete burden on my team the whole time, which is completely unacceptable, especially with Oldren offline.

As much as I like Lily and Oldren, our team composition is awful. All of us have multiple jobs that none of us really specialize in. Sure, I can do pretty much everything, as I should, but I'm made to adapt to stuff. I'm supposed to close the gap, not fill it from the get go.

I can't be melee, range, leadership, support, and tank all at once. Lily can't do both magic and leadership at once. She tries, but it's not going very well. Even Oldren isn't very confident with his build yet. We are sorely deficient in a lot of areas.

What we really need is a front liner, someone to tank the hits while me and Oldren dish out damage from behind. I honestly still am not sure what Lily's roll is. Though to be fair, leadership was the last specification on my list all that time ago. I am a terrible strategist. Any joe-schmo can come up with a strategy, but for it to actually work requires real skills that I simply do not possess.

I have two options to recover, and both require [Spirit Drive]. One, I divert the iridescent stream of energy into [Health Pulse] to bolster its 'free' healing, or two, I somehow heal myself with that energy directly. I suppose I could also route around in my Sub-System for an answer, but I'm a little preoccupied with the system itself to turn to it.

With the information I gained from interrogating the main system, I've learned that the way the modification system was set up is, frankly, shit. Its selection and classification of upgradable parts leaves much to be desired. So, I've been working on a new menu.

Fiddling with the graphics is easy while making everything work automatically, and actually changing the way it works is much, much harder. But I'll manage. For now, I need to actually get the white wheel thingy up and running.

The once madly spinning wheel of condensed white flame had now diffused into a puffy white cloud slowly rotating like a whirlpool. This was perfectly fine, as the white energy had actually multiplied from yesterday, though whether it was from the skill leveling up or my rest I had no clue.

With an expression of will I began to cycle the lazy fog, each spin wrapping it tighter and tighter like a spool of string. I didn't make the wheel… driver. I didn't make the driver go very fast, just kept going at about one full cycle every three seconds.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

There was plenty of movement to generate the rainbowy, mostly purple electricity to crackle at its center, deflecting off the moving bits of white and coalescing into a web of stunning power. I let it spin and gained a bit of momentum as I mentally reorganized the Sub-System.

I think I'm going to make a simple and complex version. From the sheer amount of body parts I'm seeing here, the complex version is gonna take like twenty straight hours to make, and I simply do not have the attention span for that, status be damned.

After around fifteen minutes of mental gymnastics and running the driver, I finally had a decent amount for experimentation. Okay, first, I'll empower [Health Pulse]. The scattered energy bounced inside the driver and formed into a sphere that then shot upwards like a lance.

At some point the darkness became white, subtly tinted with yellow, like a sort of cream color. A memory of me arguing with my mom about the difference between the color white and cream surfaced, and made me smile to myself.

The lance of energy fully entered the cream realm, which is an awful name. Boxes representing my skills came into view like an asteroid belt. Once I saw one, others appeared in a cascade. As I moved throughout the.. Skill vault, I looked around for anything useful.

Every skill I passed left me with thoughts of possible combinations, ways I could combine skills that previously were not possible. Before, I couldn't simply fuse skills together, I had to be in the middle of combat. It was a bit of a finicky process, but I learned how to use it well.

Now, though? The skill evolution made the entire process extremely convenient. This upgrade was all about control, it seems. Which reminds me of some more info I gleaned from the system. The art of skill upgrades.

The first rank is considered the basic rank. It's the lowest function a skill could have while still maintaining its identity. Lv's are essentially the system's way of gatekeeping higher level skills. A max level skill is that skill at its full potential, without turning into something else. Essentially, whenever a skill is made, it gets dumbed down into lower level versions.

Rank two to three are when skills become advanced. Skill evolutions after 1st tier mostly focus on adding more effects, especially for resistance skills. After that is a preparatory phase. It usually focuses on control and focusing the purpose of the skill, or branching it out enough to completely cover all of its bases.

Tier five are considered the big ticket skills, known as Hero Class skills. The fifth tier evolution focuses almost completely on power. And every evolution gets more and more powerful from each tier. I mean, skills that went from tier 3 to 4 have become much more powerful, and you're telling me that wasn't even the purpose?

It didn't tell me all that much about after tier six and beyond, but the system calls them Superior Skills. An apt title considering how busted Lily and Oldren's class skills are. Speaking of that, what level are they now? Cant have gone up too muc-

Class - Grand Paragon | lv 31/200 ******

Class - Creator | lv 49/300 *******

Jesus. What the hell did they do to get that much xp??? Wait.. oh no. They caused that explosion didn't they? Sigh… I should have known. Actually I think I did. Probably slipped my mind in the mayhem.

That means Lily should have a class skill upgrade coupon. I wonder what skill she'll use it on? All of her skills are pretty powerful, so it's all fair game. Maybe [Super Appraisal]? Let's be realistic, can that skill even get any better?

While I was thinking, I was channeling that energy into my [Health Pulse] skill. The results? Disappointing. The skill became marginally faster, taking my recovery time from one month, to twenty seven days. I'm cooked.

Shoving that energy at my body straight up didn't do anything. It was a long shot anyways. I could move it around my body, it just didn't interact with anything. Moving it outside my body didn't work either, not that that would do anything anyways.

My best bet now is probably to just shred my stamina right? But what if it never recovers? I can feel my stamina recovery is a bit better since it's night time.. But again, what if I can't get it back!? Actually, what biological process gives us stamina anyways? Research time!

. . .

Well, this is complicated. We don't just have some stamina organ, which would be convenient. Most of it is just nutrient transport efficiency, but there is something called lactic acid that is actually the cause/effect of fatigue. Or at least some of it. Overall, augmenting my stamina biologically is going to take a long time, since there are so many components making it up.

Before I give up on empowering my healing, I have one more thing to try. I gather up all of the cultivated energy and twist it into a spear shape. Then, I drive it into [Health Pulse] once again, this time with the intention to pierce through it.

What spurred me to do this? Intuition. It didn't tell me what I needed to do, but instead gave me a feeling of rightness whenever I adjusted something. It actually took me like half an hour to come up with this, though a lot of that was just practicing how to shape the energy.

The spear of iridescence tinked against the surface of the skill box like a fork on glass, sparks running across its surface as the spear was halted in place. For a fraction of a moment I noticed the spear slipping in, before a feeling of 'shattering' overcame me and scenery changed.

The space was now an even warmer yellow-white, almost pale gold. All around the spear floated incomprehensible lines of text. They.. said something. That's all I can tell you. Like looking at code. Yeah, those are certainly letters. Sometimes... But I have no clue what they mean in this context.

The spear, which served as an extension of myself, began to quiver as if it were being forced out of the inner realm. I pushed forward, searching for anything familiar. I began to form a theory. If a skill really is like code.. Then maybe these are like fragments of the skill? I think I'm onto something. That energy that manifests when I use skills… maybe all this text is directions telling the aura what to do! Maybe it really is code! I've definitely read about a magic system like that.

I started scanning around the millions of text lines for anything familiar, but they remained gibberish. When the pull on the spear became too strong to bear, I let go and let the energy be pulled out. The force of the pull gained momentum as it came back, like a slingshot. It was so strong in fact, that when the spear was launched out, all the energy it was made up of unraveled!

The energy stopped listening to my commands, and began to float down towards the driver like old balloons or streamers. Frustrated from my failure, I mentally sat back and waited for the energy to make its way back. I watched the sky and searched for the moon. Nothing.

Something else, however, found me. I hear scuffling and shifting beyond the crackling of the fire. I close my eyes and reach my senses outward with [Rumination]. I then compressed the sphere of cognition into a small dome about twenty feet across, now small enough that I could feel what was inside of it.

A folded grey blanket rose as the small form within sat up. The girl peeled off the blanket and put on her shoes. She sat up and let out a tired sigh before she began chucking chunks of bark and sticks into the flame. With the fire tended to she strutted over to me, got down on her knees and tilted her head to the side, planting her ear on my chest.

I opened my mouth to speak but found that I was not able to. I breathed rapidly as I attempted to form words, but found that I was completely voiceless. The rapid rising of my stomach alerted the girl of something new. She removed her head and turned to look at me.

She flinched violently when she saw my brilliant emerald eyes staring at her. "M-Max! You're awake!" I kept staring at her, unable to communicate. "A-are you alright?" She said, quieter this time. I blinked at her, still maintaining eye contact.

Her face shifted from equal worry and surprise to pure worry. "Can you not.. Talk?" I attempted to nod my head but froze when I attempted to tilt. I grit my teeth together as I braced the pain, before looking at Lily again with sad eyes.

Her eyes danced across my face as she thought. "Um, okay. So no talking, no movement.. Complete paralysis? Can you blink?" I blinked. "Okay, well that's something. And your heart was moving.. Is it your spine?" I blinked again.

She slapped her cheeks lightly. "Right, right.. Um, one blink for yes two blinks for no.. three for maybe or unsure. Are you paralyzed?" I blinked once. She grimaced. "Can you heal it?" I blinked twice. Her frown deepened.

"I can- no, Oldren's asleep.. Can I use his storage?" She began fiddling with the air. "Shoot, he can't give me permission.." I closed my eyes to stop them from drying out. Once the strands of energy fell back to the driver I began cultivating another spear.

With no other option besides experimenting with [Spirit Drive] I exert my will over my body, and erged it to start eating itself. Now I know that sounds bad, but it's what our body normally does when we starve. It starts eating our body, unfortunately it starts with the muscle first and then the fat, but I'm trying to reverse that.

Although, I am pretty lean now. I was definitely heavy when I came here, not quite obese, but definitely fat. Bowling pin shaped. Nowadays I don't have much fat to burn. Due to my drastic stat increases, my muscles are extremely dense. But they've also gotten a lot bigger. Yes, at this point I have a Hollywood body. No six pack though, is that a pure movie thing?

My entire body has grown to accommodate the stat changes. I was around six foot two when I first came here. Now? Two months later and I'm almost six foot seven. Despite how small Lily is, that's compared to me. She probably dwarfs a lot of high schoolers by now. Though to be fair, some of those guys have been skimming on their daily milk intake.

Oldren doesn't count because he can change shape at will. He made his own clothes too. Now that I think about it, doesn't that mean he's been naked this whole time?

…Best not to think about it.

Lily continued flicking through her status as I directed my body to eat my muscles. The nutrients gained from the cannibalism might hopefully be enough to regenerate my stomach. If not, I'm well and truly cooked.

".. Hey, Max. You're kinda the expert with all this status stuff and uh.. I know you're probably not in the mood, but could you help me out?" I opened one eye and looked at her. I'm listening.

She met my gaze and then turned away. She got comfortable on the bumpy grass and flattened out her brown tunic. "Well, when I got to level twenty five, I got something called a 'class skill upgrade coupon'." She met my look.

"O-obviously I know what it does, I'm just not sure which skill to use it on." I pulled up her list of class skills and pondered them.

Class Skills-

Super Appraisal |||||| lv8

Soul Exploitation |||||| lv3

War Conduction |||||| lv3

Party Link |||||| lv5

Skill Crash |||||| lv1

Well, the question is; do you want to empower a weaker skill, or make an already good skill even better? Skill crash is definitely out. She just got it after all. Besides that, all of them are fair game. I guess it's between [Super Appraisal], since that's her main skill.. And maybe [Party Link]? Cause it's alright, but has a lot of room for improvement. Honestly, no matter what she chooses it'll be good.

"Um, blink how many times you want me to choose." What. "Like, [Super appraisal] would be one blink, [Soul Exploitation] would be two, and so on." I'm glad this girl is smart.

She looked at me expectantly as I rolled my eyes upward in thought. Any of them would be good, but honestly? I'm really curious what will happen to [Party Link]. I blinked at her four times.

She held an empty expression as she processed my blinks. "[Party Link]?" I blinked once. She shrugged with a small smile tracing across her lips. "Alright!" without another moment of thought, she tapped something on her status, and the name for the skill changed.

Class - Grand Paragon | lv 31/200 ******

Party Composition: Lily (Leader lv3 | Clarity Buff) | Max (Dealer lv6 | -22% Skill cooldowns) | Oldren (Crafter lv2 | 10% Material Efficiency)

Name - Lily f | Race - High Human

Spells: Elementary | Basic | Intermediate

Water- Faucet | Water Bullet | Aqua Sphere | Tide Blast

Lightning- Spark | Stun Bolt | Lightning Strike | Chain Thunder

Condition - Tired

Skp- 0 Stp- 0

Efficiency: 200%

Stats - (x2E)

Strength 30

Speed 30

Stamina 38

Dexterity 20

Intellect 80

Sense 40

Vitality 40

Spirit 20

Charm 34 {locked}

Class Skills-

Super Appraisal |||||| lv8

Soul Exploitation |||||| lv4

War Conduction |||||| lv3

Clan Concord |||||| lv1

Skill Crash |||||| lv1

Skills -

Mana Sight ||| lv5

Mana Finesse ||| lv1

Mana Hold ||| lv1

Water Specialty || lv5

Lightning Specialty || lv6

Stitching | lv3

Cooking | lv4

Intense Focus || lv9

Lofty Meditation || lv7

SOLU || lv8

Hide | lv2

Aim | lv3

Coordination | lv2

Huh. Neat.

I stare at Lily as she flicks through her status. I never thought about it before, but how come I'm the only one who uses my mind to move the status? Everyone else keeps flicking the air, it makes them all look deranged... Something to consider.

Suddenly, a huge window shimmered into existence in front of me. It was easily three times the size of the regular one, and took up almost my entire field of vision. The window had the same golden trim, but possessed a starry night sky as the background instead.

< Do you wish to join {Nameless} clan?>

..Sure?

< Name added to registry >

"Huh, this is neat!" Lily exclaimed. Suddenly, tabs on the side appeared, and the screen automatically switched to the new one.

— Clan Comms —

Max: What's this?

Max: huh.

Max: wtf.

Max: Stop!

Lily: This is so cool!

Lily: ..howdoitrunitoffthough??

Max: So it's like a chat room?

Lily: I guess? How do we turn off the auto thingy though?

Max: Test

Max: Test

Max: Test

Max: Test

Lily: I got it!

Max: What's the key??

Lily: Alright, so. Imagine yourself in a room, and this chat box thingy in a different one.

Why would that- Oh!

Max: That's dumb! Why tf does that work??

Lily: idk man.

We kept conversing, getting used to the concord as the night went on. We devolved into idle chatter before Lily remembered my injuries.

Lily: Oh, right! Why can't you talk? Or eat? Or-

Max: My stomach is destroyed.

Lily: Ah.

Lily: d-does that hurt?

Max: Meh. I'm over it.

Max: sucks though. It's gonna take me a long time to heal.

Can't believe I have to consciously capitalize letters. This system is weirdly inconvenient.

Max: So that's how you enunciate stuff…

Did not mean to send that.

Max: I'm getting off topic. I basically just need to make my body eat itself for enough nutrients to heal my stomach. It's going to be a long and painful process, especially for you.

Lily: ..How can I help? And what do you mean 'for me'?

Max: Cause you're gonna have to drag me around the entire time.

I had the thought of lending her my [Convergence] skill, which made a new window appear. Settings. I toggled 'Always authorized' and set it to all skills. Lily perked up once I hit 'finalize'.

I sighed, the breath getting caught in my throat and making me cough violently. I close my eyes and mentally shoo Lily away.

Max: I'll heal eventually, I just need time. Go to sleep, we can talk in the morning.

Lily: …..Alright..

Lily: Goodnight Max!

Max: Night.

I sigh and get comfortable. At least, as comfortable as a paralyzed cripple can get. I began turning the driver even faster, cultivating more and more energy. This is gonna be a long couple of days.

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