Over the course of the following month, Yaz hunted alongside his new allies almost daily. The camp became a second home - and despite his loner inclinations, he had to admit the camaraderie made everyone’s situation more bearable. This new way of life had been accepted by everyone. There were obviously some outliers but given the circumstances Yaz suspected there was some sort of system functionality that helped a lot of people cope with being transported away from their home and the life they knew.
Yaz steadily advanced in levels. He reached level 10, and with it unlocked a new passive skill.
[Depth of Understanding (Common) – Increases MP reserve and regeneration rate.]
That had been a while ago, and he was now level 19. He had also finally seen his Echo in action. He realized a specific caveat to its operation; a Fragment was only generated when he landed the final hit on a monster. Once he realized that, he was able to adapt his fighting style to ensure that he was absorbing a Fragment of almost every monster that his team fought. And recently, his stats actually spilled over the bucket and granted him a full stat point. His status window now showed the following:
[Name: Yaz] [Race: Human] [Level: 19] [Class: Mage]
[Attributes:] Strength: 11 + 0.134?Mind: 23 + 0.158?Dexterity: 8 + 0.197?Endurance: 7 + 0.175?Intelligence: 31 + 0.136?Arcane: 23 + 0.149 Perception: 9 + 0.196?Vitality: 11 + 0.165
[Skills:]
Echo of the Abyss
Arcane Shot
Depth of Understanding
[Status Effects:]
None
Allocatable Stat Points: 0
Stat points earned were fairly consistent, he got 4 per level. Two that he could allot freely and 2 that as far as he could tell, were assigned randomly. Every spare stat went into his mana related stats, Mind, Intelligence, and Arcane. He was becoming quite the glass cannon.
He grew closer with his teammates as well. Close calls and hours spent together daily would make you either love or hate someone after all, thankfully as he grew close with everyone the atmosphere grew less tense. And it turned out that Yaz’s inkling about Paul was correct, as they got along extremely well.
But there was one person who remained a mystery: Jenson. Despite their daily interactions and his role as team leader, he was always distant and guarded. He was the strongest out of all of them as well, as they had all progressed at mostly the same pace and he was the strongest of them before they started hunting together. His proficiency with the sword made Yaz suspect that he’d been in some combat related field before the assimilation.
“Hey man,” Yaz walked up to Paul after a hunt giving him a fist bump and sitting down beside him. “What’s up?”
“Nothing much,” Paul said.
“Have you hit level 20 yet? Jenson said that he got a class upgrade and a new set of skills. He said instead of being given one there’s actually a selection of skills this time. I’m so pumped.” Yaz said, clearly excited.
“Not yet, I’m really close though. I’ve only got maybe 10% of my XP bar remaining. I hope it’s something strong too, I can tell I’m starting to lag behind a little bit on damage,” Paul responded.
Yaz could not disagree more, Paul was only second to Yaz himself in pure maximum damage potential, but where Yaz had higher peaks, he also had lower valleys. Paul could shoot arrows far longer than Yaz could blast Arcane Shots, and once he ran out of MP he was dead meat. He knew it, and it made him glad that he fought in a group and not solo. That would be… problematic given how his class had shaped up.
“You’re going to be the first level 20 mage here, do you think that you’ll get a huge power spike like Jenson?” Paul asked.
“I freaking hope so. That Blade Dance skill is insane. If I get something half as good I’d be satisfied.”
“Yeah, I hope so too,” Paul replied, tapping his chin as he eyed the air. He was probably looking at how close his XP bar was to tipping over into level 20. “But you know, I wonder if Jenson is the exception. What if my upgrade is just a minor tweak?”
Yaz half-chuckled, “Come on Paul. You’re the best marksmen we have, even if it isn’t as flashy it will still be a good boost.”
Paul shrugged, a small smile on his lips betraying his anticipation, “I guess you’re right. It’s just hard to be patient when I’m right there.”
His eyes flickered towards Jenson who was silently sharpening his blade in the distance, “You know, Jenson always seems to know something we don’t. He’s ahead of us and was a force to be reckoned with before that. Makes me wonder what he was before all this.”
“Yeah…” Yaz trailed off. “But we need the guy, at least he’s on our side. I wouldn’t feel as comfortable on our hunts without him.”
Paul and Yaz shared a moment of silent agreement.
“Alright man,” Paul said, standing up and clapping Yaz on the shoulder. “Let’s hope level 20 comes soon. Until then, I need some rest.”
It had been a long day, and Yaz echoed the sentiment.
“Right on, I’m just behind you. Catch you tomorrow.”
Paul nodded and stalked off. Yaz reached into the leather satchel that he’d been given and pulled out his wand. It turned out that the weapons everyone carried had been crafted by someone called an Artificer, after several successful hunts they had made him one. Not everyone had been posited the same class choices, some people received productivity related classes in addition to their combat classes. It left Yaz to wonder why he didn’t have that option, although not enough to make him regret his decision. The thrill of battle was something that he had grown to enjoy, and he looked forward to their daily hunts.
He made to stand up when he suddenly remembered his pack that he had left in the forest all that time ago. He had never gone back to get it. It was a small tether to someone that he no longer was, but a piece of him wanted to reclaim it. He decided that he would go grab it before he went to bed, after all it wasn’t that far away. He stood up and instead of going to bed, went to make his way into the forest. The camp had grown since he joined, several people that had seemingly been tossed into the forest after the Imprinting making their way here and leading to rapid expansion. He navigated the maze of tents and makeshift shelters until he reached the edge of the camp that bordered the forest. His mind was fixed on retrieving his backpack, but as he passed one of the larger tents, the sound of hushed voices caught his attention.
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“…we’ve been scouting them for several days…they have nowhere near our numbers…”
“…will the people support that? Many will be against needless bloodshed…”
Yaz froze. He edged closer. The conversation was tensed and laced with urgency. He recognized the gravelly tone of one of the conspirators – Roderick’s – no doubt. He couldn’t make sense of what they were saying, but he definitely heard someone say “bloodshed”.
A chill slid down Yaz’s spine, he tried to reason what was happening. Scouting? Was there another settlement? If that was true, why were they attacking them instead of initiating a merger, or even a mutually beneficial partnership?
He went to get closer to the tent to hear more, but in the shadows, he missed a large rock that caused him to trip. All things considered; the fall was quite graceful. Instead of falling face first and sprawling across the ground, his knee slammed onto the ground. The fall itself was silent but that did not prevent him from making a sharp intake of breath from the pain. Instantly, the voices went silent.
Yaz quickly rose to his feet and sprinted behind a thick tree in the dense forest, pressing himself into the darkness. He listened as the murmurs outside rose in alarm, then faded as footsteps approached. He held his breath, not daring to move. A pair of eyes, he could almost feel their scrutinizing gaze, swept across the clearing. After an agonizing several minutes and several loud footfalls, the clearing went silent.
Believing the danger had passed, Yaz eased from his hiding place behind the thick tree. He crept away from the tent, his heart hammering, and resumed his trek into the forest for his backpack. The silence around him promise him safety – or so he thought.
Just as he rounded a gnarled trunk, a firm hand gripped his shoulder from behind.
“Where do you think you’re going?” Jenson hissed.
Yaz spun around, eyes widening as Jenson’s fist connected with his jaw in a swift, brutal strike. He knew he was in trouble. He heard something he shouldn’t have, and now the consequences had come crashing down.
Pain flared across his face as his world spun. He staggered backward, Jenson’s overwhelming strength evident. In that moment, Yaz regretted investing so many of his stat points into magic related pools. His body was already tired from a long day, and as Jenson advanced he realized that he was in a lot of trouble.
Without speaking, he started striking at Yaz, his blows falling like a hammer. He tried to block and dodge, but it was without any success. The sound of flesh meeting flesh, the thud of a fist against bone, Yaz’s vision blurred as he began to taste blood. He glanced over at his status window and noticed his HP bar plummeting faster than he had ever seen.
I’m going to die. He thought. Jenson was not just teaching him a lesson, he was teaching him the ultimate lesson. In a brief window of Jenson’s attack, he launched an Arcane Shot at Jenson who stepped to the side as it whizzed by.
He heard a light chuckle emanate from his attacker. “A little in over your head huh?”
A brief reprieve from the assault. Yaz eyed his HP that had essentially bottom out, he was barely holding on. He couldn’t even muster the strength to respond, when a sudden sound – a sharp twang – cut through the night. Yaz’s head snapped to the side as an arrow, loosed by someone unseen until now, whistled through the air. It collided with Jenson’s shoulder with a resounding thud, causing his attacker to stagger.
Jenson’s eyes widened in shock and pain. He grimaced, the arrow’s impact taking its toll. In desperation, Yaz seized the opening. To tired to even grip the wand from his satchel, he launched an Arcane Shot at Jenson. It connected with his abdomen, adding to the pain from the arrow. Now on the backfoot and surprised, Jenson was the one to stagger back. Instead of relenting, Yaz launched Arcane Shot after Arcane Shot, pelting Jenson until he fell to the ground. Even after he’d fallen, Yaz dumped his entire MP bar into the corpse. Once his MP bar hit zero, only Yaz’s ragged breathing filled the air.
Blood trickled down his face, and he thought about how lucky he was to survive. The adrenaline faded, leaving behind a searing pain and overwhelming sense of dread. In the now silent forest, he knew he could not afford to be seen in this condition. Much less beside Jenson. With immense effort, he dragged himself up, pressing his back against the rough bark of a tree.
As the minutes passed, his vision blurred further and his limbs grew numb. The pain was relentless, and exhaustion seeped into every fiber of his being. His eyes shut as he succumbed to the darkness.
Hours later, Yaz’s eyes snapped open. He slowly regained consciousness, as the memories of what had just happened flooded him like a tidal wave. His HP bar had regenerated to a quarter of its maximum in his forced slumber, he looked over and noticed that he could still make out the outline of Jenson’s body despite the darkness of the night.
He felt tears welling. He’d never killed anyone before. Jenson was not his friend by any means, but they were comrades. The betrayal of the attack coupled with the grief of taking another life was a lot for Yaz to handle in this moment. He went to make his way over to the body. He couldn’t let anyone find out about this. As he made his way over, he noticed something. The same animation that played when he absorbed the Fragment of a monster was playing now, only it surrounded Jenson’s corpse.
Blood trickled down his face as Yaz stared at the clear energy swirling around Jenson’s lifeless body. However, he still hadn’t received the prompt that came with his usual skill’s activation. The pulsing energy coagulated in a small, shimmering orb that hovered over Jenson’s chest. Then, the prompt finally came:
[You have taken the life of some whose Essence – memories, vital energy, weight of a lived life – exceeds the maximum threshold of your Echo. You can absorb this Fragment, but in exchange the intrinsic value of all life will diminish, as its purpose is now mere fuel to your growing power. This sacrifice will forever consign you to the path of the Abyss. Do you accept this gift? Y/N]
Reading the notification, Yaz trembled. The pulsing orb over Jenson’s chest whispered of forbidden power. His thoughts turned inward, Am I ready to pay this price? He questioned whether this was power worth pursuing. He had loved the progress since integrating with the system, but he knew the meaning of life. The voices of his past seemed to cry out in protest, friends, family. What would he think of them if he chose yes? He wasn’t sure. He was torn, yet amidst the turmoil, his desire to survive crawled its way to the forefront of his consciousness.
Yaz closed his eyes and forced himself to face the truth. He would no longer be welcomed back at the settlement. It would not be difficult to put two and two together, and realize who had killed Jenson. While Yaz was strong, he wasn’t the strongest. And even if he was, would he be able to face everyone alone? With a deep shuddering breath, he came to terms with what he needed to do, pragmatism overcoming his emotions. He pressed Yes.
In the next moment, he felt a piece of himself tearing away – sacrificing a part of his humanity for power. The decision was made in a moment of despair, maybe had he been in a better position he would have denied the opportunity. The orb flared brightly, and floating towards his chest as it seeped into his being.
His status window forced itself open, his Echo flashed, and the skill description appeared once more before him, having changed.
Effects:
Grants Echo Consumption. Grants resistance to mind-affecting skills and illusions. Enhances all skills with an absorption effect that belong to the user or are granted by weapons or armaments. Limits emotional extremes.
Echo Consumption – Enemies that you have killed will leave behind a Fragment, that when consumed grant stat boosts that allot pro rata according to the stat distribution of the enemy felled. Fractional points accumulate but do not provide a boost until they reach a full stat point.
Current Absorption Rate – 0.5%
He forced himself to rise, when he got a notification.
[Level 20 Threshold Reached – Trial of Unity Triggered]