《To Conquer Fate》


 Index of Abilities

    Warning!


    This chapter is a list of the abilities of the main character as per the most recent chapter on Royal Road. If you have not read up to the current chapter, be aware that there are spoilers ahead.


    <hr>


    Information about the layout of abilities:


    The Fate Wheel is divided up into four segments: Top, Right, Bottom, and Left. Unfortunately at this time I do not have a good way to visually represent that, although I hope to in the future. Here is a brief description of the different sides of the Fate Wheel, which I generally refer to by their directions, as while certain section tend to specialize in certain abilities, that can vary from person to person.


    Top section: This section has general utility and support skills. This is the section that crafting abilities fall into.


    Right section: The main focus of our MC. This section is focused on physical abilities.


    Bottom section: This section has the most variance from person to person, and also has the strangest abilities out of all the sections. As such, this section is the hardest to quantify. It is most similar to the Top section, but the abilities tend to be more specialized and niche.


    Left section: This is the magic section, with a wide variance within that depending on the person. Think typical mage and wizard abilities as well as some other supporting magic skills.


    The Top, Right, and Left sections each start with two abilities in the tier one slot, while the Bottom only has one. Out of the four sections, the Right and Left are the most used, as they focus the most of combat power, and each of them is generally further split into two branches, each branch referring to the branching abilities from the two different tier one skills. For example, the two branches for the Right section would start from Inner Strength and Impact.


    By unlocking an ability, you reveal two new choices in the next tier. For example, by unlocking the tier one ability Impact in the Right section the two tier two abilities Power Attack and Dash are revealed. The abilities that are revealed are often related to the ability that was just unlocked, which is part of the reason that the Right and Left sections are commonly further split into two branches, as the branching paths are very different.


    Chart of ability costs:


    Tier 1: 10 Essence


    Tier 2: 20 Essence


    Tier 3: 50 Essence


    Tier 4: 100 Essence


    Tier 5: 200 Essence


    Tier 6: 500 Essence


    Tier 7: 1,000 Essence


    Tier 8: 2,000 Essence


    Tier 9: 5,000 Essence


    This pattern repeats ad infinitum.


    List of the unlocked abilities in Tormacc¡¯s Fate Wheel as of the current chapter on Royal Road:


    A quick note on ability use and cooldowns: The abilities in the Fate Wheel are generally split between active and passive. I try to make that clear in the story, but for clarity¡¯s sake, I marked all active abilities with a * after the description. I also used the mark for single-use abilities that have a onetime effect when they are unlocked and abilities that need constant focus to remain active. Regarding cooldown time and activation cost of abilities, the cooldowns are not specified, but sometimes the ability description says that it has a long cooldown, which generally means at least a few hours but could be as long as a few days. Cooldowns are not static, and as someone grows more powerful, ie, gains more Essence, the cooldowns decrease. Abilities are activated with mental energy. Like doing anything, you can get tired out if you use your brain too much. Abilities are the same. Generally abilities can be activated on cooldown, but if someone uses too many abilities in rapid succession and strains themselves they will face a backlash and will have trouble using abilities for a while.


    Top section:


    Tier one:


    Utilization ¨C Helps to use abilities in the Fate Wheel.


    Description ¨C Gives a short description for abilities in the Fate Wheel before you unlock them.


    Tier two:


    Improved Learning ¨C Improves learning speed and allows for faster understanding of learned content.


    Integration ¨C Improves ability to use abilities in the Fate Wheel in tandem with each other.


    Inspect ¨C Allows for greater understanding of materials.*


    Message ¨C You can send a short telepathic message to a willing target.*


    Tier three:


    Improved Understanding ¨C Improves understanding of learned knowledge.


    Implementation ¨C Increases your ability to put ideas into practice.


    Synergy ¨C Allows for more synergy from actions and creations.


    Tier four:


    Body Understanding ¨C Allows for a better understanding of your body.


    Improved Synergy ¨C An improved version of the Synergy skill.


    Right section:


    Tier one:


    Inner Strength ¨C A small physical boost that all helps with Essence circulation.


    Impact ¨C Gives a small boost to striking power when attacking.


    Tier two:


    Energy Sustenance ¨C Circulate Essence to help sustain body functions.


    Power Attack ¨C Increase the power of your next attack.*


    Dash ¨C Dash forwards a short distance.*


    Improved Physique ¨C Provides a small boost to physique.


    Tier three:


    Cleave ¨C Horizontally extend the range of your blows to hit multiple enemies with reduced effect.


    Elemental Blade ¨C Infuse an attack with an element you are attuned to.*


    Enhanced Vitality ¨C A slight boost to vitality.


    Power Jump ¨C Slightly improved landing ability from jumps. Allows you to jump long distances.*


    Dodge ¨C Increases your ability to dodge attacks.


    Iron Skin ¨C Improves toughness of skin.


    Iron Stomach ¨C Ability to digest more and slight increase in poison resistance.


    Body Boost ¨C Temporarily boost body attributes.*


    Tier four:


    Double Strike ¨C Strike two times in quick succession.*


    Fleet Footwork ¨C A slight increase in speed and the ability to move your feet faster than normal.


    Firm Footing ¨C Increased traction and ability to keep your balance.


    Elemental Perception ¨C Increases perception via elements you are attuned to.


    Regeneration ¨C Increases regeneration rate.


    Sweep ¨C Sweep weapon in an unstoppable arc.*


    Rapid Healing ¨C The ability to heal faster.


    Strength Boost ¨C A passive boost to strength.


    Block ¨C Block one attack.*


    Force Absorption ¨C Dissipate a small amount of the force from attacks.


    Adrenaline Surge ¨C Grants a powerful surge in physical ability followed by a period of intense weakness.*


    Explosive Blow ¨C Creates a small explosion on impact.*


    Centered Balance ¨C Help you keep your balance.


    Read the Flow ¨C Read the flow of battle to better dodge attacks.


    Tier five:


    Bone Breaker ¨C Increased blunt force damage and ability to break bones.


    Sudden Strike ¨C Allows you to attack out of nowhere, overriding previous momentum.*


    Lighten ¨C Lessens the effect of gravity to reduce your weight.


    Speed Burst ¨C Allows you to gain a burst of speed for a limited time.*


    Undying ¨C Greatly improves stamina and vitality.


    Whirlwind ¨C Swing your weapon around in a circle hitting all enemies in the immediate surroundings.*


    Muscle Enhancement ¨C Creates better muscles.


    Bone Compression ¨C Increases bone density.


    Explosive Strikes ¨C For a short period of time all attacks gain a mini explosion effect with a small knockabck.*


    Replenish Blood ¨C Replenishes blood faster.


    Rejuvenation ¨C Greatly increases healing for a short period.*


    Elemental Boon ¨C Gain a benefit based off of a chosen attuned element.*


    Sustain Life ¨C Gives you the ability to stay alive for a short period of time even when internal organs are failing.This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work.


    Elemental Senses ¨C You can channel your senses through an element you are attuned with to extend your range of perception.*


    Improved Dodge ¨C Improves the Dodge skill.


    Tier six:


    Stunning Blow ¨C Attack to deal blunt force damage and stun a target.*


    Rupture ¨C Better ability to inflict internal damage, especially through shielding.


    Lifesteal ¨C Siphon a small amount of vitality and stamina from killed enemies.


    Air Step ¨C Allows you to create a foothold in thin air with a long time between uses.*


    Flash Step ¨C A teleportation-like quick step skill.*


    Quick Reflexes ¨C Improves reflexes.


    Explosive Strength ¨C Better ability to do quick, powerful movements.


    Sustained Strength ¨C Better ability to do sustained movements.


    Tensile Strength ¨C Increased ability to withstand pressure.


    Body Durability ¨C Increases body durability.


    Elemental Aspect ¨C Gain an aspect of a chosen attuned element.


    Improved Healing ¨C Improves the effects of healing from all sources.


    Recover ¨C Channel internal power to heal wounds.*


    Greater Sustain Life ¨C Improves the Sustain Life skill.


    Unhindered ¨C Allows you to exert combat strength as if you were injured less.


    Water Senses ¨C You can channel your senses through water to extend your range of perception.*


    Elemental Strike ¨C A physical strike imbued with a chosen element.*


    Tier seven:


    Crush ¨C Deal heavy damage with an attack.*


    Greater Lifesteal ¨C Improves Lifesteal.


    Double Jump ¨C Jump a second time as if you were pushing off the same surface as the first jump.*


    Instinctual Parry ¨C Instinctually parry any one life-threatening attack, with a long time before another attack can be parried.


    Elemental Body ¨C Permanently gain bonuses from chosen attuned element.


    Greater Healing ¨C Greatly improves the effects of healing from all sources.


    Heal ¨C When the ability is used you are healed for a small amount.*


    Healing Essence ¨C Heal for a small amount when gaining Essence.


    Berserk Fury ¨C Increase strength at the cost of vitality.*


    Pierce Resistance ¨C Gives a small resistance to piercing effects.


    Slash Resistance ¨C Gives a small resistance to slashing effects.


    Increased Defense ¨C Gives a slight overall increase to your defense.


    Water Strike ¨C A physical attack imbued with the water element.*


    Tier eight:


    Strengthened Blows ¨C Strike with more strength.


    Stamina Drain ¨C Each blow passively absorbs a small amount of stamina from the target.


    Elemental Recovery ¨C Absorb attuned element to recover and heal.*


    Tier nine:


    Giant¡¯s Strength ¨C Increases strength to giant proportions.


    Basic Elemental Form Water ¨C Gain a partial water elemental form.*


    Healing Water ¨C You can channel water to heal both yourself and others.*


    Tier ten:


    Elemental Form Water ¨C Gain an improved water elemental form.*


    Decimating Fist ¨C A decimating fist attack.*


    Tier eleven:


    Advanced Elemental Form Water ¨C Gain an advanced water elemental form.*


    Bottom section:


    Tier one:


    Starter Kit ¨C Gives some basic information, a care package with some clothes, food, and some basic necessities, and one other thing decided by the person themselves before they enter The Tower.*


    Tier two:


    Ability Boost ¨C The next ability below tier three that you unlock has double the effect.*


    Beginner¡¯s Gift ¨C Doubles the amount of Essence currently in your Fate Wheel.*


    Tier three:


    Loot Finder ¨C Improves the drop rate of crystals and spheres.


    Ability Increase ¨C Choose one ability to have an improved effect. The chosen ability can be changed every eight days.


    Essence Finder ¨C Improves the change to get bonus Essence from kills.


    Reset ¨C Allows for the use of an ability twice in rapid succession in exchange for a drastically increased cooldown.*


    Tier four:


    Discount ¨C The next ability you unlock costs half the Essence cost.*


    Surge ¨C A berserk type skill that when activated supercharges abilities but is followed by an intense period of weakness when the skill finishes.*


    Ability Perception ¨C Allows you to have a better understanding of the abilities that other people use.


    Compass ¨C Never lose your internal sense of direction to places you have been.


    Hunch ¨C You get a hunch sometimes about things.


    Tier five:


    Strength Estimation ¨C Allows you to better estimate other¡¯s strength.


    Tracking ¨C Makes you better at tracking.


    Camping ¨C Makes you better at camping.


    Lucky Break ¨C Gives you a lucky break once before the skill is spent.*


    Tier six:


    Skill Tier Estimation ¨C Allows you to better estimate the tier of the skills other people are using.


    Skill Sense ¨C Gives you a better ability to know when someone is using a skill.


    Light Rest ¨C Gives you a better ability to sleep lightly.


    Tier seven:


    Tireless ¨C Reduces your need for sleep by a small amount.


    Left Section:


    Tier one:


    Meditation ¨C Meditate to passively absorb a very small amount of Essence.*


    Tier two:


    Focus ¨C Improves focus and the allows for an easier time activating abilities.


    Attunement ¨C Choose an element to attune to.


    Tier three:


    Overcharge ¨C Charge an ability to increase its power.


    Shaping ¨C Allows for very small tweaks to be made to what an ability does.


    Elemental Boost ¨C Set an element to get a boost.


    Elemental Blast ¨C Shoot out a blast or pure elemental power.*


    Tier four:


    Improved Overcharge ¨C Improves the ability Overcharge.


    Improved Range ¨C Slightly increases the range for all abilities.


    Improved Precision ¨C Slightly increases the precision for all abilities.


    Elemental Casting ¨C Slightly improves the use of all elemental abilities.


    Elemental Shock ¨C Creates a burst around you of a chosen element.*


    Elemental Shield ¨C Create a shield of a chosen element.*


    Tier five:


    Rapid Casting ¨C Slightly improves your ability to use abilities in rapid succession.


    Improved Concentration ¨C Improves your concentration.


    Greater Range ¨C Increases the range for all abilities.


    Greater Precision ¨C Increases the precision for all abilities.


    Elementalist Aura ¨C When active, boost elemental abilities at the cost of non-elemental abilities.*


    Elemental Terrain ¨C Draw power from an attuned element in the surroundings.


    Elemental Wave ¨C Send a chosen element out in a wave attack.*


    Elemental Armor ¨C Create armor from an attuned element.*


    Tier six:


    Greater Focus ¨C Improves the Focus ability.


    Mental Resistance ¨C Slight resistance to mental impairing effects.


    Aura of Water ¨C When active, boost all water elemental abilities.*


    Elementalist ¨C Provides a small boost to all elemental abilities.


    Water Domain ¨C Draw power from surrounding water.


    Water Control ¨C Control surrounding water.*


    Tidal Wave ¨C Send out a wave of water.*


    Water Armor ¨C Creates armor made from water.*


    Tier seven:


    Elementalism ¨C Gives you better understanding of the elements and ability to harness them.


    Water Attunement ¨C Increases your water attunement.


    Greater Tidal Wave ¨C Improves the skill Tidal Wave.*


    Tier eight:


    Greater Elementalism ¨C Improves the skill Elementalism.


    Tsunami ¨C Create a tsunami.*


    Tier nine:


    Greater Tsunami ¨C Improves the skill Tsunami.*


    Below is a spoiler section!


    In the spoiler tag below I have the abilities laid out how I have them in my personal doc to keep track of them. There are no descriptions, only names, but all the abilities that Tormacc can currently see are listed out, including the ones he can see but I haven¡¯t mentioned in the story yet. There¡¯s no need to look at the information unless you are interested in the abilities Tormacc has access to and like skill trees and game systems.


    Spoiler: Spoiler<input class="spoilerButton" type="button" value="Show">


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    Guide to making sense of the Fate Wheel:


    The system is rather complicated, so I¡¯ve had to create a way to lay it out to keep track of the skill trees. Without an easy way to do so visually, I¡¯ve instead created an easy-to-follow numbering system. The numbers in each tier are listed out starting from 1. For example, in the Right section, Inner Strength is listed as 1, and Impact is listed as 2. Then for the tier two abilities, Energy Sustenance is 1, and Improved Physique 2, Power Attack 3, and Dash 4. For a visual representation of how that would look, see my crude attempt at graphing it out below.


    Tier one:       1           2


    Tier two:    1    2      3    4


    Tier three: 1  2  3 4   5 6  7 8


    This means that with some simple math I can keep track of the skill trees. For example, if ability X is number 31, then in the next tier the two abilities that are revealed by ability X are numbers 61 and 62. To find the abilities in the next tier that branch out, simply double the number of ability X which gives you the first ability revealed, and then subtract 1 from that number to give you the second ability that is revealed.


    In the abilities listed out below all abilities that have * before the number are ones that Tormacc currently has unlocked, while all the other ones he has merely revealed.


    Top section:


    Tier one:


    *1: Utilization


    *2: Description


    Tier two:


    *1: Improved Learning


    *2: Integration


    *3: Inspect


    *4: Message


    Tier three:


    1: Improved Crafting


    *2: Improved Understanding


    *3: Implementation


    *4: Synergy


    5: Greater Inspect


    6: Name Recall


    7: Improved Message


    8: Fix


    Tier four:


    3: Knowledge


    *4: Body Understanding


    5: Task Focus


    6: Find Errors


    *7: Improved Synergy


    8: Massage


    Tier five:


    7: Physiology


    8: Kinesiology


    13: Splicing


    14: Cooperation


    Right section:


    Tier one:


    *1: Inner Strength


    *2: Impact


    Tier two:


    *1: Energy Sustenance


    *2: Improved Physique


    *3: Power Attack


    *4: Dash


    Tier three:


    *1: Enhanced Vitality


    *2: Iron Stomach


    *3: Body Boost


    *4: Iron Skin


    *5: Cleave


    *6: Elemental Blade


    *7: Dodge


    *8: Power Jump


    Tier four:


    *1: Rapid Healing


    *2: Regeneration


    3: Improved Digestion


    4: Toughened Organs


    *5:Adreneline Surge


    *6: Strength Boost


    *7: Block


    *8: Force Absorption


    *9:Explosive Blow


    *10: Sweep


    *11: Elemental Perception


    *12: Double Strike


    *13: Centered Balance


    *14: Read the Flow


    *15: Firm Footing


    *16: Fleet Footwork


    Tier five:


    *1: Replenish Blood


    *2: Rejuvenation


    *3: Undying


    *4: Sustain Life


    9: Channel Strength


    10: Illusionary Muscles


    *11: Muscle Enhancement


    *12: Bone Compression


    13: Parry


    14: Shield Bash


    15: Stand Firm


    16: Force Redirection


    17: Air Compression


    *18: Explosive Strikes


    19: Essence Blade


    *20: Whirlwind


    *21: Elemental Senses


    *22: Elemental Boon


    *23: Bone Breaker


    *24: Sudden Strike


    25: Combat Dance


    26: Greater Balance


    *27: Improved Dodge


    28: Blur


    29: Weight Transfer


    *30: Lighten


    31: Rebound


    *32: Speed Burst


    Tier six:


    1: Slow Bleeding


    *2: Improved Healing


    *3: Recover


    4: Essence Heal


    5: Relentless


    *6: Lifesteal


    *7: Greater Sustain Life


    *8: Unhindered


    *21: Explosive Strength


    *22: Sustained Strength


    *23: Tensile Strength


    *24: Body Durability


    35: Detonation


    36: Explosion


    39: Blow Away


    40: Rising Cyclone


    41: Improved Elemental Senses


    *42: Water Senses


    *43: Elemental Aspect


    *44: Elemental Strike


    *45: Rupture


    *46: Stunning Blow


    47: Execute


    48: Quick Strikes


    *59: Air Step


    60: Slow Fall


    *63: Flash Step


    *64: Quick Reflexes


    Tier seven:


    *3: Greater Healing


    *4: Heal


    5: Improved Recover


    *6: Healing Essence


    11: Encapsulated Vitality


    *12: Greater Lifesteal


    13: Breathless


    14: Bloodless


    15: Lesser Offensive Rage


    16: Lesser Defensive Rage


    41: Smash


    *42: Berserk Fury


    43: Strength of Arm


    44: Strength of Leg


    *45: Pierce Resistance


    *46: Slash Resistance


    47: Steel Skin


    48: Increased Defense


    83: Improved Water Senses


    84: Sense Water Disturbance


    *85: Elemental Body


    86: Elemental Resistance


    87: Improved Elemental Strike


    *88: Water Strike


    89: Shatter


    *90: Crush


    91: Bash


    92: Hamstring


    *117: Double Jump


    118: Create Footing


    125: Greater Flash Step


    126: Instant Acceleration


    127: Hurricane Strike


    *128: Instinctual Parry


    Tier eight:


    5: Healing Coma


    6: Focused Healing


    7: Greater Heal


    8: Healing Connection


    11: Improved Healing Essence


    12: Caloric Healing


    *23: Stamina Drain


    24: Blood Osmosis


    83: Berserk Rage


    84: Furious Blow


    89: Improved Pierce Resistance


    90: Taut Muscles


    91: Improved Slash Resistance


    92: Firm Muscles


    95: Greater Defense


    96: Natural Armor


    *169: Elemental Recovery


    170: Elemental Defense


    175: Improved Water Strike


    176: Jet Slash


    *179: Strengthened Blows


    180: Sledgehammer


    233: Air Walk


    234: Momentum Shift


    255: Defensive Sphere


    256: Lightning Slash


    Tier nine:


    45: Enhanced Bleed


    46: Life Guardian


    *337: Basic Elemental Form Water


    *338: Healing Water


    *357: Giant¡¯s Strength


    358: Giant¡¯s Weapon


    Tier ten:


    *673: Elemental Form Water


    674: Water Limb Extension


    675: Improved Healing Water


    676: Water of Life


    713: Giant Growth


    *714: Decimating Fist


    Tier eleven:


    *1,345: Advanced Elemental Form Water


    1,346: Water Resonant Body


    1,427: Greater Decimating Fist


    1,428: Unarmed Blows


    Tier twelve:


    2,689: Turn to Water


    2,690: Water Body Augmentation


    Bottom section:


    Tier one:


    *1: Starter Kit


    Tier two:


    *1: Ability Boost


    *2: Beginner¡¯s Gift


    Tier three:


    *1: Ability Increase


    *2: Reset


    *3: Loot Finder


    *4: Essence finder


    Tier four:


    *1: Surge


    *2: Ability Perception


    3: Rapid Fire


    4: Item Reset


    5: Artifact Boost


    *6: Compass


    *7: Hunch


    *8: Discount


    Tier five:


    1: Blood Charge


    2: Crystal Detonation


    3: Keen Eye


    *4: Strength Estimation


    *11: Tracking


    *12: Camping


    *13: Lucky Break


    14: Puzzler


    15: Haggle


    16: Pricing


    Tier six:


    *7: Skill Tier Estimation


    *8: Skill Sense


    21: Improved Tracking


    22: Details


    23: Improved Camping


    *24: Light Rest


    25: Charisma


    26: Handsome


    Tier seven:


    13: Lockpicking


    14: Personality Gauge


    15: Improved Skill Sense


    16: Item Sense


    47: Sleep


    *48: Tireless


    Tier eight:


    95: Combat Wake Up


    96: Night Owl


    Left section:


    Tier one:


    *1: Meditation


    2: Force Ball


    Tier two:


    *1: Focus


    *2: Attunement


    Tier Three:


    *1: Overcharge


    *2: Shaping


    *3: Elemental Boost


    *4: Elemental Blast


    Tier four:


    *1: Improved Overcharge


    2: Delayed Release


    *3: Improved Range


    *4: Improved Precision


    5: Elemental Totem


    *6: Elemental Casting


    *7: Elemental Shock


    *8: Elemental Shield


    Tier five:


    *1: Rapid Casting


    *2: Improved Concentration


    *5: Greater Range


    6: Splash Damage


    *7: Greater Precision


    8: Sniper


    *11: Elementalist Aura


    *12: Elementalist Terrain


    13: Elemental Burst


    *14: Elemental Wave


    *15: Elemental Armor


    16: Elemental Wall


    Tier six:


    1: Chain Casting


    2: Flow Casting


    *3: Greater Focus


    *4: Mental Resistance


    9: Increased Projectile Speed


    10: Rapid Water Bolt


    13: Homing


    14: Piercing


    *21: Aura of Water


    *22: Elementalist


    *23: Water Domain


    *24: Water Control


    *27: Tidal Wave


    28: Waterspout


    *29: Water Armor


    30: Water Viscosity


    Tier seven:


    5: Mental Power


    6: Multitasking


    7: Mental fortitude


    8: Energy Resistance


    41: Water Boost


    42: Aura of Water Control


    *43: Elementalism


    *44: Water Attunement


    45: Water Defense Domain


    46: Water Offense Domain


    47: Improved Water Control


    48: Ranged Water Control


    *53: Greater Tidal Wave


    54: Downpour


    57: Improved Water Armor


    58: Water Armor Regeneration


    Tier eight:


    *85: Greater Elementalism


    86: Sense Elements


    87: Water Seed


    88: Create Water


    *105: Tsunami


    106: Flood


    Tier nine:


    169: Commune with Elements


    170: Sense Leylines


    *209: Greater Tsunami


    210: Water Hand


    Tier ten:


    417: Whirlpool


    418: Typhoon

 Chapter 1

    The only remarkable thing about the stone cave was the glowing moss, not something native to most caves. It covered an entire wall, the moss creeping up from the floor to meet the drip of water near the ceiling of the cave. The rest of the room was empty, or it was until it wasn¡¯t, the center of the cave suddenly occupied by a young man, naked as the day he was born. One moment there was nothing, and the next a man was lying down flat on his back, eyes closed, hands by his sides, appearing as if asleep.


    Opening his eyes, the man sat up, feeling the caress of cold air flowing across his skin. He glanced around, seemingly confused as to his surroundings. He didn¡¯t remember going to sleep on a stone floor, and he usually slept with some form of clothing on. But neither his location nor his state of undress caused him alarm. He knew there was a reason for it. He hadn¡¯t quite worked out what that was yet, but he knew he was where he should be, wherever that was.


    Sitting up, he ran his hands along the cool stone floor. At first he thought he was in cave, but he didn¡¯t remember natural caves being this smooth, the stone below him reminiscent of an ancient streambed, washed smooth by generation of water. That combined with the glowing moss meant someone had likely put him here. He wasn¡¯t sure who, but he was here for a reason, a purpose. What that was he wasn¡¯t quite sure yet, but he thought he could figure it out if he waited for a while. In the meantime he just sat on the floor with a vacant look on his face and stared at the moss covered wall in front of him.


    A short while passed like that, the man sitting on the cave floor with a glazed look in his eyes, drool threatening to spill from his slightly open mouth. Then his eyes lit up, full conscious thought returning to him. Tormacc, that was his name. It meant he who conquers, although he wasn¡¯t sure why that was important, but it was. Standing up, Tormacc glanced around the room he was in with wariness. He still wasn¡¯t sure where he was, but he had a feeling it wasn¡¯t safe. He was missing most of his memories, but now he knew he should be. They weren¡¯t missing, exactly, but someone had taken them and locked them up somewhere inside his mind. And he had consented to it. It came with doing what he was doing, and he was definitely supposed to be doing something.


    After confirming that there wasn¡¯t anything dangerous in his immediate vicinity, he concentrated inwards, taking a mental inventory of his physical condition. Tormacc was a fit young man, with muscle definition clearly visible under his light brown skin. He had mahogany colored eyes, dark hair, which was currently cut short, as well as a few days stubble. He had no trouble moving his body, and everything was as he felt it should be, except for one thing. There was a strange feeling in his head that he didn¡¯t remember being there, almost as if he had another limb he had never used before.


    Narrowing his eyes, Tormacc tried to move this new phantom limb, trying to trace the feeling to its source. It felt like trying to wiggle your ears. He was sure he could do it, but every time he tried something else moved instead. But this phantom feeling was clearly important, and he wasn¡¯t someone to give up when things got hard. He had a hunch this sensation in his head related to what he was supposed to be doing.


    It happened suddenly, one moment he was scrunching his nose and waggling his eyebrows and the next he felt something new in his head. It felt like part of his body, but he knew it wasn¡¯t there yesterday. He would have remembered if he could feel a wheel inside his head. He wasn¡¯t sure what to call it, but a wheel was a close comparison.


    The wheel was definitely inside his head, but he thought it wasn¡¯t a physical thing. More of a mental image that was strangely solid. Visualizing the wheel in an imaginary mind space, he examined it more closely, finding some writing on it. The wheel, basically a solid disc, was made of all one material but had some inscriptions in the center section. In the very center was a circle with the number ten in it. Surrounding that circle was another circle with four sections, one on the top, bottom, right, and left, which was where the writing was. Three of those sections were further subdivided into two more sections. The two parts of the top section had the words Utilization and Description, the right side had Inner Strength and Impact, the left section had Meditation and Force Ball, and the bottom section was fully taken up by Starter Kit.


    Tormacc felt he should know what all of it meant, or at least he had the knowledge somewhere. The strange disc was definitely related to his situation, and the more he examined it the more he felt it was central to his current circumstances. As he got used to the feeling of examining the disc he noticed he could click on the different words. He was about to try selecting one of the sections to see what would happen but stopped. There was more to this. He knew something would happen if he selected a section, although not what, but he had a feeling is wasn¡¯t a choice he could undo.


    Turning his focus back to the outside world, Tormacc paced around his small cave, his bare feet sliding across the smooth stone floor as he pondered his current situation. What did he know? He had woken up naked in a likely man-made cave, but he was supposed to be here. He had something he was supposed to be doing, but he didn¡¯t know what. Yesterday he didn¡¯t have anything in his head, but he now had a strange disc. The disc was the key. He had first noticed it from the unique energy it gave off, and even now he could feel it pulsing in his head.Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.


    He had the option of leaving the cave and ignoring the disc, but he felt like that was the wrong thing to do. He needed information, and the disc had answers, he could feel it. Turning back inwards, he once more contemplated the words on the disc, debating which section to select. The disc seemed to be part of him, and after feeling it for a while, he came to the conclusion that there was some sort of energy contained within, and that energy could be channeled into any of the four sections of the disc, or maybe more accurately the seven sections, as he could only select one of the subdivided sections. From what he could tell, he only had one choice at the moment. He could only light up one of the sections.


    He needed information more than anything else since he was missing most of his memories, and with that in mind, selecting either Utilization, Description, or Starter Kit seemed to be his best options. The first two seemed like they were viable options at first glance, but as he mulled over it more he realized that Starter Kit was the obvious choice, and it wasn¡¯t the words that decided it for him. The sections were all subdivided into two except for the bottom, and if the disc worked how he thought it did, selecting a section would light it up and something would happen. By selecting the bottom section with Starter Kit he would be lighting up the largest section, which seemed meaningful to him, although he had nothing to back up that gut feeling.


    Satisfied with his reasoning, such as it was, he spent some more time trying to see if he could notice anything else, but finding nothing that would affect his decision, he used his new phantom limb to click on the bottom section of the disc.


    The change was immediate, and Tormacc could feel as the ten in the center of the disc ticked down to zero while the bottom section marked with Starter Kit lit up. As soon as the entire area finished glowing he felt his head fill with information and, with a popping noise, a box sprung into existence in front of him, settling onto the stone floor with a dull thunk.


    It only took a scant few seconds for him to digest the information, as he had already known it before. It was more like his memory was unlocking than him learning new information. With the flood of memories he got back he now knew his purpose and where he was. The place he was in had many names, but it was most commonly called The Tower. And his job was to climb it, accruing achievements for his people back home, although he still couldn¡¯t remember who his people were. This was his sacred duty, and what he had been training for his whole life.


    The disc in his head was called a Fate Wheel, and by absorbing Essence he could light up different sections, obtaining special powers, knowledge, and abilities. The number in the middle of the Fate Wheel was Essence, which was currently sitting at zero after he unlocked his first section. He could get more Essence by absorbing it from his surroundings, a very slow process, from special resources, or by killing living things.


    The base Starter Kit came with two things, basic knowledge, and the box in front of him. Opening it up, Tormacc found some leather clothing, boots, a small dagger, more of a cooking knife than a true weapon, some flint and steel, a small pack, some dried food, and a water flask. Trying the clothes on, he was pleasantly surprised to find out they fit him perfectly. Apparently it wasn¡¯t a one size fits all deal, which he was grateful for. He had a feeling he was taller than most people, although he couldn¡¯t be sure without his memories.


    After addressing the contents of the box he then moved on to the last and most important thing the Starter Kit gave him: a short message. Every other person who unlocked the Starter Kit would also have access to the information and the care package, but the third thing it offered was unique to each person. It wasn¡¯t random, and he had actually been the one to decide what else he got before he entered The Tower. He wasn¡¯t sure exactly how it all worked, or what else he could have received, but if the message was right, the knowledge he told himself was by far more valuable than anything else he could have gotten.


    Acting on the message from his past self, Tormacc sat down on the floor with his legs crossed. After taking some deep breaths to steady himself, he raised his left hand to his mouth and bit the second section of his pinky finger, drawing blood. He then stuck out his tongue as far as it would go and with a slow deliberate stroke smeared a line of blood on his tongue from the back to the tip. Then he waited.


    It took a couple of minutes, but as he sat there breathing in through his nose and out through his mouth his tongue started to burn. It started out as small pinpricks of pain where he smeared the blood before spreading to his whole tongue, and after that throughout his entire body. From the message he had received he expected pain, but it was more the pain of overworked muscles than true pain. It felt like his body was coming alive, each pore expanding and pulsing, drawing in energy and super charging his physique.


    The power continued to build within him, and once it reached a certain threshold he could feel it making strange patterns, engraving lines of power into his bones, muscles, and tendons. And then it happened again. And again. The pattern of energy being drawn in before being channeled into his body continued nine times, and on the tenth time, Tormacc could feel something was different. This time instead of the power being channeled into his body, it was channeled inwards. At first he wasn¡¯t sure where it was going, but then he realized: it was going towards his Fate Wheel.


    Following the flow of energy, he watched in fascination as it twisted together, forming a current of power that was steady being absorbed by his Fate wheel. The stream grew and grew, and as he watched, the number in the middle of his Fate Wheel ticked up from zero to one. And it didn¡¯t stop there. It continued to grow, slowly at first, but as the flow of power expanded the numbers increased, five, ten, twenty, thirty. At thirty he could feel the energy slowing down, and when his body finally stopped pulling in energy his Fate Wheel had a total of thirty-seven Essence in it.

 Chapter 2

    Tormacc hadn¡¯t been sure what to expect when he activated the ritual. He hadn¡¯t even been sure it would work. The message from his past self was limited in length, so there was a lot of information missing. From the message, it sounded like people weren¡¯t allowed to bring things in with them when they entered The Tower, and this included augments to their physical body or magic power they had previously accumulated. Essence was the only form of energy allowed in the tower. But his people had thought up an ingenious solution to get around that.


    From birth, his body had been conditioned and guided to grow in a certain way to activate a ritual. If that ritual had been activated outside The Tower, he would have lost it on entry. But because it was dormant in his body, The Tower instead recognized it as just another part of him, which it was, so when his body reformed in The Tower the components for the ritual came with it. And because it was activated in the tower and drew on Essence, it was part of The Tower¡¯s system.


    Coming out of the ritual, Tormacc marveled at the strength flowing through him. Now that the ritual was over, he was still a little sore, but he also felt like he had endless vitality, his heart pumping supercharged blood to his muscles. He wasn¡¯t sure exactly how much strength he had gained, but it was clearly substantial. At the very least it was enough to follow the second part of the instructions in the message from his past self.


    The ritual activating was only the first part of the plan, but it was integral for the rest to work. The message hadn¡¯t contained a lot of information, but if he was reading between the lines correctly, the beginning stages of The Tower were often deadly. Not for him of course, as he had received specialized combat training. Even if those memories were gone his body remembered. But The Tower was designed to go above and beyond what normal people were capable of, and that meant even for him he would need additional power, power he could only gain from investing Essence into his Fate Wheel.


    Essence was extremely valuable, but that was even more true early on, and the reason for that lay in the sections of his Fate Wheel he had revealed after lighting up the Starter Kit section. There were two sections beyond that: Ability Boost and Beginner¡¯s Gift. If the message from his past self was correct, Ability Boost was able to double the effectiveness of any one of his other abilities third tier and below, while Beginner¡¯s Gift was a one-time activated ability that could double the Essence in his Fate Wheel. But there was a catch, as it could only be used before he had unlocked a tier four ability, and only in the starting zone.


    The message from his former self dictated that he combine these two abilities to their maximum effect, meaning he would first use Ability Boost making it target Beginner¡¯s Gift, so instead of the Essence in his Fate Wheel doubling, Beginner¡¯s Gift would quadruple it.


    Tormacc guessed that normally Beginner¡¯s Gift was almost useless, with it barely refunding the twenty Essence it cost to unlock it. The reason lay in the fact that most people had to invest all the Essence they earned into their Fate Wheel to ensure their safety. The most efficient way to farm Essence was to kill things, but if you weren¡¯t strong enough to kill things, you needed to invest your Essence to grow stronger, leaving you with little left over to use Beginner¡¯s Gift on.


    The Essence he had gained from the ritual was valuable, but it paled in comparison to what his physical power up was worth. Thirty-seven Essence might seem like a lot, but the ability to safely farm Essence was worth far more. If he was able to safely farm Essence to save for when he activated Ability Boost and Beginner¡¯s Gift he would be getting four times the Essence he normally should. He had the feeling that power was everything in The Tower, and with this plan he should have a head start on his competition.


    It took him an hour to fully recover from the pins and needle he felt after the ritual finished and another hour or so of him testing the limits of his new power to feel comfortable leaving his starting cave. The information in the Starter Kit said that his starting area was a safe zone, but that would change as soon as he left. There was no retreating if he suffered a serious injury. But he wasn¡¯t worried about retreating. If he needed to retreat he wasn¡¯t worthy of the name Tormacc.


    After a final check of his supplies he finally ventured out of his starting area. He had been worried about the light, but the glowing moss didn¡¯t seem to be limited to his starting cave, although the tunnel he was in had a lot less of it, severely limiting the range of his vision. As he walked down the tunnel, he could feel his anticipation for battle growing. He had been raised for this, and even though he didn¡¯t remember all of his training, he could still feel it in his bones. There was something feral in the back of his head, begging for release. But he had also been taught patience, so he continued his slow measured pace down the tunnel, eyes constantly searching for anything out of place.


    It was his ears that caught the first sign of an enemy. The clack of claws on stone and low grunts could be heard from ahead in the tunnel, the sound echoing around him in the otherwise quiet space. Muting his footsteps, Tormacc softly crept forwards, straining his ears to parse out the sounds coming from up ahead. As he approached a bend in the tunnel the sounds got louder, the harsh screeched sounding like metal on stone. As he reached the bend in the tunnel, he slowly inched his way forward, each step revealing more of what lay around the bend.


    The bend was gradual, and when he finally got a clear line of sight on the creature in the tunnel ahead of him there was very little stopping it from seeing him too. Luckily it was distracted, focusing on digging up and eating a dark red crystal that was buried in the cave walls. The creature was mole-like, although vastly larger than he thought it should be. On all fours its back would be about level with his chest, and if it reared up on its hind legs it would be taller than him. And watching the way its claws scraped away at the stone walls to get at the red crystal made him sure he didn¡¯t want to be on the receiving end of its blows. Anything that could rend stone could just as easily rend his flesh.If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.


    Tormacc paused for a second, analyzing the situation. Then his instincts kicked in and he was speeding down the tunnel, slowly at first to maintain the element of surprise, but as he closed in he threw off all attempts at stealth, charging ahead full-throttle. By the time the giant mole heard him over the sound of its claws it was too late, Tormacc was already in the air, and with a beautifully executed leaping kick sent his booted foot straight into the mole¡¯s head, its brains splashing out on the tunnel wall with a wet squelch.


    The mole collapsed, dead. His surprise attack a success, Tormacc took a second to confirm the mole was indeed dead before checking for more enemies. After thirty seconds of silence he relaxed, shoulders visibly dropping. He had been slightly worried he wouldn¡¯t be able to kill the mole in one hit, but his fears were unfounded. It was good to know he was strong enough to easily kill things, or at least giant moles. It might be different if he faced something with natural armor. No matter how much he had been enhanced by the ritual he was still Humen. His body might be stronger than it should be, but he was still susceptible to all the dangers that flesh was heir to. A strong offense was his best bet until he got some armor or defensive skills.


    Bending down, Tormacc took a closer look at the creature he just killed. Running his fingers through its soft fur, he could feel the muscle underneath. He did not want to get anywhere near those claws. Testing them with his finger they were mostly blunt, but the rock wall of the tunnel could attest to the strength the giant mole could exert. He had a feeling he knew how to skin animals, and sure enough letting his subconscious take over allowed him to skin the creature, creating a hide to use to store some of its fat he sliced off to eat later. He didn¡¯t want to put the meat directly into his pack since it would be impossible to get the smell out. In the meantime he chewed a bit raw. It wasn¡¯t a bad taste, but if he was going to eat it later, he should really cook it. Eating meat raw only worked if it was fresh.


    He felt bad letting the rest of the mole go to waste, but he had limited bag space, and he couldn¡¯t afford to be hindered by carting around extra body parts he didn¡¯t need. Instead, he turned his attention to the dark red crystal the mole had been eating. Now that he looked closer, there appeared to be flecks of red peppering the normal cave walls. There was also a suspicious amount of luminescent moss around the red crystal deposit, making him think there might be a correlation there. The moss didn¡¯t seem have any energy source he could see, and if the mole was interested in the crystal, maybe the moss was too. But without proper tools he was unable to efficiently chip the crystal, and licking it didn¡¯t produce any noticeable results, so he decided to leave it be. Even if it was valuable, he still had the same transportation issue as the corpse.


    Moving on, Tormacc continued down the tunnel, keeping his guard up but also more relaxed now that he knew what he was up against. Of course, there could be other types of enemies too, but the moles he was confident in dealing with.


    The tunnel extended for a while before ending in a large cavern, one that was large enough to be poorly lit from the moss. Pausing at the entrance, Tormacc slowed down his breathing and focused on his hearing. At first, he heard nothing, but as he tuned out his other senses he caught the sound of dripping water. He wasn¡¯t positive, but if he had to guess it sounded like water dripping into a pool rather than on a hard surface like rock. If that was the case it would be good news as he needed to secure a water source, the water flask he got in the care package not coming filled.


    He didn¡¯t hear anything else, but he still moved stealthily as he crept his way along the edge of the cavern. Once he was in it, the space didn¡¯t seem that wide. But it was long, and the roof disappeared above him, creating the feeling of a space larger than it actually was. It was nerve-wracking being out in the open like this. He had very little knowledge of his surroundings. He knew he could beat one of those mole things, but two? Three? What if there were twenty of them? The only thing that kept him grounded was that he was in some sort of starting zone, and as such, there shouldn¡¯t be anything impossible to deal with. Or at least he hoped so.


    As the dripping got louder, the previously empty cavern started to be dotted with stalactites and stalagmites. The floor also started to slightly slope downwards, another thing that pointed to there being a pool of water at the end of the cavern. There was also more moss on this side of the cavern, the stalactites generally having some near the top. Tormacc still hadn¡¯t spotted any openings in the cavern other than the one he entered by, so he had no choice but to advance. An advance which was stopped short when he heard another sound join the dripping water.


    It was a pseudo dripping sound, but as opposed to the regular drip of what he presumed was a natural water source, this was irregular, and if he had to guess, came from a creature of some sort lapping water from a pool. Tormacc stopped briefly before continuing. He didn¡¯t like confronting whatever was in front of him in an open cavern, but his only other choice would be retreating back where he came from. A warrior knows when to retreat, but to retreat without fighting would bring shame to his name.


    After continuing his stealthy advance, he finally entered vision range of the pool of water. It was smaller than he thought it would be, barely a body length wide and less than two long. It was being fed by a slow but steady drip from a giant stalactite above it. In front of the pool was another mole, similar to the one he fought before. It was hunched over the pool drinking and hadn¡¯t noticed him yet.


    Knowing the best time to ambush it was when it was still distracted, Tormacc crept forward another few paces before breaking his stealth and charging, dagger at the ready for a quick kill. This mole seemed to be more aware than the other one, and it noticed him much faster than its deceased comrade did, quickly turning and confronting him. But by the time it turned, Tormacc was already bearing down on it.


    It should have been a swift strike followed by a clean kill. Instead, the mole¡¯s beady black eyes changed to a glowing red, the same color as the crystal the previous mole was eating, before the giant mole lunged, moving faster than his eyes could follow, and suddenly Tormacc was flying. His brief flight ended with him crashing into the cavern wall, and he could hear the snap as his right arm bent as an odd angle, the dagger in his right hand falling to the ground with a piercing clang.

 Chapter 3

    The enraged mole let out a long screech as Tormacc tried to keep a clear head through the pain radiating up his arm. He wanted to inspect the break, but he didn¡¯t have time, as he had to dive to the side to avoid the mole¡¯s charge. Each movement came with more waves of pain, and a quick glance showed the bone of his forearm sticking out of his skin.


    The mole¡¯s charge was stopped short at the wall, but it quickly recovered and turned, swiping at him with its claws. He was able to scramble out of the way, but the first swipe was followed by another. And another. He was able to dodge each of the lightning-fast swipes, but it was a close thing. Without the full use of his arm his balance was off, and what should have been easy dodges turned into a pain-filled dance of awkward jerks and spasms as he did his best to avoid what would likely be deadly attacks should they hit him.


    If he still had the knife he would have tried throwing it at the mole to break its momentum, but he had dropped it after the charge. He almost felt like he could feel someone in the back of his head yelling at him for dropping his weapon, but the attack had been too sudden, and when his arm broke, he lost all control over his right hand. Without a weapon he had very limited options, but he had to take action. He couldn¡¯t afford to draw the battle out. He was losing a lot of blood from his arm, not helped by his frenzied evasive maneuvers.


    After a few close brushes the mole¡¯s claws he saw his chance. The mole swiped low towards his left side, and Tormacc reached over it with his left hand, planting it on the ground and doing a one-handed cartwheel to bring his lower body over the attack. He then swept his legs down, scissoring them around the mole¡¯s neck, locking them together before holding on for dear life. It was an awkward position, leaving him hanging to the side of the mole as it rampaged around in squealing fury. But he was out of the immediate reach of its claws, and before it could figure out how to attack him it slowly lost strength, the lack of oxygen taking its toll.


    Finally, the mole stilled, leaving Tormacc lying on the floor, gasping for breath, his legs still clamped around its neck. He stayed like that for a few minutes, chest heaving, clenching his teeth against the pain and making sure the mole was truly dead. He was in no shape to continue the battle. After what felt like forever but had to only be a few minutes later he unhooked his legs, rolling onto his side, cradling his broken arm.


    Taking a good look at his arm he sucked in a breath through his teeth. It was bad. The two pieces of his forearm were at a right angle to each other and he could see the sharp edge of his bones sticking out from his shredded skin. Perhaps the break wasn¡¯t that bad when it happened, but the battle afterwards had exacerbated the wound exponentially. After a few deep breaths of preparation, he steeled himself to set the wound. With as much care as he could muster, he grabbed his wrist before pulling his arm and twisting it, allowing the bone to settle beneath what was left of his muscle and skin.


    He hoped the break was clean. His arm was at least straight now, but if there were tiny bone fragments lodged in there it might not heal properly. As it was, he was going to have to rely on the ritual to heal it. The message from his past self said the ritual should grant him additional healing properties, but he had no clue how effective that would be. What he did know was it wasn¡¯t going to heal overnight, which left him battered and bruised, down one arm and a lot of blood facing an unknown number of enemies.


    Tormacc slowly and carefully dragged himself over to the wall next to the pond. Now that he wasn¡¯t focused on the mole, he spotted the exit on the opposite side of the cavern, which must have been where the mole came from. Where both of them came from, meaning he had to assume there were more. And if there were more, they were likely to come this way, both for the water and the red crystal the first mole was eating. The idea of more moles wasn¡¯t a pretty thought, but it was something he had to consider if he wanted to survive.


    Leaning his head against the wall and closing his eyes, Tormacc turned inward to focus on his Fate Wheel. The plan had been for him to save his Essence so he could use Ability Boost and Beginner¡¯s Gift to quadruple it later on, but his might have to reconsider under the present circumstances. Out of the options available to him, Meditation and Inner Strength sounded like they would have the highest potential for helping him directly with healing or unlocking further abilities that could. The tier one abilities cost ten points, and the tier two twenty, so with the points he gained from the ritual and the single Essence each mole gave him he could theoretically unlock either tier one ability, which would open up two new possibilities, and then still have enough to unlock one of those if it would help his current situation.


    If it was a sure thing, he would do it, but it wasn¡¯t a sure thing. He didn¡¯t know what the tier two abilities of the left or right sections were so he could end up using his points for nothing. If it was only that he would still have taken the risk, but thinking about it more, what would happen in the future? Right now he was in the starting zone. It was a safe bet to assume that once he got out the danger would only increase. If he invested his Essence now it might give him a better shot at making it through the current area, but that would be useless if he died after that because he was lacking power he could have gained by combining Ability Boost and Beginner¡¯s Gift. Not only did he have to survive his current plight, but he had to plan ahead. He should trust in his previous self.The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    Before the fight he had taken his pack off to secure greater mobility, but that now meant it was sitting quite a bit away from him. As much as he wanted to sit still, he needed the supplies in it. With a pain filled grunt, he gently stood, before retrieving his pack and dagger, filling up his water flask at the pond, and easing back into a sitting position. He took a long drink from the flask before turning back to his wound. He needed to try and assess the damage. Closing his eyes, Tormacc focuses his attention on the ritual lines engraved in his body.


    He could feel that in addition to making him stronger and more resilient the ritual also boosted his general healing ability. That would have been helpful for a less severe wound, but he didn¡¯t think his body could naturally recover from having his arm so badly mangled. He needed a healing spell or a potion for that, but without access to those, he would have to try as best as he could to make do. Humming a slightly off-key tune, he tried to immerse himself in the ritual lines, searching for any additional effects. It was made more difficult from the pain, but after what must have been a few hours his efforts were rewarded.


    As he became more in tune with his body, he started to become more aware of the power flowing through it. Outside The Tower, he would have called that power mana, but in here it was Essence. He could feel it flowing through his body, twisting and turning, feeding his natural strength and regeneration. That power seemed to make a blueprint of his body, and as he comprehended more and more, he could feel where that blueprint was disturbed. He instinctually reacted to that disturbance, channeling energy from other places in his body to fix the blueprint.


    It was physically draining, and after a few minutes he was forced to open his eyes, coming out of his trance. Looking down at his arm, Tormacc felt the corners of his mouth unconsciously lift. His arm had a noticeable improvement. It was still far from healed, but his experiment confirmed that healing was possible. He could hear his stomach growling, evidence of the strain healing put on his body. He was famished. But he had access to a fresh corpse and nothing but time, so he settled in to a routine of eating, healing, and resting.


    He wasn¡¯t sure how much time had passed, but the healing moved at a snail¡¯s pace, even with his new technique. He had stopped the bleeding and mostly realigned the bone after six healing sessions, but his arm was far from fully healed, and he knew that any extreme movement would undo everything he had already accomplished. His body seemed to have the ability to enter a half-asleep half-awake state which he used to rest in between healing session, and it was during one of those session that he was woken from his slumber.


    It felt like he had just closed his eyes after his sixth time healing when he heard the clack of claws on stone. Without anywhere good to hide, Tormacc had relocated to the far side of the mole¡¯s body, which, other than the rather disgusting smell, allowed him easy access to its flesh as well as a barrier blocking sight from the exit tunnel. Straining his ears, he focused on the sharp clacks. Unless he was mistaken, there was only one mole approaching, which was good news. Readying himself, he prepared his ambush.


    His plan was to lure the mole in before going for a one-shot kill. He might be able to win a longer battle, but his arm couldn¡¯t. He needed to end this quickly if he ever wanted to heal. He was fully covered by the mole¡¯s corpse which blocked sight, and he had slathered himself in its blood to hopefully block scent. As long as he stayed quiet and didn¡¯t move, he should be able to surprise his foe when it came to check out the body of its fallen brethren.


    Barely breathing to avoid the noise, Tormacc huddled against the cold corpse as the clacking got louder. He was betting on the mole approaching the body directly. If it circled around and kept its distance it would easily spot him, invalidating his ambush. Luckily, the mole walked right up to the body, snuffling around, trying to find the cause of death. The moles weren¡¯t intelligent, but they had an instinctual understanding that if they could figure out what killed one of their kind they could avoid the same fate. Unfortunately for this mole, this cause of death was anything but natural, and as it rounded the body Tormacc lunged, plunging his dagger through its chin and into its brain, killing it instantly.


    After checking it was truly dead, Tormacc settled back down, sucking in mouthfuls of air. With access to only a small knife he had studied the body of the dead mole to determine the best place to deliver a death blow. Its heart was too protected by layers of muscle and fat, which only left its brain. Going for an underhanded strike beneath the skull was risky, as it was easy to defend against, but he couldn¡¯t find a better access point. He had succeeded this time, but that was no guarantee for the next. He needed to focus on finding or making a longer and sturdier weapon.


    After calming down his racing heart he turned his attention to his arm. Without a splint, any movement had the potential to jostle it, undoing all his hard work and potentially making the wound worse. He had been precise with his single attack, and it showed. The battle had only set the healing process back one or two healing sessions. At his current pace and with a little luck he would only have to face one or two more moles before the arm was healed. And with the mole and the pond he had access to food and water, so there was nothing to do but wait.

 Chapter 4

    It took Tormacc another few days to heal his arm, during which he was lucky enough to only face one more mole. It was more cautious than its comrades, but since he had two corpses he wedged himself between them, so that when the third mole eventually gave in to its curiosity and came closer he was able to ambush it just like the second one.


    Now that his arm was better it was time to leave the cavern, but before that he took a final look around the pond to make sure he hadn¡¯t missed anything. He went over the pond and the surrounding stalagmites again, but not finding anything, decided it was time to set off. He had been hoping for some sort of treasure, as this was supposed to be a starting area, but so far the cave had been mostly bare.


    His water flask was full and he had as much meat as he could stuff into his pack, which should last him at least a few days if he wasn¡¯t able to find any other food or water sources. But unless those were the only moles around he should have a steady supply of food, and if there were more of them then the pool was definitely not the only place for them to drink, meaning there should be water ahead too.


    The tunnel leading away from the cavern was much the same as the one that lead to it. The only difference was he occasionally passed large holes gouged out of the walls. At first, he wasn¡¯t sure what they were, but upon closer inspection, he could see more of the red crystal around the edges, meaning these were likely deposits that the moles had previously cleared out. As he progressed through the tunnel the gouges in the wall only became larger and more numerous, and he began to think that there might be a whole colony of giant moles, and the reason he hadn¡¯t run into more was this part of the tunnel system was lacking in their food source.


    His fears were realized when he reached the end of the tunnel. The tunnel ended at a crossroads. It wasn¡¯t quite a full room and was more the meeting three tunnels, the one he was in and two others. And also the lair of the giant moles. He had been cautious approaching the end of the tunnel, and it was that caution that prevented him from waking up the two inhabitants of the chamber.


    There were various leaves and mosses strewn about the lair forming piles of bedding. Counting it out, there were four unoccupied spots, equaling the four giant moles he had killed. Two other piles of bedding were occupied, but thankfully those occupants were asleep. As soon as he got a good look at the two moles he froze, slowly down his breathing to the bare minimum. As he watched, one of the moles shifted a bit, wriggling its nose in its sleep. Tormacc had his foresight to thank that he hadn¡¯t washed the blood off. He was sure he wouldn¡¯t have passed an actual sniff test, but for his current situation it was enough.


    The lair was small, but it was still big enough that the two sleeping moles had some distance between them. He would have an easier time ambushing them were their nests next to each other, but they were separated by a few other piles of bedding. After a quick glance around to see if he had missed anything, Tormacc crept up to the closer mole. He would have liked more time to plan his approach, but the longer he waited the greater the chance he would ruin his ambush. If he could kill both moles without them waking up, great, but if not, facing one angry mole was much better than two.


    Reaching the first mole, Tormacc readied his blade. A moment of stillness followed by a precise strike and the deed was done. He was as silent as possible, but whether it was from the quiet death throes of the mole he just killed or some sixth sense the other mole stirred from its slumber, and by the time Tormacc turned around he was faced by a mass of muscle and claws with eyes glowing red.


    The mole charged, screeching an inhuman wail, but he was ready for it, already diving out of the way as soon as it started to move. He had a brief moment of respite as the mole nuzzled its snout into its dead companion before turning on him, even more enraged than before, froth dripping from its mouth as it wailed for its slain family.


    Tormacc was immune to its cries of woe. Right now, he was the predator and the mole was the prey, waiting to be turned into Essence for his Fate Wheel. But the mole wasn¡¯t going down without a fight, and it launched itself forward, a whirlwind of flying claws. Each strike was deadly, and while Tormacc was able to dance and dodge away from each strike, the bedding was not. With each strike leaves and moss flew everywhere, creating a tornado of debris that followed the mole as it chased the intruder who had dared disturb its nest.


    It only took a few swipes of the mole¡¯s claws before his vision started to be impacted. He had severely underestimated the terrain. He already had to be careful of his footing so he didn¡¯t slip on some moss, but with his enemy rampaging like this is wouldn¡¯t be long before the lair was a complete mess and he lost most of his vision, and at that point it wasn¡¯t a question of if he would slip up with his defenses, only when.


    Tormacc waited out a few more strikes, biding his time. Striking too soon was just as bad as not striking at all. Finally, he saw his chance. The mole overextended itself, just slightly overbalancing, putting too much weight on its front claws. He was ready for it. He lashed out with left first, aiming a blow at the top of its head. The mole reacted quickly, raising its head and baring its fangs, ready for his blow. But it was a feint, and as soon as the mole raised it head, he launched the real strike, plunging his dagger through the base of its skull and into its brain.This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.


    As soon as he felt the dagger fully penetrate, he jumped away, leaving the mole to fail helplessly as it lay dying. As he watched, its red eyes faded to black, and eventually those finally dimmed and closed, signifying its demise. He wasn¡¯t out of the woods yet though. It was possible this wasn¡¯t the only mole nest, and if anything else was around they would have heard the sounds of battle and the screams of the mole. Retrieving his dagger, Tormacc settled in to see if reinforcements would arrive. After fighting a few of the giant moles he realized he had been lucky with the first one. They were a dangerous enemy, but beatable in an open space. He didn¡¯t fancy his chances nearly as much in an enclosed tunnel. Their ability to charge in a straight line was more than he could cope with.


    He waited for a long time, but no giant moles emerged from either tunnel. Either there were no more, as the six piles of bedding suggested, or they were far enough away that they couldn¡¯t hear the battle, similar to the situation with his previous battles. Or it was possible the moles were poor of hearing. He knew very little about their capabilities. He called them moles, but that was mostly because of their large claws and short legs. Their snout was shorter than he thought it should be for a proper mole, and they didn¡¯t have those weird nose tentacles that some moles had.


    Finally satisfied there was nothing approaching, at least for the moment, Tormacc was then faced with the decision of which tunnel to enter. To his eyes they were indistinguishable, so he just chose the left tunnel. As it turned out that was the wrong choice. The tunnel was empty, just a long stretch filled with former red crystal deposits. On the bright side when he came back to take the other tunnel he knew for a fact there wouldn¡¯t be any enemies at his back.


    The right tunnel started mostly the same as the left one, with gouges in the wall every few meters. But unless he had appeared in an enclosed cave system this tunnel had to lead somewhere, whether that was the surface, more moles, or potentially some other type of creature. He took the tunnel rather slowly, wary of any dangers, but the tunnel itself was as empty as the previous one. But where it led couldn¡¯t have been any different.


    As the tunnel continued, it slowly started to slope upwards, first gently, then more steeply. As the incline grew, the tunnel started to be littered with soil, leaves, and other detritus. Tormacc thought it would lead him to the surface, but instead the tunnel opened up into a large cave, open to the sky. It was currently night, and despite the large jagged opening above his head, he could only see a small stretch of sky, the rest covered by leaves. From what he could make out in the low light the edges of the hole were ringed with trees, their roots stretching down the crevice towards the floor below. There was little moss in the cave, and with the scant starlight he could only make out the rough outline of multiple tunnels branching out in different directions. He suspected that one of them lead to the surface while others lead to more mole nests. The area before him showed clear evidence of giant moles passing through, and it didn¡¯t look like all the tracks lead to his current tunnel.


    Retreating back down the tunnel, Tormacc found a large gouge in the wall to spend the rest of the night. There was no reason to explore in the semi-darkness when he could wait for the light of day. Curling up with his pack for a pillow, he slipped into a light doze, waiting for light to filter down into the tunnel.


    He woke up as the light caressed his eyelids, rousing him to consciousness. Before heading out he ate some of his mole meat, knowing that this was one of the last times he could safely do so without cooking it. But if he could make his way to the surface creating a fire shouldn¡¯t be a problem, and in the forest above him there should be plenty of other things to eat too. As long as he avoided sustaining any injuries he should have no problem finding sustenance.


    Making his way back to the large cave Tormacc cautiously poked his head out to get a good look around. The cave was huge, even bigger than his initial estimations. And it was much farther from the surface than he had assumed, the walls swooping up to meet the large crack in the ceiling high above. Squinting to try and make out the details, he thought the trees above looked tropical. There were vines coiling around the trees and hanging into the crevice, which were what he had mistaken for roots before in the low light. Combined with the colorful scenery and distant bird cries he thought it was some sort of rainforest above him. That was both good and bad. Rainforests were rife with animals of all sorts, which would make farming Essence easy, but with any environment hosting that much life there were bound to be predators. And unless the giant moles were at the top of the food chain, which he doubted, he had to keep his wits about him. Even with his ritual enhanced strength he was in no way fit to wrestle a giant jungle cat.


    Turning back to the cave itself, he moved around to investigate the tunnels. He had been right about the tracks. The floor was covered in them, with varying sets each leading from the tunnel he assumed went to the surface to eight others. If he included the tunnel he came from, that meant there were a total of nine mole nests. He planned to come back eventually to take out the rest, but for the moment he was ill-equipped to fight in a narrow tunnel. He would need a weapon with greater reach for that, so he decided to explore the rainforest above first.


    After making sure there was nothing of interest in the cave Tormacc made his way to the tunnel leading to the surface. The tunnel had the most tracks in it as well as a greater amount of dirt and leaves, making it easy to see it led up and out. But as his eyes adjusted to the gloom he froze. The combination of the birdcalls above and the dirt muting their footfalls must have caused him to be caught off guard, as standing just a few meters into the tunnel were two giant moles, sniffing about inquisitively.

 Chapter 5

    Tormacc knew he fucked up. It was obvious in hindsight. He had gotten too used to the tunnels where there was little to no ambient sound and the clack of claws would easily alert him to the presence of an enemy. In the real-world, things didn¡¯t work that way. There was always something to distract you, something to pull your attention away and mask what you needed to focus on. He should have been the one using that to get the jump on his enemies, but instead, they had used it to get the jump on him.


    Slowly backing away, he watched as the moles sniffed the air. He wasn¡¯t sure why, but he thanked his lucky stars they didn¡¯t immediately charge him. Because of the light difference between the tunnel and the cave they had to have known he was there before he saw them, but they hadn¡¯t attacked. The next few minutes featured an awkward standoff, where Tormacc did his best to back down the tunnel to the cave without making any sudden movements while the moles sniffed the air, slowly advancing as he was retreating. When he finally reached the cave he felt relief course through him, but it was short lived, as almost in tandem, the moles turned on him with their beady little eyes, now shining a bright red.


    In sync, the moles charged while Tormacc dove to the right, barely avoiding their gnashing teeth. Unearthly screeches filled the cave as the moles turned, claws scrabbling for purchase on the leaf-strewn floor. As he dodged their charge a second time, he realized why there were so enraged: he was still covered in blood. They must have smelled their comrades but been confused about the source. Perhaps as expected of creatures that went berserk at the drop of a hat, they didn¡¯t seem that bright.


    Most of his plans for fighting two moles at once involved him dealing a killing blow to one before focusing on the other. That was a lot easier in theory, as in practice it was all he could do to avoid death as he danced around their reckless charges. Had the moles coordinated their attacks he would have long ago been ground to mush. All they had to do was have one charge, and while he dodged the first one, have the second one swoop in for the kill. That seemed to be too complicated for their enraged brains to understand though.


    How it played out instead was they continued their reckless charges with unstoppable forward momentum, but because of their weight they were unable to turn in time, letting him escape with millimeters to spare by moving laterally. The dodges were always close, but he felt like as long as he paid attention he wasn¡¯t in any real danger. But eventually the moles would coordinate their charges through sheer luck. He had to act before that happened.


    It only took a second¡¯s slip up for disaster to strike, and while he was distracted trying to search the cave for advantageous terrain he forgot to keep track of what was below his feet. Instead of his planned juke to the left his foot slipped on some moss and Tormacc found himself flat on his back, head ringing.


    That should have been the end, but as chance would have it, his positioning put him smack dab in the middle of the two moles, and instead of them slowly closing in to finish their downed prey, they both charged, leaping forward with their powerful hind legs and smacking into each other head first. It was a freak moment, all three participants in the battle stunned and down for the count.


    Tormacc recovered first, rolling to the side and slamming his dagger into the skull of the closest mole. The angle was a bit off, and as the blade entered he could feel it snap, breaking off and lodging inside. But his strike was true, and the fight was no longer two versus one. He wanted to capitalize on his momentum and finish off the second mole, but as he stood up the world tilted, and he found himself kissing the ground once more.


    The other mole was still recovering too, so he took the time to stay down and recover his center of gravity, trying to use even those few seconds to activate the healing effects of his ritual. Soon enough the mole was back on its feet and the battle commenced once more. He now had to take down his foe without a weapon, but he would take his current position over fighting two enemies any day. When fighting two on one there were too many variables. Even if was forced into a more passive role in the current fight he was still in control. He just needed to create an opening.


    While the moles were dumb, he didn¡¯t think they were dumb enough to run into a wall at full speed, although apparently that didn¡¯t apply to each other, but he didn¡¯t want to box himself in by going near a wall either to try and attempt it. Them running into each other had been a happy accident, but it did give him an idea. Ducking a claw swipe, Tormacc maneuvered his way around the battlefield until he was in position. This time when the mole charged, he barely moved to the side. The mole, seeing an opportunity, adjusted course. But while its previous path was obstacle free, that tiny alteration to its trajectory caused it to brush against its fallen sister. The mole careened off course, spinning around, its right claw getting caught on its dead comrade. Waiting for his chance, Tormacc struck, sending an axe kick onto the mole¡¯s head.If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    The first blow only stunned it, but after two more its head cracked like a watermelon dropped on concrete. Catching his breath, he sank down to the floor. He had to stop getting himself into these situations. The battle had been too close for comfort, and now he had lost his only weapon. One more unknown variable would have done him in.


    As if in response to his thoughts, the body of the second move quivered, and he jumped to his feet, taking a fighting stance. His thoughts were racing, going from zombie moles, to exploding corpses. But instead of exploding, the corpse quivered again, before imploding, sucking into itself until with a small pop all that was left of the corpse was small, glowing crystal.


    Wary of the unknown, it took him a few seconds to work up his courage to go near it. He wasn¡¯t used to things imploding like that. Picking it up, the crystal was rather small, not even the length of his pinky. It had a soft white light suffusing it that was quite beautiful, each facet of the crystal clearly outlined and backlit by the inner glow. After a few seconds of examining it he felt it pulse with energy before he heard a voice in his head.


    ¡°Weapon or armor?¡±


    He almost dropped the crystal in surprise. If it weren¡¯t for the pulse of energy he would have thought he was going crazy. That, or there was a powerful telepath screwing with him. But he had a feeling this crystal was related to The Tower, and after checking his fate wheel, he noticed he didn¡¯t get the Essence for killing the second mole. It appeared he got this crystal instead. Without any more information, he mentally responded ¡°weapon¡±. The crystal then pulsed with energy three times, and after the third pulse he was no longer holding a crystal and was instead holding an axe. Which he then proceeded to drop, not expecting the sudden weight.


    Sheepishly glancing around, he reached down to pick the axe up. It was a beautiful weapon, with a dark wooden handle and a dull, matte grey head. It was about as long as his arm, perhaps a bit shorter. Feeling the heft, it didn¡¯t seem balanced for throwing, but he was sure it was perfecting for splitting someone¡¯s skull. It was single-bladed, with a square shaped head. Just glancing at it was enough tell how sharp it was, and after giving it a few good swings he was quite satisfied hearing the blade whistling through the air.


    This was a real weapon. Nothing like the knife he had been forced to use before. He was picturing how the previous battle would have gone if he had this axe. Two quick chops and done. He could already imagine the satisfying thunk of his axe cleaving a mole in two. With this he didn¡¯t have to tiptoe around anymore. He could go on the hunt.


    But before that he needed to retrieve his knife blade. He was enamored with his new axe, but it wasn¡¯t useful for things like chopping vegetables or skinning corpses. He would have to create a makeshift handle, but it was worth retrieving the broken knife blade. After extracting the blade from the head of the mole, a task made much easier with his new axe, he picked up his pack from where he had thrown it earlier while he was in a standoff with the moles before choosing a tunnel. He was going to explore them all anyway, so he just made a mental note of which one he chose and which one he came from before heading in. With his new axe his plans had changed, and it was time to hunt some moles.


    The tunnel started out much like the one he came from, filled with gouges and moss. But unlike before, Tormacc strode down it confidently. There were surely creatures that could threaten him, but now that he had a proper weapon, especially one with reach, the moles no longer fell into that category. The winner of a battle was determined by who could safely defeat the enemy, the key term being safely. A pyrrhic victory was no victory at all. Those that won were those who lived; nothing else mattered after a fight other than who walked away alive. Still, he felt much better about facing his fights head on rather than skulking around like a rat. Surprise attacks had their place, and he would use them when necessary, but conquering all with strength was the way of the warrior.


    But when he heard sounds coming from the tunnel in front of him he still slowed down and showed caution. Much better a living warrior than a dead one. Holding his axe at the ready he advanced forwards, keeping an ear out for the sound of other moles. A short distance later and he came upon a lone mole feasting on red crystals. He was practically on top of it when he found it, as it was in a particularly deep gouge, almost a tunnel in its own right. The mole didn¡¯t notice him, and he took the opportunity to advance a little way past it, straining his ears for more noise. Hearing none, he turned back to confront his foe.


    Standing at the opening to the faux tunnel he tapped his axe on the tunnel wall, producing a loud clang. It took a moment for the mole to stop eating, but when it did, it turned, and seeing the intruder, charged, eyes glowing red. Waiting until the last possible second, Tormacc gave a short hop to the side to avoid the charge while swinging down with his axe. The mole never knew how it died. One second it was charging the enemy that had invaded its nest and the next it had a piece of metal in its brain.


    He wouldn¡¯t have normally provoked the mole like that, but he needed to test out his weapon in a real battle. It was one thing to have a battle plan visualized in your head and another execute that plan. He needed to know how he would perform with his new weapon, and he had passed the test with flying colors. For all the moles prodigious strength, they had rather weak defenses. As long as he could safely avoid their claws it should be relatively straightforward to deal them a killing blow.


    With his new axe now christened with the enemy¡¯s blood Tormacc resumed his exploration of the tunnels. He had been built for battle, and it was time to fulfill his role. It was time to conquer.

 Chapter 6

    The tunnel Tormacc was in led to a mole nest very similar to the one he had already cleared out with a few long tunnels leading to a centrally located nesting space. Had there been more moles clumped up in the nesting area he would have had an actual fight on his hands, but there were only two, the rest spread out in the tunnels. Now they were dead, and he was on to the next tunnel.


    The next three tunnels went the same way, with him sweeping through and decimating the local mole population. Sadly no more moles imploded into crystals, each kill only giving him a single Essence each. But he had no idea how often that happened, as it could average one in a hundred or one in a million, or even be a one-time event. But he was happy enough with his axe. He had no specific memories of what kind and quality of weapons he had used in the past, but this axe felt perfect. His only regret was he didn¡¯t have the necessary supplies to maintain it. It should last him for a while, but if he didn¡¯t find some oil and a grindstone it would eventually go dull and rust.


    It was in the sixth tunnel when something changed. The beginning seemed the same as all the others, but while the other tunnels had all led to nests with branching paths, this tunnel was a straight shot to a final room. Approaching the end of the tunnel, Tormacc could hear a mole digging at the rock and eating the red crystal. It had happened a few times now that he interrupted moles during their meal time, so he thought nothing of it. When he reached the end of the tunnel was when he realized something was different.


    The tunnel ended in a large room, larger than anything he had come across except the main cave that was exposed to the rainforest and the cavern in his original tunnel. The far wall was entirely made up of red crystal and there was a single mole devouring the crystal at a pace noticeable to the naked eye. As soon as he entered the mole turned to face him, snarling viciously. Immediately on guard, he cautiously entered the room, axe at the ready.


    The other moles he fought seemed like normal animals, albeit oversized ones, their red eyes their strangest characteristic. This mole was different. Smack dab in the middle of its forehead was a red gem that was glowing the same color as its eyes. Tormacc would have to be an idiot to not associate the mole¡¯s berserk red-eyed rage with the red crystal they ate, and just by looking at the glowing gem on its forehead, he knew this mole was bad news. There were other indicators too, like how the mole was selfishly hoarding a whole room of red crystal all to itself. The other moles nested together, but this one was all alone with a large food source.


    The two sides faced each other, sizing up the opposition. A single moment was all it took, and the gem mole charged. Tormacc was ready. He knew this mole was going to be stronger than the others, but despite being prepared, he couldn¡¯t fully react in time. He only saw a flash of black and red before he was thrown spinning to the side, three streaks of red blooming on his chest. He would have been dead if he had reacted even a millisecond slower. He had been so close to fully jumping out of the way, but its claws were just long enough to make their mark.


    Ignoring the stinging pain on his chest, he clambered to his feet, already leaping to the side in anticipation of another charge. He was correct in his guess, and this time he dodged away safely. Knowing his previous reactionary strategy wouldn¡¯t work, he continued moving, zigzagging around the cave. The gem mole was much faster than the other moles, but it still lacked intelligence and the ability to make sharp turns, allowing his erratic movements to evade its pursuit. After a minute of adjusting to the rhythm of its charges, he struck, swinging down with his axe as the mole passed him by.


    But instead of the axe severing its spine, the red gem on its forehead pulsed, creating a bright red barrier. When his axe struck the barrier it felt like he had struck a rock wall, and he almost lost his grip on his weapon from the rebounding force of his failed attack. The mole squealed in rage, before turning and charging once again, even angrier than before. He hadn¡¯t expected his attack to be so completely stifled, and it left him lacking any way to generate momentum in the fight. Almost all of his energy was spent dodging, which would have been fine if he could counter-attack. But if his attacks were all going to be blocked, he needed a new plan.


    While desperately trying to think of how to proceed he sent a few probing attacks at the mole to similar effect as the first. Each time the gem on its forehead pulsed and his strike was repelled by the red barrier. On his fourth strike he noticed something. Even though his attacks were seemingly meaningless, each time they were blocked the mole let out an enraged shriek. Perhaps the mole didn¡¯t know its own defensive capabilities, but it was also possible it didn¡¯t have infinite uses of the red shield.


    Without a better plan, Tormacc committed to a battle of attrition. Would the red shield break first or would he lose strength and get gored by the mole¡¯s claws? The battle raged on, and with each swing of his axe he hoped the gem would fail to light up. But each time his attack was foiled, the red gem seemingly possessing an inexhaustible energy supply.A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.


    After what felt like the hundredth attack his energy started to wane. His attacks grew less frequent and he had to spend more effort on dodging. By comparison, the mole seemed the same as always, relentless in its charges and bursting with vigor. Starting to grow desperate, he decided on one last stand. He had to stake it all since he was going to give out first. Turning to face the mole, he grasped his axe in a two-handed grip, winding up his strike. When the mole charged, he brought his axe around from behind his shoulder, using his whole body to generate even the slightest bit of extra power.


    His weapon met the charge head on, and then he was sliding across the floor before crumping up against the far wall. His legs were killing him. He had either broken something or torn a muscle. His right shoulder blade was also on fire. Blearily looking up, he half expected to see the mole bearing down on him, his last sight before death its fiendish red eyes and snapping jaws. But once the stars cleared from his vision he could see the mole slumped on the ground in the middle of the cave, his axe stuck in its head.


    He only truly relaxed when the mole quivered once before imploding, disappearing and leaving behind a light blue crystal and the gem in its forehead. But with relaxing came pain. After the adrenaline wore off his body felt like one big bruise. Individually, no injury was as bad as what happened to his arm before, but taken all together, he was in worse shape. He wanted to go over and inspect the loot, but when he tried to move, he cried out in pain. On second thought, maybe he would stay where he was. The loot could wait. He tried to gather his energy and focus on healing his wounds, but soon drifted off to sleep, worn out by the prolonged battle.


    When he woke up he felt refreshed. He was still in pain and didn¡¯t really want to move, and staying still wasn¡¯t so bad, at least so far. Nothing had come to bother him while he was asleep, likely because this was the room of the boss mole. It probably wanted to keep all the red crystal to itself, which was why it was alone in here.


    Knowing he was in a relatively safe place, Tormacc focused on recovery. The meat he had in his pack was mostly squashed, but luckily the water flask was okay. The recovery went a lot slower without easy access to a lot of food, one of the downsides to the mole imploding, but he could always get more mole meat. The crystals didn¡¯t seem as common.


    Two days later he wasn¡¯t fully healed, but he was out of water and food, so it was time to get going. Despite not being in peak condition he should be able to take on a few normal moles. Getting up, he did some stretches to warm his body up before going over to finally inspect his loot. First up was the red gem. Taking a close look, he couldn¡¯t find anything special about it, but unlike the red crystal, he was one hundred percent certain it was valuable in some way, so he put it into his pack to save for later.


    Moving on, he picked up the blue crystal. It was identical to the white one except for the color. The white crystal had shined like a white flower illumited by sunlight. The blue crystal was like the sky on a clear day. The crystal was the same size as the previous one and looking into it felt like looking into a sea of bright blue air. Similar to the first crystal, this one also pulsed with energy before he heard a voice in his head. But this time the contents were different.


    ¡°Essence or tattoo?¡±


    He wasn¡¯t expecting that. At most he thought the blue crystal would be a different grade, giving him better rewards, but apparently it was more than that, with completely different options compared to the white crystal. He knew what Essence was, although not how much he would get if he chose that option, but what was a tattoo? He doubted it was as simple as some ink drawn on his skin.


    He waffled on which to choose for a while, but eventually decided on the tattoo. He didn¡¯t know what it was, but he could get Essence from other sources, which meant the tattoo should be rarer. Mentally responding ¡°tattoo¡±, he felt the crystal pulse three times before he stumbled and almost fell over from the sudden pain. It felt like someone was taking a hot iron to the area behind his left ear. Reaching up, he felt smooth skin with no indication of what was going on. He would need a mirror to see what the tattoo looked like.


    A few immeasurably long minutes later it was done, and he relaxed his tense muscles. Next time he would be more prepared for the pain. Once more feeling around his ear, he could still only feel normal skin, and because the tattoo was mostly covered by his ear it would likely be all but invisible to a casual observer. After the tattoo finished being inscribed, he heard another voice in his head.


    ¡°Obtained Tattoo of Perception.¡±


    With the voice came a rush of clarity. Looking around, he felt like he could see facets in the stone walls that were invisible before. Everything felt more vibrant, even the slight brush of air on his skin and the sound of his own breathing. He was incredibly satisfied with his choice. Unless tattoos were common it was correct to choose this over Essence. When exploring an unknown environment information was at a premium, and anything that enhanced his senses was a godsend.


    With his loot secured, Tormacc set off to clear out the rest of the mole tunnels. There were quite a few sources of water in the tunnels, and after clearing out the moles the cave system could serve as his base of operations for exploring the rainforest above. Unlike caves, rainforests were teeming with life. There would be no safe place to rest, and while he wasn¡¯t planning on getting injured again, even the best laid plans fell through after contact with the enemy. Much better to have a backup for when things, as they inevitably did, went to shit.

 Chapter 7

    Tormacc cleared out the other mole nests without a hitch, successfully obtaining both the food and water he needed until he was fully healed and could explore the rainforest above. There were no more gem moles, which he was grateful for considering his injured state, but if they all dropped blue crystals it was a bit of a waste. The performance of his tattoo in battle was above and beyond his expectations, but still not enough to offset his injuries for such a difficult fight. An increase in perception was one of the best boosts he could have gotten, but for some fights you just needed more power, which was definitely the case if he were to fight another gem mole.


    He rested for three days after clearing out the rest of the tunnels. He could have left after two, but used the extra day to adjust his senses to the tattoo, something that was difficult to do when he wasn¡¯t in peak condition, hence the extra day. It was worth the wait, as even after a full day of training he could tell he still didn¡¯t have a full handle on his new capabilities. But his improved senses wouldn¡¯t get in the way at least, so it was time to adventure above ground.


    Advancing up to the surface, the first things that struck him were the noises and smells. Staying in a damp cave allowed him to focus his senses, but it was also rather dull, something he couldn¡¯t say for the rainforest above. The sheer life that was suffused into the bird calls and the animal cries brought forth some primitive instinct of wonder, and the scent of thousands of flowers was a far cry from rotting corpses.


    When he reached the tunnel exit, he paused, surprised at its size. It was small, almost too small for the moles to squeeze through given their girth. He had assumed they were high up on the food chain considering their size and strength, but if their tunnel entrance was this hidden he had to reconsider his previous assumptions. Anything that could prey on the moles was potentially lethal for him. He needed to move with caution.


    Unlike the sunlight that was streaming through the crack and into the cave below the forest floor was dark, similar to the rest of the cave system. Looking around, Tormacc was almost overwhelmed by the different shades of greens and browns, so much more vivid now than he remembered them thanks to his tattoo. It felt like he had been colorblind before, and only now was the vast range of color opening itself up before him. It took him a bit to get used to the information overload. Apparently his tattoo wasn¡¯t all positive. While he could perceive much more now, there was also more information to take in. He would have to adjust to tuning out the extraneous details.


    Without any hints as to where he needed to go, Tormacc set a direction and started walking. It was possible that he could try and get a higher vantage point to try and spot landmarks or places of interest, but venturing into the understory blind was a great way to get swallowed by a snake or eaten by a panther. He didn¡¯t know for sure there were dangerous predators lurking about, but that was like saying you didn¡¯t know the planet was round. Sure, you couldn¡¯t see it for yourself, but there was more to knowledge than what you could directly glean from your senses. In some situations following your gut was the way to go, but in others it was the way to a quick death.


    The forest floor was fairly open, and as he walked along he tried to stick close to the tree trunks. If he was ambushed he wanted something at his back. He marked out a path along the way, otherwise he knew he would quickly get lost. While the rainforest didn¡¯t all look the same, differentiating it would be like asking him to tell the difference between two rusty swords. The rust patterns would be different, but the amount of detail you would have to remember to spot that difference made it an exercise in futility.


    As he moved in and around the trees he couldn¡¯t help but wish he had better armor. To be precise, he wanted something skintight. He had never personally been in a rainforest before, or he didn¡¯t think he had, and he wasn¡¯t prepared for the amount of insect life. He could handle bugs crawling all over him, but if they were poisonous he could be in trouble. He didn¡¯t have access to any antivenom, and his natural healing abilities might not be enough to save him if he was bit by something truly venomous. But a big perk of his increased perception was an improved ability to notice things crawling on him, which allowed him to swipe off most of the insects before they dug in for a free meal. Hopefully it would be enough to protect him from the worst.


    It wasn¡¯t all bad though. He had been lamenting his lack of heavy armor when he was underground, but now that he wasn¡¯t in a temperature-controlled environment his lighter clothing was a godsend. The heat was refreshing when he first stepped out of the tunnel, but now, with sweat streaming down his body, the humidity didn¡¯t seem quite so nice. There were bodies of water in the tunnel system he could use to wash himself off, but for his time above ground he had to adjust to the high temperature and moist environment. This was another situation where increased perception was a negative. When you could individually feel each drop of sweat rolling off you it was much harder to tune out.This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.


    But as he continued his trek he adjusted, the sweltering bug-filled journey becoming more manageable. The bugs and humidity were only distractions. He needed to keep his attention peeled for the real dangers.


    The rainforest seemed to be endless, and he worried it could take him years to get out. He wasn¡¯t sure how long he was supposed to stay here, but years seemed a bit long. It was beautiful, minus the bugs and humidity, but he had things to do and places to be, or he thought he did. If his objective was to climb The Tower than getting stuck in the starting zone seemed counterproductive.


    As he walked along, lost in his thoughts, he suddenly froze, the tattoo behind his ear stinging. As first he thought it was a bug, but he quickly realized it was that tattoo screaming ¡°danger¡±. Crouching against a tree, Tormacc moved his eyes around, searching for whatever set off his danger sense. It was difficult to spot anything, the collage of colors featuring endless movement from birds and bugs. Step by step he tuned out any unnecessary distractions before going through his surroundings in a grid pattern, checking for anything out of place.


    He almost missed it. There was just too much to take in. But something had tickled his senses as he stared at a particular patch of green and brown. And then it moved. It didn¡¯t really move, just slightly shifted, the colors staying the same but the material under it rippling. His breath caught in his throat. Swallowing a curse, he dialed in his focus, hoping what he saw was just a trick of the light.


    As the patch of color shifted once more his worst fears were confirmed. Hovering just meters away was a giant cat, nestled into the understory above. While some ambush predators had coloring allowing them to blend in with their surroundings, this cat took it to a whole new level, it¡¯s skin changing colors to reflect the forest. Even knowing it was there he sometimes lost track of it, its silhouette merging with the greenery, the outline lost among the shifting leaves.


    Calming himself down, he took stock of his options. The cat clearly saw him, to assume otherwise was pure folly. He would have to fight it; the only question was how. His first thought was to outwait it, but that seemed unlikely to succeed, and making such an attempt could lead to him waiting until dark, putting him at a massive disadvantage versus its slit pupils. With the forest floor dark even during the daytime it would be impossible to fight something that could shift the colors of its coat at night. His best bet was to make the first move.


    From there it was all about planning. His first thought was to ambush it where it stood, but because of the height difference it would be impossible to reach it before it could leap away. He cycled through ideas, each one riskier than the last. Once he had confirmed that an ambush wouldn¡¯t work, he moved on to a counter-attack. The strength of an ambush lay in its surprise factor. Without that, it was often even riskier than a direct assault. He knew the cat was there, and he knew the cat knew he was there, but there was a good chance the cat didn¡¯t know he was aware of it. His best chance lay in taking advantage of that and turning the tables as soon as the cat launched its attack.


    Keeping an eye on the cat with his peripheral vision, Tormacc mapped out the surrounding area in his head. He didn¡¯t want any unknown variables to interfere in the fight. It was best to end things as cleanly as possible. Dragging it out was disadvantageous against an opponent with unknown abilities. After seeing the mole¡¯s berserk abilities there was no telling what supernatural powers the cat could have.


    After making sure he had a good grasp of his surroundings he moved, breaking away from the tree he had been crouching against. His eyes were focused forwards, but it was his other senses he was paying attention to. Step by step he moved, each footfall sounding like thunder to his straining ears. Then, right as he crossed under the giant cat, he heard a slight swish. It was the sound of leaves rustling, normally something meaningless, but in this scenario, it was a signal, and after hearing that slight rustle Tormacc moved, straining every muscle in his body as he twisted and slashed with his axe in an upwards motion right into the pouncing cat.


    He felt his strike connect, the axe cleanly entering the cat¡¯s stomach. Then he was on the ground, buried under a terrifying bundle of razor-sharp teeth and claws. He still had his hand on his axe, but the position he was in only allowed him to slightly jostle it, not having the leverage required to pull it out to take another swing. For a brief moment he felt claws slicing into his arms, watched in horror, eyes wide, as fangs the size of his entire hand descended for his throat.


    Then the moment passed, the cats jaws sinking lifelessly next to his head, its fangs millimeters away from his exposed throat. He could feel its breathing slow, only a few rasping breaths remaining before its chest stilled, the slow flow of blood from its stomach wound the only movement left. His strike had been true.


    With gasping, rattling breaths Tormacc sucked in a mouthful of air, restarting his respiratory system he wasn¡¯t even aware had stopped. The fight had been close, but he was still alive. Something he couldn¡¯t say for the cat. Wincing at the wounds on his arm, he carefully struggled out from under the corpse. He had been hoping the cat would implode into a crystal, but he had no such luck.


    Checking his Fate Wheel, he frowned. Killing the cat had only increased his Essence by one, same as the moles. He couldn¡¯t be sure, but that likely meant the cat wasn¡¯t anything special, meaning there were more of them. He had survived the battle, but his margin of error was uncomfortably low. If his tattoo hadn¡¯t warned him or the cat had survived a bit longer to maul him, he would be dead. The starting zone might be more difficult than he thought it would be.

 Chapter 8

    His large pack fell to the ground with a thunk as Tormacc raised his arms above his head, stretching them behind his back before they fell back to his sides. It has been over six months since he had entered The Tower, and he felt he was finally ready to leave the starting zone. He had actually found the exit portal a little over a month into his time here, but the plan in the message left by his previous self necessitated him accruing as much Essence as he could, so the rest of the time was spent grinding Essence and searching for treasure.


    He hadn¡¯t gotten very lucky with the treasure part, likely because the dangerous areas where the treasures were located required him to invest in his Fate Wheel to explore, but he had managed to accrue over four hundred Essence. 468 in fact. It was a decent sum, or he thought it was. Not having anything to compare it to made him a little worried, but that was why he was planning to leave the starting zone.


    There was a lot more he could do here, he was sure of it. The problem was information. Would he even know if he stumbled across a legendary herb? Unless it was glowing seven different colors, likely not. His previous self agreed. The final part of the message told him to seek out an organization called Curtain in the First City once he had accrued a decent amount of Essence. Presumably the First City was where the portal out of the starting zone would take him.


    But before he left, he had his Fate Wheel to light up. Closing his eyes and going into his mind Tormacc stood before his Fate Wheel and in quick succession he lit up both Ability Boost followed by Beginner¡¯s Gift. His Essence quickly drained forty points, twenty each for the two sections, going down to 428. Then Beginners Gift started to kick in, and he felt Essence being sucked into him as the number in his Fate Wheel shot up, eventually stopping at 1,712.


    If before his Essence was like a lantern, now it was like a blazing fire, both the warmth and light it generated on a whole different level from before. Feeling that clear increase in power, Tormacc was satisfied with all the time he had spent grinding. It hadn¡¯t been easy, and multiple times he had been severely injured and needed to take time off to heal, but it was worth it in the end. And even though the Essence was his main reward, he had still found some other crystals.


    Two more of the glowing white crystals had dropped, the first netting him some leather armor and the second a stiletto. He had also gotten a glowing white sphere, although that only gave him five essence. Not a bad haul, although he was disappointed he didn¡¯t get another blue crystal. His tattoo had shined, only increasing in utility as he got better as using it. The rainforest would have been a death sentence without the increase in perception.


    But all that was behind him. Limited as he was in not spending Essence on his Fate Wheel, each day had been a struggle, his power level not increasing as he hunted, meaning each new foray was a life-threatening experience. But it had forged him, granted him a new perspective on combat. He wasn¡¯t sure what he had gone through before entering the tower, but it was hard to imagine it was anything close to what he had just experienced. Knowing he only had himself to rely on gave him a whole new perspective, one he wasn¡¯t sure he had outside The Tower.


    Shaking off thoughts of the past few months, Tormacc picked up his pack and prepared himself to enter the exit portal. It was time to graduate from the starter zone.


    Stepping into the portal, he prepared himself to get transported elsewhere. But as soon as he affirmed his desire to enter the portal, he was through it, the grasslands surrounding the portal gone, replaced by wide streets and tall buildings. Confused, Tormacc took a second to adjust, only to realize he didn¡¯t need it. One second he had been in the starting zone and now he was out of it, except it didn¡¯t feel that way. As he glanced around at the buildings surrounding him it didn¡¯t feel like he had moved at all. Rather, it felt like he had been here the whole time.


    ¡°Hello there! Welcome to the First City!¡±


    Turning his attention to the voice that called out to him, Tormacc spotted two guards walking over to him. A woman and¡­ something else. He assumed they were guards by the tabard they both wore, which had ¡°Guards¡± written across it in bold letters. It was the woman that spoke to him.


    ¡°First time in the city? Of course it is, since you came out of the beginner¡¯s portal. The name¡¯s Tabitha, and that¡¯s Oolg. Pleasure to make your acquaintance.¡±


    ¡°My name is Tormacc, and likewise,¡± he said as he shook Tabitha¡¯s hand.


    ¡°As you might have guessed, we¡¯re both guards. Pretty easy to spot us by these tabards here. Some friendly advice: don¡¯t fuck with us. All the guards are empowered by The Tower, so if you ever want to break the rules, don¡¯t.¡±


    ¡°What are the rules, exactly?¡±


    ¡°Oh, you know, the usual. No murder, rape, stealing, and all the normal stuff. Just keep to yourself and you should be fine. But if you have any questions you¡¯re welcome to come bother us. Us guards are tasked with protecting the peace in First City, and that means entertaining questions from newbies like you.¡±


    ¡°I see. Thank you.¡± He didn¡¯t really see, a bit overwhelmed by Tabitha¡¯s rapid speech, but if she could be believed, he shouldn¡¯t be at immediate risk of being targeted by murderers or thieves, which was always a positive after entering a new environment.


    ¡°Glad to be of service! You wouldn¡¯t happen to have any questions for us, would you? Of course you do. You newbies always have questions.¡± She then stared at him expectantly, waiting for a question. ¡°Come on, out with it then.¡±


    Tormacc certainly hadn¡¯t expected his first experience out of the starting zone to involve being ambushed by an overeager guard so it took him a few seconds to collect his thoughts, but it was true that he did have questions. Even more after her speech.


    ¡°Yes, I do have a question. You wouldn¡¯t happen to know where I could find the organization called Curtain, would you?¡±You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.


    ¡°Curtain, eh? Not a bad choice. If I recall they offer free information to newbies like yourself. Not sure why they bother, but maybe they¡¯re just nice guys. Let¡¯s see, pretty sure they¡¯re in the 6<sup>th</sup> District. Just go over to that portal over there, you see the one that says 6<sup>th</sup> District on top, yeah, that one. Once you come out look to your left and you should see a giant clock tower. That¡¯s Curtain¡¯s headquarters. Just head towards the clock and you should be right as rain, right Oolg?¡±


    Tormacc watched in fascination as Oolg nodded, his whole body rippling. While Tabitha looked Humen, Oolg was definitely not. He looked vaguely humanoid, with two arms, two legs, and a head, but he was made out of some viscous slime substance. He was yellow and mostly transparent, and looking through him felt like it would give Tormacc a headache if he didn¡¯t look away occasionally.


    ¡°Well, what are you waiting for?¡± Tabitha said. ¡°Portal¡¯s right over there.¡±


    He barely managed to squeeze out a ¡°thanks for the help¡± before Tabitha herded him over to the correct portal. Coming out on the other side, he stood there for a minute, not quite sure what to make of the rather pushy guard. Shaking his head, he decided to ignore the whole experience. He got his directions, and that¡¯s what mattered.


    Looking up and to the left he could indeed see a clock tower. It would be hard to not see it, as it towered above the buildings around it, sticking out like a sore thumb. Setting it as his destination, Tormacc started walking, taking the time to scope out the city as he went.


    He couldn¡¯t actually remember what a city looked like, but he had a feeling they shouldn¡¯t be this chaotic. Small two-story cottages sat next to towering structures of steel and glass which stood next to buildings made out of red brick and tiled rooves. If he had to guess, each building¡¯s owner brought their own aesthetic sense to bear, resulting a collage of different styles, all mashed together to form a surprisingly cohesive whole. That might have been helped the individual beauty of each building. There were no run-down structures, meaning everything had a certain standard to it, one that caused each individual style to complement each other rather than detract from the overall picture.


    If he didn¡¯t have a destination Tormacc could have spent hours just admiring the architecture, but he had places to be, and after an hour of walking he found himself in front of Curtain¡¯s headquarters, the clock towering high above him. Curtain HQ: Please Enter Here it said right above the entrance. It seemed they welcomed visitors, an idea also corroborated by the steady trickle of people entering and exiting the entryway.


    The large double doors were propped open, so Tormacc was able to walk right into a large entrance hall where he was immediately confronted with a giant sign. A lot of the sign was incomprehensible, the language full of terms he wasn¡¯t familiar with, but at the top there were clear directions for first timers, so after only a quick glance at the rest of the sign he followed the directions, standing in a queue behind two other people, waiting his turn to see a man at a counter.


    He didn¡¯t have to wait long, and soon he was being motioned over.


    ¡°This is your first time here, correct?¡± The man barely glanced at Tormacc as he asked the question, his eyes directed at a large box, hands tapping at a grouping of buttons.


    ¡°Yes.¡±


    ¡°Standard package, or do you have a coupon or recommendation?¡± Seeing Tormacc¡¯s questioning look the man continued, ¡°Standard package it is then. And do you have a preference for your agent? No? Then if you would please enter through the door on your right and take a seat someone will be with you shortly.¡±


    Tormacc followed the instructions, going through the door and finding a seat in a waiting room. He should have been glad at how quickly he was accomplishing his goal, but everything seemed to be moving too fast. First the guard and now the receptionist. It seemed like everyone finished their conversation with him before he even started speaking.


    Glancing around, he was the only person in the waiting room, the other two who entered before him already gone. Maybe everyone in The Tower knew something he didn¡¯t and he was the weird one? Maybe they actually knew why they were here, unlike him, and were anxious to get about whatever it was they were supposed to be doing. It was something to ponder, but there was no use worrying about it right now. He was here to get information. After he knew more he could start worrying and hurrying right along with them.


    Before he could even fully settle in to his chair someone came to collect him, leading him through various doors and hallways, up two flights of stairs, down another, until finally Tormacc was left in another waiting room. The attendant had barely shut the door behind him when another door opened, and a woman walked in. She was green, but not an artificial green. Her skin looked like leaves, the shades of green blending together, managing to look just at natural as the brown and tan skin tones he was more used to.


    ¡°Hello! My name is Stella and I¡¯ll be your agent if you decide to stay with us,¡± she said, extending a hand. ¡°If you would please follow me into my office we can get started.¡±


    Tormacc followed Stella into an office that was much more personable than the rest of the building. There were pictures in the waiting rooms, but the office felt much more lived in, with small things out of place and books slightly askew on the bookshelves. After Tormacc and Stella were seated on either side of a large desk Stella restarted the conversation.


    ¡°So, what can I help you with today?¡±


    ¡°I was actually hoping you could tell me that,¡± Tormacc said. ¡°I just got out of the starting zone, and I have to admit I¡¯m a little lost.¡±


    ¡°Well you¡¯ve come to the right place. Even if you don¡¯t decide to stay on with us, Curtain offers complementary beginner¡¯s guides to all newcomers.¡± Stella opened one of the draws on her desk before taking out a small book and presenting it to Tormacc. She then turned to look at a large box similar to the one his intake person had.


    ¡°Says here you didn¡¯t have a referral,¡± she said. ¡°Do you mind telling me how you found us?¡±


    ¡°Uh, self-referral?¡± What was he supposed to say here?


    ¡°Starter Kit then. And did the message you left yourself have any specifics?¡±


    Tormacc paused, unsure of how much to tell her. Could he trust Stella? The message he left himself only said to find Curtain, not what he should do once he got here.


    ¡°Ah, worried about how much to say?¡± Stella then reached into another drawer in her desk and pulled out some documents. ¡°All conversations in Curtain fall under our privacy policy, which can be found on page 79. Even the initial free intake session is covered, although you¡¯ll need to sign up for our program to get further sessions. Feel free to browse the contract at your leisure.¡±


    A bit intimidated by the stack of paper, Tormacc flipped to page 79, glancing over the contents. It was a bit hard to understand, but if the helpful summaries in the margins were to be believed, Stella was under a magical oath not to divulge any sensitive information from their sessions. He knew he could debate whether to trust Stella and Curtain for hours, but his previous self had to have a reason to direct him here. Stella seemed as good a choice to trust as any, and he could really use someone to confide in.


    ¡°Yes, I heard about Curtain in the message from the Starter Kit. There wasn¡¯t much honestly, just that I should come here. The rest was other stuff.¡±


    ¡°Do you mind telling me what the other contents were?¡±


    Tormacc then briefly related the contents of the message, also giving a brief overview of his time in the starting zone. Stella thought it over for a bit before finally responding.


    ¡°I can¡¯t say you had a bad start, as it sounds like you got a nice power boost from the ritual, but to be blunt, you fucked up.¡±

 Chapter 9

    Tormacc just stared at Stella, unable to comprehend what she just said.


    ¡°What do you mean I fucked up?! I followed the instructions exactly!¡±


    ¡°And that¡¯s where the problem is,¡± Stella said, leaning forward with her hands clasped on the desk. ¡°I don¡¯t mean you fucked up, I mean the older you, the one who left the message.¡±


    Here she paused, gathering her thoughts.


    ¡°To explain it, I need to tell you a little background information. What do you know of The Tower?¡±


    ¡°That I have something I need to be doing here, likely involving my people back home, and that something involves getting stronger and climbing The Tower.¡±


    Stella nodded. ¡°That¡¯s about what everyone knows coming in. The problem is because your memories were sealed you don¡¯t know how much your previous self knew, which means almost everyone unconditionally trusts the message they receive in their Starter Kit. As messages go, the one you left yourself isn¡¯t bad. I¡¯d even say it¡¯s above average. The problem is most people outside The Tower don¡¯t really know what goes on inside, meaning the information they leave themselves is often incomplete or wrong. Your main issue is leaving the starting zone too soon. You said you had over 1,700 Essence, correct?¡±


    Tormacc nodded.


    ¡°That¡¯s quite decent. Likely you should have tried to save more, but being able to utilize Ability Boost and Beginner¡¯s Gift at all is a nice bonus, as most can¡¯t afford to save much for them. But after that, instead of coming here, you should have stayed in the starter zone.¡±


    ¡°Why is that?¡±


    ¡°Because the starting zone has one of the highest concentrations of treasure in The Tower. It¡¯s a problem most people face that they leave too soon without harvesting even a fraction of the resources available.¡±


    ¡°I thought about that, but how would I recognize it if I came across something valuable?¡± Stella wasn¡¯t saying anything new. He had gone over all this before, and was getting a little annoyed at her tone.


    ¡°You probably wouldn¡¯t. But finding treasure isn¡¯t the only way to get additional resources. You must have seen at least one monster implode into a crystal. Maybe you even saw a special one, a creature that was more powerful than others of its kind and dropped a blue or purple crystal?¡±


    ¡°I got a few white crystals, one white sphere, and a special creature dropped a blue crystal.¡±


    ¡°Those are the additional resources that anyone can recognize,¡± Stella said sagely. ¡°There¡¯s a more comprehensive explanation in the guidebook I gave you, but crystals and spheres are rare, and there is a higher drop rate than normal in the starting zone. Doing a decent job of clearing out your starting zone can usually net you at least five or six blue crystals, not to mention the chance at getting a purple one.¡±


    As Tormacc digested what Stella said, he knew she was right. He did fuck up, or at least was punished for his lack of information. Ironic, really, that in leaving the starting zone to try and find more information he was punished for his lack thereof. He knew the crystal the mole dropped was powerful, as his tattoo had been amazing, but the thought of there being more guaranteed drops of that kind didn¡¯t even cross his mind.


    ¡°There, there,¡± Stella said. ¡°Don¡¯t be too hard on yourself. You did better than most people. We don¡¯t have statistics, but even surviving the starting zone isn¡¯t a guarantee. Well, not for those close to Humen at least. There¡¯re some more powerful races that have it a bit easier. You at least did the right thing in coming here. I can guarantee that everyone who has signed on with Curtain hasn¡¯t regretted it.¡±


    ¡°Sorry for my ignorance, but what IS Curtain, exactly?¡± He had gone with the flow so far, but despite all the information Stella had already given him he still felt woefully ignorant.


    ¡°Apologies, I forgot you didn¡¯t know. Curtain is the premier intelligence agency in the First City. We provide all kinds of tips and tricks for our clients, as well as facilitating connections if they are looking for particular services or goods.¡±


    ¡°Is there any reason people wouldn¡¯t sign up then?¡± There had to be other options, and, judging from the Curtain HQ, the organization was large, but from what he saw of the city there were a lot of people here. They couldn¡¯t be the only game in town.


    ¡°We don¡¯t come cheap. Premium service, premium charge. But if you want the best of the best, Curtain is where you want to be. Why don¡¯t you take a look at the guidebook I gave you? That should give a good example of what we can offer.¡±


    Tormacc spent a good chunk of time browsing the information in the guidebook, occasionally asking Stella a question or two which she patiently answered. There was a lot of information to take in, and he knew he would have to come back to the guidebook later to read it in more detail, but what he did glean from it was shocking, and out of that, the biggest shock was The Tower itself.The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    The guidebook had a whole section that talked about the origin of The Tower and why people where fighting inside of it. In the past, there had been a huge war between the various dimensions, one that was so destructive it threatened to collapse the very fabric of reality. All the most powerful races and dimensions got together and decided they needed a better way to distribute the rare resources that existed between the dimensions, and so The Tower was born.


    All the races of the various dimensions could send champions to The Tower who would compete for Essence. The more Essence the champion had, the more resources their race would get. The Essence they collected would also be taxed, with a small amount being siphoned off each day, going back to maintain the portal into The Tower as well as being used as a currency for trade between the various dimensions.


    As Tormacc read more and more he felt the weight of responsibility settle on him. He wasn¡¯t just fighting for himself, but for his whole race. That was his mission. It was a lot to take in, and he finally had to put the guidebook down, his mind in turmoil, thoughts racing, constantly going over what he had just learned. He had a vague idea before but hadn¡¯t quite realized just how much responsibility he had on his shoulders. After a short while he pushed those thoughts aside; knowing the weight of his task changed nothing. He still had to get stronger.


    ¡°Can you explain a bit more about the portals and Shards?¡± he said, mind returning to the present. ¡°And what does it mean we can¡¯t stay in the First City? Where else would we go?¡±


    ¡°There¡¯s more about it in a later chapter, but I can explain it to you now. The First City is a gathering point in The Tower. It¡¯s a place where resources can be exchange and people can rest and recover. You can think of it as a giant safe zone and market. But you can¡¯t stay here for a prolonged period of time unless you have a job. For everyone else there¡¯s an increasingly high tax, and once you can¡¯t pay that, you are forced to enter a portal.


    ¡°The portals are where the real competition is. It¡¯s there that you can fight monsters for Essence and find rare resources and weapons. The portals lead to Shards, which you can think of as worlds unto themselves. There are thousands of Shards, and new ones are still being discovered, although that¡¯s a rare occurrence. There are only three portals to different Shards open at once, and each week they change. Of course, you can always come back to the First City, but to do so you need to find the exit portal, and since entering a Shard always takes you to a different location, it can often take years to make your way to the exit portal, if you can even make it at all. Not all Shards are equally safe.¡±


    ¡°The guidebook said you can only stay in the First City eight days for free, right? So you only get a choice of six portals to enter?¡±


    ¡°It seems like you know how to figure out what¡¯s important. You¡¯re correct. Unless you find a job or pay the taxes to stay here for longer each person can only choose from one of six portals.¡±


    ¡°And how dangerous are those six portals?¡±


    Stella spread her hands in a helpless gesture before answering. ¡°They always change. There¡¯s usually a good mix, but we¡¯ve recorded runs where over a hundred high-level portals appear in a row. There¡¯s a list of the danger levels for each known portal in the guidebook. They range from one to five, with three and four being the most common. You¡¯re lucky if you can enter a level two, but you can¡¯t count on one appearing, so as long as you can survive in a level three you¡¯re generally going to be safe.¡±


    Stella then gave her best business smile. ¡°Of course, more detailed information on the various Shards is member-only, so I¡¯m afraid I can¡¯t divulge any more information on them. My apologies.¡±


    Tormacc had been on the fence about joining Curtain, not really sure what they could offer him that would be worth it considering their prices. But he knew valuable information when he heard it, and a description of the Shards was worth his firstborn child.


    ¡°Can I see the contract again?¡±


    ¡°Of course, valued customer. Take your time.¡± He tried to ignore Stella¡¯s beaming smile. She knew she had him.


    Stella patiently waited as he read through the contract, making sure to take his time. With all the questions and clarifications he asked for it must have taken hours, but except for a brief moment when Stella left to meet with another client she waited patiently with him, happily giving him more information on the contract when he asked for it. After finally finishing up the contract he put it down, massaging his temples.


    ¡°Is everything to your liking?¡± Stella asked, smiling sweetly.


    ¡°I suppose,¡± he said. ¡°At least there¡¯s nothing I don¡¯t like, and the information about the Shards is too valuable.¡± And with that he signed the contract.


    ¡°Wonderful!¡± Stella said, glancing over the contract before signing her name next to his. ¡°It is a pleasure to have you join us, valued customer Tormacc. Would you like to obtain additional information now, and if so, will you be paying upfront or with credit?¡±


    Reaching into his pack, Tormacc took out a chunk of the red crystal the moles ate and plonked it down on the desk


    ¡°That depends, is this worth anything?¡±


    Stella pulled open another drawer on her desk before taking out a large sheet of glass and holding it over the crystal.


    ¡°I apologize, it seems I underestimated what you gained from the starting zone. This is a Blood Crystal, and a rather large chunk at that. While not a top tier resource, its scarcity makes it very valuable.¡±


    ¡°What is it used for?¡± Tormacc asked.


    ¡°It can be used in quite a few recipes and as a catalyst for various rituals, but the most famous and best use for it is in the Blood Empowerment Ritual. The ritual is especially useful for those who don¡¯t yet have a lot of Essence, as it gives a base enhancement to your body. While this chunk isn¡¯t enough to get a top tier ritual done, you could still use it to fuel a medium enhancement. I would suggest keeping it and paying with credit.¡±


    Without speaking, Tormacc opened up the top of his pack so Stella could look inside. He could see her eyes widen almost imperceptibly as she looked at the pack full of Blood Crystals.


    ¡°Congratulations, valued customer Tormacc. You¡¯re rich.¡±

 Chapter 10

    ¡°Instead of selling the Blood Crystal through us or to the Central Exchange I suggest going directly to a buyer,¡± Stella said. ¡°In this case, that means someone who is able to perform the Blood Empowerment Ritual. They will always have a use for Blood Crystal, as they can easily sell the ritual for a high price. Once you sell the Blood Crystal and get an empowerment ritual for yourself you can return here and we can discuss what you should spend the rest of your money on.¡±


    ¡°Do you have any suggestions for a buyer?¡± Tormacc asked.


    ¡°Let me search our database.¡±


    While Stella quickly tapped her hands over her grouping of buttons Tormacc reflected on just how glad he was to have found Curtain. Perhaps he could have found a lot of the information he needed by himself, but the time saved was incredibly valuable. Even if he could get all the information and services cheaper, it wasn¡¯t worth it if he couldn¡¯t do it in eight days. With limited time in the First City each minute was valuable. He only had an inkling of just how large the city was, but even that made him realize that if he had to scurry all over it he would never accomplish his goals in a timely manner.


    ¡°I would suggest going to see Kaz Ehen,¡± Stella said after finishing her search. ¡°Not only is he one of the premier people able to perform the Blood Empowerment Ritual, but he likely has the capital needed to buy your excess Blood Crystals, something not necessarily true for the rest.¡±


    After a few more questions Tormacc took his leave. Right now he still had three more days until the portals changed, so as long as he went about things quickly he should be able to sell off his loot, get the ritual done, and still have time to come back and plan ahead with Stella in case he wanted to go through one of the current portals. He had been talking with Stella for hours though, and since he had arrived at First City in the early afternoon it was already dusk, so instead of trying to get anything done he made his way to a nearby inn Stella recommended to get some food and bed down for the night.


    First City used a currency called Coin, and Stella had loaned him a small amount until he could sell off his loot. There were hostels that offered a free bed to those without money, but he would much prefer having his own room and getting some quality food. He had grown used to cooking his own meals in the starting zone, but why settle for slightly burnt meat when you could have a proper meal?


    After a good night¡¯s rest and the best food he had eaten in months Tormacc set off about his business, with his first stop the Central Exchange. While it was common to barter directly with others, the majority of business was conducted through the Central Exchange, which acted as both a bank and an auction house, all run by the city itself. Anyone could register an account, and once you had an account you could exchange currency with others by transferring it directly through your accounts, not needing to have the actual Coin on hand.


    You were also able to sell weapons, armor, and other valuable materials directly to the Exchange for a set amount of Coin or put them up for auction. There was a commission though, so people generally traded directly with others if they could, especially for really valuable materials. It would also be a waste to sell anything truly valuable for just coin, as even if you got billions of Coin, if no one else was selling anything worth buying, your money was left to rot. It was much better to trade directly, exchanging one super rare item for another.


    The Central Exchange was large enough that it had its own portal connection, so once Tormacc reached the portal station nearest his inn he was able to reach the Central Exchange directly. Stepping out of the portal, he was stunned by the cacophony of sounds from what had to be thousands of different races intermingling. He had seen people when he was walking around the city before, but it was only a handful, and not more than ten or twenty at a time. Now, seeing all the different races together, he truly understood how vast The Tower was. While Humens and Humen-like sapiens made up the majority, there were many people with outlandish features or limbs, the variance on display ranging from metallic skin to animal features and beyond.


    Trying not to stare, he made his way to an open terminal. Seeing such a wide range of races made him feel like he was sightseeing in some exotic location. Except everyone around him was an enemy. Perhaps not directly, but they were all competitors, each one trying to gain the largest advantage for their own race and dimension. It was a sobering thought, realizing just how vast his competition was. But it wouldn¡¯t affect his resolve. He didn¡¯t come here to lose.


    Setting up an account with the Central Exchange was quick and painless, although he did lose some time browsing the items listed in the auction house. It wasn¡¯t completely worthless, as he got a rough idea of how much Coin was worth, but he probably shouldn¡¯t have continued browsing after the twentieth page.Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.


    Account set up, his next stop was Kaz Ehen. Stella had given him some directions, but as he moved around the city he realized he should have taken her up on her offer of a magical compass. The numbers on the houses and shops were organized, but only if you knew the system. Which he did not. And why did they even need those decimal things in the first place? If you wanted more numbers just add more numbers, don¡¯t complicate things with some dot that suddenly made the number smaller.


    After over two hours of wandering off in the wrong direction and backtracking Tormacc finally found Kaz Ehen. He must have walked past the entrance multiple times, which wasn¡¯t surprising now that he found it. The entrance was a small door, barely wedged in between the buildings next to it. The door was a faded green with Kaz Ehen written on it in a color barely distinguishable from the door itself. Knocking didn¡¯t produce any response, so after a few minutes of waiting he tried the door, and seeing it was open, walked inside.


    The door opened to a short hallway, ending in a small room with a counter. The room was barely furnished, with nothing on the walls and little light except for a glowing stone held in a sconce on the wall. Walking over to the counter, Tormacc looked inside the glass case under it, taking note of the ten or so materials listed for sale. Most of them were covered in dust, and he had a feeling the case hadn¡¯t been opened in years.


    Tormacc snapped his head up as he heard a slam from farther in the building. A few seconds later and a great bear of a man walked out from the door behind the counter. He was large and hairy, his body bursting with muscle. Looking closer at the mane on his head, Tormacc though he could see ears sticking out. Scratch that, he wasn¡¯t a bear of a man, he was a literal bear-man. Not unsurprising having seen many animal-humen hybrids in the Central Exchange, but when Tormacc pictured who would be doing the Blood Empowerment Ritual a bear wasn¡¯t first on the list. Or on it at all if he was being honest.


    ¡°Well, what¡¯ll it be, then?¡± Kaz Ehen said in a deep gravelly voice. ¡°Ye must have a reason for searchin¡¯ me out?¡±


    ¡°I do. I heard that you¡¯re a specialist in the Blood Empowerment Ritual,¡± Tormacc said.


    ¡°Course I am, didn¡¯t ye read the sign?¡± Kaz Ehen jabbed his hand at an empty spot on the wall. Evidently not feeling what he thought was there, he turned, contemplating the empty wall before turning back. ¡°There used to be a sign. Business has been slow of late. Ever since those crackpot imposters¡¯ve popped up no one wants an actual ritual done anymore. Stupid newbies, don¡¯t know what they¡¯re missing.¡±


    ¡°Well if it¡¯s not too much trouble I was hoping you could do a ritual for me.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯d be happy to, Mr¡­?¡±


    ¡°Tormacc.¡±


    ¡°Mr. Tormacc. But as I said, business has been slow. Been nigh on three years now without a Blood Crystal mine being discovered, so I¡¯m afraid I can¡¯t help ye.¡±


    Tormacc slipped his pack off his back, plopping it on the floor before opening it up and revealing its contents. ¡°I didn¡¯t come empty handed. Now do you think you could help me?¡±


    Kaz Ehen broke into large, goofy grin. ¡°Well, well, now yer talkin¡¯. Follow me into the back room and we can get down to business.¡±


    The large bear-man lead the way through a few doors and into a cozy sitting area before getting some tea so they could talk business ¡°like civilized people¡±.


    ¡°So what brings ye to my humble shop?¡± Kaz Ehen said once they were settled down with their tea.


    ¡°Curtain suggested that not only were you a premier practitioner of the Blood Empowerment Ritual, but also that you would have the capital to buy my excess Blood Crystals.¡± Tormacc said.


    ¡°Curtain, eh? Shoulda suspected they wouldn¡¯t forget about me. They¡¯re right. None of these other crackpots out there could buy yer crystals, and it¡¯s doubtful some of them can even draw a proper pentagram, let alone a full ritual circle. So I take it ye want the works, eh?¡±


    ¡°Yes? I don¡¯t know much about the process.¡±


    ¡°There¡¯s a few different ways to do the ritual,¡± Kaz Ehen said, launching into an explanation. ¡°Blood Crystals are the only real rare ingredient, so it¡¯s mostly how much ye can cram into one ritual. And ye only get one. Second one don¡¯t work for some reason. We usually separate the ritual into three tiers, the first that uses the bare minimum Blood Crystal as a catalyst, the second, which is a decent power boost but needs at least a handful of crystal, or the third, where it depends on the ritualist how much they can pack in. ¡®Course, there¡¯s the fourth tier too, but that requires a Blood Gem.¡±


    ¡°Just a second,¡± Tormacc said as he rummaged around in his pack. ¡°Is this a Blood Gem?¡±


    In his hand was the glowing red gem that the mole dropped, its cleanly cut surfaces shining brightly in the lamplight.


    ¡°Oh-ho! Well I¡¯ll be, looks like yer one lucky lad. Give it here and let ol¡¯ daddy Kaz take a look.¡±


    The bear-man gently held the gem, examining it from every angle, completely enamored with its beauty.


    ¡°It¡¯s a Blood Gem alright. First one I¡¯ve seen in years. Not many people who would waste it on a Blood Empowerment Ritual.¡±


    ¡°Waste it?¡± Tormacc was confused, should he be saving it for something else? Stella had seemed certain the Blood Empowerment Ritual would be a great boon, but maybe that was only with the Blood Crystals.


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry lad, it¡¯s not a waste for ye. I was talking about those folks who have no use for a Blood Empowerment Ritual. Ye see, Blood Gems are rare. Very rare. So most of the time the people who find them have better things to do with them, as unlike Blood Crystals, Blood Gems are useful for anything and everything. It¡¯s just rare to see a newbie like yerself get the chance to use it for a ritual is all. Ye must have gotten lucky with yer starting zone.¡±


    ¡°I guess I did,¡± Tormacc said.


    ¡°Course ye did! Come on then, follow me into the ritual chamber and we can talk more while I get everything prepared. If yer using a Blood Gem I need to gather me some other ingredients.¡±

 Chapter 11

    Kaz Ehen plopped Tormacc down in a comfy armchair before whirling around his shop, gathering ingredients from every corner. He seemed genuinely excited about performing the ritual, describing in detail all the reagents and processes used in it. Tormacc mostly nodded along, not familiar with either subject, although he did try to memorize the rare materials in case he ran into them later. Slowly but surely the ritual circle started to take form, Kaz piling up reagents into the freshly drawn geometric amalgamation.


    Watching him draw out the ritual circle, Tormacc was a little disappointed in the process. He had been expecting him to draw it from memory, quickly sketching out complicated designs. Instead, the process involved a large number of notes which were then precisely copied and drawn onto the floor using tools designed for that exact purpose. The whole thing was much more mundane than mystical, but thinking about it more, he would rather the ritual be boring but function correctly. He wasn¡¯t sure what would happen if anything went wrong, but at the very least he would lose his Blood Gem and a lot of Blood Crystals.


    Three hours later and Kaz was done with the setup, but first he insisted they go out for lunch, claiming no one could correctly perform a ritual on an empty stomach. Tormacc wasn¡¯t really opposed to it, as he found himself genuinely enjoying the bear-man¡¯s company. Listening to his stories was fascinating, and while the same information might be available from Stella and Curtain, hearing about The Tower in the form of stories was mesmerizing, the funny and exotic tales much more likely to stick in his memory than dry text if he needed to recall the information later.


    Once lunch was finished, they made their way back to Kaz¡¯s shop. Tormacc expected them to start the ritual right away, but Kaz said there was still one more thing to do first.


    ¡°Some people,¡± Kaz said as he brought out a pole with a ball on top, ¡°don¡¯t appreciate a proper ritual. So I made this.¡±


    ¡°What is it?¡± Tormacc asked.


    Just looked at it, it didn¡¯t appear as anything special. The top part was a squishy ball attached to a long pole with a wide metal base similar to a floor lamp. It was only as tall as his chest.


    ¡°This here is to test yer strength,¡± Kaz said, pulling a lever out of the pole. ¡°I channel power into this lever and the ball on top hardens. All ye need to do is try and squeeze it and that screen at the bottom will show a number. I like to do a before and after to show people how much strength they gained. ¡®Course, some rituals focus more on things other than improving strength, but it¡¯s better than nothing.¡±


    Stepping up to the contraption, Tormacc gave the ball a squeeze. It was squishy, almost akin what it felt like to hold guts when cleaning out an animal. But as soon as Kaz inserted energy into the lever the ball hardened, and Tormacc felt like he couldn¡¯t squeeze it at all.


    ¡°A little more¡¯n twenty-two,¡± Kaz said. ¡°Not bad for a newbie.¡±


    ¡°What do people normally get?¡±


    ¡°Well, that all depends. Obviously not all races have the same starting point. For someone who¡¯s mostly Humen like yerself, I would say ten to twenty-five is the usual range when leaving the starting zone. There¡¯s always freaks of course, but that¡¯s what the ritual¡¯s for, so don¡¯t worry that yer only average.¡±


    As Kaz double checked the ritual circle, Tormacc pondered his own strength. He still hadn¡¯t spent any of his essence, but even with it he wouldn¡¯t be that much ahead of the curve. Stella had assured him that he was doing fine, but it was hard to avoid hearing condescension in her words, even if she didn¡¯t try to put any there. When he had pushed her for some statistics she told him their best guess had only twenty percent of people surviving their first year in The Tower. He couldn¡¯t afford to only be above average.


    ¡°All set! The next time ye leave this room ye¡¯ll be a new man.¡±


    After undressing, Tormacc stepped into the circle and lay down on the floor while Kaz started up the ritual. Kaz had told him to close his eyes and relax, but as he felt the power building around him it was hard to avoid tensing his muscles. As the power continued to grow, he felt himself lifted off the floor, supported by the unseen energy surrounding him. He smelled blood, the sickly scent washing over him as the ritual ramped up, the swells of power overwhelming his senses. Then with a rising crescendo the bloody energy crashed over him, and he only knew ecstasy.


    Blinking his eyes, he sat up, staring at the empty ritual circle around him. Weren¡¯t they about to start the ritual? What happened to the reagents?Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.


    ¡°It¡¯s done lad,¡± Kaz said, helping him stand and guiding him to the armchair. ¡°The memories¡¯ll come back to ye. Just give it a minute. I¡¯ve heard the whole experience can be a bit overwhelming.¡±


    Tormacc held onto the cup of tea Kaz put into his hands as he sat in the armchair. Slowly the feeling from the ritual came back to him. He remembered feeling tense going into it, the waves of power grating on his nerves. But after that¡­ It felt like climax, except with his whole body. The blood essence from the gem and crystals had permeated every pore of his body, leaving him awash in pleasure, it¡¯s tingling hands caressing every centimeter of his skin. It was honestly a bit frightening, knowing he could lose himself like that. Pain was something you could fight off, but how do you fight something that stimulating? He would have to keep that in mind for the future if he came across anyone wielding illusion or bewitching abilities.


    After handing him his clothes, Kaz let him sit for a bit to digest the experience while he cleaned up the ritual room.


    ¡°Ye feeling better now?¡± Kaz asked after he finished cleaning up.


    Tormacc nodded. ¡°Yes, although the experience was¡­ an experience.¡±


    ¡°Bahahaha! That¡¯s one way to describe it. Most people just say it felt like the best fuck of their life times ten. It¡¯s hard to get that kind of high through normal means, only something like this can really get you there. And it must have been even better for ye since you had a Blood Gem to power it.¡±


    Kaz then brought over the strength measurement device.


    ¡°Here, take a look at how much ye¡¯ve grown.¡±


    Paying attention to his body for the first time after the ritual, Tormacc flexed his muscles, trying to feel a difference. There did seem to be one, but it didn¡¯t feel that big; certainly smaller than when he activated the ritual back in the starting zone. Stepping up to the measuring device, he gave it a good squeeze after Kaz powered it on.


    ¡°Almost fifty-seven. That Blood Gem must¡¯ve made a real difference. Normally I would expect around forty-something at most.¡±


    ¡°Is that really accurate? I don¡¯t feel three times stronger.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s because strength isn¡¯t yer primary gain,¡± Kaz said. ¡°The Blood Empowerment Ritual is more focused on vitality. Strength is actually more of a side benefit. Ye should be sturdier now and heal faster than ye did before.¡±


    They both spent a bit longer talking and enjoying the other¡¯s company before Tormacc left to go back to his inn. As he was leaving, Kaz gave him a list of the other rituals he was proficient in, as well as a list of rare materials he was looking for. Tormacc promised he would keep his eye out. It was hard to truly understand what the Blood Empowerment Ritual had done for him without testing if out in battle, but if it truly gave him as much strength as Kaz said it did, he should keep an eye out for some of the key components for the other rituals. One could never have too much strength.


    The next day Tormacc made his way back to Curtain to talk to Stella and plan out his next moves. This time he quickly made his way into the building, only have to briefly scan the emblem that Stella had given him. After a quick trek through the building he once more found himself in her office, where he then related to her yesterday¡¯s events.


    ¡°I didn¡¯t realize you had a Blood Gem,¡± Stella said, examining his bank balance. ¡°I was expecting a larger amount of Coin to work with, but investing in the higher tier Blood Empowerment Ritual was the right choice. You can always get new weapons and armor, but you only have one shot at the ritual.¡±


    ¡°Is my amount of Coin a problem?¡± Tormacc asked. Stella had mentioned she would make a list of things for him to buy, but if he no longer had the Coin she might have to scrap the list and make a completely new one.


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it,¡± Stella said. ¡°Before I estimated you could get five or six Blue Crystals, but now you can only get two in addition to some decent equipment and supplies. It¡¯s just a small adjustment. The real question is what portal you want to enter. The weakest right now is a level three, one that we normally suggest you have a tier eight ability unlocked on your Fate Wheel to enter. Tier nine to be safe. You said you only have enough Essence to unlock a tier six, but with the ritual and a few crystals you might have a chance as one of the currently available Shards favors physical fighters.¡±


    ¡°Do I have any other options?¡± He was far from a tier eight ability and he didn¡¯t like the sound of the Shard based on what Stella had told him before.


    ¡°Your only other choice is to roll the dice, so to speak. If you wait another few days the portals will change. While there¡¯s a chance there will be a tier two portal, they¡¯re not super common. Usually only one rotation out of six or seven has a tier one or two, and if you wait, the next rotation could only have tier four and five, or a tier three that is much more unfavorable to you. The reason I suggest entering one of the current portals is while it¡¯s unlikely you can easily kill monsters to farm Essence, most of the common threats are rather slow, so running away should be a viable option. The real threat is the environment, but as long as you are properly prepared you should be able to survive the Shard.¡±


    Tormacc lapsed into silence, mulling over his choices. Based on what Stella told him, most people didn¡¯t have the option of a safe portal to enter their first time. Only once you could guarantee your safety in a tier three portal would you truly be safe. Before that you faced endless dangers, the tier three portals unforgiving against the unprepared. But that didn¡¯t apply to him. Had he spent years in the starting zone he would likely be stronger, but his current strength couldn¡¯t be underestimated; he was no weakling to run away from a challenge.


    ¡°I¡¯ve decided to enter the portal.¡± It was useless to run away. Playing it safe would only get you so far. The more you advanced in the beginning the more you could retreat later without losing ground.


    ¡°An excellent choice,¡± Stella said. ¡°Let¡¯s discuss the final acquisition list and after I procure the necessary items you can enter the portal tomorrow morning.¡±

 Chapter 12

    Later that night Tormacc sat on his bed at the inn, finishing up his final preparations before he entered the portal in the morning. Stella had taken care of gathering the supplies he needed so all that was left was using the two Blue Crystals and distributing the Essence in his Fate Wheel. He had gotten extensive advice on both using the crystals and distributing his Essence, but in the end it was on him to make the final decision, in part because only he knew what was best for himself, but also because of how the Fate Wheel worked.


    He had expected Curtain to provide him with a list of all the skill trees in his Fate Wheel, enabling him to make informed decisions when choosing abilities, but apparently it didn¡¯t work that way. While Stella could have provided him with a map of many of the early abilities, as you got into the higher tiers of the Fate Wheel the abilities starting to differ from person to person, each person¡¯s layout of skills unique. And according to the information they had, the unique abilities you could unlock with your Fate Wheel were more powerful than their generic counterparts.


    The unique abilities weren¡¯t easy to unlock, but they weren¡¯t hard either. The most basic requirement, and also the most important one, was to not have knowledge of what the ability should be. Extensive testing had shown that those who ¡°knew¡± what abilities their Fate Wheel should have almost always unlocked those abilities, while those who were left in the dark sometimes unlocked powerful variants, skills that not only left their competition in the dust, but also suited their wielder. For this reason everyone had to choose what abilities to pick on their own. Even receiving input on specific choices had the potential to hurt your chances of unlocking a unique ability. The only advice Stella gave him was that if he was going to unlock the right side of his Fate Wheel, the side focused on physical prowess, he should go for the Impact branch, at least to start with.


    That sounded like sound advice to Tormacc, as from what little he had read on the different sections of the Fate Wheel the Impact branch tended to focus more on activated abilities rather than the body strengthening the Inner Force branch favored. He didn¡¯t need any more body strengthening; he had both rituals for that. The creatures in the portal he was entering tended to specialize in defense, and to combat that he needed an equally potent offense. He didn¡¯t need staying power, he needed sheer explosive might, which is what he was hoping the Impact branch could provide for him. But before he spent his Essence, he still had to use the two Blue Crystals.


    Carefully unwrapping the first one, he thought over the reward ranking. Out of all the crystals, the blue ones had the widest range of options available for what they could give you, and out of those, there were a few that were particularly valuable. For instance, the tattoo he obtained was on the list. It didn¡¯t rank near the top, but it was above average, certainly better than Essence, which had been his other option. Holding the crystal in his clenched fist, Tormacc felt it pulse three times before a voice sounded in his head.


    ¡°Essence or ring?¡±


    He couldn¡¯t help letting a sigh slip out. It was probably too much to expect something good two times in a row. Since he still hadn¡¯t invested his Essence yet, that option was useless. The Essence rewards from crystals and spheres was proportional to the highest unlocked tier of your Fate Wheel, so Tormacc reluctantly selected the ring, the Essence he gained would be stunted compared to what it should be had he already spent his Essence.


    With a muted flash of light he suddenly held a silver ring in his hand. It was beautifully crafted, with silver strings intertwined around a sapphire core. Inspecting it closely, the sapphire core almost seemed alive, the blue color pulsing along the ring like waves against the shore.


    ¡°Obtained Ring of High Water Attunement.¡±


    Thankfully when obtaining magical items from crystals you gained an instinctual understanding of what the item did, meaning Tormacc didn¡¯t need to go back to Stella to get the ring appraised. The name also made it easy, as the Ring of High Water Attunement did exactly as the name suggested in increasing water attunement, which didn¡¯t sound impressive at first, but Tormacc quickly realized it wasn¡¯t so simple.


    Attunement seemed to govern everything related to an element, from increasing his own spells and abilities using that element to raising his resistance against it. Wearing the ring would also allow his natural water attunement to passively grow, a benefit that would persist even after taking the ring off. Having a high water attunement also gave him the ability to breath underwater as well as boosting his abilities in a water environment. The ring wouldn¡¯t be very useful for the portal he planned to enter, but perhaps it wasn¡¯t as bad a reward as he had first assumed.


    Moving on to the second crystal he prayed for something good. The ring actually seemed decent, but as a rule, equipment and Essence were some of the weaker rewards from Blue Crystals. It was only Humen to want something better. Closing his eyes, he felt the three pulses of energy before the crystal he was holding crumbled to dust.


    ¡°Weapon or box?¡±


    Tormacc frowned. A weapon was one of the weaker options, and one he didn¡¯t need at the moment as Stella had helped him procure some weapons suitable for the portal he was to enter. He didn¡¯t really need any kind of equipment or supplies in general, as the Spatial Bracelet he wore held more supplies than he thought he would ever need, but less that Stella thought he should have. But if he didn¡¯t choose a weapon, that only left him with a box.Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.


    The reward list he received had been fairly long, if not all inclusive, and a box was on the list, one of the later entries. It wasn¡¯t there as a high tier option though; it was listed under the special options category. Unlike a lot of the other options, a box was more of a wildcard. You didn¡¯t know what you would get until you opened it up, the rewards varying wildly. The list ranked it as a viable option to choose if you had no use for the other choice or liked to gamble. While a weapon would be valuable, even if only to sell, at this point Tormacc would rather take his chances gambling on the box. It could be a wasted choice, but unless the weapon he received was incredibly valuable it would likely rot in his Spatial Bracelet, so box it was.


    ¡°Obtained sleek wooden box.¡±


    With a disturbingly wet sounding pop Tormacc felt the newly-spawned box settle on his lap. Opening his eyes and inspecting it, he couldn¡¯t help agreeing with the voice. It was indeed a sleek wooden box, perhaps the kind someone would use to store something of sentimental value. Trying to avoid getting his hopes up, he hesitantly opened the lid. The box was full of puffy white squiggles, but it was clear they were only there as packaging, and after brushing them aside, he felt the corners of his mouth slowly turn upwards. His gamble had paid off.


    There, laying amidst the white puffs, was a bottle with the words ¡°Elixir of Toughness¡± emblazoned across it. Tormacc wanted to get up and dance for joy, but he didn¡¯t trust himself not to drop the box and break the flask within. Elixirs weren¡¯t at the top of most valuable rewards, but that was partly because each elixir varied in strength, as some were more useful than others. He wasn¡¯t sure how powerful this elixir was, but from the name he was sure it was useful, definitely more so than a weapon would have been.


    Lifting the flask out of the box as one would life a baby from its cradle, he gently popped the lid off before draining the contents in one large gulp. Immediately, power flooded through him, the elixir spreading its effects throughout his body, toughening his skin, muscles, and bones. It was incredibly satisfying to feel his body being remade by the elixir, and he reached his hand around to give himself a pat on the back for choosing the box over the weapon. Maybe his choice would change in the future were he presented with the same options, but right now his choice had born fruit, and that was all that mattered.


    The Blue Crystals now settled, it was time for him to distribute his Essence. He would be lying if he said he wasn¡¯t nervous, the feeling of bugs fluttering in his stomach a constant reminder of the weight of his choices. But there were no bad options in the Fate Wheel, only ones not as relevant to his current situation, or more specifically, the situation in the Shard he was going to. As long as he focused on the physical side of the tree he should be in good shape, or that¡¯s what he told himself as he closed his eyes and dove into his mind.


    Everyone¡¯s Fate Wheel was separated into four general sections: the right section, which was focused on physical prowess and combat, the left section, which was focused on magic, the top section, which had more utility and support, and the bottom, which varied heavily from person to person, generally have strange options, come immensely powerful, but others almost useless, far below the power level of other abilities in their tier. Generally it was advised to choose either the right or left section to invest in, at least early on, as those had the most direct correlation to combat. After accumulating more Essence it was possible to shift into the top section for item crafting for example, but at its core, The Tower was designed for combat, and those without personal power often found themselves at the mercy of others.


    Tormacc had no intention of subjecting himself to the whims of the powerful. He had been trained for combat, and that was what he aimed to do. But before he invested his Essence, he first picked up Description from the top section. All the beginning abilities were very useful, but Description in particular was a must-have for investing Essence. It allowed him to get a feel for the abilities he was going to unlock before unlocking them, as otherwise he would only be choosing based on the name. While the abilities gave clear information about what they did once unlocked, there were no redos for investing Essence. He needed Description to get a better idea of what to pick before unlocking it.


    He had 1,712 Essence before he started, so after unlocking Description, he was down to 1,702. Out of the two tier one abilities on the right side of his Fate Wheel, he first unlocked Impact under Stella¡¯s advice, which gave his blows additional power and brought him to 1,692 Essence. After Impact, he had the choice between Power Attack and Dash. Even without Description the names were pretty self-explanatory, so without hesitation he spent twenty points to unlock Power Attack. From there it wasn¡¯t quite so straightforward, and he had to spend some time pondering his next unlock, both options viable choices.


    The two tier three abilities revealed by Power Attack were Cleave and Elemental Blade. Cleave would allow him to extend the range of his attack to create a small area of effect, while Elemental Blade allowed him to choose an elemental affinity to imbue his attacks with. Both abilities seemed powerful, but without unlocking them, he wasn¡¯t sure how useful they would be. He was leaning towards Cleave initially, as a way to deal with a crowd of weaker enemies was always valuable, but he couldn¡¯t be sure it would actually help him. The real reason he decided against it was the portal he planned to enter. It was known for tough enemies focused on defense, not swarms of weaker fodder. If he needed cleave in the future he could unlock it then.


    Decision made, he invested fifty points to unlock Elemental Blade, the choice also made easier by the ring he just got. Combining two different elemental buffs should show him higher returns than the two abilities on their own. Stella had mentioned that synergy was his friend, and he was inclined to listen to her. That didn¡¯t stop him from moving away from elemental abilities for his next choice though. His next two options were Elemental Perception and Double Strike, and without any hesitation he unlocked Double Strike for 100 Essence, the description of the skill exactly what he wanted from his Fate Wheel. But looking at the next two abilities that were revealed he knew he would regret his choice either way, both options screaming for him to unlock them.

 Chapter 13

    The two abilities revealed by Double Strike were Bone Breaker and Sudden Strike. Bone Breaker gave him increased blunt force damage while Sudden Strike allow him to make a full power attack out of nowhere, overwriting his previous attack. Seeing what Description told him about Sudden Strike blew him away. The ability was powerful, very powerful. It could easily act as a trump card by ending a fight out of nowhere or allow him to overextend, the ability taking advantage of his opponent by allowing him to counterattack when he had no business doing so. It felt like a reality-breaking ability, and it made him realize that combat didn¡¯t follow all the same rules as outside The Tower.


    But the other ability, Bone Breaker, seemed equally as useful, especially considering his circumstances. The Shard he was going to enter was often called the Land of the Stone Giants, aptly named after the large stone-coated humanoid monsters that were typical for the Shard. His primary weapon to combat them was a hammer, and Bone Breaker seemed like exactly the type of ability he needed to synergize with his blunt force attacks to break the tough defenses of the stone monsters. After all, it didn¡¯t matter how many strikes he could land if he couldn¡¯t break through the monster¡¯s defenses.


    This decision was agonizing, and it took Tormacc almost an hour to firm his will to commit to pick Bone Breaker. Truthfully he probably didn¡¯t need to worry so much, as choosing one option didn¡¯t disable the other. The Fate Wheel gave many branching paths, but while advancing farther down one path would give you access to more powerful abilities, there was nothing stopping you from going back and unlocking abilities from an earlier tier. In fact, doing so gave you many more options than only advancing down one path. The threats you would face in The Tower weren¡¯t one dimensional, and the inability to adapt would lead to a quick demise.


    Tormacc had been so focused on which ability to choose he had temporarily forgotten that, his inexperience with the Fate Wheel coming through. So after he remembered that he could, and likely would, come back and unlock Sudden Strike later, he sheepishly invested 200 Essence to unlock the tier five Bone Breaker. Out of the 1,702 Essence he had after he had unlocked Description he was down to 1,322. Tier six abilities cost 500 Essence and tier seven 1,000, leaving him a bit short of reaching tier seven with his current Essence. He was able to unlock two tier six abilities though, and looking at the options revealed by Bone Breaker, both looked like good ones.


    Rupture enabled him to ignore shielding and defenses and directly deal internal damage, while Stunning Blow struck with a large amount of concussive force, aiming to incapacitate the target for a short period of time. While Rupture seemed powerful, anything that even had the chance to stun his target was a must have, so without any hesitation he invested 500 Essence to unlock Stunning blow, leaving him with 822 left.


    Now that he had unlocked the highest tier ability he could afford he had options. The first option was to save his Essence until he reached a thousand and could unlock a tier seven ability. But any Essence saved was lost combat power, and if he was worried about only surviving it was useless to try and save his Essence for later. As long as he was able to secure his safety he could always farm more Essence. He couldn¡¯t risk saving Essence only to go through the portal and appear in a dangerous area where his life was under immediate threat. No, he had to unlock more abilities: the only question was what to unlock.


    The first two abilities he unlocked were Utilization and Meditation, costing ten Essence each. They were both tier one abilities, but despite that, they were must haves. Utilization was the other tier one ability in the top section of the Fate Wheel, and it helped him utilize the other abilities he unlocked and use them more naturally. Meditation was one of the tier one abilities on the left side, but while that side of the Fate Wheel was geared towards those who used magic, that didn¡¯t mean the abilities weren¡¯t useful for physical fighters.


    Meditation was arguably the single most used ability in the Fate Wheel. By entering a meditative state, the user was able to slowly absorb Essence from their surroundings. Normally this wasn¡¯t all that useful, as the Essence was absorbed at a very slow rate. But with practice, Meditation could be substituted for sleep, allowing for a small Essence gain every night. And while most people only gained two or three Essence per night, even that small amount added up over time. If Tormacc had known what it did he could have bought it early on in his time in the starting zone and it would have more than paid for itself, but it was no use regretting things he couldn¡¯t change.


    He now had 802 Essence left, enough to unlock another tier six ability and still have some left over. Rupture looked interesting, but the ability he wanted the most was still Sudden Strike, and since he would be able to unlock it and still have enough for Rupture he went ahead and invested 200 Essence into Sudden Strike. It also revealed two new tier six option for him to choose from, which was another plus.


    The two new abilities available were Execute, which struck a killing blow in exchange for a period of intense weakness, and Quick Strikes, which boosted his attack speed. Both seemed useful in the right situation, but overall, Rupture seemed more suited for the types of enemies he was going to face, so he ended up choosing it.The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.


    He was now down to only 102 Essence and it was a hard decision on how to spend it. He was now confident he had unlocked enough pure combat power, so he started taking a look at the utility aspects he could unlock. As he was browsing them, one in particular stood out to him. Stella had gone out of her way to hammer home how powerful the crystals and spheres dropped by monsters were. It was an easy to understand point, but looking back now, it was clearly a hint.


    One of the abilities he could unlock in the bottom section in tier three was Loot Finder, which increased the drop rate of crystals and spheres. He probably would have glanced over it, not knowing how useful it would be, but now that he was thinking about it, Stella was probably hinting for him to unlock it. It was also something that would be better unlocked earlier, as the sooner he got it the higher his chances of seeing a payoff and finding more crystals and spheres.


    After unlocking Loot Finder for fifty Essence he decided to use the remaining Essence on the two abilities revealed by Utilization, which were Improved Learning and Integration, each tier two ability costing twenty Essence. The first did as the name suggested, increasing his leaning speed, while the second allowed him to better combine his abilities. With the final ten Essence he unlocked Inner Strength, the other tier one ability on the physical side of the Fate Wheel. Upon seeing what abilities were revealed from Inner Strength he kicked himself. He should have unlocked it before the other two.


    One of the abilities, Energy Sustenance, would cut down on his food consumption, which was a concern for the Shard he was going to. It didn¡¯t matter too much though. It shouldn¡¯t take long before he could gather the twenty Essence required to unlock it. He could take it as a lesson to order his unlocks correctly, although in the future it was likely he would be unlocking abilities one at a time, not saving a ton of Essence and spending it all at once.


    That night he tried to use Meditation instead of sleeping but gave up halfway through the night. Perhaps he was too excited for the next day or just too unfamiliar with the technique, but he couldn¡¯t properly clear his mind. After sleeping for the remainder of the night he woke up refreshed and full of energy, the partial night¡¯s sleep not affecting his enthusiasm in the least.


    All throughout his time in the starting zone there had been that voice of self-doubt in the back of his mind. Was he doing the right thing? He knew he had a mission, but before coming to the First City he hadn¡¯t fully realized what that mission was or the weight of its responsibility. But he knew now. For some, perhaps the pressure would be suffocating, the weight of their race laying heavy on their shoulders. But he could only think about the honor he had gained as the sole representative of his race, fighting for glory against a myriad of dimensions. He wouldn¡¯t let his people down or he wasn¡¯t Tormacc.


    He didn¡¯t really feel like eating breakfast, but he knew the importance of regular meals, so he forced himself to calmly eat his food in silence before checking out of the inn. Wearing his brand-new leather armor, Tormacc stepped out onto the street, ready to continue his journey, but this time with full clarity of purpose. He didn¡¯t think about the danger he would have to face, only the glory he could obtain. That was who had been raised to be.


    After a walk through the First City he reached the portal junction, stepping through it to reach the Central Plaza. The First City was huge, with an expansive array of transportation portal locations spread throughout. But if you wanted to enter the real portals that took you to the Shards, you had to go to the Central Plaza. It was the same area Tormacc had appeared when he left the starting zone, although the section he appeared in was a small section off to the side. The real Central Plaza was centered around the gigantic portals leading to the Shards.


    He hadn¡¯t really noticed them before, their presence blocked by some buildings, but now he had a clear view of them. The normal transportation portals were large, with five people able to enter them walking abreast. These portals could fit at least one hundred. They were set up in a triangle, their unstable frames rising high into the sky overhead. Looking at them, he realized he had actually seen them when he had visited Kaz Ehen. Back then, he only thought they were large structure of some kind, not realizing how far away they were, and what that distance meant for their size.


    There was a steady stream of people entering one of the portals, the one he wanted to enter, with only a few people entering the other two. Considering they were both level four, it made sense that most people would enter the level three portal. There wasn¡¯t a direct correlation between higher tier Shards and the ability to more easily farm Essence, as a higher tier Shard just meant more danger. Sometimes that meant more opportunity, but not always.


    Tormacc flicked his wrist, causing a hammer to appear from his Spatial Bracelet before he joined the group of people moving towards the portal. Everyone was in a combat ready state, as you never knew where in the Shard the portal would deposit you. More often than not it was somewhere safe, but a statistically relevant percentage of the time you would appear in a dangerous location. Even the second it would take to summon a weapon could mean life or death if you appeared in a monster nest.


    As the people surrounding him neared the portal, he could feel the tension increase. It was noticeable in small ways, a few extra rustles here, someone stroking their weapons there. It once more reminded him he wasn¡¯t going sight-seeing. Despite his enthusiasm, death was only one poor decision away. Tightening his hands on his hammer, he focused his breathing and stepped through the portal into a whole new world.

 Chapter 14

    When he was walking through the crowd moving towards the portal it hadn¡¯t felt like he was surrounded by ambient noise, but now, standing on desolate plateau, he realized exactly how much noise he had been unconsciously tuning out. The silence was deafening, only the whispering wind to accompany him as he looked around, scanning for the slightest sign of danger.


    He was standing on a fairly sizeable plateau, the ground dropping off in front of him to reveal a wide expanse of sand-blasted rock far in the distance, rife with cracks and uneven ground. It looked like the aftermath of a cataclysm, and it wasn¡¯t hard for him to realize why people wouldn¡¯t want to enter this Shard. Even if you made sure you had enough food and water, who would want to spend time in such a desolate environment if given the choice? He could already feel his skin drying out, the small particle matter carried by the wind scraping against every bit of his exposed flesh and rubbing his skin raw.


    After some time spend digesting the land of crags and crevices spread out before him he turned around, checking out the rest of the terrain. Behind him were mountains, huge chunks of stone skewering the sky high above. Staring at them, it took him some time to figure out why they looked wrong. Finally he realized: the mountains were bare, just one sheer expanse of stone from top to bottom. His impression of mountains said they should have trees near the bottom and snow near the top, but both those were absent. The only thing he could see was rock, stone, and more rock.


    The landscape in his immediate vicinity had more plateaus spread out around him like giant stepping stones, rising from the blasted land far in front of him to meet the craggy peaks behind. There was a sizeable distance between the plateaus, and Tormacc realized that if he wanted to traverse from one to the other he would have to descend into the valleys in between before climbing back up. And since he couldn¡¯t reach from one to the other, it meant that if he wanted to reach the cracked plains below or the mountains behind him he would have to find his way through the network of crevices between the plateaus, losing his field of view during his journey.


    He had been a bit dismissive when Stella had described the Shard to him, but seeing is believing, and he had greatly underestimated the weight of her words when she said the terrain would be his biggest obstacle. Travelling around the plateaus would leave him naked to almost all ambushes, and Stella had stressed to him the danger of the monsters inhabiting the Shard. He had no chance in a direct contest of strength, especially on defense, which was why he was wearing leather armor. Heavier armor wouldn¡¯t help him with defending, as with or without armor he was likely to be severely incapacitated, if not directly killed, from even a single blow. Dodging was his only hope when fighting the Stone Giants.


    Speaking of the giants, he was able to see some creatures moving around far in the distance on the blasted plains, presumably the Stone Giants. As best he could tell they appeared to be spread out, a fair bit of distance between each moving dot. That didn¡¯t mean they wouldn¡¯t group up, but fighting more than one enemy raised the difficulty exponentially. He was banking on being able to fight one, but he knew his limits, and if a second were to appear it would signal a retreat.


    In that sense, the cramped areas between the plateaus might be a blessing, as it would hopefully limit the number of enemies he would face. But it was best not to make any assumptions. Because this Shard was rather unpopular there was limited information about it. All the Shards were unbelievable huge, so without the huge volume of traffic the less dangerous ones experienced it could be hard to find reliable information about a particular Shard. Making things worse was the fact that they were known to change, sometimes while you were in it. Kaz had told him a story about that which was funny at the time, but thinking about it happened to him made his skin break out in goosebumps.


    Tormacc spent the next few hours making sure his plateau was well and truly secure from any immediate threats before taking out some supplies and doing his best to make a map. His first attempt was trash, as was his second, but seeing little improvement from the first try he decided to plow through with it. Having anything was better than nothing, even if his map looked like the prized possession of a three-year-old who had just learned how to draw a circle.


    With his map ¡°finished¡±, he moved on to exploring the sides of his plateau. If the top of the plateau was safe, at least for the moment, he wanted to make sure he could retreat back up to it once he descended into the cracks between Plateaus. There was a decent chance he would need to retreat, and retreating down unknown passageways was suboptimal to say the least. He couldn¡¯t afford to carelessly run around.


    Choosing a starting point and working his way around clockwise it took him the rest of that day and into the next to confirm the best place for him to climb down and back up the plateau. The cliff face had plenty of hand holds, and unlike the other sides, more than one area large enough for him to fight on should he be harassed mid-ascent by enemies. Thankfully there were no flying creatures in sight, which made his strategic planning much easier. He couldn¡¯t discount threats from above completely, but knowing he could safely devote most of his attention to the open areas around him and the ground was a huge help.Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred platform and support their work!


    His next issue came when it was time to climb down from the plateau. During his time in the Shard he was always holding onto his hammer, wary of enemies springing up onto the plateau in an ambush. But if he wanted to climb down, he would either need to store his hammer in his Spatial Bracelet to allow for more mobility, or sacrifice said mobility with the rationale that having a weapon on his direct person was more valuable. During his explorations he hadn¡¯t actually seen anything in the crevices below, so in the end he opted to store his hammer, only keeping a short sword strapped to his back. He wasn¡¯t entirely happy with the compromise, but it wouldn¡¯t be an actual problem if there was a perfect solution.


    The climb down was uneventful, if quite a bit longer than he anticipated. Looking down from above he had underestimated the height of the plateau. Thankfully his increased strength made the climb almost effortless, as his strength and vitality had long surpassed what was normal for a Humen, allowing him to effortlessly achieve feats of athleticism normally attributed only to trained circus performers or professional athletes. That was both comforting and frightening at the same time. Comforting in that he knew he would easily be able to scale back up the plateau should he run into trouble, but frightening knowing that his current strength wasn¡¯t enough to make him safe on the Shard. While he had fought powerful monsters in the starting zone, he hadn¡¯t come across anything that could flatten him into meat paste, which Stella had gone to considerable length to assure him was a reasonable outcome here should he fail to dodge properly.


    The bottom of the crevice was surprisingly flat, and Tormacc thought that water must have run through at some point, although likely not for a while if Stella¡¯s information was to be believed. Thirst was a very real consideration on the Shard, with water sources few and far between. But the smooth ground was a plus for any combat he would have to face, and with his hammer back out again he set out exploring.


    He hadn¡¯t fully made up his mind about which direction to head, but after exploring everything in the immediate vicinity of his starting plateau he decided to head towards the cracked plains. He saw movement there, and since defeating monsters was the best way to farm Essence, he should aim for where the monsters were. And if he had trouble defeating them, that was also valuable information. Regardless of defeat or victory, he needed firsthand combat experience on the Shard. The only concern was making sure he survived the fight.


    He hadn¡¯t gone very far when he heard a strange noise behind him. It clearly sounded like a squeak, but it was a few octaves lower than squeaks generally were, its gravelly sound grating on his ears. Turning around, he was confronted with two stone rats. They were fairly sizeable, about a meter long not including the tail and half a meter high. They were squeaking at him aggressively, the baritone sounds echoing off the walls around him.


    As they were behind him, they were between him and the area he already explored, so retreat wasn¡¯t an option unless he was willing to venture into unexplored territory. Not that he wanted to retreat anyway. He was just looking for something to kill, and the stone rats seemed much less threatening than the Stone Giants Stella had warned him about. They would be a good warm up to test his new strength on.


    He slowly slid his feet across the smooth ground while raising him hammer into a combat stance. The rats were advancing towards him, but he decided to let them, as he couldn¡¯t attack them if they weren¡¯t close to him. As they closed in, he tightened his grip on his hammer, watching as they crossed an invisible line he had mentally drawn before they were close enough and he sprang into action.


    Still holding onto his center of balance should he need to dodge, Tormacc swung his hammer at the first rat, activating Double Strike. Seeming to ignore the laws of physics, his hammer swung out twice, rebounding from the first strike in a bizarre manner to strike once more. The second rat took advantage of his attack, leaping towards him with a speed belied by its stone body. He was prepared though, and activated Sudden Strike, his hammer rebounding for a third time to smash into the second rat midair and sending it flying into the rocky walls.


    After that was silence, and he slowly moved his hammer back, holding it steady in case the battle wasn¡¯t over. But neither rat so much at twitched, and when no more appeared, he knew he won, and easily at that. He could feel happiness bubbling up from within him at his victory. Not because he had killed the rats, as they seemed rather weak, but at how the skills from his Fate Wheel had functioned.


    He had been a bit skeptical reading their descriptions. He was a combat veteran, and his body knew what it was doing without any fancy external abilities. He had been worried that relying on external aid would interfere with the fighting skills he already had, but it appeared his worries were unfounded. Perhaps it was because of skills like Utilization and Integration, but using the abilities of his Fate Wheel had felt natural, their powerful effects easily meshing with his already honed combat sense. It had been a joy to experience, skills like Double Strike and Sudden Strike enabling him to achieve feats otherwise impossible. He was almost salivating thinking about the improvements he could make to his combat style with such powerful abilities to fall back upon.


    He still needed some practice to get used to his new skills, and these stone rats seemed like just the enemy to practice on. Just like the monsters in the starting zone, they only gave one Essence per kill, confirming his guess that they were weaker than average for the Shard. Based on the information Curtain had gathered, you were able to tell a monster¡¯s strength for their Shard based on how much Essence they dropped. The weakest monsters would only give one Essence, while the stronger ones could give upwards of twenty. Of course, since the strength was relative to the Shard, those weakest monsters could still be terrifying, but luckily he was easily able to handle the stone rats, so he set off to start hunting.

 Chapter 15

    Despite his goal in searching for stone rats, it always seemed to be them finding him, their baritone squeaks preceding their reckless charges. He had killed over ten of them, but he still wasn¡¯t sure where they were coming from. There had to be a nest of some kind but so far he hadn¡¯t had any luck finding it. Perhaps that was a good thing though, as while the rats were rather weak individually, he didn¡¯t have the necessary defensive skills to fully cope with their attacks. When he had faced three at once he had gotten overconfident and taken a glancing blow to his side which sent him spinning. He might have been in real trouble if he hadn¡¯t had Sudden Strike to reorient himself and deal with another rat that had been about to rip his throat out.


    From that experience he learned the best way to use his skills: save them. They were powerful, but thanks to the passives such as Bone Breaker and Rupture he was able to kill the rats with normal attacks, meaning he could save the active skills for when he ran into trouble. Using them to strike a killing blow was like using a sledgehammer to hammer in a nail. There was something to be said for overwhelming force, but often using the correct amount of power worked out better in the end.


    After some searching, Tormacc found another plateau to climb, quickly ascending up it to get some rest while adding to his map. The stone rats seemed to have some way of sensing him down in the crevices below, as each time he tried to take a break for some food and water they had attacked him. While it was more annoying than anything, he still needed to eat and drink to maintain his optimal combat state, especially considering the dry atmosphere. Pushing your limits and fighting without rest or food was fine if you had a safe zone to fall back to, but he was far behind enemy lines.


    After he finished his meal and descended back down it only took a few more hours before he had killed the last rat he needed to accrue twenty Essence. It was also starting to get dark, the depths of the crevices between the plateaus long having fallen into shadow. After climbing back up to a plateau he started to create an impromptu campsite. The area around him was bare stone, so he took out two type of alarm spells to use while he slept.


    The first was a general alarm, best used to detect killing intent, while the second specialized in detecting vibrations. The two spells were embedded into three metal discs respectively, and he distributed them around the edges of the plateau. When they went off they let out a loud screeching sound, which should wake him from his slumber at the cost of letting his enemies know they were spotted. He hadn¡¯t had the Coin to buy anything better, as alarm spells were in high demand, but what he had should suffice given his present circumstance. He wasn¡¯t worried about alerting more enemies to his location, only avoiding being ambushed while sleeping.


    After setting the alarm spells out he finished setting up the campsite and eating dinner before moving on to his Fate Wheel. There was an argument to be made for saving his Essence for something expensive, but the utility offered by some of the cheaper abilities was too good to pass up. He already had enough raw power to kill the rats, so the extra utility afforded by some of the available options was currently number one on his priority unlock list, as he didn¡¯t want to run into a situation where he was stuck with brute force as his only option. Bigger muscles couldn¡¯t feed an empty stomach.


    Out of the tier two abilities he had access to there were three that looked interesting. The one he was leaning towards the most was Energy Sustenance, as it related to his food consumption. He had a huge amount of food in his Spatial Bracelet, Stella had made sure of that. In fact, the Spatial Bracelet had been the most expensive item he bought, requiring the majority of his Coin to make sure he had a big enough space for all the food. But it was a good investment, and a necessary one for the Shard he entered. There was little to no food native to the Shard, so he was reliant on what he brought in with him, which was why he needed such a large spatial storage item. And since it wasn¡¯t uncommon for people to spend years on a single Shard, he needed to stock up.


    The food he brought wasn¡¯t infinite though, and Energy Sustenance gave him the ability to supplement his intake of food by circulating energy through his body. It was also possible there would be a synergistic effect with the two rituals he had undergone, especially the one he underwent after first entering The Tower. Because of that ritual his body was more adept at channeling energy internally, and that combined with the small healing ability of the ritual could produce a compounding effect.


    The other two he was looking at were Dash and Focus. Dash was on the physical side of the Fate Wheel and, as the name suggested, would allow him to dash a short distance. Before, he had been leery of how it would work, not knowing how the abilities he unlocked would function, but now those worries were assuaged after experimenting with Double Strike and Sudden Strike. A movement skill would be a powerful addition to his kit. Focus was similar to Utilization and Integration since it dealt with allowing him to focus more and use his abilities better. So far he hadn¡¯t been truly tested in battle, but if he were in a life-threatening situation he needed to make sure he could count on his skills activating. He could tell that if his mental state was compromised activating the abilities of his Fate Wheel would be much harder, so he might need Focus to guarantee his safety when under duress.If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    All three abilities were useful, and since they were only twenty Essence each, he decided to get all three once he had the Essence for them. But just as he was about to select Energy Sustenance, he paused, something nagging at the back of his head. After a few moments thought he remembered what it was. By unlocking Energy Sustenance he would be going down to zero Essence. Thinking back, he recalled something he read in the guidebook about making sure to keep Essence in his Fate Wheel.


    With a flip of his hand the guidebook appeared from his Spatial Bracelet. Perusing the table of contents, he quickly found the section about spending Essence. After reading through it once more he realized he had to shelve his plans of using all of his Essence. He had forgotten the reason he was even in The Tower in the first place, and what that actually meant. While gaining more Essence and growing stronger was addictive and a good survival method, the whole reason he was gaining Essence in the first place was for his people back in his home dimension, and as part of that, he had to pay a small Essence tax.


    He had forgotten about it because the tax didn¡¯t start immediately. The guidebook said people would start to passively have their Essence drained around their first full year in The Tower or soon after they entered their first Shard. Some experienced it from the starting zone, although this was rare, but soon after they reached their first Shard almost everyone started to have their Essence passively drained, the Essence going to support their home dimension. The drain generally started small, with only one or two Essence per day, but some people had reported a starting drain as high as twenty Essence a day. The amount of Essence drained also went up over time, meaning you could never slack off in The Tower.


    The reason for that was what happened if you didn¡¯t have any Essence in your Fate Wheel. If someone didn¡¯t have enough Essence to support the drain, one of the abilities of their Fate Wheel would deactivate, and it was often their most powerful ability. This could start a vicious snowball, as if you didn¡¯t have enough Essence to support the drain it would take it from your abilities, thus making it harder to farm Essence in the future. Unless you could break that cycle and gain enough Essence to maintain your abilities you could be drained dry. The guidebook didn¡¯t specifically mention what that resulted in, but Tormacc could imagine it wasn¡¯t a good way to go.


    The drain should start out small, but he didn¡¯t want to be caught off guard. He should make sure to have at least forty or fifty Essence in his pool at all times, just in case. Usually it was the more powerful races that had a higher Essence drain, but he already had a low Essence count for the Shard, and if he started to lose his abilities he might never recover.


    Tormacc put the guidebook back into his Spatial Bracelet and with reluctance held off spending his Essence. He could afford to wait, as there was no ability he truly needed, but now that he wasn¡¯t saving his Essence for Beginner¡¯s Gift it felt wrong to just leave it in his pool when there was something useful he could unlock. He would have to get used to the feeling though, at least until he could plan around his Essence drain when it kicked in.


    That night he tried once more to meditate. He could feel the Essence around him, but it just refused to enter his Fate Wheel. Halfway through he gave up, opting for sleep. Only when he was absorbing Essence would Meditation help offset his need for sleep. Without actually absorbing Essence he was just taxing his mind for no gain. His inability to activate Meditation made him resolve to get Focus before Dash, as that might help, especially seeing as it came after Meditation on his Fate Wheel, meaning there might be some relation there.


    But before he could unlock abilities he needed more Essence. He had only gained eighteen Essence yesterday, and waking up in the morning he resolved to beat that today. And things seemed to be going his way. Whether by chance or some grand design there seemed to be more stone rats in the direction he was heading, and as the sun crested its peak in the sky above he had already slain twelve rats, and it was about to be thirteen as he chased one that had decided to run away, evidently thinking better of the fight once its comrades were killed.


    The rat was surprisingly nimble, its stone body barely scraping around corners as its feet pattered along the ground with clicks and clacks. Tormacc knew he could outrun it in a straight race, but he was unfamiliar with the terrain, and the rat was making full use of that, even doubling back at times to try and shake him off by weaving in and out of the rocky protrusions in the crevices. He was gaining on it though, and it was only a matter of time until he could feel the satisfying thunk as his hammer smooshed another rat.


    Just as he was about to catch it, he heard a squeak. And then he heard another, the deep baritone sounds starting softly before building, quickly reaching a crescendo and breaking over him, hammering his bones with the vibrations. He skidded to a stop, watching the rat he had been chasing turn to face him with a smirk on its face, its comrades stepping forward to join it, hiding the ground with their press of bodies. Turning around, he watching as the tide of rats seemed to rise from the ground, encircling him with their vicious eyes and scrabbling claws.


    He couldn¡¯t remember his childhood, but he could vaguely remember the tales of valor he grew up on; stories such as one woman fending off hundreds of enemies and turning the tides of battle singlehandedly. Those tales had fueled him, providing him the impetus to strive for more in his training, always reaching to put in the little bit more effort to become the hero of those stories. And it was because of that training that he turned and ran, seeking to break out of the encirclement and escape the trap he had blindly walked into.

 Chapter 16

    Running straight at the wall of rats Tormacc barely jumped over their ranks, their sharp teeth nipping at his heels as he soared over them. Coming down hard, arms pumping, he tried to not let his hammer unbalance him and slow him down. He had been stupid, blindly following the rat into the trap. He had assumed they were mere beasts, only possessing the bare minimum intelligence. Evidently he had been wrong, and as he ran he tried not to look back, lest he slow down and the angry horde catch him.


    He could feel the vibrations around him, the rats¡¯ enraged squeaks bouncing off the walls as the sheer weight of their numbers shook the stone below. He had vastly underestimated how many of them there were; there had to be thousands of rats chasing him, and something told him he wasn¡¯t going to outrun them. His fears were soon confirmed as he started to run into other rats in front of him, individuals jumping out at him, trying to trip him up and allow the main body of rats to catch up. He was able to swat them away, their reckless charges no match for his hammer. But the pace he had was unsustainable. Especially as the onslaught of rats grew, more and more appearing before him and causing him to waste valuable time dealing with them.


    It wasn¡¯t long before he got tripped up, a rat practically appearing under his foot while he was dealing with another attacking from the front. He swung his hammer behind him to deal with the surprise attack followed by Sudden Strike, wrenching his hammer around at another rat trying to impede his progress from the front. The momentum from the skill saved him, moving him forward and barely keeping him ahead of the rat horde. But as he looked towards the pathway ahead of him he only saw more and more rats, the vermin somehow able to get ahead of him in ever-increasing numbers.


    He couldn¡¯t slow down though. If he stopped, he was dead, the tide of enemies behind him sure to swallow him whole and eat him alive. With increasing difficulty he fought his way forward, using skills like Double Strike and Sudden Strike to try and force his way through the rats blocking his path. But eventually even that wasn¡¯t enough, and with mounting horror he realized he wasn¡¯t going to be able to run away, the rats fully surrounding him.


    He swept his hammer around him, trying to buy time to think. There had to be a way out; he just needed to think outside of the box. All of a sudden it clicked, and after clearing the rats from his immediate vicinity he jumped, leaping almost two meters into the air. Closing his eyes for a brief moment to concentrate he even stopped breathing, tuning out the outside world and focusing inwards. A second later and he opened his eyes, a small smile on his face.


    The normal course of events would dictate that once Tormacc jumped up he would fall back down, but as his momentum hit zero and gravity started to take over, he moved, not downwards, but sideways. In an impossible feat he flew through the air, reaching out with his hands to grab a ledge before starting his desperate climb up the side of a plateau.


    A wild laugh escaped his mouth. His plan had worked! During that brief moment in the air he had concentrated inwards, focusing on his Fate Wheel and spending Essence to unlock Dash. It had been a gamble, but seeing how abilities like Sudden Strike defied the laws of physics he had bet on Dash doing the same thing. He had been paid off, the ability defying gravity and moving him to a ledge, allowing him to ascend a plateau and get a brief respite from his relentless pursuers.


    He wasn¡¯t out of the woods yet though, as the sounds from below him confirmed that the rats could indeed climb. He hadn¡¯t tried scaling a plateau earlier for that very reason, as should the rats follow him up he would be truly trapped. But now he had no choice, his only option to try and buy time and secure immediate safety.


    Reaching the top of the plateau, he turned around, his stomach sinking seeing the mass of stone rats swarming up behind him. He could only settle into a combat stance, readying himself to face his enemies once more. Thankfully, they were slow climbers, their weight not allowing them the same agility as normal rodents, and at first he was able to individually swipe them off the cliff as they entered his range. But as more and more rats neared the top he became unable to defend the sides, the rats reaching the top of the plateau from areas he wasn¡¯t able to properly defend.


    Backing up towards the center of the plateau, he took a quick glance at his Essence. Upon seeing fifty-seven sitting in the center of his Fate Wheel he didn¡¯t hesitate to use it, investing it to unlock Cleave. With his new ability he moved once more to engage the rats.


    Cleave exceeded his wildest expectations, the ability allowing his hammer strikes to hit multiple rats at once. It didn¡¯t always kill them, but it blew them back, extending the impact range of his blows and granting him valuable space to avoid being flanked and brought down by sheer numbers.This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.


    Even Cleave had its limits though, and the flood of rats pouring onto the plateau only grew, their baritone cries grating on his sanity, forecasting his demise. He tried to ward them off and escape back down below, but looking around him, he knew if he tried to go back down it would be the last thing he did. There was no safe route, the whole plateau overrun with rats swarming up from the surrounding crevices.


    In a final desperate bid for freedom he ran towards the edge, his reckless swings knocking rats flying. He reached the edge at a dead sprint, ignoring the claws slashing at his feet and legs. Gathering every single scrap of strength he had left he leapt, flying out over the crevice below. Reaching the arc of his jump, he activated Dash, aiming towards the plateau next to him.


    He wasn¡¯t going to make it. He could feel his stomach sink as he calculated the distance and realized he was just a meter short. In a final desperate attempt he used Sudden Strike, reaching out with his hammer for the wall in front of him.


    With a crash he felt his hammer connect, digging into the stone wall of the plateau. It was all he could do to hold on, his body slamming into the wall, his weight only supported by his hands holding onto the handle of his hammer. He flailed his feet, desperately searching for footholds below him as he felt his hands slipping. His vision went dark for a second, the shock from the impact too much for his body to handle. But just as his hands were about to slip off his left foot found purchase on the rock and he was able to stabilize.


    Barely taking time to catch his breath, he stored his hammer in his Spatial Bracelet and crawled up the cliff to the plateau above him. Hands reaching the edge, he pulled himself up, his body giving out as soon as he reached relative safety, lungs heaving for air. He couldn¡¯t rest for long though, as glancing at the other plateau showed the rats already streaming back down, climbing down that plateau before coming for him on the new one.


    Staggering, he stood, trying to channel Essence through his body to assuage his burning muscles. Looking around confirmed his fears; there was no plateau close enough to jump to. He had been lucky to reach this one, the two plateaus just close enough together for his skills to bridge the gap. But he knew if he tried to reach another plateau he wouldn¡¯t make it, the gap bigger by at least a few extra meters.


    His thoughts were chaotic, bouncing around in his head, trying to come up with a way forward. He had come this far. He couldn¡¯t fail now.


    Searching through his Spatial Bracelet revealed some rope and a pickaxe, but he didn¡¯t have any throwing skills, and he didn¡¯t think he would be able to throw either his hammer or the pickaxe with enough force to get a good enough grip on another plateau. The rock was hard, harder than normal rock, and he could only break it while using a skill or a full power attack, so unless there was a handy place to luckily catch the pickaxe or hammer on, he was out of luck.


    He could hear the rats starting to scale his new plateau and he grew desperate, his breath coming in short rasping gasps. As he focused on what skills he had available, he realized he was missing something. He had new options. Turning inwards, he tried to calm down and visualize his Fate Wheel.


    The skills in his Fate Wheel weren¡¯t random, with the two new skills revealed by lighting up a section of his Fate Wheel often related to the ability he had just unlocked. There wasn¡¯t always a direct connection, but there was some connection, and as he was able to calm down enough to picture his Fate Wheel he focused on the two abilities revealed from unlocking Dash.


    He had to read them multiple times to truly process them. Dodge and Power Jump. Power Jump, similar to Cleave, was a tier three ability, costing fifty Essence to unlock. With trepidation, he moved his sight to the center of his Fate Wheel. Seventy-one Essence. Seeing that number he felt the tension drain out of him; he wasn¡¯t going to die after all.


    It took him three tries, but eventually he gathered the willpower necessary to select Power Jump, lighting it up. The ability gave him an improved jumping and landing ability, and after unlocking it and confirming what it did, he took off towards the edge of the plateau, activating his new skill and leaping into open space. The air swirled around him in eddies, caressing his skin as he practically flew, his new skill easily bridging the previously uncrossable distance between plateaus.


    He came down hard, rolling onto the rock, his tired muscles unable to mark his landing despite the assistance of his skill. But he was safe, and as he lay there he could see the stone rats swarming onto the plateau he had just left, their angry cries laced with helplessness.


    He still wasn¡¯t out of the woods yet, and after a few brief moments of rest he got up again, staggering like a zombie as he tried to stand up straight. His vision was swaying back and forth, the stone around him rocking like a boat at sea. But he had to move as the rats weren¡¯t giving up, already swarming to his new location.


    He ran at an angle; his steps unsteady as he activated Power Jump to reach a new plateau. He came down hard once again, the ground not where he thought it would be when he tried to catch himself with his hands. But he had to keep going, so he stood up again, eyes out of focus. Plateau after plateau he leapt forward, single-mindedly focused on getting as far away from the stone rats as he could. He was delirious, his thoughts a jumble of terror at his near death and relief and his escape.


    His determination to keep going only lasted for so long, and eventually Tormacc succumbed to the constraints of his beaten and battered body. He tried to get up, to set up his alarms and a proper campsite, but as soon as the idea of safety crept into his mind he let go and drifted off into oblivion.

 Chapter 17

    An unknown amount of time later Tormacc woke up. His eyes slowly slid open, revealing the pale sky above him, the sun beating down on him and warming the rock he was lying on. The sky was beautiful, the pale blue seemingly stretching into infinity, the depth of the sky holding infinite possibilities. He let himself be sucked into that infinite stretch of blue, digesting the memories of his frenzied flight. He had been in over his head without a doubt, and looking back on the experience, it was hard to believe it had really happened, the whole thing reeking of the surreal.


    But checking his Fate Wheel confirmed the three new abilities he now possessed; it hadn¡¯t been a fever dream bought about by some unknown element of the Shard. He knew he should think about it more, reflect on the hubris that got him into the situation in the first place, but he just lay there, internally celebrating his escape from the jaws of death.


    But as much as he wanted to just lay there, his body was screaming at him, muscles and bones crying out in pain. With reluctance he brought his mind back to the present, putting aside his harrowing experience for the problems of the now. He hadn¡¯t yet managed to properly activate his Meditation skill, but that didn¡¯t stop him from meditating normally: channeling the Essence in his body to return it to its optimal state. As he focused on healing himself, he could almost feel the changes, the speed noticeably improved from his time in the starting zone. Evidently Kaz Ehen hadn¡¯t been wrong about the Blood Empowerment Ritual. His healing was greatly improved.


    Even with the improved healing it still took him the rest of that day and into the next to feel he was back in tip-top state. The fight with the stone rats had been short, but he had strained himself beyond what was truly safe just to stay alive. If he hadn¡¯t been able to make it to safety he would have perished at the hands of whatever monster found him, unable to even summon the mental strength to use a skill.


    The skills he had didn¡¯t require resources to use other than the Essence required to unlock them, but that didn¡¯t mean they were free. He still had to spend mental energy to activate them, and as he now found out, he could drain that energy completely, leaving him unable to activate any abilities at all. Even his Tattoo of Perception was bothering him, pulsing like a headache centered behind his ear.


    There was a short cooldown time before he could use an ability again. This varied between abilities, and he thought he might be able to forcefully overcome it, but seeing the state he was in now, he knew he should only do so as a last resort, as it would leave him drained, likely for days. Despite his body being fully healed he could feel a headache coming on just by thinking about using a skill, let alone trying to activate one. Overdrawing on his mental energy was obviously something he needed to avoid in the future if he didn¡¯t want to leave himself weak and vulnerable afterwards.


    It took another three days until he could even think about using a skill and another two after that until he really felt like he was back to normal. All told, that was a full week he had lost after his ill-planned adventure. To make matters worse, four days into that he had felt something, and upon checking his Essence, found three missing. His Essence drain has started. If the next day he hadn¡¯t felt his ability to use his skills coming back he might have panicked.


    The drain of his Essence was annoying, but at least he knew how much it was. It would go up at some point, but now that he knew approximately how much he was losing per day he could plan around it, so in some ways it was a weight off his mind. But even if the drain hadn¡¯t started, he still needed more Essence.


    It was time to hunt some rats.


    He had been careless before; he assumed the rats were weak and powerless because they were only worth one Essence. While it was true he could easily kill them, as evidenced by the amount he killed before he had been forced to escape, he was still limited both in his strength and his vitality. Even if he could hold out for a while he would eventually be overwhelmed by pure numbers. But now that he had a way to escape he would be fine even if he was surrounded. In fact, he planned to get himself surrounded, the clumped-up rats the easiest targets for him to farm Essence off of, especially now that he had unlocked Cleave. He now had the ability to kill a large number of weak enemies, and he planned to make full use of that.


    He couldn¡¯t remember which direction he had come from in his harried flight, but finding the answer to that proved easier than he thought. With Power Jump, he was able to jump more than ten meters straight up, giving him a good view of his surroundings. The rat corpses hadn¡¯t disappeared, and they stuck out like a sore thumb amidst the otherwise empty plateaus, allowing him to rather easily update his map.


    Reaching the plateau full of corpses, Tormacc surveyed the destruction he had wrought. It wasn¡¯t a pretty sight, smashed up rat bodies lying in dried out blood. But as he looked around, he noticed something shining among the otherwise dull browns. Walking over and bending down, he pulled out a shining White Sphere from in between the bodies. It was similar to the white crystals he had seen before, the only difference its shape. It must have dropped from one of the enemies, the corpse imploding when he hadn¡¯t been looking.This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    Holding it in his hand, he acquiesced to the invisible pull from the sphere, and after pulsing three times, he felt the sphere dissolve and Essence flowed into him. It was like a river, the Essence gushing into his Fate Wheel at a frightening rate. And then it was over, and checking his Fate Wheel, he was now 250 Essence richer than before, a far cry from when he had used a White Sphere in the starting zone for only five Essence.


    In general, spheres were rarer than crystals, dropping at a reduced rate in comparison. The White Spheres were the weakest, their reward noticeably smaller than the blue and purple spheres. But the rewards from spheres scaled, with the White Sphere giving half the Essence your highest unlocked ability. So because he had a tier six ability unlocked with cost 500 Essence, the White Sphere gave him 250. It was a welcome boost, and Tormacc could feel himself relax a little, realizing he was no longer under immediate pressure to earn Essence. But since he had earned so much Essence at once it would be a waste to let it sit there, so he concentrated inwards to inspect his Fate Wheel.


    The two abilities revealed by Cleave were Explosive Blow and Sweep. They seemed useful, but not quite necessary for what he had planned. Based on the previous battle he didn¡¯t need more damage, the addition of Cleave enough by itself to keep the rat horde at bay. He would be better served by diversifying his kit, as demonstrated by the utility of Dash and Power Jump.


    The first two abilities he unlocked were Energy Sustenance and Focus for twenty Essence each. Energy Sustenance revealed Enhanced Vitality and Iron Stomach while Focus revealed Overcharge and Shaping. Out of those, Enhanced Vitality stood out, as it increased his body toughness and ability to heal, so he unlocked that for fifty Essence. Out of the rest of the abilities available he decided to go with two abilities in the bottom section in tier 3, Ability Increase and Essence Finder. Essence Finder was similar to Loot Finder, except it gave a bonus chance for monsters to drop additional Essence, not crystals or spheres.


    Ability increase was the more interesting one. It allowed him to select another ability to have an increased effect, supercharging it. He was able to change it too, although only every eight days. Without hesitation he selected Loot Finder as the target. There was a reason Stella had hinted at him to get it. That one loot drop had given him a huge amount of Essence, and anything he could do to boost the number of drops he found would pay off dividends in the long run.


    He had used up most of the Essence gained from the sphere, but it had been a bonus anyway. His original plan to farm stone rats still stood. But before that, he made sure to thoroughly investigate the top of the plateau and the rats he had killed below for more loot. He didn¡¯t find any, but if he hadn¡¯t checked he would have agonized over the possibly of missing something, the potential rewards haunting him.


    After descending into the crevices it didn¡¯t take long for the rats to make another appearance. He only had to slay a few of them to draw the horde out, their home base apparently nearby. But unlike last time, he was ready, and after aggroing the horde he made his way to the top of a plateau before taking a combat stance to prepare for the coming slaughter.


    The rats climbed up slowly, only a few making it up before he dispatched them, then more coming in progressively larger waves until he was alone in a sea of rats, whipping his hammer around him to fend off the squeaking mass of claws and teeth. He was much calmer than when he last fought them, keeping his cool under pressure and calmly responding to the various attacks. He was also able to keep his guard up, always making sure to keep something in reserve in case of the unexpected.


    Eventually the rat corpses started to pile up, and he swapped to a different plateau to avoid getting tangled up in the bodies. He thought he had seen at least one rat implode on death, but he was under too much pressure to check during the battle. He would have to loot afterwards.


    As the battle dragged on he struggled to keep up a similar pace to the beginning. The rats just didn¡¯t have an end, their small stone bodies constantly thrown at him in a vain attempt to break his defense. Thinking about what else he could do to help ease his burden, he decided to try out Elemental Blade. To his surprise there was a synergistic effect with Cleave, and instead of the water blade being centered around his hammer it spread out in an arc, making his attacks possess more lethal splash damage. Before he would usually only kill two or three rats with one attack, but now he was killing three or four, a noticeable upgrade.


    The upgrade to his offensive strength allowed him to last for a while longer, but eventually he had to give in under the endless waves of rats, retreating back across the plateaus. The rats tried to follow, but they were unable to keep up with his mobility, their baritone squeaks fading into the distance.


    Once he was far enough away Tormacc slowed down, finding a place to rest. It felt kind of wrong to run away, especially as he was leaving his loot behind, but he could, and would, go back for it later. In the meantime he had to distract himself from thinking about what the rats dropped. That turned out not to be that difficult, as loot wasn¡¯t the only thing he gained from killing the rats. He also gained Essence, so instead of worrying about what the loot he would find when he went back to the battlefield he turned inwards to his Fate Wheel. He hadn¡¯t kept track of how many rats he had killed, the individual kills blurring together in the chaos of battle. But upon checking his Fate Wheel he couldn¡¯t help but be shocked. In only one battle his Essence had jumped up, going from below 100 to over 700. Feeling a satisfaction that only came from watching numbers go up all thoughts of loot were forgotten as he turned to the abilities on his Fate Wheel, contemplating what he would unlock next.

 Chapter 18

    After contemplating the revealed abilities on his Fate Wheel Tormacc felt like there were three different ways he could go, with the first and most obvious to save for a tier seven ability. He now had close to the one thousand Essence required to unlock it and nothing else was super urgent on his unlock list, making it his current number one option. Another choice was to invest in more wide area damage abilities with the aim of speeding up his ability to kill the stone rats. They seemed endless, and while he knew he couldn¡¯t actually farm them forever, increasing his rate of Essence acquisition was always a worthwhile goal. There were at least a few thousand of them, and if he could kill them in five days instead of ten that was five extra days he could spend hunting other monsters.


    The last option was to go a more defensive route, but so far that didn¡¯t seem quite as valuable as more offensive strength. The situation could change in the future, but so far Stella had been right, and he was relying on his mobility to evade attacks rather than tanking the blows. To that end picking up Dodge might be worthwhile, but unless he was going to go all in on more utility and movement skills hitting harder just seemed more useful, at least for the short term. Enhanced Vitality had revealed Rapid Healing and Regeneration, both important abilities, but if he was never getting injured they would only be sitting unused in his Fate Wheel.


    There were other options too, like branching out into true utility or trying to pick up some ranged abilities from the magic side of his Fate Wheel, but until he was one hundred percent confident in his ability to survive in the Shard he needed to choose abilities that were immediately useful. For instance, there was an ability in the bottom section of his Fate Wheel called Compass that would help him maintain his sense of direction. A fine ability, and one he was sure to pick up at some point, but that point just wasn¡¯t now.


    He had only glanced over his tier seven options before, as he hadn¡¯t been close to unlocking them, so he decided to start by figuring out what tier seven ability he wanted if that was what he ended up choosing to spend his Essence on. He had a total of four options, two revealed by Rupture and two revealed by Stunning Blow. Out of them, the two revealed by Stunning Blow didn¡¯t seem as useful, at least at the moment.


    The first was Bash, a strike that had a strong knockback effect. Useful to be sure, but overall not quite as good as Stunning Blow. The other one was Hamstring, with seemed aimed at incapacitating his foe with a strong cutting force. A very powerful skill, but almost useless against his current enemies. The stone rats were technically living things, but watching how they could melt into the ground almost at will he doubted they were truly flesh and blood. The Stone Giants he knew he would face later were an even worse target for the skill, as they were golems, constructs made entirely of rock and stone.


    The two abilities revealed by Rupture were more useful, both of them active skills with a fair amount of value. Shatter was a strike filled with strong vibrations, and from the name it wasn¡¯t too hard to imagine the intended effect. The other skill, Crush, was focused on pure force. If Stella was to be believed he would need something like Crush to face off against the Stone Giants and other more powerful monsters in the Shard, their defense too powerful verse regular blows. Out of the four, Crush seemed his best bet for later enemies, the question was did he need to try and unlock skills now when they wouldn¡¯t be immediately useful?


    Tormacc decided to table the question for the moment. He didn¡¯t have to decide right now, as he couldn¡¯t even unlock a tier seven ability yet, needing a few hundred more Essence. Instead, he focused on trying get his Mediation skill to work. The sooner he could start meditating at night the more Essence he would passively earn, offsetting the continued drain of Essence going to his home dimension.


    After a few hours of practice he still hadn¡¯t earned any Essence through meditation, but he felt he was closer, the Essence responding to his will in small spurts rather than not at all. He had recovered from his previous battle, so he got up and dusted himself off before heading back to collect his loot.


    There was some consideration to engaging with the rat horde again, but sunset was only a few hours away, and he didn¡¯t want to push his limits more than he had to. Earning six hundred plus Essence in one day was enough for him, there was no need to get greedy and overexert himself. Just because he hadn¡¯t been attacked at night so far didn¡¯t mean it couldn¡¯t happen in the future.


    The location of the battle was quiet, the corpses all that was left of the crazed melee. Glancing down into the crevices below Tormacc was able to spot quite a few stone rats moving around. It was new behavior for them, and he attributed it to them patrolling their home turf after his continued assaults. Hopefully there wasn¡¯t any loot down there, as he had a feeling he couldn¡¯t descend into the area below the plateaus without being attacked.


    Searching the plateaus for loot took more time than he thought it would, partly because he made an effort to cut down on the noise he was making in a bid to avoid angering the rats below. The other part was the hundreds of corpses he had to sift through. He hadn¡¯t seen it yet, but he sincerely hoped he would eventually get an ability in his Fate Wheel that allowed to find crystals and spheres that were buried under things, as manually searching was both physically and mentally taxing. The corpses bled very little, but even that small amount built up over time, and after his search he realized he would have to live with the stench for potentially months, not having access to a body of water to clean himself with, the water in his Storage Bracelet much too valuable to use for anything but drinking.Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.


    It made him wish his Ring of High Water Attunement was good for something like creating water. He had experiment briefly with using his Elemental Blade to create water, but almost immediately after the attack was used the water disappeared. One second the water was there, the next, gone. But at least his search for loot didn¡¯t come up empty handed. Buried under the rat corpses was a White Crystal. It wasn¡¯t super useful to him, since it was rare to get something more than a weapon or armor from, so he ended up storing it for later. Stella had mentioned briefly that unused crystals were always valuable, and since it wasn¡¯t useful to him at the moment he might as well save it to sell rather than rolling the dice and hoping he got something of incredible rarity.


    Throughout his time searching the rats had continued their patrolling below, and he was starting to get a little worried. They were clearly up to something, and while he couldn¡¯t be sure their change in behavior was caused by his slaughter, there was a good chance it was. Ever since he had chased that first rat into the trap the stone rats seemed to have it out for him, attacking him with a reckless abandon the first ones he fought lacked.


    When he first came across them they had been aggressive, but it was the aggression of a predator attacking its prey. The last few times he fought it felt like they had it out for him personally. Like he had raided their nest and stolen their young. He hadn¡¯t been thinking about it before, the change percolating in the back of his head, but noticing their strange behavior now brought it into his conscious thought. But he wasn¡¯t going to let their changes affect him. They were still his best way to farm Essence after all. He would be more cautious attacking them tomorrow, but until they showed him something new there was no reason to change his behavior.


    The next day Tormacc stood on a plateau above the rats, watching as they scurried back and forth. If he wasn¡¯t mistaken, there were actually more of them, their ranks swelling from yesterday, with no nook or cranny of the crevices between plateaus safe from the patter of their feet. Were he a more cautious person he would be having second thoughts. No, if he was being honest with himself he was having second thoughts. Something had clearly changed, and he didn¡¯t know what it was.


    If he didn¡¯t have to worry about time, he would have waited. Stalking prey was a skill, and sometimes that took days, weeks even, waiting for the perfect moment to launch an ambush. But that option wasn¡¯t appealing to him, the drain on his Essence lurking in the background, a constant presence hovering over his shoulder. It made him realize why the slots for guards of the First City were always full, people thirsted for a safe place to grow stronger, and nothing fit that better than staying in a safe city while passively earning Essence.


    That life wasn¡¯t for him. You could gain strength while staying safe, but at what cost? Was that true strength? He knew his teachers would say no, and he was inclined to agree. People were like weapons, they needed to be forged, constantly hammered and tempered, forced to endure constant blows and hardships before they could truly shine. Without that tempering it was easy to break, a small strike targeting your weak points all that was needed. No, that wasn¡¯t true strength. True strength required experiencing conflict and failure.


    So while Tormacc knew something was different, he was ready to meet the challenge head-on. Slamming his hammer onto the ground beside him, he roared out a challenge to the stone rats below. They quickly responded, their baritone squeaks echoing up around him, rising to meet his challenge full force. As he looked down the edge of the plateau he could see the rats gathering, their ranks building like a storm swell ready to wash away the shore. A few brief moments were all it took for hundreds to gather, and then he could feel the ground shaking beneath him as they started climbing the plateau.


    Almost as soon as they crested the edge he knew something had changed. Blows that should have killed were now only maiming, his hammer meeting some sort of resistance that stopped him from crushing the rats as easily as he had before. It didn¡¯t matter at first, as he started the battle the same way as the others, knocking the rats off the edge. If his strikes didn¡¯t kill them immediately the fall took care of any stragglers. But as more and more rats made their way onto the plateau he started to be pushed back, and before he knew it he was surrounded, everywhere he looked a seething tide of rats squeaking for his demise.


    His hammer was a whirlwind, each swing slamming into the rats and knocking them away, not giving them a chance to sink their teeth and claws into his flesh. Yesterday his blows were lethal, each strike killing at least one or two rats. But as more and more of the vermin crawled onto the plateau his strikes lost their power. It took him a moment to realize what was happening, but as he continued his relentless barrage of strikes Tormacc realized he could feel the force of his blows dissipating, the power spreading out over dozens of rats and being absorbed by the collective.


    He kept his calm at first, trying to add more lethality to his blows. But soon his strikes were completely in vain, each blow merely knocking the rats back, buying him space to avoid their bloodthirsty attacks. He could even see his strikes being absorbed, the power washing ineffectually over the rats, doing nothing more than putting light pressure on their stone bodies.


    Not killing the rats was one thing, but as they began to absorb more and more of the force from his attacks he was starting to lose his ability to knock them back. The only reason he was able to fight in the middle of the horde was his ability to buy space by knocking away their bodies, and now that he was losing that, he realized he was trapped, unable to force his way through the horde of rats to reach the edge of the plateau and jump away. As the press of stone bodies closed in around him he felt a tinge of desperation creeping in. He needed to escape, and fast.

 Chapter 19

    Without any guarantee of getting enough power to fight back against the rat horde¡¯s new technique, Tormacc turned to mobility for his escape. After his experiences before he realized he needed to be able to spend the Essence in his Fate Wheel at any moment. Essence was a resource, and while it hurt to have to spend it on emergency abilities, perhaps it was a way for fate to tell him those were the abilities that he should unlock.


    After a short moment of preparation he dove into his mind space before unlocking abilities in his Fate Wheel in rapid succession. First was the tier three Dodge, followed quickly by the two abilities revealed by Power Jump, Firm Footing and Fleet Footwork, both tier four abilities costing 100 Essence each. Following that he quickly glanced over the four abilities revealed in the Power Jump tree before unlocking two of them for 200 Essence each.


    Lighten was the first one he unlocked, as it allowed him to reduce his weight, something which seemed greatly beneficial for his escape plan. The other he unlocked was Speed Burst, which did was its name suggested and gave him a burst of speed. He had been banking on the abilities revealed by Firm Footing and Fleet Footwork to be useful for his current situation, and thankfully his gamble paid off. While none of the abilities individually would save him, if he combined them all together he just might escape.


    It was hard to both fight off the rats and study the newly-unlocked abilities in his Fate Wheel, but he attempted to do just that for as long as possible, trying desperately to increase his odds of success by that little bit extra. But as the rats closed in he knew he had to move. Activating all his movement skills, he leaped up, kicking off the bodies of the stone rats as if he was surfing a wave, heading for the edge of the plateau and safety.


    His plan wouldn¡¯t have worked before, and it was actually thanks to the rats themselves that it worked now. Because of their ability to create a shield to share the damage they received he was able to receive a stable surface to push off of for his jumps, and that combined with his newly unlocked Firm Footing, which allowed him to find purchase easier on unstable ground, and Fleet Footwork, which allowed him to move his feet faster, gave him the needed ability to kick off the bodies of the rats and move his way over the horde toward the edge of the plateau.


    He took full advantage of both Lighten and Dodge as he rode atop the rat horde. Lighten was particularly powerful, offsetting his weight and allowing him to skim the surface of the horde, each step he took barely brushing the rats. But Dodge was the real MVP, despite it being the weakest ability he had unlocked. It was easy to imagine the rats weren¡¯t happy about his plan, doing everything in their power to claw and bite at the enemy brazen enough to walk on top of their heads. But thanks to Dodge he had an almost instinctual understanding of where to place his feet, each step carefully placed just so to avoid the most attacks possible.


    Despite all that he was taking hits, his feet and lower legs starting to accumulate scratches at a frightening rate. The edge of the plateau hadn¡¯t seemed that far away when he was able to easily bat the rats out of the way to open up a path, but now that he had to literally walk over them it felt like it was kilometers away, each step taking ages as he searched for the best way forward.


    Just as he began to wonder if his legs would give out he reached some invisible line, his body instinctively knowing he was close enough to the edge. He activated Speed Burst, his legs suddenly speeding up, taking two steps in the time where before he had only taken one. Just a few more steps and he used Power Jump, pushing off the rats with all his strength, reaching for the next plateau.


    He almost didn¡¯t make it, but Dash saved him, crossing the final short gap. He came down hard, the muscles in his calves ripped to shreds, barely working enough to support his landing. Thankfully Lighten was still in effect, and it helped as he continued further, jumping to other plateaus and putting more distance between himself and the screeching horde.


    After a while he stopped, judging he had created enough distance between himself and the rat¡¯s territory. He collapsed to the ground, trying not to think about his bloody feet and legs. That last part of the trip had been hell, each new jump straining muscles already taxed beyond their limits. Laying there, he couldn¡¯t help but think this was becoming a pattern. It felt like he kept getting in over his head before running away, only escaping by the skin of his teeth. He should really do something about that, but for the moment he was only glad the pattern was repeating fully, not ending with him becoming food for the monsters in The Tower.


    It took him three days to recover, during which he finally succeeded in Meditating. The passive Essence gain was a boon to be sure, but it didn¡¯t solve his current problem. His plan had been to farm Essence off the rats, but in light of his most recent experiences with the horde that goal seemed to be unattainable, the horde vastly more dangerous now that he wasn¡¯t able to push them around with his superior strength and reach.


    He was having trouble coming up with any new ideas so he decided to make another trip back to the rat¡¯s area, making sure to stay far away from them should they start to swarm up the plateaus. Perhaps if he was confronting the problem head-on he could better visualize a solution.Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.


    The rats were still swarming in the crevices below, and as he looked down as them scurrying back and forth he couldn¡¯t help anger from washing over him at the humiliation he suffered at their claws. They had made him run away not once, but twice, and he was powerless to stop them, the might of their numbers too much to fight back against. He could taste bile in the back of his throat, his stomach churning at his powerlessness.


    His whole journey had been like that, each new struggle testing him and pushing him past his limits. It was gratifying when he thought about all he had accomplished, but that feeling was washed away when he compared it to where it had brought him. It didn¡¯t matter that he survived the starting zone, that he had brought back a fortunes worth of Blood Crystal. His training outside The Tower paled before the skills offered by his Fate Wheel, the powerful abilities by far his biggest asset in fighting monsters. It made him wonder: why was he even struggling if he could never get ahead?


    He knew why of course, knew that his people back home were depending on him to do well so that they could have access to better resources. But he couldn¡¯t even remember them, couldn¡¯t remember his parent¡¯s faces. Did he even have parents? Did he have siblings? He didn¡¯t know, and that void in his memory haunted him, made him question why he was struggling so hard for a people he barely knew existed.


    He had pushed himself in The Tower, pushed to get ahead of the curve. He didn¡¯t want to just be mediocre, just getting by day to day until the drain of his Essence overpowered what he could earn. He could feel that unspoken pressure. The drain of his Essence only went up, never down. What happened when he had to pay 100 Essence a day? What about 1,000? The day the drain on his Essence reached those numbers was far away, but it was coming, inevitably inching closer like the slow advance of a glacier during an ice age.


    A fire continued to burn in him as he pondered questions he didn¡¯t have answers to. The future loomed large in his sight, the weight of its presence suffocating his every action. It had seemed so simple when he first entered The Tower. Fight and get stronger. Accumulate more Essence. Simple directives, sure, but those basic goals had carried him, gave him a clear purpose. Now that purpose was waning, starting to be overshadowed by the weight of responsibility, the tendrils of doubt seeping in through the cracks.


    Thoughts swirled in a chaotic whirlpool as Tormacc stood for hours, just watching the rats scurry about below him. He envied them, in a way. They knew what they were about, easily falling in line with the collective, joining forces to form a cohesive whole. They were a family, surrounded by likeminded companions, all working together towards the same goal. It was something he lacked, and after meeting other people in the First City he could feel the emptiness inside him. The loneliness stabbed him, twisting and cutting away at his resolve and eating away at him from the inside.


    In the end, he came back to one thing: Tormacc, his name. He who conquers. He knew there was meaning there; his name wasn¡¯t random, and even if he couldn¡¯t remember why, he knew he had been bestowed his name after a great trial, his name forged into him with blood, sweat, and tears. He clung to that, using the idea as a lifeline to pull himself out of his depressive spiral. He had purpose, and that purpose was written into his soul via his name. Maybe he was alone in his struggles, but even under the weight of an entire dimension he still had his name giving him guidance, shining the way like a lighthouse in an ocean storm.


    His people had given him his name, his purpose. They were always with him, always supporting him as he fought to advance and strive for more. He might be adrift now, cut off from everyone he had ever known, but they were still there; he had to remember that. And he couldn¡¯t afford to let them, and himself, down.


    Moving on, Tormacc focused on his current problem. He needed Essence, and the rats were making it very difficult to get that Essence, their new defensive ability too powerful for him to break, at least not without some new abilities from his Fate Wheel. But to unlock new abilities he needed Essence, which brought him back to his original problem. It all came back to power and Essence, and his lack of both. He was locked in a vicious cycle of powerlessness and he needed to break out.


    He started from the beginning, going over everything he had seen and experienced since coming to the Shard. He only had seen a small slice of what the Shard had to offer, but there must have been something he was missing, some way to overcome his seemingly unsolvable dilemma.


    The Stone Giants weren¡¯t it. If he couldn¡¯t even defeat some rats they were obviously out of his league. Maybe if he had Crush, but he was now farther than ever away from unlocking a tier seven ability after having spent all his Essence on emergency unlocks. He either had to figure out a way to fight the stone rats or find something else to kill.


    The stone rats had to be the key. They were weak, as evidenced by him slaughtering hundreds of them. They now had more defensive power, but their offensive power was still limited. Unless they manifested other new abilities they still weren¡¯t much of a threat, and if they ever tried to surround him he could just run away.


    Tormacc¡¯s eyes widened. That was it. It hurt his pride as a warrior, but once he set that aside the solution was obvious. It had just been sitting there waiting for him to grab it. He didn¡¯t need to personally kill the stone rats, all he needed to do was bat them off the plateau. And once too many reached the top of the plateau he could just switch to a different one.


    Looking below him at the vermin scurrying about the crevices he smiled, their small stone bodies already appearing as Essence in his Fate Wheel to his predatory gaze. Perhaps it was a bit undignified to let gravity do all the work for him, but he wasn¡¯t in a situation to be picky. Essence was Essence, even if he had to play Whack-a-Rat to get it.

 Chapter 20

    His plan worked better than expected, and Tormacc spent the next few weeks jumping from plateau to plateau, knocking off the climbing rats and then switching locations once he started to get overwhelmed. The Essence gain was actually decent, as the rats seemed to grow more and more enraged with every battle, their baritone squeaks echoing with hate at his actions. They never gave up, continuing to assault him until he was forced to run away, his stamina the only thing holding him back from continuing the slaughter.


    He got into a pattern, each morning and afternoon fighting the rats before retreating to rest. It was monotonous work, but watching his Essence slowly creep up was satisfying. He could only earn a couple hundred Essence a day, but since the rats were practically endless, that quickly added up over time. The only downside about his method was his inability to collect loot. He tried to avoid looking into the crevices for fear of seeing crystals and spheres shining back at him, taunting him with inability to descend below and pick them up.


    That would hopefully change though. Even if the rats were endless, he was steadily gaining Essence, Essence he could invest in his Fate Wheel to unlock new abilities to grow stronger, hopefully strong enough to overpower the rats and go down and collect his loot. That was his plan at least, and he had been keeping that in mind as he invested his Essence.


    The first thing he did was save enough Essence to unlock the tier seven ability Crush for 1,000 Essence. There was utility to be gained from unlocking a bunch of lower tier abilities, but he needed power, and higher tier skills were his best bet to achieve that. He still remembered Stella telling him that tier eight and nine were where he wanted to be to really be comfortable in the Shard. He knew there were still many lower tier abilities he wanted, but for pure destructive potential he needed higher tier skills. Synergy could only take him so far.


    The two tier eight abilities revealed by Crush were Strengthened Blows and Sledgehammer. Strengthened Blows did as the name suggested, giving him a passive strength boost for his attacks. Sledgehammer was a singular powerful attack, likely with a long cooldown time. It also had the requirement of being a downward blow from above, which somewhat limited its usefulness. Tormacc had his sights set on Strengthened Blows, and after saving his Essence, he finally unlocked it.


    Glancing ahead on his Fate Wheel, the two tier nine abilities revealed were Giant¡¯s Strength and Giant¡¯s Weapon. The first was similar to Strengthened Blows, just another passive power boost, but the second was interesting, although perhaps not what he needed. Giant¡¯s Weapon allowed him to wield a large weapon as though it were smaller. Without unlocking the ability he couldn¡¯t be sure exactly what that meant, but he suspected it was a reality breaking effect, allowing to ignore the inertia and weight from a weapon much too large for him to properly wield in normal circumstances.


    As he got farther into his Fate Wheel Tormacc was starting to realize he would have to specialize his combat style at some point. Abilities like Giant¡¯s Weapon were too powerful to ignore, especially when combined with each other. He could only imagine the destruction he could deliver if his hammer was three times the size, his blows able to crash down with more than double the force, easily decimating his enemies and smashing them to a pulp. The downside was if he chose to unlock abilities like that he would be forced to give up on finesse, Giant¡¯s Weapon a useless unlock unless he was attacking with pure force.


    He also realized that his ability to specialize would also depend on his foresight. He hadn¡¯t quite understood just how many abilities his Fate Wheel contained, but as he got into higher tiers, he was confronted with the fact that there would be large sections of his Fate Wheel that remained in shadow, the abilities forever a mystery to him. For example, the tier nine abilities cost 5,000 Essence to unlock, and looking at his Fate Wheel, there had to be hundreds of them. Calculations had never been his strong point, but even he realized that with the number of abilities for each tier doubling and the cost more than doubling it would cost an astronomical amount to unlock even a fraction of the abilities available to him. And that wasn¡¯t even taking into account the other three sections.


    He had been mostly focused on the right section of his Fate Wheel, which was focused on physical might, but he was sure there were an equal number of people who chose the left side for magic power, not to mention what the top and bottom sections had to offer. It was mind-boggling how many choices there were, and truthfully he felt a little overwhelmed thinking about them. But he had confidence in himself. Even if he failed to unlock the best abilities, he only had to unlock more than other people. If he had twice the abilities as other people he was bound to unlock at least some synergy even if he missed out on the optimal unlocks.


    The sheer number and variance of abilities was also a message to be careful of others. Because the abilities of each person¡¯s Fate Wheel differed, he would have no clue what abilities someone had access to without them revealing their skills in battle. Some of the skills were outside his realm of comprehension, and judging others by their looks could be the last mistake he made if he were to offend an archmage who looked like a beggar. Stella had told him to be careful of those he met in the Shard, and with good reason. He could already tell gauging other¡¯s strength would be a nightmare should he ever be forced into a conflict with a stranger.


    He hadn¡¯t run into anyone yet, but bowing his head and slinking away would leave a sour taste in his mouth. It would sully his name, and without his name he was nothing. He needed to get stronger until he could proudly hold his head up high, and the first step was defeating the horde of rats.


    The tier eight Strengthened Blows was a good first step, but that¡¯s all it was, a first step. He could already tell he would need more to descend down below the plateaus. With Strengthened Blows he was actually able to kill the rats, but only when using all of his skills in tandem. His regular strikes still had a hard time breaking through the rat¡¯s ability to communally absorb his strikes. And he knew that their defensive ability only got stronger the greater their numbers, so if he was having trouble with the few that made it to the top of the plateau he would have no chance down in the crevices.Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.


    The tier eight ability did allow him to farm Essence more efficiently though, with a noticeable increase each of twenty to sixty Essence on top of what he was earning before. It might not have been much, but it quickly added up, giving him a decent boost to how much he could earn each day. As it turned out though, that wasn¡¯t his biggest gain. Two days after he gained he unlocked his new skill his ability to actually kill the rats payed off in a way he couldn¡¯t have even dreamed of.


    Despite his newly gained strength he still kept to his routine of knocking the rats off the cliff and down into the crevices below. Not only was it safer, but it was faster too, as he only had to put in enough strength to knock the rats off as opposed to crushing their skulls. But because of how Cleave worked, the rat he hit directly always received the brunt of the blow, that one often dying while the others around it were left to gravity as they fell squeaking into the abyss. He knew there had to be some amount of loot down there from the dead rats, but he tried not to think about it, the idea of crystals and spheres left to rot under piles of rat corpses too much to bear.


    But out of sight out of mind, and since he couldn¡¯t actually see the loot he was missing, for the most part he was able to ignore it. That all changed when he had to watch his loot fall from his grasp.


    It happened as he was routinely killing rats, knocking them off as quickly as he was able to before he had to switch plateaus. He had just cleared the cliff of the most recent bunch with a particularly satisfying thwack when one of the corpses imploded midair, and since he was constantly looking down, he had a clear view of it. One moment the corpse was falling to earth along with three screaming vermin and the next he saw a flash of blue sparkling among the falling bodies.


    Tormacc jumped. He would like to say he thought about it first, considered the pros and cons, but that would be a lie. He saw the blue sparkle and instinct took over, the allure of a rare drop too good to pass up. He rocketed through the air, eyes desperately searching, straining to make sure he didn¡¯t lose that flash of blue. As he crashed into the flailing rats he saw it, and, reaching out with his left hand, he grabbed the blue sparkle, only stopping to consider his situation once he could feel the gem in his hand.


    It was the fact the he didn¡¯t hesitate that saved him. If he had paused to think about what he was doing he never would have made it, the gem too far down the crevice for him to safely grab. But because he had reacted on instinct he wasn¡¯t actually that far down, and by using skills like Dash he was able to reach the side of the far plateau, activating sudden strike to use his hammer to find purchase on the cliff face and slow his descent.


    He was far enough up the side of the plateau that he was easily able to make it safely to the top, the rats still in the middle of their pursuit by the time he reached flat ground. A wide smile adorned his face as he opened his tightly clenched first to observe his booty. Then he laughed, doubling over from the cackling tremors coursing through him. He was eventually forced to retreat, fleeing from the rat horde, unable to get his guffaws under control in time to fight back and continue to farm Essence. He had expected a Blue Crystal, but instead, lying innocently in his palm, was a Blue Sphere.


    It was beautiful, a miniature sky encapsulated perfectly in the clear orb. He could feel himself falling into the depths of the sphere the longer he stared, its brilliance hinting at untold secrets. And it was his: his first Blue Sphere.


    Both crystals and spheres were divided into three types, white, blue, and purple. Purple ones were rare, most people not seeing one for years, sometimes ever unless they were able to somehow trade for one. Because of that, blue crystals and spheres were often used as premium currency, always valuable no matter the circumstances. The differences between crystals and spheres lay in how they were valuable and to who.


    Blue Crystals gave two options. Sometimes both were bad, but the more valuable options were powerful, sometimes incredibly so. Still, the primary beneficiaries of Blue Crystals were those who hadn¡¯t invested a huge amount into their Fate Wheel. The theory was that the more abilities someone had that weren¡¯t related to Essence the higher the chance they would unlock more powerful variants in their Fate Wheel. Because of this, Blue Crystals tended to be more valuable to weaker people, while Blue Spheres were more valuable to those who were stronger and had more Essence.


    The reason for this was because spheres scaled. White Spheres gave someone half the Essence of their highest unlocked ability, while Blue Spheres gave Essence equal to that ability. As an example, right now Tormacc had unlocked a tier eight ability, costing 2,000 Essence. If he used a White Sphere, he would gain 1,000 Essence, while a Blue Sphere would net him the full 2,000. Purple Spheres gave double the Essence of the highest unlocked tier, but they also gave that for each ability of that tier. So if he were to have two tier eight abilities unlocked and use a Purple Sphere he would gain 8,000 Essence, not 4,000.


    Truthfully, crystals and spheres weren¡¯t all that valuable all things considered, but the main thing was they were always useful, which was what maintained their value. There were few people who wanted to sell them, even if they could gain more from waiting until they were back in the First City to exchange them for other things more valuable to them. The Blue Sphere Tormacc just earned was much more useful to someone who had a tier fourteen ability unlocked, but it didn¡¯t matter, as he wasn¡¯t going to sell it. Spheres and crystals, except for maybe White Crystals, were just that useful.


    It was similar to an investment. He could save the sphere to trade later, but in the meantime he would be down power he could be using to farm for more Essence, and that was exactly how he planned to use the sphere. The gain from selling the sphere had to be worth more than the cumulative effect of using it immediately, and it often wasn¡¯t. He hadn¡¯t been sure what to spend his Essence on next, but now he had a clear goal. He would save until he could unlock a tier nine ability and then use the Blue Sphere, gaining another 5,000 Essence.


    After calming down he gently stored the Blue Sphere into his Storage Bracelet before turning back to fight more rats. After all, the day was still young, and he had Essence to grind.

 Chapter 21

    With the Blue Sphere as his goal, Tormacc went on a killing spree, the reward of so much Essence driving him forward to push himself for that one extra kill before he had to retreat for the day. There was also the allure of more loot, as by unlocking a tier nine ability and getting an additional 5,000 Essence he thought he had a pretty good shot of being able to safely descend into the crevices. Filled with that single-minded purpose, it took over three weeks of grinding to reach his goal, his unwavering will pushing him forward until he finally had enough Essence to unlock Giant¡¯s Strength.


    Unlike Strengthened Blows, which just affected his attacks, Giant¡¯s Strength was a comprehensive boost to his whole body, and after unlocking it he felt giddy at the rush of power flowing through him, his muscles bursting with unconstrained might reminiscent of some primordial lifeform. It was similar to just after he completed the rituals, his strength experiencing a comprehensive growth compared to the past. It also made him realize that his strength was finally outpacing things like stamina and vitality, as there was a noticeable difference in the comparison between them. He couldn¡¯t pinpoint how he knew, but after taking stock of his own body he realized he might need to invest more in his body¡¯s durability. He was positive he could crush the rats with his present strength, but it would also drain his stamina, leaving him easily winded after only a few minutes of fighting.


    That was where the Blue Sphere came in, and as Tormacc felt it dissolve in his hand Essence gushed into him, a veritable storm of power flooding his Fate Wheel and filling it back up to the previous point before he had unlocked his tier nine ability. It was addictive, gaining that much power at once, nothing like the slow burn from the steady accumulation from grinding. Now the only question was what to do with his newly-gotten gains.


    There was a part of him that wanted to save for a tier ten ability, and one of the ones he had available, Giant Growth, seemed like it would be helpful for him. But he already had enough strength. He needed to branch out, make sure he didn¡¯t become too one-dimensional. Strength had been his focus, and it still was, but to support it he needed to round out his other abilities, particularly his stamina and vitality.


    He realized it during his previous weeks of grinding, but if he had more stamina he would have been able to kill more rats, thus gaining him Essence at a faster rate. From what Stella had said, there was never a problem of running out of monsters to kill. You could sometimes decimate the local population, but there would always be other places to continue your slaughter. As long as he had the power to break the defenses of whatever he was fighting, anything that allowed him to fight for longer would directly improve his Essence gain.


    With that in mind, he looked over his Fate Wheel, this time with a mind not only for the abilities that had immediately available, but also what abilities they were likely to unlock down the line if he continued down that part of his Fate Wheel. He decided to start with the top section and work counter-clockwise. He already knew he wanted stuff from the right section, but it wouldn¡¯t be good to ignore the others just because of that. There had to be four sections in his Fate Wheel for a reason, after all.


    The top section had very little that interested him, although to be fair he didn¡¯t have many options. The only one he thought sounded good was a tier three ability called Synergy, which, rather obviously, increased his synergy. It only cost fifty Essence since it was only a tier three ability so he kept it in mind, but it would depend on what else he decided on. From what he had heard, he wasn¡¯t too interested in the top section, so he was hesitant to invest a lot of Essence there.


    The left section had a few abilities he was interested in, but, similar to the top section, he was loathe to diversify his build. As a warrior, he had a healthy respect for mages and their craft, and there was a small part of him that longed to unlock magic abilities. He might unlock the other tier one ability, Force Ball, just so he could have some sort of ranged attack, but recklessly spending his Essence on abilities that didn¡¯t synergize with his physical abilities sounded like a bad idea. The two tier three abilities he had access to did sound tempting though, so he decided to keep his options open.


    Out of the abilities in the bottom section there was one that he knew he was going to get. In fact, he arguably should have unlocked it much sooner. It was the last tier three ability he had yet to unlock, Reset, which allowed him to use an ability twice in rapid succession in exchange for not being able to use it for days or even weeks. It could easily save his life in a pinch, allowing him to do something like Dash twice, crossing a previously insurmountable distance.


    Since he already knew he was going to unlock it, he invested the fifty Essence to light up Reset, leaving him with 4,950 remaining to spend. Neither of the two abilities revealed by Reset seemed all that alluring, and there was only one ability he wanted, Discount, but he was saving that for later, so he finally turned to the right section of his Fate Wheel. That was where he intended to spend the majority of his Essence anyway.


    He started near the center, first by unlocking the last tier two ability which he still hadn¡¯t unlocked yet, Improved Physique. It was a small boost, especially considering his other enhancements, but everything counts, and he wanted to see what else was offered further in. The twenty Essence was almost trivial at this point when compared to the additional options he would see.Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.


    Moving on, the tier three abilities in the right section of his Fate Wheel had three options available. The two new ones, Body Boost and Iron Skin, which he had just unlocked, and one of the options revealed by Energy Sustenance, Iron Stomach. He had already unlocked the other five abilities. He wasn¡¯t sure about the other two, but Iron Skin sounded like something he was going to want at some point, so he went ahead and unlocked it for fifty Essence, leaving him with 4,880 left.


    Deciding to move on to tier four for now, he had a few options available, some of which he knew he would unlock. The question was which ones. At this point, with the tier four abilities costing 100 Essence, he knew he had to start being selective, especially if he wanted to reach farther into his Fate Wheel with his remaining Essence. The only problem was there were a lot of abilities he wanted.


    The first two options, revealed after he had unlocked Enhanced Vitality, were Rapid Healing and Regeneration. From the descriptions, he honestly had a hard time telling them apart, as one made him to heal faster, while one made him regenerate faster. The difference between those two seemed meaningless to him, as both seemed like powerful additions to his kit. He wanted at least one, and possibly both. He had been able to hold out and heal from the injuries he had received, but often it took days for him to heal. If that healing time was cut in half it meant a faster turnaround time before he could be back out in the field farming Essence.


    The next two options, which he had just revealed by Iron Skin, were Block and Force Absorption. While neither of them were what he currently needed, he knew he would eventually be unlocking them. Perhaps Force Absorption would be useful now as an additional defense if he got in over his head. In contrast to those two, he knew he wanted at least one of the next two available, although not necessarily because of how powerful they were.


    The next two abilities he had access to, Explosive Blow and Sweep, were derivatives of Cleave. Neither one seemed super useful to him, but if he was going to descend into the crevices he needed more area of effect skills, and the skill tree after Cleave was his best place to find those kinds of skills. So even if those two skills weren¡¯t the best, he wanted the skills that came after.


    Elemental Perception was the next one had could unlock, and he wasn¡¯t quite sure what to make of it. It was one of the options unlocked by Elemental Blade, but other than the elemental part it seemed out of place. Perhaps perception was loosely related to physical abilities, but for such an ability to come after a clear attack skill, it was almost like something else¡­ was at play¡­ and influencing his Fate Wheel.


    He was an idiot.


    Reaching up behind his ear, he gently rubbed the area where he knew his tattoo was. He had tried to examine it in a mirror when he was in the First City, but because of the angle he wasn¡¯t able to get a good look at it. Still, he knew it was there. Tattoo of Perception; the link was obvious, and if he had spent more time thinking about it he would have realized it sooner. Stella had given him a whole speech about how his Fate Wheel could be influenced by his other abilities, which apparently he had done his best to tune out, as it didn¡¯t take a genius to connect his tattoo with the out-of-place ability.


    Now the question was, what did he do with the information? The obvious answer was to unlock Elemental Perception, it was after that he was unsure of, the snowball effect of a variant ability potentially cascading far into his Fate Wheel. Or potentially not, with Elemental Perception his only variant option.


    It only took a glance at his Essence to realize he was agonizing over nothing. He still had 4,880 Essence left. Even if he stopped there, wasting one unlock on a tier four ability that would at the very least be useful later was no waste at all. Ignoring his previous train of thought, he selected Elemental Perception, lighting it up and revealing the two tier five abilities after it.


    The two abilities revealed were Elemental Senses and Elemental Boon. Elemental Perception allowed him to augment his senses using an element he had attunement with. For example, he could use his water attunement if he were in a body of water to commune with the water, extending his senses through it. Elemental Senses was a step beyond that, with instead of his chosen element augmenting his perception, he could fully channel his senses through that element, meaning he could hear or see out of a pool of water hundreds of meters away, where right now he could only extend the range of his senses.


    It was a powerful effect, and one he knew he would select at some point. But in his current almost waterless environment it just didn¡¯t make sense to unlock it. Elemental Boon was more useful to him, as it allowed him to grant himself bonuses depending on what elements he was attuned to. It was a little vague, the description not really telling him much, but he would have unlocked it if he was attuned with an element like earth or possibly fire. But since he only had water attunement currently he held off on unlocking it, leaving his elemental skills aside for the moment, even though he knew he would come back to them later.


    The last two tier four abilities he could choose from were revealed by Dodge: Centered Balance and Read the Flow. Centered Balance¡¯s effect was obvious, while Read the Flow seemed to be a combat sense skill, improving his skills at dodging and landing attacks. Neither was what he needed, so he moved back to the earlier skills, although Read the Flow was on his list of skills to unlock later when he was faced with more skill-intensive fights.


    After looking over all of his options, there were two main paths he could take at his point: either go towards the healing and regeneration skills or down the AOE path after Cleave. Both were appealing, and at this point he started to consider his Essence and how much he could spend. He had 4,780 Essence left, and out of that, he wanted to have enough to unlock a tier eight skill, which cost 2,000 Essence. Tier seven skills cost 1,000 and tier six 500, which meant if he wanted to save enough for those he only had 1,280 to spend on lower tier skills.


    Math was never his strong suit, so he decided to take out some paper from his Storage Bracelet to try and figure out how many skills he could unlock before he had to commit, and exactly what those skills would be. Multiple sheets of crumpled paper later and he knew it would be a long, long process, his colorful curses echoing around the empty plateau as he tried to make the numbers add up.

 Chapter 22

    Tormacc stayed up all night trying to figure out which skills to unlock and which branch of his Fate Wheel to go down. There was a part of him the wanted to say fuck it and just go with his gut, after all, how much did it really matter which skills he unlocked, right? If he wanted other skills he could just earn more Essence and unlock them later.


    That was weakness speaking. He might not be able to do any complicated calculations, but it didn¡¯t take a genius to figure out that if he was able to increase his Essence gain by even ten a day that would add up, each day that passed adding to a number noticeably bigger than without that extra Essence. And that number would only grow over time, as he could then invest that Essence into even more abilities, increasing his Essence gain even more, the number eventually snowballing out of control. Maybe it wouldn¡¯t be a big difference in a year, but five years? Ten years? He was still a young man, and many of the people he saw in the First City were middle aged, or even older. He couldn¡¯t be sure, but Kaz Ehen was likely an old man by normal Humen standards based on how he talked and acted. By investing his Essence haphazardly how much power would he be missing out on?


    No, he wouldn¡¯t take the weakling¡¯s way out. He couldn¡¯t, or he wasn¡¯t Tormacc. But that meant focusing on the scratches on the page, watching as they danced back and forth, the numbers running circles around his brain, refusing to add up the way they should. He wanted to scream. He did scream, his primal roar echoing across the empty plateaus around him, his frustrations spilling out, lacking a clear focus he could direct it to. His job should be to fight, to crush his enemies beneath his feet while drinking wine from their skulls. Instead, he was a paper-pusher, moving lines around on increasingly crumpled pieces of paper to try and find his best path forward.


    When morning came, he knew it was time to commit, the time wasted by agonizing over his choices better spent earning Essence. It was frustrating, knowing he could be doing things better. He knew he was better than this, knew he had the training to achieve his goals. But he was realizing that no matter how talented he was with physical might and planning, there were things he just didn¡¯t know. That was why he had gone to find Curtain and Stella, but even after that he was still lacking in knowledge, the gaps abundantly clear as he continued to get himself in life-threatening situations.


    More than knowledge, he was lacking in wisdom. It hurt to admit it, but maybe his teachers had been right to reprimand him for his age. He had only vague memories and recollections left in his mind, but he knew there was at least one time he had grown too big for his britches, gotten too puffed up with self-importance. And he had been smacked down, taught his place by those with more experience and wisdom than him when he had sought to question his elders.


    It was now when he wished he had that elder figure, someone to tell him he was doing the right thing. It was strange, he couldn¡¯t remember much of anything from the time before The Tower, but as he had to rely on himself more, he realized it was a new experience, in the past a figure of authority always looming over him to direct him in the truly important moments. It was holding him back, invisible chains around his neck, making him question every decision he made. Perhaps the training he had received had focused a bit too much on combat and tactics instead of real-world skills. But he could, and would, grow from that and improve.


    His night of calculations had been long and painful, each hour dragging into the next, self-doubt threatening to spill over. But he was Tormacc; he couldn¡¯t give in. Part of the problem was there were some tier six abilities he really wanted. In particular, two of the ones he unlocked with Lighten and Speed Burst, one from each, that he thought he should have. But he couldn¡¯t unlock those and have enough to go down another path if he wanted to still be able to unlock another tier eight ability.


    There were so many useful abilities, his Fate Wheel threatening to pull him in ten different directions. But he settled on his previous plan, the goal either to choose something down his Fate Wheel in the sections after either Cleave or Enhanced Vitality.


    Both of those abilities had two valid tier four options for him to choose from, and he had quickly decided on first choosing one and seeing where it went, and if he didn¡¯t like the options, going back to the other. His first choice, from Enhanced Vitality, was between Rapid Healing and Regeneration, and it was a tough one, his brain having difficulty determining the differences between healing and regeneration. He beat himself up for hours to try and figure it out, and his effort was not in vain, as after hours of contemplative thought he finally had an answer.


    Healing was health, that much was obvious. But regeneration could be more, after all, you didn¡¯t heal your stamina, you regenerated it. That was what sold him; he wanted more stamina, and Regeneration sounded like the better bet for that. So when the morning came, that was where he started, by investing the 100 Essence out of his reduced pool of 1,280 to unlock Regeneration.


    The two abilities revealed by Regeneration were Undying and Sustain Life. They were similar sounding names, but the effects were completely different. Sustain Life would allow him to stay alive for a short period, even when he shouldn¡¯t, for example, when some of his vital organs were failing. Undying on the other hand was exactly what he wanted, as it directly increased his stamina and vitality. He was tempted to unlock it immediately, but held off until he resolved the Cleave skill tree. Since he still wasn¡¯t sure which tree would be better he had resolved himself to take a look at both to try and get more information.This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    The two options revealed by Cleave were Explosive Blow and Sweep. Explosive Blow created a small explosion on impact, while Sweep allowed him to move his weapons in an arc, presumably having some additional effect or power. Both seemed like valid options, but in the end he settled on unlocking Sweep first. Since he had guessed right between Regeneration and Rapid Healing he had some breathing room with his Essence, so this choice didn¡¯t matter as much if he messed up.


    Sweep lived up to his hopes, as the attack it created was guaranteed to finish, meaning as long as he didn¡¯t try to swing his weapon through stone or some similarly immovable substance his strike would land, sweeping through the enemies in front of him. More exciting though were the two abilities it revealed. The first was Essence Blade, an ability that allowed him to extend the reach of his weapon. It was likely to be more useful for a bladed weapon, but increasing the range of his hammer would still be useful if he decided to go down that path. The other one, Whirlwind, was what he was really excited about. It was similar to Sweep, but instead of just attacking the area in front on him, he swept his weapon in a broad circle, clearing his surroundings of enemies.


    After unlocking two tier four abilities he still had 1,080 Essence left, plenty to experiment with before he unlocked his tier six through eight abilities. If he only unlocked two tier five abilities he would still even have enough to test out two tier six abilities before he committed to which path he wanted to take. If he wanted to do that he had to commit to only one ability on each of his two paths, but that was an easy choice, as he had a clear favorite between the two sets of abilities he had just revealed. From the Regeneration tree he unlocked Undying, and from Sweep, he unlocked Whirlwind.


    The two abilities after Undying were Relentless and Lifesteal, while the two after Whirlwind were Blow Away and Rising Cyclone. He was a little disappointed by Blow Away and Rising Cyclone, not because they weren¡¯t powerful abilities, they were, but they weren¡¯t quite what he was looking for. Blow Away knocked all the enemies around him backwards while Rising Cyclone swept them into a focused point, gathering them to allow him to finish them off with another skill. Out of the two, Rising Cyclone seemed more promising, but even that still didn¡¯t involve directly killing his foes, which was what he was looking for.


    For the other two skills, Relentless allowed him to set a goal, and as long as he was pursuing that goal, he wouldn¡¯t tire, able to continue pushing himself until he accomplished that goal. The obvious downside of this was what happened to him afterwards. The skill didn¡¯t state it directly, although maybe it would once he unlocked it, but it wasn¡¯t too hard to imagine he would collapse, the previous effort finally catching up to him.


    On the other hand, Lifesteal was what he had been looking for, the skill practically tailor-made for his present situation. For every enemy he killed, the skill would allow him to siphon off some of their life force and stamina, which, if he was massacring countless enemies, would allow him to continue the slaughter almost indefinitely, the life force of his foes draining back into him in and endless cycle. There was some doubt over what he would spend the remaining Essence on, but Lifesteal was too good to pass up, so he unlocked it, the skill lighting up on his Fate Wheel.


    At this point he only had 180 Essence left in his fate wheel other than the 3,500 set aside for lighting up tiers six through eight. If he continued down after Lifesteal he would have an extra 500 Essence to invest elsewhere, which was appealing to him as he was still eyeing those tier six abilities he really wanted outside of the Sweep and Regeneration trees. And considering the utility Lifesteal offered, he couldn¡¯t pass up one of the options after it.


    The first option was Encapsulated Vitality, an ability that allowed him to store vitality to use later, either when he was injured or worn down from battle. A strong ability to be sure, but his other choice was Greater Lifesteal. He knew what he wanted. Perhaps if he went down the Cleave tree more AOE skills would improve his speed in killing the rats, but Greater Lifesteal would allow him to farm them for longer, the reduced speed more than made up for with increased endurance. Slow but steady wins the race after all.


    Having committed, he unlocked Greater Lifesteal, continuing down that section of his Fate Wheel. The tier eight abilities he could choose from were Stamina Drain and Blood Osmosis. Stamina Drain made his attacks drain a small amount of stamina from the target. One of the key differences here was it worked on living targets, while Lifesteal and Greater Lifesteal only worked on enemies he killed, so Stamina Drain would work during battle if he was only fighting one enemy, where Greater Lifesteal only worked when he killed something. Blood Osmosis allowed him to passively absorb blood spilled in battle to restore his vitality and life force. Blood Osmosis seemed like the ability with a higher ceiling, but fighting in a Shard with mostly bloodless enemies, Stamina Drain was the clear choice, so he spent 2,000 Essence to unlock it.


    He still had enough Essence left to unlock one tier six ability and there was one that he had been eyeing, hoping he would have enough Essence to unlock it. It was revealed after he had unlocked Lighten, and was called Air Step, and it allowed him to create a foothold in thin air as if it was solid ground. The ability had a long cooldown, but he had already experienced how powerful movement skills were, as he would certainly be dead without them. There were a few more he wanted to unlock too, but this one seemed like the most unique while also being the most useful to him.


    Spending his Essence in an optimal manner had caused him incredible amounts of frustration, but finally he was done, the painful ordeal over, at least for the moment. The satisfaction he gained from properly considering which branch of his Fate Wheel to go down didn¡¯t quite offset his grueling night of calculations, but he knew it would be worth it in the end. And now that he had put his Essence to good use it was time to kill some stone rats; the vermin had survived long enough, but with his new skills, it was time to make them pay the iron price.

 Chapter 23

    Tormacc made his way across the plateaus to the rats¡¯ territory in high spirits. They had been getting a little too high and mighty lately, their communal shielding ability able to chase him away with the weight of numbers, but it was time to lay down the law. Vermin were meant to be exterminated, and with his new upgrades, he felt it was time to turn the tables once and for all.


    Reaching the rats¡¯ area, he stared down at them, listening to their feet patter about the crevices below, their writhing stone bodies just begging to be crushed under his hammer. Truthfully, it was incredibly stressful to fight the same enemy over and over again, the repetition wearing on him as he struggled against a foe he felt should be easy. All his time in this Shard had been spent fighting against the rats, and while it had been fruitful, his Fate Wheel greatly expanded, he still felt stagnant, as if there was more he could be doing. Perhaps it was a result of him running away, as despite farming a substantial amount of Essence off the rat horde it still felt like he was losing to them, the mental strain building and wearing him down.


    But that would change today; or he hoped it would. Part of him, a rather large part, wanted to immediately jump down and begin his slaughter. He had learned better. He wouldn¡¯t underestimate the stone rats again, so instead of descending below, he called them up, banging his hammer on the ground with a loud clang to get their attention.


    It was mesmerizing to watch the rats ascend the plateaus, their writhing bodies clumping together to form a second coating on the cliff, a moving wave of stone as they almost knocked each other off in their mad scramble to reach the top, their enraged squeaks preceding their frenzied climb. Tormacc was ready for them, and as they neared the top he laid about with his hammer, knocking them flying and signifying the start of the battle.


    His normal routine had been to retreat once enough of them reached the top of the plateau, fleeing to another one before re-engaging, then rinse and repeat until he ran out of stamina and had to fully disengage to rest and recuperate. This time he let himself be surrounded, moving to the center of the plateau by his own will as rats flowed over the edge, eager to throw their tiny bodies at him in an attempt to spill the blood of their mortal foe.


    Giant¡¯s Strength lived up to its worth as a tier nine skill, and as more rats swarmed up the plateau his strength held, his blows still knocking back the tide of rats threatening to inundate and wash him away. Eventually the rats reached an invisible tipping point and his blows were no longer lethal, the damage spread out over too many rats. It didn¡¯t matter, his attacks still possessing the power to knock the rats back, and if he couldn¡¯t kill them in one hit, he would just use two. They never retreated, constantly throwing their bodies at him, which made it easy to land the second or third hit needed to finish them off.


    If it had been before, he would have easily tired, the monotonous swings of his hammer quickly sapping his strength, his stamina not nearly enough to compete with the endless horde. With his new skills, everything changed; he could feel his stamina and vitality returning to him with each kill, the amount small, but even that small amount added up, revitalizing him as the kill count increased, crossing into the three-digit mark.


    He could feel the wind around him, the gusts from his hammer blows caressing his skin and ruffling his hair. His blood was pumping, adrenaline surging through him as he stood, one lone man in the middle of a swarming tide of claws and teeth. The ground started to become slick beneath him, the blood of the rat corpses seeping out as they built a wall around him. He felt like a god, his skills giving him the support his mortal body lacked, allowing him to unleash his pent-up aggression on the clump of vermin.


    The rats threw themselves at him, their baritone squeaks washing over him, drowning out the sound of his hammer impacting their rocky flesh. He repelled their attacks, alternating his normal swings with skills like Sweep and Whirlwind, his hammer a blur as it crashed around him, the craggy bits of their rock-like skin spraying into the air as he utilized every bit of strength to continue his slaughter, the vitality coming to him from Greater Lifesteal practically endless.


    There was nothing like battle to focus his mind, each advance of the horde meeting his hammer blows like some choreographed dance, a give and take of alternating force that left only destruction in its wake as raw primal violence echoed about the air, suffusing it with a thrumming tension. He breathed in, his lungs inflating, filled to the brim with that bloody thrum of battle. Then he exhaled, blowing out that same energy, his very being breathing life and reaping death.


    Time lost all meaning, the vibrations of his hammer blows melding with the screams of dying rats, the grisly serenade echoing around the plateau. But during the bloody mayhem something changed, the flow of battle interrupted, the song of death just slightly off key. He couldn¡¯t be sure what alerted him, whether it was his Tattoo of Perception or his skill Firm Footing, but as he was fighting back against the rat swarm, he noticed something at his feet. It was a subtle shift, a small thing, but some primal instinct warned him it was important.This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.


    He used Whirlwind, buying him a small amount of space to allow him to glance down. He could feel something off, the ground almost seeming to ripple under him. Then, as he watched in horror, the stone swelled, flowing like liquid as it grabbed at his booted feet, seeking to encase them in stone. He was able to lift his right foot up, but his left foot was sinking, the stone-like muddy hands oozing around his foot to suck him in and keep him in place until he was overwhelmed by rats.


    With quick thinking he activated Air Step, pushing off the air with his right foot, his left slipping out of his boot, leaving it behind to be subsumed in liquid stone. He flew up into the air, the ground where he previously stood transforming into a roiling, bubbling muck as tendrils of stone reached up towards him like grotesque tentacles. Watching the rocky tentacles reach higher and higher into the air, he knew he needed to escape.


    Activating Reset, he used Air Step once more, pushing off an invisible platform as he rocketed towards the next plateau. By utilizing his full strength paired with Dash he made it, his height from the initial jump giving him that little bit extra to allow him to just barely grab the edge of the next plateau, the breath forced out of him as he slammed his chest into the cliff edge, hands and feet scrabbling for purchase.


    He risked one quick look behind him before he was off running, fear hastening his steps as he fled across the plateaus, every fiber of his being hellbent on escaping the terror behind him. Those damned rats did it again. Every time he thought he had them, they pulled out something new; but this was the final straw. He was done. His glance backwards showed what attacked him through the ground: a giant rat, at least three times the size of the others, possibly four, its hulking form towering over its brethren.


    He had hints; he had seen how the rats were able to pop out of the ground within the crevices, but it had never happened on the plateaus, the rats forced to climb up the sides instead of tunneling though the plateau itself. This rat was different from the rest, clearly a boss of some kind and the brains of the whole horde, the likely architect behind his original trap. That small glimpse showed the raw hatred in its eyes, intelligence shining through as it watched him retreat.


    It had been a close thing. Just a bit more overconfidence and he would have been trapped, ensnared by the rocky tentacles before being submerged in stone and killed. No matter how much strength he had it was useless if he was trapped, no skill he had even close to breaking him free from stone restraints. He had gotten cocky with his new tier nine skill. Yes, he was able to kill the rats, slaughter them even, but he was still vulnerable, especially when even the ground beneath his feet rose to attack him, leaving nowhere to stand, no place of retreat amidst the horde of snarling rats.


    Once he finally felt he was far enough away Tormacc slowed down his reckless flight, stabilizing his breathing to try and calm himself down. It didn¡¯t work, his roiling emotions were still boiling under the surface, threatening to break free and explode. He was better than this, he knew he was. He had prepared; he had both information from Curtain as well as multiple advantages like the rituals he had undergone. But even with all that he was still powerless, unable to exert his dominance over the rats. He had played it safe in the starting zone, followed the plan, fighting tooth and nail to save his Essence, only to find out he had messed up even there, failing to stay long enough in the starting zone to harvest the bountiful riches it contained.


    It felt like nothing he did was working out. Sure, he still survived, lived to fight another day, but for how long? How long would he have to bow his head, run away with his tail between his legs to preserve his life. The survivors were the winners. He knew that, knew it deep within his bones, but it was a cold comfort after all his setbacks. He was supposed to come back stronger after retreating, not be forced to retreat once more.


    He felt tears leaking down his cheeks, the moisture quickly evaporating in the dry climate, only leaving salt stains behind. He couldn¡¯t handle it anymore, breaking down into full-on wracking sobs. He was supposed to have a mission, was supposed to obtain glory: his a tale of struggle to fight for his people, eventually conquering all in his quest to climb The Tower. Instead, he was fighting rats; how was that glorious? Tormacc the conqueror, slayer of rats. What a grand title.


    Loneliness. It was something he shouldn¡¯t feel; he had his whole race behind him after all, his people cheering him on and supporting him as he climbed The Tower. But they were a people invisible, their silence deafening as he fought for them, bled for them, their cheers only the echoes of the wind as it whispered its way through the desolate Shard.


    He thought back to how Stella had described the Shard and what words she used. It all came down to survival. He wasn¡¯t some conqueror of old, driving his enemies before him with his powerful elementals. He was no emperor, wreathed in purple. There were no legends about his name, and he didn¡¯t fight for the life of his planet in a new world. He was a survivor, forced to scavenge for Essence, debasing himself each day to just to see the next. He had let hubris guide the way, for surely he didn¡¯t need to scrape by, farming the bare minimum Essence. Surely he wasn¡¯t one of those people. He was above that, someone who could freely farm Essence to his heart¡¯s content, building up his Fate Wheel for his eventual rise to fame and fortune.


    Those dreams were crushed now, the hard boot of reality grinding his grand delusions to dust before they scattered to the wind. He remembered the faces of the people who had walked into the portal with him, how there were no smiles, pained grimaces the most common expression as they all walked into an inhospitable Shard. They knew what to expect. He was the strange one, his head still up in the clouds, dreaming of the honor he would gain in battle. It was time to come back down to earth. He had a long road ahead of him, a road not of honor and glory, but one of survival. He could conquer nothing if he was dead.

 Chapter 24

    The next three days were rest days as Tormacc took the time to center his mind, his thoughts and emotions not in equilibrium, his whole body out of balance. He did some soul searching, trying to find his place in The Tower. Not much came of it, but he tried to be okay with his lot, tried to come to terms with his current circumstances. He wasn¡¯t a hero; not in the traditional sense. While it was true he was representing his race as their chosen champion, in The Tower, he was normal, just another Humen out of billions of other champions. He had some advantages, his starting ritual and the loot obtained in the starting zone being some of them, but an offhanded question to Kaz Ehen revealed the bear-man estimated that if he had used his own strength measurement device when he first entered The Tower he would have started with around twenty strength. That was his baseline, not improved by anything like the ritual Tormacc used.


    That was normal for some races, as Kaz told him about godlings who started off with physical abilities so far above the norm they couldn¡¯t die in the starting zone if they tried. While most races were Humen, or close to it, there were outliers, some races starting with huge innate advantages compared to the rest of the field, their natural abilities guaranteeing them a smooth start in The Tower. They were who Tormacc had to face, and who was he to compete with them? He had been in The Tower for less than a year, and even if he had ten years on them he might never catch up to their power, the starting point in a different dimension, literally.


    Those who won were those who survived. He kept telling himself that, a mantra he ingrained in his psyche as he tried his best to recover his mental state. It left a bitter taste in his mouth, as with each repetition of the mantra the more familiar it sounded, the name Tormacc feeling like someone else¡¯s skin he had just slipped into, the soul of a survivor stuck in the body of a supposed conqueror.


    But on some level, none of it mattered. No one cared about his name; he was alone in knowing its importance and what it signified. Until he could reveal it, he would keep it under wraps and hidden away, and maybe someday he would be worthy of using the name with pride.


    In the meantime, he had a tower to climb and Essence to earn. At the end of the day, he had a mission: one he couldn¡¯t walk away from lest his lack of Essence spell his demise. To that end, he decided it was time to go somewhere new. He was done with the rats; they could rot in hell for all he cared. They had almost killed him one too many times for him to even consider going back there. The Essence was sweet, but his life was sweeter. They did leave him a parting gift thought to send him on his way, and before leaving he took a look at how much Essence he earned from the last fight.


    Closing his eyes and diving into his mind, the middle of his Fate Wheel showed 1,136, meaning he had earned almost a thousand Essence from his final battle with the rat horde. It was an amazing amount, but he tried not to think too much about it. The rats were dead to him: this Essence all that was left.


    Looking over his Fate Wheel, he tried to figure out his next path forward. There were manifold options, but he kept coming back to movement. So far, it was his movement skills that saved his life, and currently, because he had used Reset on it, Air Step was unusable, the ability on a forced cooldown for at least a few more days. But one of the tier seven abilities after Air Step was comparable, and because Air Step was still on cooldown, he decided to unlock the ability.


    He felt one thousand Essence drain away as Double Jump lit up on his Fate Wheel. It was similar to Air Step, with the main difference the significantly shorter cooldown time. It allowed him to jump twice, the second jump as if he was pushing off the same surface as the first. Perhaps he should invest in something else, but, if he went off his past experiences, he would be doing a lot of running away in the future, and for that he needed all the mobility he could get.


    He felt his confidence increase by a miniscule amount, the added safety of his new ability lifting his spirits slightly. Some things never changed, and he would always feel happiness when unlocking new abilities on his Fate Wheel. It was a concrete increase to his power, a sure sign he was doing something right. Buoyed by that confidence, he set his direction, heading away from the mountains and towards the craggy, blasted landscape in the distance. He had seen moving shapes over there before, and since he still needed to kill to farm Essence, that was where he went, moving towards the location of his next hunt.


    Perhaps he was fleeing from a challenge, running away, battered and beaten, but it felt good to move towards something new. He could set the rats aside, learning from the experience and moving on. He didn¡¯t want to remember the experience and the shame it brought, but he wouldn¡¯t forget it either, the lessons on the danger present in the Shard a clear reminder of how mortal he was despite the supernatural powers bestowed by his Fate Wheel.


    He moved across the plateaus slowly, careful of any ambushes. His paranoia said he couldn¡¯t even trust the ground beneath his feet, and while he was unlikely to run into another rat king, his worries were based on actual evidence, so he took it slow, making sure he didn¡¯t make any foolish mistakes during his trip. He made a wide loop around the stone rat¡¯s territory, and perhaps thanks to that, his trip was uneventful, no sign of monsters in sight. Looking out over the wide expanse of plateaus, he theorized that there were likely multiple rat swarms, each with their own territory, and his path had skirted those, moving in the no-man¡¯s land between the hordes of vermin.Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    The plateaus gradually sloped down, the incline eventually meeting the blasted plains below. He had spawned in the Shard closer to the plains than the mountains, and by the next morning he had made it out of the sea of plateaus. That was where his troubles began. Perhaps it was obvious in hindsight, but anything he could see from where he was before had to be large enough for his eyes to make it out despite the distance. He had improved eyesight thanks to his Tattoo of Perception, but his eyes weren¡¯t spyglasses, and once he made his way down to the craggy plains below he realized his error.


    Stone Giants; it was the name of the most ubiquitous monster in the Shard, and he should have taken the name more seriously. When they said giant, it was more a descriptor than a name, as in this case there was no other word to describe them, except perhaps colossus, as giant didn¡¯t even do them justice. He felt his teeth rattle in his skull as the giant took another step, its long strides covering huge distances before its foot fell back to earth, the vibrations travelling through his bones and rattling his skull.


    One of the first things he did was retrieve ear plugs from his Storage Bracelet, now aware of why Stella included them, but they didn¡¯t work, at least not fully, and he could still hear the thunderous booms as the Stone Giant plodded along, craters left in its wake. Gazing up at it, he had to tilt his head back, craning his neck to fully take in its huge stature. It had to be at least fifty meters tall, a huge humanoid made of craggy stone, its body in the shape of a featureless doll. Its limbs were larger than tree trunks, and gazing up at it, he wondered how he would attack it, the size difference daunting to consider.


    He had no choice though; it was either find a way to kill the Stone Giant or go back to fight the rats. He needed Essence, and the easiest way to get it was to kill monsters. But that was easier said than done, as he was having trouble even following the Stone Giant, the craters left in the wake of its steps making him climb through ridges and valleys as he chased after it. He originally thought the landscape was endemic to the Shard, but perhaps it was a result of the inhabitants, the giants molding the terrain around them by their very existence.


    If Stella was to be believed, the Stone Giants were slow, their huge bodies impeding them from moving at faster speeds. Of course, because of their size, speed was all relative, and watching the giant stride effortlessly through the landscape he knew he would have to be careful should he engage it combat. But it was doable, and the longer he watched the surer he became that he could escape should the need arise. Even if the giant were to surprise him with a sudden burst of speed its attacks were too telegraphed to actually catch him as long as he kept his guard up.


    But to win, he needed to kill it; dodging was just a necessary first step along the way. Recalling the information in the packet that Stella had given him, he tried to formulate a plan. Their head was their only real weak point, so he focused there. He could easily split rocks with his strength, but if he needed to hack the Stone Giant apart he would be here for days. The head was a clear target, the question was, how did he get up there to attack it?


    He jogged along behind the Stone Giant, analyzing its large frame. Judging by its craggy exterior, scaling it would be easy, its rough skin full of folds and edges perfect for climbing. The next step was what worried him. If he wanted to get full value out of his hammer blows, he needed two hands, but if he was using his hands to wield his weapon he couldn¡¯t use them for other things, namely, holding on for dear life when the Stone Giant inevitable decided to try to shake off the pest attacking it.


    It was a conundrum, one only made more frustrating by the fact he had an easy answer to his problems: his Fate Wheel. There were plenty of abilities he could make use of in his Fate Wheel, such as the tier six ability Slow Fall, which allowed to safely fall from any distance, a good safety net in case he was ever dislodged from the giant¡¯s head. But to unlock those abilities, he needed Essence, and to get Essence, he had to figure out how to kill the Stone Giants, bringing him around full circle back to his original problem.


    What caused him additional worry was the fact that Air Step was still on cooldown. He could likely wait the week or so until it refreshed, but until then he would be doing nothing, which didn¡¯t sit right with him. He continued to plan though, his circular thinking continuing throughout the day, the imaginary battles he was fighting in his head always leading to defeat, until finally, he found a possible solution.


    The first step was to climb the Stone Giant. He had to aim for the head, and the only way to do that was if he was standing on its shoulders. Falling in time with the giant¡¯s steps, he jumped onto its leg, holding on for dear life as he began his climb. The first time it raised its leg he almost fell off, unprepared for the acceleration, wind whipping around him as he struggled to hold on. Had he been a normal Humen he would have been thrown from his perch, the momentum too jarring, his hands unable to keep their grip. But his strength was enough, the rituals and abilities from his Fate Wheel giving him the grip strength needed to hold on.


    Then began the climb. It was stressful, as sometimes he was practically upside-down, his feet swinging freely in the air as he struggled to reach his next handhold. Were he climbing normal rock he would have fallen long ago, the rocky protrusions crumbling under the grip needed to keep him on the moving rockface. But he was holding onto a monster, and as such, his measly finger strength was nowhere near enough to break its skin, which meant any handhold he saw was firm and able to hold his weight.


    Finally, after a few close calls, he reached its shoulders, his harrowing journey completed. Standing up, he tested his balance. Because of skills like Firm Footing it was surprisingly stable, allowing him to move around normally provided the Stone Giant didn¡¯t make any unexpected movements. It also seemed unaware of his presence, which made sense. If he had rocky skin he wouldn¡¯t pay attention to a bug crawling on him either, which was what he was in relation to the giant.


    Looking around, the view was truly majestic, the land spreading out around him as he moved along, the wind snapping past him at each step from the giant. It almost made the blasted hellscape worthy of appreciation, the height and circumstances turning an inhospitable land into a place of allure and mystique. But that wasn¡¯t why he was here and, turning to regard the giant¡¯s head, he set to work enacting his plan.

 Chapter 25

    There were many odds and ends Stella had stuffed in his Spatial Bracelet, and among them, the most numerous was rope. He had over ten different types, each one built for a specific purpose. For instance, there was rope that was resistant to the elements, as apparently he needed a rope he could use if he were ever in an active volcano. The one he took out this time was strong and thin, its specialty abrasion resistance.


    Carefully making his way around the Stone Giant¡¯s head, he secured the rope around its neck, fastening the other end around his waist to a climbing harness Stella was also thoughtful enough to buy for him. There was a fair amount of slack, and after testing the rope to ensure it would hold, Tormacc prepared himself for battle.


    His plan was simple. Since he couldn¡¯t simultaneously hold on to the giant and attack it with his two-handed hammer he had to find some other way to secure himself, which was where the rope and climbing harness came in. When he was shaken off of the giant¡¯s shoulders or when he needed to dodge its attack he would leap away, the rope catching him and swinging him down to its back, from which he could either climb back up or push off, using the rope as a pendulum to swing back up to its head.


    Readying his hammer, he started his attack, leading off with Double Strike and sending two blows crashing into the giant¡¯s head, the rebounding vibrations reverberating up his arms. The reaction was immediate, and he was thrown from his perch as the giant spun, turning around to try and find the pest that just stung it.


    The rope connected him to the back of the giant¡¯s head, which was the place he thought would be the safest. The giant didn¡¯t have eyes, but it was humanoid, so it was possible it relied on some sense similar to sight, in which case there was a good chance it was located in the front of its body. If that wasn¡¯t the case, then it didn¡¯t matter where he connected the rope. He did make sure the rope was secured to one location though, which seemed like a good idea at the time to make sure he would always fall down the giant¡¯s back, but because of that, he now found himself quickly accelerating around the giant¡¯s neck, all sense of balance lost.


    His feet lost their purchase as the Stone Giant turned, a rumbling roar spreading out from its chest, the sound akin to the thunder of boulders as they bounced down a mountain cliff. The rope connecting him to its head soon snapped taut, and he abruptly accelerated, swinging out in a wide arc before closing back in on the giant¡¯s head.


    It was similar to wrapping a yo-yo around your finger. If you swung an object on a string around in circle before letting it wrap around your finger, once the string got smaller, the object would accelerate, the momentum building up and causing the object to hit your finger with more force than intended. That was the situation Tormacc found himself in as the rope started to wrap around the side of the giant¡¯s neck, the momentum building at an insane pace, his stomach dropping out from under him as the air whistled past him, his clothes snapping in the wind.


    The giant¡¯s face was soon before him, appearing to approach him much too quickly, giving him little time to react. Thinking quickly, he activated Sudden Strike, letting the skill control his body and channeling the force from his acceleration into his blow.


    He hit with a veritable explosion, stone chips flying from the giant¡¯s skin and scraping against his face, leaving long red gashes in their wake. His arms were on fire, muscles burning from holding onto his hammer. But before he could even think about recovering the giant turned once more, spinning back around to swat at the new fly that attacked its face.


    He cartwheeled through the air, his breakfast leaving him as the world around him spun, the rocky greys of the blasted plains blurring together in a kaleidoscope of muted color reminiscent of a futuristic art installation. Once more the rope snapped taut and he slammed into the giant¡¯s head like a slab of meat on a chopping block, his whole body absorbing the blow. His head spun, hands clenching tightly onto his hammer as the only thing he could hold on to in his blurred world.


    Eventually the Stone Giant slowed down enough for him to recover, which allowed the process to start up once more as he weaved in skills like Crush and Stunning Strike in a vain effort to end the giant¡¯s life. Each time he would be swung around like a dog¡¯s chew toy, his body a ragdoll only held together by his more-than-Humen constitution. But he persevered, holding strong and continuing to lay about with his hammer as he flew about like a broken kite.


    Each minute was agony, and after a while he felt himself zone out, his body reacting on autopilot as he relentlessly swung his hammer in a race to take down the Stone Giant before his body gave way. Hours passed this way, his bones fracturing and muscles ripping as he strained his body to the limit. There were times he felt himself slip into unconsciousness, but always his skills would bring him back, abilities like Regeneration working overtime to keep him alive.


    It was in that bloody haze when something changed, the world swaying around him as he was pulled downwards, some primal instinct screaming at him, yelling that he had to wake up and move. One last shot of adrenaline coursed through him and he realized what was going on: he won. Along with that realization came an understanding of his current situation. He was falling, and if he didn¡¯t do something quickly, he would die.


    He struggled to force his tired brain to action, trying to bring his vision back into focus and figure out how to avoid ending up like a dropped egg, brain splattered on the ground. Checking his Fate Wheel, he confirmed he was up eighteen Essence, meaning the Stone Giant was indeed dead, its body falling back to earth and bringing him along, its final revenge.


    He pulled on the rope connecting him to the giant¡¯s head, the crisis speeding up his actions. Once he was standing on its head he rushed to undo the double lock securing the rope to his harness, cursing his fastidiousness for not making an easy release that could quickly come undone. He then activated Double Jump, pushing of the corpse and up towards the sky.The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.


    The air blew by him as the Stone Giant hit the ground, a dust wave spreading over the craggy plain like ripples on a pond. Thankfully he had been on top of the giant as it was falling, as otherwise he might not have been able to get out from under it in time.


    He wasn¡¯t out of the woods yet though, and as he fell, he struggled to hold on to the second use of Double Jump, straining the skill to its limits. The second jump was meant to be used almost immediately, but he was able to save it, waiting until he was nearing the group before jumping again, the skill allowing his weight to push off the mass of the Stone Giant¡¯s corpse just as his first jump did, the second jump slowing his fall just enough to allow him to land safely.


    He barely caught himself once he reached the ground, legs buckling as he landed on top of the monster he had just slain. He stumbled once, twice, before falling, his body trashed from the recent battle. Taking stock of his condition, he was met with pain; no place on his body was free from injury: muscles torn and bones fractured or outright broken from the prolonged battle.


    His body was in bad shape, nothing working how it should. Stella had made sure he had at least a few healing potions in his Spatial Bracelet for emergencies, and this qualified, so he took one out, his shaking arm barely having the strength to raise it to his lips.


    After draining the bottle he felt the healing energy permeating his body, individual strands reaching out towards his most egregious wounds. He tried to stay awake, tried to direct the energy to get him back in fighting shape, but while the energy was healing him, it was also lulling him to sleep, the tiredness from the hours-long battle too much to fight off. As his eyelids finally closed shut he thought he saw the outline of a miniature Stone Giant standing over him, the delusions of his tired mind accompanying him into a dreamless oblivion.


    Waking up, Tormacc was surprised to find himself covered by a blanket, the smell of cooked food wafting around, his stomach growling from the tantalizing aroma. Lifting his head up, he examined his surroundings. He appeared to be in the same spot as before, the view of the blasted plains slightly elevated from the Stone Giant¡¯s back. But he was no longer alone.


    Sitting around a magical campfire was a woman, and looking at her, he knew his previous vision of a miniature Stone Giant wasn¡¯t a dream. Were it not for her actions of peacefully mixing a pot of stew he might have thought her a monster, as both here arms and legs were made of rock, the limbs bulking out toward the extremities, her hands and feet much too large for her frame. The rest of her skin was a dusty brown with cracks running through it. Her head was hairless and mostly blank, but despite that, she was rather beautiful, her rocky head streamlined with features reminiscent of a minimalist marble statue.


    ¡°Good, you¡¯re awake,¡± the mystery woman said. ¡°I hope you like stew. I can never tell with you Humen.¡±


    ¡°Stew is fine,¡± Tormacc said as he got up and made his way over to the campfire. His rumbling stomach would have invalidated any other answer.


    The woman filled a bowl with stew before handing it to him, able to read the mood and hold her silence while he ate. He polished off three full bowls before he was finally full, setting the now empty bowl down with a contented sigh.


    ¡°Thank you for the food,¡± Tormacc said. ¡°It is much appreciated.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ve been told food makes good peace offering for those who regularly eat,¡± the woman said. ¡°I¡¯m glad I made good first impression.¡±


    ¡°You definitely have. I would like to not only thank you for the food, but also for not robbing me blind while I was unconscious.¡±


    ¡°May your stone hold firm under outside pressure.¡±


    That wasn¡¯t quite the response Tormacc was expecting, but it didn¡¯t take a huge leap in logic to figure out it was likely a saying among her people. The Tower had a wonderful translation system for those inside it, but not all the cultural subtleties always came through.


    ¡°My name is Tormacc by the way. May I have the pleasure of your name?¡±


    ¡°Athra.¡± The way she said the middle vowels sounded like two rocks grinding together. ¡°You must wonder why I made you stew.¡±


    She didn¡¯t say it as a question, but she was right, he was curious, so Tormacc only nodded, urging her to continue.


    ¡°I saw your battle. It was glorious fight. I am looking for someone to partner with to fight Stone Giants. I would like to partner with you.¡±


    Tormacc was a little taken aback by her request. It was impossible to judge someone¡¯s combat experience just with their looks, but the feeling Athra gave him wasn¡¯t of some fresh recruit. He would bet his best hat she was more powerful than him, so her request was a little puzzling.


    ¡°Why me?¡± he said bluntly. ¡°If you saw my fight, you must have seen me struggle to deal with the Stone Giant. What could I offer that you can¡¯t do yourself? And if you¡¯re so weak that you can¡¯t defeat a Stone Giant, why would I want help you in the first place? Not to be unappreciative of the food and assistance, but your actions don¡¯t make sense.¡±


    ¡°Yes, I see. I will explain. It is not you, but me. I need someone to help me with the Stone Giants, but that person is replaceable. I only want someone with honor. You may not have honor, but you have tenacity. It is good start.¡±


    There she paused, a deep rumble coming from within her chest as she took a moment to gather her thoughts.


    ¡°My people, we have elemental power. The power of rocks and stone. You can see by our arms and legs. We are in touch with Great Rock. Stone Giants, they too know of Great Rock. They can sense my presence, go berserk. It makes for difficult fight. I cannot do what you did. Stone Giants sense me.¡±


    Athra¡¯s speech was a bit broken, the sentences short and fragmented, but the message seemed to be fairly clear.


    ¡°Let me see if I understand,¡± Tormacc said. ¡°Because you have earth elemental powers the Stone Giants can sense you, meaning it¡¯s hard to fight them alone. You want someone to team up with who can either distract them or attack them while you distract them, and it¡¯s not me specifically you want, but just someone who will be an honorable companion, and from my fight, you think I might be that type of person. Is that correct?¡±


    Athra nodded, a sharp bob of her head that looked a bit jerky and unnatural. ¡°Yes, you understand. I need partner. You can be partner.¡±


    It was a sudden development, but Athra wasn¡¯t alone in looking for a partner. Tormacc had ostensibly won his fight, but calling it a win was a bit generous. He could only do so many of those fights before he ended up dead, his stamina running out and the Stone Giant pounding him into paste. And seeing as Athra hadn¡¯t murdered or robbed him when he was vulnerable, she was about as trustworthy as anyone could be considering the circumstances.


    ¡°I¡¯m in,¡± he said. Maybe he would regret it in the future, but at the moment it was too sweet a deal to pass up.

 Chapter 26

    ¡°You made good choice,¡± Athra said. ¡°Alone, you are weakling. Tiny rock barely out of shell. Together, we can kill many Stone Giants. They are big, true, but they are dumb. We will outsmart them.¡±


    ¡°Do you have a plan?¡± Tormacc asked. ¡°You¡¯ve obviously seen what I¡¯m capable of, but I don¡¯t know what you can do.¡±


    ¡°You will see,¡± Athra said. ¡°My people, we are mighty warriors. Just, Stone Giants are annoying. I can¡¯t hide from their senses. It makes for tough battle, much like yours. But together, we don¡¯t need plan. I said before, they are dumb. One person attacks, takes their attention. The other one attacks, takes attention back. No need for complicated plan. When boulders crash, smaller rock is crushed. Together, we are bigger rock. We will crush Stone Giants.¡±


    ¡°You mean one of us draws its aggro initially and then we switch off between drawing its attention while the other one tries to kill it by making use of the period it¡¯s distracted?¡± Tormacc asked for clarification.


    ¡°Yes, is what I said. We will crush Stone Giants to dust.¡±


    The plan seemed a little straightforward to Tormacc, but he would trust his new partner, at least for the moment. And really, how many plans could you come up with to deal with a monster that huge? It wasn¡¯t like you could make a pitfall trap and lure it in. The only way to kill the Stone Giants was with pure destructive force, and hopefully with two people attacking that would be much easier than his previous attempt.


    Athra cleaned up the campsite while Tormacc fetched the rope that was still tied to the giant¡¯s corpse. It was showing some small abrasions, but overall seemed safe to reuse, although hopefully he didn¡¯t have to reuse it for the same purpose. But before they set off to fight a Stone Giant Athra had one final step left.


    ¡°We are now partners, so we make Party. Partners are not true partners unless we are in Party.¡±


    Tormacc sent her a confused look before he heard a notification.


    ¡°Athra has sent you a Party request. Would you like to join her Party?¡±


    ¡°You accept Party invitation,¡± Athra said, urging him to stop standing there wide eyed. ¡°Just say you want to join.¡±


    ¡°I would like to join Athra¡¯s Party,¡± Tormacc said hesitantly, and as soon as the words left his mouth he felt a strange energy sweep over him, and then he was in the Party.


    ¡°Basic Party functions unlocked. Default loot setting in use.¡±


    Focusing on the strange feeling, Tormacc could sense his new party member. It was similar to how you knew there was a fire behind you, or you could feel which direction the wind was blowing. It was a vague sense, but he knew he would be able to unerringly point Athra out in a pitch-black cave.


    ¡°What exactly does this Party do?¡± Tormacc asked. If it was some amazing thing surely Stella should have mentioned it, right? Maybe it was unique to Athra.


    ¡°Party is Party. Is like two rocks that join together to make bigger rock. Without Party, only killer gets Essence. With Party, Essence is split. Now we both get Essence. Loot is default. We alternate getting Loot. If you have spatial storage skill or device set it as loot default.¡±


    The way Athra spoke was a bit hard to understand normally, but this time it sounded like she was speaking an entirely different language. Individually the words made sense, but combining them together the meaning became obscured. Sensing his confusion, she tried to explain further.


    ¡°You must be smaller rock than I thought. Still newbie as Humen say. You know Essence, right?¡±


    Tormacc nodded.


    ¡°When you kill monsters, you get Essence. But only killer gets Essence. In Party, we split Essence. The same for loot. You know crystals and spheres? We split those with Party. It makes it easy. No arguments.¡±


    The concept was so foreign to him it took him a while to process it. But thinking about it more, he realized it was a necessary arrangement for them to have true cooperation. If they weren¡¯t in a party, they would have to try and split the killing blows when fighting monsters, but against something as dangerous as a Stone Giant that wasn¡¯t always possible. Accurately splitting the crystals and spheres was an even bigger issue, and not only did the Party solve that, it seemed to solve it in the best way possible.


    While it was theoretically possible to split the loot by a verbal agreement, it would be easy for arguments to ensue. Say they split the loot 50:50, alternating drops. If a Blue Crystal dropped, then a White Crystal dropped, then a Blue Crystal dropped, then a White Crystal, one person would get both Blue Crystals, their share of the loot substantially more than the person who only received White Crystals. This issue could still pop up with the Party, but if the crystals were automatically moved to a dimensional storage, only the receiver knew what they got, so even if it wasn¡¯t fair there wasn¡¯t a direct comparison and the illusion of fairness was maintained. Even if they tried to accurately divide the loot into two even sections, what was an even split? Unless the two piles had the exact same composition of crystals and spheres there was potential for conflict.If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.


    Concentrating on his Spatial Bracelet, Tormacc imagined selecting it as the default location for his share of the loot. It took him a moment to organize his thoughts into the correct order, but finally he managed to figure it out, his thoughts connecting with the Party interface.


    ¡°Spatial Bracelet selected as default loot storage option.¡±


    ¡°Good,¡± Athra said, able to sense the change in his settings. ¡°Now we go kill Stone Giants. Come.¡±


    Because of the massive height of the Stone Giants it was impossible to miss them, their hulking frames sticking out like a lone tree in an open prairie, their large forms easy to spot on the otherwise empty skyline. Also because of that size it took a while to reach them, the Party of two taking almost an hour to arrive near their chosen prey. This particular Stone Giant was walking towards them, and they paused a few hundred meters away, Athra signaling a stop to prepare for the upcoming fight.


    ¡°You know plan right? First, I attack. Then, you attack. Then, I attack. We repeat until it dies.¡±


    ¡°Shouldn¡¯t I ambush it first? I don¡¯t have a way of reaching its head from the ground.¡±


    ¡°Why attack there? Feet good enough.¡± As Athra asked the question her head tilted to the side, the angle reminding him of certain birds that he saw in the rainforest in the starting zone, the angle of her neck reminding him she wasn¡¯t Humen.


    ¡°Because it¡¯s their weak point?¡± He didn¡¯t mean for it to come out like a question, but in front of Athra¡¯s no-nonsense brusque attitude it made him feel like his meager pool of knowledge was smaller than it actually was.


    ¡°You are like tiny rock looking up from hole not knowing of mountain,¡± Athra said, making a tsk tsk noise that sounded like gravel crunching underfoot. ¡°You not understand Great Rock. Stone Giants, they are of rock. That means they are one big rock. Only way to fight big rock is slowly chip away at it. You can only smash until you make it smaller rock. Attacking Stone Giant¡¯s head only makes it mad.¡±


    Tormacc wanted to argue with her, to tell her that he had information saying otherwise, but something told him Athra knew what she was talking about, and he could feel his stomach drop when he thought about how even the limited information he had might not be correct. It made sense, as if what Athra said was right, then the Stone Giants would get angry when their head was attacked, which normally was the sign of a weak spot. And since there was only limited information of this Shard, perhaps the person Curtain got the info from just didn¡¯t know any better.


    ¡°Don¡¯t feel bad,¡± Athra said. ¡°You are still small rock, not know better. You will learn from bigger rock. Knowledge takes time, like how even water can wear away at stone. But now not the time for knowledge. Now is the time for fighting.¡±


    And with that, Athra charged, bounding across the ground at a speed belied by her stone limbs. As she moved, the ground rose up to meet her, smoothing her path forward. Tormacc watched in fascination as she seemed to skim across the numerous craters dotting the way forward, the terrain not slowing her down in the slightest.


    Unlike when he attacked it, the Stone Giant didn¡¯t ignore Athra, and as she got closer, the giant froze for half a second before letting out a deep rumble of anger, homing in on the ant that dared challenge its mastery of earth and stone. Tormacc watched in fascination as Athra met the giant¡¯s charge, huge spikes of rock rising up from the ground to impale the giant¡¯s legs. Each spike was smashed to bits by the Stone Giant¡¯s raging charge, sounds of distant thunder echoing out as the rock spikes shattered in deadly storms of shrapnel.


    Athra was unconcerned, skating about on the ground, the very rock beneath her aiding her cause and increasing her mobility, pillars of rock shooting out from under her feet and rocketing her away from the punches the Stone Giant was sending her way. Snapping shut his hanging jaw, Tormacc quickly joined in the battle, moving closer to aid his party member. It was a little hard to keep up with the giant, but as long as he kept on his toes he could launch a few good swings each time he caught up with its feet. And it seemed to be working, as after a particularly effective series of attacks that caused whole sheets of stone to fracture off, it turned on him, his attacks sufficient to pull its aggression.


    During the previous battle his setup had made him a hard target for the Stone Giant to hit, as it had been unwilling to punch itself and was too dumb to think of any alternative plans to deal with the fly that kept stinging its head. This time though, it had a clear target, and Tormacc had to flee with all his might as earth-shattering punches impacted the ground behind him, the force from the giant¡¯s blows affecting the air pressure as even the wind sought to prevent him from escaping.


    The uneven ground actually proved to his advantage, as he was able to make use of skills like Power Jump to push off horizontally instead of vertically, his body flying across the ground as small shards of stone whirled around him. The Stone Giant was slow, that much about his information had been true, and avoiding its blows was rather easy, especially as he had a partner to attack while he held the aggro. The hard part was the flurry of rock shards that accompanied the giant¡¯s punches.


    Individually, each shard was weak, the pointed pieces of rock unable to break his skin. But under the constant stream of shards assaulting him even his enhanced defenses started to give out, scratches becoming gashes, and gashes opening holes for slivers of rock to lodge in his flesh.


    Were he alone he might have been in trouble, but after a minute or two of running for his life Athra took back the aggro, allowing him time to take a quick breather and remove the slivers of rock from his limbs. Most of the wounds were superficial, and by the time he had drawn the aggro again he was mostly healed back up, his regeneration able to counteract the damage from the shrapnel.


    The Stone Giant wasn¡¯t an easy opponent, with multiple points in the battle involving near misses that would have spelled an end for both Tormacc and Athra, but between the two of them they were able to maintain a safe margin of error, juggling the aggro of the giant between them for over an hour until it finally fell, the damage too much for it to endure. It was a far cry from his previous fight and, feeling as nine Essence flowed into his Fate Wheel, Tormacc knew joining the Party was the right decision.

 Chapter 27

    ¡°Well done, little Tormacc,¡± Athra said as she walked over after the battle was done. ¡°You may only be small rock now, but soon, you will be bigger rock.¡±


    ¡°Thank you?¡± That sounded like a compliment, right? At least he didn¡¯t think it was an insult.


    ¡°Now you see why Stone Giant is hard fight,¡± Athra said as she started to set up a campsite. ¡°Partner is best to make fight easy.¡±


    He hadn¡¯t known what she meant before when talking about fighting the Stone Giants, but after watching it chase after her, it was rather obvious. When the Stone Giant attacked him it would only swing its fist in his general direction, its blows rather straightforward to dodge as long as he was paying attention. But for Athra, the Stone Giant locked on to her with some sort of radar, its blows homing in on her position as she attempted to dodge away. He guessed that if she were to fight it alone it would be similar to his first battle: a long slugfest taking hours and leaving her exhausted and drained.


    Both of them were able to defeat a Stone Giant by themselves, but it would be a tough battle fraught with perils. But together they were able to triumph rather easily, the low intelligence of the Stone Giant enabling their aggro switching strategy to go off without a hitch.


    Looking over, Tormacc watched as Athra set up a campsite, spreading alarm spells over their immediate vicinity. It made him think: while he was in competition with everyone in The Tower, that wasn¡¯t necessarily direct competition. He had no clue if his people outside The Tower had any conflicts with any other races or dimensions, but even if they did, the odds of him running into the representative of that race in The Tower were miniscule. Most people he met he had no relation to outside, meaning their successes or failures didn¡¯t matter to him.


    So if he could combine his strength with theirs to increase both their gains it didn¡¯t matter to him that he was helping someone else, only that he himself was getting ahead. It made him wonder what his mindset had been before, as finding a partner didn¡¯t even cross his mind before Athra approached him of her own accord. But in hindsight, it only made sense to team up. Two people could cover more ground than one, each person supplementing the other¡¯s weaknesses. It had taken him the whole morning and into the afternoon to kill one Stone Giant, but with Athra supporting him, it had only taken them a little over an hour. If they could keep that pace he could earn more than twice what he could by himself, and looking at the numerous Stone Giants on the horizon, they certainly didn¡¯t have to worry about running out of prey.


    Athra finished setting up the campsite before sitting down on a chair she formed out of rock and looking at him expectantly. Unsure of what she wanted, Tormacc found himself part of an uncomfortable staring contest.


    ¡°Why you standing around?¡± Athra said. ¡°Don¡¯t you need to eat?¡±


    Tormacc gave her a strange look. ¡°Why would I need to eat?¡±


    ¡°You Humen need to eat, yes? I made you food. I watched you eat food.¡±


    ¡°We do need to eat, yes, but I just ate food before. Generally, we only eat three meals a day, maybe less than that if we have skills related to supplementing our food intake. So I don¡¯t need to eat anything for at least another few hours.¡±


    Athra looked at him askance, although because of her stone features it made reading her expression difficult.


    ¡°So no need to eat?¡± Athra said.


    He nodded patiently.


    ¡°What about rest? You call it sleep, yes?¡±


    ¡°We sleep at night,¡± he said. ¡°See the sun in the sky? While it¡¯s light, we¡¯re usually awake, and while it¡¯s dark, we sleep.¡±


    ¡°You slept after last battle,¡± Athra said, sure she had caught him with her logic. She had evidence this time!


    ¡°Um, that wasn¡¯t sleep,¡± Tormacc said uncomfortably. ¡°That was fainting. I took too much damage from the battle and before the potion kicked in my body shut down to recover.¡±


    They entered another stare-off, Athra freezing in an unnatural stillness he could never hope to match, her stone form imitating a masterwork statue.


    ¡°Then we don¡¯t need camp?¡±


    ¡°No, I thought we would go kill more Stone Giants. They¡¯re still plenty of daylight left after all.¡±


    In silence, Athra stood up as the chair she was sitting on melded back into the ground before she started cleaning up the campsite. The whole conversation has been a bit surreal, and Tormacc realized that his companion might not be as knowledgeable as he had previously thought if she didn¡¯t even know how eating and sleeping worked. It was a bit worrying, as he didn¡¯t want to be responsible for educating her about common sense, but he wasn¡¯t about to ditch her over that either. He needed her to farm Essence, and if this was the worst of her quirks he wouldn¡¯t complain. There were worse traits she could have.If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.


    ¡°You Humen are not simple,¡± Athra muttered as she picked up her alarm spells. ¡°Like craggy rock with many layers and edges. Hard to know what¡¯s inside without breaking open. Like geode. Dull on outside, but inside lie many mysteries.¡±


    Tormacc ignored his companion¡¯s complaints, and as soon as she had cleaned up the campsite, they were off to another battle.


    <hr>


    Ravvik cursed under his breath as he led his two companions through the dusty hellscape masquerading as a Shard. He didn¡¯t regret joining Zedna¡¯s gang - he would have died from starvation otherwise - but she was a mean bitch, and she seemed to have it out for him in particular. He had just gotten back from a successful raid and here he was again, wandering the blasted plains, looking for a new mark. It didn¡¯t help that he was assigned a new team. Shiq was okay, but of all people he had to get stuck with Derro as his number two.


    ¡°There¡¯s somethin¡¯ up ahead,¡± Shiq said, shading his eyes from the sun. He was the scout of the group, which was why Ravvik didn¡¯t mind having him along. The ratman smelled like week old feces, but a good scout was worth their weight in food.


    ¡°Well, what is it?¡± Derro asked, fingering his serrated blade.


    Ravvik had to hold himself back from cursing at the man. He was the party leader, not Derro, but that wasn¡¯t because of his strength. Ravvik could hold his own in a fight, but against Derro¡­ He didn¡¯t fancy his chances should they ever cross blades. There was something unhinged about the man, which was why he stayed silent when his leadership was challenged.


    ¡°Dunno,¡± Shiq said, wrinkling his nose. ¡°I told yous a Stone Giant was killed earlier. Looks like another one jus fell.¡±


    ¡°Can you make anything else out?¡± Ravvik asked. He had never been a patient man, but he had to learn quickly once he joined Zedna¡¯s gang. He wouldn¡¯t have lived long otherwise. Now that patience came in handy when questioning Shiq. He was a good scout to be sure, but Ravvik suspected everything wasn¡¯t all there in his head.


    Shiq wrinkled his nose, his long whispers twitching erratically. The ratman swore his nose was what allowed him to see such long distances, but Ravvik didn¡¯t buy it. Shiq also claimed if he ever bathed he would lose all his fur, but Ravvik knew that was false, as he had seen one of the mages in the group flip out over his stench and blast him with water and, low and behold, he still had his fur.


    ¡°It¡¯s still too far,¡± Shiq said. ¡°We¡¯s need to get closer.¡±


    It irked Ravvik that he had to rely on Shiq¡¯s senses, but while unreliable in most things, he had learned Shiq was rarely wrong with his reports, and since neither himself nor Derro could see such long distances, they had to take the ratman at his word.


    ¡°Yes, closer,¡± Derro said. ¡°There must be yummy food ahead! Ah, it¡¯s been too long since I¡¯ve had a good meal!¡±


    Ravvik tried his best to ignore the crazed mumblings as he trudged forward. This Shard did strange things to people, especially when food was concerned, but he suspected Derro¡¯s habits weren¡¯t caused by the Shard. He had the unfortunate pleasure of witnessing the man tear into a fresh corpse, and it wasn¡¯t something he could easily forget. Derro wasn¡¯t the only cannibal in the gang, but he was certainly the messiest.


    Walking along, he turned his mind to the situation back at camp. His brief stay in between forays had revealed the turbulence beneath the surface. Ravvik was someone that liked to keep his head down, as it was the best way to keep his head attached to his body, but even if he lived under a rock he still would have heard the murmuring about what happened. Apparently, Zedna¡¯s second in command took on more than he could handle and the whole team was almost wiped out, with only one person escaping.


    It was a bitter reminder of the line they tread: one wrong target and they were done. But they didn¡¯t have much choice; if they wanted to survive in a Shard without food they needed to steal from others, and if their marks were able to turn the tables, well, that was just a bad throw of the dice.


    ¡°Looksies, there they go again!¡± Shiq said, grinning and revealing his rotting teeth.


    ¡°Did they start fighting another Stone Giant?¡± Ravvik asked.


    ¡°Me¡¯s thinks so, thinks so,¡± Shiq said, his teeth snapping in anticipation. He was another one that liked Humen flesh, but so did most of the Beastmen in the gang, so he wasn¡¯t alone in his tastes.


    ¡°Delicious!¡± Derro said, an insane smile on his face. ¡°I can already smell them from here! Yes, come to me, my pretties.¡±


    ¡°Remember what Zedna said,¡± Ravvik barked. ¡°I do the talking.¡±


    Derro shot him a dirty look, but didn¡¯t talk back, content to mutter under his breath about which part he would eat first.


    It took another half-hour until Ravvik could see the Stone Giant himself. Shiq was right, and it did seem like it was fighting something, and based on how it was moving, that was likely to be at least two somethings. Hopefully two juicy prey they could snap up. Coming back empty-handed was always an unpleasant experience, but he didn¡¯t want to have to return with Derro unsatiated. The man only recently got out from being under house arrest, and Ravvik didn¡¯t want to be around if he lost it again.


    As they closed in Ravvik started to look for a good vantage point. They were lucky they could observe their targets in battle, as it would give them a good picture of their threat level. It was close to impossible to estimate how powerful someone was without very special skills, and not knowing the skill level of your prey was a surefire way to have the tables turned on you.


    Shiq and Derro may have a screw or two loose, but even they knew the importance of proper threat assessment, so they quieted down and followed Ravvik as he inched closer to observe the battle. Unless there were other people hidden elsewhere, he only spotted two marks: a women with earth elemental powers, likely some sort of mage, and a physical fighter with a hammer.


    Taking down a Stone Giant with only two people was a dangerous proposition, so he was worried that they would have to retreat and find other prey, these two too powerful for them to take on. But upon further inspection, the duo seemed to constantly be on a knife¡¯s edge, barely dodging what were almost certainly lethal blows from the Stone Giant.


    Ravvik smiled a nasty grin, the wind screeching out a ghastly whistle as it blew through the holes in his smile where teeth were missing. The sound was how he got his name: the Ghost Whistler. And the Ghost Whistler just found his next mark.

 Chapter 28

    With a battle¡¯s worth of experience under their belt Tormacc and Athra finished off a second Stone Giant even faster than the first one, the two of them slipping into a rhythm, pulling the dumb creature back and forth between them until it finally crashed to the ground with an echoing boom. Somehow the second kill was more exhilarating than the first one, and as Tormacc wiped the sweat from his brow he only felt elation from the thrill of battle. That all changed when a voice intruded into the picture, injecting tension into the previously calm atmosphere.


    ¡°Hello there, friends! Do you mind if we borrow a bit of your time?¡±


    Two things jumped out at Tormacc as he surreptitiously moved closer to Athra, a task made easier as she did the same, both of them wary of this new presence. The first thing he couldn¡¯t help but notice was the quality of the voice, or rather, the lack thereof. It sounded oily, like the speaker spent his days in a dingy back alley peddling black market goods to undesirable elements. The second was the use of ¡°we¡±. The speaker evidently wasn¡¯t alone, and that put Tormacc on guard.


    Athra gave him a quick jerk of her head which he took as a signal to lead the conversation. He had been expecting her to take charge, but after some reflection, she would make a terrible negotiator: her lack of basic knowledge about Humen needs like food and sleep a rather large red mark on her people skills.


    ¡°Of course!¡± Tormacc yelled back. ¡°You¡¯re welcome to join my companion and I for a chat.¡± Was that how he was supposed to answer? The abruptness of the situation threw him off, and he tried to collect himself, ready for any situation. The intentions of the other party were certainly suspect, but there was still a possibility there were friendly.


    That possibility went out the window as soon as the group came into view. There were three of them, and although he didn¡¯t have access to the majority of his memory, Tormacc was sure he had never seen a group of people that screamed ¡®bad guys¡¯ more than these three did.


    The leader, or who he assumed was the leader, walked in front. He was wearing what looked to once be a stylish outfit, with a long flowing robe worn open over well-tailored dress clothes. He might have looked dashing at one point, but now the outfit just looked macabre, small rips and tears peppering the outfit along with large, splotchy bloodstains. He had a floppy mop of shoulder-length hair that must have been slicked back from natural greasiness alone. His smile was disturbing, his yellow, rotting teeth exposed in a rictus of a grin, the gaps where teeth were missing like holes in a deep abyss.


    He was flanked by two henchmen, one a rat beastman that looked more rat than man, his mangy fur coming off in patches, revealing leaking pustules and open wounds. The third person looked the most normal at first glance, as he was actually wearing some semblance of armor and clothes that were mostly clean, but upon taking a closer look, his disturbed grin and too-pale skin made him look even more deranged then the rest, his image not helped by the serrated short sword he was creepily fondling.


    The group of three walked over before stopping a few meters away. The two groups stood there, staring each other down, both sides realizing the gig was up and a fight was inevitable. Tormacc wasn¡¯t sure what their plan was, but once the three saw him and Athra ready for a fight they responded in kind, the poorly-made illusion of their good intentions peeling away like a layer of old paint to reveal the rotting interior.


    The leader gestured forward, opening his mouth to say something, but before the words could even leave his mouth the ground beneath the party of three disappeared, leaving them suspended over a large pit.


    It was the signal to attack, and once Athra made the first move, as Tormacc realized the pit was her doing, the battle began. Athra wasn¡¯t content with the pit as her only trick and almost before the trio realized they were falling the walls on either side of the pit started to close in rapidly, aiming to squish the would-be assailants and trap them in stone.


    It only caught one, the ratman the only one not quick enough to escape the trap before the walls closed in. The other two reacted quickly, the leader sailing up into the sky with some form of wind magic while the pale man jumped off the air, just clearing the lip of the pit before the trap snapped shut behind him on his comrade.


    Tormacc was ready, and his hammer swung down, aiming for the moment the pale man was off balance from his jump. Except by the time his hammer came down the enemy was no longer there, and he only had the brief feeling of danger behind him before he had to activate Dash to barely avoid the serrated blade swinging towards his head.


    Activating Speed Burst, Tormacc spun around, hammer ready to block the follow up attack he knew was coming. He barely got his weapon into position, the enemy¡¯s attacks lightning fast, each strike accompanied by deranged laughter as Tormacc was pressured by attacks he could barely see.This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.


    Those first few moments were tense, and he was almost overwhelmed by the flurry of strikes from the sickly looking man. He was able to hold on, but only by throwing out skills constantly, abilities like Sweep and Double Strike used just to buy him space. But once he adjusted to the pace of the battle he realized his opponent had zero skills: the pale man merely swinging his sword, his lack of form evident to anyone with even the bare minimum of martial training.


    That didn¡¯t matter though, the sheer ferocity of the attacks constantly keeping Tormacc on the backfoot, unable to recover and change the flow of battle. The skill his opponent lacked was made up for with his Fate Wheel, whatever abilities he was using allowing him to rely on raw speed and strength to contend with Tormacc¡¯s greater fighting experience. The hammer he was wielding was also a poor match versus the serrated short sword, the greater speed and flexibility of a blade showing its might. A hammer was powerful when it could be used to overpower the opponent with raw force. For defending, almost any other weapon would have been better.


    Unable to fully parry the barrage of slashes, Tormacc let himself sustain some small injuries, the serrated blade barely drawing blood as it left light red lines in its wake as it caressed his skin. But as soon as his opponent drew blood the battle changed: mad laugher echoed out as the pale man suddenly sped up, that first increase in speed leading to more unblocked attacks.


    ¡°Gihihihihihi!¡±


    Normally Tormacc was able to keep his cool when fighting, the rush of adrenaline bringing clarity to his actions, but the deranged laughter of his attacker seeped into him, darkness closing in and suffocating his mind. He would be a fool not to realize what was happening; each time the serrated blade drew blood his opponent grew stronger, a red light slowly starting to surround him.


    It was a ghastly glow, the red light washing out the man¡¯s skin even more, making it appear almost translucent. He was like some sort of mad undead abomination or devil, a red halo from the fires of hell illuminating him and giving him strength.


    The rest of the world washed away, the pockmarked plains of stone fading out of focus, the only thing left in Tormacc¡¯s consciousness the man in front of him and the laughter echoing in his ears. Dread was building in him, its cold fingers reaching in and settling in his stomach, causing a knot to form and weigh down his every action. Each block seemed harder and with each exchange he was taking wounds, the cuts building up, the once inconsequential injuries amassing as he lost ribbons of flesh as the serrated sword dug into him.


    Tormacc, like many people before him, had made a crucial mistake, and that was unlocking his abilities purely to combat the dangers found on a Shard. While it was true that to farm Essence he needed the ability to kill monsters he had neglected the true danger of Shards: other people. Fighting others was a dangerous business, but killing people did give you Essence, and usually quite a bit more than monsters. The problems with preying on others was when the tables were turned, and the predator became the prey.


    None of that went through Tormacc¡¯s mind, his brain focused purely on survival. He was built for sustained battles, but in a situation like the current one where he was unable to land any hits on his opponent abilities like Lifesteal and Stamina Drain were useless. As the person who was going to lose the battle of attrition, he had to make a move.


    Activating Speed Burst, he combined it with skills like Whirlwind and Double Strike to go all out, entirely forgoing defense to launch his final offensive. His attacks still carried weight, and despite the bloody aura reinforcing his movements the pale man still had to defend, dodging away from the reckless blows before sliding back in for the kill, his blade like a striking snake.


    Clenching his teeth, Tormacc activated Dash, moving forward in a quick jerk, impaling himself on the serrated blade. But instead of the blade piercing his heart, his use of Dash made the blade miss its mark, only stabbing the side of his chest, the wound serious, but not fatal.


    Ignoring the sword sticking in him, Tormacc activated Sudden Strike with Stunning Blow, the quick combo attacks finally landing on the pale man, his eyes widening in surprise at the hammer rushing towards his face. The hammer swung true, and while the attack didn¡¯t kill him, Stunning Blow showed its worth, allowing Tormacc the needed time to wind his hammer back before activating Crush to cave his enemy¡¯s head in, ending the battle.


    Falling to his knees, Tormacc stared at the headless corpse of his foe as a small amount of stamina rushed into his from Lifesteal along with a surge of Essence. The world swayed around him and he felt his body shudder before heaving gasps shook him and he emptied his stomach amidst the swirling lights assaulting his senses before blacking out.


    Coming to a few seconds later, he raised his face out of the pool of vomit, head pounding in counterpoint to his racing heart. He almost died. He should have died. He didn¡¯t realize it until now, but the pale man¡¯s attacks hadn¡¯t been a simple physical assault. His laughter wasn¡¯t just the ravings of a mad man; it had also been a mental attack. It was hard to know the true effects, but he guessed it worked by insidiously subverting his senses with the laughter before suddenly cutting it off, causing his senses to lose all connection with reality. It would have knocked him out for long enough for the pale man to kill him three times over.


    Taking out a healing potion from his Spatial Bracelet he carefully removed the serrated sword from his side, wincing as the wound was aggravated, the sharp hooks on the sword pulling at his flesh as he pulled it out. He wouldn¡¯t die from it, but he would be out of action until it healed. Multiple ribs were broken and because of the shape of the sword others were badly fractured, requiring many healing sessions to regrow. Combined with all the other cuts and slashes he was in bad shape, his body in no position to fight.


    Which was a problem, because the battle wasn¡¯t over. Dreading what he would see, Tormacc raised his head to inspect the other battle, praying Athra was able to hold her own against the leader.

 Chapter 29

    Ravvik cursed internally. Nothing was going right. He had watched this woman fight against the Stone Giant and she was barely able to dodge its attacks, but somehow when he was actually fighting against her, her power seemed to skyrocket, his attacks easily blocked as she seamlessly molded the stone around her for both offense and defense. Shiq was already dead, or at least out of the fight, but at least Derro should finish up his fight soon so they could double team the stone woman.


    Focusing back on the battle, Ravvik swooped to the side, dodging shards of stone fired his way. He had underestimated his opponent. He thought his ability to fly would give him an unbeatable advantage versus someone who could only manipulate stone but he couldn¡¯t have been more wrong. Watching her fight against the Stone Giant she had only used large pillars of stone, launching them up from the ground to impale the giant as it chased her around. Now she was more quickly launching attacks, sending volleys of slim spears and shards of stone that would shred through his defenses should he slack off for even a second.


    The worst part was her battle sense. He had gotten very proficient in using his wind blades to catch his opponent off guard, curving them around to strike from every angle, the invisible attacks easily able to slip through his opponent guard. He got only one strike in at the beginning of the battle, just barely wounding her, but after that, nothing. She used large swathes of stone to form barriers at her back, preventing anything from slipping in unnoticed, while she overpowered any attacks he threw head on with attacks of her own.


    He felt like a bird flying around while a hunter took potshots at him. None of his attacks were able to break her defenses; even his ultimate moves like summoning twisters were countered as she simply covered herself in stone to create an impenetrable defense.


    This should have been an easy mission: it was obvious from the fresh meat that had been coming in recently that the portal to the Shard had opened up recently. He had been in this Shard for years; he couldn¡¯t lose to some upstarts. But despite his unwillingness, that was exactly what was happening.


    Checking on Derro¡¯s progress, Ravvik almost fell out of the sky in shock. Derro was dead. But that was impossible; no one could beat Derro in a straight up one-on-one fight. Dodging another flying volley of shards, Ravvik knew he needed to retreat. Pure destructive power had never been his strong suit, which was partly why he had to join Zedna¡¯s gang in the first place. He wasn¡¯t able to fight the Stone Giants without help.


    Before entering the Shard he had it all planned out: he would utilize his air elemental power to fly above the Stone Giants and other earth-attributed monsters and bombard them from above, safely farming Essence. Reality didn¡¯t conform to his expectations. While the Stone Giants were mainly melee fighters, using their large frame to lash out at their foes, that wasn¡¯t all they were capable of. When fighting against someone who they could punch, that¡¯s what they would do, but when the Stone Giant he had fought realized it couldn¡¯t reach him it had torn up large chunks from the ground and hurled them at him, the missiles flying at insane speeds thanks to the giant¡¯s absurd strength.


    He had to miserably retreat, eventually finding himself roped into Zedna¡¯s gang for pure survival. It was a wretched existence, debasing himself just to survive. But survive he did. Many other fell when their group attacked people they shouldn¡¯t have, but not him. Oh no, he was better than that. Or he used to be. Flying back towards the gang¡¯s headquarters the wind whistling through his ears allowed him to picture himself cozied up in a tavern somewhere, listening to a musician play relaxing melody. If he still had his violin¡­


    But he had left that life behind long ago. And as Ravvik flew back towards the base he shrugged off thoughts of the past, instead thinking about who in the gang would value the information of two juicy marks, and who would help him with his revenge.


    <hr>


    Relief swept over Tormacc as he watched the leader retreat, and with that relief, he collapsed to the ground, no longer needing to put on a tough front. He knew he wouldn¡¯t be any help to Athra, but the enemy didn¡¯t need to know that, and his posturing seemed to have worked. It would only have taken one of the wind blades the leader had been shooting out to finish him off, which was another reason he had to act like he was still battle-ready. But now that the enemy retreated he could finally rest.


    Athra surfed over to him, the rock beneath her feet speeding her along.


    ¡°Good, you are not dead little Tormacc. Only chipped.¡± She seemed satisfied with his current state. It would have been a shame to lose a companion so soon after finding one.


    ¡°I probably should be dead. I got lucky. He had some sort of mental attack skill, and had the battle dragged out any longer it would have successfully activated.¡±This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.


    ¡°But you are not dead. Luck or skill, when rock rolls downhill, as long as you survive, both made you alive.¡±


    Tormacc just stared at her, not expecting poetry from the stoic rock woman. It was hard to read her, but she seemed at little embarrassed under his gaze.


    ¡°All Rockspeakers must find own verse,¡± she said, as if in explanation. ¡°What matters is you live.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m just worried about next time. I seem to have gotten too cocky. I was expecting to fight Stone Giants, which I¡¯m prepared for, but fighting other people might be a bigger issue than I thought.¡±


    ¡°You would not be first one to make such a mistake,¡± Athra said, once more taking it upon herself to set up camp. ¡°Right now, you rest. Then we leave for other hunting ground. Maybe we get lucky and no more run into bandits.¡±


    ¡°Are bandits common?¡±


    After hearing his question, Athra paused, before a deep crackling sound echoed out from her chest. It took him a few second to realize it must be her equivalent to laughter.


    ¡°Little Tormacc, you forget, we all enemies here. The Tower is no safe place. Better question: who is not bandit?¡±


    ¡°My apologies, I phrased that badly. What I meant was, why did they attack us if they were just going to lose? They must have seen us fighting the Stone Giant. I don¡¯t understand why they would recklessly attack like that.¡±


    ¡°You said before. Fighting monsters and people is different thing. They thought they could win. Or they were desperate. You are Humen, you know that squishy people need food, yes?¡±


    Athra made two good points, both things he hadn¡¯t really thought about before. It was obvious in hindsight that the abilities you would use to fight something like a Stone Giant and the abilities to fight a person were two very different skillsets. For example, the mage Athra had been fighting likely thought he would be able to win because he could fly. Tormacc hadn¡¯t seen Athra use the skills she used to fight him like shooting shards of rock, so it¡¯s possible if he had been in the man¡¯s position he would have assumed the same thing, that because she was an earth mage she would have difficulty targeting him in the air.


    The second point was the bigger one though. He was indeed a ¡°squishy person¡±, and thinking about it more, he knew that if he ran out of food he would be willing to do just about anything to get more, even launching a suicidal attack with little chance of victory. While there were skills that could reduce his food consumption, he was still Humen, and as such, he would need a truly powerful ability to go without food indefinitely, and he didn¡¯t even know if such a powerful ability even existed.


    ¡°If they were that desperate is there a chance the mage comes back with reinforcements?¡± Tormacc wondered.


    ¡°Is possible. That¡¯s why we leave. Head far away.¡±


    The Shard was massive, and there was no need to stay in one place. The only location that truly mattered was the exit portal, but currently neither of the two knew where it was, so all they could do was wander around until they found it. And if they didn¡¯t have a way of searching for it, they would just have to wait. In most Shards the exit portal would move after a long amount of time in one place, and when it did, it would broadcast its new location, easily allowing people to find it in the month after it moved.


    Lacking special means to search for it most people had to find it through word of mouth or wait until it moved. Unfortunately, the wait varied, as portals could change every year or stay in the same location for more than ten. Generally they moved within five years, so most people were able to leave a Shard if they so desired. But when the portal didn¡¯t move for a long time or was in a hard to reach location people could easily be stuck in a Shard for twenty years or more.


    Neither Tormacc nor Athra knew where the portal was, and because they lacked any special means to search for it they were forced to wait for it to change locations. This was a common situation, but it was made more dangerous because of the particular Shard they were on.


    The Shard was dangerous, but it was no more dangerous than many other Shards, and certainly the monsters weren¡¯t unusual for a tier three Shard. Like other Shards, there were dangerous areas, but as long as those were avoided survival shouldn¡¯t be a huge worry; except, that is, for the climate. Most people who entered the Shard were aware that it lacked food and water and brought some of their own. But no matter how much they stocked up, they would run out eventually. It was in situations like that where bandits and brigands formed.


    In normal Shards monsters usually provided the most danger, as ambushing others was never a sure thing, as you never knew who was hiding their true strength. Turning the tables on an ambush was common, so most avoided engaging in conflicts with others unless it was truly unavoidable. But when deciding between starving to death and attacking someone of unknown combat strength it was easy to see which one to choose.


    That was what Tormacc realized after his battle. His thinking had been too shallow; while ambushing others was a rare occurrence in the normal course of events, when backed into a corner, even a normally timid animal will lash out. He would be a juicy target for anyone who was running out of food. As long as they could kill him and take his Spatial Bracelet they would secure vast quantities of food. In that sense, there wasn¡¯t a need for someone to continually slaughter, only slaughter the right person, which in this case meant someone with food supplies.


    In that sense Athra might have been better off alone, as anyone looking at her would rightly suspect that she didn¡¯t need food and would therefore be a bad target to attack. He was more at risk. The portal to the Shard had just opened up, and based on his youthful appearances, it wasn¡¯t too hard to guess he had only recently entered the Shard and had full supplies of both food and water.


    Thinking up to that point, he paused, realizing something that he had glossed over before.


    ¡°Hey Athra,¡± he said. ¡°You don¡¯t need to eat food, right?¡±


    ¡°Is true. Great Rock provides energy for my people. No need for squishy people food.¡±


    ¡°Then where did the food you gave me before come from?¡±


    ¡°Little Tormacc, not everyone is small rock like you. I have no need for food, is true, but is not the same for others. On foodless Shard, food is money.¡±


    ¡°And besides,¡± she said with a stony grin, ¡°what else would be used for peace offering?¡±

 Chapter 30

    Damn it, Lem, how dare you get yourself killed and leave me with the cleanup.


    Zedna was pissed. In fact, she was more than pissed, she was angry. Really fucking angry. The kind of angry that makes your face red and clouds your thinking. But more than that, she was tired. She had built her gang from the ground up and now it was crumbling apart around her, leaving her alone and without allies in a sea of murderers and cannibals.


    She never intended for the gang to end up this way, but when running into other factions assimilation was often the best option, as fighting would result in a pyrrhic victory. It had been years since she started the gang, and while some of those who joined were alright, some were batshit crazy. A fact not helped by the Shard itself. Sometimes she could feel that growing dread creeping in on her, telling her to let loose and that it didn¡¯t matter anymore, to just let it all go and give in to her desires.


    Calmly, she took out a Pikkory Nut from her dimensional space and popped it into her mouth, saving the chewy sensation. Pikkory Nuts were nothing special; their only defining characteristic their tough and chewy consistency. She had brought whole tubs in with her when entering the Shard, but now she was running low, another thing to be scared of. There were only so many comforts she could go without before losing the last of her morality.


    Zedna was not a good person; she had come to peace with that long ago. But she didn¡¯t think she was a truly bad one, either. The Tower rewarded those who could make harsh decisions, and she was forced to make them every day. It was just, more recently, those decisions stopped being true decisions. After all, was it really a choice when choosing between two equally bad options?


    It¡¯s all that bastard Lem¡¯s fault. Even if you had to get yourself killed, did you have to kill off my most loyal supporters as well?


    Lem was her second in command. Now ¡®was¡¯ in the past tense, as he was now dead, leading many of her inner circle in an ill-fated attack on someone that shouldn¡¯t have been provoked. Only one person had made it back to tell the tale, but one was all that was needed to spread the word to the rest of the factions that she lost her most powerful supporter.


    Zedna ruled her gang with an iron fist. She had to if she wanted to keep order: there was no other way to control all the divisive elements. With her personal strength along with her powerful faction she was able to play the smaller splinter groups against each other and maintain harmony. Or she used to be able to. Ignoring her orders, the smaller factions had taken the influx of new blood to the Shard as a chance to go recruiting. Now their factions had swelled, and that combined with losing her second in command along with many of her elite forces had closed the power gap.


    Ruling with absolute force was the best option for keeping in line murderers and cannibals. Truthfully, it was the only option, but even though it was the path she had to take it came with downsides, the biggest being the consequences should she ever lose her iron grip on the gang. Just one slip, one opening, and she was done. And that¡¯s exactly what Lem¡¯s death was: an opening.


    But she had ways to deal with that. She wasn¡¯t some spring chicken just out of the egg. No, the nail in the coffin was Henry. She had trusted him, not the same way she had trusted Lem, but he had been on her side, or so she thought. She couldn¡¯t have been more wrong. He had been waiting patiently, biding his time, choosing the perfect moment to strike.


    Now it was too late, and Zedna was starting to realistically evaluate the endgame. Her goal was to leave this blasted Shard, but to do that, she had to secure her own life first.


    A knock on the door sounded, interrupting her thoughts.


    ¡°Come in,¡± Zedna barked.


    Opening the door, Ravvik stepped into her office, forcing her to hold her tongue lest a string of cruses flow out. She had sent him on a mission along with two others, hoping to be rid of the three of them for good. No one would miss them, and they were all unstable elements that everyone would be better off without. It would be much better to have them gone, but apparently something had gone wrong, as at least Ravvik survived to tell the tale.


    Zedna stared at the man, examining his current condition. He was looking down, but that was normal. There were few that could withstand her gaze.


    On first glance, Zedna didn¡¯t look like the leader of a gang of bloodthirsty bandits. She was petite; not just short, but small too, barely reaching the chest on some of the taller members, her muscle mass indistinct to the casual eye. She had black hair, which she kept short, and sharp piercing yellow eyes. It was her eyes that gave her the ability to stare down men more than twice her size. A casual glance only showed a watery yellow color, but for anyone who stared longer, her eyes seemed to come alive, yellow flames appearing like shadows in their depths.You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.


    ¡°Out with it then,¡± Zedna said to Ravvik. ¡°What¡¯s the result of your mission.¡±


    ¡°My apologies, leader,¡± Ravvik said, his voice disgustingly subservient. ¡°The mission was a failure. Both Shiq and Derro are dead.¡±


    ¡°Describe to me in detail what happened.¡±


    Ravvik stumbled through the explanation, the flow of events not clear. Multiple times Zedna had to ask for clarification throughout the story, but eventually he finally got the whole thing out before she dismissed him.


    From the sound of it, they had actually found a reasonable mark. Too bad they had been destined to fail. Shiq was useless in a straight up fight, the coward barely able to utilize his battle skills. Ravvik and Derro were passable, but both had their own flaws, which it seemed had been exploited. Although from the description he gave, Ravvik was lucky enough to make it back. The earth elementalist sounded powerful, and without his ability to fly he would have been a sitting duck on the ground.


    That should have been the end of it, the incident just a small divergence from her crumbling plans, but something stuck out to her. It took her a minute to realize: it was the woman, the earth elementalist.


    Ravvik had called her a stone woman, and Zedna had taken that as a description for a stony visage. But maybe he meant that literally. What if she actually was a woman made from stone?


    Zedna jumped up, pacing back and forth in the limited confines of her office, jaw working overtime as she chewed away at the Pikkory Nut still in her mouth. Ravvik had called the woman an earth elementalist, but what if she wasn¡¯t? What if she was a Stonebender? Unlike many others, Zedna knew where the exit portal was; her only issue was getting there. And if this woman actually was a Stonebender, then¡­


    Plans started to fall into place as her mind moved in a thousand directions, stitching together parts of previously trashed ideas to form a new cohesive whole. If she could pull the right strings maybe she wouldn¡¯t go down with the ship after all.


    <hr>


    Ravvik stepped out of Zedna¡¯s office, a shiver of fear crossing over him. He could still feel her eyes on him, even though he never actually saw them. Once was enough: there was no need for a second glance. When he first saw her, he thought she was some eye candy for the real boss. Then a few months later he had been privileged to watch one of her ¡°demonstrations¡±. She was a monster in Humen flesh, and he had vowed then never to cross her.


    But times change, and those burning yellow eyes no longer had the same hold on him that they once did. He was a changed man. His previous self would likely balk at what he had become, but then, his previous self would have died ten times over in this shithole of a Shard. He still wasn¡¯t stupid enough to openly disobey her, but their once larger than life leader had shrunk back down to normal size. And just because he wasn¡¯t stupid enough to openly disobey her didn¡¯t mean that others weren¡¯t.


    Moving his way through the underground complex Ravvik ingratiatingly nodded his head to everyone that walked past. It¡¯s not that he was necessarily weaker than them, but without a power backing him his life could easily be made a living hell. Let alone Zedna any of the faction leaders could order him around with impunity.


    After passing through numerous caverns and passageways he made his way to an unassuming door before knocking on it hesitantly. After a response from the other side he opened the door and walked in.


    He had debated long and hard about which leg to hug, and after much consideration he settled on Henry. Before the recent events Henry had been a stranger to him, just another one of Zedna¡¯s loyal army, ready to punish whoever she felt stepped out of line. More recently though his faction had been growing, seemingly appearing out of nowhere like dandelions in the spring.


    The rooms in the underground base were all small, and Henry¡¯s chamber was no exception. There was only room for a desk, a bed, and a small washing station for basic hygiene. After entering, Ravvik quickly gave his greeting.


    ¡°Esteemed, sir, my name is Ravvik, and I have some information you might be interested in.¡±


    Henry¡¯s soft smile twitched, which of course Ravvik was unable to spot because of his obsequious bow. Henry nearly sent Ravvik out because of his servile voice, but in the end decided to hear him out.


    ¡°Information? Very well, go ahead and speak. I¡¯m willing to listen.¡± He wasn¡¯t really, as he was in the middle of some important planning, but he didn¡¯t get to where he was by ignoring details, not matter how small. Perhaps this fool actually knew something?


    ¡°Of course, esteemed sir, it¡¯s like this¡­¡±


    Ravvik told Henry the same information he previously told Zedna, the difference being the information was a lot more coherent now that he wasn¡¯t quaking in fear. The story was also filled with a lot of needless compliments, which Henry glossed over, the effort to vocalize them going to waste.


    Once Ravvik was done, Henry lapsed into silence, thinking over the information. Ravvik thought this was a good sign, showing that his info was valuable, but really Henry was just trying to think of the best way to get rid of him. Until, like Zedna earlier, he came to the same realization she had.


    Quickly formulating a plan, he let a beaming smile creep onto his face.


    ¡°My good friend Ravvik, you¡¯ve brought me some valuable information.¡± Although you don¡¯t know just how much, he said in his head. ¡°I would be happy to guarantee your safety in the gang if you would do a small favor for me.¡±


    Relaying some instructions, Henry sent Ravvik off to tell the same story to some of the other faction leaders, but this time with some embellishments. If he wasn¡¯t wrong, Zedna knew her time in the gang was finished. He had been wracking his mind for a way to figure out her next step, spending hours going over reports from his subordinates for the smallest clue. He had never suspected the information would just drop into his lap.


    Sweeping the previous documents from his desk, he started on new ones, inwardly delighting over his good fortune. Finally, it was his time to rise.

 Chapter 31

    Ignorant of the events they set in motion, Tormacc and Athra set off in the opposite direction from where Ravvik fled. Athra seemed utterly uninterested in the spoils of war, allowing Tormacc to take both the storage devices, one a ring, the other a bracelet. Neither contained much of value and they were both smaller than his own so he swapped their contents to his. Spatial storage devices couldn¡¯t be stacked like nesting dolls, as that would enable someone to contain almost infinite space in a small storage device, so Tormacc was forced to carry the two spares on his person. But after some thought on the matter he realized having an extra spatial storage device might be an unexpected windfall.


    Taking the Spatial Ring back out, he moved a few things over before wearing it on his finger. He had been unimpressed with the loot that he gained, but admiring his new ring, he knew he had underestimated its worth, the ring itself more valuable than the junk that had been inside it. The previous encounter with bandits had shown that robbing others was a common pastime, especially when brought about by necessity. With a spare spatial storage device he could use it as a decoy, potentially fooling others as to his wealth or offering it as a peace offering to avoid battle.


    Against normal bandits, this would almost never work; at least, not unless he could successfully hide his other spatial storage items. And since he couldn¡¯t do that, regular bandits were sure to search him to make sure he wasn¡¯t hiding anything. Even killing him first wouldn¡¯t be uncommon, as normally bandits had to be secure in their strength to have the guts to rob others so there was no reason to negotiate.


    This Shard was different. Here, most bandits only wanted food. They weren¡¯t trying to kill others, only make sure they themselves didn¡¯t die. As long as he gave them a Spatial Ring with a decent amount of food in it they would be unlikely to attack him as, even if he had more on him, the bandits couldn¡¯t be sure of victory if battle broke out.


    What made him think of it was what Athra had said previously. A peace offering was a nicer way to put it, but to put it bluntly, it was only another of saying a bribe. Regardless of the circumstances, both involved gifting resources to another; it was only the context of the situation that differentiated the two actions. Athra was strong, but there were only two of them. No matter how strong they were, how many people could they actually fight off? They had successfully fought off three assailants, but could they do that again? What about four? Five? And even if they could win, the price was sure to be high. It was much better to avoid fighting if possible, even if they had to appease the other party with a bribe to do so.


    The physical loot from the battle wasn¡¯t the greatest gain though: far from it. While killing monsters was the most common way of gaining Essence, other people had Essence too, and as such, killing others would also grant you Essence. This was a draw for those with evil intents, as they would get paid off for their deeds, but the Essence gained was not worth the risk for the average person as you would only gain the unspent Essence that was left in someone¡¯s Fate Wheel when you killed them, not any of the Essence they had invested to unlock abilities.


    It was always an unknown amount of Essence, with the number usually ranging from the low three digits up to five or six, or even higher. But before you actually killed someone you had no clue how much Essence they had in their pool. Everyone kept some, either for emergencies or to pay for the Essence tax, but the greater the amount of Essence someone had the more likely it was they were an expert, as saving a large amount of Essence had a strong correlation with saving for high tier abilities. And the higher tier abilities someone had, the greater their strength.


    What all that meant was if you wanted Essence from killing people, you had to get lucky: the Tower was a marathon, not a sprint. There was no time limit to earning Essence; death was the only thing that ended the competition. And based on hints Kaz Ehen dropped and things hinted at in the guidebook Stella gave him living for a few hundred years wasn¡¯t a problem if you played your cards right.


    When killing the bandits earlier, Tormacc and Athra had gotten lucky. He hadn¡¯t been paying attention so he couldn¡¯t be sure who gave most of the Essence, but between the two people they killed Tormacc had an extra 3,000 or so Essence to work with, and since he and Athra were currently splitting Essence, that meant between the two of them they had more than 6,000 Essence in their Fate Wheel.


    Perhaps that wasn¡¯t surprising, as it only meant at least one of the people they killed was saving up, but it was still a nice windfall. The question now was how to spend it, and that was what Tormacc was pondering over now as he followed Athra through the blasted plains. With a partner to help him kill the Stone Giants an immediate increase in combat strength was no longer as important, or at least the type of combat strength he needed to fight giants.


    Even without Athra he was able to kill Stone Giants; he had proved that before. Their recent encounter had shown him that there were other things he needed to kill though, namely, people trying to kill him. He had been unlocking abilities in his Fate Wheel with the aim of fighting monsters, but if there was anything more monstrous than monsters themselves, it was other people. All his previous plans for spending his Essence needed to be reevaluated under that lens.Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.


    ¡°Hey Athra,¡± Tormacc said. ¡°Can I get your advice on something?¡±


    ¡°Of course. Wisdom is like rolling stone, only growing the longer it travels.¡±


    Something about what Athra said didn¡¯t quite make sense to him. Did stones really get bigger as they rolled downhill? He decided it was better to ignore it and ask his question.


    ¡°I wanted an outside opinion on my fighting style. The recent battle made me realize I have too few skills for dealing with other people, and fixing that is a priority. Do you have any insights you could offer?¡±


    Athra paused, her body becoming a statue, creating a perfect stillness no Humen could replicate.


    ¡°Why this sudden interest?¡± She asked. ¡°You won, yes?¡±


    ¡°Yes, I won, but the fight was close. Too close. If I had hesitated for even a brief moment longer the enemy¡¯s skill would have gone off and I would have died.¡±


    ¡°Can you heal?¡±


    ¡°What?¡± Tormacc was rather confused at the non sequitur. What did healing have to do with improving his combat against other people?


    ¡°Can you heal?¡± Athra asked again.


    ¡°If you mean can I heal myself, then the answer is I can, although it takes some time. It¡¯s more regeneration than healing.¡±


    ¡°Then we fight. You want wisdom, yes? We fight, then I know what you lack.¡±


    Thinking about it, Athra¡¯s suggestion made sense. She had only seen him fight monsters as she was preoccupied with her own battle when the fought before. It would be hard for her to offer advice if she didn¡¯t know what his standards were.


    ¡°Okay,¡± he said. ¡°Let¡¯s fight then.¡±


    The two of them backed up an appropriate distance away before facing off. A second of stillness followed, then, as if some unheard signal gun went off, they both acted. Tormacc knew Athra had the advantage at range so he sprinted forward, muscles pumping and heart thumping to exert that little bit of extra speed to cross the distance between them.


    A sharp spear of stone sprung from the ground in front of him and he twisted, deftly maneuvering around it, barely losing momentum as he spun around the obstacle. His senses were strained to the limit as an increasing number of stone spears hindered his path, their tips gleaming under the beating sun. He pumped more Essence into his tattoo, straining his senses so he could react to the quiver of earth, as if he waited until the spears were fully-formed it would be too late to dodge.


    His quick flitting movements allowed him to close in on Athra, each step perfectly placed to avoid the array of spears popping up from the ground. But as he couldn¡¯t avoid them forever, and soon he was forced to change tactics, the next spear smashed to pieces by his hammer as he moved past it with brute force.


    He was forced to use every trick in the book to continue advancing, using skills like Speed Burst and Double Jump for mobility and Sudden Strike and Whirlwind to clear the stone spears with force. He was navigating a deadly obstacle course and one wrong step would leave him shish kebobbed, his body impaled and hanging helpless in the air.


    As he ran, the debris from the spears he was crushing was washing over him, impinging on his vision and scraping at his skin as he ran through clouds of stone shards. But he made it through, his skillset varied enough that he could cycle through them, allowing him to either forcefully advance or skirt around the stone spears when the situation called for it. Soon he found himself only meters away from Athra, and he raised his hammer for the final assault. It never came. With a flick of her hand a huge wave of stone rose up in front of him and he found himself in shadow, looking up as the wave built to over ten meters in height.


    Then it crashed into him and he was sent flying backwards, blood spurting from his mouth. He crashed into the ground, skidding along until a depression caught him and he slammed to a halt, waves of force diffusing into him and rattling his bones.


    Silence spread out as Athra lowered her stone constructs and walked over. She was the same as before, but Tormacc couldn¡¯t help but look at her differently. He had severely underestimated her. He thought she would have been in trouble had he not dealt with one of the bandits, but after their fight he knew that wasn¡¯t the case. She was practically invincible on the ground. She was unable to defeat the flying mage, but against anyone who couldn¡¯t fly she could surround herself with stone, launching continuous offensives until her foes were worn down and killed.


    ¡°Not bad, little Tormacc,¡± Athra said, coming to a stop next to him. ¡°One day you will be big rock. But that day not today. Still need much work.¡±


    Instead of reaching out a hand to help him up she manipulated the stone around him to form a chair, raising him up from the ground.


    ¡°You have good base,¡± she said. ¡°Like stone with solid core. You can choose, I think. No need for me. But for Fate Wheel, it rewards power, yes? What you are good at, do that.¡±


    It was simple advice, and similar to what Stella had told him before. If he could figure out where the variance in his Fate Wheel lay he could exploit that to unlock more powerful abilities. While the battle with Athra could have crushed his confidence, strangely, it didn¡¯t. Something about her bearing told him he was currently unable to beat her. It was a stone cold fact, and nothing to worry over. Instead, the battle gave him a clear glimpse of his strengths and how he could chain skills together to overcome obstacles he normally would struggle before.


    Perhaps he had been too focused on shoring up his weaknesses. The Fate Wheel rewarded specialization. He could never be good at everything, so why try? As an example, Athra was weak against opponents in the air, but while she may have trouble killing them she was still able to form a solid defense on the ground to prevent her from being killed from long range. She had as much proficiency as she needed to make sure her weaknesses couldn¡¯t be exploited.


    What about him? Casting his mind back, he went over all that he had been through during his stay in The Tower. It hadn¡¯t been a long time, less than a year, but it felt like forever; it was all that he knew after all. Thinking about it, there was one clear theme throughout his stay. He should have realized it sooner. His path forward was obvious, just waiting there for him to reach out and grasp it. So that¡¯s what he did.

 Chapter 32

    ¡°Hey Athra,¡± Tormacc said. ¡°Why did you ask if I could heal myself?¡±


    ¡°You are wounded, yes? No reason to wait. If you couldn¡¯t heal, we would wait. Since you can heal, we could battle.¡±


    Her reasoning made sense. If he hadn¡¯t been able to heal himself, it would have taken days, maybe even weeks, for him to heal naturally from the damage Athra dealt to him during their spar. He could have used a healing potion, but wasting a limited resource like that without reason was incredibly stupid. He guessed that if he hadn¡¯t been able to heal Athra wouldn¡¯t have agreed to the spar.


    ¡°So you mean that most people can¡¯t heal themselves, right?¡± he asked, seeking clarification.


    ¡°Of course. You Humen are weak, squishy things. Need lots of time to heal. Pop very easily.¡±


    He didn¡¯t like the mental picture it brought up when Athra talked about people popping, but what she said confirmed his hypothesis; his ability to heal was rare, and likely even more rare was his constitution. He wasn¡¯t actually healing with a skill after all. Regeneration was just a supplement. His active healing came from the ritual he went through after first entering The Tower. It was something he had gotten used to and relied on during his first six months in the starting zone, so he hadn¡¯t thought much of it. It had become another part of him, just like his arms and legs.


    But it wasn¡¯t actually inborn. The first ritual he underwent was activated from within, sure, but did the Fate Wheel see it as part of him? It was doubtful; it was an external feature, the same with the ritual from Kaz Ehen and the Elixir of Toughness he drank back before entering the Shard. He had a total of three different body enhancements, if that didn¡¯t induce some variance in his Fate Wheel, what would?


    It was so simple, but because it was simple, he had missed it. He had been thinking of his body as part of him, so any augments were just upgrades, not anything external. But for unlocking abilities in his Fate Wheel, those three physical enhancements could make all the difference. He had been confused before when choosing between the two abilities unlocked by Enhanced Vitality, Rapid Healing and Regeneration. Both of them seemed similar, and now he knew why: it was because of the variance caused by his physical enhancements.


    ¡°Thank you, I think I know what to focus on now.¡±


    ¡°Any time, little Tormacc. Quickly heal so we can get back to hunting.¡±


    He would have pictured someone made of stone as very patient, but Athra could be surprisingly proactive. He still didn¡¯t know her very well, but by all accounts she was a goal-oriented person. If she saw a problem, she found a way to deal with it. Like how she was having trouble killing Stone Giants by herself so she found a partner. She wasn¡¯t satisfied by her rate of Essence gain, so she did something to change it.


    It was a refreshing change of pace. It wasn¡¯t that he couldn¡¯t focus on goals, but he tended to get bogged down in the minutia. When something didn¡¯t go how he wanted it to, he had a hard time shifting gears. A good example was fighting the rat horde. He was focused on fighting them, which was good up to a point. He had gained a sizeable amount of Essence from them, but if he had cut his losses earlier and been more careful he wouldn¡¯t have had so many close brushes with death.


    Having that outside perspective was helpful, as it allowed him to more reasonably consider his options. Focusing on his healing and physical power might seem obvious in hindsight, but he had still needed that outside input for him to figure it out. It reminded him of something from home, but it was out of reach, his memories hidden behind a veil of fog, only the illusions of feelings left to tantalize him.


    It only took an hour for him to heal the damage from the spar. Having a skill like Regeneration helped, as it made it easier for him to focus on guiding his Essence throughout his body, rather than him having to guide it and focus on the healing aspect, as Regeneration did a lot of the healing for him. Once he was healed up they continued walking, although calling what they were doing walking wasn¡¯t quite right. Athra was pushing off the ground, each step propelling her over ten meters. Tormacc was running, his speed faster than any record set by a normal Humen, but to him the speed felt like a light jog.


    They planned to migrate a fair distance away from where they were ambushed before, and since his mind could wander during travel it was the perfect time for him to examine his Fate Wheel and plan out where he wanted to spend his Essence. Right now he had around 3,000 that he could afford to spend, and he needed to decide if he was going to spend that now or save it for later.


    Part of him wanted to save for a tier ten ability, especially as one of the revealed abilities, Giant Growth, was very tempting. But after the recent fight he felt that the utility he could gain from the 3,000 Essence was too good to pass up. He was nowhere near invincible, in fact far from it, and every increase in survivability mattered. So if he was going to spend the Essence on immediate power, the question was, what should he unlock?This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.


    There were quite a few movement type abilities that looked useful, and even after his revelation about the physical enhancement side of his Fate Wheel he knew he would pick up at least a few movement ones. Movement was the basis of all combat. If you couldn¡¯t hit someone, you couldn¡¯t hurt them. And in addition the utility movement skills granted during combat, they also doubled as escape skills. If he could run away from someone it didn¡¯t matter if he could beat that person in a fight, no matter what his pride said.


    Thinking about it, he was honestly a little jealous of Athra¡¯s ability to achieve a wide range of proficiencies by focusing on one thing. By using her earth elemental talents, which he was sure were at least partly racial, she could cover offense, defense, and even movement type abilities. For example, he hadn¡¯t seen her go all out with her rock surfing, but he was sure she could outrun him in a race. Perhaps not in a dead sprint, but in a marathon it wouldn¡¯t even be close.


    He didn¡¯t have the luxury of focusing on an elemental power like she did. It wasn¡¯t very efficient to do so without some sort of outside bonus, and the only element he had an affinity for currently was water, perhaps the weakest element out of the four basic on this Shard. Athra¡¯s earth elemental powers were multiplied by the Shard they were on, and while he was sure she could fight without access to infinite quantities of stone, having it there and ready to manipulate gave her a huge edge. It was likely the reason she chose to come to the Shard in the first place, and it was only when she encountered the Stone Giants that she realized there were some downsides to the Shard too.


    Deciding to first focus on which movement skills he wanted, Tormacc took a look at the options he had available to him out of the revealed skills in his Fate Wheel. He didn¡¯t want to spend all his Essence on movement skills, so while skills like the tier eight Air Walk looked amazing, as it allowed him to walk on air for a short time, it cost too much for him to consider it for his current situation. Out of the revealed skills, the two he was most interested in were two tier six skills.


    They were both revealed by Speed Boost. The first was Flash Step, which allowed him to move so quickly it would appear he was teleporting to someone without improved senses. This would be a powerful trump card in battle, either allowing him to either rapidly close in on an enemy or evade one of their powerful skills. Without unlocking it he couldn¡¯t be sure how long the cooldown was, but he had a feeling it was fairly sizeable, which would make the skill unsuitable for running away, but otherwise it was currently number one on his unlock list for movement type skills. He had seen how powerful Dash was in the last fight, and Flash Step was even more powerful.


    The other skill he was looking at was Quick Reflexes. The skill wasn¡¯t a movement skill, exactly, but it did fill a similar purpose. It improved his reflexes, which would improve his speed, so it counted as a movement skill in that way, but the bigger reason he wanted it was to keep up with someone who was faster than him.


    Speed often operated at breakpoints. As long as you could keep up with someone, you could defend against their attacks. But as soon as they reached a certain speed threshold, you would be unable to respond to their attacks, effectively leaving you at their mercy. During his previous battle with the bandit he was able to defend thanks to his superior skill in combat, but with how fast the other party had been moving if the bandit had used any combat maneuvers he would have been dead, unable to reach the required speed to match his blade.


    Tier six abilities only cost 500 Essence, and with his new windfall he decided to unlock both of them. They were both powerful, the sooner he unlocked them the sooner he would be able to incorporate the skills into his combat style. Unlocking skills in combat could get him out of some sticky situations, but that was more for a unique skill effects he needed against monsters. Against another person trying to unlock a skill in battle was suicide.


    Now down to 2,000 Essence, he turned to the physical enhancement side of his Fate Wheel. The first ability he unlocked was Rapid Healing, as it was only a tier four ability, so only cost him 100 Essence. The two abilities it revealed were Replenish Blood and Rejuvenation. Replenish Blood did as the name suggested, improving his body¡¯s ability to replenish his supply of blood, while Rejuvenation greatly increased his healing for a short period of time. He was interested in both of them, but before he unlocked them he went back even farther in his Fate Wheel to look at the tier three abilities.


    He hadn¡¯t thought much about these early abilities, but now that he wasn¡¯t so constrained on Essence, it made sense to unlock them to give himself more options. If he split the right side of his Fate Wheel into two sections, there would be the top section branching off from the tier one ability Inner Strength and the bottom section that branched off from the tier one ability Impact. Between the two section, he had mostly focused on the bottom one, but he did unlock both the tier two abilities in the top section. But out of the tier three abilities he had revealed all four but only unlocked two, and which were Enhanced vitality and Iron Skin, as opposed to the bottom section where he had unlocked all four abilities.


    The other two tier three abilities were Iron Stomach and Body Boost. Body Boost allowed him to temporarily boost his body¡¯s abilities, while Iron Stomach increased allowed him to digest food easier as well as be slightly more resistant to toxins. Both were fine abilities, but what he really wanted was the options revealed by them, and after unlocking them he had a whole slew of interesting tier four options. But at this point he was down to only 1,800 Essence, so instead of immediately making a decision on what to unlock he took his time pondering his options as he ran across the blasted plains.

 Chapter 33

    The options Tormacc had in his Fate Wheel kept on growing, as with each new ability he unlocked, two new ones would be revealed. He never though he was decidophobic, in fact he prided himself on his ability to make decisions, but looking at all his options he had to admit that at least a small part of him was feeling overwhelmed. There were just too many options; and even if the options themselves weren¡¯t intimidating, he had to think about their implications for future abilities he could unlock.


    To give an example, let¡¯s say he was debating between unlocking ability X and ability Y. Both abilities would be useful in different situations and he could only unlock one with his current Essence. Of course, he could always come back in the future and unlock the other ability, but Essence was a limited resource, and his Fate Wheel was growing quickly enough that he realized he was never going to unlock all the abilities he wanted to. So in this imaginary scenario he had two choices: ability X and ability Y.


    On the surface, that¡¯s exactly what the choice was; it was him choosing between two abilities. But was that really true? Suppose he took the equation one step further. Let¡¯s say he was leaning towards unlocking ability X as it would be useful in 30% of situations, while ability Y would only be useful in 25% of situations. It should be a straightforward comparison, but let¡¯s add something else to the equation: ability Z, which is one of the abilities revealed by ability Y.


    Ability Z is a godlike ability. It¡¯s incredibly powerful, and would benefit him in 75% of situations. In this imaginary scenario Tormacc doesn¡¯t currently have the Essence to unlock it, but if he knew it was there he would start saving for it immediately: it¡¯s just that powerful. The problem is, to get access to ability Z, he first needs ability Y, but since he doesn¡¯t know that ability Z exists, with the information he has unlocking ability X is the better option.


    In this scenario ability X is a solid choice, but as the abilities it reveals are not particularly amazing with perfect information ability Y is actually the better option, as it gets him to ability Z the fastest. This is only an imaginary scenario, and if he were only deciding between a small number of abilities he likely could successfully navigate his way through. But as his Fate Wheel keeps growing, the implications of his skills keep snowballing, each decision having a myriad of far reaching ripples potentially changing the landscape of his Fate Wheel, and in the extreme, maybe even costing him his life by leaving him stuck without an ability that would have saved him if he had it unlocked.


    It made him understand why Kaz Ehen created a shop in the First City instead of adventuring into the Shards. From what the bear-man alluded to in their conversations he was a powerful fighter, but even someone of his stature couldn¡¯t guarantee his life in the Shards, so he chose the safe route: opening a shop in the First City and selling services to make money to buy spheres and earn Essence that way. It was similar to the guards working in the city, except their pay came directly from the city itself. Tormacc never pictured himself longing for that kind of danger-free lifestyle, but he would be lying if he said he couldn¡¯t see the appeal.


    But he was Tormacc, and he wouldn¡¯t falter before such paltry pressure. He couldn¡¯t conquer anything by lamenting over his decisions.


    Coming back to the issue at hand, he organized his thoughts, trying to divorce himself from his ego and think about things logically. When looking at the abilities themselves it was hard to do that, so he started with something at bit more abstract: numbers. Math wasn¡¯t his strong suit, but even he could figure out that with only 1,800 Essence left to spend the highest tier ability he could unlock was a tier seven for 1,000 Essence. So he decided to start there, as if he unlocked lower tier abilities first he could lose the option of a tier seven one.


    Part of him didn¡¯t want to look, but he couldn¡¯t help but examine the four new tier seven options he had just revealed by unlocking Flash Step and Quick Reflexes. Glancing over them, he couldn¡¯t help but drool. They were all powerful, and looking at them made him have second thoughts about devoting Essence to abilities in the top branch of the right side of his Fate Wheel.


    First were the two revealed by Flash Step, Greater Flash Step and Instant Acceleration. The first was self-explanatory, merely giving him an upgrade to Flash Step, both increasing the distance he could travel and increasing how often he could use it. The one he was more interested in was Instant Acceleration. It was hard to know what the ability truly did without unlocking it, but his Description skill told him that is enabled him to reach max acceleration instantaneously once activated.


    If that were the case, the skill was unbelievable powerful. When moving, there would always be some buildup time. Physics couldn¡¯t be overcome that easily, no matter how strong or fast you were. But with this skill he could overcome that, allowing him to either run away faster or close the distance on his opponent quicker than he would otherwise be able to. And that wasn¡¯t event considering if he could use the skill to speed up one of his attacks. He could imagine a situation where he swung his hammer only to have it blocked by his opponent. With Instant Acceleration, he could immediately execute another full power attack with zero windup time.If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    As reality breaking as the skill was though, he wasn¡¯t even sure it was the most powerful out of the four new revealed skills. The two revealed skills from Quick Reflexes were Hurricane Strike and Instinctual Parry. Hurricane Strike was an active skill that allowed him to strike rapidly in quick succession, but it was the other skill that he was awed by. Instinctual Parry did as the name suggested, allowing his body to move on instinct to parry what would otherwise be a life-threatening attack. There seemed to be a long cooldown time after the skill activated, but that didn¡¯t matter if the skill did its job.


    There were a lot of skills he wanted to unlock, but the more he thought it over the more he realized that Instinctual Parry was a must-have. He was bound to slip up at some point, and a skill that could save his life was invaluable. And that wasn¡¯t even mentioning his penchant for getting in over his head. He probably needed more defensive skills anyway, so ignoring other tier seven options, like his other recent unlocks and Encapsulated Vitality, he spent the 1,000 Essence to unlock Instinctual Parry, bringing him down to only 800 Essence.


    With only 800 Essence left he could unlock a tier six ability and still have Essence left for a few other low tier abilities, but looking over his tier six options nothing stuck out to him, so he turned his attention back to the top branch of his Fate Wheel and his tier four options.


    There were three that he liked: Strength Boost, which was one of the ones revealed by Body Boost, and the two abilities revealed by Iron Skin, Block and Force Absorption. Tier four abilities only cost 100 Essence, so he ultimately decided to unlock all three, bringing him down to 500 Essence. None of the abilities were amazing, which was to be expected of lower-tier abilities, but they were solid at worst.


    Strength Boost gave him yet another passive boost to his strength while Block allowed him to fully block an attack, completely negating its effects. Force Absorption was the most interesting, as it allowed him to dissipate some of the force he received from attacks. It would do little against slashing or piercing damage, but against blunt force it was very useful. It would also help him when parrying attacks, as he would recover that little bit faster as he had to deal with stopping less momentum from the attack.


    There were six new tier five options revealed by his newly-unlocked abilities, and he took some time to look them over. Block revealed Parry and Shield Bash. Parry was similar to Block, but while Block was better suited for use with a shield, Parry was more suited for use with a weapon. Shield Bash did as the name said, but since it required a shield to use it wasn¡¯t something on his radar at the moment.


    Force absorption revealed Stand Firm and Force Redirection. He had high hopes for the two abilities Force Absorption would reveal, but he was a little disappointed. Stand Firm allowed him to avoid being knocked back by an attack, while Force Redirection allowed him to redirect incoming force somewhere else. Both were useful, but they were a bit narrow in scope, so not really options he was considering. On the other hand, the two abilities revealed by Strength Boost he was much happier with.


    They were Muscle Enhancement and Bone Compression. Muscle Enhancement gave his muscles better bang for their buck, while Bone Compression increased his bone density, making his bones stronger. They were basic abilities, but his physical body was the basic of everything, and he knew not to underestimate such small boosts when enough were stacked on top of each other. He was only as strong as his body, and boosting his base specs was definitely worthwhile.


    He only had 500 Essence left to spend, and after some debate he decided to just unlock Muscle Enhancement and Bone Compression. He had 100 Essence left after that, which he wasn¡¯t sure where to spend. There was some merit to saving it, but he had some Essence still saved in his pool for his daily tax, and every ability he didn¡¯t unlock was one that he wouldn¡¯t have access to in a sticky situation.


    With that in mind, he decided to unlock the other tier four ability revealed by Body Boost, which was Adrenaline Surge. It was a kind of berserk ability, giving him a surge in strength which was followed by an intense period of weakness. He didn¡¯t want to ever be forced into a situation where he had to trust in a skill like that, but there might be times where he needed the immediate power. Any skill that left him weakened was a liability, but right now he might not have any other option than to rely on such a skill, as he didn¡¯t have confidence to straight up overpower everything that came his way. It was between that and Read the Flow, and while better combat senses were useful, the power offered by Adrenaline Surge seemed the better option to cover his bases in a crisis. He was confident in his abilities, but there was a difference between that and overconfidence; one could get him killed while the other would help him bring out his full power.


    Going back over the new abilities he had just unlocked, he could understand why people tried to ambush others. The Essence he gained from one battle was more than he could farm from Stone Giants in a month. But it came at a steep price: danger. Despite the gains, he would much prefer to stay far away from the knife¡¯s edge he had to navigate to win the battle against that deranged swordsman.


    He knew he still had a long way to go to truly feel prepared for every eventuality, but he was moving forward, even if it was only a few Essence at a time. Winning battles was important, but the true winner was he who won the war.

 Chapter 34

    Tormacc and Athra spent three days moving away from their previous location before they went back to killing Stone Giants. Most of the skills Tormacc unlocked weren¡¯t that helpful for killing the giants, but every little bit helped, and between the two of them they were usually able to kill at least seven or eight monsters in a day. Compared to his time killing rats the Essence gain much smaller, but he didn¡¯t feel like complaining. Not only was his current pace safe, but he also had a companion to talk to. Athra wasn¡¯t the best conversation partner, but even when she didn¡¯t talk her presence filled a void that Tormacc didn¡¯t know existed.


    It was small things, like how her face would freeze when she was confused by something he said. It was difficult to read her facial expressions, but he was getting better, as the weeks went by the two of them established a comradery built on mutual respect. Though neither of them would have admitted it, it was lonely to fight monsters by yourself. Having another person there to talk to helped pass the time, even with the cultural barriers that sometimes cropped up.


    A month passed by like that, during which three pieces of loot dropped, with the first one going to Athra. The second one, which was Tormacc¡¯s, was only a White Crystal, which was disappointing, but he was hoping the fourth loot drop would be more useful. Athra didn¡¯t speak up about what she got, but judging by her facial expressions, or the lack thereof, he thought she only got White Crystals too. It was disappointing, but not unexpected. It was rare to come across swarms of weaker monsters like the stone rats he had fought before. Most monsters were individually strong, meaning it was hard to kill them en masse.


    From talking to Athra, he found out that his weakness was what had saved him when fighting the stone rats. Athra had run into them herself in the past, but immediately the big boss rat had shown up, forcing her to retreat for fear of her life. The boss rat had likely not considered him a threat when he was first fighting the rats, meaning he was able to kill a greater number of them. The rats only had the intelligence of a small child, and because Tormacc started out so weak, the rats hadn¡¯t truly considered him a threat until he had killed thousands of them.


    It was similar to how you could boil a frog alive. The frog wouldn¡¯t realize the temperature was slowly being raised, and before it realized, it was too late. It was likely a similar story with the rats. The boss rat didn¡¯t perceive Tormacc as a threat, and because of that, he was given time to power up, eventually killing more rats than someone like Athra, who was immediately perceived as a threat and met with a substantial amount of force.


    It was also his ignorance that had even given him the confidence to fight the rats. When he first told Athra about it she had looked at his askance, as if he was a crazy person with a death wish. It turned out that, from what Athra said, the more monsters there were in a group, the scarier they were. If a bunch of weak monsters were running around waiting to be killed it would break the balance of The Tower, as whoever killed them would gain thousands of Essence and, more importantly, numerous loot drops.


    Thankfully he had survived the experience, but once again it hammered home the importance of proper information and taking things slow and steady. He had a feeling that his previous experiences fighting for his life wouldn¡¯t be his last, but that was no reason to seek out life-threatening battles.


    With Athra, he didn¡¯t have to worry about that. She was a steadying presence, and he couldn¡¯t picture her taking risks the same way he had been forced to. Even after spending a month with her he still felt that she hadn¡¯t laid all her cards on the table. It felt like if he chipped layers off her there would always be that new type of rock hidden underneath. Perhaps literally, as he had never seen her get injured.


    But their peaceful journey couldn¡¯t continue forever, and it was soon after they finished felling a Stone Giant that they two of them heard someone calling out to them.


    ¡°Hello! Excuse me, would you mind if I joined the two of you for a moment? I have a proposition that you might be interested in.¡±


    Immediately on guard, Tormacc zeroed in on the voice, peering through the dust to see who it was that called out to them. As the dust cleared from the Stone Giant falling settled down the speaker was revealed.


    She was a woman, her small frame seemingly out of place in the harsh environment of the Shard. She was short, and Tormacc thought she would barely reach his upper chest were they to stand next to each other. She had cropped, dark hair and fair skin, and were they anywhere else he wouldn¡¯t have classified her as a threat. But considering their present location, anyone who managed to look that non-threatening most certainly had something up her sleeves.


    After her opening line, the woman stood there, not coming any closer, acting like she was actually waiting for a response and was unwilling to spook them before that. Tormacc sidled over to Athra to discuss the strange woman, keeping her in his sight the whole way.


    ¡°Well,¡± he hissed to Athra, ¡°what do you think?¡±


    ¡°She is trouble,¡± Athra said, her voice taking on a timbre he had learned to associate with seriousness.Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.


    ¡°So we should run away then?¡±


    Athra paused, turning into a statue for a solid minute before finally answering ¡°No, is useless. We cannot outrun trouble. Trouble always catch up. We should talk. See what she wants. Maybe, trouble for others.¡±


    After the last time they discussed that if anyone else were to approach them Tormacc would do the talking, so after it was decided that they would hear the woman out Tormacc stepped forwards to mediate.


    ¡°If you truly have something you think we¡¯d like to hear we¡¯d welcome you to join us,¡± Tormacc said, slightly raising his voice to make sure he was heard.


    Taking that as an invitation to come closer the mystery woman walked over, her each step seeming to glide over the craggy ground, her gait not at all impeded by the rough terrain. As she moved closer, Tormacc got a better look at her. Unlike the previous trio they met, this woman looked as if she had merely stepped out for a stroll, her clothes and hair all in place with nothing to show she was living in an inhospitable land without basic amenities. She was wearing practical looking leather armor over well-cared for clothes, the only thing that hinted at her surroundings the dust on her knee-high black leather boots.


    When she finally arrived, Tormacc found himself staring into a pair of riveting yellow eyes. After an uncomfortably long time staring, he managed to tear his eyes away, taking in the rest of her face. From far away, she looked young, mostly because of her size and stature. But upon closer inspection, he thought she must have been nearing middle age, or at the very least be out of her twenties. There were small signs, like how her face hinted at wrinkles, but the biggest factor was her demeanor. Right now it was his job to meet her at the negotiating table, and from her presence, Tormacc already knew he was outmatched. This woman was used to being obeyed, and it showed in her whole body.


    ¡°It¡¯s a pleasure to meet you both, my name¡¯s Zedna.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m Tormacc, and this is Athra.¡± Athra merely nodded for the self-introduction, choosing to silently evaluate the woman standing across from her.


    ¡°I¡¯ll not mince words,¡± Zedna said, getting straight to business. ¡°I¡¯m looking for a party to join, as I need help with something I¡¯m not sure I can do on my own, and I¡¯m hoping that you two will be able to help me.¡±


    ¡°Forgive me for being blunt,¡± Tormacc said, ¡°but why should we trust you? You came out of nowhere, seemingly seeking us out. How do we know you aren¡¯t trying to lead us into an ambush?¡±


    ¡°Do either of you have a skill that can determine truth from lies?¡± Zedna asked.


    After a quick glance at Athra Tormacc shook his head. He certainly didn¡¯t have one, and while he didn¡¯t think Athra did either, if she did, she hadn¡¯t told him about it.


    ¡°That¡¯s a shame, that would have made things much easier,¡± Zedna said. ¡°How about you both hear me out first? For what I have in mind I need your willing cooperation. Getting that would have been easier with a lie detection skill, but perhaps we can still come to an understanding without one.¡±


    Athra stomped her foot on the ground, and a table and three chair popped up right next to them.


    ¡°You can say what you want,¡± Athra said. ¡°We will listen.¡±


    Tormacc was kind of annoyed that after they had decided on him doing the talking Athra took over like that, but he sat down anyway, waiting for Zedna to start speaking.


    ¡°I¡¯ve been on this Shard for over ten years,¡± Zedna said, starting her story. ¡°It¡¯s hell. The first few years were manageable, but the first time you run out of food you realize that your life is no longer in your own hands. I did what I had to to survive, and as of recently I was the leader of my own group. Some would call us bandits, but really, what choice did we have? It was either resort to robbery or starve. I believe you¡¯ve met some of the members of my gang a few weeks back.¡±


    Tormacc bristled, adrenaline surging through him as he readied himself for combat. But both Zedna and Athra stayed calm, and he had to force himself to unclench his hand from his hammer as Zedna continued speaking.


    ¡°I was forced to start the gang to survive,¡± Zedna continued. ¡°We relied on numbers to hunt down others and steal their rations. But over time our group grew, and recently, because of a few different events, I no longer found myself in full control of the group. I was not a benevolent leader, and I knew that as soon as the other factions gathered enough people they would come for my head. To preempt that, I decided to leave early, which is why I¡¯m here, talking to you two.¡±


    Zedna paused for a moment, sweeping over both of them with her eyes before continuing.


    ¡°I won¡¯t lie; I¡¯m not a good person, but right now I¡¯m in need of some trustworthy teammates. And while I¡¯m vicious to my enemies, I¡¯m loyal to those on my side. Part of the reason I¡¯m here is that most of my trustworthy subordinates were killed when they attacked someone they shouldn¡¯t have, which is partly why I need to find a new party. But that¡¯s not the main reason I looked for you two. Do either of you know where the exit portal is?¡±


    ¡°We don¡¯t,¡± Tormacc said. He and Athra had actually discussed that very thing a few days ago.


    ¡°I do,¡± Zedna said. ¡°More than that, I have a way to guide us directly to it. The problem lies in its location, which is where the two of you come in.¡±


    ¡°Why do you need us?¡± Tormacc said. ¡°You mentioned you had trustworthy teammates before, so why didn¡¯t you look for the exit portal with them?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t need both of you, only her,¡± Zedna said, pointing at Athra.


    ¡°Why me?¡± Athra asked in her stony voice.


    ¡°If I¡¯m not mistaken, you have an inborn Stonebending ability,¡± Zedna probed.


    ¡°I am of Great Rock,¡± Athra said proudly, as if that statement carried some great weight. Tormacc knew Athra was very proud of her Great Rock, but he never seemed to be able to get out of her what it was exactly.


    ¡°That¡¯s why I need your help. You see those mountains?¡± Zedna said, pointing at the mountains that rose far in the distance on the other side of the rising plateaus.


    ¡°You mean the portal is on the other side of the mountains?¡± Tormacc asked.


    ¡°That¡¯s right.¡±


    ¡°You need me to get over the mountains,¡± Athra said, sounding sure of her statement.


    ¡°I do,¡± Zedna admitted. ¡°I don¡¯t think I can do it by myself. I need someone to help navigate them with me.¡±


    ¡°Are the mountains really that dangerous?¡± Tormacc asked.


    Athra shot him a look he had learned to associate with a bigger rock looking at a smaller rock.


    ¡°They are death,¡± she said simply.


    Tormacc had spent a lot of time with Athra and, listening to how her voice resonated within his bones, he couldn¡¯t help but shiver in fear as he glanced at the seemingly innocuous looking mountains in the distance.

 Chapter 35

    The mountains seemed to go on forever, their vast crags and sheer cliffs the apex of the Shard, perfectly representing the terrain¡¯s brutality and austerity. Gregory didn¡¯t care. In fact, he found the walls of grey beautiful. It wasn¡¯t because he appreciated their stark lines and sharp edges. No, it was for a different reason entirely. He appreciated the mountains because of what lay on the other side.


    He had been in this blasted Shard for years, stuck wandering around, his food supplies dwindling at a steady pace that left him increasingly worried about what he would do once they ran out. He had somehow managed to miss the last time the exit portal moved, being otherwise occupied with clearing out a rat¡¯s nest underground. He had tried asking others where the portal had moved to, but the only thing he got out of them was that the exit portal was located on the other side of the mountains. For some reason they always seemed to die before telling him anything else.


    But all of that didn¡¯t matter now. He didn¡¯t need others to tell him where it was anyway; he was a genius, after all. It had taken hundreds of thousands of Essence but he finally unlocked an ability that could direct him to the exit portal. He had heard tell of items that could do a similar thing, but they were rare, rare enough that he hadn¡¯t gone through the trouble to find one before coming to the Shard, something which filled him with endless regret in the past.


    He was past that now, his mind only focused on the goal in front of him: climb the mountains, find the portal, and leave the Shard. He had started the climb weeks ago, and now he was finally nearing the final ridge. Once he passed that, he would officially be on the other side. Of course, he would still have a long way to go, needing to climb down to where the portal was, but it was progress. And at this point, any progress was worth celebrating.


    He really needed to thank those bandits that had attacked him a month ago. He had approached them to ask for directions, but communications had broken down when they suddenly attacked him. Well, to be fair, he was planning on doing the same thing, but still, it irked him that they were able to get in the first blow. Not that it mattered in the end, although because of their sneak attack one did get away, presumably scurrying back to whatever shithole they called a base.


    Because of their surprise attack he hadn¡¯t been able to ask for directions, but it didn¡¯t matter, as they had been surprisingly rich in Essence, giving him the last few thousand that ultimately ended up with him unlocking the ability to sense the direction of the exit portal. It was partly because of his good mood that he let the last one get away. He was going to leave the Shard soon anyway, so what did it matter if one measly bandit escaped to report back to their leader?


    Lost in his thoughts, Gregory approached the ridge, only a few steps left before he could see what lay beyond. The closer he got, the faster his heart beat, excitement overwhelming him and causing his palms to sweat. Finally he could get out of this dusty, desolate landscape.


    He never saw what lay on the other side. Just a few footsteps away from the crest he put his foot down, expecting solid ground. There was only air, and, eyes still fixed on the ridge in front of him, he plummeted like a stone, rapidly falling into the large hole that opened up below his feet. Quickly snapping back to reality, he attempted to activate a skill, trying to fly back up out of the hole. But just as his attempts to fly over the mountains had been met with failure, so too were his attempts to get out of the hole, the gravity of the mountain range too strong.


    He howled in anger, cursing whatever monster had created the trap he blindly walked into. He swore his revenge, planning to decimate their numbers before climbing back out. Hours later, the tunnel that he fell into slowly closed over, the stone around the lip flowing back to once more form solid ground, leaving no sign left of the person who had once attempted to scale the mountain range.


    ¡°She¡¯s right,¡± Zedna said. ¡°The mountains are by far the most dangerous location in the Shard.¡±


    ¡°Couldn¡¯t we just go around them, then?¡± Tormacc asked. ¡°Unless they divide the Shard in two?¡±


    ¡°No, they have an end,¡± Zedna said. ¡°But while I called them the most dangerous location, that¡¯s because of their size. There are two different zones on either side of the mountains, which are true death zones. The mountains themselves wouldn¡¯t be that dangerous if it weren¡¯t for their sheer size. While the danger level doesn¡¯t compare to the zones on either end, it only takes one slip up for death to come creeping in. And when it takes weeks to cross the mountains, the chances of something untoward happening skyrocket.¡±


    ¡°If they¡¯re that dangerous I don¡¯t see why we would agree to your request,¡± Tormacc said. ¡°You want us to form a party with you and traverse the mountains, right? That sounds like a one-way trip to an early grave.¡±


    ¡°Which is why I didn¡¯t try and cross them before,¡± Zedna said, crossing her arms. ¡°I¡¯m confident in my strength, but I don¡¯t have the skills needed to deal with the threats I would face.¡±Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.


    She then gestured to Athra.


    ¡°That¡¯s where you come in. If I¡¯m right, you should have some sort of rock sense?¡±


    ¡°I do,¡± Athra admitted. ¡°But mountains, they are death. Is not yet time for me to meet Great Rock. Still much time left, things to do.¡±


    ¡°Athra¡¯s right,¡± Tormacc said. ¡°I¡¯m all for leaving this Shard, but neither of us has any desire to risk our lives to do so. They portal will move eventually, so we just need to wait until then.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s what I told myself too,¡± Zedna said with a sigh. ¡°If only it was that easy. The Portal only moved a few years ago, meaning it will likely stay put for the immediate future. Perhaps Athra can survive without food, but how much do you have stocked up? Maybe enough until the exit portal moves, but who¡¯s to say it will move to this side of the mountains?¡±


    Tormacc didn¡¯t really want to listen to Zedna¡¯s argument, but she did have a point. He had prepared many years¡¯ worth of food, but it would run out eventually. Athra would be fine; he had confirmed with her that she didn¡¯t actually need to eat. This was actually the perfect environment for her, as she subsisted off of earth elemental energy, which this Shard had in spades.


    But even if the argument made sense for his situation, and he was beginning to realize it did, this wasn¡¯t about him.


    ¡°That all may be true,¡± Tormacc said, ¡°but I¡¯m not who you need to be convincing.¡±


    ¡°Is true,¡± Athra said. ¡°No matter how fast rock roll downhill, is useless if it misses target.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m willing to pay,¡± Zedna said. ¡°I don¡¯t expect you to help me for free. And even if you want to stay longer in this Shard, you can do that just as easily on the other side of the mountains next to the exit portal. As good as this Shard may be for you, I suspect you will want to leave eventually.¡±


    ¡°Money has no value to dead.¡±


    Zedna fell into thought for a moment before speaking again.


    ¡°So can I confirm that it¡¯s not that you both don¡¯t want to cross the mountains, but you don¡¯t think you can do so safely?¡±


    Tormacc and Athra nodded.


    ¡°Going off of that, would you be willing to join me if I could prove to you I have the strength necessary to guide us over the mountains? I, too, would like to stay alive, and I wouldn¡¯t be suggesting this if I wasn¡¯t confident in succeeding.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m willing to hear you out,¡± Tormacc said, ¡°but unless you can clearly demonstrate that it¡¯s completely safe, we¡¯re unwilling to make the trip.¡±


    ¡°Nothing is completely safe,¡± Zedna said. ¡°If you are only looking for safety you should just stay in First City.¡±


    ¡°Fair point, but the sentiment still remains.¡±


    ¡°Then let me lay it out for you,¡± Zedna said. ¡°There are a few main reasons the mountains are so dangerous. Athra, I assume you¡¯ve at least stepped foot on them?¡±


    ¡°I have. Many monsters, combined with weight of rock pressing down, it is dangerous place. Not safe for even big rock.¡±


    ¡°What do you mean rock pressing down?¡± Tormacc asked


    ¡°Gravity,¡± Zedna replied. ¡°Didn¡¯t you wonder why someone couldn¡¯t just fly over the mountains? While flight is possible in other parts of the Shard, as soon as you try and fly over the mountains you come crashing back to earth. While the gravity is bearable close to the ground, as soon as you get even a body-length up it¡¯s impossible to ascend higher.¡±


    He had actually been wondering about that very thing. Since the Shard was earth-based, there were no flying enemies. After seeing how the bandit Athra was fighting had been able to fly, he had briefly pictured himself soaring through the sky, peppering Stone Giants with attacks from outside their range. When he mentioned the idea to Athra she had told him that the Stone Giants could likely throw boulders at airborne enemies, which grounded his plans of an air assault before they even took off. Thinking about it more, he was na?ve for thinking the Shard would have no response to those with the ability to fly.


    ¡°The intense gravity is the first challenge climbers must face,¡± Zedna said, continuing with her lecture. ¡°Not only does it severely limit mobility, but it makes people attempting to pass over the mountains face the monsters directly, which is a problem considering the strength of the Stone Wurms.¡±


    ¡°What kind of monsters are they?¡± Tormacc asked.


    ¡°Large,¡± Athra grunted. ¡°And mean. Stone Giants, they don¡¯t attack first. That not true for Wurms. They smell blood, go after prey.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s not the worst part,¡± Zedna said. ¡°The problem is their ability to swim freely in solid stone, meaning there are no safe areas in the mountains. Every piece of ground could suddenly turn into a Stone Wurm, ready to swallow you whole.¡±


    Listening to Zedna talk, Tormacc was becoming more and more convinced going anywhere near the mountains was a bad idea. He already had some experience dealing was a monster that could assault him from within solid stone, and from what it sounded like, these Stone Wurms were one hundred times worse than the boss stone rat. And he couldn¡¯t even retreat to the sky as he had to evade the rats.


    ¡°I fail to see the part where we would be safe setting foot in the mountains,¡± Tormacc said, frowning. ¡°Everything you¡¯re saying only makes this seem like a worse idea that I thought it was before.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re right to be cautious of the danger,¡± Zedna said. ¡°Alone, I¡¯m sure you wouldn¡¯t last a week. But the Stone Wurms are only dangerous if they are able to ambush you. As long as I have someone with the ability to sense the wurms, like Athra, I can deal with them before they can attack us.¡±


    ¡°You talk good talk,¡± Athra said. ¡°Reasoning is sound. I point out Wurms, you kill Wurms. But is not that simple. Wurms, they are hard to kill, like very big rock. Big rock is hard, has many layers. Need strength to destroy rock.¡±


    ¡°So you both agree that with Athra¡¯s stone sense we only have to worry about fighting the Stone Wurms, not finding them?¡± Zedna said, confirming her point before moving on. Seeing the other two nod in agreement, she stood up, turning to face the direction she came from.


    At first, Tormacc and Athra weren¡¯t sure what she was waiting for, but seeing her firm stance, they both stayed silent, waiting for her to continue. It didn¡¯t take long, with Athra the first to notice it through the ground, and Tormacc seeing the dust cloud a few minutes later. A large group was moving towards them.


    ¡°I figured a demonstration would be best to convince you both of my strength,¡± Zedna said, cracking her knuckles. ¡°And the best way to do that is with live targets. And since some flies insist on buzzing around, it only makes sense to use them to put on a little show.¡±

 Chapter 36

    Tormacc looked ahead, squinting his eyes to try and make out exactly who was making the large dust cloud that was steadily approaching them. As the sounds of the group¡¯s footsteps increased in volume he began to make out individuals through the dusty air. They were a ragged bunch, haggard looking even, with only a few exceptions. Connecting the dots, it wasn¡¯t hard to guess that the group of people were part of Zedna¡¯s gang. Spotting the member who had attacked them previously cemented his guess.


    From what Zedna had said before, he intuited that she didn¡¯t leave on amicable terms. But seeing the unruly mob thundering towards them he suspected he had underestimated the situation. All that was missing were pitchforks and torches to complete the picture. He was really hoping all her bravado wasn¡¯t just bluster, as he had a feeling that if Zedna fell to her gang he and Athra would be next on the chopping block. But it was too late to run now, so all they could do was sit back and watch the show.


    The group of people ended up stopping a fair bit away. Close enough that they could easily engage in battle, but, as if both sides agreed on it beforehand, they were far enough away they could talk without either side feeling immediately threatened. It was as if they were right before an imaginary line. Any farther, and Zedna would have attacked. But as they stopped short of the line, she seemed content to hear out her former gang members.


    There were three main groups, each with around ten people for a grand total of thirty-one. Each group had their own leader and as one they all stepped forward, clearly illustrating the power dynamic and differentiating them from the rabble behind them, although the distinction was rather clear at first glance, as those three were the only ones with even a hint of cleanliness. Zedna look on calmly, seemingly not at all intimidated by the killing intent flooding her way. As if to drive home how at ease she was, she took some kind of nut out of her pocket before popping it into her mouth and chewing on it slowly, her languid stance oozing arrogance.


    ¡°Well, well,¡± she said, ¡°I guess I¡¯ll be getting my going away party after all.¡±


    ¡°You know why we¡¯re here,¡± Henry said, the only one out of the three leaders not shooting Zedna a death stare. ¡°You could have left quietly, but instead you chose to empty out the treasury before leaving. That loot belongs to the gang, not to you, and we¡¯re here to retrieve it.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s right,¡± Nurmin, one of the other leaders, said. ¡°You¡¯ve been actin¡¯ all high and mighty as of late, and Otto I thought we¡¯d bring you down a peg. You¡¯ve been takin¡¯ advantage of us all for too long.¡±


    Otto, the third leader, chose to stay silent, his pointed teeth arranged in what would have been a smile on anyone else, but on him just intensified the aura of slaughter he was radiating. His group was the mangiest of the lot, the others at least pretending to still be civilized folk, while those arrayed behind him had a stink about them that Tormacc could smell all the way over where he was standing, the smell of the group permeating the area with the stench of unwashed bodies and other more pungent smells.


    ¡°There¡¯s no need for violence,¡± Henry said, taking the lead back from the Nurmin. ¡°We¡¯re all peaceful folk here. I¡¯m sure we can resolve this without bloodshed. All you need to do is return with us to the base where we can discuss the distribution of the wealth like the reasonable people we are.¡±


    Tormacc wasn¡¯t sure who Henry thought he was fooling, but looking at the glint in his eye, it was obvious why he was doing the speaking, his intellect clearly on another level from the other two. After a few months Tormacc had a feeling that if Henry had his way there would once again be only a single leader of the gang, the other two suffering mysterious stab wounds in the night of underminable origin.


    ¡°Nurmin and Otto I can understand,¡± Zedna said, her voice calm and even, ¡°but I expected more of you, Henry. I was hoping you especially would be smart enough to let bygones be bygones, but here you all are, a measly group of thirty-one people all seeking their death. I believe I mentioned quite a few times that if you ever wanted to kill me you would need to bring the whole gang. Yet another thing it seems I failed to teach you.¡±


    She shook her head, a tsk tsk sound coming from her mouth, to all the world appearing like a mother lecturing her disobedient children, the aura she projected completely at odds with the reality of the situation. Tormacc wasn¡¯t sure how she did it. Even if she was confident in her strength, being stared down by a group of bloodthirsty bandits should make anyone tense up, but somehow she seemed even more relaxed then when she was talking to them earlier, if that was even possible.


    Truth be told, this wasn¡¯t the first coupe Zedna had faced, only the most recent. The only difference this time was that she was alone in facing the opposition as opposed to being backed up by her loyal cadre of followers. But since most of them were dead now, she had decided to call it quits, exiting stage left and giving Henry, Nurmin, and Otto the chance to preserve their lives.Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    Nurmin and Otto were rather dim, or at least not capable of organizing a party to chase her down after the chaos she left the base in when she disappeared. Henry was the mastermind behind this little sortie, a guess backed up by Ravvik¡¯s presence in his group of followers, his testimony the only link she had to her current location. At her level it would be laughable is she was able to be tracked, but the traces left by Athra and Tormacc were another story.


    Zedna¡¯s speech about giving them a chance wasn¡¯t just for show. Because of how she laid out the base it would have been easy for her to cause a massacre before she left, cleaning up the loose ends. But she chose not to, some small amount of sentimental feeling holding her back. Of course, the fact that Henry and the others interpreted her mercy for weakness meant her compassion was for naught. She didn¡¯t mind leaving them alive once, but twice was more than they deserved for plotting to kill her.


    Henry started speaking again, his malice barely hidden behind flowery words, but Zedna tuned him out. She didn¡¯t need to listen to the words of a dead man. It truly was a shame though. She had high hopes for Henry and had been grooming him for one of the positions of vice-captain before she uncovered his true nature. Not only did he betray her trust once, but he also had the gall to chase after her, underestimating her strength, although he couldn¡¯t really be blamed for that. She had been very careful to always keep her true strength a secret.


    His was truly a tragic tale; he could have been the leader of the gang. She knew Nurmin and Otto¡¯s limits, and it would only be a matter of time for him to take over and replace her. But it was too late for that, and, noticing a slight shift in the stance of her former gang, she knew it was time to end this farce. Absentmindedly she took out a large piece of crystal from her storage item before activating a skill.


    Watching on, Tormacc could feel the tension building, the bandits clearly about to launch an attack. He prepared himself to run or fight, knowing either action was futile if Zedna were to fall. Even Athra would be helpless before a group that size, although she might have better luck running away. But just as he felt the tension peak, Henry¡¯s speech reaching the climax, he went blind, his eyes burned out from a light multiple times brighter than the sun.


    His first reaction was panic. Then the screams came, and he realized it was his side that made the first move. Falling into a light meditation, he focused his healing on his eyes, repairing the damage that had been done by the sudden burst of light. The screams only intensified, and in the few short seconds it took for him to get his vision back the fight was over.


    When Tormacc opened his healed eyes he was greeted by the sight of Zedna executing the last few members of the rebels, her body almost teleporting as she finished off the few survivors from her opening attack. When she launched her initial attack, he had been caught off guard, his attention on the now deceased bandits instead of Zenda, so he missed what she did. He now regretted that. It wasn¡¯t every day you could witness an expert in action, and since he was caught gaping, his vision was gone for all the good parts.


    Athra had been able to see more clearly, her vision not reliant on squishy sight organs like eyes. But still, even she had missed most of the action, Zedna¡¯s moves just too quick for her to properly catch.


    Zedna had activated one of her most powerful skills, one which called down a beam of light from the sky to fry her enemies. It was a powerful attack, with both a large area of effect, a decent range, and, the most important aspect, zero charge up time. But with so many upsides, there were bound to be some downsides. Normally the skill was weak, only useful for killing enemies that were weak to sunlight and fire. But that was where the crystal came in.


    This was a shithole Shard, and Zedna was powerful enough that she had other options when choosing a portal to enter. But it just so happened that she actually wanted to enter this Shard, and the reason for that was the crystal she had just used to superpower her skill.


    The crystal was called Sun Stone, and she had heard tales that it could be found in this Shard. Zedna was a close ranged assassin type fighter, but she had specced down a single path in the left side of her Fate Wheel, one that gave her access to powerful light-element attacks. With a supply of Sun Stone, she could drastically increase the power of her magic abilities, giving her access to powerful AOE abilities that she normally lacked. Her trip into the Shard was a success, with her securing a decent haul of Sun Stone, but the trouble came after that: she couldn¡¯t get to the exit portal.


    As the years went by she was forced to start a gang to gather food and make sure she could survive until she found a way to leave the Shard. As many members of her gang were the scum of The Tower there had been many times gang members had attempted a coupe. But because of both her close ranged combat skills and access to Sun Stone all their attempts ended similar to the most recent one: with failure.


    This was the last and final coupe, Athra the key Zedna needed to cross the mountains and leave the Shard. Actually, it was rather convenient that she was followed, the dirty traitors perfect for her to awe Tormacc and Athra with her might. Once she finished off the few survivors from her attack she glanced back at her hopefully soon-to-be party members.


    Athra was rather stoic, but Zedna wasn¡¯t sure if that was just because she couldn¡¯t read her rocky visage or if Athra really wasn¡¯t affect by the battle. Tormacc was looking on, mouth agape, somehow having recovered his sight rather quickly. That was a decent surprise. Zedna only really needed Athra for her Stonebending abilities, but it would be in bad taste to refuse her party member, so any evidence that he wouldn¡¯t be just extra baggage for her to keep track of was a welcome surprise. It would look bad if she allowed party members to die under her protection after all. Unless it was intentional of course, but that was a different story entirely.


    Satisfied with her display of strength, Zedna quickly looted the corpses before making her way back over, ready to resume negotiations, this time almost assured of her success.

 Chapter 37

    ¡°Sorry about that,¡± Zedna said, walking back over to join the other two. ¡°Just some trash that needed to be taken out. I do hope it can serve as a small demonstration of my abilities.¡±


    If that¡¯s small, what¡¯s large? Tormacc thought to himself. He hadn¡¯t trusted Zedna before, and he didn¡¯t trust her now, but one thing did change after the battle: he was now one hundred percent certain that if she wanted him dead he would die, maybe without even knowing what killed him.


    Frowning internally, he thought back to their previous conversation. Hopefully he was properly respectful. Judging from the contents of their earlier talk, Zedna only needed Athra to help her cross the mountains; he was just extra baggage. So far, she seemed to treat them as a pair, but as soon as that stopped being the case he could be in trouble.


    ¡°Oh, and here¡¯s a gift,¡± Zedna said, laying the storage devices she just looted from the dead bandits on the table. ¡°Think of it as a token of my goodwill. This little bit of wealth is useless to me, but it might be useful to the both of you. Of course, there will still be proper payment once we cross the mountains.¡±


    Tormacc and Athra shared a look, both a bit flummoxed by the current situation. In the span of a few minutes they went from talking to someone who they suspected might be suicidal to talking to a supreme expert who held their lives in her hands. It was a surreal experience, and Tormacc suspected he had never before been forced to change his opinion of someone so drastically in such a short period of time.


    Hesitantly, Athra reached out and picked up a storage ring, inspecting what was inside it. One by one, she looked through them, her pace slow and deliberate. Tormacc was itching to inspect them too, but he let Athra have free reign, the recent revelation about Zedna¡¯s power making him think twice about touching what might be a gift for Athra alone. After what seemed like hours, but was only minutes, Athra wordlessly picked out half of the storage devices and slid them in front of him.


    Taking this as a sign, he quickly swiped them off the stone table and into a bag before turning back to Zedna, ready to resume negotiations. The sharing of loot was a clear sign that Athra still viewed him as her companion, and as such, he was part of the negotiations too. He had been afraid she might ditch him and instead hug Zedna¡¯s leg by herself, but thankfully she seemed willing to let him join in on her good fortune.


    ¡°You¡¯ve certainly demonstrated your power,¡± Tormacc said, restarting the negotiations. Athra really should have taken over since she was the primary party being courted, but while Zedna might not be able to read Athra¡¯s expression, Tormacc could, and right now she was, to quote, ¡°like a small rock meeting Great Rock for first time¡±. It was best he spoke up until she could recover her faculties. In fact, he suspected that she had been sorting through the storage devices on autopilot, not truly conscious of her actions.


    ¡°I won¡¯t lie,¡± Tormacc said, taking a serious tone. ¡°With how the both of you have described the mountains, I thought there was a low chance of your offer actually being sincere. But in light of recent events, I¡¯ve changed my mind, and I think Athra agrees with me. ¡°


    ¡°That¡¯s good to hear,¡± Zedna said, a cheeky smile on her face. ¡°So does that mean you accept my offer?¡±


    ¡°Can you go over the terms again?¡± Since Athra was still in shock, he was stuck buying time. And besides, it would be good to hear it again anyway, as before he hadn¡¯t been listening seriously.


    ¡°It¡¯s simple. I would like the two of you to temporarily form a party with me in order to cross the mountains. I¡¯ll be primarily responsible for fighting the Stone Wurms and Athra will be responsible for scouting for them and any other dangers the mountains contain. You¡¯ll be tasked with all of the support work. After we reach the other side I¡¯ll show the two of you where the exit portal is as a bonus and give payment for services rendered, and then we¡¯ll go our separate ways.¡±


    ¡°Just to confirm,¡± Tormacc said, ¡°you¡¯re positive you can kill the Stone Wurms?¡± Fighting monsters was very different than fighting people, especially as the Stone Wurms were likely to have a tough exterior, something most Humens weren¡¯t known for.


    ¡°I¡¯ve fought them before,¡± Zedna said. ¡°They¡¯re a tough opponent, but nothing I can¡¯t handle. The problem is finding safe areas to rest, which is what I need companions for. The mountains cover too large an area for me to cross them in one go without rest.¡±


    Hearing the details confirmed once again Tormacc felt the surrealness of the situation wash over him, his brain not quite sure how to process the information. It almost felt like a prank. But it was real, or as best he could tell Zedna was sincere in her request. Her story seemed sound, and besides, what use would she have to lie to them? If she wanted them dead, she could do it herself; that much was made abundantly clear from the recent fight. No, she seemed to want Athra¡¯s cooperation willingly, and he came along as a packaged deal.


    During this time, Athra was slowly recovering from her shock. It had been one thing after another, and as someone who normally took things slow and steady, the constant reevaluations she had been forced to make had caused her to momentarily fall into a fugue state. Unlike Tormacc, Athra was fine slowly accruing more Essence. She didn¡¯t feel herself under any pressure other than to keep ahead of the Essence tax. It was her nature and that of her people.This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.


    It made sense for a being made of rock who could live for hundreds of years. Looking at it one way, Athra and her people weren¡¯t truly alive in the traditional sense. They were more like a bundle of rock animated by energy. Not quite a golem, but somewhere in between that and a living being. But it wasn¡¯t just the shock of the situation, it was also the intense threat Athra felt that made her zone out, her mind in turmoil.


    This Shard was practically tailor-made for Athra. The only downside was that the Stone Giants were able to sense her presence due to their shared Stonebending abilities. But for others, there was little on this Shard of interest, which was why Athra was so shocked to find someone as strong as Zedna.


    While she didn¡¯t think she was the strongest person in the Shard, Athra could submerge herself underground, enabling her to preserve her life if she ran into anyone stronger. But Zedna wasn¡¯t just a bit stronger, and that worried her. She hadn¡¯t been completely honest with Tormacc, especially when they ran into the trio from Zedna¡¯s gang earlier. She could have defeated all three of them by herself, but she wanted to see if her new companion was worthy. He passed the test, and in the past month she had grown fond of him, looking at him like how a bigger rock looks at a smaller rock.


    But part of the reason she was comfortable approaching Tormacc in the first place was her confidence in fighting him off should he attempt to backstab her. With Zedna, that wasn¡¯t an option. Granted, Athra felt the same as Tormacc in that Zedna had no need to backstab them, as she could simple stab them from the front, but it was a cold comfort, the weight of being around someone who could easily kill her making her feel like a small rock again. She didn¡¯t like the feeling.


    Once she was finally able to calm the waves that had been assaulting her psyche Athra turned her attention outwards again, where she was met with two burning stares. Tormacc¡¯s was rather uncomfortable, looking at her like she made some social faux pas, his eyes urging her to correct it. Zedna¡¯s was calmer, but looking back into those yellow eyes, Athra once more felt just how small a rock she was in comparison.


    ¡°You were spaced out there for a moment,¡± Tormacc supplied helpfully, noticing how lost Athra was. He had tried to engage in small talk with Zedna, but there wasn¡¯t much else to say regarding her proposal without Athra¡¯s input, and he ended up floundering under her gaze, eventually lapsing into an uncomfortable silence, which ended up with both of them starting at Athra.


    ¡°Are you awake now?¡± Zedna asked. A part of her was impatient to get on with things, but she had waited for years already, what was another few minutes? And besides, it didn¡¯t seem like a good idea to rush someone make of rock.


    ¡°Yes, am awake now,¡± Athra said. ¡°You wanted to join Party, yes?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s correct,¡± Zedna said. ¡°I would like to temporarily join the two of you until we cross the mountains and reach the portal on the other side.¡±


    Athra sent Tormacc a questioning stare, trying to read his expression. She wasn¡¯t very good at that, but luckily he understood what she was silently asking, and nodded his assent.


    ¡°We agree,¡± Athra said, not mincing words. It may take time for her to make a decision, but once a boulder gets rolling, there is no stopping it. She would be a fool to not agree to Zedna¡¯s proposal, not only because of the benefits offered, but because of the consequences should she refuse. Zedna had been nothing but polite so far, but there was nothing to say she would stay that way if she didn¡¯t get what she wanted. Athra still hadn¡¯t forgotten that until very recently Zedna was the leader of a group of bandits.


    Zedna seemed a bit surprised to receive Athra¡¯s Party invite, but she soon accepted, and the duo became a trio.


    While Athra and Tormacc agreed to Zedna¡¯s proposal, there were still a lot of details to hash out, such as what formation they would use and how they should respond to a crisis. Zedna would be their primary fighting force, but that didn¡¯t mean Athra and Tormacc could slack off. In fact, far from it, as unless they carried some of their own weight the pressure from battle could easily become too much for Zedna to bear. And while she herself wouldn¡¯t be in danger, they might be.


    The planning passed by in a whirlwind, Zedna easily facilitating a good group dynamic that left everyone satisfied. Her years as a leader weren¡¯t for nothing, and it was obvious she knew how to cater to the interests of multiple parties at once, easily solving small disputes that had the potential to fester and become larger ones if left unchecked.


    The planning stage passed smoothly, but it wasn¡¯t without its hiccups. Or rather, some of the events that transpired as part of the planning stage almost caused Tormacc hiccups, so great was his surprise. He thought he knew Zedna¡¯s strength, but as he had missed most of the battle, if you could call a slaughter a real battle, he hadn¡¯t actually seen her in action. That changed when she insisted they do some practice runs on some Stone Giants to get their teamwork down.


    Needless to say, the Stone Giants didn¡¯t stand a chance. Tormacc almost forgot his role in the battle as he watched slack jawed as Zedna caved large chunks off a Stone Giant, large echoing booms ringing out as slabs of stone fell back to earth. Zedna had stressed that she was more of an assassin type, focusing more on speed and precision than raw strength, but he wouldn¡¯t have known that from watching her fight. Despite wielding large daggers Zedna¡¯s slashes created giant furrows along the giant¡¯s skin, her slices reaching much deeper than they should have considering the length of her weapons.


    Two days of planning later they set off towards the mountains, their preparations finally finished to Zedna¡¯s satisfaction. Tormacc was a little grumpy about her coming in and coopting their Party, but deep down he was more impressed than anything. There was a certain elegance to how she did things, and part of him wanted to take notes. He didn¡¯t have any plans to become a leader, but you never knew what the future would have in store, and he could already tell that he was growing immensely from watching her in action. Even if he got nothing else out of the trip learning from someone so experienced was a worthy reward in and of itself, and he made sure to absorb every drop of her knowledge she was willing to share.

 Chapter 38

    As soon as Tormacc crossed the boundary from the sea of plateaus to the mountains proper he could feel the change. The air was heavier, its weight pressing down on him, keeping his feet firmly planted on the ground. It felt like his clothes had increased in weight five times over, the once soft fibers now rough on his skin as if they were homespun hemp as opposed to softer, well-woven cotton. It was a drastic change, and while he knew it was coming, he didn¡¯t expect it to come so abruptly. Or be so powerful. It was one thing hearing about the increased gravity, but dealing with it was another. Even breathing was harder, his lungs working overtime to keep oxygen flowing through his blood.


    ¡°We¡¯ll be relying on you Athra from here on out,¡± Zedna said, her voice striking that perfect balance between calm and serious. Her voice made you realize that you should pay attention to what was being said as it was deathly important, but also that the person speaking was in control of the situation so there was no need to panic.


    ¡°I know. Will look. Right now, no wurms.¡±


    ¡°There shouldn¡¯t be any this close to the border. Shouldn¡¯t being the key word. The Stone Wurms are similar to the stone rats we just avoided in intelligence, so we can¡¯t take anything for granted when facing them.¡±


    Hearing Zedna mention the stone rats, Tormacc couldn¡¯t help a shiver of fear from washing over him, causing him to break out in goosebumps. During their trip through the plateaus Athra had told them they were heading towards the lair of a stone rat horde. When Zedna decisively chose to make a rather long detour Tormacc asked her why they didn¡¯t just fight their way through. Her response told him exactly how close had been to death when he had run into them before.


    ¡°Fight the stone rats?¡± Zedna had said. ¡°Maybe if there were twenty of me. Those buggers are tenacious little bastards, and despite them being walking bundles of Essence I suggest you run the other way at first sight. There¡¯s never just one stone rat, and when they gather in numbers, there¡¯s little they can¡¯t devour alive. Especially if they have more than one boss rat among them. I should mention that I wasn¡¯t the original leader of the gang. I actually started it with five other people, and while they weren¡¯t as strong as I am, they were close. Soon after we started the gang we decided we needed a hidden base camp and settled on taking over a stone rat lair for our own use. We won, but there¡¯s a reason I ended up as the gang leader.¡±


    Her ominous tone made it clear what happened to the other four founding members. Ignorance is bliss as they say, and Tormacc had certainly been ignorant of the danger he had been in and blissful of the amount of Essence gained. He likely needed that Essence, as without it he would have had a hard time fighting monsters like the Stone Giants, but thinking about the true power of the rat horde caused him to break out in a cold sweat. He wasn¡¯t looking forward to rat-infested nightmares.


    But the plateaus were behind him, which hopefully meant so were the stone rats. There were new dangers ahead, and he needed to stay focused. While Athra was their main form of detection, he was no slouch himself. He could easily imagine a scenario where they ran into a monster with the ability to hide from Athra¡¯s stone sense, and if that happened he didn¡¯t want to be caught with his pants down.


    Keeping his eyes peeled, Tormacc examined the scenery as they moved farther into the mountains. The ground here was darker, where the plateaus and the blasted plains were browns and light greys, the mountains were a darker grey, everything seemingly muted under the immense pressure of the increased gravity. But just like the plains, the mountains also had a jagged beauty to them. Zedna was guiding them along some of the easier to traverse terrain, but there were harsher areas near their path, and watching landscapes of pointed shards jutting out from rugged gulleys evoked a sense of majesty. This was nature in its true form: wildly unrepentant in its harshness.


    Without his memories Tormacc couldn¡¯t say why he felt connected to the mountains, but he did. There was a feeling of familiarity, more so than in any other terrain type he had been in before. It made him wonder what his homeland was like. Did he come from the mountains? Were his people all living there, or just him? There must have been some people there with him, as he had a feeling that the selection for who entered The Tower wasn¡¯t at random, as evidenced by the ritual he started out with. And the fact that The Tower was basically one big competition. It would make sense for there to be a rigorous selection process.


    Glancing over at his two companions, he wondered what they thought of their missing memories. It never came up in his conversations with Athra, and he was too scared to broach the topic himself if she didn¡¯t. And there was no way he would try and bring anything up with Zedna was wasn¡¯t essential. He wasn¡¯t quite scared of her, but she could be very intimidating.


    Scratch that, he was definitely scared of her. It was hard not to be, especially when she stared at him with those burning yellow eyes. It made his skin crawl, her stare piercing right through him. But despite that, he actually found her rather congenial. She kept to herself, but that was understandable, as once they reached the exit portal it was unlikely they would ever meet again. The Tower had hundreds of millions of people in it after all, so unless you had plans to meet someone or they had a shop in the First City you could only leave it up to fate.Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.


    Because of that, it would have made sense if Zedna kept herself aloof, not bothering to interact with people who she could very easily see as baggage. They were necessary, as she needed them to get where she was going, but a pain to carry. Instead, she made sure to make small talk, joining him for meals and giving advice in a friendly manner, not at all upset when he didn¡¯t know how to do something like set up a proper campsite to her specifications. It was a change from the dynamic he shared with Athra previously. The two of them had been equals, or close to it when she wasn¡¯t calling him a little rock. Zedna was more like a teacher, guiding him along and keeping him on the right path.


    Literally keeping them on the right path too, as she was in charge of trailblazing. He didn¡¯t envy her the task. Because of the gravity, it was important that they stayed on relatively flat ground. While a fall down a cliff face wouldn¡¯t kill any of them, it would still reset their progress and isolate them from the rest of the party. Of course, the danger involved increased exponentially if monsters were involved. Which they likely would be, as none of the three were clumsy enough to fall unless they were pushed.


    The first few hours in the mountains were uneventful, the tense atmospheric pressure an empty harbinger of danger. They had entered the mountains in the early afternoon, and as dusk started to close in Athra called for a halt, her senses picking something up.


    ¡°Stop,¡± she said, her body going preternaturally still. ¡°Is danger. Something over next ridge.¡±


    ¡°Do you have any idea what it is?¡± Zedna said, narrowing her eyes at the path ahead.


    ¡°Is not underground, so not Stone Wurms. Too small. Monsters, maybe our size, but heavier. More than ten enemies, less than twenty.¡±


    ¡°Do you have any ideas what they could be?¡± Tormacc asked Zedna, hoping her previous experience in the mountains could clue them in to the identity of the monsters.


    ¡°The mountains are huge,¡± she said. ¡°It could be anything. But there tends to be a correlation between size and danger in this Shard, so I doubt it¡¯s something we can¡¯t handle. Athra, do you sense anything else around us?¡±


    ¡°Nothing.¡±


    ¡°Then I¡¯ll take a look and see if I can take them out. Both of you wait here.¡±


    Without giving time for any disagreement Zedna danced across the ground towards the upcoming ridge, her boots making no noise on the ground as she stealthily made her way over. Under normal circumstance, her feat wouldn¡¯t be anything special, but Tormacc was shocked at her ability to move under the intense gravity. At the very least he knew he was far from being able to replicate it, the pressure too heavy for him to even think about stealth.


    It only took a scant few seconds for Zedna to disappear out of sight, her form vanishing behind the rocky ridge. Tormacc wasn¡¯t sure what he was expecting, but when only a few minutes later Zedna sauntered back over the ridge, all attempts at stealth gone, he almost did a double take. Surely she couldn¡¯t have already killed the monsters, right?


    As it turned out, she had. Seeing Zedna waving for them to join her, Tormacc and Athra hurried over, cresting the ridge to see what lay on the other side. Seeing the dead bodies strewn across the ground, Tormacc was once more impressed with Zedna¡¯s prowess. There were sixteen corpses of vaguely humanoid-looking monsters, all in various stages of dismemberment. They were about the same height as he was, but their girth was much larger, and instead of the two upper limbs, they had four, all equally spaced around their body like the points on a compass.


    ¡°I¡¯m guessing they¡¯re some sort of stone troll,¡± Zedna said, nudging a corpse with her foot. ¡°They didn¡¯t die until I properly diced them up. I didn¡¯t see any regeneration, but losing limbs and even their head seemed to have little effect if the rest of their body was still intact.¡±


    ¡°Do you think there are more of them?¡± Tormacc asked.


    ¡°It¡¯s hard to say for sure, but most monsters in this Shard travel in packs, so I wouldn¡¯t be surprised if there were. But if this is all they amount to then we should be in for a smooth journey.¡±


    Tormacc didn¡¯t want to underestimate the monsters, but it was hard not to, especially considering the manner in which Zedna took them down. It wasn¡¯t surprising that she killed them, but doing so silently in what had to be less than a minute was impressive, especially under the extreme gravity. Or maybe he still didn¡¯t have a good handle on her power and this was normal for her.


    A few hours later and they decided to make camp for the night, as while Athra didn¡¯t need to sleep, Tormacc and Zedna still did. They could have continued through the night and still been fine the next day, but doing that took its toll, so they had decided beforehand that if they were in the position to take a rest at night they would do so. If they weren¡¯t under any pressure it only made sense to keep themselves at one hundred percent in case of emergencies.


    The night was uneventful, as was their trip the following morning. It was only as the sun neared its peak in the sky that they encountered a roadblock to their travels. The path they were taking had been gradually narrowing down all throughout the morning. Zedna said this was a good sign, as it meant they were headed for a mountain pass. She had warned them ahead of time that they might run into a dead-end and be forced to turn around, but thankfully this wasn¡¯t one of those times, as the narrow passage they were in eventually lead to the entrance of a deep valley.


    Looking across it, Tormacc could barely make out a path continuing farther into the mountains far away on the other side. This was good news, as it meant they could continue on. But what wasn¡¯t good news was the valley itself, or, more specifically, the monsters inhabiting it. As he swept his gaze across the valley floor far below Tormacc could see what had to be thousands of the monsters Zedna had killed yesterday toiling away, and if the tunnels they were entering and exiting were any indication, those thousands were just the tip of the iceberg.

 Chapter 39

    Looking across the scene of industrial-level toil, Tormacc was impressed by the monsters¡¯ perseverance. He wasn¡¯t sure why they were digging out tunnels in the mountains, but there had to be hundreds of tunnels, the number of tunnels only matched by the vast piles of rubble that were dotted across the valley, the excrement of the excavation process. It was awe-inspiring watching thousands of monsters work together like that, that sort of cooperation something he normally only associated with people. He had been thinking of The Tower as a static challenge, only there for the challengers to conquer, but it seemed it was so much more; a full life cycle and ecosystem as evidenced by the actions of the monsters below.


    The monsters appeared to be mining for some type of ore, or at least looking for it. All the activity in the valley was centered in a single nexus, lines of monsters extending for hundreds of meters to bring their haul of ore to the center of the valley to be inspected. With mechanical precision the monsters would dump their haul onto the ground when they reached the end of the line where it was then inspected by a larger hulking humanoid, this one with only two arms as opposed to the four of the grunt workers. The inspectors were clearly above the four-armed stone trolls, and Tormacc could see them ordering the smaller monsters about, directing them where to take their haul once it had been inspected.


    As he watched, one of the piles of ore that was dumped on the ground had a reaction. It started small - a barely seen flicker of light across the surface of a piece of ore - but then it grew, the ore starting to shine, reflecting the light of the sun above into a cascade of multicolored lights that shone across the valley. The intensity of the light couldn¡¯t match what Zedna had reached with her spell, but this light had an ephemeral quality that Zedna¡¯s light lacked, the shimmering curtain of light embodying a mystique of sentimental wonder.


    ¡°Sparkle Stone,¡± Athra gasped out, her grating voice expressing a wonder that Tormacc had never heard from her before. Giving her a sideways glance, he almost fell over from shock. Her eyes were glowing, the light of the Sparkle Stone reflected and amplified in her normally dull gaze.


    ¡°I knew there were other rare minerals in this Shard,¡± Zedna said quietly, ¡°but I never expected to stumble on monsters mining them.¡±


    ¡°What¡¯s Sparkle Stone?¡± Tormacc asked. It wasn¡¯t surprising he didn¡¯t know about a rare mineral, but with how Athra and Zedna were talking about it, it felt like he should have.


    ¡°It¡¯s not actually called Sparkle Stone,¡± Zedna said. ¡°That¡¯s just the most common nickname. You might know it by its proper name: Sparkling Reflection of Sun¡¯s Glory.¡±


    He did know the ore by its proper name, and after realizing what the ore below was, his gaze changed, a hint of greed appearing within. The list of materials Kaz Ehen had given him was fairly expansive and he couldn¡¯t be bothered to remember all of them, but there were a few that he made sure to memorize, and Sparkle Stone made that list, as it was the number one ore Kaz Ehen was looking for.


    Sparkle Stone was one of the most valuable ores, if not the most valuable. There were better ores if you wanted a certain effect, such as crafting an armor with an elemental resistance, but in the sheer amount of things you could use it for Sparkle Stone was undefeated. Anything ore was useful for, Sparkle Stone had you covered, which was why it was coveted above its actual value and was almost never seen on the market.


    But sheer versatility alone couldn¡¯t make a reagent that valuable. What pushed Sparkle Stone over the top was its specialty: it was one of the best materials to use for any type of reflective property. For example, you could craft armor that was resistant to magic-type abilities, but sometimes that wasn¡¯t enough. To go a step further, you could use Sparkle Stone, and instead of mere magic resistance, you could get magic reflection.


    Gulping back his saliva, Tormacc had to reign in his imagination, scenes of striking it rich flashing through his head. They weren¡¯t here for the ore: they were here to cross the mountains. Maybe Zedna could crash the monster mine below to steal its riches, but he and Athra couldn¡¯t. The horde of monsters was too big, and that was just considering the monsters they could see. Based on the tunnels and piles of waste rock there could by hundreds of thousands of monsters still in the tunnel, perhaps a million even.


    ¡°Do we continue forward?¡± Tormacc asked, forcefully wrenching his mind back to focus on their main goal. The scene below was fascinating to watch, but right now they needed to figure out if they could successfully traverse the valley, as if they couldn¡¯t, they would have to turn around and find another route.


    ¡°I¡¯m not sure,¡± Zedna said, frowning. She hadn¡¯t expected to encounter something like the scene below, and because of that she didn¡¯t have any ready-made plans for how to tackle the problem. ¡°One thing I do know is that we can¡¯t fight them head-on. Groups of monsters don¡¯t work together for no reason. It¡¯s more than likely there is someone pulling the strings, and anything, monster or challenger, that can control an army like that needs to be avoided.¡±This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.


    After a couple minutes more of analyzing the flow of monsters in the valley below the trio retreated a ways back down the trail to come up with a plan. The group of monsters Zedna had killed yesterday was probably a scouting group for the valley so they had to decide on a course of action rather quickly, as while it might be possible to force their way through the valley by catching the monsters by surprise, a prepared resistance was too much to handle.


    The first thing they discussed was what kind of plan was even viable. While the gravity in the mountains made them stick to the ground, staying land-bound didn¡¯t mean staying trail-bound. With Athra¡¯s Stoneshaping abilities there was always the option of forging their own path. The only problem with this was her abilities would act like a beacon for all the surrounding monsters. Just like how she could sense them, they too could sense her, provided she was actively using her abilities or was in close proximity. This made sneaking though almost impossible, as unless they had a way to suppress Athra¡¯s aura, which they didn¡¯t, her presence would alert any monsters with even basic Stonesensing abilities of their location.


    There was always the option of a middle ground where they snuck by but at a safe distance where Athra wouldn¡¯t be sensed, but the problem was they didn¡¯t know which distance was safe. Theoretically Athra could take them around the lip of the valley, but no one was comfortable gambling on that, as if they were caught out in the open they would have no path of retreat, and in a situation like that even Zedna would be in danger.


    After discussing it some more, it was determined that any type of sneaking was a bad idea, mostly because of the unknown presence directing the monsters. It was unlikely a challenger to The Tower could direct that many monsters, which meant a more powerful monster was in charge. And since almost all powerful monsters in the Shard had earth-related abilities, there was a good chance that the boss of the valley could sense Athra before she could sense it, and traveling under those circumstances was just asking to be ambushed.


    After an hour of discussion they realized there was one major problem with any plan that involved going through the valley: Athra. While she was their greatest asset for crossing the mountains because of her Stonebending abilities, it was those same abilities that were now coming back to bite them. It was kind of like how Athra had a hard time fighting the Stone Giants because they were able to sense her so clearly. Her very presence would draw monsters to her like a magnet as soon as they engaged in battle.


    The issue with this was that they had to traverse a valley with numerous tunnels running underneath it. Zedna was confident she could guide them forward if they only had to deal with attacks in two dimensions, but as soon as attacks started coming from underground she wasn¡¯t sure she could protect them as they charged through. And because of her abilities, if Athra tried running through the valley she would be sending sonar-like pulses through the rock, advertising her exact location to all the monsters in the underground tunnels.


    They tried brainstorming for a solution but none of them were able to find a viable answer. It was a little annoying, but it seemed that they would have to turn back around and find a different route. Then Tormacc threw out a comment seemingly at random, just speaking whatever came to mind.


    ¡°If Athra¡¯s presence is so much of a problem why don¡¯t I just carry her then,¡± he joked. ¡°She can¡¯t be sensed if she¡¯s not touching the ground.¡±


    Zedna and Athra both stared at him, an unnatural silence falling over their discussion.


    ¡°Don¡¯t tell me you guys didn¡¯t think of such a stupid idea before?¡± he said. ¡°That won¡¯t actually work, right? It can¡¯t be that simple.¡±


    ¡°Not all complicated problems require complicated solutions,¡± Zedna muttered. ¡°And this problem isn¡¯t even complicated.¡±


    She then turned to Athra. ¡°Well, will it work?¡±


    ¡°Maybe. Don¡¯t know, never tried. Great Rock is ground, and ground is Great Rock. My people, we are always connected to Great Rock.¡±


    ¡°And that¡¯s exactly why it might work,¡± Zedna said. ¡°Tormacc here might have just solved our problem. If you¡¯re so attached to the ground, you probably need to be connected to it to utilize your abilities. Have you ever tried flying before?¡±


    ¡°Do rocks fly?¡± Athra said, as if stating the obvious.


    ¡°We should at least try it then,¡± Tormacc said. ¡°I mean, at worst it doesn¡¯t work, but if it does, we might be able to try and cross the valley instead of retreating to find a different path.¡±


    He then got up and turned around, gesturing for Athra to get on piggyback-style.


    She clearly wasn¡¯t happy about the situation, but under Tormacc and Zedna¡¯s urging she reluctantly got on Tormacc¡¯s back. Almost immediately she could feel her stone sensing abilities become muted. She could still feel the ground beneath her, but it was like feeling something while holding gloves. Much of the finer details were lost as the distance between her and the ground interfered with her abilities.


    ¡°It works,¡± Athra said, jumping back down, relief visible on her face at once more being connected to the ground.


    ¡°It seems the idea wasn¡¯t quite so stupid after all,¡± Zedna said.


    ¡°No, I guess it wasn¡¯t,¡± Tormacc replied.


    Now that they had a viable solution to prevent Athra from broadcasting their location to the monsters in the tunnels below they had to figure out exactly how they were going to cross the valley, or if they even could. Just because it was an actual option now didn¡¯t make it the best one. But after some more reconnaissance, Zedna gave the greenlight to their plan. It might be messy, but she thought they would be able to cross the valley.


    Because they had killed the scout group yesterday they decided to try and cross the valley before the day was out, as the longer they waited the better the chances of  someone realizing the guards were missing. They took another hour to hash out the details before eating a very late lunch and doing their final preparations.


    Crossing the valley would be dangerous, but Tormacc couldn¡¯t help but admit that there was a part of him that longed for that thrill of walking close to the edge. He didn¡¯t need to walk too close, like he had done when fighting the stone rats, but with Zedna as backup, he was looking forward to charging through the valley. It was a nice feeling, not having to run away, and he planned to savor every minute of it.

 Chapter 40

    Tormacc watched from the entrance to the valley as Zedna disappeared, her form blurring as she sped downwards, soundless in her descent. The plan was for Zedna to create a distraction to allow Tormacc and Athra time to move down into the valley and hopefully get at least part-way across it before they were swarmed by monsters and had to fight their way through. As plans went, it was rather basic, but sometimes simple was best; especially when faced with the untold number of variables the monsters below represented. They didn¡¯t really know what the response would be to their attack, so rather than create complicated plans that would need to be adjusted on the fly they went with a straightforward distraction.


    Very quickly Tormacc lost sight of Zedna, her form fading from view as she got farther away. She didn¡¯t specifically mention it, but he suspected she had some sort of cloaking skill. Not something that gave her outright invisibility, but something that would help her avoid detection, especially when she was moving at high speeds. From the way she was talking she might have had even more powerful stealth skills, but it was possible she was keeping them under wraps as they weren¡¯t required for her job.


    Only a few minutes later a pillar of light descended on the center of the valley. Tormacc was ready for it, and his eyes were downcast, staring straight at the ground to avoid being blinded. He still had to blink his eyes from the secondhand glare but with his sight still mostly intact he sprang into action, dashing down into the valley below.


    Thankfully he had the foresight to practice running downhill with Athra on his back before, as with the intense gravity it was difficult to control his momentum. But thanks to skills like Firm Footing he was able to manage, although he did have to take some parts slower than he would have liked. There was a real danger of overbalancing if he slipped up for even a second.


    It wouldn¡¯t have been so hard to carry Athra if she was the only thing he had to carry. The real problem came from the large chunk of rock she was bringing along with her. Since he would be busy carrying her and trying to dodge attacks from the four-armed trolls she was the one who had to fight back to help clear a path. The issue with that was she needed access to stone to use her abilities, and since she couldn¡¯t touch the ground, she had to carry all the stone she needed with her.


    They must have made for a strange sight as they sped down into the valley. Tormacc carrying Athra and Athra carrying a large amount of stone that was constantly flowing around her like liquid. Instead of a person, it looked like Tormacc was carrying a large bundle of living stone with arms and legs sticking out from it. The additional weight reduced his top speed, but he was never going to be able to dodge all the attacked from the monsters anyway. He needed Athra to help protect him on their run.


    As he ran down the path into the valley he spared a glance at Zedna¡¯s situation. It was absolute chaos. The roars of the four-armed trolls were so loud that Tormacc imagined he could feel the sound waves washing over his skin. Once more he thanked Stella¡¯s foresight that she had included earplugs, as otherwise his Tattoo of Perception might be more of a hinderance than a help in situations like these.


    Similar to the rest of the mountains they had passed, the steep cliffs surrounding the valley were mostly bare, which was a good thing, as if they wouldn¡¯t the cries of the four-armed trolls would have surely caused an avalanche if there had been any loose rock or scree to be found. Perhaps the added chaos caused by that would have been beneficial, allowing them to more easily pass through the valley, but there was also the chance of a stray boulder knocking them over and spelling their doom.


    And based on Zedna¡¯s performance they didn¡¯t need more chaos anyway. Tormacc was able to reach the valley floor and be well on his way towards the other side before he was noticed, the clamor caused by her distraction incredibly effective. That might have also had something to do with her chosen location. The Sparkle Stone that was being collected in the center of the valley was under watch by the larger ogre-like overseers and the response to protect it was immediate and immense, the monsters pouring towards the inspection site and leaving Tormacc and Athra free to skirt around the edge of the valley.


    Being unnoticed couldn¡¯t last forever though, and as reinforcements started streaming up from the tunnels some of the new arrivals, not knowing what all the commotion was about, saw Tormacc and Athra and launched an attack. He had been taking it slowly to minimize their chances of drawing more attention to themselves but once they were under attack anyway Tormacc moved from a light jog to a full on sprint, running as fast as he could while carrying Athra. For her part, Athra prepared to meet the charges of the four-armed trolls, the liquid stone surrounding her vibrating according to her will.


    As he ran forwards Tormacc ignored the trolls directly ahead of him, trusting in his companion. She didn¡¯t let him down, and spikes of stone shot out from behind him, impaling the trolls¡¯ legs and causing them to stumble, allowing Tormacc to thread this way through them and continue his charge to the other side of the valley.The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.


    After that first group of trolls more came, and soon they had a train following them, each new group they bypassed locking onto them and following behind.  Their screams and howls propelled Tormacc to run even faster, the sounds echoing around him as the more enemies were drawn away from Zedna and towards the other enemies that dared invade the valley. Thankfully Athra was machine-like in her defense, stone spikes shooting out in multiple barrages, the spikes never killing and only buying them time to advance.


    Soon it was too much for Athra to deal with and Tormacc started to adjust his path, ducking a tackle before weaving around a particularly dense clump to charge ever onwards. But because of that dodging he lost speed, his path that of least resistance, the most efficient route denied to him from the sheer mass of four-armed trolls that continued to pour up out of the tunnels.


    Because Zedna¡¯s distraction was located in the center of the valley he had started off towards the edge, which now meant he was close to the tunnels. In the beginning that was where the least enemies were located, but as the tunnels popped trolls out in in ever-increasing numbers his path started to become clogged, the tides of trolls from the tunnels crashing against the group in the center of the valley and blocking his path forward.


    Under the press of enemies it was only a matter of time before they were caught, and as Athra was withdrawing a stone pillar she had used to push a troll away another barreled into it, the force transmitted back up the pillar to Athra and from Athra to Tormacc. He stumbled to the side, a quick activation of Speed Burst the only thing that saved him from toppling over.


    With Speed Burst active he was able to squeeze around the trolls, but he knew that as soon as the ability ran out they would be in trouble. The trolls didn¡¯t need to land a clean attack, only to knock him over, as from practice he found out that he was unable to easily get up with Athra on his back, and those wasted seconds would leave them surrounded in a sea of enemies. And once they were trapped, there would be no escaping.


    All of a sudden multiple explosions sounded out from the surrounding area as the trolls were knocked away, the area now clear of threats. Zedna had finally made her move. They knew that Tormacc and Athra would eventually be unable to cope, and at that point it was Zedna¡¯s job to transition from distraction to escort, guiding them through the horde of trolls to the far side of the valley.


    ¡°Keep running!¡± Zedna shouted, her daggers flashing impossibly fast as she knocked trolls back left and right, their bodies falling to the ground with grievous wounds. ¡°There¡¯s more than I thought there would be. We need to get out of here ASAP.¡±


    ¡°Athra, just focus on the ones in front,¡± Tormacc said as he started to pick up speed in the now clear area in front of him.


    ¡°Got it.¡±


    With Zedna leading the way the three of them plowed forwards, Tormacc focused only on running and Athra on clearing away the few trolls that managed to sneak past Zedna¡¯s blades. As they were running, he could feel the energy in the valley shift. Previously, Zedna¡¯s distraction had been the main focus, with the majority of the killing intent from the monsters focused there. But as they realized that Zedna had moved positions, the focus changed; their group of three now the nucleus of action.


    It created a type of formless pressure, the weight of thousands of gazes bearing down on him, the invisible weight almost equal to the gravity coming from the mountains. He could feel his breathing shorten, the long, deep breaths he needed to maintain his pace giving way to sharp, rasping gasps. The world around him became blurry, Tormacc only focusing on Zedna¡¯s back as he tirelessly ran forwards.


    The rest of the trip passed in a blur of motion and sound, the screams of the trolls that Zedna maimed cresting in waves as she was forced to take additional action, her blades forming a temporary bubble around Tormacc and Athra before the four-armed trolls surged back in once more as the cycle of violence repeated.


    Were it not for Zedna the plan would have been impossible. While she wasn¡¯t able to kill the trolls outright with her attacks, disabling them for a minute or so was within her means, and thanks to her great speed she was able to zip around the battlefield to keep a path open for Tormacc to run through. From above their small group must have looked like a ship parting waves of monsters as they sped along the valley floor. The horde of trolls was never-ending, and the floor of the valley eventually started shaking under their innumerable footsteps.


    Before he knew it Tormacc was running up an incline, the exit to the valley before him. He stumbled briefly, but thanks to Athra shedding the stone she no longer needed to defend them he was able to adjust and continue his run.


    ¡°How much farther do we need to go?¡± he said, his breath catching in his parched throat. His mouth felt like it was full of cotton. Without access to water the intense run had wicked away the last traces of moisture present on his now dry skin.


    ¡°I¡¯ll come find you,¡± Zedna said. ¡°Just keep going. I need to take care of our pursuers.¡±


    Making it through the valley was only the first part, as if they couldn¡¯t shake off the horde of trolls they would surely falter and be caught by them, as outlasting monsters with powerful regeneration was a losing proposition. In addition, there was always the threat of whatever boss was in control of the valley. While Tormacc and Athra created some distance Zedna had to make sure they made a clean getaway.


    As he ran out of the valley Tormacc felt a strange feeling of satisfaction welling up inside him that he couldn¡¯t quite identify. There was a part of him that had enjoyed the hectic sprint through the surging tide of trolls, but this feeling wasn¡¯t quite the same. It similar, yet different; the satisfaction having an additional layer he wasn¡¯t used to. After some thought, he finally identified what caused it: his Party.


    Overcoming obstacles alone gave him satisfaction, but the feeling of doing so as a team added a new dimension to the feeling. It was a novel situation, as he hadn¡¯t really faced anything similar when it had been just him and Athra, but he decided he liked it. Conquering a challenge alone was fun, but doing so with friends was even better, and he resolved to do it more in the future.

 Chapter 41

    Zedna turned away from her teammates and back towards the battle, unable to afford the luxury of seeing them off. It was a strange feeling for her, having teammates again. She had come to the Shard alone, and it had been a pleasant surprise when she found people she wanted to form a party with. She had actually felt sad when they died, and had vowed to carry on the gang they created in their absence. But it was time she moved on; she couldn¡¯t dwell on the past forever, and so it was with a trace of doubt in her heart that she left the gang for a new party.


    It was certainly a new experience, and before setting out she would never have guessed what her new teammates would be like. She had spent a lot of time pondering on Ravvik¡¯s description of the two, but a strangely competent newbie and a socially inept rock person weren¡¯t quite who she had in mind when considering who she wanted to cross the mountains with. But most times when forming a party you were lucky enough to find people you could trust, and while both Tormacc and Athra had their quirks, they both seemed like good-natured, trustworthy people.


    Zedna had met many non-Humens, but generally even those that were farthest away from the average Humen still had an understanding of what was considered normal. There was a reason the term Humen was created after all. It wouldn¡¯t have come about if most of the races entering the tower didn¡¯t share many common characteristics, like opposable thumbs, an internal skeleton, and a weak, fleshy body.


    But Athra didn¡¯t seem aware of how the average Humen operated, even going so far as to be confused about the specifics of things like sleeping and eating. Then there was her strange penchant to almost proselytize her Great Rock, which, when pressed for an explanation as to what it was, she refused to explain. But other than her social quicks she was a good teammate, and invaluable for crossing the mountains.


    Zedna considered Tormacc a packaged deal, as it would be rude to split up a party, and it didn¡¯t make much difference if he came along. Learning Athra actually had the Party skill made the choice even easier, as asking someone to leave a Party was considered quite rude indeed. She had been a bit worried after learning how new Tormacc was to The Tower, but seeing him in action he was more competent than she first gave him credit for. His biggest struggle was knowledge, but that would come in time. Everyone had to go through a learning period, and as long as you survived in The Tower for long enough you would eventually pick up on common sense.


    What was strange about Tormacc was that he didn¡¯t fit into her definition of a newcomer. He was lacking in knowledge, sure, but even despite that he seemed able to make good choices. Although if he hadn¡¯t been able to figure out good next steps he would be dead by now.


    She hadn¡¯t pried too much, but she was able to get the basic story from him regarding his interactions with the stone rats. Other than designated danger zones, the stone rats were generally seen as the number one threat in the Shard at large. Hearing Tormacc talk about it, Zedna suspected he had gotten incredibly lucky, stumbling on a horde of rats that had just split off from another group and was without a boss rat.


    That alone could qualify as good luck though. Making the choice to fight the rats could be attributed to his lack of knowledge and running into a horde that was temporarily without a leader was down to luck, but it was his choice to run away that puzzled her. Most people would have gotten used to earning hundreds, if not thousands, of Essence a day from fighting the rats, but Tormacc had left them and gone to fight the Stone Giants. That would have been a huge amount of Essence to someone so new to The Tower, even if it was piddling change to her. It was a hard choice to make, leaving that much Essence gain, and on the surface, you would be an idiot for leaving that much Essence.


    That was why Zedna was puzzled by his behavior. All those who would have made the choice to stay and fight the stone rats would have died. Even she would be hard pressed to fight them, although if there was only one boss rat it was doable, especially if she was able to fire abilities at them from long range. But Tormacc didn¡¯t know how dangerous the stone rats were. He had hints, but without anything to compare them to he decided to instead go off to kill Stone Giants, who for him would be almost equally intimidating to fight.


    His choice was that of a veteran of The Tower. Everyone learned quickly that there were times you had to run away and leave a veritable treasure trove of Essence behind. Those that didn¡¯t learn that lesson died. There were times you got lucky and were able to farm incredible amounts of Essence, but that never lasted, as areas with large Essence gains often correlated with an increase in danger. But for someone so new to The Tower it was amazing he was able to intuit the life-threatening peril he was in and leave the inflated Essence gains behind.


    It was hard for people of different power levels to party together normally, so Zedna suspected she wouldn¡¯t see either of her companions for a long time, if she ever saw them again at all. But as long as Tormacc survived she had a feeling she would hear his name in the future. He had the drive needed to advance, and as long as he didn¡¯t die, he would go far; she could feel it.Stolen novel; please report.


    Turning her attention back to the problem in front of her Zedna got to work dealing with the monsters in the valley. She needed to cause enough of a commotion to dissuade them from leaving the valley and pursuing her party. That shouldn¡¯t be too hard, as they were in the valley to mine Sparkle Stone anyway. As a general rule monsters in The Tower didn¡¯t chase people outside their territory. The only variable here was the boss in charge of the valley.


    Taking some more Sun Stone out from her storage Zedna shot out powerful beams of light in front of her, decimating the ranks of four-armed trolls and causing them to falter. Once she had their attention and was sure they would not go after Athra and Tormacc she turned her attention to the tunnels and, slaughtering her way over, she began her work of destroying them.


    Recreating the tunnel network should be a simple task, but it would take time, and based on what she could see the tunnels had been dug by hand, meaning a monster with earth powers could just wave its appendage and fix the damage she planned to cause. If the infrastructure of the mining operation was destroyed whoever was in charge would need to dedicate the majority of the four-armed trolls to fixing it. Perhaps they would send a small hunting party after her group, but as long it wasn¡¯t an army she was confident in dealing with them.


    The only issue she faced was actually destroying the tunnels, as pure force wasn¡¯t really her strong suit. The only reason she was in the Shard in the first place was to acquire Sun Stone, which was to cover another of her weaknesses: large groups of enemies, as normally her light magic wasn¡¯t particularly powerful. She had unlocked abilities in her Fate Wheel to specialize more as an assassin/rogue type, and causing enough damage to destroy the tunnels would require some specific skills. She did have her ways though. She just had to hope her skills would last long enough.


    Making her way over to the first tunnel, Zedna got down to business. Her plan was to use two skills in tandem to accomplish the task. The first was Transcendent Slash. Normally active skills were hard to combine together and it took a lot of effort to use two active skills in tandem to create a synergistic effect. Using one right after the other was most people¡¯s limit. Transcendent Slash was an active skill, but it was more of a buff skill, as it gave a bonus effect to her other attacks and, unlike a lot of buff skills, it could be easily used with other active skills.


    Transcendent Slash extended the range of her attacks, creating blades of energy that had increased piercing power and range. Other than her light magic, it was her main source of AOE damage. With Transcendent Slash alone it would take too long to collapse the tunnels though, so her plan was to combine it with another skill: Starnet Cross. Starnet Cross sent out a flurry of strikes, the blows as numerous as the stars in the sky. The skill created a net pattern, trapping the opponent before finishing them off with a powerful cross cut.


    It was one of her most powerful skills. By power alone it lost out to some others, but the cooldown was very short, and if she moved quickly she could use both skills together to collapse at least twenty tunnels, which would hopefully put a dent in the mining operation.


    She had been paying close attention when observing the monster activity in the valley and it was clear that not all the tunnels were created equal. Some were used more than others, so those were the ones she prioritized, massacring her way through the valley in the most efficient route to hit as many tunnels as she could.


    The four-armed trolls were tenacious with their vitality, but their offensive power was lacking, so she was under little real threat from their attacks. Unless she went all out Zedna knew that most of the trolls would recover from her attacks with time, but she wasn¡¯t trying to kill them; there were too many for it to make a difference. She only needed to clear the way, which is what she did as she moved between the tunnels.


    Even the overseers who had been inspecting the ore didn¡¯t have the power to threaten her so she was mostly unimpeded as she collapsed tunnel after tunnel with her skill combination. Right as she collapsed the eighteenth tunnel a ferocious roar shook the valley, overpowering the cries of the trolls.


    Quickly locating the source of the sound Zedna knew the master of the valley was finally here. Coming out of a tunnel on the far side of the valley was a large humanoid creature. It had to hunch over to get out of the tunnel, and once it finally stood up and she got a good look at it Zedna knew she would be in for a tough fight.


    What¡¯s a Greenstone Rager doing in this part of the Shard? She thought to herself, a frown making its way onto her face. They should all be in the Greenstone Canyons. Someone must have brought it out, thinking they could control it. Utter stupidity. And now I¡¯m stuck dealing with their fuck up.


    The Greenstone Canyons were one of the two danger zones flanking the ends of the mountains. Zedna had explored it briefly when she was still looking for Sun Stone, and the Greenstone Ragers had made an impression. They looked like a large, stone plated humanoid with two heads and were the main threat in the canyons. They had a powerful defense and decent intelligence, but what made them dangerous what why they were called ragers.


    During battle they would slowly get stronger, so the more wounds they took, the stronger they would get. If you could insta-kill them they weren¡¯t dangerous, but in a drawn out battle they were deadly. But killing them instantly was easier said than done, and Zedna knew it would be a tough battle if she had to kill it. Luckily her goal wasn¡¯t to kill, only maim. The Greenstone Rager¡¯s vitals were heavily defended, but cutting off a limb or two should be an easy task. And despite their abilities as a rager, they weren¡¯t able to immediately regrow limbs.


    It would be a dangerous fight, but Zedna was confident in her skills. But then she spotted another hulking figure walking out of a tunnel. She felt a wave of tension sweep over her, as soon she wasn¡¯t facing one Greenstone Rager, but four, each one bellowing louder than the last. What had previously been an easy problem to solve evolved into a deadly situation, and suddenly she wasn¡¯t quite so confident in being able to hold off the monsters in the valley from chasing after her party.

 Chapter 42

    After moving another few hundred meters away from the valley Tormacc put Athra down. It was a risk allowing her to touch the ground, as she could potentially be broadcasting their location to monsters, but it was also a risk to keep carrying her. While her Stonesensing abilities could allow monsters to find her, it also allowed her to find monsters, and without Zedna they would be in trouble if they were ambushed, which was why Athra ended up getting down so she could start sweeping the surroundings for enemies.


    ¡°Anything?¡± Tormacc asked.


    ¡°Only what is behind us,¡± Athra said as she used her abilities to check for monsters.


    ¡°Good. Let me know if you find anything new.¡±


    Even though Tormacc was no longer carrying Athra anymore their speed actually decreased slightly instead of increased. The reason for that was Athra refrained from using her Stonebending abilities to help her run, and without them, she was a heavy rock person that couldn¡¯t move very quickly. But as long as Zedna was able to keep the monsters in the valley occupied they shouldn¡¯t have to worry about speed very much. Being ambushed was the bigger concern.


    A short while later Athra signaled for a stop.


    ¡°Monsters ahead. Maybe, they are other scouts.¡±


    ¡°Other scouts? You mean like the group of four-armed trolls we can into before, but keeping watch on the other side of the valley?¡±


    ¡°Yes, is what I said.¡±


    It wasn¡¯t really, but Tormacc had gotten much better at understanding Athra¡¯s staccato speech. And her guess about the monsters up ahead made sense too, so he was inclined to agree with her analysis. If you were going to have scouts at one end of the valley you likely had them at the other end too. Now they just had to figure out how to get past them.


    ¡°Do you think we can take them in a fight?¡± Tormacc asked.


    ¡°Yes. We will win. Only, there will be commotion.¡±


    While Athra¡¯s presence had the potential to alert monsters to her position, when she wasn¡¯t actively using her abilities her presence was minimal, only like a light ripple on a lake. That all changed when she started to actively use her abilities. A good comparison was fire on a dark night. If two armies were facing off against each other during a cloudy night there was a good chance that as long as they kept their light sources to a minimum, like only using candles, the other army wouldn¡¯t notice them. But if they started building a big bonfire the other side was sure to hone in on their position.


    In this scenario Athra was the candle, but as soon as she started fighting she would turn into a bonfire. If there were any other monsters in the surroundings with Stonesensing abilities they would definitely notice her.


    ¡°We don¡¯t have any other options than fighting, right?¡± Tormacc said. ¡°There¡¯s still only a single path, which makes it easy for Zedna to follow us, but it means we can¡¯t go around, as if we did that you would have to use your Stonebending abilities, which would defeat the whole purpose of evading the trolls.¡±


    ¡°No use thinking too much little Tormacc,¡± Athra said. ¡°We fight, and if more monsters come, we still fight. Unless big rock comes. Then we run.¡±


    Athra was right, and they could only take it one step at a time. Besides, how likely was it that other monsters were around? Tormacc suspected the odds were in their favor. Since the surrounding area was probably the territory of the monsters in the valley the chances of other monsters being around were slim; and even if they were nearby and did sense Athra they might not want to intrude in the valley¡¯s territory.


    Clenching hold of his Hammer Tormacc moved forwards. He thought about swapping weapons but the trolls still had a high enough defense that the blunt force damage would be useful. The skills he had unlocked were also focused more on force than finesse, so swapping weapons didn¡¯t make much sense. His plan to actually kill the trolls was to use skills like Crush, as if he didn¡¯t fully squash them he knew they would simply get back up again.


    During the trip through the valley until now he had been gaining a steady drip of Essence from Zedna killing the trolls. It wasn¡¯t a huge amount, as most of her blows weren¡¯t lethal, but it was still substantial, and with the extra few hundred Essence gained he decided to unlock the tier four ability Explosive Blow for 100 Essence, as it seemed useful for fighting monsters that regenerated, as he needed to not only kill them but literally blow their body apart to make sure they didn¡¯t get back up again.


    The two abilities revealed by Explosive Blow were Air Compression and Explosive Strikes. Air Compression allowed him to strike the air to create a pressure imbalance and cause an explosion while Explosive Strikes was a short duration buff skill that gave all his attacks a small explosive knockback effect. He had the 200 Essence needed for a tier five skill so he also unlocked Explosive Strikes.Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.


    As they got closer they were able to confirm that it was indeed a four-armed troll scouting party. Athra and Tormacc were approaching them from the valley, which meant they were behind enemy lines, so because of that the trolls weren¡¯t focused on their direction and it was rather easy to sneak up on them. There were sixteen of them in total, and Tormacc knew it would be a tense fight. The trolls were rather slow, so it wasn¡¯t that he was afraid of them hitting him. He was more afraid he wouldn¡¯t be able to kill them before his stamina ran out.


    Glancing over at Athra he confirmed she was ready to fight, and on his signal they both charged over. Rushing up to the first one Tormacc raised his hammer before bringing it down using Crush, almost flattening the troll. He didn¡¯t have time to inspect the corpse as two more trolls immediately turned on him, but when he took a glance down he realized that the first troll wasn¡¯t actually dead. Its limbs were twitching, and as he watched its flesh slowly started to reform.


    Activating his new skill Explosive Strikes, he unleashed a barrage of blows on the four trolls surrounding him, buying him space to use Explosive Blow on his downed opponent. He was worried that wouldn¡¯t even kill it, so after using Explosive Blow he followed up with Sudden Strike combined with Elemental Blade, which was finally able to finish it off.


    Because of his focus on the first troll the other four were able to close back in and fully surround him, severely hampering his mobility. Checking out how Athra was doing, Tormacc could see that she was struggling. She was occupying the attention of eleven trolls, but based on her frustrated expression she was having little luck actually killing them. She had a wide variety of skills, but most of them were focused on augmenting her inborn Stonebending abilities. She had very few skills that she could use to deal lethal damage, as her normal battle plan involved wearing down the enemy with a sustained assault.


    Most monsters, and people, would perish under the onslaught of endless stone spikes, so that was where she focused her efforts. But these trolls had enough defensive ability that unless you were able to overwhelm them with explosive damage in a short period of time they just kept getting back up. Athra could keep knocking them down, but putting them out for the count was proving more difficult.


    Tormacc couldn¡¯t afford to worry about Athra for long; he still had his own battle to contend with. From watching Zedna cut through the four-armed trolls he had underestimated how tough they were. It wasn¡¯t just that he had a hard time breaking their defense but it was more that he had to defend against all four of their arms. Knocking them back was also difficult, partly because of the increased gravity, but thanks to skills like Whirlwind he was holding on, at least temporarily.


    The bigger concern was the gravity. Were he outside the mountains he would escape the troll¡¯s encirclement by moving vertically, using skills like Air Step to leave the circle by going up and over it. That was currently not an option for him, and he was feeling the heat, unable to defend against every single attack and forced to let some of the weaker ones through.


    Deciding he had to break out of the encirclement he waited for an opportunity, and as soon as one came, he used Stunning Strike on one of the trolls before activating Speed Burst and bowling it over as he tried his best to dodge the attacks of the other three. He was mostly successful but, just as he was about to escape, a punch from a troll clipped his shoulder, causing him to lose all feeling in his left arm.


    Pain lanced down his spine, tingling all the way from his toes back up to his head. Wincing, he turned to confront the monsters and prevent them from surrounding him again. He was reasonably certain his arm was only dislocated and not broken but he didn¡¯t have time to fix it during the fight, the trolls already closing in on him. But without two arms, he wasn¡¯t sure he could muster the necessary force to actually kill them.


    After some flurried exchanges where Tormacc was constantly in retreat he knew he would have to take a risk. He might be able to fight off the trolls but with one arm he was on the losing end of a battle of attrition. He needed to defeat his group of trolls so he could go help Athra, as he wasn¡¯t sure he could count on her being able to spare the attention to help him. She was fending off eleven trolls after all, while he had only four, or five with the one he had already killed.


    Cycling through some of his more powerful skills Tormacc knocked down two of the trolls temporarily. Knocking one of the other two away, he turned to the last one, but instead of attacking it with his hammer he charged it, slamming his currently defunct shoulder into the troll while activating his skill Body Boost to give him a small burst in physical ability.


    His vision flashed, a million different colors exploding before his eyes as he screamed in pain. Moments later he felt feeling return to his left hand, and he grasped his hammer in fury, ready to pound the trolls into mincemeat.


    Now with two fully-functioning arms and more battle experience against the trolls under his belt Tormacc was able to parlay that into one more dead troll, and with only three enemies in front of him it was only a matter of time until he could cycle through his abilities to finish off the rest before turning to help Athra actually kill her bunch. She had been struggling, pounding on the trolls in a vain attempt to overpower their regeneration. She had eventually killed one of them, but he could see it was a hard won fight.


    He had viewed her as perfect when they had been fighting before, but now he realized that she may have just not been pushing herself, the application of intense force something that didn¡¯t come naturally to her. From their interactions and what he knew of her personality she likely didn¡¯t take risky battles. That meant her life was rarely in danger, but it also meant that when she eventually got into a dangerous situation she wasn¡¯t as experienced with overcoming it and pushing past her limits.


    The two of them took a few moments to catch their breath, the battle immensely draining despite its short duration. They had both expended a large amount of mental energy to spam abilities, and they were exhausted. Right as they were getting ready to leave and continue on Zedna ran up the path behind them.


    ¡°We need to leave,¡± Zedna said, her expression grim. ¡°I underestimated the threat of the monsters in the valley.¡±


    Tormacc hadn¡¯t expected Zedna to catch up to them that quickly but that wasn¡¯t what made him stare at her in shock. What had him so gob smacked was her right arm, or rather, the fact that it was missing from the elbow down, the stump scabbing over from a potion Zedna had just drank.

 Chapter 43

    ¡°What happened?¡± Tormacc asked in shock. What kind of monster had Zedna run into that caused her to lose part of her arm?


    ¡°We can talk while we run,¡± Zedna said. ¡°Hurry up and get moving. Athra, let me know when the monsters behind us start to close in. I¡¯m sure they¡¯ll be in pursuit, although hopefully it will take them a while before they are able to come after us in force.¡±


    Zedna quickly took the lead, urging Athra to speed up by using her Stonebending abilities. Only once she was satisfied with their pace did she tell them what happened in the valley.


    ¡°We suspected there was a monsters in charge of the valley,¡± Zedna said. ¡°It turns out there were four of them. Either of you heard of Greenstone Ragers?¡±


    Tormacc and Athra both shook their heads.


    ¡°They¡¯re from one of the danger zones at the end of the mountains,¡± Zedna said, continuing her explanation. ¡°They¡¯re nasty buggers, and a bitch to kill. They also shouldn¡¯t be here. By the time I realized there were four of them it was too late to disengage cleanly. They only get stronger the longer they fight, and were I to leave them alone they would chase after us until they were dead. If there was only one my plan was to just maim it before running away. With four of them, that became more difficult, as maiming does nothing to impact their battle strength, only their mobility. I somehow managed to kill two of them and cut off the legs off a third, but the fourth is only heavily wounded, and it won¡¯t stay that way for long thanks to their high regeneration.¡±


    ¡°Are you sure it will come after us?¡± Tormacc asked. He still couldn¡¯t stop starting at Zedna¡¯s stump. If the Greenstone Rager caught up to them and Zedna couldn¡¯t kill it he and Athra would be in trouble.


    ¡°Oh, it definitely will eventually,¡± Zedna said. ¡°The only question is how soon. There¡¯s a possibility we can shake it off by entering another monster¡¯s territory, as I doubt many of the mountain¡¯s inhabitants will take kindly to a Greenstone Rager invading their home, but if it catches us out in the open we¡¯re all fucked.¡±


    ¡°What about the other monsters in the valley?¡± Tormacc said.


    ¡°They¡¯re small fry at this point,¡± Zedna said, glancing back at Tormacc and Athra as if urging them to run faster. ¡°I would be worried about the four-armed trolls chasing after us if we were trying to be stealthy. We don¡¯t have that luxury. Since we have to escape the Greenstone Rager we will outpace the other monsters, so I doubt they will be an issue.¡±


    ¡°Can you fight with only one arm?¡± Athra said, her bluntness allowing her to ask the question that Tormacc wanted to but felt he couldn¡¯t. If Zedna couldn¡¯t fight they might be running out of the frying pan and into the fire, as while the Greenstone Rager was behind them, there were sure to be other monsters ahead.


    ¡°The Greenstone Rager? Doubtful. As for other monsters, we¡¯ll just have to hope we don¡¯t run into anything I can¡¯t handle. I can regenerate my arm given enough time, but I need a calm environment to do so, and unless we know for sure the Greenstone Rager is no longer chasing us we can¡¯t afford to stop any more than necessary.¡±


    ¡°If you don¡¯t mind me asking, how did you lose your arm?¡± Tormacc didn¡¯t feel comfortable bringing up her arm before, but since it was now on topic, he took the chance to ask. Zedna specialized in speed and dodging, so he couldn¡¯t figure out how she lost part of her arm.


    ¡°I sacrificed it to strike a killing blow,¡± Zedna said. ¡°I mentioned I killed two of them. The first one I killed early on, but with most of my abilities still on cooldown I had to take some risks to kill another one. To kill the second one I had to forcefully block an attack by the Greenstone Rager whose legs I cut off. Trading a killing blow for an injury is always worthwhile; now we just need to worry about escaping and finding some time for me to regenerate.¡±


    The no-nonsense way Zedna talked about sacrificing her arm made Tormacc realize he might have been playing things too safely. Despite his healing and regeneration skills he still tried to not get hurt, avoiding any and all injuries. Of course, preventing injuries was preferable when possible, but some situations called for a sacrifice like the one Zedna made. He needed to steel his mind when that decision was presented to him. If he lost an arm he would be out of action for a while, but he could grow it back just like Zedna could. Trading an arm to either escape or strike a deathblow was obviously worth it when the disability was just temporary.


    Darkness was coming, but the three of them couldn¡¯t afford the luxury of stopping to rest. Moving at night came with increased danger but it was nothing compared to the monsters they knew were chasing them from behind. Based on Zedna¡¯s best estimate they had at least three days and potentially up to five before the Greenstone Rager recovered enough to catch up to them. There would be no rest during that time, as unless they could outpace it or somehow throw it off they would be in for a tough battle.


    Thankfully that night and the next day passed uneventfully, but as dusk was starting to set in Athra called for a stop.


    ¡°There is something up ahead. Not sure what, but is many. Monsters are moving on cliffs, not paths. But not of Great Rock.¡±Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.


    Athra sounded confused when she was making her report. Tormacc interpreted her words to mean there were a bunch of monsters ahead that were somehow moving on the almost sheer cliff faces, but they weren¡¯t doing it with Stonebending abilities. He suspected she was confused about how the monsters were moving on the cliff face, but he didn¡¯t really care about that. Tormacc was more concerned with their mobility. It didn¡¯t matter to him how they were doing it, only that they could.


    ¡°It sounds like we¡¯ll have to proceed with caution,¡± Zedna said.


    The current path they were on was a narrow trail with a steep drop to one side and a cliff face on the other. It wasn¡¯t certain they would die if they fell, but at least for Tormacc and Athra being separated from the Party would spell almost-certain doom. The path had a decent width, but if they were to engage in battle it would still be a tight squeeze. And if monsters were attacking them from above things could get even more dicey.


    Because of the gravity in the mountains there was very little loose rock, as anything that wasn¡¯t attached to the mountains usually took the path of least resistance and rolled downhill, but there was still the possibility of something like an avalanche. None of them were worried about one occurring naturally, but it was easy to imagine even slightly intelligent monsters making use of boulders to take down prey.


    Moving farther down the path the monsters Athra had scouted finally came into view. It was now almost fully dark at this point but Tormacc was still able to see fairly well thanks to his Tattoo of Perception and the starlight coming from above. He could still make out shapes easily enough, although colors were a bit harder. But he didn¡¯t need to see the color of the monsters on the cliff face above to tell they were some kind of goat. They were moving around, their leaping ability seemingly free from the constraints of gravity as they perched on divots in the cliff face that Tormacc would have sworn didn¡¯t exist if he didn¡¯t see the goats standing on them.


    ¡°This might be tough,¡± Zedna said, looking up at the new threat. ¡°The goats up there must have some sort of inborn ability that lets them ignore gravity, or at least lessen its effect on them. Nothing else explains their ability to jump like that.¡±


    ¡°Can we get by them?¡± Tormacc asked.


    ¡°It¡¯s hard to say. There¡¯s always the possibility they just let us through, but if they attack us I¡¯m honestly not sure how we would fare. Without knowing exactly how they¡¯re ignoring gravity it¡¯s impossible to estimate what other abilities they have.¡±


    ¡°Weight.¡± Athra said. ¡°They can change weight.¡±


    ¡°How can you tell?¡± Tormacc asked. He didn¡¯t want to doubt her, but how exactly did she figure it out? Was she told by her Great Rock or something?


    ¡°Is easy,¡± Athra said. ¡°Before, I was unsure. Now, is obvious. Great Rock can tell weight.¡±


    Tormacc felt the urge to facepalm. Of course it was the Great Rock. He was glad Athra was so useful, but it did get kind of annoying when she brushed off explaining things by attributing them to her Great Rock. But at least her information should be accurate. Whenever she brought up the Great Rock she was always incredibly serious.


    ¡°That makes things easier,¡± Zedna said. ¡°Although it¡¯s not all good news. I suspect that if the goats can adjust their weight they can not only decrease it, but increase it too. The attacks we have to worry about are them either dropping down on us or charging and trying to knock us off the cliff. How confident are both of you in dodging those attacks?¡±


    ¡°Not hard,¡± Athra said. For their charges, she could disturb their footing to make them trip and with her ability to propel herself with stone pillars getting an explosive burst of speed to dodge them falling on her was easy.


    ¡°I should be fine,¡± Tormacc said. He was less confident than Athra, but he did have some mobility skills. As long as he wasn¡¯t ganged up on he should be able to maneuver through safely.


    ¡°Then let¡¯s charge,¡± Zedna said. ¡°I¡¯ll clear a path and both of you follow closely behind. Let me know if there¡¯s a situation you can¡¯t handle and I¡¯ll try to save you. But whatever you do don¡¯t stop running. If we can keep up a good clip we should be able to make it through their territory, but getting bogged down in battle won¡¯t end well.¡±


    After a moment of preparation the three of them charged ahead, with Zedna in the front followed by Tormacc and then Athra. Because they were next to a cliff ledge they tried to stay close to the wall of stone on their left, but because of their positioning they had to look almost directly up to spot the goats on the cliff face high above them. This also made it more difficult for the goats to spot them, but it only took a few minutes for one to notice traces of their passing, and with a loud bleat the battle began.


    As soon as the goats noticed them, they attacked, dropping down from above like missiles from an aircraft. Because Tormacc was following Zedna he was able to keep most of his attention focused upward, which allowed him to fairly easily spot the falling monsters. Dodging a few of their falling bodies, once Tormacc could get a good look at them he could see that their hooves were reminiscent of spikes. As the goats fell their hooves elongated, and they scrunched their legs together to form one large spike that, if it hit, would surely cause instant death, likely even for Zedna.


    Their hoof spikes when extended were about half a meter long, and because of their weight they easily slid into the stone of the pathway, the friction of the entry causing a flurry of sparks to fly up, bathing the goats in red light. Because they were able to retract the spikes the goats had an easy time getting out of the holes they caused, and as more fell down the three of them soon had a large herd following them, bleating in anger.


    The bleats of the goats sounded disturbingly Humen, and their cries combined with the shower of sparks as they hit the ground made them seem almost demonic, the once quiet mountains now echoing with screams and thuds. But for all the goat herd¡¯s ire their attacks were not that effective, and with Zedna leading the way they made good progress.


    A loud rumble echoed out from the pathway ahead, and as Tormacc looked forward he saw part of the path they were on crumble, a goat having rammed into it head-first, dropping down using its horns instead of its hooves. The sound of the pathway crumbling thundered out and a cloud of dust soon followed as their path ahead was blocked. It was a relatively small gap, but between the increased gravity preventing them from jumping across and the horde of enraged goats chasing them they were truly stuck between a rock and a hard place, or in this case, a drop and a goat chase.

 Chapter 44

    ¡°Athra, come to the front!¡± Zedna said, quickly taking action. They couldn¡¯t afford any delays, as if they faltered for even a moment the horde of goats behind them would catch up.


    Athra sprinted past Tormacc, soon reaching the front of the group.


    ¡°Make a pathway across,¡± Zedna said. ¡°It doesn¡¯t need to be wide or strong. As long as we are walking on something the gravity will be reduced, so just make sure we can make it across.¡±


    ¡°Yes, I understand. Will make bridge,¡± Athra said.


    ¡°We need to delay the goats,¡± Zedna said, falling back a bit to run next to Tormacc. ¡°Any ideas?¡±


    ¡°If they can destroy the pathway, we can too,¡± Tormacc said.


    ¡°Good idea. You start destroying the path and I¡¯ll knock back the lead goats.¡±


    Slowing down slightly, Tormacc whipped out his hammer from his Spatial Bracelet before slamming it down behind him, the blow sending showers of stone shards in an arc that barely missed Zedna as she flitted back to deal with some of their attackers. Unlike the goats, he was unable to completely destroy the path, but he was able to damage it, creating rocky terrain that would be difficult to cross. Normally the goats would be unbothered by his actions, able to skim over the top of the now craggy pathway, but because they were currently stampeding their mobility was severely hampered by their numbers, and while the rough terrain wouldn¡¯t stop them, it would at least slow them down.


    Zedna was attacking with the same goal, trying to use the bodies of the goats themselves to create a roadblock. It was effective up to a point, but once enough goats fell down the ones behind them merely jumped over their brethren, some of them even running up the side of the cliff to bypass the blockage.


    Checking on Athra, Tormacc could see she just started to extend the stone pathway to connect to the other side. Despite Athra¡¯s skill in Stonebending, she wasn¡¯t able to freely form rock at will. Or at least, she was only able to for specific rock. As Tormacc understood it, she could inject her Essence into rock or stone, allowing her to freely control its shape. It was similar to what she had done when they were running through the valley; she had taken a section of rock and made it her own, allowing her to mold it instantly for either offense of defense.


    So even though she was able to create a bridge across the chasm almost instantly once she had enough rock under her will it took him for her to inject Essence into that rock, something made even more difficult by the sheer density of the mountains. Heavier rock was harder to inject with Essence, and because of that by the time Tormacc reached her she was only two-thirds done with the bridge.


    He didn¡¯t care, and without stopping he ran onto the unfinished bridge. His and Zedna¡¯s actions had bought a few extra seconds, but that was it. The stampede of goats was still coming strong, and he didn¡¯t want to think about what the result would be if they caught him. Soon Tormacc reached the edge of the bridge, leaving him perched precariously on a thin spindle of rock above a drop to near-certain death. He could see Athra extending the bridge ahead of him but, shooting a look backwards, he was afraid it wouldn¡¯t be fast enough.


    Just as Tormacc was debating jumping Zedna and the goats reached Athra. Not stopping, Zedna grabbed Athra by her arm and pulled her onto the bridge. Tormacc stared at them, mouth agape and eyes widened in fear. He was currently trapped at the end of the bridge, the only way back through the two people currently charging at him.


    ¡°Catch!¡± Zedna yelled, hurling Athra around like a ragdoll and throwing her at Tormacc. He let out a high-pitched shriek as Athra flew into him, knocking them both off the bridge and over the remaining gap between the bridge and the pathway on the other side. For split second he thought Zedna was trying to kill them, but then his breath left him as the full weight of Athra crashed into his stomach and they flew the remaining distance from the end of the bridge to the pathway.


    Soon Zedna joined them there, her superior physical ability enabling her to leap the distance Tormacc was unsure he could cross. Without pause she lifted the two of them out of the undignified clump they made when they fell to the ground before they set off running again, the goats hot on their heels.


    It seemed most of the goats weren¡¯t willing to sacrifice themselves to destroy the pathway, as that ended up being a one-time occurrence. There were a few close calls, with multiple goats falling at the same time, leaving little room to dodge on the narrow path they were running on. But they were able to make it through, and almost two hours later they finally left the goats¡¯ territory. Once the cliff face they had been running next to opened up the goats soon fell back, leaving them to catch their breath from the harrowing flight.


    ¡°That went well,¡± Zedna said, seemingly unaffected by the hours of running, barely a hair out of place.


    ¡°We survived,¡± Tormacc said simply. He wasn¡¯t expecting too much more at this point.Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.


    Zedna allowed them a five minute rest, and during that time Tormacc reflected on his previous outlook. There was still a part of him that yearned for glory and honor, but he was coming to realize that wasn¡¯t the point of The Tower. The point was to survive. If he was in here to feed Essence back to his people then it didn¡¯t matter how much Essence he had; it only mattered how long he was able to stay alive and pay the tax.


    It made him glad he hadn¡¯t gotten greedy when fighting the rats and knew when to call it quits, although realistically he should have smelled the stench of danger much sooner. Perhaps he could have stayed, skirting around the edges of the rat horde and knocking them down into the crevices below, but to what end? He didn¡¯t have some mystical armor protecting him if things went south. Staring at Zedna¡¯s missing arm really drove that home. If someone like her could lose an arm, then what about him?


    There were always risks when it came to live battle, but you could only roll the dice so many time before they came up doom eyes. Fighting the rats was a high-risk high-reward move, but thinking about it further, he wasn¡¯t actually sure how high the reward was. The only real pressure he was under was the Essence tax, and while he may have tried to go back and fight the rats had he been forced to fight the Stone Giants alone, he was lucky enough to find Athra and now Zedna. Getting off this blasted Shard seemed much better in the long run than staying to fight some dumb rats.


    Thinking about his purpose in The Tower made him think about all the questions he wanted to ask Stella when he got back. Before, he hadn¡¯t even known what questions he should be asking, but now that he had a better grip on how things worked in The Tower he had some questions he wanted answered. While he could have tried to ask his party members, he wasn¡¯t sure if it was rude to pry, and getting his information from a trusted source was probably better anyway.


    Soon the break was over and the three of them were off running again, although this time at a more reasonable pace. There was still the Greenstone Rager that was likely chasing after them so they couldn¡¯t afford to stop for long. But now that they had some breathing room Tormacc decided to take a more comprehensive stock of his state, which included any Essence gains from the battles they had just fought.


    Right now he only had a little more than 400 Essence left in his pool. There were some abilities he could potentially unlock, but nothing jumped out to him as urgent, so he left his Fate Wheel aside and moved on to see if his had gained any new loot. Normally when he gained a loot drop there was a small feeling in the back of his head that alerted him to it if he was paying attention, but in the midst of battle it was easily glossed over, which was a good thing as getting distracted mid-battle could cost him his life.


    Using his virtual eye to peer into his Spatial Bracelet, Tormacc found out he had gained two loot drops from the flight through the valley and subsequent battles: a White Crystal and a White Sphere. Without hesitation he took the White Sphere out of his bracelet and absorbed it, gaining 2,500 Essence. As the Essence flowed into him he turned back to his Fate Wheel, his Essence pool now containing more than enough Essence to spend on unlocking abilities.


    Going with his previous plan, he focused on the top part of the right side of his Fate Wheel. There were some abilities he wanted to unlock in other parts of his Fate Wheel, like the tier eight Air Walk, but considering the intense gravity he was currently subjected to, unlocking Air Walk could wait.


    Tormacc started on tier five when searching for abilities to unlock, as none of the branches from the abilities he had unlocked before in this part of his Fate Wheel appealed to him. There were quite a few abilities that looked interesting, but out of the tier five abilities he had available the two revealed by Rapid Healing, Replenish Blood and Rejuvenation, seemed quite useful to him, so he went ahead and unlocked both of them for 400 Essence total. Glancing further ahead to the tier six abilities it became slightly harder to choose.


    He had some new options revealed by the two abilities he had just unlocked, but truthfully he was looking more towards some options he had revealed before, which were the four abilities revealed by Muscle Enhancement and Bone Compression.


    The two abilities revealed by Muscle Enhancement were Explosive Strength and Sustained Strength. One would help him for quick, explosive muscle movements, like swinging his hammer, and the other would help more for sustained exercise, like running away. Both abilities were useful, and he knew if he didn¡¯t unlock them now he would eventually.


    The two revealed by Bone Compression were Tensile Strength and Body Durability. Similar to the two revealed by Muscle Enhancement, they seemed to be opposites, with Tensile Strength giving him better ability to resist injuries such as stress tears and overall supporting him when he overworked his body while Body Durability seemed more focused on general defense and body toughness.


    Out of the 2,500 Essence he gained from the sphere he only had 2,100 left, which meant if he wanted to he could unlock all four tier six abilities, as they each cost 500 Essence for a total of 2,000. Alternatively, he could focus on one branch of his Fate Wheel and unlock a tier seven ability along with two tier six ones. In the past, he had spent a fair amount of time carefully considering which abilities to unlock, and were he in a position to do so now that¡¯s exactly what he would do her too. But when running for his life from a monsters that could take off Zedna¡¯s arm he didn¡¯t have time to dilly-dally.


    The only consideration was the four new options he had revealed by unlocking Rapid Healing and Rejuvenation, but looking at them they mostly increased his ability to heal. He wanted to unlock them, but the other abilities would hopefully prevent him from being injured in the first place, which he still thought was better than marginally increasing his healing, especially in the short term.


    It took a supreme effort of will, but Tormacc decided to stick to the tier six abilities revealed from Muscle Enhancement and Bone Compression, unlocking all of them for 2,000 Essence. That brought him down to a little over 500 Essence, which was enough to both pay the Essence tax as well as a bit extra to save in case of emergencies.


    His party was still in a precarious position, but Tormacc felt a bit better with his new abilities unlocked. Perhaps they wouldn¡¯t make much of a difference, but every little bit helped, and as they ran further into the mountains he had a feeling he could use every edge he could get.

 Chapter 45

    The next day passed by without any danger, their travel only interrupted by a scant few monsters that Zedna easily took care of. Because of their hectic flight they were making good time, a small upside to an otherwise bleak situation. If they could successfully escape from the Greenstone Rager they would have shaved days off their travel time. But when the halfmoon was just starting its descent Tormacc heard a loud roar echo out from behind them.


    ¡°That¡¯s not what I think it is, is it?¡± he asked rhetorically, gulping as he felt his stomach drop.


    ¡°Damnit,¡± Zedna said. ¡°Another day and we should have lost it. Can the two of you run any faster?¡±


    ¡°It can be done, but not for long,¡± Athra said. ¡°Takes too many skills.¡±


    ¡°Same here,¡± Tormacc said. ¡°If we went any faster I would be drained and useless for a fight.¡±


    ¡°You would be useless for a fight anyway,¡± Zedna said. ¡°Neither of you have any chance of fighting it, or at least not of causing it any real damage. Something like that shouldn¡¯t be roaming the Shard, as I¡¯d imagine 95% of people would be helpless in front of a Greenstone Rager. If monsters like them freely roamed about, Shards would be a deathtrap. We have no choice but to try and outrun it. From the sound of it we still have another few hours until it catches up, so I¡¯m going to increase the pace slightly.¡±


    Once they had left the area with the goats the ground had flattened out as they entered more valley-like terrain. That had kept consistent for the first part of the day before they started to ascend once more. They were still going up, with the incline creeping up to a fairly steep slope throughout the day. Currently they were exposed on an open slope, the path they were taking scaling straight up toward a ridge far above.


    On a normal mountain ascending such a steep incline would be incredibly dangerous, as one wrong move and you would slide all the way back down, potentially to your death. But the main cause of slipping was unstable footing, which wasn¡¯t a concern on these mountains. All the loose rock had long ago fallen down, leaving the group almost free-reign to choose where to place their feet.


    Looking back down the slope, Tormacc cast his eyes around to see if he could catch sight of their pursuer. The foot of the slope met the valley far down below, giving him a fairly open vista to sweep his eyes over. Thankfully there was no movement, but if Zedna was right the Greenstone Rager should be substantially faster than them, meaning if they couldn¡¯t lose it somehow it would catch up eventually.


    ¡°Let¡¯s reach the upcoming ridge before taking a break,¡± Zedna said, noticing how her two party members were struggling. The steep slope they were on was barely more difficult than flat ground to run across for her, but the other two didn¡¯t have as easy of a time with it, and because of the increased pace they were clearly flagging.


    Reaching the ridge, Tormacc drew in a deep breath before flopping to the ground, taking every second he could to give his legs a break. As he massaged them, he was surprised they weren¡¯t sore, and once he took stock of the rest of his body he found it to be in a similar condition. There was the ache of a workout present, but clearly he hadn¡¯t actually strained himself beyond what he could handle.


    ¡°It¡¯s the skills,¡± Zedna said, seeing Tormacc looking at his own body in bewilderment.


    Zedna¡¯s words made his mind seem to restart; it was his brain that was tired, not his body. The strain from using so many skills had built up, and because he had been expecting his body to give out first, he had been stuck on that, unable to process what was actually slowing him down.


    After a few breaths more he was feeling a bit better, his thoughts flowing once more. He had been steadily interspersing his movement skills during their run to keep up the pace, and his rate of skill usage had only increased when the roar of the Greenstone Rager caused them to increase their clip. Apparently he had used up too much mental energy. It was a good thing Zedna called a stop when she did or he might have been down for the count: his mental energy sapped enough that he couldn¡¯t use skills for a few days.


    On the other side of the ridge lay more mountains, but instead of a sharp incline, the slope was more reminiscent of rolling hills. Also unlike the slope they had been running up, which was mostly smooth and clear of disturbances, the area ahead of them was littered with boulders, crags, and crannies, the slope about as big a contrast as you could get to the area they just came from.


    Looking at it more, it reminded Tormacc of something, but with his thoughts still recovering it took him a little while to recall why. Then it hit him: the blasted plains and the Stone Giants. The area ahead looked like it was the subject to similar abuse as the plains where the Stone Giants tread. The ground was clearly beat up, and knowing the Shard it didn¡¯t do that to itself.This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.


    ¡°Do the two of you think the area ahead looks suspicious?¡± he said, gesturing to the craggy ground


    ¡°Why?¡± Zedna said. ¡°It¡¯s just more rock, the same as everywhere else.¡±


    ¡°It reminded me of what the plains below look like after the Stone Giant¡¯s traverse them,¡± he said.


    ¡°Fair point. Athra?¡±


    ¡°Wait,¡± Athra said. ¡°Need more time to rest. Ran too fast.¡±


    Tormacc wasn¡¯t alone in his sluggish thoughts, as Athra had been forced to use too many skills as well. Tormacc would have guessed that her Stonesensing abilities were inborn, but from what she said he gathered that even if she had an intrinsic ability to sense things through the ground she needed to use a skill to supplement it, likely for more distance and accuracy.


    ¡°Nothing now, but maybe something soon,¡± Athra said about ten minutes later when she recovered enough to scope out the area in front of them. ¡°The rock, is not old. Is new.¡±


    ¡°What does that mean, exactly?¡± Zedna said. ¡°How can rock be new?¡±


    ¡°Do you mean it¡¯s been disturbed recently?¡± Tormacc asked.


    ¡°Yes, that. Is what I said. Rock is new.¡±


    ¡°That probably means this is the territory of the Stone Wurms,¡± Zedna said, her voice grim. ¡°The good news is that might mean we can lose the Greenstone Rager, but the bad news is we can¡¯t rush through the Stone Wurms¡¯ territory. And if the Greenstone Rager doesn¡¯t turn back and catches up to us before it runs into a Stone Wurm, well¡­¡±


    She left the later part unsaid, but Tormacc could fill in the blanks. They had the Greenstone Rager behind them and the Stone Wurms in front. It was a dangerous situation, but he was actually relieved they might have a way to lose the Greenstone Rager. Maybe it was a case of fearing the evil you know, but the whole reason Zedna wanted Athra to come along was to help guide her through the Stone Wurms¡¯ territory, so it had to be reasonably safe. Or so he hoped.


    After another ten minutes of rest the trio set off, this time as a much more sedate pace than their previous one. Because the Stone Wurms were reasonably intelligent ambushes were a big concern, so they couldn¡¯t afford to rush ahead blindly. This was where Athra came in, as she was constantly searching underground for any signs of life.


    The Stone Wurms were dangerous, likely even more so than the Stone Giants in a straight up fight, but it was their ability to ambush from underground and intelligence that posed the real dangers, but with Athra invalidating their ability to move undetected their party should have a leg up against any Stone Wurms they came across. But after a few hours as day started to break all was silent, and Tormacc would have guessed they were in any random section of the mountains as opposed to the territory of one of the most dangerous predators on the Shard.


    That silence was then broken as another roar echoes out around them. It was hard to tell, but Tormacc would have bet money it sounded closer than the previous one.


    ¡°How is the Greenstone Rager tracking us anyway?¡± he asked. ¡°I don¡¯t know how it would follow actual tracks in these mountains, so it has to be smell, right? Couldn¡¯t we do something about that?¡±


    Zedna snorted. ¡°If only it was something so mundane. As best as I can tell the Greenstone Ragers have an innate sense for detecting people they have previously battled. It¡¯s almost like an internal compass, pointing them directly at their prey. Maybe if we had the right skills it could be evaded, but you would need a skill or item specifically for that purpose which was also powerful enough to overcome their ability.¡±


    ¡°Wait a second,¡± Tormacc said. ¡°That means, the Greenstone Rager isn¡¯t tracking us, it¡¯s tracking you.¡±


    ¡°Feel free to go off on your own then,¡± Zedna said, chuckling.


    She had a point. The only reason Tormacc and Athra were in the mountains in the first place was because Zedna was there to protect them. Without her, they would still be forced to farm the Stone Giants, waiting a long time, perhaps years, until the exit portal moved, and even then they didn¡¯t have any guarantee it would move to their side of the mountains. Tormacc wasn¡¯t sure about Athra, but he had no intention of staying in the Shard for that long.


    They continued on up through the rocky terrain until midmorning, only stopping briefly to take a short break and have a bite to eat. They had covered a fair distance, and looking back down they could see part of the valley where they came from spread out behind them. Hearing another roar echo out, this one much louder than the ones before, Tormacc habitually glanced backwards, checking for movement. He wasn¡¯t actually expecting anything, but something caused him to do a double take. Now fully concentrating, he strained his vision, peering off into the distance.


    ¡°Hey guys,¡± he said, ¡°I think I can see the Greenstone Rager.¡±


    ¡°Fuck,¡± Zedna said, the exclamation quietly escaping her mouth, the word barely more than a whisper. ¡°We need to move faster. Athra, notify us of the slightest sign of disturbance underground.¡±


    The Greenstone Rager still had to move all the way through the valley and up the steep incline before it even reached the Stone Wurms¡¯ territory, but as Tormacc kept stealing glances at it he could tell it was moving much faster than he ever could. And because they were forced to slow down from the threat of the Stone Wurms it was sure to catch up. The only question was how long that would take.


    As it turned out, not that long. Barely four hours later and the Greenstone Rager crested the lip of the steep incline, allowing Tormacc and Athra to get their first good look at it. It was large, standing just below four meters, and it was almost as wide as it was tall. It was covered in plates of green-tinted stone, which was likely where the name came from. This one was missing it¡¯s left arm just below the shoulder, but the wound seemed to have scabbed over and the missing arm wasn¡¯t delaying it any. It¡¯s large strides sending it shooting after them.


    ¡°Forget the Stone Wurms,¡± Zedna shouted, ¡°just run!¡±


    At her urging the party sped up, running forward recklessly in a full-on sprint. The chase was on.

 Chapter 46

    Immediately the party increased their speed, Tormacc and Athra running full-out to try and keep up with Zedna. It wasn¡¯t hard to push themselves to the limit: they had a literal monster on their heels after all. It made for quite a good motivation to keep going. Tormacc had been a little suspicious of how scary Zedna made the Greenstone Rager sound, but seeing it himself, he knew she had actually undersold it¡¯s might. It was the first monster he had come across that had an aura. He could feel the strength it radiated, and if it reached them it would only take a single punch to splatter him into goo.


    The Greenstone Rager, upon seeing its prey so close, let out another roar before sprinting after them, it¡¯s steps powerful enough to cause cracks to form in the super dense mountains. It¡¯s speed might have been its least powerful aspect, but ¡°least¡± was relative, and no monster that powerful would have such an obvious weak point. Tormacc wasn¡¯t sure how long it would take for the Greenstone Rager to catch up to them, but despite them now going as fast as they could he suspected it wouldn¡¯t be more than an hour.


    As it turned out, his hour estimate was long, and not even twenty minutes later the beast was closing in on them. Because of their reliance on skills Tormacc and Athra weren¡¯t able to keep up their top speed, their movement skills sending them forward in spurts and bursts. It was far from enough to escape their pursuer, and Tormacc was beginning to despair. They needed a miracle to escape.


    ¡°Ahead, hole,¡± Athra gasped out, her normally rocky voice sounding breathy from the running. Despite her rock-like exterior she needed air just the same as any other living creature, and in this case her hard skin actually caused her problems, as her respiratory functions didn¡¯t have the needed elasticity to provide her with sufficient oxygen in a long sprint.


    Tormacc was much better off in this regard, as his improved physical specs also correlated with an increase in lung capacity and capability, so his breathing was just fine, the strain from skill overuse the bigger issue.


    ¡°How far ahead?¡± Zedna said. ¡°And which direction. I might have a plan.¡±


    Athra barely gasped out the location of the hole, but from what Tormacc could see the area she was describing was solid ground, looking exactly the same as the rest of the mountains. Zedna seemed to know what Athra was talking about this time though, so he was the only one left out. But if Zedna had a plan he was going to trust her. He certainly didn¡¯t have any ideas of how to get out of their situation.


    Zedna adjusted their path towards the hole, slightly veering off from where they had been running. Then when they were right before where Tormacc thought Athra said the hole was, they swerved, going around the invisible hole. Tormacc really wanted to ask what was going on, but the Greenstone Rager was almost upon them, so his thoughts were occupied with running even that tiny bit faster.


    A rumble echoed out, and both Zedna and Athra turned to look behind them, Tormacc following suit. His mouth then dropped open, and he gaped in shock. The Greenstone Rager was gone, and in its place was a giant hole, exactly where Athra said it was.


    ¡°Let¡¯s take a brief rest,¡± Zedna said, slowing down.


    Coming to a halt, Tormacc and Athra plopped onto the ground. They were both on their last legs skill-wise, and if they had to run for another few minutes they would have run out of the mental energy required to activate skills.


    ¡°What happened?¡± Tormacc said once he recovered a little from the mental strain of his skill use.


    ¡°Stone Wurms,¡± Zedna said. ¡°This was why I wanted Athra to come with me over the mountains. The Stone Wurms have the ability to create deep holes in the mountains, covering them up to appear like normal rock. Even I¡¯m unable to tell where the holes are, and because of the gravity in the mountains it¡¯s almost impossible to get out once you fall back in, leaving you with a one-way ticket to a Stone Wurm nest.¡±


    ¡°So we lost the Greenstone Rager then?¡±


    ¡°Unless it manages to climb back up somehow, then yes, we¡¯ve lost it,¡± Zedna said.


    Almost as if to contradict the statement she just made a loud bellow echoed out from the hole the Greenstone Rager fell into, the soundwaves so strong they were almost visible as they were channeled up and out of the hole. Zedna frowned, walking over to the hole to peer into the depths. She took her time staring into the abyss, and from her expression when she walked back it evidently stared back at her.


    ¡°Even I know that face,¡± Athra said. ¡°That face of someone who not lost Greenstone Rager.¡±Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.


    ¡°It¡¯s climbing back up,¡± Zedna said. ¡°I don¡¯t know how, but it¡¯s climbing back up.¡± She said it twice for impact, the meaning of what she said barely getting through to her.


    ¡°So it¡¯s still coming after us?¡± Tormacc said. ¡°What about the Stone Wurms? Didn¡¯t they attack it? How would it start climbing back up so fast?¡±


    ¡°In hole, no wurms,¡± Athra said.


    Tormacc looked at Zedna questioningly.


    ¡°Look, I¡¯ve never actually been IN the holes,¡± she said defensively. ¡°When I came here before, the hole one of my companions fell down had a Stone Wurm in it, so I figured this one would too. Maybe this is an older hole or something and the Stone Wurms have since moved on. We might be too close to the edge of their territory.¡±


    ¡°So what, we try to lure it deeper in?¡± Tormacc asked. As plans went, it was something, but he wasn¡¯t happy about it. This whole trip was turning out to be a lot more danger filled than Zedna made it sound, and while he was still scared of her, that fear was slowly starting to turn into frustration. She had lead them into the mountains so she damn well better lead them out of them.


    ¡°Unless you have a better option we have no choice,¡± Zedna said. ¡°I could have never predicted we would run into a Greenstone Rager, but now that it¡¯s on our tail we have to get rid of it, and luring it into another hole is the best way to do that. Multiple if we have to. Even though we both are missing one arm, I need that arm much more than it does, and if it comes to a fight I don¡¯t fancy my chances. Killing two of them was already a miracle, frankly.¡±


    The hole went down quite a ways, and because of the gravity the Greenstone Rager was forced to endure the arduous climb to the surface, the time it took to climb up giving Tormacc and Athra some much needed rest. They couldn¡¯t rest for too long though, as they needed to find another hole to lure the Greenstone Rager into, and Athra couldn¡¯t sense any in their immediate vicinity.


    Proceeding deeper into the Stone Wurms¡¯ territory, the group started off at a more sedate pace before accelerating once the Greenstone Rager climbed out of the hole. They had a head start on it, but it would only be an hour, maybe two hours tops, before it caught up to them again. They needed to find another hole to lure it into before that happened.


    One hour passed by and Tormacc was starting to get desperate. The Greenstone Rager was hot on their heels, and he and Athra had started to burn through skills rapidly, as the closer the Greenstone Rager got the faster they had to go, which meant more accumulated mental strain from skill usage. And unlike them, the Greenstone Rager only seemed to go faster, it¡¯s rage spurring it on to reach even greater speeds.


    ¡°Hole, ahead!¡± Athra said.


    Tormacc almost tripped as his body let go of tension he hadn¡¯t been aware he was holding. Finding another hole meant they could at least take a rest while the Greenstone Rage climbed out and potentially ending the chase for good if they could drop it in a Stone Wurm nest. The days of running were wearing him ragged, the strain from so many intense skill sessions building up to a migraine that was currently half-formed, at the moment only threatening him should he overwork himself further.


    Under Athra¡¯s direction the party swerved towards the hole, once more skirting around it and luring the Greenstone Rager right into the trap, the beast too enraged to think critically about their movements. And since on its own the Greenstone Rager was unable to differentiate the hole from the rest of the ground, it once more found itself subject to a long fall.


    As soon as the trap was sprung both Athra and Tormacc collapsed, trying to gain even a few second more of down time to rest and recover. Glancing over at her, Tormacc couldn¡¯t help but think Athra was starting to look a little cracked, her normal rocky skin appearing to dry out. He was thankful he couldn¡¯t see himself as he was sure he looked even worse. He could feel a scrubby beard coming in, not having had the time to shave in the past few days.


    Unlike the last fall, this time there was clearly something down there, and the roars of the Greenstone Rager were answered by some other beast, likely Stone Wurms. The sounds of battle quickly escalated, and even if the Greenstone Rager was able to come back up the hole after defeating the Stone Wurms it wouldn¡¯t be for a while, giving them more time to create distance.


    ¡°Can you see anything?¡± Tormacc asked as Zedna walked over to peer into the hole.


    ¡°Not much,¡± she said. ¡°There seems to be a fairly large space down there, and battle isn¡¯t going on where I can see. But if I¡¯m hearing things correctly there¡¯s at least two Stone Wurms down there, maybe three. The Greenstone Rager should be able to easily take down one, but two or three should be enough to finish it off.¡±


    Tormacc let out a sigh of relief as he lay down on the uneven ground, the sharp rock jabbing into him feeling like the softest bed he had laid on in years. He didn¡¯t want to jinx it, but it seemed they were finally home free. Barring anything like the valley where the Greenstone Ragers had lived Zedna and Athra combined should be able to safely guide them the rest of the way through the mountains and to the exit portal.


    Their rest was accompanied by the screams of battle, the noises reverberating up the hole and serenading them as they recovered. It wasn¡¯t quite pleasant, but it wasn¡¯t unpleasant either; the screeching roars a reminder of what they had just overcome. After about ten minutes all fell silent, and Zedna got up and stalked over to the hole to see if the Greenstone Rager won or the wurms did.


    ¡°I don¡¯t see anything,¡± she said. ¡°If the Greenstone Rager is still alive it¡¯s not crawling up the hole, so I would say we¡¯re safe for the moment, although I still suggest we make haste to get out of here. There¡¯s no reason to stay in the mountains any longer than we have to. If¡­¡±


    ¡°Below, wurm!¡± Athra shouted, interrupting Zedna mid-speech.


    Like a shadow Zedna flitted away, one moment standing next to the hole the next standing in front of Tormacc and Athra with her weapon raised. It wasn¡¯t a moment too soon, as seconds after she moved away the ground exploded, a Stone Wurm rising up, its maw enclosing the space Zedna occupied just moments prior.

 Chapter 47

    Tormacc had heard Zedna describe the Stone Wurms to him, but her verbal description didn¡¯t do them justice. The wurm was huge; its body rising up and towering over them despite most of it still being underground. Its body was made of interlocking stone plates, weaved together more closely than any scale-mail armor. It looked nearly impregnable to Tormacc¡¯s eye, the only way through was to attack with enough power to pierce the wurm¡¯s hide.


    Its face was one giant maw of teeth, a gaping chasm of constantly churning incisors that would grind anyone caught inside to ribbons in a handful of seconds. Looking closer, he couldn¡¯t even spot any actual facial features: the teeth the main attraction. It was hideous and horrifying, and Tormacc knew that unless Zedna could take care of it he and Athra would be no more than a light snack for the giant beast.


    Before he could even ask Zedna what they should do she took action, darting forwards, dagger at the ready as she seemed to glide up the wurm¡¯s side, her feet finding purchase on the ridged plates covering its exterior. The Stone Wurm roared, a haunting trill ripped from whatever it had for vocal chords. But before the wurm could take action to rid itself of the pest climbing its exterior, Zedna swung her dagger, activating a skill to create a clean slice a little more than a meter back from where its mouth was.


    The Stone Wurm froze, coming to a complete standstill before collapsing, its body contracting in on itself before it fell over sideways, lying dead on the ground. Tormacc stared at it, mouth agape. It was dead just like that? He had been expecting a long drawn out battle, but it turned out that when Zedna said she could protect them from the Stone Wurms she wasn¡¯t joking around. That hadn¡¯t been a battle, it had been a slaughter.


    ¡°We should get moving soon,¡± Zedna said as she leisurely walked over to where Tormacc and Athra were resting. ¡°Now that the Stone Wurms¡¯ nest was disturbed they might be more active. I can handle one or two easily even in my injured state, but if a whole pack were to attack us I might not be able to protect the two of you.¡±


    No more wurms disturbed their rest time, and after another half-hour the party was moving forward once more, although this time at a more reasonable pace. Now that the Greenstone Rager was taken care of they weren¡¯t under any real pressure, since as long as Zedna could defeat the Stone Wurms and Athra could guide them around the holes and warn them of any ambushes they were in the clear. And despite all the excitement that the first part of the journey held, the remainder was rather calm.


    There were a few close calls while they finished traversing the Stone Wurms¡¯ territory but thanks to Athra there were never any surprise attacks, and even injured Zedna could easily finish off the Stone Wurms, her ability to pinpoint their weakness making the fights almost trivial. When Tormacc asked her how she knew where their weak point was, Zedna told him that when she came into the mountains before with her previous party one of them had dissected a Stone Wurm to try and find its weakness. They had succeeded, but without someone like Athra to prevent ambushes they still lost a teammate and were forced to turn back, lest they lose more people. While targeting the Stone Wurm¡¯s weak point was a good way to kill them, if they killed you first that knowledge was useless.


    It took them three weeks of travel to get through the Stone Wurms¡¯ territory after which they took a two week rest to allow Zedna to regrow her arm. After that it only took them another week to get out of the mountains and a week and a half to reach the exit portal.


    While the portal wasn¡¯t huge, it did stand out, its large height making it a beacon on the otherwise flat landscape. Because of that, perhaps unsurprisingly, there were a group of people surrounding the portal. When he first saw them, Tormacc guessed they had set up some sort of town or trading post, but as the three of them moved closer it became evident that something else was afoot. There were clear defensive fortifications surrounding the portal, and they didn¡¯t look like the kind that were made to fend off monsters.


    Walking closer, a large, defensive wall surrounded the portal, with various buildings able to be seen poking up from behind. Everything was made of stone, as there was nothing else to build with. Some of it looked like it was built with clean-cut stone blocks, where other sections looked like something that Athra would make, the stone sculpted by a skill to form complete shapes.


    Blocking the gate were four guards. They didn¡¯t look quite as scruffy as the bandits in Zedna¡¯s gang did, but it was clear they were up to no good; their unkempt appearance suitable for their current job but little else. Standing on top of the wall were a few more guards stationed at regular intervals around the wall, and as they walked up to the gate a guard stepped forwards to stop them.Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.


    ¡°Halt!¡± he said. ¡°There¡¯s a toll if you want to enter the portal. One Blue Sphere each or somethin¡¯ equivalent.¡±


    ¡°I see,¡± Zedna said, stepping forward. ¡°So if we want to exit the Shard through the portal we have to pay you fine gentlemen to do so?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s right. Boss¡¯s orders, no one gets through without paying the toll.¡±


    ¡°There¡¯s just one small problem with that,¡± Zedna said. ¡°You see, I don¡¯t want to pay the toll.¡±


    As soon as Tormacc saw the smile on Zedna¡¯s face he barely had time to step back and close his eyes before a giant beam of light crashed down on the people guarding the portal, killing the weaker ones outright and blinding the more powerful. Screams started to echo out, and by the time he opened his eyes everyone he could see was dead, and based on the sounds coming from farther in, the rest were soon to follow.


    Not even five minutes later silence echoed out over the ruined fortifications, the bandits guarding the portal no longer among the living. Tormacc and Athra didn¡¯t even have a chance to intervene, and as Zedna sauntered back out of the ruins he was once more reminded of her strength, or, more accurately, reminded how she stacked up against everyone else in The Tower. He had grown a bit used to her feats during their travels, but it was good to know that even if he couldn¡¯t catch up to her he might be able to face normal people.


    She was carrying two large bags on her back, and as she reached them she threw one each at their feet.


    ¡°Payment for guiding me over the mountains,¡± she said. ¡°The Essence should be a nice extra as well.¡±


    Turning inwards to look at his Fate Wheel, Tormacc was shocked by the amount of Essence he now had. He had been too focused on the battle to notice, but they had still be in a Party when Zedna slaughtered the bandits, meaning all the Essence gained from killing them was shared equally. He had gotten at least a few hundred Essence from Zedna that way over the course of their trip, but it paled in comparison to his current windfall of tens of thousands of Essence.


    ¡°In addition,¡± Zedna said,¡± I have something else for you. We might have ran into a bit of trouble crossing the mountains because of the Greenstone Ragers, but it wasn¡¯t without its benefits.¡± She then took out two pieces of Sparkle Stone and handed one to each of them.


    Athra was rather stoic for most things, but even she experienced a clear change of expression when presented with Sparkle Stone. It was only one piece each, but the pieces were sizeable, and while Tormacc suspected Zedna had saved the majority for herself, he wasn¡¯t going to complain. He had earned more than he could have dreamed of from partnering with her. Athra¡¯s piece was slightly larger than his, but it had been Athra that she needed anyway, so getting anything at all was more than he could ask for.


    ¡°Thank you,¡± Athra said,¡± May Great Rock shelter you in its shadow.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, thank you,¡± Tormacc said. ¡°Are you leaving now?¡±


    Zedna nodded. ¡°I¡¯ve been on this Shard for too long. Perhaps we¡¯ll meet again when the two of you become stronger.¡±


    And with that Zedna turned and flitted away through the destruction she caused. There was a brief flash from the portal and then she was gone, leaving Tormacc and Athra alone.


    ¡°Are you going to leave the Shard?¡± Tormacc said.


    Athra shook her head. ¡°Not yet. Still much to do. Maybe, one or two years, leave then.¡±


    ¡°Then hopefully we can meet again when I¡¯m no longer a little rock.¡±


    ¡°May Great Rock guide you and watch you grow.¡±


    With a mental command Tormacc left the Party and made his way towards the portal. It was a strange feeling, not being in the Party. While he was in it there had been this external sense of connection, and now it was gone, leaving him alone once more. He almost turned back and asked to join Athra again, but he had things to do and places to be. If he wanted to climb The Tower and increase his own strength he needed to move forwards. Zedna had opened up a whole new world for him, and now he had a goal to reach.


    During their travel out of the mountains he had eventually broken down and asked her what her highest tier skill was. She didn¡¯t give him a direct answer, but she did say she had tier twenty skills. Tier twenty skills cost twenty million Essence to unlock, so it wasn¡¯t surprising that she didn¡¯t mind sharing the thousands of Essence from killing the bandits guarding the portal. To her it was literal chump change; the only way she could gain meaningful amounts of Essence through spheres or something similar.


    Approaching the portal he almost looked back, but after a brief pause he entered the portal, warping back to the First City. He could only go forwards; while he may have felt alone, he was carrying the hopes and dreams of his people on his shoulders. It was time to try and use his newfound wealth to live up to those expectations.


    Stepping back into the First City it felt like he could breathe again, the stale air no longer burning his lungs. It was a strange sight, stepping from a blasted, arid landscapes to a bustling metropolis, but it felt good to be back, even if he had not real association with the city itself. In his mind it was still the internal hub of The Tower, a thought reinforced by how his former party members had referred to it.


    Unlike his first time stepping into the city, this time he was immediately inundated with crowds of people, the surging tide moving towards the portals leading to the Shards. He was a bit out of the way, as the entrance and exit to the First City had a bit of space between them, but outside the plaza he was currently in there was a steady stream of traffic heading for the Shards.


    He wasn¡¯t sure exactly what was going on, but if that many people were leaving the First City there must be a good Shard available. It seemed luck was on his side; not only did he receive a sack of loot and a ton of Essence from Zedna as a parting gift but even the Shards were aligning in his favor.

 Chapter 48

    It was still early afternoon, so Tormacc made his way to Curtain¡¯s office to meet with Stella. He ended up waiting a few hours, as she was meeting with someone else when he arrived, but soon enough he made his way to her office.


    ¡°Valued customer Tormacc, right?¡± Stella said. ¡°Come have a seat while I pull up your information.¡±


    Stella spent a few minutes tapping on her buttons before turning back to him.


    ¡°It seems you survived the Shard successfully. Congratulations! So what can I help you with today?¡±


    ¡°I have quite a few questions, but since you brought it up, I actually wanted to talk about the Shard I was just in. I think you might have undersold its difficulty.¡±


    Tormacc then briefly went over some of the things he experiences on the Shard, stressing the points that differed from the information Stella had given him and talking about how the Shard was dangerous even for people of Zedna¡¯s skill. Stella stayed mostly silent during the story, tapping away on her buttons, but she did ask a few pertinent questions, seeking clarification for some parts that Tormacc hadn¡¯t thought were important. After the story was done Stella paused in thought, digesting everything Tormacc had told her.


    ¡°I¡¯ll have to confer with my seniors,¡± Stella said, ¡°but you might be on to something. Truthfully, this is the first time I¡¯m hearing about the mountains dividing the Shard into two. If you¡¯re right about it, it¡¯s possible that we were only getting our information from one side, meaning the mortality rate of the Shard is much higher than was previously assumed. I¡¯m guessing that in light of the new information the rating of the Shard will change from a three to at least a conditional four.¡±


    It was gratifying hearing Stella confirm his suspicions. The booklet of information Stella had given him had a rough description of how hard a level three Shard should be, and based on that description crossing the mountains clearly leveled it up from three to four. But since not everyone would have to cross the mountains perhaps Stella was right and the Shard wasn¡¯t a true level four.


    ¡°I have to thank you on behalf of Curtain for the information, valued customer Tormacc. In thanks for providing it to us, this session will be free of charge and all processing fees will be waived. Please use our services to your heart¡¯s content during your current stay in the First City.¡±


    Free services was certainly good news. He definitely had a lot of things he wanted to ask Stella, but before that he wanted to know the current portal situation.


    ¡°When I came out of the exit portal from the Shard there seemed to be a crowd of people moving towards the three Shard portals. What is that all about? Is there a particularly good Shard available now?¡±


    ¡°There is. One of the best in fact. It¡¯s commonly called the Sealine Shard, and is one of the best level two Shards out there. There are a few Shards that have their own cities and civilizations in them, and the Sealine Shard is one of them. As you know, people are unable to live long-term in the First City unless they have a job here, whether that is working as a city guard or working in a shop, everyone else has to pay an ever-increasing tax, making staying here for extended periods of time untenable. Most Shards are like the one you were just on: desolate places devoid of civilization. For those who want to live among others, going to one of the few Shards with actual cities is the only option.¡±


    ¡°Can you tell me what the Shard is like?¡± The Shard sounded interesting, but he still wanted to hear more before he made up his mind whether to go there or not.


    ¡°Certainly valued customer Tormacc. The Sealine Shard is a water-based Shard, with a main island situated near the center of the Shard that has a majority of the civilization and a series of smaller islands situated throughout the Shard, some with people living on them and some without. Although some sort of water-based skills are useful to live there, as there is a great deal of treasure in the depths of the sea, the Shard is still appealing for those who want to settle down in a city and have no interest in treasure hunting. In particular those who are older and have grown disillusioned with trying to climb The Tower usually try to settle down somewhere like the Sealine Shard, and it¡¯s those same people who also help keep order.¡±


    ¡°So there¡¯s a city with a bunch of superpowered pacifist grandpas and grandmas?¡±


    ¡°Precisely,¡± Stella said. ¡°Here in the First City the city itself keeps the peace through the hiring of guards, but in the Shards there is no such force, which is why whoever creates a city needs to guarantee its safety and prosperity. While there are still plenty of people actively trying to climb The Tower there, Shards like the Sealine Shard are sometimes called retirement Shards. And anyone who tries to make trouble in a retirement Shard doesn¡¯t last long.¡±If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.


    It was an interesting concept, and thinking about it more, it made sense for people to eventually grow tired of fighting. Tormacc had only been in The Tower for less than two years, but how long would he be willing to continue fighting? It seemed far away now, but he could imagine a time in the future where he would want to settle down, especially if he reached old age.


    Tormacc had a few other questions for Stella about the Sealine Shard, and everything she said confirmed an idea he felt germinating ever since she told him about the Shard.


    ¡°I have some other questions,¡± Tormacc said. ¡°I mentioned that one of my party members had an elemental build where she focused mainly on the right side of her Fate Wheel but went down an elemental path on the left side. Is something like that common?¡±


    Stella nodded. ¡°It is. While specializing offers the most rewards, as people get to higher tiers in their Fate Wheel choosing a sub-specialization to support their main focus or cover for weaknesses is a common choice. Elemental skills are a good choice for this, as you can use them on both the right and left sides of the Fate Wheel.¡±


    ¡°I already have some water-based attunement,¡± Tormacc said. ¡°You mentioned water-based skills would be useful in the Sealine Shard, so I was thinking about going full-in on that build path.¡±


    ¡°A solid choice,¡± Stella said. ¡°It¡¯s early enough in your build that getting a few additional water augmentations should influence your Fate Wheel further in that direction and offer you more powerful skills. With the options of entering the Sealine Shard I can fully recommend pursuing a water element build.¡±


    They spent some more time talking about potential options Tormacc could take for increasing his water attunement, and after Stella inspected the loot he brought back they eventually settled on two things: getting a Water Attunement Potion and making another trip to see Kaz Ehen for another ritual. The reagents needed for the ritual and the potion were both fairly expensive, but thanks to Zedna¡¯s generosity he had the wealth to spare. Most of the storage devices she gave him didn¡¯t have anything truly valuable in them, but they did have Coin.


    Coin was only valuable in the First City, but it could be used for trade on a Shard even if it was not able to be redeemed until you left the Shard. Most people carried their Coin with them into the Shard instead of leaving it in their account in the First City. Most robberies ended in violence with one side perishing, so leaving their Coin in the First City didn¡¯t do much good, as if they were dead they couldn¡¯t spend it anyway so it made sense to keep it on their person in case of a trade opportunity. So while there wasn¡¯t anything particularly valuable from the storage devices, that or Zedna took the valuables before she gave them to him, the storage devices did give him enough Coin to cover his current costs.


    Tormacc spent another few hours talking to Stella, during which he gained some more basic information on how The Tower worked; things he had questions about and weren¡¯t included in the guidebook, like how swarms of weak monsters were often deadly. There was still a lot he didn¡¯t know, but at least now he knew enough to start asking questions to fill in the gaps in his knowledge. Before he didn¡¯t even know where those gaps were, but now he was beginning to find out.


    After Stella answered his questions he left his Coin with her so she could procure the reagents for the ritual and the Water Attunement Potion. If he had tried to find the potion on the open market it would have been difficult-to-impossible, and even if he could find one it would be likely be drastically above market price. For rare items like that you needed connections to buy them.


    The portals to the Shards had just changed yesterday, meaning he still had plenty of time to complete his business. Perhaps he could have spent more time talking to Stella or browsing through books, but Tormacc ended up spending the next few days relaxing. After his time in the Shard he felt he deserved it, and while his body could withstand an extreme amount of pressure, his mind was still mostly Humen, and as such, making sure he maintained his mental health through rest and relaxation was important.


    During his exploration of the leisure activities in the First City he came across something he had never heard of before: video games. It was a marvelous invention, allowing him to explore worlds like The Tower behind the safety of a screen. It was a real eye-opening experience, and through video games he came to learn of a whole new scientific world he had previously been oblivious to. He found out that was common in The Tower, with many races having so called ¡°backwards¡± technology. While it was unlikely he could bring these new ideas back home to his people, as everything he heard seemed to point to the fact that people stayed in The Tower for life, he still eagerly explored these new technologies for his own enjoyment.


    He also found time to enjoy a meal out with Kaz Ehen, the bear-man ecstatic to have a repeat customer. It was a good feeling, being able to talk to people without the omnipresent threat of danger looming large in the background. He enjoyed his time in the Shard with Athra and Zedna, but the conversations he had with them seemed to lack the same kind of substance of those he was able to have now in the First City, although that could also have something to do with their personalities: Athra a naturally taciturn person and Zedna a bit aloof from the power dynamic.


    But all good things must come to an end, and eventually it was the second to last day of the portal to the Sealine Shard being open, so with the ritual finished and the Water Attunement Potion ingested it was time for Tormacc to turn his attention to his Fate Wheel. He had a grand total of 37,814 Essence along with two White Spheres and a Blue Sphere, and he aimed to spend all that Essence before he entered the Shard. The only question was what to spend it on.

 Chapter 49

    Perusing his Fate Wheel, there were quite a few paths for Tormacc to take. While in the previous Shard he had gone for a more strength-focused build, for the Sealine Shard it might be wise to fully switch to an elemental build. Elemental builds seemed to be a popular choice, and if he was going to unlock elemental abilities anyway he might as well go all in.


    With the 37,000 Essence or so to spend he had a few goals, with the first being to unlock a tier eleven ability before he used his spheres. Tier eleven abilities cost 20,000 Essence to unlock, meaning he would gain another 40,000 Essence from his two White Spheres and his Blue Sphere if he was able to reach that ability tier before using the spheres. It was unfortunate that no matter how he sliced it he couldn¡¯t gain the 50,000 Essence needed for a tier twelve ability, but at that point he might want to invest in more lower tier abilities than spend all that Essence on a single ability anyway. Higher tier abilities were more powerful than lower tier ones, but there were still quite a few low tier ones that were useful to him, so unless he had more spheres to use it might be better hold off on a tier twelve ability for the moment.


    The tier eleven ability might not even be a good unlock were it not for the Essence gained from spheres, but he was beginning to realize that spheres were the main Essence gain later on in The Tower. He had been a bit suspicious of Stella telling him to specialize, as unlocking one higher tier ability didn¡¯t really seem that much better than unlocking five lower tier ones. But as he got father into his Fate Wheel he was starting to realize that no matter how many monsters he killed he would never gain as much Essence as a single sphere would give him.


    That all being said, with tier twelve abilities costing 50,000 Essence he could afford to spend a few thousand on unlocking some other early abilities before he unlocked a tier twelve skill. In particular, he was thinking about branching into the bottom section of his Fate Wheel. He had brought up the Party function to Stella and found out that it was likely one of Athra¡¯s abilities, probably from the bottom section of her Fate Wheel. It was a very useful ability, especially the auto loot function that came with it, but not one that everyone was able to unlock. He didn¡¯t want to waste Essence needlessly searching for it but if he could unlock it with only a few thousand Essence it was definitely worth it.


    Glancing over his Fate Wheel, the first order of business was to unlock a tier eleven ability and then use his spheres, and to do that he needed to figure out which tier eleven ability to unlock. Doing some quick math, with his 37,000 Essence or so he could unlock a tier eleven, a tier ten, a tier nine, and a tier eight ability before he ran out of Essence. That meant that he couldn¡¯t start with unlocking elemental abilities, as the highest tier he could start with was unlocking one of the two tier five abilities, and even before that he had to unlock Attunement in the left side of his Fate Wheel, although that was only a tier two ability, so almost free at this point.


    Taking a look at his options for tier eight abilities there were a few that seemed interesting, but if he wanted to go down the elemental path he would be wasting a lot of Essence on other abilities. It wasn¡¯t a waste per-se, but while an ability like the tier ten Giant Growth would have been powerful in the last Shard he wasn¡¯t sure how useful it would be in the Sealine Shard.


    He did have another option, as after scouring his Fate Wheel he realized there actually was a way he could still invest in an elemental tier eleven ability: using the tier four Discount in the bottom section of his Fate Wheel. Discount made the next ability he unlocked half-off, so instead of a tier eleven ability costing 20,000 Essence it would only cost 10,000. But Discount was a one-time use ability, so if he used it now he couldn¡¯t use it later, and using it now only saved him 10,000 Essence, while saving it for later would save him a lot more.


    It was a hard choice, but Tormacc eventually made up his mind: he would use Discount and go down the elemental path. Maybe it was a waste to use Discount now, but he thought he was getting a fair power boost from it and unlocking Discount would also give him more options in the bottom section of his Fate Wheel. He wasn¡¯t super hopeful about unlocking something amazing, but he did want to unlock a few more lower tier abilities now that his Essence gain was in the thousands.


    The first ability he unlocked was Attunement, selecting water as the element he was attuning to. Now he had four boosts to the water element: Attunement, his Ring of High Water Attunement, the Water Attunement Potion, and the ritual from Kaz Ehen. Out of the four, the ritual provided the biggest boost. There was some debate saving it for something else, but along with a whole pile of other valuable reagents Tormacc had even invested his Sparkle Stone in the ritual, super powering it beyond its normal capacity.


    There were some rough levels for elemental attunement, with the first four being dabbler, novice, adept, and channeler. There were more above that, but even making it to channeler was an impressive feat. There was no hard rule for each of the levels, but Stella estimated that after taking in all the bonuses he would be firmly in adept, which was an impressive feat for someone so new to The Tower. Of course, it couldn¡¯t compare to someone like Athra with her innate advantages, but it was sufficient for his purposes. This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.


    After unlocking Attunement he turned back to the right side of his Fate Wheel. He had two choices to choose from: Elemental Senses and Elemental Boon. While Elemental Senses seemed very powerful, Elemental Boon seemed more likely to lead to more combat skills, so he went with that, unlocking the tier five skill for 200 Essence.


    The two choices revealed by Elemental Boon were Elemental Aspect, which gave him an aspect of an element, and Elemental Strike, which seemed like an improved version of the previously unlocked Elemental Blade. Normally he would have leaned towards Elemental Strike, but after thinking about it more Elemental Aspect might be more powerful skill considering the Shard he was heading to. Tier six skills only cost 500 Essence to unlock, so he could afford to unlock both of them if he needed to, so going off a gut instinct he went for Elemental Aspect first.


    The two options Elemental Aspect revealed were Elemental Body and Elemental Resistance. Elemental Resistance gave him increased resistance to all elementals with a boost for any he was attuned to, meaning he would have greatly increased water resistance. It was a strange description, as he couldn¡¯t see any amount of elemental resistance granting someone immunity from Athra¡¯s stone spikes for instance, so the skill was likely more suited for defending against spells like the AOE one Zedna used.


    Elemental Body on the other hand gave him permanent bonuses from a chosen element. He wasn¡¯t quite sure what that meant, exactly, as it sounded rather similar to a passive skill, but it was what he wanted anyway, so he went ahead and unlocked it.


    The changes were immediate; almost as soon as he unlocked the skill he felt an itchy sensation on his neck, and moving his hand to scratch it, he froze, the flaps of skin on his neck opening and closing like a fish out of water. He had gills. It took him a moment to accustom himself to the feeling, but going over that and the rest of his body, he realized he became more adept at surviving underwater. While he could breathe underwater before, it wasn¡¯t quite the same as what he could do now. Before it would tax his body to convert the oxygen in the water into a form he could absorb, but now he suspected he might be able to breath underwater better than he could in air.


    In addition to the gills he experienced a few other small changes, like gaining a new organ in his body that he suspected would help him either float or sink as the situation called for. It was a strange feeling, knowing his body was no no longer Humen in the truest sense of the word. Humen was the word in The Tower used for anything that followed a certain baseline of traits, such as two legs and arms, certain facial features, and a penchant for walking upright among other things. Humens certainly did not have gills, which now made him other: his body no longer the same as when he first entered The Tower.


    It was a strange idea, and Tormacc knew it would take some time to get used to it. But he had bigger fish to fry at the moment; he could worry about a self-identity crisis later. Right now he had Essence to spend.


    The two tier eight abilities he revealed were Elemental Defense and Elemental Recovery. Elemental Defense allowed for defense with an attuned element, meaning he could conjure water to block attacks, while Elemental Recovery gave recovery options using an attuned element. They were both useful abilities, but he was much more excited about Elemental Recovery. Not only did it sound powerful, especially in a Shard dominated by water, but he also suspected it might have been influenced by his healing and recovery skills, meaning it might be more powerful than that ability slot would dictate, so without any hesitation he unlocked Elemental Recovery, eager to see what tier nine options it gave him.


    The two tier nine options were different. In fact, they were so different that Tormacc needed to take a minute to make sure he was reading them correctly. Healing Water and Basic Elemental Form Water. Gone were the days of elemental abilities; apparently his Fate Wheel had decided he was getting water abilities now.


    It was the kind of thing that Stella wouldn¡¯t talk about, as it was too specific and might influence his Fate Wheel, so the change blindsided him. He had assumed that the abilities he unlocked would always be elemental ones, but the evidence seemed to say otherwise. He wasn¡¯t sure what caused it - if it was sheer amount of elemental abilities he unlocked or the tier - but now his options were water element specific.


    All told, it was probably a good thing. Based on what he could figure out, the more specific the ability the more powerful it was, so replacing ¡®elemental¡¯ with ¡®water¡¯ should make his choices better overall. If he planned to specialize in more than one element he would be missing out, but he wasn¡¯t, so right now the change seemed to be all upside. Or at least he couldn¡¯t see any downsides to it.


    Out of the two abilities, both seemed like good options, but in different ways. Healing Water for instance gave him the option of healing not just himself, but also his allies. He wasn¡¯t sure how potent the healing effect was, but it seemed likely the ability would shine in a large group. Basic Elemental Form Water on the other hand was more suited to going solo, as it allowed him to take a partial elemental form. Without unlocking the skill he wasn¡¯t sure what benefits that would bring, but since he was going to be on a water-based Shard unlocking a water form skill seemed like a no-brainer, so that¡¯s what he did.

 Chapter 50

    After unlocking Basic Elemental Form Water the first thing Tormacc did was test it out. In part that was because he wanted to know exactly what it did, but it was also because of the two abilities it revealed: Water Limb Extension and Elemental Form Water, an upgrade to the skill he just unlocked. Without testing out the skill he didn¡¯t know if getting the upgraded version was worth it or not.


    Activating his water form, Tormacc felt his body become insubstantial, his form blurring slightly as his flesh turned to water. It wasn¡¯t a complete transformation, as he could tell that he was still confined to his normal body, it was just that his normal body was now mostly made of water.


    Testing it out, he moved around his hotel room, trying to find the limits of the skill. It was a strange feeling, and he knew that optimally using the skill would take some time, as while his body was mostly the same, the feelings he was getting form his sensory organs weren¡¯t. In particular, his sense of touch was magnified to the extreme. Along with his body his clothes had also turned to water, which left him essentially naked, his sense of touch exposed to the surroundings. But while normally that would only mean he could feel the air flowing over his skin, while using Basic Elemental Form Water he could feel so much more.


    Almost all air had some amount of water vapor in it, and with his skill he could feel the droplets in the air around him, his sense of touch extended almost a meter around his body. He was able to unlock some skills that had a similar function, but he had a feeling they wouldn¡¯t feel as natural as his current senses: his elemental body skill not only giving him new sensory inputs, but also giving him the needed skills to process those new senses. He suspected it was similar to Athra¡¯s inborn Stonebending ability and her corresponding Stonesense, except while she was able to do it naturally he had to activate a skill to achieve a similar effect.


    After getting used to his new senses he next tested his physical defense. He was now (mostly) made of water, so there should be some physical changes that went along with that. After trying to cut his arm with a knife it turned out that the skill did give him some bonuses against physical blows, but the bonuses were limited, likely from the skill¡¯s low level. When trying to cut his arm there was a slight resistance, and the knife was able to be partially absorbed before it actually cut him.


    But while all the bonuses so far were great he could tell that they weren¡¯t the real effect of the skill: the real effect was improving his use of his other water-based skills. While using Basic Elemental Form Water not only would he gain physical benefits, but his use of other water element skills would be improved, and after some experimentation, the improvement wasn¡¯t small. He didn¡¯t have a good way to gauge the bonus, but he thought his water skills gained somewhere from 1.25 to 1.5 times the power.


    What all the testing came down to was that the skill was certainly powerful enough to get the upgrade, so without hesitation he unlocked the tier ten Elemental Form Water. His two tier eleven options were Advanced Elemental Water Form and a skill called Water Resonant Body, which he wasn¡¯t sure exactly what it did form the skill description. He knew his elemental form was a powerful skill though, so he went ahead and unlocked Discount from the bottom section of his Fate Wheel before unlocking the advanced form of his elemental form skill.


    He didn¡¯t check out the two tier twelve skills he unlocked, as since he couldn¡¯t unlock them anytime soon it wasn¡¯t worth getting distracted, but he did check out the two new skills he revealed from unlocking Discount. They were Haggle and Pricing, and one allowed him to haggle better and the other gave him the ability to estimate the price of something. They were fine skills in certain contexts, but not worth much to him now. Perhaps in the future he would unlock them.


    The next step was using his spheres, which netted him 40,000 Essence thanks to his tier eleven skill. After using the spheres he had a grand total of 49,164 Essence, and it was time to spend it.


    Tormacc went on a spending spree, unlocking lower level abilities left and right, greatly filling out the lower tiers of his Fate Wheel. Now that he was generating Essence in the thousands he could afford to waste a few hundred on some speculative abilities, so he wasn¡¯t as worried about wasting Essence. Before it would have been dumb to unlock those lower tier abilities, as it would have directly impacted his combat strength, the Essence spent on lower tier skills meaning he couldn¡¯t save for higher tier skills.


    As he went through and unlocked abilities, he started to figure out what type of build he wanted to go for. He already had some ideas before, but seeing the various options presented to him solidified his choice. At the moment he had two strengths: his water element attunement and his healing and regeneration abilities, so he decided to combine both of them to create a sort of elemental berserker build.


    Water as an element was already one of the better elements for healing, and with a skill like his Elemental Form Water he was confident he could synergize water¡¯s healing effects with his other healing abilities to give him a huge boost in survivability. At the current moment he still needed to get a few more offensive skills, but after his spending spree he was confident he could outlast most attacks unless he was instantly killed or dismembered.


    He had spent most of his Essence on abilities, only leaving him with 274 left in his Fate Wheel. It was Essence well spent though, and he was much more confident about going into the Sealine Shard than he had been going into the previous Shard, especially considering how his water abilities would be boosted by the environment. He was looking forward to the trip, and as he got in bed to get a good night¡¯s rest before setting out tomorrow he once more reviewed his newly purchased skills.This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.


    Top Section of Tormacc¡¯s Fate Wheel


    Tier two:


    Inspect ¨C Allows for greater understanding of materials.


    Message ¨C You can send a short telepathic message to a willing target.


    Tier three:


    Improved Understanding ¨C Improves understanding of learned knowledge.


    Implementation ¨C Increases your ability to put ideas into practice.


    Synergy ¨C Allows for more synergy from actions and creations.


    Tier four:


    Body Understanding ¨C Allows for a better understanding of your body.


    Improved Synergy ¨C An improved version of the Synergy skill.


    Right section of Tormacc¡¯s Fate Wheel


    Tier four:


    Centered Balance ¨C Help you keep your balance.


    Read the Flow ¨C Read the flow of battle to better dodge attacks.


    Tier five:


    Sustain Life ¨C Gives you the ability to stay alive for a short period of time even when internal organs are failing.


    Elemental Senses ¨C You can channel your senses through an element you are attuned with to extend your range of perception.


    Improved Dodge ¨C Improves the Dodge skill.


    Tier six:


    Improved Healing ¨C Improves the effects of healing from all sources.


    Recover ¨C Channel internal power to heal wounds.


    Greater Sustain Life ¨C Improves the Sustain Life skill.


    Unhindered ¨C Allows you to exert combat strength as if you were injured less.


    Water Senses ¨C You can channel your senses through water to extend your range of perception.


    Elemental Strike ¨C A physical strike imbued with a chosen element.


    Tier seven:


    Greater Healing ¨C Greatly improves the effects of healing from all sources.


    Heal ¨C When the ability is used you are healed for a small amount.


    Healing Essence ¨C Heal for a small amount when gaining Essence.


    Berserk Fury ¨C Increase strength at the cost of vitality.


    Pierce Resistance ¨C Gives a small resistance to piercing effects.


    Slash Resistance ¨C Gives a small resistance to slashing effects.


    Increased Defense ¨C Gives a slight overall increase to your defense.


    Water Strike ¨C A physical attack imbued with the water element.


    Tier nine:


    Healing Water ¨C You can channel water to heal both yourself and others.


    Tier ten:


    Decimating Fist ¨C A decimating fist attack.


    Bottom Section of Tormacc¡¯s Fate Wheel


    Tier four:


    Surge ¨C A berserk type skill that when activated supercharges abilities but is followed by an intense period of weakness when the skill finishes.


    Ability Perception ¨C Allows you to have a better understanding of the abilities that other people use.


    Compass ¨C Never lose your internal sense of direction to places you have been.


    Hunch ¨C You get a hunch sometimes about things.


    Tier five:


    Strength Estimation ¨C Allows you to better estimate other¡¯s strength.


    Tracking ¨C Makes you better at tracking.


    Camping ¨C Makes you better at camping.


    Lucky Break ¨C Gives you a lucky break once before the skill is spent.


    Tier six:


    Skill Tier Estimation ¨C Allows you to better estimate the tier of the skills other people are using.


    Skill Sense ¨C Gives you a better ability to know when someone is using a skill.


    Light Rest ¨C Gives you a better ability to sleep lightly.


    Tier seven:


    Tireless ¨C Reduces your need for sleep by a small amount.


    Left section of Tormacc¡¯s Fate Wheel


    Tier three:


    Overcharge ¨C Charge an ability to increase its power.


    Shaping ¨C Allows for very small tweaks to be made to what an ability does.


    Elemental Boost ¨C Set an element to get a boost.


    Elemental Blast ¨C Shoot out a blast or pure elemental power.


    Tier four:


    Improved Overcharge ¨C Improves the ability Overcharge.


    Improved Range ¨C Slightly increases the range for all abilities.


    Improved Precision ¨C Slightly increases the precision for all abilities.


    Elemental Casting ¨C Slightly improves the use of all elemental abilities.


    Elemental Shock ¨C Creates a burst around you of a chosen element.


    Elemental Shield ¨C Create a shield of a chosen element.


    Tier five:


    Rapid Casting ¨C Slightly improves your ability to use abilities in rapid succession.


    Improved Concentration ¨C Improves your concentration.


    Greater Range ¨C Increases the range for all abilities.


    Greater Precision ¨C Increases the precision for all abilities.


    Elementalist Aura ¨C When active, boost elemental abilities at the cost of non-elemental abilities.


    Elemental Terrain ¨C Draw power from an attuned element in the surroundings.


    Elemental Wave ¨C Send a chosen element out in a wave attack.


    Elemental Armor ¨C Create armor from an attuned element.


    Tier six:


    Greater Focus ¨C Improves the Focus ability.


    Mental Resistance ¨C Slight resistance to mental impairing effects.


    Aura of Water ¨C When active, boost all water elemental abilities.


    Elementalist ¨C Provides a small boost to all elemental abilities.


    Water Domain ¨C Draw power from surrounding water.


    Water Control ¨C Control surrounding water.


    Tidal Wave ¨C Send out a wave of water.


    Water Armor ¨C Creates armor made from water.


    Tier seven:


    Elementalism ¨C Gives you better understanding of the elements and ability to harness them.


    Water Attunement ¨C Increases your water attunement.


    Greater Tidal Wave ¨C Improves the skill Tidal Wave.


    Tier eight:


    Greater Elementalism ¨C Improves the skill Elementalism.


    Tsunami ¨C Create a tsunami.


    Tier nine:


    Greater Tsunami ¨C Improves the skill Tsunami.


    He had unlocked a truly obscene amount of skills, gaining more than seventy in one go. The process was fairly straightforward, other than concerns over skills he wanted to unlock but didn¡¯t have the Essence for, of which there were quite a few. But there was one thing that stood out to him, which was that once he had gained water-specific skills in tier nine they seemed to work retroactively, as he then saw water-specific skills as soon as tier six when unlocking more abilities. It was a small thing, but certainly something to take note of, as it was a clear demonstration of how his Fate Wheel was evolving in real-time based on what abilities he unlocked. It was yet another reason why Stella had told him to specialize instead of binge unlocking lower tier abilities. By spreading himself thin he would miss out on so much extra power and synergy. Luckily he wasn¡¯t dumb enough to ignore her advice, and now he was benefiting from his previous actions.

 Chapter 51

    It would have been a good idea for Tormacc to either sleep or meditate during the night in preparation for his foray in the Sealine Shard, but because he had been resting the last few days he ended up finding a gym to practice his new skills in. He didn¡¯t really need to sleep every night anyway, and practicing his new abilities was potentially even more valuable than rest. While he was able to get an instinctual understanding for what a skill did once he unlocked it, it would still take time for him to integrate all of his new skills into his combat style.


    Truthfully he might have to make a completely new combat style, as the amount of new skills he had unlocked was truly overwhelming. And since he was going to be focusing a lot on those new skills, his old way of fighting might have to be thrown out to make room for something new, especially considering the Shard he was entering. He was going to have to practice underwater combat, as he had no previous experience with it. He was confident he could at least hold his own until he adjusted though. His water elemental skills were powerful, and after a night of experimentation and practice he was incredibly happy with the synergy of all his skills.


    When morning came he made his way out of the gym and headed towards the portal to the Sealine Shard. It was possible to enter a Shard during the night but since the day and night cycles of the Shards and the First City were synced it generally made sense to wait until it was light out to enter a portal.


    Despite the early hour, Tormacc was not alone in his trek, as what felt like a veritable tide of Humens made their way to the portal plaza. A similar phenomenon happened during each of the previous days he had been in the First City, as people swarmed towards the Sealine Shard in droves. Tier two Shards weren¡¯t rare, but neither were they common, and among tier two Shards the Sealine Shard was one of the best, so it only made sense that people would flock to enter it.


    The crowd around him was also in stark contrast to when he entered the previous Shard. Back then, people were somber; the weight of the Shard they were about to enter weighing down on them. But now it felt like he was part of a parade, people laughing and good-naturedly jostling each other on their way towards the portal. He tried to keep calm and not let the atmosphere affect him, but he would be lying if he said he wasn¡¯t affected at least a little. The atmosphere reminded him of his feeling when he first entered The Tower and the honor and glory he chased.


    He was a bit more seasoned now, what with his first successful Shard foray under his belt. It was the dividing line between complete noobs and those who were just less experienced. There was still a lot that he didn¡¯t know, but he wouldn¡¯t be caught off guard this time by something like the stone rats.


    The flow of people carried Tormacc forward, almost everyone taking the portal to the Sealine Shard, the other two portals devoid of people in a sharp juxtaposition. With a deep breath Tormacc followed the crowd through the portal, the sea of people morphing into a literal sea, a deep, aquamarine expanse stretching out endlessly before his eyes. He stared at the vast expanse of water, mesmerized by the waves lapping against the shore. He wasn¡¯t sure if he had seen an ocean before, but he had never seen one like this.


    It was beautiful; the deep near-green color shimmering in the morning sun. Swarms of fish jumped out of the waves, their scales reflecting rainbows around them in sparkling showers of water droplets. He could hear the cry of sea birds, the deep caws echoes infinitely along the shore as a large bird of prey swooped down to catch its breakfast.


    Tormacc stared at the bird, perplexed by something just outside of his consciousness. Something was off about the bird, but he wasn¡¯t sure what. Then it hit him: those weren¡¯t swarms of small fish, those were large fish, almost as big as he was, which meant the bird of prey that swooped down and easily grasped a fish in its claws could do the same thing to him.


    Just like that, the spell was broken, and Tormacc remembered that he wasn¡¯t on some island paradise. He was in a Shard, and no matter how nice the Shard might look, it could still kill him if he let his guard down.


    Expanding his senses, he took stock of his situation. He spawned in the Shard on a beach, the sandy shore extending out to both sides of him, the beach lost around a bend as it eventually curved inward on his right and left, which likely meant he was on an island, and a rather small one at that. Behind him towards the center of the island was a large hill that was densely forested all the way up to its peak, the jungle surrounding it teaming with life. Casting his eyes out over the ocean he was unable to see any anything other than water, the fish and birds the only things breaking up the sparkling sea.


    It was beautiful, but as beautiful as it was his first step was to try and make his way to Sealine City: the main city in the Shard. The only problem with that plan was he had no clue where he was in relation to the city, or in relation to anything really. He wasn¡¯t lost per se, but he certainly didn¡¯t know where he was.The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.


    Without a better plan, Tormacc set off to explore the island. At the very least he could try and see if he could spot anything from the top of the hill. Making his way into the jungle he was immediately assaulted by a horde of small insects. It reminded him of his time in the starting zone; the jungle atmosphere conjuring up memories of his younger days. Well, he wasn¡¯t actually that much younger, but because he was missing his memories comparatively it was a long time ago.


    Inspecting some of the fruit trees along his path he paused to take a bite out of a large, purple-skinned fruit. It had an interesting taste, reminding him of something vaguely citrus-like. He ended up picking a few to eat later. He had restocked his food before entering the Shard but even without that food probably wasn¡¯t going to be an issue, what with all the fish he could eat. Water was also not a problem anymore either, as while in his Elemental Form Water he was able to passively absorb water from his surroundings, negating his need to drink.


    So far, the jungle was devoid of any animals or monsters bigger than a few birds and small rodents. Nothing seemed dangerous, although he was on the lookout for anything poisonous or venomous. It was a real consideration, and while he trusted in his ability to heal himself if he was poisoned, he was getting a little spooked from the lack of threats in the surroundings. While the Sealine Shard was only a tier two Shard, that didn¡¯t mean it was safe, and something about this island rubbed him the wrong way.


    Ascending to the peak of the hill, he clambered up a tree to get a clear 360 view of his surroundings. As it turned out, the island he was on was part of a larger chain, and on the far side of the hill was a small channel between his current island and a larger island that extended out into the distance. That one was also covered in dense jungle, but the hills on it were much taller, some almost big enough to be called mountains towards the center of the island.


    He wasn¡¯t able to see any other landmasses from his new vantage point, but since there were taller mountains on the bigger island there was no need to panic yet. It was possible he could spot something from up there, and if worst came to worst he could always pick a direction and set out across the ocean. He wasn¡¯t in any danger of drowning or running out of food or water so he was bound to run into another landmass at some point. Based on what Stella had told him this Shard didn¡¯t actually have an end, and if you reached the ¡°end¡± of one side you would come out on the other, so as long as he didn¡¯t swim in circles he should be fine.


    Before moving across to the other island he wanted to explore this one. He had a hunch that there was something more going on, and while he didn¡¯t know where the feeling was coming from yet, the island was small enough that it would take two or three days maximum to explore all of it so there was no reason to give up on any potential treasure that he might find. The islands in the Sealine Shard changed constantly, meaning that if this island was new and he was the first person to discover it there was a good chance he could find something valuable.


    As it turned out, it didn¡¯t take him long to find something of interest. On the other side of the hill there was a cave built into the hillside. It was clear that it served a purpose, as there was a crumbling archway surrounding the entrance, either alluding to it being purposely constructed in the past or an attempt of The Tower at replicating some old ruins.


    Inspecting the inside, it appeared to be a normal stone tunnel, and after taking out a torch and lighting it Tormacc made his way in, moving slowly with his water form active in case he ran into any traps.


    The tunnel was completely straight, and other than some moss and vegetation that had started creeping in the tunnel was clear of any obstructions, and a short three minute walk had him reaching the tunnel¡¯s end, which opened up into a small chamber that appeared to be laid out like a bedroom. Against the wall there was a bedframe and dresser made out of wood, both of which were not quite rotting but clearly showing their age. A large, fancy metal chest lay open at the foot of the bed, a key stuck in the lock below the lid. The chest was empty, the last person to enter the cave having cleared out anything of value.


    Speaking of the last person to enter the cave, Tormacc easily spotted them lying on the bed, or rather, what was left of them. Everything else in the room seemed to have rotted away with time, leaving only a partial skeleton lying on the now empty bedframe. The skeleton seemed mostly Humen, although it was hard to tell as it was missing quite a few pieces, almost the entirety of one leg, the other leg below the knee, and the left hand. In addition, the skull was also cracked, part of the front part caved in, although if he had to guess the full fracturing was likely a post-mortem injury, and when the person had died their skull had only been cracked, not crumbling, the passage of time completing the process.


    Glancing around, there appeared to be nothing else in the room, so he made his way over to the skeleton, a jewel-like radiance catching his interest. Inspecting it¡¯s head, he saw a milky white gemstone stuck inside the skeleton¡¯s forehead. Were it not for the crumbling skull he might have never noticed it, as if the skull had been intact the gemstone would have been safely ensconced in the skull, completely hidden from view.


    He wasn¡¯t familiar with any race that had gemstones in their skull, but it wouldn¡¯t surprise him if the gemstone was natural. Reaching down, he moved a few pieces of broken bone to the side, his fingers brushing over the milky white glow.


    The reaction was immediate, and as soon as Tormacc touched the gemstone the world faded away and he was swiftly inundated with memories that weren¡¯t his own as he collapsed to the floor, leaving him at the mercy of whatever force was assaulting his mind.

 Chapter 52

    The memories washed over Tormacc, making him feel like a boat bobbing in a storm at sea. The feelings he was getting were slightly foreign, and it took a little while for him to adjust, the senses of the race the memories belonged to not as Humen as he was. But as they kept pouring in as he slowly acclimated to the thoughts and feelings that weren¡¯t his own. It helped that it seemed like the memories were actually meant to be absorbed, which felt strange to him. But as the flow slowed to a trickle he finally began to make sense of the knowledge that was forcefully shoved into his head.


    First, it wasn¡¯t complete. It seems whatever the milky white gemstone was it had been damaged along with its host, meaning Tormacc wasn¡¯t able to get the complete picture. But he was able to get enough, and after he unscrambled the things that were in the wrong order he was stunned by what the memories contained.


    Opening his eyes and sitting up he stared at the partial skeleton lying on the bedframe, an awkward expression on his face. The skeleton belonged to a race called Inerra, easily recognizable when they were alive by their fiery eyes and watery hair, and by that he meant their eyes were literally made of fire and their hair was literally made out of water. They were naturally dual-element aligned, and that was what had been attributed as the cause of them being listed as one of the small number of races among the Godlings.


    But Tormacc now knew differently. Sure, they were naturally powerful, and if they came into The Tower as-is they would likely have a high survival rate. But they didn¡¯t enter in their normal state. Like him, they cheated, except they did it much better than he did.


    Tormacc had a ritual engraved in him from a very young age before entering The Tower. But even though the ritual was engraved in his very bones, there was only so much the ritual could do. Too much, and The Tower would recognize it as an enhancement and it would all be for naught. The kind of ritual Tormacc used was also limited by the material, as any sort of ritual that was enacted internally like that could only be so powerful. What made rituals work was the reagents they used, but the only reagent Tormacc had was his own body, and there was only so much power that could be gained from that.


    The Inerra took a different path. The milky white gemstone that was in the skeleton¡¯s head was a special material. It could hold a great deal of power, but, more importantly, it could also seamlessly be absorbed and assimilated into someone¡¯s body, bypassing the restrictions that The Tower imposed.


    Something like that should have been impossible; the ritual Tormacc used about as far as you could go. The gemstone, it was called Liera, should have been seen as a foreign substance by The Tower and removed on entry, but somehow it bypassed that, coming along with its host into the starting zone and giving not only a huge power boost but also a whole swathe of memories.


    Much of the memories were garbled or indecipherable, but he guessed that the Inerra started with more information about The Tower than he had now, meaning there would be no pitfalls like missing out on resources in the starting zone due to lack of knowledge.


    Perhaps even bigger than the knowledge the Liera included was the Essence it could gain for its host. After activating his ritual Tormacc gained less than forty Essence, but when the Liera was first activated it would suck in over a thousand Essence for its host. That wasn¡¯t all though, as it would passively continue to syphon Essence from the surroundings, giving its host a passive Essence gain of around twenty Essence per day. The Inerra could have just lounged around in the starting zone and passively earned more Essence per day than Tormacc had been able to do by risking his life.


    It was a shocking piece of knowledge, and Tormacc knew that if it became known that he knew about Liera he would be hunted to the ends of time. But the Liera wasn¡¯t even the most shocking knowledge he gained. The most shocking thing was the scope of cheating that was involved with The Tower.


    The Tower had been created countless years ago, an answer to the terrible Dimension Wars that had threated to end all life in the multiverse. Hundreds of races and dimensions had banded together to create The Tower, using it to allocate resources to each race based on how their champion did inside The Tower. As The Tower grew more and more races joined in, until now billions of races and dimensions had champions in The Tower, each one sending Essence back to increase the resources of their people back home.


    As with all things, there had been some races, like the Inerra, that had been leading the project to build The Tower. Perhaps it only made sense, but there was still a part of Tormacc that was stunned to realize they had left in a backdoor. Or maybe they just knew exactly how the rules in The Tower worked, but whatever the reason, they were able to cheat, and the cheating they were doing wasn¡¯t small ball either. There was a reason they were known as Godlings.


    He wasn¡¯t sure if the other Godling races were also using Liera to bypass the restrictions on sending people into The Tower with enhancements, but he was sure they had a similar cheat. The memories didn¡¯t state it outright, but they did allude to other races getting a head start as well. There might have been more information about it in the part that was scrambled, but the information he received was already enough to be truly damning.This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    It took him a while to digest all of it, but a few hours later he had worked through his future plans. No longer was he working just to earn Essence for his people back home. He now had a purpose, and that purpose was to climb The Tower and eventually reach the end, returning to his home so he could let everyone outside The Tower know what was going on. Or at least his people. He wasn¡¯t above monopolizing the benefits the Godlings had and extending them only to his race.


    Among the information he had received from the piece of Liera was more information about The Tower, or more specifically, about its end. It turned out there were three sections in The Tower, corresponding to the First City, the Second City, and the Third City. He had to make his way through each of them, each one progressively harder than the last, until he was finally able to reach the final Shard and return home. That should have been a straight forward proposition except for the major fuckup the original builders made when creating The Tower.


    Perhaps it was unfair to criticize them for messing up something as monumental as The Tower, but they certainly had messed up. The Tower, like the name suggested, was originally supposed to be a literal tower, one where you moved through each Shard in order, taking breaks between Shards in the cities before you would finally reach the last Shard and the exit portal to return home. Somewhere along the way that disappeared, and instead they were left with hundreds of Shards that were only loosely connected to the cities, people in The Tower forced to enter random Shards, sometimes much sooner than they should have, like Tormacc had with the first Shard he entered.


    The Tower was originally supposed to entail steady progression with a smooth difficulty curve. Instead, everything was a mess, the Shards all out of order and mixed up. The most important part of that though was that the transition point from the First City to the Second City and the Second City to the Third City were Shard-specific. That meant that if you weren¡¯t in the right Shard you were stuck in your current city, unable to progress.


    With a setup like that it was no wonder people gave up and formed retirement communities on more hospitable Shards. Without the knowledge of the Godlings on which Shard to enter it would be impossible to actually climb The Tower without insane luck or somehow hearing about the specific Shard you needed to enter; something that didn¡¯t seem to be that common. And then even if you knew which Shard you needed to enter you still had to wait for it to appear, a wait which Tormacc suspected could easily take multiple years or even decades.


    The difficulty didn¡¯t dissuade him though. He finally felt like he had a concrete goal. Before, he had fought both for honor and glory and also just to survive, but just staying alive couldn¡¯t make someone actually live. There needed to be more for that, and for him, that something was a goal; and as goals went, escaping The Tower and carrying the secret he possessed back home to his people was a worthy one indeed.


    He had been feeling a little disillusioned with The Tower as of late; the process of growing stronger was valuable in and of itself, but sometimes it was hard to see that value. What use was risking your life when you were just going to die of old age in some retirement community anyway? He had been trapped; his sole purpose in life to slave away and earn Essence for a people he would never know. He didn¡¯t resent his task, but knowing there was an eventual end and that he could actually succeed gave him a renewed purpose.


    Getting up from where he had fallen down when the memories assaulted him he walked over to the skeleton and careful broke away the bone surrounding the Liera, gently unearthing the milky white glow until it was revealed in its entirety. Carefully scooping it up, he held it up to his forehead, concentrating on the smooth sensation of the gemstone touching his head.


    It took a few seconds, but soon the Liera transformed, becoming liquid as it was absorbed into his forehead right above his eyebrows, soon his bare skin once more becoming the only thing visible, no sign left of the gemstone he had held there moments before.


    While externally there was no sign of the Liera, internally he was able to feel it, the memory bank it contained still there for easy access should he need a refresher on the memories it contained. If it were just that he might not have absorbed it, as once it was absorbed it could only be removed with his death, so no one else could peruse the memories it contained while he was alive. But while the memories were slightly jumbled from the previous owner perishing, the Essence absorption feature was still fully-functioning, and Tormacc could feel Essence slowly start to be drawn towards him.


    Twenty Essence a day wasn¡¯t a huge amount, but over time it would add up. It also meant he had no need to worry about the Essence tax, the gains from the Liera more than able to offset it for the immediate future. Perhaps there would come a time when he would have to pay more than twenty Essence for the tax, but until then instead of passively losing Essence he was gaining it.


    Glancing around the room he shook his head as he eyed the open chest. This room had been left by a previous champion of the Inerra for a new generation, many powerful treasures and artifacts hidden away for the new champion to find. It was unfortunate that the dead Inerra had a spatial storage skill and not a storage artifact, as it meant that anything in that storage disappeared upon their death. He wasn¡¯t too sad about missing out on the treasures though, as the Liera and the knowledge it contained were reward enough.


    Exiting out of the cave, Tormacc made his way to the large island, nothing of interest left for him here. It had been pure luck that he had entered the Shard on this island, as normally it was protected by a powerful formation, the island invisible to the surroundings unless you knew the correct way to bypass the formation.


    As he crossed over, the island disappeared behind him, the secrets it held now only existing within his forehead. Perhaps someone would discover the island in the future, but if they did, it would only be an empty shell, devoid of both monsters and treasure, nothing of interest for the treasure hunters to find: Tormacc taking the last thing of value.

 Chapter 53

    As soon as Tormacc left the small island he entered the Shard on it disappeared, and if he didn¡¯t know it was there he could have sworn that area was just empty ocean. In fact, the longer he looked, the more he wasn¡¯t even sure exactly where the island was, the barrier surrounding it powerful enough to immediately confound his senses as soon as he exited. It was no wonder the island had remained untouched; with a barrier that powerful protecting it you would need to know it was there beforehand to even try and break in.


    Turning back towards the larger island, he put his recent experiences out of his mind. None of it affected his current plans. He still had to find civilization, and he suspected he would find at least some hints on this larger island. The Inerra would need some kind of landmark to find the location of the hidden island after all.


    Moving forward into the jungle his senses were soon assaulted with the myriad sounds of life, this new island not nearly as empty as the old one. There were plenty of birds flitting about in the treetops above and closer to the ground were small rodents, their furry forms darting back and forth in the undergrowth. Where there were smaller animals there were bound to be larger animals, and it didn¡¯t take long before Tormacc ran into his first monster.


    It found him first, and a loud hiss turned his attention upwards, a monkey glaring down at him.


    He thought it was a monkey, but looking closer, he realized it was closer to some sort of chimera. The main body was a monkey, but where the face would be was instead an awkward facsimile of facial features that looked as if they were painted on with red and white paint. It looked like something a child would draw, too large eyes and a large smile that extended too far up the sides of the monkey¡¯s head. It appeared to be leering down at him, but he doubted the monkey could actually see out of its face, and if he had to guess, its actual head and sensory organs were in its tail.


    He could see where the tail met the monkey, extending out from its back. But instead of a normal monkey tail, this tail was a snake, complete with a full snake head at the far end with overly large fangs. The snake was what had hissed at him, and it continued to glare at him venomously, its head weaving back and forth. There was a bit of space between them so Tormacc didn¡¯t immediately feel threatened, but from the Monkey Snake¡¯s aura he could tell it wasn¡¯t a pushover, even if he was confident in defeating it.


    His new tier five skill Strength Estimation from the bottom section of his Fate Wheel was telling him the monkey was a threat, even if one he could easily deal with. Perhaps if it got the jump on him it could cause him injuries, but in a straight up fight he knew he could defeat it. The problem was if it had friends. Monkeys were social animals, and there was a good chance that Monkey Snakes fell into the same category. Even if the head was a snake, the main body(?) was a monkey. Right now there was no reason to get into a protracted battle with monsters as his current goal wasn¡¯t to farm Essence, so instead of attacking he slowly backed away towards the beach.


    The Monkey Snake hissed at him again, and followed him a little ways as he backed away before turning and vanishing back into the jungle. Since it didn¡¯t actually attack him he suspected he had trespassed in its territory, and once he was gone the Monkey Snake went off to mind its own business. It was only a short walk back to the beach, and once he was there he sat down and pulled out a book from his Spatial Bracelet.


    While Stella hadn¡¯t been able to give him that much information on the previous Shard, that wasn¡¯t the case for the Sealine Shard. It was mostly a known quantity, and while the islands were known to change, there was often a pattern, and there were only so many monsters that appeared with any frequency. Sure enough, it didn¡¯t take him long to find an entry on the Monkey Snakes.


    They were actually called Snake Monkeys, and he had been right with his guess about them travelling in packs. They formed groups ranging from about twenty to sixty, and each group had its own territory. The snake part didn¡¯t usually attack, as it would sit back, extending itself to send the monkey part out like a puppet. The monkey body had high regeneration and sharp, extendable claws, making it a tough fight. If that was all they could do they would merely be annoying, but they also had a second phase.


    If the monkey body was destroyed, the snake part would try to escape, as if given enough time it could regrow its other half. To actually kill the Snake Monkeys you had to kill the snake part, which was easier said than done, as while the snake part was cowardly and didn¡¯t usually engage in direct combat that wasn¡¯t to say it couldn¡¯t. When cornered, it would lash out, striking at insane speeds, its fangs carrying a potent paralytic venom that could easily stop the heart of someone without a strong body. Even if you were poison resistant it was still dangerous, as the snake half would continue to pump venom into your body until it¡¯s fangs were removed.This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it


    Tormacc was confident he could fight them if he had to, but without knowing how their venom would affect him engaging in pointless combat would be an unnecessary risk. The information Stella provided him with also told him that the only place Snake Monkeys were found was on Snake Monkey Island, which meant he now knew his current location. The only problem was the island tended to move around, so he didn¡¯t know where he was in relation to the rest of the Shard.


    Snake Monkey Island was one of the more dangerous islands in the Sealine Shard, and there was little of value on it save for the venom of the Snake Monkeys. That venom was very enticing for some people though, so there were semi-regular trips to the island of groups trying to harvest the venom, either for their own purposes or to sell. If Tormacc wanted to get off the island and find civilization he only had to wait for one of those groups to show up and hitch a ride back.


    With a goal firmly set, he started to off down the beach, making his way around the island. If the information he had was correct it was actually fairly large, the island a long snake-like landmass that would take him a few days to walk around. His current plan was to traverse the edges of the island, as the Snake Monkeys tended to avoid the beaches, and if a hunting party was on the island there should be a ship docked somewhere. While some people travelled the Shard sans boat, using some sort of water vessel was much more common.


    The salty breeze washed over Tormacc as he walked along the shore, taking his time to enjoy the scenic view. He was sure he would have plenty of things to focus on in the future so he wanted to take some time to enjoy the feeling of the sand between his toes. He couldn¡¯t be completely sure that he hadn¡¯t seen a beach before, but it was certainly the first time since he entered The Tower, and the soft whoosh as the waves washed over the tan sands was unbelievably calming.


    The area seemed to resonate with him, and he suspected it had something to do with his water attunement. The Sea spoke to him in a way nothing had before, and it almost felt like if he whispered his love for the ocean it would whisper right back to him. He very much wanted to dive right in, but he knew there would be time for that later. Enjoying himself on a walk was one thing, but he didn¡¯t want to actually relax until he knew he was in a safe environment and had found civilization.


    While the Sealine Shard had plenty of islands dotting its vast expanse, the real dangers lay underwater. Sea monsters roamed the Shard, and even ¡°normal¡± fish could be dangerous if they were present in enough numbers. To that end, ships in the Sealine Shard usually had special monster-repelling features installed on them, as even if the crew was able to fight off whatever sea life attacked them, chances were the ship couldn¡¯t do so quite as easily. While it was possible to create a ship that could fend off even the strongest of sea monsters, creating a repelling feature was much cheaper, and also much more efficient if you wanted to get to your destination in any reasonable time period.


    Because of that, Tormacc expected to either find no one, find a beached ship, or find a Snake Monkey hunting party. Instead, he saw a man sitting on the beach staring out at the ocean, his clothes tattered and torn, his appearance practically screaming shipwrecked. From a distance, the man looked completely Humen, but as Tormacc got closer he noticed a few small scales dotting his neck and the sides of his head. The man was shirtless, his skin tanned under the mid-day sun. He had a small pile of the fruit that Tormacc had eaten earlier sitting next to him, and he was munching on them forlornly as he stared out into the waves.


    The man looked rather young, maybe only a few years older than he was, and while he knew he should consider the man a threat until he knew otherwise, it was hard to view that sad figure as a threat to anyone. The man looked like a puppy left out in the rain, his scraggly beard unevenly poking out of his face and his curly hair unevenly matted to one side. He was the very definition of the word bedraggled, sitting on the beach just staring out into the ocean, appearing to be mourning his fate.


    ¡°Hello there, everything all right?¡± Tormacc said as he got into comfortable speaking range. He was surprised the man hadn¡¯t noticed him before, as he was doing nothing to hide his presence, but perhaps the man was in worse shape than he first thought.


    The man turned, looking around as if lost. Then his eyes seemed to come back to focus and he saw Tormacc. He stared, mouth hung wide open, before jumping up and running over.


    ¡°I¡¯m saved!¡± he said. ¡°I thought I would never make it off this blasted island! Please, good sir, can you and your group give me a ride off the island? I¡¯ve been stuck here without a boat for weeks!¡±


    ¡°I¡¯d be happy to help you,¡± Tormacc said extending his hand. ¡°My name¡¯s Tormacc.¡±


    ¡°Lysander,¡± the man said, shaking his hand vigorously, seemingly clinging onto it as if he thought Tormacc would disappear if he let go. ¡°So, where is the rest of your group? What kind of ship do you have? I haven¡¯t eaten a real meal since forever! You must have a cook, right?¡±


    ¡°Um, I think you might be mistaken about a few things,¡± Tormacc said. ¡°While I¡¯m happy to help you, I entered the Shard on this island. I don¡¯t have either a boat or companions.¡±


    Lysander visibly deflated. ¡°No boat?¡±


    Tormacc shook his head.


    ¡°No group?¡±


    Tormacc shook his head again.


    ¡°Food?¡± By the last one Lysander sounded so pitiful it was hard not to feel sorry for him.


    ¡°Yes, I have food. Why don¡¯t I prepare some and get you some proper clothing and then we can discuss how to get off this island.¡±

 Chapter 54

    ¡°It¡¯s all those damn pirates¡¯ fault!¡± Lysander said as he dug into his meal. Tormacc was no cook, but a simple stew and some grilled meat was within his capabilities, and Lysander didn¡¯t seem to mind the taste, likely appreciative of the first real food he had eaten in weeks.


    Lysander had narrated the series of events that brought him to the island, and it was really rather comical. He had been on a cruise, taking a vacation before finally visiting an island that had been turned into a waterpark. Unfortunately, a storm came up and blew them off course, after which pirates got on their tail. Normal pirates wouldn¡¯t touch a ship belonging to the Deep Blue Water Park, but for some reason these pirates hadn¡¯t known what was good for them. But for a rebel band they had surprising firepower, and the ship had opted to flee.


    The chase had gone on for a few days, but the cruise ship Lysander was on hadn¡¯t been able to lose the pirates, and eventually they were chased into a shoal of Razorcutters. Razorcutters were one of the few fish in the sea that were immune to most of the monster repelling features that ships used. Normally that didn¡¯t matter as Razorcutters weren¡¯t aggressive. As long as you avoided them they would avoid you, but if you entered their territory chances are your ship was going down, which was what happened to the cruise ship when the pirates chased it directly into the shoal.


    Out of the people on the ship, some chose to scatter, while some chose to take their chances with the pirates. Since the pirates were willing to attack a cruise ship from Deep Blue, Lysander chose the scatter option, choosing a direction and swimming. He managed to make it to Snake Monkey Island, but because he had to swim through the Razorcutters he lost almost all of his possessions, including his Spatial Bracelet, leaving him trapped on the island with no supplies and no way to get off.


    ¡°It¡¯s been terrible!¡± Lysander said, sniffling into his stew. ¡°But now you¡¯re here Tormacc! I¡¯m sure we can find a way off the island!¡±


    Finding someone else seemed to have done wonders for his mood, and as Tormacc watched Lysander started to look like a real person again once he had new clothes and got some food in him. It was a stunning transformation; the shipwrecked refugee gone and replaced with a devilishly handsome youngster who Tormacc wasn¡¯t sure how to get to shut up. He had been chattering away the whole time, somehow managing to talk clearly with his mouth full of food.


    ¡°Yes, yes, I¡¯m sure we can find a way off the island. You should focus on eating first thought.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry! I can eat and talk at the same time! My big sister says it¡¯s one of my best skills!¡±


    ¡°Your big sister?¡± Tormacc was confused, how was his sister in The Tower too?


    ¡°Well, she¡¯s not really my sister, but she kind of adopted me. She¡¯s one of the leaders of the Lantern Guild! Speaking of, you should join us! We¡¯re always looking for new members!¡±


    Lysander then seemed to deflate a bit as he remembered something.


    ¡°Wait, you have to take a test first I think. But I¡¯m sure you¡¯ll pass! You seem like a great guy!¡±


    Tormacc wasn¡¯t sure how him being a ¡°great guy¡± would make him pass the test, but maybe it was a test of character and not strength? He hadn¡¯t been planning to join a group right away, but it couldn¡¯t hurt to at least check out this Lantern Guild. And Lysander seemed like a nice guy, even if he did need to learn how to shut his mouth. But he figured that if the guild kept someone this annoying around either he was secretly an expert, he had other skills like crafting skills, or the guild had a great atmosphere and watched each other¡¯s backs. Either way, he would at least make sure Lysander got back safely.  There was something endearing about him, even if he was annoying.


    ¡°So I take it you can¡¯t leave the island by yourself?¡± Tormacc asked, interrupting his new friend.


    ¡°Nope! I¡¯m not good at underwater combat. I¡¯m much better on land. I¡¯ll show you sometime! I¡¯m pretty awesome if I do say so myself.¡±


    ¡°And I guess you can¡¯t build a boat either then.¡±


    ¡°Nope! Can¡¯t do that either, or at least not one that can survive without a powerful repelling formation. But if you stay in the Shard long enough you know at least a little about boat building, so I¡¯m sure I could make a great dinghy!¡±


    Tormacc thought for a bit while Lysander continued to blather on. Now that he found someone, he wanted to try and leave the island. It didn¡¯t make sense to wait for other people to come when he already had a guide.


    ¡°Do you know where we are?¡± Tormacc said.Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.


    ¡°Yep! We¡¯re on Snake Monkey Island! I don¡¯t know where the island is though. But I do know how to get back! But man, I sure was unlucky to wind up here. Those Snake Monkeys hurt! Every time I try to venture inland to gather food they attack me! They never learn either, no matter how many times I fight them off. And there¡¯s always more of them! I keep killing the monkeys but they¡¯re back a few days later!¡±


    Tormacc frowned. ¡°You do know that you have to kill the snake part to actually kill them, right?¡±


    Lysander was stunned. ¡°You mean I wasn¡¯t actually killing them?¡± He then snapped his fingers. ¡°Of course! It all makes sense now! Why didn¡¯t I realize it sooner?!¡±


    Tormacc struggled to avoid facepalming. It seemed his new friend was a bit oblivious. Lysander¡¯s words did make him increase his estimation of his combat power though, as anyone who could continuously fight off the Snake Monkeys shouldn¡¯t be taken lightly.


    ¡°The way I see it we have two options,¡± Tormacc said. ¡°Either we wait for a group of hunters to come to the island and try to hitch a ride with them, or we leave by ourselves.¡±


    ¡°How would we leave by ourselves? We don¡¯t have a boat! Or wait, are you secretly a shipwright with awesome crafting skills? Neat dude! Can I watch you build a boat?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m not a craftsman. I would actually be relying on your to help me build a boat, I would just be piloting it.¡±


    Thinking Lysander might need more convincing, Tormacc activated his Elemental Form Water, his body turning slightly insubstantial as he turned to water. Lysander¡¯s mood did a quick turnaround, from depressed over Tormacc¡¯s lack of boat building skills to awed by his water transformation. Walking around him in a circle, Lysander oohed and aahed obviously impressed by the transformation.


    ¡°You were holding out on me, Tormacc! I didn¡¯t know you were a Water Elemental!¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m not, I just have water elemental skills. I¡¯m confident I can traverse the ocean, but if you want to come along we should probably have a boat, so I¡¯ll need you to help me build one.¡±


    ¡°Aye aye Captain Tormacc, let¡¯s get started right away!¡±


    Lysander saluted and was about to run into the forest to procure wood when Tormacc had to rein him in. They still needed to plan what kind of boat they were going to build after all. Tormacc had no actual experience sailing, but he was confident he could control the boat with his control over water, pushing it along without the need for either sails or oars. He actually had a fair amount of sailcloth in his storage device along with some books about boats, but when he had glanced through them before he quickly decided to leave boat building and sailing to the experts. Perhaps it was a skill he would pick up in the future, but right now he was just going to cheat.


    After dragging Lysander back they began to plan what kind of boat they would build. Since the boat didn¡¯t actually need any sails it might be more accurate to call what they were building a raft. But it was still important for it to float and be balanced, along with being aquadynamic so they could make sure to outrun the monsters that were bound to chase them. The most important thing was it had to be sturdy. They had limited building materials, so the plan was to just make the sides and bottom really thick, which would hopefully allow it to survive a bite or two from some fish.


    They consulted the books Tormacc had on him occasionally, but the books were more concerned with actual ships. Tormacc would have loved to create a copper sheathing for the hull for example, but something like that was well beyond what they were able to accomplish, and that was even if they had the materials and tools to do such a thing.


    They spent the next three days constructing the boat, chopping down trees and carving them into the appropriate shape. Using green wood wasn¡¯t exactly ideal, but they didn¡¯t want to spend the time to try and dry out and season the wood. Tormacc had a tar-like substance that they used to help bond the wood together, but even if there was a leak somewhere it wasn¡¯t really a problem as Tormacc could just magic the water back out of the boat.


    During the time spent building the boat Lysander was chatting away, and while a lot of the information Tormacc gleaned from the chatter was useful, it still felt like his ears were constantly under assault. Most of the talk focused on Sealine City and the Lantern Guild, which were topics Tormacc was interested in, and when they came up he actually answered Lysander back. It was unnecessary, as Lysander didn¡¯t need any responses to continue his spiel, but turning it into a conversation instead of a soliloquy also allowed Tormacc to help direct the topic to something he was interested in.


    For instance, thanks to those talks he was now much more interested in the Lantern Guild. From what Lysander said, they were a medium sized guild that put a lot of value in their members. They were also powerful. While not in the top five guilds in Sealine City, they might make the top ten, and definitely the top twenty. If Lysander was to be believed they had a good reputation and no real enemies. Or at least, not anymore. While the guild was congenial to those who didn¡¯t mean them harm, there had been quite a few times where they exterminated antagonistic forces.


    That was something that interested Tormacc. He wanted a force that would have his back, and it sounded like that fit the Lantern Guild to a T. His only frustration was he couldn¡¯t seem to get any information from Lysander about what it took to join the guild. As far as he could tell it wasn¡¯t because Lysander was withholding he information, it was more that he just didn¡¯t know. He was a happy-go-lucky sort, and Tormacc suspected there were a lot of things he didn¡¯t know that he really should have. Like how the Snake Monkey¡¯s true body was the snake, not the monkey.


    He did have some knowledge on how to build a skiff though, and when the boat they built was complete Tormacc was impressed. It was fairly small, with only room for the two of them, but it actually looked like a boat to Tormacc¡¯s uneducated eye. It had a pointed prow and a flat stern, allowing Tormacc to quickly skim the skiff over the waves. It didn¡¯t really look complete without oars or sails, so they ended up making some oars for emergencies. It was better to have them than not have them after all.


    It was already mid-afternoon when the finished so they decided to wait until tomorrow to begin their journey, and when morning came they set off to find Sealine City.

 Chapter 55

    ¡°See, I told you I¡¯m a genius shipwright! The boat floats!¡±


    With the amount of wood they had used Tormacc doubted it was ever in danger of sinking even if it was porous. Still, it was nice to know that it seemed seaworthy, or at least no water was coming in. It would be one less thing for him to deal with while piloting the thing, something which he suspected would have a rather steep learning curve.


    ¡°Hop in then and let¡¯s get going,¡± Tormacc said to Lysander, the excited young man still gushing over his craftsmanship.


    ¡°So how are you going to steer this thing?¡± Lysander asked once they were both onboard.


    ¡°Just watch.¡±


    Tormacc wasn¡¯t really sure himself, but he couldn¡¯t say that, so instead he turned on his water form and felt for the connection to the sea below. It was faint, so he ended up sitting in the stern with his hand stuck over the back, a thick strand of water connecting him to the sea. That worked much better, and once he was connected to the water he set about trying to push the boat along.


    A few minutes later and Lysander¡¯s enthusiasm had been slowly quenched, the slow speeds of the skiff equivalent to little more than a walking pace. Sure, Tormacc was making the boat move, but that was only in the literal sense of the word. While they were technically ¡°moving¡±, at the pace they were at it would take them a day to even leave sight of Snake Monkey Island. Using the oars would be faster than their current pace.


    Tormacc knew what he was currently doing wasn¡¯t working so he decided to try something else. The problem was his inexperience with water control was coming through. He wasn¡¯t like Athra who had a natural ability to control an element. Just because he had learned skills that enabled him to control water didn¡¯t actually mean he was any good at using them, or at least using them inventively. He knew he could be doing something differently, but right now all he could think of was to push along the boat with water, and apparently that wasn¡¯t how he should be doing it.


    He knew he could be going faster, so he turned to his Fate Wheel for inspiration. If his natural water control wasn¡¯t working it was time to supplement it with his skills. First, he activated Aura of Water, boosting his water abilities. It helped, and Lysander perked up as he noticed the skiff jerk forwards a little, the speed now noticeable to those who were actively paying attention. That didn¡¯t make enough of a difference though, so Tormacc decided to try out an active skill.


    He started out with the tier five skill Elemental Wave. From his experience taking the skiff out past the waves near the island he knew that waves would have the power to push the boat. Activating Elemental Wave behind him, he tried to aim it to pick up and carry the boat forwards.


    The skill started off slowly, but soon there was a noticeable swell behind them, and the boat picked up speed, matching the pace of the wave. The wave took it¡¯s time growing, but as it started to increase in size and speed Tormacc had to turn his full attention to controlling the skiff, the wave threatening to overpower their small vessel.


    The wave continued to grow, and soon it reached its peak, a huge crest of water plowing along through the ocean, a small skiff perched precariously on top. Lysander was whooping with joy, standing at the front of the boat while the spray drenched him, the speed exhilarating, especially compared to their previous crawl. They were high up above the ocean, and the view was truly amazing, the wave pushing them forward as they lorded over the surrounding sea.


    Tormacc wasn¡¯t having nearly as much fun. When he used the skill, he hadn¡¯t expected it to be this powerful. But between all of his elemental buffing skills the original ability had transformed, it¡¯s might many times greater than it would normally be without any additional bonuses.


    That wasn¡¯t the only reason Tormacc had underestimated it though. Another reason for his mis-reading of the skill was it¡¯s slow buildup time. He had only ever seen skills that were instantaneous, and while those skills could be powerful, any skill that had a buildup time would generally have a more powerful effect than a similar skill that acted instantly.


    The reason for this was fairly obvious. In battle, his Elemental Wave skill would be rather useless. It had quite a long charge up time, meaning he could still be attacked while he was using the skill. In addition, the slow speed of the skill meant it could easily be dodged. The skill only moved in one direction, and as long as someone wasn¡¯t rooted in place they could easily move out of the way.


    There was one final reason Tormacc had underestimated the effects of the skill though, and that had to do with the environment. Generally, his intuitive understanding of his water skills was in their weakest form, meaning if he used them as-is, without any environmental bonuses. To draw a parallel, it would be like if Athra tried to use the Elemental Wave skill in midair. She could use it, but the effect would be massively different compared to how the skill would function on the ground with access to adequate stone to power the skill.Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.


    Tormacc was in a similar situation, and because he used the skill out in the middle of the ocean he had plenty of water to draw from to power it. If he used it on land, he would have to supply all the water himself, essentially magicking it out of thin-air, but because he used it on the ocean all the water could be drawn from his surroundings, meaning more power could be put into other parts of the skill.


    All that said, the skill was still only tier five, and once he adjusted to it Tormacc eventually stabilized his control over both the skill and the skiff, the boat speeding along on the top of a meters-high wave. As the skill was dying down, Tormacc realized he could actually use his water control abilities to keep it going. The skill created a wave, and as he used his water senses to understand what he had created he realized that a wave was partially self-propagating, meaning that as long as he kept putting more power into it he could essentially keep it going indefinitely.


    The form of a wave was much more efficient than his previous was of powering the skiff, so after letting the wave he created die down a little to something more manageable he continued to maintain its power, his water control abilities fueling the wave and keeping the skiff speeding along.


    ¡°This is amazing!¡± Lysander shouted from his position at the front of the skiff. ¡°Why didn¡¯t you do this before?¡±


    ¡°We needed to be far enough out past the break,¡± Tormacc said, bullshitting an excuse. He wasn¡¯t going to say he was learning on the fly and ruin his good first impression. Much better to appear as a consummate expert than a little kid playing with guns he could barely aim.


    They continued to speed along before Lysander spoke up, his voice taking on a much more serious tone.


    ¡°You know how I mentioned the Razorcutters, right? It seems they¡¯re still here.¡±


    Tormacc followed Lysander¡¯s gaze, using Water Senses to feel out exactly what was up ahead. Lysander hadn¡¯t been kidding when he mentioned there was a shoal of Razorcutters. Up ahead was a veritable wall of them, huge swarms milling about, forming a line that extended as far as he could sense in both directions, appearing to encircle Snake Monkey Island.


    ¡°I was afraid of this,¡± Lysander said. ¡°It¡¯s why I didn¡¯t try and get off the island myself. Even if it would take a long time, I could eventually row myself to safety, but I have no way of making it past the Razorcutters. They would tear any boat I could make into pieces in not time. You have a plan for dealing with them, right?¡±


    ¡°Relax,¡± Tormacc said. ¡°Or actually, maybe don¡¯t relax. We¡¯re about to speed up, so hold tight.¡±


    Previously Tormacc had only used the tier five skill Elemental Wave, but now he was going to up the ante. With the experience he just gained controlling the skiff he was confident he could speed up. But while he was confident, he knew his limits. His most powerful wave-creating skill was the tier nine skill Greater Tsunami. He hadn¡¯t actually used the skill before, but judging by how powerful Elemental Wave already was he didn¡¯t want to try out the skill with him as the test subject. Instead, he went with the tier seven Greater Tidal Wave.


    After using the skill, the water surged behind their boat, a huge swell rising up, taking them from a few meters above normal sea level to over five meters high, the skiff shooting up, carried by the tidal wave. In addition, Tormacc also used the tier six skill Water Armor on the skiff, creating a barrier on the bottom that should help protect their boat against the Razorcutters. He didn¡¯t think it would last long against a sustained assault by the fish, but combined with the disturbance from the Greater Tidal Wave he was confident the Razorcutters would be in no shape to break through the Water Armor.


    Under his guidance, the tidal wave soon grew, plowing forward along the ocean, the wave spreading far out to either side of the skiff. While Elemental Wave was more localized, Greater Tidal Wave covered a huge area, and Tormacc was blown away by its power. It truly was a force of nature, and he was glad he hadn¡¯t tried to use a tier eight or nine skill break through the Razorcutters. It was already all he could do to control the skiff, and before he realized it the skill had broken away from his control, taking on a life of its own.


    The wave continued to grow in power and scope, truly living up to its name. Tormacc wasn¡¯t actually sure how useful the skill would be in battle, as despite its power it had a long buildup time and could be dodged fairly easily, but for his current purposes it worked extremely well. He was a bit miffed about losing control of the skill, but it was his first time using it, and trying to control both the skill and the skiff had been too much for him. Just controlling the skiff was doable though, so he focused his efforts to maintain their current position perched on the edge of the giant wave.


    Less than a minute later they reached the shoal of Razorcutters, the wave rolling over the line of fish. If the fish were equivalent to a blockade, the wave would be like an unstoppable battering ram, and through the water Tormacc could feel how the Razorcutters were tossed about, unable to resist the power of the tidal wave.


    If they had tried to sail through normally he doubted the boat could have survived the trip, even with his Water Armor. But with the disturbance caused by the tidal wave the Razorcutters were in disarray, only a few at a time rubbing up against the bottom of the skiff, his Water Armor sufficient to repel them.


    Lysander was letting out shouts of joy from the front of the boat, seemingly not at all concerned that they were perched on the edge of a giant wave, a large shoal of Razorcutters littering the water below them. Then again, if he had survived the Razorcutters once Tormacc suspected he could do it again. He still wasn¡¯t sure how Lysander made it through them, but he wasn¡¯t in a hurry to ask his new friend. For now, Tormacc enjoyed the spray washing over him as a large grin crept its way onto his face, Lysander¡¯s enthusiasm infectious as they soared along the top of the wave.

 Chapter 56

    Lysander estimated it would be at least a few days before they found land, so Tormacc just maintained their pace, their skiff ferried along by a wave during the day while at night he took a small break to sleep.


    Around them was only unbroken sea, and it might have taken Tormacc a little while to adjust were it not for his water affinity. Because of his affinity, he felt a connection to the water surrounding him, and despite the completely new environment he felt right at home bobbing along on the blue waves, their gentle caress rocking him to sleep at night. There were dangers too though, and on the second day they were forced to run, Tormacc using Greater Tidal Wave once more to escape from a giant sea monster that tried to attack them. Thankfully once they fled it lost interest, as while Lysander wanted to fight it, assuring him they could easily beat it, Tormacc wasn¡¯t convinced their skiff could survive the encounter, which doused the flames of Lysander¡¯s passion before they even really started to burn.


    On the morning of the third day they ran into something they couldn¡¯t run from, or at least not as easily. Shortly after daybreak they spotted black sails on the horizon, a key identifier of pirates. A few hours later and it was clear the pirates were headed their way, and unless they changed directions, crossing paths was inevitable. The problem was, they didn¡¯t actually know how to navigate on the open ocean. Lysander was pointing them in the right direction, but if they went off course he would lose that reference point, meaning they would be lost at sea without a clear way to find land again.


    ¡°Damnit,¡± Lysander said. ¡°If I still had my Spatial Bracelet this wouldn¡¯t be a problem. I had all sorts of navigation tools in there.¡±


    ¡°Do you actually know how to use them?¡± Tormacc asked.


    ¡°I could have figured it out! It can¡¯t be too hard, right?¡±


    While Lysander had been able to build a skiff, Tormacc suspected navigating required just a touch more technical expertise. That, or a skill to supplement. But the pirates threw a wrench in their plans. Any pirate ship brazen enough to fly black sails was confident in their own strength, and with only two of them it would be foolhardy to think they could take on an entire crew.


    As the sun climbed higher into the sky the pirate ship came closer and closer, and around midday it saw them, turning slightly so their skiff was on a direct collision course. The pirate ship was close enough now that Tormacc could make out very small people moving around on the deck and climbing around the rigging, and as he watched, the sails soon billowed out, filling with wind on an otherwise calm day.


    ¡°That¡¯s the most common way to sail a ship,¡± Lysander said. ¡°Using sails and wind magic, I mean. You only need a few wind spells to gain a lot of speed, and it¡¯s much easier to control than what you¡¯re doing. You just need to pile on more sail as opposed to generating more wind.¡±


    ¡°Do you think they can go faster than they are right now?¡± Tormacc asked, shading his eyes to try and estimate their speed.


    ¡°Depends. It¡¯s likely they can go faster, but that may only be for a short burst instead of a sprint.¡±


    ¡°So we probably can¡¯t outrun them then.¡±


    It was hard for him to estimate their exact speed, but from what he could tell Tormacc guessed they were going at least 1.5 times faster than the skiff currently was, and while he could improve their speed by a fair bit, he suspected he couldn¡¯t outrun the pirates long-term, as he was gated by his skill cooldowns.


    ¡°Hey, they might always be friendly!¡± Lysander said. ¡°Not all pirates are bloodthirsty savages. Maybe if we ask politely they¡¯ll take as back to shore?¡±


    ¡°Speak for yourself,¡± Tormacc said. ¡°You already lost all your wealth. I¡¯d like to keep my own, thank you very much.¡±


    ¡°I mean, it¡¯s still an option,¡± Lysander muttered.


    ¡°If you want to surrender to them, be my guest. If it came to that I would escape underwater.¡±


    Lysander shut up at that, reminded that out of the two of them he was the one stranded out on the ocean. Tormacc was perfectly suited for underwater travel, and while there might be more sea creatures to fight off down there, sea creatures were generally much less dangerous than pirates as long as he didn¡¯t swim too deep.


    ¡°Then do you have any other ideas?¡± Lysander said. ¡°It¡¯s like you said, they have me trapped. C¡¯mon, you must have something else up your sleeve.¡±


    ¡°I do have an idea, but it will be expensive.¡±This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it


    ¡°I can pay you back! Don¡¯t worry, my big sis is loaded! If you save me I¡¯m sure she¡¯ll pay you back! Double even!¡±


    Lysander made a move to grab onto Tormacc¡¯s leg to continue his begging but after the look he received thought better of it and settled for a sad puppy look, something which he was perfectly suited for.


    It was a tough choice, but Tormacc eventually decided that if he was going to invest in interpersonal relations it wouldn¡¯t make sense to turn away at the slightest sign of trouble. And besides, he actually liked Lysander, despite his overly chatty nature. If he wanted to join a trustworthy guild he would have to start by extending a little trust himself.


    Tormacc¡¯s plan to deal with the approaching pirate vessel was rather straightforward: he planned to attack them with Greater Tsunami, his tier nine skill from the left side of his Fate Wheel. But by itself he doubted the skill would be powerful enough, so he planned to take a page out of Zedna¡¯s book and get some outside help.


    Before entering the Shard he had made sure to get some insurance as a trump card, and that took the form of Sea Stone, the water equivalent of the Sun Stone that Zedna was looking for in the last Shard. There were equivalents to Sun Stone for each of the elements, but the main four, Earth, Water, Fire, and Air, were much more common, so while they were expensive, Tormacc was able to secure two pieces in the First City before he entered the Sealine Shard.


    Slowing down the skiff, he dispersed the wave that had been carrying them forward, waiting until they were drifting on the rolling seas. He then crouched down behind the side of the boat and took out one of this two pieces of Sea Stone. If he could see the people on the pirate ship it made sense that they could see him too, so there was no need to let them know he was using outside assistance to power his skill. He didn¡¯t think he could actually defeat everyone on the pirate ship, but they didn¡¯t know that, and he was hoping his empowered Greater Tsunami would scare them away.


    Holding tight to the Sea Stone, he activated all of his elemental buffing abilities, such as the tier six Water Domain. He put everything he had into Greater Tsunami, and for the final touch the Sea Stone he was holding dissolved into water, the final empowerment for his skill.


    Unlike his previous wave skills, Greater Tsunami started rather quickly, and soon his view of the pirate ship was obscured by a wall of water, the wave racing to intercept the pirate vessel and dissuade it from its current course. A minute later, Tormacc realized he had been wrong. Greater Tsunami had started out slowly. It was just, compared to his previous skills, ¡°starting out slowly¡± had a different meaning.


    ¡°It¡¯s still growing,¡± Lysander murmured softly, slack jawed in awe of the wall of water heading away from them.


    Tormacc had no response. He was just as shocked as Lysander, but did his best to hold it in, trying to appear as if he knew the power of his skill all along. He didn¡¯t though, especially with the Sea Stone. Stella had tried to tell him how rare elemental stones were and how much they would power up his abilities, but he had kind of blown her off. He knew what they did, right? He had seen some actual examples after all.


    It turned out he, in fact, didn¡¯t know what they did. Or perhaps he wasn¡¯t that clear on what Sun Stone did for Zedna¡¯s skill since he hadn¡¯t actually seen her use her AOE skill without Sun Stone. What should be a rare resource Zedna instead treated like the nuts she was always eating, seemingly wasting them without a care.


    Watching the over twenty meter tall and still growing wave made Tormacc realize that using Zedna as a benchmark for anything might not be the best idea. That, and comparing skills only worked with skills that were actually comparable. His wave-type skills that needed a charge up time were in no way similar to Zedna¡¯s instant AOE skill that could kill people before they could blink. The strengths of the two skills were completely different, so it only made sense that the way they would be strengthened was different too.


    At this point the wave must have been nearing the pirate ship by now, but Tormacc could barely concentrate on that, the roaring of the wave putting constant pressure on his eardrums. As he and Lysander watched the tsunami reached its peak before slamming down, the roaring boom of the sound wave creating a visible ripple across the ocean, and Tormacc and Lysander were knocked off their feet from the blowback as neither of them were holding onto anything when the skiff was hit, the small boat bobbing wildly in the waves.


    Unlike a normal tsunami, Tormacc had used a skill, and there was a target for that skill. A normal tsunami would have kept going until it hit land, only breaking when there was a large enough barrier to stop its momentum. Tormacc had clear target for the skill, so once the giant wave was looming above the pirate ship it had crashed down, the full might of thousands of tons of water crashing down on the unfortunate pirate ship.


    The aftermath was a sight to behold, the surrounding sea rocked by giant waves, multiple meters high, as the power of the tsunami dispersed into the surrounding area. It took more than five minutes before Tormacc was able to stabilize their skiff, as the small boat had been tossed wildly by the waves, and without his water control abilities Tormacc was sure they would have capsized.


    Once he finally felt they were safe, he looked toward where the pirate ship had been. Surprisingly, it was still there. Or maybe that was normal. He wasn¡¯t actually sure how powerful ships in the Shard normally were. But while the pirate ship was still floating, it¡¯s hull intact, the entire rigging was gone, not a mast in sight on the now bare ship.


    ¡°Well at least they can¡¯t chase up now,¡± Lysander said. ¡°They might have more masts in storage somewhere, but it will take them a little while to fix everything back up. Let¡¯s get out of here before that.¡±


    Tormacc was in agreement, so he restarted his wave propulsion and set off, powering past the pirate ship which was now dead in the water. He could see some activity on it, but unless they could magic up some rigging in a few hours it would take the pirate ship a long time to get back up and running, and that was if they still wanted to continue the chase. Tormacc doubted they did, as unless they wanted revenge and though they could get it chasing a small boat probably wasn¡¯t worth it for them, meaning he had successfully chased them off.

 Announcement: Short Break and future plans

    Hey everyone, sorry for the absence and lack of chapters. I''ve been feeling more depressed than usual lately and it''s made it hard for me to do anything creative, whether that''s work on any of my current projects or starting something new. I wish I had some better news that more chapters are coming, but it might be a little while, as I don''t want to make any promises I know I won''t be able to keep.


    While I''m here, I might as well take this time to give all you loyal readers an outline of my writing plans going forward. My current goals are to continue this story while going back and putting endings on my first two. I know exactly where I want the first arc/book for both of them to end, I just need to buckle down and get to it. After I get to a good stopping point with my first two stories, I''d like to then start a new one, one that will hopefully be more popular than this one lol. I''m also considering not writing a LitRPG, as I think I have trouble with them once the system I use become a bit unwieldy to keep track of later on in the story. Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.


    Obviously these plans are all theoretical right now, as I''m having trouble finding the energy/motivation to even write this story let alone work on other stuff. But my goal a few months down the road is to have endings on my first two stories and then have two stories running concurrently, this one and a new one. I have a good idea of what I want the new story to be, but I still only have a few chapters written so it''s highly possible I''ll change my mind and want to write something else, so I won''t divulge anything here until I''m 100% sure I know what I''m writing.


    Sorry for the break, and hopefully I will feel up to writing again soon. I guess that should be soon? though lol. I haven''t forgotten about my writing though, so as long as you follow my stories you''ll see any new updates. Hopefully you guys can find other stuff to read in the meantime.


    -Root Greevil