Savage Awakening 198. World Building (I) (Patreon)

A/N:

Bonus chapter day! Second chapter sometime late evening EST

Also: retconned in that they get tomes along with the Bloodlines as rewards

//

60 days.

That was how much time everyone on Earth, including Zane, had to get ready for the biggest threat their world had ever known.

There was a log jam in the World Rankings. Zane wasn't the most talented Leveler. He got there by brute force. Tons of folk were in the Level 190s, itching to break through.

Soon, Zane expected, he would be joined. By other top World Rankers, and also his friends. 

They would need to make the most of it. 

He and Reina had talked it over these past few days. She was worried about their world. She wondered if there was a way he could help out—and Zane agreed. In the background she started putting something together.  

***

But first he went home. It had been a long day.

He was greeted with a celebration on the quaint cobble streets of the Luminous Faction. Reina did her best to keep the small-town medieval look going even as Headquarters ballooned out into a full-fledged magic megacity. And she mostly succeeded except for times like now. It seemed like folk had portaled in from all over the globe. Just to welcome him home. The streets were overflowing. 

They were waiting to cheer him on at the portal. Again, Reina's security did its work—a bunch of Warriors blocking off the routes, Mages with soft shields clearing a path. Very efficient and professional.

At the very end, though, one of the team timidly came up to him—“Sir!”

It was a redheaded girl. The System identified her as ‘Maddie.’ There was a blonde girl at her side. 

“Sir, do you remember me?” said the girl, blinking up at him. She seemed a bit starstruck. 

Zane blinked at her. He did not in fact remember her, though he was trying. 

A guy with a buzz cut came up too. ‘Jake.’ And another burly warrior. ‘Arjun.’ They seemed to be some kind of team. Their cloaks ran the Luminous Faction colors—white, purple, with a splash of dark-green.

“Sir—we met in San Diego!” said Jake, all bright-eyed.

It took Zane a second. “…Oh. Right.”

Reina, on his arm, leaned over. “This is Elite Team 3,” She whispered. “The Starlit Defenders.”

“It was an unforgettable day,” rumbled Arjun. “We learned more watching you than we had in months of fighting, sir.” 

“You did?” 

“It was your mindset, sir! The way you thought about fights, how you kept your cool, your focus…it was something else,” gushed Jake. “When we tried keeping our cool, and just focusing, we worked so much better… we learned that from you!” 

They all nodded.

Zane had a bit of face amnesia sometimes. He saw lots of new faces all the time these days. He did remember these guys now that he thought about it.

They came to congratulate him in person on his victory. Also they wanted him to sign their cloaks, which he did. And they wondered if he had some fighting tips too, maybe, while they had him. Maybe some tips on breakthroughs or Laws? A few of the other security folk had peeled off to join them—a little crowd was forming. Zane saw they were other Luminous Faction Elite Team members too. He recognized a few. Fluffy-haired Rogue boy, mousy Priest girl with glasses. Mostly they were quite young, high school-aged or college. Eyes shining, flushing as they came up. They all wanted to know everything about him. Even stuff he thought rather boring. 

Now that Zane thought about it he had been running pretty hard this whole time. He was thinking through his next few weeks as he spoke. 

There was a two-month window where he was kind of bottlenecked on what he could do. He would check out that Red Moon Pagoda, brush up on his Soul Skills, maybe see about learning another Concept—once his fatigue had worn off.

But for the next few weeks, his soul would be too exhausted to do much. He’d spend most of his time Leveling, and buffing his body, and taking in Bloodline... those extra three drops should get him pretty far. Enough to hit that ‘Manifestation’ stage where he could summon that phantom of the Godbeast. He could get the Blood deeper too, into his bones and organs, making all of him as tough as he could—his body cracked far too much for his liking as it was...

Anyway. It wasn’t that intensive now that he thought about it. He supposed he could spare some time. Take a breather. Maybe help teach some folk in his own Faction. He liked the idea of it. 

As he looked around at all of them—at this Faction which had sprouted from the very first dungeon he’d cleared, which he’d spent so long building, which had grown up around him with Reina’s help, which he’d just defended... he felt a strange burst of pride.

It was a feeling that had been coming and going these last few months. Last few weeks especially. He wasn’t used to it—it surprised him. He usually only felt these things about Reina and Avery and Evan. 

Maybe it would be good to help out a bit.

He nodded.

These young ones had chosen to follow him. He could teach them what it meant to be strong.

Before he left, he told them so—he’d take some time out a few mornings a week to answer questions. Help instruct them.

They were delighted. 

**

Avery and Evan popped back up soon after and tackled Zane in big hugs. There were lots of hugs to go around today.

“Once we were all surrounded some of those old fogey started getting mopey,” Avery told him. She gave him a pat on the back. “They said it was all over! But I kept telling them—‘You just wait, Zane’s coming! He’s like one of those old chunky Nokia phones. Is he a bit slow? Probably. And is he the prettiest thing to look at? Nope! But when you need something reliable and impossible to break, something that’ll get the job done, he’s your guy!” 

She grinned up at him. Evan nodded. 

“…Thanks?” said Zane. 

Zane was a little too tired to do much after that. He and Reina just plopped down and slept straight-up, which was fairly unusual for them. She still sprawled over him and used him as a pillow though. He wrapped an arm around her and dozed off. At this point it would feel weird to sleep without holding her.

The next day Reina and Evan and Avery went off to absorb their new Bloodlines, each with their new fancy Tomes.

He told them not to breakthrough to Core yet though. He would have some things to share when the time came.

*** 

Zane spent a little time on his new fledgling coaching thing. Around mid-day in one of the exclusive upper-floor training fields of his dojo, he met up with a crew of a dozen or so of the Factions finest young talents, hand-picked by Reina.

It turned out he was mostly not good at actually coaching Skills. He didn’t know their Mage Skills or Rogue Skills or Archer Skills. And they didn’t want that from him anyway. They peppered him with questions—mostly about his mindset when fighting, and his experiences fighting. It was almost like a Q&A session with a bunch of fans. He wasn’t sure what they got out of it but they all seemed to think they learned a lot. 

Reina assured him they did. They might be young but they were World Rankers too, she reminded him. They knew how to train already; they were all world-class experts in their own rights. What they could learn from him had to do with the psychology of elite fighters—something that’d boost them to that next level, or something. He wasn’t sure. 

Most of the next two weeks or so on himself. First, he absorbed Asterion’s Soul Weapon Pearl. There were probably some other uses for it, but Zane couldn’t figure them out. And right now he wanted to get as strong as possible. So he just absorbed the insides for essence. They were quite rich as well—

Level up!

Essence Level 205 -> 206

Level up!

Essence Level 206 -> 207

Then came the Bloodline. Three drops of nice thick liquid floating in a clear glass vial. Just the heaviness of it, the feel of the glass in his hand, gave him pleasure. It was a well-made glass, charmed to contain a very powerful substance.

He uncorked it—put it to his lips. And drank.

One drop settled into his mouth. It was a lot easier to control now with Emperor's Soul. It felt like a scalding hot bead going down his throat; he could track its progress just by how it burned going down, the scalding tingling trail it left from his tongue, arcing deeper…

He guided it carefully down his throat, into his body. And with his new Core, taking in the essence was easy.

He did it again. And again—

Level up!  

Essence Level 207 -> 208

Level up!  

Essence Level 208 -> 209

But the levels weren’t the valuable part.

Bloodline Increased!  

Titansteel Rhino Bloodline (Godbeast): 2 drops -> 3

Bloodline Increased!  

Titansteel Rhino Bloodline (Godbeast): 3 drops -> 4

Bloodline Increased!  

Titansteel Rhino Bloodline (Godbeast): 4 drops -> 5

And with that new blood, those strong Bloodline passive skills of his got new boosts too.

Skill evolution requirements met!

Skill evolved!  

Indomitable Hide [Uncommon (E) VII -> Rare (E) III]

Skill evolved!  

Behemoth Muscles [Rare (E) III -> Epic I]

He swallowed all of that over the course of two days. It would be the bulk of his Leveling during this break, probably. Each of those was a heavy-duty treasure—chock-full of essence. They would’ve shot him up maybe fifteen Level before Core. But that was the cost of his new essence. It super-powered his Skills—but getting more felt almost absurdly hard. At least with what he had now. 

He would need to wait for the Superdungeon, he supposed, before he had a chance. The S-rank Vials of Essence he had just weren’t doing it for him anymore.

In the meantime, Reina had gathered a huge stack of metals for him. Trading in big chunks of their coffers. But by then, news had got out that Zane Walker wanted high-grade steel treasures. And all of a sudden gifts started pouring in. The Cherry Blossom Order, whose Patriarch was Kazu Urabe, the Sky Painter’s grandfather, gifted him the S-grade helm ‘Skull of Lazarus.’—a smoky shadowy gorgeous thing made of some special blackish-grayish alien metal. It came with a fancy-looking note on nice-smelling paper. 

 The big Brazilian Faction, Forte Uniao, gave him a pure-gold chestplate, also S. The surprising one came from The Empire Faction—D’Angelo’s and Jason’s Faction. Twenty ingots of S-grade Mithril. It came with a polite note from D’Angelo. Zane wasn’t sure what that was all about, but he ate it anyway.

All in all he got a dozen new S-rank treasures this way. As gifts. 

Like with his essence, it took a lot of great treasures to bump him up a little. But a lot of great treasures was exactly what he got.

Skill up!  

Indomitable Hide III -> IV

After all those big upgrades to Indomitable Hide—first the Bloodline, then pouring in all that new metal—he could feel a new tightness, a new density, to his skin. It was starting to change in its very structure. It felt like they held together much better at the smallest of levels, with his Bloodline acting as a kind of glue, almost. And it’d only get harder when he burned it.

Which all meant he suspected even Asterion would’ve had trouble cutting past his skin.

The most valuable, though, came from Eze. An S+-ranked shield of elven make, with glowing script all along the edges, immensely dense. It came with a thoughtful, if short, note. It expressed thanks, admiration, and a continued hope for friendship. It used exactly as many words as it needed to get the point across.

Zane chomped it down gratefully.

Skill up! Behemoth Muscles I -> II

His muscles were already overkill. But he just kept making himself more and more powerful. You could never be powerful enough. It might as well have been Zane's life philosophy.

He could sense other avenues of power opening up to him now that he had those new drops. But he would need to comprehend more of his Bloodline Tome for that. And his soul wasn’t quite there—give it a few weeks. Then he could temper his insides.  See how strong his body would be after remaking his tendons, and his vital organs, and his bones with a Godbeast’s power.