Savage Awakening 236. The Third Concept (I) (Patreon)

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Essence Level 255 -> 259

So much essence rushed into Zane at once he felt his Core flexing, expanding with his new capacity. It was a rare thing to feel it—it spoke to how much he’d gained.

He would need every bit he could get. 

It was bigger. But still mostly drained. It would’ve been nice if he could use Leveling essence to refill himself. But to fuel his Core he needed his own essence. 

He was satisfied, if spent. 

It would be a little while yet before he was back to fighting shape—and not just because of his essence situation.

His soul was still exhausted, but more—he felt a dizzying spike of pain, enough to make him hiss. He examined himself. And found a nasty surprise waiting. 

Splotches of corruption ran all through him. Staining his muscles, his organs—especially down the middle. His midsection was splotched black all over, an oilspill in the Astral Plane…

Reina rushed to catch him—threw on regeneration. Cleansing him, burning it away, slowly stabilizing him. It still felt like it was burning holes inside him. But she quickly got a handle on it. It was Nascent essence. It would take a little while to melt, it looked like.

He didn't feel like he would collapse at any moment anymore. Even though dizzy spells kept smashing him over the head. Like deep hunger pangs but for essence. He took some elixirs… it would still be a while.

Frowning, he pushed himself on. “’S go,” he said, and was surprised to find himself slurring. He blinked. 

Maybe he was more tired than he thought.

But they had to go on. The other Monster hordes were still at their backs, gaining ground. So they went.

*** 

Same situation. Zane and Reina as a pair, Evan giving Avery a piggyback ride—and they were making good progress, Reina thought, which was the first good news Zane had heard in a while.

She had them run slightly diagonal for a bit. Then back to their original path, noted the change in the angle of the compass on the mini-map, ran some ballpark figures in her head to figure out how far they had to go. Evan asked her what Skill she was using, and she said “Math.” It blew his mind. 

With their pace of travel, she said it would take two days until they got there.

They would have to hold out until then.

Avery guided them—trying to weave them between Monster armies that somehow kept cropping up in the distance. Their little crew ran faster than any individual army—they just had to keep going around them, which felt, according to Avery, like playing the world’s most high-stakes game of Pac-Man. 

“Lucky for you,” she said proudly. “You stand in the presence of the 7th place finisher in Division C of the 2022 Greater Seattle Area Pac-Man Championships!” 

Evan gasped, asked how many participants there were, and she hastily changed the subject. 

There was an absurd amount of strong demons here according to her. Crawling hordes of them. They traveled in packs though. And this place was enormous. So it was still possible to skirt them. For now, at least. While the net was still closing…

Zane figured it wouldn't be too long before he would have to fight again. 

And he could do it. But he was also a little concerned that first army would not be the worst of their troubles here.

If they somehow had to take more than that—maybe three Nascent Monster knights or two armies at once… he felt like he was fighting the world.

To do that he needed more firepower from his body. Which was something he seldom thought. It was true, though. He could not crush just one. He had to crush them all.

They skirted Monster hotspots ran around lakes of boiling corruption fields of corruption scars staining the air… and at last came to a rest.

Evan was pretty pooped. He had been running all day. Zane could run a while longer—especially now that Reina had cleared out most of his corruption. But he had made the decision to stop.

Reina wasn’t doing too well, even though she kept denying it. He knew her. She had dark circles under her eyes—she looked a little sleepy. She was running low doing all this healing, while also warding off the very air in this place. She’d done a lot.

Sure enough, after they stopped, she kind of slumped into Zane, on the verge of passing out. He fed her healing elixir, let her rest on him. She started murmuring a little as she drifted off.

They settled in an empty stretch of plain. Cracked black ground stretching far as the eye could see, curving around boiling tar-lakes, broken up by forks of bubbling hissing lava. 

They put enough distance now according to Avery that they could afford to take a little breather. At least for a few hours—maybe a night. Which did happen here, though there was no sun and no moon that they could see. Just the color of the sky, going from blood red to bruise purple, and staying there a while. No stars here either. Nothing to make a wish on.

It was a chance for them all to take whatever treasures they had brought to replenish themselves too. Avery had packed some sushi, Evan cookies—all equivalent to Earth-grade essence treasures. They took Level-up treasures too.

Zane took out his two new Nascent Monster Weapon Souls.

Both pitch black orbs with maroon splotches swirling angrily over their surfaces. More dense by far than any others he’d come across… each had well over two million souls. 

He took them in.

Level up!  

Weapon Soul 4 -> 5  

At this Level the Prometheus Chains’ durability and strength is equivalent to Epic Sky-grade Spirit Steel. 

He almost didn't get it, to his surprise. Weapon Soul levels were getting a lot harder to come by. His Chains’ colors only seemed to grow more intense with each Level—deeper blacks. Purer. Shining that much brighter in the Astral Plane. 

They all sat there, roasting essence-infused S’Mores around a small fire, darkness swaddling the world around them. Broken up by rivers of lava snaking into the distance. Elixirs ingesting away inside all of them. They readied themselves for a new day...

Zane was just about recovered, soul-wise. He could do with some comprehension, he thought. It would take just a few hours to make a breakthrough. He had his eye on the Vital Organs bit of his Bloodline. He wasn’t sure what upgrades that meant. Maybe his gut, or his heart? Whatever it was, he needed more power.

In the past, he had gotten a lot of defense out of his Titan Rhino Bloodline. As well as physical power, the power of the body. That he did not lack. When he was fighting armies a realm up, though... he found he needed his essence to put in more work.

Just then—

“Look!” said Evan. He pointed at the sky. “It's a shooting star!”

Zane frowned, looking up, pretty sure they were under attack somehow. Avery did too. But there was no soul there—and the thing on the mini-map, moving fast toward them, was yellow. The color of treasure.

High above, a stream of white light… it really did seem like a shooting star. 

In here? 

“The System said something about aid arriving in twenty-four hours?” mumbled Reina, still sleepy. 

Sure enough, that shooting star came closer and closer, trailing a sparkling stardust trail utterly out of place in this hellscape—and ended up dropping right in front of Evan.

Evan gasped, picked it up—then showed Zane.

A tome bound in gold plate. Even the pages were written in gold; the letters streamed sunlight. It was a new Skill manual from a Faction called “The Constellation Order,” apparently one of the Nine Great Factions. The Light one. They gave him something called “Solar Flare Sword”—it was the next evolution of his laser-beam Skill. The Tome's rarity was Earth (A).

The highest any of them had ever seen. 

Soon another dropped down. This one came for Avery. She thought she’d been pranked at first—it looked like just a vial of water—until she read the description, and found it was ‘Mt. Tai Spring Water,’ also an A-grade item. It granted a special essence boost to those with Water affinities.  

She started chugging hers happily.

Which left Zane looking up too, curious. He knew some Factions had an interest in him.

And sure enough… His shooting star came too. A good deal thicker than the ones that flew before—and it landed soft in front of him. The light faded out, revealing the treasure.

It was a violet flower. 

A beautiful thing. The petals were made of what looked like liquid light, sizzling and gently crackling, somehow holding form. There was a little sun suspended in the center. Shimmering white-purple. 

A single candle-flame of Stormfire. And just that little fire flared so powerfully it commanded its own space, a soft sphere of lightening color.  

Not any Stormfire he knew—far stronger. Its aura was blinding in the Astral Plane… 

Greetings, Zane Walker. This treasure comes courtesy of the Azure Flame Faction out of recognition of your great promise. It is the most precious foundational treasure on the Path of Stormfire. 

Huh. 

It is the highest-grade item we could send, taken directly from my Master’s vault. Besides its main effect, the True Stormfire within should also expedite your comprehension of the next Stormfire Concept—and thus allow you to attain Mid-Tier Fusion.

Taking this treasure will not interfere with any prior affinities or Bloodlines you may have ingested. 

—Sage Burnwater, Outer Martial Elder 

Zane inspected it, curious.

Plasma Sunflower [Earth (S)]

Ingesting this plant remakes the wielder’s meridians, granting them S-tier affinity to all Plasma essence, which is the essence of Stormfire. Any such essence flowing through these channels will gain a 30% boost. 

This seemed big. He had never felt such pure Stormfire in person before… he could feel it was chock-full of Concepts. Concepts far beyond him. Just waiting for his comprehension. It was mesmerizing in the Astral Plane too—strangely it looked the same there as it did here. Just clearer.

Zane was quickly revising his plans. He was pretty sure he knew what he wanted to do now.

It had been a little while since he upgraded his Stormfire. He had a feeling it would give him exactly what he needed. Especially once he absorbed this thing fully. ‘Mid-Tier’ Fusion… he wasn’t sure what it meant. But he was optimistic.

He rummaged through his Bag of Holding and dusted off that old Stormfire tome. Same black leather, blue lettering. Eager to crack it open. 

*** 

Reina’s treasure was the strangest. It was a treasure that came in a comet just as bright as Zane’s, which got them curious—and sure enough, it turned out to be an Earth A+-rank. It was something called a ‘Great Sage Seed’—in 30 days, it would bloom into an S-rank treasure called the ’Great Sage Fruit.’ Which was supposed to help Law comprehension a great deal. It was shiny enough. 

Only…it didn’t seem to have any uses right now. Which they all found strange. Reina started scrutinizing it. He wasn’t sure what thoughts were running through her mind. 

He asked them to keep an eye on him as he went to take in his flower. They nodded.

He brought it to his mouth, stuffed it in, and swallowed.

*** 

It was scalding. Even to Zane, who was better placed than pretty much anyone to resist Stormfire. But only for a second. It didn’t taste like anything physical. Like he was swallowing sensations, pure heat, pure electricity, jacked to a ridiculous intensity. The very essence of Stormfire.

He still gagged a little. Then it was going down his throat. A setting sun in the Astral Plane...

It settled in the core of his body.

It didn’t explode, like he expected. Instead, it dissolved—dissolved to streams so hot even his body had trouble tolerating them. They began to spread, to flow through his channels, carving scalding-hot paths… and where they passed they were scorched clean. Remade in shining purple light… 

Instantly Zane started going red, breathing heavy. He began to sweat, breathe out plumes of lightning-filled smoke, sparks of purplish Stormfire dancing down down breath, rumbling to the skies...

He felt it trickling up and down from his Core. White-hot. To his chest and arms—he let it do its work. The progress was very slow. But it would be finished come sunrise, he felt. 

Until then... he took the highest-grade Comprehension treasure they had. A ‘Draught of Clear-Seeing.’ And cracked the Tome of Stormfire. 

His body would be drenched in the stuff for the next few hours. He would make the most of it.