B2 - Chapter Two: Liche Devourer (Patreon)

[Congratulations, Idiot! You have chosen Fabled Creation! Awarding class skills and attribute bonuses…]

[Calculating…]

[…]

[30% boost to wisdom, intelligence, and perception in effect!]

[100 free attributes awarded!]

[Class skills awarded!]

[You have been granted the skill, Fabricator! Through intricate and highly precise work, this rare skill allows you to assemble and repair life by cutting, bending, and fabricating. Locked. Karma regeneration rate requirement not met!]

[You have been granted the skill, Devourer! This rare skill allows you to siphon the lifeforce from your enemies and funnel it into a black hole inside of a pocket dimension. When the hole is fed, unleash obliteration. Locked. 3500 Karma pool requirement not met!]

[You have been granted the rare skill, Lodestone Creationist! Description and skill locked. Requirements not met!]

Logan reeled, feeling as if he’d been slammed over the head with a two-by-four as his intelligence and wisdom attribute upgrades opened his senses to the world around him. Then the perception boost surged, making him feel like his vision had gone from regular 20/20 vision to eyesight that had turned into a magnifying glass.

Suddenly, the white stone underneath his feet wasn’t just stone—he could see each fine grain, each groove. And worst of all was the smell. Although he’d already thrown the bodies of the guards into his spatial storage, that hadn’t gotten rid of the blood, guts, and dead flies that saturated the room. It was as if he were standing inside of a slaughterhouse.

That was all the time Logan had before the System continued, pouring Ding! after Ding! into his ears like an angry kitchen timer.

[Skill convergence found! The skill, Devourer, has been merged with the skill, Liche Siphon, to form the epic skill, Liche Devourer! This rare skill allows you to siphon Karma and lifeforce from your enemies and funnel the excess into a pocket dimension black hole. When the hole is fed, unleash obliteration. This skill is insidious, and the enemy will not be aware that funneling is in effect. Locked. 3500 Karma pool requirement not met!]

[Skill convergence found! The skill, Fabricator, has been merged with the skill, Life Cycle Master, to form the epic skill, Life Fabricator! Through intricate and highly precise work, this skill allows you to build, repair and control the life cycle of beings by cutting, bending, and assembling. Level is commensurate with your Karma pool and Karma regeneration rate. KarmaCoin awarded is based on carbon capture impact. Locked. Karma regeneration rate requirement not met!]

[Error!]

[User has exceeded the allowable skill limit! Only 10 skills allowed!]

[Remove one skill.]

[CHOOSE.]

Damn. Flabbergasted by all the new skills, Logan didn’t even know where to look, but then… his excitement dampened, and frustration took its place. Clenching his teeth so hard his jaw started to ache, Logan paced and ran a hand through his hair.

The System had just taken two of his most valuable skills—[Life Cycle Master] and [Liche Siphon]—and made them unusable. They were locked? What kind of bullshit was that? Not to mention that he’d already leveled up [Liche Siphon] to level 5 and he’d just lost those levels.

Grudgingly, Logan could admit that the newly evolved skills, [Liche Devourer] and [Life Fabricator] sounded overpowered, but he forgot all of that when the latest System message punched him in the gut.

Lose a skill?!

Wasn’t this new System supposed to be less of a dick than the last one? Frigging hell!

Ding!

[Skill limit exceeded! User has 60 seconds to eliminate one skill, or one will be randomly chosen for you.]

Holy shit! His heart racing and his throat closing up in tension, Logan franticly pulled up his stat sheet. Hell no was he letting the System take away a skill like [Regenerate]! Holy crap, holy crap. He had only one minute to decide!

Skills:

·       Idiot’s Paradox Lv. 28

·       Idiot’s Inspect Lv. 10

·       Deepwater Explorer Lv. 3

·       Regenerate Lv. 10

·       Mimicry Armour Lv. 2

·       Universal Language

·       Undead Stamina

·       Foresight

·       Lodestone Creationist

·       Liche Devourer

·       Life Fabricator

Right away, he skipped over [Regenerate], [Life Fabricator], [Liche Devourer] and [Foresight]. They were way too valuable. Although he hadn’t had a chance to experiment with [Liche Devourer] and the System had locked the skill, it sounded like he had an atomic bomb in his arsenal. Sucking power from enemies into a black hole! The possibilities made goosepimples break out on Logan’s skin.

As for the others—shit, he didn’t want to give any of them up!

Okay, okay.

He needed to calm down. Raging wouldn’t get him anywhere.

[Mimicry Armour] had been a skill that he’d perfected through trial and error, and it was only level two. In the fight with the guards, Thorin had managed to crack his breastplate, but if Logan found something other than sand, he suspected he could perfect his Logan-exoskeleton and make it stronger. He would hate to lose a skill like that.

[Idiot’s Paradox] was one of the first skills he’d received, and it had history. A history of a hailstorm of pain. A history of a chopped off finger, burned skin, strained muscles, and cliff-face dives. Not to mention that without it, he wouldn’t have progressed so far in the attribute trials. It would be difficult to concentrate on much of anything without a pain reduction skill.

Hell no, [Idiot’s Paradox] stayed.

As far as [Idiot’s Inspect], it wasn’t a make-or-break skill. It gave him a tactical advantage, since he wouldn’t blindly challenge someone who could crush him like a bug if they had a higher level, but although it would be difficult, if he had to, he could give it up. Fuck, but again, he didn’t want to!

[Deepwater Explorer] was only beneficial in limited situations—underwater—but he’d have a huge problem if he lost it. To escape the trial dungeon, he assumed it would send him back to the underwater portal, and without [Deepwater Explorer], he’d drown. The tunnel was way too deep to reach the surface before he ran out of air. Not to mention that if he encountered the serpent queen on his way out, he’d have no chance if he couldn’t breathe.

There was one possible solution.

In the tactician trial, the System had given him a portal generation crystal for placing on the All-Time Leaderboard. That might be a way to bypass the lake and escape to fresh air, but that didn’t solve his other problem.

To save Ernie, he’d need to be in the water for an extended period of time. Without [Deepwater Explorer], scuba diving equipment would be the only alternative. Logan didn’t like his chances fighting monsters while relying on an oxygen tank.

He needed that skill.

As for [Lodestone Creationist], it was a mystery. The System hadn’t told him what it was—it had no description! But Logan had a hunch, an inkling that it might be worthwhile. His new class, Fabled Creation, had referenced ‘empire building,’ and the other two class skills didn’t fit. There was something about [Lodestone Creationist] that made him think it related to his Tree Fridge. Logan could buy items from the Tree Fridge. Was the skill something that gave him store expansion possibilities? There were too many unknowns.

That left only two skills, [Undead Stamina] and [Universal Language].

Logan had received [Undead Stamina] from Ernie, and without it, his endurance would drop like a stone. On the other hand, [Universal Language] had helped him communicate with the Silverdagger Clan, but back on Earth, it was less important.

After weighing the possibilities, there was only one choice that made sense.

Logan mentally hovered over [Universal Language] and confirmed his selection.

[Changes confirmed!]

[Eliminating Universal Language!]

[Processing…]

Thank fuck. That had really worried him for a second. If he’d been dealing with his glitchy AI minion, it might have shortened the time just to be an asshole. The thing would have relished screwing him over.

With a sigh, his shoulders slumping in relief, Logan pulled up his full stat sheet.

Name: Logan Hart [Hidden Name: Idiot]

Rank: 3 out of 6,007,987,194

Level: 95

Class: [Epic] Fabled Creation

Grade: F9

Species: Human

Skills:

·       Idiot’s Paradox Lv. 28

·       Idiot’s Inspect Lv. 10

·       Deepwater Explorer Lv. 3

·       Regenerate Lv. 10

·       Mimicry Armour Lv. 2

·       Undead Stamina

·       Foresight

·       Lodestone Creationist Lv. 1

·       Liche Devourer Lv. 1

·       Life Fabricator Lv. 1

Titles: Eager Beaver; Mass Murderer; Audacious Corpse; Run Until You Drop; Malicious Meat Sack

XP Progress: 120,000/190,000

Karma: 2,028/2,028

Intelligence: 260 + 30% = 338

Constitution: 46

Strength: 348*

Agility: 363*

Dexterity: 288*

Endurance: 662*

Perception: 35x3* = 105 + 30% = 137

Wisdom: 215 + 30% = 280

Luck: 85

(*Pure Grit Ring)

Free Attribute Points: 100

KarmaCoin: 302,600

Huh. Even after he’d received his new class, the System still ranked Logan number three in the world. He had to wonder just how overpowered the other two people had to be to continue outpacing him.

His new class had given him a 30% boost to intelligence and wisdom, increasing his Karma pool to 2,028, and his Karma regeneration rate to 280 per minute. He couldn’t help but notice that as he hovered over his new skills… well, they were still locked. The attribute upgrade hadn’t been enough to unblock them.

With 100 free attributes to assign, he was torn. To unlock these new skills, Logan needed both a higher Karma pool and a Karma regeneration rate. If he poured everything into wisdom, it might be enough to unlock [Life Fabricator], but that wasn’t guaranteed. And yet, even if he threw all 100 points into intelligence, that would get him nowhere close to the 3,500 Karma pool requirement for [Liche Devourer], but it would inch him closer to the goal. There was a question about versatility though.

After his fights with the guards, [Life Cycle Master] had been his only tactical juggernaut. Now that it had turned into [Life Fabricator], he needed that skill more than ever. On the other hand, although unleashing a black hole via [Liche Devourer] was sick as fuck, it wouldn’t help him in situations where he needed delicate tactical advantages.

That did it.

Logan made the changes:

[Wisdom: 216]

[Wisdom: 217+]

[Wisdom: 315]

Logan hissed in a breath, his eyes bulging as he staggered in place. By now, you’d think he’d be used to this, but there was no getting used to the trip of his life. Scene after scene continued to rush by until something focused, something…

It was a scene from his childhood.

Logan saw an image of eight-year-old Logan playing in front of the willow tree at the cabin, the sun bright in the blue sky. A dragonfly drifted past as little-Logan kneeled in the dirt, his bare knees getting filthy as he played, tracing divots in the bulging roots that surged through the ground. With bright freckles, a sunburn on his neck, mini-Logan stabbed a stick, imagining the stick as a soldier.

“I’m the commander, Pumpernickel! Fear my wrath.” With a grin, Logan pulled the limbs off the stick like he was severing the limbs of a man.

A huff. “Logan,” said mini-Lara, bursting into the scene, hands on her hips, her long ponytail swinging behind her. She was wearing red shorts and a white shirt, a streak of dirt on one cheek. “That’s a stupid name for an evil king! Besides, why does it have to be a man? Can’t it be an evil queen?”

Mini-Logan blew out an agitated breath, his cheeks bulging. “You always ruin my fun! Go take your icky girly ideas and launch them into the sea!”

Lara rolled her eyes. “You mean the lake?”

Logan gave her a wicked smile. “It’s a mighty sea! And the Ogopogo monster is going to carry you away! Into its lair.” He dropped his voice into a whisper. “Where it keeps your barbies.”

Lara gasped. “You little—!”

The scene faded like a windshield fogging in the winter, mini-Logan and Lara disappearing into the past where they belonged.

Logan could only blink as the white arena room came back into focus. What the hell? That had never happened before. Sure, he’d seen scenes flash after an intelligence or wisdom upgrade, but he’d never seen full scenes from his childhood.

He had no idea if it had happened due to reaching some type of Karma threshold, but what he did know was that he’d made a hell of an upgrade. With the 30% static boost, he’d just raised his Karma regeneration rate from 280 to 410 per minute.

Excitement surging, Logan pulled up the description of [Life Fabricator]:

[Through intricate and highly precise work, this skill allows you to build, repair and control the life cycle of beings by cutting, bending, and assembling. Level is commensurate with your Karma pool and Karma regeneration rate. KarmaCoin awarded is based on carbon capture impact. Locked. Karma regeneration rate requirement not met!]

Fuck’s sake! It was still locked. Just how high did he need to raise his Karma regeneration rate? Pinching the bridge of his nose, Logan scrubbed his face and then glanced around the arena viewing room like looking for your keys and sunglasses right before going on a long trip. He needed to get out of here, but he suspected that this was his last opportunity to take an inventory before he’d be in the thick of it again.

Rolling his shoulders, Logan made sure to reform his armour, from his boots down to his talons, even forming his facemask. There was no question that even though some of his skills were restricted, his surge in Karma had another benefit:

2,026/2,028

2,027/2,028

2,026/2,028

His regeneration rate was so high that he no longer had to worry about Karma depletion while wearing his armour.

Hell yeah.

Jumping on the balls of his feet, Logan strode towards the doorway and stepped through, letting the white light take him back to Earth.

<---Go to chapter three.