by A F Kay
“So what happened to us is probably rare,” Hamma said.
“It must be since the experience reward goes up for each new realm visited. The next one will give us a million.”
“Next one?” Hamma asked.
Ruwen shrugged. “The last two months have been insane, and I doubt things will slow down.”
Lylan shook her head and looked at Ruwen. “This is hard to process. Before I met you, I had recently picked Shade as a Sub Class, and now I’m level nineteen. I’ll need to pick a Specialization next level.”
“I hadn’t even thought about Sub Classes, and suddenly I’m level eighteen,” Hamma said.
“Same,” Ruwen said. “I think we need to pause here and get through all our notifications. We all have a ton of spell, attribute, and ability points to distribute.”
“I don’t even know what my choices are,” Hamma said.
Ruwen opened his Void Band and removed the Order and Observer textbooks Tremine had given him a lifetime ago and handed them to the women. “These only cover Spells and Abilities through level nine, but they’re better than nothing. We might have to wait on distributing all our points until we get more information or someone that can give us some advice.”
The women nodded their thanks. Ruwen removed the three iris plants he’d taken from the Spirit Realm and placed them in the open Void Band. A new notification appeared over the hundreds he needed to go through.
Notice: A living entity has entered your Void Band. Estimated Energy consumption to sustain additional life: 6 energy per second. You are currently consuming 6.45 Energy per second. You have 10 seconds to make one of the following choices:
Choice 1: Remove the entity.
Choice 2: Select Yes, incur the energy cost, and sustain the entity’s life.
Choice 3: Select No, and the entity will perish.
Before leveling up, Ruwen had been regenerating nearly thirty Energy per second, mostly from the twenty-five Energy per second provided by the five Coiled Lightning Rings Bliz had given him.
Ruwen chose number two, and then placed the five clumps of grass he’d taken from Uru’s realm in the band as well. The notification reappeared, but the grass only cost one Energy per second per clump. He chose two again and then closed his Void Band.
He’d added eleven Energy per second to his consumption, but it felt good to have the rare items in a safe place. He would reevaluate his Energy state after distributing all his pending points. Maybe there would be a safe place he could store the boxes that contained the divine amulets. Those boxes were consuming six Energy per second, and he wished he could have sent those back with Slib.
“How do you feel about staying in this spot for a while, maybe the whole day?” Ruwen asked Lylan.
Lylan looked around. “The hill narrows quickly to a cliff?”
Ruwen nodded.
“Then this is a good spot,” Lylan said. “I’ll take first watch.”
“I’ll take the second,” Hamma said.
“Thank you both,” Ruwen said. “Let’s switch every two hours.”
Hamma pointed at two packs leaning against a tree. “We need to go through those too.”
Ruwen had forgotten about the packs containing items from the Plague Siren’s lair. Everyone had carried one except Sift and Ruwen. He hoped there was valuable loot in the packs worn by the Champions, Juva, and Slib. “Let’s do that together once we’ve all went through our notifications.”
Everyone nodded, and Ruwen sat. Where did he start?
Ruwen had hundreds and hundreds of notifications, twelve levels of attribute, ability, and spell points, plus new gear and his Harvesting improvements. Not to mention picking his Sub Class. That would be easy for his Worker Class, but the Observer one he wanted to think through. While exciting, it also felt overwhelming.
Rami, can you show me the last notification of each type?
A notification expanded from the minimized group.
Shing!
You have advanced a skill!
Skill: Swimming
Level: 11
Effect: Increase speed in the water by 11%. Decrease Energy Cost by 5.5%
He had gained one point in Swimming from his time underwater in Fractal and from escaping Tickles in the iris valley lake. He accepted the notification, and another one appeared.
Shing!
You have advanced a skill!
Skill: Dagger
Level: 3
Effect: Increase damage by 1.5%.
Wincing, he realized that must have come from slicing Sift open. But this was the second notification in a row that had advanced by one. Maybe not much else had changed other than his Class level.
What’s wrong? Rami asked.
Oh, nothing. I just hoped the gains would be more significant.
The cool mist of Rami’s laughter filled Ruwen’s mind. I’ve ordered them by level’s gained, ascending. Do you want to see your biggest gains first?
Ruwen smiled. No, you’re doing great. Thanks.
The next three notifications had all advanced by five levels.
Shing!
You have advanced a skill!
Skill: Prospecting
Level: 6
Effect: Increase chance of discovering plants, gems, ores, minerals, and other collectibles by 6%.
Shing!
You have advanced a skill!
Skill: Taxonomy
Level: 7
Effect: Increase identification of plants, gems, ores, minerals, and other collectibles by 7%.
Shing!
You have advanced a skill!
Skill: Deception
Level: 8
Effect: Increases your Persuasion by 8%.
The Prospecting and Taxonomy gains made him wish he’d tried to find even more items in the Spirit Realm. But he’d been focused on other things. Now that he and his friends had made it out alive, though, he regretted not looking a little more. Unfortunately, his Deception skill would continue to go up as he lied and kept secrets from those around him.
Gong!
You have increased your Knowledge!
Level: 47
The intelligent know true power is held by knowledge. The wise know knowledge can be dangerous. Greatness is found between them.
Ruwen’s Knowledge had gone up eight levels. He had visited other realms, discovered some secrets of his past, and learned about the origins of the deities. The mysteries of Harvesting had partially revealed themselves, he’d found a secret Step form, and his years spent with Rami had changed him. A lot had happened in the brief time he’d been away.
Shing!
You have advanced a skill!
Skill: Herbalism
Level: 14
Effect: Increase harvest speed by 28%. Increase harvest yield by 14%.
Ruwen hadn’t collected many samples, but the ones he had taken were incredibly hard to obtain, so the increase by ten seemed right.
Shing!
You have advanced a skill!
Skill: Disguise
Level: 12
Effect: Anyone observing you has a 12% reduction to their Perception.
This had to be from the wrappings and then the Scarecrow Aspect. Ruwen welcomed the gain of eleven points.
Shing!
You have advanced a skill!
Skill: Staff
Level: 21
Effect: Increase damage by 10.5%.
The hours Ruwen had practiced with Hamma had paid off with a fifteen point gain. His training with Rami had given him much better control of his body and made quick staff advancement possible.
Shing!
You have advanced a skill!
Skill: Meditation
Level: 23
Effect: Clear Mind: increase health, mana, and energy regeneration by 6.0%.
It surprised Ruwen that the skill had only increased by twenty. But lately, he tended to pass right through it as he moved to Harvesting or spell casting. He hadn’t actually meditated that
much in the Spirit Realm.
Shing!
You have advanced a skill!
Skill: Tumbling
Level: 71
Effect: Decrease fall damage by 35.5%.
The years spent with Rami had resulted in this new skill. Ruwen had learned the hard way how to fall correctly and felt seventy-one might be a little low.
Shing!
You have advanced a skill!
Skill: Last Breath (Rare)
Level: 78
Effect: Reduce pain by 78%.
Effect: Increase Mind Resistance by 39%.
Effect: Increase Mental Speed by 156%.
Ruwen didn’t recognize this skill and had never heard of a rare one. After a moment, he realized it must result from his underwater death training. From the name, this skill must only advance when a person acted just before death. In the Material Realm, that didn’t give you many opportunities to increase it.
But Ruwen had spent days experiencing constant death thanks to the Spirit Realm, and that underwater practice had allowed him to enter this “Last Breath” state at will. In fact, it automatically triggered now whenever he encountered pain.
The benefits of the rare skill were incredible. The pain reduction and mental resistance were fantastic by themselves, but the increased thought speed really excited him. The faster he thought, the slower the world around him became, giving him more time to think. And he always wanted more time to think.
Shing!
You have advanced a skill!
Skill: Unarmed Combat
Level: 95
Effect: Increase unarmed damage by 47.5%. Increase chance to deflect or dodge a blow by 47.5%.
Ruwen’s Unarmed Combat Skill had increased by seventy-nine levels, and he smiled in satisfaction. He had suffered for over four and a half years as he endured Rami’s training, but results like this made it worthwhile. Now, instead of being afraid in a fight, he would be lethal.
Thank you, Rami. This skill means a lot to me.
You worked hard for it. It’s also the last skill notification. Do you want to move on to the quests?
Yes, please.
Chapter 47
Quests meant even more experience gains, and Ruwen glanced at his current experience total.
Experience: 90,720/171,000
Ting!
You have completed the Quest – Pick One Side (Cultivation Stage 20).
You have received 2,000 experience.
This quest had completed when he’d created his Core.
Rami spoke up. You received a bunch of Harvesting-related quests from Uru as soon as you entered her realm. They vary in experience rewards and how much your Cultivation Stage increases. You completed a quest like this for all twelve essences.
Ting!
You have completed the Quest – Refine Death Essence
You have received +1 to your Cultivation Stage.
You have received 1,000 experience.
Rami continued. You completed another six quests related to using your essence and Spirit. But the experience increased by a thousand for every essence used. You completed the 1, 2, 3, 7, 12, and just Spirit quests for a total of twenty-five thousand five hundred experience. Here is the one for two essences.
Ting!
You have completed the Quest – Cast a Spell Combining Two Essences
You have received +1 to your Cultivation Stage.
You have received 2,000 experience.
Freezing the lake in Fractal with Spirit had satisfied the just Spirit quest, and Ruwen had used a single essence many times. The two essence spell had been his ice spells, three his fire, and seven the healing spells. The twelve had to be for opening the portal to get home.
Chime!
You have advanced your Order Meridian from Copper to Silver!
You have gained +10 to your Armor Class.
Rami quickly cycled Ruwen through another nine similar notifications until all the Meridians caught up to his arms, which had already been Silver. The ten advancements added an incredible one hundred to his armor class.
Rami spoke up again. It appears the experience and Cultivation Stage gains don’t appear until you’ve reached Cultivation Stage twenty on your own. Here are the rest of your rewards from when you advanced to Copper in front of Fractal, followed by your Silver benefits.
Chime!
You have completed the Quest – Copper Body
You have received +1 to your Cultivation Stage.
You have received 1,000 experience.
Chime!
You have completed the Quest – Silver Body
You have gained +3 to all Attributes.
You have received +1 to your Cultivation Stage.
You have received 2,000 experience.
Ruwen marveled at the attribute points. Leveling his body from Lead to Copper had given him +2 to every attribute, and now Copper to Silver +3. If they continued to go up one every time, then when you finally leveled your body to Deity, it would add twelve to every attribute. That seemed insane.
Doing some quick math, though, Ruwen calculated the total attributes an Ascended received by the time they reached level one hundred were almost the same as the Harvester’s total when they reached Deity level. So they balanced out.
A person was only meant to benefit from one of these paths, but Ruwen benefited from both, which is why it felt so crazy.
Chime!
You have advanced your Water Meridian from Silver to Gold!
You have gained +15 to your Armor Class.
Chime!
You have advanced your Air Meridian from Silver to Gold!
You have gained +15 to your Armor Class.
Ruwen looked at his arms and hands, which had advanced to Gold. He hadn’t spent that much time Fortifying in the Spirit Realm, and the gains had been significant. For the first time, he wondered if he might go back there someday.
That’s it for the Harvesting quests, Rami said. You added forty-two thousand five hundred to your experience and increased your Cultivation Stage from Nineteen to Forty.
Ruwen looked at his experience again.
Experience: 133,220/171,000
Increasing his Cultivation Stage by twenty-one levels would have a huge impact on Ruwen’s Resistances and Perception. Glancing through the Cultivation quests that remained undone, he found six that had Cultivation Stage increases of more than one.
Project Spirit Inside Current Realm: +2 Cultivation Stage
Project Spirit into Another Realm: +3 Cultivation Stage
Translocate Body Inside Current Realm: +5 Cultivation Stage
Translocate Body into Another Realm: +8 Cultivation Stage
Metal to Gem Purification: +10 Cultivation Stage
Gem to Divine Purification: +16 Cultivation Stage
Ruwen had no idea what the Purification process entailed, but it must be terribly difficult if you received more Cultivation points for Purification than for physically moving your body into another realm. He needed to ask Sift about it when they had some free time, or maybe the process would be described in A Worker’s Guide to Harvesting, assuming he could open the sealed pages.
Okay, Rami, what’s next?
Oh, not much. The Addas opened the rest of the Step quests when they didn’t kill you. You had some small Step increases. All thanks to me, of course.
Ting!
You have completed the Quest – Learning to Crawl (Bamboo – Step 2)
Like bamboo, you are strong and flexible.
You have gained 100 experience.
You have gained +1 Armor Class!
You have gained 1% to Dodge!
Ting!
You have completed the Quest – Learning to Crawl (Viper – Step 2)
Like a viper, you are quick and deadly.
You have gained 100 experience.
You have gained 1% to Haste!
You have gained 1% to Critical Strike!
Ruwen waited a few seconds, but nothing else appeared.
Is that it? Ruwen asked.
Rami spoke in her Sisen voice that Ruwen had learned to dread in the four-plus years he’d listened to it. Do you think you’ve earned more?
Ruwen sat up straight without thinking.
Rami’s laughter brushed against his mind. Is this better?
Ting!
You have completed the Quest – Learning to Soar (Bamboo – Step 84)
Like bamboo, you are strong and flexible.
You have gained 1,800 experience.
You have gained +1 Armor Class!
You have gained 1% to Dodge!
Ting!
You have completed the Quest – Learning to Soar (Viper – Step 84)
Like a viper, you are quick and deadly.
You have gained 1,800 experience.
You have gained 1% to Haste!
You have gained 1% to Critical Strike!
Ruwen stared at the notifications in disbelief. Level eighty-four made him an Adept, and level eighty-five, just one level away, would make him a Master. His throat constricted, and he bowed his head. The painful years with Rami had, along with the essence storm over Stone Harbor, shattered his mind. But the risk had been worth it. The notifications were a testament to the lethal weapon Ruwen’s body had become. The fear he had lived with for most of his life could finally rest.
His parents, who were hopefully still in this valley somewhere, had tried their best to teach him survival skills. But he had squandered those lessons, ignored them even, in his blind assumption that he would protect himself with magic someday.
