Sound snapped into existence.
Noise flooded in painfully.
“Check the restraints!”
“Erik, calm down!”
“Sixty percent of his brain has been tempered, and it’s accelerating!”
“Quiet, please, stop screaming,” Erik forced out. He could hear everything—people picking up IV bags, the trickle of potions in the tubes, his own heartbeat, and those of the others in the room. He could even hear the elevated breathing of his protection detail outside the room.
Smells bloomed. Metal in the air, the sweat of those in the room.
Damn, is this the no-shower club? Not so much as a bar of soap or bottle of perfume between them!
Erik kept circulating mana and healing himself. Energy flooded through his being as if another band had released. It felt as if he had just woken up from a revitalizing sleep that had washed away all his fatigue.
The light coming in through his eyelids brightened and faded colors appeared. He moved his hand toward his face.
“Erik, you’re still hooked up! Don’t move!” Jen shouted, a medic restraining his hand.
Erik barely felt the medic on his arm. He nodded and lowered his arm, but was tempted to lift it to see how strong he had become.
Erik grinned. His body rumbled. His blood started to speed up. His heartbeat sounded out. He felt it through the table.
His senses had been heightened massively to a painful degree, but he could tell what was going on within his body with his medical knowledge. He could reach out to thirty meters. A regular human could focus up to ten meters reliably, though most of them had a highly defined area of sensing of two meters, passive up to five. Beyond that, they needed to scan, relying on their eyes to study things in the distance.
Erik moved his face, forcing his eyelids open and closed. He still couldn’t see.
A ripple coursed through his body as if he was being coated with armor. It was like wearing a favorite, thick, close-skin sweater. It was comfortable and flexible, barely noticeable, though it also felt like he had just donned body armor; he felt like a human tank.
Erik pinched his thigh. It was supple but thick.
He moved his shoulders, opening his chest and breathing in. Mana flooded in from the surrounding area.
“Erik, you crazy bastard!” Jen hissed.
“Seventy perce—seventy-five!” a panicked watcher yelled.
He had been feeble and weak for too long. Time to wake this body up!
Erik circulated the surrounding mana, but didn’t refine it. The mana was heavy with the metal attribute. He drew it deep into his body. The fire and earth mana separated, nourishing his cells. Some of the metal strengthened his body and mind. The rest of it tempered his body. Unlike before, his body fought back. Just what would be consumed and used as fuel for the other was no longer definite. Erik’s body forced the metal attribute into submission.
With the power of the attributes, Erik’s body wasn’t just surviving anymore. His thin, emaciated frame expanded. Stamina concoctions and mana supplied the energy. The healing spells and his tempered body converted those energies into repairing power. Erik’s muscles recovered at a visible rate.
Erik stopped paying attention to the other medics, silently apologizing.
He opened his eyes as more power was released from his body. He felt his eyes tearing up. It was like different systems were coming back online, injecting new life and power into the whole. Colors and shapes came in from his surroundings, tuned and sharpened. Erik focused on one thing: feeling nauseous. The sharpness of the colors softened, and Erik saw the tops of heads and the ceiling above. Lines filled with concoctions were hooked into his body. He traced one with his head.
He grunted as a wave of pain ran through his skull.
Focus. Still tempering.
Erik, secure in knowing he could see again, turned his attention back to his body. His mana circulation was stronger. I guess it is because the container is stronger.
“I’m ready,” Erik said.
“All right,” Jen said. He felt a shift as formations were refocused.
Erik felt a disconnect. He kept feeling oddities, flashes of things in his brain. Not memories, but pain, anger, love. The world would be beautiful, then green, then turning, then still. And then sounds changed or fell silent or he picked up a different wavelength he’d never paid attention to before.
These kinds of flashes were less than seconds long, creating a background noise to his being. Focusing on his mana circulation gave him something to hold on to.
Erik finished with his neck down, continuing to circulate his mana, waiting.
Then it was like the pressure popped at the top of his skull. In a rush of energy, he experienced an electric shock that started at the base of the neck, then raced down his spine, radiating out through his nerves, reaching out through his entire being.
My nervous system?
Erik felt the air on his skin, the hairs moving up and down as the skin contracted against the chilly breeze in the room.
He felt every muscle, every organ. It was like he had merely existed in his body before. Now, it was his body, completely under his control. He twitched the individual muscles in his hand. The sensation was incredibly strange. They had always worked in concert together without his conscious thought.
A feeling of rightness filled his body like it was powering up.
Holy shit! It's like I just powered up my reactor. He had so much energy, he felt like a battle mech instead of a person!
A notification rang in his head. Erik opened his eyes, looking at the ceiling. “I think I’m all tempered.”
He turned his head to the side, watching the exhausted medics checking on him and their gear, just in case.
The room brightened, slowly at first, followed by a sudden rush as the world turned gold. Ten Realms energy and experience seeped through the walls, down through the ceiling, and up from the floor.
Erik laughed as it nourished his body. A wave of relaxation filled him. He breathed in, drawing in power, and relaxing his body on the exhale.
It took a few moments for everything to calm down. Erik opened his eyes and looked around. “Thank you, everyone. Could someone unplug me, please?” He smiled at the medics.
They seemed to collapse in on themselves, proud, relieved, and satisfied. It looked like things hadn’t been that easy. And I just slept through everything.
Jen chuckled and pulled out his IV. Another medic turned and pulled the IO in a clockwise motion from his opposite shoulder.
“I feel like a marionette. IO’s in my shins as well?”
“You were a bit of a problem case.” Jen shrugged. It didn’t take long to remove the six tubes that had been inserted into his body. Jen and the other medics took stamina potions, examining Erik thoroughly. Melissa Bouchard was there, alongside her team of body cultivation specialists, jotting down information and data.
Erik opened his notifications.
==========
Quest Completed: Body Cultivation 4
==========
The path to cultivating one’s body is not easy. To stand at the top, one must forge their own path forward.
==========
Requirements:
Reach Body like Diamond
==========
Rewards:
+24 to Strength
+24 to Agility
+24 to Stamina
+40 to Stamina Regeneration
+100,000,000 EXP
==========
==========
Your personal efforts have increased your base stats!
==========
Stamina +12
Agility +12
Strength +12
Stamina Regeneration +30
Mana Pool +10
Mana Regeneration +10
==========
==========
Title: Metal Mind, Metal Body
==========
You have tempered yo
ur body with metal. Metal has become a part of you, making your body take on some of its characteristics. You have gained:
==========
Legendary metal resistance
Increased control over metal mana
Physical attacks contain metal attribute
Can completely purify the metal attribute in mana
Physical Domain
==========
==========
Quest: Body Cultivation 5
==========
The path cultivating one’s body is not easy. To stand at the top, one must forge their own path forward.
==========
Requirements:
Reach Body like Divine Iron
==========
Rewards:
+48 to Strength
+48 to Agility
+48 to Stamina
+80 to Stamina Regeneration
+1,000,000,000 EXP
==========
“Physical domain, that must be because of the enhanced senses.”
Erik frowned.
“Is there something wrong?” Jen asked.
“I feel hot. My blood seems to be boiling. My entire body seems to be excited,” Erik said. feeling a heat deep in his bones. It was feral. It was powerful. He reached out his hands. They were balled into fists. The tension in his muscles gave him a feeling of pleasure as if proof of his inner strength.
His veins became more vascular. They rose from the skin, as heat spread throughout his body. Energy, from deep within, begged to be used. He released control, trusting his body’s transformations.
He groaned. It felt like his whole body was stretching. His internal organs shook as his heart pounded, slowly and rhythmically. A ripple started at Erik’s stomach, all his muscles turned on, twitching involuntarily. It spread like a wave. Erik pushed forward, standing on his toes, and reaching his hands up above.
It was comforting, as if something that had always been resting beneath the surface had been released.
Erik was hit with a flood of experience. He rode the energy high. The warm energy from his body seemed to gather at his sternum. It was the same sensation as when he had first formed his mana core.
The heat within his body gathered in his chest. He felt something there and was about to use his Medical Scan when he was bombarded with notifications.
==========
Title: Mortal grade bloodline
==========
You have unlocked your bloodline by cultivating 1 element to the Mortal grade in your Elemental core.
==========
You have formed a lesser mortal elemental core.
==========
==========
Quest: Bloodline Cultivation 1
==========
The power of the body comes from the purity of the bloodline.
==========
Requirements:
Form an Earth Grade Elemental Core with 2 elements
==========
Rewards:
Earth Grade Bloodline
+100,000,000 EXP
==========
==========
136,219,539/172,300,000 EXP till you reach Level 63
==========
“What the fuck? A monster core?” Erik shifted, nearly falling over from the massive power difference within his body. “Holy shit, that is a lot of power.”
He lowered himself carefully. “Don’t get too close. I need to adjust to this.”
He held out a finger and waved it. The air shifted each time he batted it. “That’s a scary amount of power.”
==========
Name: Erik West
==========
Level: 62
Race: Human-?
==========
Titles:
From the Grave II
Blessed by Mana
Dungeon Master V
Reverse Alchemist
Poison Body
Fire Body
City Lord III
Earth Soul
Mana Reborn
Wandering Hero
Metal Mind, Metal Body
Mortal Grade Bloodline
==========
Strength: (Base 90) +51
1410
==========
Agility: (Base 83) +77
880
==========
Stamina: (Base 93) +35
1920
==========
Mana: (Base 37) +79
1160
==========
Mana Regeneration (Base 40) +61
61.60/s
==========
Stamina Regeneration: (Base 142) +59
41.20/s
==========
“Okay, let’s put this physical domain to use. Sorry, just adjusting to the new body, folks,” Erik said. His mind was spinning with all the changes and questions.
“Well, you’ve done it a few times. We’ll let you get to it.” Jen waved him on.
She was right. Erik took a few steps. Gingerly at first, so he didn’t go crashing into the ceiling or across the room, then with more confidence.
Then it was push-ups, squats, and crunches.
“Talk us through what you’re going through,” Bouchard asked.
“I know these exercises and how they’re supposed to feel. How I should move in them. It takes me some time to adjust how much strength I should apply to them. It’s like putting on the Conqueror Armor. When you do for the first time, you get a little screwed up because you have so much power really quickly. With the metal tempering, my senses are much better: eyesight, smell, hearing. My control over my body has skyrocketed as well. I didn’t just get dumped with the metal body tempering, but the bloodline as well.”
Erik looked at his chest and used Medical Scan. There, under his sternum was a small lesser elemental core. “Oh, and I formed a monster core in my chest. It’s hooked into my circulatory system.”
“What!” Bouchard and several others yelled at the same time. Jen had hungry eyes, looking at Erik’s chest. She took a step forward.
“Let me get used to my power. I nearly doubled my damn stats. I’m liable to break bones accidentally if I’m not careful,” Erik warned.
“Walk us through everything,” Bouchard requested.
Erik relayed his notification information and what he was experiencing. By the end of that, he was pretty adjusted to his body. The medics flooded around him, scanning and checking what was happening inside.
“So, it looks like this bloodline is connected to what beasts in the Ten Realms go through. With that title, you can consume monster cores. If humans have too many of them, it can lead to massive problems. And after you have a monster core at a certain level, then having a second monster core at that same level, you won’t get the massive experience boost anymore. I have no idea about the berserker and evolved form.”
“They must be new abilities, but how are they activated?” Jen shrugged.
“I don’t have any ideas,” Erik said.
“It looks like there is a change in systems, closer to the method used by beasts,” Bouchard said, writing down notes.
“We’ll have to get some samples. For future metal temperings, tempering the blood with the method you came up with will be best, Jen.”
“That will start to temper everything else a little too. I would suggest doing the bones first, though. They’re mostly isolated and blood is produced in the marrow. Then the blood, then the organs. We saw a huge spike in stamina once the organs were complete. Even at that point, if we enhanced them medically, it would be much easier. Then on to muscle and skin.”
“So, reproduce the foundation tempering stages, just flip the blood and bones and remove the mana?” Erik asked. He raised his arm as medics swarmed around him, noting all kinds of information.
“At the later stages, when you circulated the surrounding mana, it sped up the tempering process and supplied the body with more energy. It might be a good idea to have the pati
ent circulate metal attribute mana,” Jen said.
It took hours before Erik was released from the medic’s custody.
An intelligence officer was waiting with information books.
The dust had barely settled on the ground as Erik frowned, taking books and reading the updates.
“Thank you. Seems it has been a busy three weeks.” Erik’s mind worked quickly. “Looks like everything is taken care of. There isn’t really anything for me to do. In that case, I have something to talk to Rugrat about.”
“He’ll be at the school,” Storbon said. The special teams had rotated in and out. There were plenty of missions that required their attention.
“Kanesh Academy it is,” Erik said. They left the cultivation training center. Erik smiled as he sensed someone rapidly approaching.
Gilly raced up the side of the metal mountain. She was bigger than before, her markings more vibrant. She half came to a stop. Her momentum and weight would have staggered Erik before. He took her full weight with a laugh.
“Are you a small lizardling? Damn lap monster.” Erik laughed as Gilly licked him eagerly, resizing herself and clambering all over him as if she was a small baby lizard.
She calmed down as Erik gave her scratches and belly rubs.
“Come on, we’re going to find Rugrat, then George. Then we’re going to put you and George into monster tempering school. I guess I should join you in it as well.”
Erik’s hand reached for his chest unconsciously. Gilly lowered her head, poking his chest with her snout before sniffing. She pulled back her head, looking at him with her large eyes. He patted her side and climbed over her back. She expanded to her full size. Her rear and front legs had developed more, but she had leathery frills and extended elbows.
“Sure looks like a dragonling to me,” Tian Cui said.
“Can you fly?” Erik asked. Gilly turned her neck back to look sideways at him. She shook her head, though Erik could understand enough through their connection.
“She’s tried a few times with limited results. She keeps sneaking off to the fire floor to try it out. The heat gives her more lift, probably. George makes fun of her, but he and Davin make sure she’s safe.”
Seventh Realm Part 1: A LitRPG Fantasy series (The Ten Realms Book 8) Page 9
