Determining available resources…
Distributable Resources: 211
Detecting absorption process initiation…
Estimating subsequent resource availability…
Estimated Resources Processing: 46
Estimated availability in 00:26:12:392
My jaw dropped.
Holy shit!
HOLY SHIT!
My maximum resource limit was freaking 57 points, and now I was already well over two-hundred?!
Shit! And it was a consumable, like a potion!
Did that mean we were wasting it?!
If this was something that allowed us to temporarily hold more resources than normal, then we were definitely wasting it!
Dammit!
I should have realized that it being a consumable might mean we should save it. We could have used this for the next boss battle, like activating a buff potion, instead of stocking up now.
Ugh!
Stupid, stupid, stupid! Why was I so stupid?!
‘What if it’s not temporary?’ Harper wondered in her thoughts.
I froze, only to look down to meet her crimson gaze for a moment, before looking back at the white letters between us. I had no idea if I could get a straight answer, since the system seemed to be fickle about telling me what something would do before I had figured it out myself, but it couldn’t hurt to try.
‘System, what does the dimensional core actually do? What’s its effect?’
Item: Dimensional Core
Effect: Permanent increase in resource storage capacity.
My jaw dropped again, before a wide grin spread across my face.
In my glee, I hugged Harper more tightly and reached up to ruffle her hair a little. “You’re brilliant!” I exclaimed sincerely.
She just gave me a shy smile in response.
I could see in her mind that she appreciated the unexpected affection, but also felt like she didn’t deserve it, considering that I was happy about the item rather than anything she had done.
I disagreed, but I also wasn’t going to argue with her, since I didn’t feel like I had the right to dictate how she thought about things. As far as I was concerned, she was allowed to think however she wanted, though I did make it clear in my own thoughts that it was her different perspective that I appreciated – it was why she had considered that the change might be permanent, sort of like being my devil’s advocate in a good way.
However, after a moment, the joy faded and my brow furrowed as I checked her biometrics.
Determining available resources…
Distributable Resources: 91
Detecting absorption process initiation…
Estimating subsequent resource availability…
Estimated Resources Processing: 19
Estimated availability in 00:26:12:392
Huh, I supposed I shouldn’t be surprised that she was way behind, considering she hadn’t been able to handle eating as fast as me. But then, that just meant I needed to save the rest for her, because there was no way in hell I was going to keep most of it for myself and relive another horrifying episode where she almost died.
Never again.
She could definitely have the rest. So, without hesitation, I placed the last quarter of the black shard in her fingers, urging her to finish it.
“Are you sure?” she asked quietly, holding it with both hands like a large fruit.
I nodded, my gaze shifting to her Mass stat to look at where she was at now.
Mass: 43
Systemic Skills: Regeneration, Reconstitution, Augmentation, Dimensional Storage [99]
Body Augmentations: Enhanced Scent [s1], Clawed Digits [s1], Reconstructed Cardiovascular Stage 1 [s1], Elongated Sacrum [s1], Coccyx Blade [s1], Wings [s1] (Lesser Socket, Lesser Arms, Elongated Digits, Digital Webbing), Hardened Skin [s1], Thermal [s1]
Enhancements: Strength +60, Endurance +120, Speed +270, Attack +11,700, Defense +885, Balance +50
Debilitations: Speed -20, Defense -321
Augmentation Skills: Flight, Sharp Scent [s1], Night Vision, Thermal Vision, Whip-Blade [s1], Heat-Ray Pulse [s1]
Interesting.
So the black shard must have added the ‘Dimensional Storage’ systemic skill.
However, otherwise, even though her mass had increased, not a lot else had changed. I assumed the defense debuff was due to her not being fully recovered. But her speed debuff hadn’t gotten any worse, and giving her Thermal Stage 1 had only increased her attack significantly.
I checked my Mass stat as well.
Mass: 117
Systemic Skills: Regeneration, Reconstitution, Augmentation, Dimensional Storage [207]
Body Augmentations: Enhanced Vision [s1], Clawed Digits [s1], Reconstructed Cardiovascular [s7], Reinforced Arms [s3], Reinforced Legs [s3], Spring Sacrum [s6], Coccyx Blade [s3], Wings [s4] (Lesser Socket, Lesser Arms, Elongated Digits, Digital Webbing), Hardened Skin Plates [s8], Thermal [s3]
Enhancements: Strength +450, Endurance +850, Speed +350, Attack +11,700, Defense +7,100, Balance +50
Debilitations: Endurance -79, Speed -201, Attack -156
Augmentation Skills: Flight, Sharp Sight [s1], Night Vision, Thermal Vision, Spring-Blade [s3], Heat-Ray Pulse [s3], Heat-Wave Burst [s1], Heat-Particle Boost [s2]
At first, I was confused by the 207 next to the ‘Dimensional Storage’ since I had a total of 257 resources right now, but then I realized that the difference was 50 resources. Which, when adding in the 7 resources I had used for regeneration, came to 57 resources – my original maximum limit.
Duh.
Wow, I felt dense sometimes.
But that meant my maximum storage limit should be 264 right now.
And Harper had already taken a few more bites, causing her extra storage to climb to 111, which meant her limit should be 149 points at the moment. But her actual distributable resources stat was now 122, which indicated she must have used a total of 27 resources to fully regenerate – nearly four times the amount I had needed to recover.
Honestly, I wasn’t sure how that worked out, because 27 resources did not seem to translate exactly with the amount of mass she had recovered.
In my estimation, she had probably lost at least 30% of her body, and yet regrowing at least 10 points of mass had only cost 27 resources?
Granted, she still hadn’t fully recovered, and the midnight skin on her legs still didn’t have the same thickness as before, so maybe it would make more sense once she was back to full health…
Not that it really mattered.
It was what it was, and there was nothing I could do about it. Not to mention, trying to figure out all this math without something to write it out on was just making my head hurt.
Taking a deep breath, I readjusted my position against the bathroom wall to get more comfortable, prompting Harper to readjust her shoulder against my lower chest, before resuming her meal, both hands still on the black crystal.
Really, this massive increase in resource storage capacity was only beneficial for battles, as opposed to improving our stats. The reason being that, if we had started with such a large storage capacity originally, it still may have taken just as long to raise our metrics. Not to mention that it didn’t solve the food issue – once the isopods were gone, we would still struggle to find Night Stalkers that could provide more than 3 resources per meal.
Granted, with this new systemic skill, maybe we could eat more in one sitting too…
Hard to say right now.
But I realized it might be good to keep us both at a minimum of 100 resources at all times, just to make sure we never ran out like we had during this last fight. Plus, I never knew when a quest might pop up.
Thus far, I had been prepared every time, but what if a quest had been assigned to me right after I dumped a whole bunch of points into Thermoacoustic?
I would be drained of all resources, being required to rely on my bladed-tail as my primary weapon, which wasn’t very usefu
l against a murder of hell-crows or a behemoth hell-rex. It also wasn’t useful against nosy drones.
Honestly, it was kind of annoying that the game-like resource I used for raising stats was also the same one serving the same purpose as mana essentially, but there was nothing I could do about it.
Real life was a shitting game.
Once Harper finished eating the black crystal, it displayed her new dimensional storage at 214, which was 7 higher than mine, but my overall maximum would still be more considering I had been able to hold 19 more resources than her to begin with. Now her maximum storage capacity should be 252, whereas mine was the 264, the crystal having given us a total of 421 extra storage between the two of us.
Not bad, in my opinion.
I was just glad I had realized as soon as I did though, because otherwise we might have been heavily lopsided in our storage capacity. And sure, having more storage for myself would be nice, but the entire purpose of Harper being around was to have a viable teammate. Which meant her loss might as well be considered one for me too.
It didn’t benefit either of us to have more resources than the other when we might be rendered unconscious during a fight and need the other’s help. Not to mention, if I had most of the resources, then we were back to square one with Harper just being someone who needed my protection.
Which wasn’t ideal.
No, I needed a partner, not a dependent.
Now that we were mostly healed up, I decided to open the bathroom door to determine what time of day it was. I knew the fight had taken place roughly around the middle of the day, but I had no idea how long we had been holed up in the bathroom. In my estimation, it was probably only a few hours, but I wouldn’t know for sure until I saw whether or not the sun had set.
Luckily, it appeared as if it was still daylight, though late enough that we only had a couple of hours at most before nightfall.
As had become our routine now, Harper climbed on my back and I leapt into the sky, my fully regenerated wings pounding against the air.
Of course, there were still a few helicopters around, but it seemed like most had either left or landed, with the associated soldiers currently on the ground to investigate the corpse. I wasn’t sure if they were looking for us or not, but I didn’t want to stick around to find out. I headed directly away from them a good distance before attempting to fly in the direction of the hospital.
I doubted the humans would still be there, considering I had been so demanding about the necessity for them to leave, but I figured I should at least check. Annoying as it was to admit, I wanted to make sure Savannah was alright. Harper did too, so I just used that as my excuse.
Sure enough, once we got there, we found no one present. Or at least, we assumed as much considering the blue truck was gone. The cinderblock barricade had been put up – something that could be done from either side – but I was certain they wouldn’t have left anyone behind, and I didn’t want to waste time double-checking.
Taking to the air again, we both agreed that the most likely place to check next would be the powerplant. And if they weren’t there, then we’d just have to head back to the church for the night. I tried to get the system to identify their location for me, but it just said there were no enemies in the vicinity.
That seemed to be its two default options – finding someone ‘linked’ to me, like Harper, or finding enemies nearby.
When the powerplant came in sight, the sun was getting low on the horizon, enough so that we’d have to head right back to the church to make it before nightfall. Certainly, I wasn’t afraid of being out at night, but I just didn’t see any point in risking a fight with another aerial Night Stalker when there was no benefit in it.
I mean, if this was a game where I could get experience just from defeating monsters, then maybe I wouldn’t mind going on a killing spree ‘just because.’ But, even though I could technically gain resources from normal Night Stalkers, the reward wasn’t worth the time and effort.
Just like any other predator, I was lazy in that respect.
But that also meant if we found the humans then we might as well just stay where they were for the night.
Sure enough, the blue truck was in plain sight, so we knew Savannah and the others should be here. However, it wasn’t by the front entrance where I had entered the first time. Instead, it was by a door on the left side of the building. It appeared as if it might ultimately lead to the same front lobby, but I was sure that undoing the barricade in the front entrance, which now had broken glass doors, wasn’t the most ideal method of entering and exiting the building.
Dropping down into the parking lot, I tried opening the door only to find that it was locked. Of course, I knew that just yanking it open wouldn’t be appreciated by the vulnerable humans inside, so I swallowed my pride and knocked. There wasn’t a window, so the person on the other side wouldn’t be able to see me prior to opening it.
But no one did.
I knocked again, starting to feel annoyed now even though I knew it was stupid to think someone would be waiting to answer. I just didn’t like being the one to have to wait.
Finally, a young male voice spoke. “Umm, who is it?”
“I’m here to see Savannah and Randy,” I replied plainly.
“Who?” the kid asked.
I groaned internally. “The older guy from the hospital, and the girl with brown hair that’s hurt.”
“Oh!” he replied, before pausing. “Okay, I’ll go get them. And who are you?”
I rolled my eyes. “Mason.”
“Okay Mason, I’ll be back. Sorry, but my dad says I can’t let anyone inside.”
I scoffed, wondering if one of the kids had been responsible for letting a Night Stalker in the building in the first place. Doubtful, but it was possible.
I expected the kid to run off to get someone, but unexpectedly he spoke up again, apparently because he had been anticipating an answer from me. “Umm, are you still there?”
Harper spoke up before I could cuss the kid out. “Yes. Please get Randy, or anyone else who was staying at the hospital.”
“Oh! Who are you?” the boy asked.
Dammit kid!
Holding back a growl, I spoke through my teeth. “That’s my friend. Now, go get Randy.”
“She has a pretty voice,” he commented.
“Thanks,” Harper said pleasantly, only pretending to sound sweet, with her beginning to become annoyed now herself. “Now, please go get someone.”
“Okay!” the kid replied, sounding a little too eager now.
Unfortunately, we had to wait longer than I was hoping, standing around for a good ten or fifteen minutes at least. Finally, I heard a familiar voice through the door.
“Mason?” Randy asked.
“Just open the damn door before I break it down!” I snapped.
It was quiet for a second, before he complied, the metal frame squeaking as he did so. “Umm,” he said uncomfortably, standing awkwardly in the doorway. His green eyes were hesitant. “Everyone appreciates everything you’ve done, but they’re also afraid of you, since it seems like you’ll kill at the drop of a dime, and–”
I cut him off. “I’m not here to socialize,” I snapped. “Take us to Savannah.”
Harper spoke up too, her face right next to mine. “And as far as killing goes, both that nasty woman and that filthy man got what they deserved. Or do you feel that stabbing and violating Savannah is forgivable, grandpa?”
I was a little surprised that Harper used the term ‘violating’ when I had tried to keep my thoughts of what had happened hidden from her, but then again, I supposed that enough had been said out loud for her to put it all together. And, while she did seem to be innocent on the exact details, it wasn’t like she couldn’t understand the general idea, since even she knew the basics of ‘the birds and the bees.’
The very bare basics, but the basics, nonetheless.
Needless to say, her finishing by calling him grand
pa almost sarcastically really seemed to hit home. He just stared at her for a moment with tears beginning to form in his eyes, before nodding once. “Y-You’re right. And my son-in-law…well, your father, probably would have done the same – at least with Garrett.”
“And you wouldn’t have?” I sneered. “What kind of grandfather are you?”
He winced. “It’s not that. I would have knocked him a new one for sure, but the less people we have that we can rely on, the more at risk it puts us from much worse. What he did is unforgiveable, but what some men out there would do to the women here is far more horrible.”
I just glared at him. “Just take us to Savannah, before I knock your lights out too,” I hissed.
He flinched, before giving a sharp nod, and turning to head back inside.
“You really need to man up,” I added under my breath. “And take care of your family.”
It didn’t go unheard.
Randy whipped back around, looking angry for once. “Now let me make something clear,” he snapped, his voice slowly growing louder. “I would have beaten the shit out of that bastard for what he exposed my granddaughter to. I would have knocked him senseless, and then kept hitting him for good measure! And then I probably would have tied him up for a week, with a good dose of regular ass-kickings! But compared to some of the other men out there, like the ones you killed for us, he was the lesser of two evils! And right now, we don’t have a lot of options! Putting up with a little shit like him is better than all of us being dead! Or worse!”
I just held his gaze for a few long moments, before responding with an even tone. “Yeah well, maybe you won’t have that problem anymore if everyone knows I’ll kill them for bringing harm to your group.”
Rise of the Night Stalkers Page 30
