Chapter 92 - Master

  Mayry

  She still had hope, but there was a part of her that knew that her father was going to die. Her heart had soared when it had looked like the elixir was going to work; that had made the pain all the worse when it became apparent that it hadn’t.

  She watched her boyfriend walk over, lay his hands on her father, and try to heal him. She knew how his healing worked and knew that it was a risk—that he might accidentally take on the thing that was making her Dad unable to heal. She knew, but she just couldn’t bring herself to stop him from trying.

  Mason’s face grew intense; he looked like he was experiencing intense pain but maintained a look of concentration. She should stop this. What if they both died? What if her selfishness got Mason killed, and it still didn’t bring back her father? She would be entirely alone, just like she had been in that room.

  A light filled the room, and Mason started to glow; he must be pushing all of his energy into his healing ability. It wasn’t going to work, she could tell, but the sad look in her father’s eyes. What colour he had left was fading from his skin, and he looked barely alive.

  She stood and reached out an arm to stop Mason. A pulse of something shot through her when she touched him. It knocked her back, and she landed on the floor, fazed.

  The glow around him vanished, and he turned around to stare at her.

  “Mayry, I’m so sorry.” He said with genuine sadness on his face.

  She glanced at her father’s body and saw that his condition had not improved; in fact, he looked far worse.

  She stumbled as she got up and moved quickly to her father’s side. She threw herself into his arms and cried. With what strength he had left, he wrapped an arm around her and whispered to her, “For all the things I did as a god, you are what I am most proud of. I’m sorry I wasn’t much of a father. I love you dearly, my child” His arms went limp around her, and his head rolled back.

  She grabbed handfuls of his shirt and pulled herself closer to him, crying, “You were the best father; you were the best. I’m sorry; I love you so much.”

  She stayed there for a long while, just sobbing and muttering things that she wouldn’t remember later on.

  Mason

  He had known that the Mayor didn’t have long and also knew that if he were to die, the Chaos essence within him would die, too. He had already expended a lot of it fighting Gael, then even more when he had given some to Mason; by the time he had fought against the five Others, he had already been very low. However, the more he had pulled from the Mayor, the more he had found. What felt like an ocean of Essence was hidden deep within the Mayor’s being. The Mayor had undoubtedly been close to death, but he suspected that what he had done had reduced the man’s life from hours to minutes.

  When Mayry grabbed him, he panicked, fearing that she had somehow figured out what he was doing. He felt absolutely disgusted with himself, but the power he now felt within him was insane. If he was going to fight God, then he needed the power of gods.

  He felt ashamed and awkward as Mayry sobbed over losing her father. He thought about trying to comfort her, but something told him just to leave her be for a while.

  Various notifications popped up; he was going to wave them away, but he couldn’t help but keep reading them as more and more came through.

  Notification 1/5

  An iteration of Chaos has fallen. Chaos users responsible for kill is too far. Steal kill? Y/N?

  He mentally selected yes and felt a rush of power enter him.

  Notification 2/5

  Iteration Of Chaos - Mayor Sparks has fallen.

  Experience allocated, 12,000

  Notification 3/5

  Chaos Essence absorbed, 20,000

  Remembering how much using essence instead of mana had helped in his fight against the fake tree monster, he saved 2000 and pushed the rest into Experience points.

  Notification 4/5

  Shattered Core Fragments have been added to your inventory.

  Shattered Core Fragment - Divine Item

  The core of a god is the very centre of their being. When Chaos was shattered, each iteration took a fragment of the core with them and from that, they drew and stored a tiny amount of their former power. In the early days, some iterations travelled around, finding others of their kind and taking their core fragments, increasing their power. Nowadays, there are far fewer iterations with a higher number of cores.

  Notification 5/5

  Quest Received! Got to collect them all!

  Quest Objective - Collect all remaining Shattered Core Fragments from the remaining Iterations. 270/1000 remaining.

  Quest reward – Unlock the true power of Chaos.

  Accept? Y/N

  Collecting cores sounded like a great way to boost his power, but it would mean finding a killing more iterations, many of whom may be more powerful than him, not to mention that they could very well be innocent people living normal lives. He decided he would keep it in mind if he did happen across any of them but wouldn’t actively hunt them down.

  There were other notifications, but he mentally waved them away, making a mental note to check his character sheet later; it had been a long time and while he felt vastly more powerful, looking at the numbers would help him quantify just how much stronger he had gotten. As for right now, he felt like he should probably try and comfort his grieving girlfriend. The thought terrified him; he felt an incredible amount of guilt even though he hadn’t been the one to kill him.

  Hesitantly, he walked over to Mayry and put a hand on her back. As he touched her, she flinched, and he pulled his hand away. She turned to him and looked furious. Her eyes were puffy with tears, and her face was contorting in ways that mixed her human and demon forms, making for a pretty intimidating scowl. “This is your fault.“ She spat at him.

  He took a step back and felt like he had been slapped. “I… I don’t...”

  She cut him off. “If you had never come here, He’d still be alive! My dad would still be alive.”

  He understood she was emotional and had every right to lash out at him; he took a step closer and tried to pull her into a hug. For a moment, she let him before she roughly pushed him back, sending him staggering.

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  “I want you to… No. I need you to leave.” She looked down, avoiding his eyes. “I just can’t be near you right now.”

  Every word felt like a sucker punch, but he understood. He nodded and turned to go. Just as he was about to step through the door, he stopped and said. “I’m going to find the ones who did this, and I’m going to kill every one of them for what they did to this town and to your….” He stared at her for a moment and then left, dismissing the new quest notification he’d recieved without reading it.

  The moment he was out the door, he teleported far into the distance, where no one would see him. He sat on the ground and cried.

  ***

  He felt numb. Everything he did felt like it was on pure instinct, almost as if he was stuck on autopilot. He would do as he promised and kill the Other responsible for what had happened to Sparksford. It was the only thing he could think about. Thinking about anything else would be too painful.

  He opened his character sheet, and even with his mind in the condition it was in, he couldn’t help but be shocked at the huge jump he had made. He tried to think back to the last time he had looked at his sheet. It would have had to of been before the tree monster. Since then, he’d gotten Essence from absorbing the Chaos orbs. The Mayor had given him some, and then, by far, the biggest portion he had taken from the Mayor as he had died.

  Name: Mason Hughes

  Level: 39

  Current XP: 92,000 / 100,000

  Race: Human

  Class: Hunter

  Health Points (HP): 970

  Mana Points (MP): 650

  Stamina Points (SP): 420

  Stats

  Strength: 73 (+15)

  Agility: 77

  Endurance: 65

  Vitality: 87

  Resilience: 71 (+26)

  Intelligence: 101 (+10%) Attention needed!

  Perception: 71

  Willpower: 70

  Free Points: 24

  Skills

  Identify (Expert), Mana Control – INT (Expert), Emotional Outburst – PER (Expert), True Invisibility – PER (Expert), Random Greater Summon INT (Expert), Sarcastic Prick – INT (Expert), Mental Manipulation – WIL (Expert), Mental Resistance, Ballistic Touch – STR (Expert) Division – INT (Expert),

  Teleport – AGI (Expert), Sacrifial Healing – VIT (Expert), Flight – END (Expert)

  Base Skills

  Universal Translator, Inventory (Advanced), System Guidebook (Basic)

  Class Skills

  Basic Monster Tracking, Evaluate Monster, Gather Intel

  A massive 8-level jump was pretty crazy; one more level and he’d get another skill selection, which, albeit, wasn’t a huge deal anymore since he had gotten his unique ability absorption, but still!

  For a moment, he let his mind walls down, and he felt a pang of pain before redirecting his mind back to his character sheet. His intelligence stat caught his eye; it had gone over the 100-point threshold, but none of his Int-based skills had been upgraded. There was an ‘Attention Needed’ notice next to the stat he had never seen before. He focussed on it, and a new notification popped up.

  You have reached the necessary threshold to upgrade your Intelligence-based abilities from Expert to Master. This upgrade is significant, and while you may keep some aspects of the abilities, some may be lost or will cost significantly more mana to maintain.

  Are you sure you would like to upgrade your Intelligence-based abilities?

  Y/N

  He stopped for a moment and thought about it before he selected yes. The one thing he was desperate for was more power… whether that was quantity or quality, he didn’t care as long as it would allow him to protect the people around him better. The warning had used the word ‘upgrade’, so surely, whatever happened to his abilities would make them better than they were now; if they cost more mana, then he’d just have to spend some of his free points. It was still a risk but one he didn’t really have a choice on. As he selected yes, he got several notifications detailing what upgrades he had gotten. The first one was his Mana control.

  Notification 1/4

  Your intelligence stat has reached 100.

  Your skill Mana Control (Expert) has been upgraded to Mana Mastery (Master)

  Mana Mastery (Master): An almost unending reservoir of power flows from you. Power creates and power destroys. What will you do with it?

  Active effect: You and your mana share a more profound connection that allows your constructs a semblance of intelligence. You can now create mana constructs that can act autonomously without your direction. You can now imbue tools or weapons with your mana, making them tougher, sharper and more versatile. The cost of Mana scales with the complexity, power, and duration of each creation, though efficiency is greatly improved due to your mastery. Scales with Intelligence.

  As upgrades went, this was pretty damn decent. It came with an increased mana cost, but that made sense. He wouldn’t know for sure until he did some experimenting, but it sounded as though he would be able to use his mana to create minions that could think for themselves. He pictured armies of dragons, hydras and all sorts of other creatures glowing blue, following him into battle. He was excited to test the abilities limits. He excitedly turned to tell Mayry before he remembered she wasn’t there, and his mood soured.

  Notification 2/4

  Your intelligence stat has reached 100.

  Your skill Random Greater Summon (Expert) has been upgraded to Grand Summoner (Master)

  Grand Summoner (Mastery): Reach into the void and pull from it horrors born of nightmares untold.

  Active Effect: Once per day, summon a creature from anywhere in the cosmos, drawn from a specific category of strength or ability according to your current needs. The creature is no longer entirely random; it is now chosen from a roster of powerful beings with abilities highly relevant to your current challenges. The summoning duration increases to 20 minutes + 1 minute for each point of intelligence. Focus your intent on a specific type of ally (healer, tank, damage dealer Etc), and the summon will bring forth a creature with those abilities. While the exact creature remains somewhat random, it will always match the desired role and adapt to the challenge you face. This ability will cost significantly more Mana. Scales with intelligence.

  This upgrade, especially compared to the last didn’t seem as extreme. Being able to choose what type of ally he got would be useful, but it was still limited to once a day, which was irritating. He’d need to test it out; maybe it’d surprise him.

  Notification 3/4

  Your intelligence stat has reached 100.

  Your skill Sarcastic Prick (Expert) has been upgraded to Verbal Onslaught (Master)

  Verbal Onslaught (Master) Stick and stones may break bones, but words can cut deeper.

  Active Effect – When using sarcasm or mockery to taunt an enemy, you have a higher chance to inflict critical damage that bypasses mental and physical defences. The impact of your words scales with the creativity and relevance of your taunt. Each cutting remark has a chance to inflict additional psychological effects, demoralising them and making them less coordinated.

  He barely remembered the advanced version of this skill ever activating at all, so getting it upgraded didn’t mean much. Hopefully he’d get more use out of this version.

  Notification 4/4

  Your intelligence stat has reached 100.

  Your skill Divide (Expert) has been upgraded to Mitosis (Master)

  Mitosis (Master) - Divide and conquer

  Once a day, split yourself into up to four copies, each capable of acting autonomously. Instead of evenly dividing your power, you may now allocate stats (equal to 1.5 times your total stats) among the copies as you see fit (e.g., focusing strength on one copy while enhancing speed on another). The copies last for Intelligence Stat x 10 minutes unless destroyed or recalled. You are now able to fully take control of any one of your clones, leaving your original body to act autonomously. Scales with Intelligence.

  Jackpot! Having 5 bodies would be great for when he needed to even fight many enemies at once, but the real win was the extra stat points and being able to remotely control clones! It meant he would be able to go into battle without risking his real body! As long as he kept himself safe, this could potentially be a game-changer.

  Wanting to get closer to upgrading his invisibility, he put twelve out of the 24 free points he had into Perception and then put half of the remaining points into Vitality and the last six into Strength.

  He was surprised to see he had one more notification he had missed. One he had gotten when defeating the Tree shapeshifter. A rare lumberjack box. He opened it, and despite his foul mood, a small smile appeared on his face.

  Item - Axe of the Giant Lumberjack (Rare)

  This humungous Axe has two purposes: cutting down trees and… This Axe only has one purpose: cutting down trees. It boasts over 10,000 confirmed kills and will likely get 10,000 more.

  Effects: When fighting any monster, beast, spirit, Fae, demon, elemental or god made from wood, this Axe will deal a tremendous amount of additional fire and blunt force damage.