Brock’s footfalls echoed throughout the underground cavity, the sound bouncing off the walls hidden by darkness and continuing on until the noise faded to obscurity. Taking a deep breath in as the energy emissions of the Treasure got closer and more powerful, Brock scooped the spider guts off his body with Oppressive Might, letting it slop to the floor.

He sighed and shuddered. I didn’t get all of it, but it’s better than nothing…

To his left, the shadows churned and the light behind him disappeared, before quickly reappearing and aiming itself directly at his eyes. Brock winced, entirely unable to make out the form of Mio through his white blindness, “Can you not?”

“Oh. Whoops.” With a tone betraying no apology, Mio shone light back on the path ahead, illuminating the rough form of what appeared to be a smaller pineapple.

Brock snorted, “Right.”

A silence befell them as they walked the remaining distance, Brock keeping his aura senses trained on the surroundings despite his depleted reserves. When Mio finally broke the silence as they came upon the Treasure, he almost jumped, “So what was that? The spider exploding?”

Licking his lips and suppressing the raging screams of his cells, Brock reached out and plucked the pineapple-esque fruit from its flowering plant. It was smaller than what he was used to, perhaps a bit bigger than a grapefruit, and its outsides were spikier. It gleamed blue under his phone light.

Brock gave it a whiff and responded, “Progress. I finally figured out aura manipulation, I guess.”

“That,” Mio hissed in disbelief, “was aura manipulation? You tore apart a level 70 monster with aura alone?”

He looked over, and she crossed her arms, brows raised, “Not even… not even Minerva can do that, and she’s probably the best aura user in Meiyo.”

Giving the fruit another smell, Brock’s stomach growled in pleasure, “Guess I’m just built different.”

All he heard was Mio snort, clearly unimpressed by his avoidance to the subject. Instead of replying with a snort of his own, he opened his mouth wide and took a bite of the Treasure. As delectable flavour and wild energy surged through him, he seated himself, just in case he passed out. He hadn’t done so since his first Treasure and the one that took him past race level 50, but it was better to be safe than sorry.

Blocking out the rest of the world, Brock focused upon the streams of energy roaring through his pathways. Oddly enough, their tattered condition had almost no effect. He did catch parts of the streams branching off through the holes, but quickly, the energy was absorbed by his cells and distributed to the rest of his body.

As the Treasure’s remnant power was finally spent, Brock gave a satisfied sigh and cracked his neck. While the effect of the few added stats weren’t really noticeable, they were certainly pleasant, like coming out of a spa.

I have to choose a Technique too, don’t I?

Brock felt excitement well up within his chest and he opened his eyes. To his side, Mio was holding a tactical flashlight, tracing its immense light over every crevice of the wall in curiosity. His phone, the light now turned off, lay inert in her other hand. Brock’s eyebrow twitched. She had that the entire time?

Whatever… He sighed. Sparing a glance for the corpse of the Guragura, now nothing more than a pile of mush that glistened in the torchlight, he shuddered and opened his status.

Status.

Brock Carter.

Race: Human [F] LVL 80

Ascendancy: Fetters of the Bound [F]

Level: 61

[Stats]

Strength: 276.75 [+35%][Base: 205]

Agility: 800.55 [+35%][Base: 593]

Dexterity: 321.3 [+35%][Base: 238]

Constitution: 232.2 [+35%][Base: 172]

Vitality: 452.25 [+35%][Base: 335]

Intelligence: 905.8 [+40%][Base: 647]

Wisdom: 650.7 [+35%][Base: 482]

[Augments] - Augment of Sparks (65.72%), Augment of Skies (47.13%).

[Techniques] - Ethereal Shackles II [F] (79.66%), {1} Oppressive Might III [F] (5.29%), {2} Salvation III [F] (32.11%), [Technique Available]

[Titles] - At The Precipice II, Agent of Chaos, Blessed, Destined for Greatness, Underdog, Hidden Fangs, Leader of the Pack, Login Bonus, Opportunist, Enlightened, Mass Murderer, Needless Slaughter, Masochist, Trophy Hunter (Unique), Budding Power, Brainiac, Attuned, Embodiment of Freedom, False Life, True Hunter, Purified.

Free Stats: 12

Shards: 6,012,776

Stars of Ascension: 38

I’m getting there…

Brock was only 20 race levels from evolving his race now, if 100 was the cap, and he had to admit, the feeling of getting so close was intoxicating. His survival was now within reach. For days, he’d felt his back muscles knotted with stress, but finally, he felt them relaxing.

His stats too, were looking monstrous. He’d just hit 800 in Agility, though with his Dexterity, using it to the fullest would be a bad idea. Intelligence was inching close to 1000, and Brock hoped that would bank him another title. Unfortunately, he didn’t have his Augments to witness the true benefits of it, but his mind was certainly feeling clearer and smarter than ever.

Sighing, he glanced at his free stats, and promptly dumped them all into Dexterity.

As he worked through his updated status screen, Brock finally settled on his Techniques. Oppressive Might had undergone an upgrade, and of course, he immediately selected Efficiency once more. Now that he found the Technique to be a better, and more reliable way to manipulate aura, being able to use more of it would certainly be useful.

I should check out the Aetherweb afterwards… As for what he’d be doing now, the answer was present in the form of ‘Technique Available’. Grinning widely and ignoring Mio’s snort at his expression, he opened the selection screen, and his options were arrayed before him. Any upgrade at this point would assist him in eventually dealing with Zin.

He sighed. I just hope it uses aura like O.M… I doubt it though.

[Choose your fourth Technique.]

Fingers of Decay [F]: Nothing is more terrifying than decay. Watch. Wait. Witness its horror. Scales with Wisdom and Vitality. Whispers of the Void [F]: All-encompassing, endlessly inevitable. The void pleads for retribution; revenge. Grant its wishes. Scales with Intelligence and Wisdom. Armageddon’s Prophecy [F]: A prophecy. A truth. A destiny. It will come, and you will fall. Scales with desperation. Realm of Shadows [F]: The home of darkness, it begs for you. Pleads for your presence. Scales with Agility.

“Uhhhh…”

Brock pursed his lips. I… regret opening this.

They all seemed overly morbid… and two even gave him the impression of being rather personal, like they were… well, addressed to him specifically. While he tried to look away, his eyes kept being drawn to Armageddon’s Prophecy. Just by looking at it, he felt it was alive, and gazing back at him.

So far, it was the only Technique to have appeared twice, although he supposed he hadn’t seen the last round of selections thanks to whatever reason, so he couldn’t be certain. Certainly though, the option unnerved him greatly. Reluctantly, he looked away, and focused on the other strange choice, Realm of Shadows.

He had some sort of idea that it may have been presented as an option due to his constant use of Mio’s shadow teleportation. He had no clue what it might do, as it definitely wasn’t imparting him the feeling of being a teleportation Technique, but he decided against picking it up. It may have scaled with Agility, but there was one Technique that truly stole his attention.

Fingers of Decay gave him the feeling that it was some sort of melee-based attack, probably centred around the concept of decay and rot or something similar. Regardless, he had no interesting in it. Whispers of the Void held his focus in its entirety, mostly because of one simple sensation that it imparted to him.

It didn’t utilise his pathways.

Brock tried to dig deeper into how the ability worked, but he could glean nothing else. The strange thing was, it wasn’t like there wasn’t any more information, but that it was withheld. He thought himself crazy, but the recent visions he’d been having of a dark figure flashed in his mind.

Something… wants me to pick it…

For a moment, Brock struggled with himself. He genuinely wanted to choose Whispers of the Void due to the fact that it seemed to use aura for activation instead of his pathways and would assist his power immediately. Another part of him, however, abhorred the idea, as he was clearly being manipulated into choosing the Technique.

He breathed out hard and memories came flooding back to him. The time his stats had been automatically distributed after his fight with the Sky Bandit, the choosing of Salvation. Something had been helping him and judging from the dark figure that kept visiting him, it certainly wasn’t the System.

Briefly, an idea of what it could be flashed in his mind, but he discarded it. That’s impossible.

Regardless, this ‘something’ had had a history of helping him, so maybe it was trying to do so again. Hissing out a breath, Brock licked his lips and fiddled with his fingers in his palm. Slowly, his mind came upon a decision. Select Whispers of the Void.

Immediately, the screen fizzled away, and Brock sensed a node condense upon his Ascendancy. He examined it closely as it finished, although it truly appeared no different from any of the others he’d gained. He could feel no malice or see no ulterior motive in the choice of Technique, and honestly, instead of feeling thankful, he felt anxious.

Sighing, he rechecked his status screen and noted the new addition. Within the cave, where it’d be difficult to see its effects, he withheld activating it, unsure of what the Technique would and could do. He’d wait until they were once again on the surface.

For now though, Brock was tired of breathing the stale air amongst the company of spiders, “Mio, let’s go back. This place is giving me the creeps.”

His eyes searched for his companion, and he found her a distance away, her flashlight roaming every portion of the cavern’s darkness. She glanced at him, and chuckled, “Ok.”

Brock watched in horror as the shadows rose up and consumed her, leaving him alone and in the dark. Slowly, he sobbed. She took my phone too.

It was a long walk back to the surface.

**

“Fucking bullshit!”

Zin Keene snarled as he razed the sands with his aura constructs. Behind him, a tapestry of root woven sands led up to the majestic trunk of the silvery Source, stretching high up past the clouds. Feeling his rage ebb, he glanced upon its lengths and listened to the melodious rustle of its canopy.

Studying it had been entirely unfruitful. He could neither glean anything through aura or Augments, nor was he powerful enough to carve through its core roots and gather samples to analyse. He even searched the area for days on end, just to find an entrance that didn’t seem to exist. Clicking his tongue, he glanced at the monstrous hole he’d dug straight down.

Even underneath the Source, there’s nothing but roots. I need to find a way into the trunk…

While he’d expected it, luckily, the System hadn’t retaliated, or perhaps even noticed his attempts to harm and study the Source. The act of being dismissed so readily was frustrating to him, even if it was by an all-power entity that governed the multiverse. A snake slithered along the sands and Zin froze it.

Promptly, its iced corpse was shattered, scattering its pieces to the expanse.

Perhaps it was just him getting restless about finding the Error that was getting him so worked up as of late. Even after all the injuries that ‘Brock Carter’ had sustained, he still seemed to be alive, despite Zin having predicted his death to occur a few days ago.

He doubted he’d have found a way to prolong his lifespan outside of evolving his race, and while the former case was immensely unlikely, the latter would have alerted him to his presence anyway. He sighed. Regardless, the creature would be unable to escape him, in life, or in death. It was all just a matter of time at this point.

“I just wish that time would go faster.” He snarled. He couldn’t wait to leave this backwater shit hole.