I gradually came to my senses, glancing around the silent rainforest. There was a lingering pain deep in my being, but it was subdued, and I felt like I was back in control.

It was unnervingly quiet. Only the light rustle of nearby leaves convinced me that I still had my hearing. There was no sound of nearby animals.

The Jaguar was dead at my feet. Its corpse was in perfect condition, without a speck of blood anywhere. It had been able to completely avoid taking any damage from Abelino’s Martial Energy attack, and the Soul Explosion had completely passed through fur and muscles, targeting the soul directly.

I was surprised to note that I had my right arm back. A quick survey of my internal mana though showed me that Samantha would have to do some more work on rebuilding the Mana Cannon rune patterns on my arm.

It was annoyingly anticlimactic, I thought to myself, that I had not been able to use the Mana Cannon yet.

I turned, looking for Abelino, and I was surprised to see that the Abelino that had been next to me had vanished.

“What did you do?” An Abelino clone rushed towards me through the underbrush, with a deep frown on his face, and his weapons half-raised. “I trusted you!”

A second clone appeared to my right, and a third clone appeared behind me. They all had their weapons drawn.

Another ambush, I thought, raising my sword. Another betrayal. I didn’t stand much of a chance fighting all the clones, but maybe I could outrun them, and hide with my Invisibility Cloak.

Samantha said.

Fuck, I thought, dropping my blade immediately and raising my hands.

Unfortunately, at the same time, another four clones had surrounded me. I could only imagine how it looked to Abelino.

“Let me explain,” I said. I directly shared my skill information with all of the clones as I talked:

Soul Explosion (D-rank): Allows you to permanently sacrifice up to 20 Stat Points from your character sheet to create an explosion that directly attacks nearby souls, disregarding physical defenses. Requires: Soul Magic Affinity (D-rank)

“The Jaguar could teleport. I don’t know if you knew that, but you definitely never told me.”

I had a hunch, and I looked down at the Jaguar’s corpse, tossing a skill book over to Abelino.

Instantaneous Movement (D-rank): Allows you to immediately appear in any unoccupied location within a 15 yard radius. Cooldown: 1 hour. Requires: Movement Affinity (D-rank).

“Everything went according to plan,” I said. “We caught the Jaguar in the Time Dilation Rune Pattern, but it teleported out when I used Cursed Lightning, directly on top of me. I was forced to use my backup plan—Soul Explosion—in order to kill it. Unfortunately, your clone was caught in the explosion.”

The Abelinos moved around the area like it was a crime scene, several looking at the location of the fallen equipment that the dead Abelino clone had worn.

“I can make it up to you,” I said. “I know that losing clones damages your soul.” I took out a Soul Shard and tossed it to a clone. “When you eat these, then they strengthen your soul. That might reset the compounding effects of losing your clones.”

I was repeating Samantha’s words, not really knowing what I was saying, but it seemed to have an effect.

“How do you know about this?” the nearest Abelino asked. Many of them had turned to face me—whether out of curiosity or suspicion, I didn’t know.

I continued repeating Samantha’s words, hoping that I wasn’t digging a deeper and deeper hole for myself. “I have an inheritance that has given me a lot of information about Atropos Schema. Including information on your class, a C-rank Duplicator. One weakness is that every time you split, you temporarily halve your Mana Pool. So when you lost this clone, you permanently lost however much of the Mana Pool this clone had. But that is only the tip of the cost you would have to pay. You can’t recover from losing a part of yourself that easily.”

I almost choked on the words as I said them. What about me? I just detonated part of my soul!

I was tired of hearing those words, but I also knew that with a dozen Abelino’s surrounding me, I needed to focus on regaining his trust.

“Whatever the additional affects you would experience when you permanently lose a part of your soul are, they will only get worse as you lose more and more of yourself. The Soul Shard I passed you will help with that. It will help rebuild your soul, strengthening your soul until it resets those additional penalties. I have a few more, but it is only safe to have about one a day.”

I felt like I had lost the attention of the Abelino clones. They were studying the loot that had fallen near the Jaguar’s corpse.

The Capital City Token was a given. There was also, most likely, a Jaguar Core inside the corpse, which would likely grant Movement Affinity (D-rank).

I had already shown Abelino the Instantaneous Movement Skill, and I hadn’t taken the time to study the rest of the loot.

I quickly Identified the skill books that Abelino was studying.

Sharpened Edge (D-rank): Allows you to project Martial Energy around a blade or weapon’s point, significantly improving its sharpness. Duration: 1 minute. Cooldown: 1 hour. Requires: Martial Projection Affinity (D-rank).

Stealthy Steps (E-rank): Allows you to utilize Martial Energy to blend in to your environment and suppress your aura. Duration: 1 Hour. Cooldown: 24 hours. Requires: Stealth Affinity (E-rank).

I cleared my throat. “So, the deal’s still on, right? This is all mine, except for the Capital City token?”

The nearest Abelino nodded absently, lowering his sword. “You will give me as many Soul Shards as it takes to heal my soul—completely. And I would like to buy more from you, in the future. Perhaps a trade—soul shards for other metals.”

“Of course,” I said, acutely aware of the heavily armed and dangerous clones that were still surrounding me.

One of the Abelino clones picked up the Capital City token, and passed it to another clone, who put it in an Interdimensional Pouch.

I finally took the time to look at the notifications log of Atropos Schema. I had been in so much pain earlier, I hadn’t had the attention span to read it.

Congratulations! You have slain South America’s Zone Lord. +20 free Stat Points.

You have completed the mission, Zone Offense.

Reward: 1 Schema Treasury Token (C-rank)

Zone Offense mission updated: Slay another Zone Lord on Earth. Reward: 1 pick from the Schema Treasury (C-rank).

Level up! (to 38)

Level up! (to 39)

It was exactly as I had anticipated. The +20 Stat Points left a bitter taste in my mouth. If only we had known the Jaguar had a teleportation skill, then we could have planned differently. I didn’t need Samantha to tell me that spending 20 points to gain 20 points was not a good long-term strategy.

It also made me acutely concerned for my own safety. As things stood right now, I didn’t have my Mana Cannon. Cursed Lightning and Death’s Defier were both on Cooldown, and I didn’t relish the idea of using Soul Explosion again.

On top of it all, I was in the middle of a rainforest, alone with a man who didn’t trust me.

All of these thoughts reminded me to allocate my two free points. After being so close to gaining twenty, two free points sounded pretty abysmal.

I put the two free points into Physical Defense, for two reasons. First, watching the Jaguar slice through my body like I was a block of tofu had been unpleasant, to say the least.

Secondly, I knew I was going to rely on the Mana Cannon in the future. The greater my Physical Defense, the less I would have to worry about harming my own body with this Mana Cannon.

After allocating my Stat Points, I collected the loot, then turned to the nearest Abelino clone. This was the clone dedicated to dealing with me, it seemed. The dozen Abelino clones that surrounded us were still around us, but now they were facing away from us, fighting the monsters that were now approaching.

It was moments like these, watching the dozen clones fight with a certain nonchalant ease, that made me extremely cautious of Abelino. Abelino was most likely the highest leveled human on the planet.

Better get on his good side.

Samantha didn’t want me to say anything. But to me, the value of an ally of Abelino’s caliber was huge. And I wouldn’t mind getting rid of the suspicious glances.

“There is somewhere we should go, before we return,” I said. “While I was scouting, I noticed that the Jaguar was resting on a tree that was glowing with mana even more brightly than the Jaguar itself. I have a feeling it is an extremely valuable resource.”

Name:

Jarek

Level:

39

HP:

49/49

Physical Defense:

30

Strength:

30 (+5)

Mental Power:

14

Dexterity:

10 (+5)

Agility:

24 (+10)

Perception:

20

Luck:

22

Mana Pool:

141 (+10)

Mana Regeneration:

78 (+10)

Available Points:

0

Coins:

2,036,000

Class:

Mana Modulator (D-rank)

Profession:

Rune Master (C-rank)

Titles:

Region Lord (E-rank)

Skills and Spells:

Identify (E-rank)

Mana Modulation (D-rank Core)

Death’s Defier (A-rank)

Mana Sensing (C-rank)

Healthy Magic (E-rank)

Aquatic Respiration (E-rank)

Polyglot (E-rank)

Soul Communion (D-rank)

Cursed Lightning (D-rank)

Spiritual Traveler (D-rank)

Soul Explosion (D-rank)

Mana Control (C-rank)

Affinities:

Internal Mana (D-rank Low), External Unattributed Mana (C-rank Low), Soul Magic (D-rank Low)

Equipment:

Vampiric Blade (D-rank): +5 Strength, +5 Agility.

Bloodied Battle Robes (D-rank): +5 Mana Pool, +5 Mana Regen.

Greedy Gloves (D-rank): +5 Mana Pool, +5 Mana Regen.

Bonded Blades (D-rank): +5 Dexterity, +5 Agility.

Communication Amulet (E-rank):

Personal Mana Shield (E-rank):

Interdimensional Pouch (D-rank):

Missions:

Zone Offense

Renegade Bounty Hunter