Working myself to exhaustion is practically routine at this point, but I wonder how people can be addicted to this kind of training.

This bone-breaking, muscle-tearing, teeth-shattering, welt-forming exercise isn't healthy for the soul. The saddest part is the training isn't helping me surpass any resistance roadblocks.

Master Wang only allows me to heal the massive damage my body endures, leaving the "minor" wounds to regenerate naturally.

"Disciple."

"Yes? Master Wang?"

"As your master, I'm responsible for realizing your potential and setting you on the appropriate path. Well, that would be the case if you weren't a tamer and were instead a superior martial class. You have the potential to become one of the best martial artists in all the lands, but that isn't a goal you have, nor is it feasible."

"Why not? Being the best fistfighter isn't my life's goal, but what makes you say I couldn't be the best?"

"Classes play a huge role. There wouldn't be a use for martial classes if any class could learn a fighting style. Since you are a 'utility' class, you can only have one style, while peers on your level can dip into one or two others. Learning a move or technique rather than the whole school of fighting brings exceptional utility that's hard to believe at first glance."

"I wouldn't need other martial arts anyways."

"Good. And other martial artists share the same sentiment, making them elitists. The passives from the class are also nice. Another reason is your dogshit affinities. I've been breaking your body in such a way as to maximize your talents. Bringing forth the energies dwelling inside your body. This started ever since you got a C- in future planning."

"What?"

"Third reason is your lack of motivation."

"Don't gloss over that last part!"

"Hush now. I only tell you that because I've done all there is to do. I can't help you anymore, and I still believe you'll fail any attempt at attunement."

"...How will that affect me?"

"To maximize efficiency, gaining energy attuned to your body at level 100 is a must. Any earlier could cripple you quite easily, and any later is a missed opportunity. As you start leveling again, familiarity with that energy will develop and allow you to grow to new heights."

A fire mage attuned to the elemental energy of flame will be stronger than a fire mage with no attunement. This isn't a question of affinity. This is a question of how well you can harness the natural energies of the world. Hell, there is even unnatural energy out there."

"What needs to be done? Since affinity and energy are related, do I have to raise my affinities or something first?"

"Your starting points are dogshit, so working on a new one would be foolhardy. I don't bring this information to dishearten you, my disciple. This all leads up to a decision I'm presenting to you."

I wait silently. Master Wang strokes his facial hair before grabbing the small pill box from under a nearby cushion. He reveals the three [Vigor Enhancers].

"Normally, these pills would increase your vigor by one hundred each. Not including the increased effects from my third favorite skill [Broken Liver]. But if you take them all at once, something funny happens."

Funny? I like fun.

"You prestige the stat instead. I am not 100% sure of this, but I've been creating pills for a long time, and I'm positive this might happen."

"I have never heard of that term." It's not in my [Lexicon] either.

"I think your shark thing has it. It doubles that stat and doubles any points put into that stat. In the long run, and I'm sure right now, that is better than just a flat 300-point increase. The prestige of more than one stat is practical suicide, even for the strongest mortals in the lands. That is a warning as your master.

The danger of doing this in the first place is that you have a real chance of rupturing your life force and damning yourself to eternal death. A ruptured life force differs from a ruptured soul: you can still be a spirit. You can still go to whatever Underworld awaits, but you cannot. Ever. Resuscitate, revive, or generally come back to life. At least not as yourself.

If it wasn't obvious, a ruptured life force is terminal."

It would take the average person with no unlocked stats sixty levels worth of only putting points into vigor to get three hundred stat points. Thirty-three levels for me since I have nine unlocked. Doubling my 349 would be worth it, even if it was a one-time deal.

"Is this the decision? What does this have to do with my attunement or the fact that I'm a bad martial artist?"

"I'm sure that the process will be bone-breakingly, soul-ripping, will-to-live-squashing, that the tiniest part of energy still locked in your body will rush out like a flood. It will be enough."

"So it kills two birds with one Flash Gordon. I get a massive boost to vigor, and I have a chance to attune. Would my stat that is literally called 'attunement' help?"

Master Wang shrugs before continuing.

"And from that point, you may gain your next class and leave this plateau of stagnation. Will you do it? I understand if you say no, but I'll understand more if you agree. If any other master knew I was offering this risk to a disciple, I'd be shamed in the master community."

"I'm sure I could take it. And fuck the other masters. I only need to care about two of those fogeys anyways."

Master Wang grins. He closes the Box, keeping me from taking the pills. He calls for Rain, and she arrives well-rested with a milk crate filled with various items.

"Thanks for stopping by the store and helping out. Jackass. Here, drink this. This should lube up your life force so that tearing won't be as bad. Then drink this. This will temporarily raise your luck by a significant amount, not that there's any proof that that stat actually does anything."

She hands me a shimmering red potion and a glowing gold one. I consumed everything she gave me, bottles and all.

"Did you make these? They taste like shit."

"No. Now let me stab you with these custom-made acupuncture needles. It should help vent any um… Negative energy? I'm not too sure, but It will help. The next thing is we're going to put you in a basin. It'll make it so I won't have to mop your blood off the dojos floor any more than I have to, and administering potions via the bath method will be easier. I made the health potions you'll probably need to survive."

"..."

This seems calculated.

~

I informed my beasts of the "procedure" I was undergoing, then the potions kicked in. My luck has raised by over 50 points, and the blood coursing through my veins feels slimy. I head back and hopped into the metal tub.

"I almost forgot. Do not have your [Broken Liver] passive be active, or else you will 100% without a doubt die. I cannot stress this enough. Plus, there aren't more benefits to doing this."

I silently make sure my passive is inactive.

"Your healing ability is remarkable, but I don't know if it will help too much. Your body will basically be killing itself in a bid to get stronger. Usually, the body can't differentiate what's the source of the damage and will only heal the symptoms."

"Is that good?"

"Your body needs to sufficiently break first. It doesn't matter what happens after or how fast the aftercare is administered, as long as it breaks."

I nod. I get handed three pills shaped like golf balls and stare at them. Creamy orange-red with a pungent herbal smell that reminds me of smelling salts. I don't know if this is an illusion, but my blood pumps slightly faster when holding them. It might be anxiety. Master Wang is silently looking on. Rain scribbles something in a notebook before setting a bunch of healing potions next to the basin.

Everything happened fast enough that I didn't have a chance to sit down and think. But now that I'm sitting naked inside a metal tub with pills in my hand and potions flowing through my blood, the existential thoughts creep in. Power comes at a price, and the risk of death is always the sales tax. I'm greedy for this opportunity, but what will I do with it once I survive the ordeal?

This act isn't adhering to what I told master Wang. "I want to live it. If it is one day at a time or one overarching goal that finds me when the time comes." I have five beautiful, powerful, and unique tamed beasts waiting for me in a pocket dimension gifted by a god. What am I doing with all this? Am I risking all of this for a chance I won't utilize? Fuck that.

Then the paranoid thoughts crept in. I still have adversaries. If not the Stricklands and their military might, but the mad god that damned me to wonder the desert. The death cult will want 'compensation' for halting their plan and kidnapping their member.

I'm a fucking eighteen years old, and I have already made enemies with the military, a literal god, and a death cult. My lifespan, at this point, should already be extended, but even if it wasn't, I'm only a fourth of the way to the grave with the worse metrics. With my dogshit luck, things will eventually get worse. Newer people will want to harm me or the roughly ten creatures I care about.

Is that why I am doing this? To protect others? That doesn't sound right.

The lesser scene but more appreciated 'rational thoughts' finally crept in, and I decided to swallow the pills because I wanted to. All three golf balls make their way into my gullet. Then I came to a daunting realization. [Rational Insanity] is the name of my trait. Was that rational?

Oh, gods, it burns! My stomach is an industrial furnace! I'm forced to breathe faster and faster. Like my lungs are the bellows to the beast in my stomach. My body desperately tries to throw up and expel whatever I just swallowed, but nothing but bile comes out. I grip the sides of the tub in a bid to steady myself, but it only gets worse.

My skin starts steaming as my body turns red like a boiled lobster. I feel like I'm about to explode. There is so much pressure inside my body my insides want to become my outsides. Both of my hearts feel like they are beating ten times a second. Blood vessels rupture, and my skin rips open, leaving crevices allowing me to see my muscles vibrate with energy. I can feel my bones turning inside out. I can hear my bones turn inside out.

Healing potions are dumped in with me, giving me slight respite as another wave of pain hits harder than a freight train. I try healing myself, but it's hard to focus.

I managed to heal myself enough to have some semblance of a skeleton. Before I could be relieved, all my muscles contracted at once. If the bone didn't break, the muscle tissue was ripping off the bone. I was screaming in pain, but I can't remember when I started.

Both of my hearts stop beating at once. One after another, I can feel my organs fail. I'm tired and out of mana. I want to rest. I can vaguely hear someone telling me not to fall asleep, but my vision and hearing started failing long ago. Time is just an illusion, it feels like hours have passed, but I would have no way of knowing if that was true. My eyelids are heavier than my roughly 200 might can lift.

My eyes must have been horrifically bloodshot since the relief I got from closing my eyes was enough to distract me from the pain for a second. Then I couldn't feel anything anymore. All the synapses in my brain fire at once, showing me memories. My life flashed before my eyes, but I was still conscious enough to avoid any white lights. Relieving the false lives from the hallucination wasn't needed, but having a break felt nice.

~

"AAAAHHH!"

Like a thunderbolt, all my nerves are activated and cranked up to eleven. I can feel every little sensation. Every piece of filth and blood staining my body, the air on my skin, the healing potions seeping into open wounds. Master Wang has both his hands in my chest cavity. He has a determined expression as he manually pumps my two hearts. I can feel something leaking. It feels like I'm hemorrhaging blood from a body part I never knew I had. My body has stopped killing itself, but I feel horribly frail. I can barely lift my arms.

"D..."

"Don't speak."

I listen to master Wang. His words sound so distant. I willed my system window to appear in front of me.

Name / Nickname

Ellis Vincere / The Last Winner

Race

Human

Class

Unique Master (Rank C)

Level

100 (MAX)

Titles

Proud Owner of a Rock, Fell the Mighty, Indulger…

~

~

Health Points

99/800 (+150% bonus)

Mana Points

2/100

Armor Points

0

Might

22 (195 +10%) -90%

Agility

21 (185 +10% + 10) -90%

Vigor*

64 (618 + 25) -90%

Mind

20 (126 + 75) -90%

Spirit

235 (225 + 10)

Perception

45

Charisma

50 (35 + 15)

Attunement

50

Luck

12 (2 +10)

Unused

50

That doesn't look good.