Adam entered the System Shop. This shop had an open floor design with a futuristic look. Tiled floors, nice lighting, and a robot the size of a basketball hovering behind the counter. A single white light on the front of the robot flashed yellow, and then red as a prompt filled his vision.

WARNING! This location has been designated as a SAFE ZONE. Any entity initiating violence in this space will be SANCTIONED until released from SANCTIONING by System Market Vendor SN-1415.

The System has noted that you have never received this message before. To facilitate understanding information is being provided.

The status title SANCTIONED is a byproduct of the specialized ability SAFE ZONE available to SYSTEM Market Vendors and a few other System Specific Classes. The size and area of the SAFE ZONE are determined by the ability holder based on Class Level and other factors. Anyone initiating or participating in combat within a SAFE ZONE gains the status title SANCTIONED for one day. Defending yourself does not count as participating so long as combat is not continued once those that have already been SANCTIONED withdraw from the SAFE ZONE. NOTE: if you are not responding to an attack against a SANCTIONED individual within a SAFE ZONE, you will be immediately SANCTIONED upon initiating an attack whether the attack succeeds or fails. Those that receive the SANCTIONED status Title have all System costs increased by 1,000% and all trade values reduced for anything they are trying to sell to the SYSTEM by 1,000%. Additionally, SAFE ZONES are protected by The SYSTEM and prevent damage to all individuals and structures within the SAFE ZONE.

Adam finished reading the prompts and then looked at System Market Vendor SN-1415, “Thank you, I think.”

A moment later a woman carrying a sword made out of blue light stepped into the System Shop and froze. Adam watched as her eyes flickered, focused on him and then the vendor. The blue energy blade retreated into the hilt of her weapon, and she put it on the belt around her waist. She nodded to the Vendor and met Adam’s gaze, “Another time.”

“You better hope not,” Adam said with ice-cold malice in his voice. Her aura was the bright red of malevolence and a sickly green which Adam had begun to interpret as just plain old evil. That she’d followed him in after he’d just killed 15 people in the street was a testament to her resolve.

Within a minute of leaving the Gnome's shop, he’d been attacked by someone named “Derek, the Deadly” Why the hell would someone name themselves “Derek, the Deadly?” Adam had been surprised by an attack from behind. It had been such a good surprise attack that the attack had actually landed. Also, Derek had been smart by not warning Adam of his intention, he’d just teleported in and backstabbed Adam. The attack had been a complete surprise to Adam as prompts flooded his vision.

WARNING! You have been Surprised.

WARNING! Derek the Deadly has successfully used the ability “Assassination” with the weapon “Tooth of Basilisk.”

Base Damage 8 (4 doubled by strength)

Adjusted, Assassination ability: 40 (8 x 5 for ability)

Adjusted, Situational: 120 (40 x 2 for backstab from surprise

Adjusted, Critical Strike: 240 (120 x 2 for Critical Strike from behind)

Secondary effect from Tooth Basilisk, Magical Attack, Petrification, does not take effect. Base Magical resistance 100%.

Adam had seen the prompts, realized what had happened, and activated Stutter Step. He knew he’d need enough time to react to other surprise attacks and he wanted enough actions to be able to take care of each attacker before the next one. He also didn’t want to be stuck viewing everyone as if they were moving in slow motion so he’d split his perception. Instead of dedicating a portion of his mind to always moving faster than the other parts of him, he activated Stutter Step to give himself 10 actions while he maintained a part of himself to react normally with his surroundings.

That first round of retaliation saw him activate Stutter Step, spend two actions to set up his perception filter, and the next six actions laying on critical blows to Derek the Deadly. Those watching saw Adam flicker as Derek’s head snapped forward and then backward before it was turned to the right 180 degrees then turned to the left 360 degrees before his head was put back facing forward and Adam seemed to step back and palm strike Derek’s chest right over his heart. After the six physical attacks, Adam had stepped forward and used an ability he hadn’t used all that much until now, Treasure Renderer. He’d used his last action of the round to check his prompts as a dead Derek the Deadly fell backward, dead.

Adam strikes Derek the Deadly Critically to the throat: Damage: 8 (Base 2 doubled due to the Strength, Doubled due to Critical Strike)

Adam Strikes Derek, the Deadly critically to the back of the neck: Damage 8 (Base 2 double due to Strength, Doubled due to Critical Strike, Spinal Cord Severed, Paralyzed).

Adam Grapples Derek, the Deadly, Critical strike to neck: Damage 16 (Base 2 Doubled for Strength, Doubled for Critical Strike, Doubled against Paralyzed Target)

Adam Grapples Derek, the Deadly, Critical strike to neck: Damage 16 (Base 2 Doubled for Strength, Doubled for Critical Strike, Doubled against Paralyzed Target)

Adam initiates Special Attack, Palm Strike, called shot to stop the heart of Derek, the Deadly: Damage converted to Defibrillation Effect. Connection of heart to brain severed, autotomic commands overridden, heart has stopped.

Derek, the Deadly has died.

Adam had known that The System was limiting damage, no matter what his strength was but what it couldn’t do was completely negate physics or physical effects or the effects of special attacks he knew. Strikes to the throat and the back of the neck were extremely potent against bipedal specials, as was yanking their head around to look down their back one way and then the other. He hadn’t been sure about the heart strike. That worked sometimes but if the brain was still connected via the spinal column there was a chance that the attack wouldn’t do a thing except give the target a chest ache. It’s one of the reasons he didn’t use that attack technique that often. Of course, if you’ve already crushed their spinal column and practically ripped their head off those impulses from the brain weren’t reaching the heart anymore anyway.

Adam had been kind of surprised the first four attacks hadn’t killed Derek, to be honest. He must have had more than 48 hit points. While the system was limiting the numeric value of the damage he was inflicting, what the System wasn’t doing was preventing him from utilizing his strength which he knew how to use in very specific and interesting ways.

The most interesting thing that happened was when he utilized Treasure Renderer on Derek.

You have utilized Treasure Renderer on a System Sanctioned Assassin. Treasure Renderer will loot the creature you are utilizing the ability on. Normally, the System generates the reward. When used on Class members of The System Treasure Renderer pays off all debts to the System, or its agents, first and then transfers System Credits equal to the current market value of all treasures which are confiscated by The System. This includes all items held in any dimensional storage devices the individual might be wearing or dimensional storage locations the individual might have due to an ability. Only the items carried are looted and the credit value of all goods. Additionally, The System notifies any agency that placed a bounty on the individuals of their death and transfers that bounty to you in the form of credits.

You have found Belt of Holding, Empty

You have found, Tooth of the Basilisk, Dagger. Upon attack can cause Petrification. Holds 10 charges. Recharges Charges automatically 1 per week.

You have found, Ring of the Unrevealed. This ring doubles all System Cost for information requests against the wearer and also prevent any bounties from being displayed by The System.

You have found 1,329,649 million credits.

You have been awarded 315,000 credits for various open bounties placed against Derek, the Deadly

You have been awarded 1 million credits for a specific bounty against Derek, the Deadly.

Adam had also received a set of clothes and an identification card of sorts as Derek’s nude body had fallen to the ground. He’d left him where he fell and continued walking down the street as if nothing had happened. He’d been attacked more than 15 times, 23 in fact. He’d check the aura of each attacker before he decided whether they live or die. The eight he’d allowed to live had been knocked unconscious and left on the ground. The other 14 had been almost identical encounters to Derek, though none had earned him as many credits and they had all died by his third attack.

All in all, he’d pulled in another 516,000 credits and a few exotic but non-magical weapons. He’d left the naked dead where they lay. Now that he was in the System Shop he pulled The Ring of the Unrevealed out of his Shadow Vault and put it on.

“If I might say, sir, thank you for putting on the ring. I will leave the SAFE ZONE up for now, but might I suggest you keep that ring on until you have cleared the bounty,” System Vendor SN-1415 said.

“That’s the plan, Adam said. Do you have a booth open”

“Yes, directly in front of you and to your right.”

Adam walked forward and entered the booth. He placed his hand on the knob on the counter and opened up the System Menu. The first thing he did was sell all the clothing and weaponry he’d just acquired. He didn’t need it and the credits might come in handy. Doing so only earned him another 10,300 credits but he would take it.

Next, Adam looked up how much it would cost to purchase the location Lexnara Pellmir. He thought that it might be expensive, instead, it only cost 100 credits.

Queen of the Di’kree Empire, Lexnara Pellmir can be found on the Planet Di’kree toward the System Center. Di’kree is reached either by portal or the Purple line.

If you would like to purchase the exact location of Lexnara Pellmir, that will cost 100,000,000 credits.

Adam knew he could create and sell any number of items to the System to get enough credits to purchase her location, but he needed to get some questions answered, and the one place he knew there was a person that could answer some of his questions and probably would be back in Arch-Mage Maneece’s private dimension.

Adam lifted his hand from the System Interface, concentrated on the saferoom he’d left Janeece and the Arch-Mage in, and then called up a Gate to that location. Adam left the System Shop of Suigen behind as he stepped into the entryway of Janeece's private residence. He was still spending the mana for Stutter Step so wasn’t surprised when a bolt of energy was hurling toward him. Adam lazily reached up and dispelled the spell as he called out, “It’s Adam, I’m back.”

“Adam?” the Arch-mage asked questioningly as his head poked around a corner. “You’ve only been gone an hour or so, you’re not done yet are you?”

“No, I ended up on Suigen. I did find out who did this though,” Adam said.

“You did?” the Arch-mage asked.

“Do you know the name Lexnara Pellmir?” Adam asked.

“I do. Are you sure it was her?”

“I have a $5 million credit bounty over my head which she purchased. Since the only two people that I could have pissed off before the bounty was issued would be you or whoever bought that bounty I’m pretty sure it's her.

“She’s a little out of reach. Her family moved out onto the Purple Line some time ago when something we had been working on together catastrophically failed. She blames me of course but it was her husband that made the mistake and ultimately died for it.”

“Her family must be quite powerful to live out along the Purple Line,” Adam said.

“Yes and no. There are a few that could be out in the area she’s in with no issue. It’s a world with predominantly heroic-level creatures in an area of the Cosmos that contains Legendary and higher-level monsters. Kind of an Oasis of sorts for lower-level adventurers and creatures. She’s actually done very well for her family since…” The Arch-Mages voice trailed off.

“What happened,” Adam asked.

The Arch-Mage looked at Adam and then sighed before he began to speak, “About a hundred years ago there was a war. Wars in Heroic and Legendary spaces between factions, Empires, or families are nothing like world wars or even small-time engagements. Wars at that level can leave entire star systems destroyed. During the war, a majority of her family was evacuated by train to head to Nexus. I was contracted to get them there safely. I took the job to try to make up for the death of her husband.”

“I take it, you the job went south,” Adam asked.

“The job went south,” The Arch-Mage agreed as he shook his head. “One moment everything was going fine, the next every car on the train was separated from every other car on the train. Some disappeared altogether while others fell into the depths of Legendary Space. It took years for me to make my way to a planet that contained a node that would get me back to civilization. A lot of people do not understand exactly how much space there is toward the center of The System. When I finally made it back to civilization I learned that everyone on the trains was lost and presumed dead. I know why I survived. I invested in personal protective equipment that would see me through and I had magic of course. Even so, everyone on the train I had been on died when they were exposed to whatever energy ripped the train apart. To this day I have not seen another soul that was part of that evacuation attempt. As the only survivor, the queen blames me for the deaths of her children and believes I let her husband die.”

“Were you responsible?” Adam asked.

“I have searched myself for that answer ever since. I cannot think of any way we could have done what we did differently so No, I do not feel responsible. Though I failed in my mission and ultimately lost the contract. It has taken a very long time for my family to make their way back into the upper echelon of society. In fact, until the attack and you just mentioned her name I had thought that she had finally forgiven me. Of course, I know now that she has been lying to me.”

“Well, you won’t have to worry about her for long. She placed a bounty on me, I need to go ‘speak’ with her,” Adam said.

“I have portal coordinates for our teleporter if you’d like to use it. You did finish clearing my home of the infiltrators didn’t you?” the Arch-Mage asked.

“I did. Though I only took care of those threats that were openly attacking your people. If there are sleeper agents and the like, they may still be here. It’s one of the reasons I asked you to stay in this pocket dimension.”

“Thank you for that. I do apologize for not sitting down with you personally, but you were an unknown factor. Also, after the proficiency with which you just eradicated those attacking my domain, can you blame me for taking precautions?” The Arch-Mage asked.

“No, I can’t, and I understand. Also, I would like to sit down with you and get the rundown on the System and its capabilities as well as who created it. Additionally, who’s running things at some point? Right now, though, I think we need to go through your Domain and search for any stragglers that might be spies or infiltrators for your enemies.

“Agreed,” The Arch-Mage said before he raised his voice and called out, “Jezel!”

A moment later Jezel hurried into the room, “Yes, Father?”

“I am going to summon a guardian for you. You are not to leave this dimension until I return for you. If I do not return within a year use the item I have stashed away for you, you know the one,” The Arch-Mage said as he took Jezel’s hands in his and gently kissed her on the head. “I need to go with our new friend and secure our holdings.”

“Understood, and be careful,” Jezel said as she kissed him on the cheek and stepped back. Jezel turned to Adam and nodded slightly, “Thank you for saving us, Adam.”

Adam watched as the Arch-Mage stepped back and started forming energy runes in the air as he started a summoning ritual. Jezel and Adam stepped back as he turned to her and said, “You are quite welcome. Though, I didn’t expect a little harmless filtering to lead to the events of the last couple of hours.”

Jezel smiled wistfully, “If only you could have saved more. The monsters killed all of my staff, some families that have been with our family for generations, including their children that were here. Father isn’t showing it, but I know that he’s angry. I’m angry! Why would someone come after our servants?”

Adam had no answers so did not respond as the silence was filled with a mystical chant coming from the Arch-Mage. The rune circle floating in the air rotated and flashed golden as a portal formed and filled with golden light. What looked like a man with platinum hair and golden eyes stepped through. As the being spoke it felt like his voice resonated from all around, “Arch-Mage Maneece, A Promise has been called on, A Vow kept. In your time of need, what do you require?”

“Archangel Cafzyel, I thank you for responding to my request. I must respond to betrayal and need to assure that my daughter is protected. I would ask that you protect my daughter and those with her in this dimension while I root out any more betrayers that might be present before they can do more harm to my family and friends.

The Archangel nodded and smiled as he said, “The favor you earned from an Archangel is to be used to request the protection of a loved one. This is a noble and just request. While I cannot promise to stay and protect your daughter forever I can adhere to your request for 7 days plus 7 hours plus 7 minutes, or until you release me from my vow.”

“That should be more than enough time,” Arch-Mage Maneece said.

While the two talked Adam turned his Aura Sight and True Sight on the Angel and was surprised to see that the man had a golden aura that was almost blinding. Adam activated Scan and received his first surprise.

ERROR Target does not fall within System Parameters

Immediately after the error message popped up the Arch-Angels eyes narrowed on Adam as he said, “Some secrets are not for you to know yet, Adam. Be on your way.”

Adam hadn’t been that surprised in a very long time. Before he could think too hard about what had just happened he formally bowed to the Archangel as he said, “I apologize for my bad manners.

“There is no need to apologize, curiosity is an admirable trait. There is a time and place for it though. I believe you and the Arch-Mage need to head out to ensure the safety of his domain now though?” The Archangel asked.

“We do,” Arch-Mage Maneece said as he opened another portal.

Adam had a lot of questions running through his mind as he followed the Arch-Mage through the portal. They left the Archangel to watch over Jezel. If Adam was right, there wasn’t a force anywhere in The System that would be able to hurt Jezel for the next 7 days, 7 hours, and 7 minutes.

***

“What was going on?

Kael turned to his subordinate as he said, “I was about to ask you the same thing, George.”

“I don’t know, “Sir. A few minutes ago, 14 of our operatives, including Derek, The Deadly, have been confirmed dead by The System.”

“Was there some kind of planetary accident, a Super Volcano, Meteor, or anything like that?” Kael asked.

“No Sir, I checked. All System Vendors in the area are still online and I was able to contact our branch on the Technological side of Suigen. They report no issues, though they have heard rumors of a scuffle that happened in the Old Town part of Suigen. Someone with a 5 million credit bounty on their head seems to have had a run-in with some scalpers and other unfortunates that were looking for a quick payday.”

“Do we have time stamps on the deaths of our operatives?” Kael asked.

“We do. They all died within 10 minutes about an hour ago,” George said.

“And the 5 million credit bounty, do we know who that was on?”

“The only bounty for 5 million credits is on someone named Adamantadine,” George said.

“What do we have on Adamantadine?”

“Nothing.”

“Nothing?” Kael asked.

“Nothing,” George confirmed again.

How much does the System want for information about him?

39.1 billion credits

Kael coughed a couple of times to clear his throat then asked, “39.1 billion credits?”

“Yes, I pulled it up when this first started. I’ll pull it up again…” George paused, it’d gone up, it’s now 78.3 billion credits.

Keal thought about it for a minute then nodded, “That's no surprise, Derek had that ring that doubled his costs. I bet Adamantadine found the ring and put it on. Why would the cost be so high though?”

“No Idea, I’ve sent a request off to the Administrator, no response as yet.

“How long ago did you send off the request?” Keal asked.

“Just a few minutes,” George said.

Kael worked for the Conglomerate. Their organization had sought out and made a connection to one of the only Administrators they’d been able to find. He’d been abnormally quiet the last two days. “Don’t sweat it, I’ll head over to Nexus and visit his office to see what’s up with this Adam character. While the System might not want to give up the information for anything but credits I’m sure I can talk the Administrator into showing us the goods for considerably less,” Kael said.

“I’ll keep an eye on things here then, boss,” George said.

Kael leaned back from the terminal he’d been looking at over George’s shoulder and headed for the exit. It was a simple matter to head to the basement and take one of their portals to their offices in the city of Nexus. While the majority of the people in the System didn’t know what the function of the man known as the Administrator was, or even who the building he used belonged to, Kael had known Administrator Dilyard for a very long time.

The building was a quick walk from the office he now stood in. Kael left the building and headed that way. Protocol for visits to the administrator was to leave no reference so he said nothing to no one as he walked out of the office and stepped onto a street filled with creatures from all corners of System Space. A couple of minutes later he entered a building that contained offices from many different organizations and walked into a room at the back of the elevator alcove. Once inside he said, “Kael Ambrosche to see Mr. Dilyard, Priority one.”

There was a pause until the Administrator’s Personal Assistant floated into the room through a portal that had just activated opposite the door he’d entered the room through.

“Good day, Mr. Ambrosche. Mr. Dilyard is currently unavailable.”

“I have invoked Priority One. Is Mr. Dilyard in the building?

“He is,” The Personal Assistant said.

“Take me to him then,” Kael said.

“Very well, please step through the portal,” The Personal Assistant said.

Kael followed the Assistant through the portal into the office where he found Administrator Dilyard sitting with a catatonic look on his face and a shimmering field around him. Obviously a stasis field of some kind.

“What is this,” Kael asked.

“Administrator Dilyard is reviewing the life of a subject at 400% of the normal rate,” The APA said.

“Who is the subject and how long with Administrator Dilyard be like this?” Kael asked.

“The Subject is one Adamantadine. I cannot say exactly how long Administrator Dilyard will be like this, but I can estimate from the size of the file he’s reviewing that it will be years before he is done,” the Personal Assistant said.

“Did Administrator Dilyard know the size of the file before he started?” Kael asked.

“I do not believe so,” The Personal Assistant said.

“Very well, pull him out of memory read, Authorization Alpha Zero One Zulu Three Dilyard.”

“Priority Administrator Code recognized. Verification of Code origin is required. When and where did Administrator Dilyard give the Priority Code to you Mr. Ambrosche?” The Personnel Assistant asked.

“Code was given to me by Administrator Dilyard, one minute before your Purchase from the System,” Kael said.

“Checking, security footage from 21 years, 3 months, 2 days, 2 minutes ago,” The Personal Assistant said before the light at its center started pulsing. A moment later it continued, “Code Authenticity Verified, Administrator Dilyard will be awake shortly.”

Kael watched as the field around Administrator Dilyard faded away. A moment later Adminstrator Dilyard bolted upright and said angrily, “I am Adamantadine, this is Adamantadine’s Tower. Why were you attacking my home? Better yet, I am also a Cleric of Serena, I’m not evil and if the stories I’ve heard are true, Holy Knights can sense evil, so my next more important question. Why did you, a Holy Knight of Zeltar, whose cleric assisted me early today in the Dungeon of Divine Elements, in Full Armor on Horseback raise your crossbow and shoot…”

“Kenneth?” Kael asked questionly.

“It’s a normal byproduct of being in a memory read for so long,if pulled unknowingly from it. That was probably something that was happening. Not to worry, he will be himself once more in a few minutes,” The Personal Assistant said.

Kael watched as Kenneth Dilyard looked around uncomprehendingly for a few moments until something changed and his eyes focused on Kael, “Kael! What are you doing here?”

“Checking on a friend, are you okay?” Kael asked.

“I am now. I should have looked at how long that file was going to keep me tied up before I started it.”

That file was for Adamantadine?” Kael asked.

“Yep, a real one-of-a-kind individual that I can’t believe….Well, let's just say, what I’d reviewed up to the point you woke me was pretty amazing.”

“I bet,” Kael said.

I’ve come over to ask you about Adamantadine. It would seem that there is a 5 billion credit bounty on him and 15 of my assets on Suigen were killed within 10 minutes of each other,” Kael said.

“You think Adamantadine had something to do with it?” Kenneth asked.

“Yes,”

“Very well, let me wipe the drool from my mouth and pull up his information. I take it that’s why you’re here?” Administrator Dilyard asked.

“It is,” Kael agreed.

“Very well, one moment,” Administrator Dilyard said as he wiped off his mouth, adjusted his chair, and pulled up some information on his terminal. Kael heard him mutter, “Administrator Override….” Before a soundproof field enveloped the administrator. Kael watched as Kenneth's eyes started flickering back and forth and then went wide. “What? How?” Administrator Dilyard exclaimed so loudly that Kael easily heard him.

Kael looked at the Administrator questioningly until Administrator Dilyard turned the monitor so he could see the information displayed there and he started reading. Agent of Chaos, level 50. Envoy of Chaos, level 50, Ambassador of Chaos level 50, No other class levels though so Adamantadine was at Master level 50. Derek the Deadly should have been able to kill him pretty easily, he’d just earned his Legendary class after all. That didn’t explain how Adamantadine could kill 15 of his higher-level assassins.

Kael followed the information down to Adamantadine’s attributes and froze with surprise. 15,675,903,632 hit points with a regeneration rate of 183,248 hit points per second? Mana and Stamina at 391 billion respectively. All of his attributes were 39,189,759,073 and he even had a new attribute called Chaos. Additionally, his Karmic Luck attribute was listed as 0 but there was a note that only Administrators could see that said “Positive Error.” What the hell was going on?

“What am I looking at?” Kael asked.

“You are looking at the Personal Information and Status of Adamantadine,” The Personal Assistant answered.

Kael looked at Kenneth dryly. A moment later Kenneth said, “You’re looking at something that should not be possible. The little bit of Johnathan’s, I mean Adamantadine’s, life that I lived through shows me how he gained so many levels. There must have been a glitch during his absorption into the System.

“Can you fix it?” Kael asked.

“Oh yeah, I can override and reset him to System Standard. Not an issue.”

Where is he now?” Kael asked.

He is in the Maneece artificial dimension.

“Maneece. Maneece? How do I know that name?” Kael asked.

“Arch-Mage Maneece,” Administrator Dilyard added helpfully.

“That’s right!” Kael said as he remembered the elusive Arch-Mage that the Conglomerate had been trying to hire for ages.

Administrator Dilyard ignored Kael’s outburst and called up his Administrator functions. Next, he found the error that had been ignored to give Adamantadine all the attributes and abilities he wasn’t supposed to have, made some modifications, and prepared to initiate the changes.

Would you like to remove the previous System Parameters from Johnathan Bennard, also known as, Adamantadine?

Administrator Dilyard thought about how surprised Adamantadine was going to be when all the power he had was snuffed out by The System and smiled as he hit “Yes”

***

Adam was walking with Arch-Mage Maneece as the Arch-Mage used technology and magic to track down and question every survivor in the Arch-Mage’s personal dimension. They also took the time to store every corpse they came across so they could be prepared for the burial. After about an hour Adam froze as a System Message filled his vision

Administrator Review and Audit has determined that you do not currently conform to System parameters due to incorrect conversion. Previous System parameters are being removed. You may feel a slight bought of nausea as your body adjusts to the changes.

Adam forced himself to calm down and shifted his frame of reference to his Soul Space so he could see what was happening. A shimmering field surrounded all the nodes of his abilities and started to collapse toward the center of his Soul Space. The Nodes came into contact with the barrier and were pushed toward the center. They became very cramped as they did so.

To Adam, it looked like all the nodes were being pushed to the nucleus of his Soul Space. At the same time, Adam felt a restriction that he hadn’t noticed before getting lifted and the abilities began to merge and compress until even his point of view was pushed in with the combined abilities to a pinpoint at the center of his soul. Adam felt as if there was a tremendous amount of pressure until he remembered the trick he knew and converted all that pressure into nothing. Adam felt all of the nodes of his abilities merge with his Chaos Incarnate ability and take on the aspect of Nothing that he was so used to.

His Soul Space now empty, Adam pulled up his Personal Information and watched as The System scrubbed his attributes which were all reduced to 380. His hit points were lowered to 152 and both his mana and stamina registered at 3,800. At least that’s what showed on his Status Sheet. As soon as the actions of The System passed, Adam knew that the values of his attributes reverted to what they had been. He rechecked his Status which showed only 380.

Adam withdrew his point of reference to outside his body again to find Arch-Mage Maneece looking at him quizzically as he asked, “Are you all right?”

“I think so,” Adam said. “Can you summon a small block of steel? Just large enough to fit in my hand, please.”

“Sure,” The Arch-Mage said as he did so and handed the block of steel to Adam.

Adam took the steel block in his right hand and slammed his palms together as hard as he could. As he expected his strength was well more than the displayed value of 380. How did he know this? Because the steel block turned to powder before it exploded outward like a gymnast who had just put chalk on their palms and clapped them together.

“What was the point of that?” Arch-Mage Maneece asked.

“The point, my friend, was to check how someone that just tried to nerf my abilities made me even stronger than before. If I’m right, the limits the System imposes on everyone no longer affect me and I didn’t even have to figure out how to hack The System myself,” Adam said as a wide smile lit up his face.