Ellis Vincere.

More than two weeks but less than a month is the time it takes for the fucked up jellyfish to grow out of adolescence. They also seem to gain experience by consuming the toxins in the air. There shouldn't be anything keeping them from passing level 200, so I'm assuming it's because the fracture itself wouldn't be able to handle the stress.

My days of gathering data have given me information from what stats they have to their chemical composition. I'm finished with this fracture. I wasn't as efficient as possible since I didn't get my delegated workers in. I might as well sign it off and get paid.

I think I'm still not getting a salary, which is concerning.

I wasn't just mindlessly staring at these floating flesh sacks. Three other things happened while I was here.

I also trained my resistances as much as possible. Even resorting to drinking from the stagnant pools that hold slimes. They grew from 701 to 999. No matter what I do, it won't grow past 999.

I gathered multiple toxins in vials Rain gifted me via my court skill. I recalled a stipulation that I get to keep everything I find in the fracture before I abandon it, so I should get my credit's worth.

The last thing was more of an Khan thing. I let him hunt the rest of the specters in the fracture. To my knowledge, he killed them all, and more will have to spawn for the population to be stabilized.

His endeavors got me hundreds of crystals and a shit-ton of levels. My levels practically jumped 30% from the three days he's been on-again-off-again hunting. I noticed that the experience grew less and less the more he killed.

Perhaps it's because I gain more experience the higher the creature is compared to me, and we all share the same experience bonuses, or that there is something called 'slaughter fatigue.' The more you slaughter the same creature, the less beneficial it becomes.

It reminds me of my [Infanticide] title...

Anyway, my stats.

Name / Nickname

Ellis Vincere / The Last Winner

Race

Human

Class

Monarch Master (Rank A)

Level

180 (0.2b/1.5)

Titles

Proud Owner of a Rock, Fell the Mighty, Heptad Attuner, Indulger… ▽

~

~

Health Points

15,447 / 15,447 (+280% bonus)

Mana Points

1400 / 1400

Armor Points

0

Might

285 (200 +10% + 15 + 50 )

Agility

245 (200 +10% + 10 + 15)

Vigor (P)

813* (630 + 10% + 25 + 45 + 50)

Mind

280 (175 + 75 + 30)

Spirit

472 (305 > 385 + 20% + 10)

Perception

50

Charisma

95 (40 + 15 + 40)

Attunement

100

Luck

12 (2 +10)

Unused

270 > 630

Slashing

881 (701 +180)

Ice

679 (499 + 180)

Piercing

881 (701 + 180)

Acid

999 (999 + 180)

Blunt

957 (777 + 180)

Poison

999 (999+ 180)

Fire

730 (650 + 180)

Lightning

879 (699 + 180)

Necrotic

679 (499 + 180)

Radiant

679 (499 + 180)

Force

679 (499 + 180)

Exhaustion

380 (200 + 180)

Body

181 (1 + 180)

Mental

260

Spirit

10

Curse

105

V@#%

6

~ ~

I should probably allocate my stats, huh.

Name / Nickname

Ellis Vincere / The Last Winner

Race

Human

Class

Monarch Master (Rank A)

Level

180 (.2b/1.5) (+40)

Titles

Proud Owner of a Rock, Fell the Mighty, Heptad Attuner, Indulger… ▽

~

~

Health Points

19,000/19,000 (+280% bonus)

Mana Points

2025/2025

Armor Points

0

Might

505 (200 > 400 +10% + 15 + 50 )

Agility

465 (200 > 400 +10% + 10 + 15)

Vigor (P)

1000* (630 > 800 + 10% + 25 + 45 + 50)

Mind

405 (175 > 300 + 75 + 30)

Spirit

472 (385 + 20% + 10)

Perception

50 > 100

Charisma

100 (40 > 45 + 15 + 40)

Attunement

100

Luck

12 (2 +10)

Unused

630 > 15

Ow. My entire body hurts. My body feels strange like it isn't my own. It's hard to control myself. I also don't feel good... I only put 35 points into my [Vigor] because I felt like I would explode if I put any more.

[Congratulations User! Because of your affinity to life, prestiging a stat, and achieving 1k Vigor while having 15k+ points in health before level 200, you gain a Title!]

[Title is evolving thanks to high [Resistance] attributes.]

[Title is influenced thanks to a Unique ranked healing skill and the user's passive regeneration.]

[Resilience Incarnate U 0/3

To get to a point where even trolls envy your engorged vitality, you must become [Resilience Incarnate]. This Title will be taken away if there is someone better suited for this Title.

Regeneration🔒(Recover from 0% to 100% in less than a minute using nothing but your regeneration)

Health🔒(Have a health bonus of +300%)

Resistance🔒(Unlock every resistance type)]

Eventually, I'll become numb to the system. It doesn't tell me the benefits, but it would be great if it could be taken from me. This is the first time I've seen something like this. I wonder if I took this from someone else.

The first two are simple enough. I have to rank my martial arts skills up, and I will be good for both... I should stop putting off my training. I really don't want to gain the skills Master Wang told me to get, but I'll have to do it before I rank my martial arts.

I need to "level" all the sub-skills under my martial arts skills to level it up. The more skills, the harder it is. Inversely, the higher my martial arts skills, the harder it is to gain new sub-skills. I'll have to blindly level those skills to match my martial arts skills before the system recognizes it.

The discomfort passed, and I felt better than before entering this fracture. I still feel like an alien piloting around a meat suit, but my life force has stabilized slightly. I guess rounding my stats out helped?

I feel confident in my motor skills to not hurt anyone, so it's time to leave. All my beasts head back into my mansion before I leave the fracture. I can't have Flash Gordon print elemental crystals out in the open. Khan is a natural disaster waiting to happen, and Duchess wants to continue her studies.

I leave the fracture, decontaminate myself, send my report, and leave the building... or so I would've.

In my autonomy, I accidentally headed towards the hazard branch's exit. On my way, a man with no hair or eyebrows approaches me with their entourage. He wears leather armor and some really thick gloves.

"Hey, are you Ellis?"

"Why?"

"Catch."

He lightly tosses something at me. As it soars through the air, I notice it's a little figurine of an island. I don't catch it. I let it drop to the floor. I analyze it with [Scientific Insight+].

[Isle of Ancient Dragons]

Huh, this reminds me of the little figurines in my mansion.

I examine it closer, but the tension in the air is palpable. The people around me, who I now notice are at a higher level than me, seem agitated for some reason. Or nervous. Maybe a mixture of the two. I turn to the bald man.

"You dropped something."

"My bad. Can you hand it over? Must have slipped out of my big ass gloves."

"I don't believe you."

I'm seconds away from summoning Khan in this tiny ass hallway, but I slipped on something. One of the bald man's goons cast a spell, and I noticed too late. I try to orient myself, but I'm not used to my body. FUCK.

I fall right on the little figurine, and everything goes black.

~~~

POV SWITCH

~~~

Ellis Vincere touched an item that houses a fracture. Fractures aren't always floating rifts. They can be invisible, like the first fracture Ellis fell into, or inside an object.

Jerry's family has a fracture in a golden statuette of a snail.

The CoS Jerimiah's plot was to send Ellis into a fracture that no one could handle. A fracture that the FIB has given up on to the point where you wouldn't be able to find it cataloged unless you had a high level of clearance.

It isn't the terrain or the creatures inside that's the source of this fracture's undeniable hazard. It's the three stipulations inside the fracture.

Ellis Vincere's stuff falls to the floor as he vanishes into the little figurine of an island. This fracture won't let you bring in anything with you, not even a prosthetic specifically designed to mimic your body.

The second is that you must spend a minimum of a month inside the fracture before you can attempt to escape.

And the last? Ellis is about to find out for himself.

~~~

POV SWITCH

~~~

My vision went black from the transition into my twelfth fracture. The first sensation I felt was the cold feeling of air all over my body. Wind rips past my ears as I plummet from the stratosphere. My body first felt cold, but now it feels hot as I tore through the atmosphere.

An island takes up most of my vision, even from this height. A massive volcano sits in the middle while the ocean surrounds it. I try to summon Khan from my [Besital Storage], but it doesn't work.

[Notice. Skill has failed.]

Khan and Rob are the only two in my 'storage,' meaning they are the only two I could attempt to summon. I take the forty-five seconds it takes for me to land to go over what just happened.

I got approached by suspicious people and got sent into a fracture. Why am I naked? Why can't I summon Khan, who should be in my mansion? Why am I falling? I'm assuming there is one answer to my questions.

Wyverns with weird heads scatter as I fall past their flock. I managed to get a glimpse of one and learned its name.

[Giant Beaked Ancient Winged Wyverns A lv???]

Oh. There was a whole herd of those things casually in the sky. I wonder- and my thoughts got interrupted as I fell into a giant tree that cushioned my fall. My body ripped through the foliage and snapped a few branches before I found myself impaled.

Blood rises to the back of my throat as I grab the branch... and I'm missing my arm. Great. I can feel my two hearts beating, so at least I brought one item with me here... an augmented version of my own organ.

I have to do a one-handed push-up while grabbing the branch inside of me to pull myself off the three feet of wood impaling my stomach. My restances kept me from sliding down further, but I'm not happy.

I'm pissed. I'm the angriest I've ever been. My hand is slick with blood as I finish pushing myself free. I continued to fall until I hit the ground.

I heal my body while clenching my teeth. My blood coats them red instead of their usual pearly white. Slipped, stripped, stuffed into a fracture. FUCK.

Fuck. Shit. Okay, what do I have? My skills, traits, and stats. I'm not missing a heart, but I am missing an arm. Maybe I still have...

From my blood, I summon my blade. I still have my weapon. It's literally my blood. Technically, owning the sword gave me the skill to recreate the sword using my blood. I would've abused that fact if the process didn't destroy the old one.

I hear rustling. I force myself out of my head. Why am I taking my surroundings lightly? Attempting to hide seems foolish as I'm covered in blood. Deliciously nutritious blood.

I grip my sword. Who knows what's beyond the massive foliage. What's hiding in the droning sounds of the jungle. A single drop of sweat drips from my brow down my side, picking up blood and dirt as it travels. As it hits the jungle floor, a creature lunges at me from behind the ferns.

It's fast. Maybe three times as fast as I am. It bites into my torso with its sickly long teeth. I can feel it pierce my newly healed intestines. I instinctively knee the bottom of its jaw using my [Cross Counter] skill.

-1,210

-1,660

Even though it's the middle of battle, my brain quickly calculates. Half my resistances were ignored.

[Resistance: Piercing 701 > 721 (901)]

It lets go of me and backs off from the unexpected blow. I have a moment to examine my would-be hunter. It's a human-sized reptile with a sleek, agile build. Its body is covered in feathers, resembling a hybrid bird/lizard. Its teeth-filled snout gnashes at me as it circles my position. Its hind legs twitch with power as it moves. It has a massive dagger-like claw on both legs.

[Feathered Ancient Claw-Foot Dragon A lv???]

"AAAHH"

My bare feet dig into the ground as I lunge at the dragon. I swing my sword at it, but it nimbly evades my sword and swipes at me with its claw, cutting at my jugular. It's too quick for me to dodge. It's too fast for me to run. Cut me. Bleed me. I don't fucking care.

I kick dirt up in the air, but the dragon ignores my feeble attempt to gain the upper hand. It leaps sideways, using the nearby tree as a springboard to attack me from above. The movements were large enough to know what it was attempting, but I'm not used to fighting with one arm.

It cuts down the length of the entire left side of my body. From my armpit down to my knee. Blood torrents out of my body and dyes the dark floor red. Plants are sprinkled in my rain, and the creature licks its claw as it stares at me.

[Resistance: Slashing 701 > 799 (979)]

That attack took over 70% of my health. I'm rapidly regenerating as I completely heal myself while regenerating my mana using [Broken Blood].

I reposition myself so my body is perpendicular to the dragon while my sword is in front of it. My back and belly would be exposed to any other creature, but if this dragon attacks from the front, it will meet steel.

"Do I taste good?"

The creature doesn't answer me. It doesn't seem to be playing around with me, either. It's trying to methodically hunt me down after its 'ambush' failed. It wants to quickly kill me with attacks that would've bled me dry.

It was initially waiting for me to bleed to death, but since I'm still standing, it attacks once again.

It tries to circle me, but I always keep my sword in front of it. It's looking for weaknesses while I'm looking at its movements. I can almost feel the creature's muscles tense under its scales and feathers.

At the same time - although the dragon was definitely quicker - we both moved. It hopped to the side and dashed closer while I used [Battered Bones] and every inch of strength to jump straight up.

*Snap* *Snap*

Both my legs break as payment for the boosted momentum. It looks up at me as I put my entire strength - and another broken bone - into throwing my sword straight down at it. At the same time, I gamble.

It's faster. It's stronger. It shrugged off my first attack. It seems intelligent. Maybe its spirit is weaker.

I use [Royal Decree] to command this dragon nonverbally. Stay there. Stay right there and die.

My skill takes hold, and it's momentarily paralyzed, but once the blade was close enough to cause it harm, it broke free from my skill and dashed backward. My sword deeply imbeds itself into the floor.

I use a little mana to mend my broken bones as I land. I grip the handle and rip it free from the earth, hoping to hit the dragon with one move. Dirt and tiny rocks fly in a crescent shape as I attempt to cut the beast. I could smell the dragon's breath before it registered in my vision.

It reached me before I could reach it. I use most of my remaining mana to [Bolster Resistance] without thinking about it. Alarms went off in my head. Don't let it get your head. Not the neck. Brace yourself.

Critical Hit!

-2,399!

I don't know why it expected me to die right there. But I didn't. My blood coats the dragon's throat as I bleed heavily through its teeth.

I'm not dead. I keep fighting. I'm missing an arm, so I must learn how to compensate.

I wrap my legs around the dragon. It must have been surprised since it didn't react. I use my skill to command it and manage to pry my neck from its jaws with some issues. It's actively fighting for control.

It breaks free, but I'm already grappling with it. It's human-sized, and its going to regret that. I'm underneath it. My legs are wrapped around the dragon's waist, keeping me from touching the ground. Its claws have easy access to my chest. Its teeth can rip into my neck again.

But now I can hit it. It will have me after I die. It will have to kill me if it wants to live.

Blood is running down my neck. My naked body is stained with blood, all my own.

"You never said if I tasted good or not."

It shreds my flesh again as I stab it repeatedly in the neck with my blade.