The night was surprisingly warm inside the children’s tent. Maybe a little too warm with everyone crammed together like sardines. Still, it wasn’t as if he could really complain. The walls of the tent provided much needed cover, and the quiet snoring of the others, mixed with the muffled crackling of the campfire, acted as a kind of white noise. Hopefully this meant his nightly escapades would go unnoticed by the creature, though he’d still crawled as far away from his soon to be ward as the tent allowed, just to be safe.
No need to draw too much attention to my self unnecessarily. With that one, it’d be like standing directly in front of the sun and expecting not to cast a shadow.
He still couldn’t really get over his unbelievable luck. Or if it even was luck.
The good kind, I mean.
An Empress. In his tutorial. He could probably count on two hands the number of times he’d been in the presence of a true-born Imperial, and could probably count on less than two fingers the number of times that interaction hadn’t ended in the total decimation of the opposing side—it really didn’t matter who. They’d all died. Often before they’d realized what was happening. One minute they were talking smack, hyping themselves up, or otherwise convincing themselves they weren’t dead men walking. And the next they were dust in the wind.
Seriously though, Imperials were scary.
So completely in-tune and loved by mana, that, at the highest echelons of power, they could, quite literally, manipulate the mana in someone else’s mana pool as if it were their own. And that was without the use of their overpowered Sin Type Regalia lending a helping hand. Not someone you ever wanted to cross, in other words. Not unless you had a rather convoluted death wish.
Shaking his head to rid it of the less than pleasant memories, Richard reached the box of sweets he hadn’t allowed to leave his sight for even a moment since his return. Opening it up, before anything else, he first scrutinized the items that clearly did not belong.
?—|-Shaper’s Legacy-|—?
?[Unique]?
?—|-Bio-Regeneration-|—?
?[Rare]?
Aside from the initial Bio-Regeneration ability cube he’d scavenged from the corpse of his hated enemy, he’d received two duplicates over the hundred or so waves that followed. As well as another two which he didn’t really know what to do with.
?—|-Super Enhanced Metabolism-|—?
?[Uncommon]?
Your stomach digests food at a far faster rate while producing much less waste. Speed of digestion and percentage of waste product are dependent on ability level.
And below in red, was, of course, the kicker:
This is a passive effect, meaning it is always active. Leaves you in a near constant state of starvation unless you are actively consuming food.
?—|-Flesh Manipulation-|—?
?[Epic]?
You can manipulate your own flesh, as well as the flesh of others. Speed and control are dependent on ability level.
And below in red:
The body is a complex organism. Without extensive knowledge of physiology, as well as ample experience manipulating it, one is more likely to kill using this ability than manipulate. Though even that much would require direct contact, a considerable amount of time, and would cost the user greatly in terms of mental expenditure.
He could definitely see ways in which these might be useful, but not for him as he was, and not right now.
Moving on from the legacy ball and the five cubes, all that was left were the main prizes. The things he was so unbelievably excited for. He wasn’t sure how or why it turned out that these commercially sold nutrition bars just so happened to be exactly what he was looking for—“now in three delectable flavors!” But then again, who was he to complain, really? If all the solutions to his problems preferred to maintain an unswerving degree of brand loyalty, more power to them.
It was no skin off his back. Not for the first time, he studied the box’s system description.
Kalaxic New Form Energy Bars – Variety Pack – Made With All Natural Ingredients – Non GMO – Insidious Blight Free – 60 kg of Protein (3 Count)
Finished, Richard moved on to the actual energy bars in question.
?—|-New Form Energy Bar: Kalax Original-|—?
?—|-New Form Energy Bar: Kalax Nougat Swirl-|—?
?—|-New Form Energy Bar: Kalax Tropical Vanilla-|—?
Uhh… huh… candy bars and geometric shapes…
He surveyed the full extent of his appreciable wealth in this world.
You know this doesn’t look too dissimilar from what I’d expect an actual child to covet as his most prized possessions.
All that was missing was a toy truck, a few melted toy soldiers, and an appreciably smooth rock.
What even is this crap?! Does the universe have it out for me or something? These are all extremely rare and potent cultivation resources! I swear!
And it was true. Apparently these Kalaxion’s were some pretty tough customers indeed, if these high grade treasures were what they chose to snack on. Crazy thing was, he only knew justhow impressive that was because of his Truth Seeker’s Sixth Sense. Otherwise, the only thing he’d have gotten from the system descriptions, in the way of clues, was a suspiciously high item grade.
?—|-New Form Energy Bar: Kalax Original-|—?
?[Rare]?
And below in red:
This energy bar is packed with a potent blend of mana-rich nutrients. Thanks to its diverse and high-quality ingredients, it contains a surprisingly high degree of unbound life energy. The benefits of consumption may range anywhere from the immediate healing of chronic ailments, to the alleviation of crippling injuries, to the total restructuring of one’s body. In the case of the latter, this is by no means a painless process.
Were he to check the others, he knew the descriptions would prove largely the same. With the few key differences being the areas the confluence of high grade ingredients targeted. Nougat Swirl contained a wealth of unbound soul energy—targeting the soul grade. While Tropical Vanilla basically just contained un-aspected mana—if a metric ton of it.
And though all this was just a side effect of their insane nutritional content, each would, hopefully, serve as the basis for his meteoric rise in prestige. Now then, it was probably about time he explain just what in the world prestige actually was.
Put simply, prestige is the metric by which the system tries to quantify the large discrepancies between enlightened races. Without getting into too much detail, some races were simply born better than others. Of a higher quality, you could say. With their stats often reflecting as much.
While your run of the mill human, newly born into the system, would likely lack even a lick of prestige, a true-blooded Draconian, for instance, might be born with four, maybe even five levels of prestige right off the bat.
If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
As for what that meant exactly?
Well, it means that their stat cap is a whole lot higher than ours. And they probably start with higher attributes to compensate as well. Starting somewhere in the hundreds, while we blunder around in the tens and teens.
Every being within the multiverse has an upper limit on their attribute growth. Effectively limiting how strong they can become per grade. A barrier which, it was believed for a long time, could only be overcome by evolving one’s grade. As an analogy, think of each race as an empty glass, with their attributes serving as the water. While the smaller shot glasses can only take so much before spilling over, the larger pitchers can take far more without any ill consequences.
If you haven’t picked up on the sorry state of affairs by now, in this example, humans are the shot glasses, and just about every other enlightened race is some form of pitcher.
For context, the universal baseline attribute ceiling, without any prestige, went as follows:
- [F Grade – 300 points per attribute]
- [E Grade – 750 points per attribute]
- [D Grade – 1,500 points per attribute]
- [C Grade – 7,500 points per attribute]
- [B Grade – 15,000 points per attribute]
- [A Grade – 48,000 points per attribute]
He didn’t know what the cap for G Grade was—though he had this sneaking suspicion it was thirty—nor did he know what the ceiling for S Grade might be, but these were the documented limitations as he understood them. With every star of prestige effectively adding 100% of this baseline to one’s attribute ceiling, a true-blooded Draconian with a 4 Star Body Prestige would start with quadruple the above growth potential, at a minimum.
There was always the chance they might upgrade their prestige in the future.
Which could only be done by breaking through the upper limits of one’s natural barriers, not through pumping in more stats than your body could handle. But through careful and methodical body cultivation, in the case of Body Grade, or soul cultivation, in the case of Soul Grade. But then, here was the kicker. The higher in grade you rose—effectively, the higher your level was—the harder it was to break through your natural barriers, as the irrevocable changes incurred by high attributes and multiple body evolutions brought you closer and closer to true perfection.
And, at least in my experience, it tends to be rather hard to drastically improve upon perfection.
And conversely, the lower your level, the lower your Body Grade, the easier it was to break through.
It was why most of the enlightened races started their kids off young, training their bodies and souls from a very early age. And it was also why humanity never even stood a chance. The revelation of prestige having been discovered in his previous timeline when most were already in B Grade.
Richard stared down at the unwrapped candy bar in his hands, eager to embark on his journey to the top, but for one last, rather pertinent obstacle.
How am I supposed to eat this thing without teeth?
He pondered on the nature of the chocolaty confection for a time. Tried to size it up, thinking he could just swallow it down like a seagull. He even gnawed on it with his gums a few times. All to no avail.
Well shirt.
In the end, he was forced to ground the energy bar down to a crumbly consistency, through the rather undignified use of Shaper’s Legacy. Really putting his weight down onto the little sphere, as he rolled it across the energy bar until it loosely resembled a clump of wet sand. Why did he get the feeling that, could that creeper from the trial see him now, he’d weep actual tears of blood?
Meh! It worked, so who cares?
There! Phew!
Wiping the sweat from his brow, Richard stared down into a box full of what looked to be cookie crumbles. Glancing around to make sure no one was paying him any attention, he promptly closed his eyes and took a quick trip into his soul palace. He once more found himself leaning on the railing of a sunlit balcony. Richard extended a hand backwards, towards the receding stacks of bookshelves. It took a minute, but eventually a single text book came whizzing out from the murk. The spine slapped into his hand in the next moment, and he immediately exited his soul palace.
He gave his surroundings another look’see. Satisfied that nothing had changed in his absence, he once more closed his eyes and held the book he’d retrieved in his mind. It appeared inside a blank void. Flipping itself open to the first page, slowly at first, then with growing confidence, the pages rapidly turned until the back cover of the book slammed it shut.
Richard opened his eyes, the contents of the medical journal now firmly planted in his mind. It was no body cultivation manual. No, those were all on the upper floors. But it did have some interesting insights on anatomy, as well as a detailed explanation of human physiology. It would do, he decided. About as prepared as he could be, given the circumstances, Richard lifted the cardboard box and tipped back its contents. Quickly choking down the dry candy bar crumbles, while trying desperately not to spill a single grain, or otherwise choke on the means of his advancement.
Eventually, not even a single crumb remained of the energy bar. Unfortunately, such unequivocal success didn’t come without certain drawbacks. Richard beat a small hand against his chest, trying to force down the lump of valuable nutrients trapped there. Ultimately, he was forced to purchase a standard water ration to unblock his throat. He gasped, idly noting how nice it was to be able to breathe, while also painfully aware that he could not afford to dilly dally.
Time was of the essence.
Arranging his legs into the lotus position—finding the contortion far easier than he’d expected it to be—Richard prepared himself for a whole lot of hurt.
Like a free falling nuclear bomb, the chocolaty treasure traveled down his esophagus with deceptive slowness. Already, he could feel the faint wisps of life energy trickling into his system. Tentative red tendrils reaching out to sooth the ache in his throat, and shock him to wakefulness. Feeling like he’d taken a shot of espresso. He was well aware this was merely the prelude to the main event, however.
Finally, after what felt like minutes of anxiety filled anticipation, the lump of nutrients reached his stomach, and the world exploded with white hot agony.
Searing pain assailed his senses. Feeling like the march of a million fire ants through the branching paths of his blood vessels. Immediately, he was covered in a layer of sweat. A scorching heat making his skin glisten and steam. As if every cell of his body had been set ablaze. Life energy, in its rawest form, flooded the meager confines of his mortal body. Inundating him. Saturating him so completely, that it genuinely felt as though one wrong move would pop him like a soap bubble. It suffused him, but more than that, it just kept on coming.
Already this much strain, and he’d barely digested a fourth of the life energy available. His body literally bulged with it. Expanding with it as if he’d taken on several pounds in a scant few seconds. Richard knew that, if he didn’t reach out and take control of this raging river now, there was a good chance he’d actually die from so much life energy. It might’ve been comedically ironic if it wasn’t such a real possibility.
And so, Richard grabbed hold of the rampaging life energy—something that was only possible because he 1) already knew what it felt like to touch upon life energy, and 2) because the life energy was unattuned when he’d consumed it, and thus, upon entering his body, placed itself under his control.
Manipulating life energy was very different from manipulating mana. Where mana almost had a will of its own—able to help or hinder in equal measure—life force was a feral, mindless thing that only sought to facilitate the proliferation of life.
It’s also integrated with our beings so intrinsically since before we were even born, that it makes it almost impossible for us to differentiate. Often taking even high rankers years of studied introspection to learn how to distinguish it from the body’s natural processes. To touch upon life energy proper.
In practice, it was a lot like trying to find a needle in a haystack, where that needle was also invisible unless you squinted at just the right angle. Richard, already well aware of which angle in which to squint, easily latched onto the bucking red energy, and gave it purpose.
I’m working off of generalized knowledge and half remembered assumptions here, but I think this was the order in which I was supposed to do this.
He first took as much of the red energy as his control stat could handle, and shoved it out towards the hypodermic layer—the subcutaneous tissue just below the upper skin layers. the pain he felt was sharp and immediate. Like being burned alive. He’d felt worse. Maintaining an iron hold on his life energy, because it was his now, Richard held it right where it was for a time—feeling the oily slick of impurities burned away by the rampant life energy, when it wasn’t merely shoved aside.
After nearly a minute of this, he finally felt as if all the impurities had vacated that area entirely. Not quite finished, he then began to widen his cleansing radius. He pushed the life energy outward with a glacial slowness, literally squeezing the stinking black impurities from his pores. Thankfully, within seconds of them breaking the skin, the impurities vanished. His Liora’s Embrace passive in full effect. Unfortunately, that did little to protect his clothes.
I wonder if I should’ve gotten naked for this? Ah well. Nothing for it now.
He pushed on, ridding his skin of impurities until, several minutes later, it was done.
Well, less done than finished with that specific portion. That took, what? 5% of the total life energy I had access to at the time. Which was it self less than a quarter of the total life energy I swallowed…?
Richard gulped, feeling his newly enhanced skin bulge uncomfortably under the increasingly drastic amounts of life energy flooding him. With no time to waste, Richard moved onto his body’s musculature next, doing the same to his muscles as he had to his skin. Thankfully, because this body was so young, there weren’t nearly as many impurities as he would’ve expected from an adult. However, simply being born in a world with all manner of micro-plastics and air pollution, it was still far more than none.
The knowledge he’d gained from the medical journal helped immensely with the thorough detoxification of his musculature, so that only forty-five minutes passed before he was finished with this phase too.
Next comes the blood and circulatory system… or was that the bone marrow?
Unsure which was best to start with, he decided to do both. Blood, circulatory system and bone marrow took him nearly an hour and a half to complete.
Next come the internal organs. Heart, liver, lungs, and kidneys, though not necessarily in that order.
One after another, he continued the careful detoxification of his body. From his organs, to his bones, to his intestines he coasted forward with minimal complications. Draining all but two thirds of the energy bar’s abundant life energy in the process.
Which only leaves the spinal column, the sensory organs, and, last but not least, the brain. The full trifecta. I am so not looking forward to this.
Armed with his impeccable energy control, downloaded anatomy knowledge, not to mention the years worth of experience, he wasn’t overly concerned with whether he could do it or not. Merely whether he’d manage to finish in time. Before the rest awoke, and possibly, or more than likely, broke his concentration at a critical juncture. Something that would be no less than crippling at the least, and fatal at the worst. Unsure of how much time had passed already, and knowing he had no time to lose, Richard decided to begin with the spinal column first.
He could only hope he would make it in time.