CHAPTER FIFTY FIVE
When Richard came to, it was with a clarity of mind that would’ve shocked him under any other circumstance.
As it was, he briefly acknowledged the feeling, ascertained its origins, then accepted the truth of things for what they were, well before it could develop into any sort of knee jerk reaction. And as for the experience he’d just gone through? Well, he treated the severe trauma in much the same way. Not compartmentalizing the pain, as he was generally wont to do, but instead working through the events in hopes of truly healing the psychological damage.
Now of course, there were a choice few blank spots in his memory. Those couldn’t be helped. Gaping holes in his recollection of the unfathomable entities that only grew wider for every second that passed. Richard accepted there was little he could do about this, considered himself better off for it, and promptly moved on.
He didn’t even take a second to question how well he was taking everything, as, the second it crossed his mind that his reaction was somewhat abnormal, he’d already acknowledged and accepted as much intrinsically. Letting the errant thought come and go, to pass him by as if it had never been.
In no rush, he rose to a seated position—setting the wall of system messages aside for the moment. Secure in the belief that, should any imminent catastrophe lie in wait for him in those messages, he would adapt in short order to best understand the problem and then rectify it.
No, instead of fretting over what might or might not happen, he took a second to focus on what he currently had. What he’d only just begun to truly appreciate. The things, the people, the relationships he held most dear. Those, and the personal failings which, for so long now, he’d neglected to address. The prominent interpersonal schisms first and foremost.
It wasn’t saving the world, or flipping the bird to eldritch multi-planar entities, but it was folly to neglect the here and now for what was still way out on the far horizon. Especially when you had the spare time in which to do so.
Arguably not as much time as he would like, but an extra thirty minutes would not an extinction of humanity make.
So many problems, and so little time in which to address them. Richard glanced at his status screen.
Resilience: 10,569
Hmm… Peerless indeed. Granted, the limiter on my resilience always seemed circumstantial at best. The mental chokehold on the attribute must’ve slipped in all the unmitigated horror. Insanity does tend to flip a lot of rules on their head, and resiliency, by its very nature, is prone to adaptation. Now that the void gods’ influence is no longer heaping on the mental pressure however…? My body is probably realizing it doesn’t have the bandwidth to contain such enormity. Not yet anyway.
Resilience: 10,454
Resilience: 10,378
Time was ticking. He’d best get to work.
+++
It was following a particularly exhausting tree punching session, that Robin found herself perched atop a fallen log, face half buried in the plate of her meal kit, as she scarfed down an early lunch like she hadn’t eaten in months. Miraculous as these newfound abilities might be—in no world would she ever discount being able to punch holes in the bark of trees on a whim—it couldn’t be said that they didn’t take their toll. Mostly in the form of physical fatigue, mental exhaustion, and the rapid burning of calories.
Something a choice few of their member were more excited about than others.
She’d just begun to finish up, and subsequently feel a bit more human, when she spotted the infant of the hour approaching. She didn’t think she’d ever get used to seeing a baby that small walking fully upright. When he reached her, instead of dropping any bombshells of system wisdom, or showering her with divine presents, he merely sat with her, seemingly content to appreciate the midmorning breeze. Strangely enough, this continued for quite some time. Robin unsure of what to do or say, and yet, the silence somehow never became awkward.
And then he began to speak. Not about anything in particular. He asked questions, and, strangely enough, she found herself answering. She spoke about her time before the system. About her worries. Her doubts. Her feelings of guilt for those she’d left behind, and the responsibility she felt for those she’d been charged with in the midst of all this turmoil. He never interrupted her, except to ask for a bit of clarification here and there. No, instead he just listened. Nodding along periodically. Prompting her occasionally when she got stuck.
Honestly, by the end of it, Robin couldn’t have said with complete certainty what all she’d even rambled on about. And yet some way, somehow, she left the conversation feeling lighter than she had been. Unburdened almost. Unwound for the first time since being dumped into this mess. More capable than ever of actually tackling the problems set before her. Problems that didn’t seem quite so insurmountable as before.
Robin watched the mysterious child waddle away to do who knew what else, before turning her eyes away, cracking her knuckles, and setting back to work with a will. Those trees weren’t going to punch themselves, after all.
+++
In this way, Richard swiftly made the rounds. Stopping by each of the girls in turn. Catching them during moments of downtime, he offered up his company and was grateful every time they accepted.
He was never pushy. Didn’t demand a heart to heart.
As was the case with Marlene, there were times where no dialogue occurred whatsoever. It didn’t matter. Talking wasn’t really the point. Merely taking a breath to appreciate one another’s company was enough. Small interactions. Tiny moments here and there—negligible in the grand scheme of things—which, when added all up, amounted to something truly invaluable.
Of course, not every person was the same. There were those that had shown themselves to be more difficult than most. Nevertheless, it didn’t change what he had to do. In fact, it only made it more important he do so.
Resilience: 5,891
Resilience: 5,783
Resilience: 5,672
Preferably while he still had the wherewithal to decide on such a course.
Denise carved the air with her rapier. Blade singing, a clear note which, when combined with the others, created an audible melody. She spared a glance for him in his approach, but other wise said nothing. Although the tempo of her swings sped up almost imperceptibly, and a scowl deepened the furrows on her brow. The woman ignored him. Richard, meanwhile, parked his bottom on a nearby log, and watched.
She lasted for about thirty more seconds, before her mounting irritation eventually boiled over. She stopped her practice abruptly. Wiped the sweat from her brow with a forearm, then snapped her head in his direction.
“What?!”
Richard tilted his head as if in confusion.
“What do you mean?”
“Do you need something?” the woman growled through clenched teeth.
“Not really.”
A vein bulged in the center of her forehead.
“Well if you don’t need anything then why are you staring at me!?”
“Oh! I was just admiring your form.”
“Hmm? That so? Well thanks kid, really I’m flattered. Unfortunately, number one, I’m much too old for you, and, number two, I’m also very much taken,” she flashed her wedding ring. “Now, why don’t you just run along and find someone else to ogle at? Huh? Save us both the embarrassment.”
Richard didn’t even bat an eye at the provocation. Merely sat and smiled in comfortable silence. At this, Denise nearly blew a gasket.
“Actually,” Richard cut in. “There was one thing I wanted to talk about.”
Denise stared at him for a time, before giving him an agitated “go on” gesture.
“I just wanted to know what your issue is with me?”
Denise froze. Looked at him askance. Worked her jaw silently a few times, before speaking up.
“You’re kidding…?”
“I’m not.”
“I… well, where do I even start?! Hmm… oh, I don’t know?! Could it be the hundreds strong army of crazy jacked lizard people camped outside our front door? Or maybe those daily field trips you were apparently taking, right up until you got caught that is, wherein you routinely risked the lives of five year old children? Or, hmm, maybe it’s the fact that you’re a massive forking liar?! You know, there are so many options, I really can’t say.”
Richard blinked. Actually taken aback by the vehemence in her tone. Something which didn’t bode well.
Resilience: 3,479
Resilience: 3,399
Resilience: 3,355
“And don’t try and pretend like you’re all innocent either. That might work on the others, but unlike them, I wasn’t born yesterday. My husband works in politics. I can smell bullshirt from a mile away, and, let me tell you, this entire gods lambed tutorial has reeked of it ever since a certain someone wound up third on the group participation leaderboard.”
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“That far back huh?”
“I-! What?” now it was her turn to blink. “You’re not going to deny it?”
“Now that you’ve figured it out, I don’t really see much point.”
I’m also running out of time.
“Well! Yeah, so. Uh,” the woman was clearly at a loss. “What do you have to say for yourself?”
At that, Richard really gave it some thought. Pondered if what he was contemplating was truly the best option. Unsure, now that his resilience was dropping back down to more reasonable levels. But no. He’d already come this far hadn’t he? Better to get it out of the way now, and regret it later. That was a saying, wasn’t it? Richard beckoned the woman close and, after a bit of resistance on her part, whispered in her ear.
“Do me a favor and ask your regalia to project this exact resonance,” Richard hummed a note. If my memory serves, it should interfere with the devices recording our conversation.”
“Hold on! There are what doing what?!”
Richard clapped a hand over her mouth, shushing her. The woman glared.
“I’ll tell you everything, but first, you have to do what I say.”
Again, she was inherently resistant to the idea, but eventually he managed to convince her. It took a while, her inexperience showing in the awkward way she handled the living weapon. A lot of starting and stopping. A few ear piercing shrieks of audio feedback. And a whole lot is censored swearing on her part.
Thankfully, it wasn’t too too long, before an impenetrable wall of sound screened their conversation from curious ears. He gave them maybe a quarter hour before the mild interference was flagged by the system. Plenty of time, in other words, for the telling of an extremely abbreviated tale. And so, still feeling like it probably wasn’t the best idea, Richard sat down and told Denise everything.
About the past, about the future, and about what he intended to do about both. As he spoke, the woman seemed to transform before his very eyes. From stiff and suspicious as he’d always known her to be, to shocked and confused, to wide eyed and mystified, before finally settling on something akin to begrudging respect. There were several seconds of silence following the conclusion of his little tale. Seconds in which an increasingly regretful Richard watched the last of his inflated attributes dwindle back down to baseline.
Resilience: 548
Resilience: 439
Resilience: 322
When Denise finally broke the silence, and tore him from his anxious spiraling, her words were perhaps the very last thing he’d been expecting to hear.
“Wait… so… does this mean that all the times you saw me change-?”
Frazzled as he was by the astronomical resilience drop, Richard still possessed enough common sense and self preservation to leap to his feet and make for the hills before all of the forward progress he’d made could be entirely undone. Hormonal facts about baby physiology aside, he knew there were very few words that would exonerate him here.
Without an ounce of hesitation, Richard fled
+++
After finding himself an unoccupied tent to hole up in and review his unread notifications, Richard was immediately unsure of where to start. There were a lot of them after all. Naturally, his initial impulse was to scroll all the way to the top and take it from there, but as he did so, something extremely alarming caught his eye.
*DING!*
?—Achievement Earned!—?
Evolve to F Grade!
By Achieving This Milestone, You Have Unlocked An F Grade Exclusive Perk!
Hyper Conductive M@na Ch@%#*!
***ERROR***
Unknown impurities detected during evolutionary process.
Now attempting to purge unknown impurities…
***ERROR***
Purge was unsuccessful.
Now attempting to incorporate unknown impurities…
*DING!*
Incorporation successful.
By Achieving This Milestone, You Have Unlocked An F Grade Exclusive Perk!
Avaricious Hyper Conductive Mana Channels!
Richard recalled the black veins spreading throughout his mana channels and recoiled. So what? That was just… in him now? As in for keeps?!
System what gives?!
Where he might’ve expected the all mighty system arbiter to get rid of the void goo that clearly didn’t belong, instead he’d been merged with it, until he was effectively part goo. And all of that merely, at least in so far as he could tell, for the sake of convenience.
Avaricious? What does that even mean? My mana channels are greedy? For mana, or something else?
Obviously it required further testing, though he was somewhat hesitant due to the origins of this supposed perk. He moved on. Hopefully the next few notifications wouldn’t be quite so concerning.
(Note: by evolving to F Grade, any and all additional stars of prestige have been lost. You have been reset to your racial baseline.)
(Note: by evolving to F Grade, any and all additional stars of prestige have been incorporated into your F Grade Body. Ninety points have been added to your Attribute Ceiling.)
F Grade Attribute Ceiling: 390
He’d known it was coming, and yet it didn’t make the loss sting any less. On the bright side, at least he was fairly well compensated for the loss.
(Note: by evolving to F Grade, any and all assigned attribute points are marginally more effective.)
*DING!*
?—Achievement Earned!—?
Achieve a Triple G Grade Prestige with Fully MAXED Attributes.
For Achieving Such a Remarkable Feat, You Have Been Granted a Title!
+-|—[Premier G Grade Exemplar (III)]—|-+
(Passive/Active effect: Wield a suppressive aura which greatly affects those of a lower Grade, and moderately affects those of the same grade if they’re in possession of a lower or nonexistent rank of Premier G Grade Exemplar. This title has no set duration or cooldown. Active use drains mental energy.)
Gain +10 free attribute points for every star of prestige lost.
<+30 free attributes>
Gain +1 Prestige Gem for every star of prestige lost.
<+3 Prestige Gems>
Gain a 5% multiplier to all attributes for every star of prestige lost.
<+15% multiplier>
The stat points were nice, the multiplier was a gods send, but it was the gems and aura ability which made everything he’d gone through worth it. Prestige gems. Like tiny cultivation resources on steroids. Or… well, really, they were more like steroids on steroids. To put it simply, they significantly increased the likelihood of a successful breakthrough. Something that wasn’t particularly useful now, but would prove invaluable in the future.
They also sold for a pretty penny which meant, if he were ever strapped for cash, he had a couple of goldmines in his back pocket to fall back on.
As for the aura ability, just because it wasn’t exactly his forte didn’t mean it wasn’t plenty powerful. Titles like these, as far as he was aware, were only second to the weaponized authority of high nobles. A tool meant to rule and subjugate those the system deemed lesser. A nice tool to add to his arsenal, in other words, even if he currently had no idea how to use it.
Richard was about to move onto the next item on the list, when he remembered the whole string of messages he’d ignored at the very top of the archive. Richard scrolled up unhurriedly, more out of a sense for completion than anything. What greeted him was both unsurprising, and utterly confounding in equal measure.
*DING!*
?—Achievement Earned!—?
Be The First Member of Your Integrated Universe to Gain Five Hundred (50x Racial Average) Points In A Single Attribute.
For Achieving Such a Remarkable Feat, You Have Been Granted a Title!
+-|—[Fledgling Ascender (III)]—|-+
And that wasn’t all. No, far from it.
*DING!*
?—Achievement Earned!—?
Be The First G Grade Member of Your Integrated Universe To Earn Five Hundred (50x Racial Average) Points In A Single Attribute.
For Achieving Such a Remarkable Feat, You Have Been Granted a Title!
+-|—[Baby Ascender (III)]—|-+
The list went on.
*DING!*
?—Achievement Earned!—?
Be The First Member of Your Integrated Universe to Gain One Thousand (100x Racial Average) Points In A Single Attribute.
For Achieving Such a Remarkable Feat, You Have Been Granted a Title!
+-|—[Fledgling Ascender (V)]—|-+
And on.
*DING!*
?—Achievement Earned!—?
Be The First G Grade Member of Your Integrated Universe To Earn One Thousand (100x Racial Average) Points In A Single Attribute.
For Achieving Such a Remarkable Feat, You Have Been Granted a Title!
+-|—[Baby Ascender (V)]—|-+
And on.
*DING!*
?—Achievement Earned!—?
Be The First Member of Your Integrated Universe to Gain Ten Thousand (1000x Racial Average) Points In A Single Attribute.
For Achieving Such a Remarkable Feat, You Have Been Granted a Title!
+-|—[Fledgling Ascender (VII)]—|-+
Until Richard didn’t even know what to do except gape at the insane string of messages.
*DING!*
?—Achievement Earned!—?
Be The First G Grade Member of Your Integrated Universe To Earn Ten Thousand (1000x Racial Average) Points In A Single Attribute.
For Achieving Such a Remarkable Feat, You Have Been Granted a Title!
+-|—[Baby Ascender (VII)]—|-+
I… am I going to get in trouble for this? This feels like cheating. System…? Buddy? It wasn’t on purpose alright…! Really, I’m just as surprised as you are!
In the end, the final titles he received were as follows…
+-|—[Fledgling Ascender (VII)]—|-+
(Passive effect: In a contest of attributes, factors such as weight class, muscle mass, and other physiological advantages have no impact.)
(Note: Because you are the first of your integrated universe to receive this title, base rewards x50)
<+2500 [Ancient] Blank Lottery Tickets!>
<+15,000 Free Points!>
+-|—[Baby Ascender (VII)]—|-+
(Passive effect: You are immune to mental, physical, or spiritual suppression that comes as a result of grade disparity.)
(Note: this is a truly unique title. You are the only member of the greater multiverse to have ever received this title. Because you are the only one to have ever received this title, base rewards x500)
(Base rewards dependent on race.)
<+25,000 [Legendary] Blank Lottery Tickets!>
<+150,000 Free Points!>
And that wasn’t all either. Just below this final pronouncement, there was another, though this one was unlike any other system message he’d ever seen before. It was written in flowing calligraphy, for one, and for another, the text flashed gold.
To Whom It May Concern,
By distinguishing yourself at such a startlingly young age, you have achieved what very few in your position have ever managed. To garner our attention. And so, it is with the dubious pleasure, and the highest of expectations, that we extend to you an invitation.
We bid you attend our prestigious learning institution in five years time. To rub shoulders with the best and brightest young talents of the multiverse.
Your remarkable deeds thus far have guaranteed yourself a spot of enrollment, though whether you thrive, or fold beneath the weight of competition is entirely up to you. Prove that you belong among the future rulers of realities.
Join us at Crimtide Academy.
<+1 Crimtide Academy Enrollment Token>
