The next skill evolution was Phantom Shot, which Luke was interested to see. He couldn’t really guess what the resulting skill would be like.

  Luke had wanted to pick all of the evolutions for Summon Vehicle. But for Phantom Shot, the choices were easier. Repair Weapon kind of sucked. Variable Ammunition sounded interesting, but wouldn't really mesh with his build. Charged Ray sounded powerful and useful in various situations. Short bursts for weak enemies and charges shots for strong ones. Quantum Shot promised to pierce any armor. If he wanted to kill the Triumvirate, that was the skill for it.

  For now, he read on.

  Luke’s mind stuttered as he read the description for Repair Gate. That one skill could eliminate sapient sacrifices. The six gods of Kalibutan had decreed regular killings and soul sucking so they could maintain the fifty-one portals between here and Earth. But if Luke took this skill, he could spend his mana and save lives. The mention of high mana costs probably meant that he would be able to do little else.

  Morally, he had to take this skill, right? The other ones were tempting, but if he had the chance to consistently save lives, he felt like he had to take it. Choosing one of the other skills would be just the same as condemning people to die.

  His heart rate picked up. He started pacing around the bedroom.

  Jinx chuffed at him, “It is petting time, not worrying time. Come back now.”

  Luke smiled and sat back down on the bed near Jinx. He had stopped petting her as he realized the ramifications of the skill. He pet her as thoughts churned around his head. He actually didn’t want to be a portal repairman. Being chained to a portal for the rest of his life sounded like a special kind of torture.

  But if he didn’t pick it, he would be a hypocrite. If he decried the gods’ sapient sacrifice and didn’t do anything about it when he had the chance, he wouldn’t be much better than them. He hated those people that sent social media posts complaining about issues, but never did anything about them.

  As he continued to pet Jinx, his heart rate slowed down. A thought bloomed in his mind and he realized he was being an idiot.

  The weight of two worlds didn’t need to rest on his shoulders alone.

  He now knew a path to getting a Repair Gate skill. He could tell SPEAR about it and post the method on WikiRunes. Someone who actually wanted that skill could gain it and save lives. It would be better that way anyway, so several different people could repair and charge the gates all across Earth.

  With a sigh of relief, Luke turned his attention to the other three skill evolutions for Vortex Door. The first one on the list, Transport Portal, was a great skill, but didn’t call to him at all. It was a skill for someone that wanted to be a team player, not on the front lines. Blink Ball on the other hand, that sounded like a supremely useful and fun skill. It might be tricky to use since different things happened based on where the spell landed, but he was sure he could figure it out. Combat Logistics was a pretty cool skill too, basically a bag of holding for tanks and guns. He could load up a dozen automated machine guns tripods and deploy them in the field whenever he wanted. Or combat robots, as soon as he figured out how to make them work.

  On to the last of the four skill choices, Armor Adjunct. He hadn’t really fallen in love with the skill so far and was excited to see how it could evolve into something better.

  Mana Bulwark sounded very familiar. He was pretty sure he had seen it in action before. Back when Kalibutan tried to invade six years ago, the army had moved in with buffs and shields surrounding each platoon. The faintly blue shields had been a key factor in their initial success. The shields were completely bulletproof, only a tank shell had been able to get through them.

  The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

  Luke put it on his mental shortlist. The other skill evolutions were interesting too, Perfect Parry could be a way to survive impossible odds, Custom Armor would be a great skill for unexpected attacks, and Armor Repair promised to fix and strengthen armor over time, which might be the only way he could continue to improve his mech's durablity.

  He leaned up against Jinx and closed his eyes. He had several important decisions to make. If he picked Mana Bulwark, then he wouldn’t be able to take the very tempting Apex Machine or Charged Ray.

  He stroked his chin as he thought about the best way to approach this. He couldn’t take all day because the system might choose for him if he did. The general consensus is if he took longer than twenty minutes to decide the System of the World would get impatient. That meant he had about fifteen minutes left to decide.

  His first thought was to list out all the possibilities. There were four skills with four evolutions that could only be used once, which meant there were sixteen different possibilities. Wait, no. Twenty-eight possibilities. But many of those possibilities would be combinations of skills he didn’t want. A better way to go about this would be a head to head for each position.

  The top choice granted by Frictionless Slide meant he could choose between Perfect Parry, Blink Ball, Jetpack, and Quantum Shot. All of them sounded great, but he shortlisted Quantum Shot and Blink Ball.

  Merging with Machine Bond let him choose between Custom Armor, Combat Logistics, Vehicle Bond, and Variable Ammunition. None of these choices were super exciting, really. Maybe Variable Ammunition could be fun, or Vehicle Bond.

  For choice three, he could choose between Armor Repair, Repair Gate, Repair War Machine, and Repair Weapon. Armor Repair was the superior choice to fix his mechs, but Repair War Machine would be invaluable if a war broke out.

  The final choice was between Mana Bulwark, Transport Portals, Apex Machine, and Charged Ray. They all sounded great, but Mana Bulwark and Apex Machine stood out.

  He rubbed his temples. He didn’t really have a headache, but there were so many choices, and they all seemed important. This was a bit overwhelming.

  As he read through the choices again, he realized there were synergies he could put together. If he wanted to fight with a fleet of combat vehicles, choosing Vehicle Bond and Repair War Machine would go together. Since he would likely be stationary more often in that situation, Mana Bulwark made more sense. That would just leave Quantum Shot for the final choice.

  On the other hand, if he wanted to be mobile and more self sufficient, he should choose the group of Blink Ball, Variable Ammunition, Armor Repair, and Apex Machine.

  That was what all of this boiled down to, did he want to fight with a bunch of tanks and other combat vehicles doing his bidding, or did he want to throw himself into the front line with temporary summons to back him up.

  Both options were tempting. If he got his combat robots to work, he could churn out his own autonomous army. He could just imagine himself walking into work and sending out a few dozen robots to go kill monsters and collect cores while he ate caviar and tinkered in his workshop.

  On the other hand, the second option seemed more fun in combat. Bouncing around with Blink Ball, summoning souped up tanks, and throwing around a variety of spell shots. If he wanted to be in the thick of things, that would be the better choice.

  The question was, did he want to be in the thick of things? Did he want the adrenaline rush of combat, or the quiet joy of leading an army of minions into war? He wanted both, really.

  As his own boss, he had filled his days with personal combat, leading others, and tinkering with runes. That showed that he would be happiest with both options at the same time. Too bad he had to choose.

  He spent a few more minutes thinking through the possibilities before he forced himself to choose. He couldn't delay and let the system give him skills he didn’t want. He took a deep breath and then selected the four skill evolutions.

  He felt a peace settle over him as the new skills wrote themselves onto his core. A wave of tiredness came next. He had been awake for too long. The sun was still up, but his body was telling him it was the middle of the night.

  Only one more choice and then he would head to bed. Two stat points to assign. Since he had given up the mental magic protection that came with Armor Adjunct, he decided to bump his mental stats to help him resist. One point to Perception and the other to Memory. He was excited to try out his new skills, but they could wait until he was in the undercity and had the room and monsters to kill.

  Right now he was tired. He slipped off his leg, snuggled up to Jinx and drifted off to sleep.

  ???

  Luke awoke hours later when the floor started vibrating. He had been deep asleep, so it took him several groggy moments to understand what was going on. That was the Kalibutan version of a doorbell. He slipped out of Jinx’s grasp and got up to get the door.

  Then he promptly fell on his face.

  His sleep addled brain had failed to account for one very crucial detail. He wasn’t wearing his prosthetic leg. He groaned in embarrassment more than pain and hopped back to the bed. Now fully awake, he put his right leg back on and opened the bedroom door.

  Kruro was waiting for him in the living room. “That was an invitation from Lord Momoh. Since you missed dinner, he wanted to make sure you would be there for breakfast tomorrow morning. Apparently he wants to discuss strategy for the Shuffle. If you aren’t interested, there’s no reason...” She trailed off and her jaw dropped. “What happened to you?”

  Luke looked down at himself and straightened his robes. “I was just sleeping. Remember, Earth’s day and night cycle is shorter than Kalibutan’s.”

  “No, your glory. It’s all gone.” A horrified look spread across her face. “Did you betray us all? How could you!? I trusted you!”

  Luke held out his hands. “No, no, no. I just hit level twenty-four. I didn’t betray you, I leveled up and went to sleep. You know I haven’t left the apartment.”

  Kruro forcibly calmed herself down and took slow breaths. “You gave it all away? You know how Bosa was treated. What were you thinking?”

  “I was thinking it might get me better skills. And it did. I can’t wait to try them out.”

  She slithered away a little, like she was scared his lack of glory was catching. “You might have to do that sooner rather than later. You aren’t fit to be seen in polite company the way you are. We talked about the ways to improve Bosa’s condition, choose one and do it. And soon. If Lord Momoh sees you like this, he might kick you out of his apartment building and sic the guards on you.”

  Luke rolled his eyes. “I’m sure you are exaggerating. But sure, I don’t mind doing valiant acts of glory. You mentioned building a legendary weapon or killing a high tiered monster? Maybe I can do both. I’ve got some titan bones and a new book of runes. I should be able to make something legendary. And I already have a monster killing slot booked in the undercity. I’ll just move it up to one of the middle of the night slots. Don’t worry, Kruro. I’ll have my glory back by morning.”

  “You are going monster hunting? Take me with you, I haven’t eaten a core in months,” Jinx said as she padded out of the bedroom.

  “Months? It’s been a few days, Jinx. I gave you several on the journey here.”

  “Whatever. I’m hungry. Take me with you.”

  Luke chuckled and agreed to bring her along. But first he wanted to do some crafting.

  He grabbed hold of his mana and formed the bonding rune to his prosthetic leg. That way he would get his class buffs to help with inscribing runes. He realized that he had been so focused on his new skills, he had forgotten to check if there were other changes as well, like a larger class buff. He pulled it up and carefully looked over all the details.

  The chapter title is a quote from Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)

  Check the spoiler for his new stat screen. I almost made you wait until the next chapter to see which skills he chose. In the published version, this stat screen won’t appear until next chapter. I hope you are thankful for the restraint I used to not give you a weekend long cliff here. ??