Some time later, consciousness peeked out from the dark hole it had been hiding in. I tried to blink open my eyes, but that just stabbed a spear of pure agony through my eye sockets.

  Okay, don’t try that again. All I could feel of my body was searing pain. Even with my insane levels of pain tolerance, I tried passing out again.

  It didn’t work. I could barely breathe because every movement of my chest sent spasms of new pain boiling through me. Not surprising as memories clamored back in. Oh, yeah, my lungs had melted.

  As nasty as that had been, it wasn’t even the worst sensation I’d experienced as Ashkaroth died. Those memories would definitely take the top spot in nightmare-inducing moments probably for the rest of my life.

  When I checked, I confirmed that I could still see my menus in my mind, and the sight made me gulp internally. My health was bottomed out at 2%, and the little person icon next to my health bar pulsed, the entire thing glowing sinister red.

  Power still trickled in from my Tesla Coil bracelet, but it was all but spent. Energy Ward had faded out at some point, and I couldn’t feel the Earth Armor I’d activated. Couldn’t feel much of anything other than pain. Even those 2 full regeneration potions had been totally consumed.

  They’d kept me alive, along with the river of healing from my bracelet. Despite everything I’d absorbed from the Death Stalker, Alpha, the werewolves, then Ashkaroth himself, I’d burned through it all. That should have been enough to heal me several times over.

  If I hadn’t added those potions, the scroll, and Energy Ward at the last minute, even my insane regeneration speed, boosted by my bracelet wouldn’t have been enough to keep me alive. Yikes. That meant I’d basically taken enough damage to die several times over.

  I was alive. Barely. I didn’t dare trigger another full regeneration potion after using 2 back to back recently. I had no idea if the cool down period was over, so I triggered a full healing potion, plus Soul Feed. An avalanche of healing energy thundered through me and I sighed with relief, savoring the feeling of breathing without doing more damage to myself.

  One of the first things that healed was my eyes. Should have thought that one through a bit more. My head was twisted at a bad angle, my neck somehow broken, so when I opened my eyes I was looking down at what used to be my body.

  That was gross. Just disgusting.

  I closed my eyes again, but the image was now in my brain. My body was one giant wound, my skin gone, muscles boiled away to blackened bone in many places. Tattered pieces of my Crash Test Dummy jacket clung to my splayed-open ribs, and my Phantomstep Breeches were melted into my ruined flesh. Wrecking those pants was becoming a really bad habit. I was little more than a broiled chunk of meat. Even worse, my spirit ached like I had a full-body sunburn.

  I was alive, though. Yay.

  My neck reset with a pop that made me groan. Then I started laughing. Stupid idea, but I couldn’t help it. My lungs were still crisped, my throat a charred ruin, my lips melted off, and most of my guts exposed to the night air, but I still laughed weakly at the insanity of what I’d just somehow miraculously survived. I sounded like a rusty nail getting dragged slowly from an old plank, but it was totally laughter, not whimpering.

  Could anyone else have survived that hit? I doubted it. Not only was my Constitution way higher, my Health Points way higher, and my regeneration way faster, I had those layers of defense, including my Tesla Coil bracelet. Even without all that, so many of my fellow humans seemed to give up when they got hurt. They still treated their bodies like the weak things we’d had back on Earth.

  My thoughts turned back to the recent conversation with Ruby. Had she been right? I was clearly not exactly human any more. I was regenerating from most of my body getting destroyed, and even the mind-crushing waves of pain I’d woken up to hadn’t been more than a temporary annoyance. Pain was transitory to me, but not so much for others. Was I more werewolf than human?

  Didn’t matter. Inside, I was still me. I was Lucas and I’d fight to save Earth and protect those I loved. That was enough. I’d regrown parts of my body before. This was just a slightly higher percentage. Besides, who hadn’t wanted a new body at some point? I was getting all new flesh. That had to be good for the complexion, as soon as I got a complexion back.

  I called forth a flask of water, imagining it appearing upside down over my mouth since I had no working arms yet. For once, the idea worked. Hallelujah. The cool water pouring through my mouth and down my throat was a truly blessed thing.

  I needed to get a few of those milkshakes from Jeeves and keep them in my inventory. That would be perfect for moments like this. Healing was going to take a while. On a good note, I doubted anything living had survived within a mile of the mountain where I’d mostly melted. I wouldn’t get eaten by some random monster while I recovered.

  The torrents of healing energy from Soul Feed seemed endless as it rolled through me, stitching together my innards and starting to fuse bones. The cracking of my ribs again as they reformed and closed together nearly made me pass out again. Ow, that hurt like a mother.

  Still, I would never complain about magical healing. Ashkaroth had ripped me open like the world’s worst open heart surgeon, tore through my heart and lungs, then mostly melted the rest of me. My survival must have come by the very slimmest of margins. Magic healing worked, and internally I whooped to have won another day.

  My mana felt wild, though, in a way it never had before. That new secondary pool of energy was sending waves of power coursing through me, but they no longer felt cool and healing. Instead, they seemed to war with the restorative energies of Soul Feed. How bad were my mana channels?

  I felt hot, burning with an inner heat, but that had to be the side-effect of getting boiled mostly to death after Ashkaroth seared my channels with his flame mana. My stomach roiled and I fought the urge to vomit. That would literally kill me.

  With a great deal of effort, I managed to bottle up the wild energy pouring forth from that second mana pool. As soon as I did, it faded away. In seconds, the entire secondary mana pool seemed to disappear, along with the extra layers that had wrapped my normal mana channels. I scanned myself and tried to frown without facial muscles or lips. Where had it all gone?

  My normal mana pool was refilling quickly, my health bar rising very slowly, but my third pool was just gone. That was so weird. Hopefully the healing process would fix it. I really wanted to understand how I got a second mana pool, and I didn’t want to lose that huge extra power source.

  Nothing to do but wait. I still gnawed on the mystery of the strange second mana pool, but that wasn’t enough to distract me from the painful process of my bones regrowing and snapping back into place. So I turned to my achievements. As usual, they helped cheer me up. I got a lot of them. The first one made me try shouting and jumping to my feet.

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  Idiot. My health dropped hard as I tore open new wounds.

  “Congratulations, Lucas! You have reached level 21.”

  Four more levels? How was that possible? That had to be a typo.

  Nope. The list of achievements explained things.

  “Congratulations, Lucas! For becoming the first contestant on the planet to defeat a level 82 noble elite, you receive a diamond Ender loot box.”

  “Congratulations, Lucas! For defeating an enemy two entire advancement tiers and more than 50 levels above your own, you receive a diamond Frodo loot box.”

  Congratulations, Lucas! For unlocking a deep synergy between spells and your own innate abilities that vastly increased your power at a critical moment, you receive a diamond Gladiator loot box.”

  “Congratulations, Lucas! For taking more than 600% damage in a single fight and still surviving, you receive an emerald Die Hard loot box.”

  “Congratulations, Lucas! For injuring a stage boss to within 5% of his total available regenerated health points but not killing him, you receive an emerald Batman loot box.”

  That last one seized my attention. Five percent? I resisted the urge to howl with frustration. If Cascading Force had driven Alpha straight down into the ground, I could have just stomped him to death. By Tiger Woodsing him away, it had actually saved his life.

  Still, it sounded like he was as bad off as me. With his regeneration spent and the Stygian Ichor ravaging his system, it should take him a long time to recover. That would give me time to lay an even better trap. Next time, I’d find a way to add another layer to whatever multi-stacked attack I could prepare.

  One last achievement of note caught my attention, and I swore under my breath.

  “Congratulations, Lucas! For freeing the baby humans turned by Alpha and forced to join the pack, you receive a platinum Prison Break loot box.”

  The shimmering heat from the still-hot stones suddenly felt a bit hotter. Despite a wave of pain from my still-healing face and lungs, I had to croak out, “How many of the werewolves were turned humans?”

  “That first scout pack, all except for their leader.”

  I’d hoped for better news when I found the missing team. That crafty Alpha must have suspected I’d kill at least some of the pack, so he’d sent in turned humans as bait. A cold, seething anger percolated through my soul. Next time I faced Alpha, I wouldn’t one-shot him. I’d make him suffer.

  I didn’t have working lips yet, so I couldn’t grimace. With an effort of will, I left my anger at Alpha simmering and focused on the positive. I’d freed those pour souls. Not in the way I’d hoped, but nevertheless, they were no longer suffering as his pawns. I would make sure he could not do that to anyone else.

  After a few minutes, my face started to feel almost human again, and my throat and lungs no longer ached, so I risked another whisper.

  “How did I even survive that?”

  As if impatiently waiting for me to ask that, Cyrus responded almost before I got the words out.

  “Another fantastic show! Even I’m impressed. You keep upping your game, Lucas. Not only did you bring the pain to Alpha in a wonderfully creative way, but then you drew in an elite noble who represented a power so far beyond your own, he could have probably leveled the entire stage.”

  “So how did I survive?”

  “You didn’t just survive. You proved the power of your rare class and pulled out a synergy no one saw coming. You defeated Ashkaroth with style and pizzazz that has viewers going wild with delight.”

  That seemed to confirm we were being watched all the time. How long was he going to tease me with it before explaining why or how or who was watching? Asking for more details would just get me the Cyrus two-step again, though.

  So instead I asked, “Pizzazz? That’s got a nice ring to it. Can you explain exactly how this unique synergy worked out?”

  Cyrus laughed. “Great idea. This way we can help your fans understand your brilliant plan and how you managed it without breaking any rules to achieve this remarkable upset victory.”

  “Sure. Gotta give the fans a great show.”

  “That’s the spirit!”

  If I activated Phantom Step, could I punch the AI as a spirit? Viewers and fans sounded hugely important. Why not just come out and explain?

  “By all normal stat calculations, you should have died. Anyone else would have, even with your Immolation spell.”

  About what I’d figured. “I had convergence mana.”

  “Indeed! Exactly so. Ashkaroth eclipsed anything you could throw at him in every conceivable way except for that. His mastery over attuned mana was very advanced, but it was still only attuned mana.”

  “It makes that much difference.”

  “It does, but the beauty of your victory is that not even the advantage of convergence mana would have been enough to save your life. Ashkaroth’s level placed him above the next major monster milestone level. That level represents an enormous jump in power.”

  “That’s what I figured. Even though I’m way stronger than any other human, he snapped my arm like a toothpick, then tore open my chest like a Christmas present.”

  “If he had finished that process and ripped out your spine, he would have no doubt killed you, but he chose to study your heart in an attempt to understand your unique mana signature. And when he attacked you with mana, that gave you the one unexpected advantage you leveraged beyond anyone’s wildest expectations.”

  “The achievement said something about a deeper synergy?”

  “Good. You were paying attention. Yes, you unlocked a new synergy between fire, ice, and defense to produce the Convergence Chaos Vacuum. That unique synergy tripled the power of all of those combined elements and unlocked a new ability to absorb Ashkaroth’s mana. On top of that, you reached a deeper level of synergy with internal abilities that unlocked even more power.”

  “It felt like a second mana pool.”

  “You must have been hallucinating,” Cyrus said, his tone suddenly not so light. Okay, don’t mention the second mana pool. Was it somehow part of his experiment? If so, how did it work? How could I replicate it if he wouldn’t tell me how I did it the first time?

  The AI’s tendency to conceal important information until the time when revealing it caused the most trouble was really getting old. I’d accessed a huge additional power source and wouldn’t just ignore that possibility again. That power had to come from somewhere.

  So I scanned my status sheet for any clues. It took like half a second to see the one obvious possibility. My unlocked CHA stat totally eclipsed all of my other primary stats at over 1000 points. The weird pre-charisma stat pool just sat there, totally useless.

  Or was it?

  Cyrus was prattling on, gushing about how awesome the show had been. I interrupted the monologue. “Cyrus, is it possible to access unlocked stat pools?”

  Silence for 2 long seconds confirmed I’d asked an important question. I expected Cyrus to be cagey again, but instead he laughed with delight.

  “Putting those elevated Intelligence stats to good use. Well done, Lucas! Indeed, it is possible to do just that, but it is rare and extremely difficult, and we can’t talk about it until someone actually accomplishes the feat and figures out what they’ve done.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because, it’s very dangerous.”

  “It totally was. For Ashkaroth.”

  Cyrus chuckled, but his tone turned serious. “Lucas, when one draws upon power that has not specifically been unlocked and made available, that action comes with a very real price.”

  “Worse than dying?”

  “That depends on how much and how often you try to use non-sanctioned power sources. Those who attempt to do so burn away future potential for short-term growth. They might win a battle but block future progression, which might destroy them in the long run.”

  I frowned as I considered that. “So, why not just unlock the stat so it’s sanctioned?”

  “All in good time, Lucas. Now, back to the celebration of your victory! “To top off all those wonderful, unexpected synergies, the Puppetmaster core protected you from the full force of the spiritual damage that would have otherwise snuffed out your spirit.”

  I’d totally forgotten about that thing. I filed away the info about my CHA stat. Cyrus’s warning suggested there were dangers I needed to understand, but I’d find a chance to ask him more about it when he wasn’t so focused on my recent battle. There had to be a way to leverage that untapped power source again.

  For now, I opened my inventory and read the description of the item we were discussing. “Puppetmaster core. Rare. Immunity to soul-afflicting conditions, with a special affinity to pure energy manipulation.”

  Huh. I’d nearly sold the thing. The description wasn’t totally clear that it would protect me from all spiritual attacks. I also hadn’t realized its protection was an ongoing passive ability that worked even while in my inventory. Bonus defense for the win.

  As I mulled over all of that, Eva asked, “Would you like to use Harvest on Ashkaroth?”