Anything ~ 44!

- Luke -

The Murderhobo had finished his excavation, creating a deep channel to the edge of the Zone, and used it to drain the entire lake into the open air. It hadn’t even taken very long, as the water only pretended to be water. It flowed far faster, taking only a few hours to completely drain all but the deepest parts of the once-lake. During all of this, he set off trap after trap, finding himself partially mesmerized, blown away, and once even sporting what would have been fatal gouges that left his organs exposed to open air. If there hadn’t been such an abundant source of liquid mana nearby, his simple stroll would have ended him.

Soon he had established safe paths, and stuck to them as he finished his task. He thought about hunting for every trap, but decided not to, since he may someday have a use for them. By the end of the day, most of the snails had gone over the edge, and the remainder were found in the deep liquid pockets and were eradicated with a single wallop from Cookie. When the final holdout of cowering parasites had been cleansed, a simple notification appeared.

Anomalies rectified: 2/2.

You have paid for your gear.

As a bonus for eradicating the invasive species so decisively, all usable parts of the snail shells from this Zone have been gathered into an _Error_-made satchel for you. Please ensure the satchel stays closed as much as possible in worlds you descend into, as there is a chance that the presence of multiple kilograms of such a potent catalyzing reagent will alter biomes and shift mana flows at this quantity.

This satchel is bound to your mana signature, and only you will be able to open it. Ever. It is made from unicorn hide, and will seal all mana signatures from the items contained within. As it was made by a Higher Ascender, it is for all intents and purposes indestructible by anyone under level 30.

“Neat.” Luke grasped the satchel that had dropped from thin air and landed next to his feet. He pulled the leather flap open, noting that it didn’t appear to have any locks or latches. The interior was stuffed with scintillating snail shell, all neatly packed away and individually packaged in a strange material.

“This is… what? Portion packs? Huh. This powder looks nicer than what I gave Taylor, maybe even the regular horn has unusable parts? Did the world purify the stuff before giving it to me?” No answers were coming to his questions from his Sigil, but he knew that Cookie would listen to his concerns and think about an answer for a good long time. It was really nice to have a caring companion that he could trust no matter what.

There was a strange feeling in the air, a kind of pressure that increased over time. It didn’t seem to be harmful, so he mostly ignored it in favor of something that had been on his mind ever since he fought the unicorn leader.

“Now, how did that Domain not kill me?” He started digging into the combat information that had appeared in his Sigil, going until he found a line that stood out.

Wall of Compressed Pure Mana attempts to squash you… failure. This entity cannot be damaged by pure mana.

“Huh. That entire wave was pure mana? No wonder he couldn’t keep that Domain going for any longer. I bet half of those unicorns woulda died from getting drained to power that mess.” Luke chuckled at the mental image of the pretty horses wheezing as they struggled to breathe with rutptured Mana Channels, dying in pain even if he left them alone. He wiped a light tear from his eye as he laughed too hard at the daydream. “Ah-ha, ha… good times.”

After cleaning up the area, then smashing the horse-shaped stone that had trapped Cookie, he moved to the Zone boundary and looked past the wavering barrier into Zone thirteen. As soon as he reached forward, the barrier folded down and compressed into a wavering line that he could only see thanks to his currently deactivated Skill: Open Up.

Looking past the wavering line into Zone thirteen, Luke took a single step forward and hesitated. Something was telling him that this Skill would be completing its metamorphosis soon, and if he wasn’t at the portal location as soon as it was ready, his Sigil might fry his brain.

*Chime.* The sound this time was harsh and discordant, as if someone had said the word instead of making the noise, letting Luke know that the intrusive thought hadn’t been from his own mind. He let out a shrug and started getting reacquainted with Cookie.

The Murderhobo started explaining everything that had occurred through his life since they had last parted, detailing the hard times, laughing about some of the antics his team had done that absolutely should have killed them. His hopes and dreams were poured out for the first time in decades, and Cookie was the perfect audience.

When they finally ran out of things to discuss, they started training together. While Luke had been using Cookie to attack snails, that was a simple up and down motion. He needed to get into the swing of not only being easily able to attack with her using a single hand, but how the insanely dense weapon threw off his normally smooth, if brutal, motions. A day or two of practice later, and he had acclimated to her motions once more. He was sure Pristine Balance was helping, but that only made him happier: it was almost as if his entire skillset had been shaped specifically to help him work with Cookie as perfectly as possible.

Eventually, time ran out. The rapid pulsing of his Sigil alerted him first, followed shortly after by pain as his mind expanded and the mana waves tried to kill him, only to fail at the last moment due to being unable to damage his skull anymore. He was sure that the mana waves wanted to kill him, they just couldn’t.

Skill upgrade complete. Open Up (Tier 6) -> Rift Hunter (Tier 7)

Effect 1: You have gained the ability to open a small crack between dimensions. By punching into a weak point in the world, you are able to tear through enough to pass between the worlds. Total mana needed to open a small crack: 1,000-10n, where n = skill level.

Bonus 1, at range: You are able to clearly and easily see weak points in the world.

Effect 2: You are now able to reuse weak points in the world at a much reduced rate. Each time you use the same weak point, the mana cost will be reduced by 50%, to a minimum of 25% mana cost.

Bonus 2, Multitarget: No longer are you making a momentary flicker in the weave, you are able to invest extra Mana into the opening to create a stable portal that other people will be able to travel through. Time that the portal will remain open: 60 seconds per 100-n mana.

Effect 3: You are now able to break down the barrier to other worlds in order to enter them. In order to do so, a portal must have been made to that world and closed within a maximum of 24+n hours.

Bonus 3, AoE:  by injecting your Mana into a portal, you can either subvert it to your control, redirect it to [Murder World], or directly close it. Cost: 100-10n mana. Caution: if the person who has created the portal is maintaining control of it, your willpower will clash against their charisma.

Effect 4: You are now able to sense open, opening, or recently closed portals within 5+n kilometers of your location, where n = Skill level; maximized at 15 kilometers. Anything closed within 30 hours is considered ‘recently closed’. Mana cost has been reduced to ‘negligible’ for all previous Tiers.

“That! Yes! We’ll be the best bounty hunters ever! Yes! Imma hunt down so many Scars!” Luke whooped and tossed Cookie into the air, calling her back using their Soul Brand after a few seconds of flight. His head began to ache, and he knew it was time to get moving back to the base world. He punched the undulating rift space in front of him, and the entire area bent with the blow. “Huh. That seems way easier.”

He opened his new satchel and looked inside it, wondering if something inside was impacting his Skill somehow, but then he remembered that there were small sections of his upgraded Skill where certain requirements had been eradicated. Namely, the mana investments. When his second attack slammed through the barrier of worlds instead of breaking it open as per usual, he knew that he wanted every single one of his Skill costs to get set to ‘negligible’.

A wide smile on his face, Luke stepped into the portal and across to his birth world. Part of the thick feeling that had been surrounding him since he opened his satchel dissipated, and he realized that there had been mana pressing in on him. The world around him reacted to the sudden influx by sending a wind whipping around and kicking up sand. The bubble of foreign mana was swallowed by the world, and it reacted in the higher reaches by forming threatening storm clouds.

Moments later, there was a wash of mana that felt… Luke tasted it and wanted to spit it out. If the mana from Murder World was pure water, this was muddy puddle water. Was this the quality of the mana in this area? It tasted stagnant and dead, like water pulled from the bottom of a swamp. “What’s going on here?”

“It’s mana!” Andre’s shout barely reached Luke’s ears through the odd tribulation this place was going through. It also reminded Luke that he was supposed to have kept his satchel closed. He flipped the flap and watched as the wind died instantly and the clouds stopped roiling as heavily; but Cookie was releasing an extra-happy *hum*. He checked, and a light dose of mana was escaping her each second. The amount was consistent and constant—plenty for him to never need to worry about having enough to open a portal. “What is that? I can feel it vibrating all the way over here! Luke, do you have a bag that captured the wind from your world?”

“Nothing like that. Just a bunch of purified snail shell. Turns out that the real friendship was the loot I collected along the way.” Luke waved off the dumbfounded looks as his three companions stared at the bag with various expressions. The Mage seemed to want to throw it open and begin experimenting, the Druid seemed wary, and the Bard was giddy. Actually… “Zed, did you take a bath or something? You seem… what's the way to say ‘not nearly as garbagey’?”

“Why yes, I did increase my Mana Channels, thanks for noticing.” Zed bowed grandly, his pure happiness never leaving his face. “I feel utterly radiant, my heart has been healed, and I’m glad my joy shines through! You seem like better company as well. Good news, then?”

“Oh! How rude of me.” Luke hefted his massive weapon and gestured at it with his other hand. “This… is Cookie!”

He was expecting applause, cheering, perhaps a small parade, but nods of acknowledgement were fine too. After a few minimal murmurs of congratulations, the others turned back to whatever they had been doing, and Luke’s eyes landed on the huge tree that had definitely not been here the last time he was. “Careful, that tree has a face!”

He sprinted and jumped at the tree, the top of Cookie touching his heels as he reared back for a full power blow, only for Andre to let out a shriek and jump in front of him with waving arms. “Stop! I just grew that!”

“Why does the tree have a face, Andre?” Luke landed gently and used Cookie, who weighed in at over four hundred pounds currently, to point at the tree that was looking at him. Luke glanced at Cookie sidelong; he hadn’t wanted to mention that he had noticed that she had packed on a few pounds - it only made him want her more. Those curves were pure artistry. “Trees shouldn’t have a face. Certainly not eyes that are staring at me like it wants me to tear them out!”

The last part was bellowed at the tree, which hastily looked anywhere but at the Murderhobo. Andre held out his hands in supplication, “I did what I needed to do, Luke. Short story is, Since we don’t want to get in trouble by killing everyone that looks at us sideways, I grew a tree through Sir Edward. He’s gonna be able to protect all the plants that grow here in the future. Everything in this entire region will be connected to him, and-”

“That’s coward speak coming out of your mouth, Andre. Let me help you not be weak anymore.” Luke directly punched the Druid in the face, sending him tumbling backward across lush grass and into the sand in the distance. He Flashed over to where the stunned Druid rested, grabbed him by the neck, and tossed him back onto the greenery so he wouldn’t accidentally die from the light wounds he had inflicted. “Did what you had to do…? You know what you have to do, Andre? Anything you want to do. Speaking like one of those snakes from the capitol? Don’t you worry, I’ll make sure you never become something like that.”

“What do you want me to do, Luke?” Andre screamed at the Murderhobo, bright red blood flowing from a cut on his forehead and mingling with fresh tears. “Just kill everyone that comes after us? They can be useful! They can help-”

Luke punched him again, casually, and followed the trail of torn up grass to the bloodied Druid. “Is this who you want to be? You know, you’re the only redhead I know of. You’re gonna give them a reputation for being soulless if you keep at this.”

“My… hair color? What does that…?” Andre snapped his fingers, and dark flowers bloomed, stained, and died in his hair, coloring his hair black in an instant. “Is that better? Will my hair color let me do what I need to do?”

“Nah.” Luke shook his head and set Cookie on the ground. He cracked his knuckles and started strolling dangerously at the Druid. “But now you at least look the part of a villain. I hope you’re pretty topped off, buddy, ‘cause imma beat some sense into you.”

“Oh, bring it on.” Andre hissed as the ground around him started to shift along with his will. “I’ve been working myself into an early grave so that I don’t have to wantonly take lives, and this is how it’s gonna be taken? Let’s see how much of the desert I can rebuild with you in a Lotus Coffin! Don’t worry, it’ll keep you perfectly healthy for a decade or two without maintenance!”

“Stop this, right now!” Taylor interjected as lightning began forming above her head.

“Yeah!” Zed called right on the heels of her order, “I need a snack and some distance before you guys start duking it out. Pre~etty sure I’ll die if one of you lands on me, and all that.”

“Then you better start running, Zed.” Luke deadpanned before pointing at Taylor. “You stay out of this. Pretty sure the Druid that does nothing but love everything he touches wouldn’t do something like this without someone whispering poison in his ears. Maybe someone that knows he’s been in love with her for decades? I think you’ve done enough. Shoot lightning at me, and I guarantee that the King’s order will let me explain my feelings to you too.”

“You can’t threaten me.” Taylor snarled at him, even as her eyes guiltily shifted to Andre and the tree. Power started to crackle, and the hair on Luke’s neck stood straight.  “I’ll burn you out from the inside.”

“Shift gear: Mage Hunter set.” Luke paused his slow walk, turning to look at Taylor as he completely unnecessarily spoke out loud to draw attention to what he was doing. With a grimace, the glowing armor he was always wearing shifted; the first time any of the team members had ever seen him alter the Skill he used. In fact, none of them had known that he could change his power. “I’ll be right back, Andre. I have a power-mad witch I need to have a conversation with before she turns into her mentor.”

“Leave her out of this!” Andre growled at the hobo, his eyes bloodshot.

More than anything he had said previously, Luke comparing her to Master Don made Taylor flinch. It was enough for her semi-sentient spell to register him as a threat, and lightning forked from it and at the Murderhobo. Luke Flashed to the side and slapped the near-solid lightning. He took a tiny amount of damage… and gained ten percent movement speed. He rushed the Mage, his Rope whirling out at her.

Luke hadn’t underestimated her even a little; even with an additional boost to his speed, she managed to get out of the way and began raining lightning at him. His reflexes were on parity with hers however, and he managed to defend against the spells easily. Sure, he was down fifty health, but he was also at his maximum speed boost of thirty percent.

He also knew Taylor was out of mana.

A moment later, he grabbed her around the waist and sprinted away. She raged at him, pounding his back and shoulders as he ran and ran. The other two were too dumbfounded to chase after the duo; and the only one of the group that had the movement speed to catch the Murderhobo in a straight race was Taylor.

Luke ran, knowing that he didn’t have long to lose the others. Andre would know what he was doing soon enough, and he needed to make sure the Druid couldn’t block him. Taylor screamed into his ear, “If you throw me in the Descender portal, I’m going to kill you in your sleep when I get out!”

“Nope.” The Murderhobo’s face actually showed a hint of sadness, even though Taylor couldn’t see it. “That’s not what I’m doing.”

Soon enough, one of their old campsites came into view. Luke looked around it carefully, glad that Andre had gotten a chunk of his most-visited places up and running while the Murderhobo had been in Murder World. “Where is it…? It’ll show up soon, they’re practically vultures when I’m near.”

“Put me down, Luke!” Taylor continued attacking him, so Luke shifted his gear back to his standard armor. The speed boost had already faded anyway. “Fine! I convinced him to do a few things he wasn’t exactly happy with, but this was his own work! How could I know what that would look like? It’s the first ever Dryad!”

“Oh, he never told you what he was up to?” Luke’s tone was conversational. “Never broke down and wanted to stop what he was doing? Hmm. Strange. ‘Cause the man I saw back there isn’t my friend Andre. That man was a hollow shell on the verge of a full mental break. My friend, Andre? The guy that was there for me even though I came back as a broken, filthy hobo? Haven’t seen him today.”

“There are so many benefits to becoming a Dryad, Luke! It didn’t even hurt Edward!” Taylor shifted her tactics now that Luke seemed to be a surprisingly reasonable conversationalist. “He’s basically immortal, and he’s going to heal and protect a huge chunk of the world! People will come to see him just to say their thanks and show their appreciation!”

“Sounds like something you could find a volunteer for, with that kind of pitch.” Luke’s eyes focused on a small trembling in the ground; as if something was there waiting for him, and too excited to remain perfectly still and hidden. “There you are…!”

“What are you doing, Luke?” Taylor’s voice was sharply pitched as Luke began moving with purpose. “Let me go!”

The Murderhobo kicked the dirt, and a Lotus Coffin reared up at him. He tossed his burden into its maw as it tried to grab him; ignoring Taylor’s scream as it closed and paralyzed her. Only her moving eyes let him know she wasn’t asleep. “Huh. Was pretty sure it would knock you out. Guess it can’t use your mana to knock you out without one of those nostril-flowers, so this is the best it can do. Okay, well, enjoy the prison you’ve nearly destroyed your friend for by forcing him to create it. You know, for ‘benefits’. Don’t worry, it’ll keep you healthy for up to two decades without maintenance; Andre told me.”

The Lotus Coffin dropped back below the sand, and Luke turned around to see a Druidic construct that could easily be mistaken for a sandstorm coming for him. Andre’s scream of rage would have bothered him, but the Murderhobo was too invested in saving his friend from himself.

“Lu~u~uke!”