Anything ~ 20!

Trekking up the mountain was actually easier than Luke had expected it to be. There were huge outcroppings, stone from previous impacts that had been driven deeply into the mountain, and even hardy vegetation that had grown over time in all the loose earth. Luke snorted at the idle thought that told him that the hard part was over. “Can’t expect this to be the same higher up.”

His progress was rapid, enough so that he expected to be at the top within a few hours. As he entered into the clouds, he found something that forced his progress to a screeching halt. The mana in the clouds had gotten so thick, and the mountain had been around so long, that there were patches of crystallized mana on the path he had wanted to travel.

“Solid mana.” Luke looked at it as closely as possible while his Sigil continuously chimed a low warning. As he got closer, his feet refused to take further steps forward. The sheer amount of power radiating from the strangely metallic vein in the rock told him that even with his Skills… that rock would try to kill him if it could. “I wanna lick it.”

More than making progress, more than getting to the next Zone, even more than killing whatever had tried to drop a mountain on him, Luke wanted that solid mana. Snarling and straining, he forced his scourge out to hook to a place high above his actual target. “Since I can expand this thing, I’ll use it as a grappling hook, and totally go around that power source that hurts my eyes and mind to look at directly. I’ll start reeling myself in and oh no~o~o I’m falling right at it.”

The Murderhobo’s eyes lit up even as his Sigil screamed warning chimes. He laughed as he fell right at the searing-pain inducing patch. “I knew I could trick you, you worthless slave brand! Haha, c’mere mana!”

With his tongue stuck out as far as he could manage, Lukeslid down over the top of the mana-metal and managed to slurp up a few of the tiny crystals on the huge patch. It felt like licking a bowl of salt, if salt were tiny flakes made out of the sun. Screaming in pain and fighting both his instincts and Sigil, Luke swallowed what he had gotten in his mouth and lay on the ground as the mana did its best to detonate every cell in his body simultaneously.

He began to burn, chunks of his flesh radiating away as searing sparks. At the same time, his Skill went into overdrive and began healing him. Flesh regrew as it was burned away, his innards turned to ash and reformed from pure mana before flashing into a fleshy state once more. Through it all, Luke laughed.

“This is real! I’m alive!” He choked on blood as his lungs disintegrated, almost passing out before they reconstituted. “Lived through that too!”

His Sigil noted that he wasn't dying, and the force it was using to lock him in place vanished. Luke used every bit of effort he could muster to launch himself at the mana vein again, and took a bite out of it. He chewed and swallowed even as his teeth were eradicated. “Wouldn’t do to run out of mana after anything burned! I want all of my body back.”

Indeed, the process of his organs re-integrating had started to slow. The influx of mana continued the process, and he snorted in mirth just before the world went dark.

The Murderhobo’s mind burned.

Luke’s brain was reborn.

When his eyelids popped open, he looked around the area with brand-new eyes. Literally. He sat up and looked within himself to see what had changed… but there were no notifications that let him know if he had gotten more powerful or escaped the bonds placed on him by the Hollow Kingdom. There was only an increase for his ‘I Have Concerns’ Skill.

Skill increased: I Have Concerns -> You Need to Stop.

You Need to Stop (T4. Level X). You already defeated mana and poisons. Just stop.

Effect 1: Never again will poison or mana be able to control, or even affect you. Your flesh contains potent power and mind-shifting effects. Anything taking a bite out of you should be prepared to feel like unicorns are goring them to death!

Bonus 1, at range: Bonus 1, at range:  Poisons in the air, such as toxic fumes, will restore your health and mana over time. Amount regained is based on potency and time spent in the poison.

Effect 2: You are able to consume concentrated mana to restore health and mana, or hallucinogenic materials to further increase restored health and mana.

Bonus 2, multi-target: You are a potent source of power. The world knows you are a delicacy. All creatures will be drawn to you, and are more likely to attack you. As the world knows you, you know the world. You gain an instinctive understanding of mana and what it can do.

This skill cannot be increased via additive Potentia.

“What.” Luke glared at the Skill that was trying to get him killed. “So what this is telling me… is that I can increase the skill further by consuming deadly levels of poison and mana!”

His Sigil sparked, and he slapped at his head. “Quiet, you!”

Getting to his feet was a trial, but he managed to make it happen. Luke had at some point rolled away from the mana deposit, so the first thing he did was go back to it and reach for it; then shoved a handful of the tiny crystals into his mouth. It tingled on the way down, burning his mouth like peppers used to be able to accomplish, but his body simply took it in without complaining. “Ugh. Ah, well. At least I have some new seasoning for my food.”

Luke scooped the remainder of the small deposit into a pouch, then began running up the mountain again. He could barely see in front of his face after a few minutes, as the clouds continued to thicken and congregate. Now that he was unable to use his scourge safely, he clung to the rocky surface and punched handholds for himself. This slowed his progress significantly, but the surface had lost any natural paths to the top; turning into a sheer cliff that he had to ascend purely vertically.

The days went by slowly, but the exhaustion Luke had been expecting to feel never came. He assumed it had something to do with eating a highly potent energy source, but didn’t know for sure. There was no way to test out his theory, so he simply powered onward. When things changed, he didn’t even notice it at first. He just kept going. Then he fell forward and landed on a flat surface when he was reaching for another handhold.

After popping to his feet and looking for the enemy he was sure was here, Luke found only massive trees that stretched upward to a point he could no longer see in the mana clouds. There were a few seeds on the ground from them, so he scooped them up and put them in his pouch as a gift for Andre. There was not a single sound to be heard, lending a creepy atmosphere to the location. After searching the summit for a few hours, he determined that he was alone here. “Is it in the mountain? Do I just start punching until I find the warm center?”

There was a single anomaly: one of the sides of the summit wasn’t a sheer drop, instead dropping into the fog below at a strange angle. It was odd to see that the side he had climbed was so sheer, while this side was an incline; even if it was a sharp drop. “Do I need to climb down this? You down there?”

He bellowed the last as loudly as he could, and waited for a reply in the utter silence. A short while later he actually did hear a reply that sounded oddly familiar. “Down e~ere…”

“I knew it. I’m coming to destroy you!” He shouted as he hopped onto the incline and started to slide.

“Destroy you…!” came the reply.

Luke went red with rage. “You think you can take me down after I’ve been able to… oh. Oh, no. That was an echo.”

He tried to arrest his momentum, but the angle and speed he was already moving at made that tricky. The surface of this stone was smoother and even harder than what he had climbed earlier, so punching downward sent him flying off the surface only to land on it painfully and roll before he got himself under control while still sliding. “Guess I’m riding to the end.”

The Murderhobo could have used his scourge to try and make an anchor, but decided that there was no point. He hadn’t found the enemy up above, so he needed to look elsewhere anyway. A half hour later, he slid beneath the cloud layer and saw where the smooth ride was taking him. “Why is there a mountain with a bridge to an island?”

He got his answer a few moments later as he saw clouds pass under the land ahead, breaking into wispy strands… and Zone eleven was able to be glimpsed far below. Luke looked more carefully into the fog, and slowly five more land bridges came into view. Two to his right, three on the other side of the landmass. The one nearest him to the right was leaning toward him more and more as the minutes passed. The outer two on the other side were also moving, and Luke realized what was going on. “This entire thing is a creature, isn’t it? I really dislike this Zone.”