Anything ~ 14!

- Luke -

Luke stared at the space Andre had just stepped through. The air was filled with the scent of fragrant flowers and juicy fruits, enough so that his stomach rumbled in anticipation of a meal. Mana converged on Luke, filling his Sigil, then imparting knowledge of his new skills. “How come he can just leave like that? I wanna leave too. This world bites. Oh. My skills just-”

“Oh, come now! It’s not that bad, I’m here!” Before Luke could look at the changes to his Skills, Zed threw an arm around him, then slo~owly removed it as the Murderhobo stared at the meat touching him with a rumbling stomach. “So~o~o, how about that new town that we get to live in until Andre fixes the desert? Isn’t it exciting that we get a decade or two to hang out and really get invested in the lives of the commoners in the area?”

“I heard that there hasn’t been a single Ascender from the area in almost thirty years.” Taylor shook her head sadly. “The tiny amount of mana in the air nearby made it nearly impossible for people to reach higher heights. It’s… frankly, I think the people here are going to be miserable and hard to deal with.”

“Or… open to suggestion?” Zed waggled his eyebrows at her suggestively. “You think I can get a free pass to work as a Bard in the surrounding areas?”

“Know what?” Taylor nodded and waved her hand at Zed. “Why not? Go have your fun. You already have permission from the King to destroy anyone that comes after you, just make sure you check in once a week on our progress.”

“Yes!” Zed nearly screamed in excitement. “You mean it? Actual freedom to come and go?”

“Don’t make me regret it.” Taylor coldy stated. The Bard shrugged and motioned for the others to hurry up.

The entire conversation meant nothing to Luke. He pulled open his skills and looked at the changes he had been waiting for, exulting in the sweet promise of more efficient killing in the near future.

Skill increase complete! Innate Balance -> Pristine Balance

Effect 1: You gain an innate balance when walking on narrow ledges or anything that you are attempting to walk on that requires good balance. This skill is modified by the sub-characteristic Physical Reaction. Current balance increase: 5%. (passive ability)

Bonus 1, at range: When jumping or leaping, balance bonus doubles.

Effect 2: The bonus is active at all times, not only when on narrow walkways.

NEW! Bonus 2, multitarget: All gear used by you is considered balanced, no matter how unwieldy it may actually be. Due to this, all damage dealt will be 5+.5n% greater, and all damage taken will be 5+.5n% lower - both maximized at 10% upon reaching the next Tier - so long as it is blocked by gear or a skill, where n = skill level.

That had been what he needed. Luke’s stomping around would finally be able to show his predatory grace once more, he stretched as he read over the second message.

Skill increase complete! Bum Rush -> Bum Flash

Effect 1: At the cost of 10 mana, once per minute you can empower your forward charge, allowing you to cross the distance in one second that you can normally sprint in five seconds.

Bonus 1, at range: At the cost of 10n mana, you are able to instantly traverse 1+n meters of space (maximized at 10 meters) while rushing toward an opponent, where n = skill level. There is now no cooldown restriction on this Skill.

The Murderhobo was still staring at the spot Andre had vanished, and his blood was boiling as he contemplated using his new skills in an actual fight. “The fact that Andre gets to just leave is driving me to think terrible thoughts, Taylor.”

Taylor nodded lightly, trying not to show how nervous those few words had actually made her. “I appreciate the warning. I’ll work on that special dispensation right now.”

Luke stared at Taylor as she pulled out a notebook and wrote a simple phrase in it, looking at him a few times as she did so. He didn’t blink at all, just to make sure she knew that he really saw that she was doing him a favor. He didn’t want her to think he didn’t appreciate it. From the way she flushed, and the sweat that appeared for a brief instant, she was very excited to get on his good side. Luke nodded. “It’s been almost two days since I’ve killed something, and I’m getting the itch. Ideas?”

“Why not… find whoever did that?” Taylor waved at the wagon, which had nearly finished burning out at this point. “Not like anyone is going to be sad that a bunch of bandits got wiped out.”

Luke nodded in silent contemplation as the three of them walked toward their destination, an unnamed town that had sprung up around a nearly abandoned outpost. As they got closer, the vegetation began to thin, and soon they could see mountainous sand dunes in the distance. The town they had been aiming for was right at the edge of the sand, and Luke realized that seeing this had made a frown appear on Taylor’s face. “What is it now?”

Taylor looked at him sharply, then gestured at the small town. “That’s supposed to be a solid ten miles from the actual sand of the desert. All of the most recent maps of the kingdom had it as just another town, not a small oasis of people.”

“Ooh… I wonder what their story is!” Zed greedily rubbed his hands together. “Even if they get swallowed up in the sands, I’ll make sure to tell their tale to the world!”

“Pretty sure they could escape the sand by walking for a few minutes.” Luke continued toward the town at a comfortable pace, and the others hurried to catch up. They reached the village less than thirty minutes later, and Luke walked right up to a man standing watch with a spear in his hand. “Hey. Where are the bandits? I was told I could go kill ‘em.”

The guard looked at Luke’s ink-stained skin and clothes, smirking even though he could see that Luke clearly had well-defined muscles under his garments. “Any trouble we’re having around here isn’t something we need an… what, an artist? Yeah, we don’t exactly need an artist coming to save us.”

“Good to know.” Luke lashed out, wrapping his hand around the scrawny neck of the smirking guard and lifting him off the ground in one smooth motion, bellowing into his face, “Where are they? Are you keeping them from me? You’re one of them! You thought you could hide in plain sight?”

His second hand joined the first, and Luke started to squeeze. He could feel the weak flesh under his fingers starting to turn to pulp, then…

*Chime!*

The guard fell to the ground in a heap, sucking wind and coughing flecks of blood onto the ground in front of him. Luke raised his foot to finish off the bandit masquerading as a guard, only to be interrupted by a gentle yet firm hand holding him back. Taylor stepped between him and the pile of meat waiting to be tenderized, using calming words to assuage his building fury. “Luke, he’s not a known criminal, or else you wouldn’t have been stopped! Give us a few minutes to figure things out-”

“Enough! He knows about them, and I was promised a chance to kill!” Luke howled as he lunged for the downed and terrified guard. There was an alarm bell ringing almost in time to his sigil chiming, and the Mage was in his way! He pulled out a waterskin, popped the cork, and squirted a stream of liquid mana right at her.

Taylor’s face shifted to shock as she moved, seeming to teleport as she grabbed the guard and tossed him as far away as she could. Luke’s eye’s tracked his target as he bounced off the soft sand and rolled. He was unharmed. Luke opened his mouth and barked, “Bum-”

“Special dispensation was approved!” Taylor screamed as Luke started to activate his charge attack, holding up a book that held a signature Luke didn’t recognize. “You can go to Murder World right now!”

Luke’s fist lashed out, and Taylor flinched - thinking it was coming at her. Instead, it impacted the mana that was startinging to spread out, and Luke’s other fist joined the first. “Open Up!”

*Wub.* His fists rang out, impacting the air in a staccato beat. After the first three blows, the fabric of reality started to give way under the pressure coming off his knuckles.a crack appeared in space, and one final hit shattered the barrier between himself and his world.

“I have to turn this into our base of operations. Thanks, Luke.” Taylor scathingly stated as she saw dozens of armed men and women rushing toward them. “Zed, you’re up.”

Luke heard nothing else, he had already thrown himself into his world. He was on a time limit, and he was going to make use of every second.

The Murderhobo lifted his head, and his red-rimmed eyes scanned the area for anything. With nothing else to use to vent his fury, he released a massive Goat Call and hoped that it would force something to come after him… no luck. Turning, he sprinted into Zone thirteen.

Welcome to Zone 10! In this Zone, you’ll f#$d @ll sorts of-

Even if the entire message had been properly made to be readable by standard eyes, Luke would have ignored it. In his current state, he fully ignored the fact that there was clearly something wrong with what should have been showing. He sprinted deeper into the Zone, finally coming across the first enemy.

A massive pteranodon with an incredibly sharp crystalline horn swooped at him. It had a metallic beak as well as talons, but for some reason the bird thing tried to gore Luke. Frankly… it was a terrible idea. Luke charged at it, and right before they collided he used his new Bum Flash Skill and moved a single meter straight up. He caught the neck of the creature and squeezed, finally finding the relief he needed as the flesh squished and tore under his grip. He swept out with his left hand, and his simple metal sword sliced through neck in one clean strike. The body continued gliding away for a short while, but Luke and the head crashed to the ground.

Etheric Xenograft Potentia gained: 200.

He gripped the crystalline horn and pulled, and was surprised as it pulled free of the skull with a wet cracking noise. “Huh. This thing’s horn was tougher than it’s bones?”

“Nice. That’s smooth. Makes it easy to extract.” Looking at the horn, he had noticed that it had grown around the Skill Pearl and out of the skull. When he had ripped it out, the pearl came with it. Yet when he tried to separate the two, he found that the horn wouldn’t give up the prize so easily. He glared at the horn, found a flat rock, and started beating it with his Battering Ram Knuckles. He was pleased to see that they seemed to do more damage - as promised by his Pristine Balance Skill - and soon the horn broke from the repeated blows.

When it started to crack, the entire horn as a whole crumbled into a fine powder. The skill pearl rolled free, and Luke placed it in his waterskin. “No need to work out how to use a new Skill in the middle of an active combat area…”

He hesitated as he looked at the powder the horn had crumpled into. Something about it was telling him that it was useful. With a quick motion, he swept it all into a satchel and started looking for his next opponent. A screech made him look up, and he squinted in minor confusion at what he saw.

It was the same creature he had just fought, he was sure of it… but it didn’t have a horn. There was also a lot more of them. They were so loud. “That last one was totally silent… I liked that.”

Luke charged right at the flock of monsters, feeling appreciative of their size. That really gave him something to sink his fists into! Their wingspan was at least five meters, and their bodies sat around two and a half. As he got in range, they began swooping at him like a well-trained group, using all of their natural weapons to try and turn him into mincemeat. He moved around snapping beaks, slashing talons, and razor-tipped wings; pushing his increased balance to the limit as he moved just enough to not be shredded.

His fists came down on the birds, driving them into the long blue grass below. Each hit almost bounced when he was using his Battering Ram Knuckles. Narrowing his eyes, he focused on the feeling of his next strike. Luke’s Simple Metal Sword tore open deep lacerations, but the cuts were no longer clean; instead tearing as they moved through the hide of his target. He shifted the mana in his skills, keeping only five percent devoted to his armors, then directing the remainder into his weapons: thirty-five percent to each.

He slashed down with his left hand with all the force he could muster.

Damage dealt: 582 slashing!

His sword-shaped mana passed through the body of the downed pteranodon, killing it in an instant as it was bisected. Even so… the cut was not clean. His judgement was instant, “My weapons are too weak.”

Etheric Xenograft Potentia gained: 100.

“What. Why was that worth only half?” At that point, he shook his head and refocused on the fight. He couldn’t take the time to care too much about the performance of his weapons and Potentia income - Luke just needed to kill his enemies. The sky was teeming with birds, and he needed to wait for them to come after him one-by-one. He roared at the sky, which was completely ignored by the stupid birds. They only swooped at him when they thought they had a chance of either taking him by surprise, or in a large group; clearly hoping in their tiny little brains that they could overwhelm him.

Yet, Luke still hadn’t taken a single hit from them. Their size was a disadvantage for them here, as their natural weapons were too widely spaced apart to deal damage if he moved out of their direct path. Both sides seemed to realize this at the same time, and had different reactions to the thought. Luke deactivated his armor entirely, freeing up the mana to use in his other spells. The dinosaur-birds simply flew higher, and started circling him instead of attacking.

“C’mere.” Luke called up at them, gesturing at his body. “Tasty man flesh. All you gotta do is come and get it!”

His only answer was a series of trumpeting squacks that filled the air. The Murderhobo’s left eye twitched, and he clenched his fists as he turned to collect the Skill pearls. “I’m not getting a ranged weapon.”