FMH ~ 27

On the eighth month after he started working on his cuirass project, Luke finished the final chest piece he needed. He started absorbing it right away, and thought over what had happened in the last six months.

Luke recognized that his carelessness in charging through guardian territory had nearly cost him his life, and he had done extensive testing with his armor since then to see what exactly it did. As it turned out, the ‘extra health’ was another way to say ‘armor durability’, but his sigil hadn't known how else to quantify the skill. As soon as he had made that realization, the skill had shifted to showing health and armor. Luke scoffed when he thought about that mistake that had nearly cost him his life.

The armor effect only came into play when an armored area was hit, which was why it seemed like he was losing such massive chunks against the leopards. Now - today - he would finally gain proper chest armor.

Excellent-quality, intricate mana-dense cuirass (x500) have finished being absorbed by skill ‘Fully Geared’. You are now able to slot Goathide Cuirass for the torso armor slot.

Gear

Head: None.

Shoulders: None.

Gauntlet: Metal Gauntlet (Stone Ape). Effect: +10% of overall health is added as armor. Hands are considered armored when attacked. Strength: slashing/piercing attack reduction (80%). Weakness: Blunt force, magical, elemental damage reduction (2%). 

Torso: Goathide Cuirass (Crafted). Effect: +4% of overall health is added as armor. Torso is considered armored when attacked. Strength: slashing/blunt attack reduction (60%). Weakness: piercing, magical damage reduction (1%).

Legs: None.

Feet: None.

Right Hand: Battering Ram Knuckles. Effect: +5% physical damage (Blunt). Right hand treated as a weapon when attacking.

Left Hand: Battering Ram Knuckles. Effect: +5% physical damage (Blunt). Left hand treated as a weapon when attacking.

Luke grunted in dissatisfaction at how much less protection the leather offered compared to the metal gauntlets. Still, the ‘torso’ was where so many of his important bits were located. He reallocated his mana, sending fully half to his torso, twenty-four percent to his gauntlets, and leaving his weapons alone. He still did enough damage to kill the creatures with a single hit. 

Total Armor: 109

Torso: 71

Gauntlets: 38

A glance at his status showed new information, and Luke was pleased. Having his torso protected with about a third of the total damage he could otherwise take was great. It was time to challenge this zone, and finally clear it. Standing up, he prepared himself. Today was the day. He had a plan. He had a goal. Go!

Holding Cookie in his left hand, Luke started sprinting toward the zone boundary. The guardian was ready, and it reared back to strike at him. “Leap!”

Luke soared past the glistening claws, almost too close, and landed eighty feet behind the ape. He didn’t look back to confirm, he just ran. His goatskin-wrapped feet were pounding against the rocky ground, and he laughed at the fact that the ape was far too slow to catch up.

Cal Scan

Level: 7

Current Etheric Xenograft Potentia: 7,304/3,400 to level 8!

Body: 21.65

Fitness: 32.2

Resistance: 11.1

Mind: 13.35

Talent: 13.7

Capacity: 13

Presence: 11.1

Willpower: 12.2

Charisma: 10

Senses: 14.75

Physical reaction: 19.5

Mental energy: 10

Health: 161

Mana: 235

Mana regen: 3.33 100 per second (Overridden by local ambient levels.)

Over the last year or so, only his mental energy and charisma had failed to increase. The mental energy made sense, how would he train it? The other, charisma, only made sense after he realized that he had already maximized his relationship with Cookie. There was no more ‘up’ to go, they were the best of best friends!

Luke crossed the boundary, and a single cat appeared in the distance. Success! The number of creatures here was determined by the number of apes! “Here, kitty, kitty…!”

The leopard came after him, and as it jumped, Luke leapt. They passed each other, and this time Luke took a slash in passing that would have opened up his stomach even an hour previously. The reaction times on these things were way too high! Something in this world had to be broken, there was no way an actual novice was ever intended to come through here. “Tutorial indeed. Without armor, that would have taken at least forty of my health, and more over time.”

Health: 153/161

Torso: 47/71

Luke landed and started sprinting. He had a head start, but the cat would be faster than him; it had proven that already. Putting everything he had into it, Luke sprinted forward, leaning forward so far that he needed to use Cookie as a counterweight to keep him off the ground. Just before he passed the next third of the zone, a slash opened up the muscle on his right leg, and he tumbled into the open space. 

Health: 138/161

The cat had vanished by the time Luke looked around, so he hurriedly opened his canteen and sucked down some water, then poured the remainder over the grievous wound. It started to close, and after a minute he was able to put weight on it. Soon after that, his health and armor had recovered. Now mobile again, Luke began cautiously moving through the remainder of the area. It took a short while of cautious movement, but he finally found the next guardian… as well as why it hadn’t appeared earlier.

There was a massive stone walkway ahead, a flat bridge that connected this zone and the next. Not for the first time, Luke wondered what the abyss was going on with this world, that the land seemingly floated on nothing. On the bridge itself stood a single stone creature, which appeared to be a cross between a snake and a human.

“Lamia…?” Luke remembered reading about these so long ago in his storybooks, where monsters were supposed to stay! He felt a deep pain in his heart as he looked at the most human thing he had seen in almost a decade. More than a decade? In… Luke had lost count. He… what was he doing? He had been abandoned here-

*Chime*.

Luke blinked and cocked his head to the side as he tried to think of the best way to destroy the monster that was waiting for him. Even if it were larger and stronger than the others, faster, whatever, Luke was sure he could still kill it if he got close enough. “No time like the present!”

He activated Bum Rush and appeared right in front of the creature, killing it easily and walking proudly forward, to claim his reward-

“What?” Luke had certainly gotten closer to the beast, but he hadn't attacked it yet… what was happening? “Are you magical, you sneaky snake? Are you a sorcerous slitherer? Can you make unicorns with your hallucinations? Can you give me hallucinations?”

“Wait… it was…” he had a dark thought. “You… it was you who took away my hallucinations, wasn't it! Wasn’t it? Give them back!”

Now he really was running at the guardian. He felt something brush his thoughts, but he shoved aside the attempt to control him and lashed out with a fist. The snake dodged, using it’s impressive mobility to sway under his attack. Humanoid hands coated in metal claws created sparks as they skittered over his torso, opening up the goathide wrapping but failing to penetrate the magical armor that his skill generated for him.

Health: 160/161

Torso: 62/71

The distraction apparently opened his mind to an attack, and for another moment he was triumphantly stepping over a pile of rubble on the long bridge… then he snapped out of it and landed a swift strike on the lamia’s left arm, reducing the stone limb to dust. “Nice one, lady! That’s the way Cookie crumbles! Haha!”

Another hit, and the lamia was a full snake, no extra limbs. “That’s better! Now we… a unicorn!”

A pink fluffy unicorn had captured his attention, and held it only until Luke glared. He was in the middle of a battle, he didn’t have time for-

A stone tail struck him on the side, not damaging him, but sending Luke sprawling far too close to the edge. He rolled closer to the center, managing to miss the swipe that was going to send him over. But… but! Cookie took the hit that was meant for him, and flew into the air. For one long, chaotic second, Luke thought he could catch her. Then… then she went over the edge.

“No! No!” Luke was on his feet in an instant. Without a conscious choice, his armor fizzled out and one hundred percent of his mana was diverted to his right fist weapon. His punch hit the lamia so hard that only an outline of dust remained, the rest having turned into shrapnel that spun out into the void. A pearl dropped to the ground, rolling to the edge and pausing as if waiting to be picked up.

Luke didn’t notice. He was half-hanging over the edge of the bridge, screaming after Cookie. He could see her twirling, and knew that she must be terrified right now. Cookie was afraid of heights, and he had actually made fun of her in the past for that by showing off how great his balance was on the edge of the world time and again! 

The blue air only allowed for a certain distance to be seen, acting like a light fog that increased in density the further away you looked, but today, just for an instant, Luke was able to see Cookie stop on something. She had passed a bridge, two… then she had stopped. “You made it to a lower Zone! You’re safe, Cookie!”

Luke stood and bellowed over the edge, “I’ll come for you! No matter how long it takes, I’ll find you! Don't be too scared… I know being alone is terrifying, Cookie. I’ll come for you. If something gets in my way… I’ll kill that something.”

Standing up, he saw that there were two lamias slithering toward him with the grinding sound of stone. His eyes flashed darkly as his armor came back into being, and he charged at them. Luke needed to vent some of his fury, and they seemed to be happy enough to be his targets.

“Greetings, something.”