Welcome back to the System (Iteration 78.2)!
You have entered: System Pylon 98: Tower of Darkness (Open Dungeon, F- to SSS-Grade, Tin to Diamond Rank).
You are on the Ground Floor (F- to D-Grade, Tin to Copper Rank).
Time Differential: (Earth XXI-993): x 29 (Note: Time Differential rates do not apply outside the Pylon’s area of influence).
The following Skills have improved while you were away: Gun Proficiency (Beginner 9), Pain Tolerance (Beginner 4).
You have earned an Achievement: Planar Traveler (Legendary): You are among the first 10 Ascendants on XXI-993 to leave your world and enter a different plane of existence. Awards: +10 free Attribute points, 1 Epic Skill Upgrade Token, 1 Epic Item Upgrade Token, 50 Unbound Essence.
You have gained 129 Unbound Essence for assorted kills. Total Unbound Essence: 3,497.
“What about the weeks I spent in the Dread Lands? What is the differential there?”
It doesn’t have one, not being tied to spacetime, Raven said. A few hours passed while you were in transit, and the clock is running again.
That took a load off his mind. As long as he didn’t waste too much time, he would be home before too much time had passed. Roland moved on to the good stuff:
You have received a Blessing: Blessing of Oya (Unaligned, Epic): Death and Lightning Skills and Techniques (and related Concepts such as Storm or Thunder) gain a 20% bonus to their effects. Once per day, you can call down Oya’s Wrath, a lightning strike that inflicts (Strength + Willpower) x 2 points of Death damage and (Intelligence + Willpower) x 2 points of Lightning damage to all beings in a sixty-foot radius. Those struck will be afflicted by a C-Grade/Iron Rank Stun Debuff for 5 seconds, modified by defenses and Rank or Grade.
Range: Line of sight.
Limitations: Oya’s Wrath does not benefit from the Blessing’s bonus.
That’s a heck of a reward, just for not being killed, Roland thought. I’m sure there aren’t any strings attached. Heh.
He set that aside and finally reached the notification he had been waiting for:
You have gained a new Cultivation Pattern (Soul Brand of the Reaper, Celestial Quality, Angelic Configuration). All pre-existing Daos and Techniques have been unlocked. New Daos and Techniques will be made available upon advancing to Tin Stage 3 (Cost: 700 Unbound Essence).
All prerequisites to advance to Tin 3 have been met. You have 104 Bound Essence dedicated to Cultivation; an additional 596 Essence is required. Do you wish to advance?
You bet your ass I do!
Roland and Raven had retired to an alcove built into the walls of the Tower’s ground level. He sat down, since even at his level, the influx of forty-seven Attribute points (not counting the freebies) was going to pack a wallop. He also took his clothes off; this was likely going to be messy.
Seven hundred Essence spread through the Pattern that had taken so much to forge. Roland felt his body being rewritten down to the cellular level. His perceptions were overloaded with new inputs. And, above all, his aura flared up again in all its glory.
Raven squawked when he was suddenly pushed aside by the expanding nimbus around Roland. His aura was dense enough to lift him up without him needing to meditate. Unbidden, pseudopods of auric energy manifested around him, translucent limbs that ended in fingerlike tendrils. His Art was back; its passive effects alone made him glow like a runaway nuclear reactor.
You might want to pull that back a little, Raven warned him. Your aura is a mite overpowered. You can crush most F-Grades and many Tin-Rankers without trying.
“In a minute. Let me enjoy my moment.”
A thought made ghostly tentacles lift him several feet in the air. He closed his physical eyes and opened the third, spiritual one in his forehead. The System Pylon flared up with intricate letters or symbols that covered its entire surface as far as his Third Eye could see. He couldn’t make sense of the writing but felt in his guts that he was watching reality’s source code, or at least a small portion of it.
Roland had to force himself to draw his aura back and land on his feet. The feeling when he let it go was as intoxicating as it was a danger to others. If he wasn’t careful when he came back to Earth, he could kill any normie who looked at him.
His body was caked in impurities; the activated Pattern had removed a good twenty pounds of dead matter from his insides and replaced them with more than twice the weight of something else. His muscles and bones were denser and heavier. He probably weighed close to three hundred pounds and was six four or six five, with the physique of a Greek god.
He used Cleanse on himself while he checked the new notifications:
Congratulations! You are now a Tin 3 Cultivator (Soul Brand of the Reaper Pattern, Angelic Configuration)!
Attribute Gains (Includes Title and Configuration bonuses): +14 to Willpower, +12 to Intelligence and Perception, +10 to Strength, +9 to Constitution, +8 to Dexterity and Charisma, +23 free Attribute points.
Energy Pool Gains: +100 to Health, +120 to Mana, +90 to Endurance.
Your Death Affinity has advanced to 96%.
Free Attribute points: 30
“It says my Death Affinity has increased,” Roland told Raven, who was standing on the ground a safe distance away.
That is nice. When your Affinity reaches a hundred percent, it will advance and become an Attunement.
“What does that do?”
You will find out. Do not worry, it’s unlikely you will get there at your current rank. But if you do, congratulations will be in order.
Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.
I’m only four percent away. And I still have an evolved Class to level up, Roland thought, turning to the next prompt:
Your Class has Evolved. You are now a Reaper Lord.
Reaper Lords are a Manifestation of the Bringer of Death. Where Reapers embrace Death, and Reaper Knights are enforcers, fighters, and assassins, Lords are Death’s commanders and executioners. They bring justice or vengeance to the powerful, fearing nothing but failure.
They may hold power over a territory, but will let others build and create while they go forth and slay those who would threaten their land.
Their rule is cold and distant; they cannot stay in their holdings for long but must prowl their borders and beyond, seeking those who deserve their judgment.
Prerequisites: Death Affinity 90% or greater. Spirit Affinity 65% or greater. Red-Handed (Epic) Title and 2 other Epic or better Titles.
Advancing as a Reaper Lord requires the expenditure of 500 Essence.
Attribute Bonuses per Level: +6 to Strength, +6 to Dexterity, +6 Constitution, +6 to Willpower, +5 to Intelligence, +3 to Perception, +2 to Charisma, +6 Free Points.
Attribute Bonuses per Level (Includes Title and Pattern Bonuses): +9 to Strength and Willpower, +8 to Constitution, +7 to Dexterity, +6 to Intelligence, +5 to Charisma, +4 to Perception, +11 Free Points.
Characteristic Bonuses (Includes Title Bonuses): +35 Health, +40 Mana and +30 Endurance per level.
He didn’t get any more Affinity percentages, which was probably for the best. There would also be no new Skills until level five, but the stats looked great. Not as good as his Cultivation bennies, but Roland wasn’t even thinking of complaining.
He dropped the five hundred Essence and felt his Class Core expand and send waves of power through his body. There were no messy impurities to clean up afterwards, probably because his Cultivation had already done all the prep work. Roland felt his bones, muscles and nerves grow stronger, which involved pain and lots of itching inside his flesh, where he couldn’t reach without doing major damage to himself.
Roland gritted his teeth and took it. At this point, discomfort had become a part of his life. This wasn’t even in the top ten list.
Unbound Essence: 1,401
He was tempted to go up another step on both his Class and Cultivation, which would take most of his unspent Unbound Essence. After some thought, he decided to hold back. He wanted his Art to at least reach mid-tier and his other Skills and Techniques to make it to peak Beginner before adding more levels or stages.
Just getting used to his new stats was going to take some work. Roland looked at his Attribute spread and free points:
Strength 73
Dexterity 77
Constitution: 71
Perception 65
Intelligence 68
Willpower 83
Charisma 60/51
Free Points: 51
A new notification popped up when he looked at his character sheet.
Congratulations! You have gained a Legendary Achievement: Sixty-Something.
* Sixty-Something (Legendary Achievement): You are among the first 10 Ascendants in your world to raise 5 or more Attributes to 60 or above, transcending the limits of humanity and much of the animal kingdom. Awards: +10 free Attribute points, 1 Legendary Skill/Technique Upgrade Token, 50 Unbound Essence.
For the honor of having high stats, you get more stat points. The rich get richer. Patently unfair, even if it’s in my favor. On the other hand, it looks like I wasn’t the first Ascendant to hit sixty in all my Attributes. Just in the top ten.
Roland’s trip to the Dread Lands had shown him how big the System’s universe was. He had to squeeze every last advantage that came his way for all it was worth.
Otherwise, somebody like that Oya goddess (or avatar of a goddess) would crush him like a grape.
He invested all his freebie points on his new and improved self. Since so many of his abilities depended on his mental Attributes, which affected his Arcane and Aura Ratings, he raised all of them to eighty, so they matched his sky-high Willpower.
He then raised Constitution to the same level because you never could have too many Hit Points. The last five points went into Strength.
Sure, he might have leaned on a few Attributes and raised them to a hundred, but in a System with no dump stats, overspecializing seemed like a losing strategy. He went over the results with a critical eye:
Attributes:
Strength 78
Dexterity 77
Constitution: 80
Perception 80
Intelligence 80
Willpower 83
Charisma 80/68
Energy Pools (Regeneration):
Health: 472 (14/minute)
Endurance: 393 (14/minute)
Mana: 543 (26.3/minute)
Vital Energy: 0/1,458 (-1/minute)
Ratings:
Arcane: 90
Attack: 84
Aura: 98
Defense: 86
When I fill my Vital Energy tank, it will take over a day before it runs empty, Roland realized. Give me plenty of enemies and I can kill all day long.
Living or Undead enemies, at least. Constructs might turn out to be his Kryptonite, since he couldn’t drain their life force. Which probably explained those mecha things guarding the entrance. Shades and Undead likely had all kinds of life-sucking abilities. They would do bupkis against golems and robots.
I am ready. Nothing is going to stand in my way.
* * *
He was following Raven to the nearest Portal Station, somewhere by the System Pylon, when somebody did indeed stand in his way.
Three somebodies. Four, it turned out to be.
Roland and his bird were walking around the Pylon, kind of repeating the trip around their first Tower. This time, they were looking for the System’s version of the servant’s entrance.
The Pylon’s ground level isn’t used much, Raven explained. The Second Floor is where most visitors arrive. It has a huge marketplace where crafters and merchants from dozens of worlds come to sell and buy items. Their customers are adventurers headed to or coming back from the Third or Fourth Floors.
“Do we have time to go up there and visit? I’ve got a thousand Essence I could drop on, say, an Epic pair of pants. Or an Epic armored jockstrap, at least.”
Unfortunately, the Second Floor is open only to E-Grade or Copper-Ranked adventurers.
“That’s great.”
In any case, we shouldn’t tarry. Down at the bottom, only lowlifes can be found. Some of them would pick off a Dual-Path Ascendant just to say they did.
“Even better.”
The Portal Station will be within a mile or two from the entrance. This area is used only by adventurers too poor to buy entry to the Second Floor. They usually venture to the Dread Lands to scavenge or steal what they can from the Shades or Undead.
“I guess we’re lucky we didn’t run into any on our way here.”
There aren’t many to begin with, and most don’t last very long. Some turn back, others meet their end amidst the bone sands.
“Nice. Hey, I think I see an entrance.”
There was an oval door on the side of one of the bulbous structures surrounding the pylon proper.
Two men and a woman emerged from the door when Roland and Raven were fifty feet away. The trio formed up in a line, barring their path.
Zhang Yun (Human Ascendant)
Copper 1 Cultivator (Imperial Pattern, Magnificent Configuration)
Health 1,025 Endurance 880 Mana 805
Zhang was clearly the leader, and the one that didn’t look like some ruffian. He wore something similar to the Chapel’s uniform, except it had a closed collar and was dark blue. The outfit was decorated with silver embroidery depicting a flight of cranes. Over his left breast was an insignia depicting a yellow field with five claw marks.
The Five Claws of the Dragon, Raven explained. The Mark of the True Middle Kingdom.
The other two were Tins, one of them a Peak Tin, although none of their gear looked great. Down-on-their-luck Cultivators, looking to jump a stranger?
There is a fourth one. A Peak Copper woman, moving in stealth. You may remember her.
You’ve got to be kidding me.
I kid you not. Iwamoto Hatsuko has crossed your path once again. She seeks to make this the last time.
Roland didn’t know anything about the True Middle Kingdom. He had no idea how the Ninja chick had found him in a place he hadn’t even known he was going to be. System fuckery, or Raven’s doing? He didn’t know.
More importantly, he didn’t care.
Sometimes life handed you something you didn’t know you needed. Learning that Iwamoto Hatsuko was here and looking for a repeat performance was just what he needed.
All the fears and doubts from facing Coppers in combat were washed away by a cold, almost reptilian rage. A feeling more akin to hunger than anger.
I was hoping to meet her someday. Funny how sometimes things just fall into your lap.
