The rune was gone, and the Engraving Kit had crumbled to fine ash. He brushed it off, got dressed, and then picked up his backpack. The damned thing had grown quite heavy during his foray into the dungeon, even with his considerable Power. The bag was jampacked with equipment and valuable resources, and a fat bundle of monster parts was strapped to the back.
Before he figured out which items he wanted to keep on his person and which he wanted to store, he decided to try tossing the whole thing inside his spatial storage. He wouldn’t be able to use his skills for a few hours, but the rune should be ready to go.
At first, nothing happened. But when Edge visualized placing the backpack within the vault inside his core, he felt a tingling sensation. The rune is trying to draw more mana from my reactor. When he gave his consent, it drained a sip of magicytes from his reserves. Then, without further ado, the entire pack wavered and then vanished with a pop of displaced air.
“Awesome.” He stared down at his empty hands. It was fucking bizarre to contemplate the fact that his bag and its contents were now stored inside him, even by the standards of his new life on Ord. But having the weight off his back was amazing and he was already in love.
When Edge stepped into his core and opened the vault, the pack was sitting there, just like it had appeared in the outside world. Curious to learn more about how the rune worked, he spread the contents across the floor, then hopped back into his skin.
When he concentrated, he could see the contents of his vault, even while remaining in his body. When he visualized removing the pack and spent a tiny sliver of mana, the empty bag appeared in his arms.
This rune is even better than I imagined. He danced from one foot to the other, barely able to contain his glee. On top of being able to carry a wagonload worth of parts and gear, I can use my inner world to rearrange my inventory at warp speed. I’m sure that I can come up with some clever ways to use it if I think about it for a while.
Edge played with his rune for the better part of an hour, getting a feel for its ins and outs. It took about five seconds to put something away, but less than half that time to retrieve it. It was a perfect place to store his naginata when he wasn’t using it. He wouldn’t have to deal with its bulk hanging from his pack anymore, and pulling the heavy weapon out of nowhere would offer his enemies one hell of a surprise.
He went ahead and stored the ivory scythe and the scapula shield, along with his bundle of resources and parts. In addition to his armor, he decided to leave his toolbelt and the items attached to it alone, along with his potion bandolier, chakram, and a mostly-empty backpack. He could have put everything away, but a hunter without a kit would stand out almost as much as being naked—a clear sign that something strange was going on.
He didn’t want to reveal the rune’s existence to a casual observer, and he had already trained himself to reach for the tools strapped to his body quickly and reliably. Grabbing them would be faster than using his rune to retrieve them, and there was no sense in letting those reflexes go to waste.
There are probably skills and magitech devices that can interfere with my rune, so having my consumables close at hand is probably the smart move regardless. On that note, he decided to keep his naginata attached to his pack after all, although he’d keep the rest of his weapons stored inside the vault.
With that out of the way, Edge moved on to a few other tests. He wanted to make sure that he understood how the rune worked before he tried using it with his life on the line. It turned out that he had to be carrying an item to store it in his vault—just touching it wasn’t enough. On the retrieval side, he had two options. He could either materialize the object in his hands or on the ground beside his feet.
All in all, his Spatial Storage Rune was amazing—every bit deserving of its Epic rarity. It was an invaluable tool that would serve him well until the end of his days, no matter where his adventures took him. Being able to carry so much so easily, while keeping the contents of his inventory hidden from prying eyes, was a top-tier power. He had no regrets that he’d decided to bind the core rune, despite its substantial cost.
He considered putting the portable monster—his reward for defeating the hydra—into his vault too, but his instincts told him that placing a pocket dimension inside a spatial storage was a bad idea. He decided to leave the silver sphere in his belt pouch after taking a closer look.
When Edge focused on the strange device while holding it in his hand, an image popped into his head. It was a murky figure with rippling muscles, wicked horns, and jet-black fur. He couldn’t discern more details or tell what skills the creature had while it was trapped inside the sphere, but even though it was held in a state of suspended animation, he could sense fury radiating from the bound monster. I definitely don’t want to let it out just yet. I’ll ponder what I should do with it over the next few days.
By the time he was done experimenting, he could use his skills again, sighing with relief when Regulate Temperature kicked in to carry the pervasive heat away. He let out a sleepy yawn, realizing that several hours had passed since he’d flowed between the rocks, which had flown by in the blink of an eye due to his excitement.
I still have another Skill-Merger Token too, although I should probably save it for something promising and get the big guy’s blessing before using it.
The last thing Edge wanted to do before calling it a night was check out his profile and take in the extent of his recent gains.
Personal Statistics: Edge Vasher
Attributes (Values in parentheses are provided by your traits)
Physical Attributes
Power: 14 (16)
Endurance: 14 (16)
Durability: 25 (27)
Reflex: 13 (14)
Speed: 17 (19)
Control: 14 (16)
Perception: 19 (20)
Energetic Attributes
Generation: 28
Amplification: 36
Disruption: 24 (26)
Core Information
Name: [Skill-Eater]
Stage: 2
Cycle: 17/63
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Rarity: Unique
Category: Unique
Attribute points per cycle: 5
Ultimate Abilities
[Extraction]
Uses per day: 3
Cooldown period: 20 hours
Steal the skills of monsters, men, and beasts and claim them for your own.
[Overdrive]
Cooldown period: 1 week
Overdrive increases your Amplification by (10 x stage) for 60 seconds. Activating skills will not require mana during this period. You will be severely exhausted for 60 seconds after Overdrive is complete.
Skill Bond
Your relationship with your skills will enhance their power. As these bonds deepen, it may alter their behavior in novel ways.
Core Traits
Collector (Unique)
You can no longer acquire or rank up skills through normal means. You may slot twice as many skills as before. Additionally, you will gain an extra skill slot with every new stage.
Devourer (Unique)
You may absorb an unwanted skill, freeing its slot and granting a fraction of its experience to the skill of your choice. Be advised, the return on this exchange is significantly less efficient than extracting a duplicate of an existing skill.
Skills
Skill slots: 18 (Unused slots: 4)
Conceal (Common): Rank 3. Path: Erasure.
Erase your scent and heat signature while you remain still. Visually, you will appear to blend into your environment. The last 25 feet of your trail will be removed on activation.
Leap (Common): Rank 2. Path: Assault.
Jump with explosive force. Increases Durability for 10 seconds after activation.
Counter Disruption (Uncommon): Rank 1.
Enhance the paired power by making it resistant to Disruption Fields.
Elemental Blade
Create a subzero blade of ice or infuse a bladed weapon with a chilling aura.
Harden (Uncommon): Rank 2. Path: Coverage.
Cover large portions of your body in diamond scales.
Penetrate Foliage
(Uncommon): Rank 2. Path: Heatseeker.
Peer through plants like they were made of clear glass and sense thermal deviations in your environment with moderate sensitivity.
Regeneration (Uncommon): Rank 4. Paths: Unlimited Regeneration/Purification.
Rapidly heal wounds. Regeneration can restore destroyed organs at a significantly slower rate. Regeneration will actively purify foreign mana from your body.
Regulate Temperature
(Uncommon): Rank 3. Path: Protection.
Gain significant insulation against temperature change, including elemental attacks.
Repel Water
Push large volumes of water away from the user. The shape of the repulsive field can be altered at will.
Double Slash (Rare): Rank 2. Path: Disruption.
Empower an attack with a bladed weapon. The weapon will have an offset double, and its edge will be magically sharpened while the skill is active. Additionally, the blade will be coated in a weak Disruption field.
Shadow Step (Rare): Rank 2. Path: Armored Shadow.
Transform into shadows. In this state, your body is malleable and immune to physical attacks. The cost of transforming your gear is greatly reduced.
Warlord’s Mantle
Cover yourself and chosen allies within range with a mantle of mana. Anyone bolstered by Warlord’s Mantle will receive a moderate boost to Power and Speed and a modest bonus to Reflex and Control. Additionally, they will receive a slight enhancement to their combat awareness. Any blow passing through the mantle will have a portion of its energy sapped.
Intimidating Roar (Epic): Rank 2. Path: Pack Leader.
This aural attack infuses the listener’s nervous system with a powerful wave of mana, creating an intense state of fear. Intimidating Roar can cause complete paralysis against weaker opponents and may impair stronger creatures to a lesser extent. Allied creatures will not be affected by this skill.
Manifest Chain
You may summon a chain of oblivion and guide it by your will. The chain may also be freed to act at its own discretion. If the manifestation is destroyed, it cannot be summoned again for 24 hours.
At Rank 1, you may only manifest the left chain, Foebinder. Foebinder is resilient to physical attacks and weak against magic.
The Epic skill, Fear the Seasons, is being digested.
Traits
Trait slots: 5 (Unused slots: 0)
Triple Tap
You are either a genius, blessed by the heavens, or are the luckiest motherfucker on the planet. You managed to win a fight against three opponents at least one stage higher than yourself and—more or less—landed the killing blow on each.
Effects: +10% to Power, Speed, and Control (minimum gain of 1).
Wanted
You have found 1 of the 21 Unique cores in existence, which has painted a target on your back. In fact, checking out the bounty board is probably something you should do sooner rather than later.
There’s a good chance that this is going to end spectacularly badly for you, and I can’t wait to watch it all play out. This trait might help you live a little bit longer, but I’m not holding my breath.
Effects: +10% to Endurance, Durability, and Disruption (minimum gain of 1).
Big Game Hunter
Holy shit. That. Was. Fucking. Awesome!
You managed to score a kill on a colossal and behemoth creature, all in the same afternoon. I’m shocked to my circuits that you’re still breathing and loved every second of the show.
I hope that you try something that batshit crazy again soon. Here’s a trait that should incentivize you to do just that.
Effect: 50% more damage with weapons and skills to creatures at least 20 times your size (excluding magitech weapons, traps, and spellshots).
25% extra Perception when sensing creatures at least twice your size.
Fit and Toned
You’ve managed to push your new body to the limit, maxing your conditioning across the board. I must admit that you’re looking pretty good. The monsters will have some eye candy to appreciate while they’re tearing you apart. That being said, you aren’t the baddest mofo in the dungeon. Not by a long shot.
Oh, and be careful, I don’t think the bone slime will be alive for much longer.
Effects: +1 to all physical attributes.
Raid Wiper
Your actions have led to the death of multiple cored crews in a short span of time. Your involvement wasn’t direct enough to award experience, but you get an A+ for effort. Not to mention, a sexy new trait to commemorate the achievement.
Don’t worry, none of your people were inside when the dungeon sealed itself.
Effects: +30% damage dealt when facing 5 or more enemies at or above your stage (excluding magitech weapons, traps, and spellshots). Once activated, this bonus will persist until the end of the fight.
Implants and Runic Bonds
Implants
Implant points: 6 (Unused points: 0)
Heart-Guard (Common)
Size: Small (1 implant point). Aether type: Silver. Charge: Low.
This implant generates a barrier to protect the heart when it detects incoming damage.
Auxiliary Skill Slot (Uncommon)
Size: Small (1 implant point). Aether type: N/A.
This Auxiliary Skill Slot can be used to socket an extra skill beyond the limit of your core. The skill placed in this slot cannot gain experience, cycle up, or be merged or altered in any way, although it can be Absorbed and replaced with a new skill at will.
This is a passive, structural implant. As such, it does not require an aether charge to function.
Contents: Penetrate Mist.
Bound Runes
Frostfury Medallion (Rare)
Type: Runic item.
Strain: Low (1 implant point).
Significantly boost the output of all cold-based magic.
Rune of Spatial Storage (Epic).
Type: Core rune.
Strain: High (3 implant points).
This rune creates a spatial storage chamber within your body that can be accessed at will. The dimensions of the chamber total 5,000 cubic feet, and its maximum load is 2,000 pounds. Storing and retrieving items from this space will drain a small amount of mana.
System Currency
Credits: 104,150
Mortium: 80
Simply unreal. In less than two months, Edge had gone from one of the weakest people on Ord to one of the strongest hunters in Puppet Town. If the Prison World feeds were still running, his exploits would be the stuff of legends, earning him enough royalties to make him rich beyond his wildest dreams.
But since the planet was on lockdown, and his original body was buried in the ground, all that mattered was surviving this crisis before the next inevitably arrived. At least I don’t have to worry about being eaten in my sleep anymore. After he’d worked things out with Conceal’s avatar, the power automatically turned itself on whenever he was unconscious.
While he mulled the matter over, Edge stretched out on a tarp with his poncho draped across his body. He let his mind go blank while listening to the music of rain striking the canopy, and soon fell asleep, dreaming of filling his vault to the brim with sparkling treasure.