Chapter 79 - A Test of Might

  I spent a few minutes psyching myself up for what I was about to try, because I’d never done anything quite like this before.

  According to Alex, once someone hit tier five in a clear crystal stat, they’d reached the theoretical human maximum in that area. When someone was at a tier five Intellect, for example, they were as smart as an unaugmented human being could possibly be. Likewise for Strength. A tier five Strength was the equivalent to being as strong as any human could achieve without some sort of outside boost.

  He’d spent some time going over the math with me. Because a tier six Strength was equal to two tier fives, someone with a tier six Strength was twice as strong as any regular person could possibly be.

  I had a tier eight and a tier seven Strength crystal. The tier eight made me eight times as strong as the strongest human who’d ever lived, and the other stone added another four times. All together, he said I was twelve times as strong as it was possible for anyone to be, before the Event.

  In theory, that meant I ought to be able to deadlift about thirteen thousand pounds off the floor, and backlift sixty or seventy thousand pounds.

  I know, it sounded insane to me, too. Thus the time spent psyching myself up.

  I’d lifted some very heavy things already. I lifted Cliff, that triceratops, over my head. He was something like two thousand pounds, according to Alex. I’d carried multiple giant crabs, each weighing somewhere in that ballpark. A couple of times, I’d even lifted them into the air.

  Long story short, I knew I was strong, but I still wasn’t confident in how strong I was.

  Instead of getting right to the job of using my fists to punch my way out through a stone wall, I settled down to check some of the stones I’d acquired. I figured that since I had Water Breathing anyway, I didn’t need to rush. The water was rising, but it was no real threat to me. I had time, so why not be as prepared as I could make myself?

  I found a shelf on the wall at about chest height, a spot where the water had eroded a space for me to sort the things, and poured them out. From there, I broke them up by type, which turned out to not be very difficult. Just like the first time I’d run into them, the pill bugs dropped a limited range of crystals. That was perfect.

  There were sixty three stones in total, all of them tier three or better. It was an astonishing haul. Each tier three stone was the equivalent of four tier one crystals, and the higher tier ones were better still. Those stones were worth more than even the ones I’d gotten from the zombies the other day.

  I had twenty-two tier three stones, thirty tier four, and eleven tier five crystals. Of those, about a third were grey, the rest being clear.

  For Natural Armor, I’d gotten six tier three, nine tier four, and two tier five stones. In addition, for Regeneration I’d gotten two tier three, one tier four, and one tier five. I’d discovered a new stone, too! I had two copies of grey crystals called Celerity, both tier four.

  The clear stones were all from three stats. In Strength, there were five tier three, eight tier four, and three tier five. For Stamina, there were six tier three, eight tier four, and two tier five. And Agility had a few stones as well; there were two tier three, four tier four, and a single tier five crystal.

  When I’d finished connecting the stones into sockets, I’d managed to find places for most of them. The spares went back into my satchel, to save for when I’d undoubtedly need them later.

  My Strength, Stamina, and Natural Armor were now all pumped up to tier nine. That added boost meant I was now about sixteen times as strong as any natural human could be, so I figured I was as ready for this as I was going to get. Coupled with the boost to Natural Armor, where I was able to not only reach tier nine, but also slot a second tier six stone, I felt confident.

  Magical Stones

  Point 1: Clear Stone (Tier 9) - Strength

  Point 1, Second Ring: Clear Stone (Tier 9) - Stamina

  Point 1, Third Ring: Clear Stone (Tier 8) - Agility

  Point 1, Fourth Ring: Clear Stone (Tier 7) - Will

  Point 1, Fifth Ring: Clear Stone (Tier 6) - Charisma

  Point 1, Seventh Ring: Clear Stone (Tier 6) - Intellect

  Point 1, Eighth Ring: Clear Stone (Tier 6) - Agility

  Point 1, Ninth Ring: Clear Stone (Tier 4) - Intellect

  +

  Point 2: Yellow Stone (Tier 5) - Flight

  Point 2, Second Ring: Yellow Stone (Tier 5) - Lightning Bolt

  Point 2, Third Ring: Yellow Stone (Tier 3) - Gust of Wind

  This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

  +

  Point 3: Grey Stone (Tier 9) - Natural Armor

  Point 3, Second Ring: Grey Stone (Tier 6) - Natural Armor

  Point 3, Third Ring: Grey Stone (Tier 5) - Regeneration

  Point 3, Fourth Ting: Grey Stone (Tier 4) - Celerity

  +

  Point 4: Blue Stone (Tier 3) - Water Breathing

  +

  Point 5: Black Stone (Tier 5) - NightVision

  Point 5, Second Ring: Black Stone (Tier 5) - Shadow Walk

  Point 5, Third Ring: Black Stone (Tier 5) - Phantom Step

  Point 5, Fourth Ring: Black Stone (Tier 5) - Drain Life

  Point 5, Fifth Ring: Black Stone (Tier 4) - Darkness

  Spare Stones

  Clear: Will (Tier 1) x7, Intellect (Tier 2) x1, Intellect (Tier 3) x1, Charisma (Tier 1) x6, Charisma (Tier 2) x8, Charisma (Tier 3) x2

  Yellow: Air Elemental (Tier 2) x1

  Grey: Regeneration (Tier 3) x1, Regeneration (Tier 2) x1, Sense Danger (Tier 3) x1

  Blue: Create Water (Tier 1) x6, Water Breathing (Tier 1) x2, Ice Blast (Tier 1) x5

  Looking over my powers again, I realized I’d been ignoring the black spells entirely. I hadn’t used them at all! That needed to change. If I was going to keep those stones socketed, then I wanted to make use of the powers. I tried testing the Drain Life spell on one of the pill bugs hiding in their side passages and was pleased to see it didn’t cost as much mana as Lightning Bolt, plus it healed me. It didn’t hit as hard, but there were going to be times when a quick heal was the difference between life and death. I felt sure I was going to be glad I had that spell, sooner or later.

  I tried the Phantom Step, which was a short-range teleport that let me move from one pool of shadow to another, but unfortunately it only worked in line of sight. If I couldn’t see the destination shadow, I couldn’t jump to it. That meant I could easily teleport all over the place inside the tunnel I was in, but I couldn’t use the spell to jump through walls. It was useful. Just not for this scenario.

  “Time to see if I’m really as powerful as Alex thinks I am,” I said, stepping up to the wall from which the water poured.

  The river couldn’t be too far in that direction. The pill bugs had to carve their way through the limestone to get out. If they could reach the water, so could I.

  I closed both of my hands into fists, faced the wall, and threw the hardest punch I could.

  Splinters of stone flew away. Cracks spread across the surface. My hand hurt, but nothing was broken. Natural Armor was doing its job, protecting me even from myself. Was that because I had more Natural Armor than I had Strength, or would it have worked anyway?

  Something to ask Alex later, when I had some time.

  I went to town, piling on with both fists. My right hand hammered home a blow, then the left, then the right again. Each impact shook the ground under my feet, and I glanced up to make sure the cracks spreading on the wall in front of me weren’t also spreading to the tunnel ceiling. The last thing I wanted was to have hundred of tons of rock and debris land on my head.

  Would I survive that? Who knew? It was always possible, but I didn’t want to chance it.

  Fortunately, the cracks remained where they belonged, in the limestone wall ahead of me. Pieces of rock flew away from the wall with each blow, and the cracks grew ever deeper. I kept pounding away at the thing, even though it hurt. My knuckles started to bleed, but I kept at it.

  Right fist. Left fist. Right fist, left fist. Over and over, I slammed each blow into the wall with all the force I could muster. Red marks marred the rock, left there from my bloody hands, then vanished again as the blood-soaked rock chipped away and fell into the water below.

  Finally, more water gushed through the largest crack in the wall. I’d broken through! I’d been right in guessing that the river couldn’t be too far ahead, and now I’d managed to drive a crack straight through the rock to the water on the other side. It gushed in, filling the space around me even more rapidly than before.

  Pill bugs fled their holes as the water rushed in, clambering their way to the ceiling. Scores of the creatures rushed out of their holes, trying to stay above the rising water. I ignored them. They weren’t strong enough to hurt me, and they were trying to get away from the water, not closer to it, so they were moving as far from me as they could manage.

  A few more blows and the crack widened. I was almost through! I fired off another blow, and another, each one sending huge chunks of rock to splash into the water below. All the impacts had softened what was left of the wall, and now it was coming apart faster with each punch.

  I hit it one more time, sending a spiderweb of cracks across the wall and blasting a chunk of rock loose.

  All at once, the wall caved in. Water pressure on the other side forced the shattered piece of rock forward as the water rushed in to fill the remaining air pocket. I backed away for a moment, letting the water flood the space around me. My Water Breathing kept me going just fine, and soon the water stopped moving.

  I peered ahead and saw that I’d successfully blasted a hole in the limestone large enough for me to swim outside. I’d done it! It took me a bit, but even a solid stone wall couldn’t stand up to me, at this point.

  That was more than a little weird to think about. I mean, a week ago I was a pretty average guy. Now, I was someone who could tear his way through just about anything he came across. It was going to take some getting used to—but I had to say, I didn’t hate it. Part of me was shocked, but the little kid part of me was secretly thrilled.

  I took a few minutes to secure the crystals from the pill bugs who’d crawled out of their hiding spots when the flood water rushed in. No sense missing out on those stones, now that the bugs were dead. Once I had those, I activated Flight and sped outward through the hole. The current on the other side was pretty strong, but with Flight I was able to launch myself up and out of the water. I emerged from the Charles River not far from where I’d gone into the subway tunnel, right next to the bridge.

  A quick stop by the tunnels told me that the ceiling I’d collapsed was still working fine to hold back the river, which was a good thing. I didn’t want to see the ratkin flooded out, but it looked like they would be safe, now. The pill bugs were no longer a threat, and they were safe from the rising water, too.

  I felt…accomplished. It was a small thing, compared to the massive battle Alex and I had fought in against the Karabos. But it felt good.

  Back outside again, I took to the air, soaring high enough that I could get a good look at the city below. I immediately realized something had changed.

  “What the hell is that?” I asked, flying south over the city toward the weird new structure I’d spotted.

  It sat in the middle of the Greenway, right where there used to be a carousel. The ride was gone now. The Karabos had wrecked it during their assault. But something new stood in its place.

  The building was massive, like someone had erected a monstrous warehouse overnight, except it was made from stone. It had a flat roof, also made of stone, and two giant closed doors stood on one side of the thing. All together, it didn’t look like anything humanity had built, but it didn’t seem much like the Karabos architecture I’d seen so far, either.

  This was something new, and in this world, that pretty much always meant something dangerous.

  I sped toward the structure, hoping it wasn’t going to cause us more problems, and knowing in my heart it would.