"You heard me," the corpse waved his hand dismissively. "Get going."
The corpse clearly couldn’t move his legs, only the top half of his body shifting as he made the shooing gesture. Axl rifled through Roken's memories and could only get a vague sense that this was a member of the Undead Legion. He cast [Mana Absorb] and noticed the Mana coursing within the corpse was not at all similar to the Mist and moss, even if the undead was clearly also part of the invading force. Like with all the Mana within living things, it was much harder to see, but Axl could still tell that much. Maybe this was an advanced scout meant to see if the mist and crabs did their job clearing out the city before the main forces arrived?
"Don't try your luck here," the corpse continued, now lifting his sword to point at Axl's chest. It wavered slightly, the grip unsteady. "I just need to nick you to get the poison in. You're lucky your Endurance is enough to take the mist, but it won't be enough when it gets into your blood."
"You invade my city and expect me to just walk away?" Axl replied, holding up his dagger. He could only avoid the crabs for so long, and he at least needed a proper weapon to have a chance against them. But that was just an easy excuse, something to justify the anger rising in his chest. This damn invader wanted free rein to pillage and kill? To just brush him off with an easy smile?
Axl held up his dagger and activated [Mana Absorb], bringing in the neutral Mana above the mists, sensing it would be more effective than the Mist's Mana against this creature.
"Fine," the corpse said. "Go ahead and die."
The corpse pushed against the ground with one hand to lunge at Axl, sword aimed to his face. The speed was startling, and Axl barely had time to dodge to the side, bringing the dagger up to deflect the weapon. But as the Mana-filled weapon clashed with the sword, it was like hitting an impassable wall, the dagger merely helped push Axl's body away.
Falling on the ground, Axl awkwardly rolled away from the corpse as it tried to strike at him, but his weapon was just out of reach.
"Ha!" the corpse laughed between strikes. "Your levels are empty, boy, so make peace with your death."
The mist was kicked up in the commotion, and between the sword clashes and the corpse's yelling, it was only a matter of time before the crabs joined the fight. Axl deeply regretted not upgrading his Attributes and gaining new Skills, clearly underestimating the threat he'd be facing.
One of these could be easily fixed, however. He quickly opened his status and added five of his points to Strength and three to Agility, hoping it would be enough to fight back. The surge nearly seized up his body as his muscles seemed to reform into unyielding metal, and he was barely able to keep rolling away as the corpse dragged itself closer.
The changes done, Axl leapt to a couching position, his body feeling nimble and tight, as if containing an explosion within. As the corpse lunged once more, Axl side-stepped, then thrust the knife at the jaw, aimed upwards into the skull. There was much less of the ambient Mana still remaining in the weapon, but the little there was he willed to sharpen the tip, hoping to drive into the brain, ending the battle in one go.
The weapon broke at the hilt.
The corpse laughed and turned his lunge into a swipe. Axl avoided the brunt of it by stepping back, but his attack had brought him too close to the creature, so it tore through his vest and cut a fine line across his chest. Immediately, the mist started to churn and attack the wound, a burning sensation spreading across the new injury.
The corpse stopped his attack and waited, a grin spreading across his rotten face.
Axl stopped and tried to get a sense of the injury, pushing against it to stop the bleeding or the mists' invasion, but it was too large a cut. The bleeding wouldn't be an issue, but he felt the foreign Mana trying to take over his body.
He activated [Mana Absorb] and targeted it to the Mana inside his body. It was harder than corralling Mana from the environment, but not impossible, and slowly he took it over and started to push it out of his body, not bothering to bring it anywhere in particular. After all, he only had so much of his own internal Mana to fuel the Skill, and he was nearing half his reserves, which would be an issue if he needed to use the Skill more later.
Axl stared back at the corpse, who seemed content to wait for the mist to finish the job, sword arm barely raised in a lazy guard. He leapt at the corpse, slamming down onto the sword's grip with his ruined weapon, with as much Strength as he could muster. Killing the enemy right away wasn't necessary after all, he just needed to get that damn sword.
There was a satisfying crunch from the corpse's wrist shattering, but the undead didn't even flinch in pain, but opened his mouth widely and dove forward for a bite.
The motion was without proper leverage, however, so it was slow enough for Axl to grab the corpse's throat with one hand and hold him back while the other grabbed the sword. He then stabbed the undead in the mouth, pushing the blade heavily as it slowly overcame the resistance of the dead bone's surprising resilience, and the corpse suddenly flopped to the ground.
Axl nearly tumbled forward at the sudden release of the pressure as a subtle flow of something coursed into him. Karmic Energy, Roken's memory bubbled up, a potent source of leveling, apparently. He didn't quite remember that being so distinct back on Luna, but it was familiar, in retrospect, a shadow of this certainly happening the few times he killed a Vikam in battle or when he had to kill a raider or some Mana-spawns back in Ost.
Catching his breath, Axl leaned against the wall, the burning mists having returned to attack his wound when his attention faltered from [Mana Absorb] during his attack. Behind him, he heard the increasing sounds of clicking, now at a more rapid pace than before.
Not wanting to get caught by the crabs, especially while fighting off the mists, Axl leapt over the corpse and ran in the opposite direction from the approaching sound. Luckily, the end of the narrow street wasn't a closed-off alley, but led to Crooked River Street, the oldest main street in town, where the middling glyphic carvers lived in multi-storied buildings with large, colorful windows.
Axl charged down the side of the street, trying to keep quiet but still put some distance between himself and the crabs, but every door was closed and sealed shut, the windows at the ground floor boarded over from the outside. Clearly, the better off in the city had more time than anybody else to barricade before leaving or hunkering down.
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
Just as Axl heard the clicking also join Crooked River, he saw a house with an edge of a ground-floor window exposed by a patch of the dark, mossy rot. It had exposed a good meter-wide opening at the top through both the heavy wood and the window beyond.
After a moment flexing his legs, Axl jumped onto the window's frame and then leapt over a meter and a half over the ground, neatly through that hole. Only when he was inside the building did he really appreciate the insane acrobatic stunt he just pulled off. His newfound Agility seemed to really deliver.
Unfortunately, the moment of distraction made his landing an awkward sprawl across the floor. Luckily, he hit rich, thick carpeting, which softened the fall and prevented much of the noise from escaping outside.
Holding still, he kept [Mana Absorb] running and pushing out the mists from his injuries, the outside mist not having entered this building at all. As he focused, he heard the clicking get closer and closer.
A sheen of expunged mist formed a sickly layer over his body, and Axl kept it close instead of pushing it away, the Mana now more malleable to his will. He didn't know if this would help to keep the crabs from getting to him, but he kept at it. The seconds ticked by as if they would never end, each moment and soft breath thickening the mist around him and purifying his wound, in case he needed to fight.
The clicks got closer and closer and were soon right outside. The clicks slowed their pace, and Axl gripped his sword tightly, readying to strike. A single crab tentatively clicked away from the group towards the window, and after a moment, returned, the clicking continuing down the street at its normal pace.
Axl relaxed slightly, but stayed alert until the clicking fully faded into the distance. He then dispelled the Mist's Mana from his body, but kept [Mana Absorb] going, since he still wanted to clear his wound more thoroughly. The last remnants of the mist were no longer a clear threat, but still were hard to scrub off entirely.
He looked around the room, a lavish entrance room to a talisman shop. Unfortunately, the lines of glass displays had no product inside, but Axl noticed a string hanging from the ceiling. When he pulled, it produced a set of stairs leading up. Needing some time to recover and reassess his approach to the statue, he climbed up the stairs and found himself in an empty storage room.
There was another set of stairs leading further up, so he went up those as well, finding an attic dominated by a circular window of stained glass behind a large table of dark, rich wood. The walls were a dainty wallpaper of repeating floral patterns, but bare, with faded patches indicating artwork that was removed in haste. Not even the nails remained.
Axl shook his head in confusion, looking at the strange room with concern. Roken clearly knew what all these things were, tidbits of luxury that Axl had only recognized in the small snippets of pre-Arrival vids he'd happened to see. It was quite useful that the dead water-elf's memories of common objects would seep into his mind like this, as opposed to stopping him dead in his tracks while he rifled through the mess, but it also made him worry somewhat about losing himself in the elf's mind.
After all, he barely noticed that the corpse spoke to him in Saptish, a different dialect than what was used here in Piril, sure, but absolutely not Anglish Common. Useful for whatever his infiltration quest ended up being, but the thought of so seamlessly becoming an elf like this was unnerving. That he'd have to get so close to the very people that razed Luna to the ground and probably did irreparable harm to Terra itself… Not to mention the venting gills.
Taking a re-centering breath, Axl set aside his worries on that front and examined each of the three floors again, now holding back the influence of Roken's memories. He picked over every possible drawer and shelf, but it was all empty, even the two hidden compartments in the attic.
Mildly disappointed, he sat with his back against the table and activated his first consumable achievement.
>>Soul Transplantation (Consumable):
>>Survive a low-compatibility soul transplantation.
>>Choice of Mental Skill (Awarded by Terrania)
A set of three windows appeared before him, indicating his choices.
>>Mind Shield (Uncommon)
>>Passive protection against mental attacks and probing, requires Mana infusion. Scales with Wisdom and Intelligence.
>>Terrania upgrade to Mind-Soul Bulwark (Rare) available
>>Mind Strike (Common)
>>Attacks the mental fortitude of target, delaying skill activation and available Mana. Potency based on Mind and Wisdom.
>>Analysis (Uncommon)
>>Scan targets to the Terrania total database. Requires contact to relevant Terrania nexus. Does not scale.
While the idea of being able to do a mental attack seemed tantalizing, Axl went over all options carefully. Analysis would clearly not work until his first quest was completed, and that could be years away, so that was off the table. The Mind Strike was only Common, so not that appealing, since he remembered how drastically better [Mana Sense] became when he upgraded it to [Mana Absorb]. It not only did so much more, it also improved all its old features. He couldn't even imagine how great a Rare skill would be.
Axl also remembered with trepidation what the undead said about him having empty levels, which meant he could somewhat tell he had more levels than most, Roken's memories clearly indicated that most people he knew barely had a few levels, if any.
The corpse figuring him out was particularly unnerving, since he felt nothing coming from the corpse, no Skill being activated on him, or anything. While this worked to his advantage, the corpse not detecting his increased Attributes until it was too late, but with so much in his Status revealing his human origins, he certainly needed something to guard against it.
So, he selected Mind Shield, and another window appeared.
>>Accept upgrade to Mind-Soul Bulwark (Rare)? Yes/No
With no small excitement, he accepted, proud that Terrania was offering him something so powerful as a Rare skill. He'd never heard of anything like this happening on Luna, or even mentioned in the entertainment vids from Terra or the Jovian moons. Maybe it was something only top soldiers were given and thus a military secret.
Axl only got a moment to enjoy Terrania’s implicit attention before he fell down, a deluge of information cramming into his skull with the Skill details. He was glad he didn’t do this during battle, since he was out of commission for a good fifteen minutes before he could even think straight, much less see what the new skill meant.
>>Mind-Soul Bulwark (Rare)
>>Active defense against all intrusion into the Mind and Soul. Requires Mana infusion.
Sitting back up, he brought up his other consumable quest.
>>Awakening Flood (Consumable):
>>Gain 10 levels at once when entering G-Grade
>>Choice of Skill (Awarded by Terrania)
He mentally activated the Achievement and got another probing window.
>>Terrania offers to upgrade skill [Mana Absorb] instead of skill choice. Accept? Yes/No
Axl paused at the offer. Clearly, Terrania was trying to guide him with these offers, upgrading Mind Shield before, but now the suggestion was less obviously the right choice. [Mana Absorb] was not very effective against even an injured Legion soldier, so he was hoping to get another purely offensive skill, especially now that he had a purely defensive one. Still, he knew too little about all these new options and thought it best to go with what Earth's neuromorph suggested.
He hesitated for a moment before accepting, the Skill being a core part of him for as far as he could remember, even before he stepped out of his cloning vat. What if Terrania turned it into something strange and elven, to better suit the mission? But he shook off his hesitation and accepted, immediately relieved at his three options.
>>Mana Shroud (Rare)
>>Provides additional ability to manipulate absorbed Mana. Enhances Mana sensing and absorption.
>>Mana Shield (Uncommon)
>>Creates shield out of inner Mana. Effect Scales with Endurance and Vitality. Mana absorption lost.
>>Mana Surge (Uncommon)
>>Empowers Attributes with inner Mana for a short time, followed by temporary weakness. Effect scales with Core rarity. Mana absorption lost.
He grumbled slightly, two of the options not being upgrades at all, merely swapping out the absorption aspect of his Skill for other effects. Bracing for the pain, Axl chose the first option, but the effect was far less dramatic, barely a few moments of confusion and a mild headache that quickly faded away.