Jack had gone through a fair bit of pain during the etching process and had gotten used to expecting the heal to make it a fairly short-term experience. Still, he had broken bones in his legs at least twice during the experimentation and he had to wait a few minutes while they healed.
That was when Monty took the chance to explain to him the extra part of the boots that he kind of glazed over in his excitement to dash. They had mentioned an ‘essence enhancement’ and he did remember almost like a tag next to the name of the boots that said ‘Capacity Essence’.
Monty told him that it was pretty important to look out for on equipment as it indicated a specialised origin essence in the item. That essence would enhance the user's relevant body modification. In this case his boots had a “slightly” modifier to his “Capacity”. Monty said it would be around 10-15% increase to his Capacity. More capacity meant more mana could be in his body before he started to feel overloaded; it also meant he could generate more at a time safely.
At the level that he was able to comfortably use the boots at, they were much less impressive than his initial burst led him to expect but it was still amazing. Each dash pushed him forward at sprinting pace, and he could cover a distance of about three metres with each dash.
The fact that he could essentially chain them together meant his mobility had increased dramatically; his coordination, however, had not increased at the same rate. Any more than two dashes in a row without stopping to catch himself resulted in him eating shit, but hopefully time would fix that.
Monty had given him space to run around, other than informing him about the attribute on the boots and to boost his healing a few times. As Jack returned and sat down next to him Monty looked at him.
“Had fun?”
“Honestly? Yeah, a little painful but it's pretty fun to just move your body around to settle some thoughts.” Jack replied.
“That it is. Let me know if you want to rest up here a little or if you want to move on and we can check out the Rift Core. From there, it will be another big experience for you I think and then we can get out of here and back to the vessel,” Monty said.
Jack nodded as he sat next to Monty, leaning against the damaged wall of the bunker. He could tell Monty was trying to give him a little space after his earlier rant. Jack was the sort of person who just thought best when he was doing something simple.
As much as the monetary impact of his amplification was shocking and quite frankly insane, it didn’t change his situation at all. If anything it solidified his resolve to be able to fend for himself, he was putting a lot of trust in Monty and Turrel at the moment. While they seemed to be trustworthy and good guys, he still didn't like relying too much on anyone else. At his core, Jack was a hermit, he liked his own company and wanted to be able to rely on himself.
He updated his list of goals.
Jack’s New World Goals
- Learn to Hulk Smash
- Destroy Testing Machine
- Pass Induction Retest
- Summon a Fireball
- Learn to manipulate other frequencies
- Become a Shardlord [Achieve Tier 10]
- Get strong enough to protect myself
It was simple, but Jack was a simple guy. His next step to getting stronger was to raise his Tier; his body was healed and he saw no reason to wait but he was hungry.
“Ok, let me have some food then we can go to this Rift Core thingy,” Jack said, as he looked around for his small supply pack in the mess of a bunker. He found it in the corner and pulled out his second last ration bar.
“These are pretty good man, I thought they would taste a bit like cardboard but nah,” Jack said as he took a bite.
“Haha, yes mana infused food can be a bit deceiving at times. Enhances more than just the flavour, plus Maree is a pretty good cook.” Monty replied lazily.
“It’s fine Monty, man. I let shit build up and then I vent while I work through things. Not healthy I know but if it works it works. I appreciate you helping me out, I do. Give me a bit more time while I work out what I need next, I know I need to get more self-reliant and to do that I need to get more powerful.” Jack said between bites.
Monty just reached out and patted Jack's shoulder and nodded.
A while later Jack had eaten and they gathered their packs and moved out. Monty said it was about a kilometre away. Which was still a little insane to think about Monty hitting it with a wooden javelin from that distance, the man was scary.
This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.
Jack kept purging as they walked. Monty said there was still a chance the smaller creatures were around even with the Guardian being gone. He was less afraid than before, but that was probably because Monty was with him as well.
He made notes of a few clusters of mushrooms as they approached the Rift Core and he tried to remember which direction they were in so they could collect them on the way back; otherwise, they walked in silence and Jack pondered how he could get stronger.
Obviously he wanted to lean into his unique strengths, so anything that let him use more mana. Or if something was more powerful based on how much mana was utilised that was probably something he wanted. The information he had so far seemed pretty vague, almost like the Origin just did whatever it wanted. Chances are he would have to wing it, and lean on Monty again when the trait selection came.
Monty stopped walking and Jack bumped into him as he wasn’t paying attention.
“The core is up ahead, I can’t see anything around us so we should be ok but keep your guard up a little bit, Jack,” Monty said with a slight admonishment in his tone.
“My bad,” Jack said, scrunching his face a little as he brought his attention fully back to their surroundings. The area around them seemed to be changing slightly, the rotted trees were less frequent and the soil felt much more solid.
He followed Monty a little further and then heard a crackle that reminded him of electricity for some reason. There was a dark purple flash at the edge of his vision. His eyes were drawn towards it and he got his first glance at what he assumed was the Rift Core.
For some reason he had pictured it as an orb in his mind, something perfectly spherical with strange circuitry and shapes all over it. Instead there was a massive jagged crystal jutting from the soil. It was easily twice as tall as Monty and much thicker as well. Parts of it shot out at different angles and all along it there was a purple-like lightning flashing, occasionally sparking off into the air.
The closest thing he could think to compare to was an electronic plasma ball. The crystal itself was a dark black, it shimmered slightly as the lightning flashed across it but it was completely opaque.
Monty stepped forward and turned to Jack smirking.
“Pretty cool right? These things are one of the only things in the universe that can actually generate mana, well other than you. Hhhm I was about to do a Turrel on you and go into a philosophical lecture on mana but let's skip that.”
Monty looked back the way they had come, his eyes seeming to glow for a moment. Then Jack felt a rush as all of the mana he had been purging as they walked raced past him and flew into Monty. Monty walked forward and in between the jagged stones that the core was pushing through and placed his hand on it.
“It won’t hurt you but you might want to brace yourself or sit down,” Monty said from beside the core.
There was a faint green glow that pulsed through the crystal for a moment, and then cracks began to appear on the inside of it. They had a familiar green life mana tinge to them. The cracks spiderwebbed outwards until they hit the surface of the crystal and then raced along the surface.
The pulsing lightning faded.
There was a high-pitched ringing sound that came from the crystal as it seemed to start to vibrate.
Some of the smaller crystal peaks started to shatter and crash to the ground. As they did Jack felt waves of death mana roll out from the crystal. His body started to shake involuntarily.
The high-pitched sound reached a crescendo and all of the spiderwebs on the crystal cracked at once, the huge crystal shattering into thousands of pieces as it collapsed to the ground.
An explosive wave of mana rolled out from where the core had been, bigger and more intense than anything Jack had ever felt before. He felt as if he were underwater, completely surrounded, he couldn't breathe; he couldn't move.
Then the feeling passed, Jack fell to his knees and pulled in some deep breaths. The area around them felt strangely empty as silence stretched.
Jack glanced up as he saw Monty standing over the pile of shattered crystal. He was shifting through it looking for something, he kicked aside a few smaller pieces and reached down to pick up a larger shard.
The shard shimmered in his hand as he held it up. It was a jagged black piece of crystal, with a silvery substance flowing under the surface reflecting the light from his suit. Monty turned and walked towards Jack as he held the shard out towards him.
“Well here we are, a rift shard. Filled with the essence of the Origin, the key to power, freedom, wealth. This one is yours; I am very very curious to see if our guesses are true... if that shard gets you to Tier 2… That will be another reason to keep you safe,” Monty said as he handed the shard to Jack.
Jack hesitantly reached forward and stared at the swirling substance inside the jagged crystal. It was mesmerising; as he held it he could feel something inside him reaching out towards it. He knew if he wanted to, all he had to do was think it and his connection to the Origin would absorb the essence in the shard.
“Wait, should I sit down? What do I need to know?” Jack asked, deciding this was probably a good time to take a little caution.
“Let's find you somewhere comfortable to lay down. It’s not as bad as last time but you still get a body modification at each tier and the traits can have a disorienting effect on your mind,” Monty said as he looked around and seemed to pick a spot, moving towards it.
Jack followed along as Monty continued.
“There will be no communication, you need to make all your decisions there as you will be connected to the Origin and its attention will be on you. Don’t worry about how long anything takes, hardly any time will pass here. Everyone's options are different but you will get given some more basic body modification choices. Then you will be presented with some traits, ask questions, you might get answers, you might get vague responses but who knows,” Monty said. He cleared a relatively flat area of rocks and motioned for Jack to lay down.
“Good luck, there are no wrong choices. Just think through what you really want for yourself going forward. I would say be careful and deliberate when analysing the options. You have some control over your vortex now but your biggest risk is still overcharging yourself. Anything that helps you use mana is amazing. Good luck,” Monty said.
Jack sat down and held the shard to his chest. He took a deep breath and made sure he committed Monty's words to his memory.
“Here we go,” Jack said as he laid back and let his connection to the Origin reach out and absorb the essence in the rift shard.
Back to 3 a week next week again.
Also I keep forgetting you guys don't have the info I do about the story and I have deleted a big info dump about the Shards to Tiers requirements 3 times already so the "Jack being a cheat" thing might not make sense. For those that are interested the table up to tier 10 is below (Spoiler incase you would rather not know.)
As the formula increases the impact of being 1 Tier ahead will increase exponentially, giving Jack a higher ceiling than most people.