Apocalypse Cultivation 2, ch 29

After stepping through this portal, he didn’t lose consciousness like the last time, but Jake didn’t also didn’t experience an endless moment like he had with Conophta’s portal.  Instead, it was like no time had passed when he suddenly found himself in the Morrigan’s garden.

The Goddess did not acknowledge Jake’s presence.  She was practicing with a spear, and it was one of the most beautiful things Jake had ever seen.  He slowly sat to watch.

Every strike, every parry, all of the footwork–it was all beautiful.  Crisp, lethal, and elegant.

Jake had never known that martial arts could look like this.  He’d seen people practice in very impressive ways before.  He’d even seen high level kata, even at the Olympic level prior to Purple rain.  None of it was anything like what he was witnessing right now, though.

The Morrigan was very clearly a martial goddess.  Her motions were controlled, elegant, and full of terrible power.  The balance of her movements were so advanced, Jake felt grateful to be skilled enough himself to even recognize part of how impressive it was.

The speed of her flowing, deadly dance grew faster and faster, until she was a blur.  Great winds began to generate from her movements, creating ripples on the surface of the nearest dark pools.  Clouds gathered overhead, or perhaps billows of fog.  Red lightning stabbed down, turning the Morrigan’s spear into a shaft of blazing crimson light.

Jake was not easily impressed, especially after everything he’d been through over two lifetimes, but he was still filled with awe.  He instinctively knew that the goddess could level mountains now with her spear and not even exert herself.  It was the kind of power that surpassed mortal understanding.  If she hadn’t been protecting him, the sheer pressure the power gave off would have reduced Jake to a mound of monster Spam.

When the Morrigan finally stopped, she didn’t so much slow as just crash to a halt.  She wasn’t even breathing hard.  Jake was surprised when the normally dignified goddess suddenly turned and blew him a kiss.  Her eyes sparkled.

At the same time, Jake felt a portal behind him begin pulling him in.  Oh hell no, he thought.  He’d been biding his time, expecting to be able to talk to his de facto employer.  He had a lot of questions about Conophta, about what was happening on Earth, and about the weird 4 days time limit the goddess had given him for his little side mission.

He struggled against the pull of the portal, but it was inevitable that he would be overcome.  This was obviously not an accident.  In the distance, the Morrigan waved at him.

The absurdity of the situation  coupled with Jake’s growing bad mood, and the fact he’d come so close to dying–executed by Conophta, finally made Jake snap.  Besides, Morrigan was his boss now.  Despite everything he knew about dealing with powerful supernatural entities, Jake scowled and showed the goddess his middle finger.

Her eyes twinkled even more and she covered her mouth in mock shock.  It was the last thing Jake saw before his vision was filled with white static.

***

When Jake’s vision cleared, he felt a half second of confusion.  A wave of disorientation made him just stand still, trying to reboot his brain.

It almost killed him.

But reflex and instinct, he flash-stepped to one side right as a huge hand swept through the space he’d just occupied.  In that moment, Jake saw the exit, remembered the challenge room, and realized how much overwhelming danger he was in.  If he didn’t make it out in the next second, he was dead.

With all the excitement and stress he’d been through after going back to earth, he’d forgotten about the challenge room!

Time seemed to slow for Jake.  Luckily, the path to the exit wasn’t completely blocked yet, but it would be if he spent any more time thinking about what to do.  Monsters had already blocked off his direct access, but Jake thought of a way.  He wouldn’t have any time to course correct after committing, but he didn’t have any more time to think about it.

The boss had stood up and was about to move.  Jake had no illusions about being faster than any of the creatures in this biome.

With a flesh of his jaws and a flash of fear, Jake flash stepped to the left, narrowly missing grasping claws, then he turned and without even taking the time to verify the path was open, he flash-stepped again at the exit.

He almost missed the exit when a claw caught his shoulder, ripping it open and making his trajectory slightly change.  Jake slammed into the side of the doorway so hard if he hadn’t been clenching his jaws, he would have lost teeth.  Luckily, enough of him was in front of the door that he careened off the edge, barley making it through before the boss’ powerful hand narrowly missed him.

Frustrated bellows followed him as he was transported back to the Faceted’s room.

Jake rolled across the floor, ass over head, and slammed into a rock or a pillar.  He lay there for a while, staring at nothing while he recentered himself and questioned his life choices.

What the hell?  What the hell? He kept repeating in his head.  The last saucy look from the Morrigan flashed through his mind.  Did she know this was going to happen?  His thoughts spun, going through everything that had happened from the moment he was sent back to Earth.

What a mind fuck.

Jake lay there a few more minutes.  He had to be back in the room with the Faceted now, but the alien hadn’t said anything yet.  With a grunt, Jake stood and dusted himself off.  The bloody gash in his shoulder hurt, but his flesh was already knitting together enough to stop the bleeding.  After reaching the peak of Gold rank Body Refinement, his natural monster abilities had gotten even better.

The Faceted stood behind the lectern in the same place it had been before.  As soon as Jake saw the creature, he felt strange.  The Faceted’s emotions were actually creating pressure on the air.  A sensation like ants walking on his skin made Jake mildly uncomfortable.

Jake was suddenly reminded of how this place had first seemed to him, with a vast emptiness and cloth streamers hanging from the ceiling.  He suppressed a shiver and said, “I’m back.”

“So I see.”

When the Faceted didn’t say anything else for an uncomfortably long amount of time, Jake frowned and cycled his cultivation base to center himself.  Something was off.  “So…how did I do?”

The Faceted waved a hand.  “Prepare to choose a reward.  Please say that you would like one reward, and provide me with three phrases or keywords of the types you would like, and then the Assessment Room will display some appropriate options for you.”

Wait a second, this isn’t what these things normally say at all, thought Jake.  He grew suspicious. Faceted already couldn’t be trusted and had to be watched for fuckery.  What was happening now was off the scale for potential trickery.  “What was my rank?”

“You did very well.  Now please say that you would like one reward and provide me with–”

“Oh hell no, asshole.  Tell me my fucking rank, now.”

“Why is it necessary?”

“You know why it’s necessary.  First of all, to make this official.  I know you might be able to omit things, but you can’t straight out lie, so tell me my rank, please.”

The Faceted was quiet for quite a while.  It finally said, “You have achieved an S rank, but it is highly irregular and I disagree with the decision on your performance.”

“What?  You disagree?”  Jake hadn’t been expecting an S rank.  Maybe B, or even A, but he hadn’t killed any monsters in the biome he’d been through, and he’d left one biome completely untouched.

He’d actually been hoping to get a higher valuation after exiting from a higher difficulty biome door despite not having killed any of its guardians.  With that thought, he touched the nasty wound in his shoulder and made a face.  It went down to the bone.  Without his obscenely strong bones, the wound likely would have ripped his arm off.

The gamle had come with risk and he’d almost lost out.

“Yes.  Your clever use of abilities to pass through a higher rank door than your abilities would otherwise allow I can accept.  However, leaving the testing area entirely with external power, then returning with more power of your own is highly irregular.  Attaining more power–a significant amount and more titles–during an assessment can result in a better ranking, but I do not believe you deserve it since you did not leave on your own power.  My suggestion was to penalize you with the lowest possible completion rating, but the Collective disagreed…and has intervened.”

“Oh really?”  There had been multiple, fascinating little bits of information in that explanation.  Jake tried to capitalize on it to learn more.  “Does the Collective decide on all of the rankings?”

“That is not necessary for you to know.”

“Uh huh.”  He couldn’t think of how to press the Faceted for more information quite yet.  “So I got an S ranking huh?”

“Yes.”

“Awesome!”  Jake smiled.  “So that means I am eligible for two rewards.  I should also be able to chose rewards higher than A rank.  Don’t try to screw me over again.”

“Now I deeply regret allowing you to take part in a challenge.”

Jake shrugged.  “Yeah, well, we’re all gambling here.  You gambled and you lost.”

“It might not be wise to antagonize me further.” The Faceted’s mental voice was growling.

Jake’s mental eyebrows raised.  A Faceted “talking” with so much obvious emotion was surprising.  He smiled and went for the throat.  “Yeah, well, you lost any possible sympathy from me when you tried to trick me and fuck me out of my prizes.  I risked my life and spent a ton of time on this shit.  It didn’t just fall out of the sky.  Other Faceted I’ve met and have dealt with might have been bastards, even tried to trick me, but they were always honest.  Their attempts at misdirection were a bit smoother, too.  You are the first base level scammer.”

It was weird how a faceless being could not move at all but still very obviously deflate.  “There is another problem.  I did not want to discuss it.”

“I’m listening.”

“My creche, my…family, is not wealthy.  It is likely why my Assessment Room was placed in such an unfortunate place.  I have been here a very long time, and have concluded that a large part of that was because of the energy cost, and the fact that my creche has lower level prizes.  Warriors in this world were surprisingly…powerful.  It would not have been appropriate for my Assessment Room to be placed in most high traffic areas.

“The length of time I have been here without a single challenger was a large part of why I allowed you to participate in this challenge.  However, there was an astronomically low chance of you attaining an S rank in any challenge you picked.”

Jake tapped a claw on his wrist.  If he was understanding this right… “So your family is poor and you don’t have any prizes greater than A rank, right?”

“No access, to greater prizes,” grated the Faceted.

Jake thought about what he knew about the Faceted, which was precious little.  But now he knew that the Faceted got something out of their challenge portals.  In the past, he’d thought they only wanted people to die or walk away empty handed, but that didn’t seem to be the truth.  He could reason now that some sort of exchange was best for them, otherwise, would would they bother with all of this?  The prizes had to be the incentive to tempt warriors into their challenges.  And the Faceted had known that Jake could complete at least one challenge without dying before letting him participate, so it would obviously benefit from that, too…

“What is your name, Faceted,” asked Jake.

“Why should I tell you?”

“Because if you don’t, I’m going to just write all of this off as a loss and leave.”  It’d been a gamble.  Jake had always thought of the Faceted as merchants.  They paid for blood, sweat, and tears with prizes.  But what if they weren’t merchants.  What if they needed to give out prizes for their own wealth or power?

“That is not necessary.”

At that moment, Jake knew for certain that he had the upper hand.  “So what is your name?”

“I am called, Hleceth.”  The Faceted’s voice seemed resigned now.

Jake thought furiously.  “So, Hleceth, what if instead of two higher than S rank prizes, I chose to ask you for one A rank prize, and two other things.”

“What two other things?”

With a smile, Jake said, “How about one favor.”  He held up a hand when the Faceted began speaking to his mind and interrupted.  “Please hear me out.  I think this is more than fair.  The favor will only be honored if you have the power to grant it, either you or your creche–your family.  And I want information.  I want you to tell me about your people, answering three questions from me to the best of your ability.”

Jake waited patiently while the Faceted thought, but he knew it was already a done deal.  There was no way the Faceted could refuse such good terms when Jake could just walk out, especially since it would probably mean the alien would not get any sort of energy transfer for another few thousand years or however long it’d been down here.

If negotiations hadn’t gone well, Jake could have threatened to block off the tunnel he’d dug to find this challenge room, too.  Luckily, he hadn’t needed to bring out the threats.  He was still idly thinking about blocking off the tunnel anyway, but decided he probably wouldn’t be that much of a bastard.

Besides, maybe another prisoner might fight this place in the future and benefit from it.

Finally, Hleceth said, “Your terms are accepted, but only if you agree not to force me to tell you anything that would put my creche or my people in danger.  That includes anything I deem too sensitive for outsiders to ever hear.”

“Alright. Bargain struck,” said Jake.

“Bargain struck.”

Jake’s enhanced magical senses could barely feel the stirring of fate as the oath bound the agreement.  “Since that’s done, let’s start with my reward.”

“Very well.  What are your keywords?”

“My first keyword is Divine Sect of the Martial Wandering Dragon God.  The second keyword is Mobile Protection.  Last keyword is Unbound God of the Sword.”

Two of these three keywords had worked well for Jake before with the Faceted.  This time he’d also added a simple keywords of, “protection.”  His fight with the minotaur had illustrated that Jake really needed a better way to block attacks than just flash stepping.  Sometimes to win, he’d need to be aggressive. A technique to defend himself better would be perfect.

“Understood.”  Hleceth waved an arm and a number of globes appeared in the air, hovering in front of Jake. If he focused on any of them, he saw an image of the reward and a brief description of what it did. “What do you choose?”

Jake browsed the options, very familiar with this process by now.  Steel Skin Mantra of the Berzerker Aesthetic, Jim Taewon’s Venerable Bracers, Twice Blessed Serpent Scale Breastplate,  Aegis of Five Trigrams Defensive Array.  He skimmed them all, then focused on the three that he thought would probably be the most useful.  Despite far fewer actual techniques than he’d hoped for, some of the alternatives weren’t bad.

Skill Book of Chi-Formed Full Body Armor.  Teaches the ability to coat the whole body in a layer or protective energy.

Exraplanar Wide Spectrum Denial Targe.  A mysterious metal shield that is said to have fallen from the sky into the hands of an ancient hero.  Said to be able to change shape and move swiftly.

Cultivator’s Earthward Diamond Armor Diadem. An adornment for the head that will form armor after activated.  Most effective against spiritual energy.

Jake made a face.  All three items were tempting.  He was even somewhat tempted to try altering the particulars of his agreement with the Faceted, but decided not to for several reasons.  He’d just have to choose one.

The Skill Book of Chi-Formed Full Body Armor was probably the most versatile.  Jake had even heard of similar skills before during his many years working with Slim and pumping him for information on the Murim world.  The problem was that techniques like this one usually gobbled up energy to maintain.  In his last fight, Jake had been tapped out.  He really didn’t need yet another technique to pour resources into, in fact, he needed to deepen his reserves and find ways to conserve energy.

Extraplanar Wide Spectrum Denial Targe caught his eye for a few reasons, not least of which because it was associated with a hero and could change size.  Gear associated with heroes and gods were almost always good and had hidden abilities.  He thought about the area attacks thrown at him and how nice it would have been to have a barrier.

The Cultivator’s Earthward Diamond Armor Diadem was a fantastic defensive item.  Jake was somewhat familiar with jewelry that could form armor like this.  It had drawbacks, though.  For one, it took the armor time to recharge, so if you needed it while it was still charging you’d be shit out of luck.  It also seemed a bit redundant since Jake already had the Midnight Cloak.  Lastly, while the Midnight Cloak was a growth type item and would likely grow along with Jake, this diamond armor wasn’t.

I guess this is the difference between A rank and S rank rewards, thought Jake.  The S rank rewards would be appropriate for a warrior at any level of power.  These items were good but sort of situational or maybe required a little more thought or ability to use them to their full potential.

Look at me being snobby about A rank rewards.  Jake laughed at himself.  In his first life, he could have only dreamed of seeing any of these in his lifetime.

He was reminded of when he was stuck in a hole with a demon beast outside, and the decision he’d made then with the Eternal Struggle Reward System.  Since then, the Area Map might have saved his life.

Ultimately, what made his decision this time was the ability to protect himself better without using any energy to do it.  “I will choose the Extraplanar Wide Spectrum Denial Targe.

“I understand.”  The orbs in the air disappeared.  “I have placed it in your inventory.”

“Good.”  Jake nodded and grinned.  “Now, about those questions.”