Magic Breaker Ch 49-51

Chapter 49: Alive

PoV: Snow Okiyama - Ion

I wake up. 

My good eye opens, and yet I can’t see. Is it dark? Am I blind from the radiance? Still, I remember the message seared into my eyes.

[Darkbreaker, lv. 52]

A sharp breath enters my lungs, and then, finally, the pain sets in. 

My skin, all of it, hurts and aches. Every movement pulls at it, sending itchy spirals of hurt through me. It’s a horrible feeling, but I don’t [Suppress] it, not yet. There is something more important.

Instead of pushing the hurt aside, I address it. I cast [Flesh Restoration]. The spell ripples out of my core, and it is seemingly more effective when applied to myself than anyone else. Power crawls through my veins, and begins to address damages.

The light seared my insides. My lungs are scorched, damaged in ways I didn’t even know were a thing. But they heal. Second by second, I pour a stream of mana into it, and my skin starts to itch horribly. It flakes and itches, half formed scabs beginning to flake off. It almost makes me wanna stop the spell. I hate the feeling, but I keep going.

[Flesh Restoration 3 > 4]

Apparently, the sheer amount of things that need fixing in my body are enough for the skill to level. Slowly, I empty out my entire vessel of mana. When I’m done, my vision is back, if bleary. It’s dark. I don’t know where we are. Did we end up caught?

“Inu?” I whisper. “Thatch? Opal? … Sylves?” I hesitate before the last one, knowing my friend was passed out from blood loss. Maybe she is up again. How long was I out? 

Shuffling near me. “Snow?” The voice is familiar. Inu. She’s alive, and close by, which is good. 

“Yes,” I croak. My throat is somewhat healed, but still feels raw and scratchy. Words are a pain to get out, but I still do so. “What happened?”

Inu shifts into my field of vision, looking down at my open eye. The other one is still a bloody mess, and now, I have more injuries to heal before I can properly address it. Ahhh, what a pain. I wanted to start on trying to modify my body to be stronger. 

“You’re awake,” she says. Something wet drips on my cheek. “You’re awake. Oh, thank goodness.”

I breathe a long, shaky breath. “Yeah,” I croak. It aches, it scratches, but that’s okay. Inu needs to hear it. “I’m okay.”

“We’re in the tunnels. The sumeen dropped us off. Paulino said… they said it was repayment for what you told them about our species,” she says. Her voice quivers. She’s speaking just barely above a whisper.

Paulino is a lying rat. But, in this case, I don’t mind it. My lips stretch into a smile, even as my skin protests and cracks. “Generous of them,” I say. They didn’t do it because of what I told them, they did it because they’re decent people. I probably owe them, just a bit. A small sigh leaves my lips. “What now?”

“Opal, Bay and mom are out hunting. My mom, ah, Jess. She got offered a job, by now. Butcher. She can make mostly palatable cuts of meat from the insects,” Inu explains. 

“Hmmm,” I hum. The noise comes easier than the others I’ve made. Jess is proving to be rather reliable, isn’t she? That’s nice. As my mana has regenerated just a smidge, I trigger my healing spell again, focussing on my eye. Inu’s dark figure pulls into view a little more. 

“How did you survive the fall?” Inu asks. “When the floor cracked, you fell on your back. Your spine should have snapped, it…”

“It didn’t,” I say. “Partially because of my stats, and partially because of… Kuro,” I say.

“Kuro?” she asks.

I smile, just a little. “The shadow parasite under my skin. We’re a team, now. It gets to eat whenever I wreck myself, and in exchange for letting it drink my blood… well, I suppose it stops me from dying to fall damage,” I say, and a hacking cough comes from my throat.

And then, I just can’t stop laughing. It’s hilarious. It hurts so bad, but I just can’t stop. “Hahaha. Haha! Hahahahaha!” 

Another wet drop hits my face, but I can see Inu’s lips twisting into a smile, illuminated by the faint glow of… mushrooms, probably. “You idiot,” she says. “What’s so fucking funny, huh?”

“That I’m alive,” I moan, even more hoarsely now. “It’s happening again, isn’t it? Like every time. They want me to fail. But I won’t.”

Inu smiles, wide, fully, as more tears drop onto my skin. They burn faintly, but they’re also pleasantly cool. I don’t bother complaining. “Yeah,” she says. Slowly, her gaze trails upwards. “We’ll show them.”

For a little moment, we’re silent, matched in our determination to survive. Then, somewhat awkwardly, Thatch shuffles towards me. “Hey Snow,” he says.

“Heya, handsome stranger. Who might you be?” I ask.

Briefly, horror flashes on his face. Then, it’s replaced by a laugh. “You idiot,” he says, crying too. “Fuck. Don’t… don’t do that!” He doesn’t sound all that upset, though. Quickly, he wipes his eyes. “Ugh. Dummy. Here,” he holds a phial against my lips. “You need to drink.”

With his assistance, I manage to get some water into my throat. It tastes of iron and ash and triumph. I live. They tried to kill me when they couldn’t capture me, but I escaped. I’m alive. A long moment passes after the water. “Do we know who attacked us?” I ask.

Thatch nods. “Yeah. Paulino told us. Paladin of Respitia. Philia, the darkbreaker.” 

It’s her. It’s definitely her. With that alias? There is no doubt. “That’s the one. The one that made the pillar.”

Inu tenses. For a moment, I feel a spike of mana and fury from Thatch. Then, all at once, the two share a look and settle back down. “She’s dead,” Inu whispers.

I nod, and Thatch does so, too. There is no doubt. She’s signed her death warrant, already. All we need are more levels. To twist the odds in our favour. I pour more mana into my healing spell, mending my throat a bit to make speaking easier. “Hey. Can you try to push your mana into the mana core in my backpack?” I ask.

At my request, Thatch smiles. “Way ahead of you,” he says, pressing it into my hand. The light in our little cave shifts. It wasn’t glowing fungus - it was the core, filled to the brim. 

“Before you devour that mana we so graciously present you,” Amelie joins in, “perhaps we can interest you in engaging with the need for sustenance most humans share?”

Oh, right. Food. I feel hungry. Very hungry. My healing spell probably converts a good chunk of mana to flesh, but it’s not high level enough yet to use only mana. Instead, it probably eats into my fat reserves a good bit, converting all that stored energy into more skin. So, I get to be fed by Thatch too, having him nurse me back to health. He takes care not to touch me. Both out of respect, and because my skin is raw and blistered.

Only once I’ve eaten a full plate, and my hunger settles down a little do I absorb the mana from the core, filling my vessel to halfway full. I hand the gem back to the others, to be filled again. Amelie and Richard seem to be doing the lion’s share of the donating, and I appreciate that.

The hiy’ht also occasionally saunters over to me and siphons some of the heat coming off my body, cooling me down. She sucks in big gulps of hot air, drawing out more streams of warmth with some kind of special skill. Then, she gives a small burp. 

My skin knits closed some more. After eating, drinking, talking, and healing, I feel rather tired. “I’m going to sleep,” I tell the others. “Let me know if something happens.

Chapter 50: Healing

The next time I wake, it’s because of the noise of fighting.

Chitin breaks against the blows of my companions, and then rises again as puppets of Amelie. She can control five of them, now, much more than at the start. By now, I wonder if the dreadarmor she controls is stronger than it was back at the dungeon.

Slowly, blearily, I blink. I’m alive. My mana is full. I cast [Suppression] - and then Bay pokes me in the side, making me wince, interfering with the skill. “Don’t waste your mana,” she says slowly. “You need it, Snow.”

“... Right,” I say. Amusing, isn’t it? That my first thought, while laying on the floor in a soupy heap of blood and pus, my first thought is to debuff our enemies. Well, I suppose [Suppression] is what I’ve been doing all my life, so it’s no real surprise.

More mana flows into healing me, my entire vessel emptied, and that pressure against my sternum disappears. I breathe a little easier, then pull more mana into me from the glowing core in my body. And then I heal some more.

The fighting dies down. I get fed again, and today, I can even move my arm a little. It still shakes too much to get the spoon in my mouth, so Opal does it. 

I look at them. “Mention the aeroplane once and I will get upset,” I warn them.

“The train-”

“Opal.”

“Right, right,” they say, then give a soft laugh, scratching the back of their head. “Sorry. Here, silly Snow. Eat.” And, miraculously, for once, they manage to do something without cracking a quip every five seconds. Truly, I am impressed.

This time, I am also wise enough to check my notifications.

[Level up! 19 > 22]

[Class up! Deconstructor 9 > 10]

[Job Up! Enchanter 5 > 7]

The world was watching. And it saw me survive. It saw me… well, triumph is a strong word, but at the end of the day, that is what happened. I have nine stat points to allocate. With a heavy consciousness, I place three in heart. It hurts my soul, but it nourishes my body, and more of my wounds vanish.

I still have six more, though. And since I have a healing spell, well, more mana is almost as good as more health, right? Probably. Surely. I place six points in vessel. Then, I call up my status.

Name: Snow Okiyama - Ion

Floor: 1

Class: <Deconstructor> - 10

Job: <Enchanter> - 7

Lv. 22

Heart: 20

Power: 6

Vessel: 74

Skills:

• [Suppression lv. 10]

• [Selection lv. 8]

• [Solidification lv. 6]

• [Deconstruction lv. 7]

• [Inscription lv. 3]

• [Flesh Restoration lv. 4]

Okay. I’ve gotten a few natural points, too. If my calculations are right, that’s… three natural in heart, one in power, and two in vessel. A small smile spreads on my face. That’s rather wonderful.

With the points allocated, I also spend a little bit of mana on healing. And, for the first time in a few days, I get to see from my left eye. It’s sticky, and blurry, and it makes a disgusting squelching noise every time I blink, but I do see from it, just a little. How charming.

Then, there are only two more notifications.

[You have caught the Eye of the Embrace.]

It’s ominous, and it feels different from the others. I know the others. Creeping Darkness is a bit petty, the Master of Suffering a bit of a jerk, the Manipulator trying to sabotage me, and so on… but none of them are like this.

None of them are heavy.

When I read the message, I feel a weight on my chest. Like someone pressing down on me, as if I dove too deep in a pool. It presses against my ears, against my ribs, and it tries to force the breath from my lungs. It’s heavy, unbelievably heavy. Withering, gnawing, rotting, welcoming.

There’s no need to repeat the message. I know exactly what the Embrace is about. And I know why it watches me, too. I just don’t know its end goal.

[The Creeping Darkness tells all the others it was there first!]

[The Master of Suffering laughs at the display. It, for one, welcomes the Embrace.]

A few more notifications pop up, but I wave my fingers through them, dispelling them into clouds of stardust. They don’t matter. I pause. I waved my fingers through them. I raise my arm in front of me.

My skin looks… well, it’s hard to tell, with poor eyesight and dim light, but it looks much better than it did. I smile, just a bit. A little longer. All I need to do is wait a little longer. A day? Two? Three? Then I can go back to using my mana for useful things, like practice. I cannot let the other humans pull ahead of me.

Finally, just one more thing to focus on.

[Congratulations!]

[You have raised your first skill to level 10. For your exemplary performance, you have acquired 1 class change voucher.]

[Congratulations!]

[You have reached level 10 in your first class. To continue advancing, change your class with a voucher or via tithe. Additional details will be revealed. Brace.]

More information pours into me, making my head pound. Changing one’s class and job isn’t simple, not at all. Earning vouchers to advance is usually done by sacrificing requests. A voucher is worth about three minor requests, though that changes depending on the class. Tithe, on the other hand, is different.

It consists of completing quests for the tower itself. Effectively, hunting down people that there are bounties on, cleaning infestations, dealing with… rifts? Going through dungeons, bringing back interesting materials, or demonstrating outstanding prowess.

The most common versions of tithe are advancement achievements and tribulations. The first is doing something so exemplary that you are permitted to move on, having shown full mastery of your class. I could have done that had I [Deconstructed] the charging spell, or bits of the pillar, maybe.

Tribulations are the other common method. Those are a petition to the tower itself - a declaration that you are either worthy or deserve to be struck down. You will be presented a challenge to earn your advancement.

For my first class change, I am spared this trouble. Instead, I trigger the voucher, and the options pour out in front of me.

Chapter 51: New Class

[Class Options: <Analyst>, <Sorcerer>, [New!] <Moonlit Dervish>, [New!] <Vesselsmith>, [New!] <Healer>, [New!] <Deathseer>, [New!] <Nullmage>, [New!] <Gloomsoul (sponsored)>, [New!] <Styxstrider (sponsored)>]

I draw in a breath through my teeth. Those are more options than I had the first time. A few are still hidden, mainly sponsored ones that wouldn’t be beneficial to me. There are classes offered by everyone who is keeping an Eye on me. Do they… have to offer a sponsored class?

They probably do. That makes sense. The only ones to pop up, though, are just two sponsored ones. I suspect that gloomsoul is linked to the Creeping Darkness, and something better than it offered last time. It seems fond of me. Funny how that works.

Why didn’t the Master of Suffering offer me something decent this time, I wonder? Actually, no, I don’t wonder. He wants to see me suffer. But it’s not just that… he’s clever. Yeah, he is. His offer is neither good nor bad, because he knows I won’t take it, so he’s not wasting my time. I smirk. Good.

The other sponsored option feels heavy. Styx. That was the river of the dead, wasn’t it? Yeah. I know who this one is from. And, no, I’m not interested.

Analyst and sorcerer carry over from my first choice, though debuffer is gone. I suspect it’s included in one of the new classes. The dervish is from the essence I stole from Sylves, essence I’m still digesting, and don’t want to rely on. Vesselsmith sounds like it’d be focused around giving myself as much mana as possible… ah, that one sounds tempting. Really, really tempting. I kind of want it. 

But then there’s deathseer. A class I earned myself, from a brush that was just a little too close. I smile at it, then wave it aside. No, that’s not who I am. And, of course, the humble healer. Tempting, but no. 

Finally, <Nullmage>. 

A smile creeps onto my face. Yeah, I think I know exactly where my debuffer class went. Into there. Into the evolution of what I’m currently using. Something that specializes in picking apart other people’s abilities. And that’s what makes it different from all the others.

It promises that I’ll be able to fulfill my curiosity. Not just about the few questions that the class pertains to, but any of them, if I work hard enough. A small smile spreads on my face. I pick it.

[Class gained: <Nullmage>]

[Stat bonuses: +1 > +3 Vessel per level ]

[Experience modules: Deconstruction, Disruption]

And there, on my status, it stays.

<Nullmage> - 0 (II)

It’s denominated as my second class. In fact, now that I know these denominations exist, I’m pretty sure that anthropologist was also Paulino’s second job. He took it above level 10, after all. 

I keep all the stats from my first class, and the bonuses are increased, now. I wonder how high I gotta take this one before it evolves again. How exciting. Now, there’s just one more thing I wanna know - what’s my acquisition bonus?

[Essence Bestowed: Breaking Magic.]

As an enchanter, I got an essence package. This class could have granted me a new skill, maybe upgraded one I had or fused them… but I almost prefer this. The essence isn’t absolute, it doesn’t control me. It just feels like a guidebook I can open in my mental library. 

The pour turns into a trickle, but it doesn’t abate. It feels like my class is constantly feeding me new information on how to perceive and interact with mana, how typical structures look like, and how to take them apart. It sharpens my senses, and my intuition.

A small, content sigh escapes my lips. I may be hurt, may be bleeding out, but this? It’s satisfying. Despite everything, it feels worth it. Ah, except for that one small tragedy. The fact that I need to use my mana to heal myself instead of using it with my class.

Oh well. It can wait. Just a few more days. A few more days is all I need. Then, I’ll be back in full swing. To keep busy while awake, I trace the runes on my mana maze. It’s a strong training tool, and there’s some greater secret it’s trying to teach me. I just gotta find it.

No rest for the wicked. A few more days, then I could rest even less.

- - -

I wake up to a scream.

It’s not my own, though. It’s Sylves. “My arm?!” she screams.

Ah. Yeah, that’s probably fair. The others swarm around her, like bees, trying to see her first. Oh, she’s hyperventilating. I feel Inu reach out with [Empathy], and since I just woke up, I help a little. 

[Suppression] brushes against Sylves and very gently weighs her down, physically, like a blanket. I also apply it to her panic, just a tiny bit, more to create distance between her and the emotion than anything else. 

Sylves looks at me. Her eyes are open wide, and she wiggles her stump. Ah. She can tell what I’m doing. “My arm,” she whispers. “What… my arm. My arm. Fuck. Fuck!” It makes everyone else shut up.

“Yeah,” I say into the silence. “We’re both in kinda shitty shape.” The girl swallows heavily in reply to my statement, but she nods. I give her a faint, gentle smile. “But we’re alive.”

At that, she leans back. For a long moment, she’s quiet, staring at the ceiling of the cave. When she talks, it’s shaky, quiet, and tragic. “Yeah,” she says, her voice quivering with a broken heart. “I’m… alive.”

I wish I could say that it hurt, that I feel terrible seeing her like that, that it breaks my heart. I want to say that, but I don’t want to be a liar, either. At the end of the day, I’m happy she’s alive, and that is the truth. Surely. Surely. It must be.

She breathes again. “Thanks, Snow. You’re… disarming.” The laugh she gives at the end of that is a pale, cracking imitation of her usual cheer, that breaks into sobs halfway through. Opal looks to the side, grimacing. Did they want to make the joke? Probably, though it must also just be hard to hear Sylves cry.

“Hey,” I speak quietly. “You’re a fairy now, right?” I ask.

Her crying hitches. She turns to me, face messy with tears. “Y-yeah?”

“How many arms do fairies have?” I ask.

Sylves blinks at me, then breaks into a pitiful, shaky smile. “I dunno. How many?”

Oh shit. Pressure’s on. “One for each deal they shake on, right?”

Gently, the smile grows a bit more honest. “Right. I’ll… make more deals. Yeah. That’s what fae do.” Her stump wriggles as she tries to jerk her elbow in a victorious pose. She pauses, for a long moment, then instead turns to her left arm, and makes a celebratory fist with that one. 

No one talks, and she takes a long, shaky breath. Then she wipes her tears away. “Thanks.”

“It’s okay to cry,” I say.

“I know,” she says. “Yeah, I know. I’ll… I’ll figure something out, yeah?”

“Yeah.”

Then, silence, for a long moment. A long, long moment.

Until, eventually, Thatch speaks up. “Let’s eat,” he says. “You two need plenty of strength to heal up.” And so, we do. And, for the first time in days, I have enough strength to bring the spoon to my lips myself.