The Fusionist Book 3 -- Chapter 50

Chapter 50

Apparently, Larek had accidentally made greater strides in his advancement than he thought was possible.

Body Regeneration has reached Level 27!

……

Body Regeneration has reached Level 30!

Not only had he increased his Body Regeneration Skill, thanks in no small part to all the damage that had been done to it via his destructive plummet into the lake, but he maxed it out at Level 30. The result of that increase in his skill actually boosted his overall Level to 22, which also had the benefit of giving him an extra 18 AP to distribute into his stats, for a total of 20 AP with what he had previously. Along with over 5,000 AF gained from killing all those Greater Trizards, he now had a lot of choices to make with how he wanted to distribute his resources.

But that wasn’t the biggest surprise in his notifications, because he also achieved something that he hadn’t thought was possible, and it changed his whole outlook on the future.

Congratulations!

Defying your fate in the face of imminent death has unlocked your full potential, Guardian!

Stama Subjugation Skill has been unlocked!

Stama Subjugation has reached Level 1!

New Skills have been added to improvement through allocation of Aetheric Force!

New—

ERROR DETECTED

Flaw in stat alignment present… correcting…

Unable to correct…

Incompatibilities normalized…

Adjusting stats…

Adjustment complete!

There was an awkward wrenching in his body and Pattern Cohesion when he read the notification; it was riding right on the edge of pain while he writhed on the ground, his blood feeling like it was burning him from the inside, but it thankfully it faded after a few minutes of near-painless torture. He opened his Status and looked anything that had recently changed.

Larek Holsten

Fusionist

Healer

Level 22

Advancement Points (AP) : 3/18

Available AP to Distribute: 20

Available Aetheric Force (AF): 5,424

Stama: 830/830

Mana: 1400/1400

Strength: 75 [83] (+)

Body: 75 [83] (+)

Agility: 75 [83] (+)

Intellect: 70 [140] (+)

Acuity: 104 [208] (+)

Pneuma: 747 [1,494]

Pattern Cohesion: 9,574/14,940

Martial Skills:

Stama Subjugation Level 1/20 (100 AF)

Blunt Weapon Expertise Level 1/20 (200 AF)

Bladed Weapon Expertise Level 2/20 (200 AF)

Throwing Level 5/20 (200 AF)

Dodge Level 10/20 (200 AF)

Pain Immunity Level 20/20 (N/A)

Body Regeneration Level 30/30 (300 AF)

The changes to his Status were subtle, but significant for all of that they weren’t immediately obvious. As to the notification about an “ERR0R” being detected in his stat alignment, he wasn’t sure what that meant exactly, but from what he could tell, the relationship between his Body and his Pneuma stats was strengthened, and the 4 points that he had put into the Pneuma stat so long ago were now included in the multiplication by his Body stat – but it was more than that now.

Originally, he had thought that every point he put into Body also added 5 points to his Pneuma, which was highly beneficial, of course. But now that he looked at it closer, he realized that the relationship between the two stats was broken, for want of a better word. What it was supposed to do was multiply his Body by his original Pneuma stat, which he calculated to have only been 5, giving him a final Pneuma of 100 when he first unlocked his stats. When he added 4 to the stat later, it wasn’t factored into the multiplication because there was something wrong with the connection between them. Now that it appeared to be fixed, he now technically had 9 Pneuma, which was then multiplied by his Body stat, which was 83 with the +1 Boost Fusion on his robe, giving him a total of 747 Pneuma, or 1,494 with his +10 Boost Fusion.

At first, it seemed like it was entirely beneficial, but when he noticed that there was no longer a (+) next to Pneuma, meaning that he couldn’t add any more AP to it, he began to worry. An attempt to add an AP to the stat did absolutely nothing – it was as if he suddenly ran into a wall. If he wasn’t able to increase his Pneuma, how would he be able to increase his Pattern Cohesion in the future? Granted, he had a lot of it right now, nearly 15,000 in fact, but he knew that stronger and more-complicated Fusions that he wanted to create once he was able to create Advanced Fusions would require more, so he would eventually hit his limit.

It wasn’t until he did a little more searching through his stats that he had a sudden intuition that his Martial stats – Strength, Body, and Agility – weren’t as limited as they were before. Based on what he looked at next, which was his new Stama Subjugation Skill, it felt like his Martial stats were also “unlocked” for him, despite already having access to them. He was confident that if he utilized a Strength Boost +10, Agility Boost +10, or – most importantly – a Body Boost +10, he would no longer suffer from the increase. That meant that if he was able to effectively double his Body, he could subsequently double his Pneuma and Pattern Cohesion at the same time. Not only that, but the restriction of keeping his Martial stats even so that he didn’t feel wildly unbalanced seemed to be lifted, as he was confident he could add all 20 of his AP to Body and it would be just fine.

There were solutions to his problem, after all.

With his stats now adjusted and more in balance than they ever were, Larek closed his eyes again and looked at his Pattern Cohesion, wanting to see how it had fared after all of the changes. Thankfully, the alteration of his stats didn’t seem to have harmed his internal pattern any more than it already had been; if anything, the increase in his Pneuma seemed to have a soothing effect upon its ragged edges, like a healing balm that would help speed up its healing. Instead of weeks or perhaps months of recuperation, he thought it might only be at most a week before he could start making Fusions again, as long as he took it easy.

Finding himself better than he had been just an hour or so ago, the Fusionist turned his attention to his new Skill. Obtaining Stama Subjugation, the Skill required to handle his Stama, was a vast surprise, but he supposed his near-death experience with the fall into the lake, extreme injuries, and almost drowning contributed to a situation that “cracked it open”, as Penelope had mentioned. When he delved his mind into his chest, he could feel the roiling energy that he identified as his Stama right where it had always been – but now he felt as if he could begin to interact with it. He didn’t do much more than mentally touch it before pulling away, as he didn’t have the energy to experiment at the moment, but he hoped to a lot more when he was in a better position.

As for the Battle Art he had already unlocked, he could feel that it was right on the edge of understanding how to activate it at will, but he also sensed that he didn’t exactly have enough control of his Stama to do it reliably. Resolving to wait until he had increased his new Skill at least a few Levels before trying it out, he last turned to his Martial Skills and found that they all now had a cost in Aetheric Force listed next to them where there had been simply (N/A) before. Though that wasn’t entirely true, as Pain Immunity seemed to have that label still, as if it had already been increased to the maximum and couldn’t increase any further no matter how much Aetheric Force was thrown at it. Given its name, though, he supposed that there wasn’t anything better than “immunity” to pain, so it made sense.

With his Stama and Martial side of his abilities now “unlocked”, Larek realized that there was now one less reason to go to Fort Ironwall. Granted, he only had a vague description of how to utilize his Stama and how to appropriately use it in Battle Arts, but he had a feeling he would eventually figure it out with enough practice. That still left finding his friends and learning how to fight, which was still greatly needed, but was it enough to risk going to the Fort? He wasn’t in as much danger of his Stama getting out of control now that he had the Skill to manage it, so the pressure to go was a lot less intense than it was a short time ago.

There was a risk in going, after all, as it would mean being closer proximity to those who could reveal his nature to the Gergasi. He had narrowly managed to escape from a short life of torture before death and had no desire to end up back there if he could prevent that possibility. Finding his family, on the other hand, was something he would risk doing – if only to ensure they were safe. He still desired to help out the Kingdom somehow, as the threat of the Apertures and the monsters that came out of them was still there, but would he have to tie himself to the SIC to do that?

It was something to think on, but he didn’t have to make a decision either way at the moment. Right now, the most important thing for Larek to do was to get up and moving to find some sort of civilization nearby. Not only did he need to find out where he ended up, but could also use a mountain of food to help replenish the resources his body had used up. A place to sleep that wasn’t the middle of a potentially dangerous forest would be nice, as well. The night before – has it only been half a day since we left Whittleton? – inside the Waterbury Inn and the enormous bed spoiled him after roughing it for the previous week outside, and he wasn’t ashamed to use the coinage he had in his bag to purchase another good night’s sleep somewhere safe.

Picking himself up again from the ground with a slight groan, he made sure his pack was secured to his back while he held his axe in his right hand just under its head, ready to use in case he was attacked. While he thought he might be outside of the Kingdom, he couldn’t know for sure and wanted to be prepared if he was attacked by nearby monsters.

Moving further into the odd trees, he carefully picked his way through the foliage as he listened for any kind of movement around him. He’d learned a tiny bit of tracking and moving stealthily through over the landscape after watching Vivienne do it so often, but he was by no means good at it; he still had a lot to learn about that kind of thing, which was another point in favor for visiting Fort Ironwall to gain that kind of knowledge.

Angling his direction to the northeast, which was the direction he saw the two scavengers scamper off to earlier, he only traveled for less than an hour before the trees began to thin considerably. A few minutes later, they disappeared entirely, exposing the landscape in front of him – which was certainly not what he was expecting.

Larek had come out of the last of the trees on a slight hill, giving him a view of what appeared to be a hot and humid semi-flooded plain. Off to the southeast was an extremely wide river that he could barely see the other side of, and rivulets led off from the engorged waterway to spill out along the rest of the landscape. Strangely terraced fields of what he could only assume were a few harvestable plants were scattered all over the eastern and northern portion of his view, and he could see people working in these fields. He thought they were harvesting them, given that it was fall and that was when he heard it happened most often, but the more he observed their actions, it looked like they were planting things in the exposed soil instead.

Every single one of them was wearing something similar to the scavengers that had accosted him earlier, though these appeared in better condition and not as ragged. With a better look at them, he realized that all of them were quite pale of skin where it was largely covered by their loose clothing draped over them, while anything exposed to the sun beating down on them was slightly reddened as if sunburned. For some reason, he was surprised to see that they weren’t tanned like most of those from where he came from, but that also gave credence to the fact that he wasn’t in the Kingdom anymore.

With their hair cut short and in shades of dark red to light brown, their appearance was slightly odd to him, but he took that as a good sign. Without the prejudice of the Kingdom hounding him, even if he was still wearing Shinpai’s ring, he felt more confident of making his way into the large town he saw to the northeast, which was nearly large enough to be considered a city, he thought. The strangest thing he noticed about it was that there was absolutely no wall surrounding any of the buildings, though he thought he saw some sort of stone-walled compound somewhere in the middle, but couldn’t be completely sure.

Seeing civilization ahead of him and the prospect of food and a bed to finish recuperating in, Larek started to walk toward the town in the distance. As soon as he walked down the slight hill he had been observing the landscape from, he discovered that finding his way to town was easier said than done, as it was difficult to pick his way through the flooded portions of the terraced plain without stomping all over the fields in his way.

Still, the Fusionist persevered and eventually came to an elevated road of some sort he thought would lead to the town. While he was making his way there, he was cognizant of many of the people in the fields moving away from him and running toward the buildings in the distance, but his exhausted mind and body figured that it was just time for them to stop working for the day and go home. It wasn’t exactly late yet, as the sun would still probably be up for a couple of hours, but he also didn’t know when they started the day – so they could’ve been working for most of the day already.

It wasn’t until he was approximately a half-mile from the town that he saw a group of people heading his way from the direction of the town, but these people were different from the ones he saw in the fields before. Riding horses and wearing shiny armor that gleamed in the slowly descending sunlight, the contingent of approximately 20 figures were intimidating to say the least, as each of them held a long spear held rigidly upright, while one of their number had some sort of colored fabric attached to it that fluttered with the wind of their passing.

As they got closer, Larek stopped and moved to the side of the raised road, thinking that they were intending to pass him. While he stood there, he tried to see what they looked like a little better, as they looked like Martials of some sort, but he didn’t see any sign of an SIC badge anywhere on their person or on their banner-like fabric attached to what appeared to be a wooden pole. With their full helmets hiding their faces, he couldn’t even say if they looked like the same kind of people as those in the fields earlier – which he just noticed were completely empty. He knew he wasn’t moving that fast along the road, as he was conserving his energy, but their rapid disappearance was a shock.

“HALT!” the armored rider in the front of the group shouted as soon as they were close enough for Larek to hear him. The Fusionist just looked around to see who he was talking to, given that he had already stopped walking a while ago, but didn’t see anyone. A second or so later, the entire company of riders stopped and surrounded Larek on the road in a semicircle, before leveling their spears directly at him.

I guess that means they were talking to me.

“You’re wanted under suspicion of attacking an Ectorian earlier today.” The lead rider spoke loudly but didn’t shout, and Larek was slightly surprised to hear a feminine voice coming from inside the helmet. Not that he didn’t think she looked like she should be commanding the contingent of armored individuals, but because the “HALT” from earlier sounded masculine and harsh. “You will come with us now or be killed immediately.”

As he thought about protesting, one look at the speartips that were only a few feet away from his face made him think again. He thought that this might all just be a misunderstanding, as he could only assume that the person he had injured earlier had told someone what happened, so he thought it better to go along with them for now. He was in no condition to fight, and while he thought his Fusions would help protect him quite a bit if he was attacked, he didn’t want to take the chance of getting injured again. Besides, he needed information, food, and supplies if he was going to leave this place sometime soon for the Kingdom, and that would be difficult if he ended up hurting some of their… guards? Protectors? Martials? He wasn’t sure what they were called here, but he was fairly certain that none of them were able to wield Stama or Mana.

As he nodded and said, “Alright, I’m coming with you,” he was immediately marched down the road inside a circle of horses that gave him no room to escape even if he had the strength for it. The building of the town ahead slowly got bigger as he saw them through the gaps of his escort, but he ignored how different they appeared compared to the ones in the Kingdom in favor of thinking about something quite inane.

If the scavengers and these people are from the same place, where’s the accent?