He was feeling restless, so he decided to stretch his legs while scouting the next few caverns. If he discovered anything dangerous, he could start working out a strategy to deal with the problem, shaving some time off their journey.
His plan fell apart five minutes later.
The moment Edge set foot into the adjoining enclosure, his Guide appeared bearing a message from the System.
Congratulations. You have completed the pioneers’ quest: Escape the Deep-Gill Grottos.
You have accomplished a notable feat and have been awarded a trait.
Trait: Spelunker
I didn’t think you had it in you, but once again, you’ve proven to be remarkably resourceful and harder to kill than a stage-seven cockroach. Not only have you managed to successfully cross an unknown biome filled with hostile beasts, you did it fast enough to make it in time for the main event.
If you hurry, you can join the showdown between Puppet Town’s expeditionary force and the Crimson Claws, which is set to begin approximately… now. The fight with the fish was fun, and I’m ready to enjoy the second screening of this glorious double feature, so get up there and show those jailbirds what the hunters of Ord are made of.
I’m rooting for you, although watching you die should be almost as entertaining. Either way, today is going to be awesome.
Effects: +3 to all attributes.
When Edge finished reading the last line, he ran back the way he had come. He yelled to wake up Sasha and Mel, then waved the women over to the spot the System had designated as the end of the Deep-Gill Grottos. Everyone came racing to join him, receiving the same update when they came to a stop beside him.
“Oh shit.” Lilly reached the end of the message first. “We need to get up there ASAP. Give me just a second to equip this trait.”
Everyone pulled up their menus so they could equip it too. Edge’s trait slots were full, but he had a Trait-Removal Token sitting in his belt pouch, which meant he could swap out Fit and Toned for Spelunker. Since he was trading +1 to his physical attributes for +3 across the board, it was all upside, and he didn’t have to weigh any pros and cons.
He popped into his inner world to save time, then pulled out the token and informed the System he wanted to remove a trait. Like the other tokens he’d used, the thin metal disc floated up from his hand and started spinning, staying by his head this time since he was using it on himself and not one of his skills.
The token sparkled and let out a few bolts of black lightning as its magic took hold. He felt his body grow weaker as his Guide appeared and the token crumbled into dust.
You have successfully unequipped the trait: Fit and Toned.
You now have 1 free trait slot.
Fit and Toned may be equipped again later if you desire.
Edge pulled up his profile, then equipped Spelunker. When he confirmed his decision, the System’s magic settled around his body, enhancing its functions without making any permanent alterations as the trait boosted its performance beyond what Fit and Toned had provided. He was also picking up a nine-point bonus to his energetic attributes, infusing his core with two cycles’ worth of upgrades all at the same time.
He had just experienced a net gain of 23 attribute points at once, and the alterations were overwhelming at first. Thankfully, time ran slow inside his core, so he could adapt to the enhancements without causing much of a delay.
After adjusting to the changes, he stepped back into his body, put everyone’s bedrolls into his vault, then got ready to join the battle to save Trapper’s team.
Attributes boosted by their new trait, the crew started running toward the surface—desperate to reach their friends before it was too late. The next time they stopped to drink some water and recover their stamina, Edge pulled up his profile, going over everything he’d gained since meeting up with Lilly, Sasha, and Mel.
Personal Statistics: Edge Vasher
Attributes (Values in parentheses are provided by your traits)
Physical Attributes
Power: 20 (25)
Endurance: 20 (25)
Durability: 30 (36)
Reflex: 17 (20)
Speed: 20 (25)
Control: 20 (25)
Perception: 23 (26)
Energetic Attributes
Generation: 28 (31)
Amplification: 36 (39)
Disruption: 30 (36)
Core Information
Name: [Skill-Eater]
Stage: 2
Cycle: 25/63
Rarity: Unique
Category: Unique
Attribute points per cycle: 5
Ultimate Abilities
[Extraction]
Uses per day: 3
Cooldown period: 20 hours
Steal the skills of monsters, men, and beasts and claim them for your own.
[Overdrive]
Cooldown period: 1 week
Overdrive increases your Amplification by (10 x stage) for 60 seconds. Activating skills will not require mana during this period. You will be severely exhausted for 60 seconds after Overdrive is complete.
Skill Bond
Your relationship with your skills will enhance their power. As these bonds deepen, it may alter their behavior in novel ways.
Core Traits
Collector (Unique)
You can no longer acquire or rank up skills through normal means. You may slot twice as many skills as before. Additionally, you will gain an extra skill slot with every new stage.
Devourer (Unique)
You may absorb an unwanted skill, freeing its slot and granting a fraction of its experience to the skill of your choice. Be advised, the return on this exchange is significantly less efficient than extracting a duplicate of an existing skill.
Skills
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
Skill slots: 18 (Unused slots: 2)
Conceal (Common): Rank 4. Paths: Erasure/Mana-Suppression.
Erase your scent, heat signature, and mana signature while you remain still. Visually, you will appear to blend into your environment. The last 25 feet of your trail will be removed on activation.
Leap (Common): Rank 3. Path: Assault.
Jump with explosive force. Increases Durability for 10 seconds after activation.
Counter Disruption (Uncommon): Rank 2. Path: Dual-Link.
Enhance two paired powers by making them resistant to Disruption Fields.
Harden (Uncommon): Rank 3. Path: Coverage.
Cover large portions of your body in diamond scales.
Regeneration (Uncommon): Rank 4. Paths: Unlimited Regeneration/Purification.
Rapidly heal wounds. Regeneration can restore destroyed organs at a significantly slower rate. Regeneration will actively purify foreign mana from your body.
Regulate Temperature
(Uncommon): Rank 3. Path: Protection.
Gain significant insulation against temperature change, including elemental attacks.
Repel Water
Push large volumes of water away from the user. The shape of the repulsive field can be altered at will. Additionally, a second field may be placed that manifests a considerable volume of water.
All-Seeing Gaze
(Rare): Rank 1.
You may peer through plants or use particles of mana to create a representation of your environment. The first configuration of this power includes a weak thermal vision component. Additional information may be revealed while using both modes at once, although doing so may induce sensory overload.
Double Slash (Rare): Rank 3. Path: Disruption.
Empower an attack with a bladed weapon. The weapon will have an offset double, and its edge will be magically sharpened while the skill is active. Additionally, the blade will be coated in a weak Disruption field.
Elemental Blade
Create a subzero blade of ice or infuse a bladed weapon with a chilling aura.
Sense Natural Treasures
(Rare): Rank 2. Path: Rarity.
Detect any nearby resources that are unusually rare, valuable, or useful in crafting. These deposits will be indicated by glowing light, with brightness corresponding to size and quality. This power may penetrate several feet into earth or stone and can detect even minute quantities of extremely rare resources.
Shadow Step (Rare): Rank 3. Path: Armored Shadow.
Transform into shadows. In this state, your body is malleable and immune to physical attacks. The cost of transforming your gear is greatly reduced.
Warlord’s Mantle
Cover yourself and chosen allies within range with a mantle of mana. Anyone bolstered by Warlord’s Mantle will receive a moderate boost to Power and Speed and a modest bonus to Reflex and Control. Additionally, they will receive a slight enhancement to their combat awareness. Any blow passing through the mantle will have a portion of its energy sapped.
Intimidating Roar (Epic): Rank 2. Path: Pack Leader.
This aural attack infuses the listener’s nervous system with a powerful wave of mana, creating an intense state of fear. Intimidating Roar can cause complete paralysis against weaker opponents and may impair stronger creatures to a lesser extent. Allied creatures will not be affected by this skill.
Fear the Seasons
(Epic): Rank 2. Path: Elemental Enhancement.
This skill features two separate components, which are both influenced by the turning of the seasons. The passive component may be activated independently of the domain and provides a significant bonus to a single attribute. Manifesting the domain requires payment up front and costs a modest amount of mana to maintain.
At Rank 2, Fear the Seasons provides the following benefits:
Season (Passive attribute bonus, Element bonus, Domain)
Spring: Generation, Water, Deluge.
Summer: Power, Fire, Heatwave.
Fall: Speed, Wind, Maelstrom.
Winter: Disruption, Ice, Blizzard.
Additional powers may be unlocked as the skill advances in rank.
The current season is: Fall.
Manifest Chain
You may summon a chain of oblivion and guide it by your will. The chain may also be freed to act at its own discretion. If the manifestation is destroyed, it cannot be summoned again for 24 hours.
At Rank 2, you may only manifest the left chain, Foebinder. Foebinder can carry considerable weight and features considerable retractive power. It is resilient to physical attacks and weak against magic.
Traits
Trait slots: 5 (Unused slots: 0)
Triple Tap
You are either a genius, blessed by the heavens, or the luckiest motherfucker on the planet. You managed to win a fight against three opponents at least one stage higher than yourself and—more or less—landed the killing blow on each.
Effects: +10% to Power, Speed, and Control (minimum gain of 1).
Wanted
You have found 1 of the 21 Unique cores in existence, which has painted a target on your back. In fact, checking out the bounty board is probably something you should do sooner rather than later.
There’s a good chance that this is going to end spectacularly badly for you, and I can’t wait to watch it all play out. This trait might help you live a little bit longer, but I’m not holding my breath.
Effects: +10% to Endurance, Durability, and Disruption (minimum gain of 1).
Big Game Hunter
Holy shit. That. Was. Fucking. Awesome!
You managed to score a kill on a colossal and behemoth creature, all in the same afternoon. I’m shocked to my circuits that you’re still breathing and loved every second of the show.
I hope that you try something that batshit crazy again soon. Here’s a trait that should incentivize you to do just that.
Effect: 50% more damage with weapons and skills to creatures at least 20 times your size (excluding magitech weapons, traps, and spellshots).
25% extra Perception when sensing creatures at least twice your size.
Raid Wiper
Your actions have led to the death of multiple cored crews in a short span of time. Your involvement wasn’t direct enough to award experience, but you get an A+ for effort. Not to mention, a sexy new trait to commemorate the achievement.
Don’t worry, none of your people were inside when the dungeon sealed itself.
Effects: +30% damage dealt when facing 5 or more enemies at or above your stage (excluding magitech weapons, traps, and spellshots). Once activated, this bonus will persist until the end of the fight.
Spelunker
I didn’t think you had it in you, but once again, you’ve proven to be remarkably resourceful and harder to kill than a stage-seven cockroach. Not only have you managed to successfully cross an unknown biome filled with hostile beasts, you did it fast enough to make it in time for the main event.
If you hurry, you can join the showdown between Puppet Town’s expeditionary force and the Crimson Claws, which is set to begin approximately… now. The fight with the fish was fun, and I’m ready to enjoy the second screening of this glorious double feature, so get up there and show those jailbirds what the hunters of Ord are made of.
I’m rooting for you, although watching you die should be almost as entertaining. Either way, today is going to be awesome.
Effects: +3 to all attributes.
Fit and Toned (unequipped)
You’ve managed to push your new body to the limit, maxing your conditioning across the board. I must admit that you’re looking pretty good. The monsters will have some eye candy to appreciate while they’re tearing you apart. That being said, you aren’t the baddest mofo in the dungeon. Not by a long shot.
Oh, and be careful—I don’t think the bone slime will be alive for much longer.
Effects: +1 to all physical attributes.
Implants and Runic Bonds
Implants
Implant points: 6 (Unused points: 0)
Heart-Guard (Common)
Size: Small (1 implant point). Aether type: Silver. Charge: Low.
This implant generates a barrier to protect the heart when it detects incoming damage.
Auxiliary Skill Slot (Uncommon)
Size: Small (1 implant point). Aether type: N/A.
This Auxiliary Skill Slot can be used to socket an extra skill beyond the limit of your core. The skill placed in this slot cannot gain experience, cycle up, or be merged or altered in any way, although it can be Absorbed and replaced with a new skill at will.
This is a passive, structural implant. As such, it does not require an aether charge to function.
Contents: Gauge Depth.
Bound Runes
Frostfury Medallion (Rare)
Type: Runic item.
Strain: Low (1 implant point).
Significantly boost the output of all cold-based magic.
Rune of Spatial Storage (Epic).
Type: Core rune.
Strain: High (3 implant points).
This rune creates a spatial storage chamber within your body that can be accessed at will. The dimensions of the chamber total 5,000 cubic feet, and its maximum load is 2,000 pounds. Storing and retrieving items from this space will drain a small amount of mana.
System Currency
Credits: 104,150
Mortium: 83
I’ve come a long way in a short span of time. I just hope it’s enough to save our people.
As the crew ran through tunnel after tunnel, Edge conducted a strategic review, contemplating the totality of his powers so everything would be fresh in his mind before joining the big fight. His reservoir was full, and it looked like all three charges of Extraction would be ready in time. He wished he had some consumables or mana seeds at his disposal, but after his stay in the Savage Garden and Sweltering Green, he was completely out.
When he was done, he turned his attention to the rest of his team. The women were injured, but not too severely, and Lilly’s ointment was helping to speed up their healing.
All things considered, it could be a lot worse. If they made it in time, the crew was in good shape to make a difference, hopefully tipping the scales in Puppet Town’s favor and giving the Claws a surprise they would remember for the rest of their lives. Which, with any luck, would soon end in one gruesome manner or another.
A few hours later, Edge’s Guide appeared again. When he opened his menus, he had a message waiting. Since there was only one person on the planet who could send them, he already knew who it was from.
Everyone stopped while he relayed the information contained in Sakura’s message, which was considerably more detailed than the System’s warning.
“Edge. I can’t tell you how glad I am to see your name. I thought you were dead when you vanished from my list of available contacts. You’re back in range of my ability, and there isn’t a moment to spare.
Earl was able to sneak a small team past the Claws on the Ivory Plains and into the jungle beyond. They are still en route, but they were able to do some scouting with their sense-linked flying beasts. The jailbirds must have finally figured out where Trapper’s group is located, because they’re heading into the tunnels below the mountain in full force.
They have already been down there for a few hours, and I don’t know what has transpired since.
They wouldn’t be launching a direct attack if they weren’t certain they could win, and I’m worried they have something nasty ready to go to take our people out. I’m not sure what happened to you, but if you’re still anywhere near the mountain, you need to reach Trapper’s team before it’s too late.
I do have some good news to share. The hunters’ bat saw Tiburón heading toward the plains, so only three of the Claws’ elites are joining the assault on the expedition. We have some problems of our own back in Puppet Town, but I’ll handle them and contact you later. -Sakura.”
When Edge finished relaying the message, the crew began running again. He wasn’t sure how much further they had to go, but by this point, every second was critical. The hunters pushed their bodies into a burst of speed, racing to rescue their friends.