Godfather's System 103

At first, the darkness was silent. I swam alone, red and blue mana dancing around me, filling what could only be my soul while I floated. The sensation was familiar … though with one exception. 

Unlike the previous time, where I had been dragged to the place, I was in control. I didn’t know the reason for the difference. Maybe it was my budding magical talent, or maybe it was the fact that I wasn’t dragged here forcibly by a god. 

Either way, I used silence to focus on the flow of energy. 

Without my body to distract me, I could feel many discrete sources of energy. At the center of my soul, where I could identify easily, I had my stats, their structure distinctive enough to identify after my interventions with the stat stones. 

However, unlike their solid, singular structures, each stat was a single, growing entity, their potential displayed by their size as they throbbed like mini hearts. I could see Charisma and Strength thumping steadily, one sharp one ephemeral, while the Attunement was like a small fawn among the herd, shifty yet small. 

Fascinating. 

I didn’t stay focused on them much before I brought my attention to the higher level, where a singular sea surrounded them, mashing with them successfully. My sole ability, I recognized instinctively, though I had no idea whether every single ability worked like that, or it was unique to its comprehensive nature. 

Either way, I could see my ability to mash with my stats slowly yet successfully, tempting me to channel some of my mana to it. 

I wished that it was an option, but I didn’t dare to fiddle too much with a process I didn’t understand. Not when I was facing danger. 

Outside that, there was a small red energy that was orbiting the core. My skill, I recognized, the distinctive red hue escaping it to infuse to the general structure hard to be mistaken for anything else. 

And, even if I missed that, it was hard to miss the long line of ephemeral energy stretching to the horizon. I instinctively knew that the other end reached the god of destruction. Interestingly, he didn’t follow it to my location … though whether he couldn’t or didn’t want to for some reason was a mystery that I didn’t dare to guess. 

I was tempted to dare and destroy it, but it was a risky proposition, especially under the circumstances. 

Instead, I focused on tracking the changes, trying to understand what was going on. I didn’t hurry. Up, knowing the time didn’t mean much in the unique space I found myself in. 

Though, as time passed and no god suddenly appeared to harass me, I had a better guess about why the god of destruction didn’t appear despite his potential to track me through his connection. 

He didn’t want the alert the others. Unlike me, his presence in this astral plane was unmistakable, and I had no doubt that many gods had been tracking his presence while he was in the process of invading the planet we were on. 

No wonder Zolast’s old friends were doing their best to find the hero. That was the only way for them to find me. 

I stayed unmoving as I watched the two types of mana continuing to infuse my soul — or my proxy soul, the system, or whatever else it was — still examining the discrete parts … when I noticed something else. 

Another container, buried between the stats. 

Whatever it was, it certainly wasn’t mana. I reached it mentally, feeling curious about its source. However, the moment I touched it, I received an instinctive understanding. 

It was the Experience I had in storage, which, under the circumstances, I could manipulate like mana. Wanting to test it, I channeled a bit of it to my sole ability, finding it the safest target. 

A second later — or what passed for a second in this confusing location — all of it was gone, absorbed by the Ability. A loss, but as I felt the Ability starting to grow, its intensity getting stronger, I decided to write it off as a successful tradeoff. 

The force multiplier of that ability was important enough to potentially waste some Experience. I could always collect more experience, while the potential to enhance it was undoubtedly rarer. 

Pity I didn’t know whether it was successful. I had more than eighty million experience before I triggered the promotion, and it was all gone now. 

I could only hope that my unwitting gamble was successful. 

Just to make sure, once my soul stopped draining the available mana, I channeled the rest to my ability as well, trying to fill it more … only to realize mana was far less effective in enhancing it. 

Or maybe it was due to the transformation it had already experienced. 

Still, I channeled all available mana just in case, just to make sure. However, rather than channeling to the target, the energy flooded into a specific point in the sea … and a new entity awakened, whose function was a mystery to me. 

If I still had my body, I would have felt my hands sweating … but without it, it was just the awareness of panic. Still, it wasn’t like I could actually do anything. Whatever was done was done, with no chance to take it back. 

I gave the mental command, and the darkness around me dissolved, and I found myself in the cave once more. 

[Promotion Complete

Alignment: Unaligned

Reward: Ability (Elevated Life - Intermediate - Human)

Reward: Ability (Heroic Party)]

“Fascinating,” I murmured even as I felt the power filling me, pausing a moment to reorient myself after the sensation of floating without a body. I might have written off the sudden sense of improved power due to my earlier floating, but the lines of text that appeared in my vision were enough to prove otherwise. 

My elevated life ability had been improved, and along with it, the effectiveness of my stats. 

Considerably so, if the feeling was indicator enough. 

I would have loved to stay and examine the System to understand the full impact, but my situation was dangerous enough, and not even my new ability, Heroic Party, was enough to change my mind. 

No god appeared next to me, but that didn’t mean none could track my location. 

I slipped out of the cave and started running among the trees — the cave I had picked sufficiently concealed — carefully observing my surroundings in case of an accident. I was getting even farther away from the Town Yoentia in case I was being followed. 

A smart decision, it seemed, as while I was running away, I glanced toward the wall and noticed the intensity of the movement getting far more intense, coinciding perfectly with my Promotion. A sudden rush of red mana rained down, empowering every single creature on the other side of the wall I could see. 

Ironically, that sight gave me some hope. Why would he attack the wall with such intensity on the other side if he could have detected my presence accurately?

Of course, that didn’t mean I stopped running. I wasn’t ready to write off the possibility that the attack was just a bluff, and he knew my exact location and was using it as a diversion while he sent more covert forces to detect my presence. 

I continued running, two boxes, both empty, in my hands. 

Ten minutes later, I buried two empty boxes into a pit, leaving them behind, but continued to run. Only when I was confident that I left the mess behind, an hour of desperate rush did I find another cave, and called the system. 

[Class: Hero

Level: 30

Experience  (0/12,526,812)]

[Health (540/600)

Mana (60/60)]

[ Experience: 0]

[STATS

Resilience: 50

Vitality: 40

Strength: 35

Agility: 35

Speed: 20

Perception: 50

Memory: 10

Charisma: 50

Attunement: 3

Concealment: 2

LOCKED…]

[Stat Points: 0]

[SKILLS: Archery of Destruction (0\X)]

[ABILITIES: Elevated Life - Intermediate - Human

Heroic Party (0) ]

[Alignment: Unaligned]

“Double the effect, not bad,” I murmured as I went through the results, happy with the results, though I noted that the ability itself was addictive. “Pity,” I added. It was not a big loss under the current circumstances. I might have collected even more mana and experience if I knew enhancing the ability directly was a possibility. 

Still, knowing the possibility alone opened far too many options for me. 

However, rather than wasting my time, I started my journey back, using the full range of my improved speed, and using the river once more just to be on the safe side.