Unbound

Chapter One Hundred and Fifteen - 115

Swimming is level 7!

...

Swimming is level 20!

Running is level 25!

Congratulations! You Have Reached Apprentice Tier in Running!

You Gain:

+3 END

+3 AGL

+3 VIT

Felix felt like garbage by nightfall. The river was cold despite the humid heat in the air, and he was pretty sure there were giant eel-creatures down in that green water. Something brushed against his legs, at least, and he'd been too out of it to use his Eye.

The mile Rory had them swim was fairly straight, with only a gentle curve near the end. The others had joined Felix at some point, but most of his recollections were foggy. A wet, musty splash of brackish darkness and shouting sailors. Going up-river was the hardest, since Felix had to fight against not only the current, but the riverboats as well. Often times, he was forced to submerge himself completely to avoid the shallow draw of one of the many craft that plied the waters. Abyssal Skein came in handy whenever he was forced to do that, helping him to hold his breath better and avoiding the attention of whatever lurked in the depths.

Felix had pushed on and refused to think about it.

Abyssal Skein hit level 14 during his extended swim, though it hadn't helped the thickening fog that had settled over his mind. When Felix finally climbed out of the river he was a shaking mess, barely able to crawl. Releasing the Void from his flesh had taken more effort than holding it, somehow, and its oily caress did no favors for his mental state. It was with numb fingers and bone-weary mind that Felix hoisted the wooden beam once more and trudged in the direction of the warehouse.

Naturally, that was when the Maw decided to attack.

"Attack" was...not entirely accurate, but it wasn't wrong either. The Primordial let loose a buzzing cry that sent Felix's mind whirling, filling his mind with the sound of powerful, heavy stone splintering under pressure. Its cry deepened, but still retained that unnatural discordance that rattled his inner ear and set the trees around his Bastion to shuddering. The cry gained momentum quickly, until immense earthquakes heaved through his mental structure, sending fissures to spider crazily up the side of the central tower.

A terrible weakness shuddered through him, nearly causing Felix to drop the beam he was carrying back to the warehouse.

A dark, cold fear surged across his mind, that the Maw would manage to break his Bastion Skill as well...

Then there was a swell of righteous horns; Felix couldn't explain it any other way. Like the music of the System, it rose as if from a great distance, crescendoing until it dominated even the snapping groans of his Bastion. Something surged along his bond, something that moved faster than Felix could track. It hit his damaged walls and the discordant buzzing from within was cut off; the Maw went silent.

Rationally, Felix recognized that Pit had done something, but 'what' was a mystery. He sent back a weary pulse of gratitude and sensed the tenku not far off and watching him intently. The door behind him slammed shut as a few more figures stumbled into the warehouse, and Felix's sharpening senses detected the other Humans and Rory.

Rory grunted as Felix struggled to stand again. "Dun worry, lad. The fights over for today. Now ye'll consolidate it all. Take a breath and visualize your core and Skills."

Felix hesitated just a moment before he slumped heavily to the ground. He was probably in someones way, but he couldn't find the energy to care.

"Ye must delve deep into your core and seek out the truth of your Skills," Rory explained as Felix sat there. "Gain insight and ye'll make miracles, lad."

The Dwarf left without another word, and Felix took a shaky breath.

Felix hadn't fully explored his core and Skills therein since Vvim's Tower, but he had seen some limited success with his Mana Skills. More importantly, he believed he had an idea of what Rory was talking about.

Diving into his core, visualizing it via Fire Within, Felix could sense the wide expanse of it all. His core wasn't really a place at all, but a thick, limitless darkness in which several things floated. No, he thought. Revolved. Like a tiny solar system.

The center was dominated by a blazing blue-white bonfire, haloed by the crackling discharge of similarly colored lightning. Above the center, thick and cloying, was an aquamarine vapor. It swirled restlessly above the fire, though it didn't disperse or burn away.

Claude energy, Felix noted. He'd never investigated his core after...feeding. This is weird.

Arrayed around the fire and fog were a number of symbols that flared and faded at irregular intervals. Among them, his broken Skills were like a series of shattered teeth. They flickered with a fitful light, the patterns on them interrupted and incomplete. It was almost painful just to view them. Previously, Rory had told him to reach out toward his broken Skills, not to activate them, but hold them close.

Learn their shape, their movements.

As his Meditation gained more ground his taxed mental faculties began to rally. Felix gently poured himself into the task. It was difficult, certainly. His broken Skills were like exposed nerves; too close and the pain would send him hurtling out of his visualization. Felix spent tens of minutes being expelled and re-envisioning his core, over and over as he tested his approach.

Fire Within is level 34!

Each rejection stabbed at his brain, his pain receptors flooded with a dark agony. Eventually he gave up, the patterns that once made up the Skills having become too tangled and thorny. They were raw thickets where his functional Skills were cultivated gardens. Felix turned his attention away from them. They weren't his true purpose here anyway.

After considering his wide variety of Skills, Felix focused his first attempts on Physical Conditioning. It had already hit Apprentice Tier, but the feature he was most interested in was in its description.

Physical Conditioning (Rare), Level 28! Through application and hard work, you have begun a regimen to improve your health and physical fitness. Increases rate at which your Physical Skills grow, based on Skill Level.

Rory had confirmed that there were several Skills like his that amplified others as their main focus. They were, naturally, called Amplification Skills and were always classified as Rare or higher. Physical Conditioning, the Dwarf had said, was one of the more basic versions.

"Basic as in everyone has it?" Felix had asked. Rory shook his head and took a long drag off his pipe.

"Nay, lad. Amplification Skills aren't come by easily, even yours. By basic I mean it modifies Physical Skills only, and is not highly specialized or more broadly powerful. There are some high ranked Skills out there that would blow your young Mind." The Dwarf had snorted out a laugh before ordering Felix to keep running laps.

The vivid recollection faded from Felix's mind and he blinked into the present, considering. If I up my Physical Conditioning as high as possible, then Swimming, Free Climbing, anything under the Body category should grow faster. Right? Right.

His unbroken Skills were shapes of pure light scattered around the blazing bonfire of his center. They hovered, etched into the pregnant shadows of his core like strange constellations. Celestial bodies in a starless void.

Had they always been floating in complete darkness like this? Strangely, for him especially, Felix couldn't recall. The blue-white fire and azure lightning was a constant, but the rest of his core....He wasn't sure. Does it matter though?

He kept moving. Felix recalled how Stone Shaping and Shadow Whip undulated and shifted, like waves in the sea. Physical Conditioning was no different. It was an angular string of light, a pattern of jagged peaks and valleys described by shifting vibrations.

Vibrations, he mused. Distantly, he thought he could detect a sort of humming, like the faint memory of a steel string, struck a long time ago. Vibrations create harmonies, right? And a harmony is a series of chords strung together...

Physical Conditioning hummed just slightly louder, not changing pitch or timbre. It was constant, low, and...almost comforting, somehow. It lapped against his skin like a tiny sea. An almost physical song...

According to Rory, normal denizens of the Continent visualized their cores through various techniques. In doing so, they both solidified their mental image of their core (important for various reasons, he had claimed), and it also allowed them a reference point to gain greater understanding into their Skills.

The earliest stage of a denizen's journey was called the Beginner Tier, where all growth was relatively explosive up until one approached Apprentice Tier. Brute force and simple repetition could raise Skill levels, given enough time and effort. After Apprentice Tier however, Skills were far harder to level in that same way...unless one is encountering extremely deadly danger on a regular basis.

This was not something a standard denizen does on the Continent. Strength was prized, but even here, most parents love their children and wouldn't want to send them to the wolves on the off-chance they'd survive and grow. That was Felix's advantage, among other things.

He'd been born among the wolves.

So to push his Physical Conditioning further, he would need something else. He would need what Rory had described as insight, vague as that was; Felix sounded the Skill, following its pattern as it shifted between troughs and crests. That vibration was like a frequency, a specific pitch that called to mind a plethora of strange images. The more Felix delved into it, the more his own memories were turned back around upon himself.

Before he knew it, he was back in the water, swimming amid the strong current and swift boats. Water splashed over him, soaking him. The cold tried to invade his skin, but it wasn't strong enough to even tick up his resistance, while whatever kept nipping at him from below was too weak to penetrate his Armored Skin. He swam that mile again, and again, all the while a series of low vibrations thrummed across all of his senses. Time faded into nothing; it was just the water, just the exertion.

Swimming is level 21!

Swimming is level 22!

Physical Conditioning is level 29!

Swimming is level 23!

Swimming is level 24!

Physical Conditioning is level 30!

Swimming is level 25!

Congratulations! You Have Reached Apprentice Tier in Swimming!

You Gain:

+3 END

+3 DEX

+3 STR

With a sudden, hollow gasp Felix lurched upright. He felt as if he were resurfacing from a deep sea dive, and there was a brief moment of disorientation where the world felt too loud, too bright.

Ugh, what...what was that?

His inner ear felt wobbly, as if he'd lost his land legs. Felix was still sitting on the floor of the warehouse, however. True night had fallen at some point, and the constant sounds of training had faded into the low murmur of soft conversation back toward the cafeteria area. Pit had sidled up to him at some point, and his illusory coat was soft against his legs. Absently Felix pet the tenku, still marveling at what he'd just experienced.

The vibrations of his Skill had resonated with his perfect memory of swimming the river and he'd somehow...relived it? He'd even gained Skill levels from the experience.

How much was from rehashing a memory versus sounding out the Skill? Felix pushed back his shaggy hair. He had gained a few levels from a similar tactic back in the Tower, but nothing so...vivid. He also didn't feel as if he'd garnered any substantial understanding or insights into Physical Conditioning. In that case, how could I gain Skill levels for activities I'd already done? Where would the energy---

Felt felt a distinct gnawing in his gut, a sudden low pitched growl that called to mind unpleasant memories. Diving deep with his Fire Within, Felix envisioned his core once again. Save for his Swimming Skill glowing with the same luminescence as his Running and Physical Conditioning Skills (evidence of their ascension to Apprentice Tier), his core was largely the same. Nothing--no. The blue white fire still burned, but above it there used to be a thick aquamarine vapor. The essence of Claude the Half-Ogre.

It was nearly gone. Even as he watched, the last wisp of it fed itself into the fire and was consumed.

Claude's essence, where'd it go? Then the barest flicker of grey subsumed Felix's vision, familiar enough that he groaned. Why now?

A series of flashing images inundated Felix's brain, too fast and too garbled to make out much. It was over almost before it began, and Felix was thrust unceremoniously back into the world.

Ravenous Tithe is level 3!

Felix panted, the brief, wrenching sense of dislocation scrambling his thoughts. After a moment longer, he had a realization. The vapor was there before he'd had his dream training, but was practically gone by the end of it. Was he...was he using the Half-Ogre's consumed power to fuel his own growth? Was that why he didn't gain a Skill or even coherent memory from Claude?

He thought back to he recent gains. He had "eaten" Mana each and every time: to learn Oathbinding he absorbed the Mana being radiated outward by Harn during the process. When he learned Negotiation he had just consumed a Prismatic Wretch the night before.

What worried Felix the most, however, was that each time he'd given into his Ravenous Tithe, his Race progression bar ticked upward. With a sinking sensation in his gut, he checked his Status.

It hadn't moved at all. It still read 32%.

Was it because I used the latent power to grow my Skills instead?

Ravenous Tithe is level 4!

...

Ravenous Tithe is level 7!

Sudden certainty flooded him at the same time the System inundated his mind with an orchestral echo. He could devour monsters and fuel his Skill growth and acquisition. That sinking sensation had become a giddy excitement, and it sent faint tremors down his arms and legs. Though maybe that was just the exhaustion.

He had a way forward. Now he just needed some monsters to eat.

Or, Felix thought with a spike of excitement. Monster cores.