Chương 20

For the next several days, Kirk remained and the Rift and discovered what it meant to be Tier I. He experimented. He pushed his limits. His suddenly improved senses, in the wide and misty slope inside the Rift, had time to settle. Kirk tapped his bronze armband and looked at his information, his investigations proceeding from top to bottom. From his Archetype of Glimmer Mage, he began with his new Ember I Rune. The feedback he received from this improved ability was confusing.

A quick nudge provided him with a seven-syllable enunciation, an expanded version of the old spell. But occasionally, if he concentrated for long enough, the syllables seemed to wiggle and extend, reaching a 13-syllable phrase. Two ways of using it? Kirk tried both. Those sharp Bestial Senses I meant that when he wanted to find a target, Kirk simply had to put his ear to the stone and wait. Inevitably, he heard the scrape of claws.

As a geo-3 trotted closer, its muscular purple limbs slapping the ground, Kirk tried the new base phrase.

"Ze-tet Ah Co-oon Eh Pah." More quickly than before, energy swirled together out of the air and concentrated in a fist sized ball of red fire. The only visual difference was that this Ember occasionally spat out little motes of gold; he wondered whether that had to do with his improved Archetype. Either way, at a gesture, the Rune shot forward. Even as the geo-3 noticed the attack and reared up, it was too late.

The Ember smashed into its side, exploding with heat and fire, burning its way through the front leg and scarring much of its torso. The monster howled with pain and fell sideways, unable to support itself. At that point, it was quite easy to approach and finish it off. More troublesome than the condense phrase was the longer one. As with his initial attempts with the Ember Rune, many of the syllables he thought he heard were wrong. It was frustrating, and for a while Kirk was tempted to drop it.

But he would release a breath and try again. And eventually, Kirk found thirteen syllables and a cadence that worked.

"Ze-tet Si Shi-- Ah Co-oon Lo La-- Eh En Pa ha." The syllables took longer, were slightly harder to remember, and also required there to be specific breaks, separating the cast into three parts. Yet after Kirk forced himself with deliberate slowness to proceed, he created another fist of red flames. Rather than spitting out golden sparks, this Ember seemed- Kirk tilted his head to the side. Bound by golden chains? The projectile shot forward.

The targeted geo wheeled around and received the Rune directly with its face. The explosion rocked the area, cracking and burning the ground. Kirk blinked several times. When the smoked cleared, the geo was already collapsed on the ground-- fully half of its body had been obliterated in the dense explosion. Kirk checked his vibrating band. Feat Gained! Runic Castor ✷! Perhaps even more than capturing the syllables, Kirk was fascinated by the stirring sensation he detected from the core of his Archetype.

A concentration of brightness, a spark of heat- those were the minute signals from the core of his new Glimmer Mage Archetype. It was a small, freewheeling constellation of warmth.

"Can pollution give life like this?" Kirk asked the air. Then he shook his head. But still, he reflected. The so-called pollution has an effect. Kirk felt another shift inside of himself. Opposite him in his small crack, there was a distortion and then the Ancient Bladed Beast appeared. With a shimmer of tawny fur, the new, improved Archetype glanced with purposeful casualness over its shoulder at Kirk.

Not only had Ascension wiped away much of the blurriness, allowing Kirk to see the Beast's muscles, its sleek coat, and swishing tail, but it also had allowed the phantom to grow. The beast extended its forepaws, almost as long as Kirk was tall, and stretched. As it straightened, its always intense, keen amber eyes pierced through Kirk. The details of the face were still somewhat fuzzy, but otherwise it had become almost physically present. It raised a paw and dragged a blurry tongue across it.

Sticking out from those paws were another bleeding-edge-sharp addition, several gleaming silver claws. Earning it the moniker Ancient Bladed Beast. Almost unable to resist how soft the phantom looked, Kirk stepped forward and reached out. Wrinkling its nose in distaste at the unseemly show of affection, the Beast poofed out of existence and settled back in Kirk's chest. He rolled his eyes and returned to his experiments. Compared to his troubles with Ember I, Flash was simple.

It was a basic three syllable rune that created a glittering golden symbol. With a push of will, that symbol would snap and release a blinding flash of light. In terms of fighting geo-3s, it proved useless; they didn't possess eyes, reading instead the flow of air or energy. But as such, they were attracted to the Flash Runes, its explosion just didn't blind them, even if it left Kirk seeing stars.

"Better against people, maybe," Kirk muttered. He recalled the charred and smoking corpse of Baelz. Would he fight people again? He took a steadying breath. If they break my principles, I will. To my foes, only ferocity. Runic Battery II gave Kirk the most excitement, of all the Glimmer Mage improvements, just because his Feats had earned him a Tier II Manifestation at Tier I. Yet it also proved… strangely mediocre. True, Kirk possessed a well of power.

As that power altered and accumulated through him, Kirk's ability to earn Feats wouldn't be hampered. Plus, it seemed to give him more natural ability to sense exterior energy. Yet inside the Rift, the ambient energy was so rich he didn't even need to draw from his Runic Battery to cast Runes. How quickly does it refill? Kirk felt somewhat helpless. It makes sense, I guess. I'm fueling Tier I Archetypes with a Tier II pool of energy. Okay, it's strong, but I almost can't even appreciate how strong.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author. Finally, Kirk reached the experimentation point of Vengeful Ember I, his second Manifestation. Yet this too quickly ran into a roadblock- he couldn't activate it himself. It only worked when a foe attacked him. And if I'm going to be fighting more directly with geos anyway, Kirk felt a delicious sliver of anticipation as he looked at the bottom half of his information. A wicked smile stretched across Kirk's face.

Time to delve into the other Archetype. The Ancient Bladed Beast's blurry tongue flicked out and tasted the air. Kirk didn't mind the favoritism. Because from his first moment of consciousness, it was his second Archetype that had given him the instincts to survive in this world. Even before he focused on it, the Archetype's improvements were obvious. He found himself easily falling into stretches of deep concentration and stillness.

When wielding the Larian Saber, and to a lesser extent, his spare short spear, a new sense emerged. As Kirk attacked, he had this speck of insight how the blade would wound, how it would cut, how much harm it would inflict. What had previously required repeated practice and observation almost became second nature, post-Ascension. Those original survival instincts had grown stronger. Yet despite that, Kirk's first experimentation with its abilities almost ended in disaster.

The Rune Tenacity I was a ten-syllable phrase. That much Kirk could manage, even while hiding from a nearby geo-3. His lips moved and shaped the Rune. The energy required seemed high, between the base Ember I and the extended version. Yet what flummoxed Kirk was the Runic Symbol that formed in the air when he successfully said the phrase. It floated between Kirk and the geo, a burning brand of energy that would quickly draw the monster's attention. Kirk's pupils dilated. A pressure of will didn't snap it.

So after a tense moment as the geo turned, Kirk jabbed a finger. The Rune shot forward and landed on a nearby geo-3. He wasn't sure what he was expecting. And it felt a little like karma as he watched the body of the geo-3 began to swell. He could see veins in the monster's side thrumming with blood.

"Fuck bagel," Kirk muttered, borrowing a term he had heard from Maett. Its eyes settled on him. Then the geo-3 exploded into motion, accelerating so quickly that Kirk saw afterimages, as it approached. Kirk chopped with the Larian Saber. But the geo-3 leapt sideways, with so much force that it both dodged and also kept going so that it slammed into a boulder two meters away. Yet as soon as it bounced off the boulder it shook itself and reoriented on Kirk.

It rapidly accelerated again, shooting for Kirk, just as he finished enunciating the shorter Ember I phrase. A fist of spitting fire formed, shooting forward and slamming into the geo's front. It continued charging forward, heedless of the damage. Gritting his teeth, Kirk kept the tip of the massive saber against the ground and lifted up the hilt, partially blocking his body.

What he didn't expect was for the geo-3 to shoot forward with such momentum that it simply bounced off the angled saber, rolling into the air. Kirk narrowed his eyes and mobilized all the muscles and instincts of his improved Archetype. As it tumbled through the air, it's speed slowed to manageable levels. Kirk hauled the saber around, intercepting the geo. The blade bit into the geos flesh, but also slammed it further away.

And when the damn thing hit the ground, it bounced back up to its feet and charged at Kirk, who was off balance from the wild swing. Kirk had no choice but to drop the Larian Saber and raised his bangle shield. The geo knocked him backward. He hit the ground and bounced, but with much less alacrity sat back up. And by the time he did, Kirk was slammed right back down as the geo charged him. At the very least, Kirk felt his Vengeful Ember activate.

A wave of thin red and lavender flames bloomed from him, singing the geo's skin. But with the empowerment of Tenacity I, Kirk would be surprised if the monster even felt it. The geo, at least, couldn't seem to cope with the increases of its physical abilities. It scratched and slobbered, pressing Kirk into the ground. Its claws opened up deep wounds on Kirk's side and opposite shoulder, which prompted more powerful waves of Vengeful Ember, but those also didn't slow it down.

Kirk managed to pull out his carving knife and slammed it into the side of the monster's torso. It just hissed hate at him. Kirk felt strangely calm, despite the dangerous situation. He supposed Ancient Beasts didn't live this long without toeing along the precipice of death. With that presence of mind, he muttered the syllables of another shortened Ember I. The fist of flames appeared and immediately shot forward into the geo-3s open mouth.

With this muffled explosion, the monster finally twitched, sagged, and collapsed. Its body rapidly lost the engorged size. Kirk released a long breath and pushed the geo off his chest.

"Okay, Tenacity I is for me. Or allies, I suppose." For his next experiment, Kirk did exactly that. He used the Rune on himself. Then he practiced with the Larian Saber. The sensation was… strange. In a much more pleasant way than the Refinements, his whole musculature seemed to be on fire. He could feel the difficulty of swinging the weapon, but the exhaustion and strain just seemed much less important. Kirk smiled, enjoying the sensation.

He wasn't whipping the weapon around, just doing vertical and horizontal chops, but the fact that he could manage horizontal attacks at all- After a minute, the boost expired. Groaning, Kirk collapsed sideways, utterly drained. The Saber clattered to the ground. It took almost a minute of panting before he could prop himself back up. And doing so was agony. His shoulders were pushed beyond their limits. His fingers twitched intermittently, a testament to how close to their limits they had come.

"Not just a super power," Kirk sighed. On his next attempt, he used the Tenacity I Rune on himself without the saber usage. This was much more effective. Essentially, it made him tireless and able to wring out the absolute limits of his abilities. But after that limit passed, all the costs and exhaustion he had ignored during that time would come crashing back upon him. Based on the fight against the empowered geo, he also suspected it gave some resistance to wounds. But he didn't need to experiment with that.

With most of his abilities understood, Kirk settled in for training. The crack's extra water gave him the resources he needed to linger and thoroughly familiarize himself with his new Archetypes. During that time, he even improved his two Manifestations, both Vengeful Ember I and Bestial Strength. Kirk did feel stronger, able to bear his pack now without any complaint, but the Larian Saber still seemed just beyond his capabilities. He shook his head. There is more growing to do. But this is a good start.

Here that, sky? I'm coming for you. After his six-day training session, he packed up his camp. He had gathered 16 cores and a little bit of vein marrow, which would give him some spending money. His supplies weren't at the limit, but he would need to patrol the following day. As he departed, he looked at his new information.

Name: Kirkland Albion Archetype: Glimmer Mage (I) -Runes: Ember I, Flash -Manifestations: Runic Battery II, Vengeful Ember I [2/10] -Ascension: Cultivation (Greater Fire 0/1) Archetype: Ancient Bladed Beast (I) -Runes: Tenacity I -Manifestations: Bestial Senses I, Bestial Strength I [2/6] -Ascension: Death Eating (22/500), Greater Hunt (0/1) Feats: -Finality's Admiration ✷✷✷ -One Strike Kill ✷✷✷ -Solo Kills ✷✷✷ -Alien Taste ✷✷ -Alien Moon ✷✷ -Runic Castor ✷✷✷ -Larian Wielder ✷ -Brush with Death ✷