Chương 138: 137. Ascended Human

[Rune-script: 'Kinetic Mastery' saved!] [Epic Trait: 'Ascended Human (II)' gained!] [Epic Title: 'Spellforged human (I)' gained!] [Title - Spellforged human (Epic, I-Grade): This individual's body has been fundamentally refined through artificial and arcane enhancement, allowing implanted systems and magical augmentations to exceed their intended limits. Any such modifications—whether mechanical, alchemical, or spellwoven—operate at 5% greater capacity and strength than standard, pushing performance beyond conventional thresholds. This heightened efficiency manifests as improved output, durability, and responsiveness, though the strain of sustaining such elevated function may subtly tax the body over time.] The Title was unexpected, though in hindsight it made sense.

A measly 5 percent boost to her magical enchantments—which, sure, sounded thrilling to someone who cared about that sort of thing. It was a nice touch, but it meant that when things inevitably went sideways, she'd have to pick between that or the frankly absurd versatility of her other Titles. Not exactly competing with the 200% physicality boost of Death's Foe IV, or the absolutely unhinged 200 to 300% speed boost of Giantbane V. But it was only grade one.

And it directly cranked up any custom augment she had, which meant 'Spellforged' was a Title that could boost her Rune-scripts straight through the roof. [Ascended Human (Epic, II-Grade): This being has surpassed what their species was ever meant to become, their flesh undergoing designs and construction of their own making. They instinctively know every component of their physical form and can consciously optimize how it functions in real time. They can shift weight distribution, redirect blood flow, or reallocate energy reserves with a thought. Their body grows stronger when pushed to its limits. The more extreme the demand placed on them, the more their form adapts and hardens in response. At the second grade, this translates to a 10% boost under extreme psychological strain and exertion of will.] The Trait? Even more unexpected. But what did it mean? Kelly read the description.

Her body now came with a manual she could read in real time—blood flow, energy reserves, weight distribution, all of it adjustable with a thought. Push hard enough and whatever broke would build back tougher. The boost only kicked in under extreme psychological strain and exertion of will. Willpower. The one resource she couldn't hack with tech.

The only way to artificially spike willpower was drugs—rage gas, bath salts, some berserker cocktail that would turn her into a screaming wreck with the cognitive capacity of a feral badger. She wasn't doing that. If the universe wanted her to chemically lobotomize herself for a ten percent edge, the universe could go find someone stupider. But the trait had started at the second grade. Which meant any new traits she picked up from now on would start at that same higher grade.

And each of her Traits, now empowered, fed into each other, overlapping effects. She turned that over. That was useful. Extremely useful. Kelly stood in the combat hall buzzing with energy, excitement filling her every cell. She'd just spent an entire loop doing nothing but scratching runes into her own bones until the magic stuck, and now she got to take the new model for a spin. The first combatant, a security officer who was essentially a mountain of polished chrome and grafted muscle, shot forward.

His Enhancement Quotient was 18, a speed specialist. His fist, a reinforced alloy hammer, blurred toward her face. It connected. The sound was a flat, wet thump, like hitting a sack of solid concrete. Kelly's head snapped back, and she stumbled backwards a few steps but... she barely felt it, and there was no bruise. She had no titles equipped, that was just her skin. The officer's expression flickered from professional focus to confused shock. Kelly's skin didn't even scuff.

The Unstoppable Physical Resilience rune-script made the blow feel like a firm handshake.

"Whoa," she said, her voice bright with discovery.

"Durability check. Feels… solid. Really solid. Zero notes." The officer regrouped, his augments whirring. He became a storm of strikes, a professional, brutal flurry aimed at joints, her temple, her throat. Each impact landed with that same muffled, inconsequential thud. Kelly, buzzing with the new- Mana-Conduit-Body high, let him work. She turned her head to track his movements, not to dodge, but out of polite curiosity.

"You're very fast," she offered, as a fist that could crumple steel plate bounced off her ribs.

"I can tell you've trained. This is great form." The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. She looked back at the officer, whose confusion was now tinged with alarm.

"So, question. Hypothetical. You spend your whole life getting this good, right? You grind. You sweat. You become a mountain. And then one day, someone shows up and your best work just… doesn't register." She snapped her fingers, and a brief, localized gravity spike twisted the floor under his feet. Simultaneously, a wave of Kinetic force washed out in all directions. A double whammy. He stumbled, his perfect balance broken by the Kinetic Mastery she was just starting to try out.

"What's the point of the mountain then? If there's no climb, is it even a mountain anymore, or is it just a really inconvenient hill?" The officer didn't answer. He signaled. Three more guards entered the hall. They were elite, military-trained, their frames humming with focused menace. One carried a coil rifle that made the air taste of ozone. They didn't speak. They spread out. This was a real problem. Perfect. The rifle fired.

An armor piercing slug designed to deliver massive kinetic transfer streaked at her chest. Kelly didn't dodge. She raised a hand. The Enhanced Reflexes and Agility rune made the projectile seem to drift toward her. She slapped it. The slug stopped dead in her palm, then, with a thought, she inverted its inertia using Kinetic Mastery, and stacked it with her Disciple of Deflection Title. It cracked the sound barrier.

The slug shot back and smashed the rifle's muzzle, wrenching it from the guard's grip in a spray of debris that sent him flying. The other two were on her. A stun-lash cracked, wrapping around her arm. She grabbed the lash and pulled, using the guard's own momentum and her rune-enhanced strength to swing him into his partner. They went down in a tangle. It was too easy. In the last thirty seconds, she hadn't even taken a step. Hadn't broken a sweat, and her heart rate hadn't jumped even a smidgen.

She hadn't even been trying. Kelly stood still in the middle of the chaos, a sudden, profound thought blooming.

"Oh," she said, the word cutting through the grunts and clatter.

"Oh, no." The guards strained. Kelly ignored the pressure entirely, the Infinite Stamina rune meaning she felt no fatigue, no strain, all she felt was a continuous, buzzing alertness.

"This is a problem," Kelly announced, her tone one of genuine, chaotic concern. The guards regrouped, circling her warily.

"A huge problem. I just got these things. I was so excited. I thought, 'Finally, the fun part!' But this isn't fun. This is… administrative." She pointed at the guard with the broken rifle.

"You! You're a professional! You're supposed to be a challenge! You're a line item on my magic-check list! And I just… processed you." One of the guards lunged with a vibrating-blade. Kelly leaned back with a casual, effortless grace. She didn't counterattack. She just kept talking, her dilemma spilling out amid the violence.

"Don't you see it?" she asked, her voice rising with loop-drunk urgency.

"I trained, I suffered, I died so many times to understand this magic so I could build this. And I built it! I won! And now winning feels… what's the word? Perfunctory. It feels like filling out a form. Where's the discovery in that? Where's the point? The challenge? The excitement?" A fist slammed into her back. Enhanced level bullets cracked into her shoulders. They felt like taps. She didn't acknowledge them. She dropped her arms and looked at the last unit, tangled in their stun-lashes cords.

Then she looked at her new assailants. They were staring at her unharmed form in pure, unprofessional disbelief. The other guards had stopped moving entirely.

"This is my dilemma," Kelly said, gesturing to include all of them. Her tone was upbeat, explanatory, contrasting utterly with their brutal, serious world.

"I have achieved a goal. The goal is now achieved. The achieving part was the good bit. Now I...." She took a step forward, buzzing with manic energy.

"I think i need a higher mountain. A bigger goal. You're all goals, too. Or you were. You're just goals that try to hit me. And I don't know what to do with that. Do you have any suggestions? Because I'm fresh out."

"I think i need to test this with someone else. somewhere else, maybe. Because I'm too strong for this part, and messing with you in the way i'd like to—" with excessive wanton disregard,"—would make Ren mad, and… i'm not allowed to kill you." What she needed was a problem. A new wall.

She stood there, in the center of the hall, perfectly intact, surrounded by broken weapons and baffled, brutal professionals, waiting for an answer to her brand new, incredibly different problem, facing a problem that'd completely shifted. Kelly wanted a real threat. Not the polished corporate slap fight she'd been grinding through. She needed something with actual teeth. Something dangerous—so deadly she could pluck a new Title from its blows and new Traits from its teeth.

Something that could tear new power straight from her bones and leave her fundamentally wrecked by the whole thing. She needed to fight Ren. Or something worse—things that actually have a shot at taking her down and unlike that tired old monster, wouldn't hesitate to finish the job. Preferably with enough magic to make her ears bleed and her heart sing. What the hell qualified though? What was she supposed to hunt that wouldn't just fall apart the second she stopped messing around?

Kelly got her answer and wish thirty seconds later, wrapped in wings and divine possession, and spent the next several moments discovering that wanting something and being adequately prepared for it were two entirely different life philosophies. A very specific, very heavenly, very angel-shaped, god-stuffed creature showed up to answer her prayers.