THEOS

Luke grit his teeth as torrents of violent mana ripped into him. Perhaps it was because he had already done this once, twice if he counted the time he had killed the warrior tier monster as mortal. Or maybe it was because he was deeper into the Warrior tier, but through effort alone he was able to stave off the darkness creeping its way into his vision and hold steadfast against the pain. The excruciating, shocking, and frankly disgusting pain.

He wasn’t sure if that was a good thing.

Not when he could hear Cybele cackle with amusement and feel her predatory gaze boring into him and his secrets. Somehow, the pain only served to make the entire situation even more stressful. Then, as the flow of mana raging into him began to slow over a few short moments that felt like eternity, a question rose in his head. One that terrified him and made him feel stupid in equal measure.

Will the Seed even siphon away the mana when a goddess is this close?

It will, right?

Luke clenched his jaw in agony and attempted to activate his bloodline. It didn’t work, but the act of doing so sent currents of pain through his body, but he felt that it was worth it.

How often would he get the chance to see his mana like this? It wasn’t like killing a Hero tier was a common occurrence, and he felt obligated to learn what he could now that he had the tools. Even though he knew he wasn’t going to like what he was about to learn. He tried again anyway.

His manasight flickered to life and suddenly he could see the damage the heavy energy of the Hero tier was doing to him.

His metaphysical self was stretched and distorted. Where its shape normally conformed to the counters of his body, it now bubbled outwards at his head, his chest, and his right leg in ways that he could only describe as tumorous.

Itt’l be fine. Luke tried to console himself and think through the pain and fright at the unseemly sight as he patiently waited for the Seed to act. Taking comfort in the fact that he had survived this exact thing already and he was fine. This shouldn’t be any different. So long as the mana was siphoned away that is. If it didn’t Luke didn’t know how much longer he could take this treatment until he popped.

I won’t. It’s going to be any second now. And even if it doesn’t get converted to stat points, the mana will just leak out of me. I won’t actually burst.

Besides–

The Seed didn’t store stat points when Hephaestus was watching, but that doesn’t mean all gods are built the same or have the same abilities. Maybe Hepaestus just had some way to keep track of mana. Maybe he could see it or something? Or maybe he has a way to measure attributes. If there’s a god that has a way to gamify the world, then it's going to be the one that has a bajillion drones and robots.

And I can’t forget that Cybele was there the last time I killed a Hero tier– but now that I think about it, there was also a lot more going on then, wasn’t there?

I gave Maximus its name because the world itself demanded it from me, not to mention Maximus had just risen to the Warrior tier too. Maybe that was enough to hide what was happening with the Seed.

Or maybe it didn’t, and that’s why Cybele is doing this.

“There, there.” He saw the goddess move from the corner of his vision and appear beside him where she patted him calmly on the back, like she was burping him or something. If she was doing more than that, Luke didn’t know. He was able to feel when others tested his mana once he had learned to do it himself, but who knew what a god could and couldn’t do.

Honestly, Luke hurt so much he was having a hard time caring. He would worry about Cybele if, or when the Seed told him to. Until then, there was nothing he could do about the divine being anyway.

Embarrassingly, and he would never admit it, but her burping him did seem to help. Luke grunted in agony as the last of the mana settled into him and his metaphysical self ballooned even further. HIs previously tumorous appearance smoothened out so that he just looked incredibly swollen. The Seed, tortuously, remained inert.

That’s okay though. It's taking a few seconds, so what? Luke reassured himself. Trying his level best not to panic and simultaneously keeping a careful eye on his condition.

He could see the foreign mana integrating with his own, and feel his stats ticking up one by one as he was forced to cope and grow under the internal pressure. Normally, the mana his blade fed him would convert to stat points in short order, but the Seed always gave his body the chance to absorb what it could of it naturally. From what Luke had observed, that usually just meant that it would leave what his body could absorb floating around and squirrel the rest away.

In this case though, it seemed the Seed was playing it differently and letting him suffer in the name of growth. Or so he hoped. Either way he didn’t like it.

I really fucking need the Seed to get its shit togeather. Like right the fuck now. Luke cursed while watching his mana. He was becoming increasingly worried that he might actually pop or something. Intellectual he knew that it wasn’t possible, but the way it hurt and looked, he was having a hard time.

Luke hadn’t seen the aftermath of absorbing mana of a higher tier before, but now that he could, he was regretting his decision. It was one thing to be in pain, and another entirely to see all the ways he had messed himself up.

Come on…

The pain suddenly spiked, his bloodline deactivated, and a moment later a prompt from the Seed appeared before his vision.

• 1236 Stat Points

Luke collapsed and fell back on his back in relief, barely even registering the number. Instead, he just closed his eyes and tried to get a grip on himself. Then after a few seconds, he reactivated the Eyes of Insight.

His metaphysical self looked like it had been pumped full of air then deflated, leaving him stretched out and hanging over himself like some loose skin. It wasn’t exactly a surprise considering thats exactly what had happened, but it was awful to look at nonetheless.

That does not look pretty. But for over a thousand points…

He opened his status.

Status | Skills | Quests | Inventory

Name: Lukas King

Tier: Warrior

Bloodline: Eyes of Insight

Mana: 217 397 / 298 626

Rate: 18% per hour

Strength: 486 > 491

Agility: 501 > 509

Constitution: 789 > 852

Arcana: 546 > 701

Stat Points: 1236

Charges: 7/10

So fucking worth it. Luke thought, nearly unbelieving about the progress he had made in such a short time. I swear this world loves putting people in pain. That said, if pain is all it takes to get these kinda gains, I’m in.

Actually…

He added up all the points in his head.

Just under four hundred points to go before I’m a Hero. If I do that then– I don’t really know, but I’ll be another step forward. A step closer to near ultimate power, a step away from danger and discovery, and maybe even a step back to Earth.

Man, they’re all going to freak the fuck out when I show up.

I definitely have to use the mask to look like a martian or something and drop down over the White House in a flying boat– or maybe not. I mean, maybe. What’s the worst that can happen?

I’ll be strong enough to teleport anywhere I want. Strong enough to cause the destruction of entire worlds, and strong enough to defend myself. Honestly, I won’t be surprised if I can tank a nuke or two by the time I'm done with all this.

A little mischief never hurt anybody.

Before he could dive deeper into his fantasy, Cybele leaned over him, cupped his cheeks, and spilled something down his throat. Instantly, waves of healing energy washed through his body, and he watched as his metaphysical form slowly began to shrink and restore itself.

It would take some time, maybe a day or two for the process to fully complete, but Luke suspected that a good night's sleep, and rest would go a long way.

But–

Luke hesitated briefly, before pressing on, and adding a single point to his arcana stat. Probably not the wisest thing to do, considering that Cybele was right there and on the lookout, but he felt it would be stranger if all the mana suddenly disappeared without a trace. The fact that the Seed let him do it at all was proof enough that it didn’t feel threatened by her presence. Especially now that Luke knew for a fact that the Seed would turn its functions off without him doing anything if it felt it was necessary.

She probably just thinks that all this is a feature of my sword and maybe even the Eyes of Insight. It's sure as hell more believable than me having a Primordial tier artifact in my soul.

Honestly, I wonder if she even knows about the God Seed, like at all. Arke obviously does, and so does whoever made it, but who else is on that list, and big is it exactly?

Well, considering Arke is the only one looking for it as far as I know, then it's got to be somewhat secret. Or maybe I’m just too low level to hear the kind of gossip that concerns primordial level artifacts. I’ll have to sniff around a little at the Tournament Event. Hang by the water cooler or something.

Smiling at his lame joke, he added another two points to arcana, and perked up slightly when it boosted his recovery just a little bit. Emboldened, he added another two.

“How was it?” Cybele asked.

Luke slowly rose from his position on the floor and ignoring her for the moment, focused on his connection with his sword. It seemed strained, but still intact, and like himself, already on the mend. At his command Maximus freed itself from the giant's corpse, and flew back towards him.

“Painful, but I think you knew that.” Luke said, catching his sword by its handle, and sending it straight into his storage ring.

“Mm. I guessed as much. Do you feel up to another one?” She smiled at him, and the circlet atop her head glowed with an earthy green light.

“I’ll pass.” Luke said immediately. As nice as being fed literal power was, he didn’t think he’d survive another infusion so close to the last. Nor did he want to accidentally fall into debt. He still didn’t know exactly why Cybele was taking such an interest in him, and while resistance may be futile, he didn’t think just accepting whatever scheme she cooked up would be in his best interest.

Not when she thought bringing a giant to attack a city full of hundreds of thousands of people was an acceptable course of action.

“Your loss.” She shrugged.

“What do you really want from me? This is the–”

“The impatience of youth. I truly don’t miss it.” She sighed. Luke wilted as she leveled him with an ancient and tired gaze. One that reminded him exactly who and what he was talking to. “There will be a time for answers, but now isn't it. Grow stronger. Once you're of the Hero tier, we may be able to come to a proper accord. Until then–”

She disappeared from his sight just as soon as she’d come.

Shaking his head, Luke looked beyond the barrier. Cyzicus and his warriors were already cleaning up the aftermath of the battle and at that moment, he didn’t exactly feel like socializing or helping. The giant was dead, he was tired and his mana was maimed. And although he had just woken up, he felt like sleeping.

He’d go talk to Rex and them tomorrow, and then get started on his training. He only had two weeks left until the tournament resumed, and there was a lot of work he needed to do to make sure he lasted long enough to finish second place.

The least of which was learning the flame spell. Then once he recovered it would be a good idea to kill some monsters and bank the last the points he needed for his ascension to the Hero tier.

Breaking through right now would get him disqualified, but having the ability to push himself to the next level whenever the need arose was tempting. Until then, he’d leave enough wiggle room that he wouldn’t break through to the next stage by accident.

Maybe nine hundred or nine-fifty in every attribute would be a good place to be. He thought to himself, racing back to his room in the castle.