Fight. Level. Survive.

Chapter 51 - Chaotic Revelations Part 2

Mason took in a deep breath. “Let me get this straight. You’re a tiny bit of a super-powerful Demon who is a former Lesser God. I have a tiny bit of that same Demon in me; that bit sacrificed most of its power to bring me to this world and give me a system so I can kill the ‘Others’ and rescue the kidnapped bits of Chaos so you can become a real boy again. Did I miss anything?”

The Mayor opened his mouth, but Mayry shot him a dirty look and cut him off, “Yeah, actually, I think you missed the part where my Father never thought to tell me that I’m a fucking Demon!”

“Well, Demi Demon”, The Mayor volunteered. “I just wanted you to have a normal life, your powers manifested at such an early age and your Mother.…” He trailed off.

“Mother? She knows about this? Wait…” Mayry stood and pointed her finger at the Mayor, “Is that why she’s always sick?! You told me it was Chaos Sickness!”

The Mayor uncharacteristically raised his hands in a defensive gesture. “It is Chaos Sickness… She just didn’t get it in the way most people do.”

Mason really didn’t want to get in the middle of the fight and had plenty of his own crap to think through, but the mention of Chaos sickness piqued his interest too much not to ask, “What is Chaos Sickness?”

Mayry’s head shot in his direction. In her eyes, he saw literal flames for a moment before they vanished. She calmed and shook her head. Taking a breath to centre herself, she answered, “Sometimes, when people absorb a lot of Chaos Energy in a short period of time, they find that they slowly lose control of themselves. It presents in one of two ways, the first starts with spontaneous spurts of bloodlust, then gradual changes in personality, and it usually ends in the person going on a murder spree. The second is, the person finds themselves bedridden with delirium. The second type is what my Mother apparently has. It’s rare and usually only found in Hunters. My Mother doesn’t have any Chaos Abilities, so for her to have it is very strange.” She finished by glaring at her Father.

Mason’s eyes widened, and he suddenly felt his heart beating in his chest. That sounded an awful lot like the rage he felt when fighting. Did that mean the weird foreign presence in his mind was his bit of Chaos? Was that It making him sick, trying to take control? He could ask the Mayor, but as just another iteration of Chaos, there was no guarantee he would tell Mason the Truth. He decided he would think about it and possibly talk to the Mayor another time.

The Mayor sighed, “I never wanted a family, but when I met your Mother... I would have done anything for her, and she so desperately wanted a child. Prolonged exposure to one divine presence is usually all a mortal can take, so when she was carrying you, she started getting sick. By the time we figured out what was going on you had already been born and we loved you so much we decided not to tell you lest you blame yourself.”

Mayry’s lip was quivering. “Are… are you saying, it’s my fault? And what powers? The Family Magic? The Magic sense?”

“No, my child, It was never your fault. It was mine. Humans were never supposed to interact with divine beings as often as your Mother has. Your added presence was just too much for her.”

Mayry was pacing the room, but suddenly stopped, “And the powers?”

“Demons and Demi Demons see differently than regular people. Your Magic sense is just your Demonic powers leaking through the binding I placed on you. The Family Magic is much the same but was left out of the binding, so you were able to protect yourself. You shot black flames at the ‘Other’ earlier. That was hellfire. Somehow, you managed to break through my binding and access all of your powers. They should all slowly reveal themselves over the next few days.”

“If I were to leave… would Mother get better?”

“Yes, after a while…

The discussion devolved into a much more heated argument. Mason slipped out of his room while they were distracted so as not to get pulled into the fight.

He went downstairs and found a table, and ordered some water. He closed his eyes and brought up his menu. He had a lot to process and appreciated the relative quiet.

Name: Mason Hughes

Level: 25

Current XP: 11740 /12000

Race: Human

Class: Hunter

Health Points (HP): 390

Mana Points (MP): 390

Stamina: (SP): 245

Stats

Strength: 36

Agility: 31

Endurance: 29

Vitality: 29

Resilience: 24

Intelligence: 53 (+10%) 58

Perception: 36

Willpower: 30

Free points: 10

Skills:

Identify (Advanced), Magic Missile - INT (Advanced), Emotional Outburst - PER (Advanced), Camouflage - PER (Advanced), Random Summon INT (Advanced), Mental Manipulation - WIL(Advanced), Ballistic Touch - STR (Advanced) Division - INT (Expert)

Base Skills:

Universal Translator, Inventory (Advanced)

Class skills:

Basic Monster tracking, Evaluate Monster, Gather Intel.

Firstly, he needed to allocate his 10 stat points. He added 1 point to Resilience as it was 1 point away from 25 and the last to reach 25. He suspected he might get a perk when all of his stats hit that miles stone, next, he added 4 to strength, bringing it up to 40, the last 5 he threw into Intelligence as that seemed to be the stat his current build relied on the most.

As he had expected, once he confirmed his choices, he received a notification.

Upgrading each stat to 25 has unlocked a Perk.

Perk Unlocked: 25 and Still Alive

Effect: Your Vitality is increased by 25%

Not too shabby! That brought his vitality up from 29 to 36 and his HP from 390 to 460, which was a pretty decent jump!

Next, he wanted to see if he could figure out his new cloning ability.

After spending five points on his Intelligence, its current value was at 63, which meant he could produce two copies of himself for just over five hours. However, just like with his absorbed Mental Manipulation ability, division hadn’t come with the knowledge of how to use the ability. Keeping his eyes closed he tried a few different ways of activating the ability.

When Gael had used the ability, she had started to vibrate. With this in mind, Mason tried to will himself to split into a copy. He waited for the telltale vibrating to let him know it was working, but nothing happened. Next, while staying as still as he could he tried to push mana out of him in a roughly him shape.

He heard a yelp and opened his eyes.

“JESUS CHRIST.” He shouted. When he had sat down, the chair in front of him and the entire dining area had been completely empty. Now sitting opposite him was a wild Boar. The strange sight had shocked Mason and almost triggered his fight or flight response but at the last moment, he noticed the familiar feel of the animal in front of him.

“Dammit, Nays, don’t sneak up on me like that! I almost turned you into pork chops!”

To his surprise, the naked Elf appeared, “Oops! I was trying to find you to show you my Ability upgrade! Now I can control when I change... mostly, and I can work out how to keep my clothes when I change!” She said proudly.

Mason had been blushing from the moment she had appeared, but she hadn’t noticed as she had been busy speaking. Mason covered his eyes with his hand and said, “I think you might need a little extra practice on that last bit.”

She frowned, “Huh? What do you mean?” She looked down and finally realised she was naked. Her eyes bulged, and she ducked under the table to hide. “Well! I can do it! Whatever you did with your Magic just startled me!”

This was the point that the waiter decided to bring him his water. He eyed the talking table suspiciously but decided it wasn’t worth the effort to investigate, and so just walked away.

Moments later, a fully clothed, slightly pink Elf appeared from under the table and continued speaking. “Anyway, I came to find you to show you! I now turn into bigger and more useful creature and have more control over when I change! Isn’t that cool!”

Mason wasn’t sure it would be at all similar but asked, “So you can change whenever you want now? What does it feel like when you do? Like how do you make the change happen?”

Nays furrowed her eyebrows in thought. She changed into a small wolf and then back, then to a large bird, then back. “I hadn’t really thought about it. It just feels natural… I guess it feels like, you know how you don’t really consciously blink, but if you think about it too much you’re suddenly really conscious that you’re blinking? It kind of feels like that. It’s like I consciously blink but with my mind, and I’m all of a sudden something else. Does that make sense?”

Mason thought about it and chuckled lightly, “No, not really. But it’s helpful. Give me a few minutes?” He closed his eyes and tried to blink mentally. Nothing happened. He tried a few more times in slightly different ways. Finally, when he tried focusing Mana into the odd mental blink, he felt himself start to vibrate slightly.

“Are you okay?” Nays asked.

Realising he hadn’t told her what he was doing, he opened his eyes and mouth to explain when he was overcome by an oddly familiar feeling. For a few moments, he felt as if his whole body was just on the verge of a sneeze… and then it was gone. When it had passed, he saw Nays’ wide eyes darting from him to something to his right. Looking over, he saw an exact copy of himself staring back at him. They both jumped back a bit at the sight. “It worked!” They spoke in unison. “Okay, this is strange.” They both lifted a hand and waved it.”

He could feel that he was the original and hoped that other Mason didn’t also feel the same. He knew instinctively that he had the power to recall the copy. He did so and felt the same sneeze-like feeling he had before, he blinked, and the copy disappeared. He felt woozy for a split second and then found he had two sets of memories from the last 30 seconds, one from himself and one from the copy. This was going to do wonders when researching and training. Thinking of training prompted a pang of guilt over the death of Lyvan. If he had intervened, perhaps the Gnoll would still be alive.

Nays was still staring at him, waiting for an explanation.“Sorry about that, I got a new ability and was trying to figure out how to use it. Your mental blink thing really helped, thank you.”

She shook her head. “How are you getting all of these abilities?! I can barely manage the single one I have!”

Mason grinned at her. “I guess I’m just special!”

Just then, Mayry came storming into the room with a harrowed expression. She ignored Nays, speaking to him directly in a tone that contained a hint of pleading. “I’m going to Trilil for a few days to clear my head. Come with me?”

Mason assumed she wanted to get away from her Father but didn’t want to be on her own. He had not yet had the chance to travel much since getting to the world and didn’t want Mayry out there alone, so he agreed. “Of course. When are we leaving?”

Her lips curved slightly into a smile that faded quickly. “I’m going to go and pack, I’ll meet you back here in a few hours?”

“Okay, sounds good” Mason answered. She turned and left. He thought it was pretty short notice, but he understood her need to get away. He saw Nays glaring at him.

“What?” Mason said defensivley. He knew that the two of them didn’t like each other, but he really could not fathom why.

“What was all that about?” The Elf asked.

“Eh, it’s nothing, just family stuff,” Mason answered.

Nays’ expression changed, “Oh no, was the Mayor hurt in the fight earlier? People are saying it was an ‘Other’. Were you involved? …What am I saying of course you were.”

Mason stood and stretched, “The Mayor is fine, Mayry just got some odd news.”

Nays smirked, “Oh, she finally found out she’s half Demon? Took her long enough.”