Fight. Level. Survive.

Chapter 67 - Upgrades

Mason awoke, staring up at an unfamiliar ceiling. Bolting upright, he looked around and relaxed as memories came flooding back to him.

The talk with the Mayor had been terrifying and had added even more weight on his shoulders, making Mason fear for the future. But the Chaos essence he had absorbed from the man had made Mason wake up feeling amazing. It felt as though raw power coursed through his veins instead of blood. The new power buzzed in him, making him crave a fight so he could stretch it like a muscle he didn’t know he had.

The boost was pretty massive! The essence had pushed every single one of his stats over 50! He would really need to start absorbing those chaos orbs as soon as he could.

Before he could even look at his updated character sheet, a rapid series of dings sounded as a wave of notifications came through.

Notification 1/7

Unique Ability Absorb has been upgraded. You can now absorb more skills and better understand how to use them.

Notification 2/7

Your Strength stat has passed 50.

Your skill Ballistic Touch (Advanced) has been upgraded to Ballistic Control (Expert).

Ballistic Control (Expert) - More precision = More damage

Active effect: While this Ability is active, you imbue any object you touch with kinetic energy, making it shoot off at bullet-like speed in the direction of your choice. You can control its trajectory and velocity to some degree, improving precision and overall damage. Scales with Strength.

Notification 3/7

Your Agility stat has passed 50.

Your skill Teleportation (Advanced) has been upgraded to Greater Teleportation (Expert).

Greater Teleportation (Expert) – Fast Travel.

Active effect: Using your mini-map, you can now teleport to anywhere you have been in the last three days. You are unable to bring others using this ability; normal teleportation remains unchanged.

Notification 4/6

Your Willpower stat has passed 50.

Your skill Mental Manipulation (Advanced) has been upgraded to Mental Fuckery (Expert).

Mental Fuckery (Expert) – The minds of others bend to your will.

Active effect: Twice a day, invade an enemy’s mind and cause them to see their allies as enemies and enemies as allies. Previous abilities are still available. Scales with Willpower.

Notification 5/6

Your Perception stat has passed 50.

Your skill Lesser Invisibility (Advanced) has been upgraded to True Invisibility (Expert)

True Invisibility (Expert) – Unseen, unheard, unscented, almost unknowable.

Active Effect: While the ability is active, you will be invisible, silent, and easily forgotten. You will be impossible to perceive with almost any mundane sense. Those with strong enough magical senses may still see through the ability.

The easily forgotten aspect will not work on anything that is at a higher level than you.

Attacking an enemy while undetected will boost damage. Scales with Perception.

Notification 6/6

Your skill Emotional Outburst (Advanced) has been upgraded to Emotional Therapy (Expert)

Emotional Therapy (Expert) – It’s okay to have emotions that hurt, just as long as you use those emotions to hurt others more.

Active Effect: The more emotional you become while in combat, the stronger and faster you become. While fighting, you give off a physical aura powered by your emotions; the stronger your emotions are, the stronger the aura. The aura will empower your allies while striking fear into the hearts of your enemies.

He was in awe of his upgrades; some of these upgrades were going to be game-changing! The Ballistic Touch upgrade seemed only so-so, but he would need to test it out to be sure. Teleportation would make his life a lot easier if he were ever to travel alone again, though he wondered if he could use his trunk to get around the no-passengers limitation.

Mental Fuckery and Emotional Therapy looked like they would be incredible, but his favourite had to be the new upgrade to his Invisibility skill. It would make taking down higher-level Monsters and others much easier, even if part of the ability wouldn’t work on them.

He wondered if Mayry’s magic perception was strong enough to see through it still.

He eagerly checked his character sheet, wanting to see how it looked now.

Name: Mason Hughes

Level: 28

Current XP: 23460 / 26000

Race: Human

Class: Hunter

Health Points (HP): 850

Mana Points (MP): 500

Stamina Points (SP): 370

Stats

Strength: 63 (+15)

Agility: 65

Endurance: 54

Vitality: 75

Resilience: 56 (+26)

Intelligence: 80 (+10%)

Perception: 59

Willpower: 55

Free Points: 3

Skills

Identify (Expert), Mana Control – INT (Expert), Emotional Outburst – PER (Expert), Lesser Invisibility – PER (Expert), Random Greater Summon INT (Expert), Sarcastic Prick – INT (Expert), Mental Manipulation – WIL (Expert), Mental Resistance, Ballistic Touch – STR (Expert) Division – INT (Expert),

Teleport – AGI (Expert) Sacrifial Healing – VIT (Expert)

Base Skills

Universal Translator, Inventory (Advanced), System Guidebook (Basic)

Class Skills

Basic Monster Tracking, Evaluate Monster, Gather Intel

Seeing all of the great upgrades he got at the expert level made him throw his 3 free points into Intelligence just so he would be able to see what the Master level upgrade would bring when he got the stat to 100.

Mason’s study of his newly upgraded abilities was cut short when a door opened, and a very human-looking Mayry stepped in. His eyes bulged as he looked at her. He couldn’t quite put his finger on it, but she looked great, even more than she usually did. Her human form had changed somehow. He couldn’t tell how, but he knew he very much liked it.

“Wow, you look amazing! Not that I didn-“ He cut himself off as she almost imperceptively shook her head at him.

She smiled at him and asked, “You’re awake? How do you feel? You worried me there for a moment.“

Mason laughed, “I am not going to say it didn’t hurt like an absolute shit, but I feel incredible right now! The upgrades to my abilities are crazy, and I can’t wait to test them out!”

The Mayor, standing behind Mayry, said, “I’m glad you are okay. Just remember, power gained from essence, especially Chaos Essence, is addictive, so just be careful not to take risks to get more.”

“I think I’m okay. I don’t have any uncontrollable need to go out and slaughter any ‘Others’ right now, but I’ll be careful.”

******

They had left the Mayor and gone back to the Inn room. Mason needed time to process the boosts to his stats and the upgrades to his abilities. He also needed to figure out what to do next, but as he sat there, he felt an intense urge to go out and do something. Not necessarily immediately go out and hunt a bunch of Others, but something! Sitting in the inn doing nothing just felt wrong.

A part of him suspected this was the addiction that the Mayor had warned him about, but he wasn’t too concerned; he was still in control, and if he were ever going to reach level 50, he would need to go out eventually.

He understood that even if they knew where the gate was, he wasn’t nearly ready to enter and face a horde of others, let alone the elders, who likely had far more power and experience than he did.

What he could do, however, was go out and hunt some of the Others who were in this world training. In some way, he would be a lot like them, doing whatever was needed to reach level 50 and go through the gate. Of course, he wasn’t a psychopath and had morals, so not exactly like them.

Taking out the map he’d looted from Aiden’s body, he laid it on the table for himself and Mayry to look at. The map showed a massive portion of the country.

There were circled areas with scribbled notes Mason could just barely make out. It looked like the names and factions of other ‘Others’. Aiden and Gael had been scouting out their competition. There were only 6 circles on the map, but there was no other information on levels or how many ‘Others’ were there. If he were lucky, which was unlikely, it would be the norm for them to be in pairs like Gael and Aiden instead of bigger groups.

He would need to take another look at Aiden’s journal to try and figure out what they were planning. Were they going to try and kill them in their sleep or try and go for an all-out attack?

There were also 3 X’s on the map, with one right on top of the hole they had found Aiden in. Mayry thought they were probably more hideouts and might be a good place to look for loot.

The plan right now was to get Mason to level 50 and beyond. The fastest way to do this would be to kill ‘Others’, but he didn’t want to run into a battle like that without first testing his increase in power and new abilities as it could be a distraction in the midst of battle and get him killed; he needed something stupid to fight first so he could get used to his new power.

It would also benefit Mayry to at least try to test her new demonic powers before fighting any ‘Others’.

After hours of staring at Mayry, he finally asked what she had changed. Her reply was just to smirk at him and say that he would find out later if ‘he was good’.

*****

Their first stop had been the Hunters Association, where they hoped to take out some contracts for some powerful but not too-powerful monsters.

He and Mayry looked over the selection of contracts and took a few each that sounded interesting.

Next, they dropped off their Basilisk armour to Geraint. Mayry’s wasn’t nearly as ruined as Mason’s, but repairs were definitely needed.

While they were there, Geraint mentioned that Nina was also a hunter and was currently out on a contract. Apparently, it was the younger girl’s first solo contract; Geraint hinted that they should keep an eye out for her just in case she got into trouble she couldn’t handle.

The last stop before they headed out was to see Viv, Mayry’s Alchemist friend.

They didn’t really need any more potions, as Mason still had a pretty decent stockpile in his Trunk, but Mayry wanted to visit her friend and get the latest gossip.

Mason was curious to see if the woman was still mad at him for accidentally collapsing the cave she used to gather ingredients. If the woman was still holding the grudge, then Mason had a plan to distract her.

Opening the door to the shop, he was hit with the now-familiar scent of herbs, spices, and brewing potions. It wasn’t a bad smell, but it wasn’t exactly pleasant.

An old man hobbled out from the backroom, saw them and rolled his eyes. He returned to the back, and then a young girl walked out.

Mason discovered the first time he had come to the shop that Vivenya Gracetone was apparently one of the greatest Alchemists alive. She had been drinking at the local tavern when she stumbled back and accidentally reset her age to 5. It had been years since then, and still, she could recreate the amazing feat.

“What do you want?” the question was directed at Mason. The look of disdain she was giving him looked questionable on the face of a young girl, but Mason gave her a wide smile. “I come with a peace offering.”

He removed the various materials and ingredients from his inventory and laid them out on the table.

Adding the Clop wand had crossed his mind, but he didn’t think he could take any more giggling from Mayry, and it had proven to be an effective weapon.

He included the crack he had procured from the Crack Hen, the Troll snot, and a few other things he had looted from various monsters, as well as Aiden’s stuff.

She looked over the things he had laid out, stopping and examining several. When she came to the Crack, she looked up at him, narrowed her eyes, and asked suspiciously, “What do you know?”

Mason blanked at the question, not understanding. “Err nothing… I thought it might be useful in Alchemy, is all.”

“Hmm,” Was the only response he got.

When she had finished examining all the materials, she nodded and smiled at him. “My favourite customer! What can I do for you?”

Mason assumed that meant she was letting the grudge go. He had been hoping to get Some Money for all of the stuff, but it wasn’t like he needed the cash. They ended up buying a selection of potions from her for very good prices. She even went through a few things she had been working on that she hadn’t had a chance to test. He was a bit wary about trying them, but as long as they didn’t actually kill him, he would probably be fine.