NOVEL WEB Chapter Twenty Seven - Batten Down The Hatches!
“Are you ready?” I asked the question, though Naea was just a spectator. She couldn’t hear me, she had just read my lips through the viewing window. She gave me a thumbs up and then rolled her wrist a few times. Hurry up, the gesture said. “Yeah, yeah, you’re not the one swallowing an entire hurricane.” After I had awoken, I had started preparations for using the Hurricane Heart.
First, I had purchased a new room for Home Base, called an evolution room. Apparently, it could get quite messy when evolving your race, at least judging from the design of the place. A grate covered the floor below me, while above there was a huge pipe that would douse the room in magical water. It was expensive at a cost of 3,000 gold coins and I had actually been disappointed. I expected more from the room than an industrial shower. It served the main reason I had purchased it, anyway.
I was stalling. Sure, there was excitement for what the pill would do but I had been stung more times by just accepting System prompts randomly than anything else since entering the Dungeon. Thinking back over the last week or so, I had really only been hurt by the scorepions. All my other damage had come from myself. Pack that thought away to analyse later, I told myself.
However, with a nice breakfast cooked, a long shower taken and a decent bout of meditation to prepare, there wasn’t anything else to do. I removed the pill from my inventory and quickly realised another facet of the evolution room, raising the space in my estimation. It was reactive to the power within. I could sense the walls containing the intense vibrations coming from the pill.
I squared my shoulders and lowered myself into the Dao pool within my soul. I had indulged my anxieties for long enough, squashing them with a sliver of concentration. This pill was a tool, a rung on the ladder to power. A prize claimed. Power enough to smack around the Storm Dragon, one day. I hope you don’t regret giving me this, Stormy.
The small pearl reminded me of a gumball, but I had no interest in biting down. The moment my mouth closed around the pill, all my confident bravado returned back to anxious doubt.
Oh shit. I had tried to swallow a nuclear explosion. Despite every nerve in my body suddenly screaming in pain and terror, I clamped my mouth shut. My instincts wept as I ignored them in what they clearly felt was our most dangerous moment. I managed to force out a growl through cracking teeth. The Dao within the pill was fighting me. Another goddamn trial?
I levied the strength of my Dao pool to fight back while at the same time my mana was already in overdrive fighting back the more base magical energies. I needed to use a burst of Infusion in order to force myself to swallow. Different tiers of magic? I smiled, blood from my teeth trickling down my cheeks. I really am becoming a wizard. The errant thought was swept away like everything else as I was thrown forcibly into my inner world.
“Well there’s your problem, Chief,” I said to myself, “you’ve sprung a leak.”
My inner world was being destroyed by a storm of incalculable strength. The “planet” which was both the source and the repository of my mana was mostly shattered. The description of the pill had said it would change me, but if I didn’t control the change then… Well, I didn’t know, but my choice was made. The hurricane wasn’t going to dominate me.
When I had swallowed the pill, my subconscious had done all it could to contain the damage. The pill was simply too powerful for my passive mana to hold it back, so all that remained was the planetary core that housed my Dao. The storm pressured my Dao, but the foundations of my power were not so easily smashed apart. In the face of the unbelievable challenge, I simply smirked. Bring it on.
My test was to try and govern the chaotic mana I had imbibed and bring it to heel. At least, I thought so. The System’s helping hand was nowhere to be found as I faced the hurricane ravaging my soul. There was no manual or guide to help me understand what I needed to do, so I had to decide for myself. Pushing with the full force of my will, I started to gather the scattered pieces of my soul.
With a single thought, my inner world returned to its former beauty. I had only formed it a day prior, so it wasn’t difficult. The flowers returned and the rivers flowed, only for everything to be swept away. My inner world was a sandcastle, and the Hurricane Heart was the unstoppable tide. The pain I had felt upon putting the pill in my mouth returned as the planet was torn to shreds once more. I almost spat the demonic pearl out of my mouth, my instincts still panicking.
I wondered how this would go for someone who wasn’t me. I was fairly certain if I had tried taking the Hurricane Heart even two days prior, I would already be a burned out husk. However, my massive Mental attribute wasn’t for showing off. With my newest gains and achievements, I had more than doubled in strength since entering the trial tower.
At the centre of me, somewhere deeper than even my soul, my Dao was calm. As the world around me disintegrated, my core held firm. Despite the damage to my body, there was not a ripple upon my Dao pool. I pondered on my three layers of being as I weathered the attempt to erode my soul.
My physical body was frozen, paralyzed by pain. I was covered in large pockmarks. Blasts of air exploded from my pores as the magic of the Hurricane Heart corrupted my own and made the mana within me dangerous. Arcs of electricity jumped between the various streams of blood which were pouring out of me.
Yikes, I thought, well, nothing I can do about that for now. I would die if the damage to my body continued to accrue, but the best solution there was to get the Hurricane Heart under control and absorbed. I turned my gaze from the physical to the magical. My mana channels weren’t in a much better state than my body, with a feeling like frostbite creeping in. Yikes again.
The pain reached a crescendo, which I endured stoically before I remade my inner world once more. Over and over, the cycle of destruction and creation tore me apart. My soul was a warzone, a field of battle I couldn’t afford to lose upon. In the moments I wrestled control of the space, I used the controlled energy to repair my body.
Within each painful strike from the Hurricane Heart, a vicious cackle could be felt. Even though it was never his real form, I saw the mischievous face of the old man which the Storm Dragon had become. The pill was no simple thunderstorm collected into a pearl, but the power of the Storm Dragon itself, right as it touched divinity. The magic inherently sought to overpower and reign.
But I had fought the actual Storm Dragon and survived, so how could an homage made of its discarded skin defeat me?
The pressure exerted by the storm was nothing compared to the weight of the dragon itself. A weight I, too, possessed. With a roar of its own, my Dao burst forth. For the hundredth time, I recreated my inner world but this time it had a new layer of protection. An atmosphere, born from the Dao of the dragon within me, shielded the lands from harm.
The Hurricane Heart seemed to sense the change and fought back. No longer able to attack my core, the assault on my body redoubled. The remnant will of the Storm Dragon was not quick to let itself become subdued. Not that it mattered, as the damage to my physical form began to repair itself quicker than it was destroyed. The intensity had only doubled, after all. Once I had control of my mana again, sending it to strengthen my war-torn body was a simple task.
The pill was soon locked in a futile battle between two walls. On one side, my Dao rebuffed any attempts to harm the flow of my mana. On the other, my mana regenerated and protected my physical form. Trapped, the Hurricane Heart was forced to spend its energy uselessly. Energy which I could now lap up at my leisure. Satisfied the process was contained and stable, I sighed in relief.
For the first time in hours, I opened my eyes and fully returned to my body. Everything felt stiff, something which wasn’t normally literal. Dry skin fell away in small sheets as I moved my aching muscles. Even my hair had been demolished by the energies I was still containing. It was quite shocking.
What really surprised me was the smell currently doing a number on me. Luckily for me, I was in a room designed exactly for this occasion as I vomited. All pretence of pride vanished as I heaved and brought up my menu. A mental command through my Faction page turned the room into a sweet-smelling waterfall. As a surprise bonus for my haste, the heavy flood cleaned away the skin which had burned and died during my battle to control the pill.
The pouring water stopped, and the foul stink was just a traumatic memory. “Like a rotted fish stuck inside an old boot that someone then chose to wear for a month while they trudged through miles of maggot-filled-” I stopped my tangent, taking a deep breath of the pleasant air. “It’s over, the nasty smell can’t hurt you anymore.”
I patted the grate of the evolution room floor and stood up. Naea entered the room, sniffing carefully. “Is all that yellow and orange stuff gone? Where did that even come from?” She looked me up and down with disgust, but I just laughed and found myself some clean clothes. I felt a familiar return of power lost as I placed the Orange Belt back on amongst the mundane jeans and shirt.
I moved and a wave of gas rose to my throat. As I burned, a crackle of electricity emerge from my throat. A System prompt appeared at the same time. Unlike most, it didn’t wait for me to open it.
Conditions met for Race Upgrade.
Race Evolved - Human -> Stormborn
The Stormborn are humans born on a planet blessed by the Dao of the Storm. Due to the harsh conditions of their world, Stormborn have increased durability. As with all humans, their potential varies in each Attribute, though they tend to make for both powerful warriors and skilled mages, due to an inherent ability to sense mana.
Thankfully, this prompt wasn’t accompanied by pain. The sensation which pulsed through my body was like having a rumbling stomach, except everywhere. I barely had time to register there were words in the air before I had the worst gas in my life. There was no cleaning the smell from the room, which we both evacuated once the seal broke. Naea locked me inside until I was done.
Which meant I had time to try and figure this out. Mostly, the next few minutes consisted of me reading and rereading the System prompt. Stormborn? The fuck? “Do I look the same?” I asked Naea, worried. She told me other than the bald head, I was still ugly. I thanked her with a rude gesture before opening my character page.
Name - Grant Kaeron Race - Stormborn (Grade 0) Level - 29
Title - Dragon Slayer
Fortitude - 20 Speed - 20 Mental - 123 Will - 60
The only difference which could be seen on the page was the name of my race, changed from human. I stepped outside the evolution room and my eyes widened. I tried to take everything in but the sights were so overwhelming I had to shut my eyes. It helped, but only a little. I was being bombarded with a sensory overload I had no preparation for. It was the Stormborn racial ability to sense mana and it was loud. The evolution room kept mana from outside from interfering, so I hadn’t noticed.
“Are you okay?” Naea asked, causing me to look at her. It was a little like the world had a blue/red filter designed for 3-D glasses over it. I saw Naea clearly, more clearly maybe, but I could also see her mana. From toe to wingtip, she was buzzing with vibrant energies. I watched as a tiny flicker appeared in her wings, an instant before she zipped over to me.
I blinked slowly, taking it in. “I think so…” I had an idea. “Hey, try and hit me.” Clearly I knew her well, as I managed to dodge her lazy attack. She had thrown it instantly, as though just waiting for a chance. I narrowed my eyes. “Properly. Try and hit me fast. From over there.”
Naea sighed but did as I asked. We both went to opposite ends of the long hallway and I counted down from three. Naea went on two, but I knew she would. I could see as mana gathered in her wings, shoulders and hips a moment before she turned into a streak of lightning. I avoided her flying kick and even grabbed her out of the air. The fact I caught her so gently was a testament to my precision.
From my hand, Naea just gaped. I explained my new ability and what the pill had done. She had nothing to say but “monster…” over and over while giving me dirty looks. Over the next hour, she randomly tried to attack me but my new sixth sense was powerful. She was left pouting, though I cheered her up by giving her a fair race outside. Happy she was still faster than me, Naea wandered back into the mansion while I surveyed the Dungeon.
To my new eyesight, the whole place was awash with different energies. One of those signatures I immediately recognised as there was another just like it around my waist. I beamed and removed the Yo Staff from my inventory.
I found another ninja frog!