It was evening a few days later. The scent of grilled at filled the air as they all sat outside for a barbecue.
Matt’s cooking skills were on full display.
With mashroot tree curry on the side, he sohow turned the spawn at Albert had given them into sothing that slled and tasted amazing.
Alia hovered around him, peeking into pots and stealing small bites whenever she thought no one was looking, while the rest of them sat scattered around the fire in the front yard.
Several days after the raid, Eric was finally awake.
He had passed out from mana shock after the last fight, but now he was recovering quickly.
From Katar’s explanation, spawn at had nutritious properties that also accelerated recovery.
"It’s good for you. Eat as much as you want," Katar said to Eric, who was still wrapped in bandages.
Eric sat on a chair beside Icard, picking at his food slowly. His gaze drifted, caught on the last thing he could rember before losing consciousness.
"I really thought you died, Icard," he muttered. "I saw him plunge his hand through you."
Icard glanced at him, then looked away toward the fire.
"I managed to repair myself. It was close, but my Keeper helped out, I guess," he said.
Eric let out a small breath.
"I see. I never thought you had a skill that could do that. Your keeper’s pretty cool"
"It’s called Regelation," Icard said. "It’s an ice attribute that returns my body to its normal state after being tampered with."
He paused, then added quietly, "But trust . I was definitely close to dying there."
A brief silence settled between them, filled only by the crackle of the fire and Matt arguing with Alia about stealing food.
"Well... I can’t say much either, since I don’t even know how I did what I did," Eric said at last. "All I rember is that the bastard was really tough."
Katar had explained it to them earlier, and seeing Eric like this only confird it. Eric was one of those incarnations whose systems behaved strangely.
"You have reached the peak of the first tier of your Keeper’s space. Activating it in that state consud more mana than your body could handle. You will have to learn how to use it properly if you want to rely on it," Katar had said.
Icard inhaled deeply. "You just have to rember how you did it. When your mana has replenished, we should try it out again."
He looked at Eric seriously. "That state was enough to push Wester back. And Wester had gained power far beyond the spawn we saw in the first gate."
Eric glanced sideways at him, surprised.
"Trust ," Icard continued.
"He was that strong. He just couldn’t use that power properly because his body wasn’t accustod to it. He was dragging, already weakened. That’s why we were able to deal with him."
After using the fifth floor on Wester, the sa explanation had co up again, that Wester was already weak.
But even if that weren’t the case, the gloom frost skill would have killed him regardless.
"When I fought him, I thought he was going to explode at any mont," Eric said. "His body... why would he use sothing like that, sothing that could kill him?"
"Maybe his Keeper made him that way," Icard said.
"Giving incarnations that level of power before they are ready is impossible. His Keeper must have modified his body with his ability, to be able to carry such power with minimal advancent."
"I see," Eric said, then took another bite from the plate of food he held.
Icard leaned back in his chair, his thoughts drifting.
In his previous life, the next gate they encountered had been a green gate.
He could not tell exactly where they were in the tiline now, but he could feel it coming.
Sooner than before. Less than a week, if his instincts were right.
Just then, a familiar panel flickered into view before his eyes.
[Attribute Status]
[Strength: E]
[Agility: E]
[Endurance: F ]
[Mana Pool: D]
[Total AP: 62]
Icard studied the numbers in silence.
’I killed one Moundrat and got 40,’ he thought. ’I would have pushed my mana pool again, but I need up to 80 for that.’
His gaze drifted downward.
[Use ROT A.P?]
’Rot A.P,’ Icard thought with a slight frown. ’Right. I killed Wester and got those.’
Rot A.P was a different type of A.P, obtained from killing incarnations.
[Hmmm. Shouldn’t You Use Those?]
Alyxara’s presence slid into his awareness again, her panel appearing out of nowhere.
[Rot A.P Could Make You Reeeaaally Powerful]
He could almost hear the teasing lilt in her voice through the words.
[Kill More People And Get More!]
Icard did not respond.
[Hmmm. Since We Made This Deal, You Have Been Ignoring , Huh. That’s Nooot Fair, Icard. Chuckles.]
He pretended the panels were not there, fixing his gaze on the fire instead.
[But Then, I’ve Seen Quite A Lot From Your Teammates, And I Must Say, They’ll Be Really Easy Targets. Just Kill...]
That was enough.
Icard shut her out.
It was sothing he had learned to do. Maximal ignorance.
Since system interaction worked through his thoughts and subconscious awareness, by deliberately refusing to acknowledge that side of the system, he could block her ssages from reaching him.
Ever since he defeated Wester, Alyxara could see and hear through his vicinity, and she had taken to bombarding him with ssages whenever she felt like it.
It was irritating. So he adapted.
’Rot A.P feeds a different aspect of the Frost Tower. A particular attribute,’ Icard thought.
’But I can do without that. I will do without it in this turn.’
He stroked his chin lightly with his thumb, considering.
’Agility and endurance, then.’
The panel responded.
[Agility: E 40 A.P]
[Endurance: F 20 A.P]
[Updated Attribute Status]
[Strength: E]
[Agility: D]
[Endurance: E ]
[Mana Pool: D]
’Strength would have been ideal,’ he thought, exhaling softly, ’but from what we will be dealing with soon, I will need my agility more.’
They had not grown much from the last raid.
Most of their battles had been against incarnations rather than spawns, and the Moundrats they faced back then had mostly been finished off by Redd’s group.
At their current level, they were not strong enough to survive the next gate easily.
They needed more chances to grow stronger.
But if they could not reach that level in ti, they would have to get it from sowhere else.
And the only option Icard could think of was pulling soone in much earlier than before.
Getting Zayne with them.
anwhile, Katar watched them from the porch in deep thought.
Even though they trained as often as they could, almost like a routine, it was still not enough. Not for what was coming.
He stepped down from the porch then.
"Alright, you idiots," he called out, drawing their attention.
"As you can see, the first and last ti you saw a gate was a long ti ago. It is impossible for the next gate to be far from us," Katar said.
"And the next gate you will see will definitely be more difficult than the first one. I can promise you that."
Matt paused at the grill, turned slightly, and asked, curious,
"I know about the risks of Erwalds using their powers outside their vicinities. But then, isn’t a gate different? If you co with us, none of this would be a problem"
Katar exhaled slowly.
"Good question, Matt," he said.
"To answer you plainly, using our powers outside a vicinity endangers our accompanying incarnations. But using them inside a gate puts us in far greater danger."
Confusion spread across their faces, except for Icard’s. He already knew what Katar ant.
’Molluscs, deviant Keepers, high grade Avarices strong enough to fight and defeat Erwalds,’ Icard thought.
The region of the cosmos involved in the the celestial events was so vast that there were star systems and planets far inside the Vokus’s nebula.
Planets much deeper into the celestial events, with their own incarnations, who would be far ahead of those on earth, hence the avarices and incarnations capable of dealing with erwalds.
’And they have rare essences. Essences that make them heavily hunted during celestial events.’
That was one of the main reasons Erwalds chose incarnations with great potential. It increased their chances of surviving encounters like that.
’We need to get stronger,’ Katar thought, huffing softly.
"There is a way to make you stronger," he said, his voice dropping.
The air around them seed to tighten, the warmth of the fire suddenly feeling thinner and heavier, like the space itself was bracing for what he was about to say.
"But I will push you all close to death," Katar continued. "So you should prepare yourselves."
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