Tycoon May: Chapter 12 (Patreon)

Chapter 12

“What?”  Grant’s heart dropped, the rejection by his sword spirit and constant companion serving as sharp of a blow as any he had suffered.  “I’m not going to just roll over and die!”

<See that?  You have a fighting spirit.  Just because you have suffered a severe injury doesn’t mean it’s time to quit.>  Grant sat up a little straighter, wincing at the motion.  <For now, you should rest.  When you wake up, we can talk about what to do next.>

Grant nodded in silent agreement, his eyelids already feeling heavy.  The few beams of light that managed to make it into the tiny alcove were barely enough to see by now that he had taken down most of the glittering Metallica.  He knew once the sun went down, there would be nothing to see by.  That wasn’t going to be fun to deal with, but right now he didn’t have any way to fix it.  He tried to think of some way to start a fire, and weighed the risks of giving away his presence to the inhabitants of the cave…

<Wake up!>  Grant’s eyes snapped open, seeing nothing.  He shook himself awake, immediately regretting the motion.  His whole body throbbed in agony, the damage from his last battle still far from healed.  Most especially, his right leg was sending waves of pain through his body.

“Is something wrong?”  Grant whispered, his ears straining to hear anything that might be sneaking up on him in the dark.  “Why did you wake me up, Sarge?”

<Something out there smelled your blood.  I heard scratching at the crevasse entrance.>  Realizing that Grant still didn’t have his Uchigatana, he held out his hand and activated Time is Space.  February 29 appeared with a flash of light, illuminating the tiny cavern for a brief second.  It was enough time for Grant to see the cockroach-like creatures coming through the crevasse after him.  Behind them, the sound of an angry Danger Digger could be heard.  <That’s probably the monster I was still stuck in.  Now that I’m gone, it is surely bleeding again.>  Grant struggled to his feet to prepare himself for the flood of insect monsters heading his way.  <Don’t forget to use your abilities!  They can help make up the difference for your injuries.>

“Adjusted Air Friction!  Thundering Step!  Peach Flower Petal Flurry!”  The rapid use of three skills wasn’t enough to drain his mana, but it was certainly enough to cause Grant to almost black out from the sudden burst of pain caused by moving so much.

The air around Grant seemed to flow with an ease that allowed him to better sense what was nearby.  It also seemed to make the lightning from his Thundering Step travel a little farther than normal, the light from his spell illuminating the full length of the crevasse once again.  Grant’s flurry of sword strokes was limited by his leg, and he had to exhale through his nose to keep from gasping in pain as he unconsciously shifted weight onto his right side as his blade danced through the flashes of lightning.

<Great job!>  Sarge’s encouragement was certainly welcome, and it told Grant that the creatures he was keeping contained in the tiny crevasse were more than just injured.  Sarge wouldn’t have been happy if all Grant was managing to do was wound the monsters.

His Uchigatana was able to chop through the thick chitin of the monsters with the help of the ten percent penetration boost the flurry spell imparted, removing limbs and hacking into insect skulls with abandon.  The environment made it necessary for most of his movements to be vertical, turning the normal spinning flurry attack into a steady and almost rhythmic forward dance.  To ensure he could see what he was hitting, Grant kept using Thundering Step and focusing the cone of destruction down the narrow opening.  The pattern kept going, with Grant falling into a trance as each movement sent waves of pain throughout his body.

<Grant!  Grant, you can stop!>  He shook his head, coming back to himself.  The fading flickers of lightning dancing through the chopped and scorched giant bugs showed him everything was dead.  Grant stumbled back against the wall, breathing heavily.  He had taken some light wounds, especially to his legs, but it wasn’t enough to overpower the   <You killed eighteen of those things.  It was enough to reach level thirty-four, so expect at least a small amount of healing.>  Flopping back to the ground, Grant could only wait for the gradual increase in his health to take effect.

It felt like all he did was blink, but the next time Grant opened his eyes, there was enough light in the small chamber for him to see.  The first thing he did was grab his sword and put it in his sheath.  He didn’t want to give up a fourth of his mana to get it back again.  After that, he stood up, expecting to feel a massive amount of pain.  Instead, he felt fine.  A little stiff, very hungry and thirsty, but nowhere near the agony he had been in before.

<Now that you’re awake, I think it’s time for you to see what happened when you leveled up.>  Grant was mildly surprised to see that Sarge had somehow been holding back an update from the system.  After he read what it had to say, it didn’t matter.

Congratulations!  Through your hard work and dedication, you have advanced the skill: Bodily Awareness.

Prerequisites for skill increase:

• Survive 20,000 damage
• Heal over 10,000 damage
• Have a skill or ability that directly impacts the body.

Bodily Awareness (3/3). Tier one effect: Your mind has learned what is real, and what is not. Now you will always know for sure. The pain of all real damage taken is increased by 10%.

Tier two effect:  Pain is your body’s message to your brain that something is wrong.  Perfect understanding of what injuries you have sustained allows that communication to be more effective.  Generalized pain is now sharpened to the exact location of any damage.  Minor Mutations: Sense of Smell Synchronization.

Tier three effect:  Your body and mind have near-perfect understanding of one another.  Pain sensations can now be ignored at your own peril.

Dao Seed of Change has resonated with an absorbed ability: Live by the Sword.  Bodily Awareness 3 has met hidden requirements, and has mutated into Regeneration 1!

Regeneration (1/7).  Tier one effect: Heal 10% of all damage taken each day.  This can be combined with other skills, spells, and items with no penalties.  Energy for all regeneration comes from the Wielder.

“Are you kidding me?  I had a skill that allowed me to ignore pain, and my Dao Seed took it away?”  Grant could only shake his head in disbelief.  Fate could be so unkind.  “Wait.  Is this why my back doesn’t hurt, and I can walk normally?”

<Exactly!  Regeneration is one of the best skills a warrior can get.  While ten percent a day isn’t a huge amount right now, it’s enough to keep you alive.  As this levels up you will be able to survive almost any attack!>

“Any attack?  That’s… amazing, actually.”  Grant bent over and touched his toes, then stretched his back, testing how he felt.  There were still some minor aches and pains, but they were pretty consistent with sleeping on a stone floor with armor on.

<Not any attack.  You could always bleed to death, get decapitated, burned bad enough to cook your organs, or suffer through general dismemberment.  Those would all kill you before your healing could catch up.>

“Good to know.  But, it says ten percent healing per day.  I thought I was in much worse shape than just ninety health points.”  In fact, the last time he had checked, he had needed far more healing.  About eight hundred or so.  “How am I now at,” he checked, seeing he was at nine hundred and ten of nine hundred and seventy one, “over nine hundred health?”

<It was only ten percent.  You just woke up from a really long nap.>  Grant gasped, already feeling the weight of what had just happened pushing down on his shoulders.  <Yeah, it’s been about ten days or so.>

“Ten days!”  Grant put his head in his hands.  “That means it’s already almost the middle of the month.  I don’t have time anymore to go back to District April for rare metals and ore.  If I do, I’ll be too far off schedule to make it to District June on time.”

<No time to waste then, Grant.  Time to get a move on.  No going backward, only forward.>

“Right.  Forward.”  Grant let out a sigh, realizing that he wasn’t going to be getting through this district on easy mode.  He would need to get contribution points the hard way.  And that meant more fighting for the weary Wielder.  He would just have to keep going.  “Well, I suppose we should get out of here and back to the city to find out if this Metallica is enough to get through the next gatehouse.  I need to track down Tycoon May, and now he has a huge head start.”