[CYA] Chapter 192: Final Jump (Patreon)

NOTE:Patreon does not like formatting/different 'alignments' of paragraphs that help make this fiction what it is.

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https://docs.google.com/document/d/1OVWYLJ5IkE0zIanCtxAh8acifi7JHYt-I_2TYmbNy3Y/edit?usp=sharing

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<Alex, Real - Dorgon Calls for Aid, Innominate Quarters>

Alex settled himself, shifted to be slightly more comfortable in his chair, and dumped the last two-hundred-seventeen points of Life into his dadao.

Living(Lineage) Steel Dadao[Legendary]HP: 8,000/8,000 [16,000]

Alex felt the energy within the weapon seem to pass a threshold. Something about it made him feel like it would be more efficient the more power he put in from this point, but he still didn’t have any idea what this would do.

Test it, then next time take it higher? He only considered a moment before nodding to himself. Yeah, that’s the wisest course.

Alex leaned in on the energy, triggering the reaction. It was as if the Life compacted, collapsing in on itself in an odd way even as the majority seemed to burn away, fueling the process. A moment passed before he got a notice.

Weapon ImprovedExperience has been earned.

The experience gain was… minimal to say the least. It felt almost like the bare minimum he could receive, but ironically, it was the last that he needed for a final level-up of his secondary class, this little task carrying him across the finish-line that had been approached by his fixing of nearly fifty, high magi-tech armor suits, worldspirits at their cores.

He’d deal with that in a moment, however.

A quick Analyze on his weapon forced a weary sigh from his lips.

Living(Lineage) Steel Dadao[Legendary]HP: 8,001/8,001

Then, he barked a self-deprecating laugh. That was an almost insultingly small increase… but it was an increase. As he got more powerful, he could reach the needed energy amount more easily, and it meant that it could be advanced over time.

He didn’t like that the Life seemed to get locked away, but he felt like he could figure out how to at least access the base Life reserves in the weapon, even if the build-up was unavailable. If he figured that out, this would be an easy use for any excess Life generation he had. That would also let him utilize the nearly three points of Life generation per hour that the sword, itself, had. Together, that put him at a total close to thirty Life generation per hour.

With that, he could improve the weapon every eleven days or so, before accounting for other uses of his healing.

Plus, I’m owed a couple of Rings of Regeneration. If I up my HP regeneration, that should up my Life regeneration again, and then this will get crazy.

His common ring quintupled his base generation. If the combination went as he assumed, he was expecting his new regeneration of HP to be somewhere between ten and twelve times his base rate. After all, the simple version had doubled the healing rate, and combining three rings had resulted in a five times increase. So, combining three of the common rings should land as he assumed.

That would be considerably useful, even if it meant that he’d always be bottom of the list of healing potions.

The Imperium tried to make equipment available for acquisition based on need, at least for most things. Mages had easier access to mana regeneration items and potions, those with lower health regeneration—or less access to healers—had priority for health potions and similar things.

As a commanding officer in the drop, he’d have some potions allocated to him for use on his soldiers, but those might even be sealed so that he couldn’t use them on himself, to prevent abuse or misuse.

But that was beside the point. His sword had just become a teeny-tiny bit more useful.

There were other things he wanted to make out of living steel, if he could figure out how to do it consistently. Even just a set of vambraces could be monumentally helpful, as well as adding both to his reserves and generation.

But it was time for him to deal with his level-up and grab a quick nap before the last jump.

“Accept Level-up.”

Level Up:Class Level Stubborn Student of the Master - Life Runewright (Legendary), ELevel 4 → Level 5

Notice:Class Detected at level 5, specializations available.Please review and select from the available options at your earliest convenience.

Apology Tutorial Notice:No Class experience can be earned before a class selection has been made.

Specialization Qualifications Met:Mechanis Initiate (Rare)Mechanis Auxiliary (Epic)Mechanis Technician (Epic)Contrite Student of the Master - Runewright (Legendary)Stubborn Aspirant of the Master - Life Runewright (Legendary)Prideful Aspirant - Life Runewright (Legendary)

He felt his Spherical Sense push out just slightly as the System augmented his being, but he didn’t let that distract him, dismissing the Mechanis specific classes—given the realities of this being a tutorial—before he looked deeper at the three that remained.

This time, instead of getting a list of benefits, he got a rough description of each choice, feeling that the benefits were roughly equivalent but in line with the description.

Contrite Student of the Master - Runewright (Legendary), EYou’ve realized the master was right all along, and you wish to show your growing wisdom, turning your ill-advised sojourn into health and Life-based magical creation toward the more standard path of mana-based work, if with the unrivaled foundation provided by your master and the benevolence of the System.

Stubborn Aspirant of the Master - Life Runewright (Legendary), EYou’ve proven that your path has some validity, and you continue, undeterred. Your foundational knowledge is complete due to the benevolence of the System and the efforts of the master, but your wisdom and practical experience remain lacking.

While that might be the excuse for choosing this variation, it can no longer be said that your choice is an unfounded one.

Go forth and prosper so that all may see the worth of your master through your actions, whether they realize the foundation of your power or not.

Prideful Aspirant - Life Runewright (Legendary), EYou go forth on your own merit. Your master provided structure to your path, and the System granted you opportunity, but you are your own man, beholden to nothing and no one.

Forge your own road, and let none say you are dependent upon another to get to whatever heights you achieve.

Alex’s eyes twitched. He rather disliked all the options presented before him.

The first was entirely out for him. He had found great success in working with Life and HP, and the fact that he could still sense and interact with Mana-based enchanting and magical workings kept what could have been the biggest detractor from factoring in at all.

He liked working with HP and Life.

The second option was… Well, it was insulting. It reminded him of the ‘Runic Kindergartner’ skill that he’d had for a time. Still, it did reflect the truth of his current path, even if he didn’t like how much it emphasized Runia’s involvement.

Which brought him to the last option, which felt like spitting in the face of her assistance, and practically screamed out the height of arrogance.

He would have liked a path between the second and third, one that paid homage to all that Runia had done but didn’t all but ‘enslave’ his ongoing progress and accomplishments to proclaiming her glory…

But, truth be told, he knew his foundations upon her teachings gave him a leg up on everyone.

Fan and Imotih had gone out of their way to express just how unusual his abilities were with what he was able to do to help them repair their platoon’s armor.

Runia was the reason for that—and the System by proxy for facilitating the whole process—and he’d be the picture of ingratitude if he ignored that.

The stats were effectively the same, with no tier or rarity increase, but that was expected. Secondary and later classes had less variance as they advanced.

All told, he didn’t really like it, but he also didn’t really have to think about it much.

He made his choice. “Stubborn Aspirant of the Master.”

Looking at his stats, it only took him a moment to decide where to put his three unused points. They went into Mental Agility, taking that up to an even four hundred fifty, after the modifiers from his titles and mana cycling technique.

He would still need to pick his new skill, but that would have to wait until later. It wasn’t like he would have time to craft in the near-term, regardless.

As he moved mentally toward sleep, he glanced at his abbreviated stat sheet, verifying it was as expected.

Character Sheet:Alex JohnsonLife-Aspected Human (Epic), E, Level 10Primary Class: Life-Aspected Great-Bladesman (Epic), E, Level 10Secondary Class: Stubborn Aspirant of the Master - Life Runewright (Legendary), E, Level 5HP: 14,588/14,588 [14,805]SP: 16,365/16,365MP: 6,160/6,160

Living (Linage) Steel Dadao8,001/8,001

Titles:Reactively ResilientSystem Initiate

Physical Stats:Power: 227.5 → 234Agility: 406 → 434Fortitude: 322 → 329

Mental Stats:Power: 284.9 → 320.1Agility: 408 → 450Fortitude: 290.4 → 325.6

Magical Stats:Power: 286 → 308Agility: 324.5 → 357.5Fortitude: 275 → 297

While it was a bit irksome that his primary class and race were a bit stalled out, waiting for his secondary class to catch up—and for him to be in more situations that called on his bladework—it was good to be advancing his secondary class at such a pace, especially given its legendary nature.

Regardless, the time had come to complete the trip to Dorgon, and they were only going to arrive two days before the deadline.

They might have been able to squeeze in one more mission, but none of those within range were greatly interesting to any of the crew.

The jump-drive was almost charged, and he was ready for a rest.

Alex moved to his bed and let out a contented sigh, quickly drifting off into a dreamless sleep.

<Alex, Real - Dorgon Calls for Aid, Innominate Duty Station>

Alex floated in the void, even as he felt the ship around him.

In flight mode, he could still tell he was inside the Innominate, and part of him wished for the peace of the vacuum once more.

But that wasn’t for now.

In the moment, Alex was preparing for the final jump to Dorgon.

They were leaving behind a blue star that radiated the water aspect, and rather than planets, there had been four massive spheres of water orbiting the blue ball of fire. One had been fresh water and three had been various chemical mixtures, which had fascinated Pilar and John for days as the other tasks were completed.

They’d helped repair a few broken or rundown stations and facilities, completed a supply run while several of intra-system craft were getting overhauled, and subdued a sea-serpent that was starting to get uppity in the salt-water bubble.

They didn’t have to kill it, but they did put a sizable dent in it with ship-board ordinance. It would take quite a while to recover, and the dissuasion tools available in the star system should have been upgraded by that point.

All in all, it had been a productive end to their trip. The ten thousand water aspect they’d gotten on top of everything else hadn’t hurt either.

It wasn’t a particularly rare or valuable aspect, but it was always in demand on a warfront, and Dorgon was that in spades.

All told, they’d taken twenty-eight of their thirty days to reach this point.

“Jumping in five.”

His companions rattled off their confirmations even as he counted down.

With no gainsaying, he hit one. “Jump.”

The Innominate was a rook, lifted and placed across the board, finally in position to threaten the enemy queen.

Alex jolted as they re-entered space, Natasha instantly sending the data to everyone, confirming they’d arrived in the Dorgon System.

A notice pinged through their minds an instant later.

Mission Completion Pending:Dorgon Calls for Aid

Please dock safely to complete this Imperium imposed task.

Dock… safely?

Alex’s eyes widened as his danger sense spiked, and he spun the Innominate in a roll to the side, just before a light-eatingly black… something tore through the space they’d just occupied. “Enemy contact!”

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