I sat cross-legged in the wreck of the camp and read the whole of what nine deaths had made of me, and let me tell you, it was amazing.
[ Name: Elric Voss ]
[ Age: 16 ]
[ Title: Demon Slayer (Epic) — Ascendant Earth Gate (Third Gate Open) ]
[ Available Titles: Death-Touched, Lightning Adept, Storm Bearer (Legendary) ]
[ Anima Depth:78 → 84 (Adept) — Broken-Celestial ]
[ Disciplines: ]
Lightning Edict — Legendary 62 → 71(Adept) — Broken-Celestial
The Loom of Lightning — Epic 68 → 79(Adept) — Broken-Celestial
Lightning Tribunal — Legendary 60 → 74(Adept) — Broken-Celestial
[ Attunement Skills: ]
Lightning Resonance 84 → 90 (Arcanist) — Rare → Epic
Staff Resonance 64 → 68 (Adept) — Rare
Force Resonance 35 → 44 (Acolyte) — Rare
[ Auxiliary Skills: ]
Endurance 93 → 97 (Arcanist) — Broken-Celestial
Concentration 75 → 84 (Adept) — Uncommon
Observation 73 → 82 (Adept) — Uncommon
Anima Sensitivity 70 → 79 (Adept) — Uncommon
Meditation 64 → 70 (Adept) — Uncommon
Marksman 63 → 69 (Adept) — Rare
Demonology 65 → 74 (Adept) — Rare — Registered
Inscription 21 → 24 (Initiate)
First Aid 18 → 22 (Initiate)
Cooking 16 (Initiate)
Cartography 6 (Initiate)
[ Celestial-tier skills: ]
Mortal Shell 91 → 96 — Broken-Celestial
Hollow Avatar 58 → 64 — Broken-Celestial
Lightning Incarnate 54 → 62 — Broken-Celestial
Soul-Forge 42 → 51 — Broken-Celestial
[ Cor Telluris — Channels: 7,800 / 10,008 ]
[ Laws: Lightning Law Shard (1/9) ]
[ Stored Essence: 178,600 / 100,000 — Fourth Earth Gate ]
[ Blessings: Anansi Web (Consumed) ]
[ Soul: Welded — Condition: Strained ]
I read it top to bottom, idly noting that I was looking at my status screen quite differently than I did before, because I was no longer seeing the deaths that it took me to acquire all this progress, just the pleasure of my growth being placed in numbers.
My Anima Depth first. Eighty-four. I had walked into the first of the ten brutal loops at seventy-eight, and nine deaths against the hardest soul that I had ever encountered had dragged it up six points.
At this rank, gaining six points was a fortune, since when you consider how long it took for an Adept to grow, and my liquid Anima was deeper than any Adept had a right to carry, and every point of growth of my Anima was far more significant than an average Adept... I would know, after killing Rel and Orath multiple times at this point, I had taken the time to understand their Anima, and I was not impressed at what I had seen.
Then the line that made me sit still and look at it twice... [ Lightning Resonance 90 (Arcanist) — Epic]
It had crossed to the Arcanist tier after it had been climbing all all these while, my third Arcanist skill on my status, after Endurance and Mortal Shell. I also noted that the ranking for the skill had become Epic, which meant that the ranking for my skills would change and evolve the higher I brought them. This was good to know.
I had noticed this trend when my skills had grown to Uncommon Rank the moment they reached the Adept level, but I could not be sure of these changes. With Lightning Resonance becoming an Epic Ranked skill, I had fully confirmed these changes.
I don’t know if it was normal for an Adept to be able to acquire an Arcanist-ranked skill, but I had stopped judging my capabilities through the lens of normality.
Somewhere in the nine deaths against Vrakth as I threw ten thousand bolts at the demon, my body had slowly adapted to wielding lightning of such power.
It made a kind of brutal sense. My lightning disciplines were ridiculously powerful at the Epic and Legendary rank, and if not for my transformed channels, a mage at the Adept level would be turned to ash if they intended to cast Tribulation Lightning, or be cleanly sliced into ribbons if they wielded the Loom, or their soul would shatter if they tried to proclaim Lightning Edict.
I brushed past the growth of my disciplines and auxiliary skills before glancing at the Celestial-tier line, which had climbed the most, since they had been the bread and butter of my advancement, and were crucial to the fighting style that I was developing.
Mortal Shell at ninety-six, the power that turned every one of Vrakth’s killing blows into something that I walked away from until I had nothing left to give. It was growing fast, faster than any Arcanist-ranked skill should, but I was enduring damages that should kill an Arcanist.
Lightning Incarnate at sixty-two, my short flight, the quick blinks, the mad experiment of flowing my whole body into another had finally pushed one of my favorite skills to the Adept level, and I could not wait for what I could do with this skill when it reached the Arcanist tier.
Soul-Forge at fifty-one, fast and hungry now, a forge that could melt through crystalline soul if given time. And despite not using the Hollow Avatar, it was still growing because I was unconsciously pulling on some of its abilities as I fought; it was still climbing in its quiet way even as it stepped back from my fights, growing precisely because it let me grow.
The two numbers I had bled and died for sat near the bottom. Seven thousand eight hundred channels of ten thousand and eight. Three-quarters of a Stone Shell, grown one forged fragment at a time and kept across every reset.
Two thousand two hundred to go. A long way, still, but the first time the number looked like a thing I would finish rather than a thing I would die toward forever.
And the demon essences. A hundred and seventy-eight thousand against a gate that asked a hundred. Overfilled, but necessary. The balance of the heavens had been broken, and the gates were rusted shut... if there was ever any hope that I could push past these barriers, then I needed force, and this loop gave me the ability to gather as much force as I was able to.
[ Soul: Welded — Condition: Strained ]
The designation was now strained, and I was not too surprised. My deaths in the hands of Vrakth had not been easy, and the stability of my soul was pushed to the brink every time because I emptied it every single time.
It was a testament to the strength of my soul that it was simply strained and not severed from the torture I had placed myself in.
Still, it was all for a worthy cause, and with Mortal Shell at the Arcanist level, my soul was healing faster than ever, and I was sure that if I took it easy for the next loop, it would be back to stable.
Then I closed the screen, and I reached for the gate.