Grey felt a jolt of pain as the mechanical jaw fused into his face. Then came a surge of power.
It was like his veins were being filled with red gold flames, and yet, rather than feeling like his body was being burned alive from the inside out, it instead felt like it was being thoroughly cleaned. Almost like a deep clean that was long due, it blazed through the trails of his blood, and then his Neural Frame.
Grey gritted his teeth, his body shaking as blood poured out from his ears, eyes, and nose.
For a moment, he thought that he had gone far too far. Was his body even prepared to withstand the might of a mech with 200 units of energy right now?
Proving Class mechs didn’t usually need this much energy to power for good reason. Not only were the materials not solid enough to withstand this level, but the bodies they were usually attached to weren’t either.
But Grey had one Frame at the Established Class. He hadn’t thought that it would be a limiting factor for him, but it seemed that assuming shit really did make an ass of people.
Grey held onto the handles of his egg gaming chair, his body beginning to shake. His fat rolls jiggled like his entire body had become a fat round ass the world was suddenly slapping over and over again—just far less aesthetically pleasing.
Time didn’t seem to move at all, and by the time the pain finally came to a sort of stop, a dull ache still pulling at him, Grey had no idea how much time had actually passed.
The only good news seemed to be that the pain hadn’t allowed him to fall asleep.
’Fucking hell, what was that?’
Grey groaned and put a hand to his forehead.
’Hm?’
For a moment, Grey wasn’t sure if it was an illusion or if it was because the pain he had just experienced had desensitized him to everything else. But he was almost sure...
The pain he was experiencing was less.
Grey’s grip on the sides of the egg gaming chair tightened as he made a move to stand, expecting to grunt, but his eyes flickered again.
’What the hell...?’
Grey looked down at his body and almost jumped.
His belly... he could see his feet, he could see his fucking feet!
"Holy shit... I mean, the belly is still there, but it shrank by at least a good few inches..."
Grey grinned. Prometheus was so useful.
According to Edmun, the only way to deal with the fat was to travel and go clear the Buddha trial, well take a look at this.
’If I create a stronger one, can I get rid of the rest of it? Wait, wait, before all of that, what exactly did Prometheus do?’
—
[Name: Grey Temolt]
[Name Affiliation: Disciple of Sir Trolley]
—
[Frame: Prometheus]
[Frame: Vampire Lord (Established Class)]
[Frame: Paladin (Proving Class)]
[Frame: Helion (Proving Class)]
[Frame: Mark of the Buddha (Proving Class)]
[Pending Quests: 1]
—
Stamina: 222/222 (+100%)
Sync Rate: 0.13%
Energy Reserve: 200.3/200.3
—
Sync Rate: N/A
Energy Reserve: N/A
—
Sync Rate: N/A
Energy Reserve: N/A
—
Sync Rate: N/A
Energy Reserve: N/A
—
STR: 76 (+40)(+100%) SPD: 104 (+100%)
DEX: 104 (+50)(+100%) INT: 61
END: 182 (+60)(+100%) PER: 73 (+50)
—
Harmonic Stats: N/A
Free Stat Points: 1397
—
Abilities:
Body
Resistances: Lv11 Iron Veil; Lv10 Helion Body
Combat: Lv11 Heart Lance; Lv10 Solarbrand
Enhancements: Lv11 Hemorrhagic Regeneration; Lv10 Solar Regeneration
Mind
Resistances: Lv8 Mental Fortitude; Lv11 Abyssal Anchor; Lv8 Center of Balance; Lv10 Living Dawn
Combat: Lv11 Void Gaze; Lv10 Helstorm
Enhancements: Lv11 Crimson Cognition; Lv5 Paladin Spirit; Lv10 Helion Resonance
—
’Holy shit, that Sync Rate...’
Normally, Sync Rate was decided by the compatibility of a Spirit and the mech it was powering. This was separated into two prongs. The first was function and the second was tier.
The latter was easy to understand. The stronger the Spirit, the stronger the mech needed to be to properly account for it.
The former was a bit trickier and more variable as the translation wasn’t often one to one. But the function of a mech aligning with the function of a Spirit was for the best. For example, a beast type Spirit and Grey’s mechanical jaw would line up pretty well.
Grey had no idea what "function" worked best for Prometheus, but it was clear that he had yet to build a mech anywhere near powerful enough to satiate it.
This Sync Rate wasn’t as good as the 0.71% he got with Esmeralda’s, but this was still more than 10x better than what he had originally.
That was to say that it wasn’t because of the 200 energy units that there was some movement in Prometheus, it was because the Sync Rate was so much higher.
And that was why...
’It’s gone...’
Grey checked his notifications, but the information about Soul Burn was entirely gone. He started to laugh before he abruptly stopped.
’When the hell did my Helion Frame Abilities reach Level 10?’
It had to be remembered that Level and stats worked in an odd balancing tandem.
The cap for stats in the Proving Class was 100 and the cap for Levels was 10. If an Ability worked using a given stat, if that stat was too low, the Ability tended to be held back as well.
For example, most Mind Abilities relied heavily on Intelligence. This was why Grey was always using his cargo pants and burning through Cyber Cores to fuel them to be stronger. Doing this made his magnetic field Abilities a lot stronger than normal.
His Vampire Lord Abilities were an exception because they were getting support from his fang necklace, so it replaced the more direct need for stats.
But his Helion Frame wasn’t getting such support, and this probably hadn’t happened during his battle with Terran.
He checked his notifications again and confirmed. All of the notifications of level ups came in the last couple of hours while he was writhing in pain.
’Prometheus allowed it? Or was it the fat?’
Grey’s eyes narrowed.
There was only one way to find out.
’Build a better mechanical jaw and try again.’
Grey pulled out a familiar tome and finally flipped to page two.