The pain was excruciating. It was like he was being burned up from the inside out.
Fire wasn't something that Zarek was unfamiliar with. But this felt like a completely different sort of flame, one that came for the soul rather than the body.
The soul… it was something that only S Classes should feel so clearly. It was also something that Zarek had a little bit more familiarity with because he sensed it more clearly every time he died.
Rather than just a Time affinity, it might also be safe to say that Rebirthers had a strong soul affinity as well—whatever that meant. Honestly, Zarek wasn't sure.
What he did know was that upon crossing the barrier from A Class to S Class, there was a new, smaller kernel of yourself that took shape within. This smaller kernel was key to the creation of your own personal Godsfall Pathway channels that Zarek had mentioned before, and it was also what made S Classes particularly difficult to kill.
So long as your regeneration abilities were strong enough, an S Class could survive all sorts of injuries that lower Class beings could not, just by virtue of the awakening of their souls.
A hole through the heart, the shattering of the skull—even being burned down to one's skeleton wasn't an impossible injury to recover from, so long as one could protect their soul long enough for their body to recover.
There were some whose Talents even synergized into methods of immortalizing the soul—though not literally. Those bastards were especially difficult to kill. And Zarek happened to fall into this category.
This wasn't because of his Rebirth Talent, but instead because of Ashen Gate. The synergy between it and the soul was quite good, and his own soul became akin to an Ashen Soul in his possession, earning it protections from his Ash Godsfall Intent.
That had always been a good thing for him. But right now, his soul wasn't even strong enough to be awakened yet.
'Dammit.'
Zarek cursed, the feeling of being eaten alive only growing worse and worse with every passing moment.
It was ironic. He had just been thinking about how he would need to calm down on his use of Axiograft because the Talent was too strong. It was only a matter of time before he accidentally triggered an evolution in his body that he couldn't handle.
But now this was happening, and it wasn't even related to Axiograft. Instead, it seemed related to this Hero Candidate Role he had yet to get any sort of explanation about.
And now, there was only one way out of it.
Axiograft.
Zarek chuckled to himself. Maybe in the universe, there were only a handful of people who could laugh through such pain, but here he was.
"Well come on, then. My girl is waiting for me."
His mouth opened up and he unleashed a roar.
The world was entirely black, and he could see nothing at all. He couldn't even feel the position of his limbs—if he was still standing or if he had long collapsed.
All he knew was that he had to keep pushing and that nothing else would matter so long as he couldn't grasp what was happening right here and right now.
It looked like… he wasn't going to have much of a choice.
Chi.
—
[Charisma has shown great progress]
—
>[Charisma: CCC]
-
>[Charisma: B-]
…
>[Charisma: B+]
—
Zarek had stifled it once, but he knew that he couldn't get away with it again. His Charisma was already rampaging about after his Scouting Skill ascended to S Class. Right now, the only way out of this was to allow his Charisma to go wild.
A faint thought at the back of his mind wondered why it was the system seemed to be back. But… he didn't have the time to linger on it.
—
[Charisma has shown great progress]
—
>[Charisma: B+
-
>[Charisma: BB]
…
>[Charisma: BBB]
—
Zarek felt his body about to burst.
A Core Stat imbalance wasn't exactly rare, but it wasn't advisable nonetheless. When one stat far outweighed the others, they would find themselves in disharmony, resulting in a body that wasn't functioning optimally.
The good news was that the other stats would be unlikely to weaken. But the bad news was that the strongest stat wouldn't be able to display its full might without the others dragging it down—or worse, injuring the body.
For example, if one had a huge Strength imbalance and one's Endurance couldn't keep up, a single punch might rip your arm out of its socket. The same with Dexterity.
By comparison, Charisma seemed fine. What would be the problem with having a strong Charisma?
All stats were intertwined. Having a Charisma that was too strong would make the world feel like it was moving too slow. Your nerves would fire faster and stronger than your body could handle, easily overloading yourself. It was also possible that you wouldn't tire or fatigue in the same way, causing your body to go beyond what it was capable of doing too easily.
One's Charisma was tied to your willpower as well. Whereas a weaker body would shut down when the time came, if one's Charisma was too high, you'd be able to push those limits again and again.
It was possible to hear of animals being pushed so far that they died of exhaustion. Well, someone with a Charisma that was too high could easily end up in the same situation as a horse pushed too far for too long.
What no one spoke enough about in regard to Strength was just how much it was about nervous system training. Strong men and powerlifters didn't just have bigger muscles—they had neural systems in their bodies more capable of recruiting muscle fibers than their untrained counterparts.
That was all to say that while on the surface Charisma seemed like the best stat to overload, in action, it might be among the absolute worst. That was because it was akin to all of the weaknesses of overpowered stats slotted into one.
It could cause you to try and output more Strength than your body could handle. It could allow you to control your body with Dexterity it couldn't withstand. It could allow you to wield more Godsfall than your Godsfall Pathways could remain sturdy against. And, to top it all off, it could make you push your Endurance beyond what it could sustain.
—
[Charisma has shown great progress]
—
>[Charisma: BBB]
-
>[Charisma: A-]
…
>[Charisma: A]
—
Zarek grabbed his head, roaring. It was too much. Maybe in the history of the system, an imbalance at this level had never appeared before.
But the awakening of this Hero Spirit refused to be denied. At the same time, the problems already began to accrue.
One might think that Godsfall Intent was an Intelligence-related matter, but it was actually more related to Charisma. The stronger Zarek's Charisma became, the more of his previous Godsfall Intent comprehension returned to him. At the same time, his Hero Spirit seemed to have already been a weaving mesh of his previous understandings, so it, too, came.
The Godsfall Intent began to swim in his body, fusing into his Godsfall, making it heavier and heavier with every passing moment. Zarek could already feel the pathways being shredded apart, but for some reason, his Intelligence refused to improve like his Charisma was improving. In fact, it felt like the rest of his body was being suppressed, as though this Hero Spirit wouldn't allow anything but Charisma to skyrocket.
—
[Charisma has shown great progress]Enjoy the story by reading on M|V|LE%MPYR.
—
>[Charisma: A]
-
>[Charisma: A+]
…
>[Charisma: AA]
—
'Son of a bitch. There's just no way, right?'
Zarek still found himself laughing, but he knew that that was a problem. His body should be well beyond what it could handle right now, but he could still laugh because his willpower was quickly returning to the levels it had been in his previous lifetimes.
While his body was dying, his mind was only being raised from one level to the next—and then a level beyond even that, and then beyond that as well.
One step after another, relentless in its pursuit of something grander and greater.
—
[Charisma has shown great progress]
—
>[Charisma: AA]
-
>[Charisma: AAA]
—
BANG!
—
>[Charisma: S-]
—
A flourishing ashy gold flame rushed out in all directions. It almost looked like a ghost covering the lands, swallowing up Zarek's body whole.
—
[Charisma has shown great progress]
—
>[Charisma: S-]
-
>[Charisma: S]
-
>[Charisma: S+]
-
>[Charisma: SS]
-
>[Charisma: SSS]
—
Chi.
The result was so very silent, so quiet that one would never have connected it to the heart-pounding destruction that had preceded it.
The flames receded… leaving nothing left at all.
There was no Zarek, no sign of life, just a plain of foggy blackness that left nothing at all.
—
Name: [Zarek Ashborn]
Role: [Ashborn Demon]
Profession: [Mnemonic Anato Scribe]
Core Stats:
>[Strength: N/A] <N/A>
>[Dexterity: N/A] <N/A>
>[Intelligence: N/A] <N/A>
>[Endurance: N/A] <N/A>
>[Charisma: SSS] <SSS+>
Talents:
>[Axiograft: C-]
>>[Abilities: Graft]
[Comprehend nature's secrets as though they were extensions of yourself. Imprint these understandings onto your body, and then Graft them to become a part of yourself, taking on their properties.]
>[Ashen Gate: F-] <SSS+>
>>[Abilities: Gate of Hell]
[Open the Gate of Hell, store your Ashen Souls, call upon them to burn the world to a crisp down to one's very soul. Destruction lives in the core of one's being, and life exists only as the backdrop to death. Use it as fuel to oppress the world into an Ashen scape.]
>[Empty]
>[Empty]
Skills:
>[S Class Scouting: S] <S>
>[A Class Unholy Beacon: A+] <A+>
>[A Class Ash Reborn: A+] <A+>
…
Notes:
[—]
—