41 Closing the Gap

The first step to killing him would be getting a few things out of the way. First off, I needed very little mana before my next evolution of my armor. Second off, I needed more levels for the new leveling perks I had. That meant one thing.

I had to beg these two to protect me when I went under.

I walked up towards Kessiah and Althea before I glanced around while leaning forward, "Guys, er, gals, there's something I need to tell you."

They leaned forward as I whispered, "My armor's about to evolve. I get fucked up when that happens. Mind protecting me during the process?"

Althea nodded before Kessiah busted out laughing. After she finished chuckling, Kessiah put her hands on her hips, "The little baby needs help during his nap."

I waved her off, "Oh, sorry. I forgot you've never had an evolution that evolves your current strength. You wouldn't understand. No biggie."

Kessiah narrowed her eyes, "Alright, alright. I get the idea."

I shrugged with an impish grin, "Sorry about the jab. Anyways, It shouldn't even take ten more zombies before the evolution takes place. Be ready for me to drop onto the ground, hopefully not screaming at the top of my lungs."

They nodded before we entered our next set of houses. By the time we reached the last block, a message appeared,

Evolution gained. IV Harbinger of Cataclysm unlocked. Evolve Y/N?

My armor reached out to press the yes button, but I smashed the greedy little fuck with my will. It slid backwards like a hand touching fire. I reached out and pressed yes myself.

The pain came again, but this time I was ready. My pain resistance had reached 96, meaning I was damn near numb. My willpower was nearly 200. I wouldn't be shaken I told myself. Even if the pain was like an ocean, then I would be the planet that ocean rests on.

And the pain came like an ocean. Like I was in a rain of sulfur, the armor cut and sliced into my body. I couldn't even imagine the full extent of the pain without my high resistance. It wasn't something I could understand. Just the act of comprehending an agony like that might break someone's mind. Still, I doubt it would break mine. My willpower made it tough stuff.

It needed to be. Blood squirted from between the joints in my armor. It was like tiny blades were stabbing deep into my bones. The armor splintered my skeleton, filling hollow parts of my bones like the filling of a tooth. Just imagine a root canal in every bone in your body. That's what it was like. Even the tiny bit I actually felt was difficult to stand.

I could take it though. I stepped forward, grunting as I struggled. Althea frowned as she shouted,

"You alright Daniel?"

"Obviously fucking not."

I took another step forward.

"Uh, ok then. Can you keep fighting?"

I took another shaking step, my armor creaking as I moved. I snarled, "No, not right now...I'm just trying to not let this shit leave me stuck in my tracks like last time. I'm going to have to do this again. I can't be crippled by it every time."

"Hmm...Okay."

She fired a harpoon towards a nearby zombie coming towards me. With another quick reload, she pinned both its feet into the ground. With monstrously over sized arm, she slung a green bag at the zombie.

The explosion covered it in acid. As it melted, the jaw slid off and its teeth clattered against the pavement. It amazed me how numb I was to all this gross shit by now. You really could get used to anything I suppose.

Anyways, a few minutes passed before my armor finally stopped evolving.

IV Harbinger of Cataclysm(Skin, Legendary Unique) - Skin that can absorb rift energy(Ambient Mana) for evolutions. These evolutions may add other special effects. Cannot be removed, only altered. This skin is regenerated with health. 0/256,000,000 Mana left till next evolution.

A Harbinger's Might - Increases Damage reduction cap by 2.5% | Current Max: 97.5%

Bones of Eldritch and the Unknown - Additional 20% increase to total health | Current Total Health: 120%

The Rushing Calamity - Gives unique ability IV Oppression | Current Damage: (10,000 + 30% of health/min) within a maximum of a 175ft/53~m radius. Affected by physical damage reduction.

An Eternal Force - 3% of health added towards health regen per minute | Current regen added before multipliers: 3% of 13627 = 408.8 Unyielding bonus = 817.6 Determinator Tree bonus = 1635 hp/minute bonus.

Forger of Souls - Soulforged Runes reduce total mana cost of spells by 10% | Current mana cost: 90%

Loathed, Abhorred, and Hated - Decreases Charisma by 25% | Current Total Charisma: 75%

- You will learn to embrace your hunger, given time.

It was excellent set of bonuses now, each of them impactful in their own way. They all came together to make me unbelievably durable. The only problem was the debuff towards charisma and the the last line of the screen. It looked like my armor wasn't too happy about my change in attitude. Too bad I wasn't about to let it have its way. This was my mind and my body, not his.

Closing the screen, I shook myself a few times before charging my runes again. Much more energy rushed in than just a few seconds prior. The last bonus of the armor became clear. If I used less and less mana during my runic conversions, then I could put more and more mana into them. That meant more strength and agility from the bonuses.

That became clear after just a few steps. I mean, rushes of power were rare by now. When your level one, that first point in strength or whatever is a rush. When your over level 200, a point in strength is a drop in the bucket. This shift though, I could still call it enough of a difference that it was a rush.

And boy did it feel good. I clamped my fists, missing the surges in strength of my earlier days. It's crazy what you'll take for granted, constant increases in strength being one of them. I guess I had gotten quite a bit more tanky, but that's hard to feel.

Being tough isn't like being strong. When you're strong, you can do things you couldn't do before, like bend steel. Being tough was more about shit you didn't notice, like not taking damage. Althea's harpoons had been the only thing that could hurt me before. Now, maybe that arcane guy from forever ago could mess me up, but who knows.

A gurgling sound ebbed beside me, snapping me out of my stats induced trance. A deformed zombie smashed its arm against my face, breaking its arm. It hit me again with its other arm, the bone snapping like a stick. I grinned, my armor moving like water at my command. I stepped towards the zombie as it bit at my arm.

The monster's teeth broke against my armor. I pushed it off before charging the runes on my shin. With a stomp, the heathen's head caved in, along with the ground beneath it. I picked up the corpse before my armor injected dozens of needles into the corpse, absorbing it in seconds. It left a hollowed husk behind in my hand.

I tossed it aside before cracking my neck. I rolled my shoulders before running back in front of the Althea and Kessiah. Althea sighed,

"Why did you let the zombie bite you?"

Not wanting to say I was distracted, I fumbled my words, "Uh...To test how tough I am now. The zombies can't really hurt me anymore. Maybe a horde could, but not just one. Had to check."

Surprised, Althea's eyes darted back and forth, "Oh...Sorry for asking."

I shrugged, "Can't blame you. Now let's fuck some zombies up."

We went through more and more of the blocks, turning a once arduous task into a smooth process. I would charge ahead, my aura making the zombies run towards me. As they ran, Althea would snipe a few before I crushed the rest. Kessiah kept a lookout for anything we couldn't handle. Considering how ridiculous Althea and I were for our level, that meant nothing for now.

We didn't chat anymore after a few hours. The slaughter smoothed out like clockwork. Smash, crush, crumble, we tore entire towns apart looking for those zombies. By the time we reached our tenth set of ten blocks, we were finishing each zone within an hour instead of three.

Althea and I both became so much stronger during the process as well. I kept investing into endurance, giving me more health and regen. That let me feed my runes more and more. Althea ended up showing off a bit of her ridiculous strength when a cluster of the zombies swelled up from the ground beneath her and Kessiah.

She reformed her arms into elongated blades, shearing the mass of bodies beneath her. By the time she finished slaughtering them, they weren't even whole. It was like a chunky, meat smoothie. In other words, fucking gross.

After letting my armor drink up that nasty ass soup, I ended up finding a dungeon core in pit. I let my armor hide it before anyone else noticed. An extra attribute point wasn't ever a bad thing after all.

During all of that, the willpower perk helped me keep my mind calm. It helped the entire day in fact. Sights of abominable horror didn't even make me flinch anymore. I could stomach the most heart wrenching scenes, despite how debilitating they were. The resolve that willpower gave me was invaluable in the face of the new Springfield. No doubt it would be invaluable in the face of this new world as well.

Regardless, as the sun set, we headed back towards the barricade of the steel legion. They set up a sort of base of operations near us. It was mostly tents, but they kept the cold out and the warm in. Althea needed sleep, and her aim had degraded over the course of the day, despite her increased levels.

I wasn't even slightly exhausted. The willpower perk kept me alert and aware, like I'd just woken up from a power nap. That meant I could focus and keep going forever. Seeing Althea doze off as we walked made the difference clear.

She eventually fell onto the ground, passed out cold. I carried her back towards the camp before setting her back into her bed. I kept my hormones in check this time, not letting my mind wander during the process. Letting my dick think for me was an easy way to get killed or worse.

Walking out of the tent, I pulled my helmet off my face. Moving my armor was like moving a hand or a limb. It was as easy as breathing by now. I walked up towards one of the nearby workbenches set up by the legion. Several scientists and other workers toiled on projects and others drank a few beers together. This was their downtime after a hard day. Good for them.

I ignored their chatter and laughter while I focused on my runic inscriptions. Getting a better combination of them would result in more power for less mana. That was the end goal. Still, even if I tried ignoring them, I couldn't help but listen into a few far off conversations. Mainly when they mentioned my name.

One such conversation was taking place around a fireplace about fifty feet away. I can't blame them for thinking I was out of earshot. I would've too, but the leveling perk for perception let me hear them.

One whispered, "Did you see that, uh, what is he called?"

"I think he was a harbinger of calamity."

"Yeah, I guess. I saw his level this morning. 221, which is insane right?"

"Yeah. I don't know what kind of alien he is, but he's a strong one."

"That's the thing. I saw him taking one of them other aliens into one of their tents. You wouldn't even believe it, but he was level fucking 273. I swear to god."

Several of them bust out, laughing loud and long. The whispering one continued, "Oh you laugh now. Just wait. He won't even be in the 200's for long. Neither will that friend of his."

Another one spoke up without even keeping his voice down, "Yeah, alright Fred. Sure. Next thing you know he'll be over level one thousand and brush his teeth with a toothbrush made out of a spine."

"You don't believe me, why don't you go and check, eh?"

"I got better things to do in my free time. Besides, he's the harbinger of cataclysm, not calamity. You can't even get his name right. How the fuck can you know his level then?"

"You'll see. I'm off to bed. I already know tomorrow's going to be even harder than today considering how much faster they're going to be."

"Hope you can tell the difference between a dream and reality then, Fred."

I silenced their conversation, refocusing onto my task. Curiosity was an easy way to get distracted, if not the easiest. Keeping focus despite those distractions was what made this training hard. Still, that made me level my skills faster since I had to try harder than normal.

After about five hours of that, I needed a break, so I walked out of the base. I sat inside an abandoned car, the car lowering as I sat inside. It was time to examine my stats again. Of course I'd dumped all my status points into endurance, besides for the last few levels. The three of us had been focusing on clearing so quickly that I didn't have time to invest my stats.

Now I did. I put all my extra points into endurance, ending up with a clean 540 points in the stat. An absurd amount by anyone's standards, even Kessiah's no doubt. When I finished investing my points, the perk screen popped up. I had finally gained over a 100 intelligence.

[All-Knowing(Intelligence of 100 or more. Note - Only three level 100 perks are currently left. Choose wisely.) - Your mind is a trap that never releases its prey. Emotional tolerance further doubled. 5 extra mana per point in intelligence(20 before multipliers). +4 total mana per level. Another tenth of intelligence added to luck. Doubles increased critical thinking and memory per level. Photographic memory acquired. Increases mythical skill cap by 1(3).]

I actually didn't have the perk point required. I put every bit of my attributes into endurance. I did have the dungeon core from earlier though, so I absorbed it before selecting the perk.

My flesh turned to steel. The arcane bonds in my flesh were dense and tightly knit as chainmail. This came with a sudden, sharp clarity. Fuzzy memories became crystal clear, and other memories from my childhood appeared from hiding. I could calculate numbers with ease, and my reasoning snapped like a whip, fast and forceful.

I opened my menu screens. They didn't disappoint.

Level 273 Attribute Totals

Strength - Increases carrying weight, maximum speed, and physical power 44.2

Constitution - Increases hardness, density, and weight of your body 36.3

Endurance - Increases regeneration of stamina, health, and their totals 540

Dexterity - Increases ease of movement, flexibility, and reflexes 32.8

Willpower - Increases internal motivation, mana regen, and Mental Res 258

Intelligence - Increases memory, critical thinking, and total mana pool 101.4

Charisma - Increases likeability, persuasion, and decreases prices at shops 29.3

Luck - Increases money found, odds in your favor, and chance of rare events 54.4

Perception - Increases comprehension, the five senses, and awareness 30.5

Daniel Hillside Totals Regen Buffs/Debuffs

Health 19,188/19,188 3631.2/min Oppression Damage- 10,000+30%hp/min

Stamina 9905/9905 117/sec Elemental Res - 97.5%

Harbinger of Cataclysm 2,340,489/256,000,000 0/per min Plasma Res - 97.5%

Phys Dam Reduction - 97.5% Rad Res - 97.5%

Phys Dam Bonus - 595% Mental Res - 97.5%

I forgot how intelligence fed into luck. That actually added a bit of extra health I hadn't thought about. With my evolution and my leveling perk out of the way, I was where I thought I'd end up in my current build. I was tremendously difficult to take down, regardless of what attacked me. My offensive potential wasn't amazing, but it would grind someone down over time.

All in all, it was effective considering how early I was in the leveling game. I could probably give Torix a run for his money in durability, and eventually I would surpass Kessiah in that regard. At this rate, it wouldn't even take that long. I had become a tank, someone capable of dishing out damage and with no easy way of taking me down.

Still, there were several things I needed. I needed something to stop enemies from running away, and a ranged attack. Anything after that was just gravy.

So with my layout handled, I put my skill points into genesis of potential. As I pressed the button, a knocking on the window of the car scared the shit out of me. It was Kessiah, and she opened up the door before shutting it closed. She grinned,

"Hey there. We need to talk."