PenguinKills
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Chapter 70 - Frozen Fortitude
🕑 Added 2024-07-03 20:14:19 +0000 UTC--AN--
There will be a chapter tomorrow but if I don't see you, Happy 4th of July to all my fellow Americans out there. Also, a word of wisdom, not everyone who starts tomorrow with 10 fingers will end tomorrow with 10 fingers.
~~
The wave was a brutal reminder never to get too confident. I was falling into the groove of the waves with the acid spiders, lightning tigers, and what have you, and I was confident in my ability.
Fighting the wave of my opposing element opened my eyes to that arrogance.
The wave of Blaze Lions pointed out a deficiency that I needed to quickly remedy.
The aftermath of the battle was still in the process of cleaning up and we had yet to get to the unfortunate part of it. Two more were to be buried tomorrow. Austin's Dad and cousin Dennis would not be waking up tomorrow.
Austin was off in the woods somewhere dealing with his grief. Conner was devastated at his Dad's death and Carrie was doing her best to keep it together. I didn't know what to do to help, so I gave them space.
Abigail and Grandma were trying their best but I didn't expect them to get over it any time soon. Austin being my friend, I tried to help but he wanted to be left alone, so I did.
I trusted that he wouldn't do anything stupid and it was sad to see the spark of wonder he usually carried diminished slightly. He would get through it, we all would, but who would we be on the other side?
It was infuriating to watch my family dwindle and die. I wanted to rage at the world and let my fury out, but I didn't. I kept in check and when [Barbarian's Fury] threatened to activate on its own, I took calming breaths to stop it.
Or I went and killed something brutally, but saying I took calming breaths made me feel better.
The two deaths weren't anything that we did wrong either, it was just an unfortunate matchup. My power was stifled by the heat, Rachel's was severely weakened, and Austin lost an aspect of his power as well.
Three of our strongest were weakened and that led to deaths that could have been avoidable. Rachel's powers were entirely fire-based and shooting fire at lions that were already on fire didn't do much. They had innate fire resistance in their blood. She tried to manipulate it and turn it against them but she wasn't strong enough.
Austin's powers had the piercing power of light added with the burning power of the sun. He wasn't as weakened as me and Rachel but an aspect of his usual powerset was missing.
The only person who thrived was Jonathan. His powers countered the lions perfectly and his Earth held off his gate admirably. The lions couldn't claw or burn their way through before Carrie's arrows killed them.
I did a decent job at my side as well, but it showed how much it drained me during the boss fight. I was usually able to act as a second tank for Jonathan but I was too drained to do it. I still had the stat boost from a full-powered [Momentum of the Avalanche] but I was too physically and mentally tired to do it.
The constant need to use my Law left me more drained than I had anticipated and the increased need for physical melee attacks left me empty.
The boss was able to move about more freely than usual and that led to it getting shots off at the wall. It was focused on getting through the wall instead of fighting us and its power was what got through and ended two lives.
The catapults and our experience were enough to survive the onslaught of numerous beasts without much issue, but the splash damage from a level 42 boss with a Fire Law was too much to handle.
We were lucky it was only two people who met their end.
After the attack got through and we saw what happened, Rachel went and protected everyone from it happening again. Her power was nearly useless against the boss, but she could easily counter it as well.
She could redirect the flames and fireballs the boss shot out easily enough that no stray attacks caused any damage.
Too bad it was too late for some.
Burns were the most common injury and the 4 Healers we had worked hours to heal everyone up from some nasty burns. Second and third-degree burns were painful wounds and it hurt watching people scream in pain. Blisters and red skin were visible on almost everyone who fought in melee range.
My body was racked with burns as well but I made sure everyone else was seen to first. I would bear with the pain so others got healed first. Abigail tried to heal me but I denied it.
The boss's fire was what injured me. My fortitude and ice armor were enough to ignore the regular lion's fire, the boss's was more powerful and backed with a Law that overcame even my stalwart defenses.
Abigail didn't like it but accepted my decision before going to heal others. She muttered something about me being stupid and to get over myself but I didn't care too much at the time.
The pain was necessary for me. It was a twisted sense of penance for my failure. I deserved to feel it for a while.
Deep down I knew that it was stupid and wasn't the right way to process what was happening but I didn't know what else to do. My family was dying before my eyes and I could do nothing to stop it.
I already ran on less than 4 hours of sleep a night and I spent every spare second trying to get stronger, there was nothing else for me to do. I wanted a break.
A vacation from responsibility, from needing to claw tooth and nail for enough power to survive. A break from the constant death and battle that surrounded me. I wanted to relax.
I wanted a break from the pain.
I tried to close it off, to numb myself of what was happening but I just couldn't do it. No matter how I tried to reason with myself, I couldn't do it.
I stayed sitting on the wall until the sun set, falling below the horizon and the stars made themselves known in the sky. I allowed myself this brief time to collect myself and grieve before starting it all over tomorrow.
Going hunting, gaining levels, getting stronger, just to be back here in 3 more days.
From the information that we got from the system, I knew the tutorials were designed. I found out that this was made by someone and it was someone I was going to kill.
It might take me a while, it might take me forever, but I would do it. There was no need for the pure maliciousness, the disregard for life, that this tutorial was. Even if it forged people into great powers, it wasn't worth it.
No matter what intentions were used to create this hell, it wasn't worth it and whoever did it deserved death. A death that I swore to carry out.
It did not slip my notice that I went from shaking at the thought of killing a person to swearing I would kill someone in a matter of days. How fast my feelings had done a 180 was enough to laugh if I still cared enough to do so.
Finally calmed down enough to look at my notifications, I pulled them up. They were the same as every other wave. Points for killing a bunch of the lesser monsters capped off with a portion of the boss.
Three levels were my reward. The monsters of the wave were higher level than me for the first time in a while. I went into the wave level 34 and the monsters were level 36 and 37. The boss was even higher at 42.
The level difference was enough to give me three levels instead of the usual two. Usually, two levels during a wave and the occasional one for hunting in between them were all I got. Now that the monsters were higher level I was getting more experience.
Others were gaining it faster than me though. Jonathan was near level 40, and Rachel the same. Austin and I were slower and weren't the highest level anymore but we were still the strongest.
Rachel and Jonathan both had a law of their own to match us but Austin and I were stronger. It was similar to the bandits I fought and killed, a higher level wasn't everything.
I noticed I leveled slower than even Austin did, putting me at the slowest. The only reason I kept up at all was my constant effort and lack of sleep used to hunt or smith.
My profession was the highest level out of all of theirs and it gave me the needed stats to keep up.
We figured the reason for leveling speed was class rarity. The rare class gave more stat points which in turn needed more experience to accomplish. The system would run a deficit if the same amount of essence was used to gain a different amount of stat points.
We knew there was a cost associated with gaining power but this was our first time seeing it. 4 stat points was the only difference per level but it added up. With 10 levels of the increased requirement, the deference showed itself.
My leveling speed being slower than even Austin's was something I attributed to [Body of a Barbarian]. I knew the added stat points weren't free and there was a cost associated with it and now I knew. I still didn't regret it. The stat points were worth it in my opinion.
Leveling slower wasn't that bad of a penalty for more stat points. Outside of the one situation I currently found myself in, it would have been fine. Even in the current situation, it wasn't that much of an issue.
It was a cost I was willing to pay. And I did it again with my new skill.
Frozen Fortitude(Uncommon) β Inhabitants of Niflheim are known for their strength of arms and body. Frozen Fortitude forces them to go hand in hand. Every second point in strength results in a point in fortitude.
After gaining the skill, I felt something in my spirit lock. It took some meditation and introspection to find out what happened but it was noticeable when I did. Both [Body of a Barbarian] and [Frozen Fortitude] occupied a distinct part of my spirit, and now that spot was full.
It was more of a feeling than knowledge but my limit for those skills was reached. I wouldn't be able to gain any more like them. I knew there would be a limit and it seemed like two was it.
I wasn't too upset about it, both skills boosted my two most important stats. Strength and Fortitude were what I needed the most and my fighting style was beginning to revolve around them.
The strength needed to swing my hammer together with the fortitude needed to last through fights. It was a fighting style I enjoyed and one I was comfortable with.
A test of whether I hit hard enough to kill something before it hit hard enough to kill me. A bloody duel to the death. I liked it.
My new skill didn't benefit from the boost I got from endurance, it only worked on my base strength. It was still the biggest singular boost in stats I had received to date and the feeling was out of this world.
At the time I received [Body of a Barbarian], my strength went up by 20. Now, with my new skill, my fortitude went up by over 100.
My base strength was 207 which boosted my fortitude by 103.5. The .5 wasn't added to my status sheet but it was there. It went from 130 -> 233.
I almost blacked out during the change. There was so much happening that my mind couldn't comprehend it.
It ended quickly but it took me a while to come down from the feeling.
My two highest stats stood out from all the rest.
Strength- 274
Fortitude- 233
With [Momentum of the Avalanche] at 100% they would become
Strength- 548
Fortitude- 466
With the boost from [Barbarian's Fury], they would become
Strength- 589
Fortitude- 501
It was sad that the boosts didn't work on each other but it was expected. It would easily get out of hand if all of the boosts worked on each other and the body would rip itself apart if they all worked on each other.
A 100% boost from [Avalanche], a 15% boost from [Fury], with a boost from a potion or buffing skill would quickly get to uncontrollable levels.
Still, over 500 stat points were enough. I didn't know how that compared to the other F-Ranks in the multiverse but I felt pretty good about it.
With [Momentum of the Avalanche] fully built up, there was little that could stand in my way and the only thing in the tutorial that could, were bosses.
I just wished everything wasn't so damn hard.
--AN--
I know that this chapter was a little dark but I felt it was needed. It shows how Chris is changing and is the source of most of his grit. I felt that most novels have the MC have this insane determination without a reason for it. This explains the source of Chris's drive, his motivation for strength. It won't continue to be this dark in the future but it was something I felt set the tone for how Chris will behave in the future.
Also, the reason for his slow leveling is revealed. The skill takes extra experience every level so it takes longer. Two is the limit though. There will be no other skills of this kind.
Comments
Alexander C Hyde
With 10 levels of the increased requirement, the (difference)deference showed itself
Tyler Babcock
I got to say that final bit "there was little that could stand in my way and the only thing in the tutorial that could, were bosses." Is 100% a huge red flag. Either the former plyons are going to be an issue and/or the human conflict is about to come crashing down soon with that flag you just raised.
Gus
Happy 4th of July from Australia π¦πΊ
James Faulkner
Tftc!
