Chapter One Hundred and Thirty Six - 136H34t R3$!5t4nce is level 26!
F17e R3$!5t4nce is level 25!
Congratulations! You Have Reached Apprentice Tier with Fire Resistance!
You Gain:
+ERROR
+ERROR
+ERROR
Felix held back a scream as his nerves revolted within his flesh. The hand he'd held over the brazier had blackened and charred under its punishing flames, and Felix cradled it gently against his chest. Fumbling with his satchel, he pulled out a small red vial, uncorked it with his teeth, and poured it over his arm. The sensation of ten thousand needles against his skin consumed Felix, but he'd been through this several times now. He clamped down on his desire to shift about and watched. Some off the blackened skin flaked and sloughed away, while bloody rivulets dripped down his wrist. In their place new skin and muscle formed, fresh and pink and extremely tender. But it wasn't enough. Grunting in annoyance, Felix fished out his last potion and poured it on as well, until the pain was replaced by a terrible itching.
Arm more or less restored, Felix stood and took several steps away from the brazier, grateful to escape the ever present haze of heat-induced pain. His Heat Resistance may be at level 26, but a sharp uptick in temperature sent fissures of hazy agony, like a steel file against his fingertips.
With luck, I'll have this all resolved today. Felix took a deep gulp of air and grimaced as he exhaled. The room smelled of smoke, char, and strange magic. Not for the first time, he considered his...appetites these last few hours.
The room around him was bare of literally everything. He was lucky that Zara could deliver on some of those Uncommon monster cores, because he'd run out of furniture in the first hour. Aside from the brazier before him, the room was covered only in the results of his training. The rugs were scorched and the walls were speckled with divots where his acid had dissolved them. Sections of the room were still iced over from his Mantle experiments, though most of it had melted by that point.
After breakfast, Felix, Vess, and Evie had pushed Zara for more information about this "visitor" she had mentioned. Though the Naiad had also assured them that she would take care of it, the three of them were alarmed that someone may have followed them from the sewers. It was clear they had followed them for some time at least, as the increase in his Abyssal Skein Skill was testiment to someone actively searching for him over the course of an hour. Someone that had exceptionally good Perception or a powerful Skill, strong enough to oppose his Void Skill.
The temptation to rush to a window and look was overpowering, but they went to their rooms instead. Zara had confirmed that there were multiple layers of wards laid into the area around her mansion, some overlapping other houses nearby too. As they had suspected, the scripts had some targeted elements, but mostly they were passive wards to distract, disrupt, and obfuscate her property. The Chant, apparently, allowed more subtlety than standard System Skills.
Zara had said the visitor had been dealt with, but Felix wasn't taking chances. He and the others had returned to their rooms to practice what they could and hone themselves while Cal and Harn ironed out the details with the Naiad.
Felix had practiced with Lightning Resistance at first, utilizing a spare dagger Evie had on her. Just like in the Labyrinth, Felix channeled his Reign of Vellus to push on the blade and causing lightning to arc across its metallic surface. Holding onto the steel sent that same lightning through himself. It hurt, but it was the gentlest pain he'd experienced in a while. The experience with sundering and combining Acrobatics had given him a new tolerance, but this was something else. The pain increased as Lightning Resistance increased in level, each time jumping by a significant margin, until he ran out of steam around level 6.
Felix had run out of energy. Of the essence he'd stolen from the Acolytes, most of it had gone to developing his sigil work in the library. Now it had finally been depleted.
As an experiment, Felix picked up a chair in his room and used Ravenous Tithe upon it. It burst into smoke and was sucked into his body. Startled despite himself, Felix focused within and saw that a small amount of energy swirled into existence above his core.
"The Skill never said my target had to be alive. Just that I 'claim' them, whatever that means. What am I even absorbing here?" Felix looked around himself with his Manasight flared to full. The room was a shifting swirl of ambient power, something he usually ignored like looking past the dirt on an unwashed window. It was everywhere. In everything. "Am I just...taking their Mana, then?"
He tried again, this time watching closely.
It took Felix two more chairs and an ottoman before he could spot what was being eaten. The Mana of the inanimate items was being leeched out quite clearly, but there was also something more...ephemeral being taken. He didn't know what it was, only that there were gaps in the flow of Mana as it was pulled into his core. Each time, nothing was left of the object itself.
His experimentation proved that he could absorb this essence from almost anything that had Mana and whatever that invisible aspect was; though if it was present in wooden chairs, Felix was sure he'd find it in plants or rocks or something. The only downside of using it on the inanimate versus monsters was Felix had devoured the entire room before he'd even gotten close to the same amount he'd gotten from the Common monster cores Rory had provided.
It also proved without a doubt that the limit on his use of Ravenous Tithe had lapsed once he had hit level 10. He wondered what it would be capable of once it reached Apprentice Tier.
Using the essence stolen from the room around him, Felix dove head first into his training. He tried repetition and reliving several choice memories regarding his various resistances, as well as attempting to feed the essence directly to each Skill he was raising. The last wasn't too successful, but he didn't regret the attempt. If it had worked it would have been amazing. As it was, Felix's Skills increased apace as he devoted himself entirely to the task. He had dawdled long enough, hoping for a more laid back, peaceful life in Haarwatch. He was about to enter a Domain that was very likely corrupted by the same dark passenger that was buried in his lawn, and who knew what he would face before it was over.
He had to be ready.
At some point, Zara or one of her servants had left him with ten Uncommon grade monster cores. Those went into the rotation, and he'd only managed to consume a single one before he'd finally hit Apprentice with Fire Resistance.
Pulling himself from his thoughts, Felix checked his other notifications and let out a quiet, satisfied sigh.
L!ght&1ng R3$!5t4nce is level 2!
...
L!ght&1ng R3$!5t4nce is level 25!
Congratulations! You Have Reached Apprentice Tier with Lightning Resistance!
You Gain:
+ERROR
+ERROR
+ERROR
Mana Manipulation is level 22!
Dual Casting is level 23!
Acid Resistance is level 25!
Congratulations! You Have Reached Apprentice Tier with Acid Resistance!
You Gain:
+3 END
+3 VIT
+3 WIL
Acid Resistance is level 26!
Acid Resistance is level 27!
Mantle of the Long Night is level 23!
Cold Resistance is level 23!
...
Mantle of the Long Night is level 25!
Cold Resistance is level 25!
Congratulations! You Have Reached Apprentice Tier with Mantle of the Long Night!