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[Skill-Eater] Chapter 13: Cored
🕑 Added 2024-07-03 17:01:01 +0000 UTCWhen Edge woke up, a monster’s eyes were staring back into his own. Midnight orbs protruding from a feathered face that reeked of rotting meat. Only inches from his throat stretched a ragged yellow beak smeared with lurid gore.
Finding himself face-to-face with a mankiller while only half-awake, Edge screamed and threw himself back, knowing that he would never get away in time. That he was already dead, experiencing the final moment of his all-too-short life.
But to his surprise, then immense relief, instead of carving through his face like a hot knife through cream, the monster simply sat there. It was staring into space, showing no sign that it was aware of his existence. It didn’t even blink.
Edge tried to stop hyperventilating, recovering from the shock as his pulse pounded in his ears. When he began to calm down, the memories came flooding back.
The prisoners’ arrival and igniting his core. Killing both men and then slaying the monster. Claiming a rare skill, then passing out from exhaustion.
It all returned in a flash, triggering a series of stunning realizations.
The first was that he was still alive. Through quick-thinking, cunning, and luck, he had survived an encounter with two cored prisoners and a powerful monster.
The second thing Edge noticed was that he was no longer starving from magicyte depletion. He was growing hungrier by the heartbeat. But it was the regular, “I could really use a pizza right about now,” kind of hunger he had known all his life, not the agony of his body falling apart.
That insight let to the third and by far the biggest mindfuck of the lot. “I have a core,” he whispered in awe. Then louder. “I found a core! It wasn’t just a dream, it really happened.”
At that point, Edge began to laugh. He stared down at the corpse of the shadowreaver, astonished by the remarkable turn of events.
He felt utterly, indescribably alive.
He was filled halfway to bursting with the feral joy that only people who have lived through certain death can know. The other half was brimming over with the overwhelming relief that only those who have stood at the bottom of the food chain before climbing the first rung ever experience.
His whole world had changed within a matter of minutes, ending one chapter of his life and beginning the next. Edge’s story had opened to a fresh page, pristine white and bursting with possibility. He had gone from being one of the weakest creatures on the planet to well-above average, and this was only the start of his rise to power.
After all, he didn’t just have a basic core. Skill-Eater was unique. Something that he hadn’t even believed existed until today, although the feed was rife with rumors and legends. And oh, what a core it was.
Skill-Eater came with some significant limitations that he was only starting to wrap his head around. Not to mention its profound influence over his mental state. But what it offered in exchange more than made up for the trouble.
[Extraction] was the strongest ultimate ability that he’d ever heard of, especially for a stage-zero core. In less than an hour, Edge had gone from having a single basic skill to wielding two uncommons and a rare. Or he would when he was done digesting the reaver’s skill sometime late tomorrow tonight.
On top of that, his core’s unique trait had doubled Edge’s skill slots. It would offer him a level of firepower far beyond his stage when he finished filling them all.
His core was also the reason why he no longer had to worry about starving to death. Even an unevolved core drew in enough magicytes to sustain a puppet body. However, he would have to wait for days before his reservoir was full, relying on its intake alone.
Fortunately, there was a better option. Edge could restore his energetic reserves a great deal faster if he found some mana rich food. But that would have to wait until he climbed to the surface and was back on the Ivory Plains.
It was around this time that he arrived at his fourth and final insight of the morning. Taking everything into account, he didn’t actually feel superhuman yet.
Ok, regeneration was pretty amazing. The gaping wound in his stomach had sealed shut, and his fingers should regrow once he had some more mana in the tank. But Edge had watched the jailbirds move with power and grace that took his breath away. Why don’t I feel the same way?
That was when he remembered the ability points that he’d gained from cycling-up his core twice back-to-back. Points he had yet to spend. Maybe when he did, he could become like them. Or at least one step closer than he was right now. But how to best spend them?
“Status.” He summoned his Guide and opened his profile, staring at the list of attributes while pondering the value of each. He broke into a broad grin when he thought to check his updates.
It seemed that cycling-up his core wasn’t the only good news.
For defeating a cored opponent stage 2 or above, you have earned 1 mortium.
You have accumulated sufficient experience to cycle-up your core. Your new cycle is [2].
You have accumulated sufficient experience to cycle-up your core. Your new cycle is [3].
You have four attribute points awaiting allocation.
You have accomplished a notable feat and have been awarded a trait.
It turned out that he was walking away with a mortium after all. When Edge made it back to town, he could rest for a week and would finally be able to afford some decent gear.
Better yet, he’d earned his very first trait, and it was way better than the starter traits most people picked up at his stage. He danced with excitement, barely able to contain his glee as he opened the trait menu and kept right on reading.
Trait: Triple tap.
You’re either a genius, blessed by the heavens, or the luckiest motherfucker on the planet. You won a fight against three opponents that were two stages higher than yourself, and (more or less) landed the killing blow on each.
Effects: + 1 power. +1 speed. +1 control.
The luckiest what? Edge couldn’t help but notice that the trait’s description was more than a little odd. Instead of being clinically precise, the text was snarky, informal, and personal. It set a totally different tone from the rest of the System’s messages.
I suppose they were right after all. He’d heard rumors that glitches had appeared within the planetary AI network in the aftermath of the calamity. But this was his first time experiencing one for himself. He wasn’t sure what these changes foretold, although he doubted it was anything good.
Regardless, it was a worry for another day. Right now, Edge needed to spend his attribute points, then get the hell out of the ravine and cross the plains while he still could.
