[ Ding! | Second Wind | Has Been Triggered ]
[ ... ]
[ Health Restored To Maximum ]
[ ... ]
[ Ding! | Back From The Dead | Has Been Triggered ]
[ ... ]
[ Revival Initiated ]
I had no idea how long of a length of time I was out for, but I eventually came to and regained some level of cognizance. However, as great as that news was, things still remained bleak because my consciousness was fuzzy and strained to an incredible degree as my brain and mind continued to struggle against the nonstop onslaught of information flooding its way into my skull.
If I had to attach a level to my current condition, I would probably say I was as weak and feeble as I had been when I first came into this world… Maybe even weaker than that, because I couldn't even form a single thought whilst I was dealing with this deadly situation. And if that wasn't bad enough, I had to continue holding out against the constant pulses of excruciating pain all while staring into a pitch black void, that was literally no different to that space I found myself in when I passed away in my original world.
…
Everything remained in a lightless state as I helplessly dangled on a knife's edge, but I eventually sensed a change in my situation and felt a weakening in the ocean of knowledge assaulting my mind. This weakening was so faint it was nearly nonexistent, but it was there, so I held on, praying the years of hard work I put into grinding would be enough to get me through this. I endured the hammering of my mind as all sorts of changes and evolutions occurred with my body, and after remaining staunch for God knows how long I could finally form a full thought.
I'll endure no matter what!
As soon as that line appeared within the depths of my mind, I drew upon the massive amount of mana I'd accumulated over the years and activated Lesser Heal a basic life spell my mother "invented" on her journey to becoming a Mage Learner, in a desperate attempt to regain some of the ground I'd lost in this battle to evolve and grow ever stronger and more powerful. The moment I activated that spell, that I had hardly used till now, I regained my former clarity for a split second and opened my eyes.
What I glimpsed through my weak shuttering eyelids was the scene of my body lying on top of a bed turned medical table, with all kinds of lines and tubes running out of it, which were continuously pumping a colorful concoction of Buffmax, Medstim MK II, and P-Dex into me, so I could hopefully be clawed back from the jaws of death. In addition to that scary sight, were a multitude of robots running about and loading more and more meds into me as well as my tear-stricken lovers, Alice and Rei, who were both employing their limited healing magic to the best of their abilities whilst Mary just held my hand tightly since that was all she could do given her current abilities.
"He opened his eyes!" Mary cried out.
The cowgirl's sudden exclamation caught hold of the other two women's attention, so as they were continuing to feed mana into their spells they looked up and caught sight of the small smile that made its way onto my lips. I could see the instant relief on all three of their faces after they caught sight of my awakening. Sadly, the fight wasn't anywhere close to being over, so before I could exchange any words I was once more pulled back to the void as the three girls tried to keep me awake and in their presence.
I know I'm in for one hell of an earful when I make it through this ordeal, but I have to say I'm a lucky guy.
Although I wasn't looking forward to the quote unquote talk, I would no doubt have to be subjected to, I was nevertheless overjoyed to have my loved ones by my side and doing their darndest to keep me alive in this dire time.
My stint in the void passed by dreadfully slow, but the flood of new knowledge weakened ever so slightly with the passage of time and after bearing with the pain for what seemed like days, it reduced once more somewhere around the level of a raging river. The experience was excruciating, to say the least; however, there was a glint of light at the end of the tunnel, so I strengthened my mental resolve as I bore witness to the raging river weakening to the level of a stream some time later.
Luckily for me, it didn't stay at level forever either and eventually trickled down slowly but surely to a drip and thennnnn, nothing. When the flow of information finally cut off and my body finished its metamorphosis, the system started spamming notification after notification nonstop.
[ Ding! New Perk Unlocked ]
[ Ding! New Perk Unlocked ]
[ Ding! New Perk Unlocked ]
[ Ding! New Per- ]
[ … ]
The bombardment went on for so long that I began to think it would go on without end, but it too eventually stopped.
Phew, I survived.
As my body naturally regenerated from all the damage I sustained from the leveling process, I opened my eyes instead of checking out what I had gained from this massive level up because I had more important matters to focus on, that being my lovers who were still working tirelessly casting basic 1st level healing magic.
Right as I opened my eyes, the difference between the way I perceived the world and felt prior to my level up and now was incomparable, so much so that it was practically on the level of going from 2D graphics to 3D. It was all a bit overwhelming at first, but my new powers allowed me to adjust to the new and improved me lightning fast, and when I did, I spoke. "You can stop now; I made it out of the woods."
"..." The three young women paused at the sound of my voice, but that didn't last more than a few moments because all three of them rushed me as my robots pulled back and either went off to take care of the never ending list of tasks or take their place nearby but out of the way.
My two women got emotional as I expected, and even Mary let a few tears leak out surprisingly as they all latched onto me and released their pent-up emotions and stress. I would've attempted to explain to them that everything was fine now, but this clearly wasn't the moment to tell them how the fuck I ended up the way I did given their distressed states, so I just kept comforting the three teary-eyed girls with soothing words and rubbing their backs.
It took a good while, but once they had calmed down, the bombardment of questions I predicted would come my way commenced. "What happened?"
I had plenty of time to figure out how I wanted to explain away this incident, so I didn't keep them waiting and answered immediately. "I delayed my level up far longer than I should have and nearly succumbed to the harsh effects and strain the process puts on my body."
"I thought you had a handle on its effects by now. What happened?" Rei commented.
"I thought so too, but apparently I bit off far more than I could chew at one time... Or process in this case."
"Umm, I don't mean to interrupt, but what's a level up?" Mary asked, not understanding what I meant by level up.
"..." Alice and Rei glanced at each other before turning and looking at me since it wasn't really their place to tell her what that term meant when it came to yours truly.
Hmm, I guess it's time I told her about that part.
It was pretty much a for sure thing I would end up together with Mary at some point down the line, so I began explaining the system to her starting from the beginning. "Well, you see, I have this thing called a system-"
There was a lot to cover, so even though I tried to keep it concise, it still took a while to get through the starting bit.
"Ahh, so that's why you possess such a wide range of powers." The rough and tough cowgirl thought aloud before going into thought for a moment. "Are you sure it's alright to tell me all this?"
"I mean, if we're going to be together, you're going to have to learn about it at some point, so why not now?"
"I guess that makes sense..." The lass accepted easily enough. "So back to the matter at hand, how are we going to stop all this from happening again?"
"Yeah, how?" Rei repeated before all three women stared me down, waiting to see how I was going to extricate myself from this mess.
I could literally sense the fear radiating from them and see the trepidation lurking in their pretty eyes, so I had to come up with something good. "That's a good question... For starters, I won't hold off on leveling again and will use my level ups as I earn them from now on."
The three girls didn't seem content with that answer alone, so I kept going. "The reason I nearly died mainly has to do with me being unable to process the oceans of information that gets stuffed into my head when I level up, so in addition to the former, I'm going to start research into the drug called Intelli Tabs, which causes the user's intelligence and brain functions to improve over time. This will help ease the strain my brain is put under and improve my processing speed."
Their fears were alleviated somewhat by that bit, but there was room for further reinforcement. "And I'll have the robots start construction of an advanced medical center with all the bells and whistles on the second level of the facility, along with a dedicated level-up space for me to undergo my power-ups... Is that good enough for now?"
And to go along with that, I think I'll have my workforce install a ton of first aid stations all across the facility as well. They'll be kind of worthless for the time being, but this will become a major headquarters in the coming days. Meaning it'll definitely have plenty of people traversing throughout its network of halls and expansive spaces, hence it would do me some good to plan for that inevitable future.
"That's acceptable for now, but I want to add a couple more things." Alice spoke.
"I'm all ears."
"One, if you are undergoing more than 5 level ups at once, all of us need to be there, so we can assist you in the process with our healing magic."
"As long as the circumstances allow it I can agree to that. What else?"
"Two, Mary should be given the ability to use magic and taught healing magic first before anything else, so she can help us make sure you don't kick the bucket like what nearly just happened."
Mary seemed surprised to hear those words coming out of my wife's mouth, but Rei sure as hell wasn't, since it would be adding on another helper who could potentially make the difference between me staying alive.
Shrugging my shoulders, I commented and pressed on. "I have no issue with that. Does anyone have anything else they want to say?"
"I have something I would like to add." My Asian beauty spoke up.
"Let's hear it."
"You need to start seriously exploring magic because I'm sure you wouldn't have ended up in the situation you did had you had magic formations and spells to fall back and rely on."
"I don't doubt it. So, I'll start looking into it and seriously pursuing it when we come back from our trip today... Oh, that reminds me. I know it was supposed to just be you, Alice, and I, but do you girls mind if Mary comes along?"
"Sure, I don't care." Rei said first, not caring one way or the other.
Turning my attention to Alice next, I found she was of a similar opinion. "I don't mind."
"Okay, now that that's resolved, let me bring you up to speed, Mary, so-"
There was a sizable amount of information remaining when it came to my system, not to mention my ever-increasing number of abilities, but I eventually got through it all.
"So let me get this straight, you possess a power that is similar to something straight out of a video game, that lets you grow in power through combat, completing tasks, and performing various feats, is that correct?"
"Mhm, that's about the gist of it."
"..."
"If I hadn't seen half of what I've seen so far, I would think you guys were pulling my leg, but I can only accept what you're saying because there's no way a marked one nor a transcendent human would be capable of all this." The dirty blonde gestured at me with her hands, that held traces of my blood.
"...Do you have anything you want to ask or say, or can we call this segment done?"
"I mean, what's there to say right now? You've pretty much told me everything there is to know... Unless you're holding out even more on me?"
"No, that's basically it." I responded to Mary, who was attempting to lighten the mood further, half jokingly.
There is one last secret I've continued to hold on to, that no soul knows about, but I'm not comfortable revealing that one and don't know if I ever will be.
Thinking about my previous life and the world I originated from for a few moments, I kept things moving along since I still had all those quests I was sitting on, that needed to be turned in, not to mention the horde of system notifications I still had to sift through before we could set out. "Alright, moving on... Haa, I know you three aren't going to like this, but I have a bunch of quests I need to turn in and collect my rewards from, meaning I need to level up some more."
"...Like now?" Rei questioned hesitantly, already well aware of what answer would be coming out of my mouth.
As I responded with a simple nod, all three women released a collective sigh. "But I'm in much better shape now than I was a short while ago today since I got through the last level up."
My initial persuasion attempt proved unsuccessful if their worried expressions were anything to go by, so I really drove it home. "I'm actually understating the difference by a massive amount. If my previous self was already ridiculously strong, my current self is on a completely different level. It's to such an extent that I'd probably be considered a demigod in olden times... Putting it another way, I'm able to tank HEAT shells from a literal tank cannon with just my body alone."
"Combine my new durability with my intelligence, which has gone up far more than any of my other attributes, and I should be able to deal with any level up no problem... As long as I don't let them stockpile again and use them as I get them, of course. And since these are quests we're talking about, I can go through them one by one if I have to, though I don't think that will be necessary given the colossal amount of stats I gained from this most recent power up."
"Are you 100% sure you won't have another issue? We can always put things off for another day, you know." Alice asked, still worried about my safety and well-being.
"I know, but as you can see, I'm in far better shape than ever before." I told her whilst showing off my new and improved bod, that had just fully healed and reached perfection or as close to perfection as one could feasibly get to, I imagine.
My comment drew all three of the young beauties' eyes and kept them distracted for a short bit whilst I continued organizing my thoughts and managing my forces all across the facility and the surrounding territory with my numerous thought processes, which had increased in number by nearly a factor of 3.
I better break them from their heated states otherwise I might find myself under them in a moment here... Not that I would mind at all, but there are more important things needing to be accomplished on today's agenda.
After allowing them the opportunity to admire my chiseled and perfectly sculpted physique, I broke their hot, captivated gazes from my unmarred and glistening marble-like skin and regained their full attention. "Before I say anything else, did you girls learn what happened during the night?"
"...No?" Alice answered for the three.
Great, I have to deal with that too now, haa.
"Well, you remember that douchebag young master type we encountered at the gathering of the undercity powers a few years ago?"
"Yea." My two lovers answered together.
"His family, plus a few other major players, and a sizable portion of the government staged a coup during the night."
"What!" The two girls exclaimed, sitting straight up.
They were quickly getting agitated, so I kept going before they blew their tops. "But they were unsuccessful because I rounded up Gramps and the boys and headed back to Undercity 7 with an army of the robots to do what I should've done at the first sign of hostility. Meaning I took care of it."
Rei wasn't happy to have been left out, including my wife Alice and my newest female "friend" Mary, but they remained silent whilst the busty Japanese fox made her displeasure known verbally. "Why didn't you wake us up and bring us along if something so urgent was taking place?"
"I'm sure you already know part of the answer I'm going to say."
As soon as they heard the first part, I knew they knew just by their facial expressions alone, let alone the feelings they were passively radiating.
"It was war, and I knew it was going to be, so obviously I wanted to keep you girls safe when I couldn't absolutely guarantee your safety when I was in the thick of it. That said, it's mainly because the Fort Kern raid is going to be one hell of an adventure, and I wanted you three to be fully energized, ready to take on that mission. So one you could enjoy it in full and two be as combat ready as you can be since it's not exactly going to be a walk in the park for the 4 of us alone to take on when it's being defended by an army of automated defenses and old pre-war military robots."
"...Haa, fine. I'm not going to give you too much pushback since you were thinking about us at the end of the day."
Oh, looks like things will go eas-
"But..."
Never mind, scratch that.
"But what?"
"But once we've gotten our own sets of power armor and we've customized them way above any other spec, there will be no more excuses to keep us away from your side, right?"
"As long as I can reasonably guarantee your safety." I said whilst emphasizing the three of them. "I'll be dragging you three along whether you like it or not."
"Good." Alice commented curtly.
Rei nodded and replied. "As you should."
"I wouldn't want it any other way, handsome." Mary followed.
"Okay, going back to the subject of leveling up again, do we need to arrange any more preparations before you undergo this process once more?" Alice inquired.
I didn't know for sure since I still had yet to get a chance to take a peek at my stats, so I pulled them up and took a squiz at my experience rate, which had risen by a drastic sum and was now sitting at a staggering 3,103%.
It's a lot, but it should be more, no?
Something didn't feel quite right, so I scanned the rest of my stats, which had all undergone similarly enormous changes, and discovered the reason for the less than expected experience rate.
Ahh, the new | Shaman | class is only providing stats for level 100 and onward... That's unfortunate, but I can't really complain when classes were never a thing in the original game series. That aside, this is going to change how I'm going to approach my future class choices if I get anymore... I wonder if the other class benefits are going to act similarly. If so, I'm probably best off taking the highest advancement option over everything else since that'll likely present the most amount of benefit.
I thought about the assortment of scenarios I could face when it came to that subject and what decisions would be the most ideal; however, I quickly put it behind me and ran the calculations with my far higher experience rate. As I was considering the generous amount of exp, the quests rewarded and my huge experience rate that was becoming a bigger and bigger problem by the day, the worry soon made its way into my mind and then onto my face, which the girls picked up on right away.
It doesn't look like I'm going to be collecting all these quest rewards because I can't guarantee I'll pull through. I mean just turning in | The Makings Of A New Power | quest will give me 15,515,000 exp, which is nearly as much exp as I've earned throughout my 18 years on this planet... Though most of that was just earned recently but still.
"I was going to say no, it won't be anywhere near as overtop as the previous level up I just survived since I won't be doing a whole 95 level ups all in one go. But if I turn my quests in all at once, I really might not make it since the rewards for one of my quests will be nearly equivalent to all the experience I've gathered thus far."
"Well, you've just barely survived this level up, dear, so maybe you should be a little more cautious this time around and just turn in the quests that give far lesser rewards. It's not like you won't gain anything from doing so." Alice cautioned worriedly.
"Not to mention it'll also allow you to further improve your foundation before you turn in the big guys." Rei added, slightly better at hiding her own concern regarding my well-being.
"Mm, I think you two are right."
My two lovers and soon to be third released sighs of relief before I continued on. "Okay, I'll hold off on the more rewarding quests for now and when we get back from our outing, I'll throw myself into the field of magic and see what I can come up with there to make this whole process safer and far less dangerous and life threatening."
"That's all we can ask for; just make sure you take every precaution you can. I'd hate to lose you." Alice said, beginning to get a bit emotional.
Once she got going, the pent-up emotions the other two young women were holding back seeped to the surface, so I opened my arms and received them with a comforting embrace. This was part of the job I signed up for; thus, I remained strong regardless of what I personally felt about how close I came to narrowly escaping death's grasp and did my part.
Death was a scary thing for most but I had gone through it all before, so I was mostly prepared to face it when I combined my previous run along with this epic and grandiose dream mine I was set on pursuing, which was no doubt going to bring me back to teetering on that boundary. So I didn't get stumped by this most recent tussle with grim reaper and just focused on Alice, Rei, and Mary who were releasing everything that had on my wide developed chest, which had undergone yet another round of refinement in this most recent power up along with the rest of my body.