Second Genesis

"Die, bitch."

Metal screamed against metal.

Grey felt like he was slashing against an armor so thick it could have been its own vault door. But his focus didn’t falter. This was already what he expected.

He activated Solarbrand and his hand burned with the heat of the sun. At the same time, he pulled on Helion Resonance. As though an induction cooker turned to high, Solarbrand and Helion Resonance synced into a single flow, turning the blade in his hand into a molten beacon in a split instant.

If the strike lasted any longer, Grey would have nothing but a pool of melting metal in his hands. The sword was only an Uncommon item, how could it withstand this level of heat?

But it didn’t need to last long.

The axe was already here.

BANG. BANG.

The two pincered the king between them and Grey unleashed a roar.

Another 1000 units of energy were burned through as his cargo pants danced in the wind with a burning light. He poured it all into INT, boosting the strength of Helion Resonance severalfold in a single instant.

But he didn’t use it to boost the heat. It was already more than hot enough.

He used it to boost his and the battle axe’s acceleration.

BOOM.

The king crumpled, his armor collapsed.

Grey’s sword ripped through his back as the battle axe split him in two.

Grey went flying, the momentum of his own attack taking him with it.

His back slammed into one of the energy shields. He coughed up a mouthful of blood, his ribs feeling like they had been split apart.

—

[VICTORY: Grey Temolt]

—

Laughter left Grey’s lips as he slid back down. He had always loved to fight, but there was something far more exhilarating about this kind of battle. It was intoxicating.

More. He wanted more of it.

Grey exhaled a breath. ’Well, fuck me. I’m tired.’

—

Stamina: 137/222

—

Grey laughed when he saw how much Stamina he had left. He was getting greedy. The days when he only had 30 Stamina weren’t even that long ago. How had he even survived like that?

Granted, all these abilities he was stacking gave him a lot more avenues to burn his Stamina away.

’I haven’t been teleported out of here, so it doesn’t seem like killing this king is everything. But...’

—

[You have successfully defeated King Cami]

[+54 Free Stat Points]

—

An orange loot box radiating a delicate light appeared hovering before Grey. It was just one, but as far as he was concerned, that probably made sense. It wasn’t like the king was anything close to Esmeralda or Valdris. The +54 Free Stats were nice enough anyway.

The ruins had stopped handing out Free Stats for some reason. He wasn’t sure why, but he hadn’t cared much since he had so many. But it was nice to stack them further.

For now, he was saving his Free Stats since that was what Edmun recommended. But if push came to shove and he needed them, he wouldn’t hesitate to use them if need be.

Unfortunately, whenever he looped, his stats stayed the same, so there would be no going back if that happened. But with the difficulty of his Instance, it didn’t seem like that would be necessary.

’Let me not jinx myself.’

Grey pressed a hand forward and the box opened in its familiar jigsaw piece animation.

He raised an eyebrow at the result.

It was a brass spartan helmet. It didn’t really go with the rest of his fit, but it was undoubtedly badass.

There was just something particularly nerdy and maybe even a little bit fruity about wearing normal clothes and then pulling that out.

—

Name: Helm of the Crimson Knight

Rarity: Epic

Accepted Type: Linear

Restricted Type: Resonant

Description: The helm of a warrior of an era. It wants for nothing but battle and blood. Consumes mental clarity for battle prowess.

Abilities: +1 STR and +1 SPD per second this helm is active.

—

Grey raised an eyebrow.

’Consumes mental clarity?’

Honestly, Grey wasn’t entirely sure if something like that would be effective against him at all. Between Center of Balance, Mental Fortitude, Abyssal Anchor, and now Living Dawn, he had so many Mind Resistance Abilities that an Epic Proving Class item didn’t seem actually good enough to target his mind at all.

’One way to find out I guess.’

Grey took the helm and slid it on. He hadn’t been using the Skrill Mask much recently anyway. After he took out Joaquin, he rarely found situations where he needed it.

The unique combination of circumstances it would take for such a weak item to be useful were few and far between. Only against that pathetic excuse of a former number 1 ranker would it show some validity.

The helm slid on without issue and Grey sat there and waited.

He could feel his STR and SPD ticking up slowly, but he still didn’t feel much pressure on his mind even after it reached +10. Even at +20, he didn’t feel anything.

’How far can this go?’ Grey raised an eyebrow. ’It can’t possibly be infinite, but the description doesn’t say anything about a limit.’

—

Lv3 Center of Balance > Lv4 Center of Balance

—

’Oh?’ Grey grinned.

The additions improved to +30 before this happened. But he still didn’t feel anything going on in his mind.

—

Lv4 Center of Balance > Lv5 Center of Balance

—

Lv5 Center of Balance > Lv7 Center of Balance

—

Center of Balance suddenly jumped two whole levels when they crossed +50.

Grey was beginning to feel some strain in his actual body. But his mind felt rock solid.

’So the limit is going to be me... well, it was always going to be me, but literally me this time. It feels like I just got a good pump in the gym. At this rate, unless there’s an exponential change, somewhere around +90 to +100 will be my limit...’

The way this item worked was kind of annoying, though. The strength just kept coming so you couldn’t just turn it off when you had enough. But that was probably why it was an Epic item.

Anything that could give this amount of bonus to not just one but two stats would have been worth something far more if not for its limitations.

If you had to use it in battle, you would have to time everything perfectly.

—

Lv7 Center of Balance > Lv8 Center of Balance

—

Lv6 Living Dawn > Lv8 Living Dawn.

—

Grey exhaled a breath and pulled the helm off with veins of red pulsing through his forearms.

He was going to have to save this for a truly troublesome situation.

BOOM. BOOM. BOOM.

The armory began to rock like the ceiling was about to collapse.