Second Genesis

Grey didn’t even have the time to read the notifications. His body felt the arrow in the air without his eyes even managing to see it. The feeling was continuously reinforced by the Looping Necklace so much that it was practically roaring at him in the split second it took for his eyes to track it.

This time, he leapt out of the way with ease as though he already knew what was coming.

It was like he could see a line forming through the air, an obvious flight path for where the arrow was going and exactly where it was coming from.

And yet, Grey made no attempt to run toward the archer. Instead, looking at his map, he dashed away as a notification he had missed earlier in all the commotion popped up.

—

[You have awakened the Mind Resistance Ability {Mental Fortitude} to Level 1]

—

He didn’t know why he was getting such a cascade of notifications, but every time it happened, the looping of the necklace made him feel like his nerves were in a frying pan.

It was such a good item, but its drawbacks were too obvious. He somehow both wanted to kiss and curse whoever had crafted it.

...

"He’s getting away!"

"Go after him!"

"NO!"

A voice cut everyone off before they could get any more riled up.

A petite woman with flaming red hair lowered her bow, frustration in her eyes.

Stella couldn’t believe they had failed. Everything was perfect.

Grey hadn’t noticed their illusion at all and got lured exactly where they wanted to get him. She had the perfect shot, yet he reacted as though he had eyes in the back of his head.

Still, she was able to corner him in the end and had even ended up using one of her Uncommon arrows to really seal the deal. But Grey had... eaten it?

In truth, this had been more of a probe than anything. That was why she hadn’t sent any of her team to confront Grey directly.

Grey had been in first place this time, while she and her team had only been third.

This didn’t seem like a large gap, but after some conversations, she learned just how much quicker Grey had been than everyone else. He wasn’t someone they could underestimate, so she had chosen caution.

When things started off so well, she almost regretted not being more aggressive. But in the end, Grey somehow slipped away, and now he was ready.

"Mauve, what happened in the end there? Did he break your illusion?"

A young woman with skin like caramel and eyes that burned like amber shook her head, but then nodded.

"I think he did. But it wasn’t the usual way. Usually when someone breaks it, it feels like a cracked egg. But this time, it almost felt like tearing a plastic bag apart."

"So he doesn’t have an item to protect against your illusions?"

"Definitely not. But he might have a Mental Resistance. A low-level one, but one nonetheless."

Stella’s jaw set. After a long while, she spoke again. "We just need one more shrine to secure knighthood for all three of us. Let’s just pass this information on and let someone else deal with it."

She looked toward the last member of their group, a young man with a face that was almost too innocent. Despite having the face of a teen, though, he had the hulking body of a Mr. Olympia competitor. His traps were practically as big as his head.

Stella nodded. "Don’t worry, Brad. If there’s a next time, I won’t miss."

"Just send me in to hold him down," Brad said confidently.

Thinking about how Grey’s iron jaw was the only thing between her and Grey’s head, Stella’s gaze flashed with righteous indignation.

She nodded again, this time more firmly.

"Next time."

...

Grey skidded to a stop, expelling a sharp breath. There was a murderous glint in his eyes, but he pressed it down. He hadn’t even seen who his attackers were—who was he even going to be mad at?

’If I had the invisibility cloak...’

Grey pressed down that frustrating thought too. Instead, he pulled up his status screen.

—

[Name: Grey Temolt]

[Frame: Prometheus]

[Pending Quests: 1]

-

Stamina: 9/10

Sync Rate: 0.01%

Energy Reserve: 1.9/3.7

-

STR: 11 SPD: 9

DEX: 9 INT: 11

END: 21 PER: 11

-

Harmonic Stats: N/A

Free Stat Points: 0

-

Abilities:

Body

Resistances: N/A

Combat: N/A

Enhancements: Lv1 Metal Body; Lv1 Metal Digestion; Lv1 Metal Fusion

Mind

Resistances: Lv1 Mental Fortitude

Combat: N/A

Enhancements: Lv5 Goblin Warlord Spirit; Lv1 Metal Affinity

—

’Huh?’

There had been a huge change to his stats. His Endurance had leapt up by +10, but his Dexterity and Speed had both gone down by -2. Was that because of this Metal Body situation? That kind of just happened without his consent.

Beyond this, though, this wasn’t actually what caught Grey’s attention the most at all. Instead, it was his Energy Reserve.

It had been just 3 before. But now it was 3.7. 𝒻𝓇𝑒𝘦𝘸𝑒𝒷𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝘮

Grey understood much more about mechs now after reading Prometheus’ introduction. An Energy Reserve was a measure of the integrity of a mech, almost like the durability of a weapon.

The higher the Energy Reserve, the more powerful a mech tended to be. But no matter how powerful, once an Energy Reserve hit 0, it would break apart and be destroyed.

It could get more complex than that, but that was the foundation of what an Energy Reserve was.

But there was one more ironclad rule about Energy Reserves... and that was that they couldn’t be increased after a mech was finished. Doing so would basically be the equivalent of ripping a house down to its studs and completely renovating it.

And yet, Grey’s hadn’t just gone up—it had increased by more than 23%. That was asinine.

’Is it because...’

Grey’s gaze flickered. There was only one explanation for this.

The Spark he used to give his iron jaw life—the very thing the iron jaw had become a vessel for.

This was the unique ability of the Prometheus Flame.

All these Mental and Body Enhancements were just byproducts of the main star of the show.