Expanse: A LitRPG Adventure (Unbound Book 6) Read online

  Below, another painful pulse of sound and pressure swept through him, originating from one of the closest Skills. His Bastion of Will, which resembled an orb of greens and blues while its pattern shifted and thrummed, barely contained the Skill it held back.

  Felix stepped back into his body, awareness returning, and let himself stretch. Pit snorted once before falling quiet again, and Felix was careful not to wake his Companion. The guy's day hadn't been any better than his. While his new, bigger form needed less sleep most of the time, eventually they all had to pay the piper. Pit could use a few more hours.

  So could I, he thought, before banishing the notion. No time to sleep. Too much to do.

  "If I do this, I'll be out for hours. What's tomorrow look like?" Felix asked.

  "You have a delegation from the Henaari here to see you."

  "Really? That was fast. Wyvora only left...six hours ago."

  "Mhm. A'zek has remained closed-lipped on the issue, but I believe there are some internal politics at hand."

  Felix rolled his eyes. Last thing he wanted to deal with was the politics of the Henaari. "I'm sure they'll love that we imprisoned three of their Dawnguard."

  Since Felix had saved them from the Mana well, Ifre and her underlings had been held in a stone-shaped chamber just inside the waterfall Temple, where his people could keep an eye on them. After they had found the wicked dagger in the Archon's chest, it had only taken his Voracious Eye and two seconds of thought to connect them to the Raven and Henaari. They'd attempted to take over his Temple and claim it for the Raven. He was half convinced they'd been told to kill him, too. Ifre, however, wasn't talking.

  "Well, that's a problem that can wait. Nothing else?" he asked. After his dream, Felix felt a sense of danger looming over him. A threat he'd forgotten. "Have we heard from Zara?"

  "No, and I see no way for her to contact us in such a short amount of time. She was headed in the opposite direction the same time you left, yes?" Felix nodded. "If you had retained the Mark she had placed on you, then perhaps. But the Spirit Tree cleansed that and all the others, too." Karys tilted his golden head. "You are stalling."

  "I can't help but feel there's something we missed. Something important. Zara was securing Haarwatch from the Inquisition, and when I enacted the Mirk Enclosure, it should have sealed off access to any Territories outside my...my own." Felix licked his lips and began pacing. He had felt the barrier lock into place, similar to the fog that had once given the Foglands their name, but more powerful by far.

  Whether that was because of the ancient Nymean array he'd used or because of his Authority, Felix had no idea. What he did know was that it wasn't just a smoke screen. The Mirk Enclosure physically prevented people from entering his Territory. "It feels like something is watching me over my shoulder. Waiting for my defenses to drop."

  "There are no threats, none that you or your team has not already defeated. Even your former enemies are recovering, and the Haarguard watch them night and day." Karys heaved a metallic-tinged sigh. "You are strained in Mind and Spirit. You need rest, true rest."

  "Yeah, well I'll get rest when I'm dead, apparently," Felix said. He blew a short, powerful blast of air through his nostrils. It was forceful enough that it kicked up dust in his chamber. "Fine. Then I'll begin. You will...still watch over me?"

  "Of course." He was kind enough not to mention that Felix was repeating himself.

  Felix took another deep breath, flaring Meditation, and attempted to steady his thudding heart. He sat down cross-legged on the floor and dove into his core space once more.

  CHAPTER TWO

  Felix seized his Bastion within the prongs of his Intent, an intangible limb that was exactly what it sounded like: a tool to enact his desires. He loosened his hold on the Skill, and it spasmed, a muscle contracted for too long and a thousand times as painful. Energy burst and flared from within, giving him glimpses of a citadel and landscape inundated in multi-colored light.

  He received his notifications.

  Invocation is level 43!

  ...

  Invocation is level 58!

  Journeyman Tier!

  You Gain:

  +7 INT

  +7 WIL

  +7 FEL

  Caught up in the general press of his Bastion, Invocation had been held back from his recent advancements. It burned a bit as System energy fed into his core space, but nothing greater than usual. A Journeyman Skill was the least of his worries.

  The bundle of blaring sound and skittering lightning, however, had his attention.

  Aria of the Green Wilds is level 81!

  Adept Tier!

  You Gain:

  +15 PER

  +15 AFI

  +15 FEL

  Adamant Discord is level 79!

  Adept Tier!

  You Gain:

  +15 AFI

  +15 INE

  +...

  Cardinal Flame is level 76!

  Adept Tier!

  You Gain:

  +15 INT

  +15 PER

  +...

  Ravenous Tithe is level 82!

  Adept Tier!

  You Gain:

  +10 STR

  +10 END

  +...

  Bastion of Will is level 84!

  Adept Tier!

  You Gain:

  +10 WIL

  +10 ALA

  +...

  Theurgist of the Rise is level 72!

  ...

  Theurgist of the Rise is level 79!

  Adept Tier!

  You Gain:

  +50 INT

  +50 INE

  ...

  The Song of Absolution is level 85!

  Adept Tier!

  You Gain:

  +50 EVA

  +50 FEL

  +...

  He'd already seen the last, but not the Adept Tier bonuses for the Song of Absolution, nor all the rest. Felix let the surge of System energy hit his cores again, consumed by the flames of his dual rings and expelled once more as red-gold and blue-white light. The energy shook at him, but it wasn't enough to interrupt his concentration. His Will was laser-focused on the next step.

  Multiple Essence Sources Detected During Formation!

  Choose An Essence Mote!

  From above, in his flashing cloud of Essence, brilliant lights dropped out like hailstones. One-by-one, they dropped before him, stopping in his eyesight with claps of thunder, and he knew them.

  [Essence of Iterated Annihilation]

  [Essence of Corrosion's Touch]

  [Essence of Glorious Bounty]

  [Essence of the Sheltering Hand]

  [Essence of Consonant Influence]

  [Essence of Malediction]

  [Essence of the Forbidden Elderscript]

  [Essence of the Relinquished Heart]

  [Essence of Spirit's Bulwark]

  [Essence of Earthen Panoply]

  Felix goggled at them all. Their number was a touch surprising, but that wasn't it: each one of the Essence Motes were Legendary Ranked. He sensed that many were stolen from the Urges, but a few had the feel of other sources. Specifically, his Spirit Tree...and the Archon himself.

  Visions of the Archon's defeat flashed through his Mind, replayed with perfect fidelity thanks to his Keen Mind Born Trait. His use of Unite the Lost and Karys' aid had kicked him out of his armored shell and regrown his mortal Body. He had shoved a Spirit Seed into his gullet and germinated it with stolen power. The man had detonated, rendered into paste by the explosive growth of root and trunk, fertilizer for his new Spirit Tree.

  He had thought he'd spent a good chunk of the significance and Essence he'd stolen from the six monstrous Urges and the Mana well. Yet, each sacrifice in that battle had netted him a greater store, a reward perhaps for doing what the System had long desired.

  Maybe. Either way, this is more than I expected. He smiled. It was more than enough to Temper his available Skills to Adept Tier. At Journeyman Tier, the Essence Motes chosen had an impact upon the Skills they were used upon, often influencing their growth in subtle or overt ways. It was supposedly even more pronounced at Adept Tier. Felix had to be careful about his choices, as they could affect him for months or years to come.

  Taking a calming breath, he started with the last—The Song Of Absolution—feeling at the Essences for one that sang to him and his Skill. There!

  Legendary Essence Detected During Formation!

  [Essence of Iterated Annihilation]

  Broken Path and Fatebreaker Titles Found!

  Adept Tier Bonus Added!

  Calculating Effects...

  Choose A Feature:

  Persevere - Persist Beyond

  Extirpate - The Root Of It

  Advance - Step Toward It

  Felix was surprised at the connection between his Song of Absolution and the Essence Mote, and more so by the features unveiled by the System. The Mote felt so...violent and relentless; it was clearly from one of the Urges. His Intelligence flared at the same time his Perception did, increasing his cognition while the world—even his core space—slowed down by a good margin. Felix felt at the threads of thrumming Harmony that stretched taut between his Skill and the Essence Mote. Then it came to him, a swirl of thought among a hundred others: his Song of Absolution was also relentless, a metaphysical wall between Felix and harm. Perhaps he did understand it.

  Selecting the right feature was simply a matter of relying upon his senses and instincts. He had owned the Song for a long time, and the Skill was not attuned to the root of annihilation. It was about resistance, forging a way past the threats in his way. Likewise, as foolhardy as he'd been before, Felix wasn't one to step toward annihilation willingly—yet when it came for him, he would continue.

  Congratulations!

  You Have Absorbed The Essence Of [Persevere]!

  Harmony and Dissonance warred through him, castoff sparks between the grinding surfaces of his two core rings. Felix gritted his teeth against the assault, but held as the convoluted pattern of the Song of Absolution lit with brilliant, carmine flame and crackling lightning. It swelled, growing beyond itself as threads of those same energies anchored it to his dual cores. Felix felt a thrum through his entire being as the ribbons secured themselves: the first of his Adept Tempers.

  One down, five to go. He grimaced and chose the next Essence Mote, this one for Theurgist of the Rise.

  Legendary Essence Detected During Formation!

  [Essence of Forbidden Elderscript]

  Broken Path and Fatebreaker Titles Found!

  Adept Tier Bonus Added!

  Calculating Effects...

  Choose A Feature:

  Proscribe - Ineffable Cipher

  Atavistic - Untold Precursor

  Calligraphy - Illicit Beauty

  The resonance between the [Essence of Forbidden Elderscript] and his sigaldry Skill was too obvious to be wrong, though Felix double-checked anyway. He could tell this wasn't from an Urge, but the Archon instead; one of two, he sensed. That made him pause for only a moment before forging ahead regardless. The Archon—Merodach—had been driven insane by isolation and his Mind and Spirit being shattered and splintered. However, the Essence Motes derived from his form bore power, echoes of the invention of a twisted sigaldry the man had invented in Ages past. The first and last features spoke to that Skill—Profane Sigaldry—and Felix shied away from them without pause. He had no desire to tread upon that path.

  Congratulations!

  You Have Absorbed The Essence Of [Atavistic]!

  Again, his Skill shone bright with powerful energies, and the opposing forces of Harmony and Dissonance warred against one another. Threads of fire and lightning leaped across the dark to supplant those cast by his Journeyman Formation. Those that remained seemed dim and wan in contrast. The Adept Tier threads were brilliant beams of sparking power trembling with unspent potential.

  Felix felt a rising urgency push through his limbs and core. It was nameless and apparently sourceless, and he shrugged it off with a flare of his Willpower.

  Next was his Bastion of Will.

  Legendary Essence Detected During Formation!

  [Essence of Consonant Influence]

  Broken Path and Fatebreaker Titles Found!

  Adept Tier Bonus Added!

  Calculating Effects...

  Choose A Feature:

  Solo - Sing For One

  Harmony - Sing Together

  Polyphony - Sing As One

  Knowing his Bastion, the literal fortress within his Mind, Felix was a touch surprised again that it was this Essence Mote that harmonized so completely with the Skill. He had anticipated using the [Essence of Spirit's Bulwark], but perhaps that was too obvious. As it stood, the options for features with this Mote couldn't be more clear.

  Consonance, from what he recalled, meant a combination of notes that sounded pleasant. While that could be played Solo, it was Harmony that Felix was after. Yet...the last called to him. Sing Together and Sing As One seemed close enough as to be indistinguishable, but the last feature suggested not just harmony...but unity. If Solo was for a singular being, then Polyphony was for multiple beings working as one.

  My tower, he recalled. In the center of his Bastion, there was a fortress of dark stone. In the middle of that, there was a five-sided tower. At its top was a silver spire tangled with nigh-invisible threads. On three of its five sides, the patterns of other Skills were etched: Unfettered Volition, Deep Mind, and Meditation. Working together, those four Skills had proven to safeguard his Mind and Spirit, for all that Unfettered Volition was a Body Skill. Regardless, if he were to have them work better as one, then all of his Skills would benefit. Right?

  Certainty flooded Felix's Mind, though he couldn't be sure why. More instincts, perhaps.

  Congratulations!

  You Have Absorbed The Essence Of [Polyphony]!

  His Bastion quaked, shook by the energies it was subsumed within. It grew, larger than ever before, the shape of it deepening in a way that Felix could feel but couldn't quantify. Unlike his previous two Skills, the growth of his Bastion was stark—it expanded until it was twice the size of its nearest neighbor. Almost as large as his Transcendent Skills, though it was only Epic. Lightning and fire coursed across its pattern, sounding the vibrations of it as more cacophony was cast off from his cores.

  And yet...Felix paused, expecting pain and finding less than before. The fight between Dissonance and Harmony—a key feature of his core space—had barely ruffled his feathers, so to speak. The grinding sparks of his two cores meeting were still casting off those sounds, but now they seemed fuller, more complete. Dissonance wasn't an atonal burr, and Harmony wasn't a gorgeous parade of chords. As his Bastion had expanded, the...influence of his [Essence of Consonant Influence] appeared to affect more of his core space.

  That's encouraging...is it because my Bastion is linked to more than one Skill? They, too, had grown as Bastion had, though not as much. Deep Mind, Meditation, and Unfettered Volition, none were ready to Tier up yet, but they also appeared more powerfully present than before. He would find out when the time came, he decided, and pushed forward.

  Ravenous Tithe next. He braced himself, followed his senses, and chose.

  Legendary Essence Detected During Formation!

  [Essence of Glorious Bounty]

  Broken Path and Fatebreaker Titles Found!

  Adept Tier Bonus Added!

  Calculating Effects…

  Choose A Feature:

  Endow - Gift Of Life

  Wergild - Price Of Life

  Meed - Just Rewards

  Options curled through Felix's Mind, assessing and comparing. Just Rewards felt odd and compulsory, while the Price of Life was darker than Felix liked. The Gift of Life, however, seemed promising. Coupled with the normal effects of his Ravenous Tithe, that one seemed to offer the most benefit.

  Life, he mused. Life would be a nice change of pace from all the death I've brought about.

  Congratulations!

  You Have Absorbed The Essence Of [Endow]!

  Cacophony and euphony warred briefly around his cores, then fire and lightning slammed into Ravenous Tithe, securing a tether of power around its pattern. Despite the new changes to his core space, his Skill bucked and shook, seized in a paroxysm of vibrations. Pain lanced across Felix's Aspects, enough to overwhelm his Song of Absolution for the briefest of moments.

  Followed by a triumphant trilling and a series of blue boxes.

  Based On Your Experiences And Achievements, Ravenous Tithe is Evolving!

  Calculating...

  System energy poured from beyond his core space, flooding like waves at midnight, crashing into his cores and immediately redirecting toward his Ravenous Tithe. The humming increased in volume and pitch, accompanied by an agony that stabbed through Felix's throat and jaw. He screamed, or tried to, but no sound emerged, only pained wheezing.

  And then, without fanfare, it was over.

  Ravenous Tithe (Epic) Has Become Chthonic Tribute (Legendary)!

  Skill Has Retained Its Level!

  Chthonic Tribute (Legendary), Level 82!

  In the darkest depths, you shall find the brightest glories. Consume completely any object or creature you have claimed, gaining greater rewards from them. Uses Mana to power conversion. Greater chance of gaining Skills and/or Memories from target if applicable.