Chapter 138 - Too Easy

As the days passed by and Brock’s race level slowly climbed upwards, his departing kiss with Amara became further and further from his mind. Instead, his mental space was wholly consumed by practicing and theory with his aura enhancement and discovering the means of which his Techniques were fused.

Two weeks had passed by now, and Brock had long begun to feel the effects of Amara’s concoction wear off. His veins had returned to their dark colour and were once again bulging from his skin. His skin had receded back to its pale complexion, and the frequency of his bloody coughs, tears or noses increased exponentially.

They had thought that consuming Treasures might slow the progression of it, but even after eating enough to reach race level 96, nothing had been shown. Certainly though, as he closed in on level 100, Brock found himself caring less and less about slowing it down. He knew he only had around a week left before he croaked it, but he would obtain the final Treasure he needed soon enough.

In all that time searching, not once had they seen Zin Keene and his demonic form. At first, both Mio and Brock had been confused, though they quickly realised that he had probably given up chasing them. Despite that, Brock knew he wasn’t the type to just give up, so he was left wondering what the man was planning.

Nothing good. That’s for sure.

Chewing on a mouthful of baked beans, Brock eyed the surroundings. According to his map, they should be nearing the centre of Finland within the day. As far as he could see, marshland had fused with swamps, creating bogs and pools of mixing water colours and conflicting flora. Reeds and rising gas littered every direction.

Almost idly, Brock used Silence of the Abyss to create a panel of force underneath for him to walk on, avoiding the sticky clutches of the ground. To his left, Mio was gliding over the earth upon a path of woven shadow tentacles. Her nose wrinkled at the sight of their environment.

For the most part, his endeavours in aura manipulation had advanced significantly. He’d managed to devise a way to increase the efficiency of his Technique – which had already had three points placed into the Efficiency mutation – by imitating ‘fingers’ instead of grasping his target in its entirety. Less surface area of led to less conversion to physical force, which meant less wastage.

His actual physical enhancement hadn’t progressed at all, with it seeming to be hard capped at 50% extra power. Whether that was the limit of his Technique, or due to the way he was executing it, he had no idea. That aside, the majority of his growth using aura manipulation was an expansion of uses.

Creating shields of opposing force, using it to enhance not just his attacks but movements too, slowing his opponents’ movements with opposing force. He knew he wasn’t using his aura to its fullest, not even close, but he knew he was on the path to doing so. And it left him excited.

As for his mutated Technique, Silence of the Abyss, he was clueless as to how the process of fusion worked. All he knew was that it functioned essentially identically to how Oppressive Might did, save for the fact he could now alter its conductivity. Sadly, he was yet to find a way to implement his Augments into it.

During the first week, however, he had discovered that conductivity wasn’t its only use.

Whispers of the Void seemed to originally be capable of altering his aura’s conductivity, but Brock realised that that was only action used to activate its true purpose. By increasing its conductivity to the max, his aura became heavy, enough so that it could slow someone’s movements.

Fortunately, this oppression excluded himself, so he was given free reign to move within. He had thought that was it until he ramped up the conductivity further. The effect had been immediate. He had no idea if this truly was the original effect of Whispers, or the new effect of Silence, but had hadn’t cared.

His aura had become conductive to everything. Everything.

The area would become a mess of chills and searing heat as he conducted temperature, the wind would howl and ruffle, the light would flicker between darkness and immense brightness. Voices, muffled and unrecognisable, would scream and whisper from every direction, carrying rage and sorrow and hunger.

Brock had no idea if the final aspect of it was from a conductivity to radio waves, or even something relating to the supernatural – ghosts and the lot – but even being excluded from all the effects, he found it horrifying. In fact, it was that very reason that he understood why it was called Whispers of the Void.

Maybe it wasn’t even that he was altering his aura’s conductivity but something else. He truly had no idea. Licking his lips, Brock watched as one part of the bog bubbled. I’ll ask Fon to check it out when I stop myself from dying.

Mio had been awed and terrified both when she’d seen his display of power, and while she didn’t understand what was really happening, she knew that being inside that maelstrom of everything would tear her apart. It was too bad it took such an immense amount of aura to do so. Even at full aura, Brock could only manage it for around ten seconds before he bottomed out.

Thinking back, Brock leaned over and glanced at the bubbling area of the bog. From within, a malnourished creature with pale skin leapt out in a spray of algae filled water. Brock flared his aura from 5% standby, and the monster’s neck twisted so roughly it detached from its body. Jumping back as the corpse landed at his feet, Brock felt himself growing scared of his own capabilities.

“A Ghoul… again?” Ever since he’d entered the bog, that was all they’d seen. This one was the fourteenth one he’d killed already. Strangely enough, they shared a similar ability to the tortoise where they could imitate a state of death and mask their aura. Probably because they seem to be reanimated corpses anyway…

He chose not to dwell on the thought.

The surroundings returned to normal as his aura retracted back to its standby state, and Brock glanced at Mio, who had begun reading her book as she walked. A Ghoul leapt at her from beneath, and her shadows tore it to shreds of flesh within seconds. Blood splattered down and joined the bog, and she didn’t even appear to notice.

That woman is terrifying.

Averting his gaze from the murderous assassin beside him, Brock recalled his status. In the past weeks, while his race level had grown all the way to a whopping 96, his regular – or Ascendancy level – had actually managed to spike up to 72. Mio had told him 75 was the next threshold for gaining another Technique, and Brock looked forward to it.

Idly, he reviewed the description for Silence of the Abyss.

Silence of the Abyss IV [F] (73.08%): The Abyss is the most silent place of all, yet the whispers are deafening. Accept them. Nurture them. Scales with Wisdom and Intelligence.

It had grown significantly in the meantime since its inception, and while the description was certainly a cause for concern, Brock couldn’t argue with its power. It also had a scaling that he was extremelyhappy with. The fusion Technique had also earned him a Title – Mad Scientist - that gave nothing.

That aside, he’d also boosted Ethereal Shackles to the third tier and mutated its Power again. As for Salvation, Brock had decided to leave that on the backburner for now. If it truly was the sort of ‘reflection’ ability that Brock had thought it was, using its stored power now would be a waste when he truly needed it.

Assuming he eventually fought Zin, it’d be invaluable. Though, granting, he had no idea if he’d be able to use it. Ethereal Shackles worked with his aura as it just directly transferred the DNA shell into the shadows themselves, but Salvation seemed to use his own limb to deliver itself. He’d have to wait and see, he guessed.

Another Ghoul leapt up at him and Lament slashed sideways, splitting its skull horizontally in two. A pane of force from Silence of the Abyss kept the pieces of brain, blood and bone from splattering across Brock’s face. I’m so happy I discovered this.

“I assume we’re almost there.” Mio’s voice resounded as a tentacle of shadow ripped a hiding Ghoul from the bog and splattered it across a rock, “Because these Ghouls are pissing me off.”

Brock sheathed Lament and his phone appeared in his hand the next moment. He glanced at the screen, “Probably another kilometre or two. They aren’t that bad.”

As one of the monsters in question peeked its head up from the bog, Silence smashed it to splinters and goop. Mio spared a glance and snorted, “Easy for you to say.”

Two tentacles grabbed another Ghoul as it charged her and pulled it in two, letting its organs plop to the swamp before throwing the halves away. Brock chuckled and ignoring the clear insanity that allowed him to do so, he frowned. More and more are appearing…

Idly, Brock felt blood dribble from his nose. He wiped it away. He didn’t need to look to know it was black as oil. He felt shitty enough to know already.

The man took a moment to sigh as he looked around at the mixture of swamp and marsh. It wasn’t really the greatest place to evolve his race – it was half a swamp, just look at it – but he supposed it’d do. He’d spoken to Adam only once during the past two weeks, and that was about an update to the map.

Apparently, under his guidance, Genesis were now creating a map that charts locations of interest and monitors the level ranges of areas that was accessible to the entire population. Brock had no idea how the man was going to distribute it, but what he did know was that with the level of their area – 80 – the Treasure here would certainly boost him to 100.

The main problem would be the monster guarding it. There wasn’t many things around for Brock to take cover or hide behind, though he supposed that applied to the monster as well. Dead trees littered the area, their trunks a glistening grey. They seemed durable enough to take a few blows if worst came to worst.

But it won’t. This will be a piece of cake.

Brock anticipated the monster to be around level 90, and while he was certain he’d have probably died fighting it before, with his aura enhancement, he knew he’d come out victorious. He’d definitely be injured, however. For that he had no doubts.

And so, the distance between them and the Treasure shrunk as they trekked through the environment. Ghouls began to appear more and more frequently, eventually to the point that it was common for three or four to jump them at once. A few had even managed to get past their defences and injure them.

One unlucky Ghoul had even clawed Mio’s book into the swampy waters. Needless to say, it was dissembled piece by piece. Brock had no idea how Mio functioned in society before the System. Probably in a high security prison.

Soon though, they arrived at the location, and Brock spotted a tree growing up from the centre of it, its thin roots weaving through the muddied waters. He couldn’t sense nor see any creature in hiding, though he refused to let his guard down. Squinting his eyes at the glowing green pear that hung from the tree among two others of its kind, he chuckled.

If you wanna hide, then go ahead.

The surroundings darkened as Silence of the Abyss spread out to its full 720 meters of range, and Brock watched on as he used his Technique to delicately pluck all three pears from the tree and bring them over to him.

They were deposited within his hand without fanfare, and he promptly stored them in his inventory. Where they were currently was too dangerous for him to go ahead and evolve. To his side, Mio aired her book out and snorted, “That was easy.”

“Mmmm.” Brock grunted. She was right. His sneaky exploits or not, that was easy. Too easy.

A hand blurred toward him in a surge of mud and water, and Brock shielded himself with his solidified aura. He shot backwards as the hand impacted him, and liked a stone, he skimmed over the water before finally regaining his footing, drenched and annoyed.

Mio warped up behind him, having dodged the attack entirely, “Never mind.”

She sounded amused. Brock ignored her and cursed as a giant monster began to pull itself from underground, displacing earth, flora and water with every jerking movement. Another arm rose up to join the first. Then two more. Then a spiney back climbed up through the ground before a head quickly joined it.

A face with white eyes and decayed flesh looked back at him. A long tongue lolled out of its fleshless cheeks, and Brock found the yellowed fangs within its maws oddly unnerving. As he squinted, he was certain he could make out a piece of flesh stuck between them.

Sighing, he glanced at the tree beside it. Its roots and trunk held steadfast in the face of its movements, and its bark glistened like metal. If animals can mutate, I guess plants can too.

The surrounding darkened and Brock mustered all the force he possibly could to grasp the monstrous Ghoul’s head. With one massive heave against its snarls and struggles as it reached for them, Brock pushed its head to the side.

With a single jerking movement, the tree ran through the beasts decaying head, causing blackened blood to spurt and its body to spasm and twitch. Brock formed a sledge of force and smashed its head again, pushing it further onto the tree. The trunk pierced through the other side of its temple, and the branches buckled but held steadfast.

Brock felt a surge of energy and he noted that he’d levelled up, “Ok. Now that was too easy.”

“Right…”