Savage Awakening 498. Munching Steels

The Sage gave him a slap on the back that nearly tumbled him back down the crater. “How’s that for a damned warm-up!”

“I felt good,” Zane told him. He thought about it. “Bit rusty, but I’m getting there.”

He took a few more hits than he had to if he was in peak fighting shape. It was more a mindset thing than anything—it took a little longer for him to snap into that all-out wrecking mode.

He was pleased he could afford to take a few hits.

A scrap like that was just what he needed, he felt. Now the blood was flowing, alright.

“Damn,” sighed the Sage. “Watching a fight like that—watching you work your way out of that mess and turn the tables on ‘em!”

He grinned. “Now you’ve got this ol’ fart fired up! Shame there’s not a Monster Emperor or two about…”

Zane had to grin too.

“You hungry?”

His stomach rumbled as though on cue. “Yeah.”

“Go on, then.” The Sage nodded to the Forge. To the shelves of steel still glimmering in the gem light. “You’ve earned ‘em.”

Zane went for it.

“I’ll make a fire!” called the Sage. “It’s getting late—might as well make us some dinner and wrap up. You put a good dent in those steel piles, eh? Fuel up! We’ve got a big day tomorrow.”

“...You got something in mind?” He was a bit wary at the look on the Sage’s face. He recalled blacking out under the weight of several hundred planets the last time he saw that look. He’d quite enjoyed the experience, but it was a lot.

“Well, we ought to be a good chunk of the way through the dwarf Kingdom by now,” said the Sage. “That Forgemaster’s a landmark. I wager it won’t be long ‘til we’re finishing things up. That is—storming the Dwarf-King’s Hold—that’s the Lair of Dormu. Ol’ Worldbuilder himself.”

Zane nodded.

“Take the Ruins as a forge, I say,” said the Sage happily. “Eat all the steels you can get. Temper ‘em in combat! With some hard work—some lucky finds too—by the time we’re through… well—might be you can take damn near any shot in the Galaxy! That’s the plan, anyway.”

With that, the Sage got out a giant wood stick and a giant wood pad. He started spinning it; soon smoke started appearing. Zane wasn’t sure why—he did have fire himself, after all. He didn’t think too hard on it.

He headed off to inspect his winnings.

He got to the sunsteel first—big blocks of warm gold. He grabbed the nearest bar and gnawed off a chunk. Just to sample.

It tasted sweet and came off in nice chunks. He munched appreciatively, took another bite. He tasted something else in there too—something fiercer. Brighter. He knew the taste.

That was the taste of Destruction.

When he swallowed—

Shard of Destruction — 1%

He blinked.

He’d never gotten Destruction that way before…

He’d take it.

He went for another with gusto and munched away.

An hour of munching later he was up to 15%.

This was an especially pleasant surprise. He was trying to jump bigger and bigger power gaps. It only grew harder and harder. Destruction was crucial for that. Every time he loaded more Destruction into himself, it amounted to a serious power-up—the only thing that could withstand the worlds of half-step Empyreans. If he loaded in enough, maybe he could even take on real Inner Universes. He was hopeful.

He finished up the bulk of the sunsteel before moving onto the stuff the density golem was made of. The stuff the Sage called ‘infinisteel.’ These thick slabs of space gray, speckled with silver. It reminded him of dark chocolate, chewing on it—but much harder and colder.

Each took much longer to munch—it was much harder to work this steel down. And there was less of it too. But every time he worked down a chunk, he felt the boost to his body.

Before long—

Skill up!

Asura Titan’s Body, Third Form IV -> V

He flexed his fist, nodding. He felt it strengthening his bones nicely. Most of it went there—making him denser, harder to break.

The more upgrades he made, the less heavy hits would trouble him. He wondered if he could take the density golem’s hits without flinching or even limit-breaking. He liked the sound of that quite a bit.

The goal now was to build a physique to withstand Empyrean. Just as he became an offensive juggernaut that could break Empyrean. He still wasn’t there yet, he felt. But with every munch, he got closer.

But there was more to that steel than just its density. After about half an hour of munching, he felt its Concept—the very same that’d whacked him countless times that past hour.

Stellar Gravity.

The more he ate, the more those insights tingled in his soul—like when he’d eaten the Steel of the First Ones. He felt he was slowly gaining a foundation of knowledge. He just needed to work it out.

He munched for another hour or so. By then, he was realizing he wouldn't get it all down today. Though he had already finished up quite a lot of it—he was rather satisfied with his progress. He packed the rest of the steels in his ring. He figured he’d get to it as they went along.

All this stuff was pretty high grade—he’d be hard-pressed to find steel like this outside these ruins, even in the coffers of Great Factions. Divine profound rings could still hold them. They didn’t need those giant bags the Sage had brought just yet.

“So how’d it go?” said the Sage through a mouthful of meat. Zane had just made his way back.

“Pretty good.”

“Neat.”

The Sage had gotten out some giant turkey legs and was roasting them on the spit.

He also had a few spirit wines out and about. He passed one to Zane—they clinked and drank.

The Sage burped, sighed. “Takes me back, this,” he said, staring out into the turbulent distance—at the giant shadows still waiting up ahead, at that looming castle, waiting to be stormed. He grinned. “Back in the ol’ days—when me and ol’ Steelheart romped around this whole damned Galaxy, challenging every strong bastard we came across. Fighting to our hearts’ content, night after night! There was a time we ran roughshod through the wilds one year. The next, we went about challenging every damned martial master we could find. Earned a few good lickings doing that… this was back when there were tons of hidden masters outside the Nine Great Factions, see. Some real ol’ monsters out there, once upon a time.”

“Sounds fun,” said Zane. He could imagine going about.

The Sage chuckled. “That’s all far gone now.”

They just sat there for a while.

“Say—those steels,” said the Sage, grinning. “How much of ‘em did you get through?”

Zane told him, and the Sage nodded. “I’ll wager there’s more where that came from, and better. Just you wait, lad.”

“There was some Destruction in that sunsteel.”

“There’ll be more of that too,” said the Sage. “It happens in these top-tier steels. You’ll be wracking up some body levels, alright… what’re you up to, by the way?”

“Just got up to Level 5,” said Zane through a mouthful of giant chicken leg. He was really going at it—he had to swallow a bit to get it out.

“Infinisteel, eh? That’s the good stuff.” The Sage nodded thoughtfully.

“Still got some room to grow there, I figure,” said the Sage, scratching his chin. “Won’t be long now ‘till you max that out. There’s a bottleneck for you—getting past that Third Form into the Fourth… only a handful o’ Rhinos in all Dragonspire have done it. Now your version of it—it’s got that rage in it. It’ll be even harder. But once you get there, might be you’ll even be able to tank hits from Empyreans.”

Zane perked up at that.

“Trouble is—you’ll need a hell of a lot to get through that damned bottleneck. For starters—Prime Blood of the Titan Rhino. That’s some of the most vigorous blood there is! Get that stuff, and the difference it’d make to your physique… hells—you could take damn near any shot under Empyrean and get right back to full health in a blink. Helps if you’ve got some Steel Concepts down too.”

He tapped Zane on the chest. “Fourth Form’s when you’ll start working ‘em into your body. Now that’s where the real Galaxy-shaking physiques come in. That’s the endgame right there.”

“So,” said Zane, dabbing away some oil. “Where’s this Prime Blood stuff?”

He was quite interested.

“That’s the question, eh?” The Sage chuckled. “I searched far and wide. Best I can tell, out there in Dragonspire, it might as well be extinct nowadays. Down here, though, it’s a different story. Down here there’s some of those real ancient Rhino inheritances. We’re talking the ones left behind by the First Rhinos! I don’t know about you, lad—I’m feeling pretty good about it. We’ll have to get through this Dwarf Kingdom first, though.”

Zane nodded. They kept munching for a bit.

“’S that where you’re at?” said Zane, taking a look at him. “Fourth form?”

“Eh.” The Sage grinned. “I managed a bit higher than that back in my day. Took a hell of a beating getting there, though…”

The Sage had a wistful look on his face.