Chapter 28- Milestones

It had been three days since the appearance of the first-dimensional incursion, three days since Kazi Alukai, the self-proclaimed king of Kazakhstan had made his presence known. The people of Earth had moved on from the tragedy, now dubbed Hubris Crestfall, surprisingly quickly.

Life was simply too chaotic to dwell on the massacre that had taken place on the Russian border, and everyone knew that it was only the first to have been broadcasted, not the first true tragedy, simply a minuscule fraction of the true death toll of humanity in the fight against Earth’s evolving beasts.

One that wasn’t going so well.

In the intervening time, such dimensional breaches had become far more common, though thankfully, none spewed forth a monster above level 80. The Harpy Queen had sadly been an unfortunate anomaly.

People had come forward to defend their homes from such invasion, making names for themselves as great heroes and individuals of amazing strength, but none could come close to the fame that The Will Of Earth, King Kazi Alukai had accrued with his casual display of power.

The few seconds that he'd appeared on live television had secured him his spot as the strongest man on Earth, and so far, none had come forth to dispute that fact. Arthur wasn’t the only one to have read the man’s description, and people were already speculating that the single grandiose statement it contained was the result of some sort of skill, not an unquestionable fact.

The world governments too, were at a loss when it came to the enigmatic man, unable to make heads or tails of the mysterious individual that had seemingly popped up out of nowhere.

The only thing they were certain of from the extensive investigations they'd done on the man’s homeland, was the fact that Kazi Alukai had somehow managed to hunt down every monster in Kazakhstan above level 35 to extermination before announcing himself king of the country.

No one had disputed his claim, no one on Earth really could, and now the self-appointed royalty ruled his domain with an iron fist, establishing his own rule of law within a matter of days. The media, as with everything else controversial, had many opinions on the man, some calling him a power-hungry tyrant, and others a benevolent individual who had done his part in helping the world.

A small minority had even started a cult regarding him, claiming him as their saviour and prophet. The messiah that was sent to save the world from damnation. Kazi’s affinity for light magic only helped fuel these claims.

None of this however concerned Arthur Ward, as he had immersed himself in training his healing skills for the past three days, determined to bridge the gap between himself and the world's strongest. He needed to reach at least that level of competency before even considering his more ambitious goals.

Arthur’s efforts had been rewarded, and his Regeneration skill had reached level ten. The ability had undergone a significant change when reaching that milestone, completely changing, in fact, though it had made his life slightly harder.

Congratulations!

You have attained level ten in your initial system-granted skill. In doing so, you have proven that you have what it takes to flourish in this new world. Your aptitude will be analysed and go into evolving [Regeneration] into an appropriate skill.

Note: This subsequent skill will no longer be supported by system assistance as per the regulations passed during the sixty-second Trigon Summit. This change can be hard for many to overcome, but it encourages proper Ether usage and stops bad habits from forming. Any complaints regarding subsequent skills created can be referred to your local system authority.

Analysing Host skill usage...

Codifying Host Ether usage...

Scanning Host methodology...

Creating appropriate skill...

Congratulations! Your efforts have been rewarded with the creation of an Uncommon skill

Regeneration (Uncommon) Level 1- Use healing Ether to regenerate your body at 1% of max health total per minute of usage. Efficiency drops by 50% when used on another individual.

Cost of usage on host: 20 Ether/minute

Cost of usage on another: 30 Ether/minute

Secondary Effect: one-hundred healing affinity Ether may be stored as OVERHEALTH in the target of this ability to be used for recovery when the individual is injured. This stored Ether works under Host-Use efficiency levels. Overhealth cannot be stored in the host.

NOTE: Uncommon skills cap at level 20

The skill had thankfully evolved at the end of a successful operation, after treating a child that had been victimised by an abusive alcoholic father. The third-degree burns produced by the raging drunk had been horrifying to look at, even now evoking a visceral response of rage in Arthur.

The child had been clinging to life by the coattails.

If Arthur's skill had evolved before the treatment, the boy would have died. The skill's evolution and a subsequent slew of notifications had been disorientating, to say the least. Despite its lengthy description, Arthur had been confused at first and it had taken him a conversation with Mira to figure things out.

It turned out that the initial skills granted by the system were temporary, a means to keep a planet's population alive in the early days of a planet's evolution. During this period, the system handled 90% of the lifting required to cast magic which explained why Arthur had found it so easy to manipulate water magic in his earlier fights.

Mira had gone on to explain that these initial skills also followed a unique path of progression, not truly growing as an individual began to grow better at using them. The reality was a lot less... exciting. These skills had a cap of fifteen-thousand Ether, meaning that after such an amount of energy had been run through the skill, it would naturally cross the level ten threshold and evolve.

"They call this the testing period. At least that's what my sponsor told me. The system tests your potential during this time and helps you create a skill that follows the same patterns of ether usage your body has shown the most aptitude for."

Mira had been surprisingly knowledgeable regarding the topic.

"It normally takes someone a month to run through so much ether, but I guess me and you are freaks like that."

The poison mage had smirked when she'd walked away, winking at him. It had confirmed his suspicions but also raised a few questions. By her own admission, Mira had already evolved her healing skill on the day she'd arrived at the hospital.

Eight days after the system's arrival.

The numbers don't add up. How the hell did she run through 15,000 ether so fast? Just how large were her ether reserves?

Arthur shook his head in bemusement. Thinking about such things would get him nowhere. His new skill was very different to the previous version and he no longer had the system assisting him. And I thought magic was already hard enough as it is.

When using regeneration previously, all he'd had to do was run ether through the skill and watch it do its magic. Sure, he'd directed it with his knowledge of human anatomy, but he could hardly call that difficult. Not when compared to the insanity magic had now become.

The skill was no longer a simple tunnel that he had to pass his ether through and it was no longer as influenced by his direction. In evolving, the skill had become far more rigid.

Still, the skill, whilst only uncommon in rarity, is perfect for me considering my absurd health pool. 3200 health means I can heal 32 health per minute with this skill at the cost of only twenty ether. That's 1.6 health per ether spent. It's not as miraculous as it used to be when the system was holding my hand, but it has the potential to grow at an absurd rate as my health pool grows.

Arthur grimaced.

It wasn't all sunshine and rainbows, however. Working at 50% effectiveness on other people meant that he'd only be healing 0.53 health points per point of ether usage. It was an abysmal cost, and would hardly get better any time soon. Wounds that had taken him minuscule amounts of ether to heal would now have a price in the hundreds.

Generally, the people coming into the hospital had taken between 150 and 200 health points in damage which was usually a third of their health pool, give or take. That meant that it would take him upwards of ten minutes and 300 ether to heal a single patient. Shit, I'm gonna be one of the most useless healers in here now.

Arthur looked at the secondary effect his new skill gave him. He read it once. Twice. He couldn't help but grin.

Secondary Effect: one-hundred healing affinity Ether may be stored as OVERHEALTH in the target of this ability to be used for recovery when the individual is injured. This stored Ether works under Host-Use efficiency levels. Overhealth cannot be stored in the host.

Something told him he'd still be the number one hospital employee for quite some time yet.