"And... stay down!" Gideon shouted, slamming the edge of his shield onto the neck of a straggler Harpy that had tried to limp away.
CRUNCH.
The Harpy dissolved into grey mist.
[ XP GAINED: 480 ]
Gideon didn't check his level. He dropped to his knees and began rummaging through the dust where the monster had vanished.
"Come on," he whispered, sifting through feathers and rocks. "Give me the ball bearing. Papa needs a matched set."
His fingers brushed against something cold, heavy, and perfectly spherical.
"Yes!"
He pulled it out. A second Diver’s Pearl. It was identical to the first—grey, heavy, and stubbornly refusing to roll off his palm even when he tilted it.
"Two," Gideon grinned, clicking the two heavy pearls together. Clack. "That’s bilateral symmetry. I can install one in each greave. My center of mass is going to be so low I’ll technically be a tripod."
"You look like a goblin hoarding shiny rocks," Elara said, walking past him without breaking stride. She looked fresh, as if she hadn't just spent three hours shooting birds out of the sky. "Pack it up, 'Eclipse'. We’re done here."
"Done?" Gideon scrambled up, pocketing his pearls. "But the XP is good! And I finally figured out the math on the turbulence!"
"The returns are diminishing," Elara corrected, pointing to the looming peaks ahead. "You’re barely out of breath, Gideon. You’ve outgrown this nest. If you want to get stronger, we need to go where the air is heavier."
She gestured to the dark, jagged silhouette of the mountain's upper crust.
"The Iron-Crag. The beasts there don't rely on speed. They rely on the fact that you can't hurt them."
Gideon looked at where she was pointing.
Beyond the ridge, the mountain didn't go up; it got... darker. The grey stone of the Harpy grounds gave way to red-black volcanic rock. Steam vents hissed from cracks in the ground, and the air shimmered with heat.
"That looks like a thermal hazard," Gideon noted, wiping sweat from his forehead. "And my current armor is canvas and leather. I am essentially dressed for a bake-sale, not a volcano."
"It’s not a volcano," Elara said. "It’s a vent zone. The heat makes the monsters tough. Perfect for a Tank who needs to learn how to hit harder."
"I hit plenty hard!" Gideon argued.
"We'll see," Elara said, starting the climb. "Move your legs. Or I’ll start shooting at your heels to improve your pace.
The wind on Basalt Ridge had died down, mostly because Gideon had spent the last two hours turning the airspace into a chaotic nightmare of turbulent pockets and shattered lift vectors.
"And... stay down!" Gideon shouted, slamming the edge of his shield onto the neck of a straggler Harpy that had tried to limp away.
CRUNCH.
[ XP GAINED: 480 ]
Gideon didn't check his level. He dropped to his knees and began rummaging through the dust where the monster had vanished.
"Come on," he whispered, sifting through feathers and rocks. "Give me the ball bearing. Papa needs a matched set."
His fingers brushed against something cold, heavy, and perfectly spherical.
"Yes!"
He pulled it out. A second Diver’s Pearl. It was identical to the first—grey, heavy, and stubbornly refusing to roll off his palm even when he tilted it.
"Two," Gideon grinned, clicking the two heavy pearls together. Clack. "That’s a matched set. I can install one in each greave. My center of gravity is going to be so low I’ll technically be a tripod."
"You look like a goblin hoarding shiny rocks," Elara said, walking past him without breaking stride. She looked fresh, as if she hadn't just spent three hours shooting birds out of the sky. "Pack it up, 'Eclipse'. We’re done here."
"Done?" Gideon scrambled up, pocketing his pearls. "But the XP is good! And I finally figured out the wind-shear coefficient!"
"The returns are diminishing," Elara corrected, pointing to the looming peaks ahead. "You’re barely out of breath, Gideon. You’ve outgrown this nest. If you want to get stronger, we need to go where the air is heavier."
She gestured to the dark, jagged silhouette of the mountain's upper crust.
"The Iron-Crag. The beasts there don't rely on speed. They rely on the fact that you can't hurt them."
Gideon looked at where she was pointing.
Beyond the ridge, the mountain didn't go up; it got... darker. The grey stone of the Harpy grounds gave way to red-black volcanic rock. Steam vents hissed from cracks in the ground, and the air shimmered with heat.
"That looks like a thermal hazard," Gideon noted, wiping sweat from his forehead. "And my current armor is canvas and leather. I am essentially dressed for a bake-sale, not a volcano."
"It’s not a volcano," Elara said. "It’s a vent zone. The heat makes the monsters tough. Perfect for a Tank who needs to learn how to hit harder."
"I hit plenty hard!" Gideon argued.
"We'll see," Elara said, starting the climb. "Move your legs. Or I’ll start shooting at your heels to improve your pace."
The hike to the Iron-Crag took an hour, and every step felt heavier than the last. The air grew thick and sulfury, tasting like rotten eggs and hot metal.
When they finally crested the rise into the Crag, Gideon stopped.
It wasn't a canyon like before. It was a field of jagged, black boulders interspersed with pools of bubbling mud. And shuffling among the boulders were things that looked like boulders themselves.
[ TARGET: GEO-SHELL TURTLE ] [ LEVEL: 25 ]
They were massive—easily the size of a small car. Their shells were made of jagged, naturally formed rock plates that looked like they had been ripped from the mountain itself. Their heads were thick, beak-faced blocks of stone-hide, and their eyes glowed a dull, angry orange.
"Turtles," Gideon whispered. "We’re fighting rocks. I have a sword. Physics dictates that hitting a rock with a sword is bad for the sword."
"They’re slow," Elara said, leaning against a safe outcropping. "They don't fly. They don't swoop. They just walk toward you and try to crush you. It’s a simple test of endurance."
She gestured to the nearest one, a hulking mass of stone about fifty yards away.
"Go on. Introduce yourself."
Gideon looked at the Turtle. It was eating a rock. Literally crunching a piece of granite like it was a cracker.
"Okay," Gideon exhaled, drawing his Reforged Iron Sword. The cyan vein pulsed, as if sensing the challenge. "It’s slow. I have speed. I have momentum. I have a magic sword."
He stepped out from the cover.
"Hey!" Gideon shouted, banging his sword against his shield. CLANG. "You overgrown garden ornament! Over here!"
The Turtle stopped chewing. It slowly turned its massive head. The orange eyes locked onto Gideon.
It let out a low, grinding roar—like two tectonic plates rubbing together—and began to lumber toward him.
THUD. THUD. THUD.
"It’s definitely slow," Gideon calculated, watching the approach. "Velocity is maybe three meters per second. I can run circles around it."
He didn't run circles. He charged.
Confident from his victory over the Harpies, Gideon decided to open with a power move. He sprinted forward, building up momentum.
"Cowabunga, heathen!" Gideon yelled.
He leaped, bringing his sword down in a two-handed overhead smash, aiming right for the center of the shell where the neck met the body.
"[Smite]!"
The sword came down. The cyan light flared.
CLANG.
It was the loudest sound Gideon had ever heard.
It wasn't a cut. It wasn't a slice. It was the sound of a metal bat hitting a concrete pillar.
The sword didn't penetrate. It bounced.
The recoil was instantaneous and violent. The vibration traveled up the blade, through the hilt, into Gideon’s arms, and rattled his teeth in his skull.
"GAH!" Gideon screamed, dropping the sword as his hands went numb. "My skeleton! I think my skeleton just vibrated!"
The Turtle didn't even flinch. A small, white scratch appeared on its rocky shell.
It looked at Gideon, who was currently shaking his hands and dancing in pain.
Then, with surprising speed for a rock, it snapped.
Its beak—which looked like an industrial hydraulic press—clamped shut inches from Gideon’s leg.
SNAP.
The sound of the air being displaced was terrifying.
"Whoa!" Gideon scrambled back, tripping over his own boots and landing hard on his butt in the dirt. "It bites! Why does the rock bite?!"
The Turtle hissed, steam venting from the cracks in its shell. It raised a massive, stump-like leg to stomp him into paste.
"Elara!" Gideon shrieked, rolling frantically to the side as the foot crashed down where his chest had been. "My sword bounced! It’s immune to blunt force trauma!"
"It has high physical resistance," Elara called out, sounding entirely too amused. She hadn't drawn her weapon. She was eating an apple. "And you’re trying to mine bedrock with a needle, Gideon. Figure it out."
Gideon scrambled up, grabbing his sword and retreating to a safe distance. His hands were still buzzing.
"It’s not a needle!" Gideon argued, panting. "It’s a magically infused crowbar! But the rock is denser than the magic! I can't get enough leverage to crack the shell!"
The Turtle roared again, turning to follow him.
"Well," Elara took a bite of her apple. "You better find a way. Because there are fifty of them in this valley, and we aren't leaving until you crack them."
Gideon looked at the Turtle. It was a tank. It was armored, heavy, and practically indestructible to conventional weapons.
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"I can't cut it," Gideon realized, watching the steam rise from the creature's back. "And I can't smash it."
He watched the steam again.
"Heat," Gideon whispered. "It’s venting heat. It’s a geothermal organism."
He looked at the bubbling mud pool nearby. Then he looked at the cool mountain air.
"Thermal expansion," a slow, wicked grin spread across his face. "Rock is hard... until you change its temperature too fast."
The Geo-Shell Turtle roared—a sound like grinding gravel—and stomped toward Gideon. It wasn't fast, but it was inevitable. It moved with the confidence of a creature that knew it was made of literal mountain.
Gideon didn't run this time. He stood his ground next to one of the bubbling, sulfuric mud pools.
"Okay," Gideon muttered, adjusting his grip on his shield. "Phase One: The Preheat."
He waited until the massive stone beast was almost on top of him. The heat radiating from its shell was intense, wafting off in shimmering waves.
"Come on, you rocky crouton," Gideon yelled. "Bite me!"
The Turtle obliged. It lunged, its hydraulic-press beak snapping at his midsection.
Gideon stepped in.
He didn't dodge away; he jammed his Heater Shield directly into the Turtle’s face.
"[Radiant Lattice: Red-Shift Mode]!"
Instead of a defensive wall, a hexagonal dome of red-tinted light erupted from the shield, wrapping around the Turtle’s head and front shell.
Usually, Gideon used this to reflect heat away. This time, he inverted the polarity. He created a thermal feedback loop. Every ounce of body heat the Turtle gave off was trapped, amplified, and reflected right back into its own rocky hide.
"Welcome to the induction oven!" Gideon grunted, bracing his shoulder against the shield as the Turtle thrashed.
The effect was immediate. The grey stone of the Turtle’s shell began to darken. Then it turned a dull, angry red. Then a bright, glowing orange.
The Turtle screamed—a high-pitched whistling sound of escaping steam. It was cooking inside its own armor.
"Temperature critical!" Gideon yelled, sweat pouring down his face as the heat washed over him. "Expansion is maxed out! Now for the quench!"
He released the shield lock and kicked the Turtle hard in the chest.
"Go for a swim!"
The massive beast stumbled back, blinded by pain and heat. It teetered on the edge of the mud pool—which was fed by a cold mountain runoff stream mixing with the vent.
It fell in.
SPLASH.
The superheated rock hit the cold sludge.
HISSSSSS-CRACK.
The sound was like a gunshot.
Thermal shock is one of the most violent forces in nature. When the outer layer of the superheated stone contracted instantly from the cold, while the inner layer remained hot and expanded, the rock didn't just fail; it detonated.
A massive spiderweb of fractures exploded across the Turtle’s shell. Deep, jagged cracks glowed with internal magma light.
The Turtle wailed, unable to stand, its armor compromised.
"Physics works!" Gideon cheered, raising his sword. "Structural failure! It's cracking wide open!"
He jumped onto the Turtle’s back, avoiding the steam jets. He lined up his sword with the biggest, deepest crack running down the center of the shell.
"Percussive maintenance!"
He brought the Reforged Iron Sword down with everything he had.
"[Smite]!"
KA-BOOM.
This time, the sword didn't bounce.
The blade drove into the crack like a wedge. The explosive force of the [Smite] traveled through the fracture lines, shattering the shell into a dozen pieces. The Turtle dissolved instantly into grey mist, leaving behind a pile of rubble and loot.
[ ENEMY DEFEATED: GEO-SHELL TURTLE (Lvl 25) ] [ XP GAINED: 1,200 (Base) + 800 (Method Bonus: Creative Destruction) ]
Gideon slid off the pile of rocks, panting. He felt like he had just wrestled a sauna.
"Method Bonus?" Gideon blinked at the notification. "The System rewards creativity? That opens up so many dangerous possibilities."
Elara hopped down from her perch. She walked over to the pile of shattered shell fragments, inspecting them.
"You cooked it," she said, looking at him. "You turned your shield into a pot lid, cooked it, and then cracked it like an egg."
"I utilized rapid thermal expansion followed by catastrophic contraction," Gideon corrected, wiping soot from his nose. "It’s how they break rocks in quarries without explosives. I just... sped up the process."
"You fought a rock and won," Elara admitted, kicking a piece of shell. "Not bad, Tank. Not bad at all."
She pointed to the rest of the valley, where forty-nine more Turtles were shuffling around.
"Now," she smiled. "Do it again. Until you hit Level 20."
Gideon groaned, lifting his shield. "I’m going to need more water."
The next three days became a blur of steam, sulfur, and the rhythmic sound of geological violence.
Gideon didn't just fight; he worked. He treated the valley less like a battlefield and more like an industrial demolition site where he was the sole employee.
The process—dubbed "The Bake & Break"—was effective, but it was brutal on the body. Without any magical boots to cushion his landings, Gideon had to rely on raw physics and pain tolerance. Every time a Turtle tail-swiped him, he had to roll with the momentum, tucking his shoulder and skidding across the jagged gravel until friction stopped him.
His canvas clothes were shredded. His shins were a map of bruises. His shield looked like it had been chewed on by a trash compactor.
But the rhythm took hold.
Bait. Shield. Cook. Kick. Crack.
On the second day, he stopped flinching when the steam jets burned his arms. He learned to time the thermal expansion perfectly, listening for the specific ping of the rock structure reaching critical stress before kicking the beasts into the mud.
Elara watched from the high ridge, eating dried meat and occasionally shooting a stray rock that got too close to Gideon’s blind spot. She didn't offer help. She offered silence, which, for her, was the highest form of praise.
The XP notifications became a background hum, a steady drip of dopamine that kept his exhausted legs moving.
[ LEVEL UP! ] [ Gideon Vance is now Level 16. ]
[ LEVEL UP! ] [ Gideon Vance is now Level 18. ]
By the afternoon of the third day, the valley was quiet. The herd of fifty had been thinned to one.
Gideon stood in the center of the crater. He was covered in grey mud, soot, and dried blood. He was breathing heavy, but his posture was different. He wasn't slouching. He stood with his feet planted wide, his center of gravity low, the heavy shield looking like a natural extension of his arm.
"One left," Gideon rasped. He checked his status bar. The experience gauge was trembling at 99.8%.
Across the crater, the Magma-Back Turtle roared.
It was a Rare Variant—larger than the others, with veins of actual molten lava pulsing through the cracks in its obsidian shell. It didn't just vent steam; it dripped fire.
"Final exam," Gideon whispered.
He didn't wait for it to charge. He initiated.
He sprinted across the broken ground, his boots crunching on the gravel. The Magma-Back opened its beak, spewing a glob of molten rock.
Gideon didn't stop. He slid.
He dropped to his knees, skidding under the arc of lava, feeling the heat singe his hair. He popped up right in the creature's face, slamming the rim of his shield into its jaw.
"[Radiant Lattice: Invert!]"
The red dome flared. The Magma-Back was already hot; Gideon just made it unbearable. The lava in its veins turned white-hot. The creature shrieked, rearing back.
Gideon didn't kick it this time. It was too heavy.
Instead, he turned his back to it, braced his shield against its chest, and dug his heels into the mud
He heaved. He screamed. The veins in his neck bulged.
With a grinding tear of earth, he leveraged the two-ton monster off its balance point. It tipped backward, flailing, and crashed upside down into the deepest, coldest mud pool in the valley.
KA-HISSSSSSS.
The explosion of steam was blinding. The thermal shock shattered the obsidian shell instantly.
Gideon didn't wait for the steam to clear. He leaped into the fog, guided by the glowing blue vein of his sword.
"[Smite]!"
He drove the blade into the exposed, soft underbelly.
The detonation was absolute.
[ ENEMY DEFEATED: MAGMA-BACK TURTLE (Lvl 27 Rare) ] [ XP GAINED: 3,500 ]
The world seemed to pause for a second. And then, the sound came.
It wasn't a ding. It was a resonant, harmonic chime that seemed to vibrate in his very bones. A column of golden light erupted from the ground, engulfing him.
[ LEVEL UP! ] [ Gideon Vance is now Level 19. ]
[ LEVEL UP! ] [ Gideon Vance is now Level 20. ]
[ ! MILESTONE REACHED: DECADE COMPLETE ! ] [ The System acknowledges your survival. ]
Gideon fell back into the mud, gasping for air, letting the golden light wash over him. It felt like being submerged in a warm bath. The pain in his shins vanished. The bruises faded. His fatigue evaporated, replaced by a surge of energy so potent it made his fingertips tingle.
[ SYSTEM ALERT: MILESTONE BONUS ] [ Level 20 Reached. Awakening Tier 2 Biology. ] [ REWARD: +20 TO ALL ATTRIBUTES ]
Gideon’s eyes snapped open. "Wait, all of them?"
He felt his muscles knit tighter, becoming denser. His thoughts cleared, the world sharpening into high-definition focus. His mana pool expanded in his chest, feeling less like a cup and more like a well.
He scrambled up, ignoring the mud, and pulled up his interface.
[ SKILL SELECTION AVAILABLE ] [ Please select one new Ability from the list of compatible matrices. ]
A holographic list floated in front of him. There were three options, glowing with potential.
- Option 1: [Kinetic Battery] (Passive)
- Description: Movement generates Mana. The faster you move, the faster your Mana regenerates.
- Note: Great for sustainability.
- Option 2: [Resonant Frequency] (Active)
- Description: Strike an object to analyze its structural weakness. The next hit ignores 50% of Physical Resistance.
- Note: Great for breaking armor.
- Option 3: [Photonic Displacement] (Active)
- Description: Instantly relocate to a visible location within 30 feet.
- Effect: Leaves behind a Photon Shell—a stagnant burst of hard light in the exact shape of the user. The shell flashes brilliantly before fading over 1.5 seconds, potentially Blinding nearby enemies.
- Cost: 150 MP.
- Note: "Why be there, when you can be here?"
Gideon stared at the list.
His eyes lingered on [Kinetic Battery]. Infinite mana? That was the dream. It was efficient. It was logical. It solved his resource management problem entirely.
But then he looked at [Photonic Displacement].
He thought about the Harpies diving at him. He thought about the Turtle trying to bite his leg. He thought about how many times he had been just one second too slow to dodge.
"Kinetic Battery is great," Gideon muttered, rubbing his chin. "But it requires me to run around like a hamster to get mana back. And Resonant Frequency is just... hitting things harder."
He tapped the description for Option 3.
"But this..." He grinned. "This is quantum tunneling on a macro scale. It’s a positional error forced onto the universe. And it leaves a decoy?"
He imagined the tactical possibilities. Leaving a glowing hard-light statue of himself for an enemy to bite while he teleported behind them? It wasn't just movement. It was a magic trick.
"I’ll take the teleport," Gideon said firmly. "I can buy mana potions. I can't buy being in two places at once."
[ SKILL ACQUIRED: Photonic Displacement]
The knowledge slammed into his head—complex geometric calculations of space, light, and mass transfer. It hurt, but in a good way.
"Okay," Gideon exhaled, shaking his head to clear the stars. "Now for the stats."
He looked at his point pool. He had saved his points from Level 15 through 20.
[ Points Available: 72 ] (6 Levels x 12 Points)
"Plus the twenty free points to everything," Gideon marveled. "My base stats just skyrocketed."
He started tapping furiously. He needed to lean into his role. He was a Tank, but he was a Magic Tank. He needed MP to cast his new teleport, and he needed Constitution to survive when he messed it up.
He dumped 30 points into Constitution. He dumped 30 points into Intelligence (for Mana and Spell Power). He put the remaining 12 into Agility (to fix his stumbling problem).
He closed the menu and clenched his fist. The air around his hand distorted slightly.
"Elara!" Gideon shouted, turning toward the ridge.
He didn't walk.
He focused on a flat rock twenty feet away. He visualized the coordinates. He pushed the mana into the new pathway in his mind.
ZAP.
There was no sound of wind. Just a sharp crack of displaced air.
Gideon vanished.
In his place, a glowing, cyan construct of himself—frozen in a triumphant shouting pose—remained standing in the mud. It pulsed brightly, casting harsh shadows across the crater.
Twenty feet away, Gideon materialized instantly. He stumbled slightly, unused to the sudden shift in perspective, but he caught himself.
"Did you see that?!" Gideon yelled, pointing back at his own fading after-image. "I just violated the principle of locality!"
Elara stood up on the ridge, dusting off her pants. She looked at the real Gideon, then at the fading light-clone that was slowly dissolving into sparkles.
"You learned how to blink," she called down, sounding mildly impressed. "And you left a night-light behind. Very brand-appropriate."
"It’s a Photon Shell!" Gideon corrected, beaming. "It’s hard light! If you punched it, you’d break your hand! It’s the ultimate bait!"
"It uses a lot of mana," Elara noted, starting her descent. "I can feel the drain from here. Don't use it to skip walking up stairs."
"I make no promises!" Gideon laughed. He felt incredible. "I’m Level 20, Elara! Double digits! Two decades! I have stats! I have teleportation! I am a force of nature!"
"You're a force of noise," Elara said, walking past him and tossing a towel at his muddy face. "Clean up. We have a camp to clear."
"The Hobgoblins?" Gideon wiped the mud from his eyes, his grin not fading. "The ones blocking the pass?"
"Level 28s," Elara confirmed. "A whole warband. And since you're so confident with your new stats..."
She stopped and looked back at him, her violet eyes glinting.
"I think it’s time for your first solo performance."
Gideon stared at her, the thrill of the level-up still buzzing in his veins. "Solo? As in, you stay in the car while I go into the grocery store?"
"As in, I watch from a tree while you clear a warband," Elara corrected. "But before you get too excited, check the loot pile. The big one left something weird."
Gideon looked down at the dissolving remains of the Magma-Back Turtle. Most of the shell had shattered into useless gravel, but resting in the center of the mud crater was a large, curved plate. It wasn't rock; it was translucent, glowing with a faint, amber inner light.
He picked it up. It was warm to the touch and incredibly smooth, like polished obsidian, but transparent enough to see his hand through it.
[ ITEM: MAGMA-GLASS SCUTE ] [ Rank: E (Rare Material) ] [ Description: A naturally formed biological glass found on the dorsal ridge of Alpha Geo-Shells. It radiates heat when mana is channeled into it.]
"Biological glass," Gideon whispered, holding it up to the sun. Gideon said, his eyes widening as he felt the warmth radiating from the glass scute against his palm."
His mind immediately began layering schematics over the object.
"If I mount this on a chest plate..." Gideon muttered, turning the glass over. "And I dump excess mana into it... "I could generate a passive aura that burns anything that gets too close."
He laughed, holding the scute in the air.
Man, that would have been perfect for that insect fight in the beginning. "Insects are like dads. Once you touch the thermostat, they lose their minds."
Elara rolled her eyes. "I don't know what a 'thermostat' is, Gideon. But if it helps you defeat monsters, wear it.
"He stashed the heavy glass plate in his bag, right next to the Diver’s Pearls.
"My bag is starting to look like a science fair project," he noted with satisfaction.
"Good. Now check your stats," Elara commanded, pointing a dagger toward the path leading up to the pass. "Know what your working with before you stress-test it."
Gideon nodded and swiped his hand to open the full status window. The numbers that greeted him were no longer the pitiful single digits of a stranded scientist. They were the numbers of a problem solver who could take a hit.
[ SYSTEM STATUS: GIDEON VANCE ] [ Level: 20 ]
- Intelligence: 145
- Constitution: 110
- Strength: 90
- Agility: 90
- Endurance: 70
- Wisdom: 55)
- Perception: 55
[ Resources ]
- Health: 1,100 / 1,100
- Mana: 1,450 / 1,450
- Stamina: 700 / 700
"Stats look robust," Gideon said, closing the window with a confident snap. "I have the durability of a tank and the energy output of a small power plant. I am ready to collect data."
He tightened the strap of his shield and rested his hand on the hilt of his glowing sword.
"Lead the way, Manager," Gideon grinned.