Isaac ended up stumbling home several hours later. Scratch that, an eternity later, or at least that’s what it felt like.

It couldn’t have been more than twelve hours, given that it had barely been evening when the discussion had begun and it was still dark, even so, he’d clearly spent a damn long time talking with the others, talking about powerful Aspects, important Spells to acquire, and all the magical things he knew how to make.

There wasn’t too much of the latter, given that his knowledge on that front was mostly limited to creating shelters and the like, but those would still provide an incredibly useful starting point to many branches of research.

Yet he could and would face countless additional questions when he showed up for work tomorrow. That was a problem for later, though.

For now, he needed a bit of palate cleanser, something to get his minds somewhere out of the turmoil that was his thoughts at the moment. And what better way to do that but go fight a powerful monster for an Aspect he needed.

When his home came into view, Isaac, couldn’t help but grin. He’d had some work done while he’d been in Korea, and it was a thing of beauty. He’d also significantly added to his holdings, giving him the space for a vast number of expansions.

First off, there was the large artificial lake he’d wanted to summon Megalodons in before those idiot Systemers had done it for him, making it useless for its original purpose. On the other hand, it was a private lake, it could be used for a whole host of reasons. If nothing else, his sisters would be ecstatic at the private lake if they visited him before it got too cold to go bathing.

… actually, with it being the beginning of September, the lake was probably freezing to them at this point, wasn’t it? It probably was, he just hadn’t realized because his comfortable temperature range was far greater than that of a normal person.

His summoning area had also been expanded, though. A larger area had covered by a roof, but it had also been vastly deepened, leaving him with a fifteen meter deep pit several hundred meters across. Between that and the height of the roof, he could summon some seriously big monsters down here.

As he briefly looked over everything, Isaac also went around trashing every bug he came across. Shouldn’t they have learned at some point?

Before Isaac went after his true target though, he needed to use [Grave of Swords] because it was off cooldown. Every monster that died inside of that [Skill] generated another sword, which he could then burn to supercharge it, allowing him to draw in Bosses or monsters above his own Level, so he’d taken every chance he got to use fill that tank. He really hoped he wouldn’t have to use it to trap a [Raid Boss] or something, but if he had to, he wanted the option.

Summon Rock Titan, [Grave of Swords], [Sweeping-Power-Piercing Strike], and that was that. A craggy, rocky blade jutted up from the ground, visible to him for a brief moment before the [Grave of Swords] vanished, dumping Isaac back out into reality.

While his mana recharged, Isaac drew out a Tier 7 circle in the summoning area in chalk. He simply couldn’t afford to leave that thing around for others to see, so engraving it was out of the question.

Now, what he was doing here was incredibly dangerous. Jumping Tiers at his current powerlevel was about as stupid as walking up to a prospective father in law and saying ‘you know, your daughter calls me daddy too’.

In other words, if stupidity could be weaponized, this would have been considered a WMD.

But that was under normal circumstances, and nothing about Isaac was even remotely normal. You could jump Tiers, if you knew everything there was to know about the monster in question and had the right set of powers to take advantage of its weaknesses while countering its strengths. And it just so happened that there was a monster that had an Aspect he wanted, which was also one he could take. A Greater Hydra. High regeneration, high attack power, comparatively slow movement rate and a vulnerability to fire, something he could exploit with his speed and the sword that could be lit on fire at will.

Just him against a monster that was Level 45 at a minimum, but was probably closer to Level 60 and could even be as high up as 75 on the outside. And yes, that thing was damn dangerous, but Isaac had one more advantage: he’d memorized its moveset.

Sure, these were living, breathing beings, not video game monsters, and therefore weren’t limited to a handful of specific movements as their video game counterparts were, but some things held true regardless because there were only so many ways a given organism could move, and only a fraction of those ways was actually useful. So with his experience, he’d be able to predict the monster’s moves with, quite frankly, impossible ease.

So once his mana pool had regenerated, which had taken quite a while, given that the monster required its full 1,000 points to summon, Isaac activated the circle, causing a massive monster to erupt from it.

And what a monster it was. Where a Lesser Hydra could comfortably rest each of its three, anvil sized heads on a normal car, a Greater Hydra’s seven heads were each larger than said car, on necks that were almost two meters thick and came together a full twenty meters below the base of the skull, where the rest of its body lay coiled. It wasn’t possible to tell how long that was from where he was standing, but Isaac knew that it was around one hundred and fifty meters long on its own.

The sheer physical power behind that body was an immense threat on its own, but this stronger Hydra not only had incredibly toxic blood, it had also gained venomous fangs which could even shoot its venom.

A modern tank battalion would fall in the face of this monster, a full combined arms regiment wouldn’t last much longer, and even the full might of a Carrier Strike Group might not be enough. It could tank a lot of hits and heal through most of what got through. The fire involved in modern explosive munitions would reduce that recovering somewhat, but it simply didn’t burn hot enough to cauterize tissue that tough.

Tier 7 was the near absolute limit of where normal military action would be effective. Beyond that, it would be all MOABs and tactical nukes at a minimum, eventually increasing in power all the way up to ICBMs until they, too, would become ineffective. And now, Isaac would tear it apart with just a few sharp pieces of metal.

He dove forward in a burst of speed, his movement creating a shockwave that made the dust and debris scattered around the place fly away from him, just as the first massive head smashed into the ground where he’d been standing a mere fraction of a second ago, sending shards of rock flying everywhere.

Another head had jerked back to open up the range and then launched a cream of venom in his path, forcing him to leap over it, then instantly trigger [Wave Charge] to fling himself forwards in anticipation of a third head deciding to take advantage of the airborne target. After all, people and monsters usually had real trouble dodging without anything to push off against.

The Hydra was unable to stop the attack that was already in motion so Isaac used that as a springboard to launch himself straight over the place where the necks joined, triggered another [Wave Charge] to alter his trajectory, and smashed himself straight through the monster with [I Am The Sword]. The attack was lead with his blade, pointed straight at the center of its mass.

A split second before impact, he summoned all the additional blades he could and using [Blade Control] to fling them back upwards into the hole he’d left with his passage. It had closed even before he’d returned from the plunge into the ground, but that had been what Isaac had wanted all along. Now, there were a bunch of really sharp implements of death near the Hydra’s most vital organ, cutting it every time it moved. Of course, that would heal, but only if the injuries weren’t cauterized.

… Isaac lit them on fire using Old Reliable’s [Starfang] ability, a venomous flame destroying and scarring the tissue they touched.

The Hydra jerked, multiple heads flying forwards to try and crush them while the rest of the heads rose to their full height so they could act as impromptu turrets, unleashing beams of acid from their new, high, vantage point. And then it realized that moving hurt.

The Hydra screamed, an unearthly sound from many throats that shook the air and ruptured Isaac’s eardrums. It healed, but it was still painful.

Well, he healed, the Hydra was just creating more and more scar tissue on a very important body part, the ‘poison’ part of the Starflame further weakening it. Not by much, but still to a noticeable degree.

Fourteen eyes glared down at him with burning hatred, the body underneath slowly shifting as it tried to find a ‘comfortable’ position’, which just gave Isaac another good shot at it.

A head slammed down where he’d been standing a moment before, shifted into [Form of Horror], and slashed across the neck with claws that glowed a venomous green. The monster tried to jerk back, but Isaac got several more hits in as he did so, then sent a [Far Strike] after it. The massively weakened flesh of the neck came apart like a sandcastle that had been attacked by a leaf blower, leaving the head flop to the side.

[Phantom Step] placed him squarely on the bleeding flesh, at which point Isaac just bellyflopped into the viscera and suddenly every blade on his body was alight. Sure, originally, the only parts of his altered body that were Old Reliable and could therefore use its [Skills] were his teeth, finger- and toenails, but that had changed with the Aspect of the Bladed Tempest. After it, he looked like a razor covered porcupine and now, he was a flaming razor covered porcupine.

By the time the other heads came back around, the wound was already cauterized and the head was well and truly gone.

A stream of venom smashed into the stump, but Isaac had already jumped to another head and was savaging it like a rabid wolverine, clawing out both eyes and severing the ligaments that kept the jaw shut. The rest of the heads descended, ready to pluck him off like a particularly annoying flee and crunch him between their jaws, but Isaac just dove into the mouth that could not be closed, leaving four separate impacts to nearly brain the head he was hiding in.

Oh, and he was still on fire, finger-claws jammed into the skull at the top while the toe-claws were jammed into the bottom jaw, leaving him solidly wedged in place, burning the mouth to a crisp.

If this process had gone on for long enough, this head would have been left a smoking brick of charcoal, but the Hydra decided that just wasn’t done.

The head turned to face a second one, which opened its maw and unleashed a constant stream of venom down its sibling’s throat.

If Isaac had still been standing there, he might have been in trouble, but he just phased right through the back of the neck, jammed his claws him and reached down until he managed to get a good whack in on the spine, burning the somewhat important bundle of nerves there to a crisp.

With one head gone completely, a second one hanging limply and the place the neck’s met slowly turning into a solid mass of scar tissue, the Hydra was in real trouble as it’s necks slowly became more and more entangled.

A fully functional Hydra would have never gotten itself tanged in any way, shape or form. A Hydra with necks it couldn’t move, on the other hand …

Isaac hopped down right between the nexus and pulled one of the copies of his soulbound weapon towards himself, further shredding the flesh and expanding the area that got burned. After all, the original location was already well and truly trashed.

The Hydra screamed again even as it struck out at him, but Isaac had already relocated to a new location and moved another blade into a new location. And again. And again.

More cries of agony rang out, and the last of the woodland creatures within earshot fled in fear, their instincts finally kicking in.

Throughout all of this, the Hydra’s venomous [Aura] was pressing down on him, but the [Aura of the Crimson Dawn] kept it at bay, constantly healing away the damage the venom was doing and purging his system.

It was a battle of attrition where both sides where constantly healing, except Isaac’s [Aura’s] healing power was ever growing as the amount of blood on the ground increased while more and more of the Hydra was cut and burned, while the mass of scars at its core grew evermore.

Hell, one of the heads even went limp as the entirety of the connection to the rest of the body was cut off by the mass.

It took almost ten more minutes, but the battle began to wind down as Isaac heard something odd in the woods. He quickly switched over to his sensory [Aura] to get a better look.

As it turned out, there was nothing to worry about, it was just Amy.

“Just finishing something up, be with you in a sec.” he sent using auric morse, getting an affirmative in reply.

Amy reached him before he killed the Hydra, but she didn’t interrupt, she just waited patiently until he was done.

“All right, I’m finished. You can come down, but don’t step in the blood, it’s really toxic.” Isaac called out “Or do you want me to …”

Offering to head back up became a moot point as she hopped down, floating above the ground a moment later.

While he walked over to her, Isaac scanned the body and noticed that an Aspect had formed, in large part thanks to the massive Level difference between a Level 43 human and a Level 60 Hydra.

[Blade Control] in conjunction with his [Aura] let him use his blades to cut it out while he had a conversation with Amy.

“So, I wanted to apologize.” Amy said, shuffling her feet, which looked damn weird given that she was floating through the air.

“For what? I manipulated all of you into researching what I knew to be the best things to go after and despite all the justifications, it was a manipulation.” Isaac said evenly. If someone was upset at him, he understood, and take whatever came on the chin.

“Sure, that’s all true, except I wasn’t mad at you. See, I have this stepfather who’d always use things I didn’t know he knew to trick me into doing what he wanted me to do, and to get that information, he’d pull crap like read my diary or bribe my therapist to tell him what I sai- …” she laughed bitterly “Listen to me whine to someone who went through crap I can’t even imagine.”

Isaac joined in the chuckling, though his was equally false and hollow “Everyone needs to vent, and I’m not made of glass. Hold on a second …”

He then took a moment to straighten, puff out his chest and, in the most pompous voice he could manage, announced “I’m not made of glass!”

Amy burst out into genuine laughter.

“And even then, I couldn’t blame any of you for being mad at me. Manipulation is still manipulation.”

“… even if it was done for the best possible reason, in the gentlest possible way. I get it, and I’m not mad at you.”

“Thanks. Friends?”

“What?” she blinked at him in surprise.

“Well, in kindergarten, making friends was as easy as asking ‘will you be my friend’, but we don’t do that as adults anymore, we have to be stoic and everything and I think that’s stupid.”

That earned another genuine laugh.

“So I’m guessing that’s the end of serious talk then, friend?”

Isaac snorted and nodded.

“Now, what exactly did you summon here? I can’t think of a single creature from Tier 1 to 6 that would fit the bill. Sure, there are Hydras, but there’s the Tier 5, which I’ve seen and know is a hell of a lot smaller, and a Tier 7. So is this a Tier 7? I mean, you’d know what’s safe, but it’s still a lot.”

“Yep, Tier 7 Greater Hydra, it contains the next Level of stackable Aspect. The Hydra series provides a bunch of extraordinarily survivability [Skills] that make the wielder the closest thing to unkillable. Like I told you earlier, I might end up fighting a [Raid Boss] in October if I haven’t changed things enough. I want all the protection I can get for that.” He explained.

“You know, the Professor was right. Every time we told you to be careful, we must have sounded like right berks.” Amy said “You were, no, are literally the most knowledgeable person in the world when it comes to the [System].”

“You sounded like you cared.” Isaac replied “And that counts for a lot.”

She nodded “People who genuinely care … that’s someone you grab on to with both hands and don’t let go.”

As she said that, Isaac quickly dodged out of her range, and they both started to laugh. They kept messing around for a short while after that, cracking idiotic jokes.

“Anyway, that’s all I wanted to say, thanks for listening. I’ll leave you to clean this up.” Amy bade him goodbye “Do you need this blood for something?”

Isaac shook his head and she waved her hands, cleaning away most of the liquid part of the mess, then she left.

That had been a good talk, and he felt incredibly light despite being elbow deep in Hydra guts.

But as nice as the conversation had been, the fight had also been very beneficial.

Aspect of the Greater Hydra:

This is the distilled essence of what makes a Hydra a Hydra. Regenerating from gruesome wounds in seconds, killing your enemies simply because they cut you as your blood poisons theirs, outright ignore damage to your body or create redundant organs to survive lethal injuries.

Requirements for Activation:

5,000 XP

Open Aspect Slot

Grants:

+15 Fortitude

One of the following Skills:

Hydra’s Regeneration

Toxic Blood

Redundant Organs

Second Head

Ignore Injury

Another solid Aspect that upgraded both of this core healing [Skills]. The names might not change, but he knew that they improved all the same. And as for his new [Skill], there really was only one good choice.

Ignore Injury (epic)

There are Skills to mitigate the effect of certain injuries, there are Skills to fix such injuries without the services of a healer. And then, there’s this Skill, which lets the user act as though they’d never even been injured in the first place.

While this Skill is active (can be toggled on and off at will), the user is able to completely ignore any and all injuries, but all actions that would be impeded by injuries grow more difficult and draining. Moving broken toe will be about as difficult as picking up one’s phone while moving the same finger while suffering from a severed spinal cord might be as difficult as carrying a mountain.

Also, [Bestial Regeneration] had hit Level 20 and evolved, which was great.

Bestial Regeneration (epic, Level XX)

No matter how good a fighter is, injuries are inevitable, given enough time. Therefore, this Skill is as invaluable as it is indisputable that it will find a use.

It allows the user to store excess mana generated by Magic Regeneration for the sole purpose of fueling the user’s regeneration Skills. This pool will be used to automatically heal any injuries sustained unless this Skill is explicitly suppressed and will used up before any regeneration Skills draw on the user’s mana pool.

This pool’s size is Skill Level*25.

In addition, it may be set to prioritize specific organs and body parts over others.

After countless fights where this Skill has been used to keep its wielder alive through horrific injuries, it has evolved to provide a speed to boost to all of the user’s self-healing powers, with the mana cost increasing proportionally to the boost, with a maximum increase of one hundred percent.

Now he just had to fill that last empty Aspect slot …