The jump from 14 to 27 Vitality had bulked up my muscles and added three inches of height. The jump to 37 had added more, and I was now six feet eleven, with muscles to match. And a strength of 35, almost double what I’d been this morning. And a raging sense of hunger… again. Considering I ate less than an hour ago… My INT and WIS had risen to 41 each. I pulled up my interface for a second. HP: 370/370+4626/5000 PP: 1488/1488 MP: 1681/1681 CP: 1224/1224 AP: 1240/1240 PSYDEF: 92 Level 47 $ 218,632 XP: 60,840/1,600,000 Ethics: +113 And my Greyhound armor was tight again… RESIZE ARMOR? This time, I didn’t need serums to spend the 1000 MP. My armor expanded, growing another foot. Fullersteel javelins were consumed, as the armor sought out raw materials to grow, and my inventory dropped. Not that it mattered, not now. LEVEL 26 BONUS: AP REGEN DOUBLED. LEVEL 32 BONUS: PHYSICAL RESISTANCE ACTIVATED. MELEE DAMAGE TO UNARMORED INDIVIDUAL REDUCED BY VITALITY, UPTO 50%. DOES NOT AFFECT SELF-INJURY OR REFLECTED DAMAGE. LEVEL 38 BONUS: ALL MELEE STRIKES BOOSTED BY STRENGTH AS A PERCENTAGE. LEVEL 44 BONUS: RADIATION RESISTANCE ACTIVATED: ALL RADIATION DAMAGE REDUCED BY STR+VIT. The massive strength boost - and the melee strike bonus - would push the damage from the Lightning Hammer up to 248, with a Deadly Blow driving it up to 1,080. As for the Nanothorn Kukri - a simple strike from it would now deliver 2,700 damage, and Deadly Blow would deliver an earth-shattering 13,500. In other words, enough to destroy a Stealth Rover in a single blow. Or a Rakturai Vanguard Warrior. : Samuel is creating a portal - you can walk through it. Space rippled besides me, coalescing into the familiar form of a portal. TEST OF PERCEPTION: PASSED. YOU CAN LEARN SOMETHING NEW BY OBSERVING THIS PORTAL. OBSERVE? Why not? TEST OF INTELLIGENCE: PASSED. TEST OF PERCEPTION: PASSED. TEST OF WISDOM: PASSED. THE YAWNING ABYSS BETWEEN THE INFINITESIMAL SPACES OF THE WORLD HOLDS WHAT LAYMEN CALL WORMHOLES, WHICH CAN BE EXPANDED BY GRAVITY INTO ‘PORTALS’ LARGE ENOUGH FOR SENTIENTS TO PASS THROUGH. A MISNOMER, FOR A PORTAL IS NOT A DOORWAY AS MUCH AS A TEAR IN THE FABRIC OF SPACETIME, EACH SUCH ATTRACTING THE ATTENTION OF DARKER, SINISTER POWERS. FORTUNATELY, THE RIPPLES IN SPACETIME FROM SUCH ARE FEW AND FAR BETWEEN, AND SPACE IS TOO VAST TO DRAW THE ATTENTION OF THE OBSERVERS SOON. NEW SKILL UNLOCKED: TELEPORT. Scary, but useful. Agni stared at me as I walked through. “This is getting ridiculous.” “You mean the armor resizing?” “That, yes. I’m guessing you buffed up even more?” “I think so.” “Don’t overdo it. Too much muscle isn’t that attractive.” “Understood. Do we have anything to eat?” “... you’re hungry again?” Tucker wordlessly passed me a can of MREs. “When you’re done feeding your face, a little healing would help,” Agni grumbled. “Did you get hit?” “Not exactly.” I shot off a quick Observe. AGNI LEVEL 40 CLASS: ELEMENTAL HP 98/110 STATUS EFFECT: MINOR BURNS “You got burns?” To say I was surprised was putting it mildly. “You control fire – how’d you get burnt?" Agni shot me an irritated look. “Care to announce that more publicly?” “Sorry.” “Forget it. Basically, my power’s meant to enhance flames, not reduce them. Whenever I try to put out a fire instead of starting one, I get feedback.” “How does that work?” “When I quench fires, the energy gets sent to – somewhere. Another dimension, for all I know. The transfer isn’t perfect, though, and a tiny bit of the energy quenched – spills over. It has some nasty side effects – tiny burns, headaches, sometimes nausea.” She shrugged. “Nothing life-threatening, but it scales with the size of the fire.” “You’ve been putting out a lot of fires today….” “The smaller ones feel like a pinprick, the larger ones like sticking your thumb in boiling water for a second.” “That sounds painful…. Wait, you put out the fire at Brahampton.” “Backlash doesn’t hit immediately. After I teleported, it nearly knocked me out.” “But you could have channeled the flame into the ground, or moved it into a closed space away from oxygen…” “Belessar. What happens to the nanobots with you when you teleport?” I frowned. “Nanocloud loses control of them.” “Controlled objects – flames, nanobots, water constructs like Lafayette’s – don’t stay controlled when you teleport. Going through a portal breaks the connection with the controller. I was teleporting every half second at Brahampton, which meant my links kept breaking – so I had to re-establish control. And then quench the fire. And teleport out before I blacked out from the backlash.” “Oh. Well, why’d you quench the fire anyway?” Agni snorted. “Really. You’ve known me for a month and you don’t get that I like to show off?” “When you put it that way…” “So, do I get healed or not?” Letting the MP flow into my hands, I cast Cure, removing the Minor Burns, and followed up with a Heal to restore the lost HP. “Anyone else?” Doyle glanced at his men. “Anyone who’s got an injury – get it fixed now.” The next few minutes were filled with swift repetitions. Cure, Heal, move over for the next person. Cure, Heal, move. Cure, Heal, move. As I cast Heal over the last of the waiting soldiers, Pemberley walked over with a worried look on her face. “We just got more news.” “Please tell me it’s not another Carnotaur.” “No… it’s Gragareth Station. Apparently a Sarnak assault shuttle diverted there.” I felt a chill go through me. “How many?” “This was a small raid - about fifty Sarnak. They punched through the base defenses. Nearly a hundred dead soldiers and airmen.” “The prisoners?” “Executed.” “... not rescued?” “Recordings show that they burst into the cells and gunned down both Aisindrahas and Sarvenimazarus. The Sarnak retreated in good order, and their craft left - practically unmolested, I might add.” “Looks like the Hierarchy doesn’t mess around with traitors…” “That’s the strange thing. How did they know where the prisoners were? And why kill them instead of rescue?” Another mystery, but for another time. “How many aliens left?” “Still a few hundred, mostly holed up in pockets across the city. They’re not trying to win now, just to survive.” “Any near here?" “I suggest we join up with the reserves instead. A lot of people need anti-radiation treatment." "I can help with that." "Your healing ability, I know. There's an aid station at the University of Roehampton grounds. Doctors, medicines, everything." “Lead the way.”