Jjhutto_Son of Flame
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B3. Ch. 16 Testing
🕑 Added 2024-07-01 11:47:11 +0000 UTCTilly tried to catch his breath in ragged gasps as he collected himself and prepared his mind for the last part of this test.
‘I need to find out now… If I don’t, I won't know what this can fully do, and without that information, I can’t make the right decision when it really matters.’ He reminded himself for the umpteenth time since he had come up with this idea. When he had been brutally sparring every day to get ready for his mission out of the Alliance, he had asked if there were any non-fatal wounds that passive regeneration couldn’t heal.
The general consensus was that you could lose a body part or limb, as long as you re-attached it before it completely healed over. However, in the case of an absent limb or digit, spontaneous regeneration was in a whole other league. The same apparently applied if you lost the entirety of a specific organ.
With the Bloom’s patronage, Tilly was pretty sure their priests would develop both Abilities at some point, but as of now, not even Erash could raise the dead.
When he activated the Bracelets, his Constitution would jump to 169, which would translate to 16.9% Health regen per minute… Honestly not that exciting. In fact considering the swap would bring his Endurance down to a measly 29, he would probably be making himself much more vulnerable to single-hit kills. This made this combination the least exciting to him in his initial considerations, with one exception.
He needed to see what title having a Constitution stat higher than all the others combined would give him. It could either follow the pattern of [All-Might] and just triple his Regen temporarily, or it could be more like [Resolute] and give him an insane single-use ability. But until he knew which, he needed a test that could push the limits of the title, without risking life or limb.
Which brought him back to the forearm test. Mentally, he knew that with a clean cut, even if the title could not regrow the limb they could reattach it, and even Marq should be strong enough to make sure the limb reattached enough for Tilly’s regen to take over.
But standing there, bleeding from multiple serious wounds as he held his arm out Tilly was wracked by hesitation. Maybe he should have asked someone else before he tried something like this. Or maybe he should have waited until Erash or even Aurelia was free in case he was wrong about how much healing was required.
Both Julius and Marq stood watching him as he hesitated. Marq looked so nervous that it may as well have been him preparing to get his arm cut off. Julius stood as a polar opposite, radiating a calm indifferent competence as he held his sword in a ready position.
He was on the edge of calling the whole thing off when some deeper part of his will reached out to the Bracelets and activated their Ability pushing him past the point of no return.
You have activated Celestial Bracelets of Substitutional Might. Select one of your following Stats to exchange values with your highest. This effect will last ten breaths.
>Strength
>Intelegence
>Wisdom
>Dexterity
>Constitution
That prompt hit him like a shock of cold water, and Tilly snarled in determination as he mentally made his selection.
>Constitution
The left-hand Bracelet instantaneously drained the robust feeling of solidity that he had become so used to filling his physical form. As it melted away, his skin felt papery and his bones became brittle compared to their usual iron composition. At the same time, his right hand Bracelet shot an electric jolt of potential that ran through his entire body and sank into each individual cell, invigorating them.
Warning, you no longer fulfill the requirements for the Title: [Resolute]. The title has been revoked but can be regained if the requirements are met again in the future.
Congratulations! You have earned the Title: [Unkillable]
[Unkillable]: Your Constitution Stat is higher than all of your other Stats combined. As long as this remains true, once a day you may instantaneously regenerate your Health back to 100%.
Tilly sighed in relief. That was exactly what he had been hoping for, he could already feel boosted regeneration knitting together each of his wounds, even as the Debuffs suddenly increased in severity in reaction to his much weaker form.
Inhale,
Exhale.
“Alright Julius, do it.” He whispered, watching his arm with grim determination.
The Bastion’s strike blurred through Tilly’s arm and with his reduced Endurance, it almost felt like the sword had somehow missed. There had been no impact, not even a tug as the sword passed right through Tilly’s limb.
Tilly looked up in confusion and attempted to lift his arm when a perfect line of red, appeared like one of those stupid tribal tattoos some of the guys at the station got when they went to Myrtle Beach.
Inhale,
Exhale.
Maybe it was the Myrtle Beach thing, but when his limb flopped to the ground, accompanied by shooting arterial blood, Tilly couldn’t help but think of his last fishing trip, and the sound each fish made as they flopped up from the water onto the deck.
Inhale,
Exhale.
The sight of his arm lying on the ground begging splashed with impressive amounts of his own blood was absolutely riveting, and he found himself lost in the sight.
“Tilly,” Julius called, interrupting his shock, “do something.”
Pain along with a mental stream of expletives bloomed in his mind, and he tried to pull back from the trauma of his first lost limb…
‘Ha, first of many!” an insane thought flittered jokingly across his strained mind.
‘Get ahold of yourself, you idiot.’ He replied to himself in an internal shout.
His Will was unfocused and erratic as he fought through the cloud of confusion and finally activated [Unkillable].
Inhale,
Exhale.
This time as he dragged in a panicked breath, it felt like the whole universe came with it. A raging inferno of power suffused his body along with the air and as he exhaled it, a small fraction of that power was channeled to his body.
The bleeding cut off and bone, followed by muscle then skin, burst from his forearm in a stream of anatomic growth. The feeling of his nerves suddenly reconnecting was so intense that he didn’t even notice as the rest of the wounds on his body practically evaporated. Inexplicably, the silver accessory on his dismembered arm faded away and reconstituted on his new wrist in perhaps the most premium display of magic bullshit Tilly had ever seen.
“ARGH!” He shouted at the overwhelming breadth of the sensations to hit him at once. A few gasps later, the Bracelet’s Ability ran out and his stats swapped back, with his Health at 100% and all of his Debuffs gone.
Marq stood frozen with his jaw hanging open, and Julius let out an impressed grunt as they both took in Tilly’s panting, completely restored form.
Julius was the first to speak, “You don’t need to share the limits of this Ability with me, but if this is just one of the combinations, I see why you need to test them. As far as I know, I have never even heard of anyone doing what you have done with your stat imbalance… Well, not anyone that has lived long enough to not become a cautionary tale.”
Tilly tore his eyes away from his old arm, “Ha, yeah, can’t say I have high hopes for avoiding that second group, but until then, I think I just unlocked a way to be much more dangerous in the short term.” Then with a heavy look in his eyes, Tilly continued,
“I can’t stress enough how this needs to stay as private as possible. The fewer people who know, the more effective an ace this will be. Even my Endurance is more widely known than I am comfortable with, no one will see this coming. I don’t know what we will have to face next, but whatever it is, I want to maintain the ability to sucker punch it in the mouth.” He finished with a grin, eliciting a laugh from Julius.
“We will keep it between us, and make sure to be here tomorrow. If you don't mind me asking, does you System description say, ‘once a day’ exactly?“
“Yeah, that's the wording.”
“Alright,” he continued as he wiped Tilly’s blood from his sword and sheathed it, “You might already know this, but the actual boundaries of that System phrase are daybreak to daybreak, nightfall to nightfall, or two periods of time broken by a long rest, meaning more than eight hours.”
Tilly slowly blinked at that startlingly useful information, “Wow. I had guessed the first part, but I had no idea about the second. How does the System define rest? “
“Complete inactivity, including any form of skill grinding. So some kinds of races meditate instead of sleep, but they can not use it to advance a skill if they want to achieve the long rest stipulation. We have a few Unit Magic Abilities that have day, and week cooldowns and have had to do some tricky things with marching and setting the watch to make sure we get them back available in the field.”
“So I could go take an eight-hour nap, and come back here tonight?”
“Sure, if you can actually sleep that long, anyone with an Endurance like yours typically finds it easier to wait for the next daybreak or nightfall. Forcing yourself to inactivity without progressing for our kind is… difficult.“
“Hmm, ok, thanks,” Tilly said, his eyes returning to his severed limb even as his mind processed the new information and the possibilities of the capability of the [Unkillable] title. Without thinking about it, he sent his Mana to enflame his new limb, and it reacted immediately, with an unexpected ferocity.
A flicker of blue fire raced down his new arm and before he understood what was happening, jusmped to his old limb. It burst into an uncharacteristically hot blaze, incinerating his remains in seconds. Tilly flinched at the unexpected reaction, and Marq gagged loudly behind him as the smell of charred flesh permeated the area.
“...If tomorrow will still work, I’m going to take the youngin and see about getting more of these items. If you don’t mind, me and the men will take over testing them. I’m sure your time is better used elsewhere.”
“Yeah, that's fine,” Tilly said absently staring at the dying embers, trying to figure out what had just happened. The Bastion gave him a quick clap on the back and led the green acolyte away as Tilly continued to watch the pile of ash. It cooled from cherry-red to a mute whitish grey after a few seconds as he tried to put his finger on the subtle shift that had just occurred in his core.
For the first time in his second life, he was beginning to feel something akin to true power. Sure it was limited and selective… but with these and whatever other titles he could discover in the next few days, he stood a real chance of being able to tip the scales in the coming conflict.
A small satisfied smile tugged at the edges of his lips as he looked at the small pile of ash. He was about to turn away and head back to the city when he noticed a tiny glimmer amongst the whitish-grey. Curious, he squatted down next to his own remains and blew on them, dispersing the ash and exposing a tiny sapphire the size of his pinky.
He picked it up in wonder and felt his untethered bond snap into place, latching on to the small gem. His small smile burst into something unabashedly joyous at the realization.
‘She Who Kindles The Dawn’ he sent in wonder through the newly connected bond. He whispered her full name, hoping against hope for an answer.
The bond remained silent, but he could have sworn a faint light sparkled in the center of the gem before flickering out a moment later.
