Chapter 175: 165. Growth And Worries

Jay was lying in the snow while his body felt like one big pulsating sore. The battle with the Siberian Monster Horde had ended with Company Graven Divinity’s victory. But just like how Jay was feeling sore, everyone was reeling from one of the most exhausting and heavily magical battles they had in a while.

Unlike Jay and his Champions, the Soldiers, Agents, nonhumans, and guests had to push past their weariness. They had to pop a few cheap potions and get to work hauling loot out of the temporary domain before it disappeared. They were also in charge of hauling around the mutilated and captured Titan King. They needed the creature alive to find its original lair and plunder it for all it had.

Before they could even go do that, they had to chop up, break apart, or downright haul away all the monster parts, monster weapons, and everything else they could get their hands on as spoils of the battle. The meat was going to be delicious. But all the work needed to prepare it would be hell. In-world monsters required elbow grease to dice and extract unlike dungeon monsters that would drop their loot for easy pickup.

Oh well.

The Protectorates with the right Skills for the job were going to see their Skill levels climb. If they didn’t have the right Skills, then they were paying their dues.

It was times like these that Jay was glad he was the commander. He could let his subordinates do the grunt work while he lay in the snow and enjoyed the fruits of his labor as a leader and hardcore crawler.

And look at the new levels!

…

Relativity Sovereignty leveled up from 94 to 100! Please rank up to continue leveling this Skill.

Graviton Monster leveled up from 91 to 95!

Martial Gravity Superiority leveled up from 81 to 89!

Situational Gravity leveled up from 81 to 85!

Gravital Supremacy leveled up from 95 to 100! Please rank up to continue leveling this Skill.

Cosmic Showrunner leveled up from 63 to 76!

Harness-G leveled up from 79 to 90!

…

Jay smiled. Getting two of his major powers to Skill Level 100 was huge. That number was special. At Skill Level 100, the powers got a hidden boost that widened the gap considerably from anything below 100. He really wanted [Graviton Monster] to reach Level 100 to lower the cost on heavy graviton use. Then again, [Gravital Supremacy] helped a lot with gravity power efficiency, already. Having that at Level 100 was going to reduce Jay’s constant issues with gassing himself out.

 [Gravital Supremacy, Level 100]: You and Kleo naturally improve the efficiency, power, range, cost, and scaling of your gravity powers separately. These improvements are heightened further when together. Gravity powers used against you can be weakened. Gravity powers used by your allies can be improved. You can also establish an orbit on someone or something you gravitate towards, reducing or increasing their Mana costs moderately either with yourself or with Kleo in orbit. Leveling up this Skill improves orbital control, overall gravity mastery, and adds tiny bonuses to the Mana reductions or increases to whoever or whatever you and Kleo can orbit.

Even with [Gravital Supremacy], it seemed like the more power Jay acquired, the more he wanted to push his powers to the limits. That was the nature of being a [Freak]. As a Gravity [Exceptional Freak], the more creative and chaotic the fights, the more Jay could involve himself in doing the most outlandish maneuvers anyone had ever seen. Catching magic cannonballs fired by the gunners on all three ships and slinging them out was just one example of the range of power and maneuvers Jay could show off. Countering a domain with his domain was something Mike and Hailey had helped him workshop the past half year.

“Getting stronger,” Jay said. “With every Skill level.”

He might not even get new Skills. After Rank 4, the System would usual focus more on quality than quantity. Some Skills might upgrade directly. There might still be a few mergers, too. Talents and Titles might upgrade or change or merge as well. This was more likely to happen with each rank up now.

Skill books or other means of gaining power were harder to use at the higher ranks. It was as if their profiles were solidifying from everything a crawler had done in the early ranks.

That was okay with Jay. If he could, he would rather mix and match some of his Talents and Titles to clean his profile up. His and Kleo’s Skills felt complete as a solid set that covered a lot of area. The only thing he would prefer done with his Skills were to upgrade them depending on how Jay and Kleo trained and fought.

…

You’ve redistributed Experience to your crew per prior agreements, leaving the rest for yourself.

…

Exceptional Freak leveled up from 82 to 88! +6 Per, +60 Free AP.

…

Dennis leveled up from 64 to 70!

Casey leveled up from 67 to 73!

Emily leveled up from 68 to 74!

Hailey leveled up from 67 to 75!

…

The numbers looked about right. Leveling was getting harder. Even killing his first Rank 5 enemy would not garner a huge waterfall of Experience. It was still a nice lump sum amount, though. And it was good to see all the Champions in Graven Divinity reaching the 70s in level.

Hailey came out as a big winner– she leveled up eight times.

…

Dennis has a new placement as [Mightiest of Earth: #17].

…

Ha! Nice.

Dennis was still behind Casey– she was [Mightiest of Earth: #16].

Those placements were important. Dennis moving from #25 to #17 with his Title improved the Percentile boost for all Attributes– also known as total hard buffs. Dennis went from having 35% to 43% handed to him by [Mightiest of Earth: #17].

Jay at [Mightiest of Earth: #3] could only get 27% out of it. He would’ve had 57% if he had remained an Earthling. The same went for Kleo. She was [Mightiest of Earth: #5] with 25%. Brit had taken the #4 spot in front of Kleo last month, which netted the Holy [Medium] a hard buff 56% from Earth’s Mightiest placement.

If you added Dennis’s [Ranker 120] Talent, then he would have 163% for all of his Attributes when fighting at his hardest, not including the soft buffs– the boosts without hard numbers such as his Titles [Devil of Gravity] or [Jester of the Death Court]. If Dennis could get himself [Attribute Perfectionist] by having 100 AP in all Attributes, the Talent would grant him an easy extra 15% and have him achieve 178% in total hard buffs.

At the upper limit, Jay’s total hard buffs maxed out at 277% if Kleo was fighting all out beside him. This would raise his current [1,755 Applied AP] to exactly [6,616 Applied AP]. Without Kleo beside him, Jay’s total hard buffs fell to 192% at the maximum, so his current Applied AP would only raise to [5,125 Applied AP], which was probably what he’d used to defeat Baba Yaga.

He would’ve dominated way more if Kleo was here. He was losing nearly an extra 1500 Applied AP without his [Faerie] next to him.

Company Booty Pirates needed Kleo as their main [Mage]. She paired up well with Lilith, too. Having his familiar half a world away was necessary to balance the main components of each company.

…

Multiple members have leveled up repeatedly. Some are ready to rank up. A few can evolve to Rank 4.

…

Individuals among Company Graven Divinity met the requirements for extra Free AP distribution per the measures and agreements installed by your System Guide and the System Admins.

You’ve earned 40 Free AP!

…

No more wildly outrageous gains. Everything was capped at 10 AP per a rank, and it had to be a ridiculously hard battle that didn’t deliver recognizable dungeon loot. In all honesty, this was still a victory for YoAnna since she had shifted the extra AP gains to Free AP, making it easier for her followers to tailor their Attributes based on their preferences.

The biggest loss was the training gains for AP, but that did not take away from the importance of training. You could get more out of your Attributes by training or using them heavily– just like how two Systemized could have the same AP in Strength, but the one training physically like a mundane weightlifter would have an advantage over the one with no training.

Another downside was how much easier NPCs and MOBs, Systemized outside of the Protectorates, could grow in power. They could get lucky or influenced and find alternative power sources. It created a scenario where the Protectorates had to push themselves constantly and keep being the best of the best. Or the jackals would catch the guarding lion from behind and bring them down.

Knowing this, Jay split his extra 40 Free AP in half. He gave 5 Free AP to each of his Champions.

Jay had promised Kleo he wouldn’t give away all of his Free AP anymore from these types of gains. But Jay wasn’t so sure if he truly needed the excess. The gravity duo were scary and powerful. It felt like the Champions needed the AP more. But Kleo had responded that it would be rude to keep spoon feeding his Champions when they were plenty capable for themselves.

Maybe Kleo had a point.

But they’d nearly lost Dennis today during a calculated risk. At the very least, Dennis gained the Ultimate Affinity.

The defeat of Baba Yaga and the Siberian Horde was a great achievement, yet Jay knew that was not enough. They needed more hard battles to further their advantages. If a fight broke out between the Protectorates and the major NATO governments still surviving through these changing times, their Systemized militaries would show abilities and tactics that would make the Siberian Monster Horde look childish.

Jay frowned as he pondered deeply. He was happy to have a challenge. But there were some challenges that were too much. Or maybe there were some challenges that needed to be cut down before they became too impossible to deal with. All the talking and diplomacy would eventually get dropped like masks.

Jay stroked his thumb along the handle of his sword, the blade back in its scabbard. The sunrise peeked over the whitecaps in the horizon, promising a blue but cold day.

Suddenly, he felt the need to hold YoAnna. He fiercely missed the intimacy and servitude of Brit. His body burned. He wanted both of his beautiful wives lying in the snow with him, unburdened by their troubles. It would be so nice. It would be perfect.

Maybe he would have that pleasure sooner than later once Brit conquered the Holy Affinity or when the mysterious curse following YoAnna was uplifted. Until then, Jay breathed deeply and let the tension ebb out of his body.

While he cooled down, he invested his 84 Free AP. He put an emphasis on Resilience and Conviction. He had cut it close while taking hits against Baba Yaga and her monsters. He also wanted more Conviction to leverage his spiritual powers even more and have his incantations pack a harder punch in the future. With the remaining Free AP, Jay invested +5 to Agility, another +4 to Perception, and +5 to Intellect.

It was nice for him to progress further in power, but the distraction didn’t stop his body’s outcry for his wives. Fate could be so cruel. YoAnna had finally opened up, revealing how deeply devoted she was to him. Brit had shown him intimacy that was greater than his own imaginations.

If only the Multiverse wasn’t throwing curveballs in Jay’s way. Seeing his numbers go up was fun. But it would be even better to show them off while sandwiched between his loving wives.

Jay gave the numbers another glance before he locked in his choices.

…

Name: Jay Luckrun, Rank 4

Class: [Exceptional Freak, Level 88]

Statuses: [Health 3600/3600 HP], [Stamina 3450/3450 SP], [Mana 6300/6300 MP], [Chance x10/x51 CM]; [??? 69/100%].

Attributes: [1,845 Applied AP]; 180 Resilience, 180 Poise, 130 Strength, 215 Agility, 455 Perception, 175 Intellect, 300 Conviction, 210 Discovery; [0 Free AP].

…

You are reading story The Gravity Freak of Dungeons and Monsters: System Portal Fantasy at novel35.com

Jay sighed.

If Kleo were at his side now, their total hard buffs at max effort would give Jay [6,956 Applied AP] before the soft buffs kicked in. Better yet, reaching 300 Conviction was going to help him even without the hard buffs and soft buffs. He would need it around Brit. Without all that Conviction, she could sway him with a look. Either out of love. Or out of hatred. He hoped it was the former.

Out of curiosity, Jay looked into his memories. He tried to pull up old numbers from when this craziness first started. This was before Team FAAHI defeated the Toyreveler. Before Jay’s divergent growth accelerated exponentially thanks to YoAnna’s failed attempt to end his love for her. Before the creation of the [Eye of Venerated Madness] Talent. Once he found memories of his old profile, he recreated it with his System and focused on the most important stats.

…

Name: Jay Luckrun, Rank 1

Class: [Lesser Freak, Level 6]

Attributes: [150 Applied AP]; 13 Resilience, 13 Poise, 12 Strength, 23 Agility, 31 Perception, 12 Intellect, 25 Conviction, 21 Discovery; [0 Free AP].

…

What?

How was he alive with those stats? He didn’t even have any hard or soft buffs back then!

Jay couldn’t believe it.

He had been so weak!

It was ludicrous to think the Jay of back then could even conceive of being a major player in this Multiverse game.

Jay shut down his Intellect. He stopped himself from pulling up anything cocky he had probably said back when he was clueless.

His Level 6 stats came from the time Team FAAHI and Kleo defeated Murderous Mary. Thinking of Mary’s darker alter ego made Jay a touch reflective.

That mini-boss had spared his life. She could’ve killed him.

Her contradicting actions had pushed him to train harder and grow into a fiercer combatant, even if he wasn’t the best yet. Despite her being evil and wretched, Jay felt thankful toward Murderous Mary. So much of what happened back then led to Jay becoming a big shot in this apocalyptic world now.

Hailey stood respectfully off to the side, waiting to be called forth. She knew he was in his deeper moods and left him to it until he roused out of it. Every day, Hailey proved her immeasurable value as the Secretary. As long as she kept her darker side and drinking habits in check.

“Wanna lay in the snow with me?” Jay asked. “But please keep a respectful distance. I’m a married man who misses his wives very, very much.”

Hailey laughed sincerely. She strummed her fingers through her long brown hair, gathering it into her lap before curling her legs under her and taking a seat next to him. At a respectful distance. She had a boyfriend, after all.

“Thank you, Commander,” Hailey said quietly, sounding like she was digging up feelings hidden deep in her heart. “That battle. That was one of the best climatic endings to a fight I’ve been in.”

“You’ve been in some good scraps before,” Jay said.

“Scraps. Battles. Missions to eradicate monster life. Or hunt down bad men.” Hailey smirked darkly. “I’ve been through plenty of that. But getting to fight that Rank 5. Being pushed to the extreme while waiting for the right moment to do my best. Trusting you to see me through it all. And then making me a designated hero right before I unleashed some of my best work. And you gave me such a powerful trophy, too! That… that makes me wonder, Jay.”

Jay tried not to show his discomfort.

There was one thing he hoped she wouldn’t ask.

“Are you becoming a god?” Hailey asked. “Will there come a time where we’re worshiping you and YoAnna?”

She asked two things he hoped she wouldn’t. Apparently, his discomfort could multiply.

“I won’t.” Jay looked into her dark eyes. “I’m too much of a paradox. I’m an eldritch, too. Multiverse divinity is out of my reach now.”

And he had so many forces out to kill him.

“I don’t know,” Hailey said. “The way you move. Your actions. How you manipulate the situation. It speaks of a god, Jay.”

“Devils. Eldritch. Many nasty things can do the same.” Jay rolled over and propped his chin on his fist. “Dungeon masters, too. I suppose we can throw in immortals since they seem like gods to weaker folks. But none of that truly matches with what you’re thinking. The truth is, I can’t become a [Godling]. Not even a Demi-god.”

“Killing enough Multiverse Deities might say otherwise.” Hailey chirped with a teasing and malicious smile. Her crow spirit fluttered forward as a single small avian. It landed on Jay’s shoulder and pecked at his head playfully. “I’ve pried some reading materials from YoAnna’s personal archives. I’ve found the text that says so.”

“We haven’t even dealt with our earthly problems,” Jay said, wagging his tail to distract Hailey’s spirit animal, “and you’re already looking to sink your talons into Multiverse Deities.”

“There’s your nemesis.”

“Ugh.”

“Can’t keep ignoring that.”

“I can and I will until the time is right.” Jay frowned. “But you’re not wrong. He’s being a pain in other ways.”

Hailey watched a bunch of Soldiers and some nonhumans haul away the Titan King’s giant stone sword. It was Rare Quality. Every bit of material– especially the hidden ores inside– was too good to leave behind.

The crew would have to break out the more costly tools to hack that thing down to manageable chunks– some of those tools needed monster cores for extra juice that could help a lower quality item affect the next quality above. They were reaching a point where Superior Quality would become another obsolete quality, and Rare Quality, the equivalent of Rank 5 power, Level 101 to 150, would be the new standard.

Jay frowned deeper as he thought about his skelly boys and girls that were still waiting for revival outside of their original dungeon. Team Magic R&D hadn’t figured that out yet. The skelly cores were stored away in one of multiple vaults on the Pantheon Estate.

Emily walked up with a pleasant smile. A few wraiths remained hovering close by to attend to her. Once the battle finished, the powers holding up most of her wraith army and possessed dead faded. Most of the power came from killing other enemies, which helped Emily big on saving Mana. But unlike the Yoroachian kiddies and their monsterized divinity, the lack of death energy returned the wraiths to the space beyond the veil and dropped the reanimated corpses.

The bat spirit flapped free from Emily as a little figure. It tackled the crow spirit. The two fought playfully up and down Jay’s body.

Emily took a seat on the other side of Jay.

The Allens got into the habit of choosing their positions to frame Jay as the center of attention. Married man or not, it was nice having a pack of beautiful sisters who were attentive to appearances and ready to rumble for their commander. It was part of the multiple reasons YoAnna wanted them as chosen– the Allens were just theatrical enough to fit in, even with the extreme personalities.

Jay also liked the look of jealousy on the faces of the mayor and his posse while they got put to work to help gather the spoils. Then again, the mayor should know Jay truly earned the blessings he had. Who else could pull off what Jay could do other than his wives?

“Casey’s mad at you two,” Emily said. “She’s acting like she isn’t, but she is.”

Hailey sighed. “She really wanted that Rank 5 kill, and I got to help instead of her.”

“It’s not her time yet,” Jay said. “It’s unfortunate, but the narrative weight behind these long awaited affinities requires a bit more oomph.” He pointed his tail at Hailey. “And your cosmic outfit was pretty awesome, Hailey, so I’m glad we got to show it off at a stage made for you.”

The cosmic cape and transformations were stronger in the real fights. Training it did not give great results.

Hailey tittered behind a hand. Emily smiled, happy for her sister. But that happiness dimmed slightly as the darker and deadlier pair of the Allens looked in the direction where Casey sulked on the ships.

They had that strong sisterly bond thing. Jay could see their bond growing stronger as they climbed the ranks and became more magical than human.

“Please, Commander, help our sister,” Emily pleaded, quietly. “She works so hard. But I don’t know what it would take. How can an affinity remain unattainable for someone who works themselves to near death with a Classical Class?”

Maybe she was working too hard to attain hers.

Or maybe she didn’t have the right stage.

Jay was certain the Baba Yaga boss fight wasn’t a good fit for Casey. Waiting any longer could be detrimental though. YoAnna warned that Classical Classes needed to have their affinities before crossing past the middle ranks. Or Casey might never gain her affinity and lose out on the extra power. Then she would… be too weak to keep up with the rest of the Champions, let alone Jay.

“I don’t get it.” Hailey pressed her hand to her chest. “Having an affinity just feels like I’m more complete and given a certain direction. Casey loves to be certain. But someone uncertain got his before Casey. Maybe comparing is a bad idea, though. And I know Dennis is struggling with his affinity. But his is… well…”

“Ultimate,” Jay said.

“Yup,” both sisters said.

“I expected heroic, valiant, all sorts of concepts,” Jay said. “But the Ultimate Affinity is gonna be an interesting one. He’s going to need a healer near him at all times.”

Speaking of the devil, Dennis appeared from around a snowy hill while riding his ox. The gold and orange spirit clomped across snow and earth with a lazy strut. Its master groaned weakly, lying forward on its back.

The ox came to a stop in front of them. The crow and bat spirit fluttered off of Jay and flew around the ox spirit’s head. The big-horned animal snorted at his fellow spirits.

“Dudes,” Dennis groaned. “Why do I feel terrible?”

“You’re not being ultimate right now,” Jay said. “Like going from Hulk to Banner.”

Dennis wrinkled his nose. “I don’t like how true that feels. What the heck? Why am I stuck with this?”

“Well, you’re not stuck, stuck. Brit proved you can lose your affinity. Though that depends on if you want to.”

“No, no, I’m good,” Dennis groaned. “It’s just going to take some getting used to. Like I’m lifting again for the first time in a long time. But it messes with my head, too. I feel like I said something embarrassing.”

Jay, Hailey, and Emily wore straight faces.

“I said something embarrassing, didn’t I?” Dennis paled. “Oh, YoAnna, no.”

“It’s okay. I hold nothing against you.” Jay smirked. “It’s part of the game, right? You shouldn’t hate the player, you should hate the… oh, wait.”

Dennis looked mortified.

His Intellect was too high to let him forget what he’d said fully.

He dug his heels into his ox spirit and fled. Unfortunately for the Ultimate [Fighter], no matter how far he ran, Jay, Hailey, and Emily’s laughter followed.