Free Stat Points: 277
—
Grey looked at this skeptically. He ate an entire Dominion Class corpse of this enormous ass beast, and that was all he got? Something wasn’t really adding up.
If he was going from Vanguard to Command Class, it would make sense. Blue credits started being functional at Command Class, so maybe these Free Stat Points were just worth more.
But he was going from Vector to Vanguard, something about which made him feel like he was being scammed again.
This time, though, it was his own ability doing the scamming, which made it feel a lot lamer.
However, despite the number, Grey didn’t really feel like he had missed out. His body felt fuller, and he was healing so rapidly that he half wondered if the reason he made so little was because so much of it was being directed toward healing him.
When he looked into it, Grey suddenly realized that he was actually correct, but not in the way he expected.
His Neural Frame had taken a real beating just now. In fact, he was prepared for a lot of his Abilities to not work as smoothly for a while.
But the energy he was absorbing through Belly of the Forge was being pulled into his Neural Frame, expanding it, and making it more robust.
Then, all of a sudden...
Last Paladin Spirit ticked up to Level 31.
Then all six abilities quickly followed it.
It was only a single level, but the notifications burned into Grey’s psyche like it was the most shocking thing he had ever seen.
He was sure. His stats were still too inferior to sustain four Vanguard Class Frames. He had expected to stay at Vector Class for a long while more. But now, his Abilities had ticked up to the Vanguard Class for a very specific reason...
His Neural Frame had expanded beyond what his body alone would withstand.
His Neural Frame had become a quasi Dominion, giving it abilities that weren’t just anchored to his body alone anymore.
’That means if I absorb more high level energy or eat more Dominion Class and higher beasts and people, I could probably get close enough to forming a true Dominion without even being in the Dominion Class. I might even be able to get my Abilities to Level 51 without getting there too...’
This was huge. His Neural Frame was a lot more elastic than he expected.
Of course, Grey had no reference frame for this. He only understood himself the most.
As for everything else... he hadn’t yet realized how much the rod in his hands was saving him from extra scrutiny. If not for the angel lady’s existence, people would very much be wondering how in the world a Vector Class killed a Dominion Class.
Grey took a deep breath and exhaled violently.
A blast of wind wiped out the forest in front of him and he laughed, raising his rod and resting it on his shoulder. He was kinda getting strong now.
It was time to go pick up the Mech Soul.
...
It wasn’t long before Grey had made it to the catacombs. There was a heavy dust hanging over everything and it seemed like it was moments away from collapsing, but luckily things had stayed together.
The structural integrity was still here and the dust would settle soon enough and visibility would get a lot better.
A spear suddenly appeared before Grey’s throat, but he caught it casually before it ripped into his flesh. Honestly, half of him wanted to see just how sturdy his body was, but wouldn’t it suck if he tried to aura farm just to end up impaled?
That wouldn’t be good for his style points.
There was no one at the other end of the spear, it had been thrown.
"You know, this isn’t how you greet someone who just saved your asses."
"Who are you!?"
"Me? I’m Grey. Nice to meet you," Grey walked through the shroud of heavy dust to find the entrance of the village. It seemed more protected from the heavy dust particles in the air and he could actually see clearly.
A group of gnomes stood at the entrance, weapons at the ready. They didn’t relax when they saw Grey. They didn’t really know who was attacking, and Grey was still an outsider.
Grey didn’t mind it, though. "Where is the Giyoto old man?"
An older gnome at the front with sparse white hair sticking out from his metal jaw frowned.
"Giyoto is nursing his injuries. He has passed out."
"Okay," Grey said. "Did he explain to you what was going on before he did?"
The older gnome blinked in confusion and Grey started to get a bad feeling.
"Just tell me that you didn’t fuse the Mech Soul into the armor already."
"The armor is not yet fini—." A glare stopped a younger gnome from speaking.
Grey sighed a breath of relief.
"Great. Then I’ll just tell you what I told him. The Mech Soul isn’t meant to be fused into the armor. It’s meant to be fused into the catacombs themselves. The formation that protects the entire country is layered underground and was built by your people long ago.
"We just need to fuse the Mech Soul into the center of the formation and it will awaken. Everything will be fixed in a single go, right down to the encroaching Fog of Chaos. The invasion of the Dark Kin would probably be stopped in its tracks as well and be restrained to the borders where they’ll be a lot easier to handle instead of right underneath us all."
The gnomes looked toward one another, realization and comprehension in all of their eyes. It seemed that just like Giyoto, they all knew enough to realize that this made sense. In fact, many things they had thought weren’t quite making sense before now did make sense.
However, their faces then turned the same shade of pale Giyoto’s had.
To them... the Empress was simply an undefeatable existence.
Just as Grey was about to say something, the older gnome’s jaw clenched.
"It is better if we fuse the Mech Soul into the armor."
Grey almost facepalmed.