Grey shot up, a hand moving to his chest.
The cot under him snapped beneath the sudden, jerky movent, catching the attention of Brad, Stella, and Mauve who all looked over like they were ready to fight at any given mont.
But instead of seeing a sudden attack, they instead found a PTSD-laden Grey looking around like he was hearing war shells explode all around him.
Grey’s chest heaved and then he slowly cald down.
It had been a while since he experienced a death—well, it had been a couple days. But that wasn’t the reason he reacted like this.
He didn’t rember setting a checkpoint here.
This was the place he had taken a nap, sure. But his last checkpoint was definitely in the city. He had passed out after his battle with Calixan, so he didn’t set a checkpoint after that because he was imdiately occupied by the nuns, then rewards, then rage about said rewards being stolen. After that, he honestly just forgot.
The last checkpoint he rembered setting was just after he stepped out of the Last Paladin Trial. So technically, he should have revived right before his battle with Calixan.
Though, he didn’t really fear battling Calixan all that much right now. He was a lot more powerful than before the start of their initial battle, he would win a lot more swiftly now—especially with the Helm of Grace on his side.
In fact, the extra ti would have been invaluable. Now that he knew that ugly fuck was coming, he would have had more ti to react and get ready.
But what the hell was this? Why did his tifra get shortened so much?
’Is it because of Phase II?’ Grey thought with a frown.
One would think that an increase in phase should help him, not harm him. Why would it make his life harder?
Grey knew for a fact that it was possible to have longer ti fra resets.
The first rebirth he ever experienced sent him back more than a day—several tis, in fact. In the Vampire Lord Instance, he also went back a decent chunk of ti every ti as well, though not nearly as much.
So why the hell was he paying more for less in return this ti?
Grey pulled up his status screen.
—
[Na: Grey Temolt]
[Nad Affiliation: Disciple of Sir Trolley]
—
[Fra: Protheus]
[Fra: Vampire Lord (Established Class)]
[Fra: Helion (Proving Class)]
[Fra: Last Paladin (Established Class)]
[Pending Quests: 3]
—
Stamina: 351/351
Sync Rate: 0.32%
Energy Reserve: 2,100.1/12,100.1
—
Grey’s eye twitched. 10,000 Energy Units? What the hell happened? When had he lost that much?
Did it cost that much more for him to be reborn now? Or was it 5,000 for a checkpoint, and then 5,000 to revive?
No, that didn’t make sense at all either. How could it go from 10 to thousands in the blink of an eye?
Sure, he had improved to the Established Class, but he had also improved Protheus to its second phase as well.
Sothing was wrong. He assud that it cost more to go back now because he was a lot stronger. But the gap shouldn’t be this great.
He checked his notification screen but didn’t see anything.
’Maybe?’
Grey frowned and then closed his eyes, entering his Cyber Space.
The first thing he saw was sothing that certainly wasn’t there before.
’I definitely should have tried this earlier...’
In the middle of his Cyber Space was a floating red-gold fla. It just bobbed there, and though it didn’t have any anthropomorphic features, Grey still sohow felt like it was looking right at him.
"You’re supposed to help , not make things worse, you know?" Grey said, more than a little bit annoyed.
Sothing about dying had a way of throwing ice cold water on all your rage.
A fluctuation ca from the fla in response to Grey’s words. It wasn’t words, but instead a somber sort of energy.
Grey frowned. ’It’s apologizing?’
He could feel the subtlety. The fla was saying sorry, but also that it was necessary.
"You’re sorry? What was necessary about it?"
Another pulse ca from the fla. This ti, it didn’t feel like a feeling, but instead like it was pouring so energy into his Neural Fra and almost making it fire in a particular pattern—a pattern that was making Grey look toward his status screen again.
It wasn’t a very strong compulsion, and Grey felt like he could snap it whenever he wanted. It was almost like soone who cared for him was leading him by the hand.
Grey frowned, but he did as the fla wanted anyway.
His lip twitched.
"Really? This is the benefit?"
The fla released another pulse, this ti sheepish.
The change was minuscule. Grey’s Energy Reserve had gone from 2,100.1 to 2,100.3. Granted, it was just a single pulse, but Grey could feel the paraters almost like it was second nature to him.
The Protheus Spirit could only replenish his Energy Reserve by just 0.2 every minute. At that rate, it would take him almost a month and a half to fill up his Helm Fra a single ti. And that was assuming he never had to use any of the energy.
The fla pulsed again, clearly agitated that Grey wasn’t thankful enough.
"How about you tell why you shortened my rebirth ti? That idiot is going to show up in half an hour at most. What am I supposed to do with that? I can’t even get back to the outpost in that ti."
Grey didn’t seem to even acknowledge the potential of running.
He had had a bad feeling ever since he heard them announce their zone number during the broadcast. If that ugly thing was here, it was only a matter of ti before more ugly bastards showed up. In fact, more ugly bastards might very well already be here.
aning... if he couldn’t defeat this one, Earth was screwed and they would all die like every other Cracked World before them.
The fla began to pulse wildly.
User Comments
0 comments from readers