Touch of Fate

Chapter 25: Newfound Strength

Mike awoke in an unfamiliar bed with a splitting headache.

[This is the second time this has happened. I really need to stop making a habit of it.]

He started to stand, but immediately felt dizzy. [I must have really done a number on myself. Better rest for a while.]

Not long after the door opened and Morris walked in. There was a bandage around his head, but he otherwise looked fine. "Ah, you're awake. This was a lot faster than that time out in the woods, I think your mana regeneration is starting to get better. Anyway, we need to talk about what happened in the cave last night."

"What do you mean?"

"Well....that skill you used when you killed the vargul...it's a little problematic."

Mike thought back to the fight with the creature, and found his memory of the event a little blurry after he was thrown into the wall. [That's right! I think my back was broken. How was I able to get up and finish that thing off?] Despite that, he couldn't figure out what Morris was talking about.

"What, do you mean the flame sword thing I did? I know it was probably impressive to look at, but I'm sure most fire mages could do something similar."

"While that was an impressive display of mana control, it's not what I'm talking about. You may not be aware, but you used the Limit Break skill to finish the beast off."

The name triggered something in Mike's memory.....well, something more than signature skill in the famous video game series. He vaguely recalled seeing a system message and looked at his [Status] and tried to take stock of all the changes that had occurred since last night.

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[Status]

Michael Rasmussen

Race: Human

Age: 15

Class: Skill Master

Tier: 2 (Upper)

Title: None

Multiverse Traveler

Blessed One

Hunter of Renown

Battlefield Healer

Kal'Thel

Philanderer

Hero (NEW)

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[Skills]

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Primary Skills:

Communication Magic (Rank 2)

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Basic Healing Magic (Rank 5) (RANK UP)

Inspect (Rank 3)

Initiate Almiran Military Swordsmanship (Rank 4)

Basic Water Magic (Rank 2)

Intermediate Fire Magic (Rank 1) (TIER UP)

Blood Collector (Rank 1) (NEW)

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Secondary Skills:

Lifestyle Magic (Rank 0)

Advanced Lovemaking (Rank 3)

Running (Rank 2)

Basic Evasion (Rank 5) (RANK UP)

Basic Dagger Fighting (Rank 2)

Basic Spear Fighting (Rank 2)

Basic Sword Fighting (Rank 4)

Intermediate Elemental Magic (Rank 1) (TIER UP)

Basic Riding (Rank 3)

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Passive Skills:

Basic Fear Resistance (Rank 4) (RANK UP)

Basic Physiological Resistance (Rank 3) (EVOLVED)

Basic Poison Resistance (Rank 3) (RANK UP)

Basic Heat Resistance (Rank 2) (NEW)

Minor Mana Enhancement (Rank 5) (RANK UP)

Minor Mana Regeneration Enhancement (Rank 2) (NEW)

Moderate Endurance Enhancement (Rank 1) (TIER UP)

Minor Agility Enhancement (Rank 3) (RANK UP)

Minor Strength Enhancement (Rank 4) (RANK UP)

Limit Break (Rank 1) (NEW)

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Inherent Skills:

Traveler's Luck

Fate-Touched

(BC) Vampiric Regeneration, Lesser (NEW)

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[Titles]

- Hero -

A chosen champion, blessed by one or more of the creator gods. You bear an epic destiny, and have been granted power to help see you through it. Moderate increase to Strength, Agility, Endurance, Mana, Willpower, and Charisma. Minor increase to the acquisition and improvement of skills.

[Primary Skills]

- Intermediate Fire Magic (Tier 2, Rank 1) -

One of the most basic forms of Elemental Magic. Fire magic allows the user to create and manipulate fire. It is characterized by powerful offense, but lacks fine damage control and defensive techniques. Higher skill levels increase the mana efficiency and power of the magic produced.

Rank 1 Effects: Shaped Flame

- Shaped Flame -

Fire is inherently a type of energy without form. Intermediate Fire Mages learn to blur the line between matter and energy and temporarily produce fire with substance. Through an effort of will, the practitioner can shape this material fire.

- Blood Collector (Tier 3, Rank 1) -

The signature skill of the Blood Mage class, users of this skill can harness the latent potential of blood they consume. By sampling sufficiently powerful bloodlines, the user can acquire their inherent skills. Only one inherent skill can be acquired per skill rank. Once selected, the inherent skills cannot be changed.

[Secondary Skills]

- Intermediate Elemental Magic (Tier 2, Rank 1) -

The second most fundamental form of Elemental Magic. Allows users to access magic skills for the four primary elements: earth, air, water, and fire. Additionally, allows access to magic skills for two of the high elements: light and dark. Higher levels of skill provide a bonus on mana efficiency and potency. This is a Prerequisite and Limiter skill for all other Elemental Magic skills.

Rank 1 Effect: Composite Elemental Magic

- Composite Elemental Magic -

Practitioners with two or more of the primary Elemental Magic skills of intermediate level or higher, are able to combine them to produce different forms of elemental magic. Air and water produce ice, air and fire produce lightning, air and earth produce sand, water and fire produce steam, water and earth produce mud, and fire and earth produce magma.

[Passive Skills]

- Basic Physiological Resistance (Tier 1, Rank 3) -

You have developed the ability to control your body's physiological responses to a limited degree. Provides minor resistance to the negative effects of physiological responses.

- Basic Heat Resistance (Tier 1, Rank 2) -

Frequent exposure to heat and fire has increased your body's ability to handle high temperatures. Provides minor resistance to the negative effects of high temperatures.

- Minor Mana Regeneration Enhancement (Tier 1, Rank 2) -

By consistently emptying of your mana pool, you have trained your body to recover its mana faster. Minor increase to mana regeneration.

- Moderate Endurance Enhancement (Tier 2, Rank 1) -

Through physical training the user has increased his/her body's natural limits. Provides a moderate enhancement to Endurance.

- Limit Break (Tier 4, Rank 1) -

The signature skill of heroes. In times of intense emotional stress, the user can break through his/her innate limits providing a brief moment of incredible power. However, breaking one's physical limitations comes with a price. While activated, large increase to all attributes. Higher ranks of skill increases both the attribute enhancement and the duration of the effect. Current duration: 1 min. Drawback: After effect ends, moderate decrease to all attributes for 24 hours.

[Inherent Skills]

- (BC) Vampiric Regeneration, Lesser (Tier 2) -

(Acquired through Blood Collector) You have inherited some of the legendary regenerative powers of the vampire, allowing you to heal from virtually any non-fatal injury. By utilizing a requisite amount of mana, this skill can even regenerate lost body parts. Large increase to the healing speed of all ordinary injuries. Exposure to fire will slow or halt this process.

- - - - - - - - - - -

Mike felt a little giddy after seeing all the changes his [Status] had undergone. There was a lot to process when he had time, but he located the offending Limit Break skill and the title likely associated with it.

Morris continued, seemingly oblivious to Mike's overwhelmed state. "You probably don't understand the full implications of being able to use that skill, with your memory issues and all, but check your [Status] if you haven't already done so. Do you happen to have the Hero title?"

Mike paused to consider for a moment. Even though he had come to trust the young man, he had no way of knowing what sort of effect sharing this information would have. Finally, he figured that since Morris was able to guess it already, lying about it now would serve little purpose.

"Yes, it's there."

Morris sighed and took a seat on the simple wooden chair next to Mike's bed.

"Well that complicates issues. Being chosen as a Hero is both a blessing and a curse. On one hand you will be much stronger than peers and able to improve much faster. On the other, the rise of a Hero means that the gods have foreseen a time of troubles in the future. As a Hero, you are destined to stand against some great threat and protect the world. It will mean a lot of difficult battles. Not only that, but as soon as your identity as a Hero is exposed, you'll become globally famous. Powerful factions will try to meet you and make use of you. The common populace will treat you like an object of worship, but still expect you to protect them from every danger. Those whose work is potentially threatened by your existence will try to have you killed."

Mike wondered how his Fate-Touched skill would impact this whole destined to save the world thing. Judging from the description, he figured that nothing in this world could really influence his future besides his own actions.

Morris continued. "So the way I figure it, you're going to have to deal with your identity as a Hero eventually, but that time may be far off in the future. If we keep it a secret, at least you can enjoy a semi-normal life for the time being. I've gone ahead and made sure that Randolph, Will, and Tillie won't say anything. Thankfully, they didn't understand the significance of what they saw."

Despite Morris's glum outlook, Mike found it hard to be upset about the whole thing. Both the Hero title and the Limit Break skill seemed phenomenally useful, and it was entirely possible that he could avoid having to follow the path of a Hero. Worst case scenario, he'd have to save the world. While this didn't exactly sound pleasant to him, he figured that there were worse fates than playing the hero.

He nodded, "Yeah that sounds like a decent plan. At the very least it will give me some time to get situated in this world. Speaking of them, how are those three doing? Did they make it out alright?"

"Besides you, no one was seriously injured. Randolph even volunteered to carry you out. Evidently your heroics while fighting the vargul left a good impression. They're actually waiting downstairs for you to wake up. I think they wanted to thank you in person, if you feel up to it."

"That's a relief. I'm still a little weak, evidently the drawback from the Limit Break skill is in effect at the moment, but I think I can meet some people without too much trouble."

"Fair enough," Morris said, while standing, "I'll be right back."

After a short wait, the door burst open and an excited Tillie rushed in. "Are you alright? You looked so weak when my dad was carrying you out...." She stopped in mid-sentence, blushing fiercely. Her mouth opening and closing as if she was trying to say something but couldn't.

A pretty black haired woman who looked to be in her early thirties followed closely behind Tillie. Mike guessed she must be the girl's mother. As soon as she saw Mike, she gasped slightly and started staring at Mike as well, a faint blush creeping onto her cheeks. "Oh, my." She sighed in a slightly amused voice.

Will entered next, followed by his father. The boy seemed to sense the odd atmosphere in the room because he kept looking back and forth between Mike and his family. Finally Randolph coughed loudly, "Son, it might be best if you put a shirt on. I think you are distracting the womenfolk."

Mike realized after glancing down that he was naked from the waist up. In the brief moment his thoughts were trying to catch up to the situation, he noted that his chest and arms had become a lot more muscular since arrival in this world. Although still relatively slender, especially considering his age, he now looked like a professional martial artist with his shirt off.

"Haha," He chuckled nervously as he donned a loose fitting white shirt that Morris must have laid next to the bed. "Sorry, I just woke up." He thought he could hear a snicker from Morris in the hallway, and promised himself that he would get his friend back for this.

Seeing that his wife and daughter were still in a strange state of mind, Randolph evidently decided that it would be best if he led the conversation. "No problem. We're the ones intruding after all. We won't keep you long. You haven't met my wife Jess."

Mike exchanged nods of greeting with her. The woman was smiling in manner that made him a little uncomfortable, but he tried to focus on Randolph's next words.

"I know the family wants to thank you for your actions, but first I have to apologize." He stepped up to the side of Mike's bed, and bowed his head, a pained expression on his face.

"I'm sorry I doubted you. Although you and your companion look young and inexperienced, you are brave and powerful adventurers. I will never forget the sight of you charging across that cavern to save my daughter from that monster. I can only hope that you will forgive me for making light of your abilities."

Mike waved his hands in front of him, embarrassed by the man's sudden formality. "There is nothing to forgive. I know Morris and I aren't much to look at. Besides, I actually am a novice adventurer, so you weren't wrong in your initial assessment."

Randolph smiled gratefully, "Then let me be the first to thank you." He looked back into the hallway and motioned Morris in, "Both of you. If not for your efforts, my family would have been torn by tragedy. We are humble farmers and don't have much to offer, but if you need anything, you merely have to name it."

The rest of the family took turns thanking the pair. When it was Tillie's turn, Jess had to push her forward. The girl was still blushing fiercely and couldn't look Mike in the eyes. After a few moments of silence she managed to stammer, "T-T-Thank you for e-everything. C-Can you tell me your name?"

Mike smiled gently at the embarrassed girl, "You can call me Mike."

Tillie returned the smile nervously before running over to bury her face in her mother's skirt. Jess ruffled the girl's hair gently.

With mixed emotions on his face, Randolph spoke up, "We should let you get your rest, since you are still recovering." He started to lead his family out of the room.

"Make sure to come back and see us sometime." Jess said with a slightly smile as she was leaving, eliciting a concerned glance from her husband.

Morris started walking out as well. "Better get used to that. All the heroes in the past were famously popular with the ladies." He paused for a moment. "Quite a few of them were also popular men, and not just the female ones now that I think about it. Anyway, I'll make sure the village elder signs off on the completion of the request."

[I guess that adds up, since charisma is one of the attributes improved by the Hero title.] Mike thought to himself as he got up to use the chamber pot.

[I have a feeling that title combined with the Casanova Aura is going to cause me more trouble than any amount of world saving ever could.]

He paused in the middle of doing his business, "What the hell?! It got bigger?!"