Chapter 131: Repeated - , do not read

Chapter 131: Repeated Chapter, do not read

Valeria leaned close enough to see the Pulse Core resting in Raven’s hands.

"How much?"

"Seventy-four point one."

Her eyebrows rose.

"That was a lot."

"Yes."

"And the Skill?"

Raven closed the FORGE interface.

"Gone."

"Completely?"

"I’d need another source."

Valeria remained silent while Raven prepared the preservation container. They had brought materials specifically for this purpose: treated cloth, alchemical salts, and a small reinforced case that FORGE had indicated would preserve the organ for several days.

Raven placed the Core inside with considerably more care than he gave most of his possessions.

Valeria noticed.

"Do you regret it?"

Raven rolled one shoulder.

The impact he had taken during the hunt still sent pain through his ribs, although Predatory Regeneration had already begun knitting the fractures together.

"Ask me after I fire it."

"That means yes."

Raven closed the case.

"It means the Trait would have been useful."

"There’s that word again."

"That’s exactly why giving it up was difficult."

Valeria didn’t answer immediately.

Instead, she sat on the wet grass beside the corpse, apparently unconcerned that mud was already staining her clothes. Weeks ago, Raven would have found that strange.

Now he knew she cared considerably less about elegance when no one important was watching.

"I thought you’d choose DEVOUR," she admitted.

"So did I for a few seconds."

"That actually surprises me."

Raven looked at her.

"Why?"

"Because you’re fairly consistent. If something can make you harder to kill, you usually want it."

"I still want it."

"Then that makes the decision worse."

"Yes."

Valeria smiled faintly.

"Also more interesting."

Raven secured the case inside his pack.

"I wasn’t trying to entertain you."

"You manage that surprisingly often without trying."

Roland appeared from the direction of the hill before Raven could answer. He carried his bow in one hand and looked as though he had run a considerable portion of the distance.

"Please tell me we don’t have to chase another one."

Raven lifted the reinforced case.

"We have it."

Roland looked at the Courser’s corpse, then at the case.

"Intact?"

"Ninety-seven percent."

"I have no idea exactly what that means, but judging by your face, I’m assuming good."

Valeria answered for him.

"It means Raven rejected an extremely powerful new ability to preserve it."

Roland stopped.

"You rejected what?"

Raven began gathering the remaining tools.

"Kinetic Pulse."

The archer looked toward the dead Courser.

"The thing that made it disappear every time you tried to get close?"

"It didn’t disappear."

"From where I was standing, the distinction seemed academic."

Valeria smiled.

"Predation gave it ninety-two percent compatibility."

Roland whistled.

"And you still chose the component."

Raven sheathed his knife.

"I needed the component."

"You also needed a way to avoid rolling down another hill whenever something turns out to be faster than you."

"I survived."

Roland looked at Valeria.

"Does he always answer like that?"

"With concerning frequency."

Raven let them continue.

The decision had already been made.

There was no reason to defend it.

Killing the Stormhorn Courser had produced something else.

Raven finally checked after they moved away from the corpse and found a sheltered area where they could wait for the worst of the storm to pass.

The system displayed the notification he had ignored during the extraction.

[Experience Acquired.]

[Elite Target Defeated.]

[Significant Level Disparity Bonus Applied.]

[Current Level: 11.]

[Next Level Threshold: PROGRESS INCREASED.]

He hadn’t leveled up.

That was fine.

Killing a Level Twenty-Seven Elite while he was only Level Eleven had produced a considerable amount of experience, but the requirements had also increased after his evolution to Awakened.

The kill had given him progress.

HARVEST had given him the component.

DEVOUR would have given him the Trait.

Three different systems.

Three different rewards.

And he had deliberately given up one of them.

That was fine too.

Valeria was drying her hair near the fire when she saw him close the interface.

"Level?"

"No."

"Close?"

"Closer than before."

"What a remarkably precise explanation."

Raven sat across from the fire.

"I don’t get a percentage."

"Then I withdraw the complaint."

Roland was preparing some of their provisions.

"Where are we going next?"

Raven opened FORGE once more.

The project architecture had changed now that the Pulse Core was preserved.

[PROJECT: PROTOTYPE RIFLE.]

[Completion: 74.1%.]

[Core Components: 4/6.]

[Activation System: AVAILABLE.]

[Stable Mana Storage: AVAILABLE.]

[Structural Barrel: AVAILABLE.]

[Projectile Acceleration: AVAILABLE.]

[Projectile Stabilization: MISSING.]

[Recoil Regulation: MISSING.]

A second section appeared beneath it.

[Recommended Next Acquisition: Recoil Regulation.]

[Compatible Biological Analogue Identified: "Pressure Chamber."]

[Known Source: Blastback Burrower.]

[Primary Habitat: KHARAD.]

Kharad.

Blastback Burrower.

Pressure Chamber.

Not the final system.

But the next one.

"Kharad."

Roland stopped stirring the pot.

"That name doesn’t sound pleasant."

Valeria looked up.

"It isn’t."

Raven turned toward her.

"You’ve been there?"

"Once. Several years ago."

"What’s it like?"

Valeria considered the question.

"Dry mountains. Ravines. A lot of caves. Very few people sensible enough to stay away from them."

"That doesn’t explain the Burrower."

"Because I’ve never seen one. But I know the stories. They excavate chambers underground, build pressure inside their bodies, and release it to move or destroy tunnels."

Roland stopped stirring again.

"Destroy tunnels?"

Valeria nodded.

"The young ones can break stone. Adults can turn a closed passage into a pressure trap."

Roland looked at Raven.

"And you want one alive?"

"No."

"Thank you."

"I need its organ intact."

Roland returned his attention to the pot.

"Naturally."

Raven watched the fire.

A Pressure Chamber capable of containing and redirecting internal force without destroying the body.

Exactly the kind of biological mechanism FORGE could use to keep the rifle from tearing itself apart when the Activation System, Mana Storage, and Projectile Acceleration worked together.

Recoil Regulation.

After that, Projectile Stabilization would still remain.

One problem to stop the weapon from destroying Raven.

Another to stop the projectile from becoming useless the moment it left the barrel.

Then he would have to build it.

Test it.

And discover whether weeks of work had produced a weapon or an extremely expensive explosion directly beside his face.

Valeria shifted across the fire.

"You’re smiling."

Raven looked at her.

"No."

"Barely, but yes."

"Maybe it’s the fire."

"Raven, I’ve spent enough time with you to distinguish lighting from emotion."

He returned his attention to the flames.

"Two left."

Valeria’s expression changed.

She understood.

"So that’s what it is."

"What?"

"For the first time, you actually look convinced you’re going to finish it."

Raven thought about the reinforced case stored with his belongings.

Four components.

Seventy-four point one percent.

A rifle that existed only because he had repeatedly chosen not to take something else.

The Queen.

The Deepwell.

Black Mithril.

Now the Stormhorn Courser’s Pulse Core.

FORGE had begun as a possibility.

Then it became an experiment.

Now Raven had sacrificed an excellent Trait for it.

That changed something.

"I’m going to finish it," he said.

Valeria smiled.

"That sounded much more dangerous than it should have."

Raven looked at her.

"It’s a weapon."

"I wasn’t talking about the rifle."

Before he could ask what she meant, Valeria turned her attention back to the fire.

Raven decided to leave it alone.

They still had to cross part of Velis, recover from the hunt, and travel toward Kharad. There would be enough time to figure out what she meant.

FORGE remained in the corner of his vision.

[Prototype Rifle — 74.1%.]

[Core Components: 4/6.]

[Projectile Stabilization: MISSING.]

[Recoil Regulation: MISSING.]

Raven closed the interface.

He had given up an ability that could have made him faster before the night was over.

He still didn’t know whether it had been the right decision.

But for the first time since FORGE appeared, that no longer mattered.

He had chosen to build something instead of simply making himself stronger.

Now he wanted to see how far he could take it.