Rank Up to Ultra Rare

Qi condensed and my body screamed. Blood oozed from my nose, mouth, and ears. My bones shattered like glass, my muscles ground into hamburger meat, and my flesh tore like paper. Streams of qi leaked and erupted ripping holes in my body. I pushed and the qi rebounded tearing my insides apert. Every organ in my body threatened to rupture. Power didn't want to be contained. It rebelled openly and violently at my attempts to push it into a better form.

I pushed and focused on a single point. That point was all that mattered, if I couldn't condense my qi to that point then this was all a failure. Pain threatened to shatter my concentration no matter what percent I decreased it.

The sacred 0 was impossible. That would rip me away from the body into my blessed unfeeling former existence. There was only one way out of this and that was to push.

Qi rebounded and struggled until it shrank to the point of my design. Once it fit itself into the eye of a needle the rebounding stopped. The incredibly dense speck of qi began sucking in qi despite my lack of breath.

Ping!

Threshold breached.

Refinery II

+20% to all stats

My eyes snapped open. I felt it the sudden increase in power. It was incredible. A whole 10% increase might not sound like much. It mattered to me. A stable increase in power beyond my system was incredible. To me it was the most impressive feat imaginable.

The goblings stared at me in a mix of contempt and slight concern. They just wanted to use me. That's exactly what I wanted. The situation even with flight was unattainable.

Ranking up was the only way to heal myself now. I didn't know ranking up would ruin my body. Moving was impossible. My muscles were ruined, blood seeped from numerous wounds, and my bones were shattered in places.

This was a calculated risk. Sure, I was more a flesh slime than a darkling now, but I needed every scrap of power I could get. I couldn't risk this without a rank up or a level up. I needed to fully heal from this.

Ping!

Rank Up

Possible Choices

Common: Winged Stalker, Night Haunter, Darkling Wizard, Darkling Sorcerer

Uncommon: Abyssal Giant, Battle Bat

Rare: Winged Sorcerer,

Super Rare: Noble Imp, Dark Seeker

Ultra-Rare: Black Sol Imp

Noble Imp

Traits: Mage, Gentleman, Scholar, Diabolism

Dark Seeker

Traits: Seeker, Mage, Scholar

Black Sol Imp

Traits: Rising Sun, Mage, Halo, Wings, Elite Monster

Black Sol Imp had the most potential. That was the most important thing wasn't it. Ranking up exchanged growth for a higher potential. It seemed the rarer the form the greater the new potential. Black Sol Imp was the only one that had the Elite Monster Trait.

I hit rank up and felt my aura erupt and surround my body. This wasn't the same as the spell. My mind blanked out and even my systems shut down. Everything that was me shut down while my body changed.

…

I felt good, systems were slowly rebooting, and I flexed my fingers and toes. My hands were larger than before. Small cracks lined my skin slowly falling away. Greyish flesh flaked off revealing pitch black skin underneath. Something flowed through me warm and powerful. Smile lines of crimson lit along my skin.

Slowly, I rose from my prone position. Wasn't I supposed to feel weak? I checked my stats.

Ping!

Jacob lvl1 Black Sol Imp

Traits

Rising Sun – Once a day at noon use clairvoyance to acquire a Red/Black/White Series spell. Once a week.

Mage – Can use and learn tier 2 spells

Halo: Gold series spells can be learned

Diabolism – +100% Black/Red series spell DMG. Increased chance to bind demons.

Wings – Flight

Elite Monster: +10 to HP and AP + 1 to all stats per level.

HP: 30 (48)

AP: 30 (210)

STR 21

DEX 21

CON 5

END 4

AGL 6

INT 50

PER 13

LUK 18

My wings flexed and suddenly the feeling of power crumbled. There it was. The potential was there but for now I was back at level 1. Even if my rewarded stats carried over my level stats didn't. Could I fly with these wings? They rose raven black feathers. I felt something connecting them to my aura. That explained a lot.

Wings like mine couldn't even carry me. With enough aura the impossible could be made possible. That's what Aura was after all. It was the stairway between a fantasy and reality. I flapped my wings and called to my aura. My feet left the ground and I hovered with my wings. The feeling of leaving the ground was exhilarating.

A heavy impact slammed me against a hard wall of wood and steel. I felt a sharp knife against my throat and any feeling of happiness was taken by the reality of my situation. Kor stared at me with cold brown eyes. They looked a lot like the seductresses. That was sort of funny in a way.

"I'm going to make this really clear. Don't fuck with us. If I think you're going to betray us, I'll cut your pretty new wings and we'll all fall together." The knife jammed against my throat until, I felt a thin cut form. "Do we have an understanding?" Finally, the last of my joy slipped away. It was replaced by hunger.

"I understand." I said.

The knife wasn't pulled from my neck. Instead the gobling grabbed one of the new horns sticking out of my head. "You're going to grab Kem and we're going to the other guard tower first. We'll get the rations from there and come back. Consider this a test." Kor said.

Tol shared a look with Kem. Kem walked forward and climbed up on my back. I wasn't as large as a noble Imp. Instead of being 8ft, I was around 7ft. Still, I was a giant compared to a gobling. I was forced to crawl on all fours before opening a shooting latch.

Tol ran up and closed the latch. "No don't, he's fooling you. He's working for the monster." Tol said.

Kem let out an exaggerated sigh. "If he is then we're dead either way. That door won't hold up if they want in. There are enough of them to climb on each other to reach us. They could have just destroyed the tower's legs." Kem said.

Kor kicked me in the side. "What do you think darkling?" He asked.

I stared down at the scattered green zombies carrying living sacrifices into the town. "The creature behind this is starving. We weren't hunted out because it had easier avenues to feed. When those are exhausted, we're next." I said.

It may have even forgotten about us and eventually moved elsewhere if we could hide long enough. The creature didn't strike me as the patient farming type. No, this creature was too primitive for that. It was hunger made flesh. The creature fed on knowledge but never learned anything. If I'm wrong, then it should have knocked over the tower or forced us out. There was also a chance it had a short attention span. With so many conflicting thoughts it might not be able to focus on anything other than feeding itself.

Another kick to my side knocked me out of my thoughts and nearly made me forget the knife at my throat. "Let's go, we haven't eaten in days." Kor said.

I pulled myself through the shooting blind and leapt off the tower. My wings rose and aura passed through them. We fell. I flapped them but we were too heavy. The knife pressed at my throat just as I thought about dumping Kem. With that message received, I funneled more aura into my wings.

Another flap and our descent slowly. Several heavy flaps that made my flight muscles ache retook some altitude.

Ping!

Quest: Reach the Other Guard Tower

Reward: +3 END

Ping!

Quest: Fly with 2 passengers

Reward: +3 STR

I flapped like my life depended on it. I'd never flown before and they cut my little experimentation short. It was either we made it or we all died. So, I flapped through the burning of my muscles, I flapped until the balcony of the blind of the other tower came into view, and I flapped while the goblings scrambled to get into the guard tower.

Ping!

Quest Completed: Reach the Other Guard Tower

Rewarded: +3 END

Endurance 7

Ping!

Quest completed: Fly with 2 passengers

Rewarded: +3 STR

Strength 24

We collapsed inside the empty guard tower. My aura was drained, and my body felt like it was on fire. I'd increased my strength and endurance but that wouldn't mean much. I could have left them here and escaped but I didn't. They still had a part to play in this quest. I'd spend their lives how I wanted to.

Suddenly, I felt a rumbling. I peaked out of the shooting blind to see a large green tentacle erupt from the center of town. It flailed about reaching up towards the heavens. All along its surface were brains. They floated in the jell like flesh of this creature. A single eye opened in the creature's center of mass. When I saw that eye, my wings flared and leaving this hill seemed like a great idea. The eye held intelligence. I quickly turned away remembering Gwen's warning.