Chapter 27 - Rank Up

Delta awoke with a splitting headache, hands instinctively moving up to his head as if it would have some effect. In fact, however, it made it worse. Delta's arm felt heavy and weak, straining his movements and bringing Delta's attention to the pain in his limbs.

His vision was blurry, and his senses seemed skewed and weak. Even though Delta's mind was operating at full speed, his body wasn't. Whatever he had felt earlier had clearly taken its toll on him, and he wasn't sure he'd even be able to walk, let alone go about his day as usual.

Resigning himself slightly, Delta slumped backwards, waiting at least until his vision returned so that he could check the system.

He slumped back and relaxed, trying to ease his senses back into action by limiting the amount of information he was receiving.

A few minutes later, his senses returned to him, however, he quickly dreaded his smell returning to him, being instantly overwhelmed with a horrible stench.

He looked down at his body, finding a thick, viscous black fluid oozing down his arms and legs, filling the bathtub with its stench and making Delta nearly puke.

Delta opened up the system quickly, scan reading it for any changes or differences.

[SYSTEM CONGRATULATES USER ON RANKING UP]

[Please hit Next for more information.]

Delta did this, pressing the button and checking what had changed.

[Would User like an explanation about Ranking Up?]

A pop-up with 'Yes' and 'No' popped up, so Delta obviously pressed 'Yes'.

[Once the core has accumulated enough magic energy, it must complete a qualitative change to increase the density and quality of the energy it has absorbed, however, to do this, it must first upgrade the quality of the host's body. To do this, a burst of magic energy is circulated around the body from the core (irrelevant of what magic type(s) the user practices) and is used by the body to break through its boundaries. However, if the body is not yet ready to rank up in a particular aspect(explosive strength, cell vitality etc.), it will refrain from doing so, and thus that aspect of the body will not be improved. User is recommended to max out all the stats before ranking up, as trying to overcome the qualitative boundaries without the help of your core is incredibly difficult, which is why many high-level fighters have weak aspects(Example: A combatant who focuses on strength will be lacking in speed.)]

Delta thought about this new information, thinking deeply about it as it had answered many of his questions.

This meant that, if he were to continue training as he did, although it would take a while, he would be able to outpower nearly everyone at his stage, and possibly those higher than him too, even without taking into account his special magic attributes. If he followed this method of maxing out all stats before ranking up he would not be lacking in any particular ability.

[User's Proficiency in Mana has improved: Initiate I → Initiate II. New Techniques will be unlocked shortly]

[User's stats have also changed:]

[Stats:]

[Rank: Initiate II]

[Strength: 10]

[Agility: 10]

[Dexterity: 10]

[Vitality: 10]

[Endurance:10]

[Intelligence:10]

[Magic: 19]

[Reach 19 on any Stat to Rank Up]

[RANK-UP AVAILABLE]

The most surprising stat change was Magic, as the stat had maxed out instantly even though it had automatically maxed out, even though he had just ranked up.

Delta continued, pressing the forward arrow on the banner to move to the next part.

[Due to User originating from a magic-less, polluted planet, User's body was especially impure and thus would also contaminate his mana. These additional impurities have been forcibly removed by the System. Additionally, since the User is a practitioner of True Magic, the User's body must be restored and purified before continuing. User has maxed Magic stat instantaneously as he has absorbed and stored a large amount of magic energy from a combined source.]

'True Magic?' Delta thought to himself, 'Is that because the Galaxy mixed my mana attributes? Also, additional impurities? I thought Athena made my soul a new body? If this black sludge is the impurities that were forcibly expelled from my body, it would explain why the rank-up hurt so much…'

Delta groaned as he stood up, realising he would have to clean all this, and somehow find a way not to clog the bathtub whilst doing so… or at least find a good excuse…

He slowly stood up, making sure the door was locked before taking off his underwear and putting it in the bathroom's bin, taking the bin bag out and tying it up to take out later.

He tried cleaning the black ooze off of his skin, but it would simply spread even more instead of coming off, so Delta tried something interesting.

Closing his eyes, Delta focused on his core, taking another stable thread through his bloodstream and leaving strands of energy around the edge of his skin.

He went around his whole body, using the practice from the breathing technique to do so. Interestingly, the entire process felt slightly easier, probably due to the increase in intelligence.

Once Delta had made a full circuit, he began slowly releasing the mana out towards the edge of his skin, planning to make a little shield of mana to remove the liquid at once.

It was going well, with the mana forming a solid shield that began lifting the ooze off of his body and moving them away.

Unfortunately, however, Delta wasn't able to keep up with the daunting task of keeping focused on such a large mass of energy, and quickly lost control, causing the shield to dissipate in a violent, uncontrolled burst that sent the ooze flying everywhere, spraying on the walls and floors.

"..."

Delta began cursing, searching for some kind of cloth he could use to clean up the mess he had made before someone arrived.

As he was looking around, however, a burst of light appeared in the room, and the proud figure of Athena appeared in the room, standing before him with the excited face of a mad scientist. Her face quickly changed to shock before becoming an amused one as she looked at the naked mess of Delta scrambling around as he tried to clean up black ooze from the walls and floor.

She waved her hand, and suddenly her sense of smell was blocked so that she wouldn't have to suffer from the smell.

Delta saw what she did, however roughly, and decided that maybe using mana to block the olfactory neurons (neurons that translate smells into electrical impulses) would be a bad idea, especially considering that his control was so lacking that he just blew up the mana shield he was trying to make. Creating a magic shield is the basics of the basics for ANY magic-user, and he wasn't even capable of that as of now. Thus he strongly felt that tolerating the smell would be a much better idea.

"Should I come back later?" Athena said.

"No, this is fine, as long as you don't mind the sight."

"Good, because I wasn't planning on leaving. You're not going to wear anything?"

"I don't think it matters much unless the body of a 12-year-old would disturb you."

"..."

She clicked her fingers, and small robots flew out from her robes, opening little vacuum-like suction devices that absorbed all of the ooze into a space Delta couldn't see, however, he was pretty sure he could feel something strange about them.

"You're pretty impressive. I didn't think you'd rank up within the week! It normally takes a few months for the first rank up, and it only increases from there."

She sneakily created a tiny ball of mana behind her, planning to test Delta's sensory abilities, however, Delta instantly responded by making 5 balls of his own.

He knew he stood no chance, so he was planning to cause as much noise as he could if Athena attacked him. Even though he knew it was his trauma from his betrayal causing him to do this, he didn't try to withhold or placate it, as deep down he knew that people weren't to be trusted, no matter how close they may be.

"Relax, I was testing you. You're surprisingly astute too… interesting. Anyways, I need to run a few tests on the chip I placed in you. It seems to have been acting up a little recently."

She suddenly appeared right behind Delta, grabbing his shoulder and head before gently yet firmly moving them apart, opening his neck to her.

A drone sliced open the flesh in his shoulder blade, allowing Athena to see the chip inside that had just been exposed to the light.

"Hmm… I never would have expected this to happen… Did you do anything with the chip?"

"You think I cut my own flesh to check a chip I can't even see?"

In reality, Delta had tried to figure out how to get to it before, but then he realised any attempts would be extremely apparent when Athena came to check on him, and he needed to lay slightly low in case he needed to rebel later on.

"It seems to have upgraded, however, I never coded it to do so… Hmmm… I need to talk to Astutia later on…"

Delta, however, was currently cursing Galaxy in his head, knowing that it was probably her interactions that had upgraded the chip.

'Damn you, Galaxy…'