Chapter 30 – Pushing Past Limits

[Minor Heal Milestone Reached: 50% Mastery]

Effect: Mana cost reduced by 25%. You can now repair micro fractures within bones.

[Meditation Milestone Reached: 50% Mastery]

Effect: Increases base mana regeneration when still by an extra 15%. Increase mana gained by popping mana clusters by a further 10%.

[Tension Milestone Reached: 25% Mastery]

Effect: Damage dealt with tools that require tension is increased by 50%. Because you have learned how to utilize the tension in your own body to harness the full potential of your muscles, increase all Strength by 15%.

I’m finally getting somewhere, Jake pushed himself up off the floor, feeling the immediate difference in strength. An entire puddle of sweat had formed below him.

He tore his muscles over and over again so many times that the steam visibly rose from his chest and upper arms.

The effectiveness of his second Elite Growth Stimulant was about to dry up any minute now, but he refused to use another as even the corpse of a Dreadknuck was becoming insufficient for his current strength. Speaking of—

As he reached for his bottle of water, something peculiar happened—he crushed the plastic in its entirety, unable to control the strength that had now settled deep in his muscles.

That’s… unsettling, he thought.

He tested it a bit more, and his premonition was true: he was having difficulties controlling his power. Punching or fighting was straightforward, but when it came to tasks that required a more gentle touch, it was growing more difficult to accomplish it.

Jake rolled his shoulders. I’ll worry about that later—

Another system notification followed.

Minor Heal has reached the threshold. Would you like to upgrade it to Heal?

Meditation has reached the threshold. Would you like to upgrade it to Enhanced Meditation?

Well that’s new. He scratched his head. What happens if I go through with the upgrade? Will Minor Heal lose progress just like with what happened with the merging of Focus, Controlled Breathing, and Concentration?

Jake didn’t know what to do.

No matter what, it didn’t sit well with him that he would potentially leave Minor Heal with a staggering 50% left to master.

Also, what kind of hidden benefits were there if he took Minor Heal all the way to 100% before upgrading it? Would he be given another option—a more powerful one?

The way he viewed it was that it was an instant power-up at the cost of a permanent increase later down the line.

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He drew in a deep breath, then let it out in one go. There was a lot left he was wanting to experiment with. The enjoyment from figuring out how he could improve it further, the sheer satisfaction of being the main reason for having the Skill tick up was unlike anything he had ever experienced before.

For once in his life he was in control, and he was loving every minute of it.

So upgrading it would be a waste. You had to learn how to walk before you could run, and Jake guessed it was the same for Skills.

Although it was a guess, he wondered just how strong a perfected foundation actually was? Everyone would most likely make that choice right away. There was no way of knowing what kind of monster they would encounter next, so going for the guaranteed power-up was the obvious decision for most.

But—

Jake clenched his fist, the bones creaking within.

He now had thirty-four strength. With Gutter Tooth and Pendant of Might, that number was forty.

He didn’t know if he was making the right choice, but he disregarded both of the system prompts, pushing them to the back of his mind for later.