44 The Meaning of Breath

Chapter 44: The Meaning of Breath

/Alright motherfuckers, gather round to hear some more of my venomous wisdom today. Gods, I love the anonymity writing gives me so much.

Oh yeah, it's time for another episode of my ranting about this shithole of a world! Today's topic? Well, just about anything this time! But to be quite perfectly honest, I wanna talk about how much it sucks that most of the information that would help us advance is hidden away from us.

Like, seriously. We don't always know how much exp actions other than killing monsters gives, we don't know what kinds of gains we can expect from evolution, there is no concrete amount of power we gain from allocating stat points, or from Skill levels, or anything for that matter. But honestly, if not knowing our actual capabilities wasn't enough, there is so, so much more hidden.

The amount of Skills that exist, conditions needing fulfillment to evolve abilities, the amount of mastery a Skill has, or what the future of each path it could evolve to is. We don't know the unlock conditions of Skills, and even less so abilities, and the very most nightmarish fact is that any attempt to categorize this kinda shit has failed!

Like, fucking seriously? How the hell are we supposed to advance through tiers and grow stronger if this broken-ass thing doesn't even tell us how to advance, and even has different requirements for different people? Like, to hell with all this "equality" shit, this thing isn't even a meritocracy!

There's literally races born with Skills that others can only dream of, born into higher tiers and more insane environments. Like, you can't compare a baby human's chance to survive to that of a baby dragon, and anybody who still thinks this system is even remotely equal has to have wayyy too many drugs in their system.

What, you haven't gotten a resistance Skill yet? Hm, maybe you would have if you knew how to damn unlock it!

Alright, fuckers. That shit really is quite frustrating, but I think I gotta leave it at that for today. Always trust your instinct, never trust the system, and don't fucking croak. Y'all are my livelihood after all, ha!/

Issue 8 of "This System Sucks!" by an anonymous author.

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Mercury was preparing himself for a true stealth mission. He had his inventory full with whatever he might need. Three rocks that were sharpened and enhanced with some nice runes, and a backpack full of backup artillery. And, of course, his fifth slot had to be used for the mana bomb, just in case things got too dicey today.

And with that, it was time to set off. It took Mercury a few minutes to find the place Avery had shown him before, but quite frankly, once he knew what he was looking for, it was decently easy to find.

The strike had been organized beforehand. This was, after all, a detailed supply chain, where not many sales went unnoticed. So, of course they had heard that Birk had lost a shipment, and been hounded down by Avery.

Unfortunately for them, the guild master wasn't stupid. He got Birk to write them a letter, detailing that he would be on the down low for a while after managing to escape from Avery, and that he would stop in for the next shipment in two weeks or so. That letter made its way to his suppliers, and up the command chain, fully completing the official story of Birk simply laying low for a while.

And thus, the business of the thugs was still running amok, streaking through the city with its dark appendages, seeking out all those who were lost and dragging them into their spiral of ruin. It was a cruel machine of doom, all-consuming and inescapable, a-

Jeff. How did you get in here again?

Well, uh, I-

I locked the door.

Yes, I mean...

Jeff, did you pick my lock?

No, I mean, not exactly...

You have five seconds to get out. Five.

Four.

Three.

Two...

Alright, now that that's settled.

Where was I? Ah, right.

It was... a cruel machine of doom? All consuming and inescapable? I swear to god... It was a small crime ring with a few drug dealers and maybe some human traffickers. Sure, there were people who got dragged into it and didn't get back out, but man, this is a little dramatic.

This man, I swear. Alright. It was a small crime ring, and nobody involved was aware of the hit that would come today, since their one security leak had apparently escaped. Of course, they were still wary, but since the day Birk had disappeared, quite some time had passed, so most of them thought that the worst would have been over.

There were no increased patrols, no guards attacking their hideouts, no major military forces seeking them out... it was quiet.

Of course, this was a very temporary peace, purposely arranged to be so by Avery, who kept all of the locations for only himself and the city council to know. After all, this was something that he wanted to absolutely stop, and lulling some criminals into a false sense of security was one way of doing it.

He had made sure to include the day of execution to the commissions, and instituted a failure penalty for this specific one.

"Any godseekers proven unable to comply with the details in the commission would be required to participate and fully cooperate with the strike teams, formed to hunt down and apprehend any leftover stragglers of any organisation encountered during the set of commissions. Failure to comply with this additional clause is reason for immediate punishment such as guild master Avery Beckham sees fit, which may include but is not limited to: monetary payments to the guild, item confiscation, rank reduction, or expulsion."

Oh, well. In any case, Mercury should probably get going. He walked into the alleyway, slid past a door that was open by a crack and quickly nodded at an older woman who was sitting by a quietly crackling fireplace. It was a little too warm inside the building for his tastes, but then again, he was confined by his fur.

"What brings you here, little one?" the woman asked.

"Wait a minute, that's not quite right, is it?"

"Oh, the words change, but the essence is the same. Come now, little one, what brings you here?"

"Look, lady, I'm not someone to have my organs harvested. If you would-"

"And I, little beast," the woman interrupted him in a raspy voice, "am not one known to be quite as patient. Now tell me, what brings you here?"

"Man, I really wish-"

Just then, he could hear something like an explosion going off somewhere else. Funnily enough, Mercury didn't even have to think about who it was, since Avery had made very sure all godseekers were aware that Lucia had accepted one of the commissions as well. So, Mercury slowly felt his time running out, and the start signal had just been shot.

Chaotic, but oh well.

"As I was saying, I really wish- uaugh!"

Mercury quickly rolled to the side, when the woman decided to jump up and throw a needle at him.

"For fuck's sake, I was sayiiiiaagah!"

Another lunge, clumsily throwing himself to the floor. At least he would be save for just a moment, after the lady had thrown her knitting needles.

His smile faded a moment later, when she pulled out throwing knives from a pocket in her dress.

"Seriously?"

"Very," she said, narrowing her eyes and homing in on the cat. The thing was small and quite quick, she couldn't afford to lose sight of... where did it go?

"Mana veins, bitch!" Mercury yelled out from behind her, before quickly coursing his power all throughout himself and jumping at her like the small cannonball he was always meant to be.

Age was kind to no one, it hadn't been to him in his old life, and it sure wasn't very nice to this lady. So, when she fell to the floor and he heard a crack, he was fairly sure that the job was done.

"You really could have let me finish, lady. I was saying 'Man, you really struck a nerve. I have a problem with authority, you know?' Fucking rude."

And just like that, Mercury poured a jug of water on the fireplace, before prying the hatch beneath it open and jumping down. No shot he was climbing a ladder.

After some more walking through a tunnel that would have been small for human heads, but was easily enough for that of a cat, he made his way into a small, underground expanse, holding a handful of ledgers, an open door to a warehouse with some contraband, and oh, that was a man pointing a crossbow at him. Alrighty.

"Hands up," the man said, calmly striking a match and lighting a cigar with his free hand.

Mercury hesitated for a moment, unsure of what to do.

"Oh, shit, right, you don't have hands, do you?" The man said, giving Mercury a few moments to look at him more closely. Well trimmed beard, stubbles for a mustache, hard eyes and strong nose. A little on the thicker side, but by no means fat. Short, black hair, a little longer behind his hat, and a black suit on.

This guy looked like the definition of a mafia boss.

"Not particularly, no," Mercury replied slowly.

"Well, it's fine. Just stay where you are. Take a seat, go on."

Mercury sat down. he hated authorities, and had an instinct within him to immediately rebel simply because someone else had told him to do something, but he supressed it. The spiky bolt securely pointing at him was certainly a good motivator.

"Alright, good kitty."

He flinched for a moment, but barely restrained his fury.

"Oh, you don't like that, do you? Well, shit, sucks to be a kitty I guess. Thinking you can come in here, take down my old guardian, and kill me just like that?"

"That was the plan."

"Shit plan, mopaaw."

"I realized," Mercury said, trying his best not to hiss too much.

"Well, go on then. This is the part where you tell me all about how you got here and found out, or I put this bolt straight through you."

Mercury believed the man without hesitation. He could tell by <Intuition>. He had killed before, and he'd do it again. to people like that, life was just another coin to trade in.

"Well, it was through Birk, as you might've guessed."

"Hm, letter was pretty convincing. Had his prints, too. How'd you fake it?"

Mercury's head was churning as he spoke. This was a dangerous situation. If he said to little, he'd be killed. If he said too much, he might be killed because he wasn't useful anymore. He had to figure out a way before hitting either one of the thresholds.

He was... calmer than he though. Mercury took a singular deep breath, before speaking.

"Well, it wasn't quite a fake. The boy wrote it all by himself."

"Boy?" the boss asked. "He's a boy to me, but how old are you then?"

"36, ah, no, 37 now, I suppose."

"37?! Mate, you're shitting me, most mopaaws grow to be 20 at best, and you want to tell me you're not even fully grown at 37?"

"Look, that's what dealing with multiple generation gaps will do to you. Zoomers, and boomers, and even alphas, like man. What a journey. But is this a quiz about me or something else?"

Mercury said what was on his mind, since this was do or die anyways. Him or that guy would die, for sure. No two ways about it, so he wasn't very worried about personal information.

He took another deep breath while the man spoke, feeling out his body and watching its potential rise.

"Right... Wait, zoomers? You dealt with fast things? And explosions? And wolves? What kind of life did you lead...?"

Mercury took one more breath as the man asked. Ah, there it was. He found that feeling, deep within himself, that encompassing understanding.

It was... hard to quite put it into words, but instinctively he knew all about it. This was what it meant to breathe. This was what it meant to have air course through you, what it meant to have energy go through you, what it meant to have raw potential running through your every vein.

Mercury understood. To breathe was to give fuel to oneself, to the brain, to the muscles, to power. In a similar way, he could feed them power through stamina, but now that he understood, there was something else.

"Hey, kitty? Awfully quiet there, did I catch you on a lie?"

Something... different. It didn't feel stable yet malleable like mana, nor did it have the quiet rush of air to it, no, no, no. It was... vibrant. Powerful. Energetic.

It was like he had explosive charges within himself. He had been running on wind and water power, but now he discovered oil. Something the like.

"Brat?! Talk, before I put this through your sk-"

He detonated it.

With a rush of intensity, his mana, his breath, and at the same time his stamina, they exploded into a firework of power, enough to temporarily allow him to go much further than what his limits were supposed to be.

He tried to casually take a step forward, only to end up launching himself towards the man, and smashing into his face, knocking the two of them to the floor.

So this... this was what it meant to breathe!

Mercury was still within a deep state of ihn'ar, so all the rush of noise and action around him now seemed so slow. The man yelling and falling, the furniture being knocked over, the crossbow fired and clanging against the stone walls. All of it was distant.

Instead, Mercury heard the air rushing into his lungs, filling them up to their brim as the oxygen rushed to where it was needed. He heard his blood flow through him, heard it in his ear, combined with the boiling of mana and the vibrant hissing of... was that... his stamina?

He felt where every part of his body was, and straightened himself out, making the first good landing in ages, as the man came crashing down, with a single mopaaw gracefully standing on his face.

Whoa.

[The individual has acquired the ability <Breath lv. 1> through a specific action.]

[The individual has acquired the ability <Stamina Vessel lv. 1> through a specific action.]

[The individual is stepping past their limits. Hp is declining. Increase your Strength and Vitality to combat this effect.]

[The individual is stepping past their limits. Trial odds calculated. Would you like to initiate? Y/N]

Y-

[Trial initiated. Completion condition: Maintain the state of ihn'ar until the end of combat. Reward: <Mana Expansion (Guide)> Skill, 5 Ability points, 100 Skill points. Penalty: Loss of <Breath>, regression of <Mana Veins> and <Endeavour>.]

Oh fuck.

Mercury was aware of two things, keeping a cool head only by using <Steady Heart> constantly. Okay. First of all, he could already feel his ihn'ar getting shakier. His breath had inadvertenly changed. He no longer used it to focus, instead he understood breath by itself, and was now using it to power up, instead of focusing on his mental state.

It was a double edged sword. If he focused more on his power, he would lose his ihn'ar, but if he focused on his ihn'ar, he would be unable to maintain his breath properly.

His meditation was already shaky, so quite frankly, he needed to end this quickly. And what better way to go about it but by tried and true methods.

"<Throw>!!!"

Three sharp rocks impacted the boss' face and once, and his body went limp. Within less than a few seconds, Mercury had taken him out.

[Killed a Mafia Boss (?). Get: 500 Exp, boss' ring, half-burnt cigar.]

[By braving extraordinary circumstances, the individual has received additional rewards. Get: <Mana Expansion (Guide)>, 5 Ability points, 100 Skill points.]

And just like that, Mercury gave a bright, blood covered grin, before quickly interrupting it to spew out some more blood. What a fucking party this had been.

Oh man, those were some familiar funky little colours he got in his vision. Was he really that close to passing out? Maybe he should sit down... perhaps not on the corpse.

Mercury took a moment to calm down on the floor, breathing in through his nose and out through his mouth. The metallic smell of blood wasn't very bothersome to him, he had gotten very used to it over the time he had spent hunting, and quite frankly, his carnivorous instincts already told him to eat.

Still, this was just a step too far, he'd definitely not eat a human. Instead, maybe he should take some time to check out his rewards now? What had he missed?

Vitality: 46 -> 48

Wisdom: 50 -> 54

Willpower: 55 -> 58

Luck: 18 -> 19

[The dracoleather cloak has reached a quarter proficiency! <Drake's Wings> blessing has been unlocked.]

[<Drake's Wings>: A blessing belonging to the dracoleather cloak. It can be activated once a week, and temporarily increases the user's agility and dexterity. The increase and time of activity is determined by the user's proficiency.]

Oh, nice! Well then, he should probably at least check out the drops, though they didn't sound too promising. As always, these drops landed directly in his inventory, and were taken away from the corpse based on the system's jurisdiction. It was weird like that.

The body would be processed again separately, but the system would apparently randomly pick out some drops specifically that would then receive special effects. Of course, if the corpse was processed and made into other things, that system would then go on to categorize and rank those as well.

Weird shit.

In any case, <Appraisal> if you would be so kind?

[Boss' ring: The ring of a mafia boss (?), it enhances all Skills related to crimes, examples of which based on the user's thoughts include, but are not limited to, <Steal>, <Hunt>, <Bloodlust>. Additionally, it provides the user with a +2 to wisdom while worn. Grade: D]

Equip. No hesitation.

[Half-burnt cigar: The cigar of a mafia boss (?). It is half burnt and retains very few of its qualities, however, when smoked it increases intimidation factor. Remaining uses: 2. Grade: E+]

What a weird fucking thing. Well, he'd store it for now, though he didn't know if he would use it anytime soon. Alright, now, one final thing, what about his Skills?

[<Endeavour> has levelled up! <Endavour lv. 8 -> lv. 10>]

[<Endeavour> has met the necessary qualifications for evolution. Evolve?]

Huh?