Inside the main energy pool room, there were six individual energy pools, one for each element. They spouted energy, clean energy, for the tower to function appropriately. Of course, magicians also liked to train in this rooms, since their energy would be replenished faster.
Dane was laying on the floor at the centre of the six pools. After some time, his body started exuding a faint crimson glow, but it was almost imperceptible. Some very accomplished magicians, rangers, druids, or someone with energy view, could see an invisible vortex was starting to form above his body.
Then, as if choreographed, six thick strands of energy, coming from each one of the pools, started converging to the vortex. After some minutes, the pent-up energy started to travel insides Dane's body. His limbs twitched and his eyebrows furrowed. He was soaked in sweat, even though the room temperature was not high. His muscles contracted constantly. A great change was happening inside of Dane's body.
His blood became thicker, yet thinner sometimes. It was like a waltz. A dance that had Dane dancing on the edge of a blade. One misstep and he would fall into the perpetual darkness.
All of his organs, muscles and bones included were changing. Not drastically, but fundamentally. His skin was cracking, but it regenerated almost instantly. All in all, his body was a mess.
This process took 16 hours, and when it finally ended Dane had changed drastically. Yet, he didn't know, for he was still unconscious.
His body had transformed for the better. A good analogy would be the crystal glass that suddenly shattered, but it's crystals were used to create a crystal jug. That was what had happened to Dane. But still, that jug was still empty, but it was slowly filling itself up with the water that was the energy released from his body and the energy pools.
It had been 24 hours since Dane started this process, and the energy pools stopped functioning at maximum capacity. They resumed normal operation. But the leftover energy in the room was still stimulating the leftover energy in Dane's body and thus, he continued to absorb it. This process lasted for one more day. 48 hours in total.
As the energy in the room was all spent and the energy inside Dane's body subsided, the door opened. Walking through it was an old man, with a wooden mask covering aa side of his face. He walked with a complicated expression towards Dane's body in the floor and the knelt beside it.
"My lord… You didn't have to do this… I could've protected you, there was no need for you to suffer." Randwen sighed and summoned a rock elemental. "Pick master up and take him to his quarters. Be gentle." The rock elemental grunted and extended one of his long, slender arms. Somewhere along the way, his arm became a stretcher, so Dane was picked up easily. He was gently placed on top of his bed and left there to rest.
...….
While Dane was unconscious, he still had dreams. One in particular was especially intriguing. Dane was alone in a prairie. He was powerful. At least as strong as he was in the game, and that was no joke. But he still felt helpless.
He started walking aimlessly, but every ten steps or so he took, something cracked under his shoe. Every time, he knelt to the ground. And every time, he discovered a burial mound.
Somehow, he knew exactly who was buried in there. One was his father. The next one, his mother. All of his 20 friends. And the last one, was the grave of Simon Herrera. Finally, he looked around. He was in a summer house his family owned. He used to spend the holidays in there. But now, even the magnifico construction was a ruin.
He kept walking, but the only thing he stepped on was the box of a videogame. "Zeryann, the game." Was written on the box. He didn't mind. He was abandoning everything. But it didn't hurt.
Finally, he reached a door. This door was not placed against a wall, it was just standing there. He reached for the doorknob and opened it. Inside, it was pure darkness. He still kept walking.
After what felt like a really long time, he stopped. His surroundings had changed. He blinked repeatedly and realized he was inside the Thunder Tower, in his bed. His clothes were sticky and his body ached. Still it was a good pain. He felt relaxed, invigorated. After turning his head for a while and pinching his thigh, he realized this was not a dream. He got up and looked at his pants. They were ragged and covered in blood, but there was not even a scar in his leg. He heaved a sigh of relief.
"Shera." Light started to gather in his room, and a beautiful female elf came out of it.
"Master, you are awake." Dane could see traces of happiness and worry on her face. He felt happy.
"Yes, I feel good." Dane smiled. "How long was I out?"
"It has been a little less than 3 days since you entered the main pool room."
"Three days, huh…" Dane stretched and sighed. He lost three days, but he still had a lot to do. "Shera, brief he on the events of the las three days."
"Yes, master. The energy consumption of the energy pools was higher than expected, and we consumed 5 months' worth of energy in a single day. Excluding that, 21 metal puppets have been created. 10 low-ranks, 5 mid-ranks, 5 high-ranks, and 1 transcendent rank. The energy expended in their creation was worth 4 years of energy. The structural damage to the tower was repaired, it expended three years' worth of energy. The items in the treasury had been matched with the items in the tower log. All of them are present. They were arranged according to the specified order and the entrance was sealed until further command. The storage units and libraries have too been arranged. According to the logs and registers, all of the items crafted by the 21 thunders or bought by them but crafted by someone else have been reverted to materials and ingredients. These are in perfect condition. All of the items obtained by other methods but that are still craftable too have been reverted, the results are of the same quality. Items bought from the place called the "Game Store" as well as non-craftable items were not reverted and keep their original effects. All of the tower is now completely operational. Defences are working at standby of 100%, the same for the tower's offenses. There have been a lot of parties exploring the nearby area searching for something. Tentatively, the tower itself. Randwen took care of them. We also compiled the list of important personnel, and it is the most optimal approach. If followed, all of master's objectives in regard to the networks will be achieved in a timespan of a year. Our financial condition is actually somewhat bad. We have a lot of rare items and materials, but our liquidity is almost zero. All of the platinum, gold, silver, and copper coins were reverted to materials. This was also taken into consideration in the list master had us compile. Other than that, my acceptance rate with the tower reached 100% a few hours ago and now I am able to use familiars for infiltration purposes with no risk. That is all that happened, master."
Dane was very satisfied with the progress Shera made while he was out and couldn't help but smile. This was a very efficient Tower spirit, no wonder it was the strongest non-origin item in the world.
"Great, you did good work."
"Thank you, master."
"No need to thank, I was being honest." Dane smiled once again. "Tell Randwen to get ready to leave for Enas City in an hour, and also please bring me a nice set of clothes. Simple ones with durability, temperature, and protection enchantments would be best. There should be a purple one among the items that were left. And also…" Dane took his wand, the protection scroll, all of his gold coins, a sword, and a dagger out of his ring and then handed it to Shera. He also retrieved a rather high-tier staff. "I am sorry for not thinking about this before, but please sort all of these items and arrange them correctly. By the way, excluding the treasury, you can come up with any system you like to manage the tower. I doubt I can do better than you, anyway."
"Please don't say that, master. I am sure your ways are superior than mine. But if you insist, I'll gladly arrange all of the items." Shera smiled. It looked a little evil.
"Well, whatever you wish. So please go tell Randwen. I need to do some things."
"As you wish, master." Shera then disappeared.
"Things are going well, so I need to be extra careful in order to keep this up." Dane started walking towards the bathroom and washed his face. The awakening process was really painful, but it was over now. All that is left is to reap the benefits. Dane smiled and looked into the mirror.
He froze for a second.
"What the hell is going on?"
Simon Herrera could not be considered handsome, but he was definitively not ugly. He would still stand out as a genius and a billionaire, but he was not very attractive. Dane Revari shared this trait. He had a non-descript appearance. Black hair and brown eyes. Normal skin, normal factions, normal body. You would not remember him if you saw him walking on the street. But what Dane was seeing in the mirror was completely different from what he expected. His hair had changed in colour, and now it was a dark metallic purple. His eyes used to be brown, but now they were a bluish green, with a thin purple ring around the pupil. His skin was smoother and stronger, it looked like marble. And all of his muscles were stronger. They ere not toned to the point of it being obvious, but it was still visible.
Dane stared at the mirror for 5 minutes, until he left and sat on his bed.
"What's going on? Was it a physical mutation?" After remembering all of the crazy changes his body went through, he realized he did not actually know the result of the process, and it was a necessity for him to find out.
"Open the event log."
After Dane said that, a bunch lines of text appeared in front of him. He moved back until he reached the damage notice when he stabbed his thigh. After reading for a while, his eyes were opened as saucers.
"No, fucking, way…"
[Seed of the undying tree consumed. In the process of absorbing… Drop of God's Blood consumed. In the process of absorbing… Blood Essence of the Storm Eagle used. In the process of absorbing… Bloodline Talisman Used. In the process of absorbing. Soul Awakening Crystal detected. In the process of absorbing…]
[Host's body is changing drastically. Calculating new data…]
[Bloodline of the Storm Eagle acquired, completion rate bloodline.
Shadow Constitution awakened. High-rate awakening.
Racial genes stimulated. Ancient Blader race heritage awakened. Human race regressed into the Ancient Human race. Ancient Human race heritage awakened.
Ancient Elven Soul traits awakened. Ancient Elven Soul Strengthens all physical traits.
Bloodline Talisman consumed. Storm Eagle bloodline evolving.
Bloodline evolution strengthens the soul, augmenting Ancient Elven traits.
Bloodline of the Storm Phoenix acquired. Bloodline concentration increasing…
Player's body suffered a dramatic and fundamental change. The system is recalculating data… Data recalculated. Body stabilized. Changes in player's body granted an automatic subclass. Showing player information.
Name: Dane Revari
Race: Ancient Human(low-grade) / Ancient Blader (mid-grade)
Bloodline: Storm Phoenix (low-grade).
Age: 17
Level: 1
Status: Light Injuries. (3 days to recover)
Position: Noble. Master of the Thunder Tower
Class: None
Subclass: ¿¿¿??? (Player needs to choose a class before unlocking a subclass.)
Strength: 5 + ({¿?} Blocked until heritage is unlocked)
Vitality: 5 + ({¿?} Blocked until heritage is unlocked)
Speed: 5 + ({¿?} Blocked until heritage is unlocked)
Dexterity: 5 + ({¿?} Blocked until heritage is unlocked)
Intelligence: 5
Mana: 50 + ({¿?} Blocked until heritage is unlocked)
Stat points available: 20 (blocked)]
Dane expected to see a lot of messages regarding his condition, but he never expected those three huge surprises that were the bloodline evolution, the human race regression, and the subclass acquisition. Especially the last one.
If you are stimulating your body it stands to reason that unforeseen changes will happen sometimes, and even though twice in the same moment was highly unlikely, it wasn't impossible. So, Dane dwelled very little on those two. He would need to wait till level 10 to unlock them, anyway. However, the subclass is the most interesting part of it all.
Subclasses were something the player could find but not seek. They required a certain succession of events or achievements to be gained, and it was sheer luck. The game was so massive, that once a specific route to choose a subclass was used, it immediately became temporarily disabled and another route was activated. There were 15 different routes for each subclass, and it alternated randomly between each other, so it was no surprise that even Simon, as the game creator, thought it to be too much hassle and never got a subclass.
However now, at level 1, he got one of them. It was completely unexpected. But, he would still have to wait until level 10 to figure out what he obtained. Hopefully its not something useless.
Once Dane accepted his, apparently, awesome luck and new looks, he called Shera for the clothes he requested. Shera immediately arrived with a set of silk pants and shirts and the robe he requested. She also gave him his ring back, as she said she already took out all of the items and was in the process of arranging them.
Dane kept his belongings inside and got dressed. He had a lot to do before reaching the academy, and all of it was in Enas city. It was far away, but it could be reached by a teleport gate, although it would be very expensive. But luckily, the one thing he had right now was money, as Elliot left him with a bundle of gold coins.
Dane reached the teleport portal in the first floor of the tower, Randwen was already waiting there. He got on one knee and greeted him.
"My lord, it is a pleasure to see you are doing well."
"Heh, thanks, Randwen. Are you ready to go to Enas?"
"Yes, master."
"Really? Where's your equipment?"
"Master, all my gear was reverted to materials, so I am wearing what I could find." Randwen was dead serious, but Dane was dumbstruck.
"Randwen, we have a lot, and I mean a LOT of unused equipment. Go to the storage and select something useful for you. No need to be flashy, just make sure it is a good fit. Also, feel free to grab any wand or staff there is available. You are practically naked like that."
"My lord, I do not dare to claim your belongings, even if it is a simple common wand…"
"Randwen, it is an order. And make sure you pick the best gear you find for you as long as it is not flashy. We don't want you wearing a dragon leather cape now, do we? But we still have to be prepared."
"… Yes, master. Your wish is my command." Randwen left for the storage, which left Dane with a bittersweet taste. Can he not think for himself? Well, it is just that he is way too loyal. Maybe it will pass.
Dane sighed. Randwen was one of the least troublesome of vassals, so he, somehow, was not as eager to unseal the rest of them as he was a minute ago.