Forged Legacy

Chapter 150 - Survival Doctrine

“Give him a potion!” a strange voice called out. Harvey’s mind was swimming, and he could feel his eyes rapidly moving despite not being able to see anything.

“I did. He’s already overdone it. Potions can only help as long as your weave and vitality still have the energy to use them. His body needs my skill to guide the energy,” another voice responded.

A warmth spread over him, like his soul was being hugged. It soothed his frazzled mind, and he finally realized who was talking.

“I’m okay,” Harvey croaked, wiping away the dried blood holding his eyelids shut. Cash was still healing him, his blue-stained lips suggesting he’d needed an essence potion to keep the light glowing.

“Oh, thank heavens,” Steve cried, kneeling down and fiercely hugging him around the shoulders.

“I told you he’d be fine,” Cash complained.

“Well, excuse me for worrying when my son’s got a hole in his chest!” Steve snapped, the grizzly bear inside poking out for just a moment.

Looking down, Harvey saw what he meant. The flesh beneath was mostly mended, still a little pink from the healing process. His armor was another story. His steel breastplate had a basketball-sized hole in the middle, the edges curling outwards where the eruption of infernal flames pushed it back. He remembered severing his connection with Soulforge right before the bullet arrived, saving him from what would have surely been a brutal injury to his weave. The inscriptions were broken beyond repair, and he felt coarse ash from the burned undergarments grinding against his skin whenever he moved.

“Umm… yeah. That does look pretty bad,” Harvey hummed.

“What happened? The last thing I remember was throwing a few bombs before waking up inside an apartment,” Tyler asked.

“The demoness hypnotized you, took the form of your mother to try and lure you off the roof,” Cash explained.

“Mom? How would it know what she looks like?” Tyler pressed.

“Succubi like her commonly have skills that let them peer into someone’s mind and turn into the thing they are most attracted to. It also shares some of your memories of that person to help sell the illusion,” Cash explained.

“Good thing it turned into mom, then,” Harvey chuckled. “She would’ve killed you if it were Scarlett Johansson.”

All three of them started laughing while Cash looked confused. It broke the tension enough that radiant light began to glow from all three of their weaves. He wasn’t surprised to see that he’d gained a level, but Tyler and Steve getting a bump was a nice bonus.

Your class, Forgefire Arsenalist, has reached Level 47. +4 Vitality, +4 Endurance, +16 Wisdom, +6 Willpower, +6 Free Points

Despite barely contributing with the grenades he’d left them, helping kill two Level 62 demons pushed both Tyler and Steve’s classes up to Level 15. They’d purposely waited to create their second skills that morning until they’d gotten more combat experience, and now they’d managed to unlock their third slot in one day.

“Congrats, you three,” Cash smiled, helping pull Harvey to his feet once it was clear he wouldn’t pass out again. “Come on, we need to get out of here.”

Harvey walked over to Varek’s corpse while Cash placed the naked succubus and sinners into a slipsack. Harvey knew demon bodies were useful in a wide array of crafting methods, but hoped it wasn’t the same for sinners. Rolling the demon over, Harvey grabbed his hand and plucked the two rings from his fingers. Inspecting them with Artificer’s Eyes, he was surprised to see they weren’t actually magical equipment. There weren’t even any arrays to facilitate those golden threads consuming the vitality of the bodies or the equipment. They were just golden rings with massive gemstones on top. The diamond held a strong resonance of hardness, and the ruby seemed to resonate with vitality in a way he didn’t quite understand, but that was it.

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“What the hell?” Harvey asked, showing the rings to Cash. “I would’ve bet everything these were either magical or conjured by a skill, but they’re just normal rings?”

“A lot of skills are channeled through items. Having something real to store and control the energy tends to make them stronger and cheaper to use,” Cash explained.

“Really?” Harvey asked, putting the rings inside his storage before gathering the 6 that were once again looped through Varek’s wings. “I hadn’t thought of that.”

“Well, you created one by accident then. That Flamestrike skill of yours is similar. Technically, you could infuse anything with that Skill, but it works better when the target is a weapon with the right resonances.”

That opened up a lot of new possibilities for him. Everything he learned about the System seemed to remind him just how much he didn’t know. It would be a minute before he got his next Class skill, but he’d have to make sure he talked to Cash before he pulled the trigger.

Rummaging through Varek’s torn and bloodied clothes, Harvey found a slipsack tucked away in the breast pocket inside his suit jacket. Inside were a small array of potions, a rack of extra suits that would never fit Harvey, no matter how much tailoring he got, a briefcase full of poker chips, and various odds and ends he’d never use. Varek didn’t appear to be a crafter, so none of his possessions had any good resonances for ink. The succubus’ slipsack was gone, devoured by the skill Varek used to charge his diamond ring.

The one thing the skill couldn’t consume was her Legacy, which had sloughed off her skin in a crystallized tattoo that Cash had stowed away before Harvey could get a look. He’d looted legacies before and knew they were powerful crafting materials, but he’d yet to use any of them in his inks. Doing so just felt… wrong, especially after experiencing Julian’s legacy combined with the Cognition Matrix. He knew it wasn’t anything necromantic, but he couldn’t see a person as an ingredient.

He’d have to talk to Cash about it.

Stowing Varek’s corpse, he found an Imprint radiating hunger and greed and a Mark containing the infernal resonance he’d begun to associate with all things demonic. Hell didn’t exactly lay claim to the resonance since there were plenty of other factions in the multiverse using the same concepts, but it was a staple of their paths. Both disappeared into his ring as he stood up and stretched.

Seeing how light their slipsacks were was a stark reminder that these weren’t lieutenants. He’d almost died fighting two stock-standard demons. Sure, they were higher level than him, but he had three Imprints compared to their one. It was easy to underestimate them after fighting beside Cash, but he had to remember that his angel friend was a healer first and foremost. How was Harvey supposed to turn the tides of war when he barely survived a skirmish?

[Just keep fighting. You grow stronger every day. They don’t.]

I know you’re right, but it’s still daunting.

[They’ve already reached their full potential, just waiting for the System to ease up the restrictions.]

I said I know. You don’t have to beat it into me.

[Just making sure you don’t get in your own head,] Julius laughed. [That’s my job.]

With the important stuff gathered, they made their way back towards Heaven. The Thorne family wasn’t known for their sense of direction, so it was nice to have a clear line in the sky letting them know where to go. As long as they walked toward the light, they’d get home eventually. They moved carefully, hiding under Cash’s wings until they finally reached the border of destroyed suburbs.

“Good hunt. You guys did well,” Cash said.

“Went a lot better than your last one,” Harvey agreed.

“The hellhounds and brimfiends did. I still feel bad we couldn’t do more against the demons,” Steve said.

Harvey stopped, waiting for the family to turn back and look at him. “Don’t. In fact, the second we see a demon, I want you to run and hide.”

“Only if you’re coming with us,” Steve dismissed.

“No. Right now, we have two priorities. First, survive. Second, get stronger. For the two of you, that means killing beasts. For me, it’s killing demons, but I can’t do that if I’m worried about protecting you.”

“I hate knowing you had to face those two alone,” Steve muttered.

“And I appreciate that, but the reason I was is that the two of you were ready to take a dive into the concrete the moment she looked at you. That’s not your fault, you’re just not ready yet.”

“Son…”

“If you don’t want me to be alone, then you have to live. Plain and simple. Hopefully, these new skills you create will help you catch up a little faster, but until you do, I need to trust you’ll listen to me about this.”

Steve and Tyler both looked at each other nervously, only settling when Cash put a reassuring hand on their shoulders.

“Like I said, you guys did well. But, Harvey’s right. You need to learn to walk before you can run.”

Eventually, his father nodded. “Alright, fine. Let’s go see if our new skills can help speed things along.”