"Talent is cheaper than table salt. What separates the talented individual from the successful one is hard work." — Stephen King.
As his consciousness sank to the depths of his mind, the world faded around him. He was still aware of his surroundings, but the sensation from the environment had become dull and faint.
The worm was still whimpering and begging, but its cries were now barely audible. Its cries sounded like they were coming from a place far off into the distance, so he could barely hear them.
Even the perception and control of his body had become dull. In exchange, the perception of the Life Forge became clearer.
His consciousness didn’t descend completely into the Life Forge, though, and it wasn’t for a lack of trying. He wanted to leave his mind completely and escape into that place of peace. Unfortunately, he couldn’t force his way.
’Nothing seems to have changed about that,’ he thought, unconcerned. ’It seems I can only enter it for the brief moment after my death.’
He didn’t come for that space anyway. His goal was something else, something more accessible.
In the special state where his active mind was withdrawn and close to the Life Forge, he made his intentions known by saying, "Status."
-Title: Candidate 1A42B963C
-State of Existence: Mortal with 30% to expire
-Life Anchor/Life Amplification: 1/100%
-Total Attributes: 120 >> 126
-Life Energy: 0.12/day >> 1.26/day
-Talent: Indestructible Soul.
Five tabs appeared in front of him. When he clicked on the first tab with his mind, the remaining four tabs disappeared and were replaced by a submenu that appeared in front of him.
-Title: Candidate 1A42B963C
You are Candidate 1A42B963C in control of the Life Forge. You will be the 3,126th candidate to control the Life Forge in the history of the universe. The Life Forge chose you for your talent.
When he saw this message, he felt conflicted. On the one hand, he felt lucky that he came into possession of the Life Forge, as it is the only reason he is still alive.
He also felt proud, as not everyone was worthy of controlling such an item of great power and potential. After all, only 3,125 people across the universe had controlled the Life Forge before him.
Even on Earth, being in the top 3,125 people out of 8 billion was a sign of excellence. Just the fact that there were about 3,400 billionaires on Earth showed how important it was to be the 3,126th candidate in the potentially infinite universe teeming with lifeforms of various kinds.
Yet, behind all of the flashy pride that his qualifications brought him, there was a hint of worry. He was worried about how the 3,125 candidates before him had died.
’Something of this level of power should have no difficulty making someone immortal and incapable of dying of old age. Unless the Life Forge can’t save from death by old age and create immunity for it.’
’If the Life Forge couldn’t save the 3,125 candidates before me from dying of old age, then so be it. But if it can and they are still dying anyway, then I definitely have a problem. Either way, the Life Forge isn’t omnipotent.’
The one way he knows he can die permanently is if he runs out of Life Anchors and something kills him. Then he won’t be able to reboot his life force and resurrect.
If this is all he has to be afraid of, he wouldn’t mind it. But it is still terrifying, as it indicates that even with something as powerful as the Life Forge, which can resurrect people and create immunities in those people so that they can’t die the same way, 3,125 people still died.
"Therefore, I can’t rest easy. I have to use everything in my power to grow stronger and avoid death so that I don’t become the 3,126th person to die even with such a great tool."
"I want to laugh and mock the 3,125 people before me who died, but I don’t know the whole story. I’m also worried that the 3,127th candidate after me will laugh at me when a knife falls from a building and buries itself in my head, killing me," he said, chuckling.
When he was a lowly mortal on Earth, he had only one life, but he was fine with it. He knew that he could die at any moment, but he wasn’t worried about it because death would be the end of him.
However, now that a single death wouldn’t be the end and he had to live with how he died after dying, the different ways he could die had now become too important to ignore.
He has to be very careful about how he dies, especially since his Life Anchors are valuable and difficult to make. He can’t just trip over a banana and die after spending years to make a Life Anchor.
He was thinking about dying by banana and chuckling as he swiped the submenu from his sight. Then he clicked on the last tab to see what exactly had made the Life Forge choose him. He also wanted to see if he anything had changed about his talents that he could use to make himself stronger.
-Talent: Indestructible Soul.
-Primary Talent: Indestructible Soul.
Your soul does not degrade after death and does not wear out in life. This makes you one of the best candidates for the Life Forge. With this talent, you will be able to use the Life Forge without the risk of soul collapse after each death.
-Secondary Talent(1): Enhanced Physical Recovery.
Your body now recovers from crippling injuries. You also recover at ten times the normal recovery rate.
-Secondary Talent(2): Enhanced Digestive System.
Your digestive system has become nearly perfect at digesting flesh. You absorb 99.999% of the flesh you eat.
-Secondary Talent(3): Gluttony Physique.
You can now grow physically stronger by eating.
-Secondary Talent(4): Gluttony Metamorphosis.
When you reach the limit of your growth, you can undergo metamorphosis under the right circumstances, gaining more growth potential and breaking the limit.
"Hmmm. I bet many of the 3,126 people before me died because they used the Life Forge to recover too many times."
"I guess this is another reason to be proud. But what else can I use an indestructible soul for?" he asked, racking his brain.
He wasn’t asking the Life Forge that question. He didn’t ask because experience has shown the Life Forge doesn’t answer questions.
From what he can tell, the Life Forge is a lifeless program. It is somewhat ironic to him that something that can maintain life isn’t alive itself, but that’s something he isn’t qualified to criticize the Life Forge for since he couldn’t make something better.
So he had asked himself that question, and he didn’t expect an answer from the Life Forge. Like the many times he had asked the Life Forge questions before, he didn’t receive an answer now.
After racking his brain and failing to come up with an answer, he shifted his focus to the State of Existence tab to see how much time he had left.
-State of Existence: Mortal with 30% to expire
-Life Level: Mortal-1
-Lifespan: 27/90
-Entropy: 1/120 >> 1/126
-Entropy Dissipation: 1%/hour >> 10%/hour
This is how long he has to live before he has to worry about whether the Life Forge can save him from dying of old age and replenish his lifespan.
Clearly, an indestructible soul doesn’t mean he can live forever. And Lifespan is not the only thing he has to worry about.
When he reaches either limit, he will die. So if something manages to push his Entropy to its limit, like a fatal injury, he will die regardless of how much lifespan he has.
"I hope there is a way to increase lifespan on my own here in the Obsidian Maw," he said worriedly.
He didn’t want to have something like the Life Forge and still die of old age. It felt like a waste of potential and an insult whenever he considered it. So he was determined to find a way to increase his lifespan and live longer.
If the Life Forge won’t solve the problem of running out of lifespan for him, so be it. He is not counting on it anyway. His expectations lie within the Obsidian Maw around him.
As for the matter of Entropy, he wasn’t worried about it because he already found a way to raise his limit. His limit was 120 units before, but after the gluttony worm upgraded his body, it increased to 126 units, together with his total attributes.
This made him grin and say, "That insatiable worm was worth it after all. It gave me six more attribute points and even increased my Entropy dissipation rate."
"With that Enhanced Physical Recovery talent, I can recover from near total collapse in 10 hours, not the previous 100 hours. That regeneration ability of it is no joke."
The ability to heal nearly every kind of injury and bounce back quickly was something that his previous human body couldn’t do, and he had experienced just how good the regeneration rate was, so he was very satisfied that he gave up one Life Anchor for it.
"Speaking of Life Anchors, when will the next one be ready?" he asked as he brought up the Life Anchor tab.
-Life Anchor/Life Amplification: 1/100%
-First Life Anchor(1): Used to gain one mental immunity.
-Second Life Anchor(10): Used to gain one mental immunity.
-Third Life Anchor(100): Unused and part of Life Amplification.
-Fourth Life Anchor(1,000): Currently at 124.18/1,000. At the energy supply rate of 1.26 units per day, it will be ready in 695.1 days.
"That’s barely 2 years," he said with a smile. "It is fast, but I wish it were faster."
It had taken him 1 unit of resources to create the first Life Anchor. He didn’t know when it was created, as the log didn’t show that information. The log only showed that it was created and what it was used for.
In fact, he didn’t know when he received the Life Forge. If not for the first time he died and his consciousness descended into the Life Forge, he would have remained ignorant of the existence of the Life Forge for a while longer.
This made him often wonder how his life would have turned out if the Obsidian Maw hadn’t eaten Earth. He wondered, then shook his head to dispel the fantasy and return to reality.
"I should forget about what could have been and focus on what I already have. After all, none of the things I could fantasize about could compare to what I am currently experiencing. The sky is the limit," he thought with a heart full of hope.
But just as his hope reached its peak, his need for more Life Anchors rose with it, making him worry about how to get the fourth Life Anchor much earlier.
From the first Life Forge, the difficulty of creating the subsequent ones increased by ten times. So the second Life Anchor cost 10 units of resources, the third cost 100 units, and the fourth would cost 1,000 units. Based on this progression, he could predict that the fifth Life Anchor would cost 10,000 units of resources.
Just yesterday, when the supply of life energy had been 0.12/day, or 0.1% of his total attributes per day, it would have taken him 7,298.5 days, or 20 years, to complete the fourth Life Anchor.
That’s 74% of the time he has lived so far. In 20 years, he would be 47. No one could tell what would happen to him in that time. The mine might cave in on him one day. Or someone might lose their halberd in his guts.
That kind of delay was another reason his life was precious to him. Even if he was immortal and had all the time in the world to wait, each Life Anchor was too precious and would only get more precious over time.
With how precious the Life Anchors were, there was just no way he could risk losing one fighting some Drone over coal, especially since losing a Life Anchor meant losing the Life Amplification and weakening himself overall.
So far, exchanging one Life Anchor to transform into an Apostle had been worth it. He gained four talents from the gluttony worm, and the Enhanced Physical Recovery talent even sped up the rate of construction of the Life Anchors.
Thanks to the gluttony worm making his body stronger from 120 total attributes to 126 and speeding up the supply of Life Energy from 0.1% of his total attributes per day to 1%, he now needs 695.1 days, or 1.9 years. This is nearly a 10-fold improvement, but he still felt it was too long.
"Speaking of Life Energy and where I get it from," he said as he opened the Total Attributes tab.
-Total Attributes: 120 >> 126
-Physical Attributes-
-Strength: 3 >> 5
-Agility: 4 >> 5
-Toughness: 3 >> 5
-Psychic Attributes-
-Spirit: 6
-Mind: 5
-Memory: 99 >> 100
"Hmmm. The gluttony worm should be what’s responsible for the growth in my physique."
"As for that singular improvement in my Memory Attribute, that should be because of my recent encounter with death. After all, the gluttony worm doesn’t improve Psychic Attributes," he said with uncertainty.
But then he stopped thinking about what was responsible for what and said, "That doesn’t matter anyway. In time, I’ll be able to tell for sure what improves the Memory Attribute and Psychic Attributes."
"For now, what I need to worry about is how to get more Life Anchors faster. To do that, I need to increase my supply of Life Energy."
"If I want to increase my supply of Life Energy, I need to increase my Total Attributes. Fortunately, I now have the Gluttony Physique talent."
"With the Gluttony Physique Talent, I shouldn’t have a problem increasing my Physical Attributes. Improvement should come as soon as they let me out of this cell," he said, looking around the small room he was currently locked in.
A/N: Please feel free to suggest ways that Alex can use the Life Forge and his talents to improve his strength. I have my ideas, but helpful suggestions are always welcome.