Chương 63: R&R2 Ch. 2 — Level up

It had taken two days, but both of them (Nicholas) were finally ready to go through the ascension process. The two of them were in one of the secure training chambers so that in case the rank-up was a tad explosive, nothing bad would happen. It was a good thing they were ranked so low, otherwise they would have to wait even longer since the trains couldn't handle an explosive level up from some higher ranks.

"Should we take a screenshot to remember our stats before we level up?" Jasmine asked jokingly.

"Not a chance I'm going to wait till after we are done to take a look." Nicholas said, sitting down. It was best to do it in a position that felt natural, and this was the one that spoke to him. Jasmine sat across from him. They planned on going in together since they didn't know what would happen if they went in separately with their connection. They also didn't know what would happen if they went in at the same time.

But it seemed like it was going to be a more pleasant experience for them, even if it wasn't for anyone else.

"See you on the other side," Jasmine said, closing her eyes to meditate.

"Race you back," Nicholas joked. Because both of them had been resisting leveling up this whole time, the moment they tried to initiate it, they instantly formed their respective doorways in their power. Jasmine floated in the void of space in front of the crystal, and when she looked down, even more of her body was crystalline than it had been before. If she had to guess, it would be somewhere around two-ninths of her body.

"Is this one going to take long?" she asked, waving to the Hero Crystal. It was the source of her power, so she could at least be a little bit polite to it, even if she thought it was kind of ridiculous sometimes.

"For you no, for your partner, it takes longer," the crystal intoned, which made sense to Jasmine. For her, this was just finally letting power fill the parts of her body that had been blocked off all her life. Nicholas's body was literally mutating.

"Can you make it so that I return like one second before him since we're racing back?" Jasmine asked eagerly. If she could have a chance to rub it in, she was going to take it. What else were friends for?

"This request doesn't make sense to me, but if you wish, I can do that for you?" the crystal said.

"Yes!" Jasmine pumped her fist into the air. Now came the part she actually wasn't sure about. She had questions to ask, but she wasn't sure if she could actually ask them or if they would come across as mean somehow.

"Are you the cause of the waves?" Jasmine asked, crossing her arms and doing her best disappointed mom voice. She didn't have kids, but she wanted them, and it was important to practice the disappointed mom voice.

"No," the crystal said, and Jasmine didn't believe the crystal at all. Maybe it was because it was another existence altogether, or it had limited interaction with humans, but it was a terrible liar.

"You're supposed to answer my questions truthfully, Hero Crystal, and that didn't sound truthful."

"It is correct; it is just misleading." Jasmine glared at the crystal, and she could feel the crystal glaring back at her. But the crystal was following the rules. And it was worth it to ask the question because it was information she wouldn't get from anyone until she was stronger to force them to give the information to her. As a rookie, she needed to use her questions with the crystal carefully. She had a total of twenty-four since she didn't get the first stage ones.

"Can you explain the part that would let me understand why it is misleading?" Jasmine asked carefully.

"While it is not me that causes waves or Beyonders, it is because of me they happen on Earth. There are beings like me that are less than approving of what I have done here." Jasmine had guessed that. She knew the history well enough; powers had existed for nearly a decade before Beyonders had shown up. Even if powers back then had been super rare.

"Are the waves and Beyonders all from one being like you or more?" Jasmine asked, hoping that her final question was a good one.

"Originally, it had just been one." Jasmine had figured that as well. Beyonders were increasing in quantity and quality, and waves were becoming more common too. But the rate of supers was mostly staying the same. Did that mean they were in a permanently losing battle? Jasmine wouldn't accept that; that was why she and Nicholas were going to reach the top. They would change everything. She pulled up her stats while she waited to be sent back.

Jasmine Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings. Level: 3 Belief: 22, 982 Karma: 19, 143 Power: Soul Forge Reforged Body: Soul Isolated All other information restricted. It was the same as usual; the level-up pending message was gone, as was the suppression on her body, but it was the same as it had been this morning. Now she just needed to aim higher.

"By Hero!" Jasmine said, waving a hand.

"Goodbye Jasmine, may your path continue forward," the crystal said as Jasmine returned to her body.

Nicholas floated in the void of space, bored. There wasn't much he could do, and he had already decided he didn't like the crystal that was trying to taunt him with information. He also hadn't wanted to choose what kind of body he wanted to get since he had done so much work to make sure the right one was the primary one. So the fact that he had to be asked if he would rather do one he only had a twelve percent synergy with had pissed Nicholas off.

But that was solved, and now his status window revealed his new existence. Nicholas Level: 3 Belief: 21, 786 Karma: 20, 103 Power: Domain: Words Reforged Body: Enhanced Channels All other information restricted. With his new body, he could handle greater workings without having to ride the line between power and exploding his throat.

Hopefully, the increased density of his power would also make up for now he had to fuel that power as well, but if not, he was sure that there were methods he could use that would solve that problem. Unlike last time, the crystal didn't seem all that inclined to talk, and Nicholas wondered if his patience would be beaten by the crystal. There was a decent chance that right now the crystal was sated when it came to social interaction.

Waves always increased the number of heroes leveling up or people hitting level one. Right now might be the best chance to figure out what was going on. And he and Jasmine had talked about it. While his goal to get more information than the crystal wanted to give was fine, they had to ask. Jasmine had shared what she planned to ask, and it was his job to compliment them.

"Why are you trying to get more people to be supers? You're passing out powers at the same rate as before, but there's like hundreds of means to cheat that. Seems like a major loophole." The crystal flickered in response.

"You don't want to put that on the ingenuity of humanity?" Nicholas considered that for a second, but he wasn't going to get monkeys pawed at least right off the rip. That wasn't an answer.

"That's not an answer."

"It is not." Nicholas crossed his arms, waiting for the crystal to decide what it wanted to share for his question that was an actual answer.

"The same reason so many awaken powers to fight Beyonders, I wish to survive." Nicholas considered that for a second, filing it away. That was more than acceptable for an answer, and with what Jasmine was asking, he was certain they could put the clues together from there.

"What's the consequence for cheating advancement? Everyone says that there's a cost but won't share it." Nicholas asked, moving on to the next bullet point.

"It doubles the requirements for every level thereafter." Nicholas couldn't be sure since he only had two data points, but if they were right and level four was one hundred thousand, then that would explain it. If every stage is multiplied by ten, then an additional two. If you cheated, you would run into problems fast. Especially if Nicholas was remembering the global population correctly.

"Did all the Pinnacles get their power the natural way? Belief, Karma, Understanding? Or was it a different method?" Nicholas asked. Hopefully, the crystal would give him a clue based on word choice, but he didn't find it particularly likely.

"Some of them; others used other methods that aren't cheating, but like you said, loopholes are common." The crystal said. The crystal was pissing Nicholas off. It may have been the source of all of his power, but it was still irritating. He glanced down at himself, maybe the source of all of his power was wrong, Nicholas's space body was turning into crystal just like Jasmine had said, it made him wonder if he actually needed the crystal anymore or if it was just his trigger and sponsor so to speak.

Questions had, and transformation finished, Nicholas returned to his body, opening his eyes to see Jasmine beaming at him. He knew he shouldn't have tried to race Jasmine, but it still irritated him that he had lost.

"Recap while we test?" Nicholas asked, levering himself to his feet.

"Room is already making the hardlight equipment," Jasmine said, standing up. On top of whatever unique features they would get from hitting the rank up and being genuine E-ranks, they had genuine super bodies now. They wouldn't be able to match someone with physical abilities on tier, but they could at least be around equals to the rank below them. But there was a lot of variance in that, so they needed to figure out just what they were capable of.

Nicholas just wasn't sure how to trigger it; he knew he wouldn't always have it on, otherwise the older supers when they got startled would rip whatever they're holding. He just wasn't sure how to turn it on.

"Any luck?" Jasmine asked, proving both of them were useless in figuring out what they were supposed to do." Perception" Nicholas and Jasmine both felt their own perception sharpen as they focused on their own flesh. It was a function that they knew had they just couldn't see it, hopefully the command was enough. At the same time, the two of them mentally flipped the switch, and the creation process of the testing equipment slowed down noticeably.

And at the same time, they both flicked it off, not wanting to be stuck waiting for the equipment to be made any longer than they had to. Once everything was ready, the two of them went through the motions to figure out just how superhuman they were. As expected, Jasmine was well into the top echelon of what could be expected from a non-physical type at their rank. Contrary to his own expectations, Nicholas was near the middle of the pack; his hard work having paid off enough to get him out of the dregs.

But what consumed both of their thoughts was the revelation they had when comparing notes. It also called into question how any of this remained an actual secret. Information was easy to get, especially in the world of the internet and super powers. Unless the two of them were using a loophole too.

"So what now?" Nicholas asked, leaning against the wall as his perception slowed back to normal, his physicality off.

"Well, I'm going to have to redo basically all of my gear since a lot of it was wasting power for physicality. And you're going to go cause explosions." Jasmine pointed out.

"It's not going to be explosions." Nicholas scoffed. Jasmine raised an eyebrow.

"But yeah, the moment we're done here, I'm probably going to go up top to try out my abilities at least for one command." He said, breaking after only a few seconds under her stare. They trained for a bit longer, but neither of them had their heart in it. They were stronger than they had been that morning. But the peak was still far away.