Nightmares Paradise [LITRPG System Integration]

Jon suppressed a wince, as the effects of adrenaline and natural endorphins slowly wore off.

After fighting two battles today, Jon felt his preternatural muscles ache, strained under the effects of multiple usages of [Cometh Thy Red Horse Awaits]. Despite spiritual energy flowing through his form, Jon felt the enhancement effect of his Spell pushed his physical capabilities to their absolute limits.

He could not be certain that there existed a fragment capable of a passive increase to physical capabilities, but if there was, it would definitely improve the drawbacks of his fourth ability.

Not to mention the fact that he lacked any sort of self-healing method. The agonizing heat that burned the flesh of his arm was reminded Jon of the limits of his mortal coil. Perhaps that was Jon's greatest weakness at the moment.

Jon stood up, almost staggering as he moved closer towards the river. Despite the searing pain emanating from halfway down his forearm, he moved with a sense of purpose and clarity, stripping himself down to his underwear and dipping his body into the cool, soothing river.

The first steps in first aid relating to burns was to reduce pain and swelling by running it under cool water. Ice or anything frozen would potentially damage the skin, and the only source of water Jon had available was contained within the river. Jon also needed to clean the wound, preventing any chance of infection or contamination.

He did not have any soap or detergent within his backpack or duffel bag, and he had yet to retrieve either of them after being blown away by the stupidly powerful, ash-feather explosion that crazy duck released.

Jon needed to reduce his swelling and inflammation as much as possible. He needed to prevent infection or anything from potentially contaminating his wounds. He needed to figure out a method of covering the wound finding some substitute material for a bandage or gauze.

The eighteen-year-old glanced down at the skin of his left arm. He did not want to risk running his fingers along it but could clearly see the patches of warped skin and blisters running down the length of his forearm. Layers of skin had boiled and popped in the time it took to blink, revealing the raw flesh beneath.

Jon had read somewhere that third-degree burns could destroy nerves. He could quite clearly feel the stinging and throbbing sensation up his arm, so while he could not be certain, he was somewhat sure that he did not have any nerve damage.

'Fuck. If I ever come across another bloody duck again, I swear it'll be a thousand years too early'. Jon tried to crack a joke but only laughed at himself for making such a dumb comment.

Jon felt his eyes water, thinking it was a random surge of dopamine now that all of his adrenaline had worn off. The young man could not help but laugh, seemingly for no reason at all, shaking his head and staring up at the sky.

'You can't get rid of me that easily', Jon thought, as if trying to communicate with the System. Jon took one last glance down at his arm, before gritting his teeth and exiting the river.

The focus of his attention moving towards the corpse of the fire-breathing duck. Jon did not realize just how much force his grip strength could produce under the effects of [Cometh Thy Red Horse Awaits], seeing that he long neck of the duck now possessed a more jagged appearance to it. Jon knew he must have broken its neck in several places, his face scrunching up in distaste before placing his unblemished hand on one of the puncture wounds.

Using his foot as leverage, Jon activated his physical enhancement Spell for a couple seconds, using it to tear the duck open. Blood and guts spilled onto the riverbank, giving Jon a savage and barbaric appearance, wearing nothing but his underwear. The young man tore off its wings and legs, washing them in the river knowing that this would be his dinner for the evening.

After roughly ten minutes of Jon destroying the corpse of the duck, Jon cradled his loot in two hands. There was an abundance of fragments contained within the duck, more than what Jon had seen in any other creature.

Fragment Of "Refractory" discovered.

Fragment Of "Feathers" discovered.

Fragment Of "Breath" discovered.

Fragment Of "Eruption" discovered.

Fragment Of "Size" discovered.

And the centrepiece of Jon's rewards.

"Fire" Mana Core discovered.

Would you like to integrate this "Fire" Mana Core?

Y/N

The Fire Mana Core in Jon's hands possessed an appearance and texture unlike any substance he had ever seen before. From a distance, the Fire Mana Core appeared no different than a common spherical gemstone, with a lustre somewhere in between a ruby and a carnelian.

Its size made it stand out amongst the other fragments in Jon's possession, possessing a size somewhat reminiscent of a baseball, unlike the other thumb sized gemstones the rest of the fragments resembled.

However, placing baseball-sized gemstone in his hands, Jon could feel that the Fire Mana Core in his hands was quite a solid. Just holding onto it created indents in the curvature of the sphere, pushing the rest of its mass upwards, making it feel as though there was water, or some sort of other liquid contained within.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

Jon was somewhat hesitant to apply a significant amount of force to the object, but tried pulling it apart with both hands, watching as the substance stretched, but not dip in the centre where the liquid should have pooled.

It almost reminded Jon of some sort of dough, but letting go of the Fire Mana Core immediately let it return to its original spherical form.

'It's strange. It feels like a gemstone to the touch, but the moment I come into contact with it, it behaves more like a water balloon more than anything else. Is there something inside of it? Liquid spiritual energy or something?' Jon was drawing at straws at this point, scratching the back of his head before bringing up his notification to integrate his new Mana Core.

Jon stared at it for a moment, slightly hesitant at accepting the integration request.

After the pain he had experienced within the Pure Room as a result of integrating his Knowledge Mana Core, Jon was definitely more cautious when staring at this Mana Core. If Jon was forced to experience a similar amount of pain, he wanted to make sure that absolutely no one else was around and was away from any other predators.

The pain would make him unable to focus on his surroundings. Even with his strange sense of clarity, Jon knew that it wouldn't be enough to distract him from screaming or even crying.

He was not afraid to say that he scared.

Willingly receiving such an extraordinary amount of pain… was not normal.

Even if he did potentially get superpowers out of it.

Lifting a finger to accept the notification, Jon felt his [Monstrous Intuition] flare up, causing him to leap back and swivel his head around, locking gazes with a creature he had never seen before.

Jon had unconsciously reached for his spear, forgetting about his current nakedness while narrowing his eyes at the… elf?

Jon blinked, seeing the two-legged humanoid raise its hands and arms, trying its best to appear non-threatening despite its soundless approach. There was a… or, at the very least, there was what Jon thought was a slight smile marring the face of this alien humanoid. While, it seemed harmless and distinctly non-threatening, this alien individual put Jon more on edge than the presence of that duck, or small monkey ever did.

Jon felt the muscles in his spear wielding arm unconsciously tighten, his eyes roaming across the form of this alien creature, searching for any visible weapons or possible mutations born from integrating a fragment.

This alien's skin was near flawless, save a series of long, thin geometric tattoos across the majority of their body. Their ears were pointed outwards, far beyond that of an ordinary human being. Despite wearing relatively form fitting clothing, Jon could not discern whether or not this creature was a male or female.

From a human sensibility, this alien creature was extraordinarily beautiful, their soft, pale green hair running down past their shoulders with an almost… spiritual quality to it. Jon felt his eyes lingering on this creatures' hair, before frowning, narrowing his eyes at them.

'Did it just use some sort of ability on me?' Jon thought to himself, standing to his full height, readying the spear at his side to a more aggressive position.

The creature almost immediately took a step back, before pointing, gesturing towards the fragments laid out before Jon. It swiftly moved to point back at its hair, causing Jon to pause, before nodding slowly.

Pointing at one of the fragments in front of him, he picked it up and then gestured towards his chest, tapping against his heart twice. The creature nodded, before bringing their hair over their shoulder, running their hands through it and letting out a soft sigh.

Their voice seemed hypnotically melodic, at least from a human perspective.

'Has their voice also been mutated due to an ability? It sounded rather feminine, but I suppose aliens might not possess similar biological characteristics to humans. Perhaps this alien doesn't differentiate between male and female?'. Jon paused for a second, before another thought came to mind.

'Wait… am I the first human to ever make contact with aliens!?'.

Jon smiled at the idea, before thinking about how to go about first contact.

While Jon was not sure if this alien was an individual brought into the small realm by the System Introduction, at the very least it was intelligent enough to attempt a conversation with Jon.

Given that it could see the wounds on Jon's body and left arm, and that it had not moved to immediately fight him, Jon was rather curious on what the alien would want if it did not want to fight him.

One of the mandatory System tasks was to learn another language outside of one from their native planets. Perhaps this alien wanted to try and learn Jon's native language in an attempt to swiftly complete one of their System tasks?

Jon could see that this "elf" alien was glancing at the spear in his hands, the expression on their face appearing somewhat apprehensive.

Jon did not want to put down his spear, knowing that even if he could talk to another human being, he could not trust them without getting to know them first. Even if they were both fellow humans, Jon would not place his life in the hands of a stranger, especially while they were both trapped within this place.

However, if Jon was to look at it from this alien's perspective, they approached him not during his fight with the duck, but after. Perhaps they were attracted to the sound of an explosion going off and wanted to see what the commotion was, or saw Jon injured and then subsequently stepped forward.

'If this was the other way around, I would probably wait until the injured alien fell asleep, and then either kill them or steal their belongings.' It felt somewhat heartless, but Jon knew that it was the most practical and rational thing for him to do in order to survive. If he was the weaker creature, he would play it smart and wait for his target to drop their guard before striking, ending it with the least amount of resistance and bloodshed.

It was cold, but Jon could only rely on himself in this world.

There would be very few exceptions to this rule. Perhaps outside of his younger siblings, there were only two other people Jon would be willing to trust, unconditionally.

On the other hand, this creature stepped forward and revealed themselves, arms raised in a benign manner. Jon could not see any weapons concealed on their form, although, given the existence of fragments and the abilities they manifest, people themselves could prove just as dangerous with or without them.

There was a chance that this creature was trying to get Jon to lower his guard and then strike him when he was least expecting it. However, there was also the possibility that this "elf" alien was trying to put their best foot forward, to both increase their chances of survive, and then subsequently clear one of their System tasks.

A task which Jon also had to complete.

Jon's expression did not change, despite the internal conflict going on within himself. Each part of himself was both rational and logical. Despite each of their advantages and disadvantages, one was going to have to give over the other.

Through this all, his [Monstrous Intuition] did not once flare up or give Jon any strange feelings throughout his body. It would be up to him to make the decision, and his ability would be there in the event that he needed it.

Taking a deep breath, Jon placed his spear down on the ground, just out of arms reach. The elf alien blinked, their bright green coloured eyes glancing down towards Jon's spear, before moving back towards him, their head tilting slightly.

Jon thought for a moment, trying to think of an action that would best display his intentions. Eighteen years of the human experience led him to only a single conclusion.

"Jon", he said, pointing a single finger at himself.