Nightmares Paradise [LITRPG System Integration]

With a small grunt, Jon pulled Assail out of the [Winding Wreathe Of Woodland Protection], the barred tip of the spear dripping with a dark crimson liquid.

Jon heard what he thought was the sound of a person crashing onto the ground, causing him to let out a sigh of relief, plunging part of Assail into the ground, leaning most of his weight onto the weapon.

Panting, Jon found it difficult to stabilize his breathing. His breaths were short and swift, his lungs scrambling to obtain as much oxygen as they could possibly absorb. Beads of sweat trailed down the sides of his face, soaking his shirt as a familiar ache trembled throughout his legs and arms.

Since fighting the fire-breathing duck, this encounter with this red-skinned humanoid was the first time Jon felt as though his life was truly on the line.

Two mental suppression effects had been placed upon his mind. The strain of forcing his Seir-Glacial Heart and [Stance Of The White Star] had not been without consequences. He had overloaded over half a dozen different abilities and almost drained the entirety of his spiritual energy from his Knowledge Mana Core and Ice Mana Core.

His muscles and tendons ached with overuse, tension and pain building up within certain areas, most of which was slowly tended to by his [Green Is The Flesh, As Red Is The Blood].

Glancing up at tree barrier in front of him, Jon raised an eyebrow, seeing that it was still standing. It was only after another thirty seconds; did he notice changes start to occur on the outer layers of the [Winding Wreathe Of Woodland Protection].

Jon had not been entirely sure that he killed Han Of The Red Wind, until he saw the tree barrier around him slowly start to wither and fragment. Pieces of bark and leaves crumbling into dust. Without the spiritual energy from the spellcaster to sustain itself, twisting, coiling barrier of trees and branches could do nothing but vanish into tiny little motes of light.

An enormous hole punched through one side of his tree barrier, piercing almost a third of the way through to the other side. The blood-soaked figure of Han Of The Red Wind partially visible, a gaping whole visible in the spot where his heart should have been. His body partially slumped against the inside of his tree barrier.

Jon could not quite see Han's face, his head crumpled downwards. The red-skinned humanoid was unmoving and not breathing. Even his [Monstrous Intuition] not urging Jon to dodge or react to some approaching threat.

After roughly five minutes, Jon felt the pulsing beat of his heart regain its usual slowish rhythm. Although Jon could not be sure if it was unique to the Seir-Glacial Heart, the pseudo-spiritual organ slowed down his heart rate to the point where it did not exceed thirty beats per minute while in a supine position.

Despite the increased quality of blood flow and strength of his heart beats, Jon had strained his Seir-Glacial Heart during that encounter. The eighteen-year-old was at the greatest point in his life physically even before arriving in the System Introduction. Obtaining several mutations to his shadow, eyes and heart had increased his physical and mental capabilities but the effect was not quite as comprehensive as he originally suspected.

'I see now the greatest weakness of the Seir-Glacial Heart on its own. A heart is but one piece of a whole, one organ amongst many. Strengthening a single does only bring benefits for a regular person, but for someone actively overcharging their mutated organ, having only a single physical mutation does cause strain to the rest of the body.'

'The rest of me just cannot keep up with my Seir-Glacial Heart.' Jon realized.

Jon thought that it might be part of the reason as to why each Mana Core could possess six distinct abilities, although scrapped that thought as swiftly as it appeared. There were too many different possibilities, each equally as likely for that particular question.

Jon had felt a sense of "fullness" within his Knowledge Mana Core after integrating five fragments and felt as though he had hit a limit after integrating the maximum of six fragments. Although there were only two other fragments which possessed the Mutation Trait, there was no feeling of wrongness or strangeness about his Hades-Sagacity Shadow or Minerva-Sagacity Eyes after obtaining them.

Taking a deep breath, Jon watched as the final traces of the [Winding Wreathe Of Woodland Protection] vanished, leaving behind the motionless corpse of Han Of The Red Wind. Getting a better look at the red-skinned humanoid, Jon could see that it possessed a number of traits similar to humans, albeit with a much larger and more defined musculature.

Jon was six feet the last time he measured himself, and Han Of The Red Wind must have stood over him by at least another foot. There were no traces of hair across their form, although there were minute bone-like growths around his neck, groin and underarm that appeared remarkably like an exoskeleton.

There was no mention of a Fragment Of Skeleton or a Fragment Of Bones within Han's status page, although Jon did remember seeing a Fragment Of Marrow integrated into the Salvation Mana Core.

'Perhaps these bone-like growths are something inherent to his Race?' Jon could not help but come to such a conclusion.

Flourishing Assail; Jon did not feel a single shred of disgust or guilt from cutting Han Of The Red Wind's corpse open.

The aggressive, red-skinned alien attacked Jon immediately upon seeing him, striking at him with the obvious intent to kill or fatally wound. While Jon thought himself patient and quite accepting at times, he knew that he could be a vindictive pain in the ass to people that annoyed him.

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

While there was no gushing sense of satisfaction born from slashing open the corpse in front of him, Jon did have a small smile on his face, knowing that he was the winner of their fight. Although Han did not possess a Pride Mana Core, Jon did feel as though he would be quite compatible with such a thing.

Raising an eyebrow, Jon peered down into the chest cavity that he had cut open. Despite the fact Jon had numerous System notifications waiting for him, his focus primarily laid on the contents in and surround Han Of The Red Wind's heart.

Or the distinct lack thereof.

Although there were several fragments visible, Han Of The Red Wind possessed no heart, or organ resembling anything close to a heart within his chest. Or lungs. Or a stomach. Or a liver or any sort of major organ that Jon could remember the shade or positioning of in a human.

Nothing but an amalgamation of dark-red flesh filled to the brim with dark crimson blood. Traces of veins and arteries within the flesh could be seen, but nothing even close to resembling what Jon could consider an organ.

His bones possessed a somewhat whiteish-green tint to them, although that could be natural for his species.

Taking a deep breath, Jon reached down into the chest cavity, picking up each gemstone carefully.

Fragment Of "Slash" discovered.

Fragment Of "Stealth" discovered.

Fragment Of "Mind" discovered.

Fragment Of "Disruption" discovered.

Fragment Of "Invocation" discovered.

Fragment Of "Barrier" discovered.

Fragment Of "Throne" discovered.

Fragment Of "Marrow" discovered.

Fragment Of "Trap" discovered.

Jon paused for a moment, trying to remember just how many abilities Han Of The Red Wind had integrated. He could quite clearly remember the alien possessing a few integrated fragments less than the number that Jon had integrated.

'So why are there more than what the status page suggested?' Jon thought to himself, looking down at the three additional fragments.

Fragment Of "Sin" discovered.

Fragment Of "Ira" discovered.

Fragment Of "Destruction" discovered.

You cannot integrate this fragment.

This Fragment Of Destruction was the first duplicate fragment that Jon had ever obtained. While he did think about what would happen if he tried to integrate two of the same fragment, he finally had his answer after seeing the line of text under the name of the discovered fragment.

'So, I guess there is no changing my Seir-Glacial Heart. I don't suppose there is some sort of Fragment Of Change or Fragment Of Modification that I can use to amend abilities with, right?'

Jon was sure that Han Of The Red Wind possessed only nine abilities. At least, nine abilities according to his status page. That meant that there should have been only nine fragments within him after death.

Turning his attention towards the four Mana Cores sitting beside the Han's body, Jon raised an eyebrow, glancing back between the names that concepts these additional fragments were related to, and the missing Mana Core in question.

"Wind" Mana Core discovered.

"Forest" Mana Core discovered.

"Salvation" Mana Core discovered.

"Earth" Mana Core discovered.

'The Wrath Mana Core is missing', Jon scratched the top of his head, looking towards the three additional Mana Cores, seeing the somewhat similar conceptual weight that these fragments possessed.

It gave Jon another thought.

'Is it possible that the Wrath Mana Core somehow… shattered? Or broke? Becoming three fragments, each with complimentary or similar conceptual weights? Wrath is a sin. Destruction is often a symptom of wrath, and is Ira not another word for Wrath? Is that the relationship between these three fragments?' Jon hummed softly to himself, feeling certain undercurrents churn slowly within his mind.

Jon did not want to senselessly waste a Mana Core on the possibility that it would produce fragments upon being broken, so he placed the four spherical gemstones alongside the fragments into his pocket. Waving Assail with a flourish, Jon flicked the remaining traces of blood off the blade, dismissing the weapon before going back and retrieving the corpse of his blue-furred feline from earlier.

Stabbing the beast through the puncture wound he had created earlier, Jon continued trekking back towards his basecamp.

Jon wished that he could somehow manage to obtain a Fragment Of Bag, or even a Fragment Of Space. The ability to store items, even just inanimate objects within a weightless and uniquely accessible storage space would fix quite a few of Jon's worries.

He would no longer have to leave his bags lying around on the riverbank. Store his clothing and blankets and sleeping bag wherever he went. Safely secure his accumulated fragments and Mana Cores without having to worry about people stealing them while he slept.

After going through the list of available Fragments from the sixtieth optional task reward, Jon listed his top ten most desired fragments from the hundreds, if not thousands of fragment names he had engraved into his Sea Of Knowledge.

The list had changed with the integration of his Fragment Of Eyes into his Knowledge Mana Core, removing some fragments which Jon thought would have tremendous synergy with his other abilities.

Starting from the tenth position, Jon mentally listed them off.

'Fragment Of Death.'

'Fragment Of Time.'

'Fragment Of Knowledge.'

'Fragment Of Spirit.'

'Fragment Of Acceleration.'

'Fragment Of Space.'

'Fragment Of Dream.'

'Fragment Of Eternity.'

'Fragment Of Resurrection.'

'Fragment Of Immortality.'

All ten of these fragments, either possessed an enormous conceptual weight to them, or from their name alone guaranteed some sort of extraordinarily powerful but conditional ability. Although Jon considered choosing at least one of these as his task reward, now that he possessed [Behold Thy Luminous Spear, Clad In Green Radiance], Jon knew that he would not trade Assail for any of them if given the opportunity.

The fact that Jon was no longer required to craft his own spears gave him more time to do other things, such as hunt mutated beasts for more fragments and Mana Cores or even explore the vast untamed forest for traces of a System generated Safe Zone or perhaps even one of the System generated Wonders.

The complimentary effects between Assail and [Stance Of The White Star] allowed Jon to strike his opponent with three different types of damages at once. Even if his opponent was somewhat resistant to physical damage, the traces of wood natured mana and ice natured mana within his slashes and thrusts would allow Jon to defeat enemies with even tremendous physical buffs or enhancements.

Letting out a sigh, Jon took another deep breath before throwing those thoughts to the back of his mind. The young human continued heading back to his basecamp, looking forward to the next discussion he was going to have with Avahni and Wilheim

He could almost imagine the look on their faces thinking about revealing the dozen new fragments and four new Mana Cores in his pockets.

With a skip in his step and a smile on his face, Jon felt his verdant spear Assail settle somewhat into nape of his neck, bouncing harmlessly with every step he took.