Rise of the Omnimage

- 1 year later -

Sorin spent the better part of the next year working on suppressing the effects of the collar more and more. It was convenient that the mines were a labyrinth of different tunnels. A few times, roaming bands of mine guards or miners would come down around where he was, but he would seal the entrance and let them just move by. As for the collar, the more he pushed back on the device the harder it was to keep going. It was like it knew what he was doing and would adapt to his efforts after a while. The field around him he could suppress about half way and hold consistently while doing other things.

During that year Sorin developed a new use of his element manipulation skill. He had gained inspiration from a few characters in movies he once saw as a boy and figured, why not? While he was training everything like he usually did, he reached out to the aether ore around him. He forced it to become almost like liquid metal and flow around him and allowed it to form around his body.

He hardened it slightly, but not enough to where it would break and heat up when you bent metal until it broke. He just maintained it like armor. He had to really practice with it to get it to solidify quickly where he wanted. The nice thing about it, when he would fire rocks at himself the metal would work like water. If a high speed object hit it, it would be firm because the liquid couldn't get out of the way, nor catch the object delicately, which was the down side.

He still felt the impact, but the object never got through. Sharp points still did on the rocks until he mastered solidification. Then he practiced and practiced until wearing the suit and manipulating it became second nature.

With the massive increase to his strength and spirit stat, he could do so much more at once and it just took a little practice. Multi-tasking was simple at two, three, and even four things at once, but he wanted more. To practice he would swirl metal and rocks around himself and launch it at himself and use his metal exoskeleton, as he had begun to call it, to cut the object down by high speed manipulation or just outright block it.

It took months for that project alone, not mentioning his body enhancement project. Sorin knew the muscles in the body had a limiter to keep them from doing too much. They were way stronger than what the body could usually handle. He wanted to take that limiter off.

He started by using aether to match the frequency of flesh and build cells. He reinforced the tendons and ligaments. After he was done he condensed the muscles further through a stronger mind stat reinforcing them with even more aether. The muscles he found had the fiber issue that the had to address. The bones were not strong enough either and at one point during his modification process, he moved too quickly and the muscle snapped his arm bone.

He waited for it to heal thanks to his regeneration skill then he made the bones way more dense then had an idea with inspiration taken from another TV show. He had noticed aether iron that he refined with his earth manipulation into steel never rusted. It was almost like stainless steel, but way more resilient.

He fed a trickle of aether steel into his hand and began to coat the bones in it careful to avoid the joints. He separated the fibers and then connected aether re-enforced fibers around the metal coated bones. Once he had his entire bone structure in his hand coated, he let the metal solidify fully.

He moved his fingers and made a fist. He made sure to keep the dimensions of his hand the same so it didn't change and let off to his opponents what he had underneath. There was no issues and he could undo it later with time and effort if he needed to.

Sorin got to work with the rest of his body. He left plenty of spots in the bone so that they could still complete their natural functions of producing blood from marrow, but after weeks of effort and a lot of pain which he numbed, he was finally done.

He stood up feeling the huge amount of weight added to his body. It would take some time getting used to, which he had plenty of. The next few weeks he ran, stretched, and went over his fighting forms until he had gotten used to the added hundreds of pounds added to himself. Sorin was certain he was at least 400lbs now with the appearance of 180plbs.

Sorin opened his HUD to see if the system recognized his metallic reinforcement.

Name: Sorin Ekart

Path: Elementalist

AP: 382778/434610

Body: 1370/2000(T7)

Mind: 2850/4000 (T8)

Spirit: 2200/4000 (T8)

Skills {Focus here for drop down}

It did work, but he couldn't tell if the system took the metal coating into account or just the biological reinforcement.

He got up and began moving out of the cavern. He was pretty confident now that he could head out with little fear. Most had probably forgotten about him in a year and he wanted actual food.

- an hour later of walking -

Sorin could see light up ahead of a glowing aether source. He continued passed it and heard the distant sound of picks hitting the walls creating the iconic tinkling sound.

He continued walking heading passed individuals digging. Some would glance up, but most wouldn't pay him any attention. As he walked, he formed traces of aether ore he formed into pure clumps of the unrefined iron that he tossed into one of the packs he had taken from the group that had tried to murder him.

He kept walking upwards and upwards feeling throughout the tunnels through his elemental sense and saw it begin to open up far above him. His mind was so quick he was analyzing all the routes and moving up. Up ahead the light changed from the red to the outside white light. The entrance got bigger and bigger until he finally stepped out into it.

Things had not changed in the slightest since he had left. The same lines for water, tools, and finally food. He went over to the line and stood in it. He had metal layered around his legs and the part for his upper half of his body around his waste and hidden under what remained of his shirt, hidden away to be called on at a moments notice.

He had to wait around 10-15 minutes to reach the front where he handed the pack off to a mine overseer who peered inside and saw the metal he had in there and looked confused.

"Where did you get this?" The overseer said with a sneer. "Steal it from somewhere?"

Sorin shook his head. "No. It came from the deep part of the mines. Been down a long time looking for good amounts ore and came across that." Sorin said in a sort of raspy voice that was that way from a year of silence.

"Whatever, I don't honestly care. You made quota. Go." The overseer said dumping the metal into the bin then tossed the pack back.

Sorin continued and got a bowl of gruel which as bland as he knew it was, but it smelled amazing for not actually have eaten in over a year. He sat down and began eating keeping his sense open for any threats, but he paused as two people he recognized...sort of, were coming his way.

"Sorin? Is that you?" The grubby Linx asked coming over with Cain right behind him.

"Holy crap! It is him. You're still alive! We had heard you were lost in the mines nearly a year ago." Cain said sitting down with his bowl across from Sorin at the wood table with Linx next to him.

"Yeah, I'm alive fellas. Lost myself down there." He replied.

"There were rumors you were killed down there too." Linx said.

Sorin snorted. "I'm harder to kill than that guys, you know that better than anyone in this universe." He said.

"That's for sure." Linx said before going quiet and starting to eat.

"Hey, I wanted to apologize for lying and betraying you and Euryale man. It felt horrible and we knew it was wrong when we did it and the results were made manifest after it was done." Cain said with Linx's ears folding flat and his head lowering in shame.

"I know why you guys did it. She is a beautiful woman and we did have it rough, but you needed to realize that at our station, you guys had no chance with her. She is a dukes daughter and we are but slaves. What hurt the worst was you gave your word and I trusted it. Could have really used your help toward the end before I ended up here." Sorin explained.

Linx tilted his head. "You said "you guys" had no chance. Did that have any meaning behind it?" Jealousy leaking through.

Sorin laughed. "Fellas, she had no chance at me. I've told you guys many times before I have eyes for only one woman. Even if that were not the case, she is too young for me. I see her as a child learning her way in the world." He said taking another bite.

A shout rang out across the mines causing Linx and Cain to stand up immediately and Sorin to look around confused.

"Sorin! Stand up! One of the..." Cain didnt get to finish before a man trudged over throwing Sorin's bowl to the ground.

"Stand up as you were commanded slave!" Some mine guard screamed at him. Sorin didn't move as he could peer into the core of the guard and see he was merely a tier 5.

"I wasn't done eating. Go get me another bowl." Sorin said slowly looking up and glaring at the guard. He could feel his frayed self control slipping from being hungry and in the mines for as long as he was. He wanted to vent his anger and nobody in this place was at the highest tier 6.

The guard was stunned that a slave would dare talk to him.

"Did you hear me? I said go get me another bowl. I earned that with a quota and you threw it." Sorin repeated getting to his feet, pulling in massive amounts of aether bring his core to full in spite of the different manipulations running.

The guard began trembling with rage as he pulled out and swung his baton at Sorin who didn't even try to dodge. He just reached up and grabbed the guard's arm.

"You could have just not been a complete moron and gone to get me the bowl of food I asked you to get me, but fine, let's play a game of force then I'll get it myself." Sorin said as he squeezed.

Bones crushed and flesh bubbled from pressure between Sorin's fingers then exploded like a ketchup packet.

Then came the screaming. Sorin shoved the guard away using the mangled arm, then went to the line and got another bowl. The server was so terrified he just handed him the serving spoon. Sorin got a serving then found a new table where he sat and began to eat again completely uncaring about the screaming guard and the other guards making their way over to their comrade with the apparent big shot behind them looking angry.

The other slaves at the mine stared at Sorin in complete shock.

"Who did this?!" Came the yell from another of the guards and immediately Sorin saw a bunch of others rat him out with pointing fingers. Cain and Linx didn't do anything, careful to look away causing Sorin to smile and little.

Rather than deal with it, Sorin got up with his bowl, refilled it to the top and began to walk off through a clump of people watching the guards move quickly where the others were pointing at nobody.

He began making his way to the mine about to go back down and continue to work on his path. This trip up had been rather helpful in many ways.

He was nearly to entrance of the mine when shouts came up and a crowd of guards ran over and the tier 6 began slowly making his way over.

Sorin, was through being stepped on and he knew where he was going after this. He set his bowl down with his water and pack, then turned and headed toward the guards.

They rushed toward him about to restrain him when he flashed his liquid metal armor up over his upper body, face and eyes leaving eye holes and the ability to breathe. He created blades on his hands and went to work.

Faster than the guards were ever ready for, he flashed forward and sliced at the tier 6 who was also caught completely off guard by a supposed slave who was wearing a suppression collar.

The crowd that day, would speak of what happened with confusion as nobody could tell what had actually happened. Some would say it was ten guards and a supervisor others say more, but they all agree that not a single one of them was able to move as their bodies fell to the ground in pieces and incinerated.

Sorin let his armor fall away back to where it was before the "fight," grabbed his belongings, and went back down into the mines where nobody would see him for a long time.