Soul Corruption: System Unavailable [Apocalypse LitRPG]

Adam only took enough time to shed his armor and shower off the blood and sweat from the last battle. His new skill performed even better than he had hoped. As well as taking in rage from those around him, it also gave a significant buff to those who contributed, while still increasing his own stat modifiers.

While his attacks soared in power, so did the Sentinel Army soldiers too. With the buff he could now provide, any of his troops would be able to handle a mid to upper-level Tier 3 enemy. The only problem was that he still needed to be with them for them to benefit.

That battle's success gave him more enthusiasm for what he was going to do next. Well, enthusiasm might not really be the right word, since he remembered all the pain he experienced with the Powerguard. At least it gave him confidence that he was on the correct path.

The confidence allowed him to walk into the next cell he planned, to the cowering Red Clan Infiltrator. The abject horror on the invader's face almost made Adam laugh, but he managed to keep his face stoic as the Infiltrator spoke.

"You've come for me now, too?" stuttered the Infiltrator. "You are going to destroy my soul like you did with Cruxannith."

Adam's wicked smile caused the Red Clan creature to shift even further away from him.

"Don't worry," said Adam without any reassurance, "I'll make sure you can't remember anything before I do."

The Infiltrator's [System Conduit] was hacked, and his memories were wiped, although Adam made sure to write down the names of the invader's skills so he could understand them better once he stole the class. Then after another week of recovery, Adam built a new class space within himself and connected it to the Infiltrator class. As he discussed with the girls, he cancelled their connections so they wouldn't need to feel the pain this time when he created the soul bond.

When Adam rejoined his waiting friends days later, he used the Infiltrator's stealth skills to try and sneak in, but Lamar, Carlos, and Nick immediately looked directly at him.

"You'll need to do better to get past us," teased Lamar.

"Those skills do seem a bit weaker than what I have," agreed Nick.

By gaining the Infiltrator class, Adam could now see, interpret, and partially understand the skills that came from agility-based class. Adam's experiment with it was to inspect Nick's stealth skills for reference, find the similar skill that came from the Red Clan class, and then rebuild it.

This took a few days, and many attempts. Adam also noticed that as he created more soul bonds, the exchange of energy between himself and the other three he was bonded to was getting more complex and also thinner. The currents of energy kept shifting, making it more difficult to grab the amount he needed. Though the size of the soul space wasn't increasing, he needed more energy than before to fill everything. That was with him drawing energy from his friends.

Those friends who donated their energy would immediately go out to fight invaders to refill their stores. The first time, everyone was concerned about Adam's well-being, but now they only waited around to be his battery, should he need more energy.

Eventually, Adam was able to create a stronger stealth skill that was able to fool Nick and Lamar, as long as Lamar wasn't using his detection skills. Carlos could still see through his new [Presence Suppression] skill easier than the other two thanks to his information focused class.

This next success led Adam to go for a fourth class. He took the Archbishop class from the Juungii to gain access to support and wisdom skill understanding.

The Juungii did not have his memories erased, since Adam wasn't sure the creature would survive without them like the Red Clan could. Adam also couldn't figure out the invader's skills from his memories due to the Juungii memories working differently than the other races Adam had inspected.

The pain from the soul bond seemed to upset the Juungii less than having his [System Conduit] taken over by Adam. Being cut from the focus of his devotion caused odd behavior in the Juungii.

At first, the Archbishop ranted and tried everything it could to attack Adam or damage the cell. By the time the soul bond was formed, and he was struggling to recover from the experience by using a skill that provided passive healing by converting the energy within his soul, his attitude completely changed.

When Adam hobbled into the prison hallway to check on him following his own recovery, the fires in the Juungii's eyes had completely changed. Instead of fury, they burned with fanaticism even brighter than the General's Guards. Upon realizing Adam was there, the Juungii prostrated himself on the floor, a deep humming coming from this voice.

Adam decided to defer dealing with whatever was happening there. Instead, even though he was weakened, Adam decided to go out and join the army for a few fights. He needed significantly more energy to refill himself.

It almost became a challenge to gain enough energy. His presence caused the invader forces in a region to be wiped out so quickly that he couldn't gain enough for himself, with others from the Sentinel Army absorbing more of the XP due to Adam's empowerment of them. That meant he spent three days helping the Sentinels to clear out the encroaching invaders, which also provided some relief for the human forces.

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Even though Adam's soul was hurting, and it felt thinned and weakened from having so many soul bonds, he still went forward with the last one he needed. The mage class was all that was missing.

"Y-you promised!" screamed the Drathan Master Inscriber. "You said you would return me to another Drathan base!"

"I did say that," said Adam seriously. "Unfortunately, the Drathan have left this planet. You and the Torquin beast master are all that are left."

"How could that be?!" gasped the Drathan. "Why would they give up on this world?"

Three displays appeared. The first showed the Sentinel Army fighting the Drathan. The second showed Adam, Nick, and Lamar fighting the Blaze Scion and the Blizzard Mistress. The final screen showed Adam standing with the Aerial Bombadeer as the Drathan filed into their portal.

The Inscription Master's separately controlled eyes were wide as they flicked between the different screens in shock.

Adam lowered his face very close to the charcoal gray, cracked skin. Then he spoke quietly.

"Because of me."

The Inscription Master looked like he was about to pass out from the news, and he scooted away from Adam, not even attempting to act with his usual haughtiness.

"But don't worry," said Adam, again without reassurance. "I won't kill you. But after what will happen next, I think you'll prefer to stay."

"W-what?! N-no! NO!" screamed the Drathan as Adam closed in on him.

***

"What is going on with Adam?" demanded Davian of Lucas. "He hasn't come out of that isolated Rift in over a month. If not for your team handling the increasing attacks, our forces would be devastated."

"He's still recovering," responded Lucas with a complicated expression.

"What did that boy even do?!" shouted General Carmichael, his face red in anger as he exploded at Adam's friends. He was on his feet while leaning on the table, slapping his hands down as he spoke for emphasis. "First the bounty…all the damned invaders are coming through us to get to him! And then he does…something…which no one will explain to us…which caused him to need more than a month of recovery when any day can be the tipping point in this war!

"Whatever he's done, it's the common soldiers paying the price for him. They're the ones struggling and suffering, the ones bleeding and dying all because the 'strongest' is sitting on his hands!"

"Calm down, Carmy," sighed Tom. "We already told you. He's powering up."

"What kind of power up makes you unable to fight?" growled Carmichael.

"The kind involving magic, souls, and aliens?" suggested Brandon. At Carmichael's glare, his slumped his shoulders and dropped his head, causing Tom to almost laugh at the two of them.

Carmichael let out a huge breath, then he fell back in his chair and rubbed his face.

"I know you've all been picking up the slack during this time," said Davian, trying to negotiate the high emotions in the meeting, "and we appreciate it. We're just running low on time and personnel. First, we were hit by more groups of invaders, thinning our own forces out. Now they're joining into larger groups just to break through our lines. We've had several close calls since their numbers have allowed them to get past a lot of our defenses. If the Leputi weren't waiting as a second line…"

"Don't sugar coat this, Fredericks!" snapped Carmichael while sulking in his chair. "We all know it's an impossible situation. Things need to change, or all this will be for nothing. These invaders must be ranging from far and wide. Plus, we haven't even seen any supposedly heavy hitting races since the Drathan. Not one of those damned Scyrric lizard bastards have been spotted. They must be up to something."

"That last line sounds like Adam," giggled Brittney.

"That's what leaders do! They try to anticipate the dangers," yelled Carmichael, sitting up with renewed vigor at the comparison.

"So, you do see the boss as a leader," teased Tom.

Carmichael harumphed and then slouched in the chair again. He crossed his arms, unwilling to admit anything.

"Well, whatever your 'boss' is up to, you'd better bring him out here before things become too tenuous to come back from," grumped the general.

***

ALERT: Hostile forces have entered your territory.

"Uugh," groaned Adam.

The room he was in was completely dark. He lay on his bed, as he had for weeks. It wasn't exactly pain that kept him stationary, but an odd discomfort. His head was swimming and wouldn't stop pounding. Sounds came to his ears as if they were from speakers cranked up within a small, round pool. His eyes could barely look at anything without wooziness overwhelming him.

ALERT: Hostile forces have entered your territory.

"Shut up," he tried to say, but the vibrations his voice made rattled his head further and he groaned again. He wanted to cover his ears and eyes, but there was no light or sounds other than his voice, and even the act of moving his arms would create too much sensation.

It was as if he was full. The world had become too overwhelming for him. Even using [Soul Vision] to travel into his soul was more than he could do.

No concoction or potions brought to him by Ilidasha had helped and she was going crazy with worry as she took care of him. Adam's mother was also staying in a room in the prison Rift, but every time she entered where he was to baby Adam, he worsened. In Adam's delirium, he knew she desperately wanted to help Adam, but no one knew how to help.

Abbey's healing had made Adam feel worse. Brandon's buffs had intensified the problems. Andrea had even tried shocking him with an electricity skill, but the sensations of that caused him to pass out.

ALERT: Hostile forces have entered your territory.

And the damned notifications!

Every time any new group of invaders breeched the edge of the territory, he received a new alert from the Rift menu. He only knew what they said because he had seen it so many times before. His eyes, and mind since that was really what saw the messages, were too bleary to read anything.

Adam would want to get out there and help his army, but just existing was too much trouble. Nothing had been wrong until he took that last class. There was no guidance, no idea why gaining all the types of stat classes had caused this illness. Was it even something he could get accustomed to?

ALERT: The Rift core for the "Jackson" Rift is under attack. All linked territory will be lost.

"Would you just sto…"

Adam stopped speaking. The latest message was different. Even though he was unable to see the words clearly, he could tell they didn't resemble the messages he was used to. He also felt pressure from it. There was something inherent that told him he couldn't ignore it.

With a colossal effort, Adam focused on the words. He would have vomited multiple times if he had eaten over the last few weeks. Due to the struggle just to move, Adam had been starving, his body wasting down with only a few blood packs per week to allow him to regenerate.

It took him more than five minutes to read enough of the words from the notification to put their meaning together in his foggy thoughts. His mind couldn't focus like it normally would and he fixated on a single idea. He needed to get to the control crystal personally.

Then, with no other option fitting into his head, he pushed himself from the bed. Using the stealth skill he had crafted, he became imperceptible and staggered out of the room and then out of the Rift without being noticed.