Not so long ago, yet this felt like eternity.

  And it was what? Like a day ago.

  I exhale and inhale deeply, holding my breath for a bit.

  My ass glued to the surface as before, like a magnet.

  I sigh.

  Now, this is what needs to be done; release the power and kill myself and go for the round two.

  Dang it! Unprepared.

  I should’ve made a rope ladder with help of Harald or at least store some rope with an anchor to access those higher located archways in the land of power.

  I chuckle as I made another cool name for the mysterious place, which seems to be called Well of power by the spirit cat.

  Looking at my arms, exercising my fingers in a wave pattern I crank up a smile as I finally am able to snap my fingers and call for help.

  I would like to sit here for a while to concentrate and get my thoughts straight, but I just can’t calm myself down after what I’ve witnessed. Never so eager to know the answers as soon as possible as I’m now. On the other hand I’m glad that this occupies my mind as I feel that thoughts of returning back home, what is happening at home, or all the drama with leveling, powers, bosses, world and Mike are fading away, as I know I want only the one thing;

  What, where, when and who the hell is that Nathalie.

  This place; the first layer of death is like a capsule frozen in time, but apparently not the well of the power area, the second layer of death.

  For a while I calculate if it’s a good idea to waste a few more hours figuring out how to climb and how to explore another basin without damaging myself badly, or simply choose my sacrifice right now and get back as soon as possible.

  I breathe out deeply and dust particles start to sway in the direction from my nostrils.

  “Let’s summarize this. She cannot speak english at all and seemed a bit lost, there is no way she was familiar with the apes or bamboo biome. I could bet my life, it was the dagger that yoinked my glock away when I tried to shoot myself.”

  “Next, she apparently saved Mike and Astrid with her weird but effective weapon, a short and rather wide black dagger on a long chain. Then.. if I remember correctly, did she try to stop the old man from executing me, despite my terrible state of missing the bottom half of my face, a fatal amount of blood, one missing arm and the other in a state of necrosis?”

  “The question is, why? Why save me if we are clearly immortal in one way or another. Is she native to the world or one of the travellers or more likely foreigners as the status says or simply she has not discovered anything about the system?” I wonder and talk to myself aloud.

  Eager or not, I need to use this time freeze to train at least a bit. Sadly I can’t get up and do exercise with my body weight, but I can definitely do as I did before.

  “Focus!” I say out aloud.

  My arms are bloating in my peripheral vision.

  With my eyes closed I raise my arms up and open them wide like for a big hug, letting the power move inside my body, from the tip of my fingers from left to right and in reverse. Training my coordination and manual use of Focus.

  I wonder if Mike did the same during his time, based on his personality and jealousy, I bet he spent ages training here. There is no way he could’ve made it so fast from the desert save spot back to Nautilus at that pace. That was definitely faster than Harald by car and that old man has a pretty heavy foot. He must be packing some serious skill he refuses to show yet, at least in front of me.

  Then, the poor Astrid, I wonder how her first will be, crippled enough I bet she would like to end this today, copying me. I really wish she will have it fast and painless after all.

  Now, the old man, I wonder if he spent some time here too or..

  Maybe is he lying after all? What if he got to the well of power too and is the second wielder.

  Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  Or was it indeed Mike? Before even the spirit cat mentioned how to get there. Yes, it might be, he is too curious, it must be him or.. Wait, what if it is Astrid after all?

  I completely lose myself in the stream of nonsensical suspicion.

  “No, you dumbass!

  What about Nathalie? She might be the one!” I say out aloud to myself, frowning.

  “But why would she want to save you from dying that much?” I reason with myself, now in a calm voice, while juggling my power from left to right.

  “Harden!” I imagine one of my arms tightening.

  Shifting a lot of power into it I smile as comparing it to the other hand which is expanding after shifting muscle mass. At least I think it is what I’m seeing, as I can only see it with the corner of my eye, because if I gaze directly it highlights and disappears as a body part for sacrifice.

  If I could somehow maintain Hardening on my whole body I’d be invincible, at least for the moment. I wonder, what if I activate golden power from the well?

  Gazing at the same spot for a while I come up with an idea for more testing.

  “Stats!”

  A window appears in front of me and I see everything as it was, quickly assigning my skill point I test the amulet's ability.

  “Harden!” Enabling the power, my arm stiffens. As much as I try to imagine having my whole arm, shoulder or even part of my back to be hardened it does nothing, not spreading at all, focusing only on a rather smaller part.

  Staring at it, the more I leave it activated, the more stamina is depleting as I can physically feel energy leaving my body.

  “Stop!” I let the power go as I save energy for more meaningful testing.

  Sigh.

  “Of course! You dumb, it’s called partial harden!” I shake my head after gazing at the bronze plate, realizing this after a while.

  Let’s summarize what I know about the well of power.

  First it seems that there is a massive cooldown before using it again, might be a day? I wonder, muttering for myself. Or maybe the cooldown resets at some point of the day, like noon or something, I need to test this precisely.

  Then, activating it by will is possible as other powers.

  Focus is followed by itching, Harden is followed by a paralysis that lasts for half a second and this thing starts with a burst of energy in my stomach, almost like overdosing with powerful spice.

  But what does it do after all? Bound to my Strength, it apparently somehow boosts my strength, but how much? And for how long? If I think about my two uses so far, it was mere seconds.

  First time, my jump height increased almost three times the jump I can perform using Focus.

  That was like jumping over a one story house.

  Then, I somehow used it to strengthen my jaw and basically bit through the neck and spine of a massive ape.

  Both cases, I was easily able to damage myself, the second time I almost lost my lower jaw. So what is this thing good for now? Is this like a one shot, one per day boost to finish something off or help myself from a dire situation?

  I try to analyze what it does indeed and how I can utilize it and possibly somehow even upgrade.

  There are apparently three places, available for three people, and two of them are taken.

  Enough of this.

  “Well of power, manifest!”

  *Nothing happens*

  As I thought. Let’s continue with my skills.

  “Harden!” I say out aloud.

  The golden text my Strength entry was written in fades back to the default one.

  “Huh?”

  I gaze at that a bit amazed and confused. How that I never test my powers with the stats menu opened..

  “Maybe.. What if?” A grin appears on my face.

  “Well of power, manifest!”

  “Oh my god, oh my god! What the hell!”

  About five seconds pass and it all reverts back instantly.

  In a shock, overwhelmed I decide to ignore all this for now, as I’m suddenly thirsty for a large sip.

  Despite being curious as hell about what's just happened and what is going on with the party, the idea of squeezing extra time in my day for some sort of training cannot be thrown away.

  If it does not benefit me on a physical level I could definitely at least improve in control and use of my basic powers.

  After a few dozen activations and the proper rest in between them I can focus it more precisely and switch in between the body parts and both of the powers more swiftly and confidently.

  I channel my power to various parts, including the trapezoids, neck and head. Experimenting with hardening my closed eyelids or whole face I find more and more benefits and ways of protecting myself from various attacks. Most importantly I tame Focus with my Partial hardening so it does not damage me.

  *Exhale*

  I feel ready to repeat the gruesome process of choking myself with my own body.