1% Lifesteal

In the private section of Valhalla's headquarters, a shirtless Freddy stood in the middle of a testing chamber. From impact alloy targets to dummies to other training equipment, this was the most richly equipped training room he'd ever seen.

Thor finally entered the room after leaving to fetch something and approached him. "How are you feeling today?"

"I'm in peak condition," Freddy said. "As always."

"Man, I sure am jealous," Thor said jokingly. "Anyway, time to do some testing. Let's see what you can do."

"What are we starting with?"

Thor looked hesitant for a moment. "If you don't mind, I'd like to see your talent in action. Of course, if you don't feel like hurting yourself just to—"

"Nah, don't worry. I'm cool with that."

"Okay. Good." The man nodded. "Well uh…"—he clapped his hands—"let's get started then! I'll let you choose how you want to demonstrate your talent. As long as I can see it in action, I'll be satisfied."

Freddy nodded and thought for a moment.

"Oh, and yeah," Thor said suddenly. "Did you bring like uh… a bag of fruit? A caged animal? Like how are we gonna do this? I'm assuming you have a method…?"

"Yeah, yeah," Freddy said. "I have a method, alright." He grinned widely and lifted his hand. With a puff of air, a large, wriggling mass of flesh appeared in his grasp.

"What the fuck is that?" Thor asked. Then, his eyes widened. "A captured life spark, I see… Damn. How did you get your hands on one?"

"Long story," Freddy said. He sat down and put the spark on the ground before him. "Do you have a sword? Give me something heavy."

Thor quirked an eyebrow but fulfilled the request regardless. He walked over to the corner, where a large rack of all sorts of weapons was located. He grabbed a giant saber and walked back, handing it to Freddy.

"Thank you," Freddy said as he immediately swung the weapon down and cut off his right hand. Or he tried to. But his toughness wasn't just for show. The saber had embedded into his bone, but his internal toughness had prevented it from cleaving through the whole wrist.

"Jesus!" Thor shouted. "You don't have to go that far!"

"Relax," he said as he focused. "If I'm gonna show you my talent, I'm gonna show you all it can do." Then, he swung the saber again, striking the same spot. Like a butcher, he chopped his own hand off, one determined swing at a time.

The pain was something the average person would not be able to stand. He felt the nerves in his carpal tunnel send waves of agony as he slowly worked through them, one slow chop at a time. Yet he showed no reaction.

Meanwhile, Thor looked on nervously, clearly disturbed by the sight.

Once the hand was finally lopped off, Freddy used his blood essence to stop the bleeding.

The blood affinity had access to Halt Bleeding, a minimal-quality healing ability that was quite powerful for anyone who didn't have a talent like Freddy's. But for him, it wasn't a worthwhile investment of time and effort.

After stopping the bleeding, he raised the saber again and cut his arm from the base of his forearm upwards. This was an important addition to the injury. While the cut-off arm would showcase his ability to regrow limbs, the laceration would showcase his rapid ability to seal wounds.

He grabbed the severed hand and simply threw it on the spark of undeath, which proceeded to greedily suck it in and started digesting it.

Thor appeared alarmed for a moment. After all, if one lost their limb, reattaching the original was usually the best way to fix the problem. But clearly, Freddy wasn't about to show him that.

Gore Knuckles appeared on Freddy's left fist, and he brought them down on the spark. Instantly, the pulse of healing started fusing the cut of his forearm together. The second punch was enough to completely close the wound with raw, pink tissue.

Thor watched with fascination as Freddy's wounds slowly vanished. The cut on his forearm was brought to natural-quality healing at an incredible speed. That was already capable of restoring the arm's functionality enough to keep going in a fight. While it was nowhere near a perfect heal, there was a tremendous value in being capable of quickly patching up a nasty injury.

But, of course, the recovery didn't stop there. As soon as the forearm wound was brought up to supernatural-quality healing, the healing rate drastically slowed down, and Freddy's hand started growing back from the cut-off stump.

It took a long time for the healing to finish. No matter how good the healing quality was, it didn't change the fact that he only absorbed 1% of the life force his attacks dissipated. It took Freddy nearly an hour of beating the spark to finally finish the healing.

By then, Thor already looked numb from the shock. "Wow… Uh… Shit, man, that is one hell of a talent. And you seemed to be pretty used to, uhm… using it."

Freddy chuckled, clenching his fist again to check if anything was wrong with it. It seemed to be perfectly healed. "Yeah. I'm super happy to have it. Anyway, how do you rate my healing abilities?" he asked with a grin.

Thor snorted. "What do you think? It does take a bit of time to fully heal, but that's hardly a problem. Your healing definitely deserves a perfect score, dude. Congratulations."

"Thank you, good sir. So, what are we testing next?"

"Hmm…" Thor contemplated. "How confident are you in your toughness? You have the Turbulent Waters tempering technique, right?"

"Nope. Hundred Wet Hells."

Thor's eyebrows jumped. "Damn. Well, it makes sense. And yeah, that should definitely put you up there in toughness. How far along is it?"

"It's at stage 1—81%."

"That's all?" Thor asked. "It should already be at stage two if you're a peak two-star. Have you been slacking?"

"Yeah, 'bout that…" Freddy sucked air through his teeth. "I didn't know what I was doing back when I upgraded the ability, and I used a rather violent concept."

"Oh… Oh," Thor said with a hint of concern. "That is… yeah, definitely not what you're supposed to do. But… how violent are we talking?"

"I'll show you," Freddy said as he closed his eyes.

"Show me? How are you gonna show me—"

Suddenly, Freddy's entire body began wriggling. The water beneath his skin roiled like a sea in a thunderstorm, making his entire skin appear bruised. He bled through his eyes, and fingernails, from the inside of his mouth, his nose, ears—his entire skin was flushed with a bloodstained sheen of liquid that was brutally forced out through his pores.

This was after only a few seconds of using the tempering ability. He interrupted it and gulped a few times, reaching for the spark to recover from the damage that just did to him. "How's that for violent?" he asked snarkily.

Thor stared at him, his jaw hanging wide open. "Holy fucking shit. That would definitely kill your average person. Not to even mention the accumulating injuries that would gather with time."

"Yup. I've even decided it was worth renaming it to Thousand Wet Hells at stage 1."

"A worthy name." A glint of excitement flashed in Thor's eyes. "That must mean you're pretty damn tough, though, no?"

Freddy snickered. "Feel free to punch me if you want to find out."

"You sure about that? Because I can hit pretty damn hard."

"Don't worry about me. I'm undead; unless you crush my skull, you won't be able to kill me."

"I see… Wait"—he froze—"I didn't know you had the death affinity."

"I don't."

"Oh, and you're just—you know what, forget it. With that freaky talent of yours, anything seems to be possible."

They both chuckled.

Thor suddenly got serious and approached Freddy.

Freddy got up and puffed his chest out. He gestured with his right hand, vaguely hinting at his entire torso. "Hit wherever you think it'll hurt the most."

Thor smirked. "I'll start off light." Then, before Freddy could react, the man's whole body flashed with lightning, and his fist flew at Freddy's stomach at such speed he couldn't have even seen it move had it not been glowing with the electric light.

Thor's fist sank half a foot into Freddy's gut, sending a shockwave throughout the whole body and sending him flying back, tumbling across the ground until he hit the impact alloy and left a visible dent in it. He slowly peeled off the alloy and slumped to the ground.

"Urgh, you really didn't hold back, did you, you bastard!?" Freddy eked out as he coughed a mouthful of blood and got back up to his feet. His stomach had a pretty large dent, and black, lightning-shaped burn marks spread across his entire torso. There was even some smoke rising from the skin on his navel.

However, despite the massive injury, Freddy was able to stand upright without even wobbling.

Thor chuckled numbly, clearly more than a bit surprised by how Freddy handled that punch. "Well I'll be fucking damned," he said. "With toughness like that, you'd give even people with a dedicated talent a run for their money. Also, you're damn heavy. Let me guess, Abyssal Depths?"

"Yeah," Freddy said as he extracted the spark again and started beating it to heal from the punch.

Thor groaned. "I hate that technique. Just for the record, I think it's probably one of the worst tempering techniques in existence. The more you grow it, the slower you become."

"It's not that bad," Freddy said somewhat defensively. "It makes it harder to throw me around, and it also gives my blows quite a bit of weight."

"Yeah, but I mean…" Thor scowled. "It's one of those tempering techniques that needs support to work properly. And while I might be a bit biased, I wouldn't trade speed for anything."

"Yeah, yeah," Freddy said somewhat dismissively. While he respected Thor's opinion, Abyssal Depths wasn't an ability that deserved such disrespect. Besides, the clunkiness due to the added body mass wouldn't be a problem forever.

With every next star, he could ignore external forces more and more. Stuff like inertia and the so-called "Newton's third law" become less rules and more suggestions. Such was the nature of ascending.

Thor scoffed and shook his head. "Anyway, yeah, toughness, uh… very good!" he said with two thumbs up. "Bring that ability up to stage 4, and you'll become a diamond."

Freddy chuckled. "I think my whole body might blow up next time if I upgrade it like this again. So yeah, I'll have to think about that one. So, strength next?"

"Sure, sure."

They went to a separate room with all the gym equipment. Thor decided to test him on several different machines and contraptions. Thor's original estimate that Freddy was "a bit stronger than him" became almost embarrassing when the true difference between them was finally demonstrated.

Freddy could lift a ridiculous amount of weight. In fact, he was 30 to 40 percent stronger than Thor on average.

By the end of their testing, Thor appeared genuinely shaken. "This is seriously insane… At this point, I… I actually have no clue how you could have possibly achieved strength like this."

"I don't know, either. I guess my hard work paid off," Freddy joked. "Should we test endurance next?"

Thor hesitated for a moment and then finally said. "No, I don't think there's a need for that. I'll just assume you're a total monster in that, too, and save us both the time it would take to measure it."

"Man, you've really inflated my ego today."

"You deserve to be a bit arrogant," Thor said with a serious expression. "While there are certainly many who could beat you in a fight at your level, that is mostly just those who can exploit your weaknesses and neuter your strengths. But among people with a similar skill set, at least regarding raw power, I… I would be surprised if there were more than ten people in the whole empire who could stand up to you."

Freddy's eyes flashed wide open at that. "There's no way that's true."

"It is, man. Seriously. You're a fucking monster. Anyway, uh… we've tested your physique. Now, if you're willing, I'd also like to see your abilities."

Freddy looked hesitant for a moment, but Thor raised a hand. "Hold up. I'm not going to force you into anything. But, for better or worse, I am a three-star. Peak three-star. I have a lot of experience. I can help you out a lot more if I know where your strengths and weaknesses lie. If you don't trust me enough to show me that, I'll let you simply train by yourself."

The man really had a way with words. Freddy's reluctance couldn't last long when faced with someone who just seemed so genuine.

Fuck it, he thought.

He would keep Leviathan's Fury, Bloodshed, and his unique affinity a secret. For now. But there really wasn't much of a reason to hide everything else. Hell, he had already revealed quite a bit, and if they kept fighting side by side, his skills wouldn't remain a secret for long.

Sighing, he nodded. "Give me a piece of paper. I'll write down the details of my abilities."

Thor's eyebrows jumped. "Really? I mean yeah, that would definitely be the most effective way to show me what you can do. But are you comfortable with that?"

Freddy nodded. "Sure. I trust you."

Thor smiled and pulled out a piece of paper from his storage ring. "Here you go. Oh, and here's a pen, too."

"Thanks." He chuckled.

Freddy proceeded to write down the details of most of his abilities. Naturally, he kept the spirit abilities and perished water a secret, but everything else was laid out in the open. He also elaborated on which concepts he used to upgrade which ability and wrote a brief description of how he thought Adaptive Water Body worked.

He slowly, gingerly handed Thor the paper, and the man excitedly took a look at it.

Thor's excited expression instantly turned into a look of pure confusion. "What the fuck?" he muttered. "Is this a joke?"

Freddy nodded. "Something wrong?"

"Uh… Where do I even begin? First, Purifying Crimson Spring? I mean, it's not a horrible choice, but… oh, I see, your Absorb Blood is bizarrely flexible. Yeah, makes sense with your talent, but still… a bit of a fringe choice; not one I would have gone for. Also, Flowing Strike with 'force transference' coupled with Abyssal Depths? That's insane. Also where the fuck is your generic tempering technique?"

"Water Body? It's Adaptive Water Body now."

"Yeah, I see that," Thor said sarcastically. "But that's a grand concept upgrade. You do know you can remake your Water Body after doing that, right?"

"What's the point?" Freddy asked. "Isn't it just for speedier recovery and some extra endurance?"

Thor looked like those words struck him like a hammer. "No? What? Are you dumb? I mean, yeah, that's a common path, sure, but you do know that Water Body can also go down a route of enhancing your internal water abilities, right?"

Freddy stood there frozen for a moment. "I… I uh…"

Now that he thought about it, he'd never really read up much on what Water Body was supposed to do. All he knew about the ability was the vague few details he barely remembered from that one guide he read back at Madame's apartment. To be honest, he'd kind of skipped over that section back then in favor of looking for more exciting stuff.

Since he never felt like he was missing anything by omitting the ability, he had… just… kind of forgotten about it. He grimaced. "Wow. I'm a goddamn moron."

"What? You really didn't know that? I… Wha—" Thor slammed the paper into his forehead. "Did you sleep through whichever academy you went to?"

"Academy?" Freddy asked. "I never went to an academy."

Thor froze. His eyes slowly moved down to the paper. "I see…" The man clutched his forehead, simply unable to believe what he was looking at. "Given your age, I had presumed you come from some sort of special background, but… given what I'm seeing here… Look, I know you've opened up to me with this. I know you've shared some very sensitive information. I appreciate that and am glad you can trust me like that.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

"But this is, without doubt, a garbage build. Half of your synergies look like they were devised by a lunatic, while much of everything else is just all over the place. There are so many nonsense details in this. There is so much stuff missing. And if I'm being honest, your abilities are very underdeveloped for a peak two-star." He looked Freddy in the eye. "Freddy… I'm almost scared to ask, but… how long have you been an archhuman?"

Freddy knew that he didn't necessarily have to answer this question. But when put on the spot like this, he buckled. "A bit over two years…"

Thor froze, mouth agape. "Two… Two years, huh? Two years, I see. Two years!? Two!? Years!? Two—years!?" He slumped and grabbed his forehead. "Two years, he says… Hah. Honestly, if it was anyone else telling me this, I'd assume they're lying. But coming from you…" He blew air through pursed lips and looked over the paper. "You're gonna need some help shoring these abilities up, my guy. This is a crisis."

"Yeah, I know," Freddy said, slumping and sighing. "I just never had any help along the way. Well… not professional help, at least. You know, I think I did a pretty decent job seeing I did everything myself…" Experience tales at empire

"Well…" Thor hummed, cupping his bearded chin. "I see that your blood abilities are much better thought out, even if you could use a few extra weapons."

Freddy was going to protest that, but he remained quiet. Truthfully, he still didn't think himself much of a weapons guy, but with Thor's help, he might just find something that suited him.

"Man…" Thor said, snickering to himself. "I just can't believe you're so effective with just this. Literally, I don't believe it. You're hiding something else. But that's okay. There's plenty to work on with just this."

The two of them seemingly had the same thought at the same time. As they made eye contact, they knew they were on the same wavelength.

If Freddy could be so effective with a messy build like this…

How effective would he be once he cleaned it up?