“Holy Shit!” Alex said, the sudden exclamation immediately causing an excruciating pain to radiate out through his chest. The discomfort resulted in a choked intake of air, followed by a coughing fit, which of course caused even more pain.
“Never doing that again,” Alex weakly rasped, his one good lung barely able to support his body’s needs. For that matter, he was just glad he had enough oxygen in general, with how deep underground he must have been. Then even that small appreciation was wiped away by the onset of another round of coughing. His body spasming lightly as he choked off new waves, Alex crawled his way back on the mat. He sorely hoped the item’s new rate of regeneration was as overpowered as the upgrade in damage resistance sounded.
‘Immunity to health loss,’ was an insane phrase to have in an item description. Sure, the qualifiers nerfed that prospect, but if he could survive anything non-magical as long as he was sitting on the mat, it had just solidified its place as his most useful item. Alex knew that would require heavy testing to verify since the descriptions were rarely perfect, but anything remotely close to the claim was astonishing. Finding a comfortable position, he let thoughts of causing himself further bodily harm in the name of the scientific method fade. It would be more apt to say he found the one that made him the least uncomfortable, but even that pain fell to the wayside as Alex realized the upgrade in rate of regeneration was comparable to the new quasi damage immunity perk.
The upgrade didn’t just result in slightly faster healing, the boost was significant enough that Alex could now feel the healing energies effects on him, like when taking a potion. Just when he thought it was done, the mat offered one final benefit, something unlisted in the description, the ability to see something of a detailed breakdown of his body’s ailments. The report came in the form of a heightened sense of his body, only present in his mind rather than on any status screen. Though as Alex processed the information, he found he would have preferred ignorance. His body was much closer to total collapse than he’d assumed, and just how close was enough to make him sick. He was quite literally on death’s door.
A few bones and organs had been severely damaged by the general's final attack. Alex knew any blow powerful enough to turn his deltoid into something with the consistency of mashed potatoes would have been bad for his long-term health, but the injury was actually what had been saving him. The strike had disrupted his cardiovascular system enough to keep blood from properly circulating, a fact of which a numbness beyond anything Physical Resistance could cause alluded to. That damage had turned out to be the only thing stopping a large portion of the worker ant’s acid from traveling through his bloodstream and entering his heart. Stats or no, Alex didn’t want to find out whether his new body could withstand a potent, potentially magically enhanced, acid bouncing around the walls of his tricuspid valve.
Still, the most interesting information Alex found was on his headache. He noted much of the head trauma, acknowledged the minor brain bleed caused from a fractured skull, and even found the hormone imbalance due to constant adrenaline use intriguing. But none of that was the cause of his headache, not the main one at least. Instead, the mat’s ability listed him as suffering from mental exhaustion. This wasn’t like being tired from stress, or feeling overworked, but something altogether new, and it was somehow related to his mana. Alex couldn’t discern much about the mental energy besides that it existed, and he’d overdrawn on its resource.
He spent a few minutes looking through his settings for a quantitative value, but upon not finding one, instead decided to mentally note that he would need to be more cognizant of the possibility in the future. The fact that this had never happened before, and Alex had just completed his first bout of marathon fighting, made him feel a bit better about the prospect of an inadequately understood energy pool. Though, the concept alone added another tally to the side of divulging everything to Dora. Avoiding the entire other line of thought that would have taken him down, Alex verified his first legendary item was now hard at work and shifted focus back to his notifications. He’d already covered some on earlier breaks, but it was nice to be able to ingest everything without worrying about a patrol group finding him.
***
You have defeated Worker Rebos x236.
You have defeated Warrior Rebos x60. Bonus experience awarded for killing enemies above your level.
You have defeated Rebos General (Level 45). Bonus experience awarded for killing an enemy above your level.
+671 Gold
For gaining a fundamental understanding of Arnis through bloodshed, you have received the following skill: Arnis Mastery (Uncommon).
Due to skill proficiency having been gained prior to unlocking the skill, your skill level has automatically been adjusted.
Your skill [Arnis Mastery] has been adjusted to Level Six.
For maintaining an average killing speed greater than one entity a minute, for over one hour, achievement Murder II has been upgraded to: Murder III
For obtaining a legendary item in the tutorial, you have been awarded the achievement: Keeper of Legends
Congratulations, you have advanced to Level Twenty-Nine.
Attribute Points Granted. Allocate Free (3) Point(s)
Congratulations, you have advanced to Level Thirty.
Attribute Points Granted. Allocate Free (3) Point(s)
Congratulations, you have advanced to Level Thirty-one.
Attribute Points Granted. Allocate Free (3) Point(s)
Your skill [Arnis Mastery] has advanced to Level Seven.
Your skill [Arnis Mastery] has advanced to Level Eight.
Your skill [Mana Manipulation] has advanced to Level Thirteen.
…
Your skill [Mana Manipulation] has advanced to Level Sixteen.
Your skill [Advanced Analyze] has advanced to Level Twenty-One.
Your skill [Tracker] has advanced to Level Ten.
Your skill [Dodge] has advanced to Level Twenty-two.
…
Your skill [Dodge] has advanced to Level Twenty-five.
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Your skill [Echo Relocation] has advanced to Level Ten.
…
Your skill [Echo Relocation] has advanced to Level Thirteen.
Your skill [Aura Control] has advanced to Level Sixteen.
…
Your skill [Aura Control] has advanced to Level Eighteen.
Your skill [Silent Strike] has advanced to Level Fifteen.
…
Your skill [Silent Strike] has advanced to Level Twenty-one.
Your skill [Hammer Mastery] has advanced to Level Seven.
…
Your skill [Hammer Mastery] has advanced to Level Ten.
Your skill [Stealth] has advanced to Level Seventeen.
…
Your skill [Stealth] has advanced to Level Twenty-two.
Your skill [Battle Trance] has advanced to Level Sixteen.
…
Your skill [Battle Trance] has advanced to Level Nineteen.
Your skill [Physical Resistance] has advanced to Level Twenty-Six.
Your skill [Physical Resistance] has advanced to Level Twenty-Seven.
Your skill [Dodge (Common)] has advanced to E-Grade. Pick one of the following upgrades:
Dodge (Uncommon): Dodge attacks with ease and maneuver through obstacles with finesse, using quick reflexes and heightened awareness to stay one step ahead of any opponent. Additional stamina may be drained to dodge a strike with a high chance of connecting. Quick and nimble, evade danger and stay on the move, keeping your enemies guessing, and yourself safe. Skill ability correlates to Dexterity and Endurance.
Planar Phase (Rare): Gain the ability to temporally and freely merge your body with the astral plane for a total of one minute a day, with the day count starting after first activation in a twenty-four-hour period. Upon activation, your form along with any objects you are holding will become intangible, gaining a resistance to all physical damage and a 90% resistance to all magical damage. Remaining merged with the astral for longer than the time limit will begin costing mana per second over the limit, with that cost increasing exponentially, per every minute, doubling the original time period. Skill ability correlates to Wisdom, and Intelligence.
Weapons Transfer (Rare): Gain the joint abilities marked and transfer. Marked allows you to create up to two mana signature stamps on any weapon you are deemed to be in control of. A mark can only be manipulated by you, though they can be sensed by other people. Marks will last indefinitely unless moved by yourself, or the item can be no longer considered a weapon under your control. Activating transfer will teleport you to or swap your position with a marked weapon. Transfer is only accessible if you and the weapon are within fifteen meters of one another. Skill ability correlates to Dexterity and Intelligence.
***
Most of these gains Alex was familiar with. He’d received a few more levels in a couple of his skills as well as the new Keeper of Legends achievement, but he’d already seen much of the rest. That last section, however, was all new, and one of the few things he had deemed fun about living in this death dimension.
Reading over the skill upgrades, Alex had to work to suppress a smile. It wasn’t too hard, with how much his head hurt, but those skill options sure did their best to bring it out of him. The rare skills sounded both cool and genuinely useful in their own way, but there was one fact he wasn’t very excited about, how they were fueled. Planar Phase didn’t require anything unless he went over the daily limit, which had ups and downs of its own, but when it did take energy, it was mana. The same was true for Weapon’s Transfer if the mana signature the description spoke of was anything to go by. Dodge had originally been a stamina-based skill and unless he decided on a linear upgrade to its uncommon variant, this would just be another skill to drain on his mana pool.
Being specialized wasn’t bad. A significant percentage of his abilities were now mana dependent, and that shift had resulted in a massive jump in power. It was, however, wasteful. Alex had a stamina pool even larger than his mana pool, and the first class he’d chosen was meant to be a stamina-based class. The change now left thousands of points of energy unused every fight, while also forcing Alex to ration his mana to his more useful abilities so as to not run out in the first minute of battle.
Shifting the build efficiency thoughts to the back burner for the moment, Alex refocused on the skill upgrade. The real benefit of Weapon’s Transfer was its range, he already had Echo Relocation for most situations, but a combination of the two was likely to result in a very powerful ambush attack. Not to mention that two marks would allow him to jump back and forth between targets. A couple strategic uses of Echo Relocation, and he could appear as a one-man squadron.
Planar Phase, on the other hand, was a true replacement to Dodge, which meant he wouldn’t need to burn 500 mana every time he got caught out. Its resistance perks were nothing to scoff at either, and in the end, Alex decided it was the only real choice at the moment. He didn’t know if the offered skills ever made a second appearance, but if he got the option again, Alex would gladly pick Weapons Transfer, it just wasn’t the right choice at the moment.
***
Skill Dodge (Common) successfully upgraded to: Planar Phase (Rare)
Grade: E
Level: 25
***
Still unable to move as the mat brought him back from the brink of death. Alex navigated his menus toward his general stats, his last thoughts on the subject being that he was glad Planestrider was showing its usefulness in combat.
***
General
Name: Alexander Hunter
Race: Human, E
Age: 21
Level: 31
Grade: E
Classes: Assassin, Planestrider, (Tertiary), (Quaternary),
Titles: Generalist
Achievements: Adaptable, Deathwish, Bloodthirsty, Warden, Murder III, Glutton, 4 of a Kind, Purchasing Power, First-time Homeowner, A cut above the rest, Untainted, Beast Hunter I, Keeper of Legends
Health: 926/7054
Mana: 3883/6583
Stamina: 4415/7080
Attributes
Strength: 55
Dexterity: 84
Endurance: 50
Wisdom: 62
Intelligence: 82
Willpower: 30
Luck: 25
Charisma: 22
Fortitude: 17
Perception: 52
Free Points: 9
***
His attribute values were starting to look great, with only one of his main stats under fifty points. Upon receiving the quest and entering the cave, Alex had allocated the fifteen free points he’d been holding. The majority had gone into Endurance, with the rest sprinkled around between Strength, Willpower, and Luck. Seeing how damaged he’d come out after killing only one of the generals, Alex was content with his choice, but he didn’t think he could do something so simple again.
Placing free points in any stat he already received points for when leveling seemed a bit of a waste, but now that so many of his skills relied on mana it wasn’t looking like much of a choice. Raising endurance further would raise his health, but it would also add to stamina, which had already been determined as wasteful. Rather than circle back to the common fact that he needed to just stop getting hit so much, Alex knew his remaining choices were between Intelligence or Wisdom.
Unable to make an immediate decision, Alex consulted one of his newest skills, Lord's Confidence. The skill wasn’t the split mind he’d been hoping for based on its description, but that didn't mean it wasn’t useful. It was similar to having a computer in your brain, primed and ready for use at any moment. The fact that his natural mind had already evolved to the point of primitive computing levels somewhat diminished this fact, but Alex had been messing around with the skill and found it had some real use.
He could designate the logic-based module a task or line of thought, and it would run scenarios about that information. Then it would output different possible paths of success, reasoning as to why something was a good or bad idea, and how best to manipulate a situation to his advantage. It was the main reason he’d ended up pursuing this quest in the first place, and now the skill was suggesting he split the points between Intelligence and Wisdom.
***
Attributes
Wisdom: 65
Intelligence: 88
Free Points: 0
***
His work done for the moment, Alex dropped into Mind’s Eye Meditation, deciding to explore the skill while he had some time to kill.