The man stomped closer, his heavy armour, and possibly some skills, seemingly negating most if not all of the damage Sam could produce. So indirect measures were needed. The mental image of what he did to the leader with the dirt came to mind, but he didn’t have the clearance for his face as he needed to hold it in. Water could be a good idea but the same, if he couldn’t hold it in place and since there was probably an opening around his neck into the armour or out of the helmet... that would prove just as fruitless.
However, there was another option.
Dropping all his weapons, having them fall into the dirt, some standing upright and some hitting pommel or side first. The man looked around him with a chuckle.
“What, are you giving up already?”
There was a humorous tone in his voice that changed as soon as he saw what was going on. Sam had used some extra Energy points to extend his area, using the extra reach he took as many torches as he could get his hands on. Pulling them up from the ground where they were impaled, yanking them from the hands of people holding them, in the end, he ended up with 9 torches floating around.
Without waiting he moved all of them in around the man’s head, focusing as much fire as he could around the opening of his helmet, some were placed around his neck, especially his throat, to have the heat enter through the most likely largest opening.
The man panicked and started coughing right away as the heated air was all he could breathe. Sam used his fire-proof Psyhands to sort of push the flames or heat into the visor of his helmet, it looked like the air moved in this way and managed to somehow get more of the fire into the helmet. His voice became horse and ragged.
“The fuck are you doing?!”
Sam didn’t answer but continued his strange assault.
Not being an idiot, the man started pulling the torches away from his face. But as soon as he dropped them to toss them aside, Sam’s Psyhands were still on them and brought them back. The heat from the torches pulled the air out of it, pulling in fresh air from around the neck, but there were other torches there pulling in heat upwards creating a kind of furnace.
He tried to unfasten his helmet, grabbing for the fastening mechanism, but Sam had considered that; a well-placed Psyhand where he was reaching blocked him from grabbing whatever mechanism held it in place. This process only lasted a few seconds before Sam could see his damage taking a toll. His coughs became worse, the heat no doubt doing internal damage to his throat and lungs, not to mention his eyes and skin. The man charged Sam.
Having no chance of surviving if he took another hit, he needed to do something to increase his chances. He only had a few seconds at best to formulate a plan, and the plan was strangely enough easy. He just needed to stop the man from getting to him.
Using some spare hands he picked up the Moonblade, not planning to do damage with it he planned to use its length. The man ran towards him, now shouting in pain, coughs and trouble breathing. Sam placed it between his feet as he stepped forward, and even with his meagre strength pulling back, it was enough to make the man trip and fall on his face. Now having his helmet opening straight above the flames, he shouted even more than before, he was grasping at his throat, grabbing torches and throwing them away, doing his best to cover his face or shout for water.
Someone came with a bucket, emptying the water from the sidelines. Having seen him coming Sam had run into the path of it, being splashed and drenched, however, he stopped the water from making it to the man. It wasn’t enough time to kill him, he was coughing and having trouble inhaling air, the fumes from the torches as well as the heat were getting to him, and the smell of burned flesh was thick in the air. But the man got back to his feet, using his hands to support him as he was getting up. Sam couldn’t let that happen and used his Psyhands and Force Pulse to attack his wrists before he could support them properly, though the force wasn’t an insane level, it was still comparable enough to a decent kick, more than enough to stop him from putting weight on his hands and get up. With that much armour, the panic and fire, it didn’t take long before the stress, lack of fresh air and damage caught up with him.
His body started twitching and spasming disturbingly as the fires continued doing their damage. Sam held the fires there a long time after the spasming stopped, he was paranoid enough that the slimmest of chances that this man was somehow faking it was a legit fear. However, once his face started burning and the helmet started glowing a dull red, he got the information he needed.
Psyhand grabbed the Moonblade, taking a solid moment to irk it in under his helmet to stab it through his throat. It took a few attempts which only furthered the gruesome scene, blood pooling under the man’s head as Sam stabbed again and again and didn’t stop until he felt satisfied.
[ Experience gained: +25 000. ]
[ XP to lv.15: 44 109 / 81 920 █████░░░░░ ]
[ Dia XP to lv.10: 256 / 256 █████ ]
The XP confirmed his death, he didn’t know if that happened before or after the tabbing, but it still felt appropriate. Dia’s XP was immediately capped like before, which made a lot of sense, if he kept getting XP like this, it wouldn’t be hard for her to keep up.
After this was done, letting go of the torches which were held against his helmet the whole time, sizzling the flesh inside, he turned to the group around him with all his blades hovering around him.
“Anyone else?!” He sounded pissed, and frankly, he was. At the people here, especially at the fuckers who liked killing and seemingly did it for fun, at the System for making all these tests so fucking insane, for putting him against other players again and again...
He just wanted to go back, he wanted to sleep in a bed, he wanted to just... chill... Do dungeons... Even the fleshy dungeon was better than this shit. A brief thought about how easy that was with today’s knowledge made him let out a small chuckle.
[ Quest: The Island
Dominant forces: 1 ]
The quest window popped up, and he decided to not question how the system measured this, as the other clans wouldn’t know that Ironhand was dead, so how could the man be considered no longer one of the dominant forces, he didn’t care.
[ Congratulations, you are considered the single dominant force on the island.
Calculating reward. ]
Though there was no sound, this was like music to Sam’s... eyes. He felt amazing, it was almost like it was all worth it. He was glad that he didn’t have to fight others, it might have been worth just taking out the leaders like this but... he had no idea how things could have been different, but again; he didn’t care.
“You-” Sam commented as he pointed at one of the men around Dia. As he pointed his collection of blades turned towards the same target. “-Get her out of there.”
The man nodded rapidly and though Dia looked uncertain and scared once a knife came out, she managed to hold it in as the man cut the net enough for her to chaotically flail herself out of it. As the net fell to the ground she darted towards Sam, going quadruped letting her easily make it under the logs used to fence the area in, finding herself next to Sam seconds later.
This put Sam slightly at ease. Using the as he waited for the reward to calculate he checked out what he could find on Ironhand. He was decked out with solid gear. All his stuff was focused on adding strength and health. Everything was percentile so didn’t do much for Sam. Confirming that his Armour’s Defence rating was 60, it explained why the damage making it through didn’t do much, he needed critical hits with the Moonblade to just do a tiny bit of damage. The Armour also had a health-regeneration ability... which explained a lot. If Sam hadn’t considered an indirect approach, the trickle damage he could get through would never work.
[ Calculations complete. ]
Sam smiled, this was going to be good. No matter what the rewards were, he just wanted out of there.
[ Reward upgrading possible.
The Dominant Player can sacrifice Player Gear to upgrade the reward(s).
-The rewards will not be shown until confirmed. ]
His expression soured, though he was fine with the logic of upgrading rewards... not knowing what they meant that an upgrade might not be good. What if the upgrade changed the math? An example from gaming terms is that if something gave you +50 health, that would be worse than something giving you +50% health. At Sam’s level, the former would be much more worth than the latter.
Pondering for a moment, he considered one simple thing. An increased reward boosted by other gear should be... better, and even if he got shit items to him he could sell them. Though he could do the same with things he had gathered on the island already... this felt better... somehow?
As his mind wandered, he considered what would happen to Dia. Elara was with him on Earth, but she was hatched, Dia was possibly classified as a Dungeon mob, and he didn’t know how that would work out. Focusing on this, the System reacted.
[ Bonded Beastfolk; Dia, is bound to the Player and will leave the island at the same time. ]
That was a relief to see that she’d come with him, even though he hadn’t considered how the world would react to a Beastfolk tagging along. Elara was different as she was ‘just a snake’, but an actual Beastfolk that people tend to slaughter in Dungeons...
Well, he’d cross that bridge when he came to it.
Considering what he could donate to boost the reward, the system was ever nice to help, a window popped up letting him select items. Everything he was wearing came up on the list first, followed by the items left in his cave, the Amulet and Robe, as well as the few items he found on Mr. Ironhand.
He did not need any of the items he was not wearing, he could argue that some items could be worth it on Dia, but at the moment he wanted to be boosted. The results of the current fight had him want more power, if the System was going to throw more shit at him he needed what he could get. Though boosting allies was also a good idea, given the amount of solo shit he has had to endure lately he might need to focus on himself first. Especially when it came to the possibility of skills or personal power that couldn’t be stolen.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
Selecting things from the list, he sacrificed the robe, amulet and everything he found on Ironhand. He could sell it and buy things from TAC or something, but this felt more appropriate at the moment.
As soon as he accepted the window closed, the gear on the dead Ironhand disappeared in a brief flash of light and disintegrated into particles, leaving a very underdressed corpse with a damaged face.
[ Upgraded rewards calculated.
Sacrifice more items? ]
Denying this, he felt fine with keeping what he was wearing, the only thing he had found on the island he wanted to keep was Dia and the Bleeding Edge dagger.
[ Quest: The Island - Completed
Reward: Skill; Telekinetic Boost.
Reward: Skill; Spiritual Health.
Reward: +6 levels. ]
Sam needed a moment to process this, the small window listed a few things without much explanation. He understood the levels, but the other parts he was not entirely certain about.
[ Telekinetic Boost
For up to 23 seconds, the weight limit of Psyhand is increased by 10 times.
-Time calculation: 1:1 Spirit in seconds.
-Does not affect Utility Skill Force Pulse.
-Force Throw consumes 5 seconds per use.
-Each second needs 2 hours to recharge. ]
[ Spiritual Health
Allows the Player’s health to calculate off Spirit instead of Vitality. ]
This caused a lot of thoughts in Sam’s mind. He had spoken about the latter with Janik a while ago, it would be perfect for him. This meant that he could just dump points into Spirit and gain both health and power to his powers.
The Telekinetic Boost was also amazing, his current weight limit was just over 10kg/22lbs, but activating this would increase that tenfold. Though it wouldn’t affect the Force Pulse, and through it ‘ate’ up 5 seconds of use...
He could finally throw people!
Or even fly by lifting himself.
These two skills opened up so many changes that it was almost dumb, it made the whole ordeal on the island almost worth it. He could perhaps have gone without the danger and threat of death every few days, but this was a solid reward. And considering how much XP he needed to level at this point, just getting five levels slapped on was amazing.
Accepting the quest rewards and slapping all 6 points into Spirit, he was excited to see the changes.
[ HP: 165 / 165 ██████████ ]
[ XP to lv.21: 44 109 / 5 242 880 ░░░░░░░░░ ]
[ Psyhand weight: 580g/1.2lbs ]
[ Level 20 reached third class skill granted: Improved Area of Influence. ]
[ Improved Area of Influence
Base size and boost size doubled.
Base: 20m/60ft
Increase: +3m/10ft per Energy. ]
Quick math, with his new Spirit of 29, giving him 28 Psyhands, and with the new weight his new max carry weight was in total over 16kg/35.2lbs. However, the most substantial upgrade was his health which had increased over 4 times!
An adding a considerable upgrade to his range, which was passive for hitting Level 20, he was feeling extra good!
This also meant that Dia would boost up in power as soon as he got some XP to share, as she now had five levels to cover, considering how little XP she needed that shouldn’t be a problem.
He was almost struggling to contain his eagerness to test all of this. 22 seconds of lifting someone, if he lifts someone upwards for 17 seconds and then throws them... He wasn’t sure how fast his Psyhands could lift someone but this was terrifying, and he loved it.
[ Do you wish to leave the island? ]
This message was the final drop overflowing Sam’s cup of feeling great. Just getting off the island was what he wanted, almost more than anything. But he had a brief thought of what he promised the other Players, letting them leave. And as normal the System answered his thoughts.
[ Quest The Island is complete, portals will open letting Players return. ]
“Ah.” Sam let out to himself, which was the first sound he had made since ordering Dia’s release. She reacted to him with perked ears and a curious expression. Sam considered that she might not be used to people looking at the Status screens for that long, as you look somewhat out of it when you do.
Telekinetically sheathing all his weapons on himself before accepting the offer to leave the island, he didn’t care if people chose to enter the portals or not, he had done what he said which was plenty for him.
It only took a few seconds before the warm light started washing over him, Dia panicked but as Sam placed his hand on her head she calmed down considerably to the point that she just looked sceptical.
Feeling the jolt of energy move him, he felt the air change, the heat changed and everything just became different. The light faded and he took a look around.
The first thing he saw was that he confirmed Dia’s presence, she was confused about the location change but fine outside of that. He also quickly found out that they had been returned to where he disappeared from, before the final room in the starter dungeon.
His mind used a few moments to process everything until it all snapped in place.
“Elara?!” He shouted for his serpentine companion. Dia cocked her head at his shouting, but there was no response. The starter dungeon wasn’t that large, so he opted to shout louder.
“Elara?!!” But again there was no response.
Being near the end room of the Dungeon, Dia reacted to some sounds coming from the exit room, and it didn’t take long before some Goblins came running. The boss, a kobold and... Sam barely cared as he swung his weapons for the starter creatures, they all fell before he could care to properly turn towards them. He didn’t even get any XP from them, which made a lot of sense.
[ Dungeon cleared
Rewards:
10 xp
1x Aether crystal
Bonus rewards for optional step:
5 xp
Random Box - X. ]
As normal the box and crystal manifested in the air before him. Grabbing them with some Psyhands they remained hovering in the air. The XP was so stupidly negligible that he could almost just ignore it. With the 50% split that would hit about a total of 7xp each...
[ Bonded Beastfolk; Dia, leveled up. ]
[ Dia XP to lv.11: 7 / 384 ░░░░░ ]
[ Dia reached level 10, skill unlocked: Spin Kick ]
[ Spin Kick
Takes advantage of dexterity and centrifugal force in a single spin-kick, delivering considerably higher damage (2x) at the cost of being off balance for a few seconds after.
-Cooldown: 1 hour. ]
Sam had to laugh, it was amusing that this triggered the level-up. Though it made sense, she was capped before so it just took a poke to send that happening. The Spin kick also looked like a good finishing move, or to be mixed in after a flurry and ally combat.
He put her extra point into Vitality for now, her damage was fine, and he wanted her to have a higher survival chance, at least until he got her some armour.
Opening the Random Box to get that out of the way, it produced a single Aether crystal, giving him two. He didn’t think much about it, this was the starter dungeon after all.
Considering just leaving and having the auto-eject function that Janik explained before sending Elara out, he noticed that her health was still greyed out, she was most likely not in here. Did she make it out? She was small and sneaky enough so she could have just left... unless she was killed and eaten... But wouldn’t the health bar disappear then? He was gone for a few days, a week maybe? He somewhat lost track but it would be enough time for her to be devoured...
Deciding to exit the Dungeon, he’d see her health connect if she was out there, or he could wait to see what happened after if not. Heading for the exit portal he felt almost uncertain about what was going to happen now, he had been gone for about a week.
Going over to the exit area and accepting the question to leave the Dungeon, they both were covered in the white light before the change of air signalled their moving.