Ashley

After messing around for around fifteen or so minutes, I find that I can only use the fundamental spell circles. Which only have the three fundamental runes.

So the most basic of the basics.

For the spell circles themselves, the first one lets me do a basic pulse attack of any kind. Similar to my Scald and Frost Torrent skills. Skills that let you push out a small torrent of something at variable levels of pressure.

Then the second one lets me enhance or alter my own body in the most basic of ways. So for gravity mana, that would just be what the goliath was doing to me. Altering its own weight.

And the third one lets me enhance or alter an object I’m in contact with. So I could, for example, enhance the weight of my knives when I’m striking with them. If I can focus enough to do that in the middle of a battle.

As for gravity mana doing the first spell circle, that basically just pushes a bit of a vacuum in the air out in a narrow pulse. One that makes a very short-lasting gravity field that draws stuff in.

Not very useful right now.

Overall, the second and third spell circles sound good to learn for now. And I can do the first later.

But I want to go out and start leveling as soon as possible. Just to make sure I’m not out-leveled by others in the time I’m resting here. Especially since a lot of enforcers are already stronger than me due to powerful root skills.

Meanwhile the only really powerful root skill I have is my gravity magic. Which I don’t know any of yet.

Not counting Assimilate, that is. Considering it’s not a combat skill.

Anyways, I spend another ten minutes figuring out how to alter my own gravity. Which is easy to learn, not so easy to do while fighting. Even when I’m just going through the motions and not actually battling anything.

Especially since one unit of mana seems to alter the gravity of only one limb for around five seconds. Briefly making me wonder just how much mana that goliath had.

I let out a small sigh as another magic circle fades away in my mind. With the circles not visible to other people.

At the very least I should be able to make my legs or arms lighter or heavier when I need to. Even if it won’t be fluid throughout combat yet.

So with that in mind, I quickly learn how to alter the gravity of my knives. Which proves far easier to do, since I only need to do it when I’m going in for a strike. And I don’t need to do it for anywhere near as long.

After finishing up with that, having spent an entire half an hour learning magic, I get up and begin flying straight out of the dome.

Back into the rain.

And to my surprise, I find the person from before still standing in the rain at the entrance to my Spire.

Wonder what they want?

I stare from hundreds of meters in the sky for several seconds, only to shake my head.

Whatever. I need to make sure I level up and am not left behind.

So without paying any more attention to them, I begin to fly down towards a much less populated area of the park in terms of people and enforcers. Something I can spot with ease from up here. Then I land on the ground and draw my knives from my rather shabby scabbards.

Almost want to just store my knives in my storage ring instead. But it’s best to have them out, since there is a brief delay on summoning things from the ring.

I walk through the trees for a few seconds before quickly running into my first monster that I’m actually personally fighting on Val.

And it’s a large spider.

The spider is about a meter in length, with black hairs all over its body and eight beady black eyes. Meanwhile it’s rushing straight at me without any hesitation.

I quickly identify it while tightening my grip on my knives.

♢ Level 4 Infantile Arachnid – 10 Potential Skills – X ♢

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

Oh. It’s actually rather weak.

Without hesitating, I activate Assimilate and sprint forwards to meet it. Using a gravity magic spell to increase the weight of my larger knife right after swinging it at the spider. But I end up using the spell too early, making the blade move towards it at an awkward angle that isn’t good for cutting. Leading to the blade slamming into the spider and sending it flying instead of cutting through it.

I watch as the spider slams into a tree with a massive portion of its torso crushed along with some arms before System Messages come in.

{You have slain a being while Assimilate is active. You have now unlocked the Skill Tree: Infantile Arachnid}

{You have unlocked a new Skill Tree, therefore the root skill of the Skill Tree, Poisonous Bite, is now unlocked for your usage.}

Yeah, sorry, but I still don’t plan on going around biting things.

If I have to, I will. But I would like it if I could stop getting these skills.

I glance at my knife to find the rain washing it off for me. The one nice thing about this heavy rain that, while isn’t doing anything to my extremely waterproof clothes, is still soaking my hair and making it annoying to see.

After glancing at the spider’s corpse once more, I move on to looking for the next monster.

Then again, I’m the one going after monsters for skills. So it makes sense I’d get a bunch of skills humans normally wouldn’t use.

Doesn’t change the fact that I’d rather have other skills.

Anyways, I hunt one monster after another over the course of the next few hours. Ever so gradually clearing out this corner of the park of monsters.

And I do it all without running into anyone thanks to my Blood Hound sense of smell along with Enhanced Perception. Not to mention the heavy rain obscuring everyone’s vision.

Hmm. I wonder what the chances were for us to return to Val during such heavy rain anyways?

I ponder over that for the span of a few dozen monster kills. Until I finally get another level up.

{Congratulations, you have now reached level 13. Your PHY and MEN have increased by 1 point, and your MAG by 2 points. Please choose where you wish your 1 Free Point to be allocated.}

After allocating all of my points, I open up my status for the first time in a little while. And what I find is rather surprising.

Ashley Sinclair *

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Level 13

30

PHY

28

MEN

29

MAG

Chaos Energy

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Successor of Chaos

Now there are number symbols next to all of the bars in my status. And when I select one of them, it changes the bars to numbers instead. With another symbol next to them to change them back.

Which is rather convenient.

Mostly because it gets difficult to tell just how many units of mana or health or energy I have with those bars. Especially when I’m in trouble.

As for my points allocation? After some research on the ever-handy forums, I learned a few things about these stats.

The PHY stat is rather simple. It determines your body’s physical condition. Your strength, how much damage you can take, and so on. Everything about your physical body.

Then there’s the MEN stat, which isn’t as simple. It determines your mental strength. Which generally means it is used in mental attacks. But it also determines your secondary energy.

So I need it, what with my Chaos Energy.

Lastly, the MAG stat. It determines how powerful any sort of magic you use is, as well as determines how much mana you have.

And what I need the most right now is my physical strength, since that’s what I use the most.

I make sure to set my status as numbers instead of bars, then I go ahead and begin walking in the direction of the next monster I smell. Only to pause when my stomach growls, and I realize I’m hungry.

Right. Hunger is a thing.

I kind of forgot about it because I haven’t needed to eat since waking up from my coma, but food is a necessity.

But where will I get food…

I cross my arms and stare down at the ground for several seconds. Then I blink as a thought comes to mind and I check the new skills I got from the many monsters I killed. And after finding what I’m looking for, the skill already having been unlocked due to being a root skill, I turn to look at the corpse of my latest kill. A large spider.

That’ll do.