What was this place? Was he really there, or was it inside his own subconscious? Something about the atmosphere and the ethereal ambience told Max it was the latter. The word “inner” seemed to suggest that it was somehow inside him, too. That didn’t, however, make it feel any less real.
Max took a few steps, and each of them reverberated in the space as if it were some enormous, cavernous hall. It had the feel of somewhere that had been uninhabited for millennia, but was brimming with underlying magic and power just waiting to be woken.
Max noticed that, in the top left of his vision, his orbs were now being displayed for each category.
Battle Orbs: 5
Beast Orbs: 4
Crafting Orbs: 1
Alchemy Orbs: 6
Exploration Orbs: 4
“What do I do here?” he said out loud, and his voice stretched into the nothingness, leaving him with no reply. He was going to have to figure this out on his own.
He took a few more steps forward, intending to see if there was some doorway to another area or something, and he became slightly concerned about how he was going to get out of this place when he couldn’t find one. The area truly did seem to go on for infinity in all directions. It was almost as if he wasn’t moving at all.
Okay, he thought, let’s try something.
Max glanced up at the orbs he had available. He had thought the words Assign orbs to get him to this place. Maybe a similar approach would work now that he was there.
Assign battle orbs, he thought.
Immediately, three glowing red spheres appeared in front of him. They were each about the size of an apple, and they were floating, suspended in mid-air.
Now we’re getting somewhere, he thought.
He focused on the leftmost sphere and a bit of text appeared beside it:
Life Growth
Increases maximum HP by 10
Cost: 2 Battle Orbs
An increase of his maximum HP? That would be incredibly valuable, since he had been born into this world with a meagre 50.
He shifted his focus to the centre sphere:
Predator’s Power
Increases the damage of any equipped weapon by 5
Cost: 3 Battle Orbs
Interesting, Max thought. Another very valuable ability, but it did cost one more orb than the other sphere to activate.
He took a look at the third sphere:
Iron Hide
Reduces damage taken from physical attacks by 5
Cost: 3 Battle Orbs
Another ability that cost 3 orbs, but another very valuable one.
Max had 5 to spend. He considered going for the one of the buffs to his attack and defence first, but the upgrade to his maximum HP was the one that really stood out to him. He decided that was going to be his first ability.
Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.
Now, how does this work? he thought.
He reached out and touched the leftmost sphere. The text next to it changed to:
Activate this sphere for 2 battle orbs?
Yes, Max thought with certainty, and the sphere produced a pleasant swell of white light along with an accompanying sound.
Life Growth Activated!
His health bar then appeared, along with his HP level number, and he smiled as it changed from 50 to 60.
It still wasn’t a huge amount, but it was a step in the right direction.
Max was then about to spend his remaining 3 battle orbs on one of the buffs, but as soon as he let go of the sphere he had just activated, 2 wispy lines grew out of it and spawned new spheres a little further away.
Max approached them and focused on the leftmost:
Life Growth 2
Increases maximum HP by 20
Cost: 4 Battle Orbs
He shifted his gaze to the other:
Life’s Reward
Landing a critical hit restores 5 HP
Cost: 4 Battle Orbs
Things were getting more interesting by the second.
Both of these would be valuable, though he couldn’t afford either of them at present.
Returning to the original spheres, Max considered which of the buffs would be best. Since he had just increased his HP, he decided to switch things up and boost his attack by placing his palm on the attack buff.
He watched as the sphere glowed white and the text changed from:
Predator’s Power
Increases the damage of any equipped weapon by 5
Cost: 3 Battle Orbs
to:
Predator’s Power Activated!
As with the original sphere he had activated, this one spawned 2 wispy streaks of light that connected to new spheres.
The left one read:
Predator’s Power 2
Increases the damage of any equipped weapon by 10
Cost: 4 Battle Orbs
And the right one read:
Predator’s Luck
Creates a 2% chance a regular strike will become a critical strike
Cost: 3 Battle Orbs
As cool as these looked, Max had no more available battle orbs to spend, but he was already looking forward to when he would have.
It was time to move on.
Assign beast orbs, Max thought, and the red spheres faded away before being replaced by 3 new orange ones.
The first of them read:
Hunter’s Instinct
Creates a sense of awareness when there are hostile beasts in close range
Cost: 3 Beast Orbs
Max found this really interesting. It was the first one that was offering something that wasn’t quantifiable with numbers. A sense of awareness in regards to beasts close by? He wondered what that might feel like.
The second beast sphere read:
Hunter’s Cloak
Reduces hostile beasts’ ability to detect scent by 5%
Cost: 2 Beast Orbs
The value of this was slightly more quantifiable in that it gave a percentage to go by, but Max was unsure about its usefulness in his current situation. Now that he had access to this place to be able to spend the orbs he was collecting, he had no doubt he’d want to go hunting beasts to collect more orbs rather than trying to avoid them. Maybe the ability would come in useful at some point for being able to stealth attack certain beasts, but right now he was more interested in offence, and 5% seemed like it might be negligible in terms of him noticing any effect anyway.
The third beast sphere read:
Wildpath Tracker
Highlights recent tracks made by beasts
Cost: 3 Beast Orbs
This was way more interesting. It was something that would be able to tell Max if he was in the vicinity of any beasts that might be lurking out of sight in a particular area, and quickly follow them to their hiding spot.
Ruling out the Predator’s Cloak ability for the time being, Max decided he was going to spend 3 of his 4 available beast orbs on either the Predator’s Instinct or the Wildpath Tracker. On one hand, the ability to sense when beasts were nearby would most likely come in very handy, but on the other, having beast tracks highlighted would also make hunting a lot easier. After going back and forth in his mind for a few moments, he decided to go with the Wildpath Tracker, mostly due to not knowing exactly what a sense of awareness to beasts might feel like, and if it would be that obvious or not.
He reached out and touched the sphere.
Wildpath Tracker Activated!
2 now familiar wispy streaks of light grew outwards from it, this time glowing bright orange.
The new sphere the first line spawned was:
Hunter’s Mark
A marker can be placed above the head of a single beast
Cost: 3 Beast Orbs
Now that could be useful. If a beast decided to flee from him, it would make it a lot easier to follow if there was some kind of marker floating above its head.
The sphere the second new line spawned was:
Hunter’s Hyperosmia
Increases the pungency of beasts’ scents by 5%
Cost: 3 Beast Orbs
Another ability that could prove valuable in tracking beasts, although Max wondered if the heightened sensitivity to their smell might also be a bit unpleasant.
However, Max only had 1 remaining beast orb to spend, and all remaining beast spheres cost at least 3 to unlock, so he would have to be patient and come back when he had a few more available.
He realised then that a sense of excited anticipation coursed through him at the idea of returning to this place to activate these spheres at a later date.
As he thought, Assign crafting orbs, and the orange beast spheres were replaced by 3 yellow ones, he couldn’t help but grin.
This was one hell of a lot of fun, and he had plenty more orbs to assign in the remaining 3 categories.