Jeff began collecting all of the left over acorns on the ground around him. He checked the tally in the corner of his vision and noticed he had killed eighty-three Level 0 saplings. Despite the low level of the monsters he had pushed himself right up to the threshold of Level 7. His spirit felt full to bursting. He was surprised he hadn’t leveled up already. It was almost like he needed a stronger monster to push him over the edge.
He spotted one of the larger saplings coming toward his circle from behind him. He created a disc and hurled it at the monster. A moment later he had a screen showing he’d killed another Level 2 sapling and he felt his spirit swell even higher.
Kazi answered his question before he had to ask it. “It’s because you have to actually break through the threshold to level up. No one really knows why, it’s just the way the Mysts work. But you can do that by filling yourself up enough with smaller monsters so that you burst through the threshold or by killing something higher leveled. The higher the level of monster the easier it is to push you through to the next threshold. Each new threshold becomes slightly harder to break through too. Killing monsters a few levels below you is still usually enough to break the threshold. However, once you are Level 100 or something you would have a hard time breaking through anything by killing a bunch of level 10 monsters. Breaking through thresholds allows you to hold more Myst within your body.”
Hearing Kazi speak through his ear bones helped calm him down a bit. The spore spoke in his typical scholarly tone despite the chaos surrounding them. It helped ease his nerves.
He set about quickly gathering nuts and putting them in his pocket. Used kept his energy shield in a slanted position with the top further away from him. It gave him protection from the saplings he was closest to and also conveniently lit up the ground with its golden glow. His 360 vision allowed him to spot the nuts on the ground while still keeping watch on the chaos in his peripherals.
He drew a bit too close to the fighting on one side and the two saplings fighting each other seemed to turn in unison toward him. They struck out with weak vines at his shield. He threw out a new disc and manipulated it to slice them each in half. Luckily these monsters were weak enough that his base Disc Manipulation speed had plenty of force and he didn’t need to strain his spirit too much.
He continued on cleaning up the nuts in a circle around him and killing saplings once they noticed him. His spiritual senses worked much better now that he wasn’t surrounded by the things and he could pin point where each of the closest were.
You have leveled up to Level 7!
The third sapling he killed the same way leveled him up, but he dismissed the notification and continued making sure he had a decent circle of protection from the terrifying horde of cannibalistic saplings. He noticed that the saplings would turn and face him once he was around 10 meters always from them. It must have been his Vambrace’s ability to cloak him from their senses. These monsters didn’t have any other methods of seeing him so he hoped he’d be safe once he cleared the area of the acorns.
The saplings seemed more focused on the Myst reward nuts than anything else. He saw a group of five fighting each other for one little nut in the center. He sent a disc through them and picked up five more kills. They were too far out of his safety circle to pick up the nuts they left behind, but it at least thinned the horde in that area.
He reached down to pick up another nut and noticed his fingers find something that felt a little different. He picked it up and held it to light from his Energy Shield. It was a ring with a smooth wooden band and a carving of an acorn on the front.
He really wished he could identify the ring now. He had no clue what the ring could be, but he hadn’t run into any issues with bad loot yet, so he plopped the ring on his right pinky finger. The ring adjusted itself to fit snuggly on the finger.
Anticipate fired up and he barely had time to fall backwards and away from a much larger vine that struck toward his face. He repositioned the shield between him and the looming sapling. The thing looked more like a tree than a little sapling. He brought his circling disc up in a high arc and allowed gravity to add to the force as it sliced through the sapling. The disc made it most of the way through, but stopped on the last bit. The sapling went rigid and its top half timbered down to the ground. A new small screen appeared in the corner of his vision.
Wait…did he even have a corner to vision anymore?
You have defeated:
Alianthose Sapling - Level 5
Reward accepted
He scrambled to his feet and stepped back toward the dissolving monster. Then he halted. He really didn’t want another sapling to get that Level 5 Myst reward. He ran over and took out he five or so smaller saplings that reacted to his presence. Then he grabbed the large branch that the monster left behind. It was sturdy and slim. He remembered trying to make a bow in scouts once and thought that this branch might work perfect if he could find the right kind of string.
He backed up to the center of his moonlit circle and waited for any saplings to enter his safe zone. He spoke out to his fused spore, “Can you put my new attribute points into Sense?” He didn’t want to deal with the screen while he was keeping his attention on the surrounding battles.
“All of them? That might unbalance you. You really don’t want a sense headache right now.”
“Fine, just put them all into Spirit.” Jeff said with teeth clenched. He could feel the strain from the long day, but he was hoping with additional points he could survive the marathon this night was turning out to be.
He saw a screen pop up on the side of his vision and saw Kazi raise Might from 4 to 5 and Sense from 5 to 7. He felt his spirit’s flow within him strengthen and his spiritual senses become a little clearer. With the added attributes he was able to keep his relaxed sense field up which reached about 100 meters now. He also could focus in on the area around his cleared circle. Most of the monsters had moved farther away while he had gathered the acorns. Any that didn’t had been slain.
Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.
He settled in and waited for a new monster to approach. The next five minutes only had one Level 2 sapling enter his circle. He dispatched it within seconds and waited for the next. The extra time allowed his spirit to recover slightly. After a bit though, he got bored. At least as bored as you could be while watching a whole forest come alive around you and start fighting each other for dominance.
He just didn’t want all of the fighting to go on without him. This was a golden opportunity for him to level up. He hadn’t attracted any attention from the saplings for his thrown discs. They only attacked him when he finally moved within their senses.
With his spirit he could tell that it was recovering at a steady pace so long as he didn’t strain it too much. It was like his spirit was getting a second wind after running a mile. The pain was still there, but he was getting used to the feeling and felt comfortable so long as his pace of using Myst was steady.
Deciding he shouldn’t waste this opportunity he created a glowing disc in his hand and hurled it into the forest. The glowing disc flew into the dark forest and struck a large sapling he could only barely see. He caught the disc with his manipulation. It was only about 40 meters away from him and he brought it back toward him low, slicing through two more Level 0 saplings that were still struggling for dominance. As the disc approached he had it curve up and flip into his waiting hand. Jeff checked his surroundings to make sure nothing had approached and then threw the disc again.
By the time the red moon had risen and joined the blue Jeff had cleared a much larger circle around him from monsters. The forest glowed purple as he saw his glowing disc return through the trees. He saw three screens pop up as a stream of Myst flowed into him and pushed him through the next threshold.
You have leveled up to Level 8!
Disc Manipulation - Middle Mastery
You can control the discs you create. You can control the spin of the discs you create.
Your Depth attribute has reached 10 attribute points and reached a threshold. Would you like to bring your Spirit to Tier 2? Yes/No
He was so startled by all the screens that he missed the disc as he manipulated it back towards his hands. It fumbled in his hands and he dropped it to the forest floor where it winked out.
“Sorry about that,” Kazi apologized. “I only meant to show you the level up one, but then the System sent the other two while I had my settings changed.” The screens dismissed except the last one about his Depth reaching 10 points. It shrunk and moved to the side where Jeff could still see it.
He didn’t know what he would do with the ability to spin the discs with Disc Manipulation. It was a nice added benefit though. Maybe it would help him curve the disc better when thrown fast.
“Uh, is there any reason to wait on bringing my Spirit to Tier 2?” He asked while he turned his attention back on the forest.
“Yes and no,” came the reply. “You can’t raise a stat above 10 unless you have broken through to the next tier. With Body and Mind you can decide when you want to do that. Most people try to get each stat up to 10 before breaking through.”
“Why is that?”
“Because you get benefits based on which stats are at the peak of the tier when you break through.” Jeff sent a mental “huh?” to the spore and it continued. “If you break through with Dexterity at 10 then the Mysts reward you with skills. Not abilities, but skills. They fall under a separate thing. For Dexterity it will be something like Silent Steps or Flexibility. It’s always something related to the attribute and usually something that just becomes a part of you.”
“A passive buff…” Jeff said contemplating. “So if I raise my Sense up to 10 right now and then break through I will get a boost for both my Sense and Depth?”
“Exactly! So yes, you should wait to break through until each Spirit attribute is at 10, but it’s not always possible to do. Like right now, I really doubt you can raise your Might from 5 to 10 without losing some points to Depth, as it won’t be able to grow till you break through. Also, sometimes you get stronger skills when you break through with only one or two stats at the threshold. That’s not a hard rule though. There are far too many exceptions to say that you will certainly get a better skill with one or two attributes at 10.”
Jeff cut off the spore before it could continue it’s lecture by requesting his stat screen and he dumped all three available points into Sense. Another screen popped up.
Sense and Depth have reached 10 attribute points and reached a threshold. Would you like to bring your Spirit to Tier 2? Yes/No
He mentally hovered over the ‘Yes’ button. It would take three more levels to get his Might to 10. Or two levels and more tea…He really doubted he would go very long without gaining another Depth point. He could see himself reaching Middle Mastery on 360 Vision or Anticipate at any time.
He made his decision and selected Yes on the screen.
He felt his spirit swell for a moment and his internal cycling flow of yearning and peace became a river within him. His spirit flowed through his body and he felt lightheaded for moment. He tried to keep his eyes open for potential threats, but he swooned to the side and barely caught himself and went down to a knee. He decided to close his eyes and noticed he could still see. At least in a sense…pun not intended.
He felt like his spiritual focus could detach itself from his body. He allowed himself to float up above his body and could see, spiritually, any of his surroundings that he focused on. He flew in a circle and made sure nothing was coming to attack him. He trusted his senses and decided to play around with the skill a little bit. He could fly himself over and focus his vision anywhere within his sense field. It wasn’t perfect, definitely worse that using his eye sight, but it was still amazing. The further he went from his body the more muddled his senses became. He could go about 50 meters away and still get a good spiritual visual of what was there.
It was like his focused senses but with much greater control and clarity. He could see things from different angles and perceive so much more.
Jeff stood up with his eyes still closed and created a new disc. He stepped forward and launched the disc at a target and watched with his spiritual sense floating above the sapling. A moment later the disc came through the trees and sliced the sapling in half.
He opened his eyes and saw a new kill confirmation screen pop up on the side. It was a Level 3 monster and he just killed it with his eyes closed. Jeff smiled. That felt pretty cool. He also noticed two other screens in his vision.
New Skill for Sense:
Remote Viewing
Your spiritual senses are no longer tied to your body.
New Skill for Depth:
Myst Trance
You can recover spiritual strain while meditating.
“Whoa wait,” Kazi said, “the System is saying you’ve already got that one so it’s giving you an additional skill.”
New Skill for Depth:
Meditative Boost
Any meditation abilities or skills will double their effectiveness.