Fifteen dead goblins lay in a semi-circle around Lev, all victims of his disks. He grimaced at the unpleasant smell despite the armor keeping the worst of it at bay and checked the notifications.
[
You have slain [Goblin - Level 29]
…
You have slain [Goblin - Level 28]
Arcane Barrier Manipulation has reached Level 4
]
The skill levels have finally plateaued. Lev noted idly. The evolution is gonna take even longer than I expected at this rate.
Inna had vanished some time ago. That suited Lev just fine. Now that he knew she put on an act for his ease instead of just being friendly, he didn't mind not seeing her.
Checking his mana, he found it higher than what he had started with. The formation and manipulation of disks took only a little mana, the cost made negligible by his above-average regeneration.
His barriers lasted only thirty minutes, so he left the previous disks on the ground when he was done fighting instead of carrying them around. It didn't really matter either way, as the cost of keeping them afloat was only a little lower than making them anew.
Moving from boulder to boulder, he scanned and methodically disposed of any goblin groups or stray orcs. He was about to head back for the day when his eyes landed on a head poking over a distant boulder.
The troll was oblivious to Lev's presence, which gave him more than enough time to start the fight by launching an arrow and three disks at its head.
The arrow pierced the side of its head, getting a loud pained roar in return. The disks reached the troll within the same second, two of them cutting the back of its neck while the last targeted its throat.
The combined attack was enough for it to lose all semblance of calm, grabbing at its throat to stop the attacker. The disk shattered in its grip easily but the blood shower indicated that the troll was likely to bleed out regardless.
Lev decided not to take any chances, forming three more disks as the previous three were shattered. He repeated the same tactic, staying hidden behind a boulder.
This feels cowardly. Lev thought with a grimace. I almost don't want to do this.
[
You have slain [Troll - Level 79]
Arcane Sentinel has reached Level 58
…
Arcane Sentinel has reached Level 60
Incisive Edge has reached Level 6
Whirling Rim has reached Level 6
15 Free attribute points
]
Lev distributed the points as usual. Ten into Perception and the rest into Constitution.
It's too bad these disks will fall off pretty hard. Lev checked his mana pool, finding it barely lower. Monsters all become too tough and fast to be hit by them after the first threshold.
Shrugging off that downer thought, he kept moving ahead. During the daytime, he had found a single other Classer team fighting monsters. Naturally, he had kept away from them. The four hunters looked young, pretty much kids to him. They were probably around 15 years of age.
Now, he stumbled upon them once more, this time with too many monsters after them. He sighed and looked around, finding Inna casually seated upon a distant boulder, observing everything without any expression. Their eyes met and Lev could almost feel her curiosity from afar.
Two dozen goblins and three orcs. Lev counted, wondering how the team had even managed that. Thinking for a moment, he decided to lend them a hand.
Summoning his bow, he brained the orc in the back of the small horde. None of the monsters noticed, which allowed Lev to kill off the rest of the orcs with ease too.
The bronze team, all well below level 75, noticed that as well. The healer in the back sent him a look of gratitude but didn't ask for further help. The two warriors and the fire mage seemed to have it under control, and Lev slipped away before they finished putting down all the goblins.
Well, that was a nice little sidequest. Lev chuckled to himself.
Deciding that was enough for today, he ran back to the inner wall's gate. The occasional monster barely slowed him down, dealt with quickly by his bow or three disks, sometimes both. Before entering the gate, he quickly dismissed and summoned back his barrier armor to get rid of any lingering blood or gore.
What now? Lev wondered. He had already fought more than most Classers did in a week in just two days.
I can continue the Enchanting notes but they won't be useful till I evolve and unlock a General Skill for runes. Maybe look into weapon training?
He couldn't help but grimace at that. Satisfying as it was, he had no talent nor desire to fight in melee range. The glaive looked really cool in his hands but his mind scrambled when trying to wield it properly.
Mana in contrast followed his whims smoothly. Only after fumbling around with Stargazer did he realize just how much better he was at utilizing mana. Even fighting barehanded came to him somewhat naturally.
How the fuck do I have nothing to do in a Fantasy World with a System?
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
Deciding to let the wind guide his steps, he just picked a direction and started walking. Beyond the main road, there were several things he hadn't heard of before. The most amazing was a large martial academy, focused on physical fighters and melee weapons.
There was a massage house too, which Lev couldn't make use of for obvious reasons. The red district was a surprise. He didn't think there was anything of the sort in The Pit but it made sense in hindsight. Many risked their lives inside The Pit on a daily basis.
Safe to say, he fled the area as fast as he could without running.
That was when he stumbled upon The Pit's Library. It seemed like his troubles had been answered, and he eagerly entered through the large wooden gate.
The atmosphere was just as he remembered from Earth, quiet and serene. To his left was a middle-aged man keeping an eye on everyone. He looked to be in charge, so Lev approached him.
"Hey, do I need to register somewhere to read the books?" Lev asked in a low voice.
[Librarian - ??]
"The area ahead is inside a silencing ward," the man spoke dismissively. "There's no registration or charges. Just remember the fine. Five silver for minor damage, and up to one gold for major damage to any book."
Lev thanked the surly librarian before walking inside a large hall covered with bookshelves. Benches and tables made up most of the sitting area in the middle, a few already taken.
Weapons, classes- oh hey this one looks interesting, history, Monster Catalogue, beginner crafting, professions.
Lev was here for the last two, in which he picked the most basic titles from both categories. Taking up the furthest bench from everyone else already present, he started reading.
****
Two weeks passed as Lev tested the limits of his class, noting what he excelled at and what would be semi-optimal to continue. To no surprise, he found himself giving up on utilizing a physical weapon. Stargazer was a magnificent glaive, no doubt, but the wielder was just too inept to make good use of it.
What did surprise him was fistfighting. Or well, utilizing the barrier gauntlets of his armor. With the added weight of the Illusion armor, his punches and kicks packed enough of a punch to kill most dormant monsters. He practiced as much as he could, staying away from Trolls for obvious reasons. They were far too strong to oppose in melee range.
The orc in front of him was being subjected to his growing familiarity with melee skill. Lev sidestepped its charge and threw a kick at its knee. He was rewarded with a crack after the fifth kick at the same location, and the monster lost its balance. Not giving up the opportunity, Lev aimed for the flailing orc's face.
Dodging the thick limbs was growing ever easier with his grown Perception and mastery over movement, letting him put down the orc in the next half a minute. The greatest downside of brawling so far was the lack of a finisher, so he simply slit its throat with a disk when the orc was too wounded to continue.
[
You have slain [Orc - Level 67]
Arcane Sentinel has reached Level 77
Arcane Brawling has reached Level 10
Arcane Brawling has reached 2nd Level 1
5 Free attribute points
]
Fucking finally! Lev exclaimed mentally, doing a silent fist pump. It had taken far longer than he expected for the first skill to achieve the second rank. He excitedly brought up the description of the skill.
[
Arcane Brawling - 2nd Rank Level 1:
This skill aids with manipulating your armor when fighting in melee combat. Your strikes are more precise, and your footing, more stable. Extension of the class skills Barrier Armor and Nimble, this skill takes up 3 General Skill Slots.
Highest effectiveness when fighting with bare hands.
Reduced effectiveness when fighting with weapons.
2nd Rank: You have learned to give them no quarter, unrelenting in your kicks and punches. The skill will guide your actions when fighting aggressively, making your movements more fluid and attacks more precise and lethal.
Further enhanced effectiveness when fighting without a weapon.
]
Lev sighed a little when he read the last line. If he just enjoyed fighting with a weapon, the second rank could've been entirely different. But what was done was already done, and he didn't regret how the skill developed.
He was pretty sure that gauntlets didn't count as weapons for the skill which was a plus. The weight of Illusion armor was the only reason he could fight like this in the first place, so utilizing heavy gauntlets would be necessary as time went on.
Time to test this. He thought with a grin.
Several minutes later, an unlucky group of goblins entered his periphery. Lev picked up a small stone and threw it at them, attracting each goblin's attention. They charged, and so did Lev.
The improved skill combined with his Perception let him know exactly when he would reach the first monster. Stopping right in front of the goblin, he launched a roundhouse kick at its head. The goblin's head rotated backward with a crunch, now looking behind it instead.
Not paying the falling corpse another glance, descending on the remaining monsters with far more grace than before. He nimbly dodged the dagger thrown at his face, downing another goblin with an elbow to its nose. The force was enough to cave its skull in, throwing it several feet back.
It didn't take even a minute to finish the rest. Lev examined what he had done in content silence, feeling the skill trickle feedback into his brain. How to add crouching into the mix, the proper use of knees and elbows, basic grappling, and several other things now made sense to him.
The upgrade was shaping up to be great, which was why he immediately started working on the next skill. Barrier armor was the closest to ranking up, setting at Level 9. He set out to find another Orc to tussle with.
Several minutes of wandering and slitting goblin throats from afar later, he found a much more dangerous prospect.
[Shade Brute - Level 85]
Lev was still high on his skill upgrade and decided to go for it. The brute was nearly two feet taller than him, which was why he kept three disks summoned just in case.
The lumbering monster noticed him the moment he came within twenty meters of it. It charged with a roar, intent on grinding him to a pump with its trunk-like arms and legs. The dark blue-skinned giant predictably dashed directly at him, letting Lev punch its shoulder at full strength to test the waters.
The fight was off to a good start when he was rewarded with a grunt of pain. He backpedaled to dodge a wide swing of its arm. Fighting in the range of its arms was a horrible idea, so he let the brute come to him. It had to lean forward to attack the much shorter human each time, giving an opening for retaliation.
Lev dodged another wild smash and kicked its face. The brute's head rocked back but it continued to chase him without abandon. For half a minute, he observed the actions of the brute. He selectively blocked the weakest backhands of the brute with crossed arms, noting that his armor strained to keep the force of the wild attacks at bay.
Seeing nothing new that could potentially surprise him, he waited for its next attack and tilted sideways just enough to let it fly past his face harmlessly. Up close, he overloaded his manipulation skill to the limit before punching the brute's temple with all his might.
Its head rocked to the side as its knees went limp. The monster tried to get up only to fall backward, stunned. Lev ended its life after that. It took only a few seconds for a disk to behead it.
[
You have slain [Shade Brute - Level 85]
Arcane Sentinel has reached Level 78
Barrier Armor has reached 2nd Level 1
5 Free attribute points
]
The barrier armor ranking up after the brawling skill was no surprise, as the two worked in tandem. Lev brought up the description, not expecting anything out of the ordinary.
[
Barrier Armor - 2nd Rank Level 1:
Cover your body in transparent armor to protect you from your foes. This armor is considered one whole instead of individual pieces. It can be manipulated like normal barriers, but the shape cannot be altered.
2nd Rank: Spend mana to harden a part of or the entire armor, cost depending on the area hardened.
]
No surprises there.
The armor was a well-known skill, obtained before him by countless crafters. The 2nd rank upgrade was the most commonly seen one and generally considered the most useful. It was intended to protect oneself against accidental explosions during experimentation, but the effect fit his class perfectly as well.
Looking at his descriptions, Lev decided it was time to push for the Wisdom boost. The specialty skill was slow to level, requiring him to focus on precise manipulation of his disks and arrows. That was his next goal, and seeing he still had over 70% of his mana, he started for monsters to hunt.
The ivory terrain provided excellent hiding spots, which went for monsters as well. Lev had to climb boulder after boulder to look for them but he found the previous Classer team instead.
They just looked at him, not hostile yet not exactly inviting either. With a single nod as a greeting, Lev changed directions, not wanting to get tangled with them. They were all getting close to Iron rank as well, mostly in the high fifties now.
It took little time to stumble upon a small horde, with nearly two dozen goblins grouped together. That wasn't an issue for Lev, he started firing arrow after arrow from two dozen meters away. Three floating disks took care of any that got close to him, and in less than a minute all of them were dead.
Intelligence was responsible for the range and potency of spells, which dictated how much he could enhance his arrows. The range of manipulation was a universal 10 meters at 150 Intelligence for all humans, the increase in range slowing down drastically after that. Lev's current base range was a mere meter above that at 190 Intelligence, then doubled by his class. That was the range in which he could mess around with his arrows and disks to increase the level of Needle Precision.
It tickled him the wrong way to test his skills so casually on monsters but he clamped down on that line of thought. It was the only option to grow stronger.
Finding another group of goblins and staying out of sight, he formed three disks and tossed two of them up at full speed. They exited his range of manipulation almost instantly, ascending way higher than Lev expected. Gravity asserted itself again at the height of their flight, and he prepared himself to catch them.
The task he had set for himself was to curve the downward flight of the disks, changing their trajectory to kill the goblins before launching them back upwards.
Predictably, all of them missed or crashed. It took only a few seconds for the goblins to find the hidden attacker, forcing Lev to kill them normally and find a new group. The next three groups all fell the same way before he found a lone orc.
Straining his focus, Lev tracked the falling disk. The moment it entered his range, he gently altered its path till its flight changed from vertical to completely horizontal in an arc. The altered trajectory lead it straight to the orc's neck, the speed from the descent seeing it cleave through the neck entirely and exiting on the other side.
Lev watched mouth agape as the head toppled to the stone ground. Does speed matter that much? I thought most of the power came from the spinning, increasing the penetration.
[
You have slain [Orc - Level 65]
Needle Precision has reached Level 8
Arcane Barrier Manipulation has reached Level 7
]