He found himself floating amongst a inky darkness, unable to do anything. He was sure he killed the fire slime but he didn't know if he was still alive. Maybe he died, so he was now in this limbo with no way out.
He could hear 2 faint voice talking though, one regal but sweet and the other sultry and mature. He couldn’t hear what they were talking about but he felt like it was something about him. Light streamed into the the darkness, the light distorted from the darkness rippling like water.
A comforting warmth overcame his body causing him to slowly sink into a half conscious state. It was only a long time later that he finally woke up, staring at an unfamiliar ceiling feeling extremely lethargic.
“Ugh…where am I?”
“You’re in a hospital of course. Now if you don’t mind feel free to leave as soon as possible, you’re pretty healthy as you are.” A nurse said to him, nonchalantly.
“Wait, what about the fees, and who brought me here?” Ad asked, confused as hell.
“Ah no need to worry about that, the fees for healing you was already paid by the girls that brought you here 2 days ago. Your stuff are on the table over there.”
“Oh yeah, they also said that if you wanted to repay them then climb to the 20th floor. That’s about them I guess, now get moving.” She said while shooing him out of the bed.
Stumbling out of the hospital after changing back into his own clothes, all the cores he hunted were still there including 2 R1 cores and a crystal or 2 in the bag. Probably from the 2 elite slimes he killed, they were at least generous in the loot they gave considering he almost died to them.
Well he had to sell these cores first and appraise whatever crystals he got from the fight.
“Welcome to ericson’s Services, how may I- Ah it’s you again, so you were still alive.”
“I’m selling cores, and appraisal for skill crystals.”
“Alright, just give me a moment.” He said as he started counting out the magic cores.
“Oh! A R1 core, you actually met a elite, no wonder you were gone for so long. Well there’s about 43 R0’s and 2 R1’s so that's 56,000.
Now for your crystals… well colour me surprised, that’s a Firestorm crystal and a Body double skill crystal. Your first appraisal was free as our company has stated, but after that it costs 100 crons.
I'll take that off your sales, is that fine?”
“Yeah.” There was no free lunch in this world after all.
The crystals while amazing finds, felt extremely ironic considering these 2 spells were what caused him to almost die. But Firestorm was a good skill, so he was going to use that.
As for body double, he was still unsure as to what he wanted to do with it. Leaving the shop, he went back to the inn he was staying at first, renting out another week. He wanted to check his status first before anything else.
“Status.”
Name: Aiden Smith (17)
Skills 3/4 (4)
Race: Awakened Human (M)
Level: 4 (8 / 100)
Hp: 170 (0.49/hr)
Mp: 240 (12.7/hr)
Class: Sealmaster(2)
Stats: [AP: 0] [SP: 0]
STR: 18 DEX: 21 SPI: 25 CON: 17
INT: 27 LCK: 4/10 WILL: 17
Skills:
Mana Construct 1/10 (40/100)
Summons: Worker Cost: 50 Dura: - CD: -
Shadow Strike 4/10 (12/100)
+2 Slash Cost: 5 Dura: - CD: 6.5’s
Magic Circuits 3/10 (32/100)
Passive
Create Seal 1/10 (0/100)
Seals: 0 Cost: 20 Dura: - CD: -
He didn’t know what to say right now, in fact he was totally speechless how his stats had suddenly shot up so much. His race had changed somewhat and so did his class, it was now sealmaster, whatever that was.
All his stats except luck got a +5 increase while intelligence and spirit received 3 and 2 extra stats respectively. He had to check everything that was new.
Awakened Human (M)
Rank 2
Having received a evolution crystal, your body has evolved to be one step closer to becoming the strongest.
+5 to all stats.
Levelling up grants 5 AP instead of 3 AP.
Sealmaster (Unique)
Rank 2
1/10 (0 / 100)
The Sealmaster is one who can become an army of his own,capable turning even living beings into a seal with enough power. They will never be bound by the common restrictions anyone else has.
+3 INT, +2SPI per level
Create Seal (Unique)
Rank 3
1/10 (0 / 100)
Creates a seal to hold either a skill, class or an object.
Skills sealed can still be used normally, they do take up skill slots. Sealed skills require close contact or melee range to be used. You cannot seal a passive skill or unique skills.
Class seals can be assimilated into Sealmaster class for experience. Can also be used to transfer a class between 2 parties.
Sealed objects are required to be unsealed before they can be used. Sealed objects do not have weight.
All seals require a upkeep of 20 maximum mana.
The only crystal he came upon that could be a evolution crystal was that orb that he lost in the fight against the goblins. But it didn’t awaken him or anything when he got it, only now after the fight with the elite slimes.
So either it had a requirement before he could awaken or it was something else entirely, maybe it was the people that saved him who did this. Which just means he had 1 more reason to keep going up even after he paid his debt off.
Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.
Because one, the main compound where the great his mother clung onto was at the 22nd floor. Two, going up meant he had more chance of getting stronger and earning money faser. Finally 3, it was to meet his saviours.
With this sudden change of luck, he was now even more determined to exact his revenge. First though, he had to test this Create Seal skill he had.
Throwing the Firestorm crystal into his mouth, he ignored all the text boxes before activating the Create Seal skill. A small white ring floated above his hand, waiting for him to do something.
“Umm, seal Firestorm?”
The seal trembled slightly before morphing into a red circle with a flame symbol in the middle.
Fire Seal (Unique)
Rank -
1/1
A seal that expels a stream of fire in front of it, it can be fine tuned into a lasting effect or used as a single shot.
Can be set on any surface in contact with your body or at a very close range around you. Can be used alongside other Seals.
Cost: 5 mana
Duration: Until dispelled/Activated
Seal trigger: Blast
Seeing it work just like how it should be, Ad couldn’t help grow excited as he quickly made another seal for Shadow strike. This time, it retained its colour but had a dagger symbol in the middle before disappearing once he clenched his fist around it.
Boost Seal (Unique)
Rank -
1/1
A seal that doubles the strength of your next attack or skill that is attached to the seal.
Can be used alongside other Seals.
Cost: 5 mana
Duration: Until dispelled/ activated
Seal trigger: Boost
The result was not what he expected but this was perhaps for the best, since it was now a very general skill that could be applied anywhere.
But now it was time to spend his money so he could get stronger, with 34000 crons in hand, he could get a lot of skills he needed. He had kept 20000 crons for his debt today since he did earn so much, although he had to double down on the grind since he missed 2 days.
His sorcerer class was eaten up which was a bummer, his Sealmaster did level because of it. But now he wasn’t sure what class and skills he wanted now, the sealing of his 2 skills seems to have some changes to their skill effect.
So he probably wasn’t going to seal any utility skills except for maybe a few exceptions. He did need a second class though, to maximize his skill slots and bonus stats he would get from them.
He just didn’t know what class to go for now in order to complement his sealmaster class. It was pretty clear that he could just get a strong summoning spell and then seal the monster he summoned. Or just get a tame skill so he could seal wild monsters, a pretty decent idea also.
The main focus of his bonus stats seemed to be going into his mental stats, so people were probably going to think of him as a mage. Detection skills cannot not get the exact stats a person had but only the highest 2 stats a person has.
Even if the third stat was lower by 1 point, it would not show up on the other person’s detect skill. With the potential of the seals, he was probably going to become an all rounder type of fighter. So his best bet right now was to get a melee class, a taming skill, detection skills and melee skills.
He also needed a new sword now that his old one was just a lump of scrap metal now. First on the list was detection skills there were a few choices, Appraisal, Detect, Inspect, Analyze and Revelation.
He was just going to buy all five and turn them into seals because each one usually had special kink the other skills didn’t have. Maybe it would have a surprise for him if he sealed all the skills into 1 seal, or if he could even do something like that. That cost him 4300 crons.
His next purchase was the taming skill along with a cooking skill because why buy food if he could cook his own meal. This took 1940 crons and he still had 27760 crons to work with.
Now there were tons of melee classes he could choose from with a lot of different focuses. He didn’t want to rush his choice even if he could extract the class if it wasn’t good later on.
Warrior - R1
1200
A warrior is one who stands at the forefront of battle, wielding his greatsword to mow down his enemies.
Paladin - R1
1800
A paladin is one who stands amongst his brethren, healing and protecting them while slaying all who dares attack them.
Blade Dancer - R1
1700
A blade dancer is one who dances between the blades of his enemies, taking down foes with grace and agility.
Berserker - R1
2000
A berserker is one that thrives in the battlefield, his injuries only seek to fuel his thirst for more violence and blood.
None of these class were really what he wanted, and they were only weak rank 1 classes to boot. He could afford way better than this with the amount of money he had now.
“Show me the melee classes between the 15-20000 crons range please.” He still had to save some money for skills.
“Sure, hold on sir.”
Blademaster - R3
17500
The Blademaster is the advancement of a samurai, wielding only the sword with impeccable grace and power to cut down his enemies.The blademaster is the advancement of the samurai, but now wielding the sword with an impeccable grace and power to cut down his enemies.
Magic Blade - R4
19550
The fusion of magic and swords, the magic blade is one who wrecks havoc in the backlines of the enemies. Dealing massive burst damage before slipping away.The magic blade is the fusion between magic and swords. Wielding both with ease, he has the most versatile style of all. Be wary of the tricks he can pull.
Weaponmaster - R4
20500
The weaponmaster is one who has mastered the use of all weapons he have put his hands on.The weaponmaster is a master of countless weapons, capable of using each with the same proficiency as any other weapon.
Dragoon - R3
15500
The dragoon is the advancement of a warrior, choosing the path of a dragon rider eventually. He wields a great spear in hand to strike down his enemies.The dragoon is the advancement of a warrior who has chosen the path to become a dragon rider. But until he finds his rode, he will crush his obstacles with a great spear in hand.
Shadow Dancer - R4
21000
The shadow dancer is the fusion of a blade dancer and a assassin, they slip the the shadows, laying waste to all around them in an inhumane grace.The shadow dancer is the fusion of a assassin and a blade dancer. Now with twice the deadliness
There were a few more choices but these were the ones he could afford and for now, they seemed decent enough. There was hardly any other choice other than the blademaster, because he didn’t need more magic, or more versatility or a dragon, or to become a assassin.
Well maybe he did want a dragon, that would be pretty cool to have if he could get one. As soon as he got his crystal handed to him, he used it on himself immediately.
Blademaster (Uncommon)
Rank 3
1/10 (0 / 100)
The Blademaster is the advancement of a samurai, wielding only the sword with impeccable grace and power to cut down his enemies.The blademaster is the advancement of the samurai, but now wielding the sword with an impeccable grace and power to cut down his enemies.
+3 STR, +2DEX
+20% xp gain for all double handed longswords.
This gave him a extra skill slot, putting him up to 5 total slots with 3 free slots, it was starting to be pretty decent in terms of his stat gains. But there was still a few things more to buy with a much smaller budget of 10,260 crons.
While he was scrolling down the class list though, he did come across a pretty good profession class.
Child of the Wilderness (Rare)
Rank 2
1/10 (0 / 100)
Having lived for so long in the wilderness, you have become a master of survival, even thriving in the midst of the wild. You can easily cook whatever you get your hands on, make medicine to heal yourself and make and repair your own weapons.
While what you can do will never be the best, it is more than enough for you to survive on without external help.
+3 CON, +2 DEX.
Survival Mastery - Apprentice Cooking, Apprentice Alchemy, Apprentice Blacksmithing, Apprentice Construction, Apprentice gathering.
Learning a similar skill will cause the seal to be assimilated into Child of Wilderness.
The only problem was that if he bought this, he wouldn’t be able to buy anything as this class costs 9500 crons. On the bright side, this class was usually quite sought after for a lot of solo players and wouldn’t be up on the market for very long.
He could get skills later on since they were usually in supply, and he had enough stats to go out barehanded if needed. Gritting his teeths in determination, he bought the skill and used it before he could change his mind.
Getting a cheap sword with the rest of his money, he set off to the dungeons after taking one last look at his stats after all the gains he just got.
Name: Aiden Smith (17)
Skills 2/5 (3)
Race: Awakened Human (M)
Level: 4 (8 / 100)
Hp: 200 (4.5/hr)
Mp: 230 (-40) (13.15/hr)
Class: Sealmaster(2), Blademaster(1), CoW (1)
Stats: [AP: 0] [SP: 0]
STR: 21(+3) DEX: 25(+4) SPI: 25(+2) CON: 20(+3)
INT: 27(+3) LCK: 4/10 WILL: 17
+20% xp to double handed longswords.
Skills:
Mana Construct 1/10 (40/100)
Summons: Worker Cost: 50 Dura: - CD: -
Create Seal 1/10 (0/100)
Seals: Blast, Boost Cost: 20, 5 Dura: - CD: -
Magic Circuits 3/10 (32/100)
Passive
Survival Mastery 1/1
Passive