Chapter 21: Orbs and Obscurity

The last book (it better be) locks into place with a very satisfying thunk, finally put into the correct position, I hear a click… and then again… and again, and again, and again, click, click, click click clickclickclick. Eyes wary I back away and bring my knife up and brace myself for the inevitable explosion…

…But it never happens. Instead a burst of compressed air blasts me in the face, powerful enough that it would have knocked me back a bit had I not been braced. I open my eyes to find that a section of bookshelf, books and all, has swung open to reveal a dark room. 

Squinting does nothing to aid me so I pass through the wall and enter, using my hands to keep me from hitting anything. Its a good thing I did too since I barely manage a step into the room before my fingertips brush a wall. I may have been overly optimistic when calling this a room. Randomly choosing a direction, I turn right and keep an arm on both sides to guide me forward. The path continues for about 3 feet before terminating in another wall. Spinning around (slowly to avoid slamming my arm into a wall) and letting out a soft sigh I continue on to the left. 

Sigh! I need to get a night vision skill, if not for the combat advantage in low light environments then for the ease of life when I am in stumbling around in a pitch black hallway of some sort. I have continued at a rather slow pace along this corridor for at least 20 feet and nothing appears to have changed. On top of that I have no idea how much father I am supposed to go. Night vision would be so, so, so good right now. 

Wait a second. Why would I need night vision when I have an eternal light source on me that I can never possibly loose. I am such and idiot!

After face-palming myself multiple times over my own stupidity (perfect recall doesn’t help if you aren’t actively trying to access the memories)  I mentally reach into my inventory and pull out my Luminous Essence Cristal that I stol… acquired from the Trials of Volos. With the hallway now lit I can see that it is far from normal. 

While it shares the dimensions of a regular hallway, this particular one is made out of a substance that I have never seen before. It has a similar patter (if it can even be called that) to marble with the streaks running through it, but instead of white with gray, the stone is black with streaks of red. It looks quite imposing, even more so because there are no seams or cracks where blocks were joined. It is as though there was once a huge block of this stone that someone carved a passageway into rather than building it out of anything. Suitably impressed with the walls, I focus my attention forward to try and see where this leads.

What I see doesn’t give me much of an idea as to what purpose this room holds, but the dark red doors with black handles (because of course that’s their color) does at least reassure me that the passageway isn’t endless. 

Walking slowly to the door and keeping a watchful eye out for any traps, I grasp my knife and prepare to use it at a moments notice. My hand grasps the knob, turns it and then swings the door open. When no darts, fire, axes, monsters or other surprises come leaping out I float the Luminous Essence Cristal forward and peer into the room.

What greets me is a medium sized (about 10 feet wide and tall) square room made of the same material as the hallway. It is completely empty (though I know better than to trust my eyes when it comes to that) save for a glowing mist in the exact center. It is extremely similar to the loot mist that appeared when I killed the Poisonous High Jumper, but instead of being shaped like a frog it is in the form of a perfect circle. 

I poke my head through the door and glance left and right to confirm that the corners don’t have anything in them and then start walking towards the mist. It’s interesting that this exists, but not particularly surprising. This is a game, after all, and games give rewards to people who complete puzzles. The only question I have now is what said reward will be. Stats? Money? Equipment? That last one would make a lot of sense since that’s what I received from the loot mists before, but there are some issues. What equipment for example. Is it predetermined? If so then wouldn’t some classes benefit more than others? Does it depend on the class? But then what if it gives me something that I already have a better one of (like a dagger)? What if I already have a full set of high level equipment. Would I get better stuff? I don’t really know, but I’ve probably already followed this line of thinking too far and the answer is right in front of me. Clearing my thoughts I reach out a hand (the left one that isn’t holding a knife) and tap the mist sphere.

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Congratulations! You have gained one of the 6 Level Spheres of the Training Hall. You have been granted one level. (You have found the Sphere in the library section. Acquiring other spheres will involve different activities.)

You have leveled up! You have 5 free stat points.

Well that was unexpected, but I am totally fine with that. As in, TOTALY fine with that. That is really awesome! I had been expecting pretty much anything except that actually. I had assumed that killing stuff was the only way to acquire experience, but that line of reasoning is totally flawed. How would craftsmen be able to earn XP if that were true. There must be a thousand ways to get to the next level, and while killing monsters is certainly a good one I should not forget that I have other options.

Level three is new territory for me so congratulations Blade. Now all I have to do is decide where I want to distribute these points and then go down and try out the sparing area. Hopefully I can get some much needed experience from some of the fights (Properly using a knife actually requires a good amount of skill and mastering knife fighting is ridiculously difficult. I know how to swing one around without stabbing myself and I have a ok level of control, but my total combat experience amounts to stabbing a few unarmed punks that were trying to mug me and getting into fights with other untrained street rats like myself. Far from enough to go as far as I want to go.) 

I think it would be good to do two types of fights, at some point I should do a few fights with the other players. I seriously doubt that most of them will pose a threat to me, but it will be good to have an idea of how powerful I am compared to people of my level. I should also definitely spar with the instructors. While the other players might not be too much of a challenge the instructors most certainly will (challenge is the best way to advance no?) and they will also be able to give me tips on how to fight more effectively and efficiently. 

Back to the present then. What to do with these starts? Mana and Wisdom aren’t going to be useful for me for a while (and I'm pretty sure they won’t ever be the main parts of my build) so those are out. More endurance certainly won’t hurt, but I think that 8 will be fine, at least for this level up. It’s my second highest stat and thats more than enough. Ghosts are as pretty much close to the opposite of tanks as a melee class can get (this is hyperbole, I know thats probably not really true) so 50 health is fine for now. Dexterity is where I really want to invest this time since it’s lagging behind. Now I don’t want to invest more than three points in any one stat after a level-up (unless I leveled more than once) because I while I may not want to be a jack of all trades, I don’t want to go full min-max either. That means that I’ll put three points in Dexterity, bringing it up to 9. Now on the topic of the other two free points, I think I will use them to shore up my weak points and that means using them in my two lowest stats: Strength and Regeneration. It can’t hurt.

With my choices made I mentally click a few times to assign the points and then turn towards the exit, looking around me carefully for any secrets. It doesn't look like there are any and I think a full level is worth far too much to leave any other freebies lying around. 

Now that that’s all sorted out lets go down to the sparing area and learn how to kill people more effectively.

I walk back through the hallway and out the door when I suddenly hear a low thud. Immediately spinning around, I bring my knife out to bear…

… But there’s no one here. Just a bookcase full of books and a complete lack of any secret passageway. Well that makes some sense at least. Wouldn't be good if people could just stumble upon an open door and get there rewards. There has to be some sort of system to reset everything. 

Done staring, I put my knife back in my belt and keep walking, absentmindedly scanning the shelves for anything interesting. Ooh… that might be worth checking out.

A particular book on the middle shelf catches my eye titled “Monsters; a complete guide (levels 1 - 50)”. They say “know thine enemy” don't they. Monsters are enemies and it definitely won’t hurt me to know more about them. I'll definitely have to pick that up when I’m finished here. 

I make a mental note to come back here and then continue towards the exit. 

“So you found out why there are so many books did you? Very impressive, not many people do and even less do it so quickly.”

“GAH!” I spin around to confront the sudden voice before recognizing it and controlling myself. “Malthus! What are you doing sneaking up on people like that?!” 

"Can't grant an old man his fun?” He chuckles briefly. “I just wanted to check up on you before you left the library. It’s not often someone with so much promise passes through.”

“Screw you” I say, still mad, but getting over the shock “Oh and to answer your earlier question yes I did find out why. Still though, isn’t that a lot of effort just to hide three books?”

“Perhaps. But it’s less than you might think when books can be replicated magically. Scribes still do write some stuff down, but for regular books like this a high level scribe merely has to wave his or her hand.”

“Makes sense I suppose. Well I’ll see you later then. I’m going to head to the sparing area.”

Malthus lets out another infuriating chuckle before replying “Really Blade? That may be rather difficult with no instructors and next to no players in here. It’s 9:30. The Training Hall is always open, but it’s only staffed in the day. Instructors have lives too you know.

“Oh… umm… I didn’t really think of that” I say puzzled. “I…guess…I’ll…train…more?”

Malthus just shakes his head “Go to bed Blade. You don’t have any sleep resisting abilities so unless you want some pretty debilitating debuffs you’re just going to have to get some rest.”

I sigh deeply, but recognize the sleepiness that is beginning to hit me. “Ok.” I say “See you tomorrow Malthus”  before starting to head out of the Training Hall and back to Roth's shop.