Scenes of violence flashed in Wyatt’s mind as he drifted in and out of consciousness. He lost all concept of time and his vision shifted rapidly between the stone of the ceiling above him and the bloodied faces of everyone he used to know.
He could see his family staring at him, their eyes were hollow and black. As he stared longer their skin began to cut and bleed. Wyatt reached out, but they were too far. The ghosts of his past life and the world he used to know, before this system consumed them, disappeared into the shadows. Upon the ground in front of him appeared the bloodied remains of everyone he failed since coming to this world.
They were dead, but every one of them was looking up at him, their heads turned unnaturally to face him, accusing him of the weakness he himself knew to be inside him. He tried to speak to them, to apologize, but he heard only the hoarse whisper of air leaving his throat. He tried screaming, and again was unable to do so. Tears streaked down his face, forming pools of blood at his feet.
A knife was in his hand, the faintest of pressure on his stomach as the tip threatened to break skin. His nightmares wanted him to end this suffering, to accept the fate of his people and disappear with them, a whisper of a memory in a world that has already consumed the rest of a world full of life.
Dropping the knife, Wyatt put every last ounce of his dwindling strength into his lungs and forced a yell past the otherworldly grip on his throat.
Wyatt awoke with a start, the last echoes of his defiant shout reaching his ears. It took him a moment to realize he had yelled both in his dreams and in the waking world. Understanding the danger he was in, having potentially alerted his presence to every creature in this dungeon, Wyatt looked to his health.
It had regenerated to 40 of 140, meaning he had been out for hours. He was still in pain in multiple places, but it had lessened since last he was awake. His leg was the worst, obviously, and he knew he had to remove the last of the spear from his leg before it could continue healing. Wyatt removed the cloak from his leg and placed some of it into his mouth. Biting down on the fabric, he grabbed the exposed portion of the cylinder from the top and pulled it through. He screamed; the sound muffled by the cloth in his mouth. Finally, the last of the metal spear came out, and it clattered to the ground as a new wave of weakness threatened again to take his consciousness from him
With no other option, Wyatt stood, his legs shaking as he used the spears of the trap beside him to help himself up. He couldn’t put much pressure on his leg, but with the help of his staff as a makeshift crutch, Wyatt could make his way back towards the safety of the tower.
His pace was slow as he limped his way back the way he had come. The telltale sounds of distant monsters reached his ears as they responded to his own earlier shout in kind. Wyatt redoubled his efforts, stopping only once when he was atop the bridge in the previous room.
Looking at the shapes in the water slowly swirling around where he stood, Wyatt grabbed the cloak that he had placed atop the staff for some comfort as he leaned on it. He channeled his mana into it as he unfurled it, summoning the creature he had placed inside.
From within the folds of his cloak, the large primate came tumbling out, landing in the water at his feet. It struggled briefly as it tried to understand what had just happened, but quickly disappeared beneath the water as the shadows of the aquatic monsters converged beneath it. The clear water swirled briefly before settling, turning to a light pink.
Wyatt watched for several moments, too tired to feel any sense of triumph, before a notification appeared in his vision. This one was the combat notification, signaling that he had finally defeated this enemy.
Combat Report
You have slain:
Frenzied Chimpanzee Chief
Frenzied Chimpanzee x9
Rewards:
Experience earned
Your class has leveled up: Mage – Level 11
Your class has leveled up: Mage – Level 12
You have gained Attribute Points
Your skills have leveled up:
Earth Magic – Level 10
Skill upgrade available
Staff Mastery – Level 9
Staff Mastery – Level 10
Skill upgrade available
Air Magic – Level 8
With the two levels came ten free attribute points for Wyatt to distribute. Opening his status page, Wyatt immediately placed five points into toughness. As soon as he did, relief washed over him as his health increased from 40 to 90, more than doubling his current health and bringing his maximum health to 190.
Feeling better than he had just moments before, Wyatt continued his long trek back to the surface.
Wyatt sat in the tower, eating some of the badger meat and the last of his bread. When he had arrived, he immediately passed out on the couch from exhaustion, and only tended to his other needs when he had awoken hours later, his health well on the way to recovering. It would be some time before he was ready to venture out again, both mentally and physically, and Wyatt opened his status page to kill some of the time.
Both his earth magic and staff mastery skills were ready for an upgrade. Wyatt perused the staff upgrades available to him first, assuming they would be less relevant to his class than earth magic. Only a couple choices appeared in front of him, and he assumed this was because of his non-martial class type. Underwhelmed by his choices, and not seeing any need for an offensive melee ability, the mage opted for the passive ability Staff Focus.
You have gained a new ability:
Staff Focus
Ability:
Staff Focus
Skill:
Staff Mastery
Description:
Having become familiar with staff weapons, you understand how to move in combat to maximize stamina usage. Decreases SP drain during combat when wielding a staff weapon. Stamina decrease is based on Staff Mastery and agility scores.
Wyatt thought back on his battle with the chimpanzee chief. His stamina had run out before the end of combat – something that hadn’t happened since coming to this world – and he had become almost entirely useless. This skill would help him endure longer fights.
Closing the ability screen, Wyatt turned his attention to his earth magic upgrade. The list was longer, showing about six options for upgrade paths. There was the familiar earth magic resistance that he assumed would show up, along with one similar to his Staff Focus which lowered mana drain when using earth-based abilities.
The ability he chose, however, was a crowd control ability called Stone Grasp.
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You have gained a new ability:
Stone Grasp
Ability:
Stone Grasp
Cost:
Variable
Skill:
Earth Magic
Cast Time:
1s
Duration:
-
Description:
Release earth magic in an expanding ring around you. Any enemy touching the ground when the ring passes is held by stone, stopping movement. MP usage increases per target affected.
Eschewing a more offensive ability for yet another based on crowd control was a hard decision for the mage to make, but he couldn’t argue with the usefulness of an area-of-effect immobilizing spell. While he was certain whatever rocks used by this spell could be broken by someone with a high enough strength attribute, most targets he faced now would be stopped in their tracks, allowing the solo adventurer to fight on his terms.
Damage capability accounted for nothing if he was overwhelmed by sheer numbers.
Abilities chosen; Wyatt turned to his five undistributed attribute points. He didn’t deliberate long on this point, however, and immediately placed two points in willpower and intelligence each, then placed the last remaining into his endurance, making his stamina an even 150 points, and his SP regen an even five points per minute.
The next few days soon turned into weeks, as the human slowly advanced through the third floor of the dungeon. The monotony of spending hours traveling back and forth from the tower safe zone to the limit of his advance in the dungeon was as great a challenge as the creatures he fought.
Wyatt thought back to his time in college. There was always some project or concept that kept his mind busy, and he studied day and night to make sure his grades were the best he could achieve. After graduating, he knew his life would be different, and he would have to adjust to a change from the constant influx of ideas and knowledge.
This, however, proved a much more difficult change. Now, when his mind began to slow, his thoughts turned to the reality of his situation; to the loneliness he felt as each day – such as he was able to measure in his underground prison – passed with only the slightest of movement made. His increased intelligence only made this worse, as he was able to think on multiple ideas and concepts at a time, increasing the difficulty of keeping it busy.
His salvation came from the very cause of his mental strain. This new world was full of new fundamental laws that he had to study. Each branch of magic he knew took time for him to master and understand beyond simply casting. He practiced not only in the application of the abilities and skills that he knew, but the theoretical knowledge behind them.
Wyatt needed to understand this new world around him. He hungered for the knowledge that the system guarded in its cryptic descriptions of every skill he learned. Every time he used one magic type, his mind sought to understand every step of the casting process; how the movements in his hands or the words he spoke lent to the formation of each individual ability, even when the mana within him was the same for others of the same skill type.
Always the knowledge he needed to overcome this system lingered beyond his understanding, and he threw himself into his task harder. Skill and class levels were second to his understanding behind them.
Nevertheless, his levels continued to grow. His air magic had reached level ten, and with it came another new ability.
You have gained a new ability:
Slowing Current
Ability:
Slowing Current
Cost:
50 MP
Skill:
Air Magic
Cast Time:
Instant
Duration:
60 s
Description:
Manipulating the air currents around your target, you are able to slow its descent. Decreases the target’s speed when falling.
Weeks of combat and challenges, of near-death experiences and harrowing ordeals led him, finally, to the end of the third floor. Wyatt, standing before the circular mural room that marked the end of this level of the dungeon, needed only look at his status page to see the progress he had made.
Name: Wyatt
Class: Mage 15
HP: 220
MP: 370
SP: 180
HP/Min: 0.15
MP/Min: 4.9
SP/Min:6.0
Attributes: (0 Free)
Attribute
Base
Total Adjusted
Strength:
5
5
Agility:
15
15
Endurance:
18
18
Toughness:
19
22
Intelligence:
36
37
Willpower:
47
49
Charisma:
8
8
Skills
Skill
Level
Attribute
Enchantment Magic:
13
Willpower
Earth Magic
12
Intelligence
Air Magic
10
Intelligence
Spatial Magic
9
Intelligence
Chrono Magic
1
Intelligence
Rune Magic
6
Intelligence
Staff Mastery
11
Agility
Dagger Mastery
4
Agility
Squad Tactics
1
Charisma
Stealth
4
Agility
Perception
7
Willpower
Analyze
8
Intelligence
Calligraphy
6
Intelligence
Cooking
5
Intelligence
Titles
Last of your kind
Passive Abilities
Ability
Skill
Attribute
Force of Will
-
Willpower
Staff Focus
Staff Mastery
Agility