Chapter 37: An [Exceeding] Power

It was an anomaly. 14 stats per level and a bonus to his HP. For comparison, a [Basic-Tier Low-Grade Class] gave 6 stats per level. An additional two stats per level were provided with each grade increase, so [Mid Grade] would give 8, [High Grade] would give 10, and [Hidden Grade] would give 12. HP typically remained the same even with grade increases, and [Swordsman] was a [Class] that provided 200 HP per level, meaning that Crimson’s 250 HP per level was unusual, even if it was a relatively small increase.

Even with just that, Crimson’s hopes had been greatly exceeded, that didn’t mean it was over. There was more to getting a [Class] than just the name or stats, and that was to say nothing of the fact that there were the other rewards that he’d earned.

—————

-Loading…

-Opening [Class Skill] selection

-Error

-[Class Skills] for [Sword Savant] have not been set.

-10 Admin Override.

-Processing…

-Admin settings: [Sword Savant] is to be treated as a [Low-Grade Advanced-Tier Class] moving forward.

-Retrieving data…

-Displaying [Class Skill] selection:

-Low: [Draw], [Slash], [Block]

-Mid: [Hone], [Cut], [Dodge]

-High: [Mikiri], [Iai], [Parry]

-Advanced-Low: [Sword Armory], [Divide], [Negate]

-Please select up to <4> [Skills].

-Note: Restrictions are in place. Selection of certain [Skills] will lower the number of [Skills] the user can select at this time.

—————

Crimson sat back and stared at the screen. From his [Class Peak Skill], he knew it was safe to select any of the [Skills] to see how they would affect the number of [Skills] he could pick, just so long as he didn’t ‘finalize’ his selection he could change his mind freely.

He quickly began selecting and unselecting [Skills] to see how they would affect the number he could learn. It worked out that he could learn 2 [Advanced-Low Skills], or 1 [Advanced-Low Skill] and 2 [High Skills], which were the only ways he could decrease the amount of [Skills] he could learn. In other words, the selection of an [Advanced-Low Skill] would reduce the amount he could learn. He could select all the [High Skills] and any of the lower ranked [Skills] if he so chose, provided all he wanted was 4 [Skills].

Taking a deep breath, Crimson inspected the [Skills] as a whole, noting that they seemed to break down into three categories: Auxiliary, Attack, and Defense. Looking at them specifically - with his [Skill Peak] finally pulling its weight and giving him an idea of what each [Skill] did - he decided to exclude all of the Attack-type [Skills] from his selection.

His logic there was straightforward, though many in this world might disagree, the Attack [Skills] on offer would force him to change the way he fought to cater to them. They performed specific actions, so he would need to manipulate opponents into positions where he could use them to deal a lot of damage. Could he work with that restriction? Of course, but that didn’t mean he wanted to. He wanted to be the one to guide his [Skills], not be yanked around by them. That meant [Cut], [Slash], [Iai], and [Divide] were all no longer in the running for this selection.

The hardest one of those four to leave out was [Iai]. He really wanted to pick it up. Really, really wanted to. However, in addition to the previous reason his second reason for taking [Iai] off the list was that it was weapon specific. It was one that he could tell was only compatible with katanas. If he was only going for a katana as a weapon, it would be great, but he didn’t want to be restricted that way. Further, this logic could also be used to disqualify the other [Skills] as [Cut], [Slash], and [Divide], all of which had poor compatibility with thrusting swords like rapiers and estocs.

Looking at the next category, he began to consider his options for Defense [Skills]. Surprisingly, the first he disqualified was [Negate]. It was a [Skill] specialized in countering magic, which was something he could already do without the [Skill]. If [Negate] worked differently from how he usually stopped magic - like the method he used with the flying monsters from the recent dungeon break - then taking [Negate] would be like accepting a poisoned gift. It could interfere with the way he already did things and he’d need to fight it and force it to change to his will. There was no telling how long or how difficult that process would be, it would be better just to create a [Skill] like it himself so it was tailored to how he did things.

It was actually very similar to buying clothes. Up to this point, all of Crimson’s [Skills] had been bespoke, perfectly made to fit him based on his actions and training, but he was buying premade stuff right now. There was danger in buying things of the figurative ‘wrong size’ for him. For most people, this wouldn’t be an issue at all because any [Skill] would become a source of strength, but Crimson was particularly picky, and he wouldn’t get anything that didn’t fit.

Looking at the other Defensive [Skills], he didn’t disqualify [Parry], but he wasn’t very impressed with the other two. They were better choices than any of the Attack [Skills], but until he reviewed his other options he wouldn’t really worry about them.

Actually…Crimson sat back and stared at [Dodge] for a long moment, then decided to remove it from the pool. His logic was that his [Footwork Skill] was already filling the niche that [Dodge] would. They could interfere with each other, or they could reinforce each other, but he didn’t feel the need to test which it would be. That left [Parry] and [Block] from the Defense [Skills] in the running.

Time for the Auxiliary [Skills]. First up, [Draw]. His [Skill Peak] helped him understand that it was literally a [Skill] for drawing his weapon. He tilted his head one way, then back the other in thought. There was some appeal to him for this [Skill], the fact that he hadn’t had the opportunity to learn it up to this point told him that it might be a bit too basic to come across easily. Same logic as it being difficult to learn a [Walking Skill]. It was such a common action that everyone would learn [Skills] like this unless the gods raised the difficulty to acquire them.

That said, it seemed like a dead end to Crimson. When he tried to think about what paths it could evolve down later, it just seemed unlikely to become anything powerful for a very long time. If he was picking [Iai], it might’ve been good to pair the two [Skills] as they were very complimentary. Since he wasn’t, he timidly decided to set it aside as an option.

[Hone] was next on the block, and it was chopped immediately. It was a worse version of his [Sword Kinship] in every way. [Hone] would allow him to provide a temporary damage bonus to swords. Good in theory, but in practice it would be better to just find a good blacksmith to make a sword, then use [Sword Kinship] to permanently boost its stats. There was a chance that he could layer the [Sword Kinship] and [Hone] on a sword at once, but the issue was that he didn’t want to gamble on being able to do it. It was important for him to note that if he didn’t have [Sword Kinship], this probably would’ve been one of the [Skills] he selected.

After [Hone] was [Mikiri]…he couldn’t see any problems with it. His [Skill Peak] told him it did something like improve his visual acuity, but it seemed there was more to it than that, as the [Skill] needed to be related in some way to swords. There were…several reason he could think to try and disqualify this [Skill]. He’d just finished the requirements for [Beginning of a Legend], and the [Skill] he’d get from that seemed like it might overlap with [Mikiri], but…but…he was curious. It wasn’t good, Crimson had a track record of doing stupid things because he was curious. It just so happened that it worked out for him most of the time…he hope this would be one of the times.

He selected [Mikiri] and looked at the last [Skill] on the list. [Sword Armory]. He didn’t even need to think about it, he was taking this one. He really wanted to grab a [Skill] from the [Advanced-Low] category anyway, so it worked out well. Between [Mikiri] and [Sword Armory] he could select one more [Skill], so he grabbed [Parry].

—————

-Selected: [Sword Armory], [Mikiri], [Parry]

-Confirm selection?

-Y

-Confirmed.

-Skill: [Sword Armory] has been acquired.

-Skill: [Mikiri] has been acquired.

-Skill: [Parry] has been acquired.

-[Class Skill] selection is complete.

-Title slot has been granted.

-Title: [Unparalleled] acquired.

-Title: [Sword Master] has been granted.

-Notice: Admin delay on notifications has ended.

-Notice: Admin redacted has prevented the acquisition of [Skill Reward] as a result of [Sword Mastery] Max.

-Notice: Admin redacted has an offer once all other alerts have been completed.

-Notice: Admin redacted has removed the stop placed on [Sword Mastery], [Breakthrough], [Evolution], and [Fusion] can now proceed without [Skill Reward] acquisition.

-Notice: Excess data from [Class] acquisition has been applied to [Sword Mastery].

-Benchmark reached!

-[Sword Mastery] can advance!

-Select advancement: ,

-Notice: [Fusion] cannot be selected at this time.

—————

Crimson grinned. It had been a small gamble, but he was right, there was something after [Sword Mastery]!

He eyed his options carefully, [Breakthrough] would grant him a better version of the [Sword Mastery Skill]. That was it. Something like [Greater Sword Mastery]. However, despite the simplicity, it was the better option of the two - for now. If he evolved it, it would probably become something interesting. Maybe it would turn into a [Skill] for [Virrak Tau], the fighting style Alois taught him. Maybe it would be a [Skill] for [Twin Steps], one of his better fighting styles. Who was to say? The issue with that is that his end goal wasn’t [Virrak Tau]. His goal with his [Sword Mastery] was to learn from all the best fighting styles out there to create his own. Choosing the more exciting option here would just knee cap him.

—————

-Breakthrough

-Confim?

-Y

-Analyzing…

-Skill Breakthrough!

-Skill: [Sword Mastery] has become [Advanced Sword Mastery]!

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

-Title: [Sword Master] resonates with the new [Skill]

-Title: [Sword Master] becomes [Sword of the Forgotten Path]

-Error, data allocation for User is not sufficient.

-Contacting Admin.

-Waiting…

-Waiting…

-Waiting…

-Another Rizvim has been determined to be necessary.

-Rizvim: [Madit] has been applied.

-[Madit]: Spells cannot be acquired as [Skills].

—————

Crimson was Lv.1, and already up to two Rizvim? He was getting more unique with every passing second. Compared to Alois’ [Orlach], this was nothing. Not only that, but it probably didn’t do anything to actually affect him. He cast spells in a fundamentally different way than everyone else, meaning he was already incompatible with [Spell Skills]. In retrospect, this was an obvious fact. The requirement to learn a Spell as a [Skill] was to study it to the max level - master it, in other words. Crimson had done so with several spells. From [Magic Light] to [Lesser Healing] he had met the requirements forever and a day ago, yet hadn’t learned a Spell as a [Skill]. He could understand not learning some of them, it typically wasn’t worth it to turn [Skills] like treatment into [Skills], but still, with the breadth of spells that he had, not having a single [Skill] for any of them was odd.

Considering that, there was a certain amount of irony in the fact that the [Rizvim] that should have been detrimental to him was almost irrelevant. He might’ve had a worse opinion of it recently, were it not for [Orlach] guaranteeing that everything else seemed like no big deal in comparison to the playful slap that was [Madit].

—————

-Quest: [Beginning of a Legend] complete!

-Reward: [Ul Byrn]

-Skill: [Ul Byrn] has been set.

-Admin redacted: And with that, the rest of the alerts have been finished.

-Admin redacted: I have a proposal for you.

-Quest: [Healing the Soul]

-Requirements:

-Extend the life of Alois 0/1

-Heal Rhea’s condition 0/1

-Time Limit: 5 Days

-Failure Conditions: Requirements not met in time limit. The death of Alois.

-Reward: Removal of a maxed [Skill]. A [Skill]. The name of Admin redacted.

-Punishment: Excess Data will be removed. [Sword Mastery Skill Reward] will proceed as normal, quality will be forcibly reduced. Alois’ death.

-Admin redacted has forced the user to accept the [Quest].

—————

Crap. This was worse than the Rizvim. He immediately threw himself to his feet and began to sprint down the mountain to the den. He didn’t know which of the gods had reached out to him while hiding their identity, he could narrow it down if he wanted, but rather than waste time doing that it was better to try and heal Alois and Rhea. The reward should be proportional to the punishment, but losing one of his maxed [Skills] was brutal. He could only hope that whatever [Skill] he got as a reward would be a sufficient replacement for it.

[Advanced Sword Mastery] was safe, which was a relief, as were the other [Skills] he learned today. The ones in danger were his [Mana] related [Skills], as well as [Intermediate Linguist], [Advanced Calligraphy], and [Sword Kinship]. The hardest one to replace would be [Sword Kinship], so he could only pray that it wouldn’t be the one taken from him.

Reaching the edge of the cliff, he threw himself off without hesitation and used his [Footwork Skill] as a makeshift landing technique. He’d previously hurt himself every time he made this jump, so the fact that he hadn’t taken any damage was a great sign as it didn’t slow him down.

He burst into the den causing Rhea, Nav, and a pair of their guests - the dwarf and his son - to jump to their feet in surprise. Alois was a beat later. Crimson could see that whatever treatment he had applied so they could spar had worn off. He was forced to react as Rhea threw the knife she was holding at him right as she stood. It looked like an instinctive response to a threat, so he didn’t hold it against her as he caught it, point first, aimed directly at his right eye. It was really easy to see when and where it would hit him, and the reason was readily apparent.

—————

-Skill Level Up!

-Skill: [Mikiri] 1/10 —> 2/10

—————

Ignoring the [Skill] alert, Crimson pointed at Alois with the hand not holding the knife, breathing slightly heavily, and said, “You need to come with me, immediately. I just got a [Quest] from the gods and it has a very strict time limit. I need every inch of your help!”

Alois responded, “Hold on, what is that [Quest], and why do you need my help?”

A bittersweet expression crossed Crimson’s face, and he said, “it’s to fulfill my end of our bargain in a short time. The punishment is severe, so we don’t have any time to waste.”

Alois stared at him with a heavy expression, then said, “if you’re trying to hold up our bargain, then I want you to start with my daughter.”

Crimson froze, then sat back to think about it. He’d already had a taste of what it was like interacting with Alois’ mana, but he didn’t have any for Rhea. Theoretically, with her being younger, it shouldn’t be as bad. So he could try practicing on her, then treat Alois. The issue with doing it that way is that Alois wouldn’t agree to using his daughter as a guinea pig. The other issue was that they’ve both said that Rhea’s condition is worse than Alois’ was at her age, so she might be harder to treat for unexpected reasons.

Rather than wasting time thinking about it, Crimson said instead, “Then both of you come up to the training spot. I’ll look at both of you. My [Quest] is to help you both, not just Rhea. I need to see what kind of conditions you are both in to best help you both.”

Alois agreed, and the three of them left Nav to play host after Crimson returned the knife and went back up to the training spot.

——————

Rhea had grown up knowing pain. Her joints ached and creaked from the time she was three. She had found it very easy to get hurt, whether that be bruises or breaks, and her stamina had always been extremely poor.

She’d developed a love of cooking because her tongue and her taste were one of the few things that didn’t hurt her. It also became a way to help her ailing father, so she was glad to do it.

She hated the gods, she hated this world, she hated her pain, and she hated the hope she now felt.

She was flat on her stomach, and the most unpleasant sensation she’d ever felt pervaded her entire body. From the tips of her toes to the top of her ears and the end of her tail, she felt like a presence was pushing on everything. It was almost like the sensation she felt when she was nervous, but rather than being just in her gut, it was in her entire body. Unpleasant beyond measure, she could only whimper pathetically.

There was some comfort in the fact that it didn’t seem comfortable for the invader either, she could hear Crimson biting back low groans, and cussing a few times. She hadn’t heard him cuss no matter how difficult training became, but now, he was swearing up a low storm. She felt slightly less guilty about thoughtlessly throwing a knife at him after hearing all that.

He moved back and forth between her and Father a few times, Father opting to sit with crossed legs and letting Crimson touch his back. It worked better for him, she knew he was tougher than she was, and was strong enough to not run from the invasion. If she wasn’t pinned to the ground - sometimes with Father gently pinning her there - she would’ve done anything she could to get away from the invasion.

They were there for hours, into the dead of night. Eventually, Crimson announced that they were done for the night. Twitching a little bit from the memory of the unpleasant sensation, she stood and was surprised to find that actually, it was easy to move. In fact, it was extremely easy to move. She made a fist with both hands, and didn’t feel the usual sensation of her joints creaking in protest. She jumped a few times. Her knees didn’t scream.

Whirling around she tried to ask a question, but was cut off before she could ask it by Crimson, who said, “No, you’re not healed. It’s just a temporary treatment. I’ve been experimenting with different methods to treat your condition, so let me tell you guys what’s going on.”

He sat down on the ground, clearly tired, and resumed speaking, “Speaking frankly, I think Alois will be dead within the week if I can’t figure out a permanent solution.”

Rhea immediately panicked, but Father placed his hand on her shoulder to stop her from acting out. She looked up at Father, hoping he would tell her it wasn’t true, but he shot down her hopes with a tearful expression.

Crimson continued, ignoring their grief, “I have two reasons to believe that this is the case. The first is that it is one of the punishments for failing the [Quest] I’ve been given, the second is a result of the investigation I just performed. Let me tell you a bit about what I saw as I was investigating your conditions.

Alois, I would describe your mana as being like a swamp. It’s brackish, full of rotten mana, and congealed. Because you’re older than Rhea, and have had this condition for much longer, your mana has settled in this corrupted state and is very difficult for me to move. Around your [Mana Pool] is where it’s the worst. It’s like there’s a thick shell of stone around your [Mana Pool], and getting access to look closer at it is difficult, but I managed to use the technique from our earlier spar to dig in a little more and take a look. It also explains why you were given [Orlach]. Even without that [Rizvim], you wouldn’t have been able to learn active [Skills] to begin with.

Speaking to the second reason why I think you’re going to die soon, frankly,” Crimson said with a grimace, “It look’s like your [Mana Pool] is about to pop.”

“Pop?!” Alois and Rhea said in unison.

He nodded, “Yes, pop. The [Void Affinity] has been eating away at your [Mana Pool] for decades now, the only reason it hasn’t killed you sooner is the fact that increasing your level also reinforces your entire being, in other words, increasing your level made your [Mana Pool] more resistant to the effects of [Void]. It was a race between the [Void] and your level to keep it from killing you, but now that you’ve stopped, it’s made some serious progress. There’s a few places where it’s about to pass into the [Mana Pool]. I broke it up a bit especially in those weakened places, but I couldn’t do much yet.

Now,” he said, “Before I continue talking about Alois’ condition, let’s talk about what Rhea’s is like.”

Given the shock she’d just received from hearing the news about Father, Rhea sat down cross-legged across from Crimson and Father followed her lead.

“While Alois’ mana is like a swamp, Rhea’s is more like a deep, dark fog. You also have build up around your [Mana Pool], but it was so laughably easy to break through it’s hardly worth mentioning. Quantity wise, Rhea has far more [Void Affinity] than Alois.”

He turned to Father, “What are your [Mana] and [Void Affinities] at?”

Father responded, “4 in [Mana] and 6 in [Void].”

“Pretty much the minimum bar to have this condition,” Crimson muttered in thought.

He continued, “Rhea has at least a 4 in [Mana] and a 7 in [Void]. If this were [Water] and [Fire] instead, it would be something to praise her for, but in this case it is killing her just like it’s killing you, and it’s doing so even faster.”

Rhea knew that she was dying already, but hearing it from someone else was a bit shocking.

Crimson glanced at her, “When is your birthday?”

Worried, Rhea responded, “In two weeks.”

“Well, it’s good that my quest deadline is within that period. Here’s what we’re going to try and do: we are going to try and change Rhea’s [Affinities]. There’s nothing I can do about Alois’ [Affinities] - it’s too late for him, and I don’t know any [Rituals] to bring a Rank 4 [Mana] to a Rank 5 - so we’ll need a stop gate method for him. I can try alleviate his condition and if I succeed, you’ll be able to live a fair bit longer. How long? I don’t know, but hopefully a decade or two.”

Rhea and Father spoke over each other, Rhea asked about him, and he asked about her.

Crimson held up a hand to stop them both, and spoke, “To answer Alois’ question, all we have to is bring Rhea’s [Mana] up to Rank 5. We need to do this before she gets her [Blessing] and these values are locked in. My basic idea is to ‘dope’ her with [Mana] so the [Blessing] locks her in at least at Rank 5. Her [Affinity] for [Void] wouldn’t be as much of an issue if it weren't for her [Antithesis]. We solve that problem, her condition solves itself. She’ll probably still get a [Rizvim] though. Additionally, I don’t know if the damage that has already been done can be healed.

“To answer Rhea’s question, Alois’ [Affinities] are locked in, I don’t know how to change them, and we don’t have time to research possible [Rituals] to help him, so I’m going to try and create a shield around his [Mana Pool]. [Mana Pools] are more robust than hearts, even the small interference I did while investigating allowed some of the damage to heal, so if we can shield his [Mana Pool] from the surrounding [Void], then he should survive a bit longer.”

Rhea sat back, stunned and hopeful at the news. Crimson was very obviously worried about Father, and she was extremely grateful for that. The way he spoke, he seemed to believe that curing her would almost be no big deal. Father was his pressing concern, and for that, she couldn’t help but hate the hope surging in her chest.

“I’ll need to borrow you again tomorrow, Rhea,” Crimson said, “I have a potential solution to work over, but working on Alois is too hard, so I’m going to use you for practice. I think I can use the same trick for both of you, but I don’t know if it’ll even work.”

Rhea tilted her head, “What’s the solution?”

Crimson said, “I’m going to try and create a layer of [Mana] from your own [Mana Pools] to surround the real thing. Essentially, I’m trying to artificially increase the size of your [Mana Pool].”

Then they would have to find out if that was even possible. Anything, if Father could live even a day longer.

—————

Verity’s oldest memory was being carried by her sobbing mother as their home forest burned. She didn’t remember the name of her birthplace, but she couldn’t forget the cause of its destruction: a [Dungeon Break], creatures of [Fire] and [Magma] rampaging as they burned the village, the forest, and everyone fighting them.

Elves had extremely bad compatibility with fire, and the [Dungeon Breaks] they’d dealt with up to that point had been of a much lower level and a lot used the [Life Affinity], an [Affinity] they weren’t weak to at the very least, so it had been believed that the area was safe. Many Elves had settled the area, building the largest Elf community on the continent.

After the attack, they’d scattered in all directions. Verity’s clan and a few others banded together to settle the [Barren Wastes], and a [Class] that had been appreciated only as art previously - [Life Weaver] - had become necessary for survival.

When she’d turned 16, their little village had grown to a big enough size that they faced their first [Natural Dungeon]. Verity’s first [Class], [Martial Artist], had been a rebellious result of her deciding to go challenge the Lv.5 dungeon. It was something she’d chosen in the spur of the moment because she’d grown up getting in fist fights with other boys in her little village as they tried to bully her friend.

She’d needed to be save from the dungeon in the end, but no-one had died, and she’d reached Lv.6 in just a day. A pace fast enough to be worthy of legends. It was also the day she’d earned the [Skill] that would later [Evolve] to become her second name: [Gusting Blow].

It was then strange that her current position was as opposite to impulsive as one could possibly get. She’d taken advice, spent long periods of time thinking, and had engaged in a lot of preparation.

She’d recently suffered a set back, one of the items she’d purchased to increase her [Affinity] for [Holy] had been stolen right out in front of her, and she’d been thanked for it. While that had shocked her, after getting a long night’s sleep, all she could think about was how angry she was. A lot of impulsive behavior from her youth…and even recently, had been a result of her desire to help others and be active. She hated feeling useless, she hated being trapped, and she hated being useless. Did she mention that she hated being useless?

She’d decided to use that feeling to act, so first thing the next morning she found herself very publicly bowing to the ground to ask the Guild Receptionist Emma, for a favor. She needed Rei to get her that [Holy Crystal] as soon as possible, and the monster they needed to hunt so happened to use the [Holy] and [Corrupt] affinities - just like she swore that the goblin’s offspring Damus used. Who in Falst had the highest level [Purity Affinity Class]? Emma. At Lv.40, with [Skills] that made her healing effective even for those more than 10 levels above her, she was the most effective party member to help Rei.

Verity’s pride didn’t matter in the face of being useless, so she made this heartfelt plea as obviously as possible to demonstrate her seriousness.