Ander set out, and found that it was far nicer being able to take the main ways somewhere, rather than having to hide. He travelled down the tunnels owned by the Dusk’s Rangers and made it to the ruins in good time. He was excited to enter ruins that were not filled with so many spiders. Besides, the elven stuff was cool and all, but dwarven stuff would be better. While he did want to go and replenish his supply of the elven cloth, it was just cloth. Dwarves made weapons and tools. Searching the elven ruins might give him the secret to making hyper durable cloth, but searching the dwarven ruins might give him long lost forging techniques. Given the choice, Ander knew which he preferred.
The upper floors were easy, just like in the spider infested elven ruins. Except for the fact that he fought lizards, golems, and all sorts of other creatures. The variety was so nice, along with the fact that he could avoid effing spiders. His first day was spent getting down to level fourteen, where things started to get a bit difficult. The monsters were bigger, stronger, and faster. They had varieties of attacks Ander couldn’t predict. His saving grace was his legendary skills, all of which started to gain levels rapidly, at least at first.
Congratulations! Skill: Way of the Wind has levelled up!
Skill: Way of the Wind is level 17.
Congratulations! Skill: Aeolian Vitality has levelled up!
Skill: Aeolian Vitality is level 6.
Congratulations! Skill: Soul of the Deep has levelled up!
Skill: Soul of the Deep is level 7.
Congratulations! Skill: Aquilo’s Whisper has levelled up!
Skill: Aquilo’s Whisper is level 15.
Congratulations! You are a Novice in Aquilo’s Whisper!
Your illusions are more clear. You can create a detailed illusion of a single person or object no larger than 25 cubic feet. This can be a specific person from your memory, or an original work. Detail increases with your ability to mentally picture the subject. Detailed illusions created in this way are not audible.
Each ability started to stagnate, and so Ander started to use them individually as he slowly pressed down floor by floor. It took Ander another day to get down another two floors. His skill levels jumped again as he pressed into harder territory, and his class level did as well. Still, he knew that he needed to go faster if he was to arrive at the bottom in a reasonable amount of time. Fortunately for him, by the time he passed floor 12, the rooms were far more untouched, and he was able to loot as he passed. Unlike in the elven ruins, there were few pieces of furniture, but there were plenty of art pieces made of gold and jewels that had survived the years. Which meant that Ander’s wealth kept growing, stashed away in his ship which was stashed away creator knows where.
Congratulations! You have Levelled up!
You are now level 33!
+15 Strength
+30 Dexterity
+30 Agility
+6 Conductivity
+18 Wisdom
+6 Regeneration
+3 Beauty
+6 Presence
+60 Free Points
Congratulations! Skill: Way of the Wind has levelled up!
Skill: Way of the Wind is level 20.
Congratulations! Skill: Aeolian Vitality has levelled up!
Skill: Aeolian Vitality is level 8.
Congratulations! Skill: Soul of the Deep has levelled up!
Skill: Soul of the Deep is level 14.
Congratulations! Skill: Aquilo’s Whisper has levelled up!
Skill: Aquilo’s Whisper is level 18.
As Ander settled into a small alcove at the end of the second day, he opened up his status sheet to allocate his stats.
Ander
Level 33
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
Race: Exodari
Subrace: Oritol
HP: 1200
MP: 1520
SP: 2450
Strength 210
Dexterity 100
Agility 180
Toughness 60
Constitution 120
Perception 60
Intelligence 35
Memory 35
Conductivity 76
Wisdom 108
Regeneration 76
Beauty 43
Presence 76
You have 200 free stat points. Would you like to allocate them now?
Yes / No
Ander stared at that message. He should only have 60 stat points to allocate, but then he slapped his forehead. He had forgotten to allocate his points the last time he had looked. He had been sitting on 140 points for all that time that he could have thrown in wisdom or something like that. Maybe he could have resisted.
That was still unlikely, and Ander decided that he was going to treat this like finding a twenty in your pocket you had forgotten about. So he carefully considered his build, as well as his abilities. Way of the Wind required three stats mainly. It needed strength for power, agility for speed, and dexterity for accuracy. Wisdom was also useful for helping to control his wind. Wisdom really shone however with Soul of the deep, as Wisdom was the main stat for any sort of manipulation ability. Regeneration and conductivity were also important in order to maintain his mana pool which was now quite taxed with all his mana based abilities. Aeolian Vitality was Constitution based, in that it regenerated 1% of his health at fixed intervals. With the higher level, that interval was a bit shorter than a minute now, but not by much.
Ander still forgot from time to time that Aeolian Vitality was a manipulation spell just like Soul of the Deep. Which meant that it benefitted highly from wisdom, and wouldn’t level up unless he actually manipulated it. Ander didn’t like the idea of healing his enemies, as there were certainly no friends around. However he had a few ideas of how Aeolian Vitality could be used offensively after his altercation with Sir Argvald. The big thing was that the healing energy he manipulated felt good. Really good. To the point that he couldn’t resist using some on himself from time to time. As addicting as it was, it gave Ander a tool he could use. A dose of healing energy could severely distract someone at a critical time, but that started to encroach on Aquilo’s Whisper territory.
For Aquilo’s Whisper, it wasn’t wisdom that helped, but rather presence. Presence was an odd stat, specifically for the fact that it referred to something Ander didn’t understand. Presence affected Aura strength. While his encounter with the High Lord was a great example, Ander didn’t really understand what an aura was or did. But what Ander suspected was that his fear aura would get larger, as well as his effective range. The effect should get more powerful as well, more convincing. That was all well and good, but it was also a mana based ability, which meant that conductivity and regeneration were useful for this as well.
All of this meant that wisdom was likely the most effective thing he could take. Or at least, the stat that would affect the most skills. But then he considered his class. His build was still built around Way of the Wind, with his class being centred on that skill. Moreover, there were still two class skills that were growing in his soul space that would no doubt be highly useful. The class obviously focused Agility and Dexterity, with a bit of strength and wisdom thrown in. This was getting muddled. He hadn’t thought about how getting so many disparate abilities would require him to spread out his points more.
Eventually, Ander decided. He had talked with Karsish and knew that there was an opportunity to upgrade his class at level 75. He would go for something that represented his build a bit better then, but for now he had to focus on what would keep him alive. Wisdom would benefit everything, and Agility and Dexterity would benefit his class. He would then throw a few points in presence because it intrigued him. He added 50 to Dexterity and Agility, 80 to Wisdom, and 20 to presence.
Ander
Level 33
Race: Exodari
Subrace: Oritol
HP: 1200
MP: 1520
SP: 2950
Strength 210
Dexterity 150
Agility 230
Toughness 60
Constitution 120
Perception 60
Intelligence 35
Memory 35
Conductivity 76
Wisdom 188
Regeneration 76
Beauty 43
Presence 96
The effect was immediate. He felt lighter and faster, and could feel the air and water around him far more clearly. But most interestingly was his sense of self, which expanded outwards. It wasn’t by much, but Ander could feel his own killing intent suffuse the area around him.
That's the fear aura. Ander thought as he sensed it clearly for the first time. He could see why it was so effective. It even had him shivering a little bit. It would be a good tool. A scared enemy was an enemy that couldn’t fight properly. But there was more. The killing intent was pushed farther out than normal due to Aquilo’s whisper, but there was more of an effect due to the increase in points than what he initially noticed. His control of the wind was far greater within six inches of his skin. It was barely enough space to tell, but his control was better. Then Ander realized.
This must be my real aura, not just the part pushed out by Aquilo’s whisper. Ander summoned some water inside his aura and it manifested nearly instantly, rather than taking a couple seconds like it would normally take. It also took less mana. This was quite the discovery. If he could get his aura big enough, he could fight at extreme power and efficiency. But that would have to wait for another time. He needed more levels.
The next day Ander considered what he would do. He had to get down to the 32nd level as soon as possible to retrieve the egg. He would have significant fighting and searching to do when he got to level 32, which meant that every day spent up here would be time wasted. There were a number of vertical galleries like he had found in the elven ruins, which meant that he could descend quickly. The question was, could he survive long enough to get his levels up? That was really what was slowing him down, a lack of levels. Still, Ander had to try.
Still, it didn’t mean he had to be stupid, and so he found his way to the nearest gallery which he was near the top of. He observed it for a time from different angles, collecting ancient dwarven artwork all the way. The major problem was that these tended to be inhabited by rather large monsters that he was sure he would have to fight in order to get down.
Ander watched for a time, but saw nothing. He watched even longer. Still nothing. Eventually he went and killed a large fire breathing lizard using a new water armour technique he had just thought up.. He then threw the lizard down and watched to see what would happen. It didn’t even reach the ground. Clear tendrils of slime oozed around the creature as it fell from the surrounding balconies landing in a pile with a splat. The creature rose up, lizard suspended inside it, and oozed over to the side of the gallery. It was sized well over a hundred feet in every direction, and was nearly clear, but now that Ander had seen, he couldn’t unsee the giant ooze monster.
Giant Ooze
Level 49
Boss
Somehow, Ander had stumbled upon another relay node.