It seems like the system is improving my body little by little whenever I add ten points into any particular attribute. I suspected it yesterday but I wasn't sure. And that's the reason I stopped investing when every attribute reached its next ten points threshold.
I plan on improving only one attribute at a time to see how it improves my body for the first time. After experiencing this process with every attribute at least once, I can get a clear idea about how my body is improved with respect to each attribute. That way, I can decide which attribute I need to improve depending on my fighting style.
Yesterday, I crossed the next ten-point threshold for Perception and now I can clearly feel the difference. As it's the main attribute that determines what I sense, I could immediately tell the difference. I couldn't clearly explain but it's as if everything is magnified and clear compared to before.
It's as if I had sight until now and I didn't know about it, and ignorantly thought that what I'm seeing is the full clarity. But now, it's like I'm using prescription glasses and everything is crystal clear. That's the best example I could come up with.
With this increased perception, I feel like I could utilize my body's flexibility to its utmost. Dodging those spells from yesterday should be a lot easier now.
Hmm.
Is there a correlation between different attributes?
That question is for after I've cleared my doubts about each of my attributes.
Before going to explore the rest of the Mage Tower, I first complete both my daily combat technique and physical training, clean myself using the water from the pond and eat an Eogus fruit to sate my appetite.
Now I'm ready to explore for the day.
I move towards the mage tower in hopes of exploring it fully and gaining some good loot. From what I've read in books and actually seen, mages seem to be rich. This time it took about fifteen minutes to reach the building as I've already been this way once.
I've already cleared the ground floor yesterday so I move towards the stairs that lead to the first floor. Once again the place is plunged into darkness. I had to retrieve another torch and light it with Heating Plate to see anything in this darkness.
As I already know that the lighting system in this tower works, I search the walls for the metal plaques. Luckily they were placed just beside the stairs. I infuse mana into the larger plate and the place slowly lights up.
The first floor looks more open than the ground floor and I can't even see the end of it, there is definitely something strange is going on with space. I look around to see that there are tables and chairs everywhere made of the same material as the building, must be some kind of mess hall.
I move around the hall to scout where the skeletons are without trying to get into their range. I couldn't scout even half the place, as there are some places where I had to go through a skeleton's magic sense range to check. But from what I found this place is a mess hall and there are at least thirty apprentice mages in groups of one, two, and three in the areas I've checked.
I observe the surroundings to see if I can kill them one by one without disturbing other skeletons but that's not going to happen. They are too bunched up, I don't think I can lure a single skeleton each time like I did yesterday. First I need to clear all the surrounding skeletons, only then it would be possible to lure them.
Of the thirty or so skeletons I've scouted, there are two groups of three, five groups of two, and the rest are moving around on their own. There should be more in the places where I couldn't scout before. I take my time to carefully observe the range of each skeleton and only disturb those I can take care of.
I start by luring the skeletons that are in the surrounding area of the stairs. It's easy to lure them when I know exactly the maximum range at which they respond. I lure them one by one towards the stairs so that I'd have enough space to keep up my combat practice without any distractions.
I do take breaks in between to regain all my pools. By the time I killed five more skeletons, three alone and one group of two, I could confidently say that I'll be able to dodge those projectile spells with minimal movements at ten meters range.
That's under the assumption that they don't suddenly increase the speed at which they hurl their spells. The improvement I feel in my senses due to Perception may have helped with that. Now I should the decrease distance from ten to nine meters to see how I fare and if required repeat the same training as before
Same as before, I lured the next skeleton to the stairs but this time instead of tiptoeing around its maximum range, I moved a single meter into its range and patiently stood still for it to hurl its spell at me so that I can dodge it. I was able to dodge but the smooth reactions from before are gone and the spell grazed my arm causing a burning sensation to spread around that area.
And that resulted in spending more time and skeletons so that my dodges would become smooth again. I know I can just Blink directly next to the mage and attack it directly and what I'm doing right now may be a waste of time.
It's not like I don't have time. And there appear to be a lot of idiotic mages here who happen to throw only a single type of spell at range. There may be situations where I don't have enough mana to Blink or my movements may be restricted etc. Why take the risk when I have ample time and opportunities to improve my reflexes.
The process of decreasing the distance meter at a time while honing my instincts became the grind. Every time I was able to successfully dodge every attack from at least three skeletons, I decreased the distance between us by another single meter. I continued this process until I reached the five-meter range which I decided was the optimum position to charge into close combat
After using around thirty skeletons to get used to their spells at the ten-meter range, it took around twelve skeletons partners to get comfortable dodging at nine meters and fifteen more at eight meters. The increase in Perception may have made it a bit easier.
By the end of the next day, I was quite comfortable around five meters and I have the rest of the skeletons from the second floor to thank for that. Although I did gain a few levels for killing plenty of skeletons, I didn't use them right away.
I only used them when I felt like my Perception or Dexterity couldn't keep up at the rate the skeletons are throwing spells and that wasn't until I reached the six-meter range. As for the levels, it seems without a class I can only level up to level ten. After reaching that, I was provided with an option for upgrading my class but as I haven't filled all the requirements for the class I'm hoping, I left it alone.
On the second day of exploring the Mage Tower, I added the extra point into my Endurance that night to see how it affects my body the next day.
The next morning after waking up, I felt a lot more energetic. It's like I'm attached to a battery that keeps on recharging me. I guess having more stamina makes me energetic. As for yesterday, as mentioned above I invested once again into Perception and Dexterity to cross that six-meter range.
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You have defeated a Corrupted Apprentice Mage x58
Your class has gained a level x2
Your race has gained a level x2
A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
Space Mana Manipulation reaches level 7
Longsword Mastery reaches level 6
Meditation reaches level 6
Corruption Resistance reaches level 4
Stealth reaches level 3
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These notifications are the results of the last three days.
It really seems like the skill increase rate improves when I use them in combat. Although the class level was locked at ten and it couldn't increase after that, the race level increase is very slow compare to the class.
It looks like each race level requires a lot more experience compared to the class.
Why is that?
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Skills Unlocked : Night Vision, Spatial Shield, Survival
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Spatial Shield
Grade : Epic
Mastery : Beginner
Level : 1
Ability to bend the spatial fabric to form a shield to use in defense. Density of the shield and the damage reduced increase with its level.
Cost : 250 Mana
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I've also unlocked the last skill I need for my class yesterday.
Although I unlocked a skill relating to seeing the dark like I was hoping for, it would have to wait until I get my class.
Even though I've been to the next floor on the mage tower, I didn't search the place. I was mostly focused on improving my combat instincts for the last two days. it's not like someone else is going to rob the place while I'm busy.
Now that the ranged combat part is done, I plan to search the first and second floor more thoroughly today and then move on to the next floor to focus on close combat.
I quietly move from the Summoning Temple to Mage Tower and then move towards the stairs leading to the first floor and start my looting process.
There were nearly thirty skeletons on the floor which looks like a mess hall and all of them had nothing on them. At least the archers had a pair of daggers on them. I do find pieces of what seems like fabric stuck here and there in the skeletons but that's useless.
After searching the skeletons, I go around the mess hall and come across what seems like a kitchen near the back wall and some quarters beside it.
I check each one of them carefully to see if I can find anything useful. Most of the utensils in the kitchen are rusted. I don't think there is any use in taking them with me but I store them in my storage anyway.
As for the quarters, they are small. A single person can live in each of them, even that while feeling a little uncomfortable.
I don't think these are mage quarters, they seem more like quarters for kitchen staff and other servants that are required in the tower. There was nothing else on the floor so I move towards the next.
The stairs for the next floor are at the far end of the building from the entrance. The metal plaques for the lights were beside the stairs, similar to the first floor. Unlike the first floor where the stairs open into a big open hall, on the second floor, the stairs open into large corridors on both sides.
One side of both those corridors are the outside walls of the building and the other side are rooms, quite a few of them in fact. If I had to guess, these look a lot like military barracks but more luxurious. These look like the rooms of the apprentice mages I've been killing all this time.
There were quite a few of them present in these dormitories which were helpful in improving my combat reflexes. Now that the whole floor is empty, I leisurely go through each and every room to carefully check the place for any magical trinkets and I did find two of them.
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Mana Lamp
Grade : Uncommon
Type : Tool
A lamp that was commonly used in the ancient empire. Made of Deep Iron with a Light Crystal embedded in the center.
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Dark black colored mana lamp that's in working condition. It seems to absorb mana from the surroundings to produce light. The Light Crystal mentioned in the description must be the reason for the light.
I thought it was broken at first as I couldn't switch it on no matter how I tried. But there wasn't any damaged tag on its Appraisal result like on the weapons so I used my Perception to observe it more carefully and I found a panel at the bottom.
To switch it on or off I need to infuse mana into the panel. It is shaped similar to a lantern from back home before electricity came. Instead of pouring oil into it, I have to infuse mana to switch it on or off, and instead of fire it produces light.
Also, almost all the magic items I found until now are made of Deep Iron.
Is this material that good or that common?
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Durable Clothes
Grade : Uncommon
Type : Clothing
A simple set of shirt and trouser. Made of bulb cotton.
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What's bulb cotton?
Is that some kind of magical fabric?
Four sets of the same clothes found in different rooms. Must be their uniform or something similar to that.
These sets of dark green colored shirts and trousers seem to be a magic item. I don't know what its effect is but the set looks durable and a bit uncomfortable to wear due to the roughness. But that doesn't matter to me as I don't have many options in that. I need to get used to it for now.
As this is a world of magic, I've no doubt there would be more comfortable clothing out there. I need to get to some kind of civilization to get some of that. I quickly stored my torn-up and burnt pants and tried wearing these different-sized clothes, but they didn't fit.
Some were very loose and some were a bit tight, it would be difficult to fight in this type of clothing as I wouldn't be able to move around freely. As I was about to tear them up to piece them to my size, I remembered that most of the magic clothing I've seen in the novels would automatically fit the host, maybe this will too.
Acting on that hunch, I infused my mana and the shirt and trousers seem to glow for a second and then fit me perfectly. Thank god I didn't tear them down. I plan to do some experiments with new clothes I found as I have three extra sets but that would have to wait until nightfall.
I move towards the stairs to the next floor.
Name : Janus Arthridge
Race : Human
Level : 6
Bloodline : N / A
Class : N / A
Level : 10
Health : 190 / 190
Stamina : 200 / 200
Mana : 290 / 290
Attributes
Strength : 10
Dexterity : 30
Vitality : 19
Endurance : 20
Resilience : 10
Perception : 30
Intelligence : 10
Control : 10
Wisdom : 29
Willpower : 10
Attribute Points : 2
Skills
Appraisal Lv.2
Stealth Lv.3
Meditation Lv.6
Space Mana Manipulation Lv.7
Blink Lv.1
Spatial Slash Lv.1
Longsword Mastery Lv.6
Corruption Resistance Lv.3
Spatial Storage Lv. 1
Spatial Shield Lv.1
Skill Slots : 0
Perks
Otherworlder
Summoned Being
Polyglot