Class selection
Base Classes:
Fighter
Acrobat
Defender
Scout
Advanced Classes:
Pain Enthusiast
Pugilist
Once again, I’d been given a bunch of options I’d never pick along with only one good one. With a sigh, I made the obvious choice. The crystal bubbled some more, updating my status as it did.
You have become a Pugilist!
+5 strength, +5 agility, +5 resilience!
You have learned Straight!
Calculating experience…
You have reached level 6!
+10 strength, +10 agility, +10 resilience!
Lawrence Schlager
Classes
Brawler: 17
Pugilist: 6
Professions
N/A
Ability Scores
Health: 741/1380
Mana: 0/0
Strength: 115
Agility: 130
Resilience: 138
Magic: 0
Spirit:0
Awareness: 58
Passive Skills
Infinite Scaling
Unarmed Combat: 29
Pain Tolerance: 16
Masochist: 11
Active Skills
Dimension Tearing: 6
Jab: 12
Straight: 1
Boons
Dungeon Blessing
I got nearly thirty points in each of my main stats in return for a lot of grinding and four silver. Yep, that was a good deal. My awareness had been slowly catching up to my other stats, but now it was lagging behind again. Nothing a little more grinding couldn’t fix.
The rush of energy filled me more powerfully than last time. Getting an extra ninety stat points was definitely a different feeling than the trickle from before, but then I noticed something interesting.
My brawler level was higher than ten, which I’d been told was the max. Taking my hand off the crystal and putting it back on, I saw my unasked question get answered.
Calculating experience…
You have reached Brawler level 17!
+14 strength, +14 agility, +14 resilience!
Lawrence Schlager
Classes
Brawler: 17
Pugilist: 6
Professions
N/A
Ability Scores
Health: 741/1520
Strength: 129
Agility: 144
Resilience: 152
Magic: 0
Spirit:0
Awareness: 58
Passive Skills
Infinite Scaling
Unarmed Combat: 29
Pain Tolerance: 16
Masochist: 11
Active Skills
Dimension Tearing: 6
Jab: 12
Straight: 1
Boons
Dungeon Blessing
So that’s what removing level limits really meant. That cheeky little god, he really did give me a boost after all. Even without professions, I’d be able to not just catch up but sail past the people of this world. By the time I was level one hundred, I’d have multiple classes with ten or more extra levels in them. That would add up to hundreds of extra stat points!
It was such an exciting prospect that it almost outweighed the heady feeling of power rushing through me. Both were intoxicating in their own way, and I couldn’t wait to push for more.
I had a suspicion that maxing my jab skill was what allowed me access to pugilist in the first place. Following that logic, I just needed to max my new straight skill in order to get my next best advancement. With forty four higher stats in all of my combat attributes, I could hardly wait to see the bees again. But for now, I had more people watching to do.
----------------------------------------
The bugs never stood a chance. I mapped my newest skill the same way I had with my first, but I couldn’t use it in this fight. Not that I needed to. The straight, as tested against one of the trees outside of town, was more than double the power of a jab. It, however, had a cooldown. Five seconds wasn’t much, but it’d be one more thing to keep track of in a fight.
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Regardless, my jabs had been enough to one shot the flying menaces even before my boost in stats. Now, even that was overkill.
A well timed jab crushed the lower half of a bee, leaving me with just enough time to reposition for the next one. With my higher agility, I no longer needed to scramble between kills. It was amazing what nearly forty five more points could do.
The feeling of gaining experience was still coming in, and didn’t feel any different than before, meaning it was calculated by my crystal level rather than the level locked in my status. I was pretty happy about that, since encouraging me to forgo power ups in return for efficiency would be a bummer.
I still hadn’t gotten any better at sending bees through the portal. Not much I could do about that though, since it really just came down to luck. If none of them approached at the right angle, then that’s all there was to it. I could encourage them all I wanted, but I couldn’t do much more.
I had no idea how long I’d been grinding away, but I eventually noticed the number of bees decreasing. Part of me wanted to keep pushing, to clear this place out once and for all. Another, smarter part worried that I might have been here way too long and needed to leave just in case some uptight group would get offended at me. Also, this place seemed to be an infinite source of money and experience. Why would I shut it down?
After a few quick dodges, I decided to test one more thing before leaving. In all my time farming today, I hadn’t been hit once. Curious as to how much of a difference my defensive points had made, I let one of the buzzing bugs get a glancing blow on me while watching my health bar. I couldn’t even see it move.
When the next one approached me, I moved to block it with my left arm, intending to sacrifice it temporarily for science. The stinger punctured the skin and some muscle before stopping maybe an inch in. My health bar still barely moved.
Dragging my hitchhiker with me, I left the portal with a lot on my mind. The sun was up already and I could see people in the distance, which was awful news for me. Quickly, I dropped the bee with a jab and stepped behind the portal. I’d bought a rucksack before coming out here today and, activating a hundred percent of my brain, hid it behind the portal to avoid digging more holes. The nearby area was beginning to look a little suspicious from my underground activity.
Opening my bag, I dressed as quickly as possible, grabbed the cleaver, and separated the stingers. I then loaded them up without even counting and started jogging. Not towards town though, at least not directly. I had a sneaking suspicion who was approaching based on them holding an unlit torch.
So I raced around the side in a big loop, suspecting that they wouldn’t care enough to hunt me down in broad daylight. Hell, I’d left plenty of loot for them already if they wanted it. It would probably be fine.
My heart was pounding by the time I made it to the gate, and it had nothing to do with the cardio. Honestly, my thoughts were a scattered mess. I’d gotten so much stronger from a few levels, what if I could take them on now? How would I know? And more importantly, how the fuck was I going to get stronger now? It’d already been a challenge to push myself as evidenced by my meager stat gains outside of leveling. I got, what, less than five points in strength in how long?
I still wasn’t good at keeping track of time, but it felt like a bad rate. Agility and resilience had only been increasing due to the difficulty of bee fighting, but now it was so easy that neither changed after a full night of it. Judging by the sun, it was half a day and all night for zero stat points.
This wouldn’t work. I needed to get strong enough to kill gods and probably had a time limit. If I just focused on levels then I could become really scary in time, but that would also ignore my biggest advantage. While Lorie hadn’t been willing to tell me any numbers, I definitely got the feeling that most people's stats came from levels, not exercise. Not to mention, how would you even work out magic or spirit anyway? Would you just meditate until you reached enlightenment, buddha style?
I was willing to bet that other people wouldn’t go to the lengths that I would just to get some stat increases, not when you could get them from leveling anyway. Instead, you could just spend your free time outside of combat pushing your profession and get stronger that way. Between the two, I could guess which would be more productive.
And while there didn’t seem to be a level cap, there was a finite number of monsters. Even if the bees consume and replace their dead, I’ll eventually kill them all or stop getting experience from them. Hell, I’ve killed hundreds of them and am still only level twenty three. I needed to move on soon to get stronger, but even still I’d be ignoring my biggest advantage.
I walked through town, grumbling nonstop as people moved to avoid me, but I eventually reached my destination. Reichken was the same impassive wall as usual, though I was surprised by my haul. Ten stingers was more than I’d expected and launched my wealth through the roof. After spending sixteen silver yesterday morning, I was at almost fifty six now. Thankfully, my backpack was cheap.
“Need a weapon.”
The craftsman didn’t sound like he was asking a question. With my newfound wealth, gearing up wasn’t a bad idea. Not that it would help me grind my resilience up, but you never knew what could happen. If a group of stabilizers decided to jump me, I’d probably be screwed. A little more protection or damage could help.
“I’ve never really used one. I mostly just punch stuff. Some lightweight armor would be good though, along with those fancy clothes you’re making me.”
He nodded, fishing around in his crates of goods piled below the stall tables. The man had so much merchandise that he barely displayed a tenth of it, so I shouldn’t have been surprised by the large knuckles he pulled from a box.
They weren’t metal, that was for sure, but I couldn’t begin to guess their material. Each looked like a solid, dark blue brick that was rounded out to fit over a fist. You’d then slide your hand into the opening and pull it tight, which actually caused it to bend slightly. Whatever he’d made these out of had some plasticity to it which was great news for me. That meant I wouldn’t shatter my hands by punching something too hard. Or at least it’d be less likely.
“How much?”
He ignored me, pulling out more pieces from all over his shop until he’d assembled a full set of carapace mail just my size. The man really had a good eye. Gesturing at me, I tried it on as well.
The dark gray of the armor betrayed where he got the materials from, but it still felt solid enough. Better than that, it was incredibly light. I had a sneaking suspicion that this set was custom made for me specifically with how well it fit, so I basically had to buy it. Even if he’d just worked the materials I’d already sold him.
Thanks to the way it segmented at the joints, moving in it was almost as easy as moving without it while giving me protection on my torso, thighs, and arms. It stopped at my knees which I appreciated, unwilling to lose my high mobility for such light protection. Not with how strong some people and monsters were bound to be.
The only problem was the helmet. It looked just like one of the bee-ant’s heads.
“I’m not wearing that.”
He grunted, putting it away before counting up the cost of everything else.
“Nightshade caestus, twelve silver. Carapace armor, twenty. Minus helmet, eighteen. Thirty silver.”
Even though I was handing the man back every coin I’d just earned, I was still pretty pleased with today’s haul. It was later in the day than normal, so he was shooing me away as soon as our business was done, keen to get back to making money no doubt. That just meant my people watching could start immediately.
As I sat in my corner dressed for combat, I realized something.
“Oh. I forgot to get their wings.” A grin stretched across my face, causing some people to give me a wider berth than usual. “Guess I’ll just have to get some tonight.”
I probably liked killing bugs more than I should.