Jonathan closed the notification, and smiled. His efforts had borne fruit. He had no idea how useful this martial path was going to be, but he suspected that it would be quite useful; indeed, especially after he leveled it up a bit. For now, he could feel a slightly increased connection to the path that he was following. Slightly increased, but not by much. As he increased his mastery however, that would likely change. With all of these new gains, it was time for him to open his stat sheet and see all of his new abilities.

Jonathan Harlowe

Tier 1

Human(Advanced)

Outsider:Tier 1

Level 38

(64 free points)

Strength

172

Dexterity

128

Constitution

128

Resilience

183

Intelligence

126

Wisdom

126

Divinity

2

Health:1920/1920

Stamina:2580/2580

Mana:1890/1890

* Titles

Chosen of Sarnakthros:Unique

Nascent Divinity:Celestial

Iron Will:Epic

Refined Form:Epic

Giantslayer:Epic

Avenger:Epic

Lineage Hunter:Rare

Righteous Killer:Rare

* Skills

Smite:Legendary

Unravel:Epic

Warrior’s Trance:Epic

Mana Drill:Rare

Battle Focus:Rare

Focused Scry:Rare

Runes of Power:Rare

Redirect:Uncommon

Identify:Common

* Pathway Skills

Mana Manipulation:Student 6

Martial Arts:Student 4

Runecrafting:Student 3

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

Truesight:Student 1

* Martial Path

Flowing Hurricane:Novice 1

* Quests

Hellbreaker:Impossible

Complete Vengeance:SSS

Jonathan had quite a considerable amount of free stat points, and he decided to use some of them rather than hoard them all. Looking over his stats, he found himself satisfied with most of them. Adding points to bring up a lower stat right now would be a waste, as it would have less impact that adding points to a more powerful stats.

With that in mind, Jonathan quickly added 20 points to Strength, in batches of two, bringing it up to 204. Jonathan clenched his fist and smiled, feeling the new power coursing through himself. His Resilience was high enough to deal with the boost for now, but if he needed to, that stat was the next one that was getting boosted. Jonathan closed his eyes, and tried to internalize his new stats, not wanting them to interfere too much with his pursuit of his martial path. He had successfully formed the path on his own, but he would need live targets to practice on, ones that were at least marginally similar to humans. He could adapt his abilities towards any sort of monster, but for training purposes, it was better to find something like one of the Fetid Oozes. He was probably strong enough to grapple with one of the elite Oozes, and win at that. Jonathan was starting to feel the power creep set in.

In a few weeks, he had far surpassed the monsters that he had entered the world finding threatening, and was now able to deal with them effortlessly. Then again, he had so many advantages that even he sometimes thought that they were unfair. He would need them all down the road, as he progressed further through the Infinite Hells. Despite his relatively high level of power, compared to a normal person, he was barely scratching the surface of power within this universe. There were at least another hundred tiers to go, and if they all increased multiplicatively, like he had been told, by the end, he would be akin to a god. Then again, that was literally what a god was, someone at the top of the Tiers. Sarnakthros had been Tier 100, while unsuppressed, meaning that was likely the pinnacle of power.

At least the Infinite Hells were stratified somewhat, meaning that some wandering Tier 10 couldn't just come over and kill him. Well, probably a Tier 2, if he was being honest. He was nowhere near strong enough to fight up an entire tier, and he doubted if he ever would be. He could put up a decent fight against someone twenty levels above him, but past that was the realm of uncertainty, as shown by his fight with Ralnar. Such battles were intensely rewarding in terms of power, but they were all incredibly dangerous as well. Jonathan had been ready to allocate more stat points if necessary at the end of his battle with Ralnar, but things had gone awry quite quickly. By the end, he had been barely conscious of his surroundings.

Shaking his head, Jonathan started walking towards a nearby tower, seeking to use it as a beacon for monsters to come towards. Climbing up the tower, Jonathan quickly alighted on the top, stepping carefully over crumbling stone and aged wood. Raising his left hand high, Jonathan imbued his gauntlet with Divinity, sending a pulse of warm light outwards, drawing nearby monsters in.

As he stood there, he could hear baying howls echoing in the distance, and the telltale ash cloud that signaled a group of monsters coming in.

He was only looking for Fetid Oozes however, and when a pack of Ash Prowlers neared the tower, Jonathan fielded his aura fully, sending them off, howling in fear. The monsters receded into the distance, their tails between their legs. It seemed that they were more afraid of Jonathan than they were enticed by the rune, which was an interesting discovery.

A few minutes later his real quarry came close, and Jonathan could see a Fetid Ooze elite coming trundling towards the tower, its rolls of fat shaking as it moved. Jonathan leaped down from the top of the tower and raced forwards, before reaching the monster. It leered at him with its massive mouth, and he began the process of limiting his stats. He wanted to fight this thing at reduced power, so that he would have to rely more on his martial arts abilities than simple brute force.

As he forced his strength to lower, everything around him began to speed up, and a terrible sense of loss filled his form. However, he kept it in check, and focused solely on his new martial ability.

As he approached the Fetid Ooze, he extended his hands out into an approximation of a neutral fighting stance, waiting for the monster to make the first move. The Fetid Ooze obliged, and with Jonathan’s power limited so, it moved much faster than he had been expecting. Its hand came rocketing towards his face, and only a surge of danger from his reflexes allowed him to react in time.

His hands shot up, almost of their own accord, and grabbed the arm, pinning it in place. Vaulting up into the air, Jonathan forced the Fetid Ooze down toward the ground, and flipped over, transitioning into an ax kick. Back on Earth, he would have never been able to pull something like that off, but now he was perfectly capable of using such an attack.

His heel crashed into the monster’s face like a wrecking ball, knocking it down and shattering a few teeth. However, it did not cause lasting damage, seeing as he was limiting his strength. This was probably the physical strength that an average fighter at his level had, which explained why most of them used weapons. Jonathan simply had the raw power to use his fists in battle effectively. However, for enemies that were too tough, he had his gauntlets. Seeing as this one seemed to be quite durable, at least against his limited capabilities, Jonathan decided to see how effective his punches were with the help of his new fighting style.

Landing securely on the ground in front of the monster, he drew his right arm back, instinctively feeling the right way to do so. Punching forwards with all of his strength, Jonathan planted his fist into the Fetid Ooze’s mouth, shattering its teeth with the blow. A move that would have broken his bones had he tried it normally now went off without a hitch, save for a light throbbing sensation. It was as if he was only now seeing the light. The System was certainly helping in this regard, but a lot of the prowess was his own.

Jonathan skipped backwards, dodging a punch solely through his own battle expertise. He had dodged it based on where he predicted it would go, rather than reacting to it, which was quite impressive compared to his normal fighting style. However, he had explored his abilities enough for now.

He moved in more aggressively, and weaved around a few punches from the monster, getting as close to its yawning maw as he dared. Three lightning fast punches shattered the rest of its teeth, and he quickly swept its arm out of the air, and tossed it over his shoulder. Although the monster was large, and he had lowered his strength, he was still strong enough to toss it over his shoulder effectively.

The monster crashed into the ground, and Jonathan began to whale on it with his gauntlets. As he saw that they were doing little damage, he decided that it was time to add a little bit of magic to his fighting style. Jonathan quickly pumped mana into his fists, and punched with his right one, sending a lance of mana straight into the putrescent flesh of the monster. Its flesh bubbled and smoked as the attack landed, as Jonathan had not limited his Intelligence stat, having found such a thing impossible.

The attack carved straight through the monster and towards its core, getting stuck halfway there. Jonathan sighed, and punched with his other hand, keeping the struggling creature down. A moment later, he brought both hands up in a hammer fist attack, and splattered its brains out on the ash with one final blow. Panting slightly, Jonathan got up, and let his full strength return to him. The heady rush of power was immense, and Jonathan could barely stop himself from gasping as he rapidly returned to his normal state. A few notifications waited for him.

You have reached Student Rank 5 with Martial Arts!

You have reached Novice Rank 6 with Flowing Hurricane!