My ambush strategy turned out to be not only a complete failure I also almost died thanks to my stupidity. Because I underestimated the Imp I almost payed for it with my life. To be honest i still don’t quite know how I survived. I was bleeding when I fell unconscious and since I didn’t receive and exp I shouldn’t have leveled up. So how did I survive. Did someone heal me. No that wouldn’t make any sense since the only things that lived here see Lesser Imps as food. Next time I can’t let myself be distracted or I’ll suffer the same fate once again, perhaps not being able to survive the next time. Since I lacked strength if I’m caught I’ll die so my focus should be on avoiding attacks. After coming to that conclusion I spent two of my attribute points to increase Agility and then put the remaining one into Intelligence.
[Agility has been increased to 20. Due to Agility 20 you may gain one of three following skills: Evasion: Lv1 Throwing: Lv1 Reflex: Lv1.]
A message appeared on the screen to my surprise. It seems whenever you reach 20 in an attribute you can choose a skill derived from it. Question is what should i choose. While Throwing could be useful it requires something to thrown and I just realized how important dodging was for me. So the choice would be between Evasion and Reflex. Since my fighting style relies mostly on predicting my opponents moves faster reflexes could be useful but if I’m not fast enough to dodge it even if I see it coming I won’t be able to dodge it. So with that I choose evasion.
[Skill Evasion: Lv1 has been acquired.]
With my new skill I decided to set up another ambush. However this time it took some time before the first Imp entered my trap. Sneaking up behind it like before I once again sliced at its throat with my claws only to jump back as I finished my attack. But my retreat ended up being unnecessary as the Imp collapsed on the ground without any resistance.
[Gained 2 Attribute Points from killing Lesser Imp.]
I consumed the blood of my opponent before returning back to my hiding spot. I the amounts of attribute points i received had decreased for some reason but what shocked me more was that this Imp had died without a fight but the one from before has survived and even had enough strength to fight back. Maybe it’s because what Dark Knowledge uncovered when I inspected the Imp from before. That Imps are versatile and can have different strength and weaknesses depending on their environment. Or maybe the other Imp had simply killed more opponents than this once and was therefore stronger. Not that it mattered much now anyway. I’ve already created a strategy for dealing with any Imps that survive. Using the two attribute points i received I increased my Intelligence to 21 in the hopes of receiving a new skill.
[Intelligence has been increased to 20. Due to Intelligence 20 you have gained access to your mana pool. Please also choose one type of magic from the following three: Fire Magic: Lv1 Dark Magic: Lv1 Blood Magic: Lv1.]
As the message appeared I felt a strange warmth spread through my body. But I had a few new choices in front of me now. Magic would greatly increase my combat capabilities so I should choose carefully. Since I didn’t know what either of them did I decided to inspect them.
“Inspect Fire Magic”
[Fire Magic: Fire Magic is one of the Elemental Magics. It’s focused on large scale destruction instead of accuracy and is the magic with most spells due to its popularity amongst humans. However as a downside many devils and demons are either immune or resistant to it and it is heavily countered my water magic of the same level.]
Well fire magic is a no go. I won’t be able to use it until I left hell and for all I know that won’t happen anytime soon.
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“Inspect Darkness Magic”
[Dark Magic: Dark Magic is one of the two Godly Magics. Used mostly be devils and demons and other servants of evil gods. The most famous Dark Magic user was the dark mage Nixar who terrorized the human world until the first hero killed him. It’s an immensely powerful magic and its only equal is Light Magic.]
Sounds tempting. But let’s have a look at blood magic before making a decision.
“Inspect Blood Magic”
[Blood Magic: One of the Forbidden Magics combining Light Magic and Dark Magic to temporarily either enhance the users body or control blood and shape it to the users will. However instead of mana Blood Magic uses blood as a source.]
Well after having inspected all of them I guess I’ll choose Dark Magic since I don’t have much blood to sacrifice anyway and Fire Magic will be useless. And it was supposed to be really powerful.
[Skill Dark Magic: Lv1 has been acquired. Spell Dark Bolt has been learnt.]
As I acquired the skill the information on how to use it flowed into my mind. With my newly acquired mana I could chanel it into a object which conducted magic and then depending on what spell I was using the mana would take on the form of the spell. Thankfully it seems devils are naturally a good conductor so I didn’t need to worry about that. All that was left was to practise it on something. Since I now had some ranged abilities I could keep a safe distance from my enemies so I decided to take a risk and try to find a Young Harbinger.
I finally spotted one in the distance after searching for god knows how long. While searching I had encountered at least 7 Imps which I killed using Dark Bolt. It’s effect where decent on the Imps most of them died in one hit and the ones who didn’t were crippled so they where easy to finish off. Though the amount of attribute points i received had decreased once more. Maybe they decrease when you reach 20 in an attribute or maybe there is some other reason which I don’t know of. After distributing the seven attribute points my stat block was very different from before.
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Race: Lesser Imp
Level: 2/15
HP: 28/28
Mana: 17/26
Vitality: 16
Agility: 22
Strength: 14
Intelligence: 21
Unique Skills:
Skills: Dark Knowledge: Lv1 Stealth: Lv2 (Up) Fire Resistance: Lv5 Dark Magic: Lv1 (New) Dark Bolt: Lv2 (New)
Unique Titles: One Who Fell To Darkness
Titles: Ambusher Lv1
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A slowly moved towards the Harbinger as I readied myself for the upcoming fight. This would be my first time fighting against one and unlike Lesser Imps Young Harbingers are rare so they are most likely stronger than the average Imp. Since it resembles a horse it’s probably fairly fast as well. I should try to keep myself far away from it and attack it with my magic. I just hope I’ll have enough mana to kill it.
When I came within range of it I took a few deep breaths before firing of my first Dark Bolt. The Harbinger was taken by surprise as the Dark Bolt hit into its side. As it was hit it shrieked and turned towards me. However my second bolt was already on it’s way and it too dealt some damage to it. Or at least i think it did as the Harbinger didn’t seem to mind the attacks and started rushing towards me. As I retreated I kept on firing of Dark Bolts toward the Harbinger. While it managed to dodge one of the bolts the rest hit into it. However the Harbinger simply shrugged it of and continued charging towards me.
I slowly started to panic. Maybe I was to confident in my new abilities after seeing them work well on the Imps. In comparison the Harbinger has barely reacted to my bolts at all. As i kept on runing away and firing at it my mana ran out and i was left with my claws and fangs as my only weapon. The situation truly wasn't looking good. The Harbinger was faster than me so it kept on getting closer and closer. Up ahead i saw an outcropping of rocks. If i could reach it I should be able to hide from the Harbinger.
Just as I was about to reach the outcroping I felt something hit into my back and send me flying forwards. I hit into one of the larger rocks and slowly stood of swaying lightly from the impact. Thankfully the rock I hit into wasn't very sharp so I avoided any major injuries. And the Harbingers kick had sent me closer to my goal so all wasn't bad. With the last of my strenght I managed to stumble into a small crack that just barely fit my whole body. When I finally was safe darkness swallowed me and I fell into a deep sleep.