Mike once more leveled the charge, striking again at the monster. It was clear that it was both faster and stronger than Mike, so he would need to make up for it by fighting smarter. He dodged past the very telegraphed attacks of the elemental, taking swings here and there when he had a safe opportunity. Each time it swung its massive limbs, Mike could feel the air rush past him from the wind the attacks created.
He tried kiting it around a few trees, but all that accomplished was some unnecessary deforestation as the trees were swept aside with little effort. Mike reversed his grip on his hammer, pointing the spike end forward. He had mostly forgotten about it up until now, due to him being used to having a blunt side as his only choice to use.
The spike was a lot more effective, punching holes into the elemental, though Mike didn’t notice any effects other than it making the monster more angry. The beasts let out some kind of rumble, part of its upper body vibrating slightly to make the noise, before ceasing its movements. Mike saw an opportunity, and threw caution to the wind as he tried taking a particularly powerful swing that left him open for attack. The wind promptly threw the caution back in his face, as he received a pillar of stone to the gut for his troubles. He was launched into a nearby tree, his body embedding about halfway through.
Before Mike could free himself, the elemental began moving again, charging the tree with yet another very telegraphed attack. Knowing what the monster was going to do wasn’t going to help much if he couldn’t get out of the tree in the next few seconds.
“Oh I hope this works.” Mike said, blasting mana into the tree around him. A quarter of his mana disappeared as he activated Freedom, disintegrating the lower half of the tree. He rolled to the side to avoid the incoming attack. One thing he hadn’t expected to happen was the tree falling on top of the elemental, throwing it off balance as it toppled to the ground. Mike could now see its back for the first time, and in the center was a small crack in the stone that had been formed by the several hundreds of pounds of wood that had just fallen atop it.
Mike didn’t play a lot of video games in his adulthood, but he played enough to recognize a weak spot when he saw one. He lunged, activating Enhance Self to squeeze out as much damage as he could before the elemental recovered. He put all his strength into a strike directly in the center of the crack, expanding by at least 2 fold. He got in two more hits, though not as powerful as the first, before the pile of rocks recovered, regaining its footing.
It wasn’t dead, and still didn’t seem to be any weaker from the devastating blows, but through the crack, Mike's super human perception had picked up the faint glow of a particularly shiny bit of rock inside of the center boulder. The elemental was clearly done holding back, as it once more rooted itself in place, rock spikes rising all around it. Mike danced from side to side, avoiding each of the attacks by the skin of his teeth.
He could feel the earth shifting below his feet just before each spike emerged, giving him an early warning whenever one was about to rise. The monster began encasing itself in a rock barrier, and Mike began racing forward, not wanting to give it the chance to recover. He smashed through the rock, ignoring the several spikes that repeatedly stabbed him as they shot out from the barrier. He wasn’t confident in handling the massive spikes that erupted from the ground, but these were just barely thinner than a fist.
Through his battle haze, he found it odd that he had begun thinking of fist sized holes in his body as “not that big a deal”. He didn’t know exactly when the change had come about, but it was irrelevant. He finally smashed through the rock, a stone fist lashing out from the newly made hole. He barely moved to the side of the punch, still swinging his hammer at the monster repeatedly.
With each swing came a new hole, and with each new hole, the rocks crumbled bit by bit. Soon, he saw the shiny rock inside the elemental from more than just the crack in its back, and decided it was time for a flashy finish. He called out to Lucas, who had been watching the fight from a different tree than before. He’d needed to flee after Mike crashed into the one he was on.
“Hey Lucas, want to see my finishing move?” Mike called, waving his hands like he was trying to hype up a crowd.
“Hell yeah!” the rogue shouted back, matching the energy of the fighter.
“Then witness! The, uh…” Mike struggled to think of a name. “The, the Core Ripper!”
Mike reached his hand into the body of the elemental, ripping the rock out of its body, causing it to instantly fall limp to the ground. He felt a sense of victory and glory, which was quickly wiped away by what the rogue said next.
“The core ripper? Come on man, you couldn’t think of anything better?”
“Cut me some slack, I didn’t have that much time to think about it.”
“You should have called it the miners special.”
“That's even worse than what I came up with.” Mike laughed, sifting through his notifications.”
*Earth Elemental (level 30) slain*
*Class level up! Mighty Infusionist Slayer (level 25)*
*Race level up! Human (level 25)*
*Evolution available*
“That was one hell of a way to reach my evolution.”
“Sure was, bet mine will be even better.”
“What would you even bet, our camp has no currency.”
“If mine isn’t cooler, I will sculpt a statue of you. If it is, then you sing in front of the entire encampment, all about how great and amazing you are.”
“Either way it seems like a way to make people think my ego is way out of control.”
The rogue laughed. “That's what will make it funny.”
“Alright you are on, but only if I get to write my own song lyrics if I lose.”
“You’re on.” The man said, with a grin that made Mike think he just made a terrible, terrible decision.
__________
Mike jogged back to camp, Lucas staying after he promised to flee if anything too dangerous appeared. Mike trusted the man to hold his own, but he didn’t want him to get himself killed over the dumb bet they made. He made a beeline for his home, not bothering to take the front gate, instead leaping over the wall. At his level of strength, the walls were closer to suggestions than anything. It clearly annoyed the guards, but Mike was too eager for his evolution to care. He had already thrown every point he had gotten from the level into agility, as he wanted every bit of his stats to be allocated and ready to receive a boost.
He sat on his crude bed, laid down, and selected the option to evolve. His vision was instantly dragged into his soul, which he hadn’t been in for a while now. He really should be here more often, but it just wasn’t as fun as crafting or fighting. He looked around, seeing quite a few changes to the space since he’d last been there. For starters, he had several epic rarity fragments. One was for his freedom skill, and another was for creating his hammer. Out of a passing curiosity, he tried to manipulate one, and found it to be just a bit harder than the rare fragments to manipulate. He thought he must have remembered wrong, as he tried shaping a rare fragment.
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To his surprise, it moved quite easily to his will, and responded to anything he tried to do with it. He really needed to check up on things in here more often, and certainly needed to make something with his rare fragments. He opened his menu, trying to keep himself from getting sidetracked anymore. On the menu was a list of options for what his class could evolve into. He read the first three, instantly ruling them out without a second thought, though he still glanced at the descriptions.
Secret Tyrant
Ruling societies from the shadows, the Secret Tyrant can have more influence in a city than even its leaders. Gain +25 Charisma, +20 Strength and Agility, and +15 Perception, Wisdom, Intelligence, Constitution, and Fortitude per level. +40 Free points per level.
Show Gladiator
Fighting for the amusement of others, Gladiators push their limits in the arena, placing their skills and power on the table for all to see. Gain +23 Charisma, +19 Strength, Fortitude, and Constitution, +16 Agility, and +13 Intelligence, Wisdom, and Perception per level. +38 Free points per level.
Immovable Defender
The Immovable defender is the shield of a city. When great danger falls upon the masses, the Immovable defender comes to protect. Gain +20 Constitution, Fortitude, and Strength, +18 Agility, +16 Intelligence, Wisdom, Perception, and Charisma per level. +45 free points per level.
For very obvious reasons, the first two were not even up for consideration. The third one looked great, and the distribution of stats was very similar to what he would be looking for in a class. The downside, however, was that it would be tying Mike down as a defender. He still was against the thought of basing his whole class around it, and felt he was doing just fine as is. As much as he didn’t want to pick the class, he had to admit that the stats did tempt him. All he could hope for was one of his other two choices being better.
Mighty Feller of Giants
Facing opponents far more powerful than himself, the Mighty feller of Giants gets more powerful as the odds stacked against him. In the face of hopelessness, the Mighty Feller of Giants thrives more than any other. +25 Strength, +20 Constitution and Fortitude, +17 Agility, +16 Intelligence, Wisdom, Perception, and Charisma per level. +45 free points per level.
Mike nearly picked the class then and there. It gave better stats than the Immovable Defender, while not forcing him to do anything for that power. One could say that needing to fight monsters far stronger than himself was a bit of a downside, but Mike was going to be doing that anyways, so he didn't really care. He read the last class offered, already confident it wouldn’t be as good as this one.
Mighty Slayer of Many
A one man army, standing against floods of opponents. The Mighty Slayer of Many gets stronger as he is outnumbered more and more. The one man army may lead a small group, distributing his gains in strength to his allies, creating a true terror on the battlefield. +25 Fortitude, +20 Strength and Constitution, +17 Charisma, +16 Agility, Wisdom, Intelligence, and Perception per level. +45 free points per level.
Well shit, this was every bit as good. It even gave the exact same total of stats, just distributed slightly differently. Both this classes the other choice had the word “mighty” in the names, meaning using his beloved hammer wouldn’t be a problem no matter his choice. It was a tough decision for Mike, and he spent what felt like several minutes contemplating the choice.
He enjoyed fighting with others, and making them stronger would allow the team as a whole to benefit, but it also required them to be fighting quite a few enemies. In the end, what made up his mind was a line in the class description of Mighty Feller of Giants. In the face of hopelessness, the Mighty Feller of Giants thrives more than any other. The line implied that it didn't have to be simply a single, powerful enemy that would trigger him getting stronger, but could be anything that was deemed a hopeless situation. He picked the class, ready to move on to his profession, when another notification popped up.
Class Skill available
He opened the notification, seeing 4 options, with them paired up in groups of two. On the left side, were two skills that Mike was completely unfamiliar with.
Shockwave (Rare)
Send out a shockwave of power with each swing, infusing mana into the attack makes the shockwave stronger.
Meteor Strike (Epic)
Fall atop or near your opponent, striking the ground and creating a massive shockwave of force all around. Infusing mana into the attack makes the shockwave stronger.
Both seemed similar in concept, just different in how they triggered. He looked towards the other two skills, both were very recognizable.
Enhance Self (Epic)
Further empower your body, gaining +20% to all stats at a steep cost of mana.
Dominating Intimidation (Epic)
All are terrified upon seeing your power. Strikes fear into enemies upon seeing you in battle.
Both were upgrades to skills he already had, and both seemed quite good. Mike had a feeling that out of the four, he would only get to choose one. To him the choice was quite obvious, and he didn't need to think for very long.
*Skill Gained! Shockwave (Rare)*
It may be the only skill on the list that wasn’t of epic rarity, but Mike really didn't see a need for any of the others. He could likely upgrade the two skills with some time and practice, and meteor strike just seemed like it would only be useful in niche situations. With that finished, he moved onto his next selection, the one for his profession.
Arcane Artificer
Create powerful magical weapons from just about anything. Using your magic, you can bring out the strength in any of your creations. +20 Intelligence, Wisdom and Perception, +15 Strength, Agility, Charisma, Constitution, and Fortitude per level. +35 Free points per level.
The stats this choice gave were complete and utter garbage, and Mike skipped over the other two after seeing they gave very similar stats, as well as having terrible names.
Epic Maker
Magic Tinkerer
Those names were ones he would be utterly ashamed to have on his stat sheet. Seriously, what kind of name was “magic tinkerer”. If he ever found out someone else had picked that as a profession, he would give them an earful for making an objectively bad choice. He moved onto the last two options, once more having a decision in front of him.
Prodigious Creator
Leading the charge into innovation and invention, the Prodigious Creator creates weapons, armor, and items through methods that no one else would even consider. +25 Intelligence and Wisdom, +20 Perception, +16 Strength, Agility, Constitution, Fortitude, and Charisma per level. +45 free points per level.
Prodigious Artisan of the Arcane
Making weapons and armor that are the best of a generation, the Prodigious Artisan of the Arcane makes armaments fit for a king. +25 Intelligence and Wisdom, +20 Perception and charisma, +15 Strength, Agility, Constitution, and Fortitude per level. +45 free points per level.
They both had good names, though the Prodigious Artisan of the Arcane seemed like an uncreative way of just having a straight upgrade for what he was already doing. They both gave good stats, but Mike preferred to just continue crafting as he was, not innovating on any methods or using unorthodox ways to create things. Selecting Prodigious Artisan of the Arcane, he was once more greeted by a skill selection. The first two were new skills, and the second were once more upgrades.
Arcane Fusion (Epic)
Combine two or more similar materials to make a new one, slightly more powerful than the sum of its parts.
Core Infusion (Epic)
Infuse the core of a monster into a creation, fueling enchantments and adding new effects to the item.
Mana Manipulation (Epic)
Significantly Enhanced mana control.
Core Enchant (Epic)
Enchant items using the mana pattern from the core of a monster.
Two of his choices were focused on cores, presumably because he had the earth elemental core that he ripped from the monster. He wasn't super interested in any of the choices, except for Arcane Fusion. He was very curious what fusing materials would do, and what he could make with it. The others were skills he figured he could learn or upgrade on his own, but fusing things was something he wouldn’t even know where to start with. He finalized his choice.
*Skill Gained! Arcane Fusion (Epic)*
He was then surprised by several more notifications.
*Class skill gained! Man versus Mighty (Epic)*
Man versus Mighty
Get stronger as you face more powerful foes, gaining up to 25% in all your stats.
*Profession Skill gained! Soul Binding (Epic)*
Soul Binding
Bind an item to the soul of yourself or another. Bound items can be stored within the soul of its owner, and are slowly repaired while within the soul.
*Trait Evolving! Effect gained*
Indomitable
Effect 1: Gain +20 percent to Fortitude and Constitution.
Effect 2: Passively Erode Hostile mana within your aura.
Mike wasn’t sure how large his “aura” was, but it didn’t seem like too bad of a bonus to have to his trait. After waiting for a moment, no more further notifications appeared. He decided to take a look at his updated stat sheet after all the changes, and was very, very pleased by what he saw.
Strength: 1268
Constitution: 706
Agility: 917
Wisdom: 704
Intelligence: 608
Charisma: 485
Perception: 569
Fortitude: 700
Massive improvements all across the board, with a nice and even 700 in fortitude. Mike exited his soul, ready to test out the power of his second evolution.