Novels2Search
Indomitable
Chapter 34

Chapter 34

Mike earning his new burst step skill had reminded him of how long it had been before he took a good look at his stat sheet. He walked into the mess hall and grabbed some food before sitting at an unoccupied table. He began eating while reading over his stat sheet.

Name: Mike Jones

Race: Human (level 30)

Class: Mighty Feller of Giants (level 30)

Profession: Prodigious Artisan of the Arcane (level 31)

Trait: Indomitable

Titles: Mighty Slayer (Rare), Epic Crafter (Epic)

Health: 14720/14720

Mana: 13740/13740

Stamina: 15435/15435

Health Regeneration: 1954 Per minute

Mana Regeneration: 1960 Per minute

Stamina Regeneration: 1960 Per minute

Stats:

Strength: 2120

Constitution: 980

Agility: 1127

Intelligence: 980

Wisdom: 884

Charisma: 725

Perception: 809

Fortitude: 974

Skills: Inspect (common), Mana edge (common), Intermediate Weapon handling (uncommon), Advanced language comprehension (uncommon), Advanced mana manipulation (rare), mana adhesion (rare), Enchant (rare), Enhance Self (rare), Arcane repair (rare), dominating intimidation (rare), shockwave (rare), Burst step (rare), Fragment infused weapon creation (epic), fragment infused armor creation (epic), freedom (epic) (trait), soul binding (epic), Man versus Mighty (epic), Arcane Fusion (epic)

As he looked through his stats, Mike began to realize just how out of balance his strength had gotten from the rest of his stats. He thought briefly about trying to balance them more, but when he thought about the overwhelming power he could bring to bear thanks to his strength, he didn't worry so much about it. The only thing about what he saw that disappointed him was his only common skill he had, other than inspect.

He didn't even know where to start with upgrading that skill, so he just entirely ignored it. As he finished the last bite of his meal, which consisted of berries and some mystery meat that tasted better than anything he had back before the system, he decided that upgrading the skill was now his top priority.

He walked through the forest, picking a nice and isolated spot to begin his practice. He took out a knife, lining the edge with mana and sharpening it. The blade was already wicked sharp thanks to being made by Mike, so the mana didn't do much to help. He gave it a test swing, intending to cut a gash through a nearby tree, when he activated another of his skills out of habit. His skill, Shockwave, was one he used just about every time he swung his hammer. It was cheap, effective, and made each attack just that much more powerful. What he had not expected to happen when he attacked the innocent tree was a crescent of mana to shoot out from his knife as he swung, biting half way through the 4 foot wide trunk before dissipating.

*Skill synergy detected! Would you like to fuse Mana Edge (common) and Shockwave (rare)? [Y/N]*

Mike didn't even need to think about it. Giving a boost to one of his most used skills, and wiping away the shame of having a common skill, seemed like a pretty easy choice. He selected yes, and the skills quickly merged together.

*Mana Edge and Shockwave have fused and become Cleave (Epic)*

Cleave (Epic)

Each attack sends out a small shockwave mimicking the nature of your strike. Sharp weapons send out cutting blades of force, while blunt weapons send walls of force. Infusing this strike with mana increases the power of the shockwave.

Mike was pleasantly surprised at how easy it had been for him to get this skill. For all of his other epic skills, he had needed to do something quite difficult or something that was augmented by his trait, as with the case of Freedom. All he had needed to do was swing a knife, and he got his new skill. Some people say that rewards feel best when you work for them, but Mike absolutely loved the feeling of easy gains. He took out his hammer, wanting to try out his new skill with his preferred weapon. Seeing no reason to hold back, he dumped over 90% of his mana pool into a single use of the skill, causing him to get a little dizzy at the expenditure.

A shockwave so strong he could see the air distort around it shot out from his weapon, ripping apart the bottoms of trees and tearing up a sizable portion of the ground. Mike looked at the damage done, dumbfounded by what he had caused. The cone of destruction stretched out for roughly 20 feet, and had devastated just about everything it touched.

“That's one hell of a finisher.” Mike said. While it was true that not much would be able to walk away from the attack, he had also dumped so much mana into the attack that he would likely be left vulnerable if he used such a reckless attack in a fight. The sight of what he could do awoke a newfound motivation to upgrade his skills, and he began scouring his stat sheet for any he could upgrade relatively easily. His eyes quickly landed on Intermediate Weapon Handling, which made him frown. With all of the time he had spent using his hammer, he would have thought that he would have at least upgraded the skill past uncommon rarity.

Unfortunately, this skill seemed to revolve almost entirely around his actual skill in using his hammer, and he would just need to fight more if he wanted to get better at that. He looked over his sheet again, not finding any more freebies. After a bit of thought, he decided that the next skill that would need upgrading would be Enhance Self. He had gotten the skill all the way back at level 10 and he felt he had become familiar enough with it to make it even better.

Much like Shockwave, Enhance Self was a skill he had been using almost without thinking in just about every fight. He’d gotten enough practice with it that he only needed to use about ¾ of the mana he originally needed to achieve the same effect. Now, he stood still, bracing his body as he prepared to use as much mana as he could to get stronger. He infused mana within his muscles, trying to make it flow along the same path his blood flowed in an attempt to somehow make the mana more effective. It was really just an idea, and one that clearly didn't work as bruises began forming under his arms where his mana had ripped open veins and arteries. Thankfully, all the bleeding was internal, which was where the blood was supposed to be anyways.

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His regeneration took just a few minutes to fix the damage, and he moved on to trying new ideas. This went on for several hours, with Mike repeatedly hurting himself in some way trying to move the mana through his body.

Mana was a volatile thing, and was only ever truly stable when flowing in a pattern. This was the basis of Mike's understanding of the skill, and he worked to try and improve upon the pattern that his mana already flowed in. He activated the skill dozens of times, getting a feel for the pathways, and found a few things he had not expected. Firstly, his mana did flow similarly to blood.

It would flow out of his center, reaching every part of his body along its way, then flow back. When he activated Enhance Self, not all of the mana flowed back to his center, a small portion being expended as it worked to fortify his body. Mike observed how it worked, and how much mana was being used. More was used when he moved around, and very little was used while he stood still.

This was something he had already guessed he would see, as he had noticed the variable mana cost whenever he fought. Mike began trying to direct his mana to flow faster as he used the skill, traveling along the pathways at significant speed. He made it a little faster, then he tried to change the path to encompass more of his body. He added more branches, allowing the mana to flow more within each muscle.

The only part of his body he didn't touch while doing this was his brain. He didn't even want to try messing with the hundreds of branching paths and connections he felt within. Mike was also hesitant to try and mess with his brain due to the damage he might cause.

As his stats had grown when he leveled, many bodily functions had become obsolete or unnecessary. He didn't really need sleep anymore, food was optional, and he couldn't remember the last time he had needed to use a restroom. Some of the more vital areas, such as the heart, lungs, and brain, were all still needed to keep him alive. He still needed to breathe, and he still needed his blood. With time, he felt they too would become unnecessary, but his brain was something he would likely need for much longer. He wasn't even sure if he would ever not need it.

Overall, he just didn't want to mess with it, at least not without one hell of a healer around to help. Many hours after Mike had begun his experiments, he finally had a breakthrough. His mana seemed to click into place as he finally found a new pattern that would work, and he felt power flow through him as he read the new notifications.

*Skill Enhance Self, becomes Empower Self (Epic)*

*Skill Advanced Mana manipulation, becomes Beginner Mana control (Epic)*

Empower Self (Epic)

For a cost of mana, improve your physical stats by 20%, and your mental stats by 10%. For triple the mana cost, the effect can be doubled.

He felt his body coursing with power, and he felt like he could move a mountain. He had the triple cost active as he reveled in the feeling, collapsing to the ground after just 10 seconds as his mana bottomed out.

A few minutes later, Mike stood up, looking around to make sure nobody had seen him faceplant into the dirt. He wanted to test his new power, and headed to the spider cave to find a new fight. He stopped after just a few steps, remembering that he now controlled it, and it probably wasn't a great idea to slaughter his “minions”. He wasn't sure if they were at all intelligent, but the idea didn't sit well with him regardless.

He ran towards the barrier of mana, deciding it was time to look for another monster lair. Perhaps not one that was filled with creepy spiders. Mike had handled his fear well, if you ignored the terrified fleeing he had done the first time he had gone in the cave. He would likely be fine this time, but he decided to steer clear if he saw any caves leading underground.

It was a particularly overcast day, and a light shadow was draped across the earth. He ran for a few hours, and was beginning to realize just how far he needed to travel just to start finding enemies that could put up a decent fight. At first, monsters that he had needed to put some effort into killing had just attacked the settlement, but now he needed to run dozens, maybe even a hundred miles into the forest to find some.

Sure he had found a good fight in the spider cave near the settlement, but he had needed to navigate through it for nearly two weeks before finding the tarantula matriarch. While Mike was searching, he was beginning to realize he had very much underestimated how rare lairs were. He didn't find a single one the entire time he searched, and he was getting impatient. He was about to turn back and go home, when he finally found something that would put up a good fight.

Treant (level 40)

It was a massive tree, with legs made of roots and branches for arms. Leaves covered the top of it, as well as being at the end of each branch. Mike readied his hammer, and was about to activate his new Empower Self skill, when a notification covered his visional entirely.

*[Urgent Settlement Notification] Your settlement is under siege, and is threatened by hostile forces. Take up arms and defend your home!*

This notification was quickly followed by another immediately after.

*Your Settlement leader has sent you a message. “Mike, we are under attack. We need you back ASAP.*

Mike glanced at the treant before turning away and running top speed at the settlement. He was far away, at least several hours at a normal pace. He activated his new skill, keeping it at a level he could sustain without significantly draining his resources, and tore through the forest as fast as he could. He used Burst Step several times in succession, adding to his already considerable speed.

He lowered his use of Empower Self to a level where he could regenerate mana, while using burst steps to increase his speed every chance he got. He weaved through the forest at what had to be nearing 100 miles an hour. His regard for his own safety was lost to the wind as he dodged, ducked under, and smashed through the foliage. All that was on his mind was that he needed to get back as soon as he could, and needed to be ready to fight when he got there.

___________

Klint looked up at the overcast sky, the clouds covering the vibrant blue that usually shone down from above. He was looking up from within the walls of the settlement he had set his sights on. He’d had a much easier time entering than he had expected. The people of the settlement had let him right in through the front gates. The settlement was large, much larger than he had expected.

“Too much trust.” He thought to himself. He had gotten quite a few looks from people who could see his level, and this very quickly attracted the attention of their leader. He was approached by the man, clad in armor better than any he had seen to date. Klint of course also had the inspect skill, and threw an identity at the man.

*Human (level 27)*

He was the highest level in the camp that Klint had seen so far, and was probably the strongest in the settlement if he was the leader.

“Hey there, nice to meet you, my name is Jonas.” The man said in a more friendly tone than he had expected.

“Good to meet you too, I’m-” He struggled to think of a fake name, before deciding there was no point in giving a fake name to a dead man. “I’m Klint.”

___________

As Jonas talked with the man, he grew more and more wary of the man. As the settlement's leader, he had more methods available to him than most when it came to identifying people. He could see the man's class, level, and the fact that he was specialized in his class.

Human (Level 36)

Specialized Class: One man Siege (level 36)

The name of the class alone was already a bit of a red flag to Jonas, and the high level only raised the flag up the mast. He composed a message to Mike using the settlement tab in his menu, but didn't send it off yet.

“So, how did you all build up such a large town if you all are so weak?” The man asked, setting Jonas even more on edge.

With a poker face that conveyed none of his feelings, he responded. “It's a group effort, not something done by a few strong individuals.”

“Having no strong individuals seems like a major weakness.”

“I didn't say we had none, just that they aren't the sole reason we are here.” Jonas was beginning to really get bad feelings from the man, worse than what he had gotten before.

“Doesn't seem like such a good idea to have so few individuals who you would consider to be strong. Hell, they probably aren't even that powerful. Who would stop me if I did this?” The man then took out his sword and slashed a massive hole in the side of the mess hall. The sword nearly bisected a man who had been leaning on the other side of the wall. Fortunately there was a healer eating nearby who managed to stabilize the dying man. That was all Jonas needed to see, and he sent out the message to Mike as the system notified all of the settlement's inhabitants of the threat.