That was the moment when an intense cyclone of vertigo broke over Nick, knocking him to his knees. Any sense of balance and position was stripped from him, causing him to vomit as he struggled to regain his bearings.
At the same time, a fierce and fiery heat rose within his chest, pulsating like a backbeat to the rhythm of his heart. The combined effect was completely disabling, leaving him adrift in a surging tide of sensation.
For a long moment, he thought that he was under attack once more, before realizing what was happening. I just leveled. This is what it feels like to gain a point of dexterity and a point of magic at the same time. To his relief, the overwhelming experience receded over the next few minutes, leaving Nick sitting on his ass with a grin on his face. Apparently, surviving his ordeal had come with some compensation.
He walked over to the building’s door, which was barred from the inside just as he had suspected. After shoving at the mechanism while bracing his back against the wall, the ancient iron gave way, allowing Nick to open the front door and step outside.
He took a long look around, afraid that there was another swarmling still out there, but the bog was eerily silent in the predawn light.
The chittering horde was gone, burrowing back into the planet’s depths until the next blood moon rose. The beasts and animals were still hunkered down in their shelters, recovering from their terrifying night.
Too keyed up to sleep and unable to travel until it was lighter, Nick leaned against the wall and opened his profile. While this event might not have granted a reward per se, he already knew that he had leveled from the fight. Sure enough, when he looked at his updates, there was a thick batch of notifications awaiting his perusal.
For completing the quest, you have gained additional experience and essence.
For completed the hidden objective, defeat a swarmling, you have gained additional species experience.
Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
Congratulations. You have accumulated enough experience to reach level [11].
You have gained one point of magic and one point of dexterity from your class.
As a reward for defeating your first creature from another plane of existence, you have been granted a bonus free attribute point.
You have two free attribute points awaiting allocation at your discretion.
Through use you have improved the following skills:
Throwing has increased from [3] to [4].
Evasion has increased from [2] to [3].
Sword has increased from [3] to [4].
Hell yes! Nick pumped his fists and raised his arms into the air, reveling in his victory and the growth that had come with it. More skill points were always welcome, but boosting his attributes was even better.
He hadn’t been expecting another bonus free point so soon, but it seemed that the System awarded them for other major milestones beyond leveling. He wondered what the presence of creatures from other planes of existence foretold, before deciding that it was a problem for another day.
He needed to decide how to spend his free points, then it would be time for breakfast. Maybe a bath after that, if he could find somewhere safe to wash off the blood, puke, and other assorted nastiness caked across his body.
After a bit of pondering, Nick decided that his magic was growing steadily all by itself, and his dexterity was in a solid range for his level. His mind and toughness were good for now as well. His strength, however, was lagging behind the rest, and his pack was heavy now that he had so much inside it, valuables he was loathe to unload just yet.
All things considered, it was a good time to try out spending his free points in other areas. His creativity had been proving its worth lately and could use a boost as well.
Why not? Nick decided to experiment. He would put one point into strength and the other into creativity, the first time he had used a free point to increase either attribute. That only left charisma to invest in. He had no intention of doing so unless he knew exactly what it did, and he was certain that it was important to his survival. At least until he figured out what the deal with the ??? fields on his profile were all about.
He decided to begin with a point of strength, having no desire to spend both points at once after his latest experience. Nick sat down with his back against the wall, then said, “I would like to buy a point of strength please.”
He braced himself for whatever was about to happen. Raising some of his attributes with free points had been pleasant, while others had been extremely uncomfortable. It turned out that strength belonged to the second category, because the next five minutes proved to be intensely painful.