Ray went with Abstract Conversion. It was the only True Mana skill from the list of option that he really thought he could work with on a regular basis.
Honing Strike wasn’t useful any longer since all his spells were now their True Mana version thanks to his class evolution. Basically useless, unfortunately.
Song of Magic was… interesting as an ability but also not something that attracted him. He did realize it had powerful potential, though. All negated damage turning into sound that not only went on to damage his foes, but also destroyed a portion of their Mana? Pretty cool, honestly.
It was the part about the sonic damage he really wasn’t sure about. The skill’s description had been a bit too vague about it for his liking.
Ingestion was also rather interesting, but how often did Ray find items worth using for their benefits? Not a ton. Usually, the items that didn’t do better than the ones he already had were sold to get him some nice Mana crystals. He could absorb their powers instead with Ingestion, but… no, that wouldn’t really be helpful often enough.
He did see the defensive application of it. The description suggested he could ingest opponent’s abilities too, but only up to the Tier of the skill itself. Which, at Tier 3, wasn’t a lot. Sure, he would potentially gain more Mana variants that way, but he would be forced to dance to his opponent’s tune.
The bigger problem was that it would be nowhere near as cost-effective as Mottling Spiritguard. Worse, it was only a temporary boon. Not great.
Sky Call was far and away the most helpful of the bunch, but Ray wasn’t sure he needed more firepower. Especially not when it was randomized.
Interestingly, it was an Offensive skill, the first he had been offered. But one of the random manifestations of the sky he could potentially get was a cloud. How a cloud alone could be offensive was a little harder to fathom, because all he could see it being useful for was a stealthing utility. Ah, well.
Mana conversion, though, was something Ray couldn’t pass up easily. He had seen just how useful it had been to possess and channel Toxic Mana. Something told him there would be other situations in the not-too-distant future where he might need other Mana variants too.
Although, the skill’s description hadn’t been clear just how exactly it would determine which Mana kinds to convert an input of Mana into. Just meant he would need to test it out.
Ray moved on to his other rewards. Damn, that list just didn’t end.
The Tower Node Token and the new Accessory slot were both going to be useful later. According to its description, the token would basically function like the dungeon establishment reward—it would locate a Tower Node for him when he was next close to it.
Ray supposed he could put on all three of his rings now, with the new Accessory slot. Or, rather, two rings while he still wore the Silver True Mana Bracelet. Which he did, for the time being. The Mana Infuser ring replacing the Jade Ring of the Phoenix and the Diamond-crusted Ring of Temporal Evasion was back on again.
But he wouldn’t mind replacing the last one with something better if he came across a new Accessory.
The True Mana shards were different from the Mana crystals. Shards were apparently bigger than crystals in this world. Longer and slightly thicker, they gave the impression they would refill more of his total capacity than crystals did.
Ray also wondered if they had more purchasing power with merchants like Virko than regular Mana crystals.
Lastly, there was the matter of the extra stats. 30 to not one but two stats of his choice. The System was spoiling him with these rewards.
It was a little disappointing he couldn’t combine them and then assign the combined total in whatever spread through all his stats as he wished. That would have allowed him a more balanced approach. Ah, well. The System was making it up to him by offering him a huge chunk of new stats.
Ray put 30 into Intellect and 30 into Spirit. More damage and more True Mana could never hurt. He still had a ton of free stats from his two level ups to assign, so the balancing would go there.
All that was left of his First Floor Objective completion rewards was the spell selection. He had been thinking about it in the back of his head while going through the rest of his rewards. Now, he figured he had a good idea of how to use them.
The first one of his picks—Project Presence—would already synergize well with Scouring Eyeball and his ability to get into various positions with his wings. In the same manner, Ray had begun to see a lot of excellent uses for Spectral Step too. No, damn it, Spelleport. Spelleport. Even if the cost was prohibitive, just once or twice in a battle would be enough.
He hadn’t forgotten about the Spell Synthesis Point. It would just have been better to use it once he had all his new spells in his grasp.
Which he now had.
Hmm. He took a moment to consider, then selected the two spells he was going to combine, then picked Aethereal Envoy and Animus Remnant. It worked. The new one was just as he expected.
[Information Request—Spells]
Soullife Cloak [Utility] [Tier 6]
A primal spirit spell that clads the caster in a cloak of their own spirit for a while, imbued with the chaotic energies of their vital life. The cloak dampens damage from Mana-based abilities and status afflictions while partially dematerializing the caster, enhancing speed and evasion. When the spell’s duration ends, the spirit returns within, revitalizing the caster. At Tier 6, this spell lasts 1 minute and 30 seconds, negates 18% damage while boosting speed and restoring True Mana and Vitality by the same amount, and costs 70 True Mana.
Oh yes, Ray could make excellent use of this.
Ray heaved out a big breath. Alright, now that ought to take care of all his rewards from completing the challenges of the First Floor. Whew. Now he could move on to his actual level ups.
Of the twenty free stat points from levelling up, Ray assigned ten to Agility, and split the remainder evenly between Vitality and Resilience. Not having the protection from the Wyvern Helm was potentially costing him more than he had cared to admit so far, so raising his Resilience up some more ought to redress that.
More importantly, he had surely reached another—
[Stat Tier]
Your Intellect has advanced to Tier 3.
You can now process 100% more stimuli at the same time, regardless of emotional state. Your thoughts and instincts now travel even faster, enhancing your ability to process stimuli faster.
Ah, yes. There it was. He had just needed to focus on the fact that his Intellect had likely reached another breakthrough after reaching 100 points via levelling up.
Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
One hundred percent more stimuli processing was twice what he had at Tier 2 Intellect. That meant he ought to be able to support even more constructs at longer distances than he could so far. Ray grinned at the image of flooding the battlefield with a small army of ravenous draconic heads.
The notification also mentioned enhanced mental processing. He wasn’t sure he could feel that enhancement yet. Nothing really seemed different.
Maybe it would be apparent later, when he needed to think fast, like in a fight. Well, he would find out eventually.
Last but not least, Ray checked out his newest spell.
[Information Request—Spells]
Spiritblood Stake [Offensive] [Tier 5]
A primal spirit spell that temporarily drives a spectral stake through the target’s spirit, locking it in place. If target moves out of the vicinity of the stake, target will continuously take spirit damage. At Tier 5, this spell lasts 2 minutes and 30 seconds, sets a damage perimeter of 10 meters from the stake, and costs 75 True Mana.
Oh, that was interesting. Very interesting. Ray was starting to get the idea that his new class had a wide variety of spirit-themed options to really provide new pathways for his build to grow into.
He was also appreciative that a lot of these spells were a one-time cast type deal. Ray could use them when a fight began, then forget about them since they lasted a while.
No constant maintenance or use necessary. Not with the ones he had so far, at least.
Ray dismissed the last notification box and stretched. Whew. That had been a lot to go through. But now, he was finally done. He had checked everything.
All that was left was making his way to the Second Floor.
----------------------------------------
Eager as Ray was to get to the next Floor, he knew it was best to let himself rest, recuperate, and mentally prepare for whatever awaited him there. The last day or two had been one gigantic rush. He deserved a bit of a break before things potentially got frantic again.
“Look at all this stuff!” Gritty said, looking around with wide-eyed wonder. “These ancient bird-people were smart, huh?”
Ray nodded. They were visiting what appeared to be a library inside the old palace, where rows and rows of shelves were filled with scrolls he couldn’t read. Just like that dungeon he had briefly visited a while back. Luckily, there were no armoured guardians trying to chase him out here.
“It’s hard to tell how smart they were,” Ray said. “In terms of writing stuff down, because I can’t read shit.”
Gritty chuckled. “Just another sign they were too smart. For their own good.”
A race that had allowed their empire to perish. Who had essentially rendered themselves extinct. How intelligent could such a race be? Destructively intelligent.
Ray’s eyes couldn’t help but glance at how Gritty was holding the scroll with just one hand. She still only had the one hand. “I’m surprised you’ve been waiting.”
“Waiting?” She looked at him questioningly. “For what?”
“You know. For your class evolution. I thought you’d already be running all over the Floor, trying to kill the last few monsters and the clear the last couple of dungeons to hit level 20.”
When Ray had first asked, quite nonplussed, why Gritty hadn’t appeared worried about the fact that she was missing a whole fucking forearm, she had said there was nothing to worry about. She believed she would regain the missing limb tenfold as soon as she underwent her class evolution.
How she could be so sure, Ray had no idea, and Gritty wasn’t forthcoming about the details. She seemed happy enough, though, so he tried not to feel troubled.
“It’s not going to take me long,” Gritty said. “I can clear a dungeon or two in a day, which will be enough to hit level twenty, and then I can evolve my class, get Mrs Boss to approve my ascent, and hit the Second Floor all in the same day. See what I mean?”
“Mm, yeah I think I do.”
She was taking a break before taking care of everything else she had left on the First Floor in one day. Kind of like Ray. He had already taken care of everything. Apart from talking to everyone, that was.
Gritty put the scroll back and looked him squarely in the eyes. “Promise me one thing, though, wingman.”
“What’s that?”
“All this time I feel like I’ve been… following you, kind of. You see, I want my journey to be dictated by no one other than me. But that hasn’t been the case on the First Floor. I’ve had to be a part of something bigger than me. I don’t regret it, mostly, but I want my freedom. I want to go where I want without any obligations. You get that, don’t you?”
Ray nodded. He did. It was easy to see what she meant. They had all been embroiled in this massive plot against the Wild Tides and the Sylvans. Sure, they might have more or less decided to work against their enemies of their own volition, but was that truly freedom?
Had he actually had control over his fate? If Ray had decided to step aside and potentially let all the other human Denizens suffer, could he have lived with himself?
Questions like that didn’t have easy answers. One-hundred-percent freedom and control was a myth. By the very nature of being sapient and societal, a part of himself would always have some sort of inclination towards others. Towards people as a whole.
And honestly? He was starting to be fine with that. There was no point in being hellbent and obsessed over this idea of retaining control over every single facet of his existence. That was obsessive. Foolish. He had much better things to waste his time on.
“Does that mean you’re saying goodbye?” Ray asked.
Gritty shook her head. “No. Not permanently. I just want you to not try and, you know, seek me out on the Second Floor or something. You’re going to go ahead of me. You might be tempted to leave little messages or tell me the dungeons I should seek out first and so on. I don’t want any of that.”
“You have a very generous idea that I’ll go out of my way to help you. Also weren’t you the one always coming up to me.”
“Sometimes.” She stared as he stared back, then sighed and punched his shoulder lightly. “Fine, mostly. But I know you. You’re going to try to check up on everybody. Not just me.”
Gritty raised an eyebrow at her as though daring him to prove her wrong. It was Ray’s turn to sigh, though instead of punching Gritty back, he laughed softly.
“Yeah, you’re right,” he said. “A part of me will always want to check up on you. On everybody else too,” he added quickly. “Like, I think I might even want to vacation back on the First Floor if I can while I’m climbing the Second, just to see Maya and Dory and everybody else who decides to just stay here.”
“See what I mean?”
“But fine, fine, I won’t try to help you. I’ll leave it up to you to contact me, if you want. Happy?”
“Yes.” She smiled. “I’m happy.”
When they were done with the library, they had a decent time simply touring the old palace and looking at all the different areas. Later on, after Gritty had left to help the old Wild Tides with something, Ray met up with Mary Felds. Just in time. She was already leaving.
“You’ve got your class evolution?” Ray asked, a bit surprised.
She nodded, a glint of pride in her eyes. “I’ve helped enough people on the First Floor, I think. It’s time I took the front foot in leading the Ascenders on the Second Floor.”
Ray turned to Joaquin. “And you’re staying behind? I thought for sure you got your class evolved too.”
Joaquin smiled at Ray, then waved at his Faction leader. “I have. But I’m staying behind and helping with the last of the Ascenders here. Plus, my healing duties aren’t fully done. Once everything’s taken care of, I’ll follow upstairs too.”
Ray was tempted to shake his head, but that would have been kind of disrespectful. Instead, he just appreciated Joaquin’s selflessness silently. Unlike Mary Felds, he wasn’t getting extra Essence for helping others. Unless… he was getting Essence depending on how many people he was healing, directly or indirectly.
A quick glance at Joaquin’s face didn’t reveal much, and Ray turned to watch Mary disappear.
She nodded her farewell as she stepped up to the throne. Maya was nearby, and the Tower Node of the Adjudicator appeared moments later.
“I hereby accept the ascension of Mary Felds to the Second Floor,” she said.
Ray wondered if she actually had to say that to activate whatever strange power it was that teleported a Denizen to the Second Floor. After all, the Adjudicator Node’s caretaker was supposed to set the challenge. The completion of the challenge would be automatically verified by the Tower Node, or perhaps the System itself, as far as Ray had been able to fathom.
But maybe that wasn’t quite true. After all, hadn’t the Floor Lord and the Sylvans interfered even after several Denizens had met the original requirements?
A column of bluish green light shot out of the centre of the throne. It spread outwards, soon overtaking Mary Felds and stopping just beside Maya. The Tower Node, interestingly, had disappeared in that column too.
Ray had to squint his eyes at the brightness, but something about the brilliant pillar indicated a sense of upwards motion. Like it was carrying whatever there was within it higher and higher up the column, straight into the hole of the spire far above them.
“I think she’s worried about the others,” Joaquin said, also squinting. The blue-green light made his tanned face look he was drunk at a rave. “There’s been no word, you know.”
“Yeah, she mentioned. Although, I didn’t take her for the worrying type.”
“She doesn’t like to give that impression, no. But once you get to know her, and she gets to know you, you’ll find she’s not that bad really.”
“Hmm. I’ll take your word for it.” Ray looked at Joaquin. “And what about you?”
“What about me?” Joaquin asked.
“Why are you so happy to stay behind? Don’t you want to climb to the Second Floor?”
“Isn’t it obvious I don’t really have a burning desire to do so?” When Ray waited patiently for more, Joaquin eventually complied. “This whole Tower business…” He shook his head. “I get the feeling you’re someone who welcomed it. Someone who revelled in the change.”
“But you didn’t.” Ray didn’t have to think long on why. “Because your life was good. Because you were satisfied before, and now, nothing here really makes you… excited, I guess.”
“That’s… more or less it, yeah. Can you get excited for something new when you’ve already got everything you’ve ever wanted out of life?” Joaquin shrugged. “Maybe some people. Not me, apparently. As such, I’m happy to kind of coast along, if you will.”
Ray could see that being true. He could also fully understand that not everybody was going to feel the same drive as him.
It took only about another minute or so before the column of light died. The throne was still there, as was Maya and the Tower Node in her hand, but there was no sign of Mary Felds.
She was on the Second Floor now.
“You up next?” Joaquin asked.
Ray grinned at Maya, who smiled back at him. “Yes. Tomorrow. Second Floor, here I come.”