The Fiend had provided Ray with no better options than flight and an easy way to boost all his stats and spells. A bit of a no-brainer to pick Soaring Wings and Hoard Defence. If Ray’s idea worked, he basically had a way to make himself a lot more powerful than he already was.

He wished he could have taken the eye and seen what it actually offered, but since Ray couldn’t redo his choice, he had gone with the others.

Now all he needed was to test his idea somehow.

Ray reached up to scratch his head but only met the Gold Wyvern helm. Taking it off made his head feel free. Decompressed. Ah, freedom.

It also made him consider his stats. After he had put on his helmet and acquired the extra Resilience, he had felt that tiny bit solider. Like he had put on an infinitesimal amount of weight that grounded him more to the world.

More importantly, he had noted how much stronger he had been against the Imps’ attacks. His skin hadn’t broken as easily to their claws. Then there was that leap with the feathers. Where he normally would have broken a bone or two, all Ray had suffered were a few ugly bruises, despite basically crash landing.

Did he need his Resilience to be even higher, though? And there were his other stats. Strength was entirely useless to him, but Agility could help. The description had said that it would raise his attack speed. That certainly sounded useful, in the right context.

So far, he had relied on using timed, singular casts of Shatterclaw to take down the monsters. Even when he had needed multiple, he had been able to find some time to use it again. And again, when needed. No, no it was looking like the kind of fighting style Ray had gravitated towards had no need for more Agility.

[New Personal Achievement—Punched Up!]

You’ve killed a foe far stronger than you. With devious ingenuity, you exploited your enemy’s weakness and now you stand victorious. In this moment of glory, you’ve proven yourself a master of adaptation and strategy.

Reward

* New Skill: Goliath Eater [Tier 2]

* Reputation: +20 Cunning, +15 Chaotic, +10 Knowledgeable

[Reputation Threshold Crossed]

For reaching the 25-point threshold, your Chaos grants your attacks a 5% buildup of Insanity with every hit. Insanity causes sentient foes to temporarily lose their mental faculties.

For reaching the 25-point threshold, your Knowledge has raised your Intellect by 5.

Ray stared. Then laughed. He was starting to feel like he was a getting a little too much. A new skill? A new status thing he could afflict any monsters with? He was going to need some time and practice to keep all that in mind.

For now, he checked his first ever skill.

[Information Request—Skills]

Goliath Eater [Conditional] [Buff] [Tier 2]

A multi-effect buffing skill that only works when the wielder is facing one or more foes a level threshold stronger. All spells and skills, minus this skill, are raised by (an) additional Tier(s) equal to the Tier of this skill. The user’s stats are raised by 25%, with an additional 5% for every level difference above the threshold. Successful defeat of adversary grants user a guaranteed Tier point. At Tier 2, this skill’s level threshold is 1.5 times the wielder’s level, costs 75 Mana, and lasts one minute.

Ray had to read through that a few times. If there was one thing he had noticed, it was that the system loved information density.

Basically, Ray was going to both get stronger and guarantee himself a good reward if he won. So long as he was fighting someone significantly stronger than him. Like that Fiend. Specifically, Goliath Eater needed his opponent to hold an advantage of at least… 1.5 times his level?

That was not going to scale well as Ray got stronger. Maybe level differences mattered less when at higher levels. Maybe the threshold would decrease if he upgraded the skill with a Tier Point.

Right now, Ray wasn’t super sold on it, though he did like that it gave him a good means of fighting stronger foes.

[Stat Tier]

Your Intellect has advanced to Tier 2. Your Path can now affect your stats.

Thoughts are a vital expression of life. Path of Lifeblood Chaos allows your mind to rise above any pandemonium that threatens you, allowing you to think through the situation no matter what. You body can now adapt to 50% more stimuli at the same time, regardless of emotional state.

Ray blinked at that description. Fifty percent more stimuli at the same time sounded like a lot. For all that he had researched biomechanics, he hadn’t ever looked into the hard numbers about the human brain. He couldn’t tell what sort of situations would leave him overwhelmed, at least in terms of too many stimuli—

Oh, hold on. Ray could figure out a way this would be useful. Funnily enough, it was his work in research that had reminded him.

Ability to handle more stimuli from the body meant that his brain could handle more signals at the same time. The nervous system was finely tuned to handle the regular streams of information. Two legs, two arms, two eyes, two ears, all the skin on his body and every other sensory input were what filled the natural capacity.

But if that capacity was raised, could he handle more? Could he wield three arms now with the same effort and efficiency as the two he had already? Would a third, separate eye expand his field of view?

And what about the wings he had just taken from the Feathered Fiend?

Ray shivered, feeling a little excited. There were things he’d have to test and check. This could be a lowkey game-changer.

All thanks to taking his Intellect to Tier 2. It made him wonder what sort of bonuses he would gain once his other stats crossed a certain threshold. Good reason for him to put his free stats to his Spirit for now.

Interesting, the notice that he had crossed a Tier had only arrived now. Had it not appeared earlier because he had been embroiled in the fight against the Feathered Fiend? Ray could appreciate the System’s forbearance in life-or-death situations.

Ray stretched a little. He ought to have felt tired and hungry now, but that Mana fruit had done wonders.

Well, he had better get moving. With everything else done, all that was left for him to achieve was to find the exit of this cave system. And probably returning the dog’s corpse to Kredevel along the way if he saw the alien somewhere.

Speaking of which—

[Warning!]

Mystic Knowledge indicates your presence has been detected by Total Perception [Tier 3]. Arcane Aura has been nullified by the presence of a stronger aura, Sylvan Pride [Tier 3].

Ray picked up the dog’s body so it didn’t look like he had dropped it. Kredevel walked in, looking a bit stiff all over.

“Hello, there,” Ray said. Ah, crap. That had come out too cheerful. Just because Ray was enjoying a little dose of dopamine thanks to all his rewards from the system didn’t mean he could be insensitive to someone else’s grief. “I’m sorry I ran off like that, but I needed to kill that Fiend, and this was the only way I could do so.”

Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

Kredevel didn’t reply. He took one look at the crushed corpse of the Fiend, then at the body of his lord’s pet in Ray’s arms. That’s when his face broke.

“Ah, Brick Licker.” Slowly, Kredevel dragged his feet to Ray’s location. “How could this have happened? How could I let you suffer something like this?”

Wordlessly, Kredevel took the dog’s body from Ray and knelt on the ground. His head was bowed in grief. Ray waited patiently for a while, but after a moment, his impatience caught up to him.

“I’m going to give you some time to grieve,” he said. He began backing away. “Take as long as you need. I’m going to check something.”

Kredevel didn’t reply. Ray hoped he wouldn’t just up and leave once he was done mourning. The alien owed him. Ray meant to collect on that debt. But first, he had to head back to the main chamber where the Fiend had been.

The trek wasn’t bad. Ray didn’t have trouble recognizing where exactly he had killed the Fiend on the Map Fragment, and he was able to backtrack until he had reached the main chamber again. Tectonic Theft had made some of the passages break apart, but some squeezing and shimmying got him past the debris in his path.

More importantly, he didn’t find any Feathered Imps blocking his path or trying to kill him. Lifeblood Sense occasionally located one within its range, but they never approached him.

It was almost as though killing the Fiend had removed their aggression.

Ray reached the main chamber soon enough. He came to a halt and smiled. So much here was his for the taking. If he’d had room, he could take everything.

Of course, Mystic Knowledge was only guiding him to the items that interacted with Mana one way or another. Not exactly a bad thing. As an Arcanist, he ideally wanted items that could interact with the main source of magical power—Mana. Still. He had come here with a game plan after his last experience with looting. Now to see if it worked…

After about fifteen minutes of careful searching, Ray had narrowed his choices down to the following options.

[Mystic Knowledge]

Mystic Knowledge indicates there are items nearby interacting with Mana. Some of these items can be looted and added as gear.

* Gold-Chased Shaper Raiment: Boasts high physical and non-physical damage negation. Converts all flanking attacks from the caster into critical hits, which deal twice the damage as normal and proc status afflictions twice as much. All movement boosted by 25%. [Tier 5]

* Drakescale Robes: Boosts non-physical damage negation by 50%. Converts every fifth non-physical attack upon the caster into Mana for the caster. Applies Tier 1 Intimidation to all enemies in a 5-meter radius, briefly freezing enemies in place. [Tier 6]

* Silver Breastplate of the Cataclysmic Battlemage: Sturdy defence for any caster. Allows conversion of Recovery into Mana. [Tier 4]

* Drakescale Scholarly Boots: Grants 3 Knowledgeable Reputation for every enemy vanquished. [Tier 5]

* Golden Ancient Golem Greaves: Heavily penalizes all motion in return for making the caster invulnerable for ten seconds. Countdown begins as soon as the first attack from an enemy reaches the caster. [Tier 5]

* Diamond-crusted Ring of Temporal Evasion: Once per day, freezes time everywhere but the caster’s mind for 15 seconds as soon as an attack is directed at the caster. [Tier 6]

* Jade Ring of the Phoenix: Once per day, convert a fatal strike from any source to a complete refill of all your Recovery and Mana. [Tier 7]

That was all Ray had been able to gather that was worthy of poring over and taking a bit of time to decide. He had found a few other things as well, but the choices there had been no-brainers. The alternatives hadn’t been anywhere near as worth considering as they were for his main raiment, legwear, and the potential rings.

Ray’s idea had been that if he could acquire another bag of holding, he could have put some of the stuff his Mystic Knowledge had highlighted into it, then shoved the second bag of holding into the first.

It was only fair that he played Russian nesting dolls with the meagre inventory the system provided.

Unfortunately, his plan had been foiled. No matter how much he had looked, all he had found was a simple Tier 2 Ring of Storage. That could hold two large items, effectively increasing his bag of holding’s total capacity from four to five. Better than nothing, but still a bit meh. Still, Ray wasn’t going to turn it down.

In the end, it meant he was still going to have to choose.

All his main raiment choices provided him very different fighting styles going forward. The Shaper Raiment reminded him of something that could benefit rogues. Boosting movement speed, flanking one’s enemy to land critical hits, inflicting higher status with each critical blow.

That last one was what had intrigued Ray. Considering he could now proc Insanity thanks to crossing the Chaos threshold, the Shaper Raiment could be very useful.

It also looked pretty fashionable. A regal red uniform that had a somewhat eighteenth-century European military style, edged with hints of gold and with a white flourish to boot.

Ironically, it felt like the breastplate and the robes had switched what benefit they should have provided. The breastplate, clearly an armour piece for someone who often found themselves in the thick of battle allowed him to cast more spells at the cost of his Recovery. Conversely, the robes provided extra defence and Mana, while also intimidating nearby enemies.

Ray supposed the latter had indicated the attacks had to be non-physical. Most spells would be ranged, so it would be helpful if he remained distant and was only in danger from enemy spellcasters and other long-range ability users.

That intimidation effect could be helpful. Even just a moment of petrification for any opponent would potentially allow him to get a guaranteed hit in. Combined with Mana Infuser’s ability to raise the Tier of his main offensive spell, there was the possibility of one-shotting almost anything he faced.

Though, Ray suspected stronger enemies would have defences against the intimidation effect. He’d have to test and see.

For his legwear, Ray could definitely see the potential use cases for the greaves. Ten seconds of invulnerability would be tremendous. Recent experiences had shown him just how long ten seconds could be in the heat of combat. Taking no damage for that long would let him obliterate enemies without worrying about his own safety. It almost felt broken.

But then he had actually tried on the greaves. Penalizing movement, he realized, was an extreme understatement.

Ray felt like he had just attached an uppity ninja’s training weights around his shins. Holy shit, just taking a single step forward made him grunt with effort. He could barely move. Running? Impossible. Ray was basically in molasses with these on.

He still saw the potential uses for something like this, but not without an easy way to equip and unequip it. Right now, Ray was still having to tug on his new garments like a regular, powerless human being. Surely the System would have some quality-of-life interface to make it simple and easy. If there were any, Ray clearly didn’t have it.

That left the Drakescale boots as his only choice. He had found a couple of other footwear around the main hoard indicated by Mystic Knowledge, but they had been low Tier options without great benefits. Definitely not worth considering when he had a Tier 5 pair of boots that granted him extra Reputation points that would boost his Intellect even higher in time.

Plus, they also looked rather rad. Tiny black scales covered the entirety of the boots, glimmering like they were freshly polished.

He had to admit they went rather well with the Drakescale robes.

The choice of rings was a little harder to make. The rings were definitely strange.

The Ring of Temporal Evasion seemed powerful but was also niche. Only his mind would be unfrozen, and that too until he came to a decision. And once per day. In other words, Ray would need to make the most of it at the very beginning of a fight. Hmm he’d have to test and see.

Meanwhile, the Jade Ring of the Phoenix negated any damage that was going to be fatal, instead converting it all to Mana and Recovery. On the surface, the latter sounded a lot more useful than the first. But it would only be useful when things turned very dire.

A situation Ray didn’t foresee letting himself get into.

On the average, the time-slowing ability of the Temporal Evasion ring would be more useful. But when the latter ring worked, it would work tremendously well.

This was where his new Ring of Storage would be very useful. Ray was going to need both rings, especially once he levelled up enough to have three rings equipped instead of just two. The Mana Infuser ring would remain his permanent second, now that he had reached level 10.

For now, Ray put on the Shaper Raiment. He was looking forward to the greater mobility and status procs. It would synergize better with the latest addition of wings into Lifeblood Crucible. He would just need to get a proper handle on how to use those wings.

Chucking out the sword, the shield, and the old Mantle in his Bag of Holding, he put the Golem Greaves, Drakescale Robes and the Ring of Storage in their place.

Before placing that, he had stuffed the Jade Phoenix ring into the storage ring. Ironic, how he was storing a ring within a ring.

Besides the ones he had taken some time to consider, there were a couple of other interesting gear he had come across. Some of those, Ray had equipped already, which made it easy to pull it up their descriptions with an info request.

[Information Request—Gear]

Supple Gloves [Tier 3]

Supple gloves of leather and velvet that draws in the natural energy of the world. Mana gravitates towards your grip, refunding the cost of your last used spell every minute.

Valorous Back Shield [Tier 3]

Seemingly plain shield for those who stride with valour in their hearts. Meant to be strapped to the wielder’s back instead of being wielded with one arm. Ensures wielder will never suffer a backstab and is impervious to all damage from behind. However, switching around to present one’s back to foes will double the damage inflicted upon the user.

The gloves sounded like another fun tool for Mana efficiency, but it was the shield that had really intrigued him. Ray’s first impression upon reading the initial description had made him think he could turn around quickly in the middle of a fight and tank basically any hit. Another little broken-sounding mechanic to exploit.

And then he had read the rest of the description. It had elicited a heavy groan.

“What a party-pooper,” he muttered.

Still, protection against all backstabs and blows from behind sounded tremendously useful. Considering it was a wooden shield, it didn’t weight him down too much.

Satisfied with his pickings, Ray decided it was finally time to head back.

Once more, there were no signs of any of the Feathered Imps. Humming to himself, Ray found his way to back to the spot where he had killed the Fiend. He quickly pulled his runaway mouth to a halt. For all he knew, Kredevel might still be grieving his dead dog. It would be highly insensitive if Ray popped in while whistling to himself.

It tuned out there was no sign of Kredevel or his dead dog either. The alien was gone.

“He better not have hightailed it out of here…”

Huffing a little, Ray picked up his pace as he continued through the tunnel. The draft he had felt earlier was getting stronger. Yes. This had to be it. The way out of this twisted little cave system. It seemed the Map Fragment’s directions were fine.

Bright light bloomed not far away. He smiled, his breaths coming in quicker and quicker. Finally.

A few moments later, Ray finally walked out of the dark Marauders’ Caves.

Straight into the First Floor. A floor filled with ruins.

[New Denizen Tutorial—Complete]

Congratulations, New Denizen, for completing your tutorial. The First Floor of the Tower now lies open for your conquest.

Objective 1: Defeat 20 Feathered Imps [40/20]

Objective 2: Earn a Map Fragment [1/1]

Objective 3: Exit the Marauders’ Caves [1/1]

Hidden Objective 1: Defeat the Feathered Fiend [1/1]

Hidden Objective 2: Find the lost Brighthorn [1/1]

Hidden Objective 3: Conquer the Marauder’s Caves and subdue the Imps [1/1]

Personal Objective 1: Obtain a Talisman [1/1]

Calculating rewards based on objective completion…