You have slain Skeleton Sentinel (Level 25)(Boss)
Bonus experience earned for fighting an enemy of a higher level. Bonus experience earned for slaying a boss. Bonus experience earned for slaying a boss without assistance.
You are now level 22
You are now level 23
You are now level 24
You have earned the title King Killer
King Killer
You have proven to be capable of punching above your weight class and besting the odds when the numbers are not in your favor. Provides a bonus to all stats when fighting an enemy of a higher level, and a larger bonus when fighting a system recognized boss monster. Grants +5% to mind and spirit, and +10% to body.
Your trait has been awakened by your actions.
Trait: Planes Walker
Planes Walkers don’t except the limits of a simple three dimensional existence. A Planes Walker recognizes the power that comes with thinking in higher dimensions, and the freedom that comes from releasing your shackles. Grants the planes walker the ability to peer into both higher and lower planes of existence, and allows the planes walker to tread through these spaces for nothing but the cost of their mana. +5% to Mind and Spirit.
As I finished reading over the all of the messages, I couldn’t help but think to myself about how power really seemed to give in to the snowball effect. The more powerful you were, the easier it was to gain more power. Hell, even my newly awakened trait would probably increase that exponential gain.
What I had done against that skeleton was not something I could easily reproduce in the near future, of that I was sure. My new trait had allowed me to ignore the distance between me and my enemy, casting what was normally a close range spell directly into its head. To say it had been expensive in terms of mana would be a massive understatement. Two thirds of the cost of casting that spell had been to move the location of it to just 2 meters away from myself. Even then, I had only been able to cast it within the head of the monster because it had been completely hollow.
Basically, I had gotten lucky. Against any other type of monster I probably would have been forced to retreat. I had thought the large amount of magical resistance had made the skeleton a bad matchup for me, but in reality it had been a great one, even if I hadn’t known until the fight was already over.
I needed to ensure something like this wasn’t going to happen again in the future. Next time I might not have an escape route like I did today, and if that ever becomes the case then I need to shore up some of my weaknesses. The first thing I wanted to put some serious work into was my defense. I needed to make it harder to overwhelm.
For this, I could draw some inspiration from my most recent fight. My two defensive spells, mana shield and mana barrier, could not be cast in tandem. The skeleton sentinel seemed to have no problem shrugging off both physical and magical attacks, meaning its defenses were able to counteract both simultaneously. I wanted something like that. I also wanted better offensive spells. Overall, I just really wanted to upgrade my arsenal.
I stand up off the ground, rubbing the wrist of my recently reattached hand. The healers had brought me back to peak condition a while ago, but I’ve been sitting here for a bit now just reflecting on the fight. Blair had sprinted over as soon as she heard as I was back. She didn’t care much that I was hurt. She had just dragged away the corpse of the skeleton. She’d at least paused long enough to make sure I wasn’t dying before leaving.
I walk towards the staircase again and head back down to the fourth floor. What I needed right now wasn’t experience or levels, but a better foundation to build on. I relied on my usually superior stats far too much. In other words, it was time for a hardcore training session.
__________
You have slain Skeleton Sentinel (Level 25)(Boss)
Bonus experience earned for fighting an enemy of a higher level. Bonus experience earned for slaying a boss.
You are now level 21
Ryker read the notification as he kneeled to catch his breath. It had been quite the hard fought battle against the skeleton sentinel, but it was one that he felt was well worth the risks. Gaining an entire level from one brief fight was very nice, and after talking to each of his four party members, he learned that each of them had also gained a level.
After Ryker had rested for a moment, he spoke up. “I think that’s enough for one day. We all need some time to recover. Tomorrow we can head down to the sixth. Flynn, I suggest you take that sword and see if you can do anything useful with it.”
“Already on it.” The one and only melee fighter of the group responds, picking the large weapon up and swinging it around a few times. The rest of the group takes a few steps back, not wanting to get hit should the sword get swung in their direction by mistake.
They march back up to the first floor with the bones of the skeleton in tow, having been tied together like a bundle of sticks. Upon exiting the set of stairs, they are greeted by the pop-up city that had sprung up in the two weeks since the start of the tutorial.
Ryker once more marveled at just what was made possible now that people could lift the weight of trucks and casual run around at the speed of an Olympic athlete. Hundreds of basic buildings had been constructed for people to live in, and dozens of other facilities had been thrown up to improve what little quality of life they had.
Unfortunately, with large populations of individuals came tons and bureaucracy. There were those who rans things, those who did the manual labor, and like Ryker, those who explored the other floors. Maps had been made for the area surrounding their entrance to each floor by these people, but no end was ever in sight for any of the floors.
Ryker split off from his group after agreeing to meet with one another the next day. They fought well together, but outside of that they weren’t exactly compatible people. He made his way to the largest building in the city, one where most of the logistics were organized. Inside he found the man he was looking for.
The man in question notices Ryker a moment later, smiling and turning to him. “So, how was the fifth floor?” He asked.
Ryker described the floor and the monster that it held. He made sure to leave out no detail so that the man could understand exactly what he was sending to people to fight when sending someone to that floor.
“I see.” The man says, rubbing his chin. “Well, it’s a good thing we had you all get to level 20 before fighting it. I’ll make sure we let others know they need to get to that point before entering floor five as well.”
Ryker winced at the reminder. If you wanted to live in the city you needed to follow the rules. The rule that Ryker and many others had liked the least was that you could only go to certain floors after reaching what the town leadership called the “minimum level requirement.”
It was total bullshit, and they knew it. The vast majority of the city seemed to be fine with this rule, as few wanted to go and risk their lives on the lower floors, even if there was much to gain. Those that didn’t mind the risk all hated the rule though. Ryker was among the second group.
“Actually, I don’t think it would have been too much of an issue for my party to handle if we had only been level 19, or even 18.” He says, hoping to at least loosen the requirements a bit for the sake of others.
“I’ll discuss it with the rest of the council. For now, just continue fighting that boss until you reach level 25. By then you should be prepared for the sixth floor.”
“But-” Ryker said, but stopped. It was frustrating being held back by these arbitrary rules, but given that he had family in the massive city he couldn’t just go rogue and continue further down the floors on his own. “Understood.” He finally says after a moment.
As Ryker walks off, he briefly wonders to himself what he would be able to do if only he could let loose and really take a shot at climbing the tower.
Stolen novel; please report.
__________
Seven days.
Seven days is what it took for me to really feel like I was ready to advance to the next floor. That was a long time, half of the total time I have spent within this tutorial. To say it was wasted wouldn’t be true though, as I had gotten a lot done in the time since I had defeated the skeletal sentinel.
Unfortunately, very little progress had been made in learning to use my trait. I had a feeling that I had managed to awaken it way earlier than most people would, and at my level I could barely utilize its basic functions. I could teleport small objects a short distance, including spells and such, but besides that there wasn’t much I was able to accomplish with it.
Most of this time had been dedicated to learning to control my mana better and improving the capabilities of my spells. Much of what I had worked on took inspiration from either the skills I’d been offered during skill selection or things I had seen the magical enemies on the lower floor use.
My first two days of training had been solely dedicated to trying to make a better mana shield. Having it basically ignored by the attacks of the skeleton sentinel had been a wake up call that it was not a very good defense. What the sentinel had, now that was a good defense.
I was able to use both my mana barrier and mana shield at the same time, protecting me from all kinds of damage, but casting both simultaneously was expensive and very inefficient. After a lot of practice and many failed attempts, I had managed to improve both of them as well as combine them into a result exceeding the sum of its parts.
Mana Barrier (Uncommon) has been upgraded to Mana Barrier (Rare)
Mana Shield (Uncommon) has been upgraded to Mana Shield (Rare)
Skills Mana Barrier and Mana Shield have merged into Arcane Fortification (Epic)
Arcane Fortification (Epic)
Create a dense shell of mana to isolate yourself from external forces. Provides defense against both magical and physical attacks. The shell can be adjusted to focus primarily on one type of defense, or can be adjusted to focus equally on both. Gives a small bonus to the Mind and Body stat while casting Arcane Fortification.
It was the second epic skill in my arsenal. The first was Mana Conversion, though that one was mostly a utility skill. My new spell was one that could be used in combat, and to great effect. The work I had done on each of the skills also afforded me two levels to my class, bringing me up to level 26. It wasn’t as fast a method of leveling as straight up combat was, but being able to grow stronger even while I was trying to build a better foundation was something I was very happy I could do.
Against the Kobolds on floor 4, nothing on the entire floor could pierce the barrier around me unless I was out of mana. I had even briefly returned to floor five to test if the boss was able to penetrate my defenses.
It wasn’t, but that was also how I discovered why cars tend to have a crumple zone.
When the sword hit me at full power, I was sent flying backwards. I’d had no cushioning to pad the impact, which had been extremely jarring as a result. With the wind knocked out of me, I quickly left and returned back to the fifth floor with my confidence in the new skill slightly bruised.
The second spell I worked on was the exact opposite of the barrier. For both my skill selection at level 5 and my one at level 20, I had been offered the spell Mana Spike as an option for offensive capabilities. It stated that it sacrificed damage potential for pure penetrating power, and given how much I struggled to break through the defenses of the skeleton sentinel it was clear I needed some sort of armor piercing spell.
Creating the basic spell had actually been pretty easy. I just made a spike of mana fire out of my staff with the pure intention to pierce and not be stopped by anything. Practicing that enough had granted me the spell at common rarity. Refining the spell more and adding the ability to cast it at close range for more damage and a higher cost had brought it to uncommon rarity, exactly as I had done with mana bolt.
For both Mana Bolt and Mana Spike, the jump to rare rarity was much more difficult than going from common to uncommon. For the both of them, it took maybe three hours to upgrade the first time. To get to rarity, I had to dedicate an entire day to each spell. Mana blast had been first, since it was by far my most used spell. I had decided that instead of just upgrading the damage of the skill, I wanted to be able to use it in a more suppressive manner to let me make distance between me and an enemy. Right now the only way I could do that was to hit them with a mana blast and hope they fall over, but that tended to waste a lot of mana.
After a lot of fiddling with the spell, and a little help from my mana conversion skill, I managed to turn my most used spell into something even better.
Mana Blast (Uncommon) has been upgraded to Mana Blast (Rare)
Fire out a bolt of mana, with the strength dependent on mana infused into spell. Alternatively, send out a blast of mana, dealing higher damage at a significantly shorter range and higher cost. Attacks with this spell can be converted into a concussive blast upon impact, dealing little damage but imparting a great amount of force upon the target.
Basically, I have a shove spell now. It was far more useful than it sounded, as when I hit a kobold with a concussive blast at close range, it flew back several meters. Even a bolt of mana turned into an impact hard enough to knock over the short monsters.
Mana spike had gone down a different path, focusing entirely on damage.
Mana Spike (Uncommon) has been upgraded to Mana Splinter (Rare)
Fire a spike of mana, sacrificing damage for penetrative power. Alternatively, fire a more powerful spike of mana at a closer range for an increased cost. The surface of the mana spike is covered in smaller spike to increase damage done.
Each one of these upgrades brought me another level, bringing me to level 28. Not too bad if I do say so myself.
The last skill I wanted to work on was the only one that I was not entirely sure I would be able to create. Back when I first reached level 10, I had been offered a class that was made for somebody who often fought within melee range. If I had known how much that was the case for me, I would have considered it much more seriously than I had.
What interested me about it was that it was all about using mana to empower ones body. I enjoyed having a high mind stat, but increasing my pure strength and speed would prove beneficial for just about every situation. Today, after three days of practice and testing, I was ready to really make a big push for the skill I desired. I was in the middle of a completely empty clearing on floor one, not a single sign of danger for miles. I was very unlikely to be disturbed here.
I close my eyes, focusing on the flow of my mana. Not the flow of casting any spell, but the natural pattern it took as it moved through my body at a constant pace. Instead of the forceful hold I tended to take on my mana, I began slowly ramping it up, encouraging it and convincing it to speed up. I had discovered after many failed attempts that this kind of mana manipulation worked better in this situation.
The magic in my body began to flow faster and faster, and I could feel my body tighten as the slightest outward pressure presses against my body from the inside. I can already tell it is working, as my body is beginning to feel stronger by the second. Then, everything clicked as the flow of mana reached a point that I knew it would be unwise to surpass. My eyes open, and just like when my trait had awoken, everything takes on a slightly blue hue. I know it isn’t for the same reason as it was back then, but the feeling is still eerily similar.
Skill gained! Empower (Epic)
Bolster your body using your mana, increasing your physical capabilities. Depending on the mana invested, grants up to 15% in the body stat. Gives a minor boost to the effectiveness of Mind and Body when being used.
You are now level 29
You are now level 30
Two levels in three days was slow by my current standards, but reaching level thirty did mean one thing.
Skill Selection available
Offensive:
Mana Whip (Rare)
Concuss (Uncommon)
Slam (Uncommon)
Defensive:
Steadfast (Rare)
Halt (Rare)
Dispel (Rare)
Support:
Active Regeneration (Rare)
Passive Regeneration (Rare)
Accumulate (Epic)
Deactivating empower, I gave the descriptions of each skill and spell and once over, and most of them seemed pretty basic. The offensive skills all seemed to be duds. Definitely wasn’t picking any of those. Reading the descriptions of the defensive skills, I realized this skill selection likely wouldn’t be as easy as the rest.
Steadfast (Rare)
Negate the knockback of any attack, with the cost of this skill depending on the strength of the attack.
Halt (Rare)
Halt the momentum of any projectile within your aura. Cost to halt a projectile is dependent upon the size and speed of the target.
Dispel (Rare)
Dispel any magical attack for a sum of mana equal to what was spent on casting the spell.
They all seemed like really good options. Any one of these would be a great addition to what I could do, though unfortunately I could only choose one of them. The worst part of it was that I hadn’t even looked at the newest addition to the support skills. Active and Passive regeneration had been there every time so far, but accumulate was a new one.
Accumulate (Epic)
Store excess mana within an extradimensional space contained by your aura. This mana cannot be used to directly cast a spell, but does provide upkeep for all passively draining spells. While others cannot interact with your mana within this space, they can sense it. Slightly increases mana recovery rate.
Well, all the other choices were pretty much void in my mind. This spell was clearly more than just a way to store some extra mana. I could feel something deep within me calling to it. No, this was a skill that was meant to be the first step to learning how to fully utilize my trait.
Without hesitation I selected the skill, and immediately I could feel mana leaving my body at the exact same rate I could regenerate it. Slowly, I could feel the immediate area around me begin filling with my mana, though it wasn’t necessarily “there” in the sense that it was actually around me.
I close my eyes and take a deep breath, focusing on activating the only part of my trait I could really use right now. When I open my eyes again, everything around me is bathed in a royal blue color, and I could see the soft glow of my mana accumulating in a bubble all around me. It seemed to extend outwards in a bubble that extended about 5 meters away from me in all directions.
As I stood there and watched the mana flow from me and into the bubble, the glow grew slightly brighter by the minute. It was clear that this was not going to be reaching capacity any time soon.
Deactivating my “dimension sight” as I decided to call it, I shake my head. I would probably come up with a better name for that eventually, but right now there were more important matters to think about while I wait for my aura to fill fully.
“I wonder what Hassan’s camp is cooking up for dinner tonight?”