High up in the trees not far from where the fight had just taken place, two figures stared down at where the boss had just been slain. The two of them had been watching the entire fight, intending to swoop in and finish the boss off after the mage either died or retreated.
“I really would have liked to be able to get that goblins bow.” The archer says, looking at her cloaked companion. Said companion pulls his hood down, still looking down at where the fight had just taken place.
“I’d say he thoroughly earned it.” The man says. “Though you couldn’t have wanted it that much if you didn’t just go down there to kill him for it.”
“What kinda of barbarian do you take me for? We will just have to go find him and barter for it after we leave here. Do you have anything we could give him?”
“Not that he doesn’t already have a better version of. He already has a better staff than mine, and there isn’t a chance in hell I’d give up this cloak.”
“Oh well. Maybe the item we get for finishing this event will be valuable enough to trade. Now, let us get back to some goblin hunting.”
----------------------------------------
“I’m telling you, a massive dragon swooped in and did all of this to me.” I say to Flynn, gesturing to the burns on my body as the healers around me work to repair the damage. “That goblin boss was a pushover, barely even touched me before dying.”
“Sure it was.” Flynn rolls his eyes. “If you actually fought a dragon, Blair would already be trying to tear those scales away from you to make some armor or something.”
“I guess I can’t argue against that.” I shrug. “But if one day I do fight a dragon, you’d better actually believe me.”
“I’m sure I will. Anyways, what’d you get for finishing the event?” Flynn holds up a very nice looking sword with a purple blade and a golden hilt. “I got this sword.”
“I haven’t actually checked my notifications yet, so I don’t know. I’m going to check them after getting back to floor 27. I want to be able to talk about the event with the god I’ve been training with.”
That sentence draws a few looks from the people around us, though nobody asks any questions about it. After getting all patched up, I start heading towards the floor exit. I was planning on going straight to Talus, but I get intercepted by Blair. I assumed she was going to ask me for the goblin boss’ corpse, but instead she had a surprise waiting for me.
“Here is what I promised in exchange for you giving me the titan corpse.” She says, summon a large wooden box on the floor next to her. I took the lid off the top and saw that there were pieces to a set of armor within. “I’ve been working on it off and on while trying to perfect the enchantments that would be going on it. It took a while to make because I’d never used half of the enchantments on here.”
I use identify on the set of armor, my eyes widening when I see the description.
Titan Skin Armor (Special)
A set of armor crafted from the skin and bones of a juvenile titan. This set is extremely resilient to all forms of physical damage. When infused with mana, the armor increases in both weight and durability. Increases the body stat by 10%, up to a bonus 600 points.
“It isn’t mentioned when identifying the armor,” Blair continues. “but the seams in the armor also disappear when the full set is equipped, making the entire thing airtight.”
“Thank you, this is better than anything I had expected.” I say. The armor quickly gets stored away in my aura, and Blair takes the box back. I summon the corpse of the goblin boss on the ground. “I don’t know what you will do with this, but here is the body of a boss I took down.”
She stores that away as well before running off to get back to work. Now, I finally have nothing impeding me on my path to the staircase. At last, I make it back down to floor 27, and find Talus waiting for me.
“Welcome back.” He says. “I assume that the event went well?”
“Couldn’t have gone better.” I smile. “I was waiting to come here to check my notifications so that we could go over what I’ve gained.”
“That sounds like a good idea. Now, read them aloud so I don’t feel left out.”
I open up my system notifications, seeing that quite a few of them were waiting for me.
Goblin Patriarch (Level 105) Slain!
Bonus Experience earned for fighting an enemy of a higher level. Bonus experience earned for defeating a boss without assistance. Bonus experience earned for defeating an enemy of a higher evolution.
Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.
You are now level 81
You are now level 85
Skill selection available
King Killer title upgraded!
King Killer
You have proven to be capable of punching above your weight class and beating the odds when the numbers are not in your favor. Regardless of Level, size, status, or evolution, you persevere. Provides a bonus to all stats when fighting an enemy of a higher level or much greater size, and a larger bonus when fighting a system recognized boss monster. Grants +15% to mind and spirit, and +20% to body.
Floor Event Completed, Legendary Item gained!
In my hand appeared a small spike with a large blue orb on one end of it. I identify it, and I can already see Talus nodding in satisfaction.
Dimensional Anchor (Legendary) (Soul Bound)
Stabilizes the space within a 50 meter radius, greatly increasing the ease of using spatial and dimensional magic. Only works when the bound individual is the only one present within the radius.
“How is this supposed to be helpful?” I question, looking at the item. “It won’t even work if someone is close by, so I don’t see how this could help me in a fight.”
“I think you are overlooking the value of this item significantly.” Talus says, still looking at the orb. “Tell me, how much do you know about the rarity of items? Do you know what actually determines it?”
“Is it not just how powerful the item is?”
Talus shakes his head. “It kind of is, but that is an extremely simple way of looking at it. A Special rarity weapon wielded by a level 50 swordsman may be deadly, but hand that same weapon to someone double or triple their level, and it is little better than any other sword. At this level I doubt you’ve noticed, but your strength as an individual is taken into account when the rarity of an item is displayed to you. For example, when I look at that staff of yours that you use, I see it simply displayed as a common item.”
“That seems... disappointing.” I say. “So my items will be shown as a lower rarity to me after I level up or evolve?”
“Most likely they will be, yes. This does only apply to weapons and armor type items though. That anchor right there is a true legendary item. It will remain as such no matter who identifies it. Through and through it is legendary rarity.”
“Okay, but how good is it actually?”
“As an aide in combat, near useless. As a training tool, it is priceless. Dimensional anchors are difficult to create, and rarely do they have a radius as large as the one you have. If you ask me, the tower was throwing you a bone for accomplishing what you did during the event.”
“Awesome. So I can use this for training?”
“Try it out, see for yourself.”
I stick the spike into the ground, and Talus steps far back. Almost immediately I can feel the space around me stabilize. The feeling is very jarring. Nothing in the environment actually changed, but it was like a background sound had suddenly been silenced. Everything was just so uncannily still.
I raise my hands and cast a few spells, using my aura to transport them further away. To my surprise, the spells don’t cost nearly as much to cast at a distance as they usually do. It is barely more expensive than a typical cast.
“Oh wow.” I say in amazement. “It feels so easy now.”
“That is the value of a dimensional anchor.” Talus nods. “I would highly recommend practicing with it whenever you have free time. Over time, you will become more proficient with dimensional magic simply by learning to stabilize the space around you.”
“I can do that? I hadn’t even thought to try that.” I activate dimensional sight, seeing more of the unnatural stillness in the environment. “I almost feel like I can just...”
I reach my hand out, an ethereal outline of it appearing in my dimensional sight. My mana burns from my system as I push further, and my hand disappears from the normal world, appearing solely in my dimensional sight. I try to push farther, but I get light headed as I feel the mana drain from my body.
My hand reappears as it leaves that other dimension.
“Like I said, you will get better at it.” Talus says. “Even in this stable space, dimensional magic is far from an easy thing to master.”
“Oh I have to learn to get better at that.” I say, getting excited. “If I can learn to do stuff like that in the middle of a fight, just imagine the kinds of surprise attacks I could pull off! One moment I am there, and the next I am literally in a different dimension!”
“I wouldn’t get too excited about it. Coming across another user of dimensional magic could prove troublesome in that case. Even a normal mage could figure out a way to detect you or even attack you if they were smart enough.”
“Then I’ll just have to be smarter about it.” I say, shrugging. “If my enemy figures out a counter measure, then I’ll just have to counter that.”
Talus chuckles. “And just like that, you have discovered the endless struggle many gods face when fighting one another. When it often takes days of fighting to kill somebody, they have quite a bit of time to come up with a way to counter you.”
“Sounds frustrating.” I say.
“It is. Now, no more distractions. Go ahead and pick from your skill selections.”
I obey and quickly read through all of them. Like always, most of them I’d never dream of picking. Unlike last time though, there are only really two that seem like they would be a good choice.
Aura Grab (Epic)
Exert force on anything within your aura, allowing you to pick up, push, or squeeze things with negligible mana expenditure.
Mana Thrust (Epic)
Increase your speed in a given direction by releasing mana in the opposite direction. Speed gained is dependent on both the quantity of mana expended as well as the Mind stat.
They were both very utility based spells, but that was exactly the kind of spells I liked selecting during a skill selection. I was pretty set on skills to use for combat, so having something useful outside of it was always nice.
I ended up picking mana thrust after some consideration and talking with Talus. He let me know that having a good skill for travel would be invaluable both within the tutorial and once it ended, as traveling long distances was always a relevant issue.
After the skill was selected and a part of my arsenal, I looked to Talus, ready to continue our training. He understood what I was after though, and shook his head.
“You are done training for now. Right now, it is time to rush you through these next few floors in record time.”