Chapter 1021
“Are you ready to die?” General Nova asked, pulling out a long spear. “What is your weapon of choice.”
I was pretty surprised to see a spear. I was used to most nobility using swords. Although my girls had a variety of different weapons from magical to physical, it seemed like whenever I faced a human, they had a sword. Then again, this guy wasn’t a human, and the spear he had in his hand didn’t look like it had been made for a human either. It was thick, and when he hit the ground with the back of the staff, it made a resounding thud showing just how heavy it was.
As I pulled out my sword, it looked pretty pathetic in comparison. I was larger and stronger than I used to be, and this small sword in my hand just didn’t feel like it belonged anymore. I might have been wielding a dagger for as light as it was. However, it was a powerful sword, and while it wasn’t at the level of the Silvthril sword, or even the Star Sword, it was the best the blacksmiths could make in Chalm. Until Garnet made me a stronger one incorporating magic or I lucked out and found a powerful magical sword in a labyrinth, these standard swords were the best that I had.
“Hmph… a commoner’s sword… fitting for an unremarkable man.”
I considered asking Octius or Octin for a magic sword, but I had seen Octius’s sword and fighting style, and it didn’t fit me. He used elegant and light movements, flowing from one attack to another. I imagined he had gotten that from Octin. It called for light, flowing movements refined from years of practice. I was self-taught, and my fights had often been desperate as I tried to survive in the dungeons. My attacks also relied on speed, but they were sharp, aggressive attacks, intended for doing maximum damage at minimum cost. It wasn’t that either way was better or even preferred, but that I wouldn’t be any more comfortable with either of their swords.
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“When you are defeated by a commoner’s sword and an unremarkable man, I wonder what it will make you?” I asked, strengthening my grip on the sword.
My words caused the malicious grin to finally fall off his face. He glared at me, and then lowered his body to attack. I similarly got into position. I had already optimized my setup for the battle, concentrating on the jobs that would make me the strongest. True Hero, Hero, Mimic, Demonic Knight. Why didn’t I dump all my points into a 5th job? It was because I had optimized my dungeon points as well, concentrating on abilities I often ignored in the dungeons.
I had 62 dungeon points at the moment. I originally had 42. Male Deek had earned 15 points from defeating the Twilight Dungeon and Female Deek had earned 5 points finishing off the Bandit’s Respite. When my souls combined, so did the blessings, and also my missing points. Combined, I could finally equip a 50 point skill. Most of these were extremely terrifying. Eternal Youth, Earthshatter, Soul Reaver, and Dimensional Shift were a few of the skills under this list.
Dimensional Shift likely functioned similarly to my blessings modification to Portal. That meant that technically, I could have used it rather than waiting the week. However, that would have taken 50 of my points, and I didn’t know the cooldown time for it. What if that cooldown was also a week or even a month? I wasn’t willing to sacrifice 50 points for who knew how long. Plus, I admit I hadn’t noticed it at the time, since I had bigger things on my mind.
Thus, I put 16 points into Stamina Increase. Instead of 10X experience and the extra portals, I had the 10-point skill Haste, 6 points to get level 2 in Increased Strength, the 5-point skill Hawk Vision, and the 1-point skill Explosive Movement. I could still drop the Advanced Learning levels to get six more points, but I realized they were better than I initially thought. They didn’t just make it easier to remember things, but they were the reason I was able to glean more information when I had a job equipped simply by contemplating the job carefully. In this case, I was using it mixed with my Moderate Weapon Proficiency to understand a spears strengths and weaknesses.
Hawk Vision gave me extremely precise vision, and when combined with Mimic and Advanced Learning, I was confident I could replicate the skills being used against me. I truly was going all out here. It was finally time to see what I was capable of.
“Begin!”