Author's note: It's after midnight so technically you didn't get the chapter as promised but... here as promised!
Enjoy!
Edit: tables...
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While Zaran was creating new skill upon new skill people continuously shouted in shock every time a system message was announced. Even if it was something as low as a d-rank skill for an user to continuously create skills which someone didn't ever deem possible.
In the distant Elaria, Durak was roaring with anger as he saw yet another system message pop up. "GODDAMNITTTT"
He slashed at the large stone golem in front of him and Durak and his party all leveled up yet again.
"Finally level 44. I wonder what that ****** of a Zaran's level is at the moment. If i see him he's dead!"
Durak and his party where by far the strongest team in the game, having 4 levels up on the other users. This meant that they had about two thirds more experience than other users. While killing beasts one level up on a level that could be divided by ten was a very hard task, with a good team it would still be a somewhat manageable feat if one's gear hadn't been upgraded to the max. Therefore it were teams like Durak's that leveled the fastest as they had a high degree of cooperation as well as a high degree of battle skill. Even though those monsters were hard to beat, they gave far more experience than the ones just a level lower than them.
"Calm down Durak. I heard from our guys in Virul that he picked the Zuno class. Unless he trains a ton he can't really get strong so if we just keep leveling at this pace we'll be far stronger than him. I also heard he only has animals as companions and that currently no other users are with him as far as we know of. Surely our pace is far too fast for him to keep up, he's not even in the top million leaderboard." Eran, the fire elemental in the group said.
Durak calmed down upon hearing what Eran said and rushed towards the next stone golem. As he was rushing towards the stone golem he roared to his party "What are we waiting for then! let's keep on going!"
His party just shook their heads and rushed after him.
Author's note: level 40 beasts give far less exp than level 41 beasts. The difficulty takes a leap every level after something that can be divided by 10. This has been touched up on in another chapter, just thought I'd remind you guys.
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In Barat a few female harpies were discussing the recent skill notifications that all came from the same character. A rather good looking male harpie was packing up nearby and said his goodbye's to the female harpies.
"Aww you leaving?" One of the female harpies said.
"Yeah, I'm going to Virul, sure as hell seems like it'll be lively there soon enough." The male one responded.
"Nuvahn, why don't you stay with us?" The most skimpy-clad harpie asked.
Nuvahn scoffed, didn't say another word and turned away from the group of females. Initially he had joined them as they were somewhat decent at the game but soon he noticed that their battle skills weren't even worth mentioning. When he saw the name of his master pop up in the notifications he researched where he was and found that he was in Virul.
"Master, please stay near Virul!" Nuvahn whispered as he took for the skies and departed for Virul.
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Along the world many other users were discussing the current stream of skill notifications. Most of Akhuath's champions faces turned ashen as they saw those because they knew Zaran made them to cover for all his weaknesses. Most of them had clashed once or twice with Zaran and they knew that on equal footing they would be no match for them. It was only when they had clear advantages that they could somewhat match up to him. Therefore many of Akhuath's champions immediately stopped leveling and started to create skills from previous lifetimes.
However the majority of them couldn't succeed as their understanding was incredibly low. Only a few geniuses could create some and even then their speed was far lower than Zaran's. They had just learned everything about mana and ki through the system and thus didn't even have a good understanding of it while Zaran had to research it all by himself. This alone created a large difference in the creation speed of skills because Zaran had a deeper understanding of the mechanics itself.
Nekorath in particular had a horrible expression on his face as he realized what Zaran was doing. He himself was slowly creating a second skill but so far he had reached a bottleneck and couldn't break through. Wondering what he was missing he could only curse as he saw one notification after another pop up. While he could only do leveling to progress himself, with every skill Zaran created he was another step behind.
"Why did I choose Akhuath that day!" Nekorath muttered as he hit a nearby boulder over and over and cursed continuously. When he had to choose a god to be a champion for he had the choice between both Isis and Akhuath. As Nekorath had always been quite combative in nature he had naturally chosen Akhuath. However later on it was a choice that he had very much regretted taking. Akhuath was an extremely domineering and demanding god. If he had the ability to go back Nekorath would have always chosen Isis. Yet he hadn't and now he was stuck with following Akhuath's orders like all his other champions.
Nekorath sighed as he continued on his journey.
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In Virul many users were talking about Zaran as it was the person they all saw dueling the orc in the first few hours of the game. While everyone thought he was on the back foot he had actually defeated the orc in two moves with a custom created skill on the spot. That caused the uproar to not be as big in Virul but still many users were discussing it. Many decided that upon seeing Zaran they would definitely ask how to create their own custom skill as it was a wish of many to do so.
Pantheon smiled as his sales had gone through the roof after he had showed people evidence that he had a contract with Zaran. As a result of making that knowledge public many a user had started to buy his wares. "Haah! It seems like my eyes were right and that brat really was special." Pantheon muttered as he wiped the sweat of his forehead. While before he had trouble selling even one piece of bread, now his store had been sold out twice within an hour of opening it. Pantheon had no desire to know how Zaran made those skills, but he hoped that Zaran kept going as he benefited tremendously from the current situation.
At the fountain in the middle of the market a Valkyrie and a Cat woman where likewise discussing the current notifications. This Valkyrie and Cat woman were obviously Irina and Sylphie.
"Hey, has he said how he makes those skills yet?" Irina asked.
"Not really he keeps saying it's just really easy and how he does it but to me the way he describes it is just... I couldn't even make a skill like he tells me to even if I wanted. And I have a feeling he won't tell me much more either." Sylphie said in a calm tone. She knew Zaran had to play the game as much as possible due to the Isis's request so she thought he had gained some cheating ability. She didn't know any other reason for him not to tell her anything about it.
Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.
"Maybe he has cheats or something? Or he's just really really good at thinking up skills?" Irina said.
"Well, he's really creative, that's for sure! I've seen him roleplay in other games and he makes the most amazing character background stories! So that might actually be it!" Sylphie said in an excited tone. To her this actually sounded like a believable theory. She still had her doubts and still thought it might be due to a cheating ability bestowed by Isis but she couldn't mention that theory to Irina.
"Mmhmm, must be it then! I don't think he even knows how he creates them then." Irina said.
"Yeah, must be it." Sylphie said as her thoughts wandered off to Isis. She couldn't understand why a Goddess like her chose Zaran for some important mission that he couldn't mention. What was so special about Zaran?
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While everyone in an uproar Zaran was trying to create the 'Crashing waves' skill. It was a greatsword technique where one struck down with their ki imbued greatsword. After connecting with the target a rapid stream of increasingly stronger waves of ki would be sent to the contact point between the greatsword and whatever the greatsword hit until the enemy could no longer fend of the greatsword. For weaker enemies with great defense this skill alone was more than enough to kill them as eventually the power of the ki would be so great that it cut everything cleanly in half.
Zaran had been practicing the technique on some nearby rocks and on parts of the mountainside, creating huge cuts in them. He walked over to another rock which was larger than himself and struck it with his greatsword. At first there was a barely noticeable cut. Very slight tremors were emitted from Zaran's greatsword as the cut rapidly extended and the whole rock was cleaved in half. It had only taken him a second to split the rock in two halves and a smile appeared on Zaran's face.
You have created an S-rank skill! Please name it!
[/tr]
Crashing waves(Advanced)Level5Experience15%DamageGreatsword damage + 10-300Ki consumption10-300DescriptionAfter the greatsword connects with something, increasingly stronger waves of ki are sent to the contact point until the enemy is no longer able to endure.
There are currently ten waves of ki emitted and the cost of the skill increases with each wave.
With each level the damage increases.
His ki had been exhausted yet again, using the Heavenly cloud condensation technique he helped his ki replenish at a faster rate before working on the next technique. For some reason he found it rather easy to gain insights in techniques in this gaming world as his understanding of Heavenly cloud condensation had increased by another level. Now he could absorb pure ki far quicker than before. All he needed to do for this was use a very tiny amount of his own pure ki to help purify the world ki around him. Before he had never even thought of trying this way but in this game world he suddenly had a feeling that it was the correct way to go about it. Thus his ki absorption speed had increased and replenishing it after usage had been far easier on him.
The next skill he created was rather easy as it was just an upward strike with ki imbued to it. Zaran wanted to use this skill so he had something to knock his enemies up. It would be something they didn't see coming and could be a follow up for when he had previously used crashing waves or a follow up for any normal downwards strike. Not even ten minutes after he started creating this technique he received confirmation that a skill had been created. Much to Zaran's surprise this was not a skill known to the system. Zaran had rubbed his eyes twice before he started believing the message box that had appeared. He was rather sure the game would have a rather basic skill like that.
You have created a C-rank skill! Please name it!
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Mountain strike(Advanced)Level1Experience0%EffectKnock-upKi consumption50DescriptionKi is imbued to the greatsword and the enemy is struck with an upwards strike, knocking the enemy in the air.
With each level the damage and knock up duration increases.
Zaran played with Kirin and Cindarrah for a bit and then switched his greatsword for his longsword. As final techniques he wanted to create both the second and third part of the 'Dance of the butterfly' that he had created himself. As the initial creator of the technique and having advanced it to near perfection through countless lives how could he not use it as his signature move in this game?
Zaran started from 'Flutter' and then effortlessly moved on to 'Rise and Fall' This was an upwards slash followed by a 360 slash that started low and then gradually rised until the sword was above the target again, followed up with a heavy downwards strike. After one struck a target with the stab from 'Flutter' one could then immediately strike upwards to change to this skill. It was even possible to break up flutter to use this instead. What Zaran had found important when creating his 'Dance of the butterfly' is that any step and any skill had to be interchangeable at any point.
This was also the reason as to why nobody had ever been able to master the skill no matter how many disciples he took. While learning the individual steps was rather easy, he hadn't found any that could effortlessly interchange between the different sets. The most skilled disciple that he had ever had was Nuvahn, but even Nuvahn didn't come close to effortlessly interchange between sets. Moreover what Zaran often did in fights is use just one strike of each of the seven parts only to end at any skill he wished to use at that moment. For example he could start with one slash of 'Flutter', break it up for 'Rise and Fall', using only the 360° slash of 'Rise and Fall' and then complete 'Flutter' from thereon.
Practicing 'Rise and Fall' for a while Zaran surprisingly hit a bottleneck. Instead of forcing a breakthrough Zaran went on to the third skill in the 'Dance of the butterfly' set. The third skill was where ki was finally starting to play a role in the effectivity of strikes. 'Velocity' as the third skill was named used high velocity slashes in the form of an & sign. This & sign could be used in a 360° and could likewise be followed up by both flutter or 'Rise and Fall'. Yet again Zaran hit a bottleneck much like the time he tried to create both 'Flutter' and 'Rise and Fall'.
"Damnit..." Zaran muttered along with various curses. He kept on practicing both 'Rise and Fall' and 'Velocity' interchanging them effortlessly with 'Flutter' at times in addition to using them by their own.
During practicing his swordplay Zaran suddenly started to have the feeling that someone was watching him. Not being able to get rid of the feeling Zaran called out. "Whoever you are, I know you are there! Instead of spying upon me, show yourself to me!"