Jason's heart raced as he faced the three warriors and Billy the rogue, who had been sent to eliminate him. His mind was focused, and his body surged with adrenaline. He knew he couldn't afford any mistakes, Not against people that will not hesitate to end his life
The first warrior lunged forward with a powerful swing of his axe. Jason's eyes glowed with a purple hue as he activated his skill, Void Shield. A barrier of shadows appeared in front of him, deflecting the axe strike effortlessly. The warrior looked stunned and lost his composure as Jason calmly retaliated, launching a Shadow Bolt that struck him square in the chest. The impact sent the warrior stumbling backward, dazed and disoriented. He looked at Jason with disbelief, but his expression quickly turned to pain as he started squealing, "AHHHHH STOP IT, PLEASE, AAHHHHHH!"
Jason seized the opportunity and grabbed the warrior, activating Soul Drain. The man dropped to the floor, convulsing in agony until Jason heard a 'ding,' indicating the warrior's defeat. ‘You have slain a level 5 warrior, +80TP, +250Exp. You have reached level 6,’ the notification stated.
‘You have 5 available stat points to distribute,’ it continued. Jason glanced at the others and simply said, "Well, that was easy," a sinister grin spreading across his face.
Billy took charge, commanding the two other warriors, "Compose yourself, this isn't going to be easy. We underestimated him. Looks like that skill he used on Tony was his level 5 skill. Keep your distance and take turns attacking."
Jason chuckled and spoke loudly, "You know I can hear you, right? Just come at me all at once."
Infuriated by Jason's taunt, the group charged at him, losing their composure. This was the perfect opportunity for Jason to test his new skill and see if it was worth it. He activated Shadowkin, and instantly a black miasma flowed out of him, enveloping the area in a 5-meter radius. Jason could feel everything within this darkness as if he could control it – he was one with the shadows, and it felt powerful.
As the shadows reached the warriors, they yelled out in pain, "AHHHH, this shit hurts! It feels like I'm stepping on fire!" The other warrior chimed in, "My whole body feels like it's on fire! Get out, Billy!"
In a panic, Billy pulled out his bow and started shooting at Jason while making his escape from the dark circle. But to his shock, the arrows simply phased through Jason, hitting a tree behind him. "WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT SKILL? MY ARROWS WENT STRAIGHT THROUGH HIM!" Billy shouted in disbelief.
Jason laughed as he charged at one of the warriors, who wielded a sword. Billy shouted a warning, "Phil, take it easy and make sure to get a clean hit on him!" Phil, the warrior, raised his shield and activated a fiery skill, but to his dismay, it flickered out, leaving him defenceless. Fear crept into Billy and the other warrior's eyes as Jason approached.
With a cunning plan in mind, Jason summoned a shadow bolt and shaped it into a sword. He poured all his mana into the blade, making it nearly unstable, but he could feel the power radiating from it.
The other warrior brought up his shield to block the sword-shaped shadow bolt, and as the two objects struck each other, Jason's shadow bolt blew up, blowing him away and maiming his arm. He struck a tree behind him, holding his shoulder in pain, but he barely paid any mind to it. Jason opened his eyes, seeing the warrior's head half blown off and his body dropping to the floor.
He noticed that the circle seemed to follow him as the other warrior was now out of the circle, and Jason was right on the edge of it. He could feel his mana start to drain as shadows enveloped his arm, bringing it back as if nothing happened, although his clothing was torn.
Jason felt that his mana was seriously low, so he pulled a mana potion out of his inventory and drank it. Billy looked on in shock as he headed over to the other warrior and saw him chugging a health potion. The warrior looked at him and responded, “The darkness is gone now that I drank the health potion, but I think I have it figured out.”
Billy looked at him seriously and said, “I think I got it as well. He has a ridiculously strong skill, but it has to be made fair somehow, and I think that he is immune to physical damage. However, magical damage is something else. He clearly didn't mean for that energy sword to blow up, and that was for sure magic. Do you have any magical skills?”
The warrior responded, “Yeah, I think so. I can imbue my ice affinity into weapons, making the blade deal more damage. I think that can count as magical damage.”
Billy went on, “Let's test it out. Imbue one of my arrows, and I'll shoot it at him. If he dodges it, it proves my theory.”
With that, the warrior imbued an arrow with ice affinity, and Billy summoned another arrow. The warrior shot the arrow at Jason as he stood up. To Jason's surprise, the arrow didn't phase through him. Instead, it wounded him, and he fell back on the ground, feeling a burning sensation. Quickly, he yanked the arrow out of his shoulder.
Billy looked hopeful and summoned another arrow, and the warrior did the same as before, imbuing the arrow and his blade. The warrior rushed at Jason, who braced himself for the attack. As the warrior swung his blade, the icy energy surrounding it collided with Jason's void shield, blocking the attack.
Jason could feel that it had already been 3 and a half minutes. The skill duration was almost up and he summoned a shadow bolt, quickly firing it at the warrior. The warrior jumped back and skillfully cut the shadow bolt in half. As he did this, Jason swiftly stepped forward and grabbed the warrior, activating soul drain. The warrior was left in pain and unable to move as Jason filled his mana reserves, but just as he did this, an arrow flew towards him, making Jason dodge to the side narrowly avoiding the attack.
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As the arrow whizzed past him, Jason saw Billy, the level 6 rogue, standing not too far away, bow drawn and ready for another shot. Billy looked determined, knowing that he couldn't let Jason have his way.
Jason then did something he never thought he would do. He decided to try a new approach with his shadow bolts. He summoned not one, but two shadow bolts simultaneously and directed them both at the skilled warrior who had previously cut one of his shadow bolts. This time, the warrior couldn't avoid both attacks, and he was hit by the second shadow bolt.
Billy, witnessing the scene, shouted out in concern, "Are you okay?" However, all that could be heard on the battlefield was the warrior screaming in pain as the black miasma from the shadow bolt burned his chest.
With the warrior's death, Jason received a notification from the system confirming the victory. Without wasting any time, he turned his attention towards Billy, the infuriated rogue with a hint of fear in his eyes. Billy shouted, "What the fuck is wrong with you!"
In a desperate attempt to escape, Billy activated a skill that made him invisible. However, to his surprise, Jason could still faintly see him. The rogue started running away, thinking he was hidden, but Jason could track his movements.
"I can still see you," Jason called out with a sinister smile, relishing the fear in Billy's eyes. He moved forward catching the rogue in his skill, enveloping the area in darkness. The invisible rogue's footprints became visible, and Jason locked onto his position.
With precision, Jason unleashed a powerful Shadow Bolt in the direction of Billy's fleeing form. The bolt struck true, hitting the rogue square in the back. Billy stumbled and fell to the ground, no longer invisible, writhing in pain pleading to make the pain stop.
Jason approached him, standing over the defeated rogue. "You underestimated me," he said calmly, his eyes glowing with a purple hue. "You thought you could escape, but in my darkness, there's nowhere to hide."
Billy looked up at Jason with a mixture of fear and defeat. "Please... spare me," he pleaded.
Jason hesitated for a moment, considering his options. He could take revenge for what Billy and his group had tried to do, but he knew he wasn't a heartless killer. Besides, he had already proven his point.
But it doesn't sit right with Jason. Yeah he had proven his point but it would feel weird to let him go so Jason decide to kill Billy, Jason spoke to the rogue, “Yeah I’m gonna kill you now I was gonna let one of you guys go as a warning, but I feel like I’m letting experience points go, so see ya.” and with that, Jason grabbed the helpless rogue by the neck, who was still convulsing in pain paralysed by it.
Jason held him up and activated soul drain, the rogue pleaded for him to stop, and shouted out in pain, Jason covered his mouth because the noise was getting really irritating, after a couple of seconds, Jason heard a ding and with that, the last attacker perished.
Jason quickly approached the first attacker who had fallen and decided to activate a skill he had been curious about – Death's Embrace. He extended his hand towards the lifeless body, and a shadowy tendril shot out, enveloping the corpse completely. Jason placed his hand on the cocoon-like form, absorbing its essence. A notification appeared: 'You have consumed an enemy.' 'Jason Hayes will attain a small fraction of the highest stat.' '+10 Strength.'
As the process concluded, he felt a surge of power within him. Gaining +10 in any stat was no small feat. The shadow tendrils dissipated, leaving behind the corpse's clothing and inventory. Jason collected everything the fallen enemies had carried.
Jason proceeded to do the same with the other corpses, consuming them one by one. From the fallen warriors, he gained an additional +30 Strength, and from the rogue, +15 Agility. Jason then checked his notifications:
‘You have slain a level 5 warrior, +60TP, +150Exp.’
‘You have slain a level 5 warrior, +55TP, +350Exp.’
‘You have slain a level 6 rogue, +90TP, +500Exp.’
‘You have reached level 9.’
‘You have 20 available stat points to distribute.’
Jason was puzzled about how the experience points (Exp) and talent points (TP) were awarded by the system. Was it based on the intensity of the fight or how challenging the opponents were? He made a mental note to keep an eye on the pattern to better understand the mechanics of the game world.
With his newfound strength and the additional stat points available, Jason carefully considered how to distribute them. Looking back on the fight and his new abilities he noticed that he wasn't getting the most out of his shadowkin skill, the 50% boost to agility was minuscule because he didn't have much, to begin with so he poured everything into agility all 20 points. And with that, he checked his stats.
Name: Jason Hayes
Level: 9
Moniker: N/A
Race: Human (F)
Class: Mage
Subclass: Warlock (Epic)
Profession: N/A
Titles:
Forerunner: +5% to all stats
Warlock of Beginnings: +10% intelligence, +10% mana, +10% vitality, +5 inventory capacity
Mage: +10 to intelligence, +10 to mana
Warlock: +15 intelligence, +15 mana, +2 vitality
Original Sin: +20% to all stats and +50 Storage
Vitality: 34
Stamina: 6
Mana: 143
Strength: 54
Intelligence: 166
Perception: 5
Agility: 31
Luck: 6
Dark affinity: 701
Available Points: 0
Skills:
Identify (Common)
Polyglot (Common)
Shadow Bolt (Rare)
Soul Drain (Uncommon)
Void Shield (Uncommon)
Mana Control (Common)
Son Of The Reaper (Common)
Shadowkin (Epic)