Chapter 004
Deeper
A couple hours later I’m sitting down next to the stairs that go below to level 2 of the dungeon relaxing to get my stamina and mana back thinking about the fights I’ve had. All were easy, the hardest thing on this floor I can find is the Alpha Wolf which only seems to go to level 2. I hit level 4 and put 2 more points into strength since that gives me more health and more damage it’s probably going to be my primary dump stat if I stick with unarmed. Plus with epic strength just wait until I get to a town and lift something huge and freak people out, that is going to be great! I’ve been level 4 for a while now and I wanna backtrack to see if anything respawned because I’d like to hit 5 before going to level 2, just to be safe. Before I get up I put my one skill point into unarmed. Far be it for me to not cheese my level up to become the greatest unarmed fighter this world has ever seen. Doubt I’m anywhere close yet but if I keep leveling and tossing points in it’s only a matter of time.
Getting up I backtrack at a light jog until I’m about halfway through level 1 of the dungeon until I come upon three wolves, without slowing I raise both hands pointing at the Common ones and let off two fireballs, then point at the Alpha and let a third off. I realized you can tell the alpha because he’s just a bit bigger and always in the middle of the two commons. The fireballs hit and kill the commons as the Alpha starts towards me, eventually jumping towards when I get close and when he is about to hit me in the chest I bring my knee up to his jaw with a crunching hit. Looting them quickly and moving on ignoring the after action report for now because I can feel I haven’t leveled I get to the next room and it has two goblins in it, I come in quickly before they can react and punch them both in the head before they even turn around, killing both. Feeling that mental awareness that I leveled I comb through report for anything of note, skipping all the random stuff I focus on what’s more important.
[SKILL LEVEL GAINED: (WEAK)FIREBALL IS NOW LEVEL 5. REACHING LEVEL 5 TRANSFORMS (WEAK)FIREBALL INTO: FIREBALL. SPELL REMAINS THE SAME BUT DOES MORE DAMAGE BOTH DIRECTLY AND THROUGH AREA DAMAGE.]
[LEVEL UP! NEW LEVEL IS 5. YOU GAIN 2 ATTRIBUTE POINTS AND ONE SKILL POINT]
[YOU HAVE REACHED LEVEL 5 AND UNLOCKED THE ABILITY TO CHOOSE A CHARACTER CLASS. CONGRATULATIONS! CLASSES MAY GIVE YOU POWERFUL BOOSTS. HIDDEN CLASSES ARE AVAILABLE AND WILL BE SHOWN IF YOU MEET THEIR REQUIREMENTS. GO TO STATUS AND SELECT THE NEW CLASS OPTION IN ORDER TO CHOOSE YOUR CLASS. WARNING: CLASSES ARE PERMANENT. CHOOSE ONLY WHEN YOU ARE CERTAIN OF YOUR PATH. AT MUCH HIGHER LEVELS YOU MAY BE ABLE TO CHOOSE ANOTHER CLASS IF YOU MEET CERTAIN REQUIREMENTS.]
Holy moly more stuff! Classes sound interesting, I’ll have to think hard on it though if it’s permanent! Don’t wanna screw myself in the long term! Let’s check out my status for now though. Thankfully I messed around with the status screen and with a little bit of mental nudging I was able to get all my information on one screen in shorthand instead of having to go through a ton of menus. Focusing I brought up my abridged status screen.
NAME: Nyla Darke
LEVEL: 5
CLASS: UNSELECTED
HEALTH: 26/26 (STR X 2) REGEN (STR/5 + CON/5 + LEVEL) PER HOUR
MANA: 24/24 (INT X 2) REGEN (WIS/5 + LEVEL) PER HOUR
STAMINA: 24/24 (CON X 2) REGEN (CON/5) PER MINUTE
Unallocated Points: 2
STRENGTH: 14
DEXTERITY: 12
CONSTITUTION: 12 NAT AR: 2 (CON/5)
INTELLIGENCE: 12
WISDOM: 10
CHARISMA: 14
TALENTS:
-ASSAY
-LANGUAGES
-SKILL LINK
-UNBOUND
Unallocated Points: 1
SKILLS:
One-Handed Swords: 4
Sneak: 3
Loot: 2
Meditate: 1
Dodge: 4 (SL)
Enhanced Unarmed Combat: 26 (SL)
SPELLS:
-Fireball: 5
Cost: 5 MP
TRAITS:
-None
Hmm, not bad for a few hours’ work. As my stomach rumbles I realize I haven’t eaten yet today and pull out a bulk ration and start to eat it. It’s extremely dry and tastes like bland nothing but after I get through one fifth of it I feel full like I ate a whole meal. Putting the fourth of it back in my inventory I feel a lot better, Maybe I’ll last in here quite a while if one ration lasts more than a whole day! Going back to my status screen I mentally click on class.
[YOU HAVE AVAILABLE CLASS OPTIONS. YOUR OPTIONS ARE MAGE, SWORDSWOMAN, SPELLBLADE, MONK, VETERAN MONK(R)]
Not as many as I’d hoped, and two are monk. But based on what I’ve been using these choices make sense. I love magic but don’t want to be a straight up mage class. Checking the class I see that it offers static bonuses for damage dealing spells and the ability to learn new spells. Since with my Unbound talent I’m pretty sure I can learn any spell anyway that’s not a huge benefit. Swordswoman also seems to just boost sword attacks and abilities, not very interesting at all. Spellblade could be cool, it says it boosts both spells and swords abilities. But I am really leaning towards a monk class so let’s check them out as well.
[MONK CLASS: THE USER OF THE MONK CLASS IS A MASTER OF UNARMED COMBAT AND TRAINED TO FIGHT POWERFUL ENEMIES WHILE USING NOTHING BUT THEIR BODY. HEALTH AND STAMINA REGEN ARE BOTH DOUBLED. INCREASED EXPERIENCE GAINED FOR UNARMED COMBAT, DODGE, AND MEDITATION SKILLS INCREASE STAT POINTS GAINED PER LEVEL TO 4]
Not bad, the regen sounds great and more level quicker will make me a legend sooner rather than later! Not to mention extra stat points will bolster everything I do. Let’s see what this last class is, Veteran Monk(R), and why it’s got that R in parenthesis!
[VETERAN MONK CLASS: THIS IS A HIDDEN CLASS YOU HAVE MET THE REQUIREMENTS FOR. THIS IS A RARE CLASS THAT MAY BE UPGRADED FURTHER AS YOU PROGRESS IN SKILL TO PROVIDE FURTHER BENEFITS. THE USER OF THE VETERAN MONK CLASS IS A MASTER OF UNARMED COMBAT AND TRAINED TO FIGHT POWERFUL ENEMIES WHILE USING NOTHING BUT THEIR BODY. OTHER MONKS CAN ONLY HOPE TO ATTAIN THIS LEVEL OF SKILL AND PROWESS. HEALTH AND STAMINA REGEN ARE ALL TRIPLED. INCREASED EXPERIENCE GAINED FOR UNARMED COMBAT, DODGE, AND MEDITATION SKILLS. UNARMED COMBAT SKILLS DO 25% MORE DAMAGE TO ENEMIES. MEDITATION INCREASES HEALTH MANA AND STAMINA REGEN. REQUIREMENTS FOR THIS CLASS TO HAVE BEEN UNLOCKED: UNARMED COMBAT, DODGE, AND MEDITATION UNLOCKED. AT LEAST ONE SKILL IN SECOND TIER BETWEEN UNARMED COMBAT, DODGE, AND MEDITATION. HAVING KILLED AT LEAST 5 ENEMIES IN ONE HIT. INCREASE STATS POINTS GAINED PER LEVEL TO 5]
Wow that’s a lot of bonuses. And it’s the only one that says it can be upgraded later one. And its got TRIPLE REGEN?! Plus added damage, plus meditation furthers regen.. I mean I was leaning towards Monk anyway, and nothing says I can’t keep leveling other skills and magic since Unbound lets me learn it all, so I think I’m going to choose Veteran Monk. A rare class too! I mean it would have to be with those requirements. Do other people even have classes? I need to talk to someone else besides Gerty about this whole system. Okay I’m just going to do it! Class selection time!
[CLASS SELECTED: VETERAN MONK(R)]
I didn’t expect to feel any different but I actually could feel the change. It was like knowledge I already had to be better at my skill was just unlocked and set free. Kind of trippy. I need to get to lower dungeon levels so I can test this all out, I have a feeling that I’m already more powerful than the average experienced adventurer.
Putting my 2 stat points into Strength and one skill point into unarmed combat I head back towards the stairwell. I go through a couple freshly spawned monsters without pausing for longer than to kill and loot and then continue on. Once I get to the stairwell I don’t pause for a second heading down. The stairs lead down to a wooden room with nothing but torches in it and a door in front of me just like the first floor beginning room. I look behind me to see a portal and not the stairs I just came down. I hesitantly touch it and get a mental menu.
[EXIT DUNGEON], [FIRST FLOOR], OR [EXIT MENU]
Interesting, so I can exit the dungeon at the beginning of any floor? Good to know! Exiting the menu I walk confidently to the door and open it and stop immediately, shocked. Looking out I see a large expanse of green grass field dotted with trees here and there, the whole thing measuring about 100 yards wide. All of this is in between two large brown stone cliff walls making this dungeon level a corridor of grassy fields. I’m just utterly surprised to go down from a save and come out to a sunny day with grassy fields, it’s surreal! Guess that dungeon magic is pretty strong! Also plenty of trees for firewood if I want to cook up some wolf meat when I get tired of rations. I head off at a jog into the field moving forward to look for more monsters to fight.
About 10 minutes later I slow down as I look upon a group of 5 goblins all standing around each other hyping each other up by yelling. I wonder if they have a language but it doesn’t seem so or my Languages talent would have kicked in and so far all they have been doing is yelling or screaming when I run into them. I assay them each and notice they’re all [COMMON GOBLIN LEVEL 2] so at least the levels have gone up. I want to approach cautiously as I’ve never fought more than 3 monsters at a time but then decide that I can probably take a few out with fireballs before they get to me and that’ll even the playing field. I kneel down into sneak position and set off 3 fireballs in quick succession. They all hit rapidly and the area damage seems to be much higher now that the fireball is no longer weak. The three I hit aren’t down but they are looking heavily damaged. I shoot off one more fireball at the middle goblin and he gets taken out while the other two deal with the splash damage.
They all finally get their act together and come towards me and as I get in my stance I get excited by the idea of a 4v1, even if two are mostly dead already. I went from nervous and shaky earlier to excited for battle, I guess my confidence has finally kicked in! Hopefully I don’t get too overconfident though, don’t want to get into something I’m not ready for! The two damaged goblins reach me at the same time and I snap kick one and ending its life just before I dodge the incoming sword attack from the second. After dodging I come up with a left hook taking the second goblin out. The remaining two goblins show up at the same time both holding daggers and screaming, so I hop back and forth on the balls of my toes lightly so I can dodge their strikes and when I see an opening I throw a quick punch into where I think the right goblin’s sternum is before backing off again. Seeing him drop knowing there’s just one left I get a little cocky and start moving around in some classic monk moves like things I’ve seen in movies before, and when he winds up to attack I hit him in the chest with the classic palm attack I’ve seen in those same movies. The force of the attack folds the goblin in half and sends him tumbling back several feet. I look at my hand in wonder since that seemed like more force than my normal punches. I loot the goblins and check the report for anything significant, ignoring all the play by play and minor item drops.
[SKILL LEVEL GAINED: DODGE IS NOW LEVEL 5]
[SKILL LEARNED: MONK’S PALM STRIKE]
Huh wow what? Shouldn’t I get that skill for having a monk class or something? You’re telling me I have to figure it all out individually?! Well I guess I can’t have everything handed to me. Let’s see what this skill does.
[MONK’S PALM STRIKE: ATTACK WITH THE PALM DOING DAMAGE BASED ON YOUR UNARMED COMBAT SKILL LEVEL AND MODIFIERS IN ADDITION TO USING MANA TO EMPOWER THE STRIKE FOR GREATER DAMAGE. THIS ATTACK ADDS A MINOR {PAINED} DEBUFF TO ENEMIES. DEBUFF LASTS 3 SECONDS UNLESS PALM STRIKE IS SUCCESSFULLY USED ON THE SAME ENEMY AGAIN, THEN DEBUFF TIMER IS RESTARTED AND THE DEBUFF STACKS. PAINED: WHILE THIS DEBUFF IS ACTIVE ENEMIES HAVE LESS WILLINGNESS TO CONTINUE FIGHTING YOU. AT 5 STACKS OF PAINED THERE IS A SMALL CHANCE THAT THE ENEMY WILL DROP THEIR WEAPON. EACH CONSECUTIVE STACK RAISES THAT CHANCE BY A SMALL MARGIN. THIS IS A RESTRICTED SKILL ONLY USABLE BY THOSE WITH A MONK CLASS.]
Alright so I can basically bitch-slap people into giving up or dropping their weapons? That sounds great but I’d have to keep it up with the palm attack pretty quickly in succession, 3 seconds isn’t really all that long so it probably won’t work well against anything besides one on ones. Guess whether its debuff utility is good or not entirely depends on how much mana it uses. Looking around I spot a smaller tree and run up to it. Seeing my mana at 3/24 I assume the palm strike uses 1 mana since I did 4 fireballs for 5 mana each but I want to make sure, so I do a palm strike to the trunk of the tree. The force of the strike cracks through the trunk of the tree and I quickly move aside as it falls down. I quietly say “timber” as I watch it fall. A 6 inch wide tree trunk taken down in one hit, my confidence is soaring. I can punch trees down, I could probably make a killing as a lumberjack in this world heh.
After the tree lands I walk up to it and look at it. I have a hatchet and I’m gonna need some firewood eventually so I might as well use this tree I just brutalized! But hmm.. Thinking on how I learned the palm strike and how my skills work I imagine all the monk things I’ve seen in movies and start to contemplate what else I might be able to unlock. Kneeling down I hold my hand up in the classic Karate chop position and imitating Austin Powers I say “Judo… CHOP!” as I bring my hand down. When my hand hits the wood it slices it cleanly in two like I had just used an axe at full power.
If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.
[SKILL LEARNED: MONK’S KNIFEHAND STRIKE]
I can’t believe that worked I was fully expecting to feel foolish haha. Another monk skill! Let’s check it out.
[MONK’S KNIFEHAND STRIKE: ATTACK WITH THE EDGE OF YOUR HAND DOING PIERCING DAMAGE BASED ON YOUR UNARMED COMBAT SKILL LEVEL AND MODIFIERS IN ADDITION TO USING MANA TO EMPOWER THE STRIKE FOR GREATER DAMAGE. THE SKILL IS CONSIDERED A CUTTING ATTACK AND SO CAN WOUND AS IF USING A KNIFE OR SWORD. WHEN USED ON FLESH HAS A CHANCE TO CAUSE {BLEEDING} DEBUFF. BLEEDING: TARGET MADE OF FLESH TAKES EXTRA DAMAGE OVER TIME UNTIL DEBUFF WEARS OFF]
So it’s not just a different way to do the same attack, it actually has its own uses! Excellent! Plus another way to show off in town just chopping something in half. But honestly getting some of these attacks in when I finally face a boss monster will be really helpful, I need to practice with them! But I’m down to a few mana at the moment, maybe I should work on my meditation skill to boost regen. As it is with the tripled regen I can reach max mana from empty in about an hour and a few minutes. Sitting on what is left of the fallen tree trunk that I haven’t yet cut into pieces I cross my legs and close my eyes and begin to meditate.
After meditating for 45 minutes I see that my skill has gone up and my mana is full so I get back to chopping the tree up into even pieces that are sized for firewood using my knifehand strike. After that I sit up all the pieces and split them in half again, and then half yet again until they are all roughly campfire ready. Since I used up my mana again I meditate once more. 45 minutes pass in silence and I feel much better mentally than I have since I got to this world. Sitting there on the ground looking around I just wonder what my life is going to be like. I can become anyone and do anything, so what will do? Who will I be? Nyla the hero? Nyla the warlord? I snort. Not a warlord that’s for sure. Nyla the monk farmer? All I want to do now is get stronger so no one will be able to force me to do what I don’t want to, and then maybe explore the world. I didn’t get to travel much on Earth, with the exception of two summer trips, because mom and dad worked too much. Which is fine, I inherited their work ethic when I was still a kid. Dad put me in kickboxing and martial arts at the age of 11 so I could defend myself but after the first few lessons when he asked me how I felt about the classes I was the one who chose to keep going because I enjoyed it. But in this world I have nothing but time to see the world, I have no commitments that I need to adhere to. I’ll still practice my skills every day because I don’t want to lose what I had on Earth even if it translated to a skill here that I doubt I could forget while I still have the skill available to me. I’m going to have to find a city eventually and look at some maps and learn the history of this place so I don’t look like a total moron while talking to people. Okay enough contemplation, I’m going to blow through this level of the dungeon and get lower so I can fight higher level monsters. I haven’t faced anything my level in a while and I doubt killing these lower levels are going to give me much experience!
After several hours of slaughter through the grassy fields with the wolves and goblins on this dungeon level all being level 2 with the exception of the Alpha wolf that happened to be level 3 was getting boring and I knew I could handle much stronger monsters at this point. Jogging along in this ravine-like area I see something new in the distance. I slow and take a close look. It looks like some kind of mini fort area, a shoddily made one at least. Logs plunged deep into the ground made a wooden wall about 8 feet high in a half circle nestled up against the brown stone of the wall. With the exception of a 10 foot wide open section in the middle the half circle was solid wood covering a width of about 80 feet across. I could only guess that this was a little goblin fort, maybe with a mini boss or level boss in there! I was getting excited at the idea of testing myself against a boss.
Sneaking slowly towards the opening in the wall I made sure to keep an eye on my surroundings and watch for lookouts but in the end it came to nothing. I could hear activity on the other side of the wall but it seems like they aren’t expecting attacks as no one is watching the opening as I sneak up and peek inside the little fort. One 20 foot wide windowless building nestled up against the back wall was the only structure in the whole fort, the rest of the area made up with campfires. Around the several campfires was at least 10 goblins and 5 wolves. These wolves have seemingly been tamed by the goblins into guard animals or pets, strange. Looks like the monsters are teaming up the deeper I go! Assaying them I see that no one is higher than level 2 so I decide to just plow through them quickly. I skip using fireball since the mana use is higher than I want it for the damage output and with my high monk level it would be better to use palm strikes and knifehand strikes for more damage. It’s just economical!
Sprinting to the nearest group of goblins sitting around their fire 15 feet away I chop down on the one facing away from me with a knifehand strike aimed at his neck. The attack is so effective that it cuts halfway through his torso like butter and he falls dead. The other four goblins around the fire had seen me running up and had started to get to their feet so they were ready for a fight, pulling their weapons out. I kicked at the one wielding a dagger and while he cut at my leg enough to damage me it was a small wound but the kick to his midsection was devastating to him blowing him backwards off his feet. The wolf that was with one of the goblins lunged at me and I dodged sideways while throwing a right hook into its temple hearing bone crack. I stepped forward, ducking under the swing of the next goblins sword, quickly coming up to smash him in the chin with an uppercut, then went after the last goblin at this fire who was in the middle of trying to crack up a crossbow. While he was looking down at the crossbow, most likely thinking 4 goblins and a wolf would give him time enough to use his weapon, I just hauled back and punched him in the face.
Looking around at the other two campfires the goblins were up and ready to fight and coming towards me, while the wolves were almost to me already. Thus began the rest of the slaughter of the mini fort. I was able to handle them all just fine, the only issue I had was the one other goblin with a crossbow. I saw him aiming and as I was wading through the monsters with no real effort I got a little cocky and when the crossbow bolt came at me I tried to hit it away from me with my hand like this was a movie. I was just trying to be a badass but it only halfway worked as I succeeded in knocking it off course from my torso but it still took me in the muscle of my left arm. The pain was intense and it made me angry but I pulled the bolt out, checked my health quickly seeing it 26/32 and I ran up to the goblin that shot me and kicked him as hard as I could in the chest. After that I cleaned up the last remaining goblins and pulled a bandage from my inventory, wrapping it around the crossbow wound. I was surprised when the wound immediately closed and the bandage disappeared. What are these, magic bandages?!
I started looting all the goblins but halfway through the door to the building at the back of the fort swung open and what looked like a larger version of a goblin walked out. He looked like all the other goblins but he was approximately a foot taller than the others. I assayed him quickly and got back [GOBLIN COMMANDER LVL 4 ELITE]. My first elite! And he’s a level 4 which is the highest I’ve seen so far! I stopped looting to stare at him with my head cocked to the side, I wanted to see what he would do, if anything. He walked out into the open, looked around at the corpses I hadn’t looted yet, and then looked at me with what I assume was anger on his face, it’s hard to tell since goblins are quite ugly and have scrunched up features.
“Agh! YOU! Killed my mens! You is FRESH MEAT! I eat!” said the goblin commander while pointing his double sided axe at me, and I shuddered because even though I understood him he must have been speaking a goblin language as it was all guttural and coarse to my ears.
I pointed at him and in goblin I said “You NOT fresh meat! I cook you anyway! Give me loot!” and laughed. He didn’t seem to like that as he uttered a guttural roar and started running towards me. I assumed my favorite fighting stance and prepared for him. Glancing at my mana I saw I was at 14/24 so when he was about 10 feet away I let off a fireball that hit him in the face and he roared again. Coming at me full steam ahead he swiped his axe at me in an overhead downward swing and I deftly dodged to his right, hitting his arm in a palm strike. He stumbled sideways a little from the hit but immediately got his footing and came at me again, swinging his axe horizontally this time. Dodge jumping back so I didn’t get disemboweled by the big axe I ran back in while he was swinging past me and lined up a good knifehand strike on his neck. The attack did good damage, stopping several inches into his neck while he cried out in outrage and pain. His hand came up to his neck and I took the moment of him not attacking me to palm strike his face and chest rapidly before his shock wore off. After three hits the fourth hit his chest and I heard a sound from within his chest cavity that sounded like organs rupturing and the elite goblin fell over onto his back, dead.
I sat down and rested for a minute but I felt good. I felt brand new like I hadn’t just fought 16 enemies in less than 5 minutes and I knew without looking at the report that I had leveled up. Confirming my suspicions I glanced at the report, seeing I had hit level 6 after fighting the elite. I also saw that I had learned a new skill!
[SKILL LEARNED: MONK’S PROJECTILE DEFLECTION]
[MONK’S PROJECTILE DEFLECTION: USING YOUR ARMS YOU ARE ABLE TO DEFLECT INCOMING PROJECTILES. COSTS MANA. THIS INCLUDES BUT IS NOT LIMITED TO ARROWS, CROSSBOW BOLTS, AND THROWN DAGGERS. AT HIGHER LEVELS DEPENDING ON YOUR DEXTERITY, DODGE LEVEL, AND MONK’S PROJECTILE DEFLECTION SKILL LEVEL, YOU MAY BE ABLE TO DEFLECT INCOMING MAGIC ATTACKS.]
Did I get that for trying to deflect that crossbow bolt? Guess it was worth it in the end though it hurt like a bitch. Another monk specific skill though, that’s three so far not including my unarmed combat skill itself. I wonder if there are more or if I get something for unlocking them all. Hmm. I throw 4 stat points into strength to get to 20 and the last into Intelligence, since if I’m going to be doing a lot of monk attacks I’m going to need a lot more mana. When I accepted the stat point distribution and hit 20 strength I felt a change in my body and got a system notification.
[FIRST PINANCLE ATTRIBUTE! STRENGTH LEVEL 20: CONGRATULATIONS, YOU ARE NOW AT THE PINNACLE OF STRENGTH FOR THE HUMAN RACE. EVERY POINT FURTHER INTO STRENGTH WILL CONTINUE TO MAKE YOU MORE SUPERHUMANLY STRONG. AWARD FOR PINNACLE ATTRIBUTE GAIN: TRAIT: POWERFUL]
Wow, I was wondering what level was top of the line human before getting into superhuman levels but I never thought it would be this early.. although looking at those around me if Bento is any indication most people don’t get anywhere near this many stat points or level gains. And I got a trait as well? Let’s check that out!
[POWERFUL: YOU ARE TRULY STRONG AND THOSE AROUND YOU CAN FEEL IT IF YOU WILL IT SO. WHILE YOUR STRENGTH MAY NOT BE OBVIOUSLY VISIBLE TO OTHERS, WITH A THOUGHT YOU CAN CHOOSE TO EMANATE AN AURA OF YOUR PHYSICAL STRENGTH. WHEN FOCUSING ON DISPLAYING YOUR POWER THOSE AROUND YOU CAN FEEL JUST HOW STRONG YOU ARE.]
So basically I can exude an aura that shows those around me that even though I look like a muscular athletic woman I’m actually pretty much superhumanly strong? Or at least will be once I put at least one more point in strength? Pretty cool! That could really help stop some arguments in their tracks if need be. Ah, and speaking of muscular! Pulling my shirt up I look at my abs which are rock solid now. Lifting my sleeves I see the sleek muscle and can feel the quiet power rippling through me. Hmm, I look toned as hell now! I like it! I am really glad that hitting a strength milestone didn’t morph me into something like a buff weightlifter, I wanna stay sleek and spry! Maybe I should put a couple points into DEX soon, I think that would help with my dodge, which is going up fast since I use it and unarmed combat all the time and they are skill linked. I put my skill point into enhanced unarmed combat as I probably will be doing for the foreseeable future since I want to be the best like no one ever was, then look at my status quickly.
NAME: Nyla Darke
LEVEL: 6
CLASS: Veteran Monk(R)
HEALTH: 40/40 (STR X 2) REGEN (STR/5 + CON/5 + LEVEL) X 3 PER HOUR
MANA: 26/26 (INT X 2) REGEN (WIS/5 + LEVEL) X 3 PER HOUR
STAMINA: 24/24 (CON X 2) REGEN (CON/5) X 3 PER MINUTE
Unallocated Points: 0
STRENGTH: 20
DEXTERITY: 12
CONSTITUTION: 12 NAT AR: 2 (CON/5)
INTELLIGENCE: 13
WISDOM: 10
CHARISMA: 14
TALENTS:
-ASSAY
-LANGUAGES
-SKILL LINK
-UNBOUND
Unallocated Points: 0
SKILLS:
One-Handed Swords: 4
Sneak: 4
Loot: 2
Meditate: 3
Dodge: 7 (SL)
Enhanced Unarmed Combat: 28 (SL)
Monk’s Palm Strike(R): 4
Monk’s Knifehand Strike: 3
I never did look at what that stat on CON is, though I assume from playing so many games that it’s natural armor. Focusing on it I got an explanation.
[NAT AR: NATURAL ARMOR. THE RAREST AND HIGHEST FORM OF PHYSICAL PROTECTION. WHILE ALMOST ALL ARMOR PROTECTION COMES FROM WEARING PHYSICAL ARMOR, NATURAL ARMOR IS THE ARMOR OF THE BODY. FOR EVERY POINT OF NAT AR YOU GAIN A POINT OF AUTOMATIC DAMAGE REDUCTION AGAINST ALL FORMS OF PHYSICAL DAMAGE. FOR EXAMPLE WITH A NAT AR OF 4 AN UNDEFENDED SWORD STRIKE THAT WOULD HIT YOU FOR 5 DAMAGE WILL INSTEAD ONLY DO 1 DAMAGE. THE SAME IS TRUE FOR MAGIC ATTACKS, POISON, OR ANYTHING ELSE THAT HARMS YOU PHYSICALLY. IF THE DAMAGE SUSTAINED IN AN ATTACK IS EQUAL TO OR LESS THAN YOUR NAT AR YOU TAKE NO DAMAGE. MENTAL ATTACKS ARE NOT NEGATED IN ANY WAY DUE TO NAT AR.]
And all of a sudden I want to get my CON really high so that I can basically ignore all the low level monsters hits. Not to mention that has to really help in a big fight with lots of enemies, armor must be extremely important in this word! After all, I’m at the pinnacle of humanities ability to be strong and that is still only 40 HP. No wonder no one levels here! If it wasn’t for my OP ability to kill things I would be just as screwed as the rest of them.
Getting up I walk over to the goblin commander corpse and loot him. Surprisingly I got 20 copper and even more surprisingly I got an item drop! Either they aren’t as rare as I was led to believe or I am extremely lucky! Taking a look at the item I see it’s an uncommon drop, the name is a shade of green which reminds me of old MMO’s I used to play with common, uncommon, rare, epic, and legendary loot. Until I see more I’ll assume that’s the same system happening here. I inspect it closely.
[(UN) Ring of Attack: +2 to attacks made with One-Handed melee weapons]
My excitement dies down a little since it’s completely useless for me as an unarmed monk but I’m still happy to have loot. Plus if they are as rare as Gerty said then I can probably sell it for good money! I finish looting the regular goblins and wolves and sit down at one of the campfires pulling out some wolf meat as I decide to eat something other than rations for a change. After my meal which involved me tossing the starving wolf meat into the fire after finding out how nasty it tasted and cooking a regular piece of wolf meat, which tastes quite nice and was very filling, I was feeling tired from all the activity I had today. I decide that I’ll make it to the third floor, see what the monster levels are, and then sleep in the portal room.