Two days have passed.
Zeke kept up the time as far as he could, especially after finding out that he can recall how many hours have passed thanks to his 10 Intelligence.
That didn’t really help, if he was honest. It just meant that they’ve been stuck here traveling the hallways of the castle for that long. Which shouldn’t be possible.
On top of everything else, the knights have been attacking them whenever they had a chance. Sometimes they find knights to ambush just to ensure they don’t get attacked in return.
He was starting to get used to it. The sounds of steel clashing steel, the scent of their blood filling the air. Two whole days of just this, with only their bodies getting stronger being the change.
A blinking notification showed up, giving Zeke a much-needed reprieve after their latest knight subjugation.
> Level up! You are now Level 6. You gain 2 free points (2 FP total).
The last level up was yesterday, which was proof that leveling has been slowing down for a while now. Still, that didn’t mean they weren’t getting stronger throughout the days.
In particular, his skills leveled up quite well.
> Meditation Level Up! It is now Level 3.
>
> You have gained +1 INT from your skill.
> Mana Perception Level Up! It is now Level 2.
>
> You have gained +1 INT from your skill.
> You have gained +1 SPI from your skill.
“Kinda wish I can increase my physical stats sometimes,” Zeke complained, putting away the notifications. “How’d you do?”
“It could be better,” Mikella said, her eyes glinting as she turned to him. “Like how I got my Sword Mastery to Level 2 now.”
With a flourish, she sent the notification telling her of her success to his face.
> Sword Mastery Level Up! It is now Level 2.
>
> You have gained +1 DEX from your skill.
“Damn, you’re putting some work in there,” Zeke grinned.
Was it so bad to enjoy their growth even during this situation? Even Clara sounded excited whenever they talked about their progress. With Mikella showing the notifications to Clara, she jumped and giggled at the news of her sister capable of unleashing devastation amongst the metal knights.
He was glad for this. After what happened with the arrow to the knee, they started focusing on survival, using whatever tactics they can come up with.
Thankfully, Mikella’s new skill provided more than enough boon for them all.
Her fighting had become better than before. Back then, she would force herself to fight in ways that would tire her out faster, trying to avoid getting stabbed and slashed.
But Mikella’s Acrobatics put in more work than anything she could’ve done. Against one battle with a knight capable of using fancy footwork with a single sabre, Mikella fought it off with her own footwork and some clever sword play, using the longsword they got from the last knight.
It was a work of art. Her movements were better defined, using deft step-ins with her feet and even using feints to trick the knights to attack–allowing Zeke to use his barrier to interrupt them and letting Mikella deal the finishing blow with one quick slice across their helmets.
It was clear that it wasn’t just a simple increase of her stats. According to her, it felt as though her body was misaligned before, and she had to work with what she got. Now, it was like her body was resetted properly and it could do so much more than she ever expected.
She didn’t stop there. She wanted to see if she could gain more general skills and level them up by using other weapons. Honestly, it baffled Zeke as to why he didn’t think of it before, just focusing more on increasing his barrier’s level.
However, that proved harder than it looked. No matter how adept Mikella was at using other weapons–longswords, axes, warhammers, even a bow once or twice–she didn’t gain another Mastery skill.
Zeke queried that it was possible there was a hard limit on Mastery skills, and only one is able to be learned. It didn’t sound right, so instead he figured that after acquiring one Mastery skill, it takes even longer to acquire another.
That fit better, especially as Mikella definitely agreed on that feeling. For now, they focused on experimenting with that logic by switching weapons against single knights, and only using the sword when they reached a troubling situation.
This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.
In one such case, Zeke carried Clara over while providing barriers around Mikella far away. Reason for that is that four knights came to find them. With movements faster than meets the eye, Mikella dealt with them one by one. The barriers blocked the other knights trying to chase behind her, allowing Mikella to come right back and pierce them after dealing with her initial target.
In another fight they ended up with a tricky knight. It used a chain with an iron flail at the end as it spun the chains around, handling it with disturbing ease as the heavy spiked ball tried to bash Mikella’s head in. With a simple motion, Zeke conjured a barrier right where the ball was in mid-swing, landing the knight in a position where it couldn’t react against Mikella’s uprising sword strike through the helmet.
Zeke noticed that his Mana Perception level increasing helped him be able to conjure barriers farther than usual. His senses picked up the mana flow better, allowing him to extend his mana farther than even his eyes could pick up if he wished–though that honestly got his head to ache worse the farther he tried.
He knew there was more to the skill, but for now he was thankful that he can conjure barriers farther which allowed him and Clara to get away in case things get nasty. Thanks to their teamwork, they not only survived, but got stronger for it.
> Name: Zeke Parlow
> Race: Human
> Novice: Level 6
> STR: 6
> DEX: 10
> INT: 13
> SPI: 17
> VIT: 10
> END: 10
> Free Points: 0
>
> General Skills:
> Pain Resistance (U) Level 2
> Meditation (C) Level 2
> Mana Perception (U) Level 2
>
> Acquired Skills:
> Barrier Craft (R) Level 3
He decided to spend his points rationally, rather than continuing to spend it all in his Spirit attribute. This isn’t a game where he needed to min/max his character, strengthening his pros and weakening his cons in exchange.
Both Mikella and Zeke learned that having more damage and higher resources doesn’t always help. In fact, the arrow that struck his knee two days ago still sent ghost aches throughout his whole leg, proving just how wrong that thinking was.
One single mistake and he could end up losing an entire limb. Having more Strength for power, or Spirit for magic won’t count for anything if you’re out of limbs.
So this time, he spent all his remaining free points into his physical stats–at least the ones that made sense. He put points in Dexterity to move better, and to his Vitality and Endurance for obvious reasons. Strength was pointless for him.
As a man, this made him slightly anxious, but he put aside his pride for survival. Thanks to that, he never felt better.
His body felt nimbler, and his insides felt better and more energetic despite the horrid situation they were at. It was further proof that reaching ten in those stats made a solid difference just like his Spirit did.
Mikella also made her choices, giving Zeke her status just as he gave his own to her to discuss how to best move forward.
> Name: Mikella Ashton
> Race: Human
> Novice: Level 6
> STR: 14
> DEX: 16
> INT: 6
> SPI: 5
> VIT: 10
> END: 11
> Free Points: 0
>
> General Skills:
> Sword Mastery (C), Level 2
> Pain Resistance (U), Level 1
> Meditation (C), Level 2
>
> Acquired Skills:
> Acrobatics (R) Level 1
She decided to put her points into Vitality to increase it to ten, and the rest into Strength. Since she gained Dexterity from Sword Mastery, it was possible she’ll gain even more on the attribute later on, so it was better for her to gain more power to hit harder.
Since their skill levels also gave them attribute improvements, it was decided to focus on other attributes where it was harder to gain. He also knew that spending points was better than trying to train his stats in this situation–where they don’t even know when and how they will get attacked.
They kept walking forward through the corridors that went on without end. Mikella kept pace at the front and Clara kept herself hidden behind him as usual.
They’ve been going at this for too long. Mikella’s hair was frazzled, and Clara looked dirty like an abandoned child.
Zeke looked even worse, if he was honest. His suit was ripped and blood stained him all over. He looked like a homeless guy who fought another one to the death for his next meal.
He tried to find out how this castle worked, considering that the last time worked out well after finding the pantry. But his knowledge of medieval castles was lacking as they kept going further down the stairs, hoping to find the entrance.
Thankfully, they had enough fruits and drinking water to last for a while. If they weren’t so dangerously sweet, he would’ve gotten sick of it by now. Still, they can’t go on forever unless they can miraculously find another pantry filled with regenerative fruits.
The atmosphere started to warm up. He sweated profusely, the travel going longer than usual. Then his eyes narrowed.
The hallways somehow gradually changed, the walls becoming dark and rocky like charcoal. His skin felt warmer than normal, and there was that scent of something that burnt continuously without end.
“Hey… hasn’t it been getting pretty hot lately?” She asked, wiping the sweat off her brow while Clara seemed to be fanning herself almost incessantly.
“Yeah,” Zeke nodded. “I thought I was imagining it.”
The hallways changing was a clear giveaway, but the heat made no sense. They must be somewhere in the tropicals to be in this much heat, or perhaps in the desert? He can understand that it might be possible considering everything so far.
But the next few steps forward changed that. The lights that surrounded the hallways disappeared. The hallway now turned cavernous as darkness swallowed them for a mere moment. Soon, a bright red light flashed beyond the corridor from where they were at.
When they approached the seemingly big room with a lot of light, their mouths gaped.
“Well… that might explain it,” Mikella said, the heat sweltering now as the temperature rose up to ten times the amount.
“...You gotta be kidding me.”
The trio somehow found themselves amidst a cavern, and the boiling hot lava that surrounded the entire cavern floor.