Mikella was glad that Myra took the skill instead of her. She didn’t even know about the limits of having those series-like skills, but even then it felt unfair if she got everything just because of a mission forced upon her.
Of course, that didn’t mean she herself didn’t want such a handy looking skill. Being able to increase her power along with her movement speed was always a boon.
But she was even more glad that Myra took it. She would be fine if even Piker took it, honestly. In the end, while having more power for herself was great, having her trusted allies gain just as much power to help her just feels better. Zeke didn't seem to mind either, so she moved along with a better feeling in her chest.
The memory of the fallen before this, however, still filled her mind. She was overwhelmed with so much anger and disgust at the gods, at the angels, and even at herself.
There were only two of them with no other person alive around. If only she and Clara were left there, would they even survive? Even now, she kept relying on Zeke for everything, including the enhanced fruits thanks to his class to gain stat points.
She knew everyone else felt the same way, but she felt it even worse. At this rate, what was the point of her even being here? Zeke could potentially become strong enough to even beat her if she lagged behind some more.
Looking back at her stats again, she definitely improved leagues and bounds, and including her skills, she was already punching beyond her weight.
But she needed more. She didn’t know what, but she knew she needed something. Zeke had found his own path. She was proud of that. So much so that she wanted to find her own path in this world.
Zeke decided to stay as a support mage, but went above and beyond to be able to fight on his own. What can she bring? She was tired of always focusing on combat.
Well, not like she’ll ever get tired. She loves to fight and loves to improve her fighting. She just knows that she needed more than just being stabby-stabby.
She looked back at her status again, this time staring at her Class.
> Name: Mikella Ashton (Overachiever)
> Race: Human
> Dragon Berserker: Level 45
> Attunement: Unbridled Fulmination (Tier 1)
> STR: 223
> DEX: 236
> INT: 53
> SPI: 71
> VIT: 68
> END: 169
> Free Points: 0
>
> General Skills:
> Kinetic Manipulation (R) Level 5
> Mana Perception (U) Level 3
> Sword Mastery (R) Level 3
> Axe Mastery (U) Level 7
> Spear Mastery (R) Level 1
> Bow Mastery (U) Level 2
> Hammer Mastery (U) Level 6
> Pain Resistance (U) Level 9
> Meditation (C) Level 7
>
> Acquired Skills:
> Acrobatics (E) Level 3
> Dragon Eyes (E) Level 2
>
> Class Skills:
> Heavenly Strike Level 6
> Dragon Descent Level 6
> Aerial Advantage Level 3
> Draconic Fury Level 5
> Forced Regeneration Level 5
>
> Title Skill:
> Give me more (Title), Level 1 (Maxed)
Her attributes were impressive now, way more than ever. Having two stats over 200 is proof enough that she can tackle any Journeyman-rank monster with ease, perhaps by herself now.
But it still felt like it wasn’t enough. Like Zeke, she needs to do something that can bring her forward to her own path. The fear of losing herself to her Class Madness was now gone; she had gained enough control over herself to manage her attunement well enough.
So she needed to do something else other than combat… but then, what could she do? She already had 9 General Skills, so she only has one slot left to learn another one. She already planned on trying to fuse all of her weapon skills together, so that was important. She still wasn’t sure what she could get out of it, but it was worth the wait and effort.
Should she pick up a crafting skill? Somehow that felt… kinda pointless? Then again, she needs to do something other than training all the time since, in the end, she has to let her body and mind rest. And what better way to do that than to focus on a crafting skill? More importantly, if she leveled it up little by little, she’ll still gain stat points, and gaining stat points is always a good thing no matter how strong you get.
Exhibit A would include Val, who was still giddy despite years of being a Journeyman staged fighter after gaining more points than she knew what to do with.
She put that thought to the back of her head as they kept going through room after room, finding more loot for the soldiers, just equipment this time, and nothing much else. Eventually, they found themselves at the end of a hall where a double door was there.
This time, it didn’t feel like there would be nice surprises hiding inside there.
“...Could this be where the mini-boss room is?” Mikella asked Zeke who stared up at the doors with his glowing turquoise eyes. He was using his Recovery skill.
His eyes flashed once before returning to their normal brownish color. “Probably. So far, this feels different than any other room we found.”
The rest gathered up behind the two, figuring that they were already knowledgeable enough to find a way for themselves. Myra and Piker have been dealing with the lizards all this while, gaining some levels and learning their skills. Myra’s Athletics was a lot more powerful than it let on, allowing Myra to keep plowing through every Journeyman-rank lizard and burning them to cinders.
Zeke approached the door and pushed them open. With the power from his rune buffs, the double metal doors swung wide open with ease.
The inside of the room was larger and circular than the other rooms so far, decorated with lavish designs on their walls, ceiling, and the pillars that encircled the room. At the near-center was a design of concentric circles that made a step-up towards the center right in the very middle of the room, revealing what looked like a large stone tablet, made in the same coloring and markings as the rest of the room.
That made everyone pause, and knowing his role, Piker was the one that stepped up first. He pulled Zeke to the side, nodding to him before raising his bastard sword and entering inside.
Once the room proved to be safe, everyone went along. The Journeymen hung back so that the Experts could gain further experience, not just in levels but in overall dungeon diving.
As they stepped further in, Mikella and Zeke approached the stone tablet, the only thing that was possibly of interest for them and tried to read it.
Only to find absolutely nothing of worth. Mikella could spend a hundred years and could not understand jack-shit. As for Zeke…
“I can’t read jack shit,” Zeke pointed out, proving that Mikella might have some brains after all.
“So what do we do?” Mikella ventured. There were no entrances here to any other rooms, and no boss in sight. If memory serves her right, they had this situation back then as well, back in the first tower.
Zeke grimaced, realizing what Mikella was intending.
It was then that the stone tablet started to glow, the markings that were gibberish beginning to glow a bright white. The two stepped away when the entire room started to shake, the ground rumbling and shaking which brought Mikella to a panic. Was the tower already cleared and ready to implode now?
Instead, a notification popped into her vision. It wasn’t just her either–everyone looked distantly as a prompt showed up just the same for everyone else.
Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.
> Mini-Quest accepted.
>
> Defeat the Lizardman horde within the span of 10 minutes.
>
> Success: Enter the next room.
>
> Failure: Death.
For once, the damn tower was finally spelling it out for them all. Despite the short, crude, and somewhat manic quest, Mikella was actually thankful for it.
As for the mini-quest itself, it wasn’t that hard to figure out. It was a trap, and it was the basic kind of trap that she often encountered even when she played video games in the old world.
Suddenly lizardmen came out in droves, but what fascinated her was where they came from. Rather than getting out through holes in the walls, or any form of entrance that showed up, they just ‘phased’ through the walls, as though they were just being spawned right here on the map like an actual video game.
Considering how gamey-like their first tower was, she couldn’t really fault it. But it was still so jarring to see something so strange happening in front of her eyes. Were these lizardmen actually alive, or just puppets controlled by the tower? But they also bled, and even showed emotions such as contempt or fear when fighting to the death.
In the end, the monsters slowly grew in number as Zeke already had a barrier surrounding them. Unfortunately, the lizardmen weren’t fucking around. Each one was already hitting the barrier in such force that Zeke actually grimaced, recovering his barrier’s near-broken parts with his mana.
“Guys, these lizards are actually pretty strong,” Zeke said, calling out with a frown. “I can’t do anything else other than keeping up the barrier!”
If Mikella heard right, Zeke actually sounded miffed that he can’t fight. Even though he was doing his job and he didn’t intend to complain, a small smile formed on her lips as Zeke was downright addicted to fighting. Somehow she felt like she was responsible for that addiction.
Putting aside the funny thought, she took the chance to Identify the monsters, and her eyes widened at the different lizards.
> Charging Lizardman, Level 84
>
> Juggernaut Lizardman, Level 90
>
> Berserker LIzardman, Level 87
These lizardmen aren’t messing around. From the names alone, these creatures have enough power to instantly break the barrier if Zeke hadn’t taken the enhanced fruits earlier.
Which explains why he couldn’t do much else but keep them outside. Right now they were inside a radius of a few miles from the tablet, which continued to glow as though it was ticking the timer they were on.
And the timer is what made it complicated. All of these monsters, ranging at least a few hundred within the circular room, would take a while to take down, considering their levels and powered up strikes. With Zeke being kept down like this, they can’t expect an easy support to go through it all.
She noticed in the corner of her eye the Journeymen ready to strike, and somehow, despite being in this situation, Mikella had an idea of her own.
“Guys, can you leave this up to me?”
She spoke to everyone in the vicinity, hearing her out with shock on their faces. Zeke was the first to speak.
“Are you serious?” Zeke said, alarm in his voice. “I know we got strong, but this is too much!”
“I know, but I…” Mikella pursed her lips. “I got a really crazy idea. You know my Heavenly Strike, right? How it can pierce through any defense?”
“Yeah?” Zeke answered. “But that won’t kill every single one here. It only works for a single target, doesn’t it?”
“That’s the thing,” Mikella said, her own tone rising from pure excitement. “I think I can expand on that.”
When that got Zeke to only tilt his head in confusion, Val came forth and placed a hand on her shoulder.
“Go for it, but if things go awry, run back in and let us handle it, right? Surely you don’t mind Cloud taking a few down while you’re doing this, right? We only got ten minutes, after all.”
Mikella nodded. While she wanted to pull off this idea, she wasn’t stupid enough to put aside their quest which literally mentioned their death if they failed. Not that she knew how that would work, but she wouldn't put it past the shitty tower if it just insta-killed them by stopping their hearts or brains or something like that.
With a reluctant breath from Zeke, he opened up the upper layer of the barrier where the lizardmen couldn't reach. While airborne attacks weren't a possibility, he wouldn’t risk it. Mikella jumped straight up with her newly enhanced body, jumping right on top of the barrier with Cloud already beginning to cast his magic.
She could see a whole array of lizardmen, each one ready to strike her down with their bows prepped and ready. It was those archers that Cloud went and struck down first, showing absolute control and precision with his glowing fire spells that struck like homing missiles.
With a breath, she closed her eyes and searched within. If there was a chance for her to improve her standing in a perilous situation, this would be the perfect situation.
She made a fully ethereal hand in her mind and forced it deep into her soul, the confines in which all sorts of powers were nestled in thanks to the system. Zeke had taught her that imagery was important when commanding magic, and there was no better way to picture than to forcibly drag her magic out of her.
With that said imagined hand, she grasped onto her attunement, the raging lightning that continuously flowed through her magical channels like mad. Pulling the now practically charged lightning out, she also pulled out several weapons from her storage pack with her physical hands and tossed them into the air.
The lightning conjured from her body flew forth and grabbed hold of the airborne weapons, each one grasping at another sword, a spear, a hammer, and various other weapons she had collected throughout the temple run as well as from the base camp. Like tendrils, the lightning snaked across the handles and grabbed hold of the weapons, leaving them up in the air fully in her control.
Just barely, though. But this was the true hard part of this entire endeavor. She channeled all her newfound power, her increased Intelligence and Spirit, to pour her will into the weapons, and for each and every one, she channeled her Class Skill and commanded one thing.
Heavenly Strike filled the weapons with their specific mana, but only focusing on the blades where her attunement was focusing on the handles and grips. And she soon commanded them all to kill every single lizardman here.
The weapons flew out throughout the circular room, their blades ramping up with enough energy to blind the eyes of every creature there. It was then that a slaughter of mass proportions ensued.
Each blade gutted every lizardman they could fly through, or swung diagonally with a tendril swinging it like a squiggly long arm. Each warhammer crushed and splattered each skull and brain matter rained like so many droplets of blood.
Lightning flashed and struck, leaving behind powerful noises that could pierce eardrums from miles away. It was a slaughter. It was a massacre that no human being could ever replicate.
It was fucking glorious.
Her eyes were transfixed at the power, at the strength and will poured into each and every one of the weapons she had. Her skills sang in her soul and her mind whirled at the energy flowing out of her. If it was just her a few minutes ago, she wouldn’t even have dared to go this far.
But now she wanted more. In fact, she felt her mind straining from doing this just by standing still. She wasn’t a mage–she was a goddamn warrior. So she pulled out her own sword, the main one she used all the time, and flung herself into the slaughter of her own making.
Whether she managed to kill one lizardman, or had herself protected by a barrier conjured by Zeke, Mikella kept running forth with all her skills working in conjunction, her legs flying through the air and her blade singing along with the sounds of lightning strikes and steel gouging flesh.
A sense of exhilaration, pain, and overwhelming joy filled her as she swung her sword as her soul permitted. Her mind was gone. Any logical sense she had was completely destroyed. Now the only thing left in her was her soul roaring in satisfaction.
She equated fighting Zeke one-on-one to eating a five-star meal at a fancy restaurant. Fighting and killing all the monsters here was like enjoying a feast of massive proportions, nutrition and balance be damned.
But finally, as though the fun was just beginning, it all ended way too quickly.
> Quest completed.
>
> You have gained experience points for completing the quest.
>
> For completing the quest, you have received the following rewards:
>
> 50 Gold Coins
When she finally snapped back to reality, she found herself absolutely surrounded by lizard corpses. Some managed to get away with a clean hit to the head. Others, not so much. Some were practically riddled with holes to the point of looking nothing like how it once did.
She also knew that her weapons showed proof of their kills by how much blood had coated every visible part on them. Though they didn’t actually kill as many as she imagined. There were hints of burnt corpses and other sorts of kills that her weapons controlled by lightning didn’t kill.
In the end, her magic control was abysmal at best, and an insult to any competent mage in her vicinity at worst. She wasn’t afraid to admit that. She’ll only put that down under the ‘definitely needs more work’ category on top of everything else in her arsenal.
She noticed the blinking notifications eagerly waiting for her at the corner of her vision, but she turned to find the clearly surprised and gawking audience waiting for her beyond the barrier.
“...What?” Mikella shrugged. She tried to be nonchalant, but a blush unfortunately made its way to her face. “So I messed up a little.”
She thought they were judging her based on her clear lack of control, but it was actually the opposite. Everyone looked at her with clear shock which soon quickly shifted into nods of approval.
“I’m just glad you’re on our side,” Myra said, eventually putting every feeling they felt into those words. Still, Myra shook her head in clear disbelief. “You know what? I’m done figuring out just how far you’ll go. Just let me know when the next crazy thing you’re gonna do and I’ll just follow along.”
As Mikella and the others discussed her display of power, the mages clearly giving their insights on how to properly navigate her attunement control, the circular room eventually revealed a door at the end from where they were. It showed up as though it phased into existence, and eventually the group went ahead to eventually finish the damn dungeon.
There were two major points they needed to face, and this room marked their last quarter of the journey ahead. But Mikella had a feeling that things would end up just fine with how well things are going.