“Whew” the bunny thought “that was actually pretty close. If I hadn’t immediately attacked one of the few true gaps in its scales, I might have been toast. I need a stronger attack. Maybe if I can make [WIND BLADE] slice better… What level is [WIND BLADE] right now anyway?”
[WIND BLADE] – [LEVEL 11]
He came up with a new priority goal right then. Spam [WIND BLADE] as much as he could to try and level it. Testing began straight away. Of course, he would make sure to have a least a third of his mana pool available at all times so that if all else failed during another surprise ambush, he could just teleport away. With that decided he travelled to a wall of the cavern and dug himself a burrow. What? He wasn’t just going to carelessly toss around magic willy nilly. There had to be precautions in place for this kind of thing, and on this kind of floor.
And so, he spammed. Never getting too low and always waiting for his magic to refill all the way before he began again. This training skit thing actually taught him something else important too. The more concentrated the mana in the area was, the faster his magic was regained. This was evident as the deeper he went into the dungeon, the denser the mana became. [MANA CONTROL] also assisted in not just managing his magic, but how quickly it was spent and refilled. As such, the level of this skill sky rocketed along with the [WIND BLADE] skill. He spent over a week spamming and waiting, over and over again. It was working. He knew it was working because he could now cut through the [BEHIR]’s scales with ease. He had needed something to eat to keep him going, hadn’t he? So, he had stored the giant monster in [MOGLOG], and then slowly dissected and cooked its meat during his waiting periods. Hot tip, eating magic rich meat also increases the rate at which mana is regained, and it tasted really good cooked, it was like chicken. He knew this because he hadn’t acknowledged and sated his hunger until the second day. Pretty nifty right? Well, anyway, more than a week later he was pretty happy with the results in his skill list.
[MANA CONTROL] – Level 35
[MANA BODY] – Level 9
[LIGHTNING DOMAIN] – Level 1
[PLATFORM] – Level 8
[WIND BLADE] – Level 41
[DISSECT] – Level 7
[LIGHT FLAME] – Level 8
[INTENT] – Level 10
[SCORCH] – Level 9
[TELEKINESIS] – Level 15
The skills had really slowed down during the level thirties, and had nearly stopped altogether once the skill hit the forties. The obvious assumption was that you couldn’t continuously level just by training, in order to progress any further the skill would need to be used in a fight. Made sense. Alright, now he could continue exploring this floor. He hadn’t exited the burrow except to take the occasional drink from the nearest lake, so he still didn’t actually know what the other key monsters of this floor were. After a very boring week, he was keen to find out.
Surprisingly, it didn’t take all that long to figure out. After wandering the banks in no particular direction for ten minutes or so, two of the monsters kept trying to eat him, and the other two types poked their heads out of the water in curiosity. Again, with the similar monsters on the same floor. What exactly was this dungeon thinking. Was it even thinking? Did it think? Never mind for now, he needed to focus on the threats in front of him.
Monster – [BEHIR] – [LEVEL 26]
Monster – [QUIPPER] – [LEVEL 28]
Monster – [HIPPOCAMPUS] – [LEVEL 28]
Monster – [KELPIE] – [LEVEL 30]
Stolen novel; please report.
After observing how the different monsters interacted for a while, he found the dynamic peculiar. This floor had a war going on. The [BEHIR]s were working with the [QUIPPER]s, and the [HIPPOCAMPUS]’ were working with the [KELPIE]s. A [QUIPPER] was just a piranha on steroids, and twice the size. A [HIPPOCAMPUS] had the front half of a horse and the back half of a fish, which was actually very weird to look at. The combination looked like it went together fine, even though it shouldn’t have. That sense of ‘yes but no’ weirded him out. And finally, the last monster, a [KELPIE], didn’t really have the shape of a monster at all. Apart from the fact that its whole being undulated like a ghost with ethereal water constantly running off it without making a sound. The horse creature was only two or three feet taller than the average equine, but its other ghostly features really stood out telling everyone ‘yeah, this ain’t no horse’.
When carrying out his regular, ‘will you attack me’ test, the former two went straight in for the kill. Though the latter two gave similar responses as the [CATOBLEPAS]’ had. They just looked over alert, but when he gave no reason to react, they just stared at him in curiosity and fascination. Well, he’d figured out what his prey would be for this floor. He was going to be feasting on seafood for the foreseeable future.
Over the next few days, there was one thing that resounded in his thoughts over and over again. [QUIPPER]s sucked. They always hunted in swarms of ten to twenty, so you couldn't attack one without attacking the rest, and the meat was ‘meh’. All this work for subpar food. Striking from the narrow banks didn’t keep you safe. The fish would just use their natural [WATER] affinity to bring what they needed for survival with them. At least his [WIND BLADE]s could kill a whole lot of them at once, but was it really worth it?
*DING*
Behir – Level 25 has been slain x2
Behir – Level 26 has been slain
Behir – Level 27 has been slain x2
Behir – Level 29 has been slain
Quipper – Level 25 has been slain x9
Quipper – Level 26 has been slain x5
Quipper – Level 27 has been slain x8
Quipper – Level 28 has been slain x7
Quipper – Level 29 has been slain x4
Quipper – Level 30 has been slain x2
*DING*
[LEVEL UP] You have reached Level 26.
[LEVEL UP] You have reached Level 27.
[LEVEL UP] You have reached Level 28.
48 Attribute points have been distributed according to the natural inclinations of your race.
You have 32 Skill points and 12 Attribute points to distribute manually.
The battle with the [LEVEL 29] [BEHIR] was too close for comfort. The snake wyrm beast had actually bitten off one of his back legs. He had only managed to win by sending several of his strongest [WIND BLADE]s through one of its eyes. He was still healing from that fight and had been extremely pleased when his [REGENERATION] skill had unlocked. The skill was now [LEVEL 4] and had regrown about half of his leg back so far. The sensation was way too itchy, so he had put off fighting for now and holed up in his premade burrow, just waiting to be back in tip top shape.
While waiting, he placed five of his spare attribute points into [INTELLIGENCE] and [WISDOM]. The last two went into [VITALITY]. He was kind of hoping that raising the stat would help him heal. Maybe it did slightly. He wasn’t sure. The time also gave him the opportunity to test out something.
*DING*
You have been offered the [NAME] [ROGER].
Accept?
[Y/N]
*DING*
[UNNAMED] rabbit has accepted your name suggestion: [ROGER].
[PROCESSING]
Your Title: [VISCOUNT] gives you the ability to name any being below or equal to your current rank.
A [NAME] increases a beings Attributes by 15%. The amount increased is not set and resets each level to allow a constant 15% increase of stats even as the being grows stronger.
Do you wish to sacrifice 10% of your attribute points to name the rabbit [ROGER]? This is a one-time sacrifice and does not reset as the named being levels.
[Y/N]
You have 375 Attribute points total
36 Attributes are required in order to [NAME].
Select which attributes to sacrifice:
STR – 63
VIT – 17
AGI – 62
DEX – 62
CON – 62
INT – 35
WIS – 35
CHA – 20
PER – 19
You have chosen to sacrifice 13 [STRENGTH], 7 [AGILTY], 7 [DEXTERITY], 7 [CONSTITUTION] and 2 [PERCEPTION] in order to [NAME].
Confirm?
[Y/N]
It worked. It actually worked! The loss and rise of attributes happened at the same time making it feel even weirder than usual. The decrease in his attributes was shown on his status screen, but the increase wasn’t. The only proof of his new power was the rush of strength in his body and the notification that came through.
You have been [NAMED] [ROGER].
All attributes increased by 15%.