Aurelian backpedalled furiously from the now-awakened undead and promptly fell backward on his arse, kicking out with his foot and impacting the skeleton solidly in the process. It felt like hitting a wall. A very undead, bone white, and pissed off wall. Panic threatened to seize him, and he teetered on the brink of straight screaming like the inner twelve year old within him wanted to. A flicker of stubborn will, however, caught alight somewhere in his no-longer-monkey brain and instead, his Iron Will smothered the rising terror like a blanket over a nascent flame.
Iron Will is now Level 7!
His lessons from years prior when first learning martial arts came back to him, and Aurelian acted on them immediately: he put some distance between himself and his opponent. His legs came in under him and he pushed himself hastily to his feet, glancing at the door and then back to the now-rising armoured skeleton. Its movements were jerky and unnatural, as if it were a puppet being lifted on strings, but Aurelian barely had time to register the oddity of it.
Before the creature could attack him in earnest, he retreated back toward the doorway and paused at the threshold. For a long moment he considered just slamming the door closed and locking it, but the realisation that he might only be delaying the problem held him firm. Even if he did succeed in shutting the door, he had no guarantees that would be the end of the matter. The skeleton was, he had to assume, perfectly capable of just scratching away at the wood until it made a big enough hole to step through, or of using one of the many, many weapons littered around the room to smash through the obstruction given enough time.
There was a chance the door was metal beneath the wood, but that seemed far too implausible and impractical for a medieval society, magical locking mechanisms notwithstanding.
All of these thoughts raced through his mind in the time it took the skeleton to fully gather itself, and in that moment that it did; Aurelian came to a final decision.
Fight.
He gripped his runesword in both hands and fixed his stance as he’d practised, allowing his Longsword Mastery skill to guide him while he prepared for the skeleton to advance. The creature stared at him for a long moment as if assessing him, its burning gaze fixed on him… and on the sword in his hand. A sudden and impossible wail erupted from its mouth that made the hairs on the back of Aurelian’s neck stand stiff, and he stared at it in disbelief.
“Dude, you have no vocal chords!” He said without thinking.
The skeleton responded by charging him.
Aurelian felt himself seized with fear for a crucial moment, until Iron Will once again suppressed the urge to run, and he let loose the breath he hadn’t realised he’d been holding. Once more he leaned into his Longsword Mastery, and followed his quiet instinct to step toward the charging skeleton. As a result his blade was perfectly positioned for an acceptable, but far-from-elegant slash at the creature’s armoured torso.
His sword parted the steel of its breastplate like a hot knife through butter, and the skeleton within was cut down with no more than the sound of suddenly collapsing, no-longer-animated bones.
Aurelian raised his eyebrows in shock, and then grinned to himself. “Well shit, that was ea—!”
“El… ys… ean…!”
His eyes lifted slowly toward the sudden noise, and he spotted several new pairs of acid green eyes within the sunlit room.
“Me and my big mouth…”
When more skeletons began to rise, Aurelian decided to take the initiative.
He had made worse decisions. Like entering the fucking room in the first place.
Moving forward with a burst of mad courage, he veered straight for the rising, tangled form of one of the skeletons and twisted his sword in his grip to bring it down and straight stab through the creature’s spine, feeling the tip clang against the stone floor. This time however the undead didn’t fall apart, and instead Aurelian yelped as bony fingers closed around his ankle.
Then they started to squeeze.
Pain exploded from his leg and Aurelian let loose a wordless bellow of rage, pulling out his sword and cutting down at the skeleton’s extended arms. He severed them neatly at the elbow, and the moment he did the hands gripping his left leg crumbled to pieces. “So why did that w—the head! Always go for the head!” He almost wanted to hit himself when he realised the obvious, but chose to hit the undead wanker instead.
His runesword came down in a novice-if-acceptable slash and severed the creature’s head from its spine, killing whatever magic had kept it animated.
“Alright you fuckers,” he said as he turned to the dozen or so remaining skeletons, “it’s Evil Dead and I’m Ash fucking Williams!”
Ignoring the fact the reference was likely lost on the small pack of bony nightmares he was abruptly charging toward, Aurelian put the surreal insanity of his situation aside as he thundered into the ranks of assembling skeletons. His runesword rose and fell, and he cleaved the head from the first armoured foe rising to meet him, kicking away the suddenly inert bones — armour and all — and lifting his blade in an upward slash to deflect a clawed hand reaching for his throat.
Three bony fingers spun away, drained of animation, and Aurelian trusted in his instincts and darted backwards out of reach of a second arm. He landed on his left foot and then pushed off of it to balance on the ball of his right, and viciously sliced the creature’s head off. He shouldered it away after he was done and then backed up when two skeletons came at him at once.
Aurelian looked between both.
“Hell with it.” He growled while adrenaline, fear, and most surprisingly exhilaration burned through his system. He attacked the first undead even while exposing himself to the second, and snarled in pain at the searing feeling that followed the flesh over his ribs being raked by skeletal fingers.
Condition: Bleeding (Minor)
He ignored the blinking warning on the right of his vision and finished his assault on the first of the two undead: slicing the edge of his runesword through its neck and collapsing the animated bones. He immediately turned to the other fiend after dispatching the first and abruptly froze for a moment, finding himself facing three instead of one. He scrambled backwards with a grunt when his torn flesh made itself known, and realised his error.
He had assumed all of the skeletons would rise slowly, and had become surrounded.
Aurelian glanced across the room at the far corner, and a desperate idea formed into his head. “Come on then!” He shouted at the shambling group of — a number popped into his head without him needing to think — nine enemies and turned on his heel.
The skeletons pursued when Aurelian sprinted to the far corner before turning and waiting for the undead to stagger after him in their macabre puppet-like run. When they crossed the better part of three quarters of the distance, he turned and ran across the room to the next corner, flinging every bit of discarded armour, pottery — maybe he really was Link! — and weaponry he could find. None of it had a major effect, but it did sew some measure of chaos into his pursuers.
They were not nearly as agile or aware as living creatures, and so did not remember to watch their steps. Every piece of detritus he grabbed and threw became an impediment to their advance, and even if only briefly; it started to stagger their approach.
Aurelian again waited until they were almost on him before sprinting to the next corner to the left of where he’d entered the chamber, and with the door behind him and to his right. This time he started hurling even more debris, and grinned savagely when more than one skeleton took a tumble as a result of twisted limbs.
With three on the ground and six chasing him, he advanced to the next corner — this one with the door behind him and to his left — and once again repeated his tactic of hurling every piece of loose debris he could find, including the deanimated bones of former skeletal enemies. This time two of the pursuing undead went down, and subsequently entangled themselves with the three that had stood up to resume the chase; taking all five down together in a stroke of luck.
What remained was four charging skeletons, each one separated from the other by about two seconds of motion.
He could work with that.
Aurelian stepped forward into the charge of the first skeleton, ducking under a grasping claw and driving his blade up into its chest. He received a vicious slash across his spine as a reward, but ignored it in favour of putting his strength behind his runesword and tearing it upward. The skeleton almost exploded into bone shards and bisected armour when his blade erupted from its neck and sent its skull flying.
With no time to wait, Aurelian exerted three quick bursts of motion toward the corner he’d started his mad ploy in and then turned, slashing out with his blade in a somewhat less-than-refined arcing strike at his next approaching enemy. He overjudged the angle somewhat, but luck was on his side and he managed to just barely connect with its spine; severing it at the ribs and promptly smashing his sword down onto its skull to finish it off.
With the next two coming at him and the other five not far behind, Aurelian turned and raced back to his starting corner to repeat his new tactic.
Blood staining his shirt, stamina diminishing, and heart pounding he made his stand.
Again.
And again.
And again.
Ruined pieces of armour, already-smashed pieces of pottery, loose limbs and as many awkward pieces of bone as he could get his embattled hands on sailed through the air at the undead. Each time he paused, he did so only long enough to cut down another enemy in a quick, frantic sequence of haphazard sword strikes before moving to the next location.
By the time he was down to the last two undead, Aurelian was a sweating and bloody mess.
Two sets of claw marks bled on his chest, he’d received two cuts to his right cheek, and his left arm was covered in blood from a shallow stab into his bicep. Still he met the oncoming undead with a haggard snarl, reaching out to block an overhead swipe from bony hands with his left arm, and thrust his runesword through the mouth of the creature’s skull.
He didn’t stop there and instead charged forward with the skull still mounted on his blade and slammed it into the body of the final creature behind. With a heave of effort and flying spittle, he tore the blade sideways to obliterate the final skeleton’s ribcage, and then immediately reversed his momentum and swung the blade back around to smash its skull from its neck with a roar.
When it was done, Aurelian stood with his blade in hand, muscles shaking and eyes searching wildly for the next target, while blood continued to trickle down and stain his clothes a more ghoulish shade of crimson.
Suddenly and with an echo of disbelief, he realised he was alone.
He’d done it.
They were dead. Every. Last. One.
Condition: Bleeding (Major)
Aurelian collapsed to his knees when the adrenaline left him, dropping like a puppet with its strings cut. He hurt everywhere, to the point where he'd simply accepted the pain in the course of necessity rather than worry about how it affected him. Now with the battle complete; every cut, every scratch, and every iota of drained stamina and rapidly depleting health caught up to him in a wave of agony and shock.
He wheezed as a chime sounded off in his mind, and his eyes unfocused while they were drawn to the alert.
Strength has risen to 21!
. . .
Strength has risen to 24!
Agility has risen to 9!
. . .
Agility has risen to 16!
Dexterity has risen to 15!
. . .
Dexterity has risen to 20!
Endurance has risen to 17!
. . .
Endurance has risen to 21!
Longsword Mastery is now Level 10!
. . .
Longsword Mastery is now Level 19!
Congratulations, Longsword Mastery has reached Novitiate tier!
You have gained Experience!
Running is now Level 4!
. . .
Running is now Level 12!
Congratulations, Running has reached Novitiate tier!
You have gained Experience!
Pain Tolerance is now Level 10!
. . .
Pain Tolerance is now Level 19!
Congratulations, Pain Tolerance has reached Novitiate tier!
You have gained Experience!
Congratulations, Aurelian Lucis Imperius!
You have met the requirements to unlock the skill Tactician (R)!
Through careful planning and understanding of combat, a true warrior finds a way to outwit and outfight even the most terrible of foes. A true tactician is never unarmed, for their mind is their most dangerous weapon. You have proven yourself to be worthy of such a title, and capable of snatching victory from the jaws of certain defeat through the merit of your ingenuity alone!
Your enemies are sure to tremble before you, Reclaimer!
Tactician is now Level 2!
. . .
Tactician is now Level 7!
Aurelian released a hoarse laugh, but the System wasn’t done. He could barely maintain consciousness, let alone focus; but his Iron Will held him strong. Something inside of him knew he needed to hold on just a little longer. To hope for something, for anything, to help him.
Iron Will is now Level 8!
. . .
Iron Will is now Level 12!
Congratulations, Iron Will has reached Novitiate tier!
You have gained experience!
Congratulations, Aurelian Lucis Imperius!
You have met the requirements to unlock the skill Dodge (C)!
Dodging is one of the most common and critical parts of any combatant’s arsenal. A foe that cannot hit you cannot harm you, and thus your own victory is assured. By learning this skill you have adapted to a harsh and unforgiving law of life in the Realms: The slow often become the dead.
Keep those feet loose, Reclaimer!
Dodge is now Level 2!
. . .
Dodge is now Level 13!
Congratulations, Dodge has reached Novitiate tier!
You have gained Experience!
Aurelian wheezed in amusement at what he was reading. Dodge? Really? He knew he’d avoided some of the skeletons’ attacks, but that seemed more like a cruel joke. He’d taken far more hits than he’d evaded. The System definitely had a sense of humour. It had to. If it didn’t, there was no way in hell it would have been so glib in how it delivered the skill. He would have laughed if he weren’t so damnably exhausted.
Congratulations, Aurelian Lucis Imperius!
You have met the requirements to unlock the skill Durable (UC)!
Powerful are those that choose the path of the frontline combatant, and none more so than those that weather the blows of their foes absent care for the consequence. Your repeated injuries at the hands of your enemies and refusal to succumb have put you within this realm of stubborn heroes.
Break not under the strain, Reclaimer!
Durable is now Level 2!
. . .
Durable is now Level 12!
Congratulations, Durable has reached Novitiate tier!
You have gained Experience!
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
Congratulations, Aurelian Lucis Imperius!
Hidden Conditions Met!
You have managed to defeat foes that should have torn you asunder!
Achievement: In Defiance of Fate
For successfully achieving what should be impossible, you have received the following:
3 x Health Potion
1 x Elixir
300 x Gold
Huge Experience Gain
Aurelian’s eyes widened at the new alert, and he looked around frantically after the message concluded. Already darkness was starting to creep into his vision, and he could see the last dregs of his health slipping away. Desperately he dropped his sword, opening his hands as if in prayer and holding them out ready to receive.
As if it were the signal the System had been waiting for, a small black pouch appeared in his hands and Aurelian quickly pulled it open. The moment his hands wrapped around one of the bottles of red liquid, he dropped the pouch heedlessly onto the remnants of the skeleton below, tore off the stopper in the bottle and tipped it back desperately.
The moment the liquid touched his palate his eyes widened.
It tasted like a chocolate milkshake.
The potion was gulped down as fast as he could swallow it, and when his eyes desperately sought his health bar, he collapsed onto his back in exhaustion. His health had exploded upward, front a barely-there 15 points to an already respectable 90, and it was still rising. He shuddered and groaned as he felt his skin knitting, the foreign objects, dirt, and detritus littering his flesh being forced out as the magical liquid worked at sealing his wounds.
His status condition faded, and Aurelian felt tears in his eyes as he realised how close he’d come to death. Again.
And then he clenched his fists when he realised what he’d done.
He’d looked death in its ugly, acid green gaze… and told it to fuck off.
A savage grin took hold of his features, and he started to laugh with an edge of hysteria. He didn’t care. He had survived. He had survived! An entire squad’s worth of skeletal bastards, and Aurelian had come out on the other side victorious. Alive.
More powerful.
Congratulations, Aurelian Lucis Imperius!
Hidden Conditions Met!
You have fallen to less than 10% of your Health and managed to survive!
Achievement: Too Stubborn to Die
For successfully laughing in the face of your demise, you have received the following:
Title: Survivor
Moderate Experience Gain
+10 Points in Vitality
Aurelian read the achievement announcement with a feeling of exhausted, wry amusement. First the world tries to kill him viciously, and then the System rewards him for almost literally refusing to die. It was hardly his idea of funny, but it was certainly poetically deserved. His eyes trailed over the rewards, and then settled on the middle line. That was strange.
“I wonder if I lev—?”
A solemn gong reverberated through his mind and soul, and alert lit up his HUD.
Congratulations, Aurelian Lucis Imperius!
Through hard work and daring effort, you have beaten the odds and won your first round of life or death combat!
You have been granted a small amount of bon̷̳͗̀͝u̶̧͙͛s̵̬̖͓̃́̎ ̸͓͖̬̜͐̌̏̐E̷̛̙̦͕̊x̸̡̝̖̍̄p̷̛̳͓̈́̏e̸͔̘͌͐̿͊ŗ̵̗͚̠̎i̷̘͕͚̊ę̶̭̹̈́/̴͕̊/̴̛̝̥̎̒̿#̴̨̂̑̒̊ ̴̖̲̯̳͂̍ṫ̸̮͈͝ͅ[̶͔͉̃͜]̷̯̈́̓̌̌ ̶̞̻̥͋̏̉m̶̖̳̩̟͑̒̑;̴̢̞̗̽̀̅̕͜;̵̠̆$̶͓͍̓̎̉͜%̴̲̽̒̋͜ͅ ̶̝͙̈́t̴̰͌̓̓̈́t̸̢͔̯̹̊͛t̸̖̊͑̒͠t̴̨̝̞̜̀̈́̈́͂t̵͔̳̜͑̏́͘—̵͙̱͓̌̃̚̕!̴̻͇̓
ERROR
BLOODLINE DETECTED: ELYSEAN
TITLE DETECTED: RECLAIMER
ENEMIES MARKED AS CRITICAL FOE OF BLOODLINE
ENEMIES MARKED AS CRITICAL FOE OF TITLE HOLDER
EXPERIENCE GAINS WILL BE ADJUSTED
SYSTEM OVERRIDE IN PROGRESS
STANDBY
. . .
Congratulations, Aurelian Lucis Imperius!
Through hard work and daring effort, you have beaten the odds and won your first round of life or death combat! Due to the nature of your foes and their correlation to your own existence, this instance of battle has been elevated greatly in prominence!
You have been granted a massive amount of bonus Experience!
Fight on, Reclaimer!
Aurelian stared at the alert incredulously. “Why do I feel like this is going to su—AAAGGGGHHH!”
His words were cut off as a storm of energy obliterated all sense of reason or comprehension, and a deluge of power burned its way through his system and into his Calamity Core. Aurelian could do little more than spasm on the floor and drag his tortured fingers against the ground as an unending deluge of experience saturated him with enough euphoric bliss to transcend into targeted agony. His eyes rolled into the back of his head, and yet the power refused to let him lose consciousness.
Energy that crushed all reason additionally sustained his mind, and so Aurelian was trapped in a horrific feedback loop of forced awareness and blazing agony that his body logically deduced it needed to black him out to protect him from. He felt his pain tolerance rising even as he writhed, and he couldn’t have cared less about it. Rapturous bliss seared him from the inside out, and he felt as if he were a dam fit to burst. Just when he thought he could take no more, endure no more; his Core found room, and so still the agony persisted.
His body was sundered as if it were tearing itself apart, his muscles almost acting as if they were bursting and repairing faster than he could understand. He felt like he’d somehow sunk more firmly against the stone, as if the energy were pushing him down, bloating him, thickening his form and increasing his weight under the sheer power of the forces wracking his body.
It felt like hours, like days, like entire years before the burning ocean of power finally started to wane; the System’s sluice gates sliding shut and offering him blessed relief from the deluge of energy saturating his unprepared body. When it was finally done, Aurelian lay panting for breath with sweat clinging to every inch of his body, his eyes wide and staring at the ceiling, and his hands curled into fists tight enough to puncture his own skin with his still-trimmed nails.
“That… Fucking… Sucked…” He said breathlessly.
The chime of new alerts almost made him jump in fear.
Pain Tolerance is now Level 20!
. . .
Pain Tolerance is now Level 22!
Iron Will is now Level 13!
. . .
Iron Will is now Level 16!
You have reached Level 3!
. .
You have reached Level 16!
Congratulations, Aurelian Lucis Imperius!
Through tribulation and strife, you have managed to ascend past your limits!
You have reached Novitiate tier!
Hidden Conditions met!
You have defied all expectations and gained ten full levels within your first day in the Realms!
Achievement: Prodigy
For successfully defying all sense of reasonable growth, you have received the following:
Trait: Fast Learner (E)
100 x Gold
2 x Skill Evolution Point
1 x Epic Body Essence Draught
Minor Experience Gain
Aurelian braced himself for pain, and then blinked when none came. Instead a warmth suffused his body, moving through his tortured nerves and leaving behind a sense of soothing relaxation in its wake. He felt both cooled down and pleasantly warm at the same time, and his eyes widened at the difference. If that was what a normal surge of experience was supposed to be, then he truly had received a staggeringly large amount in a very short span of time. His eyes scanned over what the achievement offered, and he settled first on the trait to pull up its information.
Name: Fast Learner
Type: Trait
Rarity: Epic
Description: Awarded to those that prove to be prodigious in some avenue of learning or personal growth.
Effects: +10% to All Skill Experience gains.
Next he reviewed his Survivor title, curious as to what it had to offer.
Name: Survivor
Type: Title
Rarity: Rare
Description: Awarded to those that come to the brink of death and refuse to succumb to its embrace.
Effects: +1 Vitality per level and increases the efficacy of all health potions by 20%.
“Okay, that is awesome.” He said with an appreciative whistle as he read through both. With his mind whirling and curiosity now directed toward his progress with his new additions, he sat up a moment later with care; not wanting to put his already-tortured body through any more hardship if he could avoid it — warm-cool relaxed feeling or not. His eyes scanned the room, and he found his quarry quickly: a small wooden chest lying next to the bag he’d dropped in his haste to gulp down the healing potion.
Before he reached for it however, he realised something else about levelling up: Attributes. A grin stole across his features, and Aurelian quickly brought up his character sheet with a surge of excitement. With the alerts that rampaged through his mind, he knew several of his attributes had levelled, and his title, race, and origin all granted him bonuses too. He was eager to see what that looked like.
Name: Aurelian Lucis Imperius
Temper: Untempered (Purified Novitiate)
Core: Calamity Core (Ignition Stage)
Level: 16 | Race: Elysean (L) | Origin: Nephilim (L) | Gender: Male | Zodiac: Dragon (L)
Health: 520 | Mana: 102 | Stamina: 91
STR: 52 | AGI: 16 | DEX: 20 | VIT: 52 | END: 21 | INT: 14 | PER: 11 | WIL: 60 | CHA: 22
Mind Skills: Revelate (E) 9 | Linguistics (UC) 1 | Philology (R) 3 | Exploration (UC) 3 | Investigation (UC) 4 | Iron Will (R) 16 | Tactician (R) 7 |
Body Skills: Pain Tolerance (UC) 22 | Longsword Mastery (C) 19 | Running (C) 12 | Dodge (C) 13 | Durable (UC) 12
No Spirit Skills
Traits: Fast Learner (E)
Titles: Elysean Reclaimer (U) | Survivor (E)
28% to Level 17
You have 70 Attribute Points Available!
You have 18 Skill Points Available!
You have 3 Skill Evolution Points Available!
Aurelian stared at his character sheet in silence, his eyes dancing between each attribute and skill with a look of quiet wonder on his features. His strength, agility, dexterity, endurance, vitality, willpower, and charisma had all risen; but his strength, vitality, and willpower had gone up meteorically. It made him realise that perhaps the imagined pain of his muscles exploding and reassembling had not been fanciful.
Careful not to overdo it, he rose to his feet slowly and felt the change in his musculature in a way he hadn’t when sitting up. His legs immediately felt more powerful, and his arms seemed intrinsically enhanced to the point where he’d feel confident walking into any gym in his hometown. He also felt denser and more solid, as if he was just that much more immovable and resistant to damage. The change in his vitality was notable in that regard.
On a whim he looked down at his midriff and almost swore in surprise.
His stomach was massively reduced. Only a small bulge remained in its place, and when he placed his hand upon what had been several years of laziness and fast food, instead all he felt was somewhat pliable, taut flesh over a foundation of growing muscle. His eyes drifted from his stomach to his biceps and triceps properly, and Aurelian couldn’t help but reach up to feel himself as he flexed, raising his eyebrows in surprise.
He felt… good. Really good. At only level 16 he felt as if he could confidently take any olympic boxer on Earth in a one on one, and stand a solid chance of knocking them out cold. It was a surreal experience. So much growth, change, and power in such a relatively short amount of time was astounding. Sure he’d almost died for it, but he could understand intimately in a way he never did before why people would pursue levels in the Realms.
If people from Earth ever found out that all the fictional bullshit they wrote about isekai was real, there’d be a global deluge of scientific effort to try to find a way to bridge a gap between… worlds? Universes? He shook his head before he could get distracted. That was an existential and tangential rabbit hole he did not want to go down in that moment.
Instead he looked back at his character sheet, and down at his available points.
It seemed like a lot at first glance, especially the Attributes, until he really examined it. He had nine attributes to level, and only enough points for a full seven in all but one of them, which would instead receive six. That seemed… ill-advised. What he needed was to balance his existing gains with something more… reasonable. The best way to go about that would be to focus on his other physical stats like agility and dexterity, and also on improving his intelligence attribute so he wasn’t… well, perhaps not stupid but certainly lagging behind the rest of his attributes.
He also couldn’t forget his other attribute; perception. Perception very likely controlled his situational awareness and ability to discern things at a distance and proximity, and with how his time in the Realms was shaping up, the attribute would be critical to his survival moving forward.
“No time like the present,” he said with a sigh as his eyes looked toward his sheet, and he set to distributing points.
First he threw an immediate and massive 26 points into his intelligence to raise it to 40, and groaned at the sudden headache that started at the centre of his skull and radiated outward. Dizziness struck him and he fell to his knees, his equilibrium sending him almost onto the floor completely but for his arm catching the ground at the last second. The pain increased rapidly until it hit a crescendo, and then just as quickly started to ebb.
Aurelian reached up and wiped away a small amount of blood from his nose, grimacing as he did.
“Note to self: Do not dump points into your brain if you want to avoid haemorrhagic results.”
He froze a moment after he spoke. How did he know…?
Woah.
Everything seemed suddenly clearer, more easily discerned. It was hard to fully realise what it was he was feeling, other than to say it was elucidation on his circumstances and existence. The points in intelligence had made his mind sharper, more erudite. He felt more capable, and better equipped to process information. Concepts that had seemed overwhelming or frightening now were… less so. The fear was still there, but instead it was mixed with excitement, even a degree of eagerness. To learn. To understand.
It felt good.
He was almost, almost tempted to dump the remainder of his points into intelligence as well — but it was that very increase he’d just had that warned him against it. Not only could it be dangerous for him to do so, but hyper-focusing on one aspect of himself would be… foolish. With his strength as high as it was, he needed to compensate for it. That meant, first of all, increasing his agility and dexterity.
Agility came first and he mentally slotted 14 points into it immediately, marvelling at how much easier it was to interface with the System after increasing his intelligence. It also meant that when the pain started, and he felt his tendons and joints changing and altering, he was already logically prepared for it. His Pain Tolerance flared, and he gritted his teeth against the feeling of itchy insides until it was done, and agility sat at a respectable 30 points.
After that was dexterity, and into that he poured a full 20 of his remaining points. The ability to maintain his hand-eye coordination alongside his increased strength would be crucial to maximising his combat efficiency, and he couldn’t afford to shirk that if he wanted a hope at surviving his predicament. He had only barely managed to kill the skeletons, and even with increased physical power there was no guarantee the next enemy he faced — and he would face another, he was sure — would be any easier to defeat.
The change to his dexterity was less noticeable than his agility, primarily because it didn’t alter the foundation of his structure as much as it added new layers of padding and made certain joints more responsive. It also increased his flexibility, which he felt as a subtle burning across his muscles, followed by a quantifiable change in the elasticity of them. The concept seemed strange, but he understood it nonetheless.
He knew that his ability to bend, shift, dodge, rotate, twist, and more besides would be enhanced. It was ideal for what he needed.
With his last 10 points, Aurelian raised his perception without hesitation. He’d already qualified to himself why it was necessary, and even when his eyes started to burn and ache, and he had to reach up to hold his ears when his drums began to buzz and nausea welled up inside of him from his momentarily damaged equilibrium; he held fast to the logic that had guided him to the decision.
It proved itself worthwhile when the proverbial reconstruction passed, and he looked upon the world with his new perception for the first time. Everything was just… clearer. More defined. It felt like he’d gone up from standard to high definition. The world around him was crisper, the corners sharper, the colours more vibrant. The low light conditions became more manageable, with him able to make more efficient use of the limited light, not unlike a dog or cat. He even spotted new shades of colour he’d never noticed, and spied details — like the writing on the destroyed armour, and golden sunburst branded onto the faded white lamellar plate — he had previously been incapable of seeing.
Aurelian sighed quietly at the changes, and took a moment to revel in them.
He felt… renewed. Emboldened. Better prepared. The flaws in his previous line of thinking were also more readily accessible to his improved intellect. It wasn’t as if he’d gone from layman to Stephen Hawking, but he had certainly graduated from B student to A+ honour roll. Had he possessed his current intelligence on Earth, he’d have easily gone for his PhD instead of settling for his Master’s.
“C’est la vie.” He said simply, looking over his new character sheet once more.
Name: Aurelian Lucis Imperius
Temper: Untempered (Purified Novitiate)
Core: Calamity Core (Ignition Stage)
Level: 16 | Race: Elysean (L) | Origin: Nephilim (L) | Gender: Male | Zodiac: Dragon (L)
Health: 520 | Mana: 180 | Stamina: 115
STR: 52 | AGI: 30 | DEX: 40 | VIT: 52 | END: 21 | INT: 40 | PER: 21 | WIL: 60 | CHA: 22
Mind Skills: Revelate (E) 9 | Linguistics (UC) 1 | Philology (R) 3 | Exploration (UC) 3 | Investigation (UC) 4 | Iron Will (R) 16 | Tactician (R) 7 |
Body Skills: Pain Tolerance (UC) 22 | Longsword Mastery (C) 19 | Running (C) 12 | Dodge (C) 13 | Durable (UC) 12
No Spirit Skills
Traits: Fast Learner (E)
Titles: Elysean Reclaimer (U) | Survivor (R)
28% to Level 17
You have 18 Skill Points Available!
You have 3 Skill Evolution Points Available!
The skill points and skill evolution would need to wait. He didn’t have the knowledge to make educated judgements on those. Despite his still-yearning desire to upgrade and evolve Longsword Mastery, especially now that he could do it theoretically three times, he needed to gather more information before he committed to a course of action. If he hadn’t improved his intelligence first, he realised, he might have just thrown caution to the wind… and that would have been a terrible mistake.
The meat of the concern of course was whether using the points held any penalties. Would it alter his progression? Slow his rate of understanding? It could result in a broken skill or a foundational error in how he actualised himself in combat or elsewhere, and those were risks that — absent appropriate insight — he couldn’t take a chance with. He’d seen too many stories go badly to simply run the gauntlet and hope for the best.
Relieved at his choices and content to let the remaining points lie, for the moment; he instead turned to the other pressing matter that demanded his attention, and let a sly grin creep across his features.
It was time to examine the loot.