Footfalls echoed through the empty ruin passageways as Devon made his way deeper into the mountain. An ancient cluster of pipes, rusted near to oblivion, ran alongside him as he progressed forward.
The deeper he descended into the ruined city the more the place looked like a proper ruin instead of a system of caves and caverns. The upper levels had only retained the shapes of rooms and dilapidated stone fixtures, but bits of metal and other odd bits and ends were starting to become more common.
Devon turned his focus away from the ancient architecture as a skittering rapidly approached from behind. Just as it sounded like it was right on top of him he whirled around and stepped to the side as the ruin crawler barreled past him.
The creature was like a mix between spider and centipede, with five body segments and a pair of long spindly legs attached to each. Of course, each segment was about the size of a lion, giving the thing a body bigger than most surface creatures. As it rushed past Devon swung his trick weapon, currently in the configuration of a scythe, and severed the back two right legs of the creature. It screeched in defiance as it rounded on him.
Activate skill; Sever.
As it once again charged him, struggling to achieve its previous momentum with two ruined legs, he leaped over its head. He landed on the creature's back and delivered a devastating laceration to the joint between the first and second segments of its body. It screeched again and shook violently, throwing him off its back. But the damage was done.
As it once again rounded on him the torsion caused the weakened joint to split apart entirely, bisecting the creature and spilling guts all over the ground. Devon walked up and put the wailing creature out of its misery by bringing the blade of his scythe down upon its head.
It's becoming increasingly obvious why the upper layer of ruins was mostly devoid of creatures. Those more cramped passageways would never have allowed for creatures this big. I wonder if the scaling of infrastructure as I descend is a representation of class division, where the 1% lived in the upper reaches of the city while the majority of the people lived down here in the megastructure. The only other reason I can think of to explain these massive passageways would be that they were meant for some kind of industry or transportation.
Kill - [Ruin Crawler - Level 39] - 156 Talons
[Level up. Scythe Proficiency Level 2 obtained.]
Skill [Harvest] learned.
Finally.
The primary purpose of Devon's venture into the depths was to train and acquire as many abilities as possible before the deadline was up. He had started vaguely hopeful for the chance to gain the last 3 levels to 40 and get an ascension quest, but that hope was looking more and more slim as he grinded through monsters without gaining even a single level.
This was about the only thing left for him to do. With his trademark face swapping trick exposed, there wasn't much more mischief he could get up to within the camps.
Nix had started a rumor in Arkania that he existed and was the one stirring up trouble, but Trey had dismissed it in front of the entirety of Plainstown as a desperate attempt to deny any wrongdoing. Even so, creating more trouble would only invite more inquiry.
And so he worked to refine his skills, both innate and system-bound.
He'd decided to try out the scythe configuration of the trick weapon, but the going had been slow. Frankly, he despised the scythe as a weapon of war. He understood now why people had always been dismissive of the weapon's practicality outside of fantasy. The thing was a tool for farming, not an instrument of slaughter.
Devon had almost given it up completely before he'd gotten the first level of proficiency. At that point he'd felt a begrudging desire to progress so he could see the skill that came with the proficiency. Even if he hated the weapon itself, the proficiency would likely come with a skill that wasn't bound to the weapon specifically, much like how he used the axe skill, Split, on any blade or the hammer skill, Bone Breaker, on any blunt attack.
It'd taken several hours of struggling with the obtuse weapon, but he finally had it. Now all he had to do was test it out.
He gave the ruin crawler one last glance before continuing on. The thing was physical proof that he wasn't the first person to have ventured into these catacombs. Not only had he not received a discovery bonus for the first of its kind he'd killed, but he was also very well aware the system would never have named it something so generous as ruin crawler. It probably would have named it something like 'leggy skitterbug' or something of the sort.
Moving forward, he found his next opponent in a large room that housed some contraption that looked like some kind of foundry in the center. Three ruin crawlers idly picked their way through the dust-covered ruins.
Having the advantage of surprise, Devon switched his weapon to the configuration of a naginata and rushed in, making as little noise as he could. The naginata was his favorite form of the trick weapon so far since it combined the piercing element of the spear and the slashing element of the blade while also extending his reach.
Activate skill; Harvest.
He didn't waste any time, immediately going for the creature's head. Since he assumed Harvest to be a slash-type skill, he brought the blade of the naginata down on the connection between the head and the first body segment.
As the blade connected Devon felt a viscerally familiar sensation course through his being. Then it was gone as the creature was decapitated.
Kill - [Ruin Crawler - Level 39] - 138 Talons
Ah, shoot. I should have thought to hold back a bit.
Even two levels below the average ruin crawler he was overpowering them with ease since his spirit had fully recovered earlier that day, restoring his physical condition.
Well, saying the spirit recovered is maybe a bit of a stretch. It's not like the number has gone back up, just that there are no longer any numbers in parentheses.
Thanks to his stats being wildly overinflated for his level he didn't need to even use a skill to one shot the insectoids. He'd simply been using Sever with his scythe to augment his poor skills with that weapon.
Still, that feeling just now…
There was no mistaking it. Devon recognized the sensation that he felt with the activation of Harvest as unmistakably similar to the clash of spirits he'd engaged in with the enlightened ape, shining silver.
But this was different. The energy he felt flow through his blade was far less raw and primal than what he'd done back then. It was more concentrated, focused through his blade instead of wielded with the precision of a tidal wave.
It also didn't feel as though it had the drawbacks of his previous flailing. He didn't feel as though the attack put any strain upon his spirit and unlike before where he felt as though he was exposed to existence around him, Harvest felt like a one-way stream.
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This is exactly what I wanted. A way to harness the power of spirit in a way that won't rebound back on me and damage myself.
Even with his spirit 'recovered' he didn't dare risk attempting to enter that state of what felt like transcendence again. There were still too many risks and unknowns with it, especially with his spirit being at a mere 6.
He quickly killed the second ruin crawler from the shadows without using any skills. Then he went to the third and experimented with Harvest extensively. He wasn't going to make the mistake of overconfidence again. Lightning Imbuement II had proven that every skill should be tested before using it.
Harvest cost more than a standard general skill at 40 mana, meaning he could only use it a max of six times if he combined it with the amplification gem to neutralize the cost. The first five slashes he used the skill normally. He found that no matter how deep the cut he inflicted, the skill was still able to connect his spirit to the ruin crawler's to land a spiritual attack. The only exception was when his blade skitted off a piece of exceptionally hard carapace. It seemed the attack needed to cut flesh to connect the spirits.
The creature died on the sixth attack when he used the amplification gem. It collapsed in a heap, with eyes that seemed as though they'd been burned out.
As the creature had accumulated wounds it had grown sluggish and its attacks dulled. This behavior matched what Devon had felt in the battle against the shining silver, whereas his spirit had been depleted his physical attributes had been dragged down simultaneously.
Devon couldn't deny a feeling of slight dissatisfaction with the skill. It had cost his entire mana pool to bring down a monster with spiritual attacks that he could kill without relying on mana at all.
Well, that's probably more the fault of my paltry spirit than any flaw of the skill. I wish I had empirical data on the strength of an unenlightened monster or human's spirit.
Also, he couldn't deny that it had viability as a debuff-type attack once his spirit recovered. But until then it probably wouldn't be worth using.
He could likely approximate the strength of other's spirits if he entered that state again, but since he was unwilling to take that risk he would simply have to continue in ignorance.
Still, it was a little worrying that Harvest was a general skill. That meant anybody could pick the skill up and utilize spiritual attacks. He was willing to bet that even somebody who hadn't awakened their spirit could use the skill, though they likely wouldn't understand its function on the level he did unless they had guidance.
At least, any other human wouldn't understand its function. Though, he hadn't heard of any humans who'd even tried using the scythe. Most of the tutorial's humans saw general skills as inferior to their unique class skills. They were still used, but there were very few others who relied on them as Devon did.
Of course, that didn't mean the overseers wouldn't know about Harvest. But even if they did, it didn't seem like they preferred its use. The vishan he'd fought in the forest had used a class skill and Eve hadn't mentioned Kal'o Kir using any strange attacks.
Devon continued on with his exploration. No matter how much he'd like to continue experimenting with Harvest, he'd run out of mana and would need to wait for it to replenish. He used a map token before choosing which route looked like it would take him ever deeper.
His goal was to see how deep the ruins went, and how much of the island's subterranean area they covered. It had taken him several hours to reach a depth that reached about the base of the mountain. He looked over his map of the entire island in a 3D view before deciding to head towards the central part of the island while spiraling down. If the ruins spread out under the forest and plains as well as the mountain he wanted to know.
As he descended the structures around him became more and more alien as the megastructure twisted around itself. There were great big chasms and rooms whose purpose he couldn't possibly understand.
He walked through an upside down dome with thousands of rusted tubes laying across the floor leading to hundreds of small passageways. There were great big cylindrical rooms with pillars made of some black material that remained perfect even after the eons it had endured.
Several small dens of monsters were cleared out as he progressed, but that elusive level up still evaded his grasp. Potential was a massive boon, but the rate at which he leveled was absurdly slow. He wished there were level 45-50 creatures to farm, but the highest level he encountered was 40.
There was a space so massive he could hardly believe the rest of the city above could be supported with such a cavity in its depths. No matter how far out he sent his little Light, he couldn't see either the far wall or the ceiling of the room.
Rusted metal wires hung suspended over the emptiness. He idly severed one of them close by, sending it down into the unknown. The alien sound of the wire echoed only twice, once off his own wall and once from below. He waited for a full minute for the echoes from the other walls to reach him, but when they never came he turned away from that place.
Even if he knew the floor of the massive place was close by, the eeriness of that space compelled him to turn back. There was no telling what lurked in that deep darkness, that fathomless abyss.
He lost track of time as he ventured further and further down into the unknown. There were two terminals he passed, their soft light giving the illusion of bastions of safety within the endless darkness of the dead earth. He passed them by without stopping, pressing on to map as much of the subterranean labyrinth as he could.
Perhaps the most noteworthy discovery was what looked like a room full of a series of what were once likely glass vats, or perhaps pods, along the walls. Each of them were shattered, and their contents all lay in various states of dilapidation, but what was interesting was that they didn't seem nearly as worn down as the rest of the odd bits and ends he'd seen throughout the ruins.
He poked through one of the piles and discovered a sliver of metal with a bluish haze to it. When he examined several other piles he found similar pieces of the metal. He dug through it all and collected as much of it as he could.
Well now I finally know where Zane got his sword from. No doubt he or somebody else from Arkania delved down here and found another similar cache of this stuff. I don't have any use for it right now, but since it's clearly a cut above every other kind of metal within the tutorial I'll hold onto it.
When he'd collected everything he could find he moved on. Eventually, he saw light as the end of a twisting passageway.
Approaching it, he saw the ruins give way to open air. The view of an ocean spread itself before him and he couldn't help but marvel at the sight, especially with the bottoms of other islands visible suspended in air. He couldn't see the tops of any of the other islands, but it was a gorgeous sight nonetheless.
He was forced to quickly leave when he heard the buzzing of insect wings outside. It seemed like there was a nest of flying monsters attached to the outer shell of the island, and Devon didn't want to pick a fight so close to the edge.
So he wandered. He explored the depths as best as one person could, trying to cover as much ground as he could. Whenever he found a new terminal he used it to teleport back to Plainstown and get some rest before continuing onwards.
As he'd suspected, the ruins spread out underneath both the forest and the plains. He wondered if there were entrances to the subterranean structures through natural dungeons in the overworld biomes, like the mountain den had been.
Didn't Eve say she got stuck in some kind of ant nest? I wonder if that place was also formed from the ruins beneath the plains.
After more than a day of wandering he came across something truly extraordinary.
It was another large space. Not as large as the one he'd avoided before, but still gargantuan. However, from the center of this place came a dazzling light that illuminated most of the area.
Devon made his way towards that light across dilapidated bridges and platforms that cast shadows on the walls around him. He stayed cautious of the light being a monster's trap and remained on his guard, but as he drew closer he felt an immense pressure emanating from the light that he doubted a creature of the tutorial could exude.
As he approached he realized the light was not one solid object, but a group of large orbs that floated above the chasm below. He didn't know why, but Devon intrinsically felt that the pressure they gave off was magical in nature, like a sixth sense he'd acquired since being tethered.
He looked at his map and realized he was close to the dead center of the island.
These things are like balls of pure magical energy. Are they what's holding this massive chunk of land in the sky? I'm incredibly curious what would happen if I took one but I don't really want to risk us all falling out of the sky because I was just a bit curious.
Devon continued exploring. And killing. And exploring. And killing. Until finally he got the notification.
[Level up. Level 38 acquired.]
As good as it felt finally gaining a level after so much time, Devon couldn't deny he was a bit peeved he wouldn't have the opportunity to at least reach level 40 before the end of the tutorial.
He felt he desperately needed that powerup. Not because his physical stats were very lacking, but because his spirit was still far below what he wanted it to be. Even if two levels worth of spirit wouldn't power up Harvest substantially, he wanted more than a bare minimum to rely on.
So, the little schemer desires power, does he?
Devon froze. He wouldn't ever mistake this otherworldly presence, the same one he'd felt when he'd accidentally triggered the scheme to destroy the system.