The trek up the cavern and outside wasn’t that eventful now that all the hostile monsters had been cleared. Something Tyler was thankful for. He would hate to have to fight more Lodytes on the way up, he was tired and sweaty. He supposed he should get a drink when they returned to the village. Then he would get some sleep and shop around for some kind of Intelligence potion or something. He wanted to get to 100 in that stat before he attempted a breakthrough.
As he walked, Tyler thought about the vision he had witnessed when unlocking hsi first Dao. It was scary, that amount of power. To think a single creature born from the simple act of dropping what he assumed was a monster core could reach the point of eating and consuming a planet and turning it into a wasteland. Not to mention the attack that had LITERALLY busted a planet open like an egg. He didn’t wish that on anyone. Okay maybe the Church. But was that being petty? Nah.
Still, the idea of having that much power was tempting. If he could reach those levels maybe he could somehow return to Earth and see his family again. Agha and the Duergar were nice, and really they were. But he still missed his mom and siblings. But if he wanted to do that, he had to climb fast but also carefully. He didn’t want a repeat of his betrayal at the church. He also couldn’t stick around for decades trying to ascend. He needed power.
Tyler’s thoughts were broken as the town came into focus. Unlike last time, the guards just waved the group in, instead of asking questions or, you know. Doing guard things. SO that was nice he supposed. Regardless, his eyes roamed around the buildings looking for some kind of shop that sold potions or whatever. Thankfully, he passed by what he could only assume was an Alchemy shop of some kind, going by the sign that had a mortar and pestle along with the smell of strong pungent herbs that wafted by his nose as the group passed by. He’d have to check that out.
Eventually they made their way to the makeshift town hall, and after climbing the stairs they met with Agha’s father once more. The burly duergar man had a small smile on his face as he hugged his son and daughter, then gave the rest of the party a firm handshake before speaking.
“Ah, ye are back already, I take it you have finished the quest then?”
Desha took over, acting as the speaker to recant the small battle they had in cleaning the…dungeon? It must have counted as one since his title had been updated, but he wasn’t sure. Still the errant thoughts in his mind were pushed aside as Desha shook Otrig’s hand. Once that happened, a system prompt showed up in his vision.
You have completed the quest: [Lodytes Among Us]
Reward are as follows:
Uncommon Class Lootbox
Shadowsteel Ingot
XP
Due to being at a bottleneck, XP is lost to the ether. Due to having no spatial storage device, items will be deposited on the ground.
Sucks to be you, huh?
Better cultivate before gaining any more experience.
Oh and get a spatial bag or something.
Who knows, I could spawn a volatile explosion potion next time.
A rough copper chest roughly the size of a basketball hit the ground at Tyler’s feet, making him jump slightly. Next was a heavy ingot of black metal that clanged atop the chest, then tilted forward to hit the ground. Everyone looked at him, making Tyler give a wry smile.
“Sorry, System is a bit of a dick…”
That made everyone chuckle as Otrig spoke up. “Aye, the System notifications are different fer everyone, but if it’s being particularly snarky, then ye must have pissed it off. Just gives credence to the thought that the System is a living entity of some kind. Regardless, I hear you’ve reached a bottleneck?”
At Tyler’s nod, the Chieftain continued.
“Ye should know some things then. To break through ye need to enter your deepest parts during meditation and locate yer core, which should be a gas of mana. Then you need tae force the mana tae condense and form it into water. Ye also need treasures and a decent enough chamber of sorts. Given what I know of yer build, probably go tae the caverns. It’s dark and damp enough that it’ll be better than trying to break through one of our chambers, as they are all fire and earth attuned. Though given that ingot the System gave ye, ye should have more than enough to break through the first barrier if ye combine it with the elemental manacles ye got.”
Tyler hummed as he thought about the advice he was given. It was sound advice, but he really wanted to see if he could get his Intelligence to a hundred before that.
“Thank you, for the advice but I have a question. I passed by what I assume is an alchemy shop of some kind, do they sell stat boosting potions?”
This time Oren, the cleric, spoke up with a grin on his face. “Ah, ye must be talking about Jeff. Aye, he probably has a few, though physical boosting elixirs tend tae be sold out.”
With that, Tyler expressed his appreciation and the group chatted some more with Otrig before the chieftain dismissed them all, mumbling something about incoming delegations and whatnot. Eugh, politics. There was no way that Tyler was gonna get roped into that. Instead, he bid them all a farewell, promising to take Agha out on a date after he breakthrough, much to her slight blushing and everyone else’s chuckles.
Tyler exited the Great Hall, or as quickly as he could given his arm was carrying a fucking lootbox. He had shoved the Shadowsteel Ingot into his backpack, but the chest wouldn’t fit so he decided to carry it for now. Another thing to add to the list, get lodgings to store his stuff. Man, his list really kept piling up, huh?
Eventually he found his way to the Alchemy Shop and looked around. It was a quaint stone building similar to the Runesmithery, but made of simple stone. Various shelves made of the same type of material held potions, bottles, and bagged ingredients he assumed were used for brewing said concoctions. Tyler vaguely wondered if he could pick up Alchemy, but shook his head at the thought. He was never all that good at Chemistry back on Earth. Instead, he rang the bell on the counter and waited to purchase.
Eventually, a Duergar man in an ensemble of leather armor with a matching smock exited the backroom where Tyler could smell something brewing. He looked at Tyler with a critical eye as he spoke. “So yer the tall-man that’s been making waves, huh? What can I get fer ye today?”
“Well, I am not too sure about making waves but I’m looking for something to boost my Intelligence, I’m nearing a hundred and I wanna hit that point before I attempt to break through.”
The duergar, Jeff, hummed in acknowledgement before he went over to one of the shelves, waving his hand over a rune to make the shelf slide down to his height. Then he grabbed a long bottle shaped with a long neck and a small bottom. Something Tyler vaguely recalled being called a volumetric flask or something similar. Jeff placed the elixir on the counter and looked at him.
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“One Intelligence Elixir, will add 15 raw points towards your Intelligence attribute. Keep in mind that ye cannae just down potions to boost yer power. Each Tier ye are limited tae gaining a maximum of 200 points from potions. The rest will have tae be gained the normal way or from studying toms and whatnot for hours. That’ll be seventy silver.”
Tyler balked at the price, and tried to haggle the man down. But Jeff simply told him that it was the lowest he could offer, as procuring the ingredients for the item was a lengthy endeavor. So with a pain in his soul, Tyler forked over the money, leaving him with only a handful of silver and copper. He gave the Duergar a begrudging thanks and grabbed the potion before leaving the shop. It would be dark soon and he wanted to make the breakthrough as soon as possible.
Sometime later, Tyler found himself in the bottom most part of the Smokesong Caverns. Around In front of him were the items he needed to help with this task and he used Analyze.
Water Elemental Manacles
Type: Armament
Rarity: Uncommon
Description: A pair of arm bands commonly worn by elementals. As this was worn by a water elemental, it holds some semblance of water affinity and contains some of the creature’s Historum.
Cannot be equipped by a non-elemental.
Shadowsteel Ingot
Type: Processed Metal
Rarity: Uncommon
Description: A steel ingot typically created in a dark-attuned forge and left to sit in a mana dense area for months. Has a variety of uses in blacksmithing, enchanting and alchemy.
The items were okay, Tyler supposed. He would have liked to get rare items, but he knew that…well they were rare. So he imagined procuring such items would just be stalling. Not that he knew what it would take to find such items. He looked at the vial in his hand and pulled off the cork stopper. The scene of sour berries and tepid meat filled his nostril and he almost gagged. Still, he wanted to test a theory, and while he was sure he could ask around he enjoyed finding things out himself.
Holding his breath, Tyler lifted the elixir to his mouth and drank. The taste was just as bad as the smell and he gagged a bit, but let the fluid slide down his throat and into his stomach. Nothing happened for a minute or so before it felt like his brain was on fire. Tyler withed and shouted in the cave, the pain increasing more and more until he blacked out. When he came too, he read the System prompts.
You have consumed: [Lesser Intelligence Elixir] x1
You gain fifteen points to your Intelligence attribute.
Congratulations have reached the first threshold for an attribute. Because you have reached this threshold while in Copper Tier, rewards are increased.
New Title:
[Mind Over Matter]
You have pushed beyond normal limits by investing so much into Intelligence. Try not to explode things with your mind.
You gain:
+25% experience gains for skills.
+10% Reading Speed
+10 Mana Regeneration Rate outside of Combat Zones
Additional Reward:
+20% Effectiveness with Intelligence-related tasks and abilities compared to the average person.
Tyler groggily pushed himself up as he read the notifications. Well, that was…good he guessed? He was glad to see he had gotten a reward for forking over his silver. Still, was the second threshold two-hundred? He somehow doubted that.It was probably much higher but he’d have to research it. With the boosting out of the way, he swiped the notification away and sat cross legged in a lotus position. It was time to take Otrig’s advice.
It took a few minutes but eventually, he sank deep into himself as he let the soft dripping and bubbling of the now fresh water of the cave soothe him into a slight meditative state. As he did so, he spread his mana out like tendrils similar to [Grasping Tentacles], hooking into the manacles and the ingot before him. There was a slight hum as the items were dissolved and taken into his body in a strange esoteric fashion. But that wasn’t his focus.
Tyler was back in his makeshift Soulscape and looked around as he stood on the circle before him, patterns of his skills glowing slightly below representations of his Spell Cards. He focused hard and eventually found a small connection off in the distance above him. He assumed this was his core and flew upwards towards it. It took some time but he eventually found what he was looking for. A vast cloud of mana stood before him like a blue nebula. Beside it were small clouds of dark purple and cyan, likely the remains of the manacles and Shadowsteel ingot. Using his Will, he followed the Duergar Chieftain's guidance and pushed.
The cloud slowly started to spin like a tornado and he commanded it to shrink. Doing so made his entire body hurt but he kept onwards. He molded the gas with his mind, catching stray bits of it that tried and failed to escape his grasp. This was his body, his soul. It would follow HIS will and not its own. The closer Tyler got to compressing the gas down the more his Soulspace seemed to shake. Finally, after a long amount of time, he compressed the majority of it into a small bead of liquid mana, But it didn’t want to hold.
Tyler started panicking, but he gritted his teeth even as the outside effect on his body made blood pur from his nose and ears. He grasped the other clouds of mana and pushed even harder, commanding the gas to form a rim of sorts. Both became circles that turned into gimbals to keep the volatile mana from exploding back into gas and with a final effort he felt something click in his soul and the rings of gas started to slowly spin around the ball of liquid contained in gas like asteroid belts. Or perhaps a Gyroscope.
The whole of his Soulspace shook again once more as the rings spun faster and faster around the blue droplet of mana. But it held and a resounding thrum of power escaped from him and into the outside world. He was then shoved out of his Soulspace and back into his body as he coughed and gagged. Black slime covered his body and he grimaced as the smell of impurities overtook him. Thankful there was some water nearby so he decided to wash himself off the best he could. If he did this again, he would need a change of clothes, of that he was certain.
Once he felt he was sufficiently clean, he looked at the system prompts before him. These were bordered in a copper color around the edge.
Congratulations, you have completed a breakthrough from True Tin to Low Copper. You are now Level 30. Looks like you won’t be so useless now, good for you.
You Gain the Following:
+120 Years to Natural Lifespan of 100 (New Max: 220)
+25% Effectiveness of all Attributes
+15% to all resource regeneration rates
+20 to all Primary Attributes
Now that you have broken through, you have unlocked a trait due to your race and class combination. Traits are like skills but have no levels and can only be evolved.
[Void Sight]
Type: Trait
Rarity: Unique
Description: By focusing your mana to your eyes, you can sense the presence of attacks, enemies, and mana signatures in a sphere around you. Size of the sphere increases with the effect of Perception and is doubled in darkness. As a passive bonus effect, you now have darkvision and can see in pitch black spaces as if it was the break of dawn.
System energy rocked Tyler’s body, but this time he took it standing, only feeling a slight pressure as everything about him was moved and remade to be just slightly better. The new Trait was a nice bonus, it meant he could go out at night and train or do whatever really. Add to that an extended life span? Schway.
Tyler simply took in deep breaths as he let himself dry off from his impromptu bath. When he got back to the town, he needed to focus on something other than levels. Namely his skills and profession. It was time to grind.