Golden energy swirled around his entire body for a moment, almost bright enough to make Tyler wince, before the hefty man slammed like a small comet onto the monster with a boom, sending the cracked ground around the point of impact . The shockwave launched the golem at least three feet into the air, and Alex aimed his bow.
“Burst Shot!”
The tip of the man’s bow flashed red before he let loose the projectile. Three copies of the arrow slammed into the golem, sending it spinning slightly as it landed on the ground. It didn’t stay down however, and Tyler decided to act. Feeling his ability, he cried out and used magic for the first time.
“Slow!”
A slight tingle in the back of his head could be felt as Tyler activated the spell for the first time. His mana bar dipped slightly as invisible energy existed from his hand into the staff. His hands seemed to move to an esoteric rhythm as he twirled his staff in a strange manner that was ingrained into him and the tip glowed yellow for a second before a similar yellow glow surrounded the golem. Slow but surely, pun not intended, the rock-like creature’s movement began to grow lazy, almost agonizingly so, as it stood back up and lumbered over towards Daren. It should be noted the golem was already a slow creature, so now that it was affected by the debuff it looked to move like a turtle in molasses. Tyler stood dumbstruck, mostly because of how stupid the thing looked. Seriously, imagine a small child moving towards a super-powered fan and you’ll get the image. While he was staring, Eugene seemed to have finished a spell as the man’s eyes glowed with a hot, heavy fire that leaked from his eyes. Raising his hands high into the air, he proclaimed.
“Yavera’s Ignition!”
Flames seemingly sprouted from the sky and shot down towards the golem. In the span of a single second, the creature was engulfed in a holy fire. The heat made Tyler blink as he watched the golem be subsumed by flames, the hissing and crackling of overheated rocks reaching his ears as before the thing melted into a puddle of molten stone. When the heat and light show died down, there was nothing left but a slowly cooling pile of slag. A rush of energy entered his body and he grunted internally as system prompts spoke itself in his head.
You and your party have slain:
Lesser Stone Golem x1
Bonus experience is awarded for killing an enemy above your level.
Congratulations, you are now Level 4. You have 15 unused stat points.
The sensation cut off quickly though and Tyler breathed a sigh of relief. He looked over his current stats and thought over what he wanted to spend his points on. He could always minmax, as the gaming term was. But he had to remind himself that this was not a game. So he decided to balance out his points the best he could. He put four points into Strength, two into Dexterity, five into Constitution, three into Wisdom, and the last point into Charisma. This brought him to fifteen in everything but the last, which made him grunt mentally. As he acknowledged the new points, his body shivered slightly.
His vision became a bit sharper, his muscles tensed and grew slightly, and he looked at his new screen. His health and mana were now at 130 from the new influx of stats now, and his stamina sat at 124. His Endurance and Perception also seemed to have increased to 12. All in all it was a small but still nice increase. Especially considering he hadn’t done much in the fight.
“Hey kid, you coming or what?” Daren’s voice broke Tyler out of his thoughts just as he closed his status screen.
“Sorry, I was allocating my points.” He stated matter of factually.
The heavily-armored paladin simply shook his head. “Yeah yeah, we’ve all been there. Now come on, we got a few more creatures to kill.”
Rubbing the back of his head in a sheepish manner, he followed the other four as they tread across the large stone room. No time like the present to be power leveled, right?
The next half an hour or so had Tyler panting. About fifteen minutes into the genociding of dungeon creatures, the party had decided to let Tyler start off the fight and take on the golems one on one, only helping when absolutely necessary. It was grueling and if he had ever been in the military back on Earth? Well he imagined this was what it would have felt like. But he had been rejected from service due to having a cheap therapist that forgot to close his case when he was done. That aside, at least the past battles have given him quite the boon, if he said so himself. Tyler took a good look at his system prompts and sat down, as the room was now clear and they were about to head to the door they had specified was tailored specifically for him, whatever that meant. Drinking from a waterskin he was borrowing from Emilia, he went over his prompts.
You and your party have slain:
Lesser Stone Golem x4
You have slain:
Lesser Stone Golem x3
Bonus experience is awarded for killing an enemy above your level.
Congratulations, you are now Level 9. You have 25 unused stat points.
He had reached Level 9, and in quick succession too. He’d have to thank Emilia somehow. It was mostly due to her healing him that he had gotten this far. There seemed to be a detriment to gaining experience if people damaged the enemy alongside you. But since the other three hadn’t really lent a hand, most of the experience was added to only him and Emilia. He should have reached Level 10 by now, but Daren had explained why he hadn’t.
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"The system awards experience based on difficulty and also through system events, quests, et cetera. However there are breakthrough walls that require more than just wanton slaughter. The first one is at Level 10. Then after that they come up every twenty-five levels. How one breaks through is specific to the person themselves, so unfortunately I can’t be of much use to you there. It all comes down to, in the end, one’s Path to Power."
Memory aside, Tyler looked at his unused points. He currently sat at 15 in all stats but Charisma, so he threw one point in there. Then decided to shove 6 into Intelligence, Wisdom, Dexterity and Constitution. The energy of the system crashed into him, less potent than the first time he had leveled, as he accepted the changes. His HP and MP now stood at 194 each, and his Stamina at 165. In tandem, his Endurance sat at 14 and his Perception at 17. He still hadn’t gained an increase in Luck, which soured his mood. But he had more to go over and pulled up his other prompts. He had some skills he had gained as well.
As a result of your actions, several new skills have been discovered.
[Staff Fighting]
Common
Level 1
You have forgotten blade and steel, instead using a simple rod as your weapon of choice.
Damage done with staves increases slightly per level of this skill.
[Dodge]
Uncommon
Level 1
Sometimes the best way to take a hit is to not take it at all.
Chance to dodge attacks increases slightly per level of this skill.
[Combat Casting]
Uncommon
Level 1
Under threat and danger, you still find time to harness the powers of magic.
Ease of casting while you are the target of an enemy increases slightly per level and adds a small bonus to the effect of Dexterity while this skill is active.
[Dodge] is Level 2
…
[Dodge] is Level 4.
[Staff Fighting] Is Level 2.
[Combat Casting] is Level 2.
All in all, Tyler had to agree that it was a good haul. There was honestly something cathartic about seeing your skill and hard work in an easily represented form. Standing, up, he made his way over to his party. Seeing that he was done with his Status Sheet, they five of them made their way down a tunnel that slowly moved lower and lower. The ambient light had become dimmer, their way only littered by small torches as they moved forward. Eventually they were stopped by a large double door with a gold border on the frame. On the door was an inscribed carving of two beasts that seemed poised to fight each other.
One was a large dragon-like creature similar to an Eastern dragon. But where the lower half would be, instead there was a mass of tentacles. On the right side of the door was what looked vaguely like a woman but made of flame with wheels around her body. It should be noted said wheels also had fucking eyes. Just looking at the doors made Tyler shiver for some reason. Instead he turned to look at what appeared to be some kind of raised half column that went to about waist height, he knew there was some word for it. Dias maybe? No, that didn’t quite fit. Seeing everyone’s expectant gazes on him, Tyler simply shrugged and moved forward. Atop the column was an indent in the rough shape of a hand, so he did what any sane person would do and placed his hand on it. He was greeted by a prompt, though this one looked different than any he had seen so far. It was bordered in silver and gold and the color of the backdrop was like marble with the words seemingly etched into it.
Lambda's Pride
Requirements to enter:
Under Level 10
Transmigrant Status
Conditions met.
Do you wish to enter?
Y/N
Well, that was strange but...well. When in Rome, he guessed? Mentally focusing on the prompt as was the standard for interacting with the System it seemed, he pushed a string of mental energy to the Y, or Yes, selection. Immediately, the doors next to him began to creak open as the main eyes of the two opposing entities on the door glowed with incandescent light. Tyler stepped back to join the group, and was stunned when a new system prompt made itself known. This was in a similar vein to the door’s prompt, but had the blue background of the normal prompts. A ringing sound like trumpets could vaguely be heard if he focused. This was...weird. But he looked at the floating box that only he could see regardless of his current thought.
New Title:
[Seeker of Secrets I]
You have taken your first step into the secrets of old, and opened a secret room in a dungeon before breaking through the first hurdle.
You gain:
+5 Endurance
+5 Luck
Seek more secrets and areas like this, Transmigrant, so that you may find the hidden powers beyond your reach.
As a result of your actions, several new skills have been discovered.
[Exploration]
Rare
Level 1
Through deep forests, abandoned ruins and god-sealed doors of the past one can find both danger and reward.
Increases effectiveness of perception when exploring new areas, and chance to find hidden objects, treasures and traps increases per level of this skill.
[Exploration] is Level 2.
…
[Exploration] is Level 6.
Tyler’s eyes stung for a brief moment as the system energy entered his eyes and he was flooded with tidbits of information. Stuff like how to find hidden panels and chests, as well as how to detect traps. It was strange, having information suddenly be downloaded into your brain. He shook his head to clear it, missing the strange looks the party gave towards him. Daren walked forward and slapped Tyler on the back, clearing his head enough so he could focus on the here and now.
“No time for dilly-dallying, rookie. Get your feet moving and let’s see just what’s behind these doors already!”
Daren turned around and led the party inside with Tyler bringing up the rear. When he finally got a good look at what was inside, his eyes widened. It looked like some kind of library, if a bit old and out of use given the physical state of things. Row upon row of books and times lined cases and shelves, going nearly three stories up in some places. Not all the shelves were full however, some were completely empty while others held dust. That, Tyler imagined, had to be the remnants of a book or something given that these piles of dust also contained leather which had yet to fall to the touch of time.
“Fascinating!” Eugene said, bringing Tyler out of his musings.
The fire mage, as Tyler had been mentally denoting him, spread his arms wide, a wild glint in his blue eyes that reached his wide smile.
“To think that under this basic dungeon there was a Dao Repository. Oh imagine the secrets, the techniques, the power!”
Tyler could have sworn the man’s eyes were glowing, but it must have been a trick of the light. He did have a question.
“What the fuck is a Dao?”