CHAPTER 11 REACHING FOR THE STARS
After the last time we had come through here I had pretty much gotten accustomed to killing the Moles down here, And after realizing that I had subconsciously been holding myself back I did even better than I expected too.
‘Ping’ [Large Tunnel Mole - Level 31] has been defeated
‘Ping’ [Large Tunnel Mole - Level 9] has been defeated
‘Ping’ [Shock Enthusiast] has leveled 7 > 8 +4 Vig, +1 End, +1 Str, +3 Dex, +2 Agi, +4 Int, +3 Wis.
‘Ping’ [Shock Enthusiast] has leveled 8 > 9 +4 Vig, +1 End, +1 Str, +3 Dex, +2 Agi, +4 Int, +3 Wis.
‘Ping’ [Shock Enthusiast] has leveled 9 > 10 +4 Vig, +1 End, +1 Str, +3 Dex, +2 Agi, +4 Int, +3 Wis.
‘Ping’ [Shock Enthusiast] is now at max level and can be ascended.
‘Ping’ [Blade User] has leveled 7 > 8 +3 Vig, +3 End, +2 Str, +3 Dex, +4 Agi, +1 Int, +1 Wis.
‘Ping’ [Blade User] has leveled 8 > 9 +3 Vig, +3 End, +2 Str, +3 Dex, +4 Agi, +1 Int, +1 Wis.
‘Ping’ [Blade User] has leveled 9 > 10 +3 Vig, +3 End, +2 Str, +3 Dex, +4 Agi, +1 Int, +1 Wis.
‘Ping’ [Blade User] is now at max level and can be ascended.
‘Ping’ [Blessed by Nature] has leveled 5 > 6 +10 Vig, +10 End, +10 Str, +10 Dex, +10 Agi, +10 Int, +10 Wis.
‘Ping’ [Blessed by Nature] has leveled 6 > 7 +10 Vig, +10 End, +10 Str, +10 Dex, +10 Agi, +10 Int, +10 Wis.
Leveling my first two classes had been easier than I had thought. I’d read through a lot of fiction from my world that the amount of danger you were in equated to the amount of experience you got in addition to how much you contributed to the fight. So I had figured once I got used to fighting these moles and I wasn’t in tons of danger anymore that my gains would go down drastically and the last few levels would’ve taken forever. Except my levels just kept trucking along without a care in the world.
When I said what was on my mind to the rest of the group they looked at me like I was crazy.
“That doesn’t make any sense, why would a creature suddenly give you less experience just because you know how to fight it better?” Garrus had asked incredulously. “No, every creature gives experience based off of your level, if you kill something in a higher tier it’s going to consistently give you the same amount of exp each time. The only reason why leveling slows down at higher levels is because you require exponentially more exp to level with each ascension. Combine that with needing more levels in total to ascend you get people who’ve been fighting for decades and are still in the fourth tier.”
Well, that was handy to know. I always found it strange, these worlds are supposed to be based off of games. But the world seemed to constantly work against the main characters by dynamically giving them less experience against enemies drastically above their level range. So even if the end result was it was going to take just as long for me to reach my ascensions as these fictional characters, I wasn’t forced to go find new threats to face every two seconds to make sure I wasn’t losing out on the grind. Although I probably still wanted to face different things just to make sure I get the best possible classes on ascension.
It also turned out that experience was decided equally amongst all classes, regardless of how they were used in the fight. And even if you reached max level in classes it would still divide experience by them and that exp would just be lost. I had asked if I should go ahead and ascend my first two classes so they could keep gaining experience, but the group had said it would just be better to wait for my purple class to catch up. And so we dug into the burrows looking for my next challenge.
I used my elf ears to the best of my ability to hear around me and determine where they would be hiding within the complex tunnel system. But it seemed like these tunnels were extremely sparse. Not a lot of moles seemed to be within these burrows despite the amount of space that was present with the systems.
After wandering about through the system for half an hour, I was starting to get bored. It was hard to feel tense when I could hear and smell the moles approaching before they actually did. These enhanced senses were extremely handy. It wasn’t as hard to get used to them as I would’ve expected either. The Heart had been the one to give these senses to me so I wondered if it was doing something to help make them easier to handle. Either way, I wasn’t complaining.
“Is there a leader for the moles or something? It’d be nice to get something similar to a boss kill before I ascended.”
“There is, but they’re quite rare. They’re also in the second tier, so I wouldn’t recommend trying to fight one.” Garrus responded casually, none of the other group was concerned. Even if they got hit by surprise none of the attacks would be able to hurt them. Even Karif as a mage had enough vigor to shrug off blows from the giant subterranean creatures.
“Not that I’m suggesting you should, but you would have a better chance of actually surviving the encounter or even winning than a human at your level.” Karif added on to what Garrus said, “You’re as fast as creatures in the tier above you and nearly as strong to boot. Your sword will cover any gaps in strength. So it’s quite possible with a bit of luck you’d be able to kill one, but Garrus is right it’s not worth the risk. Maybe if you were punching up a weight class from the first or second tier it would be a different story.”
I nodded slowly, I had to agree with them here. While I was definitely faster than the moles in the first tier, if they ever managed to get a hold of me I’d be in rough shape. I would hate to fight something a tier above that, it was almost guaranteed to move faster and it would quite easily kill me in just a single blow if I wasn’t careful. I should just stick with the first tier for now, one more kill should be enough to max out my third class.”
And find a last one I did, I heard the sounds of breathing coming from further down the tunnel. It opened into a massive chamber like the one I had fought the second and third moles in. And in the center was a positively massive mole, definitely a first tier creature. And it was asleep, I was getting way too lucky with that. I signaled to the group I was planning on taking this one and ran quickly over my skills. I’d open with [Sparking Blows] into [Piercing Blows] from there I’d just have to play it by ear.
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[Level 241]
‘Ping’ Identify has leveled 2 > 3
This one had been close to ascending to the next tier, in fact it was strange that it was right on the precipice. I had thought that this burrow only had creatures at max 101. Isn’t that what the receptionist had said? Oh well, this was gonna push me over to the next tier so I couldn’t really complain. I just needed to play my cards right and not get myself squashed. This one would be faster and stronger than the others I had faced so far, so I needed to be careful.
I managed to sneak slowly to the side of the mole near the front. I had learned from Garrus that since I wasn’t able to kill them in one blow I should aim to disable them first. So I was going to go for its front legs first and give myself an advantage by reducing its mobility.
I came to a stop and mentally prepared myself. I was getting anxious, like the night before something big, like a speech or a basketball game. I got myself into stance to begin my attacks and took a deep breath… And then let loose.
Lightning instantly flashed over my weapon causing the mole to wake up immediately, but the grogginess any creature feels at having been startled awake was present and it wasn’t prepared to dodge what came next.
[Piercing Blows] came out in a blinding flurry, 8 quick strikes. Four aimed at each front leg tearing into them. On the 8th strike it connected at just the right angle and managed to detach the front right leg off the creature. I quickly launched myself backwards as I accurately predicted the bite coming from the large creature. As I landed lightly on my feet I thrust my hand out shooting [Paralyzing Shock]. The attack was unsuccessful as the mutilated creature bounded in my direction.
It was still terrifyingly quick despite missing a leg, in fact that missing leg is what was allowing me to keep up with it. It moved to try to slam me against the wall with its superior weight, but I was ready for it and leapt up and performed the same trick I had used against my first tier one mole. I plunged my sword into the wall before jumping over and cutting into its back with [Slash]. I landed facing the other way and turned to face the mole.
And I was launched backwards across the cavern hitting the ground and tumbling to a stop. I had lost my sword along the way, the arm holding it bending completely the wrong way. The pain was so great I wanted to just stay on the ground and cry. It took every ounce of discipline to make myself pay attention to what the mole was doing, it seemed like it had fallen over in whatever maneuver it had performed so I had a few brief seconds before it got back up. I sent [Nature’s Touch] through my battered arm feeling its bone and muscle structure shift back into its natural positions.
This new healing spell was a god send. Or would it be more correct to say system send? Either way, it was more efficient for healing myself than [Healing Blossom] was. [Healing Blossom] was great for healing a group as it lasted until my mana depleted, but for just healing myself it was terribly inefficient.
I ran forward to where I had dropped my sword just as the mole rolled back to its feet and turned to face me. We gave each other the ol’ western staredown. I focused in as deeply as I could, observing each movement the mole would make and trying to predict what it would do before it did it. I could see each of the muscles through its skin coiling and tensing as it prepared, and so I prepared as well. I strained my body to its absolute limit to see every detail to be ready to move as fast as possible. And then I waited. Even as it lunged forward through the air I waited. Time seemed to slow down as I refused to move until the last possible second before leaping to the side unleashing [Slash] at the oversized mole.
The timing was immaculate, the angle was just right. My sword hit the moles neck and cleaved straight through decapitating it in a single strike. My momentum carried me out of range of the creature's body as it collapsed to the ground.
‘Ping’ [Large Tunnel Mole - Level 241] has been slain
‘Ping’ [Blessed by Nature] has leveled 7 > 8 +10 Vig, +10 End, +10 Str, +10 Dex, +10 Agi, +10 Int, +10 Wis.
‘Ping’ [Blessed by Nature] has leveled 8 > 9 +10 Vig, +10 End, +10 Str, +10 Dex, +10 Agi, +10 Int, +10 Wis.
‘Ping’ [Blessed by Nature] has leveled 9 > 10 +10 Vig, +10 End, +10 Str, +10 Dex, +10 Agi, +10 Int, +10 Wis.
‘Ping’ [Blessed by Nature] is now at max level and can be ascended
‘Ping’ You’ve acquired a new skill [Critical Blow] - Unable to acquire skill due to no empty slots in [Blade User]
I let out a sigh of relief as I relaxed from the high stakes fight, I had only gotten hit once but it had hurt really fucking bad. If I hadn’t cut off one of its legs before then I probably would’ve gotten mauled before I could’ve recovered.
My party walked up to me as I sat down on the ground and started resting to recover my mana. [Sparking Blows] took a ton of mana to use, it lasted a really long time so for longer fights, or fights where I was connecting with more attacks, it was more mana efficient than casting [Shocking Grasp] through my sword with each hit.
“Did that do it for you?” I cracked an eye open as Penny walked over.
Karif responded before I could, “Yep, he managed to get to 10 with that kill. I would’ve been surprised if he didnt.”
I raised an eyebrow, “How do you know I managed to reach 10? A skill?”
He just laughed, “Identify. You have it before the first tier, once it gets into the first tier you can see what type of class their main class is. So for example, you’d see me described as a mage, Garrus as a fighter etc. Once you get it into the second tier you can see the individual levels of all classes a person has.”
“Huh, that’s pretty neat. I’m assuming you’d eventually be able to see class rarities as well?”
“I’m not actually sure, I’ve never met anyone with it above the second tier and haven’t read anything about the third tier. It takes a little bit of time to level general skills since you don’t usually get experience towards them from fighting.”
“Fair enough.”
“Are you ready to head back out? Once we get out of here you can ascend your classes and we can decide on your next course from there.” Garrus stuck his hand out to pull me up, which I gratefully accepted.
“Yeah let’s move, I’m pretty excited to get this going.”
It didn’t take us long to navigate back to the top, Penny having specific skills to navigate lairs and stuff. Perks of being a ranger. We got to the top completely without incident and walked a little ways away from the burrow.
“Alright, you might wanna sit down while you ascend. But otherwise go ahead, we’ll make sure the slimes don’t suffocate you while you’re busy.” Garrus said with a wink.
My heart was pounding, I was anxious but excited at the same time. I didn’t know what to expect. I sat down and made myself as comfortable as I could before focusing on my status.
Name: Alexander King
Ability Points: 61
Class - [Shock Enthusiast] - Level 10
Ability - [Jolt]
Ability - [Shocking Grasp]
Ability - [Paralyzing Shock]
Ability - [Sparking Blows]
Ability -
Class - [Blade User] - Level 10
Ability - [Trained Physique - Passive]
Ability - [Slash]
Ability - [Parry]
Ability - [Thrust]
Ability - [Piercing Blows]
Class - [Blessed by Nature] - Level 10
Ability - [Natures Protection]
Ability - [Healing Blossom]
Ability - [Elements of Nature - Passive]
Ability - [Natural Selection]
Ability - [Nature’s Touch]
Ability - [Barrier]
Ability -
General Skills -
Identify - Level 3
Rest - Level 1
Status -
Vig - [184]
End - [150]
Str - [141]
Dex - [183]
Agi - [176]
Int - [168]
Wis - [159]
Health - 1840/1840
Stamina - 1500/1500
Mana - 1590/1590
‘I wonder what I’ll be able to spend those ability points on?’
Only one way I was gonna find out. And with a single thought I pushed to my ascension.
The world around me slowed to a stop and the color faded away. I was left with a grayscale picture in front of me. I sat there observing the frozen world around me. I kept some range of motion, but it seemed like I couldn’t really move from where I was despite that.
My status warped in my mind and began to change before eventually displaying a screen that presented me with my options for my classes. And there were a lot of choices available.
I was definitely going to be here for a while.