CHAPTER 47 BEYOND PART 2
As color faded back into and sound filtered in, I was met with an earth shattering roar.
I also quickly found out I was no longer sitting in the same spot I had been when I had started classing up. I was slung across Fiona’s shoulder like a sack of potatoes as she ran further into the city.
I looked behind us initially, but didn’t see what they were running from or even what made that all encompassing roar.
I looked up and finally understood.
“Oh. He’s a big one ain’t he.”
I glanced one more time at Fiona before nodding. I didn’t want to distract her, and I could use this moment to quickly check my stats and see what’s changed. Once that was handled we could go from there, shouldn’t take me more than a few minutes.
‘Ping’ [Lightning Sorcerer] has become [Battlemage - Lightning] +9 Vig, +10 End, +7 Str, +7 Dex, +9 Agi, +13 Int, +13 Wis per level.
Skill [Strike of Lightning] has become [Lightning Storm] - A series of powerful strikes rain down from above. All within sight are within your reach. Costs 200 mana to cast with a 10% compounding cost to channel. Channel efficiency increased by 0.4% (9.6%) per level.
Skill [Paralyzing Blast] has been enhanced - Shoot a blast of lightning that either explodes on contact or when you decide, everything within range of the explosion takes damage and has a chance to be paralyzed (32.5%). Chance to paralyze increases by 0.67% (33.17%) per level.
Skill [Wreathed In Lightning] has become [Lightning Aura] - No longer do you just coat yourself in lightning, you exude it as an aura of power. Any attacks you make, and any made against you, impart part of that power. Extra damage is 10% of int, damage scales by 0.5% (10.5%) per level.
Skill [As Fast As Lightning - Passive] has been enhanced - Dexterity and agility are enhanced by 35% of intelligence. Enhancement increases by 1% (36%) per level.
Skill [Chain Lightning] has been enhanced - Shoot out an arc of lightning that jumps from one target to the next, damage reduced by 22.5% per person until no damage is dealt. Increased damage efficiency by 0.25% (10.25%) per level.
Well damn. Ascending tiers is pretty awesome. I should do this more often if these are the kinds of bonuses I’m getting. Should definitely find the nearest near-death encounter to throw myself into.
Wait, there’s one happening right now isn’t there?
I looked up at the enormous creature towering over the capital.
Hmmm… Something to be considered. I turned my focus back to my classes.
‘Ping’ [Enchanted Bladefighter] has become [Bladedancer - Lightning] +10 Vig, +10 End, +8 Str, +8 Dex, +9 Agi, +8 Int, +8 Wis per level.
Skill [Enchanted Perseverance - Passive] has become [Forged by the Storm - Passive] - Your physique has been pushed beyond its limits, weathering attacks and pushing past the ends of its endurance. Reduce incoming damage by 15%, all stamina use reduced by 25%. Health, Stamina, and Agility all increased by 5% per tier (10%) and 1% per level (26%).
Skill [Mana Strike] has become [Lightning Strikes] - Your attacks move at speeds almost too fast to follow, and with that speed comes unfathomable strength. Infuse mana into your attacks, for every 200 mana bypass 10% of resistances. Resistances bypassed increased by 1% (11%) per level.
Skill [Enchanted Redirection] has been enhanced - Parry an oncoming attack by infusing your blade with mana, efficiency determined by opponent size and strength of incoming attack. Increased efficiency per level.
Skill [Mana Flurry] has become [Second Strike] - They said lightning doesn’t strike the same place twice. You’re here to prove them wrong, for every blow you land a return stroke will be executed at 25% damage of the triggering attack. Damage increased by 0.5% (25.5%) per level.
Skill [Enchanted Accuracy] has been enhanced - Expend 1000 mana to ensure your next blow does critical damage. Efficiency increased by 0.25% (0.25%) per level.
Wow. Once again, absolutely amazing skills. [Second Strike] sounded particularly nasty as well.
Now that I was actually taking time to read [Lightning Strikes] I noticed that it didn’t actually say it added to my damage, just that it bypassed resistances. So that’s one way I think I might’ve been using its predecessor wrong.
You get more damage by the nature of the fact that less of the damage is being resisted, but you’re not inherently dealing more damage. Interesting how that works, I definitely need to pay attention to stuff like that in the future. That’s the kind of thing that costs me mana pointlessly.
Alright, last class what’ve you got for me.
‘Ping’ [Disciple of Nature] has become [Nature’s Adept] +14 Vig, +13 End, +11 Str, +13 Dex, +15 Agi, +18 Int, +18 Wis per level.
All skills enhanced
No skills were changed
No new skills were acquired
Skill [Nature’s Protection] - Nature has chosen you as a vessel and as such it will seek to protect you from danger, you can now form a shell to protect yourself from attacks. Increased protection and reduced cost per level.
Skill [Healing Blossom] Nature now seeks to heal you no matter where you are, a blossom will sprout from the ground and anyone you designate an ally within 30 feet will be healed 33% of your health per second. Costs 500 to cast and 100 with compounding 25% increase per second. Increased efficiency of channel by 0.1% (23.75%) per level.
[Elements of Nature - Passive] Nature is one of the most primal forces in existence, any attacks constituting one of the four main elements and their direct derivatives deal 185% more damage. Increased damage by 5% (190%) per level.
[Natural Selection] Congratulations, you’ve been selected. You’re more resistant to poisons and curses. Increased resistance per level.
[Nature’s Touch] - Heal yourself or allies with the healing touch of nature. Costs 250 mana, heal 15% of maximum health per cast. Reduced cost by 1% (1%) per level.
[Barrier] - A wall of pure force protects you from harm, mana is lost whenever the barrier is hit. Amount lost depends on the strength of the hit. Increase efficiency and active number of barriers by 1 per level.
[One With Nature] - Whenever you’re in a nature affinity environment you’re able to spread your senses out further and make out more details, navigation is much easier as a result. Distance and level of detail gained increase per level.
Okay, pretty much the same as last time. And man, [Elements of Nature] really did kind of stack up didn’t it? 190% was a huge increase in damage. Absolutely ball-bustingly insane.
I guess a lot of things kinda add up over the course of levels. Hell [Mana Flurry] apparently had a range of 6.25 feet by the end. I wonder if that range carried over? The skill didn’t say anything about it.
But it would also be kind of strange not to have that carry over. It definitely would have to be something I tested the first chance I got.
‘Ping’ Ascended to Tier 2 bonus stats gained - +500 to all stats.
‘Ping’ Ascended to Tier 2 - acquired 50 ability points.
‘Ping’ Ascended to Tier 2 - Tier 2 enhancements unlocked.
‘Ping’ [Wood Manipulation] has leveled 8 > 10
‘Ping’ [Wood Manipulation] has been ascended 10 > 1
‘Ping’ Ascension Complete.
Huh. I guess the Heart wasn’t happy with my progress. Fair enough, I’ll put more effort into it going forward, I promise.
No new general skills obtained this time interestingly enough. But holy shit, 500 stat bonus? That’s like 50% increase to each stat, and in some cases more! Huge bonus, big even.
Definitely something I could get behind.
Name: Alexander King
Ability Points: 845
Tier 2 Class - [Battlemage - Lightning] - Level 1
Ability - [Strike of Lightning]
Ability - [Paralyzing Blast]
Ability - [As Fast As Lighting - Passive]
Ability - [Wreathed In Lightning]
Ability - [Chain Lightning]
Ability -
Tier 2 Class - [Bladedancer - Lightning] - Level 1
Ability - [Enchanted Perseverance - Passive]
Ability - [Mana Strike]
Ability - [Enchanted Redirection]
Ability - [Enchanted Accuracy]
Ability - [Mana Flurry]
Ability -
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
Tier 2 Class - [Nature’s Adept] - Level 1
Ability - [Natures Protection]
Ability - [Healing Blossom]
Ability - [Elements of Nature - Passive]
Ability - [Natural Selection]
Ability - [Nature’s Touch]
Ability - [Barrier]
Ability - [One With Nature]
Enhancements -
Tier 1 [Point Blank] (Level 25)
Tier 1 [Weapon Proficiency] (Level 25)
Tier 1 [Quickness] (Level 25)
Tier 2 -
Tier 2 -
Tier 2 -
General Skills -
Tier 1 [Identify] - Level 6
[Rest] - Level 2
Tier 1 [Mana Sense] - Level 15
Tier 1 [Electric Sense] - Level 19
Tier 1 [Sword Apprentice] - Level 16
Tier 1 [Wood Manipulation] - Level 1
Tier 1 [Accelerated Thoughts] - Level 1
Status -
Vig - [1651] (2063.75)
End - [1429] (1786.25)
Str - [1512]
Dex - [1607] (2198) (3297)
Agi - [1431] (2537)
Int - [1643]
Wis - [1752]
Health - 22453/22453
Stamina - 19434/19434
Mana - 17130/17130
Those were… Amazing increases. It really was nice to see such a hefty gain.
I just wish I could’ve had this earlier… How many people could I have saved if I had these kinds of stats beforehand?
It was mildly frustrating to see such gains in my personal strength after the crucial moments had already come and gone.
Although… Looking at the large monstrosity currently setting to wreak havoc on the city, maybe there’s a crucial moment coming up that I'll be able to help with.
Last thing on my list is enhancements. I’ve gained access to tier two enhancements, so let’s see what my options are real quick.
Tier 2 Enhancements
Close Quarters Casting: Add 0.5% of your intelligence stat to your agility if you’re fighting within 10 feet of enemies. (cost: 25 points)
Enhanced Weapon Proficiency: Additional 2% dexterity per level to chosen weapon. (cost: 25 points)
Dodge: Dexterity and agility spike by 1% per level for a short time when dodging attacks. (cost: 25 points)
Armor Proficiency: You’re more efficient at taking off and putting on armor. You’re also more efficient at moving around in heavier armor where other people would be slower. (cost: 25 points)
Constitution: You’re more likely to be unaffected by poisons and venoms. (cost: 25 points)
From Above: If you have a height advantage gain an additional 1% to your strength stat. (cost: 25 points)
Dual Wield: Fighting with two weapons is more difficult than it seems, but you’ve turned it into an art. Off-hand weapons gain 50% of your weapon proficiency gains. (cost: 25 points)
Backstab: Catching an enemy unawares or while they are distracted gives you the opportunity to deal large amounts of damage. Deal an additional 5% damage per level. (cost: 25 points)
Feint Proficiency: If your dex is 25% higher than your opponents you’re able to trip them up causing them to create an opening for you to strike through. Stat requirement lowered by 0.5% per level. (cost: 25 points)
Distant Casting: Increase the efficiency of casting long distances by 0.5% per level. (cost: 25 points)
Illusory Proficiency: People are more likely to fall for the illusions you create. Additional 1% chance per level. (cost: 25 points)
Additional Weapon Proficiency: Become Proficient in another weapon of your choice. (cost: 25 points)
AOE Casting: For spells that affect multiple target, affect one additional target every five levels, minimum 1 extra target. (cost: 25 points)
Interesting. Several of those I feel like I have no use for. Like getting an additional weapon proficiency. I’m not planning on using something other than a sword anytime soon. AOE casting sounds kinda neat though, getting the ability to affect more people per cast without needing to level my classes seemed like a great option.
[Chain Lightning] could really benefit from that. On the other end of that spectrum, [Chain Lightning] was really the only skill I had that would benefit from that. Not many skills I had were capped on the limit of people that I could affect.
I guess [Healing Blossom] falls into the same category as well.
Constitution honestly was probably useless to me given that I had a skill that did exactly that already, even if they stacked it probably wasn’t to a marginally useful degree.
…
I’m sure those words would come back to bite me in the butt someday, but I’d burn that bridge when I got to it.
From above sounded vaguely useful, although it depended on what height advantage meant. If I was taller than someone did I just get a free bonus? Or did it mean high ground advantage, where I had to be on something that put me above the height of my opponent.
Hmmm…
I think at the very least I want to have the CQC one and Dodge.
I went ahead and spent the 25 points each to purchase both skills.
I think for the last skill I’ll take Feint Proficiency, it seemed like something that could come in handy at the right moments. Possibly, if I didn’t like it I could always swap it out for something else.
I went ahead and grabbed it as well, slotting it into the final tier 2 enhancement slot I had open.
Alright, going from there let’s level them up as far as I can. I’ve got… 770 ability points after buying those and leveling up one of them costs…
‘Ping’ Close Quarters Casting has leveled 1 > 2
Two points for a single level. I guess let’s see what the new cap is.
‘Ping’ Close Quarters Casting has leveled 2 > 3
…
‘Ping’ Close Quarters Casting has leveled 49 > 50
Wow, level 50. That’s a pretty high cap, which means very nice scaling for all of my stats.
100 points to max them out. That leaves me with 470 points leftover… That’s kind of a lot. I wonder if there’s going to be something later that I can spend them on. Maybe something changes about the point gains at later levels? I guess it’ll be something I find out eventually.
I was shocked out of my thoughts by another one of the deafening roars from the Titan, now currently crashing through the walls of the city.
“Man, could that thing be any louder!” I complained.
This time my voice caught Fiona’s attention.
“Alex? You’re awake? Great, you can run on your own then.” And then she unceremoniously plopped me onto my feet.
I easily caught myself. The increase of my dexterity really showing its strength after my ascension.
She raised a slight eyebrow as she looked at me, “You seem noticeably stronger. Get good stuff for your ascension?”
I gave her a slight smirk, “Of course I did. I’ve been busting my ass, so I’m sure as hell gonna get something nice out of it. Third class stayed purple, but my two greens went up to blues. Skills got sufficiently enhanced as well.”
This caused her to raise her other eyebrow, “Both classes went from green to blue? At tier 2? I didn’t start seeing blues until I ascended to tier 3.”
“Hey, what can I say? I’m just built different I guess. Out of curiosity what’s the vague range of stats for someone in tier 3? It’s something I’ve been wondering about, but I want to know how I compare to someone above me.”
She frowned slightly before shrugging.
“My lowest stat is my wisdom sitting around 3000. My highest stat is my strength sitting at about 4200, although that’s before bonuses apply. After the fact it’s around 10000. It’s pretty closely followed by vigor, endurance, dexterity, and then agility in that order. Although there’s a pretty sizable difference of about several hundred points between endurance and dexterity.”
I nodded smiling slightly to myself.
“Looks like your stats are still a bit above mine then. My highest stat is my wisdom at 1752 with my lowest stat being my endurance at 1429. Both of those are before bonuses, although I don’t have one to wisdom currently.”
Her eyes widened comically the longer I talked.
“You’ve got all of your stats averaged in the mid 1000’s? What the hell kind of classes do you have? What’s your highest stat after bonuses?” She asked incredulously.
“Uhhh… If everything lines up correctly, my agility can apparently spike up to 4216 for an extremely short duration… Which is nearly four times faster than I am at base, which is absolutely absurd now that I’m looking at the numbers…”
Everyone in the groups had been listening in and they were all just giving me varying looks of incredulity.
“You’re essentially receiving 4 points of agility for every one, while the overall number isn’t particularly high. That’s going to spike at later levels. Hard.”
“Bullshit.” Fiona finally managed to squeeze out, her voice sounding extremely strained, “Complete and utter bullshit. You’ve got that at tier 2? I don’t even wanna talk about this right now. We need to focus on the task at hand, I’ll give you shit for your ridiculous stats later.”
She took a deep breath stabilizing herself before focusing her eyes on each of us, “Obviously as you can see the city is now being attacked by the Harbinger. Per the guild charter section 8, paragraph 2 any guild member tier 3 and above is required and expected to fight the harbinger if it shows up. That means us minus Alex. Alex, I really really really want you to sit this one out. I really don’t want you to get involved here. The Harbinger can, will, and will almost certainly make it a point, to kill you. All it will take is one single attack directed at you and you’re done. That’s it. The Harbinger doesn’t have a known level, no person has ever been able to do more than send it packing for the day and the last person who did so died in the attempt.”
I shook my head stubbornly and I could see her eyes practically begging me not to say what I was about to.
“I’m not leaving you now. You four have saved my ass plenty. I understand I’m not going to realistically be able to do anything to hurt the thing, but the least I could do is run support? Pull people out that get injured.”
She slowly nodded, “As long as that’s all you do. I have no qualms about letting you tag along. But I absolutely want you completely out of range of the Harbinger, I don’t know what that range is. But make it a priority to not be in between it and the target it’s going for, understood?”
I nodded firmly.
“Understood.” I echoed.
----------------------------------------
Name: Alexander King
Ability Points: 470
Tier 2 Class - [Battlemage - Lightning] - Level 1
Ability - [Strike of Lightning]
Ability - [Paralyzing Blast]
Ability - [As Fast As Lighting - Passive]
Ability - [Wreathed In Lightning]
Ability - [Chain Lightning]
Ability -
Tier 2 Class - [Bladedancer - Lightning] - Level 1
Ability - [Enchanted Perseverance - Passive]
Ability - [Mana Strike]
Ability - [Enchanted Redirection]
Ability - [Enchanted Accuracy]
Ability - [Mana Flurry]
Ability -
Tier 2 Class - [Nature’s Adept] - Level 1
Ability - [Natures Protection]
Ability - [Healing Blossom]
Ability - [Elements of Nature - Passive]
Ability - [Natural Selection]
Ability - [Nature’s Touch]
Ability - [Barrier]
Ability - [One With Nature]
Enhancements -
Tier 1 [Point Blank] (Level 25)
Tier 1 [Weapon Proficiency] (Level 25)
Tier 1 [Quickness] (Level 25)
Tier 2 - [Close Quarters Casting] (Level 50)
Tier 2 - [Dodge] (Level 50)
Tier 2 - [Feint Proficiency] (Level 50)
General Skills -
Tier 1 [Identify] - Level 6
[Rest] - Level 2
Tier 1 [Mana Sense] - Level 15
Tier 1 [Electric Sense] - Level 19
Tier 1 [Sword Apprentice] - Level 16
Tier 1 [Wood Manipulation] - Level 1
Tier 1 [Accelerated Thoughts] - Level 1
Status -
Vig - [1651] (2245.3)
End - [1429] (1943.4)
Str - [1512]
Dex - [1607] (2198) (3297) {3297}
Agi - [1431] (2537) |2947| {3805/4216}
Int - [1643]
Wis - [1752]
Health - 22453/22453
Stamina - 19434/19434
Mana - 17130/17130
|number represents CQC enhancement bonus| {Number represents 1 second spike when dodging/with CQC active}