CHAPTER 85 ACQUISITION

That night saw me fighting in another cage match. I stepped up into the cage, letting the soldiers slam the door shut behind me.

I let out a sigh. As much as I liked gaining levels, this wasn’t necessarily the way I wanted to go about it… but there wasn’t much I could do in that regard.

My opponent stepped in from the opposite side.

[Level 223]

A decent level. I wasn’t going to underestimate them though. The last person I fought had been as tough of a fight as a person that had been a higher level than them. Maybe it should’ve been obvious given my circumstances, but levels were not a good indication of strength.

My opponent was a man, standing roughly the same height as myself. An unkempt mane of matted black hair occupied his head. He had an unruly stubble that was trying to grow and looked hastily, and unprofessionally, trimmed.

What was most interesting about his appearance, though, was the fact that he was using a bow. It looked like it was made out of metal, although I couldn’t tell what kind. It didn’t look like iron or steel.

I had no way to gauge how hard of a fight this was going to be. I hadn’t dealt with a lot of archer types before. Penny was one, and she had been pretty strong. But she had also used dual daggers to fight whenever someone got in close instead of using her bow. Although her bow was her stronger weapon for sure.

I guess I’d find out pretty soon. I split my mind to come up with a plan of action. Although I wasn’t a tactical genius of any kind, I still had a capability to plan and strategize. I gave my skills a quick once-over before deciding. There was no real reason to make this too convoluted of a plan. Something simple would do well to start with.

I would start out by creating a few barriers in front of me. From there I could push up to him until I got close enough to strike while varying my movement pattern to avoid taking hits if I could. My barriers were good, but they could be broken. It also chunked my mana to let them get hit, so while worth it for the defense, not something I wanted to continually let happen either.

The rest of my actions would be the same things I always did. This would be my… fourth fight? Fifth? I was starting to lose track. Anyways, I planned to create my lily flowers for observation of the arena. I already had armor up and running.

I went ahead and activated [Mana Sense] and just took a look at what was going on with him. His gear was ratty and beat up so I wasn’t too surprised when his armor didn’t ping as magic.

His bow on the other hand did, it glowed the red of an attack skill. I wasn’t sure if that meant it had one though or it was made with one. Glancing at the sword in my hand showed that it glowed red as well. But I wasn’t going to let that rule out the chance of my opponent having an unknown capability.

Underestimating your opponent is one of the quickest ways to get killed. I would know.

I waited patiently, any moment the announcer would start the fight.

“FIGHT!”

My minds instantly reacted, taking the multiple chains of actions I had predetermined. Flowers blooming across the arena, barriers snapping in front of me angled like a wedge, and I launched myself to the side to start with.

Jumping to the side had been the right course of action.

In one smooth movement he pulled his bow string back and a metallic arrow appeared on the bow already nocked and ready to fire.

He released it and it blasted through the air. It moved so fast I couldn’t even really see it. All I know is that it slammed against the edge of the arena with such tremendous force that the cage shook slightly.

With my skill I could see the arrow land on the ground slowly dissipating the same way my wood did whenever I dismissed it. I had also noticed that the arrow didn’t just slide between the bars. It looked like there was some magic at play keeping attacks inside the caged arena. Which made sense, couldn’t have the spectators getting blasted with skills and dying.

I didn’t stay still for very long, I kept running. While I ran I made sure to vary my speed and direction. The man was a very precise archer. But he didn’t seem to be that great at predictive attacks, almost like he was aiming where I was the entire time rather than where I would be.

Some sort of aim assisting skill?

‘He must be playing on a controller.’ One of my minds quipped at me.

I smirked slightly before turning at a sharp angle and lunging towards the archer, while forming a barrier to the side slightly up in the air a little.

He reacted just as quickly as I did, jumping backwards and aiming a shot at me, smoothly pulling back the metal string allowing an arrow to form into place before launching it at me.

I’d been expecting that and flipped through the air mid-lunge, positioning myself to allow my feet to press off the barrier I had just made while I passed it by. I didn’t fully cut out my forward momentum, but instead of moving straight forward I was now moving at a slight angle.

But this allowed the arrow to pass me by, not even skimming off my shield.

I landed and thrust my wooden arm out and cast [Chain Lightning] at my opponent. However he easily stepped to the side, as if he had been expecting that and was already pulling back his bow for another shot at me.

I quickly bounded across the arena just trying to close the distance, but he kept moving backwards at roughly the same speed.

Eventually I was forced to dodge to the side to prevent the arrow from hitting me. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to even try and allow the barriers to tank the shot. It’s possible it would just slide off with minimal damage because of the angling.

The arrow slammed with a resonating force against the arena barrier again.

At the same time, I wasn’t sure I wanted to take the risk of it just punching straight through unimpeded. Those things were going fast and hitting hard.

I let out a growl as I kept running, I changed my direction to circle him while I came up with a plan of action.

While I let one of my minds work on that I watched as another began harrying him with tendrils of wood spawning out of the ground, trying to trip him up or grab him. But he kept calmly stepping around them or hopping over them. They didn’t even seem to remotely distract or bother him.

I kept up the efforts though, it took minimal mana at this point to manage and it’s possible he just had a good control on his actions and it was actually bothering him enough to mean something.

At the very least it wouldn’t hurt to keep up.

I continually harried him, and began launching [Ball Lightning] at him repeatedly, making sure to intersperse castings with [Chain Lightning].

I wanted to ride in there and use it to get close, but the way he was handling the attacks was kind of suspicious. I didn’t like it. He was staying way too stationary, his reactions way too fast. It could end up like that spell-blade I had fought last time, where she just reacted to where I was going to show up. I had very nearly died from that.

I was not interested in a repeat of that, or potentially failing to dodge the attack at the right moment and then dying.

The archer continually kept dodging the attacks and letting loose his own, each one I was barely dodging without the help of my [Dodge] enhancement. I wanted to save it for when I needed it.

I was slowly getting more and more frustrated. My mana was also starting to dwindle downwards. If this was a fight of attrition, it was probably one I was going to lose. I had to make a move.

I didn’t like my odds, but I didn’t really stand a chance of getting in close to him without my movement skill.

I was just going to have to take a plunge. I had an idea though. It was a gamble on whether or not it would work though.

I kept my castings going, doing my best to predict his movements, know where he would land and already have an attack headed that way to keep him on his toes and moving. And while I managed to accomplish that, it wasn’t doing a whole lot for actually benefiting me in any way.

In the middle of one of my casts of [Chain Lightning] I jumped through it and rode it to the destination next to him. [Chain Lightning] was a fast skill, easily the quickest moving one I had. But it wasn’t as fast as real lightning.

It would be kind of absurd if it was.

No, it was fast, but not fast enough that people couldn’t dodge it. I could probably dodge it if I needed to. Which meant that the archer was fast enough to dodge it, which he did. But that wasn’t anything new.

No, the problem was he was fast enough to realize I was riding the spell up to his location and react accordingly.

This time, as I had hoped, he wasn’t fast enough to get out of sword range. I continued watching him through my skills up to the moment I popped out of the [Chain Lightning].

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

He had an arrow nocked and ready and released it as soon as I showed up. I activated [Dodge] as I tried to sidestep the arrow. As the world slowed and my perceptions sped up I realized I wasn’t going to be moving fast enough to actually prevent it from hitting my barriers.

I stanced myself and prepared to take the blow. Here came gamble one of two.

The arrow slammed against the barrier, and instead of sliding off there was a strange interaction. It looked like… wind was pushing it along its path. So instead of sliding, it was forced to stay trying to go straight. And because of that, it punched straight through the barrier.

That at least answered the aim assist that was happening.

My barriers hadn’t stopped the arrow, but it had slowed it down. It was enough that it’d at least be a glancing blow if I didn’t stop it somehow in the next quarter of a second.

But I had a second gamble I wanted to try.

I activated [Enchanted Redirection]. I was already stanced slightly defensively as I had been stepping. My sword coated itself in blue mana to my eyes, that crackled with the volatility of my lightning spells.

My blade flashed outwards with near blinding speeds and slammed into the arrow. Instead of just immediately cutting it down, the arrow fought against my sword. If I had been the one to make this sword I would’ve been worried that I might lose, or that it would break.

But I wasn’t the one who had made it. My sword eventually won out and the arrow crumpled under its own strength. With the last little bit of time leftover from [Dodge] I stepped forward swinging and activated multiple skills with a roar.

My blade hit his side, cutting through any defensive armors or skills he had active thanks to [Lightning Strike], [Enchanted Accuracy] ensured my attack hit with deadly precision doing the most possible damage it could.

And then that all got duplicated through [Second Strike]. The skill cost an absurd amount more than it usually did, and in that split second I realized that any effect I applied with my blade got duplicated through the skill as it struck in a mirrored pattern of what I had done.

Several quick claps of thunder and lightning exploded from inside the arena as my attacks landed.

My opponent fell to the ground in several pieces, a resounding ping telling me that he was dead.

I let out a brief sigh of relief and tried not to focus on the gore and instead swung my blade to clean off any… remnants from its length.

I turned around and stepped away to the door which the soldiers opened for me as I approached.

A wave of indescribable melancholy took over me as I stepped out. I didn’t like having to kill these people. At least, not in this way. These were people that were like me, more than likely forced into becoming a slave for no reason and just trying to make the best of a shitty situation. Although in my case, I wasn’t interested in actually fighting in these matches like the others did.

But at the same time… I relished the chance to flaunt my strength. I enjoyed winning. I didn’t necessarily enjoy killing them, but I enjoyed beating them for sure. Once again I was left thinking that this wasn’t necessarily who I was before coming here.

I don’t know that before coming to this place called Kelthas that I would’ve enjoyed beating people in a game of life or death, or even looked forward to the rewards it gave me for winning against them. And yet I did now.

It was another thing on my million item long list of things to think over when I actually had down time to do so.

Lurks was there to take the sword from me again and as usual she had an unnerving smile. I stood just at arms length from her and held out the blade.

She stepped forward and was very touchy feely at the moment. I grit my teeth and tried to keep myself from trembling under her touch. She could easily read my mind, and I’m sure she was currently, to find that I was terrified of her. I didn’t want her to touch me, so she did it anyway.

I really hoped she would just let me go back to the cellblock. Her smirk widened and dread formed in the pit of my stomach. But she eventually just turned and walked away without saying anything.

I nearly collapsed in relief. I let out the breath I had been holding subconsciously and took a shaky breath to try and calm myself.

It didn’t really help.

I followed the soldiers back to the block, letting one of the subminds handle moving my body as I focused on the notifications I had received.

‘Ping’ [Ranger of the Steel Wind - Level 223 / Arrow of the Winded - Level 153 / Metal Archer - Level 202] Has been slain. 10 ability points have been granted for slaying an opponent one tier above you.

‘Ping’ [Battlemage - Lightning] Has leveled 8 > 9

‘Ping’ [Bladedancer - Lightning] Has leveled 7 > 8

‘Ping’ [Nature’s Adept] Has leveled 5 > 6

‘Ping’ [Sword Apprentice] Has leveled 1 > 2

‘Ping’ [Wood Manipulation] Has leveled 16 > 17

‘Ping’ [Accelerated Thoughts] Has leveled 5 > 6

‘Ping’ [Fatigue Resistance] Has leveled 12 > 13

‘Ping’ You’ve acquired a new skill - [Conductor Points] - Opponents that won’t sit still are your bane, how could they be fast enough to dodge lightning?! Well now you can trap them with creative thinking, go you! Designate, at minimum, two points, channeling the skill will cause lightning to travel between those points continuously, electrocuting and damaging anything in between those points. Cost to channel increases with the number of conductor points. Cost to channel is 50 points per second, +50 for each extra point beyond the first two. Channel efficiency increased by 1% (9%) per level.

Huh. I finally got my last class skill I guess? I hoped this didn’t lock me out of potentially trying to replace skills in the future, but overall I think I was happy with this setup.

Surprisingly not a lot of skill levels this time, but that’s not too surprising since I didn’t actually do all that much besides run and throw spells at him.

Name: Alexander King

Ability Points: 545

Tier 2 Class - [Battlemage - Lightning] - Level 9

Ability - [Lightning Storm]

Ability - [Paralyzing Blast]

Ability - [As Fast As Lighting - Passive]

Ability - [Lightning Aura]

Ability - [Chain Lightning]

Ability - [Conductor Points]

Tier 2 Class - [Bladedancer - Lightning] - Level 8

Ability - [Forged by the Storm - Passive]

Ability - [Lightning Strikes]

Ability - [Enchanted Redirection]

Ability - [Enchanted Accuracy]

Ability - [Second Strike]

Ability - [Ride the Lightning]

Tier 2 Class - [Nature’s Adept] - Level 6

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 11

Tier 1 [Rest] - Level 4

Tier 2 [Mana Sense] - Level 5

Tier 2 [Electric Sense] - Level 5

Tier 2 [Sword Apprentice] - Level 2

Tier 1 [Wood Manipulation] - Level 17

Tier 2 [Accelerated Thoughts] - Level 6

[Fist Technique] - Level 3

[Mining] - Level 3

Tier 1 [Fruit Production] - Level 3

Tier 1 [Fatigue Resistance] - Level 13

Tier 1 [Erotic Arts] - Level 2

Tier 1 [Parallel Minds] - Level 5 (7 additional minds)

[Plant Production] - Level 7

[Vegetable Production] - Level 7

Status -

Vig - [1863] (2664.09)

End - [1644] (2350.92)

Str - [1679]

Dex - [1784] (2616.92) [3925.38] {3925.38}

Agi - [1641] (3179.55) |3652.8| {4769.32/5242.57}

Int - [1893]

Wis - [2002]

Health - 26640/26640

Stamina - 23509/23509

Mana - 20020/20020

(number represents passives provided by classes) |number represents CQC enhancement bonus| {Number represents 1 second spike when dodging/with CQC active} [number for weapon dexterity]

All in all, I thought my status was coming along nicely. Numbers were slowly rising, I finally broke 20k on my mana reserves. Surprisingly wisdom was the first stat to break 2k naturally without bonuses. If I wanted to count bonuses and conditions then agility was at an astounding 5.2k.

Absolutely enormous. From what I could tell, the speed gain was non-linear as well. Specifically as the stat got higher, I seemed to get faster and not just from a higher number perspective. Like 100 points of agility at 5k meant more than 100 points at 1k. At least that’s what it was feeling like.

I needed to do some proper testing going forward if I could. Maybe someone had already gone about documenting this sort of stuff. Although it was also highly possible that if someone had it was thousands of years ago and the information was lost in the great collapse. So maybe I could do it for the first time! At least in this period of documented history.

Another thing to add to the list. It didn’t take us long to make it back to the cellblock. This time they didn’t try to throw me in. Maybe it was because I wasn’t as exhausted as I had been last time. Either way, I was still up for some more action.

With the fact that my fight had started relatively early on I had tons of time and plenty of energy to do things. Namely skill grinding. That would probably be the most productive use of my time. I nodded to myself, my mind made up and I began walking back to my room.

I was going to grind so many skills and get all the levels today. Or tonight.

Whatever.