CHAPTER 90 PERFUNCTORY
‘Ping’ [Knife Expert - Shadow - Level 553 / Dark Lurker - Level 473 / Shadowed One - Level 463] Has been slain. 10 ability points have been granted for slaying an opponent one tier above you.
‘Ping’ [Battlemage - Lightning] Has leveled 9 > 10
‘Ping’ [Bladedancer - Lightning] Has leveled 8 > 9
‘Ping’ [Nature’s Adept] Has leveled 6 > 7
‘Ping’ [Mana Sense] Has leveled 7 > 8
‘Ping’ [Electric Sense] Has leveled 7 > 8
‘Ping’ [Sword Apprentice] Has leveled 8 > 11
‘Ping’ [Wood Manipulation] Has leveled 1 > 4
‘Ping’ [Electric Manipulation] Has leveled 1 > 6
‘Ping’ [Accelerated Thoughts] Has leveled 10 > 12
‘Ping’ [Parallel Minds] Has leveled 7 > 8
‘Ping’ You’ve acquired a new skill - [Bind] - The power of nature is used to heal and protect. But a good defense is one that never allows an attack to be made in the first place. Roots sprout from the nearest surface and seek to ensnare your opponent within a Five foot radius. Increased durability per level and increased range by 10% per level (8.5 ft).
‘Ping’ No open slots for new skills. Skill will be placed in the repository to be replaced at your discretion.
Wow, a new skill? I had been starting to get worried that I couldn’t get a new skill once I had filled out the slots, but I guess I was worried for nothing. I’d have to mess with this once I got back to my room. I was practically buzzing with excitement to get back now.
I was slightly worried replacing a skill like this would get rid of skills, but hearing about a repository for skills made me wonder if maybe they all just went there when not in use. Of course it was also possible it was just a circumstantial thing rather than something I could plan around. I guess I would find out later though.
Pretty good levels overall. Still only one level per class, although that’s not too surprising. I guess I should just be grateful I’m getting levels overall. Although, it was kind of hard to feel grateful about it when everything was happening against my will. I mean, I’d probably be choosing to fight regardless, but still!
I let out a sigh and was about to turn away when a thought came to mind. Hadn’t David mentioned something about being able to collect something from the defeated? He had hadn’t he? Crap! I’d completely forgotten!
How much loot had I missed out on? This was upsetting. I immediately reversed course and walked back to the corpse of the rogue. [Mana sense] running through my eyes as I peered at the body, trying to determine if anything was considered magical. The daggers both glowed softly in my vision, this time only glowing a dull blue rather than the purple it had been before.
I guess he had been applying the attack skills to his weapons. Which was unsurprising. I grabbed one of the daggers and used [Identify] on it.
[Steel Dagger]
A steel dagger that’s been imbued with shadow magic properties. When wielding this dagger you gain a 5% reduction in damage from physical attacks.
Huh. That was pretty interesting. Although not good enough for me to start… using it? I could use it, couldn't I? I mean, it would take a little bit of work to get used to, but I arguably didn’t need my hands to cast anymore now that I realized I could just cast spells through my tendrils.
I nodded approvingly and removed one of the sheaths attached to the dead body, trying not to focus on the blood slowly pooling around him. I got the sheath off easily enough and placed the dagger inside of it. I thought about grabbing the other one, but I couldn’t use two daggers and my sword, so I left it.
I left the cage and went out to see Lurks standing there. Normally she would be smirking at me, this time she wasn’t. She didn’t look angry per se, but she didn’t look happy either and I wasn’t sure why. That scared me more than her being in her normal mood, I had been slowly knowing what to expect from her, getting comfortable with her moods and patterns, but this one was out of the ordinary.
I stepped forward hesitantly and stood in front of her. She didn’t move to take the sword immediately like she usually did, instead she just looked me over. Her eyes narrowed slightly as she stared at me, my heart rate skyrocketed and I cringed taking a half step backwards.
“So you don’t know then,” She murmured, the way she said it made it sound more like a confirming statement rather than a question.
I didn’t reply, she hadn’t asked me a question and she hadn’t told me to speak yet and I really didn’t want to say anything or add to her seemingly bad mood if I could help it.
In the end she just scoffed and held out her hands saying, “Weapons.”
I held out the sword to her wordlessly which she took and held out her other hand, “Dagger too.”
She read the unasked question in my mind and replied, “You’re too smart to be holding on to a weapon. And also too unpredictable. And before you ask, the reason I let David hold on to one is that he simply wouldn’t bother trying to escape. He actually enjoys the level of authority and power he holds in his little kingdom. He has everything he wants here and doesn’t really have to compete with those stronger than him to get it.”
I looked away before slowly handing over the dagger in the sheathe. She took it with a smirk, I could lightly feel tendrils of her thoughts brushing over my mind causing me to shiver as they slithered around and curled around the edges of my thoughts.
Thankfully she turned around and left without another word. I had been worried she was in a mood that would have me joining her, but blessedly I was left alone for another day and allowed to be escorted back to the cell block.
I didn’t know if I necessarily agreed that I shouldn’t be allowed to have a weapon given that I could form one whenever I wanted, but I guess that's kind of the point. The ones I could form were a lot more generic than magic enchanted ones. Oh well. Not like there was much I could personally do about it right now.
It didn’t take long for us to make our way back, they didn’t even try to throw me in this time thankfully. I walked by them confidently and then skipped my way down the rest of the hallway, I was feeling in a slightly good mood despite everything. A decent amount of that was just the relief at not having to go with Lurks.
But that didn’t matter, I had a new skill to look at! How exciting. I smiled as I made my way back to my room.
Once inside I immediately took a look at my skills for my third class.
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]
Hmmm. Which ability did I want to get rid of? [Nature’s Protection] was too useful as a defensive skill. The armor I made stopped a lot of damage from coming through that would normally be either lethal or at the very least debilitating. Turning deadly strikes into annoyances.
Maybe not quite that strong, but it was pretty good. So it was firmly out.
The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.
Same with both [Healing Blossom] and [Nature’s Touch]. Aoe ranged heals and an efficient touch based one. Both had their uses and I definitely didn’t want to get rid of them at all.
[Elements of Nature] made my lightning attacks deal more damage so there was definitely no way I was dropping that. [Barriers] once again was a helpful defensive ability. One that allowed me to protect a wide area and defend myself from behind without even having to look.
[OWN] was essentially my only perception skill. Once again just falling in the vein of too useful.
That only left [Natural Selection]. Which, in all honesty, hadn’t even really helped me the one time it could’ve even come up.
And now that I thought about it…
I pulled up the list of enhancements again focusing on the second tier.
Tier 2
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)
Yep. I remembered correctly then. There was just an enhancement that essentially did the exact same thing. So if it ever came up I could just replace one of my enhancements with it. And honestly [Feint Proficiency] wasn’t all that useful. Mainly since I was fighting people that were higher levels than me and it had such a hefty requirement to get around them. I doubted my increased dexterity for [Weapon Proficiency] counted for it, and it didn’t seem to when I used [Dodge], probably because the increases were only applied for certain criteria and not an overall bump in the stat.
Unfortunate.
Yeah. I think I wanted to drop [Natural Selection]. It was just the least useful skill and if I couldn’t get it back it was the one I’d miss the least.
Nodding with certainty I focused on the ability and attempted to replace it with [Bind].
‘Ping’ [Natural Selection] is going to be replaced by [Bind], continue?
Yes, please! I thought, confirming my decision.
‘Ping’ [Bind] Has replaced [Natural Selection].
I immediately felt the slight change in my… something. I could feel a difference as the skills switched around, but I couldn’t quite place a finger on it. Just that I knew that they had been switched. It was interesting, I hadn’t really noticed anything like this before when acquiring skills initially. Although I hadn’t really been paying attention that closely.
I really needed to start paying more attention to things like this.
I dug through my mind to see if [Natural Selection] had poofed into the void, and was pleasantly surprised to discover the repository and that it held one skill within it.
Looking inside just to confirm I saw the ability sitting in there as patiently waiting for the day it might be used again. I smiled, this was good. I could switch out skills as necessary. Honestly this was kind of busted. I didn’t have to level skills individually as they worked off the level of the class rather than on an individual basis.
So all my skills just operated at full strength the entire time. Which was incredibly useful if I wanted to swap out skills on the dime. I bet there was some stupid requisite to actually be able to switch out skills though, like not being in combat or something. Which I guess made sense… from a game perspective maybe. I’d have to try in my next fight if I remembered.
I was happy with this though, I don’t know if I’d ever really need the skill, but you never knew when it might come in handy. At some point I might have enough slots for all my skills all the time. I remember Karif saying something about unique classes potentially having a wide array of skills allowing for a lot of versatility, although he had also mentioned some of them only having a few skill slots but those skills being absurdly powerful to make up for it.
I guess I’d have to be careful about that going forward… if I ever got a unique class in the first place. I wasn’t sure how hard it was to get one in the first place, but I’m sure it was difficult.
I shook my head. I needed to focus, I had a new skill. Although… I remember hearing something about not using attack skills outside of the arena. Would I get in trouble for trying to test this skill? Did it count as an attack skill? Was I willing to take the risk that it was considered one and getting in trouble?
After considering those questions the answer was no. I was not willing to risk it. I did not want to earn Lurks’ ire in any way. If I had learned anything it was that I wanted to be as far away from her as possible.
I sighed, this only left one option for me to be able to test it, which was in the arena. I guess there was only so much I could do about that, guess I could only wait until tomorrow. In the meantime I guess I should train.
Any level to my skills would be good at this point.
I formed a sword and split my minds before getting to work, I still had a long road ahead of me after all.
Name: Alexander King
Ability Points: 555
Tier 2 Class - [Battlemage - Lightning] - Level 10
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 9
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 7
Ability - [Natures Protection]
Ability - [Healing Blossom]
Ability - [Elements of Nature - Passive]
Ability - [Bind]
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 7
Tier 2 [Mana Sense] - Level 8
Tier 2 [Electric Sense] - Level 8
Tier 2 [Sword Apprentice] - Level 11
[Fist Technique] - Level 3
Tier 2 [Wood Manipulation] - Level 4
[Electric Manipulation] - Level 6
Tier 2 [Accelerated Thoughts] - Level 12
Tier 1 [Parallel Minds] - Level 8 (9 additional minds)
Tier 1 [Fruit Production] - Level 15
Tier 1 [Plant Production] - Level 7
Tier 1 [Vegetable Production] - Level 3
Tier 1 [Fatigue Resistance] - Level 21
Tier 1 [Erotic Arts] - Level 2
[Mining] - Level 3
Status -
Vig - [1896] (2730.24)
End - [1677] (2414.88)
Str - [1705]
Dex - [1812] (2681.4) [4022.1] {4022.1}
Agi - [1674] (3279.96) |3762.96| {4919.94/5402.94}
Int - [1932]
Wis - [2041]
Health - 27302/27302
Stamina - 24148/24148
Mana - 20410/20410
(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]
//AN: did a slight rearranging of the general skills to align related skill types next to each other. So things like technique skills are next to each other or production/manipulation skills being next to each other to help with knowing what skills exist in certain categories.//