Alice took a moment to take in the, what could only be called magnificent, view of the dimmed blue cavern. It completely took her breath away. She once saw a picture of, what on Earth was called, a bioluminescent cavern somewhere in New Zealand, but that photo did not do justice to what she was seeing at the moment. The luminescent flowers pulsated a tone of blue light that would instantly put you at ease. They gave off a sort of calming effect. It was truly something spectacular.
Alice finished taking in the view, committing it to memory, and finally started trying to figure out how exactly she was going to get out of the cavern. She looked up from where she fell, and, to no one’s surprise, she couldn’t see the end of it. It was as if she was looking into nothingness, pure darkness.
After looking around the lake for a couple of minutes, Alice found a long passageway that led to a different area. Alice started traversing the passageway. It only took a couple minutes before she started encountering monsters. The monsters weren’t exceptionally strong. All were F grade and ranged from small cats with bat wings to moles with razor-sharp claws. They all fell prey to Alice and her dual sickles without much trouble, with her healing herself whenever needed.
Alice had to replenish her MP from time to time which was not very hard to do. The books Alice read said that mana regeneration depended on your Intelligence stat. The higher the Intelligence stat, the faster the mana regeneration. The book also recommended meditation to accelerate mana regeneration, which was what Alice had to use whenever she found herself with her mana pool too low. She kept making her way through the cavern. Eventually, her skills started to level.
Acrobatics has reached Lvl 2
Light Weapons Proficiency has reached Lvl 2
Transfusion has reached Lvl 2
Heal has reached Lvl 2
A few more monsters and another notification appeared.
You have reached level 3. +5 Intelligence +3 Dexterity +2 Strength +5 free points. You have 10 available free points.
“Ohh that’s right, I forgot to assign the last 5 points from when I reached lvl 2. Let's see…” Alice thought, analyzing her character sheet. “Intelligence is the stat that I should focus on so that I can increase my spells’ potency and mana regeneration, but I can’t neglect my other stats. Plus I’m already getting +5 Intelligence every time I level.” Finishing her thought, Alice went ahead and assigned 5 points to Dexterity and 5 points to Vitality.
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After finishing assigning her points, and having replenished both her health points and mana points, Alice continued walking through the cavern until she encountered a new type of monster. A rock elemental. A humanoid form made out of rock. You could easily tell that it had two legs and two arms, nothing out of the ordinary there.
Alice went through the information she absorbed at the library. Rock elementals started at F grade and could potentially evolve into higher grades as they grew, but given the size of this one, the book suggested it was an E-class, just like the troll.
Another important piece of information regarding rock elementals, again to no one’s surprise, was that they were immune to slashing damage.
Alice tried anyway. She rushed forward and slashed right at the rock elemental's torso with her black sickle. Nothing happened. Alice jumped to one side evading the rock elemental’s wide swing. Alice tried again, with her red sickle this time, and nothing happened. She jumped back and stared at the slowly approaching rock elemental. “All right, one last time,” thought Alice before using a skill that she had not used before.
Alice focused on her skills and mentally tried to activate Surgical Strike. The moment she thought about the skill, she started to see a number of weak points on the rock elemental's body. Alice chose the one easier to hit, and went for it. She jumped towards the rock elemental, successfully flipping mid air to avoid another wide swing from the right, and she made contact with her black sickle. Again, nothing happened, because as the book said, rock elementals were immune to slashing damage.
“Well, I had to try,” thought Alice, a little upset at her skill not being effective. “I wanted to avoid doing this but...” Without giving it much thought, Alice stabbed herself in the back of her hand with her black sickle."Ouchhh!"
Necrotic wound inflicted on self.
Not even a second passed after she got that notification, when she activated Transfusion, she received the message:
Transfusion successful. Necrotic wound transferred to rock elemental.
“Awesome, necrotic wound works on it! It makes no sense that it did, but it did nonetheless. It’s a matter of time now,” Alice thought as she kept jumping around. Alice then tried the same strategy, but with her red sickle this time.
Bleeding inflicted on self
Transfusion failed. Rock elemental is immune to Bleeding.
“Well… can’t blame anyone but me on that. Of course rocks don’t bleed. You’re a doctor for fuck’s sake,” said Alice to herself in a scolding tone. "Although, rocks shouldn't be able to necrotize either, but that seemed to work." This was something Alice would have to figure out later at the library.
The rock elemental lasted another 10 minutes before it finally crumbled into little black pieces of rock. Good thing it did not last any longer since Alice was almost out of stamina, and that was what was allowing her to do all those badass backflips and side rolls. The moment her stamina ran out, she would no longer be able to use Acrobatics and no longer would have been able to evade any attack.
Rock elemental defeated. You gain 250 experience points.
You have reached level 4. +5 Intelligence +3 Dexterity +2 Strength +5 Free points
Alice, exhausted from running around letting the necrotic wound finish off the rock elemental, sat down and assigned her free points. 3 into Vitality and 2 into Charisma. Vitality because more health points equal more survivability and Charisma, because, well, she believed herself to be a charismatic person, and her stat points should reflect that as well. After replenishing her health points, mana points, and stamina, Alice stood up and continued walking through the cavern until she found a very sophisticated-looking marble gateway with marble tile flooring leading to another room. Alice didn’t think much of it, and walked right in.
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