Jax, ready to run as there was no way he could face eight clearly-powerful creatures alone, unexpectedly got a System message.

You have entered the King’s Grave with his crest, so he will at least give you a chance to live. Face his Princes, one by one, and prove yourself worthy of his lineage.

Objectives:

Defeat Dawnborn Prince

Defeat Flameborn Prince

Defeat Steelborn Prince

Defeat Magicborn Prince

Defeat Gloomborn Prince

Defeat Sporeborn Prince

Defeat Duskborn Prince

Earn the King’s approval

Jax stared at the message for a second, then squinted as he Identified the one who looked like the Dawnborn Prince.

[Dawnborn Prince(lvl - 12)]

Jax readied his sword and shield as the Prince stepped forward, raising his sword in both hands, taking a stance. Jax got lower, ready to fight and cursing both Nikki and the System for the deceptive wording.

They both just stood there, the Prince waiting for an opening, and Jax being too nervous to make the first move. It was understandable, as this would be Jax’s first time facing a humanoid opponent while not fueled by cold, hate, and adrenaline. This persisted for another ten seconds, when the Prince stepped forward, his sword beginning to glow as he lashed out, right for Jax’s chest, which was a decidedly unintelligent way to deal with someone bearing a shield.

Jax swiftly slid his shield over his chest, swinging his arm in a parry, attempting to either knock the prince’s sword from his hand or at least send him off kilter.

It was too effective. An entire arm went flying with a sword still in its grip, careening over the other Princes and the King. There was a moment of stillness as Jax was stunned by his own strength, then the Prince tried to turn and retrieve his arm and weapon.

Jax, instilled with a great amount of confidence by his previous feat, lunged forward and raised his shield over head, bringing the edge of it to bear against the back of the Princes’ head. It sheared the entire thing off, and Jax felt… disappointed? For his true christening in the ways of dueling, it felt extremely lackluster. A System message immediately dismissed the notion of this entire thing being as easy.

Congratulations! You have defeated the Dawnborn Prince, also known as Guardian Healer.

The Flameborn Prince will now face you.

Jax turned to the Princes again, and another skeleton walked out, also bringing a longsword. It immediately gained one-hundred scary points in Jax’s book when the sword ignited in tandem with the crown on top of the Prince’s head.

[Flameborn Prince(lvl - 13)]

Jax, having been subdued by the frightening show of magic, continued his streak of non-initiation. The Prince didn’t wait as long as his brother, though. Impatient, he approached, more tactical than the Dawnborn Prince.

Jax stabbed at him, which was proven dumb as the sword simply went through its ribs harmlessly. Retreating a step, Jax raised his shield when the Prince chopped downward, then again and again as he continued to rake his sword erratically and quickly. Jax was struggling to keep up, as the assault was too quick. He kept blocking, his whole focus on simply defending, the sword becoming dead weight in his hands.

Jax kept getting feelings for what he should do in this situation: hard parry, shoulder check, leg sweep, shield bash, charge, tackle. He knew vaguely how to do it all too, but he just couldn’t bring himself too. Jax was afraid of the sword.

When he realized this, Jax widened his eyes. The distraction cost him a searing slash across his left thigh. Jax winced, but he knew something had to change. When the flaming sword was brought to bear again, Jax readied his shield, swinging his shield at the sword, aiming to deflect it to the side.

It struck, knocking the relatively light skeleton backward, opening itself up to Jax stepping inside its guard, shield held exactly like he had done when he felled the Dawnborn Prince.

It sent the Prince reeling, cracks where he had struck it, but it nearly recovered when Jax hit it again, sending its head flying along with some shards of bone that had come off with that last strike.

Congratulations! You have defeated the Flameborn Prince, also known as the Angered Son.

The Steelborn Prince will now face you.

Jax turned his eyes on the new Prince who walked out to meet him.

[Steelborn Prince(lvl - 14)]

Jax was starting to notice a theme here, but he didn’t particularly care. He knew that each fight was getting harder, and Jax didn’t think he could just stay on the back foot and win this time. He felt uncertain about what to do, but Jax decided to just take a chance.

When the Prince lifted its sword into a stance, Jax tucked himself behind the shield and charged. He felt like a fool when the Steelborn Prince sidestepped and shoved him down, making Jax roll across the floor.

Groaning, he scrambled to his feet. The Steelborn Prince simply kept twirling his sword, paying Jax no attention. Jax grit his teeth. He might not have been a good warrior, but to disregard him like that…

Jax stalked over the Prince, slow and unstoppable this time. As he got closer, the Prince focused on Jax, readying his sword again. Jax swung his sword, bashing the poor blade against a steel bracer. The prince retaliated with a chop, Jax parried, punching the skeleton in the sternum, where armor covered it. The armor actually made damaging the skeleton easier as it acted as a way to damage more surface area of the bone.

Jax was pressing an advantage, and it seemed like Jax had gotten a lot stronger, but Jax knew what it was: his stats. Simply put, he was overpowering the Steelborn Prince. Sure he was slower than the prince, and seemingly less durable, but Jax was stronger, courtesy of him dumping every free point he had gained into the stat in a panic, something he was grateful for right now.

Jax realized that if he kept pressing, he would win. Hell, if he had pressed on the Flameborn Prince he probably would have crushed him hard. Judging by how the names seemed like good tells on what the fighting style of each prince looked like, Jax figured the Steelborn Prince to be the most physical of the bunch, judging by his superior speed, durability, and strength.

Jax blocked a swing and cut the head off in a backhand slash. He was breathing a little bit heavy, and there were a few light cuts as well as one deep cut that he’d gotten when he started getting overconfident. Jax looked at his resources.

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HP:423/480

Stamina:473/960

MP:350/350

Jax was curious how HP worked, but he imagined it made sense somehow. Jax had killed everything so far with simple headshots, and Jax didn’t doubt a decapitation would kill him too, yet body shots and even deep-ish wounds like the one on his chest didn’t dent the pool too much.

Stamina was about as easy to understand as it got. He was below half full, and Jax felt like he would halfway through a day. He was rapidly regaining his breath, and Jax read the message that had popped up, the second one only popping up after he read the first. Interesting… Jax noted that, imagining it would be useful since he was only three fights in and nearly out of stamina.

Congratulations! You have defeated the Steelborn Prince, also known as Duelist Steele.

The Magicborn Prince will now face you.

Jax rolled his shoulders and cracked his neck. He was willing to bet it would be level fifteen, and a quick Identify proved him right.

[Magicborn Prince(lvl - 15)]

Jax first noticed the Prince’s crown had a blue crystal on it, while he wielded the sword in one hand, a wand in the other. Jax felt reluctance this time, and not the same as from earlier. Magic was something Jax had yet to encounter. At least, cast magic. The flaming sword, changeling, weird fire, and other strange phenomena were clearly magical, but this was his first time fighting it.

Jax didn’t know how fast it was, how strong, or even if his shield would help. “One way to find out,” Jax muttered, striding forward. Running seemed like a bad idea until he became a better fighter.

The Prince didn’t show the same hesitation as his brothers, raising the wand and strafing, trying to keep Jax at a distance. A blue glow developed at the tip of the wand, the crystal on the Magicborn Prince’s crown glowing in tandem. Jax tucked behind the shield as a bolt developed then swiftly shot towards him. Jax was sent back a step, shoulder jarred from the impact.

But Jax had seen all he needed to see. At least hopefully. It took about three seconds to charge that spell, and it hadn’t even been too difficult to block. He just needed to put on some serious pressure, and the magic shouldn’t be an issue.

Jax picked up speed, running carefully at the Prince. The Prince tried to strafe, but its physical stats simply weren’t near as high as Jax’s, so he caught up, having to only block two more blasts, then ended the fight with one simple shield chop, as he was beginning to call the move in his head.

Congratulations! You have defeated the Magicborn Prince, also known as the Sword Magus.

The Gloomborn Prince will now face you.

Jax hadn’t expended hardly any energy on the Magicborn Prince, so he felt good to go. The gloomborn prince was the only one who didn’t wield a sword. Instead, he held a dagger in each hand and Jax was nervous about how he would deal with two weapons.

Before Jax could stop worrying about that, the Prince disappeared. Like, poof, gone. Jax panicked, looking around frantically. He was spinning, trying to find the Prince, using his sword as a probe, holding it out.

Jax kept swiveling his head, then, out of the corner of his eye, he saw what looked like liquid darkness. He snapped his shield that way, just in time for two daggers aimed at his head and neck to slam into the shield. Jaxquickly tried to slash the arm or hand off the Prince, but it was fast, so he missed, the Prince disappearing again. Jax kept his head on a swivel this time, struggling to not panic. Not being able to see your opponent at all was nerve-wracking for a great many reasons.

Jax focused more on his energy sense, noticing that the prince had come from a part of the room where the normal torchlight wasn’t very strong…

Just in time with his realization, Jax spun toward the center of the ring he fought in, where the light was dimmest. As he thought, the Prince jumped out again, but this time Jax had a moment to prepare. Instead of blocking, Jax sidestepped, making the Prince miss. With only one foot on the round, the Gloomborn Prince tried to jump away, but Jax lifted his leg and stomped down on the side of the Prince’s knee, caving it in and causing a loud snap. Jax cut the thrashing legs off the Prince then decapitated him.

Congratulations! You have defeated the Gloomborn Prince, also known as the Problem Solver.

The Sporeborn Prince will face you after a brief respite.

15/15 minutes remaining.

Jax took a seat immediately, regaining his breath looking at his stamina meter slowly crawling back up.

Stamina:279/960

It went up a few ticks every two seconds, which would mean 450 stamina would regenerate in fifteen minutes. But, after ten, Jax noticed something.

Stamina:579/960

It had only regenerated 300. Jax frowned, then considered if maybe it was like regeneratable versus non-regenerable stamina. For example, if he used 100 stamina, he could get back a certain amount of it in a short time, but not all of it until he rested fully.

With that as his running theory, Jax reflected on his prior fights, having nothing else to do. In general, his form and technique were sloppy, his theory was downright bad, and the fact these “Princes” didn’t trounce him mercilessly, even dead as they were, was highly suspicious. Jax considered how he could find out, when he finally thought about something. Something that had bugged him and his whole group: System Assistance. Before Jax had evolved, it had said the same thing for all of them:

[System Assistance(unique)]: Unlocked after evolution to F-grade.

Now, though, Jax finally remembered to check it again.

[System Assistance(unique)]: As initiates of the System, thus being the most unfamiliar with the System, this skill can be used to ask questions directly to the System. Answers will either be truthful or classified and answered to the most relevant disclosable point. This skill is forfeit at the end of the integration event.

Jax grinned, deciding to test it out right now, starting with the basics he was pretty sure he already knew, “System, what does each stat do?”

Q:System, what does each stat do?

A: Strength: Defines the torque and vitality of the users movements. Directly linked between internal energy(stamina) and general physical power. Base humans strength and vitality are directly the same until System integration.

Toughness: How much you can endure. Makes it more difficult to damage or fatigue you. Base humans strength and vitality are directly the same until System integration. Determines vital energy(HP).

Agility: How swiftly and precisely you can move. Has minor effects on mana manipulation.

Perception: How sharp and vast your senses are. It is the link between physical and soul stats.

Cognition: How fast your soul can process thoughts as well as how potent and swift your magic is. All humans start with 5, unless extenuating circumstances occur.

Integrity: The durability as well as capacity of your soul. Directly correlates to how much mana one can hold, as well as breadth/complexity of thought capability. All humans start with 5, unless extenuating circumstances occur.

Willpower: This is how your soul directly touches the world. Willpower determines how far your magical capabilities extend, as well as how potent more esoteric/non-standard abilities are strengthened. All humans start with 5, unless extenuating circumstances occur.

Jax nodded, the physical stats and perception doing exactly what he thought. The real information was in the soul stats. Jax figured cognition had something to do with thought speed, but it was way more than that. He had noticed himself able to react swifter and with more thought to situations. Integrity, which Jax noted he had started with 10, which fell under the “extenuating circumstances” branch, was very different from what he thought. He had thought it to be more about sanity, but he had never been sure.

Willpower made sense, but Jax hadn’t even begun to guess how that one worked. Jax rolled with the explanation, thinking of another question: “Why are the Princes so weak?”

Q: Why are the Princes so weak?

A: The Contidus Princes are weakened both due to having been long dead as well as system interference in their combat capability. In life, they were peak D-grades, and they would be far too powerful for an integration event even if they were reduced to level 0.

Jax nodded, the answer falling in line with his theory that they should have been stronger. But, the whole D-grade thing didn’t mean to much to him. Like, obviously, with how stats and skills grew exponentially, they would be crazy powerful, but that would be like standing on the sun versus another star and trying to tell exactly how much brighter one was than the other.

Jax noted that he had three minutes left, so he decided to come up with a game plan. The Sporeborn Prince seemed to be a lot like the king at the beginning of the cavern who was apparently the last king. Not a great rep already, but Jax was willing to bet he had a nasty skillset. They last king had, according to the Spore Sword, used soporific and parasitic magic, which sounded nasty and difficult to thwart.

After all, Jax couldn’t just block the spores… Actually, Jax just got an idea. He would have to test it if the Sporeborn Prince could throw or spray spores in some way, but he generally hoped that wouldn’t happen.

As the thought finished, the System message announcing the end of the respite came.

Respite expired. The Sporeborn Prince will now face you.