Eli was starting to notice something odd with the trap damage. Traps are intended to be lethal, but it barely did over 50 damage. Why would a trap that is meant to kill an entire room be so weak? You would only need 6 points in Vitality to survive it, and that didn't seem very difficult to reach or surpass even at level 1.
Either the trap got weaker with age, the prisoners were extremely weak, or he was stronger than he should be. The first option seemed unlikely with the magic elements involved. It was also possible the prisoners were tortured and maimed to near death at any given point. This possibility would also allow the guards to spring the traps themselves if they were overwhelmed by numbers because they would survive it, but the prisoners wouldn't.
However, he felt the third possibility was the most likely. There had been a lot of weird elements to his Vitality stat so far. The fact it didn't increase on his Status Menu, the fact the creature found his vitality stat gain to be so interesting, and of course what level 0 meant.
Eli pulled up his status menu. He had wanted to save all his attribute points, as blind distribution was almost always how you crippled a character, but this needed verification. He paused before he added one point into Vitality.
*ding*
Name Insignificant Race Insignificant Level 1 Class Revenant Titles Progenitor, Tenacious, Aberration Achievements Toxic Blood Age 0% Lifespan 1.5 years Health 36/55 Mana 10/10 Attributes Unspent Points 4 Strength 1 Dexterity 1 Vitality 2 Wisdom 1 Charisma 1 Will 1 Endurance 1 Affinities None Resistances Pain 2 Essence Drain 1 Poison 1 Active Skills Inspect 1 Passive Skills Dark Sight 3 Death's Curse MAX Unwilling Aura 3
Eli looked at the changes before it seemed his theory was correct. The point in vitality only gave him half the points it did at level 1. This meant at the very least a prisoner would need 9-10 points of Vitality to survive the trap at full health.
What seemed truly odd to him was his Lifespan. He didn't understand how it gave him half a year of life. That was 2.5 times what he got at level 0. With his Curse it meant that a normal person would get 5 years of Lifespan per point of Vitality, even though the base was only 2 years.
Despite feeling something was still off, he verified at the very least he had benefited from the experience, though he doubted the creature would have been that interested in an extra 20 HP. Either it didn't know there were so few extra points, or the true benefit lay in other attributes, especially the hidden ones like Endurance and Intelligence. He likely wasted an unbelievable opportunity with his ignorance.
He briefly thought about how he would go about dropping level again, but he knew the opportunity was probably lost forever, at least with the information he had available.
The room had reset to its original position as Eli inspected the gate and the lever. He waited until his health was topped off before he decided to try and push the lever upward, instead of downward. After a quarter turn, he could hear metal screeching as he saw the gate slowly lifting. It was a rather clever trick, playing against the instincts of the victim. After about five full rotations of the wheel locked as the gate was fully raised. He let go and then rushed through the opening.
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The gate remained open as he continued deeper into what looked like a long tunnel. The lighting in this tunnel was incredibly sparse, and he relied on his Dark Vision to see most of the way. Eli wasn’t sure how long it took him to travel through the tunnel, but it felt like at least an hour. He started to wonder how to increase his movement speed, and how that would work in practice. As he neared the exit, he saw a doorway blocked by a rock wall past its frame. He neared closer as he tried to knock on it with his club, only for it to pass through.
An illusionary wall? He stepped through it as he found himself in a natural cave filled with a cacophony of sounds. The air felt thick with the smells of nature and life. Large rocks were scattered around him blocked his vision of most of his surroundings, but he could see fire light casting shadows around the ceiling and walls. The change was so abrupt he felt like he was in a completely different world.
He cautiously peeked past one of boulders and he was greeted by a massive dome room. A large waterfall was flowing down from a gaping hole in the ceiling, creating a large pond in the center of the room. There were large mushrooms, glowing moss, and several small types of plants scattered throughout the surroundings, but mostly concentrated near the source of water.
What grabbed his attention the most were a dozen or so humanoid figures near the pond that were fighting what looked to be skeletons. The humanoids seemed to be winning, but there were a few that seemed to be wounded or dead which were pulled towards the back.
Eli started to look around for an escape route. There were a few openings that looked like potential exits, but all of them were across the room, which the undead seemed to be slowly flowing in from. The longer he watched on, the worse the situation seemed to be. The humanoids were obviously stronger, but the undead just continued to creep into the room and the humanoids were getting weaker and weaker. This was a battle of attrition they didn’t seem to be winning.
As Eli started to weigh his options, two skeletons started to rise from the ground near him.
*ding*
Minor Skeleton Minion – Lv. 1
Minor Skeleton Minion – Lv. 1
As the skeletons rose, they started to walk towards the back of the group where their weakest were. The group of humanoids were not paying attention to the back of the room, likely having picked this spot specifically because it funneled the skeletons in one direction, preventing themselves from being flanked.
Eli was surprised at the low level of the skeletons; they were by far the weakest things he’d seen since he came to the world and he currently had blunt weapons. This was the perfect opportunity to jump in and pretend to be a hero. The interception would prove him to be friendly, and his Unwilling Aura was exactly what they needed to turn this fight around. Even if they weren’t very intelligent, it was highly unlikely they would become hostile to him.
The opportunity was too good to pass up, and Eli darted out from the rocks and ran towards the skeletons. As he approached the two skeletons, the closest one started to turn around but it was too late as he had already swung at the skeleton’s head with all his might.
*Crack*
You have dealt a Critical Hit!
You Deal 12 Damage!
You have Slain Minor Skeleton Minion!
The noise had alerted both the other Skeleton and the group of humanoids as could see a few of their dark figures turn backwards. He turned his attention to the other skeleton and rushed forward as he swung at its head. The skeleton brought its hand up to block the blow.
*Crack*
You Deal 4 Damage!
The skeleton’s arm broke from the impact, and Eli swung with his offhand. It felt far more awkward than he thought it would, but it struck the skeleton’s head.
*Crack*
You have dealt a Critical Hit!
You Deal 6 Damage!
You have Slain Minor Skeleton Minion!
You Have Gained
+1 Strength
The Skeleton crumbled to the ground. One of the humanoid figures broke from their front line and put themselves in between him and the injured. Eli tried to seem as harmless as possible as he walked towards the group. He stopped as he got close enough to where he was sure their injured were within his Unwilling Aura.
“I have come to help!” He shouted to the group, waiting for a reaction. In less than a minute he could see the wounded group start to move and many were starting to stand.
*ding*
You Have Gained
Unwilling Aura Lv. 4
Anything Affected Regenerates 0.4 HP/s
Range: 13 meters
Eli was surprised how quickly it leveled, probably a result of healing multiple targets at once.
The figure that had guarded the injured was looking around and Eli could hear bits of words amongst their group. The figure then slowly walked up to him, as it did he was able to finally make out its features. It was much smaller than he thought, the figure only came up to his waist. It had dark shaggy hair and cobalt blue skin, its facial features were incredibly human, besides the fact that it had unnaturally large eyes with black sclera and purple irises. It was covered in dark tattered leather clothes, with a stone sword drawn in its hand.
*ding*
??? Kobold – Lv. 2