Listen I know what you are thinking. How hard can catching a book really be? Well lets dive into Zaros' absolutely delightful adventure in the most hardcore library ever created.
The librarian insisted he take a lantern despite his protests. He said, look lady I can literally sense things through the void but she wasn't having it. Pretty sure she practiced that disapproving look in the mirror. Fine. He stuffed the completely useless lantern in his void storage alongside his Void Fang daggers. Happy now? He thought.
System Quest. Clear the archives. Reward knowledge of the void.
The archives stretched out below like someone had taken every creepy library level from every horror game ever and smooshed them together. Perfect place to test out Shadow Camouflage. He activated his ability and.
STEALTH ATTEMPT FAILED flashed in his vision like a big neon sign saying HERE I AM COME KILL ME.
Analyze triggered immediately. Four level 7 shadow wraiths materialized. Thanks tutorial message I can count. He thought. The wraiths looked like someone had taken regular ghosts and dipped them in ink. Their forms twisted and writhed tentacles of pure darkness whipping through the air.
His void sense lit them up like Christmas trees. Time to put these tutorials to use.
Health 800. Mana 400. Stamina full. Lets dance.
He called a Void Fang from his void storage and let it fly. The dagger struck true, actually staggering the wraith. Physical damage for the win. He quick swapped to his second dagger as two wraiths flanked him while another tried for a frontal assault. The fourth hung back gathering dark energy. Zaro's analyze skill picked up their attack patterns. These things fought like a unit.
A psychic blast from one of the flankers hit like a migraine with attitude. Health dropped to 750 and he felt that three second regeneration delay kick in. Choosing to swap his health for vitality was the best thing he could have done. The regeneration is like how vampires regenerate. It's quite a feeling.
The wraith on his right landed another hit dropping him to 700 but it didn't matter. He was already regenerating and fighting back.
Two health point per second might not sound like much but it was already making a difference.
Zaro void stepped behind the rear caster, shadow strike ready. His void enhanced fist connected and this time the wraith actually shrieked. Fresh damage from one of the wraiths took him down to 675 but his regeneration kept steadily ticking upward. The consistent healing gave him options. Zaro deliberately left an opening taking a hit that dropped him lower but let him land a devastating counter attack with his third Void Fang. The steady regen meant he could take calculated risks.
He was getting used to the feeling of a tank build.
Enemy defeated, 200 experience gained.
Two down, two to go.
The fight devolved into a dance of void steps and precise dagger strikes. He kept moving, never letting them surround him. His void armor absorbed glancing blows while he picked them apart one by one. Each new hit just meant he needed to focus more and recharge the void shield.
The wraiths seemed confused by his increasing aggression. Yeah that's right boys, I can heal through your damage. Zaro thought.
Will of the void allowed him to throw two daggers at the wraith on the left, when it tried to dodge he snapped the daggers back on track and sent a void bolt on impact it became dust.
He earned another 100 experience from that wraith. 2700 more to level up to 11.
The final wraith caught a flurry of 1 shadow strike and some void fang swipes to send it to Valhalla.
Enemy defeated, 100 experience gained. 2600 to level 11.
That left him at 600 Health. Mana 160 of 400. His regeneration still slowly ticking away toward recovery. Nothing a little Eye Of The Storm can't fix to speed things up. He sat down right there and closed his eyes feeling both regeneration and meditation stacking to restore his stats. The library felt different through void sense alone. Peaceful almost.
Stats restored. Time for anchor number two.
Three level 10 wraiths this time. Analyze showed these boys meant business. Their forms were more solid darkness rolling off them in waves.
Zaro quick drew two Void Fangs from storage and let them fly as he double charged his void shield. One connected but the second wraith just caught the blade. Rude. He summoned his void sword feeling its familiar weight materialize in his hands.
The fight got serious fast. They coordinated perfectly trying to take him out and put his picture on the back of a milk carton.
One attacking high one low while the third launched psychic assault after psychic assault. Zaros' void armor strained under the assault but his healing never stopped.
He called his daggers back with force and they did damage on their way to his hand, he let void storage absorb them.
He void stepped behind their formation and activated temporal dilation 50% speed increase. Everything slowed except him. The strain burned through mana but gave him the edge he needed.
Three seconds of enhanced speed let him land critical hits on two wraiths with direct stabs from the sword. He fired void bolts and finished both off while the third caught him with a darkness enhanced backhand that sent him flying into a bookshelf. Health 500 of 800. The impact reset his brain and woke up the anger sharks. Zaro pulled his void sword close to a defensive position and prepared for round two.
The final wraith went down to a combination of blade work and shadow strikes. Health recovering steadily at one point per second. Mana 50 of 400. Another tranquility skill break. Zaro earned 450 experience from these guys. 2150 to level up.
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System alert, Shadow Strike level 2.
At least I'm still getting stronger. He thought.
Zaro took a break and ate a little jerky while he recovered. Then he double charged his void shield which would block around 50 damage and looked at his shadow strike at level 2 cost 15 mana and now does 60 damage per strike. His void bolt does 40 damage and also costs 15 mana. He thought, I really need to level my main skills up, and it seems like they level faster in combat.
The third anchor practically screamed trap. Analyze confirmed his worst fears. Three level 20 shadow wraiths. Their forms were almost solid darkness crystallized into armor. These weren't random spawns. They were guardians.
The biggest one spoke in Zaro's mind. PROVE YOUR WORTH.
Oh its gonna be like that huh? Zaro yelled.
He felt the familiar heat building in his chest as the wraiths launched their first assault. A blade of pure darkness nearly took his head off. A well timed void step took him away but the biggest wraiths attacks were perfectly timed, striking just as his footing was almost set.
Zaro wanted to make the most of this battle for leveling purposes.
He ran toward the closest wraith and stabbed a dagger in then hit the pommel with a vicious palm strike to really get some depth. The armor of the beast gave significant resistance and when he payed attention to void sense the wraiths still all appeared with a green inner outline to signify they were not hurt at all.
The wraith threw a swipe at his torso and he blocked it at the elbow bend before it had built up momentum with his left hand while using shadow strike with his right hand to punch the dagger deeper into it's chest then he held that right arm with his left hand and blocked the creatures follow up swipe with its left arm while grabbing the right arm at what would be it's wrist and immediately putting his right arm around it's head and whipping his hips for a perfect snap that hip tossed the wraith with velocity at its buddy that had crept for the sneak attack.
The creature was yellow now indicating it took moderate damage, finally.
Zaro charged a void bolt at 5 times the charge aiming for 200 damage to anyone that came close enough to catch a beating.
He jumped up to dodge a blade from wraith number 2 and void stepped to flank them all. He needed to make sure he was not surrounded.
He let the void bolt go and it made contact with wraith number 2, knocking it back into the wall stunning it.
That's when he realized wraith number 3 had an energy he had never seen. His void sense showed him the radiating energy field. That's when he realized his mistake.
The third wraith was healing his buddies.
Wraith 2 was green again and wraith one went from red to yellow as he made the realization.
Zaro had blown through around one third his mana and accomplished nothing.
If he didn't finish this fast, he might not make it.
Zaro charged his shadow strike and ran toward wraith 1, with the dagger embedded in his chest and just as he threw his punch his fist was deflected by an ethereal blade from wraith number 2 that stuck into his wrist, almost 2 inches deep taking 50 damage and shattering his void shield.
Zaro jumped backwards and popped a health potion.
Time to end this. He triggered Void Rage and the world turned red.
Zaro used brevity to look at what void rage does to his stats and he saw it adds plus 10 to all stats!
The crimson timer appeared. 60 seconds. His void energy shifted crackling with renewed power as his eyes took on that telling crimson tint. Between his unstoppable regeneration and Void Rage he almost felt invincible.
First things first, he recalled his void sword and spent 10 seconds of rage forming a crimson charge of pure void energy around it which made it double in size. It was about 6 inches wide now and 3 feet long, with a very sharp energy edge. The remaining 50 seconds would have to be enough. The biggest wraith actually took a step back. Yeah you should be worried big guy. Zaro taunted.
His first strike cut clean through its defensive barrier as he used his left hand to send a void bolt into it's face trying desperately to add another permanent hole as a new feature to its head. The wraith started to scream in his mind but was interrupted by the unexpected void bolt. He was past caring about psychic attacks. Rage let him ignore the pain and helped him push through. The slow healing kept him alive while rage let him work with destructive force.
The second wraith tried to flank. Zaro caught its darkness blade on his void sword and the channeled rage and stats overpowered its guard completely. The following void bolt charged times 3 and enhanced by rage nearly tore it in half.
35 seconds left.
The third, healer or leader wraith launched a combined assault with the injured first wraith. Darkness and psychic energy rolled off them in waves. He void stepped through their attack and it caught them off guard.
The blade of rage carved through their defenses like they were made of paper. Each strike spent precious seconds of rage time but the devastation was worth it. The smallest wraith fell first its form unable to maintain cohesion against the crimson void energy.
15 seconds remaining.
The leader rushed with everything it had. It's blade met the rage enhanced blade in a clash that would have made Obi Wan proud. Each strike spent another second of rage but he pressed the advantage. Between regeneration slowly keeping Zaro alive and rage letting him ignore the pain he was unstoppable.
The leader wraith did penetrate Zaro's defenses with psychic energy blasts emoting from its helmet and physical blade swiped slicing his abdomen and chest causing 400 damage total.
With 5 seconds left Zaro poured everything into one final attack. The crimson blade extended and shifted then became a spiral of pure destructive force.
He swiped his almost signature big Z into it's form and sent it back to the after life. He heard a deep, phantom.
WORTHY the big wraith admitted before exploding with it's remaining energy that tore through his body as it seemed to be physical damage mixed with psychic. The explosion did 200 damage and was unexpected. This left Zaro with 200 health and bloody and in immense pain as the rage timer hit zero.
He collapsed to his knees. his health slowly ticking up two point at a time. Worth it.
System alert. 3 level 20 wraiths defeated. 900 experience gained.
1,250 experience to level 11.
ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED WRAITH HUNTER
Passive Skill Gained. Psychic Resistance Level 1
Regeneration has reached Level 2
Health Recovery Rate increased to 3 health per second.
Quest completed. Reward, Void Legacy Scroll added to void storage. Bonus reward. Wraith cloak added to void storage.
Good thing I got this cloak, because my tunic is shredded. Zaro thought.
When he equipped the cloak it felt like someone pulled the sleeves on for him, like the void storage had its own hands. He dismissed the thought. Analyze gave him some great information.
Here's a clean, self-contained Wraith Cloak system ready for implementation:
Wraith Cloak.
The cloak feeds on void energy stolen through Void Drain, absorbing 50% of all drained energy if activated. Self repairs using void energy at 1 mana per point of durability.
Current Level, 1.
Void Energy Absorbed. 0 of 1000.
Grade, Uncommon.
Durability. 100.
Active Effects.
Merges with void armor.
5% damage reduction.
Basic shadow aesthetic.
Self repair capability.
This information tells me I can upgrade the cloak, that's perfect! Zaro thought.
Plus it looks cool.
He activated Void shield to see what it would do. The shield covered him and the cloak as if they were made for each other. This system must know what it's doing, Zaro thought.
He would wait to read the scroll until later.
Zaro grabbed the stupid book which had been watching the whole thing like it was ringside at WWE and limped his way upstairs. His newly improved regeneration slowly but surely bringing him back from the brink at three health per second. Still took forever. 200 seconds to full health. Still not bad. He thought.
Zaro stood there and used his tranquility based skill for a minute so he could get his bearing. Then went upstairs.
The librarian took one look at his condition and smiled. Slow clapped like he had just finished some anime training arc.
Zaro decided right then that he was never returning an overdue book to this library. They take their late fees way too seriously.
Next time on Dragon Ball Z. I mean our totally original adventure. We find out if Zaro can keep NPCs alive in a fire dungeon. Because clearly he is doing so well at keeping himself alive.
He needs a healer. And a drink. Not necessarily in that order.