(9) Chapter 8: Gains and Losses_The Bit of Human Left

Upon exiting the connection tunnel, Arris found himself standing at the edge of a massive expanse of rugged black stone that strongly reminded him of basalt. He bent over to scrape a bony claw over the rough surface of the stone. Maybe it was basalt. He couldn’t really tell anymore, not with the way he was now.

Arris straightened up and continued his observation of the cavern. Looking around Arris spotted several massive stone pillars measuring hundreds of feet in diameter, sprouting up from the ground and shooting towards the ceiling some four or five hundred feet above where Arris was currently standing. These massive pillars were thoroughly connected by a series of large, slightly slanted stone cylinders. Here and there large stalagmites could be seen popping up from the floor, concealing minor sections of the area. The vague, indistinct yet somehow familiar shrieks of an unknown creature echoed through the cavern every once in awhile, a warning to all adventurers of the challenges to come. In front of Arris hovered a screen.

Congratulations, you have discovered the fifth level of the Skeleton Floor of Malechian’s Dungeon, also known as the Revenant’s Roost! Please note that the last level of a floor is unique and more challenging than the rest! Instead of a hidden boss, normal boss, and hidden loot chest, there will be several challenges for explorers throughout the level and a single boss with a loot chest as a reward for defeating it. Beware, this boss will be the most difficult of all those that you have faced!

Arris momentarily paused. A single boss with the loot chest as the reward? So there was no hidden boss to warm up on or hidden loot chest to gear up with before challenging the main boss. Arris wasn’t sure how he felt about that. But then he shrugged after a couple seconds of thought. He’d triumph over this boss just as he’d triumphed over all the others. That didn’t mean, however, that he wouldn’t adequately prepare to take this boss on.

Before he faced the creature, Arris really wanted to hit level 15. He only needed roughly another 80% to finish off level 14, and once he hit 15 he could pick up another couple abilities and more importantly could finally get his mini-boss racial upgrade. That could potentially be huge. An extra twenty to forty bonus to his stats alongside an ability could potentially be a game changer.

Setting aside his worries about the upcoming boss fight and dreams of power, Arris set off into the level. Looking around Arris could actually spot his enemies on this level, as opposed to the last where the wolven had pretty much all been concealed.

These monsters were of a familiar type: human skeletons. They ambled to and fro, interspersed periodically in small groups throughout the massive open cavern. Shrugging, his path to his enemies easily found, Arris simply began walking towards the nearest small group. Glancing at their nameplates, Arris gave the skeletons a brief scan before actually engaging them.

< Skeleton Knight | Undead Monster | Level 14 | 100% HP >

< Skeleton Archer | Undead Monster | Level 13 | 100% HP >

< Skeleton Warrior | Undead Monster | Level 15 | 100% HP >

Arris frowned. While he’d seen two of the types of skeletons previously, he hadn’t seen any skeleton knights ever. Looking more closely Arris could see that the skeleton was wearing some rather nice armor and had a fancy looking black sword with a hooked tip. He didn’t know the exact name for the type of sword but had others like it a million times in various RPG video games he’d played back before the System.

Arris thought that now that the dungeon was getting harder it was probably a good idea to switch up his approach to taking on mobs in the dungeon. Usually, he just obliterated new monsters without taking their measure. This time he would let the Skeleton Knight engage him in melee combat so he could take its measure before he destroyed it. He might not be able to destroy an entire group of skeletons at a later date and if he had to fight more Skeleton Knights better to have gauged their strength before caught in a sticky situation.

After prepping his customary five Spirit Shards Arris approached the skeletons. As per usual Arris assumed that the Skeleton Warrior and Skeleton Archer had roughly the same amount of health as him. This actually meant that Arris could save one of his Spirit Shards. Creeping up behind the group of skeletons, Arris raised his mage staff and then brought it smashing down onto the head of the Skeleton Archer.

> You deal Skeleton Archer Lethal damage! <

> Skeleton Archer has died! <

With that Skeleton down, Arris quickly refocused, a Spirit Blast’s spell matrix appearing before his staff a second before the spell itself flew out to smash into the Skeleton Warrior. With a further wave of his hand, four of his five Spirit Shards shot out to finish it off.

> You deal Skeleton Warrior 92 mixed damage! <

> You deal Skeleton Warrior 36 mixed damage! <

> Skeleton Warrior has died! <

Now it was just him and the Skeleton Knight. Its eyes glowing balls of red, the monster’s jaws clacked together as it watched its fellow Skeleton Warrior collapse into an inanimate pile of bones. The Skeleton Knight hardly waited a moment. The creature leveled its sword at Arris and charged him.

Arris quickly swapped out his two staffs, the Quarterstaff popping out of his inventory and into his hands, ready for use. A split second later and the Skeleton Knight had closed range and swung its sword out in a sweeping blow at Arris. The blow was well-placed, however, and unlike the clumsy and slow attacks of the Skeleton Warriors, Drudges Arris had no choice but to parry or dodge backward. Arris opted for the second choice, dancing backward as the Skeleton Knight finished its blow, returning to a ready position. Seeming to realize its foe had swapped to a melee weapon and had prepared for melee combat, the Skeleton Knight did not rush in again and instead slowly circled Arris, its blade at the ready.

Deciding to take the initiative, Arris stepped in and unleashed a swift blow aimed at the Skeleton Knight’s head. The monster was ready, however, and the blow bounced off of the Skeleton’s upraised sword. Quickly swapping weight from one foot to the other, Arris stepped forwards to press his advantage and launch a series of rapid, powerful blows angling to smash through the Skeleton Knights defenses. However, the Skeleton Knight displayed a remarkable amount of competency with its blade. It bobbed and weaved, retreated and parried, and let loose a couple ripostes of its own before Arris’ assault ended. After thirty or so blows, Arris had only managed to get three hits and the Skeleton Knight had landed its first.

> You deal Skeleton Knight 42 blunt damage! <

> You deal Skeleton Knight 38 blunt damage! <

> You deal Skeleton Knight 41 blunt damage! <

> Skeleton Knight deals you 65 slashing damage! <

Taking a couple steps backward, Arris retreated out of range of skeleton, giving its nameplate a glance.

< Skeleton Knight | Undead Monster | Level 14 | 100% HP >

Having dealt some 120 damage but not having penetrated through the Skeleton Warrior’s toughness, Arris figured it had to have over 240 health. With his blows dealing some 30 reduced damage, it was fair to say that the creature had roughly 30 armor or so. This monster was easily the most dangerous out of all the weapon-wielding monsters he’d faced so far. While the Skeleton Knight wasn’t quite as fast as Arris, it was faster than anything he’d faced before and was definitely stronger than him. If it wasn’t for his superior weapon skills and speed Arris would likely lose in a physical fight against his strong, better armed, better-armored adversary.

Still, though, it would likely take Arris at least another five minutes to finish chipping off the rest of the Skeleton Knight’s health. Quickly making his decision, Arris ultimately decided to finish the monster off without magical means. With the level of competency and defensive style, the Skeleton Knight was showing the fight should be rather long and net him a good bit of experience for both Warrior’s Stance and Blunt Weapon Proficiency.

The rest of the fight was rather predictable. Arris would close on the Skeleton Knight till he was in attack range, trigger Warrior’s Stance, and then begin hammering away. Every once in awhile the Skeleton Knight would get a little too close to Arris or would step away. Arris would simply break Warrior’s Stance and then hang back out of range till the Warrior’s Stance debuff ended before continuing the fight. Towards the end of the fight, a notification popped up.

> Blunt Weapon Proficiency +1 <

Waving the notification away, Arris continued smacking away at the Skeleton Knight’s defenses. It didn’t take him too long to land the final couple blows he needed to finish the monster off.

> Skeleton Knight has died! <

With the knight slain, Arris continued on towards the nearest pillar, whereupon he could get on a ramp leading upwards towards the roof of the dungeon. Arris had to guess that the boss was somewhere near the top of the dungeon. It would be prudent to find the boss and then decide how many levels he wanted to farm before he fought the boss.

And looking around, Arris quickly realized there were far too many mobs for him to farm in any reasonable amount of time. Arris roughly estimated that there were some five hundred or so skeletons simply wandering about the level. Luckily none of the skeletons seemed to be aggroing on him so Arris could pick and choose which groups he wanted to fight. For now, though Arris simply avoided fighting any groups with more than five skeletons or more than two knights.

For the most part, the skeletons seemed to be the same level as him, and he quickly gained experience. By the time he reached the base of the first ramp leading towards a pillar Arris had almost hit level 15, at a full 80% experience.

Then, Arris was on the ramp and moving towards a pillar. There was one last group of skeletons in between Arris and the pillar’s entrance. Arris slew them with ease, bumping himself up to 85% experience. And then Arris was through the small entrance to the pillar and inside the complex. A loud clicking ensued, and then a massive stone door crashed down to block the entrance Arris had just walked through.

You have entered the first instance of the Skeleton Floor! Overcome the challenges that await you to exit and proceed! Good Luck!

Arris’ first move was to turn around and inspect the stone door. It didn’t seem at all like it would budge, and Arris couldn’t spot any levers or buttons on the nearby walls that would open it. It seemed he would need to complete this instance if he wanted to proceed.

Arris decided to first take stock of his surroundings. He was currently standing in a small circular stone room, made of the same type of stone that the rest of the level was made of. The circular room had a singular exit which led towards the heart of the pillar. Seeing as there was no other path forwards, Arris elected to travel down the corridor. He wasn’t going to rush into it, however. Arris cautiously prepared five Spirit-Shards before he set off down the corridor.

It turned out the corridor was not a straight shot to whatever objective it was that Arris was headed towards. The corridor twisted and curved and was far, far longer than Arris anticipated. Arris was expecting some sort of challenge, however, maybe even the level boss, so he walked instead of ran and in general took a slow and cautious approach to things. It was lucky he did. As he was walking, he noticed a strange thin black line at the very bottom of his vision. Already on high alert, Arris immediately paused to take a closer look at the object.

The thin black line went from one side of the corridor to the other. On both sides of the corridor, there were small holes in the wall that the thin black line went into. Was this… A tripwire? It seemed blatantly obvious to Arris, but maybe that was just a combination of his perception and Mana Sense.

> Perception +1 <

Arris clacked his teeth together as his vanished lips tried to twist into a smile. A free point in Perception was always welcome. Stowing his happiness, Arris stepped forwards and over the trap, very slowly putting one foot down on the other side of the tripwire to gain his balance before moving the other foot over to join it. Pleased with himself Arris turned around and confidently strode forwards—only to have the floor cave out from underneath his feet after another three steps.

Fucking shit! Arris thought to himself as he fell through the air and into the pitfall trap. He hit the bottom after some forty feet of falling in a violent crunch of bones.

> Critical Strike! You take 159 blunt damage! <

Luckily it wasn’t too much damage. The fall damage had only just barely managed to penetrate through Arris’ Toughness which would regenerate much faster than his health. That fact wasn’t, however, going to stop Arris from feeling like an idiot. He’d fallen for the most basic of dungeon tricks: the double trap. It was a simple psychological trick. Mere present an adventurer with a first, easy to spot trap and distract him with it only to have set up a more difficult to spot, more dangerous trap just behind it. The adventurer, overconfident from spotting the first, would be far more susceptible to the second. Just as Arris had been. He wouldn’t make the same mistake again.

Looking around Arris found himself back in the circular room which was the start of the dungeon. He mentally groaned to himself. Now he needed to walk all the way back to the place where he’d fallen from. It was nearly half an hour getting there, and a boring one at that!

Instead of waiting the twelve minutes in the entry circular room, Arris immediately set out for the place he’d fallen from at a brisk pace. Some twenty minutes later, after his Toughness had fully regenerated, Arris reached the place where the traps were. Arris carefully stepped over the tripwire and leaped over the pitfall trap. Then he resumed his trek down the tunnel. As he walked, Arris would vigilantly scan the walls, ceiling, and floor of the tunnel for any sign of a trap. There were none.

Arris’ slow progression through the tunnel continued for nearly another hour. Arris was just about to throw caution to the wind and stop being quite so vigilant in his progression down the tunnel when he came to a wide room. It was strangely familiar.

The room seemed to be an enlarged hallway, with a tall roof some twenty feet above the floor and a single set of pillars on each side of the room. In total, there were twenty pillars, with six-foot spacings on either side of the pillars. The room was approximately seventy feet long. On the sides of the room stood six ornately decorated arches. In the center of each arch, there was a mural of a skeleton knight. The depictions were so realistic that Arris had thought them to be real Skeleton Knights. But upon closer inspection, Arris realized the depictions were merely popping out of the stone and lacked nameplates or glowing red eyes.

Carefully prowling out into the room, Arris warily inspected the room for any hidden traps or enemies. But there was nothing waiting in the shadows to strike out at Arris, and no hidden traps waiting to surprise and destroy him. Confused, Arris continued his slow and careful walk across the room. When Arris had gotten about halfway across the room there was a sudden explosion of noise.

Arris turned to see stone cascading off of what he’d thought were merely statues of Skeleton Knights. It turned out the depictions were actual Skeleton Knights encased in a loose layer of rock. Their red globes of eyes flared into existence, not a second before their nameplates did.

< Skeleton Knight | Undead Monster | Level 11 | 100% HP >

Arris shrugged. Six level 11 Skeleton Knights. He had a three-level advantage on them. He should be able to handle them. Then, Arris noticed something else moving around before the Skeleton Knight. It seemed that more than just the stone the Skeleton Knight had been encased in had collapsed. The entire archway itself had collapsed. And behind the archway, there was a room. As the Skeleton Knights stepped out of their archways a veritable horde of normal skeletons followed them out. One… two… three… four… ten… Arris stopped counting the skeletons about there and ran for the exit he’d just come out of.

As he ran, he shot Spirit blasts over his shoulder and tried to come up with a plan. It seemed that the only chance he had for winning this fight was in the enclosed corridor. Only three skeletons would be able to come at him at a time and he should be able to manage that many especially with the level difference. As long as the skeletons didn’t manage to get around him, Arris would be fine.

He was just about done considering his options and about to turn and fight when inspiration struck him. He wouldn’t need to make a desperate stand if he just ran a little further. A plan started to form in Arris’ mind.

Roughly ten minutes of running later Arris had come to the pitfall trap and tripwire trap. He had no idea what the tripwire trap did, but he was soon to find out. Leaping over the pitfall trap, Arris turned around to face the skeletons. This was the first step of his plan.

The skeletons, being little more than mere monsters, ran one by one to try and leap over the pit and get to Arris. Arris just batted them down into the trap one by one, losing large amounts of health upon impact with the floor. Some thirty skeletons later, by Arris’ approximation two-thirds the horde had been batted down the pitfall trap and back to the entry room. Arris cast a Grasping Hands, snaring the leading skeletons and impeding the path of any skeletons behind them. He then turned around, leaped over the tripwire, and ran some fifty feet down the corridor. Not long after, the Grasping Hands retreated back into the earth and the skeletons continued their headlong chase of Arris. It only took them a couple seconds to reach the trip-wire and set it off.

A couple seconds ticked by and Arris wondered if the trap had been a dud.

Nothing was happening. Did monsters not activate the trap or something? His suppositions proved wrong when a noise halfway between a scream and the tearing of metal echoed through the corridor. Small metal tubes popped out from the upper corners of the walls before a stream of fire erupted out of the tubes, leaving behind ashes where a group of fifteen skeletons had once stood.

Arris clacked his jaws together in appreciation. That had been exactly what he was hoping for. Four of the six Skeleton Knights had been in that group and a full third of the horde was eliminated. Two more Skeleton Knights and a ragtag group of approximately thirty skeletons were much less of a threat to him than six knights and forty skeletons.

From that point on, the rest of the fight was a cakewalk. In ten minute intervals, the skeletons would finally make it back up the corridor to Arris. The first couple would always arrive before or ahead of their companions and Arris could take down two or three. Before they started to swarm him though, Arris would retreat down the corridor to the pitfall trap and just send them hurtling back to the beginning of the instance. Once there were only four or five skeletons left, Arris would stop knocking them down and just kill them.

Arris repeated this strategy three times before he’d killed the last Skeleton Knight. At that point, there were ten skeletons left and Arris just killed them in straight-up combat when they came up through the tunnel. After all the combat Arris had received another two points in Blunt Weapon Proficiency and another point of Ingenuity which he gratefully accepted before looting the skeletons and continuing on his journey. Arris lucked out and found an uncommon quality chestplate on one of the Skeleton Knights, which he promptly opened the status window for and then equipped after a second of looking.

Knight’s Steel Cuirass

Condition: Medium

10 kg

Requirements:

45 Strength

25 Constitution

Stats:

+30 Defense to equipped area

While the item didn’t give him stats it gave a full ten more defense. There was no question this was a better item than the Crude Iron Chestplate. Unfortunately aside from the loot Arris hardly got anything else off the mobs. He’d expected to level up but due to their extremely low levels, Arris hadn’t been able to level up off the mob of skeletons, instead hitting an unfortunate 98% experience.

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

Jogging back down the tunnel, it didn’t take Arris long to reach the room where he’d first encountered the skeleton horde. Checking around the room Arris was unable to find any loot. Reluctantly, Arris entered the sole corridor leading out of the room and continued his slow trek down the corridor, still wary of traps. After nearly fifteen minutes of slow walking, Arris’ vigilance was finally rewarded. He found a trio of traps, the first of which being a spiked pitfall trap followed by a pressure plate and a tripwire some ten feet down the corridor from that. Arris leaped over the pitfall trap so he landed away from the pressure plate, and then carefully stepped over the tripwire before proceeding along the corridor. Just as he finished stepping over the last trap, a notification popped up.

Congratulations, you have gained Trap Detection (1)

Arris waved the notification away. Glancing back towards the traps to see if the skill was actively doing anything, Arris noticed that when he moved his eyes the traps seemed to almost shimmer like the air would on an extremely hot day. Not a particularly obvious tell, but something that would definitely help. Moving further down the corridor, Arris encountered one last set of traps after about twenty minutes of walking. He received both another point in Trap Detection and another point in Perception for spotting the last set of traps.

Thirty minutes of walking passed before Arris’ walk through the corridor finally ended. Coming to the end of the corridor, Arris found himself in one of the few lit places he’d been in while in the dungeon. Having not used his Spirit Shards in the last fight, Arris had no need to prep more so he simply entered the room and glanced around. It was a massive hall with a double set of pillars on both sides. The pillars were ornately decorated, with artistic engravings covering each of the pillars. Every second pillar had a torch, the source of the light in the room.

At the back of the hallway was a very familiar sight. A skeleton sitting on a throne. Arris strode slowly into the room, taking stock of the situation. As soon as he’d walked past the first pillar, the entrance behind Arris slammed shut. Arris didn’t even spin to look at the door. He’d been expecting that would happen. This fight’s setting was exactly what the Elite Skeleton Warrior’s had been, and the exit had slammed shut during that fight too.

The skeletons eyes lit up red just as the skeleton stood up from its throne. Fortunately, as Arris peered into the shadows behind the pillars, he didn’t spot any skeleton flunkies to help out the boss. It was just him and the boss. That meant this was probably about to be a very easy fight. Arris glanced at the creature’s nameplate quickly.

< Skeleton Death Knight | Undead Mini-Boss | Level 13 | 100% HP>

Arris did a double take when he spotted the skeleton’s class. That was very interesting. Arris was half tempted to actually let the thing fight him without obliterating it with his magic just so that he could see what the thing could do and if he should take up the Death Knight class. The monster, its eyes settling upon the intruder, stood up from its throne with a roar and took a menacing step towards Arris.

Deciding to err on the side of safety after a couple seconds of contemplation, Arris just blasted the monster with all his spells and mana. A Spirit Blast shot across the room, soon followed by a Condensed Aether Bolt and his five Spirit Shards.

> You deal Skeleton Death Knight 92 raw damage! <

> You deal Skeleton Death Knight 420 mixed damage! <

> You deal Skeleton Death Knight 31 raw damage! <

> You deal Skeleton Death Knight 32 raw damage! <

The monster died upon the second impact of the Spirit Shards. A half second later a series of notifications popped up in front of Arris.

Congratulations! You have cleared the first Instance of the final level of the Skeleton Floor! After you collect your loot, you may exit the instance through the portal opening behind the mini-boss!

Glancing up, Arris did indeed see a stone door grinding open behind the Skeleton Death Knight. But that first notification wasn’t the that made him clack his jaws together in excitement. It was the other one, congratulating Arris on his level up.

Congratulations, you have leveled up!

You have reached level 15! The World System would like to congratulate you on overcoming several challenges which many before you have fallen prey to! You have clearly proved your resourcefulness and confidence in the face of adversity! Beware, that you will gain 3% experience from mobs of your level, as opposed to the previous 4%! Not all is bad tidings, however!

In addition to gaining the customary Class Points, Stat Points, and Racial Points, you may also advance as a race as this point in time!

After you close this screen, you will be sent to the race advancement screen! Good luck, and may the worthy survive!

Arris plunked the six distributable stat points into wisdom and then eagerly swiped the congratulatory screen away, wanting to quickly begin making his decisions and, more importantly, finally get the Mini-Boss upgrade. The race advancement screen popped up less than half a second after he swiped the congratulatory screen away.

Congratulations! At this point in time, you have reached the level at which your race advances! You may choose from one of three options!

Unbound Soul

Undead

(No racial advancement)

Arris’ jaws clacked together in an unsatisfactory manner as he tried to frown. This was very strange. Why was he being offered the chance to not racially advance this time when he hadn’t the first? Not like it really mattered. He would’ve racially advanced the last time and would advance this time.

The question now was what he was going to choose. Unbound Soul sounded cooler, but sounding cooler wasn’t always a better thing. He needed to research the topic, so he turned to his only source of information: the system.

‘What is an Unbound Soul and what does a Minor Undead receive for upgrading to Unbound Soul?’ Arris did his best to project the thought, and sure enough, the system answered.

Calculating parameters…

Referencing Index…

Finding information about Unbound Souls and Unbound Soul racial advancement…

Unbound Souls and Unbound Soul racial advancement

Unbound Souls are a general class of souls that lack a corporeal body. They are comprised entirely of Aether and thus are capable of interacting with the physical realm. Unfortunately, doing so costs them Spirit. However, while interacting with the physical realm is difficult for Unbound Souls, they are virtually unaffected by physical attacks. The vast majority of weapons will do no damage to Unbound Souls. Being the remnants of deceased being’s souls, Unbound Souls also manifest a deeper connection with the Aether and all magic, giving them resistance to all magical damage, massive cooldown reduction, and a large stat buff. Unfortunately, this closer connection to the Aether slowly unravels an Unbound Soul. As a being largely made of Aether, parts of the Unbound Soul will slowly but surely crumble away into the Aether. As a result, the Unbound Soul’s stat points will slowly decrease, and they will slowly go insane.

-50% All Cooldowns

+10 to all Stats

Resistances Reconfigured

+0.1 Insanity per day

Stats decrease at a rate proportional to Insanity

Yeah, no. Halfway through the reading drool would’ve been coming out of Arris’ mouth if he still had saliva, but by the time he’d gotten to the end he decided this path was simply far too risky. Arris and his buddies often made jokes about going insane, but Arris didn’t actually want to experience the process. Even worse would be his stat decrease. In a single year, his stat decrease would be nearly four-hundred times what it would begin at. If the stat loss began at an appreciable value Arris would never be able to raise his stats quickly enough to beat that. And when his stats hit zero…

No, Unbound Soul was far too risky. There was the chance that he could quickly level up and advance to a race that wouldn’t cause him to steadily kill himself but the risk simply wasn’t worth it. He didn’t even have to read Undead before he chose it. Another screen soon popped up.

Congratulations, you have become an Undead!

+6 Racial Stat Points

+5 to all Stats

Resistances Modified

You also gain Class Points.

+11 Class Points (+5 Dark Paladin, +6 Thaumaturge)

After this screen, you will proceed to the Racial and Class Skill store!

Arris’ jaws clacked together in satisfaction before he waved the screen away and the Racial and Class Skill store popped up.

Class Skills

Thaumaturge Skills

Aether Bolt (2 Class Points)

Spirit Surge (5 Class Points)

Condensed Aether Bolt (7 Class Points)

(prerequisite Aether Bolt)

Spirit Shift (11 Class points)

Aether Sheen (5 Class Points)

Spirit Blast (6 Class Points)

Aether Sword (8 Class Points)

Last Gasp (9 Class Points)

Aether Stream (10 Class Points)

Spirit Swell (7 Class Points)

(Prerequisite Spirit Surge)

Dark Paladin

Shadowbolt (7 Class Points)

Intimidate (6 Class Points)

Power of Darkness (11 Class Points)

Affliction (3 Class Points)

Dark Blow (5 Class Points)

Summon Shade (8 Class Points)

Gutting Blow (10 Class Points)

Mental Onslaught (12 Class Points)

Rot (9 Class Points)

(Prerequisite Affliction)

Shadowstep (8 Class Points)

You will unlock 2 new skills every 5 levels for each subclass

Racial Skill Store

Bone Shards (4 Racial Points)

Bone Shield (6 Racial Points)

Soul Stealing (12 Racial Points)

Consummation (1 Skill Point (progressive))

Bone Armaments (7 Racial Points)

(Prerequisite Bone Shards)

Bone Reinforcements (4 Racial Points)

Soul Strengthening (4 Racial Points)

Summon Skeleton Warrior (13 Racial Points)

Soul Furnace (9 Racial Points)

Mini-Boss (15 Racial Points)

You will unlock 2 new skills every 5 levels

Arris had long since decided what his racial skill was but still read Soul Furnace once again to remind himself of its function. The spell was a rather simple one that allowed him to convert his Spirit into Health and Toughness. Powerful in the right situation, and Arris was sure that he would pick it up eventually. The Mini-Boss upgrade was more pressing, however. He would surely purchase that.

Moving back to review his class skill, Arris was faced with yet another decision. There were so many choices. Originally he’d been planning on taking Spirit Shift. A short-range teleport that dealt damage would serve as both a great escape and deterrent to anyone chasing him. But his new Dark Paladin spells had him reconsidering. Shadowstep was a cliche spell, teleport to any shadow within a certain range. The spell cost slightly more than Spirit Shift and had the longer cooldown of twenty-five seconds to Spirit Shift’s twenty. Despite these detractors, however, Shadowstep had triple the range, letting him teleport sixty feet to Spirit Shift’s twenty. And honestly, Arris would be primarily purchasing the teleport so that he could use it to gain better positioning during a fight. The damage, shorter cooldown, and mana cost were nice, but if he wanted to reposition well he needed distance. Shadowstep served that function far better.

Despite Shadowstep being the better spell for repositioning, he was still torn over the choice. Spirit Shift seemed like it could have equally as much utility, no, it was instead his second new Dark Paladin spell that sold him on Shadowstep. Rot. The spell was the upgraded version of Affliction, and in addition to dealing far more damage and slowing far more, Rot also applied Grievous Wounds to the target and an increased chance of applying Crippling Effects.

And after reading up on Grievous Wounds and Crippling Effects, Arris had discovered they were very much status effects that he wanted to apply to his enemies. Grevious Wounds was a status effect which permanently decreased the maximum health of the enemy by a percentage of damage dealt to the enemy until a certain amount of time had elapsed. It also reduced healing effects every time the enemy took damage, increasing up to a cap. Very nasty. Crippling Effects were effects that impaired the function whatever they had been applied to. Taking out someone’s eyes would apply Blindness to them. Breaking their leg would apply Crippled to them. Even applying a single Crippling Effect to an enemy could signal the end of a fight. Arris needed that ability.

If Arris took Shadowstep, he’d have just enough Class Points to buy Affliction. After five more levels, he would then be able to buy Rot.

As for the other two new Thaumaturge spells, Arris read and immediately dismissed them. Aether Stream was a great spell, a channeled AOE dot that was effectively the equivalent of a Spirit based flamethrower that had the bonus effect of draining Spirit and Stamina. Unfortunately, half the spell’s utility was draining Spirit and Stamina, and without having encountered a single creature that used either of the two resources, Arris would have to bench the ability until he encountered different enemies.

As for Spirit Swell, he would need Spirit Surge first and wouldn’t be able to unlock the ability for yet another five levels. Besides, Spirit Swell wasn’t exactly the best spell for a solo dungeon dive. Spirit Swell was barely an upgrade on Spirit Surge in terms of damage and crowd control but instead of being in a single line forwards the spell was AOE and healed any nearby allies. Useful but not for Arris. Another spell to bench until he finally came across allies.

His decisions made and spell store scanned over, Arris made his selections, purchasing the Mini-Boss upgrade, Affliction, and Shadowstep. The following windows popped up.

Congratulations!

You have learned the spell, Shadowstep! You may cast Shadowstep to step through the shadows, appearing from any shadow within 60 feet of your casting of the spell. It takes 1 second to reform upon teleporting.

Effects:

Teleport to any shadow within 60 feet

Costs:

-100 Mana

25 second CD

Congratulations!

You have learned the spell, Affliction! You may cast Affliction to afflict an enemy with a debilitating magical plague! While the plague is in effect, the enemy’s movement is slowed and they take damage over time. This effect ends after a ten-second duration! This spell affects different strength opponents differing amounts!

Effects:

Slow enemy’s movement speed by 20%

6.4 dark damage per second

Costs:

-40 Mana

-30 second CD

Congratulations!

You have unlocked the rare Racial Advancement option, Mini-Boss upgrade! Please choose your upgrade from the options listed below! You will evolve into an appropriate boss based on your selection and existing Statuses.

Mage Mini-Boss

Warrior Mini-Boss

It wasn’t even a choice. Arris didn’t even hesitate before he thought, ‘Mage’. A congratulatory screen almost immediately popped up.

Congratulations!

Your race, Undead, has specialized to become Undead?Skeletal Wight! The system will soon apply the widespread changes needed to become a Mini-Boss.

After you advance you will gain:

+5 to all stats

+10 to Intelligence and Wisdom

+1 Racial Point, Stat Point, and Class Point per relevant level up

The skills, Life Siphon and Project Voice

Clacking his jaws together several times in satisfaction, Arris read the buffs he would receive from the Mini-Boss upgrade before waving the screen away and opening his status page to check his newfound stats.

Name: Arris Graham

Class

Mage (Thaumaturge, Dark Paladin)

Profession

Animal Trainer (0), Alchemist (4)

Titles

Trailblazer I, Original I

Synchronicity Rating

97.6

Renown

Level

15, 1%

Race

Human Skeleton

Health

275/275

Mana

500/500

Toughness

275/275

Spirit

250/250

Attack : 42-47

Attack Rating : 96

Defense : 21.31

Defense Rating : 53

Strength : 54

Agility : 42

Intelligence : 35

Wisdom : 150

Luck : 5

Charm : 0

Constitution : 30

Vitality : 23

Health/10sec : 0.076

Mana/10sec : 7.425

Toughness/10sec : 0.38

Spirit/10sec : 7.425

Perception : 12

Rapport : 5

Ingenuity : 7

Poison Resistance : 5

Resistances

-10% damage taken from physical sources

+50% damage taken from fire-based attacks

+150% damage taken from holy sources

-50% damage taken from dark magic

-90% damage taken from death magic

+30% damage from blunt damage types

-30% damage from sharp damage types

-15% damage from magical sources

99% chance to resist mind control and other types of subversive magic

5% Resistance to all negative effects of poison

Attributes

Skeletal Frame

Undead

Immortal

Soulbound

Passive Skills

Mana Sense

Blunt Weapon Proficiency (31)

Projectile Throwing (1)

Climbing (4)

Trap Detection (2)

Power of Darkness

Equipped Items

Collar of Strength (Neck)

Steel Cuirass (Chest)

Thief’s Leather Greaves (Lower Legs)

Lich’s Marrow Staff of Power (Two Hands)

Leather Bracers of Agility (Forearm)

Damaged Leather Thigh Armor (Upper Legs)

Steel Gauntlets of the Pugilist (Hands)

Mail Pauldrons of Constitution (Upper Arm)

Battered Sabatons of Swiftness (Feet)

Dire Wolven Skull Headpiece (Head)

Active Skills

Assess

Sneak (3)

Warrior’s Stance (9)

Condensed Aether Bolt (19) (30 CD)

Dark Blow (14) (10 CD)

Shadowstep (0) (30 CD)

Affliction (0) (30 CD)

Spirit Blast (19) (15 CD)

Spirit Shards (17) (3 CD)

Disorient (12) (15 CD)

Grasping Hands (10) (20 CD)

Arris gave a slow clack of his jaws, perplexed. Nothing had changed. Where were the aforementioned stat buffs? Shouldn’t he have gotten 15 to Intelligence and Wisdom? Arris was confused and starting to get frustrated when all of a sudden a notification finally popped up.

Initializing Mini-Boss Metamorphosis…

Arris threw his arms out and clacked his jaws together in sudden understanding. So that’s what the system had meant when it said that it would apply the widespread changes needed to become a Mini-Boss. Considering that he only had 60 seconds before the process began, Arris knew he needed to find a good spot to hide and fast. Looking around the boss room Arris couldn’t spot any conveniently placed piles of waste or stacks of bones he could hide in. There were no banners hanging from the ceiling or the wall, nothing decorating the room other than the throne and the torches on the wall.

Initializing Mini-Boss Metamorphosis…

Crap. Only 23 seconds left. There only one option left. Running over to the boss’s corpse, Arris didn’t even pause to loot the thing as he painstakingly hauled it up and over himself.

Initializing Mini-Boss Metamorphosis…

Arris turned off his Mana-Sense and the world went dark. Then he knew nothing.

(9) Chapter 8: Gains and Losses

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