It was some time into the night that the kill notifications finally stopped coming in. At one point, there was just a stream of human kills as the mushrooms probably had spread to cover the entirety of the second floor.
By this point, Bug wouldn’t be surprised if the mushrooms are already spreading into the first and third floors. Thankfully, Bug has already put the third floor behind her and is now on the fourth. For now, with the Dungeon now closed, Bug is relaxing on her bed in a hidey-hole.
With an army of zombies guarding the hall just outside, and most of everything in the area probably long dead, Bug has a couple of hours to sleep before the Dungeon reopens in the morning.
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Stats
Name – Bug
Age – 0
Race – Gremlin
Class – Little Bodily Horror
Level – 17
EXP –32/1000
Free Stat Points - 0
Heath – 186/186
Stamina – 63/63
Mana – 263/263 [Total = 320] [-57 From Control Upkeep]
Vitality – 31 [+1 From Equipment]
Endurance – 21
Strength - 25
Dexterity - 32
Magic - 32
Intelligence - 32
*Luck – N/A
*Note: Luck is a work in progress stat. Points cannot be put into this stat at this time.
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With several level-ups comes plenty of Skill Points to spend, and because of how quickly the levels had been coming in over the course of just a couple of hours, Bug had left them to sit until the end of the day. Now, sitting on ten points to spend, and getting to relax in bed, Bug finally takes the time to look over some options and decide on how to spend her points.
With ten points available, Bug could get one of the two requirements for unlocking Secondary Casting, with the Skill, Master Caster, and the Knowledge, How to Fully Utilize Secondary Elements. But, with both costing ten points, she would only be able to get one for now and wouldn’t be able to use them until after saving up for the second, and then on top of that, buy the new spells that would be made available for use.
So, for now, it is still best to only be using Death Infused magics. Not that they are lacking in power any. Bug only has to look to her two Death infused Nature spells and how dangerous they are. Without the Death infusion, her Nature magic would just let Bug grow flowers and stuff, which admittedly would be nice, but isn’t exactly what she is looking for…
So, Bug starts by looking through some of the most interesting options and finds a few that could be useful.
‘Crush Heart. Use magic to crush your enemy’s heart. For most things, this tends to cause Death. Chance of success increases or decreases massively with Level difference between caster and target and range from target. Most effective when in physical contact.10 Skill Points’
‘Remove Bones. Pull the bones right out of your enemy! Also good for processing corpses when you want to make Skeletons. Chance of success increases or decreases massively with Level difference between caster and target. Can only be used with physical contact. 10 Skill Points’
‘Wound Memory. Wind back time and reopen your enemy’s wounds. The body may have healed, but the soul remembers, and time never forgets. Chance of success increases or decreases massively with Level difference between caster and target and range from target. Most effective when in physical contact. 10 Skill Points’
‘Shadow Step. Everything the Darkness touches is your Kingdom. So long as you are in the shadows, you can move instantaneously to nearby shadows in line-of-sight. Range effects mana cost exponentially. Requires the spell ‘Shade Form’ to use. 7 Skill Points’
‘Shade Form. Temporarily cast aside your physical form and become a Shade. As a ghost of the Darkness Element, you will be immune to physical attacks and most magics, but beware the light, for it will become your demise. 7 Skill Points’
‘Winter’s Death Aura. [Passive] Your body now radiates a chilling Deathly Aura that damages all living things around you and will freeze everything. With this Aura, all Undead will remain nonhostile towards you. Anything that dies while under your Aura will be raised as a Hoarfrost Undead. 7 Skill Points’
‘War Crime. Release waves of deadly poisonous gasses that do a mix of horrific things to any living thing that touches, breaths in, tastes, smells, or even so much as stands near the gas for too long. Even looking at it for too long is a bad idea, and if you listen closely, you can even hear screaming voices coming from within the gas, begging for help. Safest distance from the gas is to be in another country! Anything that is killed by the gas will be raised as Caustic Undead and further spread the gas. All land that the gas touches will become barren and dead. Even after the gas has faded, anything that dies on this land will be raised as more Undead. Lastly, the gas has a tendency to move of its own accord, approaching living things even when the wind should be blowing it away. Run, don’t walk! 10 Skill Points
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
Advisory: Do not use unless you have the Skill, Complete Deathly Poisons Immunity.
Warning: As a Country Killer class spell, use of this spell comes with the risk of angering Higher Authorities. Proceed at own risk.’
‘Soul Corruption. [Ritual] Perform a ritual spell that turns a target into a Higher Undead. Option of Whight and Banshee. Ritual must be performed on a living target. Chance of success increases or decreases massively with Level difference between caster and target. List of ingredients for the ritual is included as Knowledge with the spell. All ritual ingredients can be purchased in the Points Store. 8 Skill Points
Warning: Unlike with the creation of normal Undead, the creation of Higher Undead involves the corruption of a living soul. A soul that is changed in this way will forever be locked out of the cycle of rebirth and be chained to this world until the day that it is destroyed.’
‘Enhance Undead. Are your Undead just not pulling their weight anymore? Then enhance them! Increase their level, add modifiers like cold and poison, and even modify the form of your loyal Undead using your Body spells. 5 Skill Points
Note: Use of Body spells will require corpses or other Undead as resources.’
‘Body Modification. [Discounted] Enables the user to modify the general shape of their own body. Grow big, become smaller. It is all a matter of scale. From being as small as a Pixey, to growing to the heights of even the Giants, your size is now your decision. [10] 9 Skill Points
Advisory: Stats effect individuals differently based on size. An average sized human will not be as strong as a Giant with the same physical stats. Opposite of this is the magical stats, which become more effective at smaller sizes.’
‘Grow Wings. [Discounted] Do you want to fly? The answer is obviously yes, and you know it. This spell is an expansion of the Grow Limbs spell and does exactly what the name says. Bird, bat, dragon, pixey, weird hand-fleshy wings…whatever you want. Hell, you can even make yourself like a flying squirl if you want. It’s your body, go nuts! [4] 3 Skill Points’
‘Grow Tails. [Discounted] Tails aren’t for everyone, but they do have their uses. Maybe you just need the extra balance. Maybe you want something prehensile that can grab stuff. Maybe you just think tails are cute and want to give yourself something fluffy or scaley to wave around. We don’t judge, and it is your body. You do you! [4] 3 Skill Points’
‘Grow Armor. [Discounted] Why bother wearing armor when you can just grow your own? Scales, bone plate, a turtle shell, enhanced fur, the list goes on when it comes to biological armor. It is time to grow your own protection. Just be careful. Everything has a tendency of returning to crab… [3] 2 Skill Points’
…
“Weird. Don’t know why all of the Body spells always have to be so weirdly written. I feel like whoever wrote them got a bit too excited…”
Going over the spells, these are the ones that seamed the best and most useful out of everything that Bug could afford. There were lots of other options, but largely speaking, they just weren’t as strong, were weaker versions of these ones, or were just plain weird…
For instance, some of the Body spells that Bug found where closer in vein to the Grow Tentacles spell and seemed to all be catered towards a specific audience. Bug dismissed all of those options and swore to never give them a second look.
Some of the Devs are weirdos, I’ll punch them if I get the chance… I mean, the description on some of those spells! Why would someone even want a vibrating… Ehh, moving on…
Setting that stuff aside for now, Bug focuses on her list of options and goes over some of the really dangerous stuff. Crush Heart, Remove Bones, Wound Memory. These all look like very dangerous spells, but the restrictions of level differences and range make them less tempting. Despite having done plenty of close quarters fighting, Bug much prefers to stay back and be safe right now.
Thus, the reason for the horde of zombies that is about fifty members strong already, even if the vast majority of them is just a bunch of Goblins.
Still, being able to crush somebody’s heart is very tempting. But is it tempting enough to spend ten points?
As for War Crime? Bug is tempted. She is very tempted. With that, she could head back up to the entrance and then just release Death into the city as she sits back and watches the experience roll in. An entire country of humans must be worth a lot of Levels-ups.
But there is that warning again about the Higher Authority… Not to mention that Bug can’t really guarantee that she won’t die just from casting War Crime. It is a fun idea, but it just isn’t worth it, yet…
Winter’s Death Aura is just a stronger version of the Death Aura spell and would help keep her from getting mauled by wild zombies. Not really a priority just yet, but maybe in the future.
Shadow Step just sounds like fun, but sadly, she would have to get the Shade Form spell first, and she can’t afford to buy both just yet.
“Soul Corruption could be nice. Make myself a Whight or a Banshee. The only problem is that I would need a strong host to turn, but yet they also can’t be stronger than me, or else the ritual will fail, or they will turn on me…”
Bug completely discards the warning on the spell’s description. Why should she care what happens to her enemy’s soul?
Moving on, Enhance Undead is very nice. With it, Bug could hand craft her very own Undead. Plus, it uses her Body spells, which she is currently able to get at a discount because of her Class. Which naturally draws her attention to the Body spells that Bug had picked out.
Body Modification is cool. With that, she could finally make herself taller. Bug doesn’t particularly care very much about her physical appearance, but she doesn’t like it how everyone she has ever met so far keeps calling her little. Even the System keeps mentioning it…
But if Bug could make herself taller, then they can’t call her little anymore. Plus, being taller would make her stronger, but that is just a bonus…
The only problem is that the spell cost eight points, even after the discount. But, on the other hand, it is also one of the required spells for eventually learning the Shape Self spell, which is basically all the body modification spells wrapped in one, plus becoming virtually immortal. Which is very, very, VERY, tempting.
And finally, there is of course the last few Body spells. Wings are tempting because flying sounds like fun. But the only problem is that Bug is currently living underground, and the halls of the Dungeon don’t exactly give very much room for flying around. The tail spell could be useful so Bug could modify her tail. Right now, it honestly doesn’t do much. Often times she even completely forgets that she even has a tail.
I think that mine helps with balance, right? Besides moving it side to side, I can’t really do anything with it. Hmm, not a priority for now. If anything, the armor spell sounds better. Could give myself some extra protection…
…
Starting to feel sleepy from lying in bed and spending her time reading, Bug decides to finish up and pick something so she can get to sleep. Giving everything one last look over, she finally settles on Enhance Undead, Grow Armor, and Grow Wings.
Wings are way too tempting. I’ve never seen a bird or a bat before, but I already know that I am jealous that they get to fly, and I don’t. Anyways, I’ll play with my new spells in the morning.
Time to sleep…