The first thing he did was refill his energy reserves. He had already taken a fifth of his ambient energy reserves when he filled himself to full again and just thinking about running into a situation where he needed the energy filled him with trepidation. But without thinking too much further he channeled the energy into his sword. It seemed to drain all his energy again before the sword was satisfied.
[Sword power upgraded from 2 to 3]
Deciding to go over his gains again he opened his stats screen to figure out what had improved
[Noah:
Power: 10
Str: 4
Agi: 4
Con: 2
Int: 4
Wis: 2
Ego: 6
Skills:
Swordsmanship lv 1: wield a sword to defeat your enemies
Survival lv 0: to live is to overcome adversity
Death Defying lv 0: for someone who comes close to death on a regular basis. They learn how to persist through conditions that would end the lives of lesser men
Abilities:
Divine forge: create weapons from objects and one's skills, granting innate power from the fusion
-Apprentice’s blade
Power: 3 - resonance 1, greater parry 1, free 1
Bonus stats: STR+2, AGI+2
Hated: Your very presence empowers foes and causes them to lack mercy.
Bloodline:
Unbound mind: Your mind is unshackled by the restraints of normal man. But with such a free mind, there are dangerous paths of thought that can debilitate you.]
Wait, looking through his character sheet, his power now changed…. Didn’t power mean the offensive potential of the weapon? However, his menu changed before he could do anything
[Apprentice’s blade
A sword epitomizing one’s path of swordsmanship.
Weapon strength: 1
Power: 3 - resonance 1, greater parry 1, free 1
Bonus stats: STR+2, AGI+2
Feed this sword achievements of swordplay to enhance power
Refine the sword with energy to enhance its combat ability
Path boon: Sword's resonance with one's swordsmanship increases personal stats. Boost the resonance to enhance the effect.]
Huh. the damn system kept showing that it loved to hold out on him. With the fact that his skills went from minimum to level 1 or 0, it hid every single speck of information Noah didn’t already know and calibrated the information he was given to suit his understanding… slightly… this would only get more annoying wouldn’t it?
Giving a sigh, Noah decided to focus on what his next powerup would be. Thinking about it, he went back to divine forge. It was the only advantage he had with- wait he forgot about the unused power of his sword… he needed to increase his wisdom as without it his mind seemed to be veering everywhere.
Deciding to experiment with resonance, he thought about moving the power into resonance, only for the status screen to stay the same. “Seems like the system doesn’t help allocate power on my weapon.” He thought out loud, bringing his sword back to his hand and concentrating on it, He could feel the energy coming off it more clearly now. He could both feel the energy filling up the greater parry rune, some energy bundled up in the pommel of the sword, and some energy radiating towards him. Using his perception, he focused on the bundled up energy and tried to add it to the radiation.
This was not an easy task however, and just trying ot redirect the energy from it’s concentrated spot began to cause pressure as he increased the amount of force he put into his desire. The thing began to budge slowly and, to his surprise, didn’t flow into the radiation like he thought, but a portion of it seemed ot pull the radiation in, condensing in the core. His surprise didn’t stop his willpower though as he kept forcing them to fuse, and finally energy burst out in the waves he saw before but in all directions.
This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.
[Apprentice’s blade changes
Power 3: resonance 2, greater parry 1
Resonance surpassed threshold, will now be influenced by ambient energy waves.
Bonus stats: STR+4, AGI+4]
The headache that his effort caused almost made Noah not react to the new realisation. But looking at it he let out a smile. His resonance upgrade had boosted his base stats.He could feel the power thrumming in his muscles. But he could feel a strain from it. His constitution was so low that he couldn’t handle the disparity in strength and agility without harming himself.
“Seems that’s my next goal.” He thought out loud and entered a meditative state again. The system didn’t rule like in most situations like this, but instead was more of a guide system. Therefore it would be better if he treated things like the cultivation system from earth.
He was about to experiment on how his stats increased, only for his brain to spike from the headache that had come from forcibly changing how his sword used the energy it generated. Even with his pitiful wisdom. He knew he wouldn’t get much insight from battling the headache while his stats increased; so he just laid down on the ground; preparing for a rough rest; since he had nothing to ease the rough rock below him.
He woke up with little pain in his body. Rubbing the spots that were being poked by jagged rocks, he was surprised how little stiffness he felt. It seemed either one of the recovery aspects of the bonfire helped reduce stiffness as well as fatigue, or his new stats helped him avoid those annoying aspects.
I took him longer than he liked to admit to remember what he was thinking about before he decided to sleep and recover from his mental exhaustion. Sitting down again, he made sure his back was straight. He needed to avoid as many distractions as possible… which didn’t help with his lower mental stats, but he wasn’t going to be able to help with that. Going into his menu he did the one of the few things the system would do for him. With the little time before it started, he was glad the system could do some things, it helped make sure he wasn’t completely clueless.
The power that he could only sense when it was lost or if he focused his mind to the task began to flow into his body. He felt it flow into his bones; his blood; his organs; his flesh; and even his muscles. Every part of his body seemed to grow denser and hardier. With his mental focus on his bodies changes, he could feel how the power refined his body to be tougher, more hardy. The refinement even helped get rid of some of the problems that likely caused his subpar constitution.
He couldn’t focus too long though, and soon in hte middle opf the process his brain began to wander and he couldn’t refocus on the process. So when it ended he had an idea of how the process worked, but he knew if he had a higher intelligence he would have gotten better rewards.
Immediately checking his status screen to see the changes, he gave a smile at what had had changed, the changelog was easily accessible so he checked it for more specifics
[Converted 1 ambient power into constitution, CON now 5]
[Meditation learned. Level 0]
It seems his work on learning meditation in his past life, while it went nowhere there will help him here. If meditation was a skill then the power system was more likely to be a cultivation world, where your mental capabilities are important for development, instead of western where it is more about skills, abilities and stats.
He stood up with a smile. Flexing his muscles to test the new gains. He had a far less pale visage than before, and he could feel the bulk in his body as he flexed. “This should help a lot with the future fights.” He announced, turning to the door that led out into the place that had brought him close to death multiple times. “And I managed to kill the goblin without being wounded before. I should be able to do well this time.”
He walked out without his shield this time. He had decided that he’ll want to keep it for when he uses divine forge again. Having a shield that he can summon at any time will be very helpful. He couldn’t help but grin as he stared at the goblin that was waiting for him. He couldn’t wait to test out how the new stats and skills would work.
He confidently advanced on the creature. Brining his sword up for a vertical slash. The goblin; Seething with hate; launched forwards to deal a devastating upper diagonal slash on Noah. Trying to emulate the parry like last time he swung the sword down on the hatchet, but he swung too late, and while he cut the goblin’s fingers, he only turned the diagonal slash into a horizontal one, cutting deeply into his thighs.
The strike still felt as painful as the other attacks he had taken, causing him to let out a yelp out in surprise, as the goblin moved to slam the butt of it’s axe into his gut. His reaction was to only pathetically move his hand to try to stop it. Feeling the pain from a powerful blow, Noah leant forwards. The goblin was in complete control of this situaiton and if he didn’t change things he would likely go down. Damn overconfidence.
He tried to swing down on the back of the goblin, but it moved to his right, causing him to only scratch it’s arm. Struggling to stay on his feet after the goblin removed its presence, one of the few things keeping him up, he was glad he put points into constitution. Even if the wound hurt, it was doing a lot less damage than he expected.
What he couldn’t stop was the next swing of the hatchet. It was a slash just like the last one and going right for his neck. Making a split decision, he moved his left hand to grab the axe handle and force it down while going to run the goblin through. HIs resultwas for the large hatchet to lodge itself in his right shoulder, making it hard to move his arm. But he had manage to slip the sword between the goblin’s ribs in a deathblow.
He held himself there for a moment to prevent himself from staggering. He had to grip the hatchet tightly with his barely working hand to prevent the goblin from making the wound worse as it fell to the ground. He was already feeling lightheaded, from the blood gushing out of the large wound in his legs and the axeblow that seemed to be trying to sever his shoulder from his torso. All he could do is hurriedly shuffle back into the saferoom. Sitting down at the wall right beside the door so he could heal up and pull the axe out when it didn’t risk his life to do so.