After they distributed their stat points, a beam of light shot from the sky, bringing with it a metallic chest; their reward for clearing the Monster Room. When Zeke gave the chest a light tap, the lid swung open and let off a golden glow, accompanied by a system notification for each of them.
[You gained <40 DCs>]
[You gained <40 DCs>]
“Alright, let’s move on to the next room.” Circe exclaimed with a satisfied nod. Waving her hand at the system panel, she led their march and strode towards the tunnel in front of them. The metallic gate that once blocked their path swung open, letting them walk through.
”Any traps this time?” Zeke halted his steps, coming to a stop behind Circe.
”Nope,” she responded with assurance, despite her confident smile, she swept her eyes across the narrow paveway once more time. “I don’t see any odd structures…so we should be good to go.”
Trusting the trap master’s words, Zeke first went on ahead, followed by Circe. As expected, nothing happened, and they managed to safely arrive in the next room.
[
Zeke’s eyes met with a harpy’s flustered gaze as it instantly went on the offensive. Since it was already in the sky before they entered, the bird drove towards him with its talons locked and ready to strike. Unfortunately for the harpy, Circe’s swiftness surpassed it. Her sword sliced both talons clean off their joints the moment it got within range.
“CRAWRR!!”
As the wounded bird’s blood-gurgling scream pierced the air, it alerted its comrades of the intruders. Dozens of harpies rushed out of the dense flora around them, their claws and beaks shimmering with power. Circe’s sword struck down the two closest enemies, and Zeke’s magic missile landed on the one sneaking up behind her.
[Killed x2
[Killed x1
“Huh?” Suddenly, a prickling sensation prompted Zeke to jump to the side, narrowly avoiding an attack shot by one of the harpies. Facing his opponent, he noticed the magical energy in the air began to swirl towards the birds, gathering around their chests.
While Circe remained occupied with the harpies attacking her with their talons and beaks, Zeke raised his Sapphire Staff in anticipation for the birds’ magic attacks. One of them eventually shot a blue projectile towards him, and he promptly counteracted with a magic missile.
The two spells collided mid-air, causing an explosion that masked the battlefield in smoke. Judging from the attacks’ reaction, Zeke realized an important factor about the harpies. “Ah hah, so they’re water elementalists.”
Suddenly, a harpy dashed through the water vapor with its talons surrounded in azure light. With no time to think, Zeke raised the pole of his staff to block the claws. The force from the bird’s kick reverberated throughout his body, knocking him back as his feet dragged against the dirt. “Holy shit, it’s strong.”
“Hey you,” Circe’s voice sounded from the dissipating smoke, garnering the attention of the harpies. Before anyone could catch a glimpse of her body, the harpy that attacked Zeke got its back split in half. “Get lost, I’m the only one who can bully him.”
[Killed x1
[‘Ruelle Peregrine’ has leveled up! LVL: 16]
Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.
When the area became clear, the once green ground had been dyed crimson from the harpies’ blood, the several monsters that fought against Circe earlier now laid as corpses on the floor, their backs cut so deep that the wounds mirrored on their chests. Now, only half of the harpies remained from the twelve.
Circe turned to face her opponents, who all eyed her with wariness unwarranted from their beast-like behaviors earlier. Though perhaps it’s because of their animalistic intellect that made them know danger by instinct, recognizing their position as prey, and her the predator.
Raising her sword, Circe targeted the harpy closest to her first. With one enemy swiftly striked down from the sky, she activated her skill again, creating a chain reaction of attacks that left no room for the birds to react. One attempted to flee but met the same fate as the others; a powerful slash cleaved its body in half.
[Killed x6
[
[‘Ruelle Peregrine’ has leveled up! LVL: 17]
[‘Mana’ of ‘Ruelle Peregrine’ has been refilled.]
[Achievement Unlocked: ‘Perfect Combination’ - Perform your first
[You’ve earned
< Item Description >
Name: Skill Fusion Scroll
Tier: A
Type: Consumable
Source: Achievement Reward
Effects
Allows the user to combine two similar skills into one.
<<>>
”Huh? Combo?” Circe stuck her sword into the ground as she wiped away the blood that’d managed to splatter onto her face. Staring at the system panels in front of her, she glanced over at Zeke making his way towards her. “I didn’t know that using one skill consecutively counts as making a combo.”
“I didn’t know that either,” Zeke replied in a surprised tone as he peered his head over to read the panels. By then, their chest reward had appeared, though none of them paid attention to it. “Are you going to use it now?”
“Probably,” Circe took out a worn roll of paper from her inventory. Bringing up her status panel, she stared at the two skills she had in her possession. “Phase is a pretty good skill on its own, but there’s actually a better version of it that I can get from this fusion.”
“…’Can get’,” Zeke emphasized her words with raised eyebrows. “So you’re saying it’s a gamble.”
“A gamble which there’s no loss,” Circe shrugged as she activated the scroll, letting it disappear into particles of light. “There’s not a lot of fusion skills that are bad, so whatever I get from this should be beneficial.”
[Used x1
[Please select the Skills for
[
[Skills selected. Begin
[...]
[
”OOH!” The two of them exclaimed at once at the notification, Circe’s eyes shimmering with excitement as a wide grin danced on her lips. Immediately, she brought up the description panel.
< Skill Description >
Name: Assassinate
Type: Active Skill
Tier: S
Cost: 20 MP
Cooldown: 100 seconds
Effects
- Imbues the user’s weapon with a powerful aura, temporarily increasing the Speed Stat by (+5) for 120 seconds. Attacks always result in a
- Dashes forward with a maximum distance of 7 Meters, when an obstacle is in the path, the user will stop behind it.
- Killing an enemy after using
Bonus Effects
- When paired with any
- Attacking enemies without being notice increases the damage by 20%
-
<<>>]
Since skills cannot be transferred, the level-cap rule only applies to items and weapons, meaning any S-tier abilities gathered from the players’ own strength were fair game.
”The twenty mana points must have been from Flash Slash,” Circe deduced as she swept her gaze across the description panel, exhilaration oozing from her poise. She excitedly grabbed hold of Zeke’s arm and shook him hysterically. “It’s really an S-tier, Zeke. A freaking S-tier skill! I knew Phase was the predecessor of Assassinate but to think that I actually got it!”
“I know right!?” Zeke didn’t mind getting shook, simply too excited to see the appearance of a powerful skill. His grin spreaded just as widely as Circe’s. “Should we go test it out in the next room? While I was fighting earlier, I had an idea for a strategy.”
Despite the fact that she’d stopped shaking him, Circe’s hands remained firmly grasped around Zeke’s arm as she stared up at him, wide eyes sparkling in anticipation. “Oo, let’s hear it then!”
“You know how the harpies rushed towards us at once the moment one of them’s alerted?” Zeke began his explanation as they made their way over to the chest reward, Circe still hanging onto him. “I was thinking that we could use that to our advantage. I can immobilize them or at least keep them steady enough for you to clean everything up with Assassinate.”
“Oh! That would certainly make clearing this place a lot faster,” Circe finally let go of his arm, making her way over to the chest. After giving the lid a tap, she shifted her attention back to Zeke. “And you could also get more EXP for participating. Didn’t you say you wanted to focus on putting points into constitution?”
[You gained <40 DCs>]
[You gained <40 DCs>]
”Yeah, though I’ll do that after I get my magic up to fifty points,” Zeke swiped the notifications away from his vision. “It’s already fifty if I’m counting all my equipment, though I’m mainly doing it for the mana since equipment stats don't count towards that.”
Circe crooked her neck. “But why do you need to level up constitution? Doesn’t that just affect health points and defense?”
“After gaining the Mana Overlord aptitude and reading the Witch’s Codex, I learn a lot about magic,” Zeke began as his gaze shifted between the three gates that’d opened up around them; one at the front, and two on either side. “The body is just as important as the ‘core’, so strengthening my body for the purpose of magic will prove beneficial alongside increasing my stamina for sword training. It’s killing two birds with one stone.”
Hearing his reason, Circe nodded in acknowledgement. “Oh, I see, that’s pretty clever,” or so Zeke thought. From the blank look on her face, he doubted that she truly understood. “These things wouldn’t be possible if this is still a game, huh? Since ‘stamina’ isn’t a stat in Dungeon Regime.”
“That’s great and all,” Zeke steered their conversation towards a different topic, pointing towards the gates with his thumb. “I’ll let you pick our path, where should we go next?”
Immediately, Circe responded. “That way!” She exclaimed with confidence as she pointed towards their left. The tunnels all looked identical, so none of them could tell what lurked on the other side. As Zeke turned, Circe already got ahead of him. “C’mon Zeke! We have flying chickens to kill!”