The pain in Max abdomen was almost unbearable. But it seemed to have worked, at least Ryland was nowhere to be seen. He couldn’t see the battlefield from the bottom of the trench, and he couldn’t even think about getting up right now. A quick glance towards Sarah confirmed his hopes though.
“He’s gone.” She sounded pained, not an ounce of happiness about their victory in her.
“Then I better..” Max didn’t get further, instead he turned a bit to the side and vomitted. Was there a little blood in it?
Max had to fight to keep conscious. So he quickly pulled up his Node Menu, deciding not to waste anymore time. After a few painstaking clicks it was done, he had added Ryland to the list of allies again. Only then did he allow himself to fall back.
Max wasn’t sure how long he laid there. It could’ve been minutes or hours. He remembered Ryland coming back, and Sam working on healing him. And he remembered staring up at the sky, he did that for a while.
After Sam had worked his healing magic quite a while, Max was finally able to stand back up, and walk around again.
Although after a few short steps his nervous system told him it had been through enough for the day, and Max was forced to sit down. He felt unusually tired and slightly nauseous, but most of that he attributed to the after effects of being punched in the gut.
Max was worried about Dave, but his body was too weak for him to check in with his friend. So he simply laid back and started staring into the sky again.
When Dave woke up, he wasn’t greeted by a lot of concerned faces hovering around him. Indeed he was actually laying alone in one of their tents. Instead he was greeted by an onslaught of messages, and other pop ups.
That actually lifted his spirits more than anything else could have. His whole body was aching, like he had fallen down the world's longest flight of stairs. His head was thrumming annoyingly, and he didn’t even feel like he could be sitting up. But he still had a certain glee in his eyes as he clicked through his notifications.
*Congratulations, your Spark Skill has reached Level 7.*
*Congratulations, your Spark Skill has reached Level 8.*
*Congratulations, your Soul Weapon Skill has reached Level 10.*
*Congratulations, your Soul Weapon Skill has reached Level 11.*
*Congratulations, your Soul Weapon Mastery Skill has reached Level 9.*
*Congratulations, your Soul Weapon Mastery Skill has reached Level10.*
Dave’s eyes grew wide as he saw how many levels he had gotten. It was incredible. In less than an hour of fighting, he had gotten over a week's training worth of levels. And he had even gained a new Skill! A small grin spread over Dave’s face, even though it was almost a little painful, but he couldn’t help it. That was almost worth the punishment he had taken.
Suddenly he just became fully aware of what had happened. The dangerous Nodefox. Were his friends okay? Had they somehow managed to defeat it?
Since he was still alive, and still laying in his tent, he assumed they had managed somehow. But he worried if they were all okay. Suddenly a huge wave of anxiety overcame him.
He hadn’t been strong enough to protect his friends. If anyone was hurt, it was because he had failed them. He thought he could defend his friends from the danger the Nodefoxes represented, that’s why he had trained so much. But this one Nodefox had completely overwhelmed him. Even worse he had only been a fun little amusement to it, a mere nuisance.
Dave balled his fists in anger. He had to get even stronger. It was a painful wakeup call. If he couldn’t even manage to keep his friends safe, what good was he?
Dave took a deep breath and tried to calm himself. Maybe Bixby had somehow managed to talk the Nodefox out of attacking them. Whatever strange connection he and the other Nodefox had, hopefully it had enabled his friends to defeat it. All he could do right now was hoping that everyone was okay. It felt unbearable to wait though. After trying to calm himself down for a few minutes, Dave couldn’t stand the nervousness of not knowing anymore. Since he felt in now way able to get up, and he didn’t want to start crying out loud, Dave decided to dive into his messages to keep himself distracted. Wanting to save the best for last, he instead methodically worked down his messages.
*Congratulations, your Soul Weapon Skill has reached Level 10. New paths for Soul Weapon have become available.*
Soul Weapon: Conjure a weapon. The weapon is bound to your soul. You can desummon the weapon and conjure it again at will any time after the cooldown is over. Soul Weapons are slightly more durable than usual weapons. Number of weapons you can bind as Soul Weapons will increase with advancement of this Skill.
Soul Weapon has increased Durability, Mana Costs, Cooldown and Strength.
You may add an additional effect to Soul Weapon:
—-- Warning! This will be the last chance to add an additional Skill effect before Soul Weapon reaches level 25.----
This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.
Seeing that Dave would only have the choice to add a Skill effect after reaching level 25 with the Skill soured his mood somewhat. He had expected something similar though, it was quite common in video games to give rewards at keystone levels, like five, ten, twenty five, and fifty.
Still Dave knew from experience how tedious leveling a Skill is, and it seemed to get slower and slower the higher the Skill level. Another thing common in video games, since the experience needed for a level up would rise alongside the Skill level.
Taking a Skill from level seven to eight for example, had taken Dave way longer than pushing his Skill towards Level five.
He sighed, there was nothing he could do about that, he just had to keep grinding. Deciding to think this decision through even more carefully than usual, Dave began considering his options.
Options :
Quick Draw, Common - Allows you to switch slightly faster between Soul Weapons.
Embrace the Outer World, Rare - Bonded Soul Weapons will get an additional boost in strength after becoming your Soul Weapon.
Embrace the Inner World, Rare - Generated Soul Weapons will get an additional boost in strength after becoming your Soul Weapon
Dave almost choked when he saw he had not one, but two options for a Rare additional effect. Unfortunately he wasn’t sure just how useful these effects would prove to be. Sure, they might give him great benefits when he got his next Soul Weapon, but until then they wouldn’t be an immediate boost to his strength.
Of course it would be different if he would be to receive a new Soul Weapon after picking his additional effect, but something told Dave that that wouldn’t be the case. Just to make sure he quickly closed the effect selection screen and opened his Skill description.
*
Soul Weapon
Rarity: Common
Level: 11
Effect: Soul Weapon: Conjure a weapon. The weapon is bound to your soul. You can desummon the weapon and conjure it again at will any time after the cooldown is over. Soul Weapons are slightly more durable than usual weapons. Number of weapons you can bind as Soul Weapons will increase with advancement of this Skill.
Added effect: Scout
Origin: Inherent
Soul Weapon slots: 2/2
*You have no empty Soul Weapon Slot. Increase your Soul Weapon Skill level to unlock new Soul Weapon slots.*
Sighing he closed it again, and opened the effect page. It would’ve been to good to be true. So he would probably only get a new Soul Weapon at Level 25, if the video game logic continued this way. That was still a long way off, so the Skills really woudln’t help him now.
The first effect on the other hand might really help him to mix up his fighting style. The problem was, that it only said very slight increase when switching weapons. That along with the fact that it was a common effect led Dave to believe it might not be a strong addition for him.
But it helped his combat strength and immediate suvrivability, which was always important. So far that had actually been the most important factor when deciding which effects to pick for him.
Maybe it was the wrong approach though. Sure picking the short term option would make it easier for Dave to survive, a thing that he was quite fond of, but at the same time Dave couldn’t help but wonder if he would ever be able to become truly strong if he never thought of the long term. Could he ever match up to Sukanst or Marekiel if he stayed so short sighted? Surely a rare effect later would be more useful than a common one now.
But then again, Dave was quite fond of being alive, something that wasn’t guaranteed if he couldn’t get stronger.
Sighing Dave closed the window again, and instead opened the Skill Upgrade window for Soul Weapon Mastery.
*Congratulations, your Soul Weapon Mastery Skill has reached Level 10. New paths for Soul Weapon have become available.*
Soul Weapon Mastery: Gain a deep understanding of the ways of your Soul Weapon. You are proficient with the use of your Soul Weapon. Proficiency increases by level. Passive Skill, active whenever having Soul Weapon equipped.
Soul Weapon Mastery has increased effectiveness.
You may add an additional effect to Soul Weapon:
—-- Warning! This will be the last chance to add an additional Skill effect before Soul Weapon reaches level 25.----
Might of the Soul, Uncommon - Gain slight boost to strength
Eternal Student, Common - Incorporate one random martial arts style into your Soul Weapon Mastery
Steadfast Rock, Common - Receive slightly increased joint strength while using your Soul Weapons
The choice was a no brainer for Dave. While the second option sounded somewhat intriguing, Steadfast Rock just sounded plain stupid for Dave. Slightly increased joint strength? What was he 75?
It probably was more useful than Dave thought, but joint problems reminded him just too much of elderly people. Especially his grandpa who always used to complain about his ankles. Maybe it was stupid prejudice, but Dave threw that option away immediately.
The second option sounded better, but since it was only common, Dave wasn’t sure how useful it would really be. Besides, he was pretty satisfied with his current fighting style and didn’t want to mix things up too bad.
So that left only one choice. Might of the Soul. Not just were the two latter options only common, the strength boost aspect was something he had been waiting for for a long time. Plus the name sounded way cooler.
He had been kind of jealous of Ryland’s super strength from the beginning, it was the classical comic book superhero power that he dearly wished to emulate.
Though he knew that his boost would only be slight, and due to his other additional effects he knew that slight increase really only meant a minimal power up. But if it could help him close the gap, he would gladly take it.
Besides, it wasn't just about jealousy and wanting cool powers for Dave. Strength was something he was kind of lacking so far. With his deeply ingrained battle instincts thanks to Soul Weapon Mastery, Dave was able to move almost perfectly in a fight. Together with his movement speed and perception boosts, he was quite like a classical dexterity class from your favorite pen and paper role play game.
With a little extra strength he wanted to add more punch to his powers. Quite literally. That’s why it seemed more reasonable to him than adding another fighting style or increased joint durability.
Thinking over his decision a last time, Dave still found no flaw with his logic. So he chose the strength effect.
Satisfied with his decision, Dave also went back to the Soul Weapon Skill window and decided to pick the Embrace the Inner World effect. It was time to do some long term planning. Since the effect was rare, it would undoubtedly be strong. He picked the effect to boost his generated weapons, because he wasn’t sure when he would ever find a fitting weapon in this weird jungle environment. Also he was so happy with his Hidden Blades, that he was confident his next generated Soul Weapon would be equally useful. If it was even half as cool as his Hidden Blades, that would still be more than enough.
Now it was time to check out the most interesting message of them all.
*Congratulations, you have gained a new Skill…*