Chapter 14
Soul of Chaos
Ten thousand--that was how many monsters he had to kill. It was a number so insane that it caught Asher off guard. Rather, it was incomprehensible; even when he fought for 5 minutes while swarmed by the monsters, he still killed less than a thousand, a whole tenth of what he was supposed to kill today.
But there was no other way around it.
Another point that worried him was that it stated it was [Final]--as though the 'tutorial' portion was ending. A lot of functions seemed to also be locked behind clearing this stage, which likely meant that the stage itself would incorporate all the 'lessons' he was 'taught' by the previous ones.
Sighing, he selected the Wooden Staff as the starter weapon. He'd already locked it in to always appear as one of the choices, and though the Spear was a strong and reliable weapon as well, considering that using it beat him up more than the monsters and the boss in the last stage, it likely required a much better and more resilient body to wield it to the fullest.
As the world unpaused, everything turned still for a moment. Even the winds stopped blowing, and the few clouds that hung in the high sky seemed to dissipate under the scorching sun.
And then it began.
Like the floodgates opening, forty goblins--luckily with zero 'mages' among them--spawned to the north. The stage had expanded to at least eight hundred yards across, but it didn't matter as the staff began firing off once again. The first key was to outpace the spawn rate of the monsters by getting a hold of a consistent AoE nuke. If he could unlock the 'living bomb' upgrade of the Staff once again, that would be perfect, but anything was also welcome.
Starting off with 40 enemies meant that the number would only grow up until the last 10%--it was entirely possible that the last ‘wave’ of the monsters would consist of one thousand of them. But that was still in the future.
With the staff’s base damage of 1 and his own base damage of 2, he was able to two-shot goblins who had 6 HP. Though it was quite slow, because of the sheer size of the field and the staff’s infinite range, none of the monsters would be able to reach him still.
The first Level-up came rather quickly, and he immediately settled on +1 to the Wooden Staff. Just as the world unfroze and the fireball landed on one of the goblins, it exploded in the flurry of flames, killing several more goblins near it. It was the lucky, 1% roll of the staff, and though it likely wouldn’t happen too many times, it was decent windfall every time it did.
He reached Level 3 shortly after, and though there was no upgrade to the staff, there was something equally tantalizing--Dash. Sighing in relief that he got it early, he continued to spray flames in the direction of the surging goblins when he felt the wind change behind him. Glancing back, he frowned when he saw a sea of green appear in the distance--there were more of them, twice as many as the first time.
It was getting dangerous.
Though the field was large, and the monsters were slow and he had a Dash, it would be easy to get swarmed and cornered if he wasn’t careful. He, however, never stopped firing. It wasn’t long before he reached Level 4 and got the second weapon upgrade offered.
Muscle Training [Rare]
+20 Health
Level: 3/99
Icy Fervor [Common]
Effect: Your attacks and abilities have a 40% chance of inflicting ‘Slow’ on the target.
Slow: Decreases movement speed by 60% for 3 seconds. Once inflicted with ‘Slow’, the target cannot be inflicted again for 8 seconds.
Wooden Staff [UPG +2 -- Epic Roll!]
Level: 3
Effect: Shoot a fireball in the direction you are facing, dealing damage to an enemy. The fireball homes in on the first enemy in its trajectory. Has a 1% chance of exploding on impact, dealing damage to everyone within 2 yards radius.
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[Epic Effect: After 3 seconds of remaining stationary, gain 500% attack speed. In addition, gain +3 to Projectiles. If there is only a Boss monster remaining, lose +3 Projectiles, but gain the ability to move while maintaining a 300% attack speed boost]
Damage: 3
Attack Speed: 1 attack per second
It wasn’t really much of a choice as it was an instant selection.
As soon as he did, he stopped moving and patiently waited for three seconds. As soon as they passed, he felt the staff in his hand heat up ever so slightly--and then it began.
It was like a gunfire from an assault rifle, ripping out fireballs instead of bullets. 5 casts per second of 4 projectiles resulted in 25 fireballs flying out toward the horde every single second. It was mayhem--even if there was just 1% chance of the explosion occurring on impact, because of the sheer quantity of fireballs, explosions bellowed out repeatedly.
There was one issue, however--overkill. As it was right now, all five projectiles would hone in on one goblin--as soon as it would die, they'd try and scatter to the nearest other one, but quite a number of them would simply hit the group. Because of that, despite the fact that it was quite a spectacle, he wasn't killing as many as he thought he would. Nonetheless, he cleaned up the side that spawned the first 40 rather swiftly before turning toward the horde on the other side, still unmoving.
This was a dangerous strategy--as soon as goblin mages spawned, he’d have to move, and he’d lose virtually all of his firepower. Because of that, he needed other offensive spells, and as though that 1 point of Luck heard his prayers, they arrived--three of them, in fact, on the next Level-up selection.
Fire Slash [Common]
Level: 1
Effect: Slash forth, invoking the Spirits of Fire and creating an arc of flames 4 feet wide. The arc travels in a straight direction, dealing damage to the first target it hits, ignoring part of the target’s defenses. Has a 1% chance to become ‘Double Cross Fire Slash’, firing off two arcs.
Damage: 7
Defense Ignore: 30%
Cooldown: 3s
Chain of Lightning [Uncommon]
Level: 1
Effect: Fire off a bolt of lightning at the closest target within 40 yards, dealing damage. The bolt then bounces to the nearest 2 targets (max 5 yards of distance), dealing 66% / 33% damage to them. Has a 1% chance to deal full 100% damage to all targets.
Damage: 6
Cooldown: 3s
Soul of Chaos [Rare]
Level: 0
Effect: Release between 1 and 10 projectiles that move in random directions and random patterns at random speeds for between 1 and 15 seconds. Every time the projectiles collide with a target, they deal damage. If they kill a target, they have a 50% chance of spawning anywhere between 1 and 5 additional projectiles that have a chance to deal damage.
Damage: 1-16
Additional Projectiles Damage: 0-6 (30% chance to deal it)
Cooldown: Rolls between 30s and 5s
Note: Though most schools of magic are deeply studied and understood, there still remain a few that elude even the most studious scholars of the arcane, chief among which is Chaos. Said to originate within the Void between Everything, it remains a mystery even after hundreds of years of study, and few are truly willing to dedicate themselves to the study of the macabre phenomenon.
Note: Luck Stat modifies % chance of better rolls.
Asher paused, uncertain.
There was the choice of certainty--Chain of Lightning. It was a simple, straightforward spell. The issue with it was that it 'only' had a range of 40 yards and that the AoE damage aspect of it wasn't actually that good.
Then there was Soul of Chaos--an RNG monstrosity that could either sink him or pull him single-handedly all the way to the shore. Getting the 'perfect roll' and spawning 10 projectiles for 15 seconds that deal 16 damage and spawn an extra 5 projectiles when they kill the target would likely be a beyond magnificent sight to behold, but it would also never happen. With RNG, in the long run, it always evens out to a median--the question, then, becomes whether the decision allowed for the kinds of valleys that the spell required.
Meaning, could he afford the supremely bad roll? One projectile, for one second, resulting in a 30 seconds cooldown... that was the worst-case scenario. If he couldn't afford it happening, then it was best to go with a safer choice.
But he was tempted--that 1 point in Luck... his gut feeling was telling him that the reason it was presented was to be a 'red herring of a trap', in a sense that it was both a good and a bad choice. Bad because 150 points were extremely wasteful to spend on a stat that was as vague as 'Luck', but also good because it unlocked something specific like Soul of Chaos and prevented it from being complete garbage.
Biting his lip, he grunted in frustration and selected the Soul. For better or for worse. Its upside--especially toward the later parts of the stage--was worth it. Even getting just a 'passable roll' was already better than Chain of Lightning, and he hoped he’d get another set of skills that would allow him to endure through the Soul of Chaos’ inevitable valleys.
The world unpaused and, beyond the rain of fireballs that continued to launch from his staff, another kind of energy suddenly appeared--they were tiny, red motes that pulsated with black light and moved around sporadically. However, everything was truly random. Everything. Including their spawn positions.
However, instead of despairing, he smiled--right now, though it spawned 6 projectiles, only 1 of them managed to reach the goblins and deal 4, 7, and 1 damage in the span of 3 seconds of its existence, and then the spell went on a cooldown: 7 seconds. Once the stage was jam-packed with monsters, though, and he was being swarmed from all ends by hundreds and perhaps even thousands? It would work out much, much better.
He was yet to see whether he made the right choice, though; what he needed still was more offensive firepower, because as it stood, getting to the ‘swarmed by the thousands’ was quite a pipe dream--especially when the next wave spawned to his right that seemed to have over a hundred goblins--quite a few of which were wielding staves.