Chapter 11: Hmmm

I watched closely as Silvie blinked in surprise, my heart filling with dread at what she would say next. ‘Why did I have to go and do that? Why?’ I thought to myself. Suddenly, Silvie answered me, breaking my panicked chin of thought.

“Yes.”

This time it was me who blinked in shock. “Uhm… I guess I’ll see you at Fredy’s Bar at 7 tomorrow then.” I said my voice shaking slightly. “It’s date!” Silvie said brightly. ‘Uh-oh. What kind of date? I never got to find out if she was gay. Hmm, this could get interesting. Oh well, it sounds fun.’ My thoughts were churned into a storm from her reply, and I turned on my heel and left before she could see the blush creeping up my neck.

I exited the door of the guild and almost instantaneously, my thoughts turned to Aria, and guilt slammed into me. I didn’t know what to do. I liked Aria, wanted more than what we currently had, and yet, I had still asked Silvie out. At the end of the day, it was possible that she hadn’t took it as a date date. I didn’t even know if I had meant it as one. Oh well.

I walked down the street in a daze before coming to a swift conclusion. I wanted to punch something.

I faced the dungeon rift that I had found down the street, checking my screens before I entered it:

Name:

Charlotte Brenner

Age:

18

Titles:

Death Defier.

Place of origin:

Corundrary

Combined tiers

2

Highest focus tier

1

Class:

Basic Tressmancer

Lvl

40

Ascent

Ascent of the Enveloping Locks

Realm

beginner - expert.

Skills

1

EXP

4000

Perks

Hair growth (Class Perk)

You can choose to legthen or shorten your hair by ten centimtres a day. You can choose to focus this instead on making your hair strands thicker or creating more strands of hair on your head. (cooldown 24 hours)

Clean hair (class perk)

Your hair no longer gets dirty, grease, dirt mud etc just falls right off it.

Trichokenisis (ascent perk)

You can control your hair to a basic degree.

Strong hair (ascent perk)

Your hair gets stronger with each cultivation tier, it is now much harder to damage and can hold up against attacks much easier

Hair Cocoon!

Once every 3 days create a cocoon of hair around you. Strength of cocoon depends on Strength stat and closeness to death. Anything touching the cocoon will get absorbed into it. Painfully. All abilities and techniques are cancelled when this perk is active. Will not be able to move while this perk is active. Once cocoon is completed, you will be able to use perks and abilities again.

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Enticing Hair

While this perk is active, your hair becomes

Enticing. Victims trapped in your hair feel an urge to give in to the feel of your hair around their bodies. Strength of effect depends on the difference between their Wisdom stat and yours.

Abilities

Silken snare (class ability)

Your hair wraps around part of an opponent, distracting them and annoying them

Stat Sapping Hair. (Class Ability)

Activating this ability will sap the Total Stats from anyone your hair is touching and add it to yours. (Up to 85%) The effectiveness of this ability depends on the amount of hair touching them, the difference in power between you and your foe and the length of time this ability has been active. Once cancelled or broken the effects of this perk will fade slowly at a rate of (4%) of the maximum Stats able to be stolen per minute. For example, if someone had 12% of their total stats stolen it would take 3 minutes for it to be returned. If, however, someone had been having their Stats stolen is at the cap of (85%) the length of time taken for the Stats to return is doubled, with it taking 41.5 minutes for their full Stats to be returned. If they are dead, this is doubled again.

Cultivation Techniques

1st Basic Technique

Hair strengthen - the more Qi put into the hair the stronger it gets.

2nd Base technique

Tress Bind - your hair wraps around something, restraining their movement and if willed starts to squeeze them to death.

1st Advanced technique

Hair Noose - Your hair wraps around your targets neck, tightening and is twice as effective at cutting off airflow. If hair is already wrapped around targets neck from another technique or ability, the bonus to airflow cutoff is still applied and the hair tightens even more.

2nd Advanced technique

Hair Stretch - The limit for the elasticity of your hair is now up to 800% when this technique is used. Your hairs speed increases by up to 75% when Qi is put into this technique. Without using this ability your hairs elasticity remains at the standard 200% for all hair related abilities/techniques.

Skills

Stronger body

Makes your body stronger

Stats

Strength

50

Dexterity

40

Endurance

46

Vitality

38

Intelligence

38

Wisdom

40

Attunements

Firsts Attunement gained!

All hair elated powers are 35% stronger

I took a deep breath staring at the green portal in front of me. It was an uncommon dungeon rated for people of roughly level 40 and with my ascent tier it brought me up to roughly a level 70. So, why was I so nervous? The attendant had seemed slightly shifty when I asked what kind of creatures populated the dungeon, but it was so weak that it hardly posed a challenge. I took a deep breath and steadied myself before I felt a hard impact from behind, shoving me headfirst into the portal.

The portal pulled me in by my head, sucking me into it and shoving me through the tunnel at what felt like an insane speed. It shoved me out the other end with what felt like more force than usual. Then again, I usually walked through portals not tumbled. ‘What was the deal with that Attendant? Why did she push me?’ Time passed slower in dungeons, a slight decrease at lower levels, but it quickly became more apparent at higher ones.

I quickly got off the ground and readied for a fight. This was supposed to be an Arachnid type dungeon, but the oddly humanoid looking things with pointy ears said otherwise. ‘Elves? Here?’ I stared at the armoured elf in confusion, wondering what was going on. I had heard of dungeons changing their types for what the dungeon perceived to be incredibly tough challengers. After all giving a strong challenger a bunch of weak monsters to murder was just wasting energy for the dungeon. Dungeons survived by sucking up energy provided from the challenger. This was usually from death, though I had heard stories of dungeons draining people of whatever kind of energy they had. I wasn’t sure on the specifics of how it did that. Hopefully I wouldn’t find out.

‘Hmmm, maybe this is just a normal iteration of this dungeon, and I was just lied to.’ Whatever the case, I had contemplated for long enough. It was time to see what these Elves could do against me.

I left the starting safe zone and entered the main part of the dungeon. I stared into the eyes of the elf before me, daring her to attack me. She did, charging straight at me. Deciding to test out something new, I activated all of my passives, [Hair Stretch], [Hair Strengthen] my improved [Stat Sapping Hair] as well as my new [Enticing Hair] flowing through my hair, making it immensely dangerous, far more so than the level 30 Elf Warrior should be able to handle.

I flung my hair up like a wall in front of the elf as she charged, and she ran right into it before she could stop. She looked around frantically as my hair closed in around her, enfolding her in the soft embrace of my hair. My contact-based passives activated then, [Enticing Hair] and [Stat Sapping Hair] activated. The once proud elf warrior was helpless to resist and her eyes glazed over, surrendering herself to the feel of my hair around her even as her stats were stolen from her, 85% of her stats being transferred to me in about 45 seconds.

I could feel the boost in power as it happened, although as she was just a level 30, it wasn’t much. If the elf had had any chance against my hair, she certainly didn’t now. I almost felt bad that I was going to have to kill her, but then I thought about it. ‘What if I just didn’t? What harm would it do?’ I nodded, my mind made up.

I sliced through a lock of my hair with my sword, and used that 8-metre-long lock of hair to bind her hands and feet together. I had mostly let go of her by this point, with my hair just around her throat to keep her under [Enticing Hair]. I had no idea whether it would still work with my hair being cut off, but I decided to err on the side of caution and kept my perk active. I let go once I was sure she was secure and stepped back, admiring my handywork.

She sat there, her hands and feet tied together with a long lock of golden hair, with 2 bows to accentuate the look. Her eyes looked at the hair in adoration and I knew that [Enticing Hair] was still working on her. I probably could have knocked her out, but I didn’t want to. This seemed better.