The steel of his blade clanged with the wolf’s claws. Arthur lost himself in the rhythm of the battle. The back and forth between them. In one moment, he would gain the advantage and in the next, the beast would turn the tide of the battle with one well timed pounce.
His left side was, understandably, more battered than his right side, on account of his missing eye. Speaking of his missing eye, Arthur could feel another energy flow within him towards it. This one was infused inside of him constantly, unlike mana which only gave him this sensation the first few times he used it or when he redirected it to one of his body parts.
It gathered around his torn eyeball and soothed it. While it did that, Arthur focused on trying to be more cautious in his approach. He hung back more often, ignored openings which seemed too good. The wolf had doubled down on its assault. Mana radiated from its claws. The wolf’s speed was twice if not thrice Arthur’s own when moving in one direction, he could only save himself by pre-emptively dodging, a move which had its own flaws.
He put all 10 of his stat points into Agility as he sprang forward.
TING! TING! Went his blade as he swung it down on the beast’s head, hoping to end this nightmare as soon as possible.
But it was all for naught. Arthur could feel himself tiring. The flow of vital energy towards his eye was slowly splitting into small chunks, as his body tried to heal the cuts and scrapes his left side had received. The last vestiges of mana that he was sparingly using was dwindling, the pool of mana, inside what he had deemed his soul, was drying.
Until a ray of light shined into his life, via a System given message of course.
[You have shown mettle and tenacity. Your merits have been acknowledged]
[Human (G grade) level 9 -- > level 10]
+100 Endurance,
[You have gained a boost in Vital Energy, Endurance and Mana for 30 seconds]
[You have acquired an Achievement!]
[Achievement: Reach Level 10 in either Race/Class]
[You have beaten 73% of all other Humans on your planet]]
[Your Achievement has given you a title: Burgeoning Tale
2% to all stats]
“Yes! That’s right little bitch! The System itself favours me!”
Arthur screamed out loud, a grin forming on his face. He could feel the new energies flowing throughout his body. He instinctively knew that in a few moments his eye would heal completely. His muscles were losing their soreness. With a reenergised body and spirit. He leapt towards the confused Wind-Blessed Wolf.
He immediately raised his sword high, pulling all the mana flowing within him towards his limbs. His mind went into overdrive. He subconsciously studied the mana that he wielded.
How it interacted with the world. ’It seems inert, not moving or really doing anything.’
How he interacted with it. ‘I seem to pull it inside me. Then it changes?’
Either way it didn’t matter. As the wolf tried to run away fruitlessly, as he chased it untiringly, Arthur gained more understanding on how to absorb it even if hi understanding on what happened after was rather lacking.
[Mana Recovery (Uncommon) -- > Mana Recovery (Rare)]
[Your Understanding of this primeval force goes beyond most of this grade. You stand amongst the peak of your race in this feat.]
[You can actively recover mana by breathing through your nose while in combat and whilst out of combat you can recover mana faster through your skin]
Another lousy ass upgrade that couldn’t help him in the moment.
But Arthur didn’t stop there. He continued to study man as he clashed blows with the wolf. The beast now firmly on the backpedal.
[Man Recovery (Rare) -- > Mana Recovery (Epic{False})]
[Mana is laid bare to your mind. Your Understanding of this primeval force surpasses all but the most talented or fortunate of your race. May your Understanding take you to new heights]
[You can recover mana by breathing through your nose, mouth or by absorbing it through your skin during combat. Whilst out of combat or while sitting still, mana recovery is increased by 100%]
[Feat unlocked: Creating/Gaining an Epic ranked skill while still in G-grade]
[All stats increased by 15]
Arthur laughed maniacally as mana flowed into his soul. He splurged on his new ‘funds’.
The air was covered in a thick green mist. As Arthur finally thrust the sword into the Wolf’s eye, relief flooded throughout his being.
“Finally. You were one tough bastard”
[You have killed Wind-Blessed Wolf (Level 13)]
This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.
[Bonus Experience for killing a higher levelled opponent]
“What? How are you level 13? Did you level while fighting me! You absolute knob!”
Arthur blatantly ignored the hypocrisy coming from his mouth, fuming at how the wolf gained a boost probably before the second round. Perhaps right before it tore through his eye?
Now was not the time to think of that though. Instead Arthur was more interested on his Achievement and his feat, but first.
[You have gained levels!]
[Human level 10 -- > level 11]
+100 Endurance
[Human level 11 -- > level 12]
+100 Endurance
[Knight level 8 -- > level 9]
+15 Strength + 10 stat points
[Knight level 9 -- > level 10]
+15 Strength + 10 stat points
[Knight level 10 -- > level 11]
+15 Strength + 10 stat points
[Knight level 11 -- > level 12]
+15 Strength + 10 stat points
Good God.
40 stat points. And that wasn’t even the beginning.
[You have acquired an Achievement!]
[Achievement: Reach Level 10 in either Race/Class]
[You have beaten 73% of all other Humans on your planet]]
[Your Achievement has given you a title: Burgeoning Tale
2% to all stats]
[ERROR!!]
[Achievement already unlocked]
[Negating Achievement]
[You have reached a Milestone.]
[Achieve G-grade level 10]
[You are now on par with freshly born babies of the other universes.]
[You have reached level 10 in your class. Class Skills available]
[Would you like to acquire class skills.]
That made no sense. He was already gaining class skills. How did hitting a ‘milestone’ get him more skills? Well, who was he to complain? That was confusing but the milestone text was truly terrifying.
Not even newborns, freshly born babies were on the level of level 10s? Arthur feared the power level of the higher tiers, knowing that there six more letters to go in terms of grade.
Thinking yes in his mind a blue screen flashed in front of his face.
[G-grade class skill selection]
[Focus thrust (Uncommon)]
You have proven yourself to be a master of this move. Your prowess exceeds a small portion of your race but within time it may exceed all of them.
While standing still and in the proper stance you can charge your blade with mana. The charged attack deals more damage and is more likely to pierce3 through natural or artificial barriers and defences.
Damage scales with time spent charging and mana spent on blade.
]
Merely looking at this skill made Arthur feel stupid. Afterall, he couldn’t see a use for this skill. Who would simply allow him to wait and charge up an attack to deal more damage towards them.
For an archer or a rouge, he could see that attack working but for a fighter that’s up in front of you? No Arthur saw no use for this skill now.
[Sense Weakness (Uncommon)]
[Your experience in battle speaks for itself. Your memory of every opponent’s weak spots and blind spots remain fresh in your mind for later review]
[Be able to sense critical spots to strike your opponents]
The flavour text was a bit lacking in this one but he got the general gist. This looked far more useful than the focus thrust skill. If the final option was worse than this, he would probably pick this one.
[Mana infusion (Rare)]
[Your control over this force of nature has reached new limits. Enhance weapons with your man like you do for your body like its second nature]
[Infuse man into any tool in your grasp. Warning, too much mana can break the sword]
This clearly took the cake. Sense Weakness who?
He could finally use mana with his sword, who wouldn’t want to do that? With all the haste of a child on a sugar high Arthur clicked on the third and final option.
Only to realise one very important detail.
His sword was damaged. And of inferior rarity.
Well hindsight is 20/20.
Immediately trying out his new skill, Arthur filled with sword with mana. Slowly enough, the sword began to leak out emerald green mana, darker than the mana he sees around him but same as the colour his fists took when infused. Clearly, this different mana was ‘his’ mana, so-to speak.
Testing out a few slashes, he found the sword to be lighter but nothing else. He would need live targets to test out the sharpness.
“First however before the fun times, stats because good lord are they not balanced.”
He put 30 points immediately into Will in order to bring it up to 50, putting it on par with Agility, ahead of Wisdom, Intelligence and Perception but far behind Vitality and Strength. Arthur wondered how the future classes would affect the passive gain of stats, since 15 was already proving to be busted. The rest of the ten points could be spread equally into Wisdom and Perception. Being perceptive could help with hunting, or avoid being hunted. The Wisdom was necessary since it boosted his mana reserves and he couldn’t afford another Mana Fatigue incident.
After fixing up his stats, Arthur saw something out of place. His stats had extra boosters? Right, he did see some sort of Achievement and something called a Feat while fighting the wolf.
Checking both Arthur had some theories. Achievements were probably something the System wanted him to do. That or it was expected that he could do it. The Feat on the other hand, was likely something to celebrate about more.
The Achievement gave more of a reward since percentage boosters were, rightfully, more appreciated than pure stat upgrades.
Keeping his Mana Sense active after a battle was not something he always did, but neither was staying awake or not running away after a battle. Looking around, Arthur simply enjoyed the beauty surrounding him.
The light green mana in the air, the emerald green mana deep inside him (in his soul?) the light blue mana of the river, the brown mana below his fee--Wait!
Blue mana in the river? Brown below his feet?
Arthur could see it clearly. The green sands he saw around him was quite unique. The air shifted constantly. The mana molecules flowed over and under each other. They never clashed against each other.
The other mana molecules were different. The river was light blue, first of all, the particles moved in one direction. They moved in perfect flow, compared to the erratic behaviour of the green particles. They stayed in relative order.
They brown mana within the earth was the complete opposite. It never moved, in fact it looked more like they tried to stick together and push his feet back from stepping on them.
Arthur jumped up and down, feeling like an absolute child, he saw the brown mana, vibrating as little as possible up and down and stay in their place.
It took him to long to realise that the colours were about their respective elements. Blue for water, green for air, and brown for earth.
As soon as he realised this an epiphany struck. If these elements, so could fire. Plus, he just got an ability to infuse his sword with mana
Arthur grinned another maniacal grin.
This was going to be fun
[Arthur Black]
[Race-(human (G grade)-level 12
Class-Knight (G grade)-level 12
Profession- N/A
Grade: - ‘G’ level 12
Strength-130(+3) Intelligence-40(+1)
Agility-50(+1) Widom-40(+1)
Vitality-90(+1) Perception- 45(+1)
Will-50(+1)
Endurance-430/1300 Mana-1108/2600
(Health 723/1820)
Free points: 40
Skills:
Race: - Identify {Unique}, Language {Unique}, Star-Touched Generation {Unique}
Class: - Block {Common}, Slash {Common}, Parry {Common}, Counter {Common}, Chop {Common}, Path of the sword {Uncommon}, Battlefield Awareness {Common} Knightly presence {Rare}, Mana infusion {Rare}, Mana Recovery { Epic}, Mana Sense {Common}
Profession: - N/A
Titles:
Burgeoning Tale
]
