Chương 60: (B2 Chapter 11)

I immediately conveyed my agreement to use the Skill Stone, and it instantly dissolved. You have used up Skill Stone (Rare). You have gained the Skill: Piercing Stab An attack skill? Finally! So far, I had been hitting opponents in their vulnerable areas, which is quite a smart thing to do. However, against something like those buffaloes or ogres, who had thick, armour-like skin, my attack options were severely limited, and I had to put myself in constant danger to go for softer targets like eyes or ears.

This skill had the word 'piercing' in its name, so it would probably allow me some kind of armour penetration… hopefully… I still had the Skill Upgrade Token remaining, but I wasn't sure which skill to use it on yet. My mind was telling me to use it on one of my most used skills, which were concealed presence, quick step, and critical sense.

An argument could also be made for tactical insight; maybe an upgrade in that skill would allow an earlier warning system, or it would advise me on what to do instead of just a sense of right or wrong for my upcoming actions, or perhaps it would expand its trigger condition to include instances where I wasn't directly attacking my opponents. My most used skills were all necessary for the fighting style I had adopted.

Upgrading concealed presence could perhaps allow me to stay hidden from opponents that could see through my skill, while quick step could allow me to move in a more flexible way instead of only in a straight line. An upgrade path for critical sense was somewhat more obscure, perhaps it would show more vulnerabilities, or more details about the existing weak points.

Another possibility could be that it would show vulnerabilities to elements or mana types, like a creature being extremely vulnerable to fire similar to those bush monsters in the tutorial. With the latest class upgrade, an improvement to internal mana manipulation could also have an amazing effect, but I had a feeling that arcane comprehension would help with that, and I could learn on my own, like I had been doing so far. There was also the latest skill to consider.

Perhaps upgrading the new attack skill would be the smartest move. Wait… can the upgrade token even be used on rare skills? The skill upgrade token was itself a rare item, does that mean it can upgrade uncommon skills to rare, but not rare skills to epic, or would it work for rare skills as well? Is there a way I can test it…? I took out the skill upgrade token, and a system screen immediately popped up. Would you like to use the Skill Upgrade Token (Rare)? Hmmm… it doesn't give any information, as usual.

Should I risk trying to use the token, or wait till I have a skill narrowed down…? I thought about it a bit, and concluded that I would wait till I had narrowed down the skill I would upgrade first. I still remembered when we first got to the safe area in the tutorial, and some woman had locked in her class without much warning. I didn't want to risk losing the token on a test, so I declined the system screen and put the token back in my inventory.

We were going to enter the dungeon soon, and I would probably have a better idea on which skill to upgrade by then. Looking over the inventory, I had a bunch of mismatched stuff I probably should get rid of. There were the fangs of the elite snake, the gigantic cleaver of the ogre boss, and half the horn of the alpha buffalo that the ogre boss had cut off with its skill. There wasn't much I could do with any of the items, but I could hand them over to a smith to figure out how to make use of them.

The production classes were absolutely useless during the tutorial, but I hoped that the system would allow them to contribute now. That reminds me… I still had a bunch of those potions I had gotten from the mage goblins. None of them had been used so far, as we didn't know what the potions actually were. They were blue, and were near to the mages, so it made sense that they would be mana potions, but I wasn't going to test it before making sure.

A system screen didn't pop up when I held one, so the only way left was to show it to an alchemist and hope that they could figure it out. I heard a slight sound suddenly, and froze, listening hard. Immediately putting away the potion back inside the inventory, I closed it and went under concealed presence. I got up to my feet slowly, and approached the doorway to the stairs. However, before I could reach it, it started opening slowly.

The door was one without a handle, that you could just push open, so the horrifying creature that I could now see had no trouble getting in, apart from having to bend over slightly to fit through the door. It was something hard to describe. It had no fur, and the dim light didn't allow me to see its skin colour. What I could see was that the skin stretched over its body thinly, and it even had small patches here and there with no skin. Instead, bulging muscles were visible beneath.

It filled the entire doorway easily, and had massive claws that glistened somehow with a slight, internal light. Its eyes were glowing red, and it had a wide, single hole that looked like a nose, above a large mouth that was all teeth. There were no discernable lips, instead, it had two rows of sharp teeth of about three inches, and on either side of each row of teeth there were large fangs that were at least eight inches long.

I could hear it taking deep sniffs through its nose, and I was suddenly reminded of how long I had been sitting here without concealed presence. This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience. The nightmarish creature agreed, as it entered the hallway sniffing continuously and moving closer to me. Its bulk allowed it to fill up the hallway, and I had no way through which to sneak past it.

It was also quite tall, its head scraping the roof so I couldn't even jump over it with a quick step enhanced jump. I didn't think I would be able to get away injury free if I rushed at it headlong, but I had other options rather than fighting it head-on, didn't I? Using my ability, I unlocked the door to its immediate right. It swiveled instantly towards the sound; its head tilting side to side staring at the door and trying to make sense of what had made the sound.

Once again using my ability, I asked the door to open itself, and the door obliged. The creature did what it was probably designed to do, and lashed out at the door with its claw in a blur of motion. The claw shredded through the door with ease, tearing it off its hinges and throwing splinters throughout the apartment inside. Really don't want to get hit with that… Critical sense had highlighted its nose as being a major weak point, as its eyes were a relatively smaller target, and its ears were non-existent.

I had seen a very small hole in the side of its head when it had turned, which could be its ear, but I couldn't be sure. The creature was sniffing again, and seemed to be losing interest in the now destroyed door. Before it could start tracking my scent again, I asked my ability to make a noise from deep within the apartment, which immediately caused the creature to go still again with a tilt of its monstrous head.

I made another sound inside the apartment, and the creature finally bent down to step through the doorway, bringing its head closer to my height for the first time since it had entered. I knew it was my chance, and tactical insight offered its agreement. I rushed at it, not using quick step as I knew I would need it to dodge its retaliatory strike. Once I was about to reach it, I activated piercing stab for the first time, and also sent out a wind bolt straight through the nose-hole.

My dagger glowed with a bluish tint and sped up instantly, piercing through the thick neck muscles of the creature with ease, burying itself up to the hilt, while at the same time the wind bolt went through the nose and detonated inside. I instantly used quick step to jump back, my dagger coming out in a spray of blood while the creature roared in pain and swiped its claw at the place I had just vacated. It was faster than I had thought, and the claw ended up scraping my forearm, leaving a shallow cut on it.

Quick step ended, and I took half a second to make sure the cut on my arm wasn't anything serious, before I immediately used quick step again, as the creature was still reeling from my opening strike and I knew from experience that giving strong monsters time is extremely dangerous, not to mention idiotic. I rushed in, my increased perception allowing me to see how it had closed its eyes at the sudden pain that was assaulting its strongest sense.

It seemed to have barely noticed the wound in the neck, instead all its attention seemed to be concentrated towards the now ravaged nose. The hole had become much larger, and I could see the destroyed insides clearly. It was also steadily dripping blood, and the creature was making pained noises while shaking its head side to side in a desperate attempt to get rid of its pain. My dagger glowed blue again, while a wind bolt formed in my left hand.

Its mouth was open, which was the target for my wind bolt this time, while the dagger was going straight for its nose. Both strikes struck their intended targets. The wind bolt detonated inside its mouth, destroying its insides once again. At the same time, the glowing dagger inserted deep inside the nose, and I slashed it to the right as I used quick step again to back away. The creature staggered from the double strike, letting out a low, forlorn sound.

Its head drooped low and it swayed left to right slightly, looking to be completely overwhelmed by the pain. Still not wanting to give it time, I darted in once again. This time, the wind bolt was sent towards the large wound that had once been its nose, while I struck its shoulder with a normal dagger strike. The wind bolt did its damage wonderfully, and the creature dropped to the floor in a heap. However, my dagger barely sank an inch before it got stuck in the dense muscles.

The monster was now down for the count, so I raised my dagger and used my newest skill in the same general area. I also released yet another wind bolt inside the large wound, just in case. The dagger glowed blue and sped up, this time sinking up to its hilt inside the shoulder muscles with ease. The monster barely stirred at the double strike, and I was sure it was dead by now. I stepped away from it and retreated to a safe distance, keeping an eye on it. It wasn't moving at all, but I needed to be sure.

As I kept watch, I thought about my new skill and was extremely happy with it. It was something that was missing in my arsenal, and I finally thought that I was becoming a more rounded damage dealer now. It would help immensely against opponents that had some protection in the form of scales, muscles, or thick skin. The monster wasn't breathing or moving, and I was now certain of its death. It had probably been attracted due to the fox carcasses, and followed my scent here.

I knew that I should probably leave this area, but I needed a few short minutes to do something important. I sheathed my dagger and let out a sigh, not wanting to think about what I was going to do next. There was something that I had neglected to do through much of the tutorial, only really doing it against that elite snake. But now, I needed to take every advantage I could get, and this was going to be messy but would probably pay dividends later, especially if the production classes came to their own now.

It was time for some monster harvesting.