Chương 14: [LD-1] 13. New Skills

XIII New Skills Emily's healing wasn't a magic button that fixed all damage without drawbacks.

"Your mobility will be reduced for a while." The restorer pulled away from the president, the green glow around her hands suffusing into the air as it dissipated.

"The muscles need time to recover." Which was why Alexa moved further back in our formation. The president groaned and flicked Kiba and I a glance.

"Sorry, you two. You'll need to do the heavy lifting." Shota chuckled.

"Shout if you need help." I disregarded his comment and turned to Kiba. To be honest, the two of us should've been quaking in our boots after what happened to the president.

"Don't mind," Kiba told Alexa while he leaned on a nearby wall with his eyes closed. I exhaled.

'Something's off about him.' He was a lot calmer than any child had a right to be in our scenario. Like he wasn't worried about anything this dungeon could throw at him. … and it was rubbing off on me. With complete calm, Kiba and I cleaved through the next pack of greenskins unfortunate enough to cross our path. Cull was a big factor in my combat prowess. However, the deathbolt was working wonders, too. Now that the skill had levelled, it punched through my targets with more ease than it already had.

Not only that, but it cost less mana, too. The cost was only reduced by five, but that was a sixth of what it had been before.

'I wonder if getting it level six will reduce the cost to zero?' I doubted that. But the cost would definitely be way less. What even was the max level of a skill? There's no limit, master. However, level ups become increasingly hard past level ten. Which was a while away. For now, I focused on using the skill the most I could. The way Kiba and I butchered our enemies irritated Shota to no end. The gnashing of his teeth was like music to my ears.

'Aren't you just as childish as him?' Here I was, an almost thirty-years old woman smiling because of a child being angry. I stole a single look at the idiot's face…and grinned wider.

'Nha, this is the best.' Master! Kil called. There's a staircase up ahead. It's descending. I relayed the information.

"It's as I thought," Alexa said. She suppressed a wince, then regarded all of us.

"This is just the first level of the dungeon." All of us quieted.

"If the monsters below are too high level," Shota whispered, "we should return to farming the first floor. At least until we each gain another skill." It was the first sensible thing he'd said today, which was why it brokered no disagreement. Kil led us toward the staircase. Moss and vines covered the wide set of steps. Parts of it had crumbled, creating holes big enough you'd break your neck if you missed a step. Shadows deepened as we went down.

It was the light coming from the natural growth in the halls which dimmed. The air changed, too. Ambient mana thickened, became a physical weight that settled on our shoulders. This was not normal.

"A natural treasure?" I whispered. Shota swallowed. Evans cleaned his glasses. Even Kiba, who strolled through the dungeon half-awake, perked up. A treasure could take the form of many things. A fruit that had condensed experience for years, natural formations like a hotspring which increased your cultivation speed, the options were endless. But a fact remained: whatever it was, natural treasures were a magnet for powerful enemies. Our advance through the hallways slowed to a trickle.

Kilrog couldn't see in the dark any better than us, so we leaned on the side of caution.

"Where are the enemies?" Emily whispered.

"…maybe they're sleeping," Douglas offered. Shota snorted, which made Evans chuckle awkwardly.

"Not running into them is good news, right?" he whimpered. Shota sighed.

"Douglas is one thing, but you're brighter than this, Evans. There's only a few reasons why monsters would suddenly disappear." They're all after the treasure. Or something drove them off this floor— My foot bumped into something soft, and I leapt back. Weapons whipped my way and Douglas rushed forward to block whatever threat made me jump. But there was no threat. An object lied half-hidden in the undergrowth where the natural luminescence didn't reach. Alexa reached out with her blade and turned it over…

Half of the person's face had been bitten off. She quickly pushed it back.

"Let's move on." Now that we'd noticed the first corpse, the others were harder to miss. They were strewn around here and there, left in various states of decay and consumption. They were like a trail of breadcrumbs leading us to our destination. Their odour combined with the growing mana density in the air, so that soon I couldn't take a breath without wiping water out of my eyes or breathing through my shirt. We came upon a set of double doors with a window near the top.

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version. Kil hovered toward it.

"I see a…kitchen? That looks like a kitchen."

"Any enemies?" Alexa whispered. He peered.

"Hhm, nope! But I do see plenty of tables. Rows upon rows! Really, why are there so many?" The fact he was speaking in this manner showed he didn't quite catch the mood hanging over our group, but his way of speaking lightened the weight on my chest.

"The cafeteria?" Alexa frowned.

"Strange that it'd be on the second floor."

"This is still a dungeon at the end of the day," Shota said.

"It need not follow the design of our school."

"What about the treasure?" Kiba said.

"My guess," Kil said, "is on that glowing tree near the back of the room." I peered through the glass myself. The tree in question had three thick, short trunks but a wide canopy. It also half grew out of the wall. Compared to the rest of the cafeteria, the tree may as well have been a sun. I turned to the rest of the cafeteria to spare my eyes. No enemies. There was a staircase up to a second floor similar in design to a gallery. No sign of movement there either.

"Kil, can you head in?" I said.

"Tell me if you find anything."

"Uhm, do I have to, Master? I don't like creepy places any more than you!" Emily blinked rapidly.

"But that place isn't creepy to a strong man like you, right, Kil?" He burst through the swinging doors like a javelin. I rolled my eyes. The eyeball checked underneath every bench and checked the whole of the second floor. It's clear, Master! he said. So we went inside. The mana hit us like a tide, jabbed into my skin and dug into my pores without command. Our jaws disconnected.

"It's a cultivation haven," Evans mouthed. With wonder, we identified the source. [Wizened Forest Guardian - lvl. 50] The mana was more potent directly underneath the canopy. I breathed in deep. Cool energy went down my airway into my stomach, like when I slayed a monster.

"It's giving us experience…" Shota's eyes went wide. We eyed each other. Staying here was dangerous, but the gain to be had… Alexa nodded, and all of us sat down.

"Kil," I said.

"Keep watch, please."

"Yes, Ma'am!" The dutiful servant went outside. I entered my soul sea. The lonely, black star beamed, its rays lighting the catafalque, vast ocean, and the sphere of experience about the size of a skipping ball.

"Kil." My voice reverberated over the waters. Master?

"Should I reach level five first or finish the catafalque?" Reach level five first. Any excess energy can go into your… creation. I huffed. He was still skirting around the object's purpose. Not knowing what I was wasting my experience on was annoying, but I trusted him. I grabbed a hold of the floating sphere and began condensing. The energy merged with my soul sea. Reaper - lvl. 3 -> Reaper - lvl. 4. 3 free stat points gained. The first level reduced the sphere by a half.

I wouldn't have enough to reach level five… if it wasn't for the forest guardian. Faster than I could purify the energy, more experience trickled into the sphere, so that when I finished reaching level five, the total had shrunk by nearly nothing. Reaper - lvl. 4 -> Reaper - lvl. 5. 3 free stat points gained. A total of six stat points available. I put two into intelligence and wisdom, and divided the rest.

'Status.' Name: Joy Grimm Level 5 Nox [Reaper] Rank: Neophyte Magic Domain: Death (Special) Class Weapon: Cull the Deathblade (F - 10/10000) Death Core: Dormant Death Fragments: 8/1000 Mana: 120/120 (+ 50) Skills: Reaper's Condolence (L-1), Deathbolt (C-2) STR: 7 DEX: 7 INT: 12 CON: 8 WIS: 12 Free Points: 0'Looks good. My mana is refilled, too.' Some simple math told me I gained ten points of mana for each level in wisdom… I was definitely putting more points into that. I went over my other system messages.

New class ability unlocked! Skill learned: [Ancient Bone Shell (I) - Common] Information on the skill entered my head like old memories pulled to the forefront.

'Ancient Bone Shell…' A barrier. I could shape bones into a cone to shield myself. The bones were ancient, as the name suggested, so quite brittle—they'd break after a few attacks or a heavy spell. Still, it was better than having no defence at all.

'It'll also become stronger as I level it…interesting.' That's nothing, Master! Kil chimed. The great Kil has more abilities for you to chose from!

'Oh? What kind?' Moments passed with only the soft gale across the waters making a sound. Then there was a pop as a screen appeared in front of me. Skill list: Dark Weapon - Common: Shape darkness into a weapon that mirrors your movement. Breaks after a few hits. Shape and size can be controlled. Mana drain increases with duration. Arm of Quranq - Common: A tendril erupts from a place you can see. It deals necrotic damage to whatever it touches.

Bestow Curse - Uncommon: A curse affects a target you touch if their intelligence and wisdom are too low. On successful attack, user can: reduce enemies's attack power against them, confuse their mind, or lower their defence against necrotic attacks. Darkness - Common: Darkness spreads from a point within range, filling a 15-foot radius. Nonmagical light doesn't illuminate it. Darkvision can't see through it. User's vision is limited.

Death Spray - Common: Release a necrotic mist that affects all creatures within range. Applies a slight decrease in the target's dexterity and constitution. Prolonged exposure increases this effect.

'That's…a lot. I can learn all of these?' Just one for now, Master. I need to invest a skill point so I can unlock the memories of the skill. You can learn the others later, but the great Kil recommends not doing so and waiting until Master unlocks higher tier skills. Right. No matter how good these sounded in the moment, they were all low-rank abilities.

'I take it the higher-tiered abilities take more skill points for you to unlock?' Master is a genius! I shook my head at what would've been a backhanded compliment coming from anyone else. My chin came to rest in my hand.

'What to choose?' The Dark Weapon sounded intriguing. An extra weapon that'd let me strike twice? Sign me up! That said, it'd break after a few swings.

'Cull is one-shotting everything anyways.' Which made the skill less valuable. Arm of Quranq…the image of calling forth a thick, slimy tentacle wasn't quite what I'd call 'mesmerising.' I could envision a few uses for the ability, one of which was holding an enemy in place until I could close the gap and have Cull rip them apart.

'Powerful.' I shelved it as a strong contender. Bestow Curse was the most interesting of the bunch. As the only uncommon ability, its effects were varied and useful. But its activation condition was also the most specific.

'Touching enemies, huh. I'm not sure about that.' Most enemies we'd faced in the dungeon had weapons. For me to touch them meant I'd need to swerve around their strikes. Something I had no experience doing. I moved on to the final two. Darkness and Death Spray had a similar manifestation. One just clouded vision, while the other poisoned. Both were strong crowd control utilities.

'The darkness reduces my own vision, too, though.' Though probably not as much as that of an enemy. The poison spray…I liked it. I lacked abilities that could strike more than one target. One big issue I had with the skill though was its effectiveness.

'Kil, would Death Spray also affect allies?' Yes! he said with cheer. Then Darkness would, too. After a long moment, I said: 'I pick Arm of Quranq.' The skill could guarantee a kill and even guard me if needed. There was no instantaneous ability unlock this time; Kil needed to teach me the skill. I turned back to the sphere of experience. Reaching level six or seven wasn't as important as reaching level five. So I took the remainder of the energy and kept the slab of black stone close in my mind.

The markings on the catafalque shifted. Rubble formed and expanded the piece of stone. After a while, the flow of experience slowed to a trickle, then vanished completely. The natural treasure had stopped feeding me experience.

'It must've reached its limit.' Or perhaps it only fed each person a specific amount. I opened my eyes to study my work. The catafalque reached my hip now, and the number of markings had doubled and swayed like a school of fish. I still couldn't tell what any of them meant.

'That's a lot of progress though.' The wizened guardian had really helped. That said, the catafalque was nowhere near finished. The slab was yet growing. Cracks in the surface gave the impression of smashed bricks— Master! Kil's voice ruptured through the quiet of my soul sea like thunder. Wake— His voice cut off. I blinked.

'Kil?' I stared out over the ocean as I waited. Nothing but the darkness looked back, and Kil didn't respond.