Chương 41: 1-40 System escapism

Josef was feeling out of it, as if the entire world was running on a different rhythm and he had lost the beat. He knew he had to focus back on the battle, but his head was swimming with emotions. The pain of losing a hand, cold and numb but too extreme to be ignored. Even though he knew he could regrow it with a bit of time and magic, it still felt like an incomparable violation of his body. Then there was the body under him, presenting a reality he couldn't skirt around.

He had killed a man with his own two hands, knowingly and willingly. Even if the logical part of him knew that this had been justified, that he had only fought to protect his life, that of his friends, and those two strangers, it caused him a whole new kind of pain deep within. Finally, there were the screams and shouts, the sound of combat as the surrounding battle continued. Bezzo was bleeding profusely from his smashed shoulder, requiring his aid.

The same, even more so, went for the lady knight's bodyguard on the ground, whose life was on the brink of ending. Zippa may even beat his opponent on his own, but the lady with her greatsword grew slower with every swing, and soon her rage wouldn't carry her through the fight anymore.

While the sudden death of the frost-wielding knight had caused a momentary lull as everyone took in the changed situation, it now only caused an increase in the fervor of the two remaining knights, sending the heat of battle to a new peak. Josef had to act now, or things were only going to get worse. All it would take was one bad swing on the lady knight, and Zippa would have to face two enemies, or maybe one of them would come over to kill off his own dazed ass.

Fortunately, as the world continued to pass him by for several seconds, Josef found a way out, or rather a way to buy some time. It only took a moment to spot it in the plethora of notifications he had gotten, but it was there. Level 19 -> 22 Skill choice unlocked. 6 Free attribute points. 2 Strength, 3 Dexterity, 3 Endurance, 2 Intelligence, 2 Wisdom and 1 Charisma gained System, beam me up.

He didn't know how long he was lying there, and it didn't matter to Josef, as his previous two visits to this place had shown how time outside seemingly didn't pass while he was making his choice. That's why this time around, he was going to make the most of this, and relax his mind. The moment his feet had touched the sandy desert ground, he simply cut loose, leaned back, and let himself fall into the sand, as if he had just begun a vacation at the beach.

Had this place always been so pleasant, or was his hurting mind just trying to find desperate comfort? The single, unmoving sun above filled him with a gentle warmth, as though it was shining with exactly the right temperature to soothe his body, instead of the searing heat the landscape had promised. There was even a gentle breeze caressing his skin, tousling his hair, blowing away his worries as it brought the surprising, but welcome, smell of rain to his nose.

Yet, when Josef finally rose into a seated position, everything appeared much more sterile than it had just now, making him doubt his own senses. Maybe he had gotten an impression of how this place was supposed to be? Raking his remaining hand through the sand, he noticed how he was still down by a limb, making him wonder if this was a physical place after all, instead of just something that happened in his mind.

Then again, with how vivid the sensation of losing his hand still was, it wouldn't be surprising if the loss had carried over into his mental state. No matter what, he felt ready to face the choice before him. Well, maybe not completely ready, but a lot better than before, which would have to be sufficient. First up were his free skill points, all 6 still waiting to be assigned.

2 Endurance, 1 Intelligence and 3 Wisdom gained That distribution evened out the baseline for Endurance and Wisdom, and the last point went into Intelligence, as was only proper. He also noticed that the last of his attributes, Strength and Dexterity, had finally crossed into the double digits, though there was no 'Jack of All Trades' kind of feat for that, as he had hoped. Next up were his affinities. ☆☆ Earth (Inferior) -> (Moderate) ☆☆ Water (Exceptional) -> ☆☆☆ Water (Moderate) The eternal cycle.

Thanks to the benefits prepared by a mentor you start with a higher than average ability to call on this element. Through determination and intelligence, you have abused and overcome external transformation by another element. Moderately increased resistance against external influence and increased adaptation to ice magic. ✩ Space(Pinnacle) -> ✩✩ (Moderate) Repeated exposure to the expanse beyond our world has left you slightly more attuned to manipulating space.

✩✩ Summoning(Pinnacle) -> ✩✩✩ Summoning(Moderate) Your teamwork has been refined through intensive battle. The upgrade to his earth affinity had already happened during his fight with the adult Rachse, as that was the last time he had used that element to defend himself. His increased water affinity, though, was definitely a result of his last struggle against the frosty knight, when he had weaponized thermal expansion and used the freezing effect as part of his attack.

He doubted the adaptation would be enough to fully prevent the freezing of his water, but at least he might no longer need a distraction just to touch an opponent like that. If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. But how was the 'increased adaptation to ice magic' meant? Did that reference the interaction with his water magic, or was he himself better positioned to learn such a magic?

Josef really hoped it was the latter, as ice magic was undoubtedly cool. The improvement of his Summoning magic was pretty self-explanatory, as he had already felt the effect when he had coordinated his assault with Dusty. That left only his space affinity, and determining what that better attunement meant would be hard to determine. Which reminded him that he had never cast a spell in this strange place, so maybe he could just try it right now.

Following his usual steps to cast Blink, accumulating the mana in his body and extending a line of energy to his target, he realized that exactly one part of the spell had noticeably improved: The speed at which he could extend that line into the distance. He also leaked less mana when doing so, but that paled compared to the speed improvement.

Whereas it formerly extended about as quickly as a leisurely walk, it was now more of a quick sprint, cutting down the time he would need to teleport by almost a quarter, all things considered. That alone promised to be useful for the battle ahead, and he still had his spells to check out. ☆☆☆ Rapid Water Prison (Advanced) -> ☆☆☆☆ Crushing Water Prison(Inferior) Countless have drowned in the sea throughout the ages, a concept you have now touched upon.

You have glimpsed the concept of crushing depths, capable of breaking even the hardest resistance. ☆☆ Blink (Inferior) -> (Moderate) ☆☆ Summon Familiar (Pinnacle) -> ☆☆☆ Summon Familiar(Inferior) Current limit: 3 And weren't those some juicy gains? While the manner in which he had pushed his Water Prison might not have been the best one, it still allowed him to reach a new rank. The kind of damage his water did when expanding through the cold must have triggered that particular change.

He would have to figure out how to crush things through the force of his water without any aid like that if he wanted to properly enter this new rank. This rank up also drove home how creative usage and new opportunities were much better at improving his spells than blindly training them every day. Something his Blink spell had already accomplished, though he wasn't sure if that was simply from repeated usage making him better at it, or if the increase to his affinity had pushed it along.

Last, but certainly not least, was the third rank of Summon Familiar, finally unlocking the option to create another familiar. Considering how he could cast other spells while in this desert, it was only fair to assume that the same held true for this one, meaning he could possibly summon his new familiar right here and now, before returning to the fight. But would that even work?

It was hard to tell with Dusty, but Nibbles definitely remained in the same spot after he last came back from his skill choice, meaning his familiars returned to wherever they were before. If he summoned one while in here, where would it end up after he exited? Well, he would find out, but only after he checked the remainder of this notification flood, otherwise he might get too distracted to read through the rest of them.

☆☆☆ Nightprowler's Eyes (Advanced) -> (Exceptional) ☆☆ Blunt Resistance (Moderate) -> (Advanced) ☆☆ Mental Resistance (Inferior) -> (Moderate) ☆☆ Fluid Movement (Moderate) -> (Advanced) The grace of water fills your every move. Increases your Dexterity by 22% of your Intelligence score, rounded up, and marginally amplifies the casting speed of water spells. Improves movement in water.

There was nothing too surprising with his skill improvements, which could mostly be attributed to repeated usage, except for the increase in his Mental Resistance, as Josef couldn't remember being subjected to another mental attack. Could the verbal taunts by his opponent have triggered this? The thought itself was hilarious, though there was some level of discipline needed to shrug off such attempts at one's mental state.

Also, that didn't take into account that there might have been a magical component to it, as he could very much picture such taunt-effects to be a real thing. Thankfully, he wouldn't have to be overly concerned with such effects, thanks to his resistance. Looking through his status sheet, Josef wondered if resistance related skills would eventually just overtake that entire section of his skills, or if the skills gained by level ups would keep up with them.

Either way, the section for 'Skills' was already the largest he had, and it was bound to grow with time, including today. Thinking back on how he had managed to add Mana Regeneration to his status and even received a small reward for it, he wanted to try to make another change, to prevent future clutter. All he wanted was another section between 'Skills' and 'Feats', name it 'Resistance' and move some skills there. That couldn't be too hard, right? It was, in fact, not at all difficult.

He had barely finished forming the thought, as a new line formed in his sheet, precisely where he intended for it to be. A second later, he finished giving it a title, creating an entirely new section. Finally, all that remained was moving his skills to this new area, and that is where things got more difficult. Some force held them in place right where they were, preventing him from moving them to their new location, but it wasn't insurmountable.

Using both his eyes and his mind, attempting to vividly picture how an entry would get dragged and repositioned, he successfully relocated the first of his resistances. As if they were only waiting for one brave skill to make the journey, the others followed soon after, encountering much less resistance. Maybe assigning the first one to the new section had created some kind of correlation for them to attach to?

Whatever the reason, his idea was implemented successfully, and the system rewarded him once more for that. Feat Upgraded: <System Whelp> -> <System Dragonet> The system is the birthright of dragons. You have realized a creative vision to change your interface. <redacted> watches over you. Unlocks: +3 to all Attributes Three points still didn't look like much, but it was thrice as much as before, granting him a modest bonus to his current attributes.

Looking at his current values, that was an almost ten percent increase to his intelligence, and a quarter up for his strength. Just how far could this feat be pushed before it maxed out? If dragons learned from the start how to do these things and get the feats according to that, couldn't even the children reach ridiculous stats for their level? Eventually, he would hopefully get the chance to ask a real dragon about that.

Before he would turn towards the proverbial dragon in the room though, he had a new familiar to summon. It was time to expand his weird little family.