Divine Awakening

Chapter 40

Ding!

Congratulations Child of Enlightenment! You have reached level 2!

1 Spell Point Awarded.

1 Attribute Point Awarded.

You have 2 unassigned attribute points!

You have 1 unassigned spell point!

Check appropriate displays for new capabilities.

Now that Ash knew the shadow eel had died, he released the body and got to his feet.

Ash closed the notification, excited to see what leveling entailed. He’d played enough games to know that leveling always started easy, so he kept his expectations in check. The soul-sucking grind came later, after the developers knew they had you trapped with sunk cost and epic gear.

The monster sank into the floor, immediately replaced by four mini sandstorms. Ash didn't think he’d ever get sick of seeing the loot drops.

Ash wrinkled his nose at the putrid scent of the eel's blood, which soaked his shirt and his right pant leg.

Despite the blood-soaked T-shirt sticking to his chest, pulling at his skin with every movement, he ignored the discomfort and knelt in front of the drops. With a surge of excitement, he touched the first miniature storm.

Name: Shadow Skin Bracer

Quality: Uncommon

Armor Class: 5

Durability: 35 of 35

Description: Fashioned from the dark, tough hide of a shadow eel, this bracer enhances the stealth of the user.

Effect (Passive): Shadow Slither - Increases stealth by 15% in low light conditions.

Ash placed the bracer on his left wrist, and it shrunk to comfortably fit. Both the increased stealth and the extra armor class would benefit him. He waved a hand through the second loot storm.

Name: Barbed Whip of Paralysis

Quality: Uncommon

Damage: 6-16 Slashing

Durability: 50 of 50

Range: 10 ft.

Description: Crafted from the toxic barbed tail of a shadow eel, this whip retains traces of the eel’s paralyzing toxin.

Effect (Passive): Toxic Lash - Successful attacks have a 10% chance to apply a mild paralytic toxin, reducing enemy movement speed by 20% for 2 seconds.

Restriction: Whip Proficiency

The whip had good stats and an excellent passive, but Ash didn't know how to use one. He left it on the ground for now but would pack it away before he left in case someone in the party knew how to use it or took a Class that gained Whip proficiency.

Ash turned his attention to the third drop and deactivated the illusion surrounding it.

Name: Eel-vil Eye Amulet

Quality: Uncommon

Durability: 10 of 10

Description: Encapsulating the eerie, bioluminescent eye of a shadow eel, this amulet enhances the wearer's night vision and awareness.

Effect (Passive): Ambush - Increases the wearer's Awareness by 3%.

Effect (Passive): Eel-vil Eye - Improves vision in dark conditions by 5%.

Ash already had the Decayed Fang in his amulet slot and preferred the plus two damage over the three percent increase in Awareness. Third Eye provided excellent vision so far, so he kept this to give to someone else.

As expected, the last drop contained more copper squares—fifty-five to be exact—and just like last time, they disappeared when he touched them.

Ash brought his backpack out and placed the whip and amulet inside before returning it to his dimensional belt.

The dry air had evaporated most of the blood, and Ash’s shirt no longer stuck to him. It had turned crusty and hard, the same as his jeans, but he hadn't changed for three reasons: first, he didn't have enough clothes to change all the time.

Second, placing awful-smelling clothes in the backpack would require Ash to waste a bag to hold them. Otherwise, everything in his pack would smell like sour milk and rotten meat.

The third reason was more of a hunch based on Ash’s experience. While blood usually attracted predators, he was hoping none of the local creatures enjoyed or craved shadow eel. Based on its smell and toxicity, he guessed the smell would discourage roving monsters from moving his way. If his bet turned out wrong, he would bite the bullet and change into fresh clothes.

Ash pushed Lesser Ripple two hundred feet into the pit but stopped when the Mental Energy consumption became too much. His curiosity about how far the hole went would have to wait. The important thing was that his chakras hadn't detected any danger.

Moving carefully across the room, Ash paused at the tunnel entrance. He had three attribute points he could assign but was reluctant to commit them when he knew almost nothing about what he'd need here.

The tutorial had said attribute points could be reset every ten levels, but it hadn't mentioned if a cost was necessary. With all the bonuses Ash’s Titles provided, he didn't feel an urgent need to place these three.

The spell point, however, needed consideration before continuing. Spirit Touch had already proven its value, and having such access to magic couldn't be banked for later without risk.

It only took Ash a few seconds to find the new spells. They were listed on the left side of his spell display along with the previous spells he hadn't taken. Spirit Touch sat on the right side of the display.

Ash studied the four new spells that had unlocked when he reached level two.

Name: Quicksand

Description: Creates quicksand around the target’s feet.

Max Charges: 2

Recharge Rate: 60 minutes per charge

Range: 60 feet

Effect: Immobilizes an enemy for 2 seconds.

Name: Mage Bubble

Description: Creates a weak protective aura around the caster, deflecting magical, physical, and ranged attacks.

Max Charges: 2

Duration: 30 minutes

Recharge Rate: 60 minutes per charge

Effect: Increases Armor Class by 25 + Intelligence.

Name: Spa Day

Description: Creates a personal area perfect for rest and relaxation.

Max Charges: 2

Recharge Rate: 12 hours per charge

Effect (Triggered): Reduces all recharge durations by 25%.

Restriction: Must remain within 5 feet of the location spell was cast.

Name: Laundry Day

Description: Magically cleans the caster’s body and garments, leaving both spotless and fresh.

Max Charges: 2

Recharge Rate: 12 hours per charge

Effect (Triggered): Continuously keeps the caster and their clothes clean for 12 hours.

Before Ash did anything, he wanted to check and see what effect upgrading Spirit Touch to level two would have. It turned out the spell didn’t upgrade but became an entirely new spell.

Name: Grave Diggers

Description: Conjures Intelligence/4 ghostly skeletal hands to drain the life from nearby targets.

Max Charges: 4

Recharge Rate: 15 minutes per charge

Range: 30 feet

Damage: 12-20 necrotic damage

Effect: Targets cannot regenerate health for 20 seconds.

Effect: The caster regains health equivalent to a percentage of the damage dealt equal to their Willpower.

Grave Diggers turned out to be a huge upgrade. With Ash’s current stats, he could summon four hands. Not only that, it appeared the hands could engage different targets. If they all did max damage, that would be eighty, and he would get nineteen percent of that as Health. Even if they all did minimum damage, it equated to nine Health.

The minor heal spell returned ten percent of Ash’s health, which was about twenty-five points right now. Not much different. Plus, the upgraded spell did damage.

That threw out the minor heal as a choice from the earlier spells, but Ash still considered the summoning an animal spell and the projectile damage one. Laundry Day also looked incredibly attractive, and he guessed everyone would need to pick that one up eventually. He tried to ignore the crusty feeling of the dried eel blood so it wouldn’t sway his decision.

The Grave Diggers spell was a fantastic upgrade, and while he didn't know what Class path he would take, he didn't think it would be an Intelligence-based Class.

That meant as Ash leveled, spells like this would become less and less potent. Yes, he could respec at level ten, assuming the cost to do so wasn't too large, but that also meant he would’ve wasted multiple levels fighting with a spell he didn't plan on keeping.

That was an expensive opportunity cost as Ash could’ve learned and practiced fighting with a spell he planned on keeping rather than just losing knowledge at level ten.

Ash made instant decisions when fighting, and Nomad had even commented on it, but when it came to game theory, he always got paralyzed by all the options.

The truth was Ash could have squeezed in a little bit of time for video games in his schedule back home, but he stopped playing them because, at some point early in the game, he would be forced to make a decision. He wanted to make the perfect one, so it stalled every decision and eventually ruined the game for him.

Ash guessed this resulted from a dormant Crown chakra. He needed to activate and then awaken that chakra as fast as possible because he wasn't playing a video game, and indecision leads to death.

Eventually, they would set up camp, and Ash already had a list of things to do from both Elder Phoenix and Grandmaster Echo. In addition to those tasks, related to his Core and Bamboo Viper steps, he needed to meditate on his chakras.

The only chakra in worse shape than Crown was Divine. He’d ignored those chakras because he considered them worthless. His lower chakras had provided him safety and strength. Now he needed intelligence and pattern recognition, and because of his poor foresight and ignorance, it could cost him his life here. Or one of those he was responsible for.

Ash placed the spell point in Grave Diggers, not wanting to take any more time thinking about this. Spending time in his head contemplating was the last thing he wanted to do. If this turned out to be a bad decision, he would learn from the experience and respec at level ten.

The icon that had signified Spirit Touch changed into skeletal hands arranged with their fingers outward, looking like a demented lotus flower. All the charges refreshed as well, which was an unexpected benefit.

Moving into the tunnel, Ash extended Lesser Ripple, returning it to a thirty-foot sphere around him. He gave himself a moment to rejoice for leveling, even if it was only to level two. Progress, no matter how small, always felt great.