ALL NOVEL Book Two - Chapter Eighty One - Step Up
I blinked awake and immediately threw myself from my lying position high into the air. A heavy blow swung down on my position and I levelled an attack, frantic and frightened. The shouts from below didn’t help my mental state, but I wasn’t the aspirationally brave man I had been before the System. Instead of hurting the men who followed me through the dungeon, I lowered my hand and let the mana gathering at the end dissipate.
Waves of confusion were falling away from me as I came back to my body. I began to recall things that I hadn’t been able to think about during the battle. One of the most confusing thoughts was how I was managing to be airborne with absolutely no mana to spare. As though thinking about the act shone a light upon it, I began to tumble from my position and stumbled as I landed from high above.
“You are you?” Hassian asked cryptically, the axe in his hand still ready to swing again. I nodded even before I had truly parsed what he said, the wording confusing. All of my extremities felt weak as I flexed my fingers trying to shove strength back into them. As I did so, I walked over the fallen body of the dracolich. Hassian had a large smile as he asked “So, it is dead?”
I moved slowly and carefully over to the body, placing a hand on it. The temptation to scream and act like this was a bad thing was there, but so was the frigid cold axe which Hassian still hadn’t put away. Maybe it wasn’t the time for pranks. Either way, once I touched the mostly rotted skeleton, confirmation that the fight was over came my way.
Would you like to loot Cavarix, the Rot Dragon - Level ???
I accepted the prompt, thinking nothing of it. With slight disappointment, I saw that there were no new magical trinkets which I could use. There were plenty of crafting materials, though, which was exciting, if a little confusing. “How… how did I just loot Cavarix’s Eye? She didn’t even have eyes…” I removed the gemstone from my inventory and took a look at the description. Mostly, I was quite glad it wasn’t an actual eye.
Item - Cavarix’s Eye (Unique)
Like most magical beings, dragon’s have a potent magical core. As a dragon dies, as with everyone else, this core disappears with them. Except, of course, if that dragon turned themselves into an undead nightmare. Then their soul might have calcified within their rotten body like a diamond.
Can be used for crafting
The jewel was gorgeous, truly looking like Cavarix’s massive dark black and green eyes. It thrummed with magical power as I rolled it around in my hand, a unique item born from a boss monster. It was possibly the most valuable item I had come across in my time in the System. Tossing it into the air, I let it slip into my inventory. Hopefully I could get it turned into something useful but if it was just a souvenir, that would be fine with me, too.
It didn’t feel like a cheap victory, in any case, though I had definitely stacked the deck in my favour at the end. Cavarix and I had been battling in what was once the Hurricane Heart. It was an empty husk left over from its transformation, its power already completely spent in hard-to-notice ways. Ways which might make it seem like a blank void. Metaphysics was never going to be my specialty, but it was a pretty good trick which caused Cavarix to expend far, far more strength than she needed to.
I already had my rewards from the battle, even without the loot. Once everyone was convinced I wasn’t pulling some trick, that I was fine and that the dragon had been the one to lose, I moved away from the group slightly. They had directions to watch the process as intently as they could, though. I remembered doing something similar when the dungeon I had spawned into was grasped by the System and turned into the base of what would become Ascentown. The magical understanding I garnered from that moment was potent, so I hoped this lesser version as I received my achievement would do something for them.
Achievement Unlocked - The Second Step (World First)
The choice to blaze a trail is one of bravery, folly or wisdom. The destination is unknown, but the path becomes clearer. You have created a second tier Dao System before gaining a class or reaching Grade Two, setting yourself apart once more.
Effect: +5 Attribute points per level, Attributes +20%
Even as I read the words, I could feel the System’s magic flowing into me and I swore with surprise and exaltation. My attributes jumped, Fortitude and Speed getting a nice bump while Will and Mental each received a qualitative boost. As always, I was grateful to both, unsure which was truly more valuable in the long run. The extra attribute points were adding up, and as I had completed this task before I finished the fight, the additional points came my way immediately.
Name - Grant Kaeron Race - Stormborn (Grade 1) Level - 54
Title - Dragon Slayer
Fortitude - 135 Speed - 135 Mental - 678 Will - 430
Free attribute points: 95
35 Per Level
I had five points left over from my previous level ups, but I didn’t bother keeping the reserve this time as I placed all ninety five points into my stats. There was simply never time to use them when I might desperately need them, and the additional strength in Will might have been enough to make the torture less torturous. Preferring to keep the numbers somewhat tidy, I used fifteen points for Fortitude and Speed, twenty for Will and the remaining forty five went into the Mental attribute.
Name - Grant Kaeron Race - Stormborn (Grade 1) Level - 54
Title - Dragon Slayer
Fortitude - 150 Speed - 150 Mental - 723 Will - 450
Free attribute points: 0
35 Per Level
The process was not particularly quick, entirely due to choice. I refused to rush, taking my time. The sensation of growth and potential that burst through me as each added point that went into my character page had heightened massively these days. With all of the percentage boosts which I enjoyed, a single mental attribute point was worth nearly three points and the growth here effectively the same as an entire person’s growth from level one to thirty.
I rose with a flourish from a seated position once I was finished. I was glad to see all eyes on me, but there was no time to go over the lesson. “Come on then,” I told them with a sigh, ignoring the general emptiness of my mana pool. The exit door had appeared after defeating Cavarix, so I started walking. “We’ve got a dungeon to finish. People to save. All the good stuff.”
———————
Before the System arrived, Callum Green had often thought that life was fairly pointless. It wasn’t a suicidal thought, he reasoned, but just a natural observation based on the facts at hand. There were things which people strove for, breaking the skin on their hands to work for the chance to get that new car, or house, or whatever it was they they obsessed with.
Cal wasn’t like that. He had been made fun of for living so minimally in the past, but when the world ended and he found himself more free than anyone else, he knew he had been living correctly. While other people rushed to find their families, to loot items they might have wanted before the change, Cal simply observed the world and learned its new rules. Those first, terrible, brutal days at the airport and then beyond, as Cal joined the monster hunting parties, were filled with fear and excitement in equal measure.
Cal didn’t have anything to work towards, which meant that he pushed forward with an attitude that there was nothing to lose. As the hunting parties of Londimin started to feel like cliques, Cal tried to distance himself from them. He was one of the few people with an Aspect who hadn’t been given it by Seth directly, and it was only once his level was nearly maxed and he was sent into the Elite dungeon that Cal realised how dangerous that made him seem.
He didn’t blame Seth for his actions, though it was nice to see the man get his just desserts. The strange power Seth had used had put him on a similar level to the monster which he was currently travelling with. Though, if he had to choose, Cal would happily pick Grant over the younger Seth any time. Even now, as they walked calmly to the next dungeon room, Cal was enthralled by the man.
Unused to wanting anything, Cal started to find that aspirational thoughts were there, waiting under the surface. I want to be strong like that, Cal thought to himself. Well, he corrected, not like that, but strong in my own way, on a similar level. He wasn’t Grant, for which Cal wasn’t sure if he was grateful or sad. The severe magic within the other man was far too potent and terrible for most to wield. In no uncertain terms, Cal felt like he was travelling with a world-ending monster in human form.
Yet, that monster was tempered by the smiles, the explanations and the clearly genuine attempts at connection which Grant made at every possible opportunity. He was currently explaining all that had occurred to him within his “soul space.” Even a week ago, somewhat used to the System, Cal would have said Grant’s tale was a bare-faced lie and ridiculously farcical. Yet Cal couldn’t pretend that he believed Grant. If the man said he had slain a dragon in his dreams and came away from it noticeably stronger, who was Cal to say he was lying? Even if it was ridiculous, he had seen the magic swell, after all.
His Aspect, Balance, was not one of the more magical ones. There were people with the Aspect of Lightning, who could shoot bolts of blue energy from their fingers casually, or someone like Seth who had piled on so many Aspects that every move he did began to feel mystical and powerful. The others seemed sensitive to Grant’s strength, but not to the underlying cause of it.
Cal felt as though he were standing in a crowded room as they walked through the empty halls. Every footfall that Grant made now rang out with imperceptible whispers of both strength and purpose. The sensation was intoxicating as much as it was infuriating. It was the feeling of a word on the end of his tongue which if he could only say it, he would feel the relief from the pressure.
Instead, the weight of understanding grew. As Cal’s mind broached and probed the potential that Grant’s existence promised, it shied away. He had never been a brave man, nor even a particularly driven one. Survival in the System demanded a certain level of effort, and though it hadn’t been fun, his rise to level thirty was tame and organised. He was never in any real danger. He had been content with sitting in the safe room for as long as it took someone to clear the dungeon and get him out.
So, why had he followed Grant? The answer was echoing around the stone walls with each step the group took, their leader standing tall at the front. He spoke with the alien, Hassian. Cal didn’t mind the stranger’s appearance like the two brothers did, not flinching when he smiled or gave him a sharp look. What did bother him was Hassian’s confidence, more than anything. Even without an Aspect to make things easier, he had fought and struggled on a world even more ravaged by the System than theirs. There were answers to Cal’s confusion to be found in those two men and their actions.
“Could-” Cal tried to speak but found his throat dry. He coughed, the sound feeling extra loud in the confined space. “Could you let me take the lead on the next room?” Cal asked, knees shaking at the thought already. With everyone’s eye on him, Cal remembered exactly why he kept his mouth shut most of the time. Except, he didn’t want to do that anymore. He had been content to stagnate in the dungeon, but he wouldn’t do that again. Well, maybe sometimes, he would.
It was all about balance, after all.