ALL NOVEL B1 | Chapter 6 - Piranhas
Alexia Knight
I send one last quantum bolt into the spider’s head before letting out a sigh and walking away after the System Message about its death plays out in my head.
[Level 3 Lesser Taracht Defeated.]
This cavern is getting a little boring. Just fight after fight after fight, and none of them are all that strong. Not to mention that I don’t get points for killing things lower level than myself apparently, so after I reached level 4, very few things here actually give me any points anymore.
I haven’t found another vampire bat since the first one, so I’ve just been killing tarachts over and over again for the past couple hours.
Rather repetitive.
Although…
I open my status.
Name: Alexia Knight Species: Quantum Reaper(T1)
Level: 4 Class: Quantum Reaper
Soul: 166/250
VIT: 10 DEX: 10 STR: 10 MAG: 13 MEN: 13
Racial Skills Active Skills
Passive Skills General Skills
Well, at least I only need one more level before I get my first Active or Passive Class skill, not including the starter one. So there’s that.
And I managed to get Pain Resistance back.
It hasn’t been long enough for me to get Survival back though. And Swordsmanship has that stupid minimum weapon quality requirement that apparently the inferior sword I have doesn’t meet.
As for archery, I don’t have a bow.
And I have no idea how to get my magic General skills back without actually having mana. Same with Mana Manipulation.
A problem I can solve later.
Speaking of the sword, I glance at the thing with a frown.
I know he said that there are differences in the System, but could that be one of them?
Just out of curiosity, I try to identify my sword. And surprisingly, it works.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Inferior Sword
Description: The worst System sword in existence. It grants nothing more than the piercing power of a sword.
Stats Bonus: None.
Requirements: None.
Item Tier: 0
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Huh. That’s nice.
A new addition to the System, I guess? Because we certainly couldn’t identify items before this reset.
And that description… is actually pretty accurate.
I wonder if there are any dungeons nearby here? It would be nice to find some that I can use to train.
Assuming there are dungeons in the tutorial…
They didn’t exactly give us much information about the tutorial after all. All they said was common knowledge, along with the Class stuff.
I continue walking through the tunnel I’m in until I find another large cavern, and surprisingly, this one has running water in it. A very nice find.
Despite the water though, I don’t rush to drink it right away. Instead, I move up to the small creak running through this cavern into another tunnel full of water before sticking the tip of my sword into the water to make sure there aren’t any monsters in it. And right when I’m about to declare it safe after several seconds of nothing happening, a tugging force yanks on my sword pulling it out of my hand and into the water.
My mouth opens a little in surprise at the sight of a large fish continuing down the river while eating my metal sword.
{Lesser Venomous Piranha – Level 11}
“Are you fucking kidding me?” I swear, pissed off but also slightly relieved that I decided to test the waters instead of just moving my head there and cupping the water to drink. Because if I did that, that sword would be me instead.
Probably. Maybe. It’s also possible the thing could’ve just torn a massive hole out of me.
Hard to tell sometimes with tiny things that are high leveled. Not to mention my whole 80% immunity to physical damage thing.
The half-a-foot-long piranha goes back under the surface before camouflaging itself into the water somehow, making me lose track of it.
Well this is just great. Finally found water but I can’t drink any of it.
At least the piranha, and assuming it has friends, piranhas, are ignoring me. With the exception of my sword.
Guess they don’t have a ranged attack? Probably wouldn’t make it if they jumped out of the water to attack me and ended up stuck on land.
Hmm… I wonder…
A splashing sound echoes from the other side of the vast cavern, bringing my attention to the other side of the large river of water where I find some sort of two legged insect with sharp scythes as arms tossing a taracht’s corpse at the edge of the river, making it stick just inches out over the water without actually touching it.
{Lesser Scythid – Level 10}
Another new monster.
Then a piranha jumps out of the water in a direct arc to grab the taracht corpse and land back in the water afterwards, only for the scythid to suddenly sprint forward and swing its scythe around to catch the piranha, both cutting into it and sending it flying onto the land where it begins flopping around without making it anywhere. The scythid then rushes towards it and stabs both of its scythes into it four times until the piranha dies.
Interesting.
I glance at the river right when another piranha swipes the tarachts body and goes back into the water. But the scythid ignores it, briefly turning its gaze towards me before letting out some sort of chittering sound and beginning to drag the piranha corpse away to the tunnel on the other side of the cavern.
Guess I just figured out how I’m gonna fish me some piranhas without a fishing pole.
It takes me three attempts of trying different methods to get the piranha onto the land before I realize just how pointless that is. Especially when I can just trick it to surface and show itself before blasting it with a quantum bolt, which kills the thing in an instant due to its very small size. Even with its six or seven levels on me.
Honestly not sure why these things seem so weak despite being a high level. But I don’t really care considering that they’re free EXP.
I smile as I drag along the corpse of one of the tarachts I’ve killed along the way here back to the river before setting up the trap again. Then I blast another piranha when it tries to go for the food and find a very nice Message waiting for me.
[Level 10 Lesser Venomous Piranha Defeated – User’s earned EXP has been increased a small amount due to killing a being whose level is five or more levels higher than their own.]
[Seven points have been earned for killing a creature six levels above you.]
{Congratulations! You have leveled up to level 5! Your Species has awarded you +2 VIT, +2 DEX, +2 STR, +2 MAG, and +2 MEN. Your Class has awarded you +1 VIT, +1 DEX, +1 STR, +2 MAG, and +2 MEN.}
[The leaderboards have been updated. You are now #1 on the leaderboards.]
[*New Passive Skill* – Quantum Attunement: Grants the user enhanced sensitivity to quantum fluctuations, giving them heightened awareness of nearby magical energies and disturbances. Skill is automatically slotted due to free open slots.]
Almost immediately, I feel my senses expanding to fill a radius of about five meters around me, similar to how it felt when I used to use mana manipulation. But different at the same time. Now instead of just sensing mana, I can sense the fluctuations of the quantum realm itself along with any magical energy. Including the energy inherent in all living beings.
Like the piranhas.
A very nice skill, although I doubt the sensing the fluctuations of the quantum realm will do me very much good unless I’m in a quantum vortex, seeing as no one but quantum entities which are practically unheard of can actually use this element.
Then again, I’m using it, so…
I step a little bit closer to the water, only to freeze up when I get within a few feet of the river as I sense much larger piranhas in the center of the river. Ones spanning a couple feet in length.
But that’s not what has a cold sweat running down my neck.
What terrifies me is how I sense a bunch of piranhas currently building up in an arc around where I am. As if they were getting ready to attack.
I jump away, retreating as fast as I can right before each of the piranhas tackle the wall of the river, crumbling where I was just standing mere moments ago into the water. They then go ham eating all of the rubble that had fallen into the water.
Okay. Now I see why the other monsters don’t just sit here farming them all day.
The piranhas do get angry after all.