Dante's Immortality: Beginnings

by Antonio Terzini

  He wasn’t sure what +1 to his increased ability did, but the fact that the Blade Dancer Skill increased in all three of its passive boosts seemed a little too good to be true. He was glad he decided to check the skill before allocating his world essence.

  All of his skills got an upgrade when the Classification reached level 2, but Blink didn’t get one when Chronomancer reached level 3. Therefore, he could assume that none of his skills were going to get an upgrade when they reached level 3.

  Since he was unsure if the skills would get an upgrade at level 4, he decided to assign the rest of his world essence as if they did.

  And based on his current world essence he could get any two of his Classifications to level 4, hopefully getting him two new skill upgrades.

  That line of thinking done, he began to think about which skills he needed to be upgraded, or which would be the most helpful. He was slightly skeptical of the Rebirth of the Revenant skill for the time, being and decided to hold off on it for now.

  One of his largest problems right now was close combat fighting. His Blade Dancer passive and his Create Blade skill would clearly help him in that regard. The benefits to Blade Dancer were obvious, but if he upgraded the Create Blade skill, he would be able to create sharper weapons that could cut through higher resiliency with less strength.

  Blink was always useful, but one foot of extra range wouldn’t help him that much, so he decided to hold off on it.

  After carefully analyzing his choices he began to allocate his world essence, leveling both Classifications twice.

  Blader has reached level 4

  Attributes have been added:

  +2 Dexterity

  +2 Agility

  Skill description for Blade Dancer has been updated

  Blademancer has reached level 4

  Attributes have been added:

  +2 Dexterity

  +2 Wisdom

  Skill description for Create Blade has been updated

  Thankfully, he had gotten a skill upgrade when his Classifications reached level 4. He opened his Skills menu to check and see if they upgraded similarly to the last time.

  Blade Dancer (Passive):

  Increase Dexterity by 12%

  Increase Agility by 12%

  Increase ability with bladed weapons (+2)

  Create Blade: Create a permanent bladed weapon of choice with an average quality.

  Cost: up to 60 Mana

  After he finished looking it over, he switched over to his Attributes tab.

  Name: Dante

  HP: 120/120

  Mana: 170/170 (+1.9/sec)

  Strength: 10

  Constitution: 12

  Dexterity: 19 (+2.28)

  Agility: 13 (+1.56)

  Intelligence: 17

  Wisdom: 19

  Charisma: 4

  Dante closed his Status.

  He created two daggers with Create Blade and tested the new improvements that leveling his Classifications had given him. As he swung the blades through the air with quick chops, he was surprised by his overall change. Not only was he far faster than he had been before, but his reflexes and accuracy were much sharper as well. He still wasn’t sure what the increased ability passive did, but something about the cold steel in his hands just felt right…

  Dante stopped swinging the blades. The mage light would be gone soon, and he still had yet to kill the dungeon boss. Leaving the dried-out corpses behind, Dante entered the last cavern.

  * * *

  Sam Everard

  On their way back to the Outer region, he had remained silent in contemplation during most of the journey. Edwards actions didn’t make sense, it would have saved time to simply take the boy with them, regardless of if he actually wanted to.

  Eventually couldn’t hold back his curiosity. “Why did you want that boy to enter the competition for House Ailloss so badly? Diana is just as good of a fighter as Jackson was, if not better.”

  Edward Flinched at hearing his son’s name being casually mentioned.

  “You saw the boy’s wrist, not only will we most likely win the tournament with him representing our house, but we will also create ties between him and House Ailloss. Besides, even if it was a bit forced, I doubt he can stay away from the potential rewards that we could give him.”

  “Then why didn’t we just bring him back with us? He would have come willingly with enough prodding.”

  Edward’s face turned slightly red. “I’m afraid that Diana might be a bit too… much, to attract Dante’s attention.” He cleared his throat. “But in three years’ time, I’m sure Helena can turn her into a proper lady.”

  “So, it’s like that?” Sam snorted. “As if that boy is looking for a proper lady, everything he owned was in tatters.”

  “It doesn’t matter what he is looking for, Diana will be it. I have allowed her to maintain her lifestyle because we have never been in need of a political marriage, but that boy, Dante, changes things. If we can attach ourselves to him, House Ailloss will rise to prominence once again.”

  Sam did his best to hold in his sigh, but he couldn’t manage. If Edward was really going to force Diana into a marriage, House Ailloss’ peaceful days were over.

  Chapter 9

  Dante’s Immortality - Chapter 9

  Dante stepped into the last cavern. Edward had told him that the dungeon boss would be a goblin, and that any skill he got from it would basically be useless. But he reasoned that even if it was useless, it would only mean more world essence.

  The cavern itself seemed different than the others. Not only was it about three times larger, but there were also large rocks scattered across the floor that cast deep shadows in the mage light. There was no monster in sight so he assumed that it would be hiding in one of the shadows and walked in with his guard up.

  * * *

  After searching through the cavern for several minutes, he had all but given up on finding the dungeon boss.

  He had walked close to every shadow and had yet to see even the slightest hint of a monster, which left him dumbfounded. In the other caverns, as soon as a monster could see or hear you, it would immediately go all out and attack. He had entered the cavern and walked near the shadows counting on the dungeon boss being similar, but that didn’t seem to be the case.

  Just as Dante dropped his guard, he could feel a tingling sensation coming from his right side. Before his brain could comprehend the feeling, his right hand shot out with dagger extended, connecting with something.

  A loud clang rang out in the cavern, and Dante turned to see a goblin, far taller than the others. It had a spear in its hand, which seemed to be in the process of rebounding after colliding with his dagger.

  The goblin used the rebounding force to swing the spear around, causing it to come back at him far faster than he had thought possible.

  In the brief moment before the spear connected with his side, Dante looked around, gauging the terrain around him. Seeing a relatively tall rock next to him, Dante sighed in relief and Blinked twice. The first Blink took him halfway up the face of the rock. The second time he Blinked, while still in midair, he appeared on top of the rock. He was happy to have a moment to collect his thoughts, and plan his method of attack.

  He didn’t have time though, the goblin jumped to the rock he was standing on. The top of the rock was nearly fifteen feet in the air, the goblin took him completely by surprise, whirling its spear at him as it landed beside him.

  Dante saw the spear flash toward him and quickly deflected it with the blade in his left hand while simultaneously attacking the goblin with his right. But the goblin effortlessly ducked out of the path of his swing.

  I thought these things were supposed to be slow and weak. This goblin is stronger and faster than the dire wolf I fought.

  In contrast to the other goblins, who were barely up to his waist, this goblin was almost a head taller than him. So, not only was it quick, but its reach with the spear far exceeded what he could match with t
he daggers. If he hadn’t used the essence crystals before the fight, he would be dead without a doubt.

  He took a moment to check his mana reserves, 117/170.

  He briefly thought about using his Create Blade skill to create a longsword or a spear for the increased reach they could provide, but after looking his mana over, he decided against it. Losing 60 mana to create a new weapon would cost him the use of Blink two times, which was his best skill for both survival and offense for the time being.

  He needed to Blink behind the goblin and end the fight quickly, before his mana ran out.

  While he had been planning out his method of attack, the goblin, who had dodged his attack, came back with a two-handed straight thrust aimed at his torso.

  He saw the goblins overextension, and used Blink to teleport behind it. Using the brief moment of surprise his skill gave him to pierce it with his daggers, one dagger aimed between the goblins ribs to pierce the heart, and the other aiming for its unprotected lower right side.

  The daggers barely penetrated an inch into the monster’s skin.

  Shit. Why didn’t I level my strength?

  The goblin shrieked, then spun around and brought its spear down in an overhead swipe. Dante barely had time to react, reaching up and crossing his daggers to just barely catch the weapon in time.

  Upon connecting with his daggers, the spear slowed, but then overpowered him. After only a brief pause, it was once again swinging down towards his neck. He used Blink again, this time moving as far back away from the monster as he could and off the rock, trying to open up some distance between them.

  The monster paused, visibly confused at how he had moved away from it so quickly, but then hissed viciously and charged him.

  It gave him a moment to look the goblin over again. Clearly, he needed to reevaluate his method of attack. Blinking behind it and taking it by surprise wouldn’t work, and he was running out of mana.

  The goblin didn’t seem to have any visible weaknesses. Its eyes would probably be the most vulnerable location to attack. He could also possibly stab it through the mouth… if it ever tried to bite him, but it didn’t seem like that was likely as long as it had its spear.

  He needed to get close. Dante met the goblins charge as it thrust its spear at him. This time, instead of blinking away and losing mana, he deflected the blade while shifting his weight to the left in order to avoid it. Resulting in him being nicked in the side by the spearhead, but in return, he was well within range of the goblin now.

  The goblin panicked, quickly leaping backward, but not before he was able to pierce it through the left eye with his free dagger. The goblin screamed in pain clasping a hand over its ruined eye.

  It had made a fatal mistake, and he wasn’t going to give it time to recover.

  Blinking to its right side, Dante stabbed down, piercing through the single hand that was now holding the spear. As the spear clattered to the ground, he followed up with his other dagger by piercing the monster’s right eye, completely blinding it. He then kicked the spear away and Blinked out of its reach.

  Even though the attack drained his mana, the rest of the fight went smoothly.

  Without a weapon or the ability to see, the goblin was no longer a threat. He just had to sit back until it either stopped flailing around or his mana recharged, then Blink in and inflict damage before Blinking out before it could react.

  It took a few minutes before the goblin died, screaming while bleeding out on the floor from dozens of tiny cuts. He wasn’t sure how he felt about killing it like that, it felt like he had cheated the goblin from a fair fight. But after seeing the monster crystal that appeared from its corpse, he quickly got over his hard feelings.

  He walked over to examine the crystal. It looked almost exactly like the essence crystals that had dropped from the other goblins. The same jagged shard like exterior, and acorn-like size, but instead of glowing with a dim white color, it glowed with a bright sickly green that matched the color of the goblin’s skin.

  He wasn’t sure how to infuse the monster crystal, but as he reached down to pick it up the symbol of the Goddess on his wrist glowed blue momentarily. Curious, Dante opened his Status.

  In his Status, he had a new tab next to his Skills tab, a Monster Crystal tab. He manipulated world essence into it to open it.

  Skill Infused: None

  Passive Skill Infused: None

  Passive Skill Infused: None

  Attribute Crystal Infused: None

  Attribute Crystal Infused: None

  Monster Crystals that can be Infused:

  Passive Skill: Dark Vision

  Can see perfectly in the dark up to 5 feet.

  Costs 2.5 Mana per second

  Seeing the monster crystal’s passive skill, Dante couldn’t help but frown. Dark Vision was terrible.

  Not only would he barely be able to see past what his arms could reach, but it would also cost him 2.5 mana per second. That was more mana per second than he got from his Wisdom attribute, he also wasn’t sure if he could turn the passive on or off like he could with his Rebirth of the Revenant passive.

  If it was like his Blade Dancer passive instead, he wouldn’t be able to toggle it. Which was worrying, having negative Mana per second would only result in death.

  He decided that he wouldn’t infuse any crystals into himself until he found out more information. That line of thinking done, he crushed the monster crystal.

  Dante checked his Classification tab in the Status to see how much essence he had gotten, and was surprised by what he found.

  World Essence waiting to be assigned: 618

  Chronomancer lvl 3/10 (0/300 world essence)

  Blademancer lvl 4/10 (0/400 world essence)

  Blader lvl 4/10 (0/400 world essence)

  Revenant lvl 2/10 (0/200 world essence)

  Recent World Essence gain:

  532 World Essence from: Monster Crystal

  The monster crystal had given him a staggering amount of world essence. This time he didn’t need to think about what Classification he was going to level.

  Revenant has reached level 4

  Attributes have been added:

  +2 Strength

  +2 Constitution

  Skill description for Rebirth of the Revenant (Passive) has been updated

  It was an easy choice. His lack of Strength had been a problem in every fight he had been through, but it was even worse against the goblin. The increased survivability from Constitution was also nice. After his Revenant Classification reached level 4, he also got a skill upgrade, but he wasn’t interested in it for the time being.

  Until he had a better understanding of the Rebirth of the Revenant passive skill, he wasn’t going to use it unless heavily injured. After he finished leveling his Classification, Dante closed his Status.

  Fighting the dungeon boss was far harder than he had thought it would be, but it was a valuable learning experience.

  The first thing he had discovered, was that basically everything Edward and Sam had told him was true. He still didn’t trust the two men. But knowing that they didn’t lie to him, about dungeons at the very least, definitely made him consider the offer Edward had given him.

  He also had more knowledge on dungeon bosses now. He had underestimated how strong a goblin dungeon boss would be in the Outer Edge region, and it would have cost him his life had he not leveled his Classifications before attempting it.

  Not only that, but the monster crystals gave a massive amount of world essence. If the goblin dungeon boss was considered one of the easiest and weakest dungeon bosses, then the 532 world essence he had gotten from it was probably the lowest amount possible for a full monster crystal.

  Another new thing that had happened during the fight was the strange sensation he had when the goblin had tried to sneak attack him. Not only had he sensed something, but his dagger immediately reacted, almost its own accord to parry the incoming spear.

  There was no way for him to be sur
e, but he assumed it was his Blade Dancer passives’ increased ability +2. The way weapons felt in his hands since he got the change to his passive was as if they were almost alive. Regardless, it was something that he needed to look into thoroughly.

  Edward had mentioned that he had heard of his Blader Classification, it was possible someone would have information on his Blade Dancer passive. The though made Dante frowned. It was yet another thing he needed to find out about. It seemed like the more he learned, the less he actually knew.

  Dante rubbed his forehead in thought, thinking about what he should do next. His only plans were to possibly go to House Ailloss sometime in the next three years. At the very least, he needed to become powerful enough in that time to not get forcibly tied down by them. It didn’t matter if what they had said about the dungeons was true, there was no way a powerful house in the Outer region didn’t have anyone to fight in the tournament for them. Either Edward thought that Dante would have the best chance of winning, or he had some alternative motive.

  He dismissed Edward Ailloss from his mind. Whether or not he was going to compete in the tournament didn’t matter. For now, he just needed to get stronger regardless.

  The best way of doing that was exploring dungeons, but that was a problem. He had barely managed to kill a goblin dungeon boss by himself.

  He made up his mind. He would travel to Kenguard, the largest city in the Outer Edge region, and join a dungeon exploration party.

  Chapter 10

  Dante’s Immortality – Chapter 10

  Herman Claremont

  “I’m sick of sitting in this damn carriage all day, my ass hurts, and the food is terrible. Take me back NOW!”

  Herman stared at Greggory, who was sitting on the bench across from of him, in complete disgust. He had gone from the most respected guard in Alazel, to this useless shit’s watchdog.

  “Herman. As your better, I demand you turn this carriage around. I refuse to go to that damn academy.”