Character: Two’ Manchu
Alignment: Neutral
Level: 12
Health: 93
Mana: 40
Synchronization: 54%
Strength: 18
Dexterity: 15
Constitution: 12
Wisdom: 4
Intelligence: 6
Glancing at his stats, I was inclined to agree. It was hard to believe we’d leveled so much from just one monster, even if it was a boss. Still, now wasn’t the time to complain because we still had to deal with all the living armors in the stairwell and part of me worried our new levels might not be enough.
“Prepare for more,” Dark Heart said, the leveling light fading from her as she approached the stairwell in time to witness my last monster crumble to pieces. “We’ve got a lot more coming.” She shot me a serious look. “Now be a dear and identify that shield. I’ll likely want it before they get up here.”
15
“What do I look like? Some kind of identify monkey?” I asked as I cast the Identify spell on the massive shield the boss had dropped.
“Um… yeah?” Dark Heart replied as the window popped up in front of me, displaying the stats like always.
Living Shield
Block: 50%
Range: 1
Material: Steel
Durability: 100
Bonus: 12% chance to block unseen attacks on its own.
Bonus: Increases Health by 20%.
Restriction: Reduces speed by 10%.
“Hey, Dark Heart,” I said, hefting the humongous shield in my hand. “This thing is pretty heavy, you sure you can hold it with your nine strength?” I shook the shield, marveling at just how heavy it felt, given that it wasn’t even real. “That’s not me being an ass. Even with my twenty strength this thing added 20% to my weight gauge.”
“Just give me the shield, Kahn!” she snapped as she shield slammed a living armor back down the stairs, knocking it into the ones behind it and causing them to fall down like a train of dominos.
“Sure, but don’t say I never gave you anything,” I said, offering it to her as Two’ Manchu stepped in to take her place blocking the entrance, his giant axe at the ready. The shield, along with a massive sword, had been one of the drops from the humongous living armor we’d faced, and while part of me was annoyed Dark Heart seemed to be on the receiving end of all the drops, she was the tank, which meant she was the one who would be getting hit most often. Thus, if taking the drops kept her from dying, I was okay with that, especially because if she died, we’d all die one way or another.
“Thanks,” she said, grabbing the shield. As it disappeared into her inventory, a look of strain filled her eyes. “Wow, this is heavy. It added thirty percent to my weight gauge.” Then she tossed her old tower shield onto the ground and rolled her shoulder. “That’s better.”
A moment later, she brandished the shield, causing its silvery edge to catch the light and throw it back in my face, blinding me.
“Watch where you point that thing,” I growled as Two’ Manchu smashed his axe into a living armor, rendering it into shards. “It’s bright.”
“Relax, it’s a shield, not a dick. Don’t take it so hard,” George piped up as he hoped over to me. “I mean, seriously, boss.”
“Whatever,” I snorted as Dark Heart tried to keep from laughing at me. Instead of continuing to get made fun of, I looked down at the sword I’d picked up from the giant living armor and used my identify spell.
Living Sword
Damage (Small Monsters): 8
Damage (Large Monsters): 8
Range: 1
Material: Steel
Durability: 100
Bonus: 12% chance to deal double damage.
Set Bonus: When used with Living Shield becomes unbreakable.
“Well, I guess because of the set bonus, this becomes yours, Dark Heart,” I said, offering it to her, but I wasn’t sure if she’d heard me because her eyes were glazed in that way that meant she was looking at the window in her HUD.
“Wow, that’s really good,” she said, taking it from me, and as she did, both the shield and sword began to glow with soft blue light.
“I feel like the only thing that drops are fighter items. Is a grimoire or a wand too much to ask for?” Crash grumbled as he directed his spectral blades into the tunnel so they could assist Two’ Manchu. I wasn’t quite sure how many living armors were down there, but at this rate, this would take all damned day.
“I know, right?” I said, shaking my head. “All I want is a second dagger I can actually use.” I patted my black mithril dagger. “This is nice, but I really need two to make good use of it.”
“I know, it’s super sad you only have one really good weapon,” Crash replied, rolling his eyes so hard I was worried they’d pop out of his skull. “What ever will you do?”
“Yeah, yeah,” I said, ignoring his whining because while he was right my mithril dagger was good, it didn’t help me much to have just one dagger because almost all dagger skills required a dagger in each hand. It was part of the reason I always hated my rogue in TG, especially when there was more than one in the group. Most classes could get by with just one two-handed weapon, and therefore only needed one drop out of a boss’s loot table, whereas I’d always need two drops to be viable since I required a weapon in each hand. “Elizabeth, please retire Disarm Trap and Sidestep.”
No sooner had I said the words when the skills vanished from my active window and appeared in my passive skills window, granting me two more skill slots to use for active skills.
“Planning on learning something else?” Crash asked me as Dark Heart replaced Two’ Manchu in the doorway so he could recover.
“Yeah, I need to spec out my necro.” I smiled evilly at him. “Because I have a nifty little combo I’d like to use.”
“You don’t mean…” Crash said, eyes widening as a smile crossed his lips. “Why didn’t I think about that?”
“Cause you keep trying to play a priest, and priests are lame. Necromancers, on the other hand, are cooler than a polar bear’s toenails.” I grinned at him as I sheathed my goblin short sword and equipped the tower shield I’d gotten from Dark Heart. Then I moved toward the stairwell. “Dark Heart, can you please step aside for a second?”
“All right,” she said, slamming her new shield into the monster and knocking them back in an effort to gather me some room. Then she stepped out of the way and let me have a crack at the monsters. “I’ll admit, I’m curious as to what you plan to do.”
“You’ve played TG, right?” I asked, stepping into the doorway as the living armor she’d brained with her shield recovered and came toward me.
“Yeah, so?” Dark Heart replied, staring at me like I’d groan a second head.
“Ever wonder why necromancers level so fast?” I said as the living armor slashed at me.
“Not really. Necromancers suck.” She shook her head as I blocked with the monster’s attack with my shield and jabbed it between the eyes with my mithril dagger. “That’s why we recruited a rogue.”
“You’re about to eat those words,” I replied as cotton candy pink sparks leapt from the wound, causing the living armor to shriek in pain. I ignored its cries and stabbed it again, causing it to collapse lifeless to the ground. It was dead, I knew that because my experience bar increased, but like before, the body didn’t evaporate. No, it lay there waiting for me to defile it with unholy magic.
“Raise Golem,” I said, holding my hand out, and as I did, black smoke poured from my fingertips and coalesced around the once living armor while the one behind it ambled toward me, only before it could get past its fallen friend, a golem made of steel rose in its place. It stood there, all jagged lines and hard edges and glared at me with the same glowing sapphire eyes the living armor had.
System Message: You have raised a metal golem. Health: 1000 Mana: 0.
“You have learned the skill Raise Golem. It is now available for use. It
can be used to turn the corpse of a fallen monster into a golem. The amount of golems you can control is based upon your intelligence divided by twelve rounded down.” As Elizabeth spoke, my heart sank. I’d hoped to summon two golems, but that wasn’t going to happen unless I managed to level up and increase my intelligence by two. Only if I did that, I’d sort of be committing to the whole necromancer thing forever, and I had absolutely no idea how they’d fare at high level play in Ruul.
Then again, I didn’t have to think about that now. No, that decision would keep until we were out of here because right now, I had more pressing concerns than how I’d distribute my stat points at level fifty-plus.
“Attack,” I said, directing the golem to fight off the living armor trying desperately to get around it. As I said the words, the golem whirled, raised its ham-sized metal fist and slugged the armor in the face, rocking it backward off its feet.
As the living armor snarled and attacked the golem, I raised my hand and said the magic words to initiate the ultimate necromancer combo. “Reflecting Fog.”
Instantly a red cloud of magic spread from my fingers and settled over the inside of the stairwell like a dense fog.
“You have learned the skill Reflecting Fog. It is now available for use,” Elizabeth said for what felt like the millionth time.
“What’s that do?” Dark Heart asked as the living armor reared back to attack my golem. Only this time, as it landed the blow, it collapsed to the ground dead.
“It works!” Crash said, practically jumping up and down with excitement.
“I don’t get it, what just happened?” Two’ Manchu said, confusion spread across his face.
“Yeah, why did it die?” Dark Heart asked as the golem stepped over the corpse of the living armor and moved down to engage the next one in a battle to the death. “I’ve seen Reflecting Fog in action, but it’s not nearly strong enough to one hit monsters like that.”
“Reflecting Fog returns all damage done to a caster or its pets back to the original target.” Crash’s eyes danced with amusement as I raised my hand, pointed at the dead living armor, and raised it to fight on my side. “But since golems take twice as much damage from attacks as a normal player or monster, using a golem to tank while in the fog, pretty much causes everything to get obliterated.”
“That seems pretty overpowered,” Dark Heart replied as the living armor rose to do my bidding. Only there wasn’t much bidding it could do on the stairwell while trapped behind the golem. Sigh. “Why haven’t I heard of it?”
“It is… sort of. It’s great for PVE, but not so much for high end stuff or PVP because most players and bosses will ignore a golem.” Crash frowned. “To be honest, it’s kinda useless unless you’re farming and get the golem to take agro.”
I was inclined to agree with him. That was exactly why I’d dropped my necromancer for a rogue. Still, as another living armor killed itself, and my golem moved down the stairs, I couldn’t help but smile at how effective I was right now. If it wasn’t for my golem and Reflecting Fog combo, clearing out this stairwell would have been nigh-impossible.
However, it looked like the golem was taking at least half of my experience. I knew that in TG the golem didn’t take experience from me when it killed stuff, and I’d hoped that would be the same here. Unfortunately, that didn’t seem to be the case which was ten kinds of lame.
“Yeah, Crash is right. Not much use for high end stuff. I mean, Reflecting Fog really needs a golem to be useful. I tried to use it a couple times in some of the lower level raids, but here’s the problem, my necro couldn’t tank even with max defense and Bone Shield, and since either me or my pet needs to get hit, well, let’s just say that’s going to just fail every single time. It’s why I switched to a rogue for high end play,” I said as another living armor died. “But, whenever I needed to farm tons, I almost always use my necro. You should see me gather iron from the dwarven mines. It’s just insane.”
“Yeah, it seems fine,” Two’ Manchu said, glaring at me. “You know, assuming you don’t actually want to get experience. It looks like your stupid pet is stealing most of it.”
“Well, if you want to clear the stairwell yourself, be my guest,” I said, sweeping an arm toward the stairs. “Otherwise just be happy it’s getting done while you sit back and do absolutely nothing.
16
By the time we reached the bottom of the stairs, not only was I nearly level fourteen, but I had three living armors and a metal golem at my disposal. My four monsters spread out, pushing the remaining living armors away from the base of the stairs as I cast Reflecting Fog once more.
In seconds, the last of them fell under the strength of their own attacks, though I did wind up losing two of the living armors, but they were replaced easily enough.
“Level up!” Elizabeth said, blue light surrounding me as I stepped off the stairs and surveyed the carnage. “You are now level fourteen. You have gained seventeen Health and eighteen mana. Your total Health is now two-hundred-ninety-six and your total mana is now two-hundred-sixty-one.”
As she spoke, I took a quick glance at my stat window, and a sly smile appeared across my face. I was now level fourteen!
Character: Kahn
Alignment: Neutral
Level: 14
Health: 296
Mana: 261
Synchronization: 86%
Strength: 20
Dexterity: 20
Constitution: 20
Wisdom: 20
Intelligence: 20
I took a deep breath, and as I did, something occurred to me. Detect Trap was a level ten skill. I’d hit level ten a while ago, but I still hadn’t learned it. I was still using Detect Lesser Trap.
“Elizabeth, what’s going on with Detect Lesser Trap? I thought it was supposed to become Detect Trap at level ten?” I asked, hoping the HUD would respond.
“Would you like to learn the branch skill Detect Trap? Doing so will turn the skill Detect Lesser Trap into Detect Trap. Be warned, once a branch skill is attained, it is impossible to revert,” Elizabeth replied, and as she did, I immediately wondered how many other skills had branch skills and what the branches were. This was exactly the type of thing theory crafters would agonize over for hours, and here I was without even a wiki to look at.
“Yes, please learn Detect Trap,” I said because I knew Detect Trap was nearly infallible. There couldn’t be much benefit to knowing the lesser version the game had given me because I’d been too low level to learn the correct skill.
“Your Detect Lesser Trap skill has turned into Detect Trap and is now considered a Trade Skill instead of a Combat Skill.”
“What’s going on?” Two’ Manchu asked, glancing at me as I stood there like an open-mouthed dumbass. “You get something for leveling up?”
“Yeah, well, sorta. Detect Lesser Trap leveled up to the full version,” I cried, doing a little dance as I turned to Two’ Manchu and raised my hand for a high five. “You know what that means, right?”
“You suck less at detecting traps?” Two’ Manchu offered, watching me like he was embarrassed to know me.
“Well, yes, but it means it doesn’t take a skill slot anymore!” I smiled excitedly because I had an extra skill slot available, and as I had that thought, a crushing realization nearly destroyed my soul. While I could have any skill I wanted, not only would I have to watch their level slowly decrease while they were retired, but I’d have to constantly skill swap depending on the situation.
“Something’s wrong,” Dark Heart said as the leveling glow faded from around me.
“With the skill?” I asked, glancing at her as worry shot through me. “Did something happen?”
“What’s wrong?” Two’ Manchu asked as he followed me off the stairs and began to look around for loot. I was tempted to do the same, but it was a pretty empty room besides the corpses, and none of the other living armors had dropped more than Rhuvians, so I didn’t exactly have high hopes.
“
No, not with your skill. That’s great.” She shook her head. “I’ve been stuck at level fifteen and ninety-nine point ninety nine percent for at least two monsters.” She put her fists on her hips. “I should have leveled since they were giving me around two and a half percent experience before that.”
“Oh, that’s easy,” Crash said, patting her on the shoulder. “In the notes we used to make TG, the level cap for the new player areas was fifteen. You could stay after you reached level fifteen, but you couldn’t level past it until you left.”
“Guess the girly is working for free,” George said, scampering by her as she stood there steaming mad. “Want me to help console you?”
“No!” she growled, eyes glazed because she was looking at a window. “I want this not to be such bullshit.”
“It’s probably to prevent players from out-leveling the content. I mean, aside from the titan living armor we fought, we’ve been pretty much owning everything.” Crash frowned as he glanced back toward the stairs. “Imagine if you were high level, you’d just steamroll all the content.”
“Look, I’m not here for a great playing experience,” Dark Heart said, punctuating each step with an angry stomp. “I’m here to find the soul stones. That means I have to get stronger.” She narrowed her eyes at Crash. “Do you not get that?”
“Believe me, I get it,” he snapped back. “My brain is in a fucking tank full of goo thanks to you. So shut the fuck up and deal with it. If you want to level up, we need to leave the newbie area. You want to do that, or do you want to finish this quest?” He put his hands on his hips. “This is why we changed so much from the dev notes to make the damned game playable. I swear, if we weren’t trapped in this goddamned game, no one would play it.”
I was sort of inclined to agree. This game was way harder, and a lot less fun than TG was, and it made me wonder how many design decisions the TG team had made just to turn this monstrosity into something that people would actually want to play. Still, I was sort of regretting those decisions now. If Titan Gate had been more like Ruul, maybe I wouldn’t feel so out of my element, and better still, Crash wouldn’t be so useless.
Soulstone: The Skeleton King: A LitRPG Novel (World of Ruul Book 2) Page 11
