The Pinnacle Warrior

After ten days delving through the Trials, Astrid had almost begun to forget what delving was like outside of them. On the twenty-ninth floor, as the party killed their… three hundredth? of the flying vampires, Astrid remembered those months spent killing the same monsters again and again. She’d managed to get through that then and for years, but now, she wasn’t sure if she’d be able to go back to those repetitive days of doing the same thing again and again and again for days, weeks, and months.

“Will this Skill work the same for you in a place that isn’t permanently night?” Astrid asked the question as Muti flickered to the ground beside a falling corpse. As the vampire thumped against the ground, Muti deliberately dismissed her helmet so she could show her broad, sharp-toothed smile.

“It is called ‘Shadow Leap’ for a reason. There need only be darkness or a shadow that I can touch for it to function. I suppose that in a place with an omnipresent light that casts no shadow, I would find myself unable to effectively use my Skill, but I do not know of any location that would be within our reach that could so magically and evenly cast light. Perhaps, if we come across such a floor in the Trials, I will find myself lamenting my choice in Skill. For now, though, here, I am glad to have made the choices that allow me to do what I now can.”

Muti’s new Skill, as she said, was called Shadow Leap. The Ambusher, for the first time, lamented her attribute growths, though only a little. It was one of two new Skills that had been offered to her at Bronze while Dread Master hadn’t been offered at Iron, and she had chosen it over a different Skill focused entirely on attacking. Instead, she could step from one shadow to the next, which could be used to avoid locations with heightened surveillance while she scouted, or to avoid an enemy entirely. Or, as right now, to disappear behind a tree and reappear on top of her enemy. The reason why Muti wished for more Magical Potency was because the Skill also granted an additional shadowy edge to her blade after being used. That blade would grow sharper the higher her Magical Potency was, and as it was, her Magical Potency was only 56, and that was with the bonuses from her equipment.

The other members of the party didn’t comment on Astrid’s clarifying question, two of them acclimating to or preparing for their own new Skills while the third, Skandr, was a mere couple hundred experience away from the next level, just like Astrid.

Surrounded by the corpses of lesser vampires, Benedict continued to constantly play a soft tune on his flute. He’d been offered an untiered version of a Skill called Restful Reverberations, which would allow his every word and song to accelerate the recovery rate of every resource of every ally nearby, including himself. The Skill was what he wanted, especially since he had hopes it would combine and synergize with his two existing vocal Skills when he reached Steel. While it was only offered at the untied level, though, he wasn’t going to take it while he could instead upgrade Silvertongue to Iron and hope for a higher tiered offering at level 36. For now, he spent just about every second whistling, humming, playing his flute, or even singing in the hopes of strengthening the eventual Skill offering he would receive.

Felix, on the other hand, had taken a new Skill, like Muti. He’d hesitated over two different options presented, both at Bronze. One, Steadfast Bulwark, was a quintessential higher-tier frontliner skill, and it would pair reasonably well with Immovable Stance. Effectively, it could be activated to keep himself rooted while also constantly drawing the attention of their enemies and reinforcing his body. The other had become his selection after Astrid asked him which of the two better suited his current frontlining style.

Different from a Shieldmaster, a Soldier, or a Heavy Knight both Bodyguard and Hewing Guardian were Classes that gave a surprising amount of growth to Alacrity. His primary frontlining Skill, now that he’d evolved, was Guardian’s Wrath, which had evolved from a typical attention drawing skill, Draw Anger, paired with Guardian’s Rush, an uncommon Skill focused more on repositioning than on drawing attention. The combination also served to make himself sturdier. As such, Felix‘s fifth Skill was Jaguar’s Pride. 

The Skill passively granted him a 5% increase to Alacrity, but that wasn’t the true draw of it. If he activated the Skill, which had only a minor cost of mana and stamina, then he gained an additional 10% boost to his Power and Alacrity, and, more importantly, an aura that would incite all enemies nearby to consider him to be a greater threat. Combined with Guardian’s Wrath, he was already finding an immense boost to his ability to capture the attention of the swarming vampires. Astrid had wondered if Immovable Stance and Jaguar’s Pride would end up somewhat fighting against each other for what Felix would be best served doing. Instead, Astrid watched as Felix’s heightened Alacrity instead allowed him to more quickly steady his stance while also moving more quickly to wherever he needed to.

Astrid and Skandr both were taking whatever opportunities they could find to practice to hopefully get the best Skills offered to them as possible after this next fight. They had only been on the floor for maybe four hours, and they’d already gained basically more than an entire level. The only real difficulty that they were encountering so far was the exhaustion of their two magical party members. Felix and Muti also were relying less and less on their active Skills, instead relying on the strength of their bodies and passive Skills. For the first time, Astrid took full appreciation for the passive aspect of Immortal Warrior’s Body. Due to her boon, Astrid gained six more attribute points every level than the rest. Yes, Muti gained more Alacrity every level and Benedict and Skandr both gained significantly more of the mental attributes than she did every level, however, Astrid gained a surprising amount of the mental attributes every level, considering her Class.

Because of her almost holistic approach to gaining attributes (regardless of that not being a choice she’d made), Astrid’s mana recovery already eclipsed that of Felix and Muti while her baseline physical recovery would be superior as well, even without Body. Then, compared to Skandr and Benedict, her mana recovery was almost equal.

As a result, Astrid was the only one of the five who could keep herself near peak efficiency and potency for hours at a time. It required some small measure of pacing herself, not using Spectre Burst more than once or twice a fight, while also frequently using a single charge of Body to keep herself topped up. She didn’t mind keeping cognizant of her own body, something she had long since grown accustomed to doing. In fact, this allowed her to step up and keep the party gaining experience at a truly ridiculous rate.

When Muti warned the rest of the party that more vampires were approaching, Astrid grinned and rose to her feet. Felix didn’t hesitate to rise up to put his own effort to the test, but Benedict grumbled. He didn’t say any real words, but Astrid figured she knew generally the complaints he was making. After all, he was constantly making some unhappy noise about whatever inane thing. Skandr, however, basically jumped to his feet and spread his arms in excitement. Ask for squinted, confused for just a brief moment before she realized where his eagerness came from.

“You’re going to let out a big spell? Exhaust your mana since it’ll be recovered when you get this level?”

“You got it in one, brave leader!” Skandr’s broad smile made Astrid laugh as he clapped his hands together and, with visible effort, pulled them apart with lightning straining between his hands. As the lightning danced up his arms and lit his dark robe, the words comprising his spells fell from his tongue in a quick rush. Astrid saw him sag as he evidently strained his reserves to incorporate that overwhelming electricity into his constantly summoned cloud, making the billowing result not of moisture, but entirely of electricity. Felix jumped maybe two meters into the air and forced the attacking vampires to focus in on him, but before the flock could get too close, Skandr’s massive spell washed over them.

Astrid listened as the vampires screeched in pain and even still were forced to come closer to the ground. Evidently, this was a sort of less mana-cost effective version of Skandr’s classic lightning curtain spell. Instead of being focused on deadly damage like other spells of his, this lightning cloud, or whatever it was, focused on debilitating a much larger area. With Astrid’s constantly growing sensitivity to mana, she could feel that the spell was intended to do more than simply cover a large area, but she couldn’t quite tell what the secondary effect was intended to be. She didn’t need to care too much about it, though, and ran forward to kill the two dozen struggling vampires.

Since they had been subjected to a burst of mana that wasn’t overwhelming, the vampires quickly began recovering, but Astrid was there. Her hammer, even without Spectre Burst, lashed out and crushed skulls, spines, and sinew with reckless abandon. After only a few kills, Astrid felt her body be revitalized to near its peak and grinned. Felix and Muti darted from one monster to the next, dealing death in quick blows, and Astrid pulled a stone from her spatial pouch before hurling it at one of the few monsters that remained in the air.

The stone lodged itself in the vampire’s chest, and the beast fell from the air. Astrid launched two more missiles at the other flying monsters, felling the second and killing the third outright as the stone blasted its head apart.

The dozen remaining vampires recovered from Skandr’s salvo and fought to gain the skies, but the party, long since operating as a well greased mechanism, smashed through everything before too long. Only Benedict looked even winded as a result of the fight, Astrid and Skandr near their peak while Muti and Felix both took long, even breaths.

Astrid wanted to look at her offered Skills, but first, looked at the rest of her party.

“What’s everybody else’s Status looking like?”

Through the connection they shared as a party, Muti was the first to share a quick vision of her Status, though the three men quickly followed suit.

Status

Name: Muti

Class: Dread Ambusher (Iron)

Total Level: 28

Attributes

Current

Per level growth

Power

205 (+32)

+12

Alacrity

176 (+43)

+11

Fortitude

116 (+36)

+6

Magical Potency

33 (+23)

+1

Self-Mastery

57 (+17)

+4

Acumen

96 (+22)

+6

Skill List

Ambusher’s Aura (Iron)

Dread Ambusher’s Equipment (Iron)

Vital Strike (Iron)

Dread Master (Bronze)

Shadow Leap (Bronze)

Locked

Status

Name: Skandr

Class: Storm Wizard (Iron)

Total Level: 28

Attributes

Current

Per level growth

Power

41 (+10)

+2

Alacrity

51 (+22)

+3

Fortitude

80 (+37)

+4

Magical Potency

229 (+65)

+14

Self-Mastery

138 (+18)

+9

Acumen

131 (+12)

+8

Skill List

Storm Magic (Iron)

Storm Administration (Iron)

Lightning Enchantment (Untiered)

None

None

Locked

Status

Name: Felix

Class: Hewing Guardian (Iron)

Total Level: 28

Attributes

Current

Per level growth

Power

160 (+47) [+16]

+9

Alacrity

152 (+41) [+8]

+8

Fortitude

204 (+70) [+20]

+12

Magical Potency

50 (+25)

+3

Self-Mastery

74 (+25)

+6

Acumen

41 (+12)

+2

Skill List

Guardian’s Equipment (Iron)

Guardian’s Wrath (Iron)

Whirling Blades (Iron)

Immovable Stance (Bronze)

Jaguar’s Pride (Bronze)

Locked

Status

Name: Benedict

Class: Caustic Bard (Iron)

Total Level: 28

Attributes

Current

Per level growth

Power

70 (+12)

+3

Alacrity

87 (+25)

+5

Fortitude

86 (+35)

+5

Magical Potency

176 (+52)

+11

Self-Mastery

138 (+18)

+9

Acumen

123 (+24)

+7

Skill List

Song of Vindication (Iron)

Hasty Rebuke (Iron)

Doubletalk (Iron)

Silvertongue (Iron)

None

Locked

Astrid nodded approvingly, happy to see her party progressing. Skandr obviously hadn’t had the opportunity to check his Skill options yet, while the rest were looking to be in great positions for the rest of Iron. In fact…

“Muti, Felix, you two are guaranteed to have all Iron tiered Skills once we hit our final watersheds.”

“Unfortunately,“ Muti bared her teeth at Astrid, “we will not be able to compare to you, so long as the Skill you take is at least Bronze tier. That said, however, one’s belly is only filled with envy when they look at another’s gazelle and compare it to their own rabbit.”

“That’s something like our saying, that comparison is the thief of joy, huh?” Astrid nodded with understanding as she nodded at Felix in congratulations. The Guardian only nodded in response, pulling his whetstone out of his spatial pouch. Each member of the party that used weapons had been provided an enchanted whetstone with the rest of their equipment, something made durable enough to be used on their newest pieces of equipment. Even Astrid was given one, though she had no need to maintain an edge on her weapon.

The next point of interest for Astrid was evaluating each party member’s attribute growth. She knew that they were all in a remarkably good position, gaining exceptional (in her case, literally) amounts of attributes at every level.

Benedict would cross the line to base 100s just a single level earlier than Astrid herself did, but his Power growth would slowly be outstripped by her Magical Potency and Acumen’s growth. Astrid would take the lead among the party with regards to her lowest attributes numbers around the time they all crossed into the fourth and final watershed of Iron.

After doing that, she couldn’t pull away from thinking about the party’s growth, and asked Skandr, who seemed so nervous he might puke, “How’s the Skill offerings? Did you get anything good?”

Skandr only seemed to gain the courage to check right that moment, and Astrid watched as he squinted at a Skill, seemed to look at it more deeply, then, after his jaw dropped in amazement, grinned wider than any time she’d seen before. Then, she watched as his Skill List filled with a new option: Summoned Stormcloud (Iron).

“An Iron tier right away? And we’ve never heard of it? Congratulations,” Benedict lunged forward and clapped Skandr on the shoulder. As Skandr nodded his thanks, Benedict followed up, “So, what’s the new Skill do?”

The Storm Wizard opened his mouth to explain, but instead shook his head. “I’ll show you. But don’t hold back on my account, I know you haven’t looked at your options yet.”

Astrid chuckled and waited no longer to dive into the options presented to her. 

Armor Mastery (Iron): Increases the effect and attributes granted by all armor worn by 40%. While wearing armor, the Skill’s holder will be passively assisted by ambient mana to reduce the strain of wearing heavy armor, which can be used in any active use of mana as tied to the Fortitude attribute.

Necromantic Blow (Bronze): For a Moderate cost of stamina and a Heavy cost of mana, infuse the next strike with deathly mana that, if it manages to kill the target, raises the corpse as an undead which follows the user’s commands. If an undead is struck with the blow, the user and the undead will enter an instant trial where the user’s Magical Potency and Acumen is leveraged against the undead’s Magical Potency, Self-Mastery, and Acumen. If the user’s total is superior, the undead is strengthened and subjugated. If the undead’s total is superior, the undead is strengthened and remains hostile.

Warrior’s Awakening (Bronze): Once every two hours, at a Severe mana and Heavy stamina cost, increase all physical attributes by 20% and all mental attributes by 10% for 20 minutes.

Immovable Stance (Bronze): Increases the Skill holder’s Power and Fortitude by 10% while both feet are on solid ground. For a minor mana or stamina cost per minute, makes the Skill holder’s mass quadruple for the purpose of being moved against their will.

Gravity Surge (Bronze): For a Heavy cost of mana and stamina, create one of two types of Gravity Surge. 1. In a five meter radius of the user, causes everything except for the user and what they are wielding to triple in weight. 2. At a location that the user decides within ten meters, causes everything except for the user and what they are wielding to be drawn to a location that the user decides within five meters of the selected location with twice that of gravity. Duration of Gravity Surge is dependent upon the user’s Magical Potency.

Astrid looked at her options, and though she’d long planned to take Warrior’s Awakening, she couldn’t absolutely say that it was the best option available to her. Though she knew what she was doing as an imitation of Warrior’s Awakening was a more constant mana and stamina drain for a lower return, Warrior’s Awakening was something that she could largely do already. Before, she’d looked down on Immovable Stance and Armor Mastery, but now that she’d experimented further, she realized that those Skills both provided something that she couldn’t do herself with mana. 

More than that, though… there were two new Skills that she needed to pay attention to.

Sorry for delay on this--I took an extra day to finish off the end of book 3 for Patreon, which is going up today!