"Graaa!" The Tyrant Saber Tiger cried out its final roar as Archer drove himself into the demonic beast's chest, penetrating its magic stone and draining it dry of mana. Without mana, the phantasmal creature's life was snuffed out and it fell down dead.
[So much for C rank threats.] Archer said, more than a little disappointed. It had been the most powerful monster he had encountered in his week of exploring the area around the ruins in which he had awaken, but it was just a mindless beast. While its attacks would have certainly snapped him in two if they had landed, it was too easy to predict and couldn't manage a blow on the spirit turned sword.
Self-Evolving:
(Rank 6 | Magic Stone Value 1895/2100 | Memory 53 | Points 42) → (Rank 7 | Magic Stone Value 2109/2800 | Memory 60 | Points 77)
ATK: 310 → 342 MP: 1375 → 1550 Durability: 1300 → 1450 Mana Channel: A
New Skills Unlocked:
Vibration Impact, Vibration Fang.
Skills Leveled:
Intimidate: Lv4 → Lv5, Wind Magic Lv2 → Lv3, Hunting Lv5 → Lv6.
[Hm…] Archer pondered as he sorted through the skills that started to trickle into his mind. Vibration Impact seemed to be a method for focusing one's magical energy around their attacks into a wave that could better penetrate the body and deal internal damage. Kind of like an overpowered microwave generator, one strong enough to rip through muscle with ease. The vibrations could also be focused into a blade in order to make it act more like a chainsaw, though with a high cost to durability. Interesting.
After finding out that he could absorb magical skills by killing these Demonic Beasts, Archer started to hunt them down. He felt justified in doing so, as most of them were active threats to humanity in some form or another. Others even attacked him on sight, and if you are so battle crazed as to attack a flouting sword on sight, then you kind of deserve what's coming to you.
Things had started out pretty slow for the former Servant, as he couldn't use his telekinesis for more than a minute for every hour of rest, but during his second day he got his first big break through. A sort of flouting jellyfish that possessed two key skills, the first being [Flout], which when combined with [Telekinesis] allowed Archer to get around on just one fifth of his old cost, while the second, [Mana Drain: Lv1], allowed him to recover Mana at a much higher rate and let him steal it from the enemies he killed. [Mana Drain] was the first skill that Archer actually spent points leveling up, just because of how useful it was.
While his Skills could level up by consuming more of that same skill, he could also level them up by spending the Evolution-Points he received each time he increased in Rank from gathering magic stone. It cost 2 points per level for normal skills, 3 per level for rarer skills, 5 in order to upgrade a non-level-based skill, and 10 for a rare non-level-based skill. He could also buy other skills for 5-10 points.
He gained five times his rank every time he ranked up. Though so far, he had only used 58 points. 18 on maxing out [Mana Drain], 8 on increasing [Appraisal] to its max level, and 5 more to purchase a skill called [Demonic Beast Knowledge], which granted him knowledge of the weak points of all the Demonic Beasts he came across, as well as where in their bodies their magic stones were. It also gave him a ranking for each monster, though Archer didn't know their significance. Still, information was key, so both [Appraisal] and [Demonic Beast Knowledge] were musts.
Ranking [Mana Drain] up to max level had also unlocked [Mana Thief], which could steal mana from everyone and thing around Archer. Just by leaving it on and drawing Mana out of the air, Archer could basically half the cost of flouting around. Though he hadn't leveled the new skill up, as most of his Mana Problems were already taken care off by this point.
The final skill that Archer had invested his points into was called [Body Split], which cost him 27 points to max out. He had gotten the skill from a giant serpent that was capable of creating perfect body doubles, and the skill was supposed to allow Archer to do the same. However, when Archer started to mess with the skill, he found to his delight that it gave a lot more leeway than it sounded and provided a lot of exploits.
For one, it didn't necessarily have to be his current form that was copied. Granted, his first attempt to recreate his Servant body was met with absolute failure, as the mana cost was just too stupidly high for him to do such a thing yet. Even creating a body that had half of his old perimeters cost more than 4000 mana, and that was just the overhead cost. However, he could use the skill to recreate any of his Noble Phantasms for a fraction of the price of tracing them, with the only drawback being that he could only sustain a Noble Phantasm form for one tenth of the time of his normal sword form.
The skill was only supposed to last 5 minutes, times the skill's level, but because of Archer's [Independent Action] ability, it became 1 hour, times its level, and the passive cost was decreased from 1 mana a second to 1 mana every 30 seconds. Meaning that at its max level it lasted for 10 hours and its cost was mostly mitigated by Mana Thief. During this time, Archer could control it and use any [Skill] he possessed through it.
Beyond that, when he recreated his current sword form with it, that form with start with its Mana at full, similar to the cheat method he had used when tracing. While his copy only had 80% of his stats, it meant that he could spend 100 units of Mana and get over 1000 units back. And Mana could be shared between the bodies, greatly increasing his storage capacity. If he was running low, he could create and absorb the body double in order to fill himself right back up in an instant. Though the [Skill] could only be used once every 24 hours, the timer could be rest by leveling the skill up… not that he could do that anymore.
[Body Split] had drastically increased his hunting speed, as he could literally be in two places at once.
Beyond that, Archer was holding off on his investments. Many of the skills he was getting were useful, and he wanted to see them strengthened, but he had the feeling that he should wait and see. He didn't know how long he would continue to rank up. He might be allowed to rank up to 100, in which case he would have all the points he could really need. But what if it maxed out sooner, like at 10. Those points might be a nonrenewable resource, and if he could level up his skills by just hunting more monsters that possess the same skill, then why waste? He should just save the points for rarer and more valuable skills.
That had been half the reason he had tried to hunt the 'Gourmet Orcs' to extinction, as they had commonly had fire magic. The second reason was because the [Demonic Beast Knowledge] skill said they cooked people.
He had managed to raise his [Fire Magic] skill all the way up to its max level by killing those guys, unlocking [Flame Magic: Lv1] as a result. Sadly, no matter how many of them he killed, it didn't raise the [Flame Magic] skill any… and he killed a lot of them. Though after casting its [Flame Burst] spell a few hundred times, it leveled up to Lv2.
It seemed that some skills could be leveled through just using them a bunch. Must be how normal creatures in this world get their skills. [Sword Art] and [Sword Technique] also increased rather fast due to this. Not that Archer really cared that much for [Sword Art], since his own swordsmanship far outstripped it even at Lv8. [Sword Technique Lv7] provided some interesting pseudo spells, such as a technique that momentarily created a blade made of condensed magic somewhere within 5 meters of him and then shot it. Less useful than tracing to him, but it meant that he couldn't be completely dismissive of the skill.
Archer tossed the Tyrant Saber Tiger into his [Dimensional Storage], another infinitely useful skill he gained from killing a giant slime monster, and continued on his way.
He couldn't exactly say why he was storing away the corpses of the enemies he killed, perhaps it was just that when you are given a giant four-dimensional pocket, you just start to shovel stuff into it, just to see if you can fill it up. To not do so would be a crime.
He had been moving further and further away from the ruins where he had first woken up, though he had been mostly wandering around aimlessly. There was no point in staying in that place for long, since it didn't seem like any Heroes in need of a legendary weapon were around, Archer might as well just go and slay evil by himself… all alone.
Loneliness was one of the things that Archer hadn't expected to have to deal with. He had been used to pushing people away. Even when he had been That Man, the 'Hero of Justice' who's name even he himself had forgotten, Archer hadn't really ever made time for the people around him, not even the ones he loved. It was the reason why She betrayed him in the end, because She couldn't believe that he loved her. Not that he blamed her. When even that woman thought that he had gone too far and that he had lost all his humanity, it was probably true. Like with everyone else in his original life, he couldn't quite remember her name, just a face which granted him a sense of happy nostalgia.
But those eight weeks spent with Hakuno had made him feel more accustomed to having someone around. Even if that someone was about as good at displaying emotion as a dead fish. The NPC turned girl had been like a curious child, growing into a very harsh and cruel world, and while Archer would admit that he had found her lack of skill and general naivety annoying at first, he had grown fond of his unusual Master as she gained more skill and displayed more cunning. To not having her presence, with her curious, nonjudging, blank stare…
Don't know what you got till it's gone.
Flying over the forest, he had spotted what looked a little like a dirt road snaking through the trees and had decided to follow it, hoping to find some kind of civilization. He wasn't so sure what he would do once he found it, since normal people might be a little freaked out by a magical flying sword, but it would be nice to at least know it was there.
[Hm? That's strange, my Mana is lowering rather fast.] Archer said, noticing that he wasn't drawing in Mana as fast as he usually was. He still had quite a bit, but if he got into a fight with low mana, it might make things hairy for him. Better to just rest and continue when he was back at full power. So Archer let himself sink down with his tip pushing lazily into the ground… and then slid down like a rock as his Mana was sucked dry and his Telekinesis disappeared. [What the hell!?] Archer shouted to himself, trying desperately to call up enough Mana to pull himself free before it was too late.
It was no good, his mana levels hit 0 before he could escape.
[…Great.] Archer said with a disgruntled sigh. [Guess I am stuck playing the waiting game again.]