So, everyone! Xeno's back with another chapter for 'A game of death and life'! Woohoo and all that. Now, I have a couple things to say: 1, thanks so much to everyone for taking their time reading this. It really means a lot to me. 2, I have taken account of the mishap with the verbs, and I am trying to avoid doing it anymore. 3, I own nor 'the Gamer' nor 'The legend of Spyro'. And 4...nothing more than the usual: favorite, follow, review and enjoy. Plus I like the number four.
The forest seemed to go on endlessly, and the only sounds to keep me company were the fluttering of wings, the chirping birds and my own heavy footsteps. I had decided that this was a moment as good as any to start training, so I started running a couple hours earlier, and my reward were 3 points in DEX and 1 in VIT.
I didn't have other problems after my encounter with the Lycans, and probably it might be because I was still smelling of blood. My abilities were working overtime to keep me from puking at the smell, so I really was in need of a bath. I tried so hard to keep myself from thinking about it, that I even gained a skill from it.
Focus (passive) Lv: 5 (71.5%)
Keeping your mind from straying, you can focus more easily onto a certain task.
+15% chance to stun an enemy with a direct hit.
+7% efficency to all active skills.
While it wasn't the most powerful skill around, it was definitely helping me in that moment. In the meantime I had also kept Enhancement active, to the point where it leveled up some.
Enhancement (active & passive) Lv: 6 (32.1%)
Empowering your body with mana, you can surpass your normal limits.
24 Mp to activate
5 Mp/second to sustain
+15% to all physical stats
+8% Hp regen
+8% Mp regen
This skill looked like it would be my most useful one up to then, with the one I unwillingly created while keeping track of the wolves coming close second.
Radar (passive) Lv: 4 (73.9%)
By sharpening your hearing, you can sense movements around you, and react accordingly.
+4% to hearing
Max range: 2 meters
While it might not seem much, it adds 1% to my hearing plus half a meter of range every level, so if I got it at around level 20, I would already be able to hear what happens around me in a range of 10 meters, which is very useful.
Still, I was missing out on active skills, for the only one I had was Mana claw, and even tough it is nice, I needed also some variety, in case I would have fought enemies that were resistant to physical attacks.
I was contemplating the chance of creating some basic elemental spells, when I found myself nearing the edge of the forest. I slowed down my sprint to a slight jog, and then to a walk in case I would find someone nearby.
Peeking from behind a tree, I found what seemed to be a small village at around two hundred meters northwest of my location, but I couldn't see any details from this distance since I had lost my glasses while I flowed down the river, so I chose to get closer, but without abandoning the safety of the trees.
After around ten minutes of sneaking around the edge of the forest, I managed to restrict my distance from the village to around twenty-five meters. In the process of doing that I also gained the skill Sneak:
Sneak (passive & active) Lv: 2 (84.2%)
You are able to avoid detection and slip away unnoticed by your enemies.
-50% movement speed.
-6% chance of being detected.
Normally it would have been easy for me to see at such a relatively short distance, but again, I didn't have my glasses, thus I couldn't focus my eyesight far enough. I didn't even want to risk stepping out of my cover, so I chose to turn to my go-to problem fixer: magic. Thus I started concentrating magic in my eyes to improve my eyesight, and the result was:
Falcon's eye (active) Lv: 1 (00.0%)
Concentrating mana in your eyes, you can enhance the clarity and sharpness of your sight to astounding levels.
50 Mp/second to maintain
Max zoom: x1.5
The effect of the skill caused the edges of my vision to blur, but my focus seemed way closer, even though I could still percieve the distance it was at.
I was a tad disappointed for the very high cost required for such a low-effect boost. Hopefully, it would become more useful at later levels, and thus I started working on it. The high cost forced me to recover around every ten seconds, progressing slowly. By nightfall I had managed to bring it up by five levels, and while it might not have seemed like much, now I could see twice as far as normal, and I could keep it up for around twelve seconds.
I chose I should seek for a safe spot to finally start training somewhat, and headed deeper into the forest again. Studying my map, I finally arrived to a nice point: it was a small clearing with a branch of the main river flowing a bit to the side. I sat crosslegged in the middle of the clearing, and started working on the first thing on my list: Instant Dungeons.
Info time with Xeno: Instant Dungeons, also called ID, are a secondary layer to reality crafted with magic. Everything in the area is copied into the ID, except for living beings and the objects in contact with them. Anything done in an ID has no repercussions on the real world, since it is merely a copy.
Willing my mana to separate the clearing from reality, I sent it out of me in all directions, and was greeted by a ripple all around me, the feel of a big chunk of mana leaving my body, and a new skill window.
You created a new skill!
A skill for fabricating Instant Dungeons (ID) has been created!
Create ID (active) Lv: 1 (10.0%)
Covering the area around you with mana, you are able to create an alternate reality separated from everything. Higher levels will allow to modify the environment.
150 Mp per use.
Disponible ID:
Empty
Now, the cost was quite high, but with time it should become bearable enough. After waiting for my reserves to replenish, I started working again with my magic some more. Concentrating on the air in front of me, I poured energy into it to the point of igniting it. Plasming the burning mana, I compressed it to thee point of a fireball slightly bigger than my fist. I then let it fly at one of the trees surrounding me, effectively blowing up a sizeable chunk of the trunk, with a scorch that extended to the closest trees.
With Fireball at the ready, I started going over the others, and in short order I had:
Fireball (active) Lv: 3 (15.7%)
Exciting the molecules of concentrated air, you can make it combust in a powerful fireball.
10 Mp per use
6% chance of setting on fire the target
AOE inflicts 25% of total damage
.
Thunder (active) Lv: 3 (09.3%)
Modifying air on atomic level you can create elecrical discharges.
10 Mp per use
6% chance of paralyzing the target
25% chance to damage also nearby enemies
.
Frost (active) Lv: 3 (25.4%)
Draining energy from the atoms of concentrated air, you can transform it in a projectile that will freeze anything it touches.
10 Mp per use
6% chance of crippling frozen part
AOE causes 25% of total damage
.
Aeroblade (active) Lv: 4 (16.8%)
Condensing air in a sharp form, you can send blades made of wind at your enemy.
10 Mp per use
+6% speed
Max blade width: 35 cm
I chose to keep using Aeroblade for a little more, since the blades at level 1 were long only 10 centimeters, and were more cute than dangerous. Now, though, they were strong enough to cut branches as thick as my own arm with ease. Then, with my attack spells finally ready and still around three hours of night left, I started going over some basic workout motions: one hour of push-ups, one hour of sit-ups and lastly one last hour of running around aimlessly. All with pauses when needed, since I most definitely wasn't Saitama. Or at least, not yet.
Finally, I came back to my clearing, with a total gain of 5 STR, 2 DEX and 3 VIT. I was pretty happy. I cleaned myself up in the river, and since I was still in the ID, I didn't worry about what or who would drink the water. Finally, about half an hour after sunrise I was walking back to the village of the day before, stronger than before and more confident in my own abilities. Just so you know, this is how I looked like in that moment:
Daniel Samuels
The Gamer
G: 573
Lv: 3 (18/60 Xp)
Hp: 410/410 (+5.7/s)
Mp: 400/400 (+5.5/s)
STR: 11 (13.1)
DEX: 13 (15.5)
VIT: 11 (13.1)
INT: 10
WIS: 10
LUK: 7
Stat points: 10
Not too bad, right? Of course, there was still a LOT of things to do before I could call myself powerful, but I was feeling good with myself anyway.
Arrived at the edge of the forest, I activated my Falcon's eye once more, and started leveling up the skill while studying what I managed to see. The village in itself seemed pretty small, but I could notice a good amount of specks of color around, which I assumed were the villagers. As my skill leveled up, I couldn't help but start worrying: just what was I seeing? The beings that inhabited the village were as far as possible from humans, yet they were scary in their resemblance with us. I could see adults chatting in the market, young ones playing, and even a couple guards pacing around.
It took me a couple of minutes to catch up with what I was seeing: a village full of dragons. Yes, that's right. There were red ones, green ones, yellow ones, blue ones, a couple gray ones and I'm positive I saw also a brown one. I was starting to hyperventilate from the rush of emotions, but Gamer's mind kept me from going too deep in the hole. I was still panicking inside from the revelation, but I was still mostly coherent. I chose to call it a day, and moved back to the clearing I started calling my home. On the way, I tried to accept the fact that dragons existed, and I saw a village full of them.
Arriving at my patch of grass, I decided to do something I hadn't done in a while, and went to sleep. I chose a tree pretty high from the ground, and used the rope I 'borrowed' from the ceetah-Cyrus. His name was Cyrus. I repeated to myself:
"They are people, and deserve to be respected, regardless of how they treated you. So, you will use their names."
And, with that point made, I used the rope to tie myself to the tree, so I wouldn't risk falling down. Keeping my mind from going in weird tangents, I let sleep claim me.
"Come on, move it!"
"Slow down! We still have time before dinner!"
"Yea, but I wanna play!"
A bunch of voices yelling around woke me up from my well-deserved slumber with the same power of a bunch of bricks falling on my face. I would have fallen from the shock, if it weren't for the rope securely tied around my stomach. I untied my bindings, and stashed them in my inventory, before turning around and observing the clearing for intruders.
The evildoers in question were two young dragons, on which I used my Observe immediately. The bigger one was a light blue, and his status was:
Tundra Polar
The brain
Ice dragon
Lv: 12
Hp: 1340/1340
Mp: 1560/1560
STR: 16
DEX: 23
VIT: 14
INT: 36
WIS: 31
LUK: 20
Tundra is the elder of the Polar siblings, and while he chose not to follow the wish of his father to become a soldier, and decided to spend his time studying to become a scholar, he still makes it his sworn duty to protect his sister, now and ever.
The other one instead was very energetic, as emphasized by her yellow color and status:
Star Polar
The brawn
Electric dragoness
Lv: 10
Hp: 1210/1210
Mp:1130/1130
STR: 20
DEX: 24
VIT: 21
INT: 13
WIS: 10
LUK: 20
Star is the younger of the Polar siblings, and while she chose not to follow the wish of her mother to become a scholar, and decided to train to be a soilder instead, she is still making it her sworn duty to protect her brother, now and ever.
In the meantime I was reading their profiles, Star had roped Tundra into a game of tag, and they were running around the clearing, oblivious to my presence. Watching them was actually quite endearing, reminding myself of the time I used to spend with my own sister. Reminding me of her made me think back to the rest of my family, and made me wonder what were they doing then. Had they found out I was dead already? Did they make me a funeral yet? How many would have bothered to come? I chose to stop thinking about it, and just brought my focus back on the two young dragons under me.
While I was taking a stroll down memory lane, the two had gotten tired, and were resting under the tree where I was seating. Using my Radar skill, I managed to pick up to what they were saying:
"Shouldn't we get going? It's getting quite late, and I still have some work left to do at home."
"Killjoy. I want to stay some more. After all, this is our own spot. We haven't had the chance to come here in a long time."
"I know that just as well as you, but it so happens that if we get home late again dad will ground us again. I'd rather not get in trouble for that. Plus, that weird creature might still be lurking around."
"You mean the one they saw at the edge of the forest yesterday?"
"Yes, that one. Seems like it came around for another couple hours this morning, before leaving a little before noon. They are starting to increase security in the night shifts to be safe, but no one has even seen that being before. No wonder they're not even trying to catch it. After all, it might just be merely curious, just as well as being incredibly powerful and waiting for the moment to strike."
"We have dad watching out for us, there's nothing to worry about!"
"If you say so, sis. If you say so. Still, we should really get going. C'mon."
"Fine, fine, I'm coming. Coward"
I waited until they were out of sight before drawing a sigh of relief. Luckily they didn't notice me. Still, the problem remained that someone else did notice me, and they had known from the moment I got there the first time. What might have given me away? My smell, maybe? Was I careless and someone managed to get a look at me? Taking all in consideration, it didn't matter. After all, they were just weary. If I could get them on my side, I might have some powerful allies. After all, if their children were this powerful, who knew how strong their soldiers were? Then again, following that logic, making them my enemies would not have been a good idea.
*ding*
Through attentive and logical thinking, you have gained 1 WIS!
I was wondering where it went.
Sleeping was out of the question, at that point, thus I started training some more. After getting a couple hours of workout, my gains were: 2 STR, 1 DEX and 2 VIT. After resting a bit, I started wondering how could I increase my INT and WIS. All my thoughts came back to leveling up, but I had no idea on how to. I could definitely scrap hunting, since I could have really bad luck and find something like, fifly levels above me.
That left me with only one choice: IDs. Thus, with my course decided, I started the tedious work of grinding the skill.
After around an hour or so, I managed to make the skill level up, and what greeted me was:
Create ID (active) Lv: 2 (00.0%)
Covering the area around you with mana, you are able to create an alternate reality separated from everything. Higher levels will allow to modify the environment.
150 Mp per use.
Disponible ID:
Empty
Lycan wolves
I almost started dancing around for the excitement: I had an almost infinite supply of Lycans, ready to be slaughtered at my convenience.
Once I had recovered my mana, I created the Lycan ID, and got ready to kill. Nothing seemed different, but I could feel it in the air: there was danger all around me. I steeled my resolve and dashed in the forest, sword drawn and spells ready. The first wolf was fried with a bolt of Thunder, with the second being decapitated by an Aeroblade, followed suit by a third and fourth respectively frozen and impaled by my sword. This treatment went on for almost all night, until I had killed dozens of them, raising my level up to seven. I took then a second to admire my handiwork: the area around me was littered with small bags, trees burned, frozen or completely cut off. Then, satisfied with my work for the day, I started collecting the spoils of my enemies: a good bunch of thousands of gems.
Once I was done, I returned to my clearing and tried to break the ID: unfortunately, my attempt was cut short when a window appeared in front of me:
You cannot leave now. The Alpha Lycan is still around.
Did that mean I would have been forced to kill a boss everytime I wanted to leave an ID full of enemies? That felt like bullshit. Nonetheless, I started going around, being on the lookout for the stronger wolf. The good news were that I didn't have to wait for long, for it had found me. The bad news were that it was nothing like the alpha I had fought before. This one easily towered above me, and was at level twenty. The only thing that I managed to say was:
"Crap."
As I dashed trough the forest, with tha Alpha easily keeping up. The only reason why I wasn't dead yet was that I kept throwing Frost at it, and I managed to stagger it a little. My mana reserves were getting lower and lower, so I had to come up with a plan soon. I knew that my skills weren't enough to overpower it, but maybe I could outsmart it. Pouring what mana I had left, I condensed my Fireball to the point where it became a really small star. I then covered my ears and threw it at the Alpha, and the effect was instantaneous: an absurdly loud bang was heard, and I closed my eyes just in time to avoid the flash of light that generated behind me. I put some distance between me and the wolf, before checking the danage I had done.
The Alpha was fumbling around dazed, constantly crashing into the trees around it. I glanced back at my mana reserves, and felt some confidence back, as I still had just a little bit more than a quarter of my power left. Sorting through the ideas in my head, I came up with the perfect way to finish this quickly. I called up my Aeroblade, and started working to make it sleeker, longer and sharper. With a couple seconds of work, a new skill was made.
Wind spear (active) Lv: 1 (00.0%)
Focusing your mana into the air around you, you can craft spears made of thin air.
20 Mp per use
+10% piercing damage
I then aimed my spear to the head of the wolf, and at the right moment, the spear shot away, endebbing itself from the eye to the back of the head. It stayed there for a couple seconds, before vanishing and allowing the Alpha to fall to the ground, dead.
+1500 Xp!
Level up! Level up! Level up!
Now that was an increase! Feeling giddy, I opened my status window, and this is what I found:
Daniel Samuels
The Gamer (new title unlocked)
G: 7461
Lv: 10 (281/1000)
Hp: 1130/1130 (+15.3/s)
Mp: 1100/1100 (+14.7/s)
STR: 14 (17.1)
DEX: 15 (18.3)
VIT: 13 (15.8)
INT: 10
WIS: 11
LUK: 7
Stat points: 45
I was just about to dump everything into INT, but reigned myself in to study things better. From what I had gathered, my INT would modify the number of Mp I had, while WIS would dictate their recovery rate. Thus, a good idea would be to spread my points evenly between the two, but I also didn't want to forsake my luck, since it was exactly what had kept me alive up to now. After some math, I decided that I was going to place one point in LUK for every level gained, now and in the future, while the remaining would always be spread as two in INT, one in WIS, and I would keep the last one to spend every four levels. So, applying my math, I had:
Hp: 1130/1130 (+15.3/s)
Mp: 1320/1320 (+17.1/s)
STR: 14 (17.1)
DEX: 15 (18.3)
VIT: 13 (15.8)
INT: 10+22
WIS: 11+11
LUK: 7+11
Stat points: 1
Managing how to place my points was tough, but in the future it would be worthwile. I hadn't noticed it during my killing spree, but I had gained also 3 STR, 2 DEX and 2 VIT. Neat. It also seemed like my physical stats were also moving a bit towards a speedy build. That could come useful. After all, I could just use a lot of really fast strikes in melee to stagger my enemy before destroying them with a spell while their guard faltered.
Having my future approach been decided, I took a look at what remained of the Alpha, and imagine my surprise when not only did I find a huge bag of gems, but also a cloak and a book! Picking them up, a window appeared floating over the book:
You have gained the skill book 'Born leader'! Would you like to learn the skill?
A gratis skill? How could I refuse? Thus, I pressed immediately yes. What happened I have still trouble comprehending to this day, but the book basically imploded, and at the same time became a fine golden dust that seeped into my hands. A second later, new knowledge flowed into my mind, yet it felt like I was simply remembering something that I forgot a long time ago.
*ding*
You gained a new skill!
Born leader (passive) Lv: 1 (00.0%)
Every plan needs a good leader in order to work.
+10% damage to all allies following your instructions.
+10% Xp to all members of your party (user included).
That would become useful, but there was only one problem with that: I had no allies whatsoever at the moment, so that skill was pretty much useless to me.
The cloak, on the other hand, was dark grey and gave a sneaking and intimidation boost. I put it on immediately, also because it looked just so bloody cool.
I decided to return then to my clearing and finally take some much needed rest. The walk back was nothing much, but it did take a while, since I tend to run a lot when there's a huge wolf following me. Arriving at my spot, I climbed the tree I had claimed as mine, and finally broke the ID. It was deep in the morning when I returned to the real world, and the first thing to greet my ears was the laughter of children. Which surprised me a little, since I could recognize one of the voices, but the other was new. Peering between the branches, I caught sight of Star running around with some other young dragon. Performing my usual Observe, what I got was:
Pyra Sun
The burning blitz
Fire dragoness
Lv: 8
Hp: 920/920
Mp: 940/940
STR: 7
DEX: 16
VIT: 12
INT: 14
WIS: 9
LUK: 35
Pyra is the daughter of Sun Blaze, and is supposed to become the next Fire Guardian. She's easily angered, and is very prideful of her future, but is also very caring of others when she deems them her friends.
That was a very high LUK for someone so young, but then again, if she was so proud of becoming a Fire Guardian, whatever that was, she must have been lucky.
I watched them play around for a while, and in the meantime kept an eye out for anything prowling around. It wasn't all that hard, since my map could spot living beings: blue was me, yellow were neutrals and red were enemies.
It was nice to have someone nearby, even tough they didn't know I was there. Listening in on them, I gathered that the guards were getting antsy, since they didn't see me today, and were planning to send a small team to look for me, and it seemed that Star and Tundra's father was going to join too. That was some good info, since I could just spend some time finding a way to hide myself and gain some more useful information. After all, it's known that adults tend to know more than the kids.
Having decided how I was going to deal with it, I gave one last look to my map to ensure the area was safe, but I couldn't find anyone other than me. I looked down and noticed the signs of a scuffle on the ground. I would have just pinned it to the girls, but the area was too spread out for it to be only their fault. I tried Observe on it, and the results made me start running from tree to tree faster than I had ever done before.
A grassy clearing. There are the signs of a fight between two young dragons and a small group of other beings. It seems only one goup walked away.
.
.
Here you go, ya people! Sorry for the cliffhanger, but I couldn't resist. I want to thank everyone for your support, and of course, your reviews, for reading them actually makes my day in ways only a fellow author would know. This is only a special case, since I want to post on Friday, but all the reviews made me so giddy I couldn't wait!
YourCompleteDemise- thanks for pointing out that problem. I was having trouble separating tge thoughts from the script, but I think I managed now.
ConcurrentSky- I think I fixed the LUK aspect quite well, and thanks for saying this is original. That is what I was going for.
killblade373- Now, the pairings will come in time, but Spyro and Cynder won't appear for a while. I didn't spend time making these other characters just to put them aside, you know. Yes, I mean als Cyrus. He will be back.
The Silent Insomniac- Thanks, as I said I am trying to go for something new, so the spellblade is only a name. I'll keep the sword, mind you, but I have no friggin' idea where this will go.
Pirateboy100- Your request is my command!
Shadow Merit- Shadow! Mah boi! It's so good to see you here!
Well, that's all for this chapter. This is Xeno, signing off to Friday (if I'm ready by then, if not Saturday)!
P.S. At first Tundra and Star's last name was going to be Arctic, but I chose to make it a little joke. And yes, also the dragons have last names here. It was never specified in the games, but I think they do have them.
P.P.S. for any sudden tense swaps I might have missed, I am sorry. I am doing my best, but I am not a professional, nor am I a native English user.