It was certain that things weren't going to go as planned at some point, but that point could have held off until at least I can fucking fly!
Even without getting tired, it's maddeningly annoying to have to wander on trails in the woods for days on end, in hopes of returning to that town, to Naela, and with no clue as to where I'm actually headed.
It was a fifty/fifty chance that I return to her, the choice between going the wrong, or correct direction of the road.
And I went opposite where I'm supposed to go, three days of walking day and night, disregarding dungeons, to reach a completely unfamiliar village, which certainly wasn't where Naela was.
Without staying there for even a few minutes, I departed to where I came from, in a march bordering on running.
I was furious, almost enraged.
It was strange, never have such emotions showed even once before in my life. Is this my closeness to Naela? Probably not. We're as good friends as me and Indess, but I don't think there'd be this kind of anger if such a situation happened on the old Earth. Of course, there would be many emotions, but not this one. It's different. I've got no idea what's actually going on.
And so I walked on, it was near the limit of moving without depleting stamina.
-x-
After two days of continuous marching, my emotions weren't yet dulled.
Almost in a trance, rushing forward through the otherwise silent night.
Disregarding my surroundings.
Now, a few men blocked my way, so I was forced to come back to my senses.
Bandits? Probably.
Even if not, who cares? Fuck it.
Taking out a chained rune, I kill all but one. It was really easy, they were wearing no protection except for maybe leather bracers on one of them.
The last one collapsed in pain as his foot was blown off by a directed shot of a regular rune, I ran up to him, promptly kicking his head with all my force, pretty sure that snapped the bandits' neck.
Slaughtering the assumed outlaws vented out some of my anger, but not nearly all of it.
Looting the bandits, they had a few silver, and around a dozen copper coins.
Going by this experience, I started hunting more in the following days. Hauntingly, killing stuff seemed to somewhat sate the emotion.
It is not immoral, I'm obeying the rules of nature, the stronger gets the meal. I am supposed to be a dryad, so it's alright.
Besides, this is for the betterment of almost everybody involved; if I kill those people, they won't kill anyone else. I am actually doing a good thing, by ending the lives of pests that only want to kill more, no matter if they do it for greed, because of sexual urges, or some other reason.
[You're in denial.]
...
-x-
Another day on the road, another day of anger, skipping the nightly dungeon, rushing, and pondering over recent past and distant future in some more cohesive moments.
It came to me that the anger, despite muted, has not truly degraded since the bandit encounter, it sits persistent in the corners of my mind, waiting for a perfect opportunity to come out.
This emotion is really strange.
Terrifying, almost.
-x-
The next day I came across a large wooden hut, there weren't any roads within kilometers of this place, as far as I know, so it's kind of unusual.
Coming near it, voices can be heard within. Now staring at the wall, I put my ear to hear what's being said.
"I still can't believe we got so fucking lucky." Drunk, and raspy.
"Yah, the merchant's got many gems, and t'was truly fortunate his escort weren wearing helmez"
Gems?
That is indeed lucky, not for them of course now that I'm here. Even if I won't be able to make rune programs out of the precious materials apparently contained within this building, bet they'd come for a good price on the market.
Half an hour of delay in my rush to get to Naela wouldn't be much of a problem, right? It's not a long amount of time, I doubt it'll change anything.
Decided, I find the entrance, a closed door.
I take out my most mana-efficient, but also one of the weakest chain rune programs, which I can shoot four times before my mana runs out, and I blast the old weak door across the room, turning it into splintered planks not even resembling anything man-made.
Looking around the shaded space, what I see excites me. There's a half a meter high pile of see-through small, colorful rocks, the gems. So fucking many, thousands at the very least.
But I have to evade a sword strike, sidestepping out of the doorway, almost hypnotized by the treasure in front of me.
Quickly summoning my dagger, I stab under his chin before he can react, thanks to my superior speed. As the first attacker falls down, I rain magic upon the other weaklings.
They scream for a while, singular missiles not being enough to end their pitiful existence, before I finish it with a few stabs.
[Level up!]
Nice, I leveled up, Path to Evil is great, the exp bonus...
Quickly distributing the points, I turn to the main prize with an unusually wide smile on my face.
Slowly nearing the glittering pile, a quiet, excited laugh escapes my lips.
Touching the rocks, I moan in happiness.
My arms sink deep to the many cold, hard, pointy and smooth surfaces, taking in the feeling, basking in the glorious moment.
This is a gamechanger, and if not, a great fortune.
Hundereds of thousands of damage on a single missile...
I can not wait until the time of carving those. If it's possible.
...I'll try making one now, Naela can wait ten more minutes.
After a few moments of struggling with the hard surface of one of the gems, I have a basic magic bolt rune.
[Rune Program]
[Material - gG7hi87Trg]
[Contents]
[Start] - [Summon Magic Bolt] (79 DMG)
[MP Cost Sum]
20 MP
Only seventy-nine damage? Sure, that's still a lot, much more than any other singular rune I have, but my expectations were in the tens of thousands at the lowest.
Is this an error? Game, you told me a diamond would do about 20 million damage, if I remember right?
[You may check the item within the addon, search the letter/number Material code.]
Oooh, so that's what it's for, been wondering. Thanks, Game.
[Rich desert glass]
[This type of glass is commony used to make fake gemstones, it's relatively rare compared to other types of its subcategory.]
Material subcategory - glass - +4%
Late medieval world - glass relatively rare - +29%
Subcategory type - rare - desert distant from current position - +136%
Subcategory type II - rarer - stacked rarity + hard to extract - +634%
Fantasy world - magical method used to create glass - -17%
Fantasy world - magical method slightly complicated - +9%
Rune stat increase - [790%]
Aah, alright. All of those are fake. Makes much more sense now.
Damn it all to hell.
At least the glass used to make them is rare, seventy-nine damage is still great.
A shame they all are too small to make any kind of chained rune.
But being small isn't solely a weakness.
If I could pay someone to put one on a ring, or better, make eight rings all with singular rune programs...
Stealth; the element of surprise is still quite valuable.
Let me test how much damage this rune I just made does. Better be outside for that, can't predict it, if twenty damage was enough to dent steel...
The testing target will be this building.
Lemme just pocket all those fake gems, and get other possible useful stuff.
Not much; the bandits only have a few copper on them, I still take it.
Minutes later, standing about fifty meters from the shack, I point the glass rune at it, and fire.
A loud, low hum escapes the rock, and the smell of ozone fills the air in the shortest moment, space distorts in front of it, as it shakes with power.
The bolt that comes out is much larger, longer, more akin to a smaller light spear rather than the basic projectile the size of an arrow I was used to. As it flies, it puts out white magical lightning, sometimes strong enough to touch the closer trees near the flight path of the missile, leaving marks, but never lighting anything on fire.
As the spear collides with the shack, it explodes, throwing waves of energy around itself.
After it all settles down, the hut still stands, but now with a hole a third the size of the wall.
Well, it is official I have a true heavy hitter. This thing is going to be my go-to weapon against heavily armoured opponents, bosses, and strong monsters.
The best part - it consumes as much mana as a regular ten damage singular rune program. I can fire it twenty times.
They're still fake though, sigh. What would it look, feel like to fire a 5000 damage bolt?
I return to the shack to check the damage more thoroughly.
There's a lot of splinters scattered around the main hole, the hole itself being about a meter in diameter, not counting the many burn marks left around it from the uncountable sparks within the explosion.
This is an exponential upgrade. Although they're no true precious gems, it's still lovely to have them.
And maybe, just maybe, I'll be able to sell them for the price of real ones?
Nah. The only thing doing so will bring me is trouble, and I don't want any more of that than I already have, having one noble after me is enough.
-x-
The next day, at around noon, I have finally returned to the village in which Naela's likely to be waiting for me, the small town-like settlement we were unwillingly parted at.
My anger should've been long gone by now, especially that I'll be reuniting with Naela very soon, but it still sits there, deep within. I can feel it.
Why? How does it persist so much?
What is the reason? It can't be the kidnapping, we're almost together again. Maybe something new on my status? An effect? Yeah, there's something under the sin of greed.
[Wrath Sin]
A corruptive form of anger; become the slave of yourself.
This sin will dissipate upon completing either of those two conditions:
Kill 20 trillion humans.
or
Do not kill/harm any beings intentionally for a hundered years, that includes dungeon monsters.
It all came back to me in this one instant, all of my rage, from all the different reasons held back, now released.
"DAMN YOU!" I exclaimed to the sky, this anger pointed towards Vingnish, The Author, and The Game with the same force. To the three entities which are responsible for changing me.
Then confusion hits me.
Why am I acting like this only after reading the status notice?
Is it some kind of psychological effect...?
Maybe I'm only now noticing the change in my behaviour, not having put any mind to my actions before? That's probable.
Yeah, I've been a bit more brutal in my killings...
This sin may be an obstacle, and greed to be combined with it; a brewing disaster.
But what is there to do against that?
Best I can is try to control myself, not let emotions run wild...
Don't know if that's possible in some certain cases.
...
Now to look for Naela.
-x- Naela's POV, some time earlier
I've decided to wait for Suisei a week, her chances of returning being very high, she's much more powerful than me, and has access to many abilities.
If she won't return in that time, I'll set off for E-Rantel, come back to the city I left, to search for her, it's likely the kidnappers are taking her there.
Even considering her chances, worry still found its way to me.
What if they're taking her elsewhere? What if they killed her?
...What if she killed them?
No.
"Everything alright miss..?" A child, no older than ten, was staring up at me.
"...I don't really know, on one side Su's strong, and logically she'll be back soon, but..."
I partially ignored the kid, getting lost in thought.
Overthinking. A healthy, yet damaging habit.
One I've strangely gotten from being with Suisei, instead of the many years spent reading.
-x-
On the third day of waiting, I grew more worried, she really should've been back by now.
-x-
The seventh day. Still no Suisei.
Much more worried now, I really don't want to do this, but it seems there isn't really another way; she's likely being kept somewhere within E-Rantel, it having the highest populace concentration, and therefore the highest chance of housing the kidnappers. As well as, Su's been there for some time, it's possible she caught someone's attention - as I knew, there was no reason not to kidnap me as well if they were really only after selling us on the black market, or raping us.
And so I set out for the city, walking back on one large road, instead of the many small tracks she lead me through, all the time wondering, how did this come to be? Suisei appeared at my doorstep one day, lifted me up from the incoming depression at losing my father, and kept being a great friend for a month, until the beginning of our failed adventure. Deepening our friendship even more with her telling, and showing me the secret of truly being a half dryad, not as a simple joke or evading talking about something, like I earlier assumed.
There weren't any bandits, nor wolves, bears and hogs, the wider the road is, the more frequent official patrols are.
With the blessings Su has granted me roughly a week before, I returned to the city within four days of travel by foot. No logic in taking any breaks, which I'd normally have taken, to sit down and enjoy the lush scenery. No, every moment is a waste of time if I was to attempt at rescuing my only friend.
-x-
I can be seen standing in the middle of the main hall of my home, the bookshop once again, after less than a month of adventuring. Didn't imagine seeing it in the next decade. Or two for that matter.
What now?
The city is sizeable, but by no means too gargantuan to be impossible to search through.
...That's if I had access to a company of soilders, the key to every single building, the green light to commit the search, and certainty that she's imprisoned somewhere within the walls.
A much more feasible option would be to issue a rescue mission in the adventurer's guild.
...If I knew where she was held.
The only thing I can do is ask around every so often, and wait patiently.
Maybe also put money to human trafficking investigations? No, not wealthy enough for that sort of thing.
I certainly am not wealthy in general, there aren't many things in my range of influence, as earlier stated - my best option is to stay put, and listen.
-x- Suisei POV current time
My rage has fucking gone through the roof, the roof of a nuclear bunker. If I hadn't worked on supressing the anger in the past days, I would've gored that child, when it told me Naela has been gone for half a day.
Asking other people where she went, they told me she ventured out the direction of the city. Not wasting my time in the village, I sprinted out to the road leading to E-Rantel, taking off as soon as I got the information.
I was two times as mad as the time of my acquisiton of the cursed sin of wrath.
Perhaps the status effect is working to amplify the emotion, instead of making it permanent as I assumed before.
-x-
I was taking the less known tracks, for who knows, maybe some of the soilders patrolling are agents of my pursuer? I can not allow myself to take any risks, a second kidnapping would crash this already catastrophic situation, delaying me some days at least.
Walking through the woods, as I was a month ago, a week ago, as well as a day ago, nothing changing within the deep green canopy of the trees, it still being the same grand spectacle of life, with uncountable leaves dancing in the light wind, rays of sun peeking from between them, colouring the forest floor, giving energy to the ferns adorning the ground.
My eyes were acknowledging the magnificent sight around me, but as never before, they weren't drowning in it. The rage, it choked out nearly all of my emotions.
It isn't completely tragic, however; as I am agonizingly slowly nearing the city, at the same pace, the anger, I can feel it fading.
It is reasonable to assume the closer I am to Naela, the weaker the wrath sin is. A kind of 'debuff' for the trait, not the best of situations, like cancer developing cancer, but at the very least it weakens the original menace.
-x-
The closer I am to the city, the closer I am to the base of operations of my pursuer. It is uncomfortable to be coming to the thing I've been running from the entire time, even if for a completely different purpose, to find Naela and take her from there as quickly as possible without rousing suspicion.
When we leave, we'll do so in a completely random direction, not following roads at all. We won't be stopping for any villages or towns, even if we come across any in the wilderness. Only to raid bandits, and nightly training, that way the chance of what has happened will be reduced drastically.
Did I abandon the Gem quest? Of course not. I have not the slightest idea where it currently may be, so not looking for it has got to be the same level of efficiency as looking for it, for now at least.
I see a few deer scurry off past my view in the distance.
I have noticed that over the past days I've fallen away from killing animals for additional exp, instead preferring humans, even after subduing my anger. This would be extremely worrying news, in case of me becoming a complete sociopath, if not for my still strong going friendship with Naela, and the obvious benefit of octupling my exp gain.
Killing bad guys isn't that evil, right?
It really shouldn't be, I'm contributing to humanity this way, ending the ones responsible for many robberies, rapings, and killings as well.
But is helping the human race really a good option, with speeding up their path of advancement, leading to self-destruction?
I do not desire to assist its progress, my goal is to get rid of the things that make it more difficult to live, so it should be alright, I guess?
That's a philosophical problem, one of many questions, unsolved because of the numerous mundane problems of many worlds, no matter what kind.
There's this trend among most verses; it does not matter how advanced humanity is, it still has many problems.
Warhammer 40k? Star wars? Dune? All Tomorrows? The old Earth? This world?
If I didn't know it was all fiction, I'd have thought it to be a tad strange, that humanity, across an uncountable number of planes of reality, has never achieved the true pinnacle of life.
Game? Could you please answer this question unrelated to the system, you know a few things about the omniverse, right?
Is there a reality in which humanity has won? In which they've triumphed over the laws of physics, in which they have solved all their problems?
In which they became gods?
[Yes, as there are infinite multiverses, there are infinite realities such as you described; infinite ways to 'win' as you put it.]
Endless ways to win, as well as lose. To do something unquantifiable as a success or failure...
Reality is truly fascinating.
It looks like I'm getting lost in my thoughts once again.
At least I'm capable of doing so, it signals that the new sin is no longer in control.
-x-
I can't wait to reunite with Naela, in particular to field test my new fake gem rune in a dungeon.
Haven't been doing dungeons for more than a week, due to everything that's been happening. At least the exp from the humans compensates for it, if only partly.
This multiplier, of the greed sin...
'Normal' human beings would firmly state that the direction it's taking me in is wrong on principle, that it's against what mankind is striving to be.
But aren't you contributing to greed if you're humble, working for the greater good?
Aren't people adding to the collective greed of the species if they work to advance, progress?
Is greed what truly drives humanity?
Am I still human?
...
I'm in quite the mood for contemplating, is it my mind reacting to the return of advanced thinking, with the anger receeding? That's likely.
-x-
At last, entering the gates of the looming city once again, in the cover of the darkest night, for a less probable chance of notifying possible watchers.
The sky's completely black, no moon, or any stars are visible across the vast expanse of the celestial.
I could only see vague outlines of buildings.
Even if there were enemies watching, I doubt they'd recognize me.
Dimmed lights were peeking through gaps in between the wooden planks of closed windows, making a few areas slightly more visible, but that was it.
Yet the night life still held up, as evident by hushed cheers coming from a 'closed' tavern, and two homeless guys debating philosophy in an alley.
Now almost free of the emotion, I continue on to the place Naela is certainly at.
This emotion has inhibited me, but now I once again feel more like myself, more like Suisei, instead of... whatever I was during the past week.
-x-
A few minutes later, I reach the front door to the bookstore, Intellegis hoc Epigramma, or Inhocepi for short. It's the place with the most memories from within this world, I've got a sense of slight nostalgia, coming back here.
My mind almost completely purged of the curse, my lips curl up to a smile as I stare at the building with what could only be described as simple happiness.
I am at ease, relaxed.
It's almost like this relatively short adventure we've had was a fever dream, even if I'm only here to get her back, so we can continue on.
I'll wait in a dungeon till sunrise. As much as I desire to see her now, I don't want to wake her up. Plus, I've been itching to try out the gemstone rune on some real targets, especially the boss.
Going to an alley for additional precaution against possible hidden, watchful eyes, I attempt to enter an ID, but a window appeaers, instead of the usual change of surroundings.
[Available Dungeons]
Zombie dungeon - selected
Skeleton dungeon
Whoa, a new dungeon?
That's a novelty.
But, skeletons? Aren't they weaker than zombies? The brain-eaters have more mass to them...?
Game?
No response.
The only way to find answers is to try the new ID out, I guess.
Upon entering it, I'm greeted with all encompassing grayness; faded grass clumps here and there among a seemingly endless expanse of hills of cold, dry ground, husks of dead trees were dotting the landscape, the sky was shrouded by deep gray clouds. There were ruins of a huge castle in the distance, a few kilometers if I had to guess.
No life in sight.
A skeleton fell down from the sky a dozen meters from me, getting up immediately.
It rushed at me, with a rusted sword appearing in its hand.
It was fast, much quicker than the fastest of zombies, I barely managed to evade a downwards swipe. When it was getting ready for another attack, I took the chance to strike it, summoning a shortsword into my hand mid-swipe.
It collapsed in one hit, surprising me.
Should it really surprise me though? It's just a skeleton, and those aren't supposed to be tough.
So that's the thing of this dungeon, the main strengths of the enemies are speed and damage, the weakness being durability. Compare that to the zombie dungeon, in its earlier levels the only real danger the undead posed, was their bites, they only had the damage advantage. This ID will be much more challenging. It is not the 'tutorial' dungeon, as Game described the zombie one.
I look at the pile of bones in thought. Could they be a possibly strong rune material? Lemme search them in the material addon.
...
Only a 50% multiplier.
That is disappointing.
I'll take them regardless, human bones aren't worthless by any means, may prove to be of use some other way.
I decide to head for the castle, it being the only possible location where the boss may be.
After less than even a minute of silence, five skeletons appear, each one equipped with a spear.
Not giving them the chance to do anything, I attempt shooting them down with a low mana consumption chain bolt rune.
All but one dodge the missiles, the undead that didn't make it died on the spot, flying back meters as a pile of bones.
This was the first time any monster managed to do it, to evade my magic.
Firing a second round, another one goes down.
And then, the three are upon me. I dodge two thrusts, but one spear strikes true, and goes through my left thigh.
I thank the Adrenaline status effect for existing, before taking advantage of the fact that the skeletons are still getting ready for their next attack, and unleash the chain rune upon them where they can't dodge it now.
All three go down.
Inspecting my leg, the damned spear went right through it, coming out the other end. It's got harpooned edges, so I have to push it all the way for it to come out.
After doing so, I see the wound closing in an instant. Checking my HP, it's still almost as low as it was when I took damage.
This has happened a few times before, very few, because zombies were too slow, but it did; Game's explanation was that Gamer's Body made any injury automatically convert to damage.
Just as I start walking once again, I eye the bone piles left by my enemies. Taking them isn't much of a debate this time.
It would be questionable if I hadn't had infinite storage space, as there isn't much they could be used for currently, but there's no reason not to take them, as I do have the inventory.
In the following hours, I encountered around a hundered more skeletons, there were a few close calls, but I leveled up, the spooky boys granted a bit more exp than zombies, and there really wasn't much of it to the next level.
As well as I got a few thousand bones, maybe they'll be of use one day...?
The monsters were unnaturally fast, but their HP was pathetic.
I put more skill points into DEX this time, I need it for this dungeon, especially now that the boss castle is only a hill away.
I'm getting kinda nervous as to what may hide within those walls.
-x-
Now before the entrance to the boss room; a closed wooden gate between two walls of cracked stone.
The hinges were rusted, the wood looked weak.
After a calming breath, I attempted to push it open.
It didn't budge.
Maybe brute force it with bolts?
Ehh, feels like a waste to use magic on it. Let me have a look at my STR.
STR - 22
Athlete level, below olympics, but above the common muscled gym-goer. Likely not enough to break through the wood on itself alone. What are my DEX and END?
DEX - 30
Olympic level.
END - 34
A bit above olympic.
Maybe if I held my largest rock, and ran full speed at the gate, it would break through? That's a possible solution - the wood is very old, rotten.
I'll try it, and if it doesn't work, then there's always magic.
Summoning the biggest stone I have, about the size of a basketball, I back away from the gate.
Fifty steps away, I turn in the direction of my target.
After a second or two of focusing, I dashed directly at it.
Getting closer, I held the rock to my side, ready to swing it.
A few meters, and I do it, slam it into the wood with all my force, like a rasengan.
Success! It gave away, splinters flew everywhere, larger chunks scattering near my feet.
Stepping back, I see that the resulting hole was enough for me to go through.
I do so.
On the inside, there's an admittedly scary looking skeleton of what appears to have been a hippo at some point.
It didn't attack me immediately, That's because it's probably one of those bosses that only attack when provoked.
Taking full advantage of this, I summon my strongest chain rune, a fairly large, and rare rock, each bolt dealing 23.4 damage, and there are 32 bolt runes total.
That is, summed up, 748.8 damage for a single round.
The downside is that it is quite large, requiring some time to take it out from my inventory, with every second counting during combat, that's not a viable weapon. It also eats up more than 2/3 of my mana reserves, only leaving my weakest chain runes to use.
Not.
Now that I've got the 79 damage glass rune, in which each shot costs 20 mana, I can afford an additional 5 shots of that before running out of MP.
That's 395 damage.
If this boss has more than 1100 HP, this is gonna be a tough fight.
Let me just take out the glass rune as well.
Backing away to the part of the arena furthest away from the boss, I aim both runes at it, and fire. As the chain rune is quickly launching the projectiles, before even the first one hits the boss, I am already activating the glass rune.
All of the missiles strike true, yet the monster still stands up, even as half of its ribcage, head, and spine are heavily damaged, looking ready to charge -
It took me off guard with the speed it displayed, barely a second had passed, and it was already half way to my position.
I barely dodged it, even with my nigh-superhuman DEX.
The boss rammed into a wall, destroying a good part of it.
I took the chance to attempt attacking it with my sword.
It didn't work, the bones were as hard as metal, they even made the same sound.
Wouldn't be surprised if they were made of steel, that it was only painted to look like bone.
Fuck-
It jumped out of the hole, instantly barreling towards me. I evaded once again, and this time threw two large stones at it, both shattering on impact. Seems my physical stats, and the Throwing ability are doing something at least, not much more than my sword though.
I'll have enough mana for the activation of the glass rune in about a minute.
I always have just enough time to dodge, it's quite likely my DEX is only slightly above its.
Well, I'm somewhat higher than olympic level dexterity, and this is the skeleton of a hippopotamus, they aren't known for their speed, but they are animals - those generally top humans when it comes to short distance running.
This boss is a combination of END and DEX, the charges may be devastating, but they're fairly easy to predict.
In no time, I'm once again capable of launching a missile.
As the skeleton is recovering from a charge, I launch the bolt at one of its front legs, breaking it. Hopefully that will slow the beast down.
After another dodge, I see that it did. The boss is now laughably easy to evade, at least for me, I doubt any regular human would be capable of doing so.
So I kept chipping away at it with my sword and rocks, sometimes blasting it with a rune.
-x-
After the longest time, the boss is dead. The 'fight', if one can even call it that, was heavily disappointing, much too repetitive.
Though, that may also be viewed as a positive thing; a boring fight means less danger.
No matter how it happened though, it has ended with me victorious.
And getting a new rune.
Apparently every time I defeat the boss of a new dungeon for the first time I get a rune.
[Summon Energy Orb] ג
When the activation signal reaches this rune, it launches a slow but powerful orb of energy.
Deals (INT+WIS)/3 explosion damage.
Deals [26] explosion damage.
Uses 20 MP per activation.
This one I'm putting on the most valuable of stones, it scales with my power.
Or maybe most spells are like that, and just the starter one's incredibly weak?
A changing base 26 damage plus the likely knockback effect from the explosion, this rune's likely to oneshot the most armoured knight even if put on a common rock, blunt force is known to cause more damage against armoured opponents.
Though testing will have to wait till the following night, I've got to reunite with Naela at last.
Coming out of the dungeon, I am greeted with the mist that accompanies dusk. The sky is visible through it, stars are still there, though fading.
A chirp can be heard, as birds already know that a new day is rising.
At one glance it may seem that it is still night, but after a few moments of observing, smelling, hearing, feeling, one may notice a change in atmosphere, a juvenile whisper excitedly telling of the end of darkness, of the light's arrival.
Coming out of the alley in which I appeared, I return to the door of the bookshop. Naela wakes up very early most of the time, it'd be unlike her not to be up at this time.
Also, she shares my opinion on the unrivalled quality feeling of early morning reading.
Letting out a short chuckle, filled with anticipation, I knock on the wooden door.
[A/N]
If you've read Gamer's Domination, my cringy, badly-written first fic, you may recognize the new dungeon level. I was blessed to see how much I've improved, comparing two same, yet so different text blocks. Can't wait to see where I'll be the next year. It's fairly likely I'll think of my current work as cringeworthy, but idk.
Suisei's got a luck stat of 17, that is higher than any normal human, but she will disregard the stat, not knowing of its immense potential- it's because of it that she found the fake gems, a tree was in the way of her path, so she took a slightly different route, that is when she spotted the shack.
Yep, luck is overpowered.
And she doesn't know it.
I'm sorry for the incredibly late upload, there were some complications, and I had to delay it some time. Don't worry, my usual update rate should be back on track now.
Only one more chapter, and Abandoned Principle will reach 50k words!
Almost half-way to 100k, this chapter is!
Me happy.
If you want to support my writing, I've got a P-word this site doesn't like-
(remove the spaces)
pa tr eon loudsilence