As the mana faded, I exited the school before running towards the entrance of a sewer. Passing by the multicolored fauna, the ascendant mana flowed through my runes once more as I kept two stones afloat beside me. With every twisting curve of the sewer, I came closer toward the next dungeon. A few minutes later, I reached it.
I crawled up the metal stairs and pushed off the manhole cover with a reserved slowness. Mana and power-ups aside, I stood no chance against a follower. I didn't want to attract any unwanted attention, despite how my mana made me feel. Imbibed by that sense of reservation, I crawled out of the sewer, finding myself in an alleyway.
A few blocks from me, there was a community shelter. It was a bunker built way back in the 50's during the Cold War. The city maintained it all these years in case there was some crazy disaster, though I doubt it would’ve done anything against the eldritch. In fact, the bunker’s original purpose was subverted, this place built for people’s safety now producing monsters that feasted on them.
I passed nearby, squeezing between two alleyways. Peeking from behind an empty dumpster, I leaned over and noticed two other blips on my minimap. I squinted my eyes forward, towards the bunker. Vines and ivy crawled over the concrete surface like the fingers of nature trying to take back its rightful supremacy. Flowers sprouted along the vine’s lengths, the wisteria attracting butterflies.
I paused, arrested by the beauty of the space and the nature that had overtaken it. In many ways, the system’s arrival destroyed the lives of anyone living here. For the nature that thrived in the absence of humanity, it had become a blessing. Something about the moment made me wonder if we could’ve done better before our fall.
Interrupting my momentary reflection, One of Yawm’s spawns crawled atop the bunker. The yellow, molded chameleon opened a jaw of writhing tongues. Its scales pointed outwards, revealing writhing flesh beneath them. It snapped the tongues out, devouring dozens of insects before swelling its bulbous belly. It laid eggs after a few seconds, its metabolism, strength, and speed exceeding anything nature could present against it.
Walking behind the spawn, a thin, wiry woman and a blackened, featureless man followed. The soot smothered man tread forward with ashen steps, and green shrubs ignited near him. He ebbed orange light from open streaks all across his skin. It looked like his blood was magma.The woman stood like a dancer, her thin limbs vibrating like piano wires in the middle of being played. Her feet and hands ended in slender points, and she stabbed the pavement where she walked.
Yawm had smothered their humanity, leaving them as faceless and uncanny manikins. Behind them, a row of people walked, some converted but others normal. Crusted salt streaked the humans cheeks, their expressions hollow and their eyes empty. There were no children, though one of the youngest of them had orange hair and blue eyes.
I liked his eyes. They carried defiance.
A few other chameleon spawns followed in the two monster’s wakes, and the charred man turned the vault door before leading them into the bunker. I followed behind them, measuring my steps to mitigate noise. As I closed in, Torix sent a message.
Torix Worm, of Darkhill | Level 1,309 - I've identified them both. Neither of them are enemies you should struggle with. Both of them are below level 500, and killing them won't attract much attention either, since they both spend several hours inside this dungeon anytime they visit. That gives you plenty of time to handle what you choose to handle.
Ah yes, do save the humans if you can. They could be excellent material for our cause.
Good luck.
After reading the message, I contemplated Torix’s indifference to humanity. Even after a while, I had mixed emotions on the topic. I wanted him to deeply care for our welfare, yet I found myself disconnected and apathetic as well. It was likely a byproduct of having seen so many killed and slaughtered.
If I cared at all, and I mean even by the most minute of margins, then I would be overwhelmed by emotion. I would be swallowed by fury, outrage, and anger. This coldness I held onto, it kept me from becoming an enraged and ineffectual beast. In that regard, my emotions were a product of circumstance.
We required someone who would take the best course of action regardless of their emotions, and so I would become that person. Who I was before didn’t matter. What mattered was who I needed to be, even if it left me cold and more than a bit lonely. I squeezed my hands, remembering Kelsey and Michael.
I wanted to care about them, yet I didn’t. That apathy left me afraid, and I simply hoped it wouldn’t leave me as monstrous as those I fought. Thinking in that way, I waited for fifteen minutes. I gave the wire woman and charred man some time to go deeper into the dungeon to give me more leeway once I entered.
As I passed the time, I practiced with my ascendant mana. The runes kept the normal frenzy under control, tempering it into a usable form. Now that I familiarized myself with it, I would temper my runes for the use of ascendant mana. Combine that with the rapid initial leveling of the actual skill, and I'd be a telekinetic mage in no time.
Enough time had passed, so I skulked down the steps and through the open vault door. The sun set as I waited, masking the city in darkness. It wasn't pitch black since some of the fauna glowed alongside the solar powered traffic lights. For the most part though, only a little light leaked into the dungeon.
Clean, concrete, and empty, it was like a terrorist cell from a horror movie. A few fluorescent lights flickered in the distance, revealing pieces of pathways off in the distance. I kept getting flash frames of what lingered there, my nerves set on edge.
The hallway stretched out like that for several rooms, like the lit areas were islands in a seas of darkness. I took breaths, settling myself and my emotions.This wasn't unfamiliar territory. My first few weeks in BloodHollow were like this - a walk through endless gloom dispersed by patches of ambient glows.
I settled into the eerie quiet. I stepped. Alone. Silent. Calm. I wasn’t bothered anymore, so I kept my steps composed and aware. Anytime I was unsure of where I was, I'd charge my ascendant mana into my runes. They gave me enough light to see for a flashing moment. Even then, the blipping fluorescents revealed dry streaks of gore and the growing yellow molds.
My willpower and experience kept me focused as I tread through the winding hallways. I reached a set that split into three different paths. I sat still and listened. Nothing ebbed into my ears, so I closed my eyes, honing all my attention to the slightest of sounds. After a minute of doing so, an echo ebbed from the left hallway.
Skill Gained! Listening | Level 1 - Most would walk this plane without awareness. They flounder amongst a sea of information, all of it falling between their fingers. You’ve chosen to do more than wallow in gold. You forge your senses to hear what is missing, your ears becoming avenues to a world unseen.
+1% hearing distance when listening. | -1% to focus required for listening.
The skill helped as I tread forward, finding myself deeper in the dark caverns by the second. The slight echo turned into a slight rumble, then a far off scream. I walked down a few sets of steps, wondering where all the monsters were. This was a dungeon, after all. When I slowly snuck past an open doorway, my questions answered themselves.
The bunker’s concrete edifice faded into the exposed stone of a cavern. The walls warped a bit at the end of the room, like the dungeon deformed reality through the corruption of stone and steel. A balcony lined midway around the edges of the wall, acting as a walkway. Above the balcony, observational windows reflected bits of orange and white light into the room.
They cast ambiance as a single fluorescent lamp beamed down from overhead, enough to see what was near them. Below it, an eldritch crawling out of the room. It was a long slug that slithered like writhing flesh colored like a hunter’s camouflage. Next to the slug, the spawns of Yawm waited. From the sides of this writhing mass, gills flapped up on its sides, a slimy mucus trailing behind it.
One of the converted humans paced forward, the man deformed and bloated from beneath his skin. Blood trailed down his mouth, his stomach bulbous and writhing. The two tentacled eyes of the slug reached out of the side of its head where the gills ended. The creature opened itself from the middle of its body before spearing the deformed man using a thin, spiral shell.
Several other spikes shot out from the insides of the creature before one pierced the core of the spawn.
The spawn wilted, dying in an instant. The slug lurched forward, swallowing the corpse whole. I winced before leaning over the balcony, getting close enough for identification.
Sacrificial Slug | Level 510 - This is an enormous, underwater slug. It glides through large bodies of water, using giant horns to push itself forward along the bottom of the seabed. These horns can be used for defensive purposes, especially considering the density and hardness of the shells.
Outside of the water, their speed and defenses lower dramatically, making them vulnerable. When in the water though, these are deadly, fierce creatures that should not be underestimated.
This species will feed on any surrounding species, liquefying their prey into nutrient rich soups for later consumption. After amassing a significant quantity of this soup, they will gravitate to a queen of sorts before feeding it. This makes sacrificial slugs a higher priority species since the queen can cause mayhem on a massive scale once she's fully formed.
Kill them before they are too far gone.
Before I could read the notifications for the named ones, another slug slithered up. As it waited for food, the wiry woman pushed a non converted woman to the slug. My instinct spiked, and the ascendant mana roared through my limbs as I slammed my heels into the steel rail. It bent as I launched through the air.
I reached the cavern’s ceiling and leaped from it. I turned midair before I pulled my legs up. As I landed directly on top of the slug’s disgusting mouth, I kicked down. The jagged spears pierced several inches deep before I crushed its insides. The impact acted like a detonation inside the slug as my feet met the cavern’s floor.
Muscle tore. Organs ripped. The snail split apart, the kinetic forces acting like wrenching hands. I grew two spikes out of the edges of my hands, slicing back and forth. The slug fully split before I dug my hands into the two parts. Wires sprouted from my fingers, and the creature died in seconds. The sacrificial man fell back, gasping in shock at his sudden saviour.
Either that or he gasped in horror. I couldn’t tell.
Before the shock of my landing wore off, I pounded my heels into the part concrete and part stone floor. Tackling into the wiry woman, my shoulder connected against her chest, slamming her down. I trampled her underfoot, and the glowing soot man stepped forward. His hands pull behind him as two spheres of red, superheated mana formed.
He pulled his hands together, and they combined, forming an orange ball of energy. With a foot still planted on the woman's throat, I wrapped my left hand around her face. My fingers gripped like the bear trap as I pulled her up. A wave of heated mana poured towards us, and I used the woman as a shield. At the same time, I turned to my side, narrowing my profile against the incoming heat.
She howled in my hands, her screams sharp enough to cut into my ears. I pulled the back of her head back while stepping forward and pushing off my heels. That force traveled up my hips before I snapped her face forward. I slapped her head into the stone, crags of rock splintering up from the impact alongside sickening pops.
I raised a fist overhead before using a fifth of my health pool for power. Ascendant mana sparked in my mind as if alive, and I let the rage fuel me. As a berserker, I struck the back of her head, and it crumbled like an aluminum can. The skull dented inwards, and red sprayed out over my face. Visions of wine and a split man flashed over my eyes. Their hollow gaze pierced over me, and a wave of nausea erupted from within.
I swallowed my bile, ignoring the vision. I crushed the insides of her head in my hand before pulling her up and throwing her at the incoming fist of the charred man. His fiery knuckles slammed into her corpse. His other hand came my way, and I ducked under his swing. I twisted on my heels, launching a left hook straight into the pit of his stomach.
Magma blood spewed from his mouth as he flew backwards. Heaving for breath, I tossed the woman to him. Mana drenched off me as I walked, my silhouette a mark of crimson in the dark. As I passed this woman’s body, I stomped on her skull as I passed. The soot man pushed himself back with his hands, his feet dragging behind. He shouted out in desperation, his expression aghast and afraid.
"Help. Help."
He glanced at the eldritch slugs lining the warped walls of the cavern’s walls. They stared back with cold, unfeeling eyes. I gazed at him, my eyes cold.
"You should know they aren't pets."
He turned back to me, his horror fading as he reached out his hands. Just knowing I could speak let him know I wasn't a monster like these eldritch. He shouted.
"I'm...I’m sorry. They forced me too. It was that or die. Please. Have mercy on me. I had a family. I can have another."
Visions of the wine drenched man flashed over me. I let the rage of mana flood it all away as I walked up before grabbing his wrists. I planted a foot onto his chest.
"I’m sorry. I really am. You know I'm in the same boat. If you live, you tell Yawm about me. Either I kill you, or die."
“I won’t speak a word.”
I grimaced.
“I know. But you will kill to survive as you have, and any that die from you will be my responsibility. I...Can’t have that.”
A flash of mana flooded my runes. The man of ash and soot howled out as I stomped his chest and jerked up. His arms tore off his body, magma spewing from the gaping wounds. Using the arms as clubs, I reared back and slammed his right arm into his head. Then his left arm. Again and again, I pummeled his face until it was mush. He writhed for moments before becoming still.
Peering at my health bar, I sat at a fifth of my health. I heaved for breath as well before tossing the arms aside. I let my armor absorb their ambient energy, and I couldn’t help but feel a bit sick at the sight. Evil or not, they had spoken to me like people. It made them seem human, yet they gave experience as any eldritch had.
I shook off my unease before glancing behind me. The group of terrified people gawked at me as if I were a monster. I found no one converted, the two spawns of Yawm having already fed the twisted humans to the slugs. I glanced back towards the opening of the eldritch cave. The other slug monsters waited, none of them leaving the cavern’s entrance. That gave me time.
I pulled my armor off my face before pulling my hair back.
“Alright, I’m here to help you guys out. To make that happen, I’ll need you to follow me. Stay close, and I'll get you guys outside of this hellhole before sending one of my friends to help you out. Knowing him, he'll probably send skeletons, but he means well."
They shivered in terror, each of them awaiting a brutal execution. I suppose that's how they got here in the first place, so I stepped forward. I lunged to one knee, and I met their eyes.
"What happened to you all?"
One of the older men walked up, his beard gray and stringy. He frowned, his voice aged like wine.
"We were a part of the resistance. These evil things found our base. They tore us from our homes, and sent us to camps before being taken here."
His voice cracked a bit as he continued.
"They...they fed people to those things...I watched them scream. I saw their eyes as they were eaten alive...I don't even know what's going on anymore. It's too much. Everything is too much since the damn system arrived, whatever the fuck it is."
An older woman from the back walked up, putting a hand over his shoulder. With a bit of steel in her eyes, she turned to me.
"I'm sorry. Samuel's lost too much to bear. I'm sorry you have to see him like this."
My wounds and stamina regenerated as I spoke.
"Don't worry about it. I understand. Things have been hard since the change, and everyone needs time to be weak between the times when you're forced to be strong. I sure as hell have had a few times where I wasn't able to handle everything either."
The old man peered at the slugs, their cold gazes sweeping over us like hungry wolves. The old man turned, putting a hand over his mouth. He bent down and tears crawled down his cheeks. His silent crying grew into a racked weeping. Others in the party joined him, their fear giving way to the horror of their experiences. It was a healing kind of hurt, one that washed away the paralyzing fear. After several minutes, the group had released the pent up emotions. The only one who kept her cool was the older woman, her peppered hair and firm eyes radiating defiance alongside the red haired boy.
She crossed her hands in front of her, standing up straight. She spoke with a clear voice.
"You heard him. We're struggling."
I nodded, sending a message to Torix that explained the situation. The older woman gestured to the group.
"When are we getting out of here, or are you too busy fiddling with those silly status screens to notice?"
I scoffed. I met her eyes.
"You think these little screens are silly then?"
"You're toying with it while people are dying. It's irresponsible."
I smiled, no mirth in my expression.
“Toying with those messages is why I’m able to kill those monsters and you can’t.”
She glanced back at me.
"That could be true, but you're already plenty strong. Use that strength instead of spending all your time on that damn screen."
I laughed, the expression caustic.
“You need to quit pointing a finger at everyone else and look in the mirror. This world has changed, and you can’t expect to survive unless you change with it. That means understanding that those numbers reflect onto reality in a way numbers never have.”
The older woman frowned, but stayed silent. I continued.
“Look, I know you want to see people get saved, but you’re going to have to help yourself before you can help other people."
She pursed her lips before taking a large breath. She turned her hand to me.
“I don’t like your tone, but...You kept us alive. I should’ve thanked you before I jumped down your throat. I’m sorry. We’ve all been yanked around since the system started, and...Agh, no more excuses. I’m sorry.”
I kept myself steeled.
“Sure thing.”
She turned to her group.
“What should we do to get into fighting shape?”
I gestured behind me.
“You need to clear dungeons. Do that, and you’ll grow strong while keeping the world safe. It will be a profession that will always be needed in this new world, and it’s a noble cause.”
The older woman blinked a few times before speaking up.
“Dungeons, huh? Hmm...I think we can handle that, though we won’t be able to run into the fire like you just did. We’ll need to systemize how we handle it.”
I stood tall.
“Eh, you might get to where I am faster than you think.”
The older woman squeezed her hands tight.
“We’ll get it done, one way or another then.”
I walked forward, appreciating her change in attitude. I gave her a second chance as I reached out my hand.
“My name’s Daniel Hillside. What’s yours?”
She grabbed my hand, her grip firm.
“Isa Antoun. I was a firefighter and a carpenter before the system. Well, it looks like I’ll be killing monsters now, whether I like it or not. I might as well learn to like it then.”
She smiled. I smiled back and said,
“You’re going to fit right in.”
I let her hand go before pointing at the staircase.
“I'm escorting you guys out of here. Once you're in the first room of the bunker, stay still. A minion of this guy named Torix will save you. He’s much stronger than I am, and he really cares about manners. So yeah, be polite."
I walked them out of the room. The group kept quiet, only a few whispers coming out here or there. Most of the whispers were prayers and thanks. It bolstered my morale, putting a smile on my face I hadn’t expected. Those thoughts tumbled in my head until we reached the entrance to the bunker. After a few minutes, several deathknights and rotting wyverns arrived. They scared the occupants quite a bit, but I calmed them down by having the deathknights dance.
Once ready to evacuate, I waved a hand as they entered a manhole. I walked back toward the bunker, as Isa spoke just loud enough for me to hear.
"Good luck out there."
As I walked off, I felt good. Damn good. So much so that I couldn’t help but take a moment after re-entering the bunker to smile from ear to ear. All this time, I fought monsters for my own strength. I told myself it served a greater purpose, one rooted in survival and helping others. Despite that initial reasoning, I hadn’t really saved anyone yet.
This was the first time I took a group of nearly twenty people and directly stopped their deaths. It wasn’t some messy, morally ambiguous situation either. I accomplished my goal without fatalities and with recognition. While I understood this wouldn’t always happen, I decided to appreciate this moment.
It was a moment where I was a hero, and yeah, that felt great.
Once savored, I breathed in my elation and breathed it out. I wouldn’t let a single success go to my head and ruin my ambition, so I paced deeper into the bunker. Making sure I didn't miss any monsters, I reached the dungeon’s opening once more. Several slugs crawled out of the cavern’s edge, but most of them returned to the depths of their cave. Surging with the ascendant mana, I slammed my fists together.
I sprinted before jumping into the room, landing with a booming echo on the ground. Cutting on oppression, the slugs turned towards me in succession. I grinned along with my armor. A slug nearby slinked towards me, more of a lunge than a crawl. I bent backwards to the side, dodging one of the jutting horns.
I grabbed the horn as it retracted and jumped back. The horn tore from the creature while I avoided another spear with a leap backward. As the new horn retracted, I dashed forwards and pierced the creature's maw with the ripped out horn in hand. The horn punctured the slug, stabbing through the creature.
Another spear stabbed at me, drilling towards my head. I leaned sideways while lifting my right arm. The spear went right between my arm and head. Before it pulled back, I slammed my arm down while leveraging the spear on my shoulder. It popped away, blue bile and gunk gushing from the wound.
The slug turned and slithered away, but I followed. It lunged at me once more, but I sidestepped towards the monster’s right. As its head pulled back, I stabbed the monster with the snapped horn and pulled the horn up. It impaled through its upper half. I yanked it back, and the horn sliced the monster's head in half, killing it.
I kept stabbing for good measure, and in tandem, I deflected six more spines. The seventh pierced my calf, but I killed the sacrificial snail beneath me. As my armor absorbed the ambient mana in the creature, I turned to the others. Crimsons energy oozed off my body, vibrant and releasing a small amount of static.
As I walked forward, that static shock jolted onto the bottom of my heels. By now, two more slugs closed in. Before they caught me, I tore out a few more spears from their dead kin. A few tosses later, and one of the slugs carried several spines and leaked like a dripping garbage bag.
Skill Gained! Spear Mastery | Level 1 - Entire civilizations rise and fall, their hands turned to weapons of all manners and types. However, at the base of all these paths lies the simple and elegant spear. It holds the ability to carve opponents apart and to impale those at a distance.
You have chosen to master the weapon of your ancestors, and in doing so, you stand atop the shoulders of giants.
+1% to spear throw speed. +1% to spear handling.
I glared forward and dashed to the other slug monsters. Shooting out another horn, I leaned to my left and stomped a foot. Redirecting my momentum, I smashed a left hook into the horn. It cracked while breaking one of my knuckles. I winced before leaning to my right, dodging another spear. Three more passed by me before I swiveled a crushing right hook into the next horn.
It snapped. The monster squealed in anguish, pulling back again. I dashed forward between the two slugs. One slug aimed to swallow me while the other launched spears. I stepped to the tendrils, telekinetically shifting their trajectories before parrying them. They deflected into the mouth of their friend before I kicked off my foot and turned around.
I kicked one of the lances through the slug. It gushed blood before I punched another through the beast. It turned, and I grabbed its slimy tail, digging my fingers in. I tried pulling it up, but the slime trial pinned it down. Two spears erupted out of my chest, and my vision blurred.
Blood spilled out of my mouth before the spears dragged me backward. The slug’s teeth appeared above me before I lifted my feet. I kicked up off my back, snapping several of its teeth. It ignored the pain before biting down. Just before it crushing my chest, I grabbed a spear and turned it sideways.
It pierced its own maw using the shell lance, adn all went dark. Its teeth pierced my armor before trying to burrow under my skin. My armor’s wires retaliated by sinking into the beast in turn. A reached out a hand, grabbing the hard lances in the back of its throat. Several stabs later, and it tried spitting me out.
My wires ripped it into ribbons, and I pulled a spear from my right side. My wound opened, gushing red before I put a hand on it to stifle the bleeding. The slug died before I turned around. The other slug tried squirming back into the water. I stomped onto a lance, flipping it into the air. I grabbed it mid spin before hurling it at the snail’s tail.
It pierced through the monster, pinning it into the ground. I ran, building momentum before leaping up. I jerked the second spear from my chest before slamming it down onto the slug’s head. It splat apart, and I stomped my front foot into its writhing head. I turned around while dragging a hand behind me. I smashed another slug in the face as it tried biting me.
It fell sideways, tumbling over before I limped over and stomped the monster's head with my heel. The blue blood splattered in every direction, covering my face. I turned back towards the next slug. There was none. The others had escaped into their cavern.
Even the least sapient of animals wouldn’t charge into death, and I was grateful. Having one of them pierce my back had nearly cost me everything. I had to be more careful. Regardless, I opened my status screen and found myself with twelve more levels under my belt. I also noticed a pool of tree points from the dungeon cores I had earlier. That combined with my new skills gave me just enough tree points to unlock the last tier of Genesis of Potential. It gave more than I imagined.
You are a maker of change, so force your thoughts into reality. Tear down whoever and whatever stands before you. Live up to the potential of your kind, of your talents, experiences, and wisdom. Choose a path of greatness, one that marks history forever with your legacy. By doing so, you forge a path that others shall follow.
And you will become the genesis of humanity’s potential.
+ 4 extra leveling perks in total | 7 Total | 6 Spent - Endurance, Willpower, Intelligence, Constitution, Strength, and Dexterity.
Doubles the ability to gain attributes and skill points from dungeon cores. | Current: 25% of total level. | New: 50% of total level.
The leveling perk presented my last opportunity to establish the bedrock of my build moving forward. For me, I would invest in either perception or luck, and they’d set me up for my future. The other bonuses were a plethora of raw attributes and skill points. They would help me complete trees even faster, and that was, in a single word, beautiful.
Once I got back to Kessiah and Torix, I'd get another boost, assuming they gave the cores. I looked forward to it. With the tree finally finished, my other options for skill trees opened. I'd forgotten about them since it had been such a long time.
[II Vicious(Beat an enemy 40 levels higher than you in combat lasting over an hour, Death's Dance, Scorn, and Desperation over level 25)(0/50)]
[III Fighter(Kill an enemy 40 levels over you)(0/50)]
[Cosmic Soul(Obtain level three different soul related skills before level 500, alternate mana type unlocked before level 500, and willpower over 250 before level 500)(0/500)]
[I Invincible(Take over 10,000 points of damage, with capped resistance in the damage type, and live)(0/250)]
[Fearless(Battle an enemy over 1,000 levels above you and live)(0/250)]
I had quite a few choices in my hands. My initial thoughts were to go with the highest number tree, Cosmic Soul. I decided against that once I checked out the bonus of vicious and fighter. Vicious gave me 5% more damage. The fighter tree gave me a multiplier to my bonus physical damage.
Either of those would be invaluable right now, especially the damage bonus. Despite being a high level and having high stats, I would notice the difference something like that would make immediately. With that in mind, I put the rest of my 13 remaining points into the Vicious treeline.
Rip them apart with your hands. Maul them with your rage. Despise them. Use that hatred as fuel for fire. +2% damage.
For such a small investment, it was a solid bonus. Hopefully, creating the Boundless Storm skill didn't mess with my ability to get further down the Vicious line of trees. If so, that would be a painful loss. So far, it seemed fine.
For now though, I just needed to decide on my next leveling perk. It was a choice of either luck or perception. Charisma was out since my armor reduced it so much and it didn’t help my core strategies. A bit of hesitation filled into my mind as I remembered the last few groups I helped out. Without investing in the charisma leveling perk, they might have left without trusting me at all.
In other words, they'd have died. If I invested into the level 100 perk for charisma, I’d gain far more passive charisma. Considering my current social abilities, the offer tempted me. As is, my armor would continue peeling my charisma down, and I’d end up alienated from humanity as a whole.
After all, I didn’t enjoy being hated. Few did.
Still, the only reason I saved those people was because of my raw strength and actual power. I needed more so that I could continue helping people in the future. That reasoning crushed any dreams of becoming some suave bureaucrat. No, I was a warrior through and through. I’d play to my strengths.
That left luck and perception as my two options. Both had esoteric, hard to pin down effects. Perception allowed me to see what others missed. Luck gave me better chances on events I couldn’t quite pin down. However, it also granted health, mana, and stamina. Oddly enough, that alone drew much of my attention.
Luck would almost certainly double its bonuses, giving me more health than perception would. Endurance was also my primary stat, one that I would dump most of my attribute points into. That fed into luck, and it worked off all the other trees I had like Determinator and the Body of Iron perk.
It wasn’t deep or thoughtful reasoning, and yet, that logic played off something I could reliably take advantage of - health. So far, that was the bread and butter of my build. It also made investing into endurance something I could pull off here and now instead of investing into an attribute I hardly used. After all, it fed into willpower then intelligence then luck.
Aside from that, luck had already saved me several times. Ajax not finding me was a miracle, as was Elijah Joan not finding my scent. With that in mind, I put all 24 points into endurance, and I checked out my status screen.
Level 520 | Attribute Menu
Strength - 253.6 | Constitution - 565.4 | Endurance - 604.5 | Dexterity - 100.1 | Willpower - 287 | Intelligence - 110.1 | Charisma - 40.7 | Luck - 57 Perception - 54
Daniel Hillside, The Harbinger of Cataclysm
Health - 35,396/35,396 | Health Regen - 6,789/min | Stamina - 14,471/14,471 | Stamina Regeneration - 232.6/sec | Damage Resistance - 97.5% | Mental Resistance - 97.5% | Physical Power - (+)3,391% | Damage Increase - 7% | Evolution: 234.9 Million/256.0 Million
Aura - Oppression | Current Damage: (10,000 + 30% of your health)/minute within a 175 ft radius.
The steady rise of health and its constituent stats left me feeling good, and I was also finally investing in endurance once more. Even a hundred levels would leave me far stronger than I was currently, and that prospect left me excited and ready to go.
With my status handled, I cracked my neck and walked into the cave. After crushing a few more slugs, my armor would upgrade and I would gain enough levels for the luck perk. It gave me something to shoot for, and like anytime I had a goal, life was good. By the time I would get deeper into this cave, I would be a new man.
So I went into those dark depths with a smile.