I was more than 200 feet away when the first ball of acid started flying at me. The velocity of the ball was far higher than any of the greater spitters had been able to manage, though the frequency of attacks was reduced slightly. From this distance, I could still dodge, but as I approached that became far more difficult. When I got to the 50-foot mark, I could no longer get closer without taking hits.

Unlike the greater spitters I had just wiped out en masse, the guardian of agility was capable of precision targeting from any rage. My standard tactic was to defend my torso and head with water cloaked wings, but the guardian would pinpoint any opening and send a ball of acid directly to it. All the while, the small spider was in constant motion, moving in erratic zig-zag patterns along the ground to dodge the hail of icicles and lightning bolts I was slinging its way.

I did a black flip, narrowly avoiding another attack, before plunging to the ground, balls of acid blasting through the air, narrowly missing me as I dived. I landed behind a small hill, giving me a brief respite. I let out a held breath, before jumping back into the action. This time, instead of leaving myself open from the sky, I opted to stay along the ground. I held myself horizontal, minimizing the possible area where I was vulnerable, and I flew only a few feet high. Even then, the balls of acid struck with precision accuracy, and I was forced to do barrel rolls left and right to narrowly avoid strikes. I was getting closer, and I didn’t imagine that this spider had very impressive defenses. I thought I could kill it with just one hit from my claws.

Seeing the approaching danger, the guardian turned and ran. Fleeing quickly, it dashed off into a nearby forest bordering the garden to the east.

The guardian was ridiculously fast. From the air, it looked like it was just hopping around from place to place, but now that I was in hot pursuit, I could better understand the prowess that the arachnid showed. It would launch itself from tree to tree like a jumping spider on steroids, firing acid shots during every jump. I must have been traveling at over 40 miles per hour all the while dodging tree trunks and branches, and I was only just barely catching up. It had land speed comparable to what Kaitlyn had shown.

Once the guardian realized that I had managed to close the gap, it immediately changed directions, moving to the south. With a grunt of rage, I twisted my body, bringing both of my wings out making a hard-right turn to follow by dragging my claws around a nearby trunk for support and friction. Through the whole bend my wings were straining, and I could feel the joints straining against each other as the sheer amount of air resistance they were subjected to tried to pull them apart. I was forced to slow down, but I had made it through the tight turn using a move right from anime. The guardian had managed to gain some ground, but ahead was a small clearing, so I took the opportunity to charge my new wings with wind mana to help recover the distance.

The wind charge was far more effective than I believed it would have been, instantly accelerating me right up behind the spider. I was within melee distance now, so I raised my hand, preparing to shred its thorax with my razor claws. My attack fell, but for some reason, my hand sunk right through the bug! The spider before me exploded with a pop and a puff of white smoke, and I instantly felt a searing pain on my back as acid impacted the small of my back, almost landing right on my backpack. It was behind me!

It had created a freaking shadow clone! What was this thing, some kind of budget shinobi? Clearing the acid off the wound with a blast of water, I whipped around ditching my pack while searching for the enemy.

It stood facing me, just on the other side of the clearing I had just passed through. The acid attack had done around 50 damage, far more than the greater spitters were capable of, ridding me of a tenth of my health in one clean shot.

Perhaps striking this guy with melee was a bit too ambitious. I didn’t have any good territory control options from range, and I had little hope of keeping up with the sheer speed that this arachnid boasted. It was too small and fast to simply deal with, and it could quickly hop away from any large ice attacks. My best bet was to nail it with a quick lightning blast while it was mid-air, an attack that was almost impossible to dodge.

If I wanted to make that an option though, I needed it to jump straight backward away from me, a direction that would give my bolts the best bet of actually landing. That would require some preparation though. First, I landed on the ground, charging my wings with water to form barriers. That would help protect me from some of the acid as I concentrated on my next action.

I started to pull a large amount of water from the air. I needed to corner the guardian, to make it unable to dodge to the sides. Unfortunately, this spell required lots of concentration, so I couldn’t devote any of my thought to quick dodges while I was doing it. Behind me, two fields of icicles started to form from the air. The guardian, probably noticing that I was up to something, went on the offensive. It started to hammer my wings with balls of acid, the strikes targeting the gaps in my defenses. I received another acid strike grazing across my left calf melting through my kangor boots, followed by another on my right side, destroying my jerkin. The pain was immense and lingering, but if I wanted to defeat this bug, I needed to risk my health just a bit. I could use some concentration to wash the acid out of the wounds, but I couldn’t do much else.

Gritting my teeth through the pain I counted the seconds as my attack charged. My health had already dipped below a third when the ice attack was finally ready, and I only had 120 mana remaining. It was time. The guardian still stood across the clearing, hammering my defenses from its position, completely confident that it could handle whatever I could dish out. We’ll see about that.

As fast as I could, I started charging my wings with electricity instead of water, creating a field around me. Then, I prepared a lightning bolt in each of my hands, overcharging them with all of my remaining mana. When I hit zero, I felt the lightheadedness and fatigue that accompanied it, but I grit my teeth, the painful wounds all over my body helping to keep my mind clear of stray thoughts. I waited until it sent one more attack my way and used lightning step to flash to the left to avoid it. Then, I used lightning step three more times at the maximum range, bringing me 36 feet closer to the spider. I was right in its ugly face, and through my enhanced vision, I could tell it was preparing to dodge either left or right to get around me, but I would not let it.

The hundreds of icicles I prepared fell on both sides of the small arachnid in a tide of ice-cold daggers, cutting off its range of motion. Quickly, it scuttled backward, but I was fast enough that from a standstill it’s only chance to dodge was through one of its jumps. Just as planned, the guardian launched itself backward away from me, its legs splayed out, preparing to land on a trunk and redirect itself. I could not allow it to escape. Now!

Two overcharged lightning bolts crackled into the air, one blasting the guardian spider in the heart, the other shearing off two limbs before ricocheting into a tree off to the left, obliterating the trunk in a shower of splinters and charred wood. The guardian fell to the ground, hard, stunned but not defeated.

Before it could move, I used the very last of my stamina to appear over it, dropping an axe kick directly into its belly. The ground beneath me shook from the impact of the body, the guardian itself erupting in a shower of viscera as it was finally fell, defeated.

I stood over the guardian, bleeding my pale blood from numerous seeping wounds, injured, but victorious. This fight was easily as difficult as the knight boss on the fourth floor. I stood over the spider, contemplating my next steps and the possible location of the key when I heard a level up alert, and a chest fell to the ground at my feet.

Before checking out the box, I made sure the area around me was safe, then pulled up the message to check on my level and skill progress.

Wow. I had made some impressive strides over the past few floors. Every movement I made was now just slightly quieter, and now that I was looking for it, the armor covering my arms and legs felt just a bit easier to move with. Cryokinesis had passed the halfway mark, though I could tell I was reaching a point where I would soon face a bottleneck. I had also reached the max level for each of my stats, meaning I could now increase them by working out and practicing the old-fashioned way. With that change also came a familiar feeling of wellness I always experienced when I had all of my stats maxed out.

Looking at the second, significantly shorter alert, I was very confused. It felt strange that one of my skills, presumably at the end of its tree, had become a trait.

Luna, what is the purpose of all of these traits? What do they do aside from granting unassigned skill points in a big lump every once in a while?

Well, that’s fairly simple to explain. Traits are assigned to everyone when they reach rank 1. Traits are generated based on experience and aptitude and are therefore not random in the least. They affect how easily certain skills can be learned and how fast they level up.

The objective was to make sure that the next Archmage didn’t spend all of his time working as a farmer because he thought it was his destiny. It should be incredibly obvious what you have talent in when you hit rank 1. Naturally, you can still gain and use skills outside of your specialty. It’s just more difficult.

Does that mean that some people can get screwed when they hit rank 1? Like, what if you get only one or two traits and they aren’t specific?

Most people get less than three traits at rank 1, but beta testers started with 5 at a minimum. The starting traits are chosen from a pool designed to help people determine aptitude, so there isn’t a case where someone gets something terrible or useless. That being said, you can also get more traits by maxing out certain skills, thus proving that you have aptitude in them. The physicality trait you received is one example, proving that you have an affinity for working with and improving your body.

Huh. That’s not too bad, I guess. It seems pretty unfair though that beta testers started with such a large advantage.

Not really. Beta testers are the vanguard of the world during the early stages of the change after all. There will only ever be one group of beta testers, but thousands of children are born every day. My current prediction describes that 80% of the beta testers will be dead within 15 years due to conflict and that prediction was made before the pantheon started changing. We gave them their advantages based on these predictions, as morbid as they are.

That did not sound good, not good at all. An incredibly negative prediction and it was sobering to think about. If it held true, between me, Kaitlyn, Donny, Cindy, and Taylor, at least four of us would be dead within that time frame.

What could cause that many deaths, Luna? What is going to happen to make the world so much worse than it already is?

Luna was quiet for a bit before she slowly responded.

Howard never talked to me about it, but I believe that something he sought was a unified humanity. He was convinced that people would only join together if they were required to do so to overcome their struggles. He gave everyone the tools to get stronger through the system, giving them a good chance of survival, but he still needed an enemy to be the catalyst for unity.

Vic, in the years and decades to come, the world will continue to become more hostile. Right now, the strongest of wild monsters are only tier 4, but before long, they will start appearing at tier 7 and higher. Maybe even strong enough to wipe cities off the map with a but a thought. Even if you somehow kill the strong monsters before they get that powerful, more monsters will still be born and continue to grow in an endless cycle. People will inevitably miss one, and tragedy will strike. There is no way humanity can stop them all as it currently stands, and I believe that was the intent behind his actions. The pantheon makes this even worse, the once mindless monsters now under the control of the evil gods.

So, the only thing we can do is continue to grow stronger and hope to be prepared when shit hits the fan. If I ever find H.G., I’m going to fucking kill him for this.

I'll be right there when you do, Vic.

Luna remained silent after that leaving me to continue my work. I shunted the dark thoughts from my mind, refusing to allow doubts to take hold. I looked at my clothes, covered in holes and acid burns. My gauntlets and boots were not much better, the left boot almost completely melted from the attack that crashed into my calf. They had served me well, but I thought it was time that I said goodbye to the kangor protective equipment. It was a shame because I liked them so much, but I couldn’t repair them using my skills, and they now offered almost no defense against the powerful spiders, the warrior’s blades leaving deep scars in them, the increased unarmed damage barely making a dent.

I had to use considerable force to pry the dented and damaged armor off, but I had enough time considering how long it would take me for the regeneration of my health, mana, and stamina to complete. First, though, it was time to check the chest dropped by the guardian of agility.

The chest was rather small, around the size of a shoebox, and was made of black wood with bronze fittings and a bronze clasp. I undid the clasp and swung the thing open. Within, was a small pile of loot, my increased drop rates finally able to do something. It irked me that the only way to get anything out of this dungeon was through chests, considering the monsters dropped nothing unlike those in the tutorial floors. The increased money from my archetype and increased rare drop chance could not prove their worth.

On the very top of the pile was a large key, the handle bearing an elaborate carving of a spider and the engraved word ‘agility’. I placed the key into a safe pocket on my belt where it wouldn’t fall out. There were also two large gold coins, an incredible bounty. I placed both into the money pouch, where they would be safe. The last thing in the chest was far more interesting and helped to make up for the destruction of my boots.

They weren’t quite what I was looking for in armor, but the pieces would do for now. Both were made mostly from leather died black, though the inside lining was woven spider silk. The exterior of the leather pieces was covered in small shiny black scales of carved chitin, obviously from skullback spiders. The shorts I had been wearing and the leather jerkin I bought in the Garcia’s store were destroyed so I tore them off and threw them in a pile with the wreckage that was once my armor. After that, I pulled on the leather pants, feeling in fascination as they contoured to fit me perfectly snug, even opening a convenient hole for me to slip my tail through from the back. My clawed feet had slipped right through the holes, sliding along the reinforced silk without snagging or ripping the nice inner lining. The vest was easy as well, magically melting around my wings as I donned it, buttoning it in the front. The clothes were extremely comfortable, but I was happy there was no one here to see me wearing only tight black leather. The new pieces were definitely more along the lines of cosplay armor than practical gear, though their magic resizing and comfort, not to mention their corrosion resistance, helped make the embarrassment worth it.

Making another perimeter check to see if there were more spiders on the way, I once again observed that I was alone. I sat down at the foot of a tree and began to use body strengthening once more to help me recover. Activating focus allowed me to work on my healing as well. Every time I recovered enough mana to cast Aqua Heal, I did, focusing this time on the interaction it had to my internal Aether. I starting to understand just what it was doing, and the big revelation came when I noticed that what the skill was doing was transforming my mana back into aether, then sending that right into the wounds.

Because I was a monster, I was technically made of aether, right? In that case, was my healing ability simply using water to increase my aether in spots? Also, why did it have to be water? I was close to understanding just how it worked, but before I could quite get it, I was back at maximum health, and it was time to move on to the next guardian.

I stood with a sigh, feeling the grass between my now bare toes. I spread my wings again, heading south to take on my next quarry.

Skill Sheet:

Falc0n

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