28 – Numbers galore

Julian nodded with extreme satisfaction. These were a lot of levels indeed, and they allowed him to round up his stats nicely. The added Vigor was nothing to scoff at, and his 25 Strength made sure that whatever weapon he used could also double as a bludgeoning tool with devastating damage.

Cal was now at level 64, gaining 45 levels with the same runes that made Julian gain 37 levels. This meant that even though the system kind of tossed out numbers at random, it was still somewhat reliable in how it distributed the varying rune prices, and in the long run it all evened out eventually.

As for the skills, Julian dreaded having to choose 37 times in a row. It was definitely going to drive him nuts, or to choose a stupid skill just because he was too tired to think. What was usually an exciting thing to do threatened to turn into a boring task.

The system had other plans.

There was a new, different third option that offered a batch upgrade to a skill with five levels. This is jackpot, Julian thought. I might have to become a mage after this.

By his calculations and experiments, mostly on his own skin since that was the only reliable way to understand how much damage he was doing, he managed to get a ballpark idea of how much damage he was doing.

Magic Missile has F INT scaling, and Sorceries 6 now has D-…

F means 1:1 stat points to damage, D- means 1:7 stat points to damage. I have 15 INT, which means 15*1*7 magic damage, for a total of 105.

Homing Magic Missile has F-, which is 1:0.7… which means a total of 15*0.7*7 = 73.5 damage.

My brain hurts.

Needless to say he chose the third option, leaving him with 32 more choices to make.

Rolls. Undying is good but it’s not even close to worth it over Dodge Rolls here. 27 more to go.

Waitwaitwaitwait… Oasis?

He got up, and began to cast immediately after choosing the skill. Cal saw him stand by the fire, with his arms open wide and unmoving for a few seconds and began to worry, but he paid him no mind. Before Cal could actually start worrying for real, a portal opened right in front of him, hovering a few inches above ground. It was a swirling blue light, and Julian stepped in without pause, but his depleted SP made him struggle to lift his feet to walk.

Julian appeared before a large, calm and deep blue lake, soon followed by Cal. He looked around, walking carefully along the shore of the lake among palm trees, flowers and little animals. All around them was the never ending desert, with tall dunes swept by a wind that didn’t reach the lake, nor the palms. The shade was pleasant and the sun not too warm, although stepping out of the ring of greenery told him that outside the situation was quite different. Retreating into the safety of the oasis proper, he explored it in less than ten minutes – it wasn’t big – and he eventually sat on a rock by the lake.

“What is this place?” asked Cal.

“A safe resting spot.” Julian replied. “We can sleep here, make a fire, stay as long as we want. Nobody will bother us.”

“I have no system, Julian.” Cal said after a moment, looking panicked as he fiddled with his fingers in the air.

“How quaint. I don’t have it either. Do the stats still work?”

He punched a tree. Its trunk exploded, making the palm shiver and then collapse to the ground with a thud. A few coconuts rolled all the way to the sitting Cal.

“They do.” Laughed Julian.

“The stats become part of you, yeah. They work even outside the system.”

Julian hummed. “Okay. This is perfect. Let’s leave, I need to finish assigning the skills.”

“Wait.” Cal stopped him. “What’s the plan after you are done? Do we search for the Renegade Core?”

“Not yet. I want to come back to the Oasis and do some buildings. I have some ideas for tools and weapons I want to try. Then,” Julian said evilly. “We go to the elves and we rob them blind of all they have to offer us. We leave the Core for last.”

Julian eventually changed idea and decided to dilute the assigning of the 26 remaining skills over the rest of his stay on this floor. He didn’t need them now, and he was quite eager to go back to the elves to give them a piece of his mind. Besides, there was nothing left on this asteroid that could be a threat to him now that he had the speculorefractor under his control.

Before he headed there, however, he spent a few days in the Oasis with Cal. His friend rested, even though he was more restless than usual and on many occasions asked Julian to open a portal to the dead forest in the real world so that he could train. Even though this was novelty coming from him, Julian was convinced that his friend was still in the post-near-death experience phase, and that he would soon return to his old self. Not that he didn’t like the current Cal. But he would be surprised to see the changes stick.

He, on his part, spent most of the time building. He fiddled around with the materials he gathered in the underground, using his skill to turn them into tech and magical items. The Cores were proving to be very valuable additions to his creations, making him unwilling to waste them for cultivation when he had so few of them. He also managed to create his own Magic Bullets, but hit a wall when trying to figure out how to enhance the revolvers with the Crystal Cores.

There was also the matter of the message he saw a few days ago weighing on his mind like a great burden, and lately he found himself unable to think about anything other than that. If the minds he was storing in his own brain were decaying… it was bad. He needed to find a solution as fast as possible, as well as a place for them to stay.

New Hope could be a great candidate.