Accept party invite from Gaian Twelve?

I accept as my back slams against the ground.

Party recognized. Role: Slayer active.

There’s no time to think about what any of that means or who this Gaian Twelve might be. Not when I’ve got a bunch of gorilla armed monkeys dogpiling on top of me, bombarding my armor with powerful punches.

Layering [Harden] across my armor does only so much to stop the pain of concussive force from wreaking havoc on my body, not to mention the astronomical draw of stamina. Whatever state I’d been in before has faded and left me to my own fate.

When I try to bring my greatsword up, an immovable weight refuses. My arms and the weapon are both sufficiently pinned to the ground, and no amount of bucking frees me from the crushing weight.

The only thing I can think of is trying to [Overcharge] another casting of [Imbue]. A sensation tells me I shouldn’t be able to use the ability so soon again, but at the same time, I know I can.

Here goes nothing, [Overcharge].

Ten primessence consumed to reset the cooldown of [Overcharge].

One primessence has been consumed to regenerate stamina.

One primessence has been consumed to regenerate arcana.

My stomach drops through the earth as energy shifts violently inside of me, but then it’s there. Power. A font of energy buzzes across my body, popping the dents from my armor and blazing with teal darkness. The effect extends to my greatsword, and I don’t hesitate to cast [Slash].

While my arm may be pinned, that doesn’t stop the raw explosion of energy from extending in a wave from its blade to scythe through whatever’s pinning that arm down.

Slayer trait activated.

For ten seconds, you gain one of every attribute. This stacks up to one hundred times. Additional kills will reset the effect’s duration.

With my weapon now free, I waste no time stacking up those attribute bonuses and freeing myself from the monkey dogpile. As my sword is darker than night, so too is my armor. Any other time, I’d joke about how I really do reflect my Dark Knight class.

But I’m pissed.

Pushing to my feet with renewed vigor, plenty of stamina and arcana, and a willingness to put all of that to good use, I skip trying to identify the blur of movement cutting their way into the center of the fray from the outside and get right into fulfilling the duties of my role.

That is to say, I resume slaughtering every monkey within reach. Each time one falls, more power floods through me. [Slash] sends waves of teal shadow cutting down several monkeys at a time. And no matter how many times I use it, my stamina feels endless.

I don’t think and let my body move, using [Dash] liberally and taking vengeance on the monkeys for being such a pain in my ass. They’re getting a lot of my pent up frustration, sure, but I don’t care. Monster monkeys that look like a Primeape decided to reproduce with a gorilla and act like a swarm of locusts in the height of summer will get nothing by the sharp and pointy treatment from me and my greatsword.

It’s almost comical. Such dire straits turn into the monkeys not even being able to get even remotely close to Matthew or landing a blow on me. Without much more issue, the rest of the monkeys fall.

The way this ends feels almost anticlimactic, but I don’t mind being on the winning side all too much.

“Wyatt!” Sammy says from behind me. She’s scrambled over to Matthew, standing outside a circle of piled monkey corpses. “I-is he… dead?”

Hard to tell from where I am, so I move closer, beginning the incantation. It resists, but as I did with [Overcharge], I pay primessence to reset the ability’s cooldown.

One primessence consumed to reset the cooldown of [Greater Restoration].

“Bid unto thee recovery, make thy wounds heal true. Embrace this breath, so tenderly, knit thy flesh anew.” By the time I finish, the emerald glow from my hand is nearly blinding. Definitely far superior to what I cast previously. When I get to his side, I kneel and finish the spell, “[Greater Restoration]."

I take out my EID, keeping one hand close to Matthew, and look at my status. “Holy shit.”

Name: Gaian One

Race: Primordial

Local Ranking: 41

Racial Trait 1: Adaptable Genealogy

Racial Trait 2: Duality of Order

Innate Trait: Mental Fortitude (S)

Level: 9 (19)

Class: Dark Knight

Party Role: Slayer

Stamina: 179/333 | Arcana: 253/404 | Primessence: 6/19

Strength: 50

Endurance: 61

Dexterity: 50

Intellect: 118

Wisdom: 56

Available Attributes: 6

Active: Slash (F), Harden (F), Stab (F), Suppress (B), Dash (F), Battle Trance (D)

Passive: Two-Handed Swordsmanship (F), Heavy Armor Handling (F), Navigation (F), Perception (F)

Magic: Living Shadow (S), Shadow Manipulator (D), Imbue (E), Overcharge (A), Greater Restoration (B)

Order: Transference (C)

Profession Skills: Entrepreneurship (C), Gathering (D), Mining (E), Herbology (E), Butchery (E), Production (D)

Profession Items: Mining Pick (E), Herbal Shovel (E), Butcher’s Knife (E)

Equipped Items: Greatsword (F), Beginner’s Steel Platemail (F)

Merit: 100

World Coin(s): 766

The sound of things popping and cracking back to place draws my attention and elicits a groan from Matthew. Goes to show he’s still alive, and shortly thereafter, he’s looking good as new. Insane and incredible at the same time, all things considered. Even his odd black tendril, pale vampire, five times too large effect has reverted to a healthy pallor and average stature.

When the effect of the slayer trait fades, I too feel as good as new. Curious, I check my resources. It’s interesting to note that all the remaining stamina and arcana remains, both measuring over the capacity.

Stamina: 179/111 | Arcana: 253/142 | Primessence: 6/19

“Uh, Wyatt… You’re starting to smoke,” Sammy says from behind me.

“What are you talking about—huh?” Sure enough, I start getting really hot.

My unknown savior rushes over and appears to not be so unknown after all. Clarissa, in all her glory, stands before me and points deeper into the forest.

“You don’t want to find out what happens if you stay in that state. Go burn off everything that goes over your energy capacities.” She sees the look in my eyes and grins. “We’ll talk about how I found you when you get back.” Pointing towards the forest, she gestures for me to leave. “Now get lost.”

I look towards Sammy, and she gives me an uncertain nod, looking between me and Clarissa like she’s seeing a ghost and trying to ask me if it’s real. Seeing as nothing but confusion and a bad taste in people is going to threaten Sammy for the foreseeable future, I rise and step past Clarissa.

Repeated uses of [Dash] leaves the evidence of our slaughterfest behind as I make my way deeper into the forest. Expending arcana is quite easy, seeing as each attack I make against the passing trees passively consumes some.

At the same time, emptying almost the entirety of my capacity isn’t something so easily done, forcing me to come up with a better solution. Stopping in place, I remember the existence of [Shadow Manipulation] and wonder if it could serve a better drain.

“Might as well try,” I mutter. My little shadow friend seems to find this prospect enticing and starts to wriggle. “Wish I could just funnel all this arcana into you—wait. Is that a thing?”

[Living Shadow] falls under the magic category, so I should be able to expend arcana into it… in theory. Now, how do I go about doing that? Beats me.

But maybe I’m onto something here.

“Hmm. I did get [Shadow Manipulation] when I acquired you, didn’t I?” What do I have to lose but a few seconds if my tests don’t work, I suppose. Crouching, I rest my palm against the ground in the center of the shadow I cast. “Let’s see if we can make some magic happen.”

At first, I don’t really know what I’m doing. Everything feels like an amorphous, ever shifting blob that’s hard to derive any meaning from. But the sensation of thick resistance starts to edge away once I feel my shadow’s presence inside the mass of distracting ambience.

I use it as an anchor to orient myself and almost immediately vomit all of the contents in my stomach. Clenching my teeth shut eases the incredible vertigo I’m experiencing from seeing a dual layered realm of color superseding that of countless shades of gray with some endless black and blinding white.

“What is this?” I ask once my stomach calms.

The ability slips away, and a relieved breath slips free. My aching head advises against attempting to use [Shadow Manipulation] again, but I’m not one to try something and give up. So I pour a larger quantity of arcana into the ability’s activation.

When the muted worlds layers over the world around me, it’s more clear than before. Defined separation lets me make sense of what I’m seeing. Everything. The sense ranges as far as [Perception] does, giving me a vivid sense of what I can draw upon with the skill.

And it’s more than I know what to do with.

The ability fails again, and shaky legs nearly collapse out from under me. Opening my eyes, I look around at the world. It’s back to its normal coloration of browns, greens, and light pouring in from the canopy, casting shadows everywhere.

A prime location for practicing this ability, if I may say so myself. It’ll just take a bit more effort to orient myself, but anything worth doing is worth doing right.

Attempt three starts similar to the first two, but knowing what to expect, I nearly bottom out my entire arcana reserves, easily resolving the overcapacity issue. With greater clarity, I feel the world around me writhe, as if alive.

The shadows move and sway, slippery like oil beneath my attempts to grab hold of something tangible, anything at all. Only one thing doesn’t cause me issues, my own friendly shadow.

Without much progress on developing an idea of how to draw upon the ability, I grip the arcana I have at my control and shove the energy into [Living Shadow]. The shadowscape shifts slightly, but then my magic settles.

When I again open my eyes, my shadow companion dances happily. I’m not sure what any of that accomplishes, aside from not needing to determine what happens if I keep smoking like a chimney.

Now that I’ve expended plenty of arcana, I turn my attention towards my stamina. There’s far less that I need to burn through, however, I’ve noticed stamina isn’t so easily burned through. All of my magic abilities seem to use a large amount of arcana to activate, but that’s not the case with those requiring stamina.

Gripping my greatsword with both hands, prepared to be here for a while, I set to experimenting with the few actives to my name. For being so simple, they have quite an amount of versatility. Activating [Slash] or [Stab] allows me to redirect a strike while in motion. Very useful, but I wonder what else I can do with them.

“This should be fun.”

With a little over sixty stamina needing to be used, I target the closest tree and begin with basic strikes. My greatsword does little to the trees without the application of skills, rebounding off tough bark with little more than a small scratch to show for my efforts.

Vibrations shoot through the blade and into my arms, elbows, and shoulders. After about ten strikes, holding the weapon requires a lot more effort. My wrists hurt and fingers ache. Like a dam breaking, I draw stamina into my body and go right back to striking the tree.

All pain and aching fades after a few seconds. A useful trick, but I’m not sure the pain is actually gone. More like it’s being suppressed and will return in full force the moment I stop fighting against it.

Five strikes later, I start adding in [Slash], attempting to improve my own timing and experimenting with the different methods of utilization. The ability doesn’t have any cooldown, unlike [Overcharge], so I’m able to use it in rapid succession. The first time I did so was back in the arena where I met Loboden and got [Living Shadow].

Then, it had been more instinct that drove me to attempt rapid attacks. Now that I’m taking time to really experiment, there’s almost a nagging sensation of shackled potential. Chasing that feeling leads to more questions than I started with.

Once I give up on trying to force the feeling, I throw [Dash] in and begin really unloading my stamina after a quick look at my watch. How I’ve already been here thirty minutes, I’ll never know.

I keep things simple at first, starting farther back from the poor tree that’s become my training target. [Dash] pulls me forward to the target, and I follow up with either [Slash] or [Stab], then [Dash] back to the original spot I started from.

Bark chips away notably faster with the additional momentum, which is to be expected. Applied physics and whatnot.

Going straight at the tree definitely yields devastating results. If I were to pit a [Dashing Stab] against a mother of the forest, I’m confident nothing it could do would stop me. But this is only the first floor, and things wouldn’t likely stay this simple forever.

The giant goblins, for example, look like they could give as good as they got. Which, if I’m to take a wild guess, is a lot. That’s not even mentioning the head honcho I didn’t lay eyes on. To assume things would take a hit and fall over forever isn’t a trap I’ll delude myself into believing.

Just imagining trying to one shot a dragon makes me chuckle.

Focusing, I create a game plan to test some things I’ve been wanting to try. The third bout of my tests focuses on getting around the tree to strike at all the sides left untouched until now. My first attempt ends horribly.

I rush at the tree headlong. As I draw closer, I orient my last step to the side of the tree, cast [Slash], and then activate [Dash]. The angle I [Dash] at causes my entire left side to slam against my intended target. The world becomes a cyclone of motion as I rebound with extreme speed and force.

“Ow,” I groan as I pull myself to my feet. “Looks like I need to adjust a bit. That’s about as bad as things can get though, so the rest should be better.”

As I start to prepare myself for a second try, a presence catches my attention at the edge of [Perception]. Looks like I have visitors.