While we walk through the market, I begin wading through the notifications.
Dark Knight level 10 reached.
Choose one: New class skill or class skill upgrade.
Now that’s a choice. Currently, the only class skill I have is [Imbue]. But to say the skill hasn’t proven its usefulness time and again would be a blatant lie. It’s been the bread and butter that brings my magical abilities together, making my actives far more powerful.
Upgrading [Imbue] is tempting, but I want to at least give the other abilities a look-over before committing. This is the first time I’ve been given an option like this from leveling, aside from choosing the class once I hit level ten the first time, so I don’t want to squander the opportunities.
But… the list of what class skills I can choose from isn’t available to me unless I select the upgrade option.
For a moment, I ponder the fights I’ve had recently. The biggest factor in all of them was… [Overcharge], which can only be added to magic. If [Imbue] is anything to go off of, then the Dark Lord class likely specializes more into the magic side of things.
Having more options to [Overcharge] could be useful, but at the same time, I can’t casually use [Overcharge]. The period between casting it is long, and refreshing the ability costs ten primessence. I wouldn’t be able to do it right now, even if I wanted to.
Decisions, decisions. Quite the predicament.
All of the options I have are starting to get overwhelming, admittedly, and I haven’t even truly tapped into the potential of [Shadow Manipulation]. Picking up even more abilities before understanding the ones I have now doesn’t seem productive.
So without further deliberation, I select the skill upgrade.
Imbue selected for class skill upgrade.
Imbue has increased from E-Grade to D-Grade and has become Improved Imbue.
With that now taken care of, I stave off the urge to immediately test the ability’s heightened power and turn my sights on the next prompt.
Second Order of Transference unlocked.
Choose another attribute.
Oh, now that’s fun. Seeing as I don’t want to die and intellect is currently my highest attribute, I try to feed them back into each other. It doesn’t work, though choosing intellect is a viable candidate for throwing at one of the others.
Considering the method of which I’ve been fighting recently, I’m leaning towards either dexterity or wisdom. Dexterity would give me the option to move faster, be more effective with [Gathering], and allow me greater handling for my weapon.
Which, seeing as the last six days are the only time I’ve ever wielded a weapon in my entire life, wouldn’t be a bad idea.
However, from what I can tell, increasing intellect and wisdom increase my available arcana. My intellect doesn’t appear to affect the speed in which my arcana regenerates, only the power of my magic.
But I’ve received a boost to my arcana’s regeneration when I became a primordial, so one of the two abilities has to affect my regeneration. Blowing through the resource as fast as I have been, it doesn’t seem like a terrible choice.
The alternatives are strength or dexterity, and neither one of those seems all that useful, given the current state of my abilities. Especially now that I’ve upgraded [Imbue].
At the same time, slayer makes up for the deficit of my imbalanced physical attributes anyway, so going for more magic to augment my abilities and stack slayer faster seems to be the most optimal choice.
Second Order of Transference established.
Your intellect attribute will now also add to your wisdom.
I resist the urge to look at my status now. There’s still a few other things I need to look over before doing so.
Resources received from slaying (80) Numbered:
2400 Coins
Various skill scrolls
Various equipment
80 Merit
That… is not great. The system incentivizes killing other Players. If that fact becomes widely known… I can already imagine the sheer level of chaos. It’ll come out, I’m sure of it. The whole system seems rigged against being a Player. Players gain incentives for killing other Players—like, I almost doubled my Merit—and Numberless, too, gain will become Players.
Yikes. Yugmuswa is surely a cruel overlord.
Now that I’ve taken care of all those piled up notifications, I pull out my EID and look it over, knowing it’s going to be quite ridiculous after the addition of seventy dependents.
Name: Gaian One
Race: Primordial
Local Ranking: 33
Racial Trait 1: Adaptable Genealogy
Racial Trait 2: Duality of Order
Innate Trait: Mental Fortitude (S)
Level: 11 (21)
Class: Dark Knight
Party Role: Slayer
Stamina: 339/339 | Arcana: 597/597 | Primessence: 6/21
Strength: 13
Endurance: 100
Dexterity: 13
Intellect: 120
Wisdom: 139
Available Attributes: 4
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), Improved Imbue (D), 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: 180
World Coin(s): 3166
Oh.
Yeah, wow.
My levels feel meaningless in the face of so many attribute bonuses, but then again, the levels are what got me the second [Order of Transference]. But still, two attributes per level is slow in comparison to this enormous growth.
“I’m a cheat character, aren’t I?” I mutter, shaking my head. “How did this even happen?”
Absentmindedly, I throw my four attributes into endurance and watch as my stamina goes up another twelve points. Because of the double link from endurance to intellect to wisdom, arcana leaps by another twenty, pushing the magic resource to over six hundred, with almost twenty points extra.
Then I feel it. A burning stemming from deep in my stomach and chest, slowly spreading out across my whole body. The heat is both hot and cold, overlapping to create a disparaging torment so bad, I stop in place and simply try to stay on my feet.
After my endurance doubled last time, I wondered how long it’d be before this happened. It took longer than I expected, but lo and behold, the price will be paid.
The extensive growth on a ridiculous level is like cancer, trying to heal and growing and growing to the point of becoming painful, dangerous, and harming the host organism. When my whole body is overlapped in icy chill and infernal heat, the pitch raises a degree higher, bringing me panting to my hands and knees.
“Urgh,” I mutter before falling forward gracefully on my face.
*
“I really need to stop doing this,” I groan as I come to. I see a lot of familiar faces surrounding me, and I blink multiple times to clear the grogginess from my vision. “What are all of you doing here?”
Arrayed in a semi-circle around me, Sammy takes up the center of the group. Marissa is standing in front of her, giving me a thumbs up, winking. Our mother and Kat both stand beside Sammy.
Not at all the view I expected to wake up to.
“Mom called,” Sammy says, as if that’s enough of an explanation.
It’s not.
“I was worried,” Mom says, just as enlightening as Sammy.
“So were we,” Kat adds.
“Yup! I had the greatest idea and told them they should come to the Tower, since it’s not so scary when big brother is here! They were scared, but your favorite little sister convinced them to come anyway!” Marissa explains, finally, while giving an angelic smile to Sammy. “Aren’t I just the best, big brother?”
“Good job.” My watch tells me two hours have passed since I fell unconscious. “So… what’s everyone here for?”
They look at me with concern, doing that whole nurturing woman thing. Mom steps forward. “Sammy told me what you’ve been up to Wyatt.”
“Yeah, and?” I ask, eyeing Sammy. Considering I didn’t check on things with her and Matthew before ditching the Tower, I can only imagine what she might’ve told our mom.
“She explained you’re not a devil worshiper.”
“I didn’t know that was something that was in question,” I mutter, rising from the ground. “Thanks, I guess?”
“Sure thing,” Sammy says, awkwardly looking away. “Dad didn’t believe me though.”
Of course not. I think the guy who shot me was his old pal, Rick. “He and Rick go way back, so it’s not a surprise. Used to see him at church on Sundays when we were younger. The man was always a devoted follower.”
“You can say that again,” Sammy grumbles, eyeing Mom. She then turns to Kat. “So what’s the deal with you two? When’s the wedding?”
“What?” Kat and I both respond, though she looks far more intrigued in the idea than I do.
No, not having this talk right now. “Anyway…” I look around and don’t see the group of my new dependents. “I’ve got some things to take care of.” After wiping myself off, I fix my gaze on the long hall past them leading out of the marketplace. Then I look towards them, Mom specifically. “Did all of you register?”
“We did,” Kat says, holding up her EID. “Didn’t know there was a blood offering involved…”
Mom scowls. “Hard to believe it’s not a devil cult when they ask you for blood to get in the door.”
Yeah… “Did any of you see a group of about two hundred people exiting the market on your way in?”
“Sure did!” Marissa helpfully chimes in. “They were with weirdo Jimmy, and I made sure to tell all of them hi, since they’re part of our big family now. You were really busy today, weren't you? I hope you made lots and lots of money!”
“Kind off…”
The thought of the twenty-four hundred Coins I got from killing all the other Numbered come to mind, and I make a mental note to check where I can exchange Merit points. I’ve got a few now, so looking into those might be beneficial. If anything, I might be able to get a system recognized name.
“Let’s go see if they’re getting close to finishing.”
It’s been two hours after all, and the process doesn’t take that long. But with at least a hundred people, Jimmy’s lot included, I have a feeling they might just be finishing up. Can’t expect everyone to be quite as fine with offering blood in exchange for unimaginable power.
Maybe we are devil worshipers, on second thought…
