“Do you think there are any more of them in here?” she asked, looking around for any movement. Her head started to pound and she rubbed at her temples, feeling the beginning of a headache.

“I would not be surprised.”

“Yeah me neither. There were so many of them that I didn’t even see. That could have turned out a lot different.”

“Yes, but it did not. It feels good to be wielded by a capable being.”

Kass blushed slightly, bashful at such praises. “So did you draw any power from those things since we killed them? Maybe you leveled again.”

“No, these creatures were not tainted by the same darkness. Another darkness, yes, but not the same.”

“That’s too bad. Would have been good to upgrade you again. Not that I’m saying you aren’t enough without it, but it just would have been nice, you know?” she clarified what she meant.

“Indeed. What of your gains?”

“Yeah I’ll take a look, but let’s maybe find a safer place to do that…” she glanced around and spotted a pillar off to the side that had broken in half. She moved over to it and, using the rubble to stand on, jumped up to the lip and pulled herself up and over.

Once up, she sat cross legged and called for her runic book. As it floated down to her she glanced at her resources again.

Health

307/330

Stamina

196/420

Mana

8/350

Oh that’s probably not good. Wonder if that’s the reason for this headache. Kass looked around her one last time and then dismissed her light orb, plunging the cavern into darkness once more.

“Whisper, does low mana do anything to the body? I’ve got a massive headache coming on.”

“Mana deficiency is dangerous Kassandra, it should have been explained to you through the mind spike.”

“I...must have missed that piece of information. I don’t remember anything about mana other than ‘A force of power used for good or evil’ or something like that.”

“Not only will it cause pain to your body, but you will also experience mana fracturing, which means your body will be less able to store and wield mana.”

“I guess we won’t have light for awhile. How long does it take for mana to regenerate usually?”

“It varies. Many classes award bonus regeneration or even allow someone to siphon mana from other creatures or even the world itself. For you, I would estimate it to be around one percent every ten seconds.”

“So that will take like…” she did some quick math in her head, glad for the first time she had taken calculus. “...like seventeen minutes for my mana to regenerate? That’s not too bad.” She had thought it would be a lot slower.

“It is if you need it in battle.”

“Well yeah, but at least it’s not like an hour to regenerate. That would be terrible.”

“Indeed...human.”

Kass looked at the glowing runes of her status book and wondered what they meant. I’ll ask later, let’s see if we leveled up at all. She opened the book and read the information on the page before her.

*You have defeated Crypt Ghoul level 57.

*You have defeated Crypt Ghoul level 66.

*You have defeated Crypt Ghoul level 61.

*You have defeated Crypt Ghoul level 57.

*You have defeated Crypt Ghoul level 55.

*You have reached level 58. One stat point has been awarded.

*You have successfully identified Crypt Knight

*You have defeated Crypt Ghoul level 63.

*......

*You have defeated Crypt Ghoul level 64.

*You have defeated Crypt Knight level 81. Extra experience awarded.

*You have reached level 65. Seven stat points have been awarded.

*Dash has reached level 2.

*Illuminate has reached level 2.

*Heightened Senses has reached level 2.

“Leveled up eight times from that, and some of my skills leveled up too. The Crypt Knight was level 81, should it have died that easily? I mean, it almost killed me but it did die a lot faster than the Torusinth.”

“You exploited its weakness, and...I am very sharp.”

“Hmm, finding weaknesses. Well good thing I knew about zombies.”

“Zombies?”

“Yeah, old folklore from my world. Voodoo stuff causing the dead to rise and walk again. But it was mostly used to tell scary stories and make movies. The key to killing them was to shoot them in the head.”

“I will refrain from asking more of your world for now, I do not understand many things. Another time perhaps. I wish to know more.”

“Sure thing boss. I’m thinking of putting all eight stat points into intelligence to raise my maximum mana. You okay with that?”

“I do not see why you must wait for my approval.”

“Well I just…” she paused for a minute, realizing that she was heavily relying on the help of the sword. Had she always relied so much on others? Why can’t I just make a decision by myself? Can’t just wait for someone to make decisions for me. “You’re right, sorry for asking so many questions.”

She dropped the eight points into intelligence and watched her maximum mana rise to four hundred and thirty. She felt better about having more available just in case she needed it. Those eighty points of mana were almost the full cost of another barrier.

After finishing with that she took a look over her status.

Name

Kassandra Johnson

Age

21

Eyes

Brown

Natural Hair

Brown

Health

314/330

Stamina

298/420

Mana

186/430

General Level: 65

Class: Vagabond Level 2

Subclass: None

Tertiary Ability: None

Strength

36

Dexterity

41

Endurance

42

Fortitude

33

Intelligence

43

Coronation Tier

-4

Unused Stat Points

0

Skills

Illuminate

Level 2

Common

Active - 2 mana per minute

Range: 25 yards

Create a small sphere of light.

Identify

Level 1

Rare

Active - No cost

Allows you to gain more information about identifiable objects.

Dash

Level 2

Uncommon

Active - 50 Mana per use

Range: 6 yards

When used, allows you to move quickly to a desired location.

Barrier

Level 1

Uncommon

Active - 100 mana per use

Range: Self

Creates an ablative shield that envelopes your body, protecting you from physical damage.

Heightened Senses

Level 2

Uncommon

Passive - No cost

Increases awareness and reaction time.

The range of illuminate and dash went up, nice. Heightened senses doesn’t seem to have changed though. I wonder if it got stronger. Before closing and dismissing the book she ran through everything once more, checking to see if she’d missed anything. Still have to wait for my mana. At least the headache in mostly gone… Hey, here’s something.

“What does coronation tier mean? Mine says I’m at negative four. Is that something I should have also learned earlier?”

“Hmm...your brain must be too small to receive the small amount of information I transferred. That is the only explanation.”

“You know that came out really rude, right?”

“I was merely stating an observation human.”

“By saying my brain was too small…” she replied, and then just shook her head, not really taking offense to the blade’s words. “It’s fine, it doesn’t matter, small brain or not. So tell me, what is this coronation tier?”

“The coronation tiers reflect one’s actual and achievable power. Each tier divides the soul, controlling the amount of active world energy you can safely absorb and harness for yourself. Each tier unlocked allows for more energy to be harnessed, and thus more power.

“The soul is delicate though, and unlocking a tier comes with a great challenge. It is not an easy path to power in this world.”

“So does that mean I’ll come to a point where I can’t get stronger? Like I can’t level up anymore?”

“Unless you unlock the next tier, yes.”

“What level? And how do I do that?”

“As far as I know, every one hundred levels marks the end of each tier. And I do not know how this is achieved other than satisfying the challenge placed upon you. It is different for everyone.”

“Every hundred levels...damn I’m already more than halfway. I don’t like the sound of these challenges...especially when it has to do with my soul.”

“Some may be simply difficult, others, dangerous indeed.”

Always talking in riddles, I swear. Gonna smack him...it...whatever... against a rock one of these days...a really hard rock.

“Do animals and monsters have this level cap thingy?”

“No. They adapt to power in a different way.”

“Okay, well let’s just hope I get something easy, if I ever even make it there. Will I just receive a notification of my challenge when I reach level one hundred or something?”

“Yes.”

“Okay one last thing, do you have a gender?”

Whisper of course didn’t have a gender, lacking the necessary sex organs and such, but the blade was fine with Kass refering to it as he and him. It would just make life easier she had told him, and so he agreed. The blade reminded her of a wise old grandfatherly man in the first place so it just made sense in her brain.

The wait finally came to an end when her mana rose above four hundred, and she lit up the cavern once more before jumping back to the ground. Kass held Whisper in her hand as she walked through the abandoned streets, just in case there were more ghouls hiding about. But the two made it back to where she had finished off the knight without a problem. She couldn’t even hear anything besides her own footfalls and breathing.

She decided to keep moving through the unexplored parts of the village before moving onto the bigger building above. Getting snuck up on from behind would really ruin her day. Sneaky sword wielding zombie freaks. Ughh. She didn’t like thinking about that and tried to just focus on her surroundings.

After around half an hour Kass made it back to where she had started. She hadn’t found anything. She had looked through most of the buildings too, but they were completely empty. It was a little odd, but she didn’t question it too much, being in an undead village and all.

She let her mana recharge a bit and then moved to the stairs leading up. When she got closer she realized each step was nearly as tall as she was. Well, here goes. She sheathed Whisper and began the arduous climb to the top.

Ten minutes later she crested the last stair and took in her surroundings. It hadn’t taken her as long as she thought it would to get up, and she was impressed by the new strength of her body. I wonder just how strong I am now…

She looked up at the towering building before her and was amazed at the artisanship and time that must have been required to build something like this. It was beautiful and terrifying at the same time, the architecture blending the two feelings into one.

The building was around five stories tall with dark, marble-like pillars that stretched to the domed reddish-brown roof. Looks like the roof made of solid copper…and there’s those creepy statues again...

Now that she was closer she could make out more details of the statues lining the roof. Each one was different and depicted a humanoid figure dying in one way or another. One held its own head. Another wrestled with a snake-like creature that had bit into its neck. Kass saw another that seemed to be holding its own skin, a monster rose behind it as if ready to feast. Disgusting.

She turned away from the gruesome sculptures and focused on the door she could just barely make out behind the pillars. It was massive, rising thirty feet up the wall and half that across. There’s no way I’m opening that…

She moved closer anyway, passing the threshold of pillars, wanting to get a closer look. Nothing moved and she heard nothing, so she felt safe enough just looking for a short time. Within the pillars was a smooth walkway that she guessed wrapped all the way around the building. It was covered in a thin layer of dirt, but other than that was spotless. Ahead, the door loomed over her, but at the bottom she spotted an opening, almost the size of a normal door.

Drawing Whisper she moved closer cautiously. She sent her orb into the opening and nothing happened. Kass waited for a full minute before continuing forward and reaching the door. She peeked her head inside and saw a large open room. There was nothing on the floor except for a row of braziers on each side, a staircase leading down on the far right side, and a box made of the same dark stone as the rest of the building near the center of the room.

This is totally a trap. I just know it is. Everything about the room had her instincts telling her to get the hell away. She looked back out towards the abandoned village she had just cleared and had a feeling that the only way out of this place was through here, unless she climbed back up to the crack she had come through.

Maybe that’s not such a bad idea. Could always see what’s down the other tunnel… She thought about it for a minute but decided she would finish what she started in this place, even if that meant going through this building. Gotta get stronger somehow. Running away won’t do it for me.

“Is this going to get me killed if I go in there?” she whispered quietly.

“It seems most unwise to enter.”

“Well, what else am I supposed to do?”

“I do not know, human. Though I sense something is off about this place.”

“Yeah, me too... should we find out what?”

“I am with you.”

Kass left it at that and stepped slowly inside the giant room. Once she was fully inside the door behind her slammed shut, causing a loud boom to echo through the building. A second later a brazier burst into flame, followed by another, and another. Soon all were lit and the room bristled with light.

Yup...called it.