I had been grinding for around three days now. It may be more, but I couldn’t be sure. My phone was long dead, and unfortunately, a lucky warrior managed to nail my watch, so I was timeless here in the dark. I was wearing it on the outside of my right gauntlet, so in hindsight, it was probably only a matter of time before it was destroyed. The only way I could keep track of the days was with my age on my skill sheet, but that didn’t mean much considering that it only ticked up every 24 hours, and around 3:00 in the afternoon.

My training was going incredibly well. I had reached the max for sword techniques quite a while ago, but unlike claw techniques, it didn’t immediately get added into my two beginner arts. Instead it evolved.

Alert! Skill Derivation Unlocked!

Combat Skills:

Sword Techniques – lvl 20 (MAX) -> Beginner Swordsmanship 1/30 – teaches beginner level general sword forms and techniques

I had been working at leveling the new skill for quite some time, but it was immensely difficult to do. Like my two beginner arts, beginner swordsmanship relied on mastery. It gave techniques, but it didn’t automatically cram them into your brain. Luckily, they were techniques I could master while fighting whereas my beginner arts were a bit pickier with how they were learned. I had managed to get five levels of beginner art of the blizzard, and seven levels of beginner art of the lightning, evening them both up at level 12. Their abilities had morphed slightly, and the skills and techniques were now mostly focused on mastery of the fundamentals.

In retrospect, I could understand how the abilities worked much more accurately. Each one taught a group of combat forms. Once mastered, you would then be introduced to the next steps in the form. At this point, I had only experienced three different forms for each skill, but they had been successively getting more and more difficult as I worked down the skill progression. I learned very early on that it was easier to go out after gaining a level in the arts and then use it by fighting some, than to work on the skills constantly without that practical experience. The insights gained in combat made the next skill up of the beginner arts come much faster.

Perhaps my favorite realization was that the techniques learned in beginner swordsmanship were very similar to those of my beginner arts. The footwork matched and the stances that you would hold yourself in were common between them. Way of the Storm Martial Artist was a class that was devoted to combat in its purest form. It was all about fighting based on positioning. It didn’t teach how to punch, or how to use your claws. It taught where to punch, how to make that the most effective attack you could, and how to get there in the quickest way possible. That made it particularly good for fighting against monsters. You couldn’t just translate something like Karate to fighting giant wolves, as it was a martial art designed around fighting other people.

The lack of specialization in the art gave it the ability to be used on both people as well as monsters, without favoring one over the other. It was a nuanced change, but as I worked through the martial art, I could see how the lack of specificity would be useful. You wouldn’t want to fight a spider the same way you fight a slime and having a combat style dedicated to only one of those seems like a bad idea.

Regardless, my work was going as planned. Better than planned. I had expected that I would run out of spiders long before I ran out of levels, but there seemed to be an infinite amount of the little bastards. One thing I learned early on was that the monsters on this floor didn’t exactly respawn. Along the ceiling were round spots of orange light. After some investigation, I found that these were tunnels, and they were teeming with spider eggs. I don’t know where the eggs came from, but they all glowed with a slight orange tinge, and as soon as the eggs hatched, they would be replaced like magic. I spent an hour looking out to try and see the moment when the eggs respawned, but I was unsuccessful in the end. The eggs would hatch in the tunnels every couple of hours, so If you didn’t continually cull the spiders, eventually the floor would be completely overrun.

My guess is it was supposed to be a method for limiting the amount of time you could stay on one level, but for me, it just meant I could farm as long as I needed to. I was sleeping only rarely due to the respawn and was starting to get tired. I had yet to cross the chasm as the spiders on this side were more than enough to keep me busy, but it was time to move on and test my new strength on the Skullback Warrior. I could no longer level my skills against the weak spiders, and I had hit a bottleneck in my arts and swordsmanship. I needed a push to move me ahead to allow me to continue my quest for improvement, and I was hoping a rematch against the bigger warrior variety would give me what I needed. I opened my skill page, admiring the improvements I had made over the past three days.

Skill Sheet:

Name: Victoria (Vic) Gale

Age: 19 days

Gender: Female

Race: Storm Paraelemental Warrior (Rank 2)

Class: Way of the Storm Martial Artist

Job: Fighter

Level: 13/40, 121>331/688 to next level

Affinity: Heart of the Warrior, Physicality, Wind, Water, Ice, Electricity, Electronics, Crafting, Graceful Presence

Character Archetype: Lone Wanderer

Current:

Maximum:

Regen:

Health:

440

390>440

52>55/day

Stamina:

525

445>525

310>340/hour

Mana:

330

300>330

290>300/hour

General Stats:

Current

Maximum

Affect

Strength

35>40

38>40

Physical strength; pushing, pulling, lifting. Affects health.

Agility

37>45

45

Physical speed; running speed, acrobatic ability, inertial control. Affects stamina.

Dexterity

29>30

30

Ability to move with finesse and skill. To move the body as the mind wills it. Affects stamina regen.

Constitution

27>30

28>30

The sturdiness of the body; ability to resist damage, poison, and magic. Affects health regen.

Intelligence

30>33

33

Your capacity to learn and remember. Affects mana.

Wisdom

29>30

30

Your ability to reason out the best choice. Affects mana regen.

Charisma

22>24

24

Your likability; affects attractiveness.

Luck

19

20

Affects drop rates, and personal narrative.

Unassigned

4>0

Skill

Level

Affect

General Skills: Common skills across all races

Identify

11>12/20

Gives user information. Amount and clarity based on identify level. Can determine health and highest-level skill from subjects. Gives detailed target type information of whole things, as well as their parts.

Athletics

50/50

Increases efficiency of stamina use. (70%) reduction in stamina consumption performing athletic feats (+15 Stamina).

Acrobatics

15>42/50

Provides correction to acrobatic acts. (+40) stamina regeneration.

Stealth

4>15/100

Reduces all noise generated by movement passively (15%). You further increase your ability to move quietly reducing noise by (30%) and learn techniques to allow you to hide from sight.

Crafter

70/100

User is skilled in crafting and has an esthetic eye. Increases dexterity maximum (+2), and growth of all design-related jobs.

Uncanny Sight

4>9/50

You have perfect vision within 50 feet. This skill can be used both in the field, and on other people to detect subtle facial tics making it invaluable to many. Improves with skill use and practice.

Focus

16>27/50

Increases proficiency gain with skills by focusing on only one at a time (+20% skill experience gain) (+27% skill proficiency while using).

Lumberjack

16/100

Grants enhanced technique and skill when felling trees. (+16%)

Race Skills: Skills gained from race type

Stormborn

11/30

Increases effectiveness of strength, athletics, constitution, and wisdom when in stormy conditions (+11%). Grants enhanced regeneration when touching water (+110%). Gain mana from enemy storm attacks. (+20% mana steal)

Warrior’s Flight

59>65/70

you gain the ability to fly. Flying speed based on skill level and agility (147 miles/hour). Intrinsic ability has no cost. Use wind attuned mana to exceed speed limits (1 mana/second).

Class Skills: Skills gained through class

Beginner Chaos Body Strengthening

24/50

By focusing on the body, the user can absorb the chaotic energies in the atmosphere and use it to strengthen their body. Provides beginners knowledge of the technique. While practicing technique, regeneration skills are increased by (72%).

Combat Skills: Skills gained and leveled through combat

Beginner Art of the Blizzard

7>12/20

(+30% bleed duration) while using this skill. Grants access to the art. Teaches techniques associated with the skill. Requires mastery of the previous level to level up. Cannot be leveled through combat experience. Increases critical hit damage by (60%).

Beginner Art of the Lightning

5>12/20

(+30% bleed duration) while using this skill. Grants access to the art. Teaches techniques associated with the skill. Requires mastery of the previous level to level up. Cannot be leveled through combat experience. You can spend 70 Stamina for instantaneous linear movement (12ft) in any direction.

Heavy Armor Mastery

9>23/100

This skill teaches the user how to effectively wield heavy armor. (23%) reduction in equipped armor weight felt by the wearer.

Shooting (Pistols)

1/20

You gain increased accuracy when firing pistols (+5%).

*NEW*Beginner Swordsmanship

3/30

Teaches Beginner Level general sword forms and techniques

Magic Skills: Skills used to control mana

Storm Command

7>15/100

You can now control the elements of the storm. Manipulating water, air, and lightning in a 20ft radius space around you is very easy and has a low cost. Can generate materials at a rate of 1 unit/1 mana/ 1 second. Spells are now variable. 15 slots are available for custom spells to make quick casting possible and to minimize mental strain on the user. Your subconscious will be utilized to make casting spells possible, though casting speed is limited. Can cloak any part of the body in a layer of storm attuned mana. Can sense electrical signals within 20 feet of the body with extreme accuracy.

Cryokinesis

1/50

you can now manipulate ice with your mind using mana by reducing the temperature of water.

Enhancement Skills: Skills which enhance physical traits

Enhanced Physicality

6>7/10

Grants Minor Proprioception. Health +50, Stamina +50.

Rapid Regeneration

5>7/10

Enhances natural recovery. -50% of damage from nonmagical sources. +10 health regen.

Resistance Skills: Skills that grant resistance to a type of damage

Intermediate Storm Resistance

15/30

Resist lightning, water, ice, and wind damage from all sources. (-35% from all sources)

Pain Tolerance

7>8/20

(40%) resistance to pain. Does not remove pain, it just makes it easier to ignore. Has diminishing returns. It is based on natural racial pain tolerance.

Archetype Skills: Skills granted via archetype

Lone Wanderer

51>53/100

Skill growth is increased while exploring new places alone (+25%). Increased experience gained hunting monsters alone (+25%).

Increased money drop rate when exploring alone (+3%).

Survivor

1/1

When you reach 0 health from an attack, you instead fall to 1 health. Usable once per day.

First 1!

1/1

You were the first person to become upgraded. +10% exp for killing roaming monsters.

Fascinating Eyes

1/20

You apply charm status by looking someone in the eyes for one minute. Grows more powerful with each level. Costs 10 mana.

The first thing that happened during my training was all of the damage numbers for physical skills disappeared from the skill sheet just like Luna said they would. I didn’t get any alerts about the next wave she talked about, but I could see that many changes happened in the way the system worked. The errors had disappeared from my identify descriptions, and things looked much cleaner overall.

The most important changes to my skills were to electroreceptivity and storm fists. Both skills seemed to vanish from my skill sheet when they maxed out, but according to their messages, when they hit the max level, they didn’t vanish at all. Instead, they were both integrated into Storm Command, empowering the magic skill. Now, I could create a cloak of elemental energy over any part of my body using lightning, water, or wind, and use it to attack. I could even extend it over my sword for brief periods, though that was significantly more mana intensive. I also didn’t need to reapply the ability like I did with storm fists. It was consistent and reapplied itself automatically for a reduced cost. The electroreceptivity was extremely powerful as well. I could accurately sense where any spiders were when they were within 20 feet of me and could even sense the electrical signals going from their brains to the limbs, giving me accurate movement information. My hodge-podge skill sheet was condensing into a set of powerful abilities.

More than anything though, the additional status increases were what was making the biggest difference. I put two of my unassigned points into both constitution and strength to round them off to multiples of 10. Each of my attacks was stronger, each of my movements quicker and surer. I had gotten a grand total of 23 more stat points scattered across my abilities and felt much more prepared for the rest of the dungeon. I had massively surpassed the minimum abilities for someone at the start of the second rank, and I felt like I was back in a position to solo adventure without danger to my life. The first rule of questing solo was to always be overprepared. The enemy would make up in quantity what you brought in quality, so you needed power capable to break through that advantage, and enough items to support yourself in a variety of hazardous situations.

Now that I had reached a point where I was satisfied with my progress, it was time to take on my next big challenge; the bridge guardian spider, followed by the second half of the floor. At first, I was concerned that the other side of the bridge would be overpopulated with respawning spiders, but I noticed something that gave me confidence that I could grind here for a while. Across the chasm on the roof of the cavern, there were no orange glowing caves. For some reason, there were no monsters that would respawn there, so I could take my merry time.

I set out, flying directly over the pathway just below the caps of the great mushroom trees. My improved dexterity and agility made high-speed flight control trivial. I blasted through the air, leaving the Roughcap mushrooms swaying as I passed. Occasionally a spider would fall from the ‘shrooms in surprise, but I had my destination set, and I was ready for a rematch. I knew the grove like the back of my hand and was able to navigate through it with ease.

I landed on the edge of the circle of mushrooms denoting the small arena of the Skullback Warrior. He stood right at the entry to the bridge, blocking the path, his disgusting eight red eyes watching as I approached. As soon as my foot passed the perimeter of the fungal ring, the great black brute released a bitter hiss, charging at me with the same extreme speed his predecessor possessed. I readied the Hasty Spider Warrior’s Longsword, holding its now-familiar rough-wrapped handle in my right hand, while my left hand prepared a blast of lightning.

The warrior loped towards me, holding its scythe-life forelimbs out on either side set up for a wide-sweeping attack. Biding my time, I waited until the last second. This time, I had no ceiling constraining me, and I would use that advantage. As the warrior’s attack started, I shot into the air flying directly over his back. My left hand released the blast of lightning straight into the eyes of the spider, and I could see a few of them blacken and pop like popcorn kernels. I continued my arc, ending up with my feet on the ground ten feet behind the large spider.

I planted a foot down, building pressure within my muscles. All at once, I released the tension, launching myself rapidly towards the rear of the warrior using the first form of the art of the lightning. My blade targeted the uppermost joint on it’s rear two right legs that had lined up for me, and I had used the techniques of the art of the blizzard to position myself just right so that I could attack the weak point.

I held the sword in one hand in a powerful overhead blow and effortlessly sliced through the two legs, leaving them severed on the floor. Before the nasty green blood could cover me, I had already followed the footwork of the art of the lightning and was 15 feet away from my opponent. It stumbled in place as it tried to regain it’s footing, howling in agony and rage at losing its limbs.

The arachnid faltered as it lost its balance. Because of its oversized forelimbs, it was unable to use it to balance its right side, and it was now immobile, just waiting for me to offer it a killing blow. As the spider struggled to turn and face me, I kept directly behind it, waiting for my chance to strike at the head. After a short while, it fell again, pinning its right blade to the ground beneath its cumbersome body. Now! I jumped onto it’s back while my sword flickered and flared with a combination of wind and lightning attuned mana. Turning the blade to face downward, I pierced the warrior’s head through one of its eye sockets. The bug let out a shriek as the lightning cauterized its brain from the inside, and the wind aggravated the wounds. Tearing the blade out once more, the skullback warrior fell silent.

Smiling, I hopped off the carapace. As the warrior disintegrated into blue particles, I collected the rewards it dropped. This time, though, instead of materials or a weapon, the warrior dropped a large gold coin, which I had yet to see.

So far, I had found 6 different types of coins in three different metals. There were copper, silver, and gold coins, and they each had small and large varieties. Each coin had the same markings, an embellished moon on one side, and a laurel on the other. I could imagine that one would call them ‘moons’ or ‘laurels’, but I think for now I’d just call them coins. If common convention was correct, and I was hoping it was, ten small equaled one large, and ten large equaled the next metal’s small. That would mean that if a small copper was 1, a silver was 100, and gold was 10,000. A large gold would be 100,000, making the skullback warriors immensely valuable to hunt and kill. That being said, in the ruin I raided, I found at least 100 small or large silver, and 20 to 30 small gold, which leads me to believe that they probably weren’t all that expensive. My guess is there was another denomination after gold, probably platinum, and then another one after that, possibly mithril or some other extremely valuable magical metal.

Unfortunately, this was not a good thing. The value of gold was going to decrease, and that meant all old currencies were going to collapse, and collapse hard. The value of any metal that didn’t conduct mana was going to decrease as well, making things infinitely worse. It would take a long time for the manufacturing infrastructure to build itself back up, and that was always the heart of the economy. Right now, it was more lucrative and efficient to be a blacksmith than to own a large factory, and I couldn’t see that changing any time soon as long as people needed magic weapons.

I placed the coin into my now bulging coin pouch. I had lost track of how many of each coin I had long ago. Right now, I only kept large copper and up in the pouch to save space in the pouch and to make sure my most valuable coins were safest. The small copper coins dropped by the drones went right into a pocket in my backpack, and I probably had somewhere near 10 pounds of small copper coins at this point. Hopefully there would be some kind of currency exchange somewhere, but I didn’t have my hopes up. Even if there was a system-based currency exchange, I couldn’t imagine that the sprites running it would be doing their jobs. It seemed like all of the managers of the system were currently experiencing free will for the first time and were probably too busy to do what they were put in place for.

Shaking myself out of my thoughts, I turned towards the deep crevasse. It yawned before me, a constant humid wave exuding from the black depths. The bridge stretched out, extending over the free space. While the abyss was terrifying, the walkway didn’t seem too bad and my instincts weren’t driving me up a wall, though I was sure it was still plenty dangerous, and that there were some traps laid across it somewhere. It was time to see what was in store for me on the other side of the divide, but I needed to survive the crossing first.