Integrated identified: Giant Ant [Giant Ant lv. 1] Nameless Integrated identified: Giant Ant [Giant Ant lv. 1] Nameless Integrated identified: Giant Ant [Giant Ant lv. 1] Nameless Integrated identified: Giant Ant [Dire Giant Ant lv. 1] Nameless P-System Log

...huh. Their levels are all really shit, and almost all of 'em are [Common] class. No wonder Aster said this place was practically a XP farm.

Not that you'd think that from how Jerome is acting. Does he have some deep-seated trauma related to ants or something? I mean, sure, they're kinda gross and almost as large as a small car, but they're really weak and Jerome is strong.

Welp. Hope he figures his shit out soon.

Or starts panic casting. That works too.

[Blazing Spear] activating! [Blazing Spear] dealt 44 damage! [Blazing Spear] dealt 45 damage! [Blazing Spear] dealt 41 damage! Enemies defeated! Experience rewarded! [Blazing Spear] dealt 33 damage! Hero's Personal Log 054

FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK

i hate ants so much

Okay, panic under control. I got this.

Shit, that was a lot of carnage in a really short span of time. Three of the four ants are dead now, though the last managed to survive. That one's bigger than the others, and it was originally seen by [Mass Assess] as a [Dire Giant Ant]. It also took less damage from my skill than the others, which is probably important. [Blazing Spear] dealt more damage than it usually did to the three regular [Giant Ant]s. Maybe they have a fire weakness or something? That would make sense. It would also mean that the big one either doesn't have a weakness or has a resistance of some kind. I can work with this.

Aster said [Blazing Spear] had more potential to grow than [Magic Missile] did, and I think I can kind of see why now. I only needed a single cast of it to hit every single ant in the room, whereas I'm pretty sure [Magic Missile] would've required four full activations to hit them all.

Also, new skill! Thanks for that, System! Gimme more skills!

P-System Log

Jerome has to have a good sense of what's good to say to the System helping him, right? That's the only way I can explain him somehow figuring out the single worst thing to say to me every time. The only reason I'm not getting actually pissed at him for this one is because of that sweet sweet W Inertia. You get a pass this time, Jerome.

Anyway, even if I wanted to, I wouldn't be able to just create new skills on the fly for the [Godkiller]. I have a general idea of what happened when I made him learn [Mass Assess]--using W Inertia on his burgeoning set of skills made them coalesce into one--and I imagine I could replicate it if he tried it again with a different skill, but I haven't the faintest clue on how I would make a new one. I stole [Blazing Spear]'s structure from Axel, and that made a new skill, but I don't know what I would do if I wanted to make something wholly new.

Oh, wait. There's still one guy alive. I should get to letting Jerome use his skill, huh.

[Magic Missile] activating! [Magic Missile] dealt 33 damage! Enemy defeated! Experience rewarded!

Current W Inertia: 37903

Max W Inertia: 38359

P-System Log

Hell fuckin yeah, that's a lot of W Inertia! What is that like, 160 W Inertia? Something like that?

Yep, this is a good dungeon. I'm not gonna do the same thing as before, though. Jerome made me spend way too much W Inertia before, he isn't getting that much invested back into him.

I'm keeping eighty-two. Forty can go to general XP, and the other forty can go to [Blazing Spear].

Here we go!

Skill leveled up! [Blazing Spear] lv. 2 -> lv. 4 Damage increased by 4R6+2R5. Mana cost increased by 18% of base. Party Chat

[Jerome Smith]: Pog, got a skill level!

[Aster K'lon]: What is a 'pog'?

[Jerome Smith]: It's an expression of--actually, never mind, it's probably better you don't know.

P-System Log

Oh shit, wasn't expecting two levels at once. That level up notification has a lot of things to unpack, I'm realizing.

Okay, first thing: it didn't increase the damage the same as it did from level 1 to 2. It increased by 1R6+1R5 per level, which meant that here it should've increased by 2R6+2R5. For some reason, Jerome got an extra 2R6. I mean, nobody's complaining, but the inconsistency is really weird, especially given that I literally have access to a stat sheet that shows stats for skills and this was never mentioned. More fuckery on Origin's side, probably, though I know the Origin System isn't my enemy. It's just something I haven't learned yet, I suppose. Still, kind of irritating.

Second: 18% of base? None of the other skill level ups have looked like that so far. If I check the skill's stats...

[Blazing Spear lv. 4] Stat Value XP 0/320 Damage 8R5+5R6+4 Mana Cost 34 Overcharge Multiplier (max) 1.5 Cost Multiplier 18% Range 22.5 meters P-System Log

Damn. Okay, so there's definitely something different here. With [Magic Missile], every level compounds the multiplier. Level 2 is 120% of level 1's cost, level 3 is 120% of level 2's, and so forth. For this skill, though, it looks like it scales totally linearly in terms of cost.

Maybe it's the difference between a [Common] skill and a [Rare] one, then? Varying damage and fewer increases in cost per level? Useful information to have, assuming it even holds true. Stuff has been inconsistent enough so far for me to kinda accept that.

Well, Jerome isn't dwelling on it. I don't think he knows any math more complex than one plus one equals two, so that tracks.

Party Chat

[Jerome Smith]: First room is clear. No drops in here, as far as I can tell.

[Aster K'lon]: [Common]-class enemies rarely have drops. The best returns you will obtain from a normal dungeon crawl are XP.

[Jerome Smith]: Got it. Onto the next, then.

P-System Log

Another door opened, another room available to take a gander at. Wait, never mind, scratch that. There's another passageway for the two adventurers to get through before we get to the next dungeon room proper. This passage is really lame, actually. It's just wide enough for a person to walk through, and it's basically just a tunnel. I guess it fits the low-level nature of this place.

Ah, there's the door. The next room is... kind of similarly uninspired. It's literally just a forty foot long room with a twenty foot long gap. I don't think there's even spikes or anything down there. It's just a dirt pit. An unnaturally smooth one, yeah, which is probably a result of it being created by the Dungeon Core's skill, but there's no traps or monsters.

...that might be enough, to be honest. It's a really boring "trap", but I don't think there's a single skill Jerome has to get over it.

Party Chat

[Jerome Smith]: I have no idea how to get over this.

[Aster K'lon]: Ah, the perils of the newly reincarnated. Watch. There are skills you have not

[Cloud Step] cast! P-System Log

Ooh, this spell is neat to watch! Both in terms of mana and physically. Aster just kind of melted away into wisps of smoke and then rematerialized in a burst of that smoke on the other end.

Mana-wise, it's nothing like the offensive skills that they've been using up till now. It's being manipulated in a different way from the ground up. More inward focused than outward, too.

I think I can steal it.

Hero's Personal Log 055 System, copy that skill. P-System Log

Aaaaaaand now I don't want to do it anymore.

I mean, I will, but I don't want to. The options are either a) give Jerome the finger, wait here and miss out on W Inertia, or b) suck it up and get more. I value that stat more than my pride, so I'm gonna go with it.

Alright, I think I remember what I'm supposed to do in order to get him to learn a new spell.

So, I initiate the first half of [Cloud Step], wrap it in W Inertia, and push it to Jerome...

Shit, no, that's not the right mana configuration. I don't know what that is, but it isn't a movement spell. And I put a lot more mana into it than I should have, given that this is a [Rare] skill. In my defense, that's because the structure was fucked up, but that's also my fault. Ugh. Uhhh, whoops?

I mean, he's responding to it and adding his own mana, so surely it can't be that bad, right?

System Prompt W inertia expended! New skill unlocked: [Misty Strike] You may rapidly displace your position and inflict damage on every enemy in your path.