Arris pulled up the image of his minimap, trying to gauge his relative position in the level.

 

Arris was currently in the midst of exploring the level, attempting to map out the entire thing. He’d already made his way through 90% of it in the course of the last day, but he had only so far found the primary boss and not the hidden treasure chest or the hidden boss. The section he was currently in was the very last place he could check.

Within another hour of a walking around massive stone pillars, arches, and walls, he’d finally finished exploring the last section of the level, the upper right-hand corner of the cavern on his minimap. Still, though, he was yet to find the hidden loot chest or the hidden boss. He’d expected the two to take a little more searching this time around, but he’d literally searched the entire cavern and found nothing.

Arris frowned, glancing at his minimap again. The boss for the level was located in the lower lefthand corner of the cavern and was a Skeletal Reaver, some strange bone warrior with 4 arms and a demonic aura which reduced both his strength and agility by 10% while nearby. Instead of Undead Monster, its nameplate read, “Raised Demon”. It was level 9. Arris wanted to get a little stronger before he took it on.

As he’d been exploring the cavern, Arris had been systematically killing the skeletons in the floor. He’d initially kept a Lesser Skeleton controlled by his staff around for the extra combat potential, but after two separate skeletons died almost immediately in fights Arris had simply stopped wasting his time going back to the first level to find more. For the most part, the average level of skeletons seemed to be somewhere around 7, and they tended to travel in groups of three to five. This made the going a little slower, as Arris could only assassinate one of the group and then would need to fight off the rest of the skeletons. If the group had five skeletons he’d kill one with Condensed Aether Bolt, kill another with Spirit Blast into some previously prepared Spirit Shards, and kill a third with a surprise blow. Whenever he encountered a group of this size, he’d always need to wait to regen mana afterward which would eat up a lot of time.

There were still plenty of skeletons in the cavern after he’d killed many of them, and he felt he should definitely be able to hit level 9 after a few more hours of killing skeletons. He was reasonably confident he could take on the boss if he had the same level. But even so, Arris wanted to find the hidden boss and loot before he fought. If the Skeleton Quartermaster was any indicator, the hidden boss should be easier to kill and either the hidden loot or boss would definitely drop something which could be critical in taking on the boss solo. While his full magical combo might be able to kill the boss, it was also highly likely this boss was far stronger than the previous Elite Skeleton Warrior. The warrior had eight minions which combined were as much of a threat as the Elite Skeleton Warrior, if not more of a threat. This Skeletal Reaver was alone and certainly far stronger with far more hp than the Elite Skeleton Warrior, and he didn’t know if he could take it down in a single combo. Simply launching himself into the fight could be suicidal.

No, he needed to explore more and find that hidden loot chest and boss.

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A full day and a half later of exploring the cavern and killing skeletons, Arris had increased in level to about halfway through level 9. His skills had gone up as well, his Blunt Weapon Proficiency increasing by 3, Condensed Aether Bolt by 2, Spirit Blast by 3, Spirit Shards by 4, Warrior’s Stance by 4, and Dark Blow by 3. He’d hunted down every single skeleton he could find and had nothing left to kill but the boss.

Arris was well and truly stumped. There was quite literally nowhere in the entire level he hadn’t searched. In fact, he’d literally searched the entire thing thrice over, side to side, top to bottom, everywhere. Well, not so much top to bottom because there was only a single floor to this level, but that was beside the point.

Wait a minute. Only a single floor? Arris suddenly had a moment of clarity. Craning his neck upwards, Arris looked at the top of the obstructions and could clearly see that they ended before the roof. The hidden boss and chest must be on top of the obstructions! He’d searched everywhere else in the level, there was nowhere else for the hidden boss and chest to be.

> Perception +1 <

Arris smugly clicked his jaws together. The System had basically just told him he was right. He felt like a fool for not checking out the pillars earlier. He hadn’t even considered the loot and boss may be in a such a difficult to reach location, but now that he thought about it, it made sense that the system would want to make you work to get free loot and fight an extra boss for even more loot. Arris approached the nearest pillar, looking closely at the rough stone wall. There were handholds and footholds aplenty and it seemed even a novice climber could easily make the ascent. Arris might’ve once been cautious of climbing a tall pillar and scared of the height, but it seemed his reservations and fears had left him since becoming a skeleton.

Feeling only excitement for the upcoming battle with the hidden boss, Arris placed his bony claws upon the grooves of the wall and began hauling himself upwards. About halfway up the pillar, a notification popped into view.

Congratulations!

You have learned the passive skill, Climbing. Climbing passively increases your ability to climb, lessening the amount of stamina required and noise generated while increasing the speed of climbing.

+5% Climbing speed

-5% Climbing noise

-5% Climbing stamina cost

Arris waved the notification away. The skill didn’t give him any important boosts and was virtually useless in all but a few niche combat situations. He kept climbing, now a little bit faster. It wasn’t long before Arris finally ascended to the top of the pillar.

Arris latched his hands onto the lip of the edge before heaving himself up and onto the very top of the pillar. He stood up and glanced around. It appeared that the various high rising stone walls and pillars made a sort of patchwork elevated pathway around the level. He could actually travel almost anywhere in the level hopping from the top of one obstruction to the next.

Looking closer, there also appeared to be several higher leveled skeletons wandering around. Glancing at the nameplates of the skeletons Arris saw several level 8s, a few level 9s, and a couple level 7s, staying only in groups of two to three. If Arris had been a normal human, maybe fighting small groups of higher leveled skeletons on the dangerous pathway would be hard. But with the fact that he could ambush them and easily take one out to halve their effective fighting force, the fights with the skeletons should be very simple for him.

Off to one side, Arris spotted an indent in the cavern wall, and a building which looked like it had once been some sort of cottage but was now just a run down, rotten shack. Arris would bet that the hidden chest and maybe the hidden boss would be in there. He couldn’t wait to get his hands on that new, shiny loot.

Lost in his observations and imagination, Arris almost didn’t react when a shadow suddenly crossed over him, something large and aerial flying over his head. A screen popped up.

Congratulations, you have found and activated the hidden boss challenge Skeletal Wrathion Fledgling! Do your best to survive!

Arris spun about, glancing upwards at his newest enemy, which was currently turning about in a lazy arc so that it could face him directly. The Skeletal Wrathion Fledgling was long and serpentine, roughly fifteen feet head to tail, with its skull appearing to be reminiscent of some sort of dragon or lizard. The front half of its body had two large wings attached to it, while the back half of the body was a long tail ending in a set of nasty looking bone spikes. Its fours legs actually appeared to be part of its wings, which were decayed scraps of skin stretched between the two legs. In many ways, it appeared a skeletal snake with wings and a spiked tail.

Arris immediately took action, not sparing a moment to gawk at the skeletal drake. The thing was flying straight at him and making like it was about to attack. Judging from his prior experience with the Skeleton Quartermaster, this hidden boss had probably aggroed on him and was currently in the midst of making an attack run.

Arris began casting his regular combo, starting with his Spirit Blast and then following it up with his 4 Spirit Shards. The Skeletal Wrathion trembled in flight, but with a screech of determination, somehow managed to flap several times and maintain its flight path.

> You deal Skeletal Wrathion Fledgling 52 raw damage! <

> You deal Skeletal Wrathion Fledgling 19 raw damage! <

> You deal Skeletal Wrathion Fledgling 19 raw damage! <

> You deal Skeletal Wrathion Fledgling 19 raw damage! <

> You deal Skeletal Wrathion Fledgling 19 raw damage! <

Arris frowned. His damage had gone up considerably since he’d last fought a boss, and he was more accustomed to his Spirit Blasts dealing 60 or so damage and his Spirit Shards dealing 22 or so damage. This thing must have some sort of resistance towards magic. Arris glanced at its nameplate, hoping his first round of combos had dealt a decent portion of the Skeletal Wrathion’s health.

Crap. Arris’ red flames of eyes widened as he realized he may be in over his head. 21% for over 100 damage? The thing had more than 500 health! If it could continuously fly around, he couldn’t get into melee ranged and it wouldn’t take long before it grabbed him on one of its flybys. At the height they were currently at, all the Skeletal Wrathion had to do was drop him and he’d almost certainly be dead, half the bones in his body shattered.

But Arris wasn’t through with his combo yet. The Condensed Aether Bolt matrix flared in front of his hands as he rammed more mana into it. He just had to trust in himself and the System. There had to be some sort of way to win. Maybe if he struck it on flybys he could rack up the damage he’d need to kill the thing. The damage from this Condensed Aether Bolt would put the Skeletal Wrathion at less than half health. That was only 250 health. He could handle that. Right? Right?!?!?

Arris channeled every last drop of his remaining 250 mana into the Condensed Aether Bolt. The Skeletal Wrathion was still about 300 feet in the air in front of him when the spell finished channeling. Arris aimed it and released it, sending red lighting thundering through the air colliding with the Skeletal Wrathion violently.

> You deal Skeletal Wrathion Fledgling 235 mixed damage! <

This time it seemed Arris had dealt some real damage to the thing. With a shriek, one of its wings gave out and the Skeletal Wrathion tumbled downwards. It managed to somehow utilize its wings to change its trajectory a little and crash landed on top of one of the stone obstructions instead of falling to its death.

> Skeletal Wrathion takes 26 blunt damage! <

The Skeletal Wrathion clambered to its feet with an angry hiss, and Arris checked its nameplate again.

Then, a blessed notification popped up.

Congratulations!

You have managed to reduce the hidden boss Skeletal Wrathion Fledgling’s health to less than 50%! It has lost the strength necessary to fly, and is grounded!

Arris almost collapsed in relief. If the Skeletal Wrathion had still been able to fly after he’d hit it with all his spells, he’d have been doomed. His chances of killing it while it was flying without any ranged weapons were slim to none. Earlier he’d said that he’d be able to figure something out and win, but that was more him reassuring himself. If it could fly and he was out of mana, he would have been dead for sure. Now that the Skeletal Wrathion was grounded, Arris had regained some semblance of a fighting chance.

But the fight still wasn’t over. The Skeletal Wrathion was currently crawling across the stony obstructions towards him, other skeletons clambering to get out of the way. Arris felt lucky that none of these skeletons on the obstructions seemed inclined to attack him even after he’d attacked the Skeletal Wrathion. If he had to fight other enemies while fighting the Skeletal Wrathion, he’d surely die.

Arris glanced around and noted how very small the platform he was on was. It was barely one hundred cubic feet. He looked over to the platform next to him which was over twenty times the size of the one he was on. A far more suitable place to fight a boss.

With a running start, he leaped over onto the platform, putting himself a little closer to the Wrathion. Two more obstructions… one more obstruction… and then the Skeletal Wrathion had leaped onto the very same platform he was on. Now that it was closer, Arris could see a couple more details about the creature. Both of its legs were quintuple jointed as opposed to the human quadruple jointed. Its forelimbs curved forwards instead of backward, meaning it would be near impossible for it to use its legs to swipe at him.

In fact, Arris was pretty sure he’d figured out its fighting strategy just from looking at the thing. If he approached from the front, it would use its jaws to snap at him. From the back, it would be well protected by its long spiked tail. He guessed the structure of its legs would allow it to both jump high when attempting to take off and also jump far and fast when lunging at prey. This thing would leap at its prey, and try to put its prey either behind or in front of it with every leap so as to be able to attack said prey with either its tail or jaws. However, if Arris could get to the side of the creature, he could inflict some massive damage. Arris just needed to stay close to the creature and off to the sides.

The Skeletal Wrathion regarded Arris for a couple more seconds before it roared and then crouched. It was painfully obvious the creature was about to lunge, but when it actually did Arris was surprised by the speed and distance covered.

With the combined push of both its back legs and forelimbs, the creature shot off, aided in its jump by a small flap of its wings. Arris was already at the edge of the obstruction, and if he stepped back he’d fall off to his death. There was no choice but to leap to the side.

And leap to the side Arris did. As soon as the creature had launched itself Arris was already in motion, moving out of its strike zone. Unfortunately, Arris wasn’t quite fast enough. He was able to dodge the strike of its head and its grasping talons, but the rotted wings splayed out to the sides in its massive jump caught him, knocking him back and off the ledge.

> Glancing Blow! Skeletal Wrathion Fledgling deals you 13 blunt damage! <

In a miracle of dexterity, Arris managed to twist his upper body and latch his free hand into the face of the obstruction, preventing his fall. His body slammed into the cliff face, but Arris held on.

> You take 7 blunt damage! <

Arris banished the Quarterstaff into his inventory and then secured his hold on the wall. If this was a typical Hollywood movie, all Arris would’ve done would be to hang on to the obstruction’s face and not fall. But this wasn’t a Hollywood movie, and Arris could climb a wall. Hoisting himself up he peeked up over the edge and saw the Wrathion not five feet away, just about to look over the edge and check on him.

Arris immediately dropped off the edge of the wall before grabbing some handholds six feet lower and arresting his descent. Meanwhile, the Wrathion’s head shot over the lip of the obstruction, snapping down where he’d been a quarter second ago. It then proceeded to stretch itself downwards as far as it could possibly go but found it could not reach him. After a couple seconds of staring at him and contemplating, the creature finally snorted and withdrew its head.

Arris breathed a sigh of relief. Now he had to figure out what to do. The Skeletal Wrathion wouldn’t leave just because he was out of reach. No, the creature would wait in place until he came back up and then attack him. And if he got knocked off again, he probably wouldn’t get lucky and be able to grab onto the stone ledge again. He’d fall to his death.

Maybe he should just clamber down and avoid the boss. He supposedly wasn’t allowed to leave the boss’ environment, but he couldn’t see anything below him preventing it. But it was possible that after the Skeletal Wrathion regained all its health, it would just come after him again. It seemed likely the entire level was the creature’s environment. If he didn’t kill it now, later he’d be innocently strolling through the cavern and then all of a sudden it would swoop out of nowhere and snag him in its claws, dragging him off into the air before dropping him to a long fall and violent death. Arris shuddered. It would be best to kill the beast now, rather than risk the potential consequences. He could just clamber a short ways to the side, and then climb back up, where it wouldn’t be able to get him immediately.

Arris had just started to move when all of a sudden the Skeletal Wrathion’s head popped back up over the side of the obstruction, peering at him. Arris froze. But then, almost as quickly as the head had appeared, it disappeared.

Arris wondered what the Skeletal Wrathion was doing. It wasn’t really like it could attack him. Its head wasn’t long enough to reach. Why would it look over again? Maybe it was just checking on him. Huh. Then, Arris’ spectral flames of eyes widened as he had a startling realization. Without a moment to spare Arris madly scrambled to the side, moving as far away as possible from the area he was just in.

And not a moment too soon. A half second after he’d cleared the area he was in, the Skeletal Wrathion’s tail swung down over the side of the obstruction, sweeping across its face. If Arris had still been there, he’d have been knocked off and died. A couple seconds later, the Skeletal Wrathion’s head popped back up over the side. When it spotted him, still clambering away, far out of range of its tail, it gave a frustrated growl and brought its head back up. Arris then heard the sound of the Skeletal Wrathion moving across the top of the obstruction towards him.

In a sudden flash of ingenuity and foresight, Arris reversed directions moving back towards where he originally began. He then started clambering upwards towards the top of the obstruction. Some twenty-five feet away on the face of the obstruction, a tail swept down, crossing through the area where he would have been if he’d kept crawling along the wall in the same direction at the same speed.

Arris chittered, his jaws clacking together rapidly in an excited fashion. He’d out planned the Skeletal Wrathion completely and utterly. He quickly hauled himself up on top of the obstruction, safely out of range of its tail and bite. The Skeletal Wrathion, which was in the middle of turning to check what had happened to Arris, had turned in the opposite direction he’d climbed up in and didn’t spot him till he was already on top of the obstruction.

> Perception +3 <

Arris waved the notification away. This was not the time to revel over new stat gains. The Skeletal Wrathion turned, roaring angrily and preparing to leap. Arris, having learned his lesson, ran away from the edge before it could leap at him and knock him off.

The Skeletal Wrathion coiled it legs and shot off towards him. But this time, Arris was ready for the speed. Arris was already in a crouch and as soon as he saw its head twitch forwards into a strike, he rolled back just barely avoiding the strike. As the Skeletal Wrathion’s body continued forwards, it flew over him before crashing down only a couple feet beyond where he’d rolled to his feet. Arris was just where he wanted to be. Towards the side, away from its snapping jaws, and too close to the back for the tail to swing around and smash him.

With a savage clack of his jaws, Arris commanded his staff out of his inventory whereupon it appeared in his hand. He then launched into a rapid three strike combo, each blow cracking into the same joint of the Skeletal Wrathion’s leg. On the third blow, something cracked loudly, and the Skeletal Wrathion gave a tortured scream.

> You deal Skeletal Wrathion Fledgling 47 blunt damage! <

> You deal Skeletal Wrathion Fledgling 49 blunt damage! <

> You deal Skeletal Wrathion Fledgling 48 blunt damage! <

> You have crippled Skeletal Wrathion Fledgling! <

The Skeletal Wrathion used its two good front legs and a flap of its wings to push itself backward so that it could face Arris with its head in front. But it was too late for the Skeletal Wrathion to win this fight. Arris glanced at its nameplate and read that the Skeletal Wrathion only had 16% of its health left. With a leg crippled its primary attack, the speedy lunge, was disabled. It was now just a matter of Arris being patient and waiting for the Skeletal Wrathion to make mistakes. And it did.

Arris baited the creature by dancing in and out of its maximum strike range. Several times it tried to attack him but missed and he got in a light blow, shaving off another few percentages of health. It wasn’t long before it was at 3% of its health, and then dead.

After finally delivering the coup de grace, Arris collapsed onto the stone floor, spent. Holy shit. If the Skeletal Reaver was even half as hard to kill as this thing had been, Arris was fucking done with the dungeon. He could wait a few months for a party to come help him clear it. He’d just satisfy himself with repeating floor clears. You surely needed to risk yourself for reward, but the sort of fights where the barest sliver of luck staves off death several times aren’t the sorts of risks you want to be taking for rewards.

Arris sighed and approached the corpse, raising his hand and placing it upon the head to loot the body. He received several items, including 7 kg of young drake bones, 0.276 kg of drake bone powder, an enchanted “Spiked Shield,” and a scroll of teleport.

It was some seriously jacked loot. When he searched the stuff up in the System, drake bones were listed as a rare level crafting item, and the bone powder was a rare level alchemical ingredient. The Spiked Shield, much like his staff, was also a rare item and reflected 10% of all damage blocked back to the attacker. Its actual defense stats were pretty crap, only giving another 8 defense on a successful block. But to a tank this could be an invaluable item, allowing the tank to actually deal damage to fighters and ranged artillery simply by blocking their attacks. And it was especially useful when you went up against a four-armed demon skeleton that did nothing but strike you over and over again. Kind of like the one he was about to fight.

The scroll was seemingly the most valuable item though, allowing you to teleport anywhere within two miles of yourself as long as you could envision it. When he searched it up, it seemed the System was preventing him from leaving the dungeon with it, but when he asked if he could escape from a boss fight the System told him that he could. That was huge news. It was a literal get out of death free card. The next time a boss was too strong, he could just tp away, no problem. The Skeletal Wrathion hadn’t dropped any cash, but that was fine. He was more than satisfied with the loot.

Now, Arris had to make his way over to the rundown cottage. He was sure that the hidden chest was in there. There was no other place for the hidden chest to be.

An hour later, Arris had finally made his way over to the front of the cottage. If Arris had gone directly to the cottage he probably could’ve made it in a quarter hour, but he’d also paused to kill the skeletons he passed picking up bone dust and a bunch of coins. He was currently at 99% of the way to level 10. With a shrug, Arris decided to go find another skeleton to kill before he looted the cottage. It didn’t take him long to find a skeleton. There was one standing only three platform jumps away and Arris quickly closed in and smacked the skeleton to death, netting him that last bit of exp.

Congratulations, you have leveled up!

This level you have the chance to change or choose a subclass, and also gain Class Points, Stat Points, and Racial Points. Spend them Wisely.

Available Subclasses

For ranking up Dark Blow you have received access to the subclasses:

Death Knight

or

Dark Paladin

(think the subclass you would like to select)

Arris had already made his choice long ago. Someone could argue that it would be better for Arris to wait and eventually get a mage subclass with a 100% progression rate, but considering the fact that he was dealing half his damage in melee combat, it would be far more wise to have at least one melee oriented subclass.

With a thought, Arris selected the Dark Paladin subclass and the next screen popped up.

Congratulations, you have gained the subclass Dark Paladin and gained the opportunity to purchase Dark Paladin Skills!

+11 Class Points (+5 Dark Paladin, +6 Thaumaturge)

There are no available Racial progression options!

+6 Racial Stat Points

After this screen, you will proceed to the Racial and Class Skills store!

Arris waved the screen away, wanting to get to his Class Store and see what new skills he could buy. The skill store popped up.

Class Skill Store

Thaumaturge Skills

Aether Bolt (2 Class Points)

Spirit Surge (5 Class Points)

Condensed Aether Bolt (7 Class Points)

(prerequisite Aether Bolt)

Spirit Shift (11 Class points)

Aether Sheen (5 Class Points)

Spirit Blast (6 Class Points)

Aether Sword (8 Class Points)

 Last Gasp (9 Class Points)

Dark Paladin

Shadowbolt (7 Class Points)

 Intimidate (6 Class Points)

Power of Darkness (11 Class Points)

 Affliction (3 Class Points)

Dark Blow (5 Class Points)

 Summon Shade (8 Class Points)

Gutting Blow (10 Class Points)

 Mental Onslaught (12 Class Points)

You will unlock 2 new skills every 5 levels for each subclass

Racial Skill Store

 Bone Shards (4 Racial Points)

Bone Shield (6 Racial Points)

 Soul Stealing (12 Racial Points)

Consummation (1 Skill Point (progressive))

Bone Armaments (7 Racial Points)

(Prerequisite Bone Shards)

 Bone Reinforcements (4 Racial Points)

Soul Strengthening (4 Racial Points)

 Summon Skeleton Warrior (13 Racial Points)

You will unlock 2 new skills every 5 levels

Arris was already in love with his new class. All of the skills for Dark Paladin in the Class Skill store were very powerful. Intimidate would frighten lower leveled enemies and cause them to be feared and try to run away. Shadowbolt was the Dark Paladin equivalent of an Aether Bolt. Affliction was a dot which slowed enemies. Summon Shade briefly summoned the shade of a slain enemy, complete with abilities and stats. Mental Onslaught was ridiculous, it essentially caused hallucinations in the middle of combat while dealing damage to the enemy and debuffing them. Gutting blow was a pretty much a kill shot if it connected to the gut, as its damage was multiplied by seven from a value three quarters that of Dark Blow. But by far the best was Power of Darkness, which was a general stat and damage resist buff. Its description is below.

Power of Darkness

Power of Darkness imbues the user with the very essence of darkness, giving the character increased staying power and magical endurance in combat. 

+10 Strength

+10 Agility

+10 Wisdom

-5% Damage taken from physical sources

The new skills on the Thaumaturge side and in the Racial Skills were okay, but not half as good as Power of Darkness, and plus, Arris had already looked at them and come to the conclusion they weren’t worth buying quite yet. Aether Sword was a melee ranged, half cost, one use, fully charged Condensed Aether Bolt, but if you missed it fizzled. Arris would probably pick this up someday as a tool against assassins, but until the day he was having assassin troubles… Last Gasp was also pretty good, costing 50% of total spirit but dealing double the damage of Spirit Blast increasing by 1% per every 1% health missing. Good when he had enough health to be missing half of it, not so good when missing half was a couple blows from death. Summon Skeleton Warrior was pretty much self-explanatory. And Soul Strengthening was a buff to Intelligence alongside a bonus percentage mana and spirit regen rate. Nice to have and he’d probably get it eventually when his resource pools were huge, but not today or tomorrow.

Arris’ mind made up, he purchased Power of Darkness, once again spending every single class point he had. He then opened his stat page, checking out his newfound stat increases.

Name: Arris Graham

Class

Mage (Thaumaturge, Dark Paladin)

Profession

None

Titles

Trailblazer I, Original I

Synchronicity Rating

97.6

Renown

0

Level

10, 0%

Race

Human Skeleton

Health

190/190

Mana

17/400

Toughness

162/190

Spirit

147/200

Attack : 42-48

Attack Rating : 71

Defense : 16.75

Defense Rating : 21

Strength : 41

Agility : 30

Intelligence : 30

Wisdom : 99

Luck : 5

Charm : 0

Constitution : 18

Vitality : 13

Health/10sec : 0.046

Mana/10sec : 3.24

Toughness/10sec : 0.23

Spirit/10sec : 3.24

Perception : 7

Resistances

-5% damage taken from physical sources

+50% damage taken from fire-based attacks

+150% damage taken from holy sources

-50% damage taken from dark magic

-90% damage taken from death magic

+30% damage from blunt damage types

-30% damage from sharp damage types

-10% damage from magical sources

99% chance to resist mind control and other types of subversive magic

Attributes

Skeletal Frame

Minor Undead

Immortal

Soulbound

Passive Skills

Mana Sense

Blunt Weapon Proficiency (11)

Climbing (1)

Power of Darkness

Equipped Items

Crude Iron Chestplate (Chest)

Damaged Leather Greaves (Lower Legs)

Iron Quarterstaff of Command Lesser Undead (Two Hands)

Leather Bracers of Agility (Forearm)

Damaged Leather Thigh Armor (Upper Legs)

Damaged Iron Gauntlets (Hands)

Worried Leather Pauldrons (Upper Arm)

Used Steel Boots (Feet)

Dented Iron Helm (Head)

Active Skills

Assess

Warrior’s Stance (4)

Condensed Aether Bolt (8) (30 CD)

Dark Blow (8) (10 CD)

Spirit Blast (6) (15)

Spirit Shards (7) (3)

Disorient (0) (15)

Then, realizing he hadn’t checked out Disorient either, Arris opened the description for that as well.

Disorient

You may activate this skill to use your mana and the powers of darkness to influence the very mind of your enemy. This spell is targeted and instant but takes effect over two seconds. It can easily be resisted by a prepared person. This spell requires an invocation as well as a spell matrix.

Upon Successful Cast:

-20% Balance

-10% All combat stats

10% Chance to confuse allies with enemies

10 Second duration

Cost:

-20 Mana

20 Second CD

It was a great skill. It was super cheap and if he got it off it would quite literally win a 1 v 1 fight. There was really no reason not to use it, simply because it was such a cheap ability. 20 mana was nothing in a fight, and even if it only had a 5% chance of working, that was a 5% chance he’d disorient his opponent so badly they were practically at his mercy.

Very happy with his new buff and spell, Arris waved away Disorient’s description and walked towards the cottage. The cottage was on a piece of loam which had surely once been full of vibrant plants and life but was now just full of unrecognizable dead things. The cottage itself was dark and rotten, the roof on one side caved in, and the door just barely hanging by its hinges.

Arris approached the door and tried to open it towards him. However, instead of opening the door simply flopped off of its hinges, nearly falling on Arris who only just barely managed to hop out of the way. It shattered on the ground and Arris, after a moment’s trepidation, peeked in through the doorway to check out the interior and make sure nothing would fall on him or attack.

After a couple seconds glancing about, Arris decided that despite outside looks, the building seemed to be more or less safe. The frame was actually constructed primarily out of stone with only minor decorative parts being wood, it appeared that the roof’s cave-in was caused not so much by the decay of the decorative wood but by the massive stone piece of artillery sitting in the middle of the house.

Arris seriously had to wonder what had happened and who had lived in this house to warrant being thrown a massive boulder at. Of course, then again, who knew, it may have just been some catapult crew screwing up badly. But by the fact that this house seemed to be the only one left standing in the level, Arris kind of had to doubt it was something that mundane. Oh well. He’d probably never know.

The hidden chest wasn't plainly obvious from immediately glancing around the cottage, so Arris began searching. It didn't take long, however, as the chest was merely placed behind the massive boulder in the middle of the cottage and all it took was one stroll around the cottage before Arris spotted it. He eagerly approached it and after noting that it was not glowing and thus not trapped immediately popped it open. Inside was a helm, a set of greaves, a book, a bunch of copper coins, and a few silver. Arris once again decided it was a good time to take stock of his inventory and check out his three new items.

Bronze Helm of Intelligence

Condition: Fine

3 kg

Requirements:

15 Constitution

20 Intelligence

Stats:

+14 Defense to equipped area

+5 Intelligence

Thief’s Leather Greaves

Condition: Fine

1.5 kg

Requirements:

11 Vitality

24 Agility

Stats:

+11 Defense to equipped area

+1 Agility

-10% Noise to all movement

Alarian’s Journal

Condition: Terrible

0.5 kg

Inventory:

0.8233 kg Human Bone Powder

247 Copper Coins

22 Silver Coins

0.030 kg 5 Bronze Rings

0.012 kg 2 Silver Lockets

0.012 kg 2 Gemstone Necklace

0.006 kg 1 Gold Ring

2 kg 1 Battered Iron Mace

0.276 kg Drake Bone Powder

3 kg Spiked Shield

7 kg Young Drake Bones

0.2 kg Scroll of Teleport

Capacity 13.3593 / 40 kg

Upon reading the descriptions for the two pieces of armor he’d found, Arris immediately equipped them. They were far better than the junk he was currently wearing. That bonus Intelligence from the helm would be a huge asset in a fight, allowing for another couple spell casts, and the stat boost from the greaves was great to have, even if it was practically negligible. The noise reduction would also surely be useful in some situation later on down the line.

Having equipped his gear, Arris then looked at the journal. Arris had initially assumed that the book was a skill book and now that he knew it wasn’t he was a little sad he wouldn’t be getting another skill. But the journal was unique in rarity: there has to be something special about it. With nothing to do but wait around as his resources slowly regenerated, Arris opened the book and began to read.

As could be rather easily guessed by the title of the book, it was the journal of a being named Alarian. It was rather disjointed and certainly lived up to its condition of terrible, with near half the pages having been eaten by bugs, torn out, or faded into illegibility. However, what few words it did still have made it very clear the book was about animal training.

In fact, the book started with the very quote, “The path of the animal trainer is one of companionship, trust, and camaraderie. Us dravakiim, despite our often stoic and silent natures, are community creatures at heart. Without the presence of others to console our existences, we soon turn to longing and seek others for companionship, returning to the Great Mother Citadel. As the warrior of legends Grenieras once said, ‘the road to hell is one paved with loneliness and death, often ending at the hands of another.’ On the path of the animal trainer you will never walk this road, never being truly alone.”

Arris shrugged. The words were some archaic mumbo jumbo, spawned by the vanity of the author who was exalting his hobby or class. He hardly glanced at them before flipping the page.

Reading whatever pages that were still legible, Arris encountered various stories wherein the writer, Alarian Valdric, tamed and trained a wide variety of creatures. The whole process seemed to be almost entirely reliant on the trainer’s determination and hard work, and very rarely were skills mentioned.

Arris learned of a wide and astounding variety of beasts, all of which Alarian tried to tame but many of which he was forced to fight and kill. As far as he could tell, Alarian was not human. There was no direct mention of his race, but several times Alarian made comments how in his younger days some couple hundred years ago he may have been able to take on certain powerful beasts. Further corroborating the idea that Alarian was several hundred years old was the sheer number of beasts described and tamed within the book, far more than any human could tame in a single lifetime included just on the pages that hadn’t been ruined. Unless things drastically changed with the System Initialization, humans did not live for hundreds of years. Most importantly though was the fact that Alarian referenced to himself as a dravakiim, and spoke several times of his special connection with drakes and longing for his kin. Humans were specifically referred to and both disdained and admired, though towards the end of the journal Alarian ultimately decided to settle down in a human city named Hrakvacrim. Arris had to wonder if he’d eventually meet other sentient humanoids.

The subsequent section was devoted to the taming of several subterranean species, including and heavily focussing on Wrathions. Arris found several detailed entries regarding adult Wrathions, including their mating habits, eating habits, and waste habits.

Arris had to assume that in the last section Alarian had taken residence in the once flourishing and now ruined city he was currently in. And if he’d encountered one baby skeletal Wrathion, it would follow that he would later encounter one of the multiple adult Wrathions mentioned in the journal in skeleton form. An adult skeletal Wrathion would almost assuredly be either the floor boss or the boss before it.

> Perception +1 <

As much as Arris was happy to get the skill point, he did not want to fight another one of those goddamn things. They were too strong, too fast, and in the air they were unstoppable. Fighting one of those things was a bad idea if he’d ever heard one.

After another twenty or so pages of descriptions of the taming of subterranean creatures the journal abruptly cut off, with no goodbye or explanation as to why. Arris could only assume that at that time something had happened to the city which had resulted in everything dying and becoming undead. He wondered if there would be more backstory to come. Who knew? The only way to find out would be to continue deeper into the dungeon.

Upon flipping through the rest of the pages, the final fifty or so all blank, Arris finally finished and closed the book. Upon doing so, a notification popped up.

Congratulations!

You have gained the profession, Animal Trainer! You have gained a massively increased capacity to tame and train various species of live animals. Special skills, attributes, and titles may be unlocked by leveling this profession. You have also gained the rapport stat, as it is necessary for this class.

+5 Rapport

Arris wasn’t quite sure what to make of this new profession. On one hand, it hadn’t given him any skills or advantages that he could immediately make use of in combat. However, if he could find animals and then tame and train them to fight for him his combat potential could increase by leaps and bounds. Of course, then again, he was still an undead: there was the possibility no animal would ever even allow him to approach.

But that was a problem for another time. Arris could go to the animal dungeon and attempt to tame and train the animals he found, but he didn’t want any weak rats as pets, and currently only had access to the Rat Warrens, presumably only containing rats. Once he got more powerful though, he could clear through the Rat Warrens with relative ease and then maybe tame and train something actually useful on the second floor of that zone.

Arris had just one more thing to do and that was to check out his new stats. He’d gotten perception a while back and had been meaning to check it out but had completely forgotten about it, figuring it to be an unimportant sort of means of notification by the System that he’d done something clever. Rapport, however, was something he definitely needed to check out to see what sort of impact it could have on his new profession. And if he was going to check out one stat, why not just do both. Arris opened the descriptors for both stats.

Perception

Perception increases the thinking capacity and awareness of a being. Each rank of Perception increases Thought Speed by 1%, Vision Awareness by 1%, and increases the odds of spotting anomalies by 0.05%.

Rapport

Rapport increases affinity towards all other beings, functioning in a manner very similar to charisma. Rapport, however, serves primarily to strengthen and encourage existing relationships, whereas charisma makes the character generally more appealing.

Arris was very surprised after reading the two descriptions for the stats. Rapport was pretty much exactly what he’d expected it to be but perception was… well… it was overpowered. Increasing the speed of thought? It was something out of a sci-fi movie. Maybe someday if he got both the agility and perception stats high enough he could be like Neo or Agent Smith, capable trading lightning fast blows at speeds too fast for comprehension.

And anyway, it wasn’t like he needed to double his thought speed or anything for the stat to be busted. He hadn’t really noticed it yet, but get another ten or twenty points into that stat and it would make a marked difference in combat.

After being excited by his discoveries about his stats and his gain of the Animal Tamer class, Arris was finally ready to move on to the level boss. He navigated his way across the obstructions killing the skeletons he met before he finally reached the area where he knew the Skeletal Reaver was. Looking down from the top of the obstruction he could actually see the Skeletal Reaver down below.

Then, Arris realized something rather obvious. He could just hit it with magic from on top of the obstruction. After a short wait, Arris had prepped 4 Spirit Shards and was ready to attack. He went through his full combo, expending all but 40 mana. The spells crackled down and smashed violently into the Skeletal Reaver.

> You deal Skeletal Reaver 56 raw damage! <

> You deal Skeletal Reaver 21 raw damage! <

> You deal Skeletal Reaver 21 raw damage! <

> You deal Skeletal Reaver 21 raw damage! <

> You deal Skeletal Reaver 21 raw damage! <

> You deal Skeletal Reaver 373 mixed damage! <

> Skeletal Reaver has died! <

> Condensed Aether Bolt +1 <

Holy crap. He’d literally just one shot that boss. After the Skeletal Wrathion he'd been expecting a little bit more of a fight than that. It wasn’t too surprising though, considering the fact that he’d knocked off 75% or so of the Wrathion’s health with his combo. And the Skeletal Wrathion, unlike the Reaver, was practically a dragon. It was only reasonable to assume that it had a little more health. Both relieved and disappointed at not having to do any real fighting to take down the boss, Arris began the descent to its body.

The boss had dropped all four of its scimitars as well as a ton of cash, a total of thirty-four copper coins and four silver. Arris also opened a window to check what the scimitars did.

Scimitar of Synchronization

Condition: Excellent

2 kg

Requirements:

36 Agility

23 Strength

Stats:

+19-24 Damage

+1 Agility

Synchronization:

Scimitars of Synchronization deal an additional 5 damage and give an addition 1 agility for each Scimitar of Synchronization equipped and in use during combat. If there are four or more Scimitars of Synchronization equipped and in use during combat, gain an extra 10 damage and 1 agility per weapon, for a total of 5 agility and 49-54 damage on each weapon.

After initially seeing the unique color indicator and the excellent condition, Arris had been rather excited. But after reading the actual item description Arris was rather disappointed, for the simple reason that he couldn’t effectively use the items. If you could somehow equip four of the item at a single time it would surely be overpowered. But since Arris only had two arms and could only equip two at a time the scimitars were effectively useless since they didn’t deal as much damage as the Quarterstaff. Ah well. While the Scimitars were less useful than the Quarterstaff, they would make a good replacement for his mace, which he dropped and then replaced with the four scimitars. Who knew. Maybe he could find a good use for the items later.

Finally clear of the level, Arris then traveled from the site of the boss fight to the entrance of the tunnel to the next level. It was time to move onwards and further into the dungeon. There was no telling what would be waiting for him in the next few caverns, and Arris couldn't wait to find out.