Chapter: Gains

Erik’s eyes opened slowly as he saw that light was starting to come into his room.

He could hear the noises of people going to breakfast, their voices were low, he could feel the heaviness in the air.

Seventeen.

Erik slowly pushed himself up, he sat there for some time, just needing to collect his thoughts.

He saw his notification ‘!’ flashing at him.

Needing a distraction from his thoughts Erik opened his notifications.

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Skill: Marksman

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Level: 39 (Apprentice)

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Long-range weapons are familiar in your hands. When aiming, you can zoom in x2.0.

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Skill: Hand-to-Hand

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Level: 26 (Apprentice)

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Attacks cost 20% less stamina

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Upon advancing into the apprentice level of Hand to Hand, you will be rewarded with one randomly selected item related to this skill.

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You have received the One Finger Beats Fist Technique Book

+10,000 EXP

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Skill: Healer

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Level: 47 (Apprentice)

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You have become familiar with the body and the arts of repairing it. Healing spells now cost 5% less Mana.

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Upon advancing into the journeyman level of Healer, you will be rewarded with one randomly selected item related to this skill.

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You have received Ranged Heal-Simple

+100,000 EXP

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Quest Completed: Beast Mountain Trial

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Requirements: Defeat the beast horde (0/5 Waves remaining)

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Rewards:

Title: Dungeon Master

Control over Beast Mountain Dungeon

+100,000 EXP

Teleportation scroll (location locked)

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Title: Dungeon Master

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You've become the master of a dungeon

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You have gained control of the Dungeon building interface.

Grade: Grand Mortal (Can be upgraded) (Must visit Dungeon to take control)

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Resources

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Food: 0 Units

Stone: 700 Units

Mana: 1200

Gold: 0

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Upkeep costs per day:

1 Mana

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You have gained control of:

Dungeon Core (Sleeping)

Alchemy workshop

Beast Stables

Smithy

Citizens: 1

Guards: 0

Vzztpssht: 41

Beasts: 214

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Erik looked over the information but he didn’t really know what it all meant, it was like the information he had got when he and Rugrat had become the acting lords of Alva Village.

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You have reached Level 15

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When you sleep next, you will be able to increase your attributes by: 0 points.

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Must be zero because I already used them last night to increase my stats.

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56,534/195,000 EXP till you reach level 16

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Even with the killing of thousands of beasts, even if they were shared over the people in Alva Village, Erik had killed dozens by himself and it had only allowed him to level up two times.

“One really needs to advance in the realms if they want to increase their rank,” Erik said, he felt like he had dried out all of his avenues in the first realm.

It was hard to nearly impossible for him to gain the experience he wanted, killing most creatures in the first realm would give him just a few pitiful hundred experience. The resources weren’t enough to support increasing his skills, even the technique books and manuals only covered the basics, allowing one to gain an understanding, but find it hard to advance.

We must go to the second realm when we can to increase our level.

Erik’s thoughts turned towards Chonglu City, his expression hardened. There are still things that we need to look after first.

When he gripped his fist an explosive energy filled his body, now he might be able to defeat those rhinos with just his fists and feet instead of needing to enhance his body with mana.

With this thought Erik opened up his storage broach, inside was the ranged heal spell scroll and the One Finger Beast Fist technique book.

He checked his different storage devices but wasn’t able to find the teleportation scroll.

“Rugrat and I did the quest, he probably has it,” Erik pulled out the two new items he had gained.

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Technique Book: Ranged Heal-Simple

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Do you wish to activate this Technique book? Doing so will destroy this Technique book.

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YES/NO

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“Yes,” With Erik’s word the scroll started to disintegrate a white light shooting between Erik’s brows.

He closed his eyes as information flooded his mind.

In just a few seconds he knew everything contained within the scroll and how to use the spell.

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You have learned the spell: Ranged Heal-Simple Your spell book has been updated.

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“Ranged heal,” Erik said, a green mana circle appeared around his hand, it looked more complicated than his other healing spells as a green looking ball of water formed and shot out, it hit the wall like a water balloon it exploded but other than a wet stain nothing happened.

“It’ll take me some time to be able to insta cast,” Erik said, learning the spell was one thing, but it took repeated uses and a deeper understanding before it could become his spell.

It was like he had read the back of the book, he had an idea of what it was about, but it was only when he read the book that he would be able to make deeper connections and greater understandings, making the book his.

“With this I can heal Rugrat even if we’re apart. I need to look into spells more, there are a lot of them but so far I’ve only been able to make mana bolt and mana bullet on my own. If I can understand them I might be able to make new spells that suit my different way of healing.”

Erik put those thoughts to the back of his mind, the world of magic was a large one, he had a basic understanding of different practices, but for the large part he used the spell technique books to gain spells.

While it would be nice to make more spells himself, he didn’t know how much or how little work it would take.

Erik assessed the small headache he had from using the first technique book and opened the second.

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Technique Book: One Finger Beast Fist

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Do you wish to activate this Technique book? Doing so will destroy this Technique book.

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YES/NO

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“Yes,” Erik said.

The pages started flipping in the book, energy building up before shooting between Erik’s brows again, this stream lasted longer before the light dissipated and the book closed with a bang. Erik waved his hand, the book turning to dust as he let out a cold breath.

He pinched the bridge of his nose rubbing it between his fingers.

“That wasn’t as fun,” Erik said as images filled his mind, there was a woman standing on a field, she held up a fist, but after a second she raised her index finger.

She pushed her finger forward, it seemed simple but Erik could see the rapid movement in the air around her finger.

The scene changed, the woman was now older, more refined as she still thrust out with her finger, the seasons changed as the woman grew older, executing that same finger technique, with each scene the air moved differently as she gained insight and greater understanding to her movements.

Finally she was standing opposite a man with a gloating smile. He was wearing purple robes that might have looked tranquil on another person but did nothing to soften his eyes.

The woman stood there, poised and uncaring, her gaze cold.

It was a match, the stands were blurry and the area around the two was hard to see.

The man launched himself forward, his feet leaving craters on the tiles.

Erik’s eyes widened at this explosive power, he could sense the power of the man.

“Body like Stone? Maybe even higher? Body like Iron?” Erik’s words disappeared into a shocked whisper, he found it hard to follow the man’s movements as he crossed the arena in just a few seconds.

Flames appeared in the man’s eyes and lit up his fists, his muscles glowed with power as he unleashed a powerful strike, holding nothing back.

His face held a smirk as the woman repeated the same strike that Erik had seen hundreds, no thousands of times.

Power condensed and formed on the woman’s finger, there was no rushing air like before, but a small distortion in the air.

Fist met finger. The powerful and dominating looking man’s flames were snuffed out mercilessly, his arm breaking.

The rush of air made the woman’s clothes billow around them, her finger stretched out to meet her opponent’s fist still as he was blown to the side like a puppet that been yanked back by the puppeteer.

Slowly she lowered her finger.

He had used brute strength while she had focused and controlled that strength, striking at his weakness.

The woman’s eyes seemed to find Erik’s a cold sweat fell down his back, he felt powerless beneath that gaze, as if a mortal looking to a god.

All of his secrets seemed to be revealed.

“Interesting,” this one word was simple but it seemed to be able to command the ten realms.

Erik opened his eyes back in his room as the information in his mind seemed to explode, imprinting into his very body and soul.

Before, it would have taken him months to learn the technique, now he could feel part of the woman’s own thoughts and ideas, with these, it would be much easier for him to learn.

It was some time before he was able to recover from it all.

“I thought that when using technique books people would just immediately know the spell or technique, some of them are more guides than they are the answers. It will take longer to understand and those that use them might not ever understand them in their lifetime. Though if someone uses this with their own knowledge, they could create a technique that is better suited for them and can display more power.”

It was a blessing and a curse, one would only get the most out of it, if it was best suited for them. If it wasn’t then it would be wasted.

“I haven’t even scratched the surface of the ten realms,” Erik said, he let out a small snort and a smile, he still had a long way to go.