《Realm of Infinity》24) Levels and surprise

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As soon as that last window was dismissed, I looked at my friends with a huge grin on my face. We had gotten more experience from this one first clear run than we had accumulated thus far in the game! No wonder people were so crazy on the forums about finding these places. The potential for benefits in a short period of time were beyond amazing. Despite the joy I knew they should be feeling at the moment too, and indeed they were quite happy if the stupid grins on their faces spoke towards anything, their eyes were glazed over and unfocused. The must have been dealing with their notifications before actually celebrating, which seemed like a good idea.

I had several glowing icons on my UI including my character tab and my Fairy tab. Level up notifications there probably, but I wanted to check out this new piece of armor I had gotten first. Better to equip that now and see where my stats lay before dealing with point assignments after all. Pulling my inventory screen open, I flicked my gaze to the sole item with a purple border in my bags. The Chain Shirt of Wrath… Let’s see what we had here. Using my inspect skill was becoming easier every time I did so, and at that point I barely had to focus at all in order to call up the item stats.

Chain Shirt of Wrath

Set: 1 of 8

Bonuses:

+18 Armor

+10 Str

+10 Agi

+3% Damage dealt

Rage*

Part of the Wrath armor set, this equipment was used by a seasoned warrior at one time. After the former owner of this set retired from the adventuring life, his armor was lost from his wagon and the pieces picked up by bandits. Over time, the various pieces of this set have been scattered throughout the lands.

(*Rage is a battle skill that can be used once every 120 minutes. While the skill is active, the user will have increased attack speed and damage for fifteen seconds at the cost of a 50% reduction of the users armor score. More pieces of the set equipped will enhance the effects and reduce the armor penalty.)

Now that is what I wanted to find! I immediately equipped my new chest armor, grinning at the feeling of power I got as soon as the increase to my stats hit me. The Rage skill looked to be quite a powerful, if limited, ability that I would be able to make good use of. With Kayla to tank for me, I didn’t have to worry about the armor penalty while Rage was active and would be able to deal an insane amount of damage. Rubbing my hands together, I dismissed the equipment screen and inventory to open up my character screen to deal with my level ups.

Congratulations!

You have gained 4 levels!

Current level: 15

You have gained a Bonus +50 HP

Faction Bonus:

+4 Str

+4 Fort

+4 Skill Points

You have 20 stat points available to distribute.

Warning! If you die before assigning your points, they will be lost!

Alright! Four levels from this first clear, and we still had the location of one other untouched dungeon! My second Fairy was looking to be right around the corner with a bit of heavy grinding and hard work. I doubted any subsequent clears would net nearly as much experience, even if it would still be more efficient to farm a dungeon than hunting random mobs. Another 50 HP was added for level 15, the pattern becoming obvious now in regards to the bonus in that department, and I quickly distributed my points. My Fort had dropped a little due to losing the bonus from my old chest armor, so I popped three points there just to round me out, then grinned manically as I poured all seventeen remaining points into agility. I hummed an old Blue Oyster Colt song that fit me perfectly as I checked over my current stats happily.

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Name: Calamity

Player Level: 15

Stat Level: 54

Exp: 66,620

Titles

Harbinger of War, Soul Reaper

Fame

950

Armor

72

HP

850/850

Energy

650/650

MP

690/690

Str

90

Fort

65

Dex

37

Int

69

Agi

93

Will

28

I had to admit to myself, I was quite pleased with how my character was shaping up. Enough armor to withstand some hits, but built in such a way as I could overpower any defense I came across. My new Agi score had me feeling as light as a feather, and I was beyond eager to see just how fast I would be attacking now, and then I could add in Rage too! I was nearly salivating as I switched over to my skills tab. I tried to dump all four points into Polearm Mastery, but after using three a window popped up which I minimized. Upon attempting to add the fourth point, I got a message saying that level 20 in the skill was as high as it could go for my level. Well that was shitty… I sighed and dropped my remaining point into Blooded Tactician to raise that skill up to 14. Before I checked the pop up message, I remembered that we had gotten a new skill upon clearing the entire dungeon and looked that one over as well.

Dungeon Raider

Skill level: 1 (Max)

A special skill rewarded to those who were part of a group to clear a dungeon for the first time. Each additional first clear of a dungeon will add a level to this skill, reflecting your mastery of raiding the mysteries of this world and vanquishing the foes found within. Continue searching out these places of danger and battle, and you will become even more capable of reaping the rewards these locations have to offer.

Bonus:

+5% exp gain inside of instanced dungeons

Congratulations!

Your skill Polearm Mastery has grown in level!

Skill level: 20 (Player level capped)

Continuous use of polearms has deepened your understanding of their function and versatility.

+20% damage with polearms

+20% attack speed with polearms

+25% extra damage when charging

+5% chance to inflict a serious injury

Increase the skill level for additional bonuses

Even more good news to come crashing down on me! Having stuck with one type of weapon consistently and for so long was really starting to pay off. I did some quick calculations with my new stats as well as the upgraded damage from my scaling weapon, and I figured that if I went back to the fight with the first pack of bandit werewolves, I would be able to solo them without any issues. Granted, that was without them scaling up in level to match my current state, but it was a good indication in my mind that I might not be quite so helpless in the coming conflict against the dragon and his armies. I pulled up my final skill page and checked it over, still wishing I could get rid of the useless skills I would never touch like the Advanced Herbalism and the Two Handed Axe Mastery. Oh well, I was able to select where my skill points go every level now so not a big deal.

Skill List:

Polearm Mastery: lvl 20 (0%)

Two Handed Axe Mastery: lvl 3 (0%)

Inspect: lvl 14 (60%)

Advanced Herbalism: lvl 4 (0%)

Blooded Tactician: lvl 14 (0%)

Spoils of War: lvl Max

Dungeon Raider: lvl Max

Once all of my own stats and skills were settled, I closed out the windows and pulled up Aly’s page. My Fairy had leveled up right along with me, but unlike in previous situations I was able to manually distribute the experience points she had received into her skills. Thank God for small favors on that boat too, for wasting over thirty thousand experience on one skill at this point was a bit on the insane side honestly… With all of the experience banked from this instance run, I was able to level up True Haste, Swift Regeneration and Temporal Step to level 2 before dropping the few remaining points into Time Heals All Wounds.

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With the newly leveled skills, I was looking at +20% regen rate at all times and was now able to have 6 seconds of free movement with a 36 second cooldown. No luck in being able to use that skill more often unfortunately as I had hoped the cooldown would remain the same as before. Oh well, the biggest boost to me was the level 2 True Haste which gave me a 30% increased perception of time now. Beware the new Reaper of battle! I was going to be a blur to most normal enemies if I kept up with this build path. I glanced over the newly updated page for Aly, my excitement soaring high with the freshly opened possibilities of the future in this game.

Alysandaria the Chronomancer

Level: 15

Type: Support

Born in the Grotto of Tranquility, Alysandaria is the Contracted bond partner to Calamity. Upon entering the world, she has chosen dominion over the power of time itself and can grant enhancing effects to others with her abilities.

Skills:

True Haste 2

Swift Regeneration 2

Temporal Step 2

Time Heals All Wounds

Demi Speed

Rapid Revival

I closed out all of the windows, my head turning to take in Kayla and Archie still tinkering with their menus for the time being. The whole issue of getting their stats and skills just right was important, and I was happy enough to give them the time to do as they needed. They did put up with me wasting plenty of time with the same situation after all. Call me what you will, but I have always been fair to my friends.

After another minute or two, Archie’s eyes focused once more and he grinned at me with a wide smile. “Sorry, I am all done now. Haven’t had to deal with that large of a flood since I started the game! So what is your epic item like?” Kayla finished up her own stuff at that point and raised a brow in curiosity, eager to hear as well.

I filled them in on what my new chest armor could do, more than excited about the Rage skill I had gotten from the armor. “How about you guys? Boots for Zex and a shield for Serena I am going to assume. Fill us in on your stuff too!”

Kayla was the first to speak up, lifting her right arm with the shield attached to the limb. “I unfortunately lost the AOE stun ability since it was part of my old shield, but this new one is above and beyond my old item! 45 armor and a 30% overall damage reduction with extra Fort stats to boot.” She practically squealed out the words, her excitement matching my own at the amazing quality of the items. “Also, if that wasn’t enough, it has an ability as well! It only has three uses per day, but damn if that isn’t worth it. The skill has the same name as the item, and places a magical shield around me for eight seconds to prevent all damage I would receive! It is part of a two piece set as well, so I am assuming there is a matching weapon too.”

Well shit… And I thought my item was good. That shield would probably last her for the rest of the game just based on that ability! How that item was a mere epic rarity I couldn’t fathom, but it meant that our clear speed of instances just increased drastically. I was happy for her though, my own weapon being a scaling type that I would never replace. Thinking on that, I actually needed to pull up the stats for that as well and check out the new damage it was doing.

Before I could even begin to go down that path, Archie spoke up with a shake of his head. “You both got better than me, but my new boots aren’t bad at all. Decent armor, they add a lot of Dex and Agi as well as a 15% increased dodge chance. No extra special skills or anything like that, but I should be able to feasibly dodge tank a mob or two if I get another couple pieces of the set.” He smirked and raised a brow at Kayla and myself. “Shall we reset the instance and do another clear? If we can farm more good gear from this place it will help us out greatly.”

The voice of reason came from Kayla surprisingly. “No. Definitely not. We need to get to the next dungeon and attain the first clear bonus before we do anything else. Don’t forget, our streams have leaked the info even if it wasn’t up for long. I will not let this chance slip by me, so we are going to clear the other instance and then we can worry about filling out our gear.” Okay, maybe ‘reason’ was inappropriate. Bullying would probably fit more accurately, even if she was, in theory, correct.

“Alright, I wouldn’t mind taking out the second dungeon before farming myself. If we can easily hit level 19 or 20 that will only leave us five levels worth of grinding until we each can get a second Fairy.” I smirked at the two of them. “I already have mine planned out, but if you want to go with me back to the Grotto, Sarah might be able to hook you guys up with something.” It was a sore spot for the both of them, as neither knew yet where to get their hands on a powerful Fairy for their second contract, and of course tormenting my friends about it was my number one job.

“That’s okay. We will just steal your Fairies when we get to 25.” Kayla had her helm tucked under her right arm, her left hand flipping her hair back over a shoulder as she grinned at Archie. “But I call Aly. You can have whatever other Fairy he picks up.”

Archie nodded his head in agreement before turning towards the path out of the instance. “That is fair I suppose… I should probably start working on getting him to pick a Fairy suitable for my style of play then huh?” As he walked, he shot a smile over his shoulder at me. “Hear that? Pick something I can use so when Serena and I kill you we can acquire your Contracts!”

Well, my teasing backfired… “Wait, you are kidding, right? Is that even possible?” I followed after them, catching up easily. “You both know I am only joking. I will do what I can to make sure you both get good partners too!” I glanced upwards, our Fairies floating around above. “Aly, help me out here!”

The small creature floated down and sat on Kayla’s shoulder, exactly in the same spot she normally sat on mine. “Miss Serena, can I keep my name when you kill Calamity and claim my Contract?”

“Oh, of course you can Aly. I will protect you from the evil Calamity just as soon as I am able to!” Kayla lifted a hand and patted my Fairy on her head.

“You are all traitors… Aly, next time we are in a town I am going to buy myself a drink and leave you to watch me without one of your own.” I glared at her, not serious in the least which they could tell as both of the girls broke down into a fit of giggling laughter.

Aly sprang up and flew over to my shoulder, hugging my neck from her seat. “Don’t worry Calamity, I won’t leave you. We have way too much fun together!” She grinned at me from her perch and I couldn’t help but smile back at my AI friend. “And just to put your mind at ease, it is impossible for another person to break our contract. Even the two paladins coming to hunt me down, I cannot see how they will manage to get rid of me… It seems like a pointless quest.”

I frowned in thought as we walked, her words sending me into a curious state as I contemplated how exactly they would manage it. “Well, if it was me… I would have asked the dragon for an item that would capture you. If they can contain you and take you far away from me it would effectively do the same thing as breaking the contract as I wouldn’t be able to use your powers. A Fairy needs to be relatively close to the Contractor in order to cycle the mana we offer.” I shrugged a shoulder, this being the only way I could see the plan working at all. “So to counter this, I just need to keep you safe from capture and it will be a moot point.”

Archie, ever the analytical type, was the first to speak up. “And how do you plan to do that? She needs to be close enough for you to use her during battle, so there will be no leaving her in a safe location. At the same time, she can’t really sit on your shoulder during the war ahead of us either. Aly will be exposed to danger as some point or another, so it will have to come down as to how to minimize the risks…”

“Oh, I already have an answer to that. It won’t be easy or cheap, but there is a way to do it.” I glanced over at Kayla, eyeing her plate armor up and down. “Serena, how did you get plate armor so early in the game anyway? The highest defense armor I found in Tyrith was chainmail, and even that was poor quality unless I brought the materials to make a set.”

Kayla seemed shocked that I brought that up for a moment before laughing softly. “This armor was a reward for completing a rather annoying quest chain about finding a nobleman’s lost dog, of all things. It was a one-off Unique quest, and the rewards was this set of plate armor that is actually way too good for the early levels by all means.” She tilted her head at me curiously. “Not that it was really a secret, but why do you ask?”

I nodded to her at the story, then smiled and replied to her question. “Well I have noticed that a lot of the NPCs who wear plate armor have a certain bulge at the base of the back. Not a large one, but big enough that a Fairy could hide in and gain the protection of the heavy armor. I was really wondering why yours didn’t have that feature. Did the nobleman who gave it to you not have a Fairy?”

She shook her head, eyes flicking towards Celeste who was hovering nearby. “No, he didn’t. That was part of the reason he gave for valuing his dog so much, he didn’t have a Fairy Companion to share his time with…” A single finger extended on a risen hand to tap at her lips in thought. “So you mean to say most player plate armor will have the space to hide our Fairies?”

“I am not totally sure, honestly. It is a theory of mine that seems plausible at the least.” I shrugged my shoulders again, only having what I had seen as evidence to support my claims about it so far. “I never asked any of the NPCs about it before because I was so far away from the heavy armor at the time, but now it looks like I should be able to start upgrading to plate soon enough. Just something to consider for both of us in the near future. Zex is just shit out of luck though.”

Aly had to fly up as the insulted person slugged my arm hard at my quip. I laughed, Kayla and the Fairies all joining in with me, as I rubbed the spot he hit. It didn’t truly hurt much, but the action was ingrained and more out of habit than the need to soothe away any pain I may have felt. “You, my friend, are a dick.” That was all I received from Archie before he took off at a run ahead of us, the portal of the instance now visible ahead.

I laughed all the harder because of his reactions, but soon stepped through the shimmering space to leave the dungeon behind. It was like walking through a waterfall… A bit of distortion and then I could see clearly around me once again. The only problem being what was waiting for us on the outside of the instance. Easily two dozen players were standing up and readying weapons from when Archie appeared, the bulk of the players ready for a fight. I still had my scythe out, I would never put the weapon away while walking through a dungeon, just in case of a mob we may have missed along the way, and looked over the crowds. All of them were levels 8 to 12, not a single one being on par with our new strength.

“Welcome to the Forest Dungeon! We just cleared the place, so you are more than welcome to pay me for any advice you may have about how to not die!” Maybe a little flippant, but hell… These guys wouldn’t pose a threat to me in the slightest at the moment. I had done the math, and with an average hit from my scythe, I was dealing about 250 damage per hit before armor cut down on that. I gave each person here three hits to die to me, maybe four if they built for PvP defense. They didn’t stand a chance…

A slender man in leather armor twirled a dagger in each hand as he stepped to the front of the group arrayed against us. He was a level 12 player and looked like he was quite intimate with the use of those knives, probably even in real life. “You misunderstand… We are here to collect the exact location of the second dungeon you have coordinates for. There are twenty-seven of us against you three, just hand it over and nobody has to get hurt. You are hard mode players, with a lot of good loot.” He grinned wickedly at me and lifted a dagger to point at me. “Some of us will surely die, but we will get you in the end. With our numbers, we will split the stuff you drop easily. I am sure your inventory is loaded with loot from the dungeon you just ran.”

I feigned a yawn, not even bothering to hide it behind a hand, which caused the rogue-like man before me to go red in anger. “Serena, Zex… Want to make a bet?” I turned to the side slightly, bringing my friends into my peripheral vision more. Both of them turned their heads slightly towards me, the international signal for ‘I’m listening’. “You two get comfy here, and I bet you in less than two minutes I will have all of these pricks sent off for a respawn. Let’s wager… Twenty gold. From each of you.”

Both of my friends glanced at each other before smirking and giving me a nod. They leaned against some trees, relaxing and ignoring the throng of people arrayed around us while Mr. Rogue looked like he was going to burst an artery. “You think this is a joke? You don’t stand a chance of killing all of us at once!”

I sighed, shaking my head at the man. “Oh ye of little faith. Also, you are a complete idiot if you think you can all actually attack me at once. Have you never done VR PvP before? It is quite similar to real life… You can’t attack me through the bodies of those around me, so at most five or six of you at one time can get at me. But by all means, shoot your arrows into the fray! You will do more damage to your team than me.” I leaned in closer slightly, my voice dropping in a very loud whisper so everyone could still hear me. “And yes, friendly fire is a real thing in this game… Tell you what. I will give you all three seconds to get out of here.” I held up three fingers on my left hand, right clutching my scythe. “Three…”

Murmuring came from the lower level players. They could see how confident I was in my assessment, as well with how comfortable I was in the situation. The rogue guy turned to yell at the others to not go anywhere as I dropped one of my fingers. “Two…” A single arrow fired from an archer in the back of the group. Some serious luck or skill was with the archer, for the shaft passed cleanly through the crowd to strike squarely against my chest. Fortunately for me, it didn’t have the power to pierce my armor and it only dealt me twenty points of damage. Must have been a level 8 or 9 player to do so little.

Silence fell instantly on the gathering, all eyes turned towards me and the sight of my eyes looking down at the arrow laying upon the ground. I looked back up, anger flaring in my eyes. “Well then, no need to keep counting is there…” I slapped my hand back onto the handle of my scythe and triggered Temporal Step. I had six seconds now to find the perfect place to assault as many people at once as I could. Unlike them, my weapon had a long reach and could easily hit more people at once than a sword could. With two seconds to spare, I found myself in the middle of a group and readied my stance.

Right before my skill ended, I activated both True Haste and Rage, my attack speed and damage becoming significantly higher in an instant as I hoped to deal a swift end to as many people as possible. As the world returned to motion, I let a grin split my face as my body rotated around twice in a mere second. Truly, the attack and move speed I was now at with all my skills activated was frightening to anyone watching, the black metal of my scythe seeming to create a solid ring around me with those two attacks. In that one second, six players collapsed to the ground as they were sent to the blackness of death.

Not one to let an advantage go to waste, I turned and dove into another knot of players, my weapon a blur to those without a high enough agility score to perceive my movement. Which just happened to be nearly everyone present. The players that had gathered to try and bully information out of my group were beginning to catch up to what the situation had become and yelled loudly as they began a counter attack. Damage numbers began to come in at me, my health bar getting chipped away some only to flicker back up a bit as I dealt damage. My lifesteal really was a cheat-like ability when it came to physical combat like this.

After killing about fifteen of the players gathered, a box flashed open before my eyes, only to be minimized automatically to view after combat. I had caught a glimpse of what it contained in that brief moment though, and my grin only grew wider at the implications at what it was. I only read a couple words, but what I saw was definitely in keeping with the theme of how I was building my character. Having that boost in confidence combined with the excitement of seeing exactly what my new skill was able to do, I picked up my pace in the rampage through the ranks of players.

The damage I was taking was actually decent, my health bar was steadily dipping lower as it neared the 50% mark. Yet with every attack I sent out, my lifesteal would greedily fill a portion of my life once more. The fight was becoming a battle of attrition as it was coming down to whether they would run out of players first, or my lifesteal would be unable to support the influx of damage. After clearing out the back ranks of players, my rage skill went on cooldown which slowed me up some and reduced the damage I dealt. At the same time however, my defense rose back up to full and the damage I received lessened proportionally.

I took the opportunity to drink a health and energy potion, filling my bars up a good bit while the melee oriented players began to close in on me finally. My words to the leader of the group had proven accurate as they were unable to truly use their numbers to a full advantage. Now was where I had to become careful though, as the players approaching me were wearing heavier armor. With my damage dealt being reduced, my lifesteal would be giving me less of an advantage in the rest of the battle.

Here, it was speed that was my friend more than sheer damage quality. Right after drinking my potions, I took off towards the approaching line of players. I skipped going for kills and instead struck only once at a target before dodging away to slash at the next with my flowing movements. Wielding a weapon such as a scythe had both advantages and disadvantages… On the up side, the reach and damage of the weapon was exceptional. The downside being that to make full use of the weapon, it had to remain in nearly constant motion and reversing a swing took that much more effort. In the end, my style of choice became a whirling dance of cuts as I leapt around just outside of the reach of their swords and axes.

These melee oriented fighters were tougher than the ranged units, each one taking four or five attacks to bring down since they focused more on defense than attack. At the same time though, the few damaging hits I received were rather on the low end of the spectrum and I was easily able to compensate them with my lifesteal. The biggest surprise came when I wasn’t expecting it… With only six players left alive, my health bar dropped 20% instantly and I became unable to move for a second! The leader of the group had managed to slip behind me and locked me up with a skill that did a good bit of damage at the same time. Before I was able to function once again, a couple more hits rained in at me which caused my health to drop precariously low to the 25% mark.

A glance at my UI showed I had just enough mana left for one use of Temporal Step thanks to my regen, and I quickly activated the ability. Since there was only a few enemies left, I decided to skip playing the slow game and positioned myself behind the farthest player. I still had some regen time left from my last potion, but my current health situation was too dire to worry about waste, so I downed another one for the instant healing effect as well as refreshing the secondary regen. With my health stabilized and the combat locations reset once more, my skill ended and allowed me to quickly drop the first player in range.

The remainder of the battle only took another ten seconds, and the rogue-like leader yelled out a curse at me as he fell to the ground. Silly people, waiting for us to get a power-up from the dungeon before attacking was a stupid idea… With a smirk, I turned to look at my friends and raised a brow. “So, what is the time verdict?”

Kayla frowned and sighed, shaking her head in dismay. “One minute forty-three seconds… Damn. We almost won that bet too! A few more attacks and you would have kicked the bucket after that daggers guy stunned you.” She stood upright from the leaning position against a tree and kicked the ground. “Fuck… I will have to get the gold from the bank when we get back to a city.”

“Same, but I have to say… You had a lot of wasted movements in that battle.” Archie grinned at me and winked. “Double or nothing on the next group that tries this says I can beat your time if it is a comparable group.”

I had to laugh at his proclamation and shrugged my shoulders. I would enjoy seeing what my friend could do in that kind of fight so I gladly accepted his terms. “Fine by me. Though I doubt these idiots would try that again any time soon. We will only be much stronger after the next dungeon, and they have no real way of closing that gap in such a short time.” I shrugged and rested my scythe on my shoulder. “Anyway, come on. Let’s head towards the next dungeon and get back to the goal at hand. I want to hit level 20 before the day is out!” Before I began walking away, I checked out the new skill I had gained from the fight. It was a hidden skill of my weapon! And useful at that.

Congratulations!

You have unlocked a skill of your weapon!

Elrayna is the goddess of war and battle, and as such she is a terror in combat. Using the weapon made by this goddess against others has deepened the link between yourself and the spells enchanted within, granting you more access to the true might of this scythe.

Last Breath

Upon killing an enemy, you steal the last of their vitality and transfer it to yourself! For every foe slain, you will receive 5% of your max health, mana and energy back.

(Cannot exceed your maximum values)

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