Warm, penetrating sunlight soothed Silas as he lay on his stomach, resting on a fluffy bed in the middle of a field of fragrant wildflowers. Kicking his feet in the air, he lazily flipped through his help messages without a care in the world, knowing time remained frozen for him as long as he remained with the Hero's Refuge. He'd get around to training, eventually, after another nice, long nap, followed by a complete run of the Eden Scrolls games.

…Why couldn't his skill have been something like that!

It should have been something like that!

Who bothers to check the help page for a skill with such obvious effects?

Too busy with his mental rant as he sprinted through the forest, Silas hadn't noticed the attack coming.

His body turned aside just the same, and just the same he wasn't fast enough. All the new skills in the world wouldn't make him into a taijutsu master overnight.

A javelin pierced through his chest and halfway through the tree behind him, pinning him like a bug on display.

What kind of treants used atlatls? It just wasn't fair.

Refuge? This place was a torture chamber.

There wasn't even a time dilation effect! He was just tossed into some mental world where he had an endless number of enemies to run away from while his body back in the cell probably drooled like a sleeping idiot.

Sure, he could end the skill at any time, but the thing was limited use, once a day, and he would hate to waste it when he needed to grind up his skill levels and this place improved skill growth rates.

He reappeared back in the central clearing for the sixth time.

He had to move. Unsafe in the open. First time he died just standing there like a fool.

Silas ran through north-northwest through the trees, veering left or right as he listened to his gut, also known as his new Intuit Danger skill.

He had picked up a Mapping skill as he first traveled north. It didn't save him from the family of bears he stumbled upon, but now he had a little tombstone on the Map to remind him of the danger. South had been worse. Two minutes in a pack of wolves decided to give chase. He died to poison in the east, still unsure of the source. Could have been any of the scrapes he picked up along the way, running naked through the forest. Gaming Necessities seemed less inclined to help him out when he wouldn't be gaming in the near future.

The copse of treants he stumbled upon had been to the west. So now he just ran to clear away the fog of war from his Map.

His new Spatial Perception hurt his head when he tried to focus on too much at once, but it gave him a full 360 degree view around himself.

…No, that wasn't right. He was aware of everything around himself in a sphere, not a circle.

How many degrees in a sphere?

None. They'd be square degrees. The surface of a sphere contained 4π steradians, which were a stupid unit equal to…something he'd look up later, when he wasn't running away from—

He paused. His gut wasn't complaining. The quiet usually meant he had a few minutes of peace. Time enough to read a few relevant help entries.

Attribute Points Points used to improve the user's attributes at a rate equivalent to the tier of the resulting attribute. Note: Tier zero attributes are unable to be improved with Attribute Points.

He sighed. Almost an answer, there. To confirm he queried another help entry.

Tier Common term used to describe notable stages of power as one advances, with each advancing tier typically representing quantitative improvement. Often qualified. For example, a single individual could be described as having tier three strength, tier two speed, a tier one mind, tier zero magic, a tier six wife, and a tier eight inheritance. See also: Rank

Almost, but not quite. He tried again.

Attribute Tier The tier of the user's attribute. Calculated with the attribute value as the dividend and ten as the divisor, with the resulting quotient representing the attribute's tier.

Feeling like he should start moving again, he began jogging while trying to parse the stupid math words.

And he still didn't have an answer to his question. Maybe he should be more specific?

How do I improve my Attribute Tier For most, one must break through the wall between tiers with great effort, training, and time, else through forming a suitable Bond, utilizing special resources, undergoing moments of epiphany, meeting bloodline requirements, leveraging powerful skills, or outright luck. For the user, aim for any of the above options, else spend Attribute Points. Again, note tier zero attributes are unable to be improved with Attribute Points. A foundation must be built on one's own.

So. He needed to spend two points to raise an attribute from 19 to 20. Maybe Mana Magnet would push his Spirit and Affinity to 20 in time, but he was in something of a hurry to get stronger. By now it was obvious his attributes were limiting the cap for his skills. Pushing ahead should allow him to grow even further.

With a push, he confirmed to spend 8 AP on his Will, Wit, Spirit, and Affinity.

Just after he confirmed his choice, immediately before his mind exploded and expanded to infinity and beyond, it occurred to Silas that perhaps he should have done each upgrade separately.

Silas woke mid-roll.

It seemed he was fighting wolves. How lovely.

He must have been out for a while, because the improvements from Mana Body now made him feel notably lighter, faster, and stronger, with his physical attributes catching up with his mental ones.

His more agile body flowed without his input to swipe his arm in the general direction of a nearby wolf. Solid blue mana extended from his hand looking like a narrow band of sharp azure crystal. The blade cut through the wolf with little resistance, lopping off half its head and a chunk of its shoulders.

In nearly the same motion his body twisted, dodging the lunge of a wolf aiming for his neck.

A third wolf tore out a chunk of flesh from his left calf, which he felt certain should have hurt more than it did. Half his focus watched on in amazement as his wound sealed over and the flesh regrew, while the rest remained stunned at the ongoing carnage.

He learned as he fought the unending horde of wolves, utilizing his senses to the limit, trusting his gut to know when to push forward and when to pull back.

His instincts nagged at him, tugging his brain in a new direction. He could survive this fight, even win in time, but he needed a force multiplier against such numbers if he was to truly be effective.

There was a reason for the saying "linear warrior, quadratic mage."

Thinking back to various video and tabletop games played, of the most broken, overpowered spells encountered, he wanted something to target and spread to multiple enemies that would accelerate on its own, spreading and replicating until everything besides himself was dead.

Learn Pestilence skill for 2 Skill Points? (Y/N)

He didn't want to pay two skill points, but if the skill performed as he hoped he wouldn't have any complaints.

As if sensing his hesitation, his instincts screamed. He needed this skill. Time for gaming might never come again if he died.

Skill Gained: Pestilence! +1 XP!

Without a moment's thought he used the ability on the closest wolf, and a swirling ball of black motes launched from his hand then impacted the wolf. The motes swirled around the wolf, to what seemed little effect.

It died to his mana blade a moment later, bursting into a cloud of black spores which spread out in all directions, homing in on the nearest wolves. He cast again, targeting unaffected wolves.

Before long wolves he hadn't struck fell to the black spores and joined the ever expanding cloud. Not even the trees and plants of the jungle were safe.

Skill Gained: Pestilence Resistance! +1 XP!

…Apparently it was too much for him to expect such a spell to identify friend from foe.

He had turned off skill level up notifications a while back, but a glance at his status showed both the skill and its resistance were leveling nicely. He'd improved a considerable amount, in fact, enough to suggest his unconscious self fought and improved on its—his?—own for some time. It had even spent some of his attribute points? His Spirit and Affinity increases had seemingly accelerated in concert with Mana Magnet. He must be channeling in an absurd amount of mana now, out in the real world.

Was that something people would notice?

Compared to dying by dragon fire, worrying what the locals thought seemed a lesser concern.

He outran the cloud of destruction, to see about fighting some bears in the north. He had more skills to grind.

Himel had begun hating his morning task. There was something wrong with the western cell block. He didn't know if it was a dungeon or whatever, he certainly hadn't seen any dungeon rats, though of course the place had rats. He saw, smelled, and heard evidence of them all the time. Hardly anything new, but word was to keep an eye out for anything strange—stranger than usual.

He'd reported on his odd prisoner with the absurd storage capacity, which apparently included the ability to take off his mana collar. Spatial Bond if Himel had ever seen one. The freak probably had a home token tucked away in there too, linked to a beacon he could return to at any time, like all the obscenely wealthy sorts.

Somehow the kid was related to the Academy, so orders were to treat him like one of the VIPs, despite him being in the western cell block.

Himel hadn't reported the biscuit incident. He prayed the softskin wouldn't either.

He went about his rounds as per usual, though these days the vermin seemed more subdued. He couldn't blame them. There was something in the air, something not unlike the dungeon air, from his time spent training in the forward camp. Few in the city delved much deeper than the guard do in training. His team made it all the way down to the boss of the middle depths, mostly thanks to him getting put on a team with First Lieutenant Dannon. His Iron Body skill let him ignore just about anything aside from acid. Likely curses and very big rocks would cause him trouble, too. (The Guard often like to speculate on the durability of the First Lieutenant, far from his extremely sensitive ears and even more sensitive ego—and very solid fists.)

When Himel reached the Spatial Bond VIP's cell, he was greeted with yet another unusual sight.

The boy, seeming to have bulked up a fair amount over the past two days, sat behind a wooden desk placed up against the bars of his cell, reading words off some odd glowing tablet. He wore a bright orange vest over a short sleeve blue shirt. A round white patch over his breast displayed a series of odd characters, "31337."

Himel didn't get a good look before the tablet and desk both disappeared, but the letters on the tablet also seemed to be in some foreign script. This seemed confirmed as the boy opened his mouth and spoke in an unknown foreign tongue.

"And a good day to you, sir guard." After a pause, he added, "If you don't say something back I'm going to throw poo at you."

Himmel waited for words he understood. When none were forthcoming, he replied, "Apologies. I only speak Rimsan."

"Rimsan," said the boy, as if tasting the words. "Rimsan, Rimsan, Rimsan. That will do." Nodding to himself, he stood up, vanishing his chair as well.

The boy's pants were as orange as his vest, with a blue belt, wrist cuffs, and shoes to match his shirt. Was he some kind of traveling performer?

Taking a deep breath, the softskin boy, his face determined and bloodless, said "Tell your leaders, or whoever you report to, that everyone in this city is going to die in three days. The dungeon is going to escape. Er. There is going to be a dungeon escape, letting out a group of ancient black dragons. Do you know about dungeon escapes? I have this skill, see. …Do you have skills? Whatever. Tell your boss I need to be let out of here because bad things are going to happen in three days, dragons flying around destroying the city, but I can make it all stop if you let me… Does it even need to be me? Ugh. Look. Someone needs to go clear out the dungeon. I can probably do that, if you guys let me. I'd honestly rather not bother, assuming you guys have someone who can do that."

Himel blinked. This VIP was crazy, clear as the sea. Prophetic skills were rare, meaning only a dozen or so with such a skill lived in the city. All were known and paid well for their warnings.

Yet Himel had a script to follow, a prepared response to requests for all VIP requests. "I will pass your message on to my superiors immediately, sir."

Himel turned to go, then reconsidered. "I shouldn't tell you this, but it could be what is setting off your skill. We are fairly certain a small dungeon has formed and broken somewhere in the prison. Have you noticed any giant rats?" Maybe he could get something useful from this flowerbrain.

"Rats?" He broke eye contact and scratched his head. "Uh, yeah, actually. There's a whole horde of them. They stole some of my food the other day, actually, when I was sleeping."

Himel tried not to laugh. "Big wheels of cheese?"

The boy coughed. "No? I, uh, sold those to them. They're pretty smart, for a bunch of rats."

Himel would be embarrassed too, if he let rats walk off with that much food. "Well, that's one mystery solved. I'll let the captain know." He turned to go, again, then reconsidered, again. "Say. If you're selling food…"

Status Silas D. Aegis 11y 3s 18d 6h L16 (684/816 XP) H: 39/39 (39/day rest) S: 39/39 (39/min rest) M: 37/37 (-2) (39% eff.) AP: 2 STR: 24 WIL: 24 AGI: 24 WIT: 24 END: 39 SPI: 39 VIT: 39 AFF: 39 PER: 19 CHA: 09 SP: 12 Hero's Refuge 39 Instinctive Reflexes 39 Intuit Danger 39 Mana Body 39 Mana Magnet 39 Mana Sense 39 Natural Fighter 39 Pestilence 39 Pestilence Resistance 39 Poison Resistance 39 Rapid Regeneration 39 Sleep Resistance 39 Gaming 29 Mana Constructs 29 Pain Resistance 29 Eyes of the Gamer 19 Gaming Necessities 19 Interface 19 Inventory 19 Spatial Perception 19 Universal Translator 19 Help 9 Bargaining 4 Countdown to the End 1 Obscurity 1