“Want to join our guild?” Sly asked with an amused smirk on his face.

Spartan raised a brow at his invitation, this wasn’t what she had expected as an outcome of being completely defeated “W-Why?” she asked before she was able to stop herself and think it through.

Jacky hit Sly’s head with the hilt of his dagger “What she said, why?”

Sly glanced at Jacky before looking back at the Valkyrie “She’s a good fighter, she’s focused, reacts appropriately and has good reflexes. Rare among this bunch of idiots fighting at safe distances.” Sly gestured at the many ranged weapons once held by the guild they just decimated.

“Oi, watch it there” Ch joked while reaching for his bow.

Sly snorted and looked at him “Try me”.

“But…” The adventurer was too confused to understand what was currently happening.

Jacky sighed “Ignore the bone heads, common occurrence around us.”

“Oi!” Ch glared at Jacky.

“Who you callin bonehead!?” Sly exclaimed as he stood up and looked at Jacky with a questioning look.

Jacky smirked “Don’t see any other ki-”

Both their blades flashed out of their sheaths and collided as Sly glared at Jacky while he stared back with a smirk.

“Oh this will be good” Woody exclaimed with a grin while taking a step back along with the others in the party.

“Huh? You’re not going to stop them!?” Spartan asked in surprise, she stood up and backed away from them.

“Not our problem” Steph replied with a shrug “If they want to fight it out then let them, more entertaining for us that way.”

Spartan stepped away from the two as their daggers trembled while pushing against each other.

“You know Jacky, I’m getting real tired of your shit.” Sly told him with a cold expression.

Jacky snorted “Deal with it kid, just cause Birse acknowledges you doesn’t mean I will.”

“Oh? Then let’s ‘Deal’ with this, once and for all.” Sly replied as his cold expression spun a 180, a devilish grin revealed his fangs as his eyes opened wide with expectation at the challenge.

Jacky smiled coldly “Keep up if you can kid.”

Both leaped back and away from each other as they quickly murmured a chant.

“Puppet master’s strings. Aura clad Puppetry.” Sly’s daggers left their straps of their own accord and floated up by him as violet ethereal strings appeared between each dagger’s hilt and Sly’s wrist.

“Deathbringer’s claws. Wraith Blades.” Jacky pulled out a second dagger and both gained a shadowy black smoke engulfing their blades, it flowed like a thick flame yet more physical than fire.

The two stared each other off, Spartan had snuck around to where the others stood deciding it was the safest place to be.

“My money’s on Sly, he’s a stamina build.” said Cherry.

“Jacky’s winning, Sly’s too impatient and will get himself countered.” Steph argued.

“Agreed, Jacky’s more experienced from his military training and has been playing PVP based motion games for longer than Sly.” Ch explained.

Woody crouched down and hummed in thought briefly before speaking “I call a draw.”

Steph snorted and responded “It isn’t going to get anywhere close to that! Either Jacky is ending it in one or two hits or Sly will play the long game.”

Spartan’s expression twitched as she listened in to the betting (“They have infighting and are taking bets…How did we lose to these people? Do they have no respect for each other?”) she thought while studying the two combatant’s expressions. Jacky was smiling coldly as if already knowing the outcome while Sly was grinning madly as if wholly enjoying this.

----

Author: This gonna be good…

Music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLrxT8Vu978

More dramatic music I found xD : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cc6wmGW9U_w

----

Sly pulled back his daggers to his wrist then threw them forward like throwing knives, they sped towards Jacky enhanced by the puppetry. Jacky narrowed his eyes and slashed forwards with both daggers creating a shadowy ripple of black smoke as they collided with Sly’s.

Sly burst through the shadows with sword and dagger in hand, the fight truly began as both of them engaged in close combat. Jacky’s planned steps and agile parrying versus Sly’s quick strikes and higher strength.

Sly slashed Jacky’s left dagger out of the way and stabbed forward with his dagger only to be parried by Jacky’s right, he didn’t stop and followed up with an upward stab from his sword which Jacky side-stepped. The assassin made use of his lighter steps and moved to Sly’s side where he lunged and stabbed at the warrior’s sword shoulder.

Sly raised his sword to parry just in time to block the left dagger’s slash but the right went through and dug into his back. Sly’s blade’s suddenly gained a violet glow as he smirked with Jacky’s dagger still in his back, he muttered something under his breath before speaking audibly “Ripple, growl!” a violet aura burst out from his body engulfing both him and Jacky.

Jacky instinctively pulled back and also muttered a quick chant but did not finish it before Sly.

“Aurei form, Warrior!” The aura surrounding Sly quickly re-entered his body causing his skin to crack and emanate a violet light.

“Wraith form, Genocide!” Shadows engulfed Jacky’s entire body, his form changed as the masses of shadow that were his arms seemed to triple. Two pairs of new arms grew out of the main pair at the shoulders and armpits giving him six arms in all, the shadows exploded outwards from his body creating a large smoke screen that covered them both.

The smoke immediately cleared as Sly spun around with long violet blades protruding out of his handheld sword and dagger while his strung daggers lashed out at Jacky’s revealed form. The six-armed assassin parried the continuous barrage of daggers while dashing towards his opponent, each arm working independently.

Sly stabbed at the approaching Jacky with his shorter Aura clad blade, Jacky leaped over it and descended on Sly with each dagger. Sly raised his Aura clad sword and parried Jacky’s attack forcing him to pull back.

“Enough! I’m ending this!” Sly exclaimed with a grimace and pulled back his strung daggers defensively then began to chant “Engulf the maddened warrior! Unleash the relentless beast of war! Aurei form! Unleashed!”

Jacky smirked as he replied “Agreed! I shall end this farce!” and also chanted “There is no escape from death’s chilling grasp! Surrender to the reaper! Wraith form! The Grim!”

Sly’s blades lost their length but the strings holding his daggers expanded as a dark purple aura exploded out from him, the aura took a headless humanoid form around him so dark it covered his entire body. Sly now stood nine feet tall inside a dark purple body of plate armoured Aura-clad, tentacle-like appendages came out of his back which held onto the daggers while them and the handheld sword and dagger all gained a longer violet Aura clad blade.

The guild hadn’t been just messing around these past three days, they had been helping each other come up with new abilities and skills.

Jacky was again engulfed in shadows that flowed around him and took form. He also grew taller but only stood at seven feet with a black robe, cloak and hood of flowing shadows hiding his entire body. Each of his already long daggers’ shadowy blades grew longer and curved similarly to scimitars, each blade’s edge was aflame with dark grey fire.

These forms weren’t just the fruit of testing and discovery but also hours of grinding and little to no sleep, which was further proven by their current levels.

Jackykill [Assassin]-[{ [Master] Lord of Wraiths}](Sneaky-Beaky) (DbH Wraith) Level 132

SlyOkami [{ [Master] Lord of Aurei}] (Aura-clad) (DbH Aurei) Level 128

Some within the guild had reached or even surpassed the Level 125 landmark which opened up the class mastery quest for them, a voyage into their mind similar to class acquisition.

Two of them now faced each other, the aura-clad barbarian versus the death covered assassin, an Aurei versus a Wraith. Everything was alright in the world…

The Aurei that was Sly charged forth first with unprecedented speed as his ethereal aura exploded outwards in a frenzy. The Wraith that was Jacky also charged forward, a trail of flowing shadows left behind him as he dashed.

The two clashed and a smokescreen of shadows engulfed in a dark purple aura exploded outwards covering even the five spectators. The clashing of blades reverberated throughout the shadows a couple dozen times before a chilling silence fell upon them.

Spartan trembled under the sheer pressure the combination of aura and death magic created, a combination of panic and chilling fear. The smokescreen of shadows slowly dissipated as the sound of heavy panting came across to them. With a sudden burst of releasing power the shadows dissipated revealing the outcome of the fight.

Jacky stood covered in wounds as blood spilled out of his mouth and nose, yet he stood unlike Sly who’s body was already dissipating. He coughed up a bit of blood into his disarmed right palm, his extra arms were gone. His armour was in tatters, his one remaining dagger dented but he stood alive and victorious. Unable to stand any longer Jacky fell to his knees “Heh…Not bad kid…” he smirked at where he knew Sly was still watching from only to grimace in pain from the gesture.

“Fifty fifty Ch?” Steph asked after seeing the outcome.

“Sure, pay up chaps.” Ch held up his hand towards Woody to his left as Steph did the same towards Cherry on their right.

Cherry shrugged and took out a pouch of coins then handed it to Steph, Woody on the other hand grimaced and chided Ch for actually asking him to pay as he took out his own pouch and reluctantly handed it over.

Spartan was staring with eyes wide and mouth agape, she was completely baffled by the show of power she had just witnessed (“How…how am I still alive?...”) she thought “They’re monsters…”she then thought out loud.

“Actually Sly’s a Devil and Jacky’s just that good.” Ch corrected her while counting the gold coins to make sure Woody didn’t cheap out “Good doing business with you.” He then told Woody while pocketing the pouch.

“Yeah yeah…” Woody replied and gave him the middle finger while walking over to Jacky “Heal…” he cast the spell with as much a disappointed tone he could muster.

Spartan opened her guild window and selected leave (“Hey they invited me sooo….”) “I’m in” she then stated.

Jacky snorted followed by a wince form the still lingering pain “Doesn’t work that way, you still have to be accepted in by the leader.”

“Sooo….?” She glanced around the group.

“Not here, we’ll have to get in contact with him first.” Said Steph as she took out their group’s second VCD “And since someone decided to kill our party leader, well guess I’m calling.”

----

New Ruk, Fae Levels

Today

The Fae levels of New Ruk were the complete opposite of the Dwarven ones, quite literally. The inside of the mountain was hollowed out allowing a field of green to grow on the flattened ground, large golden evergreen trees grew into a golden forest that shone light to the whole city. The city itself was grown out of the ceiling, large pods made of bright green vines grew out of giant golden roots that grew into the mountain’s side from the forest below.

These golden trees were known as EverFae, their leaves were highly concentrated spiritual mana giving them a bright white glow along with their actual colour of orange making the golden light.

Kyle’s group was just coming out of one of the larger pods, an enchanter store. They had returned there to get their equipment’s enchantments repaired due to the constant drain the gear had endured from the slimes. They walked out onto the thick vines that bridged each pod out to a large platform made of enormous golden leaves.

With his equipment fully repaired he was now officially broke, Birse insisted on everyone using their own money whenever possible for their gear maintenance. He took a deep sigh as he stared at his inventory full of slime cores then opened his skill book to look through his gains. As him and the rest of his part made their way through the paths of vines down towards a tunnel in the mountain side he read through them.

[{From Ashes}] ((EXP 3%) Level 3 – Tier 1): Contact with (Devouring Frostfire) activates [Devour];

Spirit is directly absorbed form the target: 20% increase in Spirit gain from afflicted.

Kyle’s thoughts on the difference between a Soul and Spirit aside, the bar’s appearance was a boon for him if nothing else. Normally he expected his Spirit to hover around 200-300 at most within a normal fight, his own, allies and the monster/enemy being the only ones within range.

From testing and his own calculations it didn’t matter how strong the target was but how strongly their emotions were affecting them equalled the amount of Spirit he gained. The gain per person just from his current party was around 20 Spirit per amounting to 120 Spirit and that small amount is only because his guildmates knew how to keep themselves in check at most occasions.

On the way to and inside the enchanter store he had tested with the different Fae by sneaking a small burst of (Devouring Frostfire) onto their visible skin causing the Fae to jump from the sudden chill. The everyday citizen caused him to gain 15 Spirit while nearby them which with the bonus from [{From Ashes]} increased it to 18 Spirit, within a combat situation he’d guessed the Spirit to hover around 25-30 per person.

Looking back Kyle remembered the absurd amount of Spirit he had at his disposal while crafting his illusion on the whole city of Eslet, the system hadn’t even given him an exact number back then.

{Active}[Ooze] ((EXP 11%) Level 4 – Tier 3): Ooze out slime through your skin that can be controlled by your will and mana

Activation Cost: 0.03 mana per millilitre

Upkeep Cost: (2 mana per 0.5 Litres) per second

General Effects: [Condensed Slime]; The ability to condense any type of slime into a solid, the only limit to the condensation is your mana pool. Condensed slime can be uncondensed without mana cost.

Slime type: (Fire)

(Fire) Effect: Physical contact with slime or produced flames causes [Burn].

[Burn]; Afflicted suffers burn damage over time, 10 (x (300% of INT)) damage over 20 seconds. Stacks up to 4 times, -20% INT efficiency per stack.

Slime type: (Acid)

(Acid) Effect: Physical contact causes [Corrosion].

[Corrosion]; The acidic make of this substance causes most materials to corrode on contact, 20 damage per second while in contact with substance. 5 damage per second for 5 seconds after contact is lost.

Slime type: (Swamp)

(Swamp) Effect: The muddy make of this slime causes it to be more resistance to elemental attacks. Flow speed of slime is halved.

Slime type: (Dark)

(Dark) Effect: Light around this slime is absorbed causing it to seem larger. Contact with slime or it’s produced darkness causes [Damned].

[Damned]; Light elemental and Holy damage is reduced by 30%.

Next he looked at the types of slime he gained from the Slime Cove, four types were absorbed in total.

Fire and Acid’s flat damage per second would go well with Frost’s [Frostbite] effect, percentage damage was only effective against high health targets.

Swamp was a strange one to say the least, slime in general was unaffected by physical attacks. Cutting slime caused it to separate then join back, crushing it caused it to splatter all over causing a giant mess and stabbing it was the least effective method causing no damage and depending on the slime causing you to lose your weapon and sometimes arm.

Swamp was a fusion of two elements, Earth and Water. Kyle guessed these two element’s defensive capabilities joined together to create Swamp’s resistance to other elements. At the cost of movement speed, when Kyle summoned the slime he cringed at how slowly it moved compared to the rest.

Dark slime was another strange one as it absorbed the light around it creating further darkness, a shadow of sorts loomed around it causing the slime to look twice it’s actual size. With it’s [Damned] debuff Kyle decided to use the slime in concert with other debuffing effects to create a new type of ammunition.

He then selected the skill to make the attribute upgrade list appear, he had been holding onto a skill point for a while.

Attribute effects are kept, further attribute upgrades progress through each attribute owned meaning that all upgrades for previous effects can be earned later on.

Warning skills tier cap is 15 therefore you are limited to 30 attribute upgrades.

Warning effects can be duplicated through different attributes, those attributes will be listed as already learned unless one of the two or more effects aren’t duplicated.

Currently unlocked attributes for [Ooze(Frost)]: (Ice)

(Frost) (Cold) Effects:

[Cold Mist]; Turn into a freezing mist,

[Cold Puddle]; Turn to sticky liquid while retaining temperature

(Frost) (Snow) Effects:

[Blizzard]; Turn into a flurry of snow flakes,

[Snow Touch]; Physical contact causes a spread of [Frostbite] which spreads on further contact

Currently unlocked attributes for [Ooze(Demonic)]: (Monstrous), (Vampiric), (Cursed)

Attribute Evolution!

[Ooze(Devilish)]: Aura contact with slime causes (Minor Abysmal Miasma Poisoning) to the afflicted.

(Minor Abysmal Miasma Poisoning): All (Fear) effects increased by 2% per aura affected. Afflicted suffer a 10% chance of falling to (Fear).

Currently unlocked attributes for [Ooze(Fire)]: None

(Fire) (Blaze) Effects:

[Inferno]; The slime overloads itself dishing out a steady stream of incineration.

[Burst]; The slime bursts into a blazing explosion of fire.

(Fire) (Volcanic) Effects:

[Ash]; Spews out toxic ash

[Lava]; The slime overloads causing extreme heat to it’s surroundings.

(Fire) (Blast) Effects:

[Explosive]; After a short charge up the slime explodes creating a powerful blast wave.

[Heatwave]; After a short charge up the slime explodes creating a powerful heat wave.

Currently unlocked attributes for [Ooze(Acid)]: None

(Acid) (Gaseous) Effects:

[Gas Spread]; Slime slowly spews itself out in the form of gas.

[Gas Implosion]; After a short charge up the slime explodes into a cloud of gas.

(Acid) (Spread) Effects:

[Toxic Spread]; [Corrosion] Spreads within the body if it makes contact with the bloodstream.

[Touch Spread]; [Corrosion] afflicted can further spread the debuff on touch with others.

Currently unlocked attributes for [Ooze(Swamp)]: (Pest(Vampiric))

(Swamp) (Adhesive) Effects:

[Sticky]; Slime solidifies to the right amount causing an elastic sticky substance to be created.

[Glue]; Slime condenses to the point of becoming powerful glue.

(Swamp) (Mist) Effects:

[Nauseous]; Slime slowly spews out nauseating gas.

[Smokescreen]; Rapid movement within the slime causes for a non-toxic mist to burst out creating a smokescreen.

Currently unlocked attributes for [Ooze(Dark)]: None

(Dark) (The Black) Effects:

[Blackout]; All light within range is absorbed into the slime casting a blinding darkness.

[Manifest]; Manifested darkness can be bent and made physical with enough mana.

(Dark) (Unholy) Effects:

[Undeath]; The unholy energy of Dread is absorbed into the slime causing the denial of death within range.

[Sacrifice]; (Negative mana) is absorbed into slime creating Dread.

(Dark) (Blood) Effects:

[Oath]; Through the Dark Arts of Blood magic this slime has gained the ability [Blood Oath] and can afflict it on contact. Constant contact is required to be kept for the curse to stay in effect.

[Goremancy]; Bring out the true power of Blood magic causing the slime to absorb surrounding Dread and casting [Immense Fear] over it’s surroundings.

Kyle was momentarily overwhelmed by the amount of choices he was given. Not only had (Demonic) gained the choice of evolution which was a brand new concept for Kyle but he had four other types with two or more attributes each.

The first thing he noticed is that not all types had three attributes to choose from, (Acid) only had the two attributes. Then he noticed that one attribute of (Swamp) was already unlocked because he unlocked the same effects for the (Demonic) attribute (Vampiric).

To get rid of his feeling of being overwhelmed he went through his current skill set first. With [Ooze] he was currently able to do four things, craft weapons, ammunition for those weapons, armour and crowd control effects. With [Golemancy] he was able to make minions to fight for him, be it tank types or gunner types.

Then with his natural magic [{Tails}] he had a sustainable combat skill set for both melee CQC and caster combat. With [Surge] he had mobility down entirely. [Demonic Presence] and [Rage] gave him stat multipliers while [Core Overload] gave him a last resort. He had completely pushed [Flying Press] out of his mind and didn’t see much use in [Frost Aura] other than inducing a chill over his surroundings.

Also he still had no clue as to what [{Cold Soul}] did, having completely forgotten to ask the God about it when he was summoned into the spirit realm. He had tried activating the skill over the past few days but came up with nothing to show for progress, from chanting, forcefully thinking for the skill to activate and even shouting it out. He gave up due to frustration.

He only had a single skill point to use so he could only pick one attribute at the moment and levelling [Ooze] was getting more difficult. After finishing with exploring the Slime Cove [Ooze] had levelled only once bringing it up to Level 8 of the 3rd Tier. The skill gained experience from he using the different skills that made use of it or simply bending slime but the amount he now gained from them was so miniscule it made his own levelling sound easy.

Although Kyle and his party had killed many slimes outside and inside the Slime Cove, he had entered at the level of 98 and came out with only three level up. The highest level slime Kyle had seen was a level 82 Ancient Dread Slime from which he absorbed the (Dark) type, the average level within the swamp as a whole was 70 the exact same as the Frozen Plains nearby Carn.

Kyle doubted he’d reach level 125 anytime soon like Jacky, Sly, Cherry, Birse and Death had painstakingly done but at least he had somewhere to train for it. Birse had partied up the highest levels of the guild to grind out wyverns at Wyvern’s roost while the rest including Kyle spent their time training in the Frozen Plains.

Compared to his [Ooze]? He couldn’t see any time in the future he’d gain another skill point without figuring out a better way to level the skill.

In the end it left him with this one skill point and thirteen choices to use it on.

Briefly he blinked out of his thoughts and glanced around as his party walked into the tunnel, white crystals shining light from the ceiling. At the end of the tunnel he could see the large elevator they had used to come up here in the first place, wide enough to hold a couple hundred passengers.

After having made sure he wasn’t going to bump into anyone he refocused on his choices which brought the window back into view.

(“Ranged DPS, defence, mobility, illusions, sustainable CQC damage, buffs, debuffs and minions…I have everything I’d want so…what to choose?”) Kyle thought hard on this choice, it may as well be his second to last before he is unable to get anymore skill points for [Ooze].

(“Either I’m looking for more utility to improve my weaponry, armour and golems…Or I’m looking for more fire power.”) He quickly read through the different attributes and their effects until he paused on the last one, (“These look interesting…Through the Dark Arts of Blood magic huh…both [Blood Oath] and [Immense Fear] sound like curses.”) he focused on both sub-effects causing two windows to open with their description.

[Blood Oath]: Requires two or more targets. All bound targets become (Blood Bound) giving them the ability to share buffs and curses between each other.

[Immense Fear]: Causes visions of the most gruesome kind to appear within the afflicted’s mind.

[Immense Fear] caught his inner psychopath’s attention somewhat but what really made him pause on the ((Dark)Blood) attribute was [Blood Oath]. Kyle’s buffs were AOE spells so it didn’t matter towards this effect but Sly, Soren, Birse, Cherry and Jacky had many self buffs which could prove useful to others in the guild.

The more he thought about it the more he wanted it. In terms of raw power a Devil like Dagon or older hero like Draxxer and Rin had them entirely beat due to how much more experienced and skilled due to training they are but Kyle and his guild were different.

They were gamers, MMORPG addicts, RTS players and some MOBA dick measurers.

Experience and skill took a long way but in the end only one thing truly mattered.

Stats.

Kyle unlocked the attribute (Blood) for the (Dark) type slime and continued out of the elevator after it finished it’s descent.