Chapter 24

The burning forest of the Crimson Howler Den was hot as usual, though this time, Keith had over double the stats compared to the last time he was here. It was much more bearable. Already he could see several wolves wrestling with each other in the distance, and seeing their size left Keith’s confidence wavering.

[Rare, Elemental] Crimson Howler – Level 150

Health: 400/400

The sound of a particular individual savoring a jawbreaker came from behind Keith. Instead of growing irritated like before, it grounded Keith’s confidence. In the off chance a swarm of Crimson Howler’s ripped into Keith’s flesh, his Health wouldn’t drop in the slightest. Uncle Doven would take all the damage, and with his stats and defensive skills, the man wouldn’t feel a thing. Keith wouldn’t die as long as Uncle Doven was nearby, no matter what happened.

Keith realized this was another privilege he had, something that many budding adventurers would curse him to death for. While it would boost Keith’s pride to say he didn’t need Uncle Doven’s protection, he wasn’t trying to impress anyone. He was here to grow strong, and if he needed training wheels to start, so be it.

Keith breathed in, then out. He repeated the process several times before locking his jaw and summoning 13 orbs, each equipped with five skills. Three orbs hovered above Keith as the rest flew over to the pack of wrestling wolves. Before they arrived, one of the orbs above his shoulder cast all five of its skills in quick succession. A sense of overwhelming power came over Keith as five buffs boosted his stats.

[Mythic] Physique Of The Lurking Beast – Level 1

Description: Increases the target’s basic stats by 25% and reduces the target’s damage taken by 10%. Additionally, increase the target’s natural Health and Stamina regeneration by 1,000%. Effects last 10 minutes. Each level increases the effectiveness of the skill and reduces Mana cost.

[Mythic] Hyper Perception – Level 1

Description: The target’s thoughts become instinct. Effects last 1 minute. Each level increases the effectiveness of the skill and reduces Mana cost.

[Mythic] Undying Flesh – Level 1

Description: The target immediately heals 30% of all damage taken. Effects last 30 seconds. Each level increases the effectiveness of the skill and reduces Mana cost.

[Mythic] Kindred of Gaia – Level 1

Description: The target’s senses connect with the world. Effects last 1 minute. Each level increases the effectiveness of the skill and reduces Mana cost.

[Mythic] Great Seer’s Wisdom – Level 1

Description: The target’s Intelligence stat doubles. Effects last 10 minutes. Each level increases the effectiveness of the skill and reduces Mana cost.

The five mythic grade buffs brought such power Keith struggled to control his newfound strength, even with Hyper Perception active. Thankfully, this wasn’t the first time he used all five at once, so he quickly adapted. Still, the System didn’t forget to give him a warning.

Your body is at its limit! To gain further power from external sources may cause permanent damage without raising your stats to compensate.

Keith snickered after seeing the notification. Yet again, the System was limiting his fighting style. First, he couldn’t gain skill levels, and now he has reached the buff limit. His style seemed to push against the balance the System desired, but that just reinforced Keith’s opinion his build was truly powerful if even the System interfered so much.

At this time, the wolves not engaged in wrestling noticed the orbs flying over. One of them released a low growl to alert its companions, and once the orbs came in range, several fireballs flew up to meet them. Under Keith’s control, the orbs spun out of the way before casting skills of their own.

In the center of the wolf pack, a ring of frost abruptly blossomed, expanding out in every direction. The fire-attuned grass froze and cracked whenever the ring passed, and the wolves were no exception. The spell washed over them, freezing their legs in place and covering their fur in a thick layer of snow.

Yelping, the wolves cast Immolate, coating themselves in flames to counter the cold. In the distance, Keith snapped his fingers, prompting an orb to cast Fracture. Like glass shattering, the wolves’ legs crumbled into pieces. Now completely immobile, the wolves died one after another to a spray of Mana Bolts.

Nodding in satisfaction, Keith walked over and stored the loot in his inventory as he considered the two skills he used.

[Epic] Cold Snap – Level 1

Description: Conjure an expanding ring of frost at a target location. Deals ice damage and inflicts freezing. Intelligence Scaling: E. 5 second cooldown. Each skill level increases the effectiveness of the skill.

[Legendary] Fracture – Level 1

Description: Inflicts tremendous damage to targets inflicted with the Freezing status. Intelligence Scaling: C. 10 second cooldown. Each skill level increases the effectiveness of the skill.

The two skills synergized greatly with each other, and here in this fire-attributed Rift, they would be Keith’s bread and butter skills. Even at level 1 and without the ability to scale off Keith’s Intelligence, they had short cooldowns. With unlimited Mana, how could the wolves resist?

The answer was: they couldn’t.

Keith was a walking blizzard as he spammed Ring of Frost and Fracture whenever they were off cooldown. Wolf after wolf fell victim to his unethical spamming, but it wasn’t long before Keith noticed a problem. He wasn’t gaining any experience.

It only took him a moment to understand the reason. The orbs were killing the wolves, not him. And because the orbs weren’t living, growable objects, they couldn’t obtain experience just like they couldn’t level skill gems. The realization that he wouldn’t be able to level with his build hit him like taking a hammer to the chest.

Keith felt like he could hear the System laughing in his ears. He hadn’t been using the orbs for long, but he already found one drawback after another. The others Keith could handle, but losing the ability to level up was too high of a cost because each level gave an attribute point Keith could put wherever he wanted and granted some Health and Mana.

Keith could leech experience like before, but the experience he gained without contributing to the fight was minuscule. And even if he used his orbs to help, it wasn’t him doing the helping in the System's eyes.

Utterly frustrated, Keith kicked at the ground. If only there were some way he could collect experience. The thought struck him like a lightning bolt. With widening eyes, Keith considered where experience went if nobody absorbed it. Would it just sit around and dissipate over time? If that was the case, what was stopping him from simply collecting it with his Grimoire? It was ownerless, after all.

Thinking more and more that he was right, Keith summoned his Grimoire and sent over his thoughts. It took a moment for the Grimoire to understand Keith’s idea, but once it did, the Grimoire transmitted a vague feeling that it could do what Keith asked through the connection they shared.

Keith eyed a spot where he killed a pack of wolves. Their bodies had already dissipated, and their loot collected, but something invisible might be there. Keith ordered his Grimoire to collect the intangible existence known as experience, brimming with hope and expectation.

The Grimoire glowed and dimmed.

Quickly looking at his Grimoire for anything new, Keith found nothing. But he didn’t give up hope yet. Maybe experience disappeared instantly, so he needed to capture it when it was released.

Before finding another wolf pack, Keith willed his Grimoire to collect experience at all times. He felt something activate but couldn’t really tell. Locking his jaw, Keith found another wolf pack to kill, putting all his hopes into this final chance. After a short moment of spamming, the wolves died, and when they did, motes of light flew into the Grimoire.

Utterly delighted, Keith opened his Grimoire and looked to the inventory panel. At first glance, he discovered a change. There were now two tabs in the panel, labeled ‘item’ and ‘energy.’ Switching over to the energy tab, Keith didn’t see rows of boxes like the item tab. Instead, he found a horizontal bar filled in with the color green. Above the box was ‘Experience: 4,250’.

“It works!” Keith exclaimed as he eyed the new functionality of his Grimoire. He tried withdrawing the experience and couldn’t help but click his tongue in irritation. Like things in the item tab, it took money to withdraw. After a few moments, he shrugged and thought he shouldn’t be too greedy. At least he could still gain levels, albeit in a roundabout way. That made him wonder if there were ways to get around the other drawbacks, but he couldn’t think of anything at the moment.

Looking back to the energy tab, Keith wondered what other types of energy there were in the world. Mana came to mind immediately. Maybe Health worked too? Thinking such, Keith willed the Grimoire to take his Mana. It could likely absorb his Health too, but he didn’t want to take any risks.

As expected, Keith saw a new bar appear, this time blue. The Grimoire sucked away all his Mana, giving him an immediate headache. Pressing against his temple with a finger, Keith wondered what uses this new way of using his Grimoire would have.

Switching to the Grimoire’s shop, Keith’s expression brightened when he saw two new additions.

Monster Egg Synthesis – 50 million CP

Description: Spend Mana to fuse two monster eggs into one. Success rate varies depending on synergy. Mana consumption varies. No cooldown.

Mana Battery – 500 million CP

Description: Mana stored within the Grimoire can be freely transferred to the user.

Monster Egg Synthesis would bring in a lot of money, but what really drew Keith's attention was Mana Battery. If he had that, wouldn’t that completely resolve all the drawbacks of his fighting style? With Mana Battery, he could learn the skills himself to level them up and have them scale off his stats.

The idea excited him immensely, though he soon discovered a problem. The orbs allowed Keith to attack from multiple angles and greatly extend the area he could influence. Removing them took away those advantages. On second thought, maybe Zeidrick could solve this problem. After all, he was able to teleport Mana from the Mana Reactor to the orbs.

However, Keith figured he was getting ahead of himself. While he was relieved to see both Mana and Experience gave CV, Mana Battery cost a whopping 500 million CP, far more than any other function in the shop. It was something he would get in the distant future.

After calming down, Keith decided to take it one step at a time. To start, why not rack up some experience and loot from the wolf packs?