“Right, I’m going to go ahead and guess that a times three multiplier is fairly uncommon,” Jane stated to break the silence.

“Not uncommon, Akaisha, try unheard of. At least probably, obviously as people do not generally declare their Status so it is impossible to know for certain,” General Nui had moved closer during the silence and was stroking his chin thoughtfully as he looked at Jane. “Even the most powerful adventurers, constantly searching for new challenges would not expect to surpass a times two. Most will maybe have a few percentage points, if they are lucky.”

It was Jane's turn to stand in a stunned silence, before suddenly starting to panic. She hadn’t really thought about being that abnormal. How were people going to react, would she be thrown in a cell to be interrogated, or would they kill her to claim her tittles. And she was standing in front of one of the most powerful people in the city, both in personal and political power. In a [Dungeon] cut off from the world.

Before she could either hyperventilate or try to flee Nui spread his hands placatingly.

“Do not worry, your secrets are your own. I will neither pry nor will I attempt to force you to become something that you do not wish to be. You are your own, at least you will be when you are an adult, with no obligations beyond those common to your fellow citizens. If you wish I can suggest ways to assist you, and we, Rimwall, would welcome any assistance in making people stronger, if you can give it?” The general ended on a question, even though he didn’t expect anything to come of it.

Jane shook her head slowly before replying. “I’m sorry, but I don’t think that anything I have can help anyone else. The only thing that may be of use is that delaying the unlocking of the system gives a few percentage points. The system itself says that it isn’t worth it so I wouldn’t suggest it.”

Tianaro nodded and thanked her before indicating that they should hurry up and fight the [Floor Boss]. Everybody was mostly back to full Health and Mana so they were ready. After a very brief discussion, they decided to at least try a variant of Akaisha’s plan, where both Munodo and Akaisha would fight outside of a fortified position that Nyika would maintain while both Chirembo and Silah defended the entrance. Silah was concerned about getting overrun if too many enemies were spawned in before they could kill them, but they decided to try.

The party crept slowly forwards in formation. As soon as they saw the first enemies they sprang into action. Nyika cast two spells, creating two walls of spikes in half circles around herself. She left a large enough opening that two people could pass through, although the spikes only just reached above her waist so could be jumped over with a bit of effort. Silah placed himself and his massive shield in the gap, spear at the ready.

Akaisha nodded to Munodo and leapt at the shaman before it could react. Her hammer slammed into its leg, shattering it and dropping the forest imp to the floor. Akaisha dodged a thrust from a defender as Munodo landed next to her, impaling the shaman through the throat as he did. Akaisha hammered the defender’s shield out of the way and Munodo thrust twice at a blinding speed, glowing slightly as he activated a skill. The imp coughed, spewing blood, and slashed weakly at Munodo. He parried it easily and Akaisha smashed the imps skull in. A noise behind them made them both whirl around just in time to see a rock nail a [Forest Imp Warrior] between the eyes. It staggered backwards and reacted far too late to block a slash to its legs. As Munodo finished the warrior Akaisha turned to check on the mini fort. Silah was keeping two imps back with his longer reach with Chirembo getting in a solid hit to whichever imp gets within Silah’s reach. They had the situation well in hand, especially when Chirembo knocked one to the ground and Silah finished it off with a stab from his spear.

Akaisha scanned the surrounding forest as Munodo dealt with his target. She saw a [Forest Imp Shaman] half hidden behind a tree. The imp began to incant a spell so Akaisha activated [Leaping Strike], feeling the Skill take over her body as it propelled her into the air. The shaman ducked back behind the tree, preventing it from casting but avoiding the hammer strike. The Skill released her and she dashed around the tree after the shaman. She threw herself to the right as a whip of green energy slashed through the air where her head was only moments before. She rolled and jumped to her feet, barely avoiding another whip of sizzling energy. She rolled again out of the way of a third and threw herself at the shaman, driving it into the ground. She straddled it, pinning it down, as she crushed its throat with the handle of her sledgehammer.

A warning from Munodo had her twisting away just as a newly arrived defender slammed into her shield first. She grunted as the air was knocked out of her lungs. She pushed the imp off of her and stood up. She leant left, a blade clattering off of her chest armour as a warrior joined the fray. She sidestepped a thrust from the blade of the defender, a short gladius, and knocked an axe away from her head with a backhanded slap. She tried a one-handed strike with her sledgehammer but the clumsy blow was easily blocked by the defender's kite shield. The two imps attacked over and over, forcing Akaisha to give ground to avoid taking major damage without being able to strike back. She was bleeding from multiple small cuts and her armour was ripped and dented from the successive blows.

Akaisha felt the roots of the tree underfoot just in time to avoid bumping into it. She dodged sideways, letting an axe blow miss her and slam into the tree instead. With a savage grin, she smashed the warrior imp’s shoulder before following up into the defender's shield. The warrior imp squealed in pain and the defender imp staggered backwards as Akaisha gained the upper hand. She launched herself at the pair, quickly disarming the defender before shattering the warrior's second arm. A rising blow to the chin destroyed the armless imps jaw, killing it, and the downswing caught the defender in the temple, splattering its skull. She threw her head back and laughed with the sheer joy of winning.

She saw a group of three warriors and a defender heading together towards where she assumed the makeshift fort. She activated [Leaping Strike] and blasted through the air. She landed and struck the lead warrior with her sledgehammer, ducking and weaving between blows as she searched for an opening. As she dodged she could feel her [Combat Style: Sledgehammer] almost singing in her mind. She felt it level up, felt the subtle burst of power from the higher level. It wasn’t like the overwhelming control of her active Skills, now that she had some practice using [Identify] on [Dungeon] creatures she recognised the feeling of the Skill overriding her control of part of her, but more of a subtle whisper. It felt like the Skill was presenting weighted options, a kick to the knee has a chance of dropping him but a strike to the torso has a high chance of being blocked, but never taking control away. She let the music flow through her, almost like the soundtrack to a fight scene.

She smashed a bloody trail through the forest imps, avoiding the worst hits as she never stopped moving. She kicked the last one over and finished it on the floor. She was bleeding profusely from numerous cuts but she didn’t care, she felt so alive.

A panicked shout brought her back to her senses, Munodo was calling her name. She turned and sprinted in the direction of the shout. Munodo was backed up to the fort, desperately fending off at least four imps, while Silah held the gap against at least as many. Nyika was pulling Chirembo into the middle of the fort, he was bleeding from a nasty gash on his leg and didn’t seem to be conscious. She pulled out her throwing axes and threw the first one at the imps. It spun wildly and slapped one of the imps with the handle. Akaisha groaned as she threw the second one. This one fared a little better, the butt hitting an imp in the back of the head and distracting it enough that Silah managed to stab it. Akaisha prepared to launch the third axe when she felt a slight stirring, just a whisper of an opening note. She let the music wash through her as she threw. This time the axe flew straight, turning once in the air before burying itself into the lower back of an imp warrior.

[General] Skill acquired.

[Weapon: Blades] 1.

Akaisha leapt into the fight, stamping on the paralysed imp that still had her axe in its spine. She was ecstatic to have unlocked a new Skill, and on purpose even if she thought that it would be a throwing axes or throwing weapons Skill rather than the extremely generic blades. She joyously smashed through the imps that were still trying to get at her friends. Her every blow smashed aside an imp, allowing Munodo and Silah openings to counterattack. Akaisha, Munodo and Silah kept pushing the imps back from the fort as they continued to swarm.

“How many are we at, do you all reckon?” Akaisha asked as soon as she could catch her breath.

“We have probably only killed about twenty,” gasped Silah.

“More like twenty-five,” added Nyika from the back. “They have impaled themselves back here, and all I’ve had to do is fire off a few of my cheapest Skills to finish them off.”

“And I’ve killed seven more, so thirty-two then, only eighteen more then. Excellent. [Leaping Strike]”

She flew forwards and crashed into a [Forest Imp Shaman] as she aimed for a defender. She activated [Shatter Defences] and destroyed the defender's shield. She closed her eyes as she dove through the storm of shrapnel and clubbed the shaman in the face. She could hear her Skill pulling her through the fight, she could almost dance to the inexistant beat in her head as she slid around blades and shield bashes sowing death. A blade she didn’t see coming caught her in the thigh, gouging out a chunk of flesh but she carried on smiting her enemies with thunderous hammer blows. Everything was a reddy-purple colour from the imp blood raining down around her. The others had abandoned the defensive fort to join the slaughter as together they easily overwhelmed the imps. Akaisha readied another strike when suddenly the imps around her all seemed to shatter, crashing to the floor in pieces before all disappearing in a tidal wave of smoke. She looked around wildly but found no more enemies.

“Victory!” Silah cried, pumping his spear in the air. “We have beaten the second floor again!”

[Shatterer] level increased to 13.

Strength + 3

Dexterity + 2

Agility + 3

Endurance + 4

Perception + 3

Intelligence + 3

Willpower + 3

Sociability + 2

“Congratulations, you have done fairly well,” General Nui was suddenly standing next to them. “However, you will have to take the blue rift and so sacrifice the rewards I’m afraid.”

“Shi… oot,” said Silah, eyeing the General who just rolled his eyes. “Chirembo is our healer and he won’t be able to save himself as he is knocked out. Damn”

Silah went to touch the blue distortion but Akaisha grabbed his wrist.

“Can I try something, do we have a minute or so?”

“Of course,” allowed the councilman, intrigued.

Akaisha walked over to where Nyika had dragged Chirembo and hopped over the now complete ring of spikes. She knelt down beside him and thought back to her previous life, back to when she had done some pretty weird things in a misguided attempt to make friends. Reiki healing called for the expelling of energy by the healer into the patient to heal them, which in her universe was silly but here, in universe 2.0 actually made sense. She searched inside herself looking for the feeling of Mana moving. She tried to feel like she did when she spent Mana but her Skills were so controlled that she felt nothing. Ironically, as it had nearly killed her, it was the memory of being drained by the [Sanguine Charger] that finally helped. She felt the Mana in her core move to her will as she pushed it out into Chirembo, willing it to heal. After a few seconds her hands began to glow with a soft red light that gradually grew to near blinding. Suddenly it winked out and Akaisha collapsed, exhausted. She didn’t need to see her Status to know that her Mana pool was empty.

[General] Skill acquired.

[Vital Hands] 1.

Chirembo’s wounds were healed and so weres Akaisha’s, probably from the quantity of healing energy that flowed around her. Munodo helped her back to her feet just as Chirembo started to come around. Chirembo looked around then at his healed leg in shock.

“But we didn’t have any potions and we haven’t left the rift. How am I healed?” he asked no one in particular, confused.

“I did it!” exclaimed Akaisha excitedly. “I always thought that reiki was complete bollocks, but it bloody worked! I got an actual fucking healing Skill from it. Fucking excellent! If you’ll pardon my French.”

“What’s French?” asked Chirembo, Akaisha’s rant not really helping him understand.

“Oh nothing, it’s just an expression back where I’m from. French is a foreign language from a neighbouring country,” she explained.

Now everybody looked baffled, even the experienced Guardsmen.

“And what is a language?” inquired Nui.

“What do you mean, what's a language?”

“Just that, what does the word mean?”

“It’s just the collection of words you use, to differentiate between the words that other people who speak differently use.”

“Do you mean how the Mestasi call a sandwich a bap and the Redonnish call them hoagies?”

“What? Not really no.”

“Then you mean the peoples down south who say things like barth and ‘grarse’ and ‘glarse’?”

“No, at best that’s an accent. Do none of you know any other languages, maybe from merchants that have travelled from afar and use completely different words to everyone here?”

“Well no,” replied a frustrated Nui, “but why would anybody not use the words that the system provides, what would be the point? Although if you did use different words then only people who knew them would understand, making it impossible for anyone else to read the contents of secret missives. A great idea, Akaisha, you should develop this “language” concept of yours and submit it to the council, I’m certain that you will be handsomely rewarded.”

Akaisha was still trying to understand how there could be only a single language, potentially in the entire universe when a series of screens popped up.

Congratulations, you are the first to invent the concept of Language. Title awarded. [Mother of Linguistics] all stats +40%.

[General] Skill acquired.

[Linguistics] 93

Congratulations, you have the highest level of the Linguistics Skill. Title awarded. [Peerless Linguist] Intelligence + 15%, all other Stats + 10%.

Title Acquired: [Mother of Linguistics]

All Stats + 40%.

Congratulations, you have successfully reintroduced a concept that the founder gods deliberately tried to avoid having in their new Universe, I’m sure that will work out just fine.

Title Acquired: [Peerless Linguist]

Intelligence + 15%, All other Stats + 10%.

Awarded for having the highest level [Linguistics] Skill.

Akaisha didn’t know whether to laugh or cry as she pulled up her Status.

Jane Akaisha Wainwright

[Beginner Militiaman] Cap

[Shatterer] 13

Health

624

Health Regen

2.97

Mana

665

Mana Regen

3.11

Strength

121

Perception

84

Dexterity

61

Intelligence

98

Agility

84

Willpower

54

Endurance

61

Sociability

58

[Shatterer] Skills

Description

[Combat Style: Sledgehammer] 39

Passive: A full combat style for sledgehammers.

[Shatter Defences] 4

Active: A strike with a blunt weapon that can reduce the defences of the target, may even destroy them outright.

[Leaping Strike] 3

Active: A jump followed by a strike from a melee weapon

General Skills

Description

[Theoretical Mathematics] 32

Passive: After mastering basic [Mathematics] you are ready for the advanced version. Improves knowledge of, and the speed of use, of complex mathematical formulas and equations that do not have a direct and obvious real-world application.

[Useful Mathematics] 57

Passive: After mastering basic [Mathematics] you are ready for the advanced version. Improves knowledge of, and the speed of use, of complex mathematical formulas and equations that have a direct and obvious real-world application.

[Advanced Physics] 61

Passive: After mastering basic [Physics] you are ready for the advanced version. Improves knowledge of, and speed of processing of, complex formulas and theorems. You benefit from increased relevant Stats when performing appropriate experiments and other actions.

[Advanced Biology] 34

Passive: After mastering basic [Biology] you are ready for the advanced version. Improves knowledge of, and speed of processing of, complex formulas and theorems. You benefit from increased relevant Stats when performing appropriate experiments and other actions.

[Advanced Chemistry] 53

Passive: After mastering basic [Chemistry] you are ready for the advanced version. Improves knowledge of, and speed of processing of, complex formulas and theorems. You benefit from increased relevant Stats when performing appropriate experiments and other actions.

[Identify] 5

Active: Shows some information on a target, depending on the level of skill.

[Weapon: Spear] 1

Passive: Increases skill with spears.

[Weapon: Blades] 1

Passive: Increases skill with bladed weapons.

[Vital Hands] 1

Active: Focus Mana through your hands to heal wounds or cure diseases.

[Linguistics] 93

Passive: Eases the speed of retention and recall of languages and other similar concepts. You benefit from increased relevant Stats when performing appropriate experiments and other actions.

The Oldest Fogie [Unique]

Congratulations, you are older than any non-deity in the Universe 2.0, and even more than most of the gods too. I hope you're happy! Gain increased Stats when haranguing whippersnappers, and chasing people off your lawn.

+50% to all Stats.

Paragon Scholar [Unique, Claimable]

Awarded for holding the most [Unique, Claimable] knowledge titles.

+25% to all Stats

Paragon of the Mundane [Unique, Claimable]

Awarded for holding the most [Unique, Claimable] mundane knowledge titles.

+15% to all Stats.

Peerless Chemist [Unique, Claimable]

Awarded for having the highest level [Chemistry] skill.

+15% to Int, +10% to all other Stats.

Peerless Physicist [Unique, Claimable]

Awarded for having the highest level [Physics] skill.

+15% to Int, +10% to all other Stats.

Peerless Biologist [Unique, Claimable]

Awarded for having the highest level [Biology] skill.

+15% to Int, +10% to all other Stats.

Peerless Mathematician [Unique, Claimable]

Awarded for having the highest level [Mathematics] skill.

+15% to Int, +10% to all other Stats.

Late Bloomer I

Access U2.0AS for the first time after 14 years old. Better late than never.

+1% to all Stats.

Late Bloomer II

Access U2.0AS for the first time after 16 years old. Was it worth the wait?

+2% to all Stats.

Late Bloomer III

Access U2.0AS for the first time after 20 years old. It probably wasn't worth the wait.

+3% to all Stats.

Late Bloomer IV

Access U2.0AS for the first time after 30 years old. It probably wasn't worth it, but well done surviving so long without the system.

+4% to all Stats.

Late Bloomer V

Access U2.0AS for the first time after 50 years old. Who does that?

+5% to all Stats.

Late Bloomer VI

Access U2.0AS for the first time after 100 years old. How is that even possible?

+6% to all Stats.

Late Bloomer VII

Access U2.0AS for the first time after 1 000 years old. That should not be possible.

+7% to all Stats.

Late Bloomer VIII

Access U2.0AS for the first time after 10 000 years old. Wait, how long?

+8% to all Stats

Late Bloomer IX

Access U2.0AS for the first time after 100 000 years old. What, how, even dragons don't live that long.

+9% to all Stats.

Late Bloomer X

Access U2.0AS for the first time after 1 000 000 years old. I give up, that's impossible, and doesn't even give a decent bonus. Whatever.

+10% to all Stats.

Mothers Ruin [Unique]

Be the first to clear [Den of the Mother of Dogs]

+1% to all Stats.

[Mother of Linguistics]

Congratulations, you have successfully reintroduced a concept that the founder gods deliberately tried to avoid having in their new Universe, I’m sure that will work out just fine.

All Stats + 40%.

[Peerless Linguist]

Awarded for having the highest level [Linguistics] Skill.

+15% to Int, +10% to all other Stats.