Nemesis split her level four status points between wisdom and knowledge boosting her Mp all the way up to 54. She took a handful of minutes to rest and let her Hp, Sp, and Mp to regenerate to their maximum. When they were full she finally got up off the dungeon floor and went down the stairs next to her. As Nemesis was heading down she could hear the bats' screeches echo up to her and momentarily paused, did that mean they could 'see' her? Was that some kind of ability from the bats? Actually, could the bats and rats work together? That would be rather sadistic of the developers.

Nemesis took a deep breath to calm down and finally reached the bottom of the stairs.

The mostly dark room was almost the same as the first floor with it being flat with dips in the floor. There were stalagmites hanging from the roof...or were they called stalactites? Guy did not really know the difference as he never had to learn the difference. Nemesis could see the bats hanging from the roof barely as their chirps(?) gave away their position. The rats were a lot easier to see. Their bright, glowing eyes made them incredibly easy to spot as well as terrifying as she could only see the red eyes scattered across the entire room.

Two rats to her left saw her, or perhaps smelled her, and let out a horrendous screech. Nemesis covered her ears and leaned over from how loud and scratchy it was (like nails on a chalkboard). When she finally recovered from the screech it was too late for her to take the stealthily way out as all the rats were turned to her and ready to attack.

It took Nemesis only a moment to form the perfect plan. She cast (Lesser) Weaken I on as many rats as possible and pulled out her escape rope.

You cast (Lesser) Weaken I on Rat Lv1! Rat Lv1 has -7Hp for 19 seconds! You cast (Lesser) Weaken I on Rat Lv1! Rat Lv1 has -7Hp for 19 seconds! You cast (Lesser) Weaken I on Rat Lv1! Rat Lv1 has -7Hp for 19 seconds! You cast (Lesser) Weaken I on Rat Lv1! Rat Lv1 has -7Hp for 19 seconds! You cast (Lesser) Weaken I on Rat Lv1! Rat Lv1 has -7Hp for 19 seconds! You cast (Lesser) Weaken I on Rat Lv1! Rat Lv1 has -7Hp for 19 seconds! You cast (Lesser) Weaken I on Rat Lv1! Rat Lv1 has -7Hp for 19 seconds! You cast (Lesser) Weaken I on Rat Lv1! Rat Lv1 has -7Hp for 19 seconds! Skill Upgraded!

(Lesser) Weaken I Upgrades into Weaken I!

View new Properties in the Skill section of the menu!

You cast (Lesser) Weaken I on Rat Lv1! Rat Lv1 has -7Hp for 19 seconds! You cast (Lesser) Weaken I on Rat Lv1! Rat Lv1 has -7Hp for 19 seconds! Used Escape Rope! You escaped to fight another day! No shame in living!

The bittersweet taste of having to use the item so early was outweighed by the sheer joy of not dying. Nemesis exited the dungeon with the grace and pompousness of a person like her. She headed away from the entrance where other people were gathering in new masses. Presumably, they were bunches of children who had just gotten home from school as their characters were only spread across a few genres. Heroic, edgy, and girls that exposed way too much skin were the majority of the crowd, but there were some characters that caught Nemesis's eye. A few Nordic-style dwarves, a hand full of golems, and no more than three elementals populated the crowd. It was disappointing that there were so many humans as Guy would have guessed that people wouldn't want to play boring old humans, but he was sadly proven wrong. Guy continued down the main road until reaching an alleyway and hid in its shadow. He open his status and clicked on Weaken I in the skill menu.

Weaken I 5Mp Cost and 3 second duration (+16 seconds)

Take 10% of your Intellect stat apply it as a negative to your enemies Hp or Sp

(-7Hp or -7Sp)

(New!) Curse one opponent twice to stack effects!

Skill was upgraded +10 Cp!

Collect?

Guy collected the rewards and exited into his full menu.

Name: Nemesis El-degon

Dark Human

Hexigation 1 (20/100)

Level 4

(HP) 18/18

(Sp) 70/72

Mp 4/54

Agi 4(+4)

Pow 4(+4)

Dex 4(+4)

Wis 28(+4)

Knw 28(+4)

Faith 4(+4)

Create 6(+4)

(+0) Status Points

Armor

-Rookie Robes(White)

-Rookie Leggings(White)

-Rookie Boots(White)

Weapons

-Hex Gauntlets(White)

Skills

-Weaken Curse I

(11 Spell Slots open)

Inventory

-0 Mon

Guy smiled in approval at the upgrade to his ability. This would hopefully be a breath of fresh air in contrast to his previous combat style. Guy exited the alleyway and began to explore the town thoroughly for the next several hours and cooled his head off of any anger, frustration, and impatience.

Eventually, Nemesis arrived at the library on the more wealthy side of the town. She walked inside and began to browse the sections they had. She found an art section dedicated to the famous works and builds of the world or to be more specific the large alliance that made up the continent that she was on.

From what she could pull from the context of some of the paintings is that there was once some 'Dark' empire that ruled over the continent with tyranny but was overthrown but some ancient heroes. Afterward, there was a long period of war as the city-states of the once empire turned on each other and fought for food, money, and magic relics. Slightly enthralled by the lore Nemesis when to the history section and began to sift through more lore. After a thousand years of fighting only the strongest of people and classes remained and the war turned from bloodshed to stalemate. In the stalemate, the new countries made alliances with each other, and slowly the fighting died down until a new threat emerged. Dungeons started to spawn, running rampant all across the continent and the peoples stopped the squabbling between them and fought back the hoards of dungeon beasts. The battles were hard fought and many legendary classes lost but this led to peace between the alliances' which is where the current time starts.

Nemesis closed the book and stacked it on top of the other history books she read. She closed and massaged her eyes for a few seconds. Her head felt heavy as she leaned it against the bookshelf, and it felt nice to just let it rest after a good hour of reading lore books. Nemesis' head drooped to the side and her eye briefly caught something, a purplish glowing section of the library that seemed to be stuffed into the back of the room. She got up, left the history books on the floor, and walked over to the unique section. In it were magical tomes going from wall to wall as they glowed with runes, and although faintly she could be price tags floating in front of the books. In each book, there were two price tags: one that seemed to be the in-game money with ridiculous prices and one that had real-world money. It was a pay-to-win skill/class section of the library where players could spend real-world money to get a step up on other players who didn't pay. Nemesis wondered for a few moments and then grabbed one of the books from off the shelf.

Guy had not put his Payment number into the game pod and he knew for sure that Luke wouldn't have either. Nemesis opened the book just a tad and some yellow text popped up in front of her.

Warning!

You have not paid for this tome. If a player doesn't pay for a tome but still opens it it will count as stealing! Stealing gives you a bad reputation score that could bar you from some quest and even classes! Do not proceed!

Nemesis grabbed four books and put them in her inventory, stealing them for her personal use. She then grabbed the more expensive books until her inventory was full and she gingerly walked out of the book "store" happy with her "purchase".

Reputation

-156 Rep

Neutral --> Neutral Evil

Your Actions take you down A Dark Path ,but it is not unescapable.(For now...)

Lost access to morally Good quests and will now be chased by town guards if sighted!

(New Quests Available!) Evil Quest now available at the nearest Thieves Guild!

This only elicited an uninterested shrug from Nemesis as she already considered herself somewhat evil with having a class with curses in it. It might have actually been a plus as having the guards chase her around would add a little excitement as she explored the town. The little warning went away after a while as Nemesis went into the dark alleyways to study her newly procured material. She pulled up her Inventory and looked at all the reading options:

Inventory

-0 Mon

-Magic Sense 4 dummy’s (Wis% + 20 CP) (-2 Rep)

-Mordamor’s Journal (Wis% +50 CP) (-10 Rep)

-How 3 cast Arcane Bolt (Learn (Lesser) Arcane Bolt I) (-30 Rep)

-Fast Spell casting for beginners (Learn (Lesser) Speed Cast I) (-30 Rep)

-Magic Sense for Advanced learners (Wis% + 40 CP) (-10 Rep)

-Basic Magic theory (Wis% + 10 CP) (-1 Rep)

-Strength Training 4 Dummy’s (Str + 10%) (-1 Rep)

-Illusions and Misdirection (Learn (Lesser) Illusion Item I) (-30 Rep)

-Dark Vision -See through the Night- (Learn (Lesser) Dark Vision I) (-30 Rep)

-A history of Magic (Wis% + 20 CP) (-2 Rep)

-Advanced Spatial-Compression Magic Theory (Wis% +50 CP) (-15 Rep)

-Magic Interconnected Consciousness Theory (Wis% + 10 CP) (-5 Rep)

If Nemesis wanted to level up her class immediately she could certainly do that but to her, it felt like a was, at least for now. If she waited for her next level up and put it all into Wisdom it would greatly increase how much she would earn from this light endeavor. If she used the books now it would push her class all the way to... level 3? If she waited until she was level five and put all her stats into wisdom that would make her class go all the way up to level 4. She could of course use this logic to push off using the books forever, but waiting until level five to use the books was probably going to drive her crazy. Luckily, that logic did not apply to the skill books which Nemesis nearly immediately learned.

Skill Learned!

(Lesser) Arcane Bolt I!

View spell Properties in the Skill section of the menu!

(Passive)Skill Learned!

(Lesser) Speed Cast I!

View Properties in the Skill section of the menu!

Skill Learned!

(Lesser) Illusion Item I!

View spell Properties in the Skill section of the menu!

(Passive)Skill Learned!

(Lesser) Dark Vision I!

View Properties in the Skill section of the menu!

She pulled up Arcane bolts I view page.

(Lesser) Arcane Bolt I

-10Mp Cost and 2 second (Last Element cast) Damage duration + [10% Knw].

-Deals 5 damage + (1 Dps)(Last Element cast) damage.

-Cast time is 20 seconds -(10% Wis) -(5% Wis from speed cast I)

-Cool down of 100 seconds -(10% Wis)

The spell was good enough for now but the hundred seconds cooldown was a big con to the skill overall. Nemesis pulled up the next skill.

(Lesser) Illusion Item I

-20Mp cost

-Select a small item to copy and replace with an illusion that is intangible.

-Cast time is 20 seconds -(10% Wis) -(5% Wis from speed cast I)

-Cool down of 100 seconds -(10% Wis)

That could actually be helpful in stealing keys or even more books. It was defiantly a good grab from the "thrift" library hopefully they would have more sales in the future. Next skill...

(Lesser) Speed cast I- Passive

-Cast spells [Wis x 5%] seconds faster

It was an alright upgrade for the moment but if she could level it up it would become extremely useful. If she could reduce other spells to have zero cast time that would be just villainous! Next. Skill.

(Lesser) Dark vision I- Passive

-normal awareness in Tier I dark spaces.

-see 1 meter in diameter in Tier II dark spaces.

The dark vision would be a little helpful in the dungeons with it being pitch black at some points but other than that it was a mostly useless skill. Nemesis cautiously exited the alleyway, warry of any guards that would chase her. With all her new powers she wanted to quickly reach level five so she could use those class books and level up her Hexigation to the next tier, or level whatever it was called. Slowly she made her way back to the dungeon, avoiding guards all the while, and wiggled her way past the large groups of noob/kid players on her way to go back to her grind.

Finally, she stood at the top of the dungeon's stairs and laughed maniacally down the stairwell, ready to unleash her new powers on some unsuspecting rats and bats. Muhahaahahhaahahaha!