Chapter Twenty Eight

Elysia sat up and glanced at Ione, who with a chirp went into loaf mode, allowing Elysia to lie against her. Unconsciously, her hands stroked the silvery, silky soft fur as she pulled up her status.

Status:

Name: Elysia Arashi

Race: Level 41 Nascent Lightning Elemental.

Class: Level 41 Path of Lightning.

Charge: 8570/8613.

Attributes:

Available Points: 298

Strength: 42

Dexterity: 80

Endurance: 42

Intelligence: 80

Perception: 80

Proficiencies:

Novice Spear Level 8.

Novice Throwing Knives Level 4.

Affinities:

Tier 2 Level 6 (11) Lightning

Resistances:

Death Resistance Level 1

Water Resistance Level 1.

Poison Resistance Level 2.

Mental Resistance Level 5.

Bonus

+70% (100%) Damage with Lightning.

+10% Damage to undead.

+10% Damage to Arthropod.

+15% Damage to Ladybugs.

Skills

Electrify Level 1.

Electrify Self Level 1.

Lightning Bolt Level 1.

Chain Lightning Level 5.

Smite Level 1.

Bonds

Sereia.

Umbra.

Ione.

Now what to push to 100 first? Dexterity to dodge faster, perception to be able to react faster or intelligence to process things faster. She really was nothing like Thrazk. He probably dumped all his attribute points in strength and endurance with a tinge of dexterity. She needed to be fast because she doubted she could tank anything, no matter how many points she put into defense attributes. Though none of the attributes were truly defensive, none of them added stronger skin, at least directly, though if someone added enough to strength and endurance, she was sure they would be pretty tough. Not her through with her horrid percentages.

That left the question of what to pick. She had plenty of points, but she doubted she could spend them all in one sitting, though if the rescue team took their time, she might pull it off. She had enough points to push her three primary attributes well over 150 and still have points to spare.

Let's get the likely most painful out of the way first. Maybe 100 will give her some special system manual so she didn't stumble around like a blind and deaf kitten, though she doubted it.

She took a deep breath before dumping twenty points into intelligence. A red hot fire poker speared through her head, blanking her mind for several moments, but as fast as it came it vanished, replaced with a new clarity and several notifications.

Congratulations 100 intelligence reached!

By reaching 100 in an attribute, you earned a passive skill choice.

Please note this skill will not affect your skill slot, nor will it change if you evolve your class.

Clarity Under Pressure: Clarity for the most difficult situation.

Accelerated Thinking: Sometimes quick thinking isn't enough. Sometimes some requires more.

Improved Memory: Not all situations require fast thinking. Sometimes one needs improved recall to solve their current predicament.

As usual, no actual effects. Though from the names, their effects are pretty obvious. Maybe they won't even affect attributes but the background things. There isn't an attribute for memory after all. Though intelligence must have some effect on it. Before the system came, improved memory would have been the perfect choice. Especially if she had gone to college. No note taking would be awesome, but now she wasn't sure it had much use. She had a decent memory, and she doubted she needed to memorize complex formulas anymore. Better to just electrocute her problems. Though if she ran into a dungeon with a puzzle, it might come in handy. She always struggled with puzzles. At least the annoying difficult ones.

Somehow Seraia solved them like nothing. If she had put half that into her studies, she would have been the valedictorian instead of that know it all Mark. Another reason to avoid that one. She would just use Seraia for all the puzzles if they popped up. She knew Seraia would reach her, eventually. No one could stop her twin. She probably would have escaped even without the giant turtle's help. It was only a matter of time. The problem was what she brought with her.

Suddenly, a shiver ran through her at the thought of Eva and Seraia teaming up with her money on the line. No matter what, she would keep control of the money. Both of them require strict supervision while shopping. Joe didn't seem to be up to the task, so she would need to find another crew member for shopaholic supervision. Best to outsource such a troublesome job.

Elysia shook her head to clear her thoughts. So that leaves two options. The system said all skills were passive, but these skills seemed more active. Maybe she didn't have control over their activation, so they counted as passive as they were always on, but not providing effects at all times.

Did she need clarity under pressure? She seemed pretty good at thinking on her feet. Even early on. Her new race seemed to already help with handling stressful situations too. Sure it came with the side effects of sometimes being a little too extreme at times but overall it seemed positive or maybe her new race made her think it was positive either way she had no control over it and she had control over what she chose here.

The only option she didn't have a substitute to was Accelerated Thinking it seemed. At least if what she thought the skill did was true. Maybe it just gave a flat increase to her mental processing speed, which wouldn't hurt, but dumping a bunch of attribute points into intelligence would accomplish the same at least after the headache passed.

She read through the options one more time before choosing Accelerated Thinking.

Skill learned! Accelerated Thinking.

Accelerated Thinking: Sometimes quick thinking isn't enough. Sometimes one requires more.

Effects: Chance of double mental processing speed in near death situation.

Perfect. Exactly what she thought it would be. Now if she got a skill from perception and dexterity to let her move and sense faster. It would suck to be unable to react fast enough. She would rather not have double time to process her unavoidable death. Though if she didn't get the perception version, she may not be aware of it. Trippy. All the more reason to have attributes somewhat balanced. Actually, wouldn't she need high strength to use dexterity to its fullest? So what if she had an amazing turnover when her legs had no strength to push her fast enough? The attributes were pretty interconnected. Like Thrazk said, she probably should get at least 100 in strength and endurance eventually. Who knew maybe the skill would tie into everything else? For now, she would get her three primary attributes higher, though.

Elysia glanced at her team, finding them still in formation around the injured team. The only change was the Chrotile, who was unconscious before they arrived, was moving a bit.

Figuring she had plenty of time to upgrade another attribute, Elysia refocused on her status. Huh Accelerated thinking didn't have a level. Not like her other skills leveled much. One would think Smite would have leveled by now with how much she used it.

The next logical attribute would probably be perception. There was no point in moving faster if she couldn't follow the movement. That was just asking to trip and fall on her ass or jump on a sword. Best to avoid death by klutz. Dexterity was definitely next after perception, for obvious reasons.

While leaning against her bond, she dumped twenty points into perception. As usual, all her senses shut down, cutting off the world. Time ground to a halt as all she had was her own thoughts. Even her internal sense of her lightning didn't exist, leaving her in a black void of nothingness.

On the outside, her body looked calm. Unlike her first time increasing perception, her breathing remained steady, though with each passing second her pulsing core beat slightly faster.

Time lost meaning as she floated in the void. All her focus was on taking deep breaths to stop herself from panicking, but despite going through the motions, she had no idea if she was actually taking breaths, only that she thought about it.

After what felt like an eternity, the world snapped back into focus. The breaths of her team and moans of the injured Chrotile reached her ears as if she was mere centimeters away. Hot, humid air tickled her face, but the scent of blood was what stood out to her. Her nostrils twitched as they pinpointed the blood in the direction of her team and several other less fresh spots out in the jungle.

On its own, her right hand stroked along Ione's silky-smooth fur, fingers feeling each individual strand of hair.

Upon opening her eyes, the world exploded with color. Leaves hundreds of meters up came into focus, though the unnatural stillness of them forced her to avert her eyes. Her head tilted up to meet tilted violet eyes.

As if sitting on a messaging chair at its highest setting, her body vibrated.

Overwhelmed, Elysia closed her eyes and let her body go limp, allowing the deep vibrations to become her entire world.

Fortunately, as the minutes passed, her body adjusted to the enhanced stimuli, returning her senses to near what it was before though slightly enhanced.

Even with her eyes closed, the expected notifications appeared.

Congratulations 100 Perception reached!

By reaching 100 in an attribute, you earned a passive skill choice.

Please note this skill will not affect your skill slot, nor will it change if you evolve your class.

Focus Under Pressure: Sometimes one needs extra focus for that precise shot as the enemy barrels down on them.

Burst of Senses: When at death's door, one needs a burst of senses to avoid certain death.

Boosted Senses: When one needs an extra boost to track their elusive prey.

Weren't these almost identical to her choices from intelligence? Though she guessed it made sense as the attributes were connected. She wouldn't be surprised if dexterity had similarities too.

Like intelligence, she didn't seem to need the extra focus when stressed because of her race, so that one was out and while Boosted Senses seemed useful, she had other options. She doubted, even with the skill, she would beat Ione in tracking. She was better off focusing on what she was already good at. Ione could do the tracking while she would be the hammer.

That left Burst of Senses. It would likely help her more than the other two and synergized well with Accelerating Thinking. At least she hoped they would. It would suck for them to trigger at different times, but something told her a situation that would trigger one would trigger both.

Hopefully she never had to use either skill, but in this dangerous world, it was inevitable. She could only prepare herself the best she could to survive what the world threw at her. Just the thought of hiding away somewhere safe disgusted her and would only hurt her in the long run when she drew the ire of the Elemental Council.

She knew Urus would pick the Chrotile over her if the Elemental Council pressured her enough.

Skill learned! Burst Of Senses.

Burst Of Senses: When at death's door, one needs a burst of senses to avoid certain death.

Effects: Chance of doubling one's senses.

Okay. Similar to Accelerated Thinking. It was nice when the system actually told her something instead of letting her fumble around in the dark. If both of these triggered at once, she would be golden. Well, maybe not if she couldn't move fast enough. Now she would be fully aware of her death. Hopefully Dexterity fixed that.

Unwilling to leave her messaging backrest known as Ione, she tilted her head toward her team to find yet again they were standing in formation in the same place as before.

They would make good body guards. No way could she stand guard like that. She would get bored. Though who knew how long passed? Maybe it's only been five minutes. Hard to tell time in a black void. She remembered watching videos of people going insane in sensory deprivation. Fortunately, she seemed to avoid that fate. At least, she thought she did. Who was really sane in the end? Maybe she was hallucinating all of this. She could be locked in some padded cell pumped full of drugs.

A shiver ran through, banishing that thought before she really did drive herself insane.

Despite warning to not dump too many attributes so quick she spent twenty points on Dexterity and closed her eyes to lessen the vertigo.

A few seconds later, she opened her eyes, confused. Did it work?

Any further doubted vanished as a notification appeared like the others. Huh, maybe boosting her mind and senses canceled out the effects of boosting dexterity. That was handy. Though there was probably a limit. Eventually, her body would need to be strengthened. Hopefully, her horrid strength percentage didn't soft cap her dexterity.

Congratulations 100 Dexterity Reached!

By reaching 100 in an attribute, you earned a passive skill choice.

Please note this skill will not affect your skill slot, nor will it change if you evolve your class.

Movement Under Pressure: Sometimes one needs quick reactions under pressure for that last second dodge as the enemy barrels down on them.

Increased Movement: Sometimes one's best just isn't enough. When an extra step is the difference between life and death.

Boosted Speed: When one needs an extra boost to reach safety.

As she thought. These options seemed really similar to each other. They all boiled down to giving her a boost when she needed it most. Any of them would probably avoid the bottleneck created by her other two choices, but for consistency she should choose Increased Movement.

Skill learned! Increased Movement.

Increased Movement: Sometimes one's best just isn't enough. When an extra step is the difference between life and death.

Effects: Chance of doubling all movement in a near death situation.

Synergy Detected.