[You have reached level 9]

[Stat Gains:

Strength: +1

Constitution: +1

Dexterity: +1

Wisdom: +1]

…

[You have reached level 10]

[Stat Gains:

Strength: +1

Constitution: +1

Dexterity: +1

Intelligence: +1]

[Tier 1 Threshold Reached]

[Promotion Options Available:

[R*][Weaponmaster+]:

[Continue to perfect the current path. No new skills, but will receive extra stats and one memory fragment of someone with [C]Mastery.

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[SR][Eldritch Swordsman]

[Traditional swords have failed to impress you. With your enlightened vision, you know that there is so much more that is possible. Now, you look towards the endless void to satiate your desire for growth.

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[SR][Magic Swordsman]

[Traditional swords have failed to impress you. With your talent, you know that there is so much more that is possible. Now, you look towards the ocean of magic to satiate your desire for growth.

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[U][Starchild]

[Chosen of the stars. They are willing to shower you with their love. Do you dare accept?

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[C][Man-at-Arms]

[Stalwart, you are to become a bulwark protecting your comrades from danger.

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]

[Current Class Skills will become General Skills]

[To Reroll options, dedicate General Skills to the System]

[[F]Rank = 1 Reroll, [E]Rank = 2 Rerolls, [D]Rank = 4 Rerolls, …]

[[U]Rank will be independently calculated]

[To trigger a System assisted derivation of the current class, perform a [Great Achievement]*

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This is why you cannot become too reliant on the System. Many of its features are random, and it constantly throws pits that you either need to jump over or just fall into. From here on, it will limit your options to 5 for every Tier up. A good chunk of them are traps, too.

That [U]Starchild seems especially clingy. You should be human… I wonder which star saw fit to bid on you.

*I’ll need to test the responsiveness of the world will. It didn’t react to me entering so I assumed it was one of those that hadn’t formed a self yet. Should I push him toward this class to see what happens? Hmm. I should stabilize the situation first, though.*

You can probably tell from your [E]Mastery that class skills are a step above most skills. They are the foundation with which you make your breakthrough into higher tiers. To put it in other words, they are your path to power.

As such, the potential of your [E]Mastery is massive. If you can raise it to [S]Rank or above, it will become a treasure trove of stats and bonuses. Most classes' skills are like this.

Appreciate the advice, but I’m a little busy here.

Niven, still assaulted on all sides by a pack of bloodthirsty undead, wanted to pay attention, but couldn’t. His original estimate was off by at least double that, as reinforcements came as he was stalled out.

Though Apollyon had said the fight would be easy, he still had difficulty, only barely managing to hold on. The more he fought, the more he was pushed back. Granted, this was intentional, as he wanted to back out of this undead-infested forest before even more showed up, but that meant one more thing to pay attention to while being rushed by these beasts.

While Niven was still not fully accustomed to the sight of these abominations, over the past few minutes his mentality had grown to the point where he no longer flinched as they charged. While still frightening to see what should have been a corpse rush towards him with its gaping jaw unhinged and ready to bite, once he’d experienced what they were capable of his heart settled quickly.

His partner had been correct in that the wolves would fail to do any meaningful damage. Despite taking multiple bites to the arms, he hadn’t even drawn blood yet.

However, that did not mean the fight was easy. He still needed to focus on his footing while defending his more vulnerable parts. All of his protective armor had been destroyed in the prior brawl with the boar, and he didn’t want to experience what it felt like to get mauled from all directions once he lost his rhythm.

Furthermore, though they were undead, they seemed to recognize that their bites were unable to pierce his skin and switched their tactics, tackling him over and over. Though his sizable physical advantage allowed him to stand his ground, he had almost lost his footing and fallen prone a few times.

He caught many of them during their charges, and he followed through with several swift kicks and punches, but he only had so many limbs. Grappling them did secure a surefire kill, but it was too unwieldy and slow. If he wanted to get through this encounter in a reasonable amount of time he’d need to change his tactics.

As such, partway, he had Apollyon change back into a shortsword. He was just not familiar with these weighted gloves yet to handle a crowd of enemies. At present, he was flailing wildly at best, missing or making attacks of negligible efficacy. If he landed a good hit they would die instantly, but it was looking better to just cripple them with a sword to take some heat off him.

Even if cutting them apart didn’t completely kill them, it made their movements even stiffer, slowing them down.

So far, he had culled the pack to about half, but still, they did not relent. In fact, he was feeling like they only became fiercer as the fight went on.

With each swipe of his sword, a wolf would be bisected. Sometimes this would be enough to kill, but other times it would result in the two halves hobbling toward him awkwardly. Even if every hit was no longer a kill, his movements were quicker and he had better reach.

With his prodigious strength, the edge’s sharpness was able to put its full potential on display, easily cutting through their rotted flesh and bone alike, like a kitchen knife through butter.

Oh. I had forgotten that you cannot multitask yet. You were just improving your processing speed so quickly that I just assumed you’d developed that ability already. It’s the natural progression of things, you see. We really do need to get on that quickly. You miss out on so much without it. Whatever. I’ll wait for you to finish with those wolves. You still remember everything I said, right? I hate repeating myself.

If you really can’t manage, [U]Starchild might be a shortcut. Who knows? It might even give you a few extra limbs. It is a little cumbersome to only be able to manipulate two things at once.

With their rising aggression, however, came more opportunities for him to counter.

Even though the fight seemed to have taken forever to become halfway done, the latter half went by much more quickly.

By the end of it, Niven was sitting down in the middle of a group of bludgeoned corpses, mentally drained. After his touch, these hideous abominations became even more unsightly. The smell alone was nauseating, though Niven had become accustomed to it after a while.

The messiest were the ones he slayed using his fists, though even the ones that were felled by his blade were killed cleanly. Sloppy corpses from sloppy techniques. Luckily he didn’t need them for anything. However, if he wanted to hunt something, he needed to learn how to kill them while preserving all their parts.

Their souls are just fine. No need to worry. Everything useful is still intact.

Despite the weapon’s vain attempt at comfort, Niven still felt rather ashamed. This shame did not last, however. He knew that he would get better with time. That was why he was even out here practicing instead of heading straight to a town.

It had been a far more intense fight than anything he’d done before, forcing him to fully exert himself. Even if he should have been able to easily fend them off, he did not gain his current strength through bitter practice, after all.

In silence, he reviewed the System logs. He tallied up the kills, a total of 46 undead wolves, each ranging from level 5 to 9. It seemed he hadn’t fought anything that touched upon the level 10 threshold during that. That sounded about right. There was nothing there that he felt possessed a substantially higher strength than the others.

He didn’t seem to gain any experience after reaching level 10, however. That left a good 20 or so kills that were left unaccounted for, which did annoy him a little. As someone who had grown up lacking both food and material, he’d come to learn that every little bit counted.

He remembered the ways blood and sweat he’d shed to gain his initial levels as well. From the hazing to the prisoners he’d been given the ‘privilege’ to execute. Had he known then that such a prize was what he’d have been rewarded with for his efforts he’d have slacked off a bit more like his squad mates. It had been a harrowing experience, but he grew substantially as a result.

Before meeting Apollyon, his status changed at a snail’s pace. Now, it seemed like he was getting stat-ups every few hours or so. The danger notwithstanding, it was invigorating to see himself improve so drastically and so quickly at that.

He also had a particularly big advancement waiting for him right now.

Let’s not Tier up just yet. You need to try and feel your soul first. The sooner this happens the better. It’ll let you become more aware of the changes occurring within you. I can pull up your outer soul, but the inner soul needs to be done on your own.

This was how people did it before the System. Through meditation techniques iterated and improved over generations, people could become more attuned to the world. This was slow, but it gave these people comprehension. It gave them agency, well agency so long as you didn’t go to a new world, but that’s beside the point. Now, you might not have a meditation technique, but I do. I picked one up just before you met me, actually, and I think it suits you very well. It’s meant to be practiced by generalists, so it’s not a perfect fit, but the more doors open the better. With my guidance, you’ll get the hang of this in no time.

Will this get me a new class?

Looking at his current choices again, he felt that none of them were particularly appealing. He was a little tempted to just take the advanced [Weaponmaster] class. Those other specializations were either just strange, like [Starchild], or limited his choices of weapon types. He wanted to stay as a jack-of-all-trades, especially since he hardly had any time to familiarize himself with the class.

Well, it might, depending on how well you do. Though we’re not doing this for the power the technique imparts. We are going through these hoops to gain the understanding that would have otherwise been skipped had we just followed the System’s prompts.

Trust me. Even though it isn’t an immediate bonus… Get out of here. Something big is coming. I have enough samples of these creatures to paint a decent picture. We will continue this conversation once we get out.

Spooked, Niven quickly picked himself up and ran as fast as he could in the direction he came. He had long had the feeling that this part of the woods was a bad place to stay, but he didn’t know how to broach the subject. Even if he was the wielder in this dynamic, he felt it hard to voice his opinions.

Getting out of here was something he had intended for a long time, and he had moved as he fought those wolves with that in mind. Never mind the undead, just the atmosphere gave him an off feeling he couldn’t quite describe.

It was just something about the distinct lack of life that ate at him. Even back in the desert, he could see the occasional insect in his peripheral vision.

Here? There was nothing.

He could neither hear nor see anything approach, but he was certain his partner had better sense than him. It had been correct about the sandworm, and it had nothing to gain from scaring him like this. He felt that it was the one who wanted nothing more than to stay here longer. Even though it had said it had enough data, he could discern a tinge of regret within those tones.

He was fortunate to have had ample practice maneuvering in these wooded areas before. Unlike the clumsy steps that proved his history as a city dweller when he first left the Divide, his movements were brisk and nimble.

Inevitably, the warning would prove that it was not timely enough, as Niven could hear the thunderous stomps of something massive grow louder and louder. He had already gotten a ways away from the place, but something appeared to be on his tail.

You really don’t have much luck with dragonkin, huh? Every time your luck flares it attracts something with the blood of dragons. First the sandworm and now this.

Would it draw a true dragon when you get stronger? Going by its current trajectory, it seems like a very real possibility. Two major events in two days. A true dragon in a year?

This time I doubt you can dissuade it from attacking you by injuring it. You might be safe once you cross out of Nara’s Blight, though. Their undeath is the result of a curse. It binds them to this land.

So I try to cripple its movement and make a break for it?

I’d advise against approaching it. This one doesn’t just have just pure physical might like the others you fought before. The dragon’s blood wasn’t just for show like in that sandworm.

This one was a drake when it was alive. I’d give it maybe a 2% purity bloodline. Now that it's become like this, I can sense it spreading the miasmic mana as it goes.

I’ll share its stats now.

[Undead Drake - Level 52]

[Once an apex predator native to Nara’s Blight, now reanimated in death. Its draconic heritage gave it an extremely strong body and magical attunement. Though weakened in undeath, its qualities were transformed to better suit its current form. Highly aggressive towards anything living and will grind itself to dust to harm the target it locks on to.]

[Physical Parameters: Quadripedal, but is still a corpse animated via magic.

[Stat estimates:

Strength: ~250

Constitution: ~1050

Dexterity: ~100

Intelligence: 20

Wisdom: 0 ]

[Notable Skills:

[B][Curse of Undeath]

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[C][Endurance]

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[D][Mana Blight]

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You can throw me over to it. I’ll land a solid hit to slow it down and return to you in a bit. It’ll cost the power-up you’d be getting from those wolves, however.

No. I’ll keep that in mind, though. You said it’ll stop chasing once we leave, right?

The edge is still a while away. At your current pace, I’d give it ten minutes before we arrive. With your current lead and its speed, it’ll catch up in two minutes at most.

Trying to think while paying attention to the path so as to not unconsciously slow down, Niven deliberated on the idea. Taking Apollyon up on that offer would indeed get him out of the situation, but discarding so much progress just didn’t sit right with him.

I have an idea. You said that if you land a solid hit on it it’ll slow down, right?

Correct. The souls you have harvested from those wolves can indeed allow me to manifest a strike strong enough to stun that thing. It’ll buy enough time for you to get out of here. Finally coming around to that idea? It is a tad wasteful, but survival is key here.

I was thinking more along the lines of you using that power to get me out of here. Surely you can move me the remaining distance with the amount of energy stored?

I am a weapon, not a vehicle. You are the one moving me around, not the other way around.

Then how about you turn into a shield? Hit the ground and the recoil should be faster than my sprint. You said

… I suppose I could. It also doesn’t take as much energy as facing the thing head-on. It might work, though I can’t imagine it’ll be very comfortable for you. Still, even if I’m in the form of a shield, using me as a sled isn’t very much like a [Weaponmaster] at all.

The System said that [Weaponmaster]s must use their tools to fit the situation. I don’t see how this goes against that.

You don’t have much to work with, I’ll give you that. If you were given a week, no, with even a few days I truly believe we could just fight this thing. Alas, we simply do not have the time. I do not doubt in a few days something worse will come as well. Anyways, I suppose this idea could work. Alright. You’ve convinced me.

I’m willing if you’re willing. Every little bit of progress counts.

With that, Apollyon split itself in two, allowing Niven to hold a shield in each hand. One went under him, while another was held up in front. All prepared, a blast went off under him, shooting him forward at a speed he had never experienced before. Ducking his head under the shield in front of him, he crashed into tree after tree, though his speed only decreased marginally.

Their momentum carried them out of the Blight, slowing as they approached. It seemed Apollyon had calculated the strength of the blast to be just enough to get them out.

Niven still ran a little farther, just to be sure.

Looking back, he finally caught sight of the monster that was chasing him.

Like the other undead beasts he had fought off, it too was a rotting mess. The thing had exposed ribs and parts of the skull. A good portion of its scales radiated a black mist, which seemed almost alive in how they moved.

And, just as he was inspecting it, it was also gazing at him. Its cold, empty sockets flaring with a pale, grey flame.

Rather than giving up, it paced at the border, as if hoping he would mindlessly walk into its strike zone.

It seemed enraged over being unable to reach him.

Hmm. I guess it doesn’t want to let you off. Is this because of your luck or something else? The curse matrix I dissected had directives for situations like this. What now? Leave?