Ding! Combat finished. Congratulations on reaching [Hollow essence Knight] level 98!

Name:

Arthur

Titles

[Dark prodigy]

Class:

[Hollow essence knight] LVL 98

Strength

1291

Constitution

1360

Dexterity

1292

Intelligence

476

Wisdom

860

Affinity

859

Free stat points

0

Skills:

Passive:

[Overloading combustion core](38%), [Dark flow sight](29%), [Cascading mana-intrusive Swordsmanship](56%),

[Sapphire Mental palace](N/A), [Dark Form](88%), [Crawling road](16%), [Weak mana sense](N/A), [Blackened essence(formative)](50%), [Hollow essence return](18%), [Essence lifespan](50%), [Adaptive physiology](N/A)

Active:

[Ghost apparition](69%), [Corrosive mark](34%), [Relentless orbs](56%), [Sword laser](38%), [Onyx chain wind](63%), [Aura dash](2%), [Hollow manifestation](19%), [Eidetic sacrifice](0%)

2 days later, my levels was starting to approach the tier 3 limit, as I had reached level 98. To get there, I had needed to hunt two more armadillos. That had taken a while, considering the sheer vastness of the network of tunnels that the dungeon had created, as well as the low population of garbador that roamed them.

It honestly felt a little strange, for a dungeon to hold so few monsters within its limits. While I wasn’t sure how much of the tunnels remained unexplored, there couldn’t be more than a dozen. While that made hunting them a tedious process, it also meant that I wasn’t likely to be surrounded by enemies, as that could spell death, even for me.

The sheer amount of experience that each battle granted me was more than worth the effort, however. And to think this was all made possible by a single skill… In the last fight, I had tried to branch out and try some of my other offensive options to take the beast down. Yeah, that hadn’t worked… The garbador hadn’t even felt my sword arcs lancing at its skin and my chains were even less effective. Only my most powerful skill, [Sword laser, had managed to pierce its leathery hide, but it didn’t leave a large wound at all. I quickly surmised that taking the creature down with my normal skills was impossible, when I noticed its skin start to heal within moments of the wound being created.

It was only then that I remembered that garbador had passive regeneration, rendering all of my efforts for naught. Again, that problem was solved by my curse mark, which naturally resisted that feature.

All of this made it easy to imagine why this dungeon lay abandoned. Killing even a single garbador would require a large group of tier 4 classers to accomplish, and the experience would have to be rationed out by the system afterward, making the endeavour ineffective in the long run. In my head, I thanked Dalius’ intelligence division that had found this place. It was a dungeon made for me!

If only its monster respawn rates weren’t so abysmal, this place would grant me quite a few levels if that wasn’t the case…

With the latest levels I had gained had come 160 stat points in each of my physical stats. My mental stats had gained 80 each, as well. Finally, I had been granted 200 free points, which I had decided to invest into wisdom, bringing it up to 860.

The reason I had felt comfortable doing so was that my physical stats had finally reached their fourth milestone. The first prompt I opened was related to my strength stat, which currently lacked a related skill.

Ding! 1200 strength reached! Awarded the [Ethereal resistance] skill.

[Ethereal resistance]

Tier 4 skill.

When afflicted by an ethereal effect, gain the ability to resist some of the suppression. Alternatively, your avatar can lightly loosen its bounds.

Effectiveness of the skill depends on willpower + strength, as well as the power of the suppression.

Increase strength to the next milestone to increase skill tier.

I hummed and hawed, attempting to interpret what the system had given me. An odd, niche skill. That was what. Ethereal effect? What was that even supposed to mean? The system mentioned something about an avatar as well, though it wasn't completely sure what that could be either. After some thinking, the only thing that came to mind were the vision Emeri and I had recently been exploring. Did those count as an ethereal effect? Was that why the system had given me the skill in the first place?

I grumbled, not willing to make any premature assumptions. For now, the skill would have to remain an anomaly. At least my recent investment into the willpower stat hadn't been for nothing...

I pushed the new skill to the back of my mind and opened up the next prompt, hoping for a more useful skill.

Ding! 1200 dexterity reached!

[Weak mana sense](N/A)

Tier 3 skill.

Awaken a sixth sense that can pick up large shifts in mana or dense areas of mana from a distance.

Increase dexterity to the next milestone to increase skill tier.

Tier 4 upgrades

[Mana sense]

A direct upgrade pf [Weak mana sense].

Gain the ability to roughly estimate the intensity and quantity of mana around you through a sixth sense.

[Mana sight]

Depending on the intensity and quantity, gathered mana becomes visible. Its colour changes depending on affinity.

[Precise mana touch]

Precisely estimate the intensity and quantity of mana at your fingertips.

Maintain previous skill effect.

I breathed a sigh of relief, finally encountering an easier skill choice. From the start, I had been looking for [Mana sense], the direct upgrade, and I was happy that the other two options didn't suit my fancy.

[Mana sight] had greater range and could make out affinities more easily, but couldn't warn me of a surprise attack or give me a general 'feel' for the mana around me. Secondly, I already had a vision skill, [Dark flow sight]. The two skill threatened to turn into essentially the same thing if I went down this path.

[Precise mana touch], on the other hand, was more suited to artificers and enchanters. I hardly ever had the opportunity to feel up my enemies before fighting them, after all. Why push mana sense back another tier for a skill effect that I wasn't interested in?

In the end, the decision was easy and I took [Mana sense]. After mentally reaffirming my choice, the effect of the skill became instantly noticeable.

My surroundings sprung to life in a certain way, as if everything around me played a role in its own way. It was hard to describe, to be honest... When before the tunnel had only seemed like any other stone and dirt covered passageway, now I could feel the mana that lazily floated through it, carried by the air current. The walls hid tiny specks of earth mana that remained stationary, as if waiting to be called on. Everything held mana... The world had come to life. No longer was I limited to large, lumbering masses of mana. Now, I could feel all of it as long as I focused enough.

Unfortunately, the skills precision and range left much to be desired. Both had increased, of course, but I still felt limited. As if I was looking at the world through foggy glass. Oh well, I could only hope the situation improved with the next skill evolution. For the moment, [Mana sense] more than sufficed.

Now, for that final garbador... Level 100 was just around the corner!

A day and a half later, however, I hadn't had much luck. I hadn't encountered even a single garbador! No mana, no rumble, no nest... Hells, I hadn't even come across any pile of dung! Anything would have sufficed, but there was no sign of my prey-to be. The blasted things were running away from me, I was sure of it!

I had come across a rather peculiar tunnel that went down at an angle until, eventually, it dropped straight down. On top of that, the stone of the tunnel walls had slowly turned darker and darker, until it became pitch black. Clearly, that was the way to the boss room, where a frightening garbador lay in wait, no doubt. I hadn't bothered exploring further, as I knew that that level of risk simply wasn't worth it. Not when there was easier prey to be found. Not that the normal garbador were easy opponents, of course. Another factor I had taken note of was that garbador were earth-affinity creatures. Therefore, the boss' loot would be of the same affinity, most likely, making it somewhat useless to me. Again, not worth the risk.

Now that I was two levels away from 100, however, no more monsters were showing up! I could hardly spend an entire week scouring the tunnels for another. If the dungeon was intent on forcing me to fight its boss for those final two levels, then I wasn't going to deny it the opportunity!

With my decision made, I made my way back to the dark pit and started down. I was going to get those final two levels, Helios be damned if I would let a single boss get in the way! As long as I had my flight, this oversized mob would be too slow to catch me anyway...