It had been a week since then. It turned out that one of the caretakers in the new orphanage was also a cultist. Cress had disposed of her after finding tailing her in the night. At once, all the missing children reports seemed to make sense. The assault squad at their respective orphanages have identified the cultist with their own investigation and terminated. Though it was still unsettling, how they worshipped this evil god called Emily, and how Cress had so much strength. Disregarding the demon incident, Cress could easily overpower and kill an adult in seconds. It was evident after she defeated the cultist in our orphanage, minimising potential casualties.
Together with her, we explored the dungeons with her personal training team. But before that, I had to break my limit cap by discovering my class. In order to unlock more of my status sheet, I had to discover things. It was more likely that this "world system" doesn't tell us all the information at once. It was highly possible that the "work system" doesn't tell us everything about our body, but only quantifies and makes what we actually know easier to manage.
It quantifies "exp" and allows us to strengthen our soul with it. The exception was death, unless you had some revival skill, you lose all the soul strength you accumulated in death.
Strength was simple, it measured how much you could carry, how much force you can unleash with your muscles. Vitality covered your body's durability. After a certain value, you stop growing old and become immortal. Agility measured how fast you could move, how fast you can react to your enemies. Lastly Intelligence, it measures the amount of control you have over mana.
Mana was everywhere and infinite in the world, how do you run out? You don't. You just lose control. Intelligence gauges the quantity of mana you can control before losing control at 0. Since mana has been here since the dawn of time, humans have evolved to require mana to live. At the bare minimum, 100 was needed to live comfortably. Everyone was born with 100 in their mana pool, when it goes lower, your physical stamina and mental willpower is drained at an exponentially faster rate.
When it reaches 0,you lose control of the mana inside your body. What happens to uncontrolled energy? It rampages and tries to disperse itself. In the middle of that process, your brain will be inevitably fried.
Defeating a person or monster leaves them dead. But what about the mana that's still being controlled in their body? Why is it still being controlled by the person when they're dead? It's not. Unless it is 0 their mana pool or Intelligence stat persists after death. Nobody knows why. Their mana pool is then absorbed by the Victor's soul in the form of "exp" points. However that was just a meagre sum, the enemy's soul also had accumulated "exp" that's released upon death. That was the main content of "exp", "exp" that is absorbed from the souls of the dead. A vicious never ending cycle. At a certain point, specifically the level cap, "exp" cannot be absorbed further. It disperses naturally back into the air as mana instead.
In order to break my current level cap of 50,I had to discover my class. In order to do that, there was a strange procedure that takes place in churches. Arriving at a run down church, the insides were mouldy and dirty. The benches rotten, the carpet torn. It seemed that this church has been abandoned. The procedure could still occur even without the priest. I just needed to put the coins in myself. Walking to the front of the church, there was an altar, and in front was a box with a hole on the top. Inserting the hole with coins I got from Cress, a strange pressure erupted from the altar.
The pressure bent light itself, making it's surroundings look very blurry. The scenery shifted up and down, it was shaking from the altar's pressure. A screen shows up prompting for me to confirm my decision. Another thing people can not solve, why give a decision when everyone wants to class up? Like my status screen, it doesn't exist in reality. Just a vague feeling that only exists in the back of your conscious.
'you have reached level 50! '
'Do you want to class up?'
'Yes/no'
Choosing yes with my mind, a white pillar of light bursts from the altar into the ceiling. It lasted for a few seconds before vanishing. Checking my status screen, I scanned through to see a few changes.
Name: Lilith
Class: assassin
Level: 50 Points: 0
Health: 100/100
Mana: 500/500
Strength: 3100
Vitality: 10
Intelligence: 50
Agility: 21300
Class bonuses:
Str x 10
Int x 5
Agi x 30
Skills:
[Demonic energy]
[Stealth-tier 1]
[Illusion-tier 1]
[Dagger arts-tier 1]
[Shadow step-tier 1]
With this, I was finally able to start levelling up. Apparently at level 600,I had to do another class up. According to Cress, 'assassin' was an A-rank class. It had the potential to evolve to an S-rank class, which was the peak of humanity. The only thing surpassing it will be the Queen, the demon lord and the hero.
Our country "Ilnoa" was the strongest after the other kingdoms started collapsing 6 years ago. Rumours say that the current Queen had something to do with it. After all, 6 years ago only our kingdom's ruler was unharmed .
Entering the dungeon, magic lights lit up our surroundings. We were in the lowest level where light was still provided. Something like light was provided to decrease death rates, it was simply impossible to provide at higher levels. The monsters would destroy the lighting artifacts. The walls were made of an unknown material that could contain and sustain this strange environment inside the dungeon. Viscous transparent liquid covered almost the whole wall, as if there was a layer of protective film. Though it was actually the bodily fluids of monsters mixed with the blood of adventurers.
Walking through the dimly lit path, my sense of time was quickly turned on it's head as I advanced. A dripping sound could be heard in the distance. Is it.. A fallen adventurer? *drip drip* Closer and closer, the sound intensifies before it entered a well lit area. It was a slime.
[Shadow step] allowed me to make footholds in the air from solidified darkness. The mana was used to remove light from a small section of area and reinforce it to support my weight. It was usually used to gain vertical distance, coupled with [Stealth] and [Illusion] for hiding. But was there a rule that forbid setting the foothold vertically?
I don't much control over my body yet, so I'll just set at a 45 degree angle instead of a completely vertical surface. Bending my kness, force ejected out of my heels. Flying through the air with all my speed, I slammed my beginner's dagger into the slime. *splat* All the excessive force had destroyed it's shape into a thin sticky paste.