Just from killing the one boar I leveled up which would've otherwise taken me twenty minutes of practicing with my skill.
MILESTONE LEVEL REACHED
JOB SKILL UNLOCKED
RACE SKILL UNLOCKED
+5 TO EVERY STAT
ALL SKILL LEVELS RAISED BY (1)
"What?" I was taken aback from the sudden influx of rewards for reaching level 10. Opening my stat screen I took a look at the rewards.
MANA ABSORPTION - LVL 2
YOU CAN ABSORB THE RESIDUAL MANA IN THE AIR TO INCREASE YOUR PHYSICAL CAPABILITIES. THIS BUFF LASTS UNTILL YOU RELEASE THE MANA OR LOSE CONCENTRATION ON IT.
MANA COST - 25
FALLEN VISION - LVL MAX
YOU CAN SEE AS WELL IN DARKNESS AS YOU DO IN THE LIGHT THIS EFFECT CONTINUES WITH MAGICAL DARKNESS.
MANA COST - 0
All of my stats had also increased by 5, killing monsters was definitely the way to go, even though it was mildly terrifying. These two new skills would be useful though, one which made me be able to see perfectly in the dark and one that increased my physical capabilities even further.
I destroyed the camp, placed my axe back in storage and surveyed my surroundings. Not able to see much from my limited vantage point it used genesis/desolation to create more ground under my feet, creating a column. It was my first time trying anything like this but it worked like a charm thanks to my higher skill level. Once I reached 30 metres into the sky I looked about for monsters to slay, spotting a herd of dire boars. I activated my new job skill, the mana particles in the air drifted into my skin, filling me with energy and strength, my veins slightly shone from under my skin with a white light. I hung from the side of the podium, erasing it down to 15 metres, still hanging on to the lip that was there after destroying it. I created an image in my head of a pillar that sprang out of the side of this stone monolith and then used my skill again.
I shot like a bullet away from the pillar with a wall of stone propelling me along untill it reached the limit of the level of my skill and stopped, I however flew at full speed towards the herd of dire boars, grinning from the adrenaline rush.
I slammed into one of the boars, two daggers piercing it's skull, the force of my impact crushing it's bones. I was strangely fine though, not even a drop in a single point of health.
YOU HAVE SLAIN - DIRE BOAR
LEVEL UP!
I launched myself at another boar before they had time to react. Plunging a spear through its forehead and into its body.
One came charging at me and I caught it head on, only losing 25 points of health. Grabbing a hold of its tusks I swung it's body around into the boar that was rushing me from behind, knocking both to the floor but not killing them.
I willed mana into my hand, shaping it into the form of a flame with immense heat. Thrusting my hand towards the three boars left standing and about to charge. A blue flame burst forth from my outstretched palm, bathing the three dire boars in a heat so hot that it turned them to ash.
Finally I turned around to the two boars who I had smashed together. They were just trying to stand. I drove a spear into one's heart and incinerated the other.
YOU HAVE SLAIN - DIRE BOAR
YOU HAVE SLAIN - DIRE BOAR
YOU HAVE SLAIN - DIRE BOAR
YOU HAVE SLAIN - DIRE BOAR
YOU HAVE SLAIN - DIRE BOAR
YOU HAVE SLAIN - DIRE BOAR
LEVEL UP!
LEVEL UP!
LEVEL UP!
LEVEL UP!
SKILL LEVEL UP - BRINGER OF FLAME LVL 5
SKILL LEVEL UP - GENESIS/DESOLATION LVL 14
SKILL LEVEL UP - STORAGE LVL 3
SKILL LEVEL UP - MANA WEAVING LVL 5
SKILL LEVEL UP - MANA ABSORPTION LVL 3
An onslaught of notifications followed my defeat of the boars, from what I could tell the level up rate had decreased to about once for every two boars and fighting was also a faster way of increasing my skill levels. But one thing had come to mind during the fight, the clothes I now wore, cool though they were, were very restrictive to my convoluted fighting style, I had even ripped the hardened leather in places from my erratic movements. I erased my armour, replacing it with a lighter variant that exposed my skin more, with tied off trousers, slightly loose at the top. A vest piece for a torso with a solitary pauldron and vambraces on either arm.
"Yep, this suits me more." I could see the soft glow of my veins beneath my skin more clearly and I felt more comfortable and free to move. Remembering to check my stat screen I found 25 stat points awaiting me, using them to upgrade my agility, bringing it to my highest stat at 51.
"This is going to be good." I said, grinning at the pillar of stone I made. I collected the corpses that weren't ash into my storage and went on my way to find more boars, checking that I still had mana absorbed. It seemed that at the skill's current level I had a smaller maximum amount of mana absorbed but at higher levels I suspected that I would have even more of a buff.
I broke out into a sprint across the grassy plains, at a pace which would've rivaled any horse buy with my new agility stat I could maintain this speed without risk of falling. I eventually spotted another troop of dire boars and the cycle began anew.
--
Four hours later and nine level ups later I had killed enough boars to make the level ups once every couple of groups of them. So I decided to stop. Apparently the assassin had had hundreds of years to level to 30 and yet I was getting to 23 without a problem in a day. I also managed to gain a couple of skills.
HAND-TO-HAND MASTERY - LVL 6
SPEAR MASTERY - LVL 3
AXE MASTERY - LVL 4
DAGGER MASTERY - LVL 2
SWORD MASTERY - LVL 1
These had really helped my combat strategies as I could now execute manouvers I never thought I could do, though my agility score of 71 and strength of 55 definitely helped. It's not that agility helped my actual propulsion, it was strength that let me run much faster and harder and jump higher. It was agility that let me land those jumps with precision and dodge blows that I wasn't initially aware of and plan attacks mid combat. Overall I was happy with my choices in improving my stats, I had checked my body a few times when I upgraded my stats and it had been growing more muscular, in an agile and powerful sort of way. I had grown used to the ashen skin now, it felt right on me and my now light body was a thing that I felt was mine the most. I had also grown used to the small dots of arcane energy that I saw around the place. Most of the time these were stationary but sometimes they moved towards creatures using skills and magic, I had even learnt to stop access to some skills because of this.
Right now though, the mana particles were drifting towards something so I decided to follow. The grassy plains had slowly been turning into more and more rocky landscape with frequent hills. The mana was glowing like a river now, across and over these hills.
Finally I reached an exceedingly tall hill which the mana was flowing into a cave mouth.
"This is totally what I think it is isn't it?" I said, grinning stupidly. I thought it was a dungeon and so sprinted straight in, following the immense flow of mana that I had been for a while.
As the tunnel grew darker and darker, I encountered some low level wolves which I dispatched without a problem, it split into two pathways, possibly to throw off new adventurers who couldn't see the flow of mana towards what I assumed to be the boss.
Moving further in I retrieved a stamina potion to relieve my weariness from the day's work. I followed the path with the flow of mana and met my first real zombies. They were hideous, dressed in rags of armour, presumably adventurers once who had fallen in battle, their equipment was rusted beyond use and only the occasional stray piece of flesh remaining on its rotten form. There were about four of them and they moaned as the shambled towards me. One thing I noticed that I didn't think I would see was a thin layer of mana permiating the zombies. I gave it a tug, the front zombie dropped down, lifeless, to the floor.