'He ranked up? Wait... if he's Geode Rank now, then his vitality definitely just got a substantial boost.'
Brad was the first to react to the change in situation, as his leadership instincts kicked in and orders flew out of his mouth.
"Healers! Even if he's almost dead, you should be able to outpace the spread of the poison now that he has received the benefits of a rank upgrade! Please help him! I believe he can be saved!"
The healers, some enthusiastic to be able to save someone they previously believed to be hopeless, and some annoyed that they had more work to do, reformed their circle around Einer as their healing spells came out once again.
…
It was a eighteen hours later that Einer's sleeping figure became that of someone waking up from one of the worst rests imaginable.
As he surveyed the surrounding room with sunken eyes, the thoughts 'where am I, and why do I feel like absolute shit' were the first to enter his mind.
Einer recalled his experience of being poisoned, and the vague details of what had happened after he had collapsed inside the post.
even more abstract was the feeling that something of world shaking importance had happened while he was out, but could not for the life of him remember even a single piece of information that might have caused such a reaction.
In the lengthy room around him, two rows of beds lined either wall, the bed across from him being occupied by someone unexpected enough to evoke a verbal reaction.
"a- Annali...?"
His sleepy and coarse voice sounded extremely unfamiliar in his own ears, while at that moment Einer heard footsteps begin walking towards him.
A healer wearing a modest nurse's outfit, peeked around the curtains bordering the bed where Einer lay as she spoke, "Einer right? I'll go notify anyone who has been waiting for you to wake up, for now please rest and stay where you are, I will be back to perform a check-up as well."
She glanced down at the clipboard in her hands, her eyes widening slightly as she looked back towards him.
"It seems that there are HQ officials who wish to speak with you at the earliest convenience, so please be prepared for that as well."
The nurse walked off promptly without waiting for a reply.
Einer sunk back into his pillow as far as he could, his mind skimming over recent events in an attempt to make sense of the many things that had happened.
He flashed back to when the 'adventurer' had tripped next to him, and instantly remembered the odd sting he had experienced.
'That man... poisoned me? But why...'
Einer rifled through his memories in an attempt to place the man, but he didn't recognize him at all, if anything... it was his voice...
His voice?
'That's right. I've heard that voice before, pretty sure it was the guy who barely spoke back when the Geode Rank mage went off on me at the guild post.'
'But why would he be the one to attack me? Was he the mage guy's subordinate? That doesn't sound right at all just considering their interaction.'
The logical dead end his half-awake mind reached gave way to what he realized must have happened since he was alive.
'I was right!'
Einer's energy and alertness spiked upon realizing that his hunch had saved his life.
'I thought that since I might not be healed, ranking up might save me somehow, especially considering the miracles it worked on my body after I learned fireball!'
In his final breathes, Einer had asked Brad a question to which he got the follow response.
"An upgrade catalyst is any enhanced drop that is rarely received from the body of a monster. When system users die, there is a small chance for their life force to be focused into a single portion of their body. This renders the rest of the carcass completely useless, however the resulting material will be of an incredibly high quality. Typically these rare materials are used for weapon, armor, and other item creation, however a material of the appropriate rank can alternatively be utilized as an upgrade ca-"
At that moment Einer had cut him off with the gesture towards his travel pack, which he had begun to work up the strength for even as Brad finished the first sentence of his explanation.
Instead of feeling a sense of dread over what would have happened if he hadn't thought to ask, Einer felt rather pleased, and a small smirk rested on his face.
A smirk so infused with satisfaction that it virtually screamed, 'How's that for cheating death! ha!'
As he basked in the feeling of accomplishment, which arose from both his rank up and his pride in the quick thinking that had saved him, Einer laid eyes on the small blanket laden lump across from him once again.
Her words, her efforts, and the feeling of her trembling body as she exhausted the last possible dregs of mana and still kept trying all became clear in his mind after taking time to wake up more.
'I- I guess I really need to thank her... and maybe apologize too? I somehow ended up causing a lot of trouble for everyone...'
'Of course there's Jina and Brad too, I honestly owe them big time.'
Collecting himself, Einer pulled up the system interface to see what had changed.
-
[User: Einer]
[Rank: Geode]
[Level: 30]
[Stats: >]
[Skills: >]
[Passives: >]
[Unique: >]
-
Stats:
AP: 0 [+]
Force: 36 -Locked-
Agility: 36 -Locked-
Vitality: 36 -Locked-
Wisdom: 36 -Locked-
Sorcery: 166 -Enhanced-
-[Hidden Stats]-
-
'It looks like I got an extra 26 points in each stat... why 26?'
Einer looked thoughtful for a moment as he pondered the number's significance.
'Ah! 26 spread evenly over the five stats equals 130 extra AP total, which is exactly the number of AP I earned from level zero up to Geode Rank!'
'So it essentially doubles your progress all at once, but forces an even spread in order to create a baseline for those of each rank?'
'When fighting a Geode Ranker, you're be able to assume that they have at least 36 points for any given attribute.'
'It's kind of like the standardization granted to those learning a skill for the first time, which is insanely lucky on my part since my other stats would have never gone up otherwise.'
'Also I now know that the '-locked-' suffix just means that I can't place my AP into it, and there might even be other ways to increase my abilities...'
Einer moved on to check out anything else that might have changed.
-
Skills:
[Fireball: >]
-
Fireball has its own menu now?
Einer mentally tapped on the expand button and was stunned by what he saw
-
Fireball:
First Degree (Stone Rank): [Elemental Flame]
Second Degree (Geode Rank): [Tainted Flame]
-
'Is... Is this what the curse meant when it said [Fireball] would grow with me?'
Einer opened all of their descriptions at once.
-
["Fireball": Creates An Explosive Ball Of Flame]
["Elemental Flame": The Root Of Every Fire Element. Weak But Versatile, It Is The Very Core Of The Thermal Laws]
["Tainted Flame": A Second Generation Flame, Its Burning Capability Is Moderately Stronger Than Elemental Flame. It Also Promotes Various Symptoms Of Disease In Those It Burns]
-
'This is why higher ranked skills are better! I was wondering why stone rank skills were supposed to be lower than others when there's no limit on the energy you can put into them, but it turns out higher ranked skills give you more effects and power for each unit of energy used.'
-
Passives:
[Novice Sorcery]
-
Nothing new there.
-
Unique:
[Ultimate Minmax] -Curse-
-
Einer opened up the description of [Ultimate Minmax] in order to check if any locked traits had been unlocked.
-
["Ultimate Minmax":
- Locks All Stats Except For One
- Locks All Skill Slots Except For One
- Chosen Stat Can Not Be Changed
- Chosen Skill Can Not Be Changed
- x10 Multiplier Towards Chosen Stat's Effectivity
- Chosen Skill Will Evolve And Grow Along With The User
- x33.33~ To Modifier Learning Rate
Locked Traits...]
-
!!!
Einer's face was one of shock!
Until... he realized he still had no clue what modifiers even were.
'Weren't modifiers something I can learn for spell-type skills now that I have [Novice Sorcery]?'
-
["Novice Sorcery": Slightly Assists In Arcane Energy Control And Manipulation, Unlocks Modifier Learning For Spell Type Skills
Requirement: 100 Sorcery Points]
-
'Ah! That's right. I'll have to ask Brad or someone about how this works too.'
Mulling over his new acquisitions and how they would be useful, Einer patiently awaited whatever visitor he was meant to see