After his last move, Zarin jumped back as the SpiritSpirit fell to the ground, with its hands over its eyes. This time the scream of pain wasn't a high-pitched one as before but was closer to what would expect a big dude like that would sound like.
Zarin moved once more to make a distance between them and this time moved a bit further. He didn't know his foe's detection range, so he wanted to test it out. Before, he had kept a distance of close to five meters, but now he had doubled that.
The [Blindness] this time lasted a few seconds less than before, but it was still helpful for Zarin to create the desired distance between them. Once the condition ended on the SpiritSpirit, the SpiritSpirit looked around for Zarin.
It took it a little more time than before, but it found Zarin and once more charged toward him. But this time, its speed was slower, as it was carefully watching the ground.
Even with the SpiritSpirit moving at a slower speed, it was still faster than Zarin, meaning even if he ran away, it would still catch up to him. The Spirit wasn't interacting with the environment, so the branches and trees just ignored them by passing through them without needing to go around them.
Still, by the time the SpiritSpirit reached Zarin, he was ready for the next stage of the plan.
Zarin had his hand behind his back since he blinded his foe last time and was practicing his Spell's gestures. He also had entered and exited his Inner Place to keep his mind as clear as possible. He only needed to stay in it for just a couple of seconds, which in the real world wasn't even a second.
As the SpiritSpirit was ready to reach its melee range with Zarin, Zarin made the gestures once more and the chanting for [Burst of Frost], which was out of cooldown not that long ago.
As the ball of cold air formed at hand behind his hand, the SpiritSpirit didn't notice since it had its attention split between Zarin and the ground for any dice. Then, as the Spell was ready with a quick move, Zarin threw it at the SpiritSpirit.
Once the SpiritSpirit noticed the Spell coming towards him, it was too late, as it was too close to avoid it. However, Zarin was confident that even if the SpiritSpirit was moving faster than him in the forest, it didn't have more Agility than him; just it had the territorial advantage. So since his reflexes were faster, a sneak attack like that had a significant chance of success.
The Spell attack was successful, and the moves of the SpiritSpirit once more became slower. Quickly Zarin moved around the SpiritSpirit so that it didn't have a chance to attack him. As it reached its backside, he put his hand at the back of the SpiritSpirit as it finished casting [Wind Rocket].
The SpiritSpirit had no chance to avoid this attack since the effects of [Burst of Frost] reduced its reflexes. As the attack was successful and Zarin was ready to move away, the Spirit'sSpirit's form exploded, creating a wave of energy.
Zarin wasn't fast enough to avoid it, but he felt no different once it went through it, and he took no damage.
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You defeated SPIRIT - LVL 16
Reward: 2748 (1718+1030) Exps
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Congratulations! You reached level 11.
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Since the SpiritSpirit wasn't part of a Quest, he earned the exps from killing it immediately. However, when he defeated Oriel, he took no exps from that fight, even if he killed one of the guards. Therefore, the System included exp reward from that kill as the final reward of the Quest.
Of course, that didn't mean the all kills in a Quest would count at the final reward or would count the same as if he killed them outside the Quest, as there were other factors too on Quest kills.
As for him leveling up, he expected it since he killed a foe 6 levels over him. Typically the kill would give him 1718 exps, but he earned 1030 extra because of the level difference.
But the System gave those extra exps if there was a level difference of over 5 levels, meaning if Zarin killed another Lvl 16 Sprit now, he wouldn't get any extra exps.
Still, that many exps were quite a lot for him, even after reaching his class at its Basic State by reaching level 10.
He quickly opened his Status Window to see if there were any further changes.
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ZARIN (LVL 11 DICE MASTER)
Race: Human
Exp: 1256/1375
HP: 80/80
SP: 80/80
MP: 210/210
STATS
Power: 12
Agility: 19
Mind: 15
Defense: 15
Endurance: 16
Luck: 100
Unused stats points: 3
SKILLS
Dice Summoning (D-Rank - Lvl 42/100)
Dice Manipulation (D-Rank - Lvl 32/100)
Sword Mastery (D-Rank - Lvl 34/100)
Burst of Frost (C-Rank - Lvl 50/50)
Wind Rocket (C-Rank - Lvl 50/50)
Stealth (C-Rank - Lvl 6/50)
Mana Regeneration (C-Rank - Lvl 2/50)
Pickpocket (C-Rank 1/50)
Pain Tolerance (B-Rank - Lvl 1/20)
SPECIAL DICE
None
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Zarin was close to reaching level 12, meaning he should earn it at his next kill since most of the targets here would be level 16 or more. Even without making extra exps from them, since he needed to 5 levels lower than them, he probably could earn 1-2 more levels before needing to head back.
The fight didn't take long after all, and Eddie had found the next target of theirs already. After noticing that Zarin had no problem fighting that SpiritSpirit, he looked for another foe.
The next target was another Spirit, which was also Lvl 16, but it differed from the last one. It also looked like a male person but had a more petite build and looked skinny, like a person starved to death. The Spirits also had clothes made of the same energy as their body; with this one, they were full of holes and looked like a homeless person.
The punish-loop of this person was trying to catch a bird. Sometimes it actually touched the bird, but its hands went through it, and the bird just flew away quickly. But no long after one bird left, another appeared in front of the SpiritSpirit or even landed on its head.
Zarin easily defeated that SpiritSpirit by pursuing a similar plan as before. Still, this time he beat it with just the first casting of [Burst of Frost] and [Wind Rocket].
'Did I crit on both of them? '
Zarin noticed that both his attacks looked to be more effective than expected. Even if the Lvl difference was 5 instead of 6, there wouldn't be that much difference in the damage. But Zarin knew that if he made a sneak attack, there was a greater chance for his attack to be considered a Critical, which would cause double damage.
Another reason could be that even if both Spirits were level 16, it didn't mean they had the same exact stats. For example, one could have greater Defence than the other, meaning they could resist more or less of his damage.
Zarin was confident that the first SpiritSpirit had more Power and Agility than the second, probably because of the type of the punish-loop. Even if the second one's punish-loop could be considered training for improving reflexes, Zarin understood that the SpiritSpirit wasn't that good at it. The few times it touched the bird while he was watching it were mainly by accident.
As expected, this time, he earned 1718, with no extra exps, which was enough to make him reach Lvl 13.
Eddie had earned a few exps, but because of the level difference and because he didn't fight at all, his exp reward was much less. He needed 19562 exp to reach level 25, and those two fights didn't give him over 10 exps combined.
"We should head back for today. We shouldn't stay long while fighting, or we could draw the attention of some of the problematic ones. "
Zarin nodded and followed Eddie back to the camp. Even if he could probably earn one more level with the next fight, it was better to play it safe. He also needed to train his gestures and body control in Inner Place.
On the way back, they encountered Pretti, but she was in the middle of her eating punish-loop and didn't notice them. So they went around her as they both agreed that she didn't mean any danger to them, and especially Eddie looked like he had a hidden reason to keep her safe.
As they reached the camp, Eddie went to sleep, as his mind wasn't that good from spending all that time in the woods with almost no break. The potions also had side effects on somebody's bodies, so they couldn't keep drinking them like that.
Still, with enough sleep, he should be in top condition tomorrow.
As for Zarin, he focused on entering his Inner Place and training in it. So it would be an extra-long night.