Verm was standing in front of his desk, he was just a few meters away from TV screens as big as an entire wall. His fists were clenched tightly.
"YESS!" he yelled as the young man on the monitor took one of his arrows from the chest of the statue while utilizing his movement skill to dodge the attack of the enemies.
When Verm saw as both of them gave up, he was very disappointed.
He knew that the challenge was hard, but it was not impossible, even though it was too soon for them to clear it, he still had hope.
But then he heard the young man yell, he stood up as if the yell was directed at him. He never expected such a young man to have an outrageous voice.
Then a system noticed on another monitor warned him about certain news - [Player Ikky has selected
At that moment Verm screamed with enthusiasm, when Hana saw her boss acting like this, she knew it was time to leave the room as he would soon forget that she was present anyway.
'There gonna be more overtime soon,' she thought as she closed doors behind her.
Verm didn't even notice Hana leaving, instead screaming again when the young man on the monitor took hit by two statues at once.
***
Ikky was blown away by several meters, losing around one-third of his HP, that's how strong the direct hit from two statues was.
When he finally got on his feet, it was already too late as the remaining five statues arrived in front of him.
"..." Ikky could use his Two-step fly and dodge them, as the skill cooldown already finished its cooldown, but somehow he didn't feel like it. He just wanted to stay and not move at all, he just wanted to end this hell.
"Don't you dare to give up now!" Lyra yelled to wake him up.
Ikky turned his head away from incoming swords and looked at her, she was sprinting towards him as fast as she could, but from that distance, there was no way she would reach him in time. End even if she did, how would she help his mental exhaustion?
Five swords were just a few inches away when they got buried in light.
"Summon Holy Spirit!" Lyra summoned her spirit once she got in a perfect range. The position of the spirit was exactly between Ikky and the statues.
Ikky was blown away once again, losing another third of his HP just from the shock wave. Five direct hits were more than enough to destroy the Holy Spirit, as it was hit it depleted all of the Lyras's mana, along with some of her HP as her MP was not enough to support the current consumption.
Ikky didn't even try to get up, he didn't want to. Extremely tired it was time to give up completely and wait for the end, but then he noticed two arrows sticking out from the ground, right in front of his eyes.
'How did they get there?' his thoughts were very slow, then a memory of a spirit holding two arrows flashed in his mind. The exact two arrows Lyra previously had in her hand, she somehow managed to hand those arrows to the Spirit, before it appeared in front of him.
Ikky looked at those arrows, with a pitying look. They followed him all the way here, through both labyrinths and endless waves of statues, and they survived, and they still were willing to fight.
But then what about him? Ikky was just lying on the floor, waiting for the enemy to finish him off.
A very strange feeling was born in his core. Statues continued to run toward him not caring about anything.
Ikky got angry, why does he need to suffer from those stones?! Why did he have to fall into the Underground labyrinth, why had he failed to save the seller's family... At that time, out of nowhere, all of the pain, hate, and emotions left him. He was once again calm, calm as a lake.
Ikky slowly stood up, statues approaching rapidly. He picked up the arrows and took a stance.
Lyra was watching this from several meters distance, this guy's aura was changing constantly, from tiredness to hope, from hope to despair, from despair to incomprehensible calmness, she no longer understood him.
Ikky looked at the statues and whispered.
"Guided arrow~.., Multishot~..." Four statues got destroyed.
'0 arrows left'
Ikky stood and waited, not moving a single muscle as if he was a statue himself. The remaining three statues charged at him when they got just one meter away, Ikky used his Two-step fly and jumped behind them.
He landed on the exact spot where the previous four statues died, reduced to debris and dust. Picking up 4 arrows and without any delay, he shot them at the remaining statues.
"Poison arrow~.., Chilling arrow~.., Guided arrow~...," his words were soft, Lyra could barely hear them.
'Normal attack,' ~Shoot~ Ikky shot his last arrow at the statue which received a Guided arrow, destroying it with this second hit.
The statue which was hit by a Poison attack was destroyed before the last arrow left his Bow.
The last remaining statue was running toward Ikky at a slowed speed, ice embracing its legs.
Ikky simply unequipped his bow and equipped his daggers. When Lyra saw it she yelped, there were several arrows around why did he give up on them?!
But Ikky didn't care, he waited and waited. When the statue reached him, he evaded and attacked its weak point on the back, then again and again.
His attacks were rustless, if the target was a living being, there would be blood everywhere, instead, a cloud of dust was visible after each attack.
The last statue had fallen, or to be more precise it was destroyed completely.
Lyra sighed in relief, looking at the remaining standing statues, there were still plenty left. Even though twenty statues could be considered a low number a few hours ago, now with no mana, half HP and their exhaustion, it was hard to imagine their success...
***
Lyra picked up all remaining arrows, there was a total of 12 of them, the rest got destroyed. She arrived in front of Ikky and wanted to say something, but she noticed that even though she was standing in front of him, he wasn't looking at her at all. It was as if she was just air.
Ikky looked at the remaining system messages, the ones he couldn't read because the statues moved and he didn't have enough time as he had to fight with them.
'You must be fucking kidding me,..' he cursed in his mind as he continued to read the rest of the messages.
[Congratulation to a player for achieving a Unique classpath.]
[Mystical Bowsman is a classpath oriented around magic, it utilizes mana to produce unique abilities used with a Bow.]
[You have unlocked new Passive and Active skills.]
[Mystical Bowsman: Passives]
-Gain 2 MP every time you hit an enemy with your attack, double this effect when a Critical hit or Weakpoin hit is landed.
------------------------------------------------
-Increase maximum mana gain from the Intellect 2->3 MP per Intellect point.
------------------------------------------------
-Change the influence of strength on the damage dealt by the bow with the amplified effect of Intellect (Strength stat effect 50%->25%) & (Intellect stat effect 0%->50%)
------------------------------------------------
-(Currently locked)
-(Currently locked)
______________________________________________
[Mystical Bowsman: Active skills]
-Create a magical arrow from the mana. Arrow deals additional 10% damage.
-Skill costs 3 MP to cast, but returns 2 MP if hits the target.
-Usable with other skills.
-Cooldown: None
------------------------------------------------
-Burn 35% of your total mana to enter a trance-like state for 12 seconds.
-During this state your skills cost no mana.
-Cooldown: 10 minutes (if used under 50% mana in pool, cooldown: 1 hour)
------------------------------------------------
Ikky looked dumbfounded at those passive and active skills, cursing himself for somehow not reading them ahead of the fight.
The passive skills explained why he was able to shoot so many skills, even with their mana cost, since his Intellect stat gave him extra 16 mana and he also regenerated some mana every time he hit the target.
Especially with the Multishot and Guided arrow, even though it costs 25 mana since all five arrows hit the target, he would get 10 MP back.
That was a crazily overpowered Passive skill, but even more overwhelming was skill
It needs to be understood, that Ikky previously had 18 Strength, if only half of it was used to boost his Range damage it would be 9 stats. This passive reduced it even further, to only half of that, but in exchange, he gained half of his Intellect as a boost.
Since Ikky currently had 31 Intellect, which was higher than his Agility, then even if only 50% of that stat was applied, it was much higher than the Strength lost. The summary of previous stats, which boosted his Range damage was 36, but now that number was 48, and it would continue to grow with every stat in Intellect or Strength. The Agility boost was guaranteed.
"Here, your arrows," said Lyra in a hurried voice as she saw new ten statues beginning to move.
Ikky looked at the arrows, then at the states. From the shock he received by reading his new skills, he didn't notice the rumbling indicating the start of the next wave.
"I don't need them anymore,' He refused them with a bright smile, which dumbfounded her once again.
Ikky took his drawing stance, but there was no Arrow loaded in the bow.
'Did he turn into an idiot?' she thoughts, then her eyes became bigger and bigger as she was opening them in shock.
An arrow started to take form in his bow, and not only one, but five arrows were made from shining blue sparks which indicated mana.
'Mana arrow, Guided arrow, Multishot,' Ikky whispered in his mind.
~Shoot~ Five magical arrows left his bow and approached statues in unbelievable speed.
***
A/Notice: I don't know if I will be able to release a chapter tomorrow, since I'm whole day out from the home. I will try to write it today, but no promises. Look forward to Monday. Thanks.