Del's trip to the city could be summarized in a few short words: fight, move, sleep, repeat.
He had traversed the roads to the city for 3 days and nights already and had come across many a new opponent.
Dog-sized ants moving in herds, ravaging any arable land in their sights. Their perfectly synchronized movement gave them the appearance of one huge body mass slithering around the vast meadow; quite creepy was the description Del wrote in his Journal.
Del also encountered various mana-crazed humans, all different from the other by some disgusting mutation on their bodies. Some sported axes and pikes instead of limbs, others moved on all fours and their bodies excreted sizzling acids.
Finally, he had run into some more 'typical' monsters. The familiar plague hoppers appeared rarely but Delvin cut his way through fire foxes, rock-infused boars, gigantic squirrels and much more.
Del's goal of reaching the 10th level before arriving wasn't met but he did manage to score a plethora of other benefits which would help him in future endeavours. Namely, a few new techniques, some skill level ups and an achievement!
< Spear Mastery > (Rare, Tier 0)
…
Techniques: Lunge, Slash, Thrust, Swipe*
Lvl: 3/10
[Swipe]
Effect: Swipe at your enemies with the blunt end of your spear, dealing 'blunt' damage with a miniscule chance of disarming 'one-armed' or 'short' weapons
Cost: 10.4 Stamina
Cooldown: 10.4 seconds
Damage: 14
The effectiveness of this technique will rise as its parent skill grows in levels and tiers.
< Throw > (Tier 0, Uncommon)
Effect: Miniscule increase to damage done by throwing weapons(or ragged pants) Miniscule increase to ranged weapons accuracy and precision.
Cost: Stamina/Mana
Techniques: Javelin Throw*
Lvl: 6/10
[Javelin Throw]
Effect: +6 Damage to spear-type weapons when throwing them at enemies
Cost: 5 Stamina
Cooldown: 12 seconds
The effectiveness of this technique will rise as its parent skill grows in levels and tiers.
---
Del noticed the disparity between uncommon and rare skills during the second day on the road when he experimented with the Throw, Sprint and Improvise skills after unlocking the Javelin Throw technique.
He would locate a slow moving monster like a melee mutated human (Del's way of calling the mana-crazed humans) and bombard it with rocks and pebbles whilst running circles around the dumbfounded monster. He would finish the fight by executing Javelin Throw after either he or the monster started running low on Stamina.
This meant he was grinding three skills simultaneously and he managed to sky-rocket his levels in the associated skills. But the small damage increase the Throw skill received paled in comparison to the utility and sheer numbers of the Spear Mastery techniques.
Del's most used moves like Thrust and Slash got +2 Damage for every level up and their costs were slightly lowered; this was offset by increasing their cooldowns slightly but Delvin never needed more than a single rotation of his Spear Mastery techniques to finish a fight. (A rotation is a gaming term for a single cycle of using your skills within their given cooldown duration, Del's rotation time is around 10 seconds because his main techniques all share the same cooldown.)
The only positive things going for the Throw skill were having half the cooldown of his spear techniques and a barely-higher efficiency rate.
The third day was mainly reserved for grinding his Spear skill and the amount of time he put in was greater than that for the Throw skill but Spear Mastery only grew by three levels. He also didn't forget how he used Spear Mastery during his first hunting session on the day he arrived on Earth and even after all that the Throw skill was still a whole 2 levels higher!
Talk about inequality in levelling standards…
But the achievement Del got made up for the frustration he had when realizing how long it'll take to increase his other skills like language adaptation and Half-Android Physique.
[ACHIEVEMENTS]
Explorer I
- Accomplished by 25 safe zones by yourself during the first month of the Awakening. Only those brave enough to venture out and seek the unknown should be referred to as 'Explorers'.
-All zone-bound or area-bound buffing effects are increased by 10% in all parameters. Reserved for zones or areas you have claimed.
…
…
Locate 100 safe zones within the first month of the Awakening to upgrade this Achievement. (38/100)
---
This 10% boost affected both the actual effect of a safe zone's buff and the time required to receive it. This resulted in shorter pauses for Del whenever he stumbled upon a new safe zone.
Regarding the zones, they were all a sad-excuse for a 'safe' zone as each and every one of them was a dark and damp cave so Delvin never bothered to scour them for potential resources. He did stick around long enough for the boost of the zone to activate though.
Some took a few seconds to activate and were nigh useless in their effects (one increased his mana by a single point for 30 seconds…) and others were powerful improvements to Del's strength like increasing damage to all creatures by 15% until he rested or increasing defence by 2 times for a full hour.
It should be noted Delvin also moved during the night despite so-called 'changes' occurring during nighttime. He had re-read the introductory messages and realized their author played a sickening joke on the earthling.
Those 'changes' weren't specified or expanded upon like other segments of the text and one could debate that changes occurred constantly after the Wave crashed, both during the day and during the night.
Del figured the author just wanted to keep the earthlings from being activate in the first few nights of the Awakening, which would in turn stop them from growing stronger by limiting their possibilities of slaying monsters or finding other survivors.
'There must be a reason as to why he wanted to weaken the general populace… maybe he wants to rule Earth or enslave the people. I'll write my findings down after dealing with this muck.' In front of him was a familiar foe, an archer-type mutated human. This one more skeletal then the ones he faced so far with only half of its left leg.
'Inspect' Del called his most-used skill which after many level ups took fewer time to activate and would now display additional information.
[Mana-crazed Human] (Common)
Level: 3
HP: 16/19
Highest stats: AGI (8), WIS (9)
When the skill reached level 5 it revealed an enemies highest stat and at level 8 their second highest stat. The levels in between lowered Inspects' activation time and the field of vision required for the skill to register, i.e. Delvin could successfully execute Inspect even whilst not directly looking at his target.
"You are level 3 my guy, this was a mistake!" Del said and activated sprint and lunge before disappearing from his position.
…
[You have received 0.6% exp]
[Congratulations! You have reached Level 9!]
[Throw has levelled up]
[Sprint has levelled up]
"You mutants always attack me despite being 2,3 levels down; even a full five level gap doesn't dissuade you from acting… I guess killing your kind is the merciful thing to do." The fight was over almost instantly, Del's inflated agility made sure of that.
"Level 9 eh? This was reserved for my health stats but damn is it hard to not bump up my AGI. Aah fine! System add two SP to endurance and vitality and one to agility." Looking at his status tab, Delvin was feeling embarrassed by his distribution of power.
Name: Delvin Mayes
Age: ???
Race: Half-Human (Android)
Title: Death defiant
Trait(s): Neo(???), Comprehensive Analysis(???)
Level: 9 (0/100%)
Class: -/-
Subclass: -/-
Health: 98/98
Mana: 73/73 [+20]
Stamina: 98/98
Stats: 5 Unspent SP
STR: 12 [+5]
AGI: 27
VIT: 12 [+2]
END: 12 [+2]
INT: 13 (-5)
WIS: 8 (-5) [+5]
PER: 14
LCK: N/A
Del added all of his SP into agility when he hit level 6 and 7; and spared a single point for it when he hit level 8, the rest went to perception.
Because of this aggressive distribution of SP Delvin felt he was lacking in defensive stats so he strengthened his vitality and endurance. But a single point was still reserved for agility as Delvin's speed and reflexes were still his bread and butter.
"I'm not touching INT or WIS until Meri comes back, the weakened mana core is simply too detrimental to my current potential as a mage. In light of this, my next status points will be on some combination of STR and AGI." Delvin had theorycrafted certain workings of the system and decided to not touch any mana related stats until his debuff was removed.
"On the other hand, this looks quite respectable." He said joyously when browsing the Skills tab.
Passive: Neo (???), Android Physique (E, Tier 0), Collect Herb (C, Tier 0), Improvise (U, Tier 0)
Active: Inspect (C, Tier 0) Dodge (U, Tier 0), Sprint (U, Tier 0)
Auxiliary: Language Adaptation (R, Tier 0), Spear Mastery I (R, Tier 0), Throw (U, Tier 0)
Since arriving on Earth, Delvin's skill repertoire has expanded significantly and he was also expecting arrivals of new skills due to his actions during the journey. 'Neo is still a mystery, and the Traits still aren't Inspectable. There are plenty of things not to feel joyous about. Focus Delvin!'
His path continued onwards, bringing the city's skyline ever so closer. After a scant few encounters after the archer mutant, Delvin found himself looking at the first signs of civilization.
An overgrown and rusted sign that is.
{ Wel…. .o .h. ..ty. ….gp…}
"Can barely read any letters let alone the name of the city or district. As if the sign experienced decades of rusting and neglect… mana sure is strange." Del looked beyond the sign where a foreboding sight awaited him.
A cracked and splintered road populated by wreckages of empty vehicles. Occasional vines snaking through their interiors, creating a web of plant and metal which Del was going to have to traverse if he wanted to reach the city proper.
"The day is running late," He glanced at the time on his system [9:05 PM]. "I'll head to the nearest safe zone and cross the vined road tomorrow." A marker was beeping on his Map, some 800 meters from the road's beginning.
Del entered the zone and made his now-typical sleeping setup which kept him safe so far, a fancy bed to bait potential assailants while he hid in a dark corner and counter-attacked.
Delvin slept soundly and without worry as he steeled himself for what might await him tomorrow.