Chapter 11 - Chapter 10 - I resolve to survive

As I caught my breath and waited for my MP to recover, I floated slowly along the path drawn out in the map for floor 86. My close brush with death against those [Unbound Hellapes] left me far less anxious and nervous than I had expected.

Is it because of my [Resilience] skill, or is it because I already almost died against that [Hydra Wolf] back there?

Whatever the case was, it seemed as though my tolerance for being in near-death situations was going up. I briefly wondered if this was a good thing or not. On the one hand, it would mean that I could handle situations more calmly and stand a higher chance of survival no matter what situation I was facing. On the other hand, it would mean that I might end up putting myself in more and more danger since I was quickly losing my newfound fear of death. Regardless, however, the only path forward was more strength. The strength to protect myself, the strength to look death in the eye, and the strength to claim my own way of life for myself.

With that, I made a new resolution. I would fight any and every enemy without fail whom I had a good chance of beating. That would be the only way to hone my skills and decision-making to the level necessary for the kind of strength I was looking for. I needed to keep getting stronger, keeping levelling up, and keep gaining skills in order to make my own way in this labyrinth, so that I could leave it unscathed, and more importantly, eke out for myself a way of life in one of the surrounding nations.

For that, I would push myself to the brink of death each and every single time. Despite my own relatively flippant nature, there were things I would never budge on. In my previous life, it was the same. There were just some principles that I would never, ever, go against. My exterior may be made of fluff, but my interior would be made of steel. In this life, that steel would be made of my resolution to be strong enough to keep living.

-[WPR] has been increased by 10-

Hearing that, I laughed out loud. I guess solidifying that resolution was sufficient for the change to be measured by the , huh? Well, it didn't matter. There was something that I had been thinking about for a while now, and I decided to try and see if it would work. Retrieving the [Mana Core] that I had taken from the [Citrosian], I placed it next to my sword and designated both of them with [Area Cast], channeling mana into both of them and activating [Skill Management].

"[Refine]".

-Failure. Skill could not be created.-

"[Refine]".

-Failure.-

"[Refine]".

-Failure.-

"[Refine]".

-Failure.-

"[Refine]."

-Conditions have been met. [Refine] has been created. Due to high degree of similarity with [Weapon Refinery], both skills will be integrated. [Weapon Refinery] has been acquired.-

-Conditions have been met. [Skill Management] has levelled up from 1 to 2.-

Perfect. I lucked out, succeeding so quickly. I had expected to go at least four or five hours trying to make it work, but it seemed that the success rate for creating a skill was not as low as I had thought, especially if there was a high degree of overlapping with existing skills. However, the fact that it was a definitely surprised me. I had thought that it would be a . It was a toss-up between deciding whether to try [Enhance], [Enchant], or [Refine], as I had no idea which of the above would produce a result, and which of them were higher or lower order skills.

Now then...

"[Citrosian Edge]".

With my MP draining to almost 0, my newly refined weapon glowed the same shade of amethyst as my skin, and then stabilised. Instead of its original form of being a clearly monster-made weapon, it now boasted a a delicate-looking, double-edged blade. It was guardless and had a well-made handle, just right for gripping. The blade itself was black, patterned with purple streaks, a clear symbol of the [Mana Core] being integrated and the effect of being [Named] adding to its power.

[Citrosian Edge (C)]

[Refined Citrosian Tail]

[Ava Kino]

[Bladed Weapon]

[None]

[PWR: 45]

[MAG: 30]

[DUR: 220]

[Hack Lv.1] [Spatial Slash Lv.1]

Whew...[Naming] and [Refining] really bumped up its stats, huh? And its even got upgraded.

[Spatial Slash Lv.1]

{Skill Description: An upgraded version of [Slash] which integrates [Spatial Magic].

Skill Prerequisites: [Bladed Weapon], [Spatial Magic].

Skill Stats: Base Damage [PWR] + 0.3[MAG], Damage Scaling 0.5[PWR] + 0.1[MAG] - 0.8[DEF]; [DUR] consumption 0.5/cast.}

I looked over my skills and did some quick calculations on my damage output.

{Subskill: Spatial Rend} 109 DPS (without [RES])

{Subskill: Spatial Severance} 132 DPC (without [RES])

[Spatial Slash Lv.1] 229 DPC (without [DEF])

[Hack Lv.1] 179 DPC (without [DEF])

If I could last ten seconds against any monster with less than 1500 HP, I could probably kill it, depending on what their defensive stats were like. With my [Resilience], [Thought Acceleration], and [Quick Cast] skills, I could fire off twelve casts in quick succession, which would equate to six instances of damage, but I had to account for monsters having their own skills that could reduce damage, nullify damage, disrupt my casts, or counterattacking me in the same moment. For skills that did damage per cast (DPC), there seemed to be some kind of hidden cooldown, which would trigger once I had run through all of the casts that I was able to fire off in quick succession. Before my [Quick Cast] skill had levelled up, it was six casts, hence my triple [Spatial Severance] on the [Hydra Wolf], and now it would be twelve. I wasn't sure exactly how long the cooldown was, but I could not simply combo-chain skills endlessly. I would have to switch skills once the cooldowns were triggered. It was a big reason why I had taken such a severe beating against that [Hydra Wolf] that I had initially fought.

Furthermore, my had ridiculous damage output, but I would have to get into melee range of a monster to do it, and it would lock me in place for the time it took for the to complete. In other words, if I wanted to use a twelve-cast combo on one or both of my , I would have to use it as a finisher. It went a long way to prove just how much of a difference having weapons made in this world, especially [Named] [Refined] weapons. Their pre-loaded and bonus stats could really improve damage output to a ridiculous extent, especially at lower levels when my stats were still low and any buff was significant.

My battle plan was now confirmed. I would whittle away enemy health from a distance with my [Spatial Magic] while avoiding counterattacks, then quickly close the distance and finish it off with my .

Now, it was time to grind.