Due to the limited visibility from the light stone and cloud covered moon the group was not able to travel as quickly as they could in daylight with the trip taking them two hours to reach the top of the ridge overlooking Haligrad that was now illuminated by the torches and lanterns lining the streets.
In this time travelling Astaria updated her status page with all of the new gains she received over the time she was fighting the boss.
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[Astaria]
Age: 20
Gender: Female
Race: ???
Class: Mage
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HP: 690/690
MP: 890/890.
Fatigue: 74%
Hunger: 62%
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Lv: 24 - 98.6%
Skill Points: 10/450 - 32%
Attribute Points: 0
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[Attributes]
VIT: 69
STA: 24
DEF: 34 (+1)
STR: 34 (+4)
AGI: 54 (+8)
DEX: 24
INT: 69 (+20)
WIS: 101 (+34)
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[Equipment]
Enchanted Mastercraft Steel Staff [Rare+]
(34 ATK) (WIS+10, INT+10)
Enchanted Mastercraft Steel Short Sword [Rare+]
(52 ATK) (WIS +15) (Sharpness+)
Frilled Blouse [Rare]
(WIS+4, INT+3)
Steel Bracers [Rare]
(WIS+5, STR+4)
Skinny Leather Trousers [Rare]
(AGI+4, INT+3)
Steel Plated Leather Boots [Rare]
(INT+5, AGI+4)
Black Hooded Ornate Robe [Rare]
(INT +2) (DEF +1)
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Charisma: 10
Luck: 550
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Karma: 100,000
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[Skills]
Staff Lv 2
Short-sword Lv 2
Magic Arrow Lv 2
Fireball Lv 3
--- Blast Lv1
Lightning Lv 4
--- Residual Burst Lv 2
Earth Spike Lv 4
Freeze Lv 3
--- Lingering Frost Lv 1
Frozen Burst Lv 1
Chain Lightning Lv 1
Mana Barrier Lv 1
Teleport Lv 1
Evasion Lv 4
Mana Heart Lv 2
Casting Lv 3
Vitality Boost Lv 3
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[Unique Titles]
-Raids Harbinger-
-Raid Pioneer-
-Slayer of Square Jaw-
-Stalwart Warrior-
-The First Player-
[Common Titles]
(+ To Expand)
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Initially Astaria had gained 8 attribute points in every stat from the 8 levels she had gained during the boss fight as well as 50 free attribute points from, 5 gained per level and 10 from receiving titles during the boss fight.
Applying her additional attributes, Astaria puts 20 points into AGI and INT and 10 into WIS causing her innate WIS to surpass triple figures and nearly reach 1/10th of what she had prior to going back in time.
With her attribute points now applied, Astaria moves onto using her skill points that had increased by 41 now that she had levelled up and unlocked more skills.
Skill unlocks in Caelus online follows a set structure. From levels 1 to 15, a player can only unlock basic skills that act as an introduction to the class. From Lv 15 to 35 players start to unlock both the classes core and intermediate skills.
The core skills are skills that are integral to the class and how it is used, being utilised no matter how far a player develops.
The intermediate skills are skills that can be considered to be innately stronger than the basic skills unlocked prior, with the ability to output higher damage. Until a player unlocks the absolute versions of the skills which brings them all to the same level, intermediate skills will always be stronger and thus more valuable.
From Lv 35 to 75 a player will unlock advanced skills, the pinnacle of what their class is capable of prior to awakening.
Astaria finally starts to unlock some of the important magic skills that differentiate the mage class from others, making her excitement rise as she can finally start to incorporate some of the main elements of her fighting style.
First Astaria upgrades [Lightning], [Residual Burst], [Earth Spike], [Evasion], [Casting], and [Vitality Boost] all by 1 level.
Of the new skills Astaria now has access to, she unlocks the [Magic Barrier] skill which creates a small magical bubble attached her body. When active, the magic barrier will absorb damage and reduce the casters mana by an equivalent amount. This is the source of defence for mages which can act as both a blessing and a curse since it quickly drains mana that is hard to replenish at early levels.
The next thing Astaria unlocks is the [Chain Lightning] is a skill that launches a single bolt of lightning from the caster that once it hits enemy, subsequent lightning bolts will jump to all other targets within a 2-metre radius. Increasing its level will increase its damage and range.
[Frost Burst], like [Chain Lightning], is an intermediate skill that creates a 2-metre burst of frost around the caster. Anyone caught with the skills range has a chance to be frozen and will take a small amount of damage. The skill exceeds in close range crowd control.
Lastly, Astaria acquires the [Teleport} skill. This skill may seem quite overpowered at a first glance; however, despite its major limitations it is the single skill that keeps a mage alive. The mage class is generally quite weak physically with low defensive stats. Due to this, if an enemy manages to hit them, the mage will usually take high amounts of damage.
As such, the mage class has its unique movement skill, [Teleport], which allows the mage to instantly teleport to a location 12 metres away within view of where caster is standing. It has a 20 second cool-down at its base level but allows a mage to keep some distance while fight before getting hit with something that restricts their movement and quickly killed.
Quite happy that her current status has grown much faster than she first predicted, Astaria lets out a contended sigh relaxing in the feelings of success that the days achievements had brought.
Returning her attention back to what's around her, Astaria could see that they had arrived at the top of the ridge overlooking Haligrad that was now illuminated in the night-time torches and lanterns lightning its streets. Looking closely, Astaria could see that the front gate of Halliard looked quite busy with more light sources than usual, somewhat surprising her.
Thinking more deeply about what she could see, the oddities start to make sense as her recent appearances in the server announcements came to mind. This is likely a mix of casual players interested in who I am as well as players with less than respectable plans.
Letting out a sigh that she will have to deal with other players, Astaria calls to the other group members.
"Looks like there might be some trouble at the main gate. Roxanne, since you are currently the weakest in group battles, can I leave you hold back and watch over the horses?"
Looking slightly dejected under the glow from the light stone, Roxanne muttered her agreement before Astaria continues issuing instructions.
"Russel, Tyrell, Ash. You guys stay on standby nearby. Follow me close then stay on standby until I need you. If you do engage in combat, stay grouped and focus on staying alive."
Hearing their solemn words of agreement Astaria looks at Ben.
"Ben, I want you to stay with Roxanne in case, but be ready to intervene if the others need it."
With a wave of his hand, Ben responds slightly amused.
"You got it. Although I must say you have quite an evil smile on right now, who do you think it is waiting for us?"
With a chuckle Astaria looks back at ben with her menacing grin.
"Well, there are a number of groups it could be, but honestly, if anyone decides to act like I am expecting, it doesn't matter who they are. I assume they will demand us to give them something, likely the purple equipment, just because they have some inflated egos with some false sense of power. Trash like them are all the same and deserve to be handled like the waste they are."
As the glow from the light stone in Astaria's hand gets closer, the excitement of players outside the gates grows as the anticipation of Astaria being one of the approaching people exploded.
Now that the group is at a decent distance away from the main gates, they all dismount and walk the final stretch to the city gates. As the crowd becomes visible, Astaria could easily discern over 150 players all in front of the gates. From what Astaria could see, there seemed to be one particularly dominant group gathered directly in front, while a number of other players kept the crowd at a distance.
Casually walking forward, Astaria noticed one man from the group walking towards her, so she gestures to her friends to stay where they are while she walks closer. After a few steps, Astaria puts the Light stone away that was hiding everyone in her group from sight from behind its glow, making it so the onlookers could only see her from the illumination of their torches.
As she got closer, the player that was walking towards her slightly hesitates seeing the blood soaked girl with her hood up. After a moment of hesitation, he continues towards her. As Astaria and the unknown player stop a few metres apart from each other, the player immediately speaks first, his voice filled with confidence and a hint of arrogance.
"Stop, are you the player that is known as the Bloody Maiden? What is your player name? It is not appearing."
With a tinge of annoyance and distain in her voice, Astaria retorts.
"Who are you to ask me to reveal my identity?
Hearing Astaria's unfavourable response, the player grips the hilt of his sword as his brows furrow deeper.
"I am an officer of the Iron Fist guild. You will obey my instructions. Remove your hood. If not, we shall assume you are the player named Astaria. If you do not hand over the items you recently acquired, we will use force."
Letting out a malicious laugh, Astaria looks the man in directly in the eyes with a gaze holding absolute hostility.
"You think some pathetic, low levelled, egotistical little shit like you has the right to go around demanding players obey you?"
Quickly going to her settings and disabling the options that hide a players name if 95% of their body is covered, and making her level visible, she continue to speak.
"If you and your lousy group of goons do not get out of my way in the next 10 seconds, I will slaughter every last one of you. And if you ever try something like this again, to myself or any other player, I will have no complaints in spending days slowly chopping off every one of your members limbs every time any of you respawn."
Taking a step back from the demonic sounding voice filled with disgust and hatred, the player was able to notice that Astaria's name and level appeared. Unsure of what to do seeing the near unbelievable number of 24, the player decides to stand firm knowing he has the support of his guild and turns around to shout at the players behind him.
"Its Astaria! She is hosti-"