I ran like the wind, not caring how long it took me to reach the object in the distance. I estimated it was a few miles away but the distance wasn't an issue. As I got closer, more of its details became apparent. It was a large pair of pitch-black doors that faced toward Havenbrook and had a slight sheen.
Once I finally stepped below the doors, I was out of breath and had a severe cramp in my side. But this didn't stop my excitement at all. I gazed up at the doors that seemed to lead to nowhere and traced my eyes along the engravings around the frame. The intricate details etched onto the door looked like twisting tendrils that encompassed the edges.
I took several deep breaths and raised my hands to the doors to push them open, which led to another system message.
[Player Perseus has been granted access.]
The dark-as-night doors began to slowly open without needing me to push them. I waited until the entrance completely revealed a dim passage of dark stone lined with blazing torches. I nervously swallowed, aware that what I was going through was unprecedented and anything could be behind these doors.
Without hesitation, I stepped through the entry into the cold and damp passage. The doors behind me closed with a soft thud which echoed down the passage for several seconds. Before I could take another step, the system's voice rang out in my head.
[Player Perseus' status has been updated.]
The message nearly made my eyes fall out of my head. This is it! I've been waiting for this for years!
I quickly brought up my status and looked through each section as well as the new ones that appeared.
— — —
{Name} — Percy Anderson
{Alias} — Perseus
{Race} — Human
{Class} — Drifter (NEW)
{Inherent Skills} — [Unbound (NEW): No class restrictions and double the free stats gained upon leveling up.]
{Loadout} — [Drifter's Weapon (NEW): The main weapon of a Drifter that scales to the user's level as they become stronger. Able to merge with other weapons and materials to take on different characteristics.]
{Active Skills} — None
{Passive Skills} — None
Status:
{Level} — 1
{EXP} — 0%
{HP: 10/10} {Mana: 0 PTS}
{Strength: 1} {Agility: 1}
{Vitality: 1} {Dexterity: 1}
{Stamina: 1} {Intelligence: 1}
— — —
Tears nearly fell from my eyes at the new character information.
"Drifter?" I asked as my gaze returned to my class. "I've never seen this class before. Maybe it's a unique class?"
My gaze then turned to my new inherent skill and loadout. "This [Unbound] skill is amazing! I can specialize in whatever I want and with double the free stats for every level, I can probably specialize in different things at the same time."
I began to think of every possibility for my stats but quickly left it for later when I got them. Next, I focused on the new weapon in my loadout. "A class-specific weapon? I also have never heard of something like this. Usually, weapons are either received from tower loot or forged on the higher sections in Path to Power."
I thought about bringing out my [Drifter's Weapon] and instantly, a normal-looking silver longsword about a meter long appeared in my hand. The blade had an unnatural reflective coating that seemed almost glowing. The hilt was black and the guard was rhombus-shaped with the same twisting tendrils that were outside on the double doors that led into this passage.
"Woah," I said in awe as I waved around the sword. The blade reflected the torchlight around me and gave the feeling it could cut anything on the same level as itself.
Once I finished admiring my new sword, I focused on the dark passage ahead of me with vigilance.
'If it gave me a weapon upon entering, then I must have to fight something.'
The silence of the passage caused my heartbeat to seem even louder than before. I firmly gripped the hilt of my longsword and began to take cautious steps ahead.
I couldn't make out an end to the passage despite the torches lining the wall, so every step felt like a repeat of the last. After several minutes of walking, my chest clenched in anticipation when I finally saw a door flanked by two knights with black armor and longswords.
Once about 20 feet from the two obstacles, I noticed that the armor was empty on the inside. But this didn't ease my worries because when does an empty armor ever mean it won't move?
Expecting that this would be my first fight within Path to Power after five years, I steeled my resolve and in a fighting stance, approached the two knights. As soon as I stepped within range, glowing blue eyes appeared in the helmets of the guards, and creaks of metal rang out in the hall as they moved to respond to me.
*SWOOSH*
I quickly leaned backward just as a longsword passed in front of me with immense power.
'What the hell? These guys are strong!'
The sword passed me and struck the stone walls of the narrow passage, creating a flurry of sparks. As the first knight missed, the second one attacked in response to my dodge, thrusting his sword toward my chest.
Pure instinct enabled me to deflect its attack, changing its trajectory and barely clipping my shoulder.
"Shit!" I yelled in pain.
Even though the pain was reduced in Path to Power, getting my shoulder sliced open still hurt like hell.
Now that the closest knight was off balance from his deflected attack, I quickly swung my sword with all the strength I had towards its neck.
*CLANG*
What surprised me wasn't that my attack hit but the sharpness of my Drifter's Weapon. The black armor that encased whatever was inside was cut through like butter and the helmet flew off its body. After being cleanly decapitated, the knight fell to its knees and then to the ground, completely motionless.
But before I could celebrate my victory, the other black knight had recovered from its near miss earlier and again swung toward my head.
"Oh, no you don't!"
*CLANG*
I put my sword vertically in front of me and blocked the attack. The strength behind the sword was incredible and nearly sent me off my feet, but I barely managed to take a few steps back and rebalance myself to intercept the next attack.
Due to the heavy armor they wore, the knights weren't that fast, so preparing for their attacks wasn't too difficult. What made them formidable for a newbie like me was their strength, which was at least 5 times more powerful than mine. If I continued to keep getting pummeled, the strength in my arms would die and I wouldn't be able to fight back. So, before the knight could initiate its next attack, I ran toward it with my sword raised.
*SWOOSH*
I quickly ducked under its horizontal slash and rose to kick it in the chest. Knocked off balance by both its missed attack and my kick, it couldn't respond to my next attack.
*SLICE*
The knight's black armored arm holding its sword fell to the ground after I cleanly severed it. I clenched my muscles and prepared for my next and last attack.
"Not so tough now, are you?"
*CLANG*
With a horizontal slash, my blade cleanly decapitated the knight, effectively ending its life the same way as its twin. Its body dropped to the stone floor with a loud bang, signaling my victory.
I gazed at the dead armored knights below me with a solemn expression. If they weren't that slow, then I would have definitely died here. But thanks to their low speed and the sharpness of my new sword, they weren't too difficult to take down.
[Player Perseus has leveled up 3 times to level 4 upon the defeat of two level 5 dark knights!]
Once I got the notification of my level up, I quickly opened my status panel to see my gains.
— — —
Status:
{Level} — 4
{EXP} — 11%
{HP: 23/25} {Mana: 0 PTS}
{Strength: 1} {Agility: 1}
{Vitality: 1} {Dexterity: 1}
{Stamina: 1} {Intelligence: 1}
(6 X 2 = 12 free stat points)
— — —
12 attribute points! My Unbound skill is too OP!
I also noticed that my health points increased and assumed that with each level up, you receive 5 points without changing your vitality stat. As for what I wanted to use my free points for, I knew intelligence wasn't very beneficial to me right now and vitality didn't need too many points.
After I spent all my free stat points, my new stats looked like this:
— — —
{HP: 33/35} {Mana: 0 PTS}
{Strength: 4} {Agility: 4}
{Vitality: 2} {Dexterity: 4}
{Stamina: 3} {Intelligence: 1}
(0 free stat points)
— — —
Instantly, I felt my body improve several folds enough to where I could take down those dark knights in just a few seconds. My stats were comparable to a level 7 or 8 player now so level 5 dark knights would be easy to kill.
I took several deep breaths to calm the raging adrenaline from my fight and new gains. While relaxing another system message rang out in my head.
[Material and weapons detected around player Perseus. Would you like your Drifter's Weapon to absorb them?]
My calm mentality instantly shattered with excitement. "Yes!"
The silver longsword in my hand left my grip and floated above the broken bodies of the two knights and started to glow.
[Fusion process initiated. Estimated completion time: 00:01:00]
The metal armor of the knights as well as their weapons began to morph like melted steel and convulged on my sword. After a minute, the fusion process was completed and a completely different sword floated back to my hands.
[Drifter's Weapon has completed fusion with two dark knights. Check your system panel for more information.]
I did as the voice said and checked the new sword's information with joy. The gains just didn't stop!
— — —
{Loadout} — [Drifter's Weapon: +1 Strength | +2 Stamina | -25% damage from Dark Mana attacks/debuffs]
— — —
With the buffs from the Drifter's Weapon, my Strength and Stamina were both 5 points, leading me to feel another boost in power.
"Ah… I love this sensation," I said in relief once I felt more power enter my body. "I might get addicted to this."
The new fused longsword was completely black and had lost its reflective blade but kept the same hilt, making it look like the sword of an evil knight. A longsword wasn't my preferred sword of choice, but I'm sure I would be able to get others in the future. For now, though, this was more than enough already.
"Alright, now for the next part," I said as I glanced at the door the two knights were guarding.
It was a more normal medieval door with mahogany wood and a barred window on the top half. Even though I now had a class and could return to Havenbrook to enter the tower, I still wanted to explore everything this place had to offer because finding something unique to you in Path to Power was very rare, and anyone who did make it very far.
"Let's do this."
I couldn't help but feel confident due to my bolstered stats and impressive weapon. I slowly opened the passage door with a loud creak and walked through to see something very bizarre.
"Isn't this a dungeon tower?"