Looking at the new additions to my character, my mouth was agape.
— — —
{Inherent Skills} —
[Unbound]
[Skill Spree (NEW): No restrictions on skill slots. Allows the user to extract a random skill from a defeated enemy (includes inherent skills, learned skills, and bloodline traits).
{Loudout} —
[Drifter's Weapon]
[Drifter's Armor (NEW): The main armor of a Drifter that scales to the user's strength as they become stronger. Able to merge with other armors or materials to take on different characteristics.]
— — —
I don't think I need to keep repeating myself, but I'll say it one final time. I'm borderline cheating at this point.
If people find out that not only do I have no class restrictions and double the free stat points but I also have unlimited skill slots and the ability to steal skills, then they will eat me alive. These days, people only care about their character in Path to Power, so if anyone knows about my advantages, I might get kidnapped or something.
Just thinking about what people would do to get their hands on my skills sent a chill down my spine. From now on, I needed to keep my abilities to myself and play solo, or else mayhem will soon follow.
After that realization, I put it in the back of my mind and focused on the next words of the system.
[Searching for suitable Path Level advancement…]
Path Levels were the different sections throughout the game that got more diverse and larger in scale as you advanced in Path to Power. Not to mention everything became stronger and more difficult to fight. The recent news of the highest Path Level reached was that every monster had the same intelligence as a normal person and the highest level players were nowhere near reaching the next Path Level.
[Due to Player Perseus' high stats, the 5th Path Level, The Badlands, has been chosen.]
[Initiating transportation to The Badlands.]
I expected a high placement with my insane stats and buffs, but the Badlands were pretty rough for players with not many skills like me. Most creatures and NPCs there had a full set of 5 passive and active skills, but luckily, I had my [Skill Spree] skill to make up for the deficit.
A bright blue light surrounded my character, blinding me in the process but quickly faded and revealed towering trees with bright orange and red leaves that were occasionally being swept into the air by the wind surrounding me. It looks like I was transported into the middle of a forest in the autumn season.
The Badlands are known as a lawless land where most of the NPCs are bandits or criminals who hunt down players for their loot and coins. Most monsters here are mammal or bird types that live in the forest. It was a large zone with only one central dungeon tower that was known to be surrounded by hiding NPCs to catch players off guard.
This Path Level was significant because it was the last level before reaching the "True Path Levels" as players like to call them. True Path Levels were many times larger than previous levels and had functioning societies of NPCs where you could get quests and jobs from them. It was also where players could finally connect with the outside world with different accessories and form parties and such.
Surveying the area, I quickly adorned my new armor, which, for now, was only a black leather chest plate with wrist gauntlets and shoulder pads. I lept to the nearest tree and climbed near the top, where I could peer over the canopy.
Only trees and mountains surrounded me. I learned I was inside of a valley between two mountain ranges, so my first goal here would be to get to the top of one of the ranges and try to locate the dungeon tower. On the way, I would level up and earn more materials for my weapon and armor, not to mention steal a whole lot of skills.
From the top of the tree I was standing on, I lept down, landed on one knee, and quickly took off north to the closest mountain range.
Almost immediately after starting my journey, A shrill screech pierced through the skies above me. Not losing my cool, I narrowed the direction of the sound and summoned my weapon just in time to block a pair of large talons.
*BOOM*
The strength accumulated from its descent on top of me was heavier than anything I had felt so far, even more so than the orcs I had fought earlier. I was flung backward, hitting and breaking through a tree. With my armor, I didn't take much damage but my back stung from the impact.
I took a good look at the creature that attacked me. It was a large falcon with white and brown feathers that stood up to my shoulders. Its wingspan was around 3 meters and had insanely long and sharp talons that could tear through the thick hides of the other beasts here.
Before the bird could launch into the air again, I raised my hand and a light blue light coalesced in front of my outstretched palm.
"Ice Beam!" I yelled, to try and scare the beast. Saying your skills out loud wasn't necessary, but with low-intelligence creatures like this, suddenly yelling could cause it to hesitate.
A thick, azure beam of light blasted from my hands, causing the surrounding air to chill as it launched toward the falcon. Sensing the impending danger from my attack, it began to flap its wings but it was too late.
*SHHHH*
Once the beam struck the falcon in its lower abdomen, it pierced through it with ease, causing ice to spread along its body and releasing frosty mist.
*SCREEECH*
The pain from the attack caused the overgrown bird to scream in pain and drop to the ground while the ice spread over its body before stopping at its neck and halfway past its wings. The 'Frozen' status effect didn't succeed, but it still limited the falcon's movement enough for me to quickly take advantage.
*SLICE*
Without knowing what happened to it, the beast's head fell to the ground with a soft thud on the dead leaves of the forest floor.
"I underestimated my new skill," I said, flinging the blood off my sword. "Even without freezing it completely, it made it immobile enough for me to finish the fight quickly."
[Player Perseus has leveled up once to level 11 after defeating 1 level 20 Sharp-Talon Falcon.]
[Player Pereus has gained x1 Falcon Talon and x3 Sharp-Talon Falcon Feathers.]
"Fuse the talon with my sword and the feathers and body with my armor," I said after seeing my earnings.
The sword and armor slowly floated in front of me, with the items leaving my inventory and fusing with them.
After distributing my free stat points and fusing, my sword looked the same but the sharpness was increased by a lot. My armor now covered my torso, arms, and legs with feather-coated leather. For the sword, the buffs stayed the same except now there was an effect that ignored 25% of a target's defenses which was very helpful. My armor gained a huge Agility buff of 5 points as well.
Once the process was over, I received another prompt from the system.
[Perseus may choose a random skill from the slain Sharp-Talon Falcon. Proceed?]
"Yes," I said with excitement.
[Random skill acquired, Perseus' character has been updated.]
— — —
{Bloodline Traits (NEW)} —
[Bird's Eye View (NEW): Bloodline trait that allows the user to see up to 10km with precision.]
— — —
"Nice. Should be useful."
I again took off north to the closest mountain range, killing a few beasts along the way. After a couple of hours, I finally reached the top of the mountain, where I looked in every direction for any signs of the dungeon tower.
To the east, I could see the immense tower in the middle of the forest. I was satisfied that finding it wasn't too difficult and made my way in that direction at a more leisurely pace. There was no point in rushing since I was sure I was under-leveled for the tower right now. During these five years, I had studied everything I could about the first 5 Path Levels because they were more straightforward than the levels after it. Players were more likely to die and have to restart their character in the first five levels because they weren't controlled by NPCs and were free for anybody to go in regardless of level.
The Badlands were no different and were notorious for players either dying to the bandits or failing in the tower because they weren't prepared enough. But I wasn't going to make that mistake. Along the way, I'd actively search for beasts and bandit camps with my new bloodline trait from the falcon.
…
After leaving the valley and killing a few more beasts, enough for me to level up and fuse more material for my weapon and armor, I finally found what I had been looking for. A bandit camp.
Hostile NPCs gave a lot more experience than beasts at the same level, so that was my goal despite the disparity in numbers.
As I stealthily crouched on a faraway tree branch, I observed the bustling bandit camp. They had multiple tents set up around a larger tent in the center and had firepits around the camp where the bandits lounged and happily chatted.
They numbered around 30 in total from what I could see after observing for an hour, but I had yet to see the leader emerge from his tent. The sun was nearing the horizon, so I chose to wait until the night before attacking.
…
Inside the bandit camp center tent, four men were surrounding a large table with one man standing at the end, looking at a large map of the surrounding forest.
"After killing that group of players, we found this map, Boss," one man said, looking toward the largest man there who was standing.
The leader of the bandit camp, otherwise known as the Brazen Brothers, was a muscular man with a rough, short beard with sharp eyes that glinted with immense greed. He had long, brown hair that flowed messily behind his back where his greatsword was settled.
"Seems to be a random drop from a beast showing the den location," the leader said, carefully looking at the map. "Tomorrow, we'll take everyone and follow the map to eradicate the den. If we're lucky we can get something good."
The rest of the men at the table agreed.
But before the leader could release them for the night, a man burst through the large tent flaps. "Leader! We are under attack! A player is slaughtering us!"
Everyone at the table quickly ran out with their weapons drawn, only to witness a horrific sight. Piles of bodies surrounded them of their now-dead comrades, leaving none alive except them.
"Now that the small fries are taken care of, it's time for the finale."
An unknown voice from behind startled the group. They quickly turned around and the leader of the bandits who was closest to the voice swung his large metal greatsword with great strength.
*BANG*
The sword struck the ground and kicked up a cloud of dust and dead leaves into the air. Once cleared, there was nothing left except for the greatsword stuck in the dirt.
"That wasn't very nice," the voice said again from their right.
The group turned to face it and was met with a man fully covered in dark brown armor with feathers on the shoulders and elbows. Claws adorned the knuckles and talons extended from his sabatons on his feet. But what was especially frightening was the helmet, which had a mane of black fur surrounding it and sharp canines extending from the mouth.
The man's armor looked like a mismatched amalgamation of different beasts in the forest, which unbeknownst to them was exactly what it was. After defeating all kinds of monsters, my armor had become quite formidable despite its weird look.
Due to my enhanced vision, I could see the hairs rise on the men's arms and their pupils dilate in fear once they saw my daunting look. I chuckled inwardly at their reaction. I still couldn't get used to the fact that these were just AIs. The mannerisms and details of each NPC were amazing and unlike anything I've ever seen.
I summoned my sword in my hand and raised it before me. "Let's get this over with, shall we?"
The group of bandits overcame their fear and charged at me with rage at their fallen comrades. But now that I was level 15 and had multiple buffs, their speed wasn't comparable to mine.
*SHING*
*SLICE*
"GHhhgh.."
*BOOM*
Dust was kicked up everywhere as well as blood. By the time the bandits took three steps, they were all missing heads or were severed by the waist. The only one still standing was the leader, who was holding the stump of an arm where it was cut off from the shoulder.
"Damn you... bastard," the leader said with gritted teeth as blood fell to the ground between his fingers covering his wound. He opened his mouth to speak more but his face turned pale and he fainted due to blood loss.
I looked into the air through multiple system prompts. "Tch," I clicked my tongue in annoyance. "None of these guys have any good skills or loot."
I walked to the big tent that belonged to the leader and entered. Inside, I found a bedroom near the back and a large table at the entrance with a large map covering it.
"What is this, system?" I asked as I scanned the map and its details.
[This is a Den Locator Map for a wild beast. It is a rare drop from beasts outside of dungeon towers that point to the dens from where the beast came from. Dens are where many of the beasts of the same type live. If conquered, the player can earn rewards depending on the amount of beasts slain and the collective difficulty.]
"Hmm? I haven't heard about this before. They must be pretty rare. I'll check it out tomorrow."
After distributing my new stat points after leveling up to level 16 and fusing more materials and weapon types for my sword and armor, I logged out. My character faded and left Path to Power completely.
I opened my eyes inside the dark full-dive tank, feeling the nutrient liquid recede into its container and the suction cup cables leave my temples.
"Haah," I sighed in contentment. Today was an amazing day where I finally found what I had been looking for ever since logging in for the first time.
But who would have thought that I would get such amazing skills? I could have played for much longer since my nutrient gel tank was full but the mental exhaustion from all the events today left my mind tired and in need of some rest. Starting tomorrow, I could go for longer.
After exiting the tank, I made my way to the bathroom to clean myself and then collapsed in my bed and drifted off to sleep.