PenguinKills
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Chapter 95 - Skills
🕑 Added 2024-07-31 02:49:17 +0000 UTC~~AN~~
I accidentally posted a chapter to RR so I have to post one here to keep ahead. Plus I don't want you guys to feel left out of a two chapter day.
~~
Austin and Abigail stayed for the cleanup which made it significantly faster than if I were alone. The Rune ran out of mana not long after I woke up which made the ice start to melt and create a muddy mess.
I had to throw all of it out of the camp before it created too much of a slurry. Walking around in the mud was no fun for anyone. We were lucky enough to get the bodies out before they thawed out and started leaking everywhere.
Cleaning up bodily fluids was the worst.
Now that the wave was over, there were so many things I wanted to spend my time on. I wanted points to buy a bloodline, I wanted to upgrade my Law before my evolution. Plus, I wanted to spend time upgrading some of my skills.
All the ones sitting at Common irked me. In the long list of things to do, my profession was lower on the list. It just wasn't as important right now. Being 3 levels away from a class evolution made it the center of my attention instead of my profession.
I wanted to form my Spirit Anchor and go through the first step of Body Tempering to do as much as I could before evolving. I wanted to get the best class possible. I wasn't really under pressure to rush either.
There was always the option of abandoning the camp and fighting it out down south where it would be safer. There was no existential crisis causing me to rush and there was no need to hasten my evolution other than my vanity.
I wasn't going to shoot myself in the foot just for a challenge I felt now. Fighting the waves alone wasn't necessary and I wasn't going to alter my potential because of it.
If it took a little extra time to evolve to get everything done, it was worth it. Even if I didn't evolve before the tutorial ended.
Austin looked at me hopefully with the idea of going around to the nearby pylons to rack up some points. He still needed quite a lot for the bloodline he chose and he hadn't gained much from the wave.
He had filled me in on how it went and it was funny to see him frustrated about it. The amount of people they had made it so they split the points a lot of waves, diminishing what everyone got.
He was lucky I worked out a deal so we didn't have to give them up like the rest of the camp. Well, we gave some up but not more than we already did.
Tracy's camp worked differently than ours and she forced everyone to give up their points so she could upgrade the camp with them. She thought that was the better way to go.
Where we only gave up half, they gave up all.
It was one of the things I had to fight her on while we discussed our cooperation. I was under the thought process that we were helping her during the waves just as much as she was helping us.
Giving her all of the points we got was out of the question.
We stuck with the split we already had but gave it to her instead of using it on our own camp. It was easy to sell to my family because nothing changed for them. They still gave up half of their points the same as before.
Austin got miffed out of points because he had to split his kills more ways not because he had to give them up.
The lowest-tier bloodlines that cost the least were base animals without any affinity tied to them. Like Giant Eagle or Grizzly Bear. There was a base model for all the known animals and some that were unknown.
They started at the 900,000/1 million range, which I could already afford.
There was an incline in price to match the strength of the animal. A mouse bloodline didn't come with the same price tag as a wolf one. An affinity added around 500,000 points to the base model but it varied based on affinity.
More common affinities like fire and earth cost less than rarer ones like solar and arctic. Anything with a solar affinity was still out of range for Austin.
I had suggested getting a fire affinity one and evolving it into a solar one, like a Flame Hawk bloodline into a Solar Hawk, but he declined. He wanted to start big even if it took more work to do it.
I agreed with the sentiment and planned to do the same. It would be a waste not to use the store we were given. We weren't told explicitly, but it was hinted that a grand store like the one we had wasn't a thing when we got back on Earth.
It seemed like a tutorial exclusive to massively bombard us with information, gear, techniques, professions, and general knowledge we should have. Like a primer for when we got back.
Almost as if it was a tutorial.
I wanted to gain points just as much as him, but I couldn't forget the threat lurking out there. Giving the man time to build up forces sounded like a recipe for disaster.
We argued about it for a minute before we hashed out a plan. We would hit all of the pylons on the way to the next camp the Mindbreaker held. A compromise of sorts.
Austin wanted to focus on points while I wanted revenge.
Abigail cautioned restraint but even she didn't put her all into trying to convince us. She wanted payback just as much as I did.
Out of the things I could spend time on, I felt that points were the most important right now. There was no telling if we would be able to buy bloodlines when we got back and that was the deciding factor. I could always upgrade my Law and all the other paths of power later.
Bloodlines were easiest to acquire now and there was no guarantee that availability would stay after the tutorial.
Before Austin and I took off, I had a task for Abigail.
"Can you take that to Sam," I said pointing at the bear with my hammer still in it. "I want her to make it into something for me. It was a good fight and a worthy foe."
"How am I gonna carry it? It has to weigh over 2,000 pounds!" She said incredulously with wide eyes looking the massive thing over.
Huh, I hadn't thought of that.
"I don't know. Gut it or something, I don't need the meat. Maybe bring Sam to it instead of the other way around?" I answered. "I believe in you. You'll figure it out."
She started fussing over it walking around the giant carcass and muttering out some ideas. Well, she's got it in hand.
Abigail would take care of it and I was free to leave.
It took a few hours to get back in fighting shape from Abigail's healing and the wave itself took 3 hours. We wouldn't surprise anyone when we attacked now as it was almost 8 o'clock at night and it would take even more time before we got there.
The part of me that wanted to rest looked at the timer ticking down with only 16 days left and promptly quieted down. 16 days wasn't a lot of time and I needed to spend them well.
Austin and I fell into pace traveling and fighting. A pylon took a few hours to fight and conquer before we moved on to the next. Each had a different amount of beasts with them depending on which wave they originally fell, but all held a large sum of monsters.
And a large sum of points.
We spent a few hours at three different pylons before we made it to one of the Mindbreaker's camps. I still thought that was a stupid name.
During the fights, I focused on my skills. Fighting was when I did my best thinking in terms of upgrading them and I tried to use that as fuel.
Having the pressure released and the freedom I felt while fighting the wave made me forget to focus on upgrading one of them. Upgrading my skills was on my long list of things to do and nothing said I couldn't do two at once.
One already upgraded and I had missed the notification in the sea of kill confirmations.
You have upgraded a skill:
Heavy Armor Proficiency(Novice) -> Heavy Armor Proficiency(Apprentice)
It had come at some point during the fighting and I had no clue when. The next time I made my armor I would have to change to accommodate the new skill. It was a good change but still a little annoying.
Gaining points and upgrading skills. That was the goal. The first one I focused on was [Throwing Proficiency]. It sounded dumb to focus on that one first but it was one I had gotten a lot of insight into.
I had run all over the place hurling spears of ice at things to keep my boost and it made me feel close to upgrading it. I was right, for it upgraded at the first pylon we fought.
All it took was some dedicated time using it. Austin grumbled about having to work more while I focused on the skill but he was just being lazy.
You have upgraded a skill:
Throwing Proficiency(Novice) -> Throwing Proficiency(Apprentice)
After that, I turned to the skill I had the longest. [Heavy Blow].
It was a great skill but one I hadn't really pushed to the limit. I had upgraded [Power Strike] by pushing both myself and the skill past the limit in desperation to win.
This time was harder. I couldn't just push more mana into the skill like I did last time. It took both mana and stamina to work and overloading it with one didn't upgrade it.
Looking back, I felt it was close to upgrading it during the fight with the bear boss but I focused on [Shatter] at the time instead. I fixed that now.
During the upgrade, I had a chance to alter the skill somewhat and turn it away from what it used to be but I refrained from doing so. I liked [Heavy Blow] and it was a great general skill to use while fighting.
It added to the strength of my swings and could be amplified with other effects by other skills, like [Frostbite]. The only thing I needed was more of what it already did.
You have upgraded a skill:
Heavy Blow(Uncommon) -> Mighty Blow(Rare)
I guessed since the function stayed the same the name didn't change much.
The upgrade came while fighting one of the bosses of the fallen pylons and it took compressing my mana and stamina together with a little intent to upgrade.
I couldn't just wing it by throwing things together and hoping for the best like when I upgraded it to Uncommon.
The upgrade came after hours of fighting and on the last boss before we fought a camp again. I almost gave up on it to focus on something else when it finally clicked.
I had been trying to just shove more mana and stamina into it to no avail and took some brainstorming with Austin to figure it out.
The one skill I really wanted to upgrade next was [Hail] but I had a plan for that one and I didn't have all the pieces yet. [Ice Manipulation] just upgraded and would take a lot of time to reach Rare, so I skipped over that one.
My already Rare skills were too complex and I had no idea where to start. [Frost Armor] and [Momentum] were both great skills but I had no idea how to upgrade them.
Throwing my Law at [Frost Armor] didn't do anything and neither did trying to compress it down with [Ice Manipulation]. Both Rare skills were beyond me right now.
There was one last skill I focused on and it was... unsuccessful.
We found the Mindbreaker's camp right where Tracy told us and it looked more fortified than the last one. More people and beasts were milling around in it and some makeshift fortifications were made.
It looked like a shoddy attempt to deter another attack.
It didn't.
Austin and I used the same strategy as before and it worked like a charm. It made me assume he couldn't see through his thralls because it was only slightly more difficult to take down than the one before.
If he could see what we did, he would have come up with a better way to defend against it.
Honestly, I was surprised he let us do it again. A part of me thought he would pull all his army back to a few camps to concentrate his forces.
I didn't know if he was underestimating us or if he thought the attack was a one-time thing, but he was in for a rude awakening if he thought that. He attacked my family, there was no escaping my justice.
The last skill I attempted to upgrade came when we were slaughtering our way through the thralls and was an idea I had thought up a while ago.
[Sweeping Slash] wasn't very useful anymore and I had spent some time thinking about how to influence the skill into something I could use.
My answer was my snowflakes of death.
They were sweeping around me in arcs and they did slash things. All I had to do was have the skill activate on them, instead of my weapon.
It was surprisingly hard.
The skill did not want to go anywhere else except for my weapon. It took a lot of fighting just to get it to change and when it finally did, it wasn't what I wanted.
It worked on my body, instead of my weapon.
It got to the point where I had to give up on it. The skill was too rooted in being used on a weapon to be useful anywhere else. I would still keep it, but it would only be helpful in specific circumstances.
Fighting the three pylons and the camp after took 8 hours. Austin and I didn't get back to our camp until almost 4 in the morning.
It was well worth it though and looking at my point total was the only justification I needed.
Points: 1,865,223
If we could earn points that fast we would get a bloodline in no time.
Comments
Demonlord
She's a healer so most of her points will be in the magical side of the stats... Maybe after the next evolution she'll be able to move 2000 pounds but not with her stats right now
Demonlord
I hope he didn't because it'll be a hard fight against him even without an added bloodline
IgnisPrimus
Was Abigail not one of the highest-level people? Why can't she move a 2,000-pound bear? I get that she is not strength-based and probably can't hold it over her head and walk kilometers with it. But she should be more than able to drag it quite far.
Demonlord
Thanks for the amazing chapter π I wonder what kind of bloodline he's aiming for and how much it'll cost him
Da Law
This chapter makes me think about how many points the mind breaker has since he was really the first one to set off and try and take over as many pylons as possible. Makes me wonder if maybe he already bought his bloodline already. Also thanks for the extra chapter, keep up the amazing work!
Wolven
Iβm not one to complain gaha
