It was a chilly morning when all 26 residents of the third village had gathered in front of the champion’s cabin. Luke was addressing the crowd with Matt, Jim and the newly transformed Johnny standing behind him.
“Is there anyone under level 8?” he called.
“Yes, sorry” muttered Mary.
“Emma, take her to the big tree and get her to level 8 as soon as possible” said Luke.
“Will do” she said, being serious for once.
“Come find me as soon as you’re done, I think we can get you another level in archery” added Jim, looking at Mary.
“This is the eight day so the trial might start at midnight. I want you all to be prepared for that possibility so take a short nap in the evening if you think you need one” continued Luke.
“Will we all be together for the trial?” asked Frank.
“Probably. We have no way of knowing for sure but our resident nerd seems to think the trial will be a beast tide, just a bunch of monsters attacking the village” said Luke.
“I guarantee you that will be the case” said Matt.
“Your last guarantee turned Johnny into Jenny, so we’ll take that with a grain of salt” said Luke.
“I do not look like a girl…” muttered Johnny.
“Everyone has [Dark vision] and trained their weapon skill to at least level 10 right?” asked Jim, ignoring Johnny’s protest.
“We have two level nines but I think that’s fine” replied Andrew.
“It is. Now listen very carefully, this is the most important part” began Luke.
“I do think Matt’s theory is very probable. It just seems like the most straightforward way to go about it. So we should plan for the possibility of monsters swarming the village”
“We’ll put Jim and Mary on top of my cabin to shoot down monsters. Matt, Johnny and I will be the only ones roaming around, taking out the stronger monsters. Everyone else will form a wall of spears around the cabin and do their best to stop monsters from breaking through and toppling the cabin.”
“Jim will be shooting down the stronger monsters and the ones who are further away. Mary, I want you to focus on supporting the spearmen on the ground, pay attention to the ground and whenever you see someone struggling against a monster, try to kill or distract it with your arrows.”
Luke looked around as he came to the end of his speech, noting the apprehension in the air. He wondered if there was something wrong with him. Why wasn’t he worried about the trial? Why didn’t he feel any fear? Why was he just excited about the potential rewards that might follow?
“Any questions?” he asked but no one had any.
“Alright then, prepare in whatever way seems best to you but don’t exhaust yourself before the trial” warned Luke.
He watched everyone walk off for a few seconds before turning to the three men behind him.
“You still didn’t tell us how much your stats increased after your transformation” said Luke, looking at Johnny.
“I think I can show you” he replied.
“What do you me-” Luke was cut off as a screen flashed into existence in front of him.
STATUS
Name: Johnny Holt
Race: Human (Lesser)
Level: 10
Rank: 1
Class: Warrior
Bloodline: Lesser Dragon
Health: 100%
Stamina: 99%
Mana Reserves: 100%
Free points: 0
Skill points: 0
STATS
Strength: 50
Agility: 43
Toughness: 56
Stamina: 40
Vitality: 44
Perception: 43
Soul: 34
Spirit: 30
“Well that’s an interesting feature of the system” muttered Luke as he scanned Johnny’s status.
“Your stats are unreasonable man” complained Jim.
“Hold on, all this happened from a “lesser dragon” bloodline? It wasn’t even regular strength!” exclaimed Matt.
“A lesser bloodline? That’s kinda lame” joked Luke.
“What type of bloodline do you have?” asked Johnny.
“…”
“It’s still weird that you just crawled into that thing and started eating its flesh” said Jim with a nauseated expression.
“I couldn’t resist, as soon as it was dead some sort of compulsion came over me. It felt like I was hypnotized, it’s actually kinda scary” muttered Johnny.
“Wait, if you eat something with a bloodline you get that bloodline?” asked Matt, looking at Johnny and licking his lips.
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“Don’t be weird, Matt. But I think you’re right, that’s why the snake was so focused on attacking Johnny” said Luke.
“That makes no sense, Johnny only got the bloodline after he ate parts of the horned serpent” said Matt.
“Not true, I think I always had it. The system said I “awakened” it not that I acquired it. That’s probably why I felt such an urge to consume that thing’s flesh, I subconsciously knew it would strengthen my bloodline” explained Johnny.
“You’re a lucky bastard, but is it worth looking like a girl?” asked Jim.
“First of all, I don’t look like a girl. Secondly, these are worth everything” said Johnny, raising his hand up as his fingernails grew longer and sharper until they were half a foot long.
“It was cool the first time you did it” muttered Luke.
“It’s still cool” he replied.
“It’s still cool” admitted Luke.
“What exactly are we doing today? Try and level up?” asked Matt.
“I don’t think so, we killed a few monsters yesterday and didn’t level up so it’s probably going to be harder from now” said Luke.
“We should go to that cliffside a few miles away and try to level up the abilities we got from our class” he suggested.
“Yeah, that’s probably the best move” said Jim.
“I think Johnny and I should stay here, we don’t really benefit from that environment” said Matt, to which Johnny nodded.
Luke and Jim shrugged and bid them farewell. A minute later, they were walking through the woods, hearing the birds chirp as golden rays lit up the forest. It was a beautiful morning and Luke hoped that was a good omen.
When they reached the cliffside, they split up without a word and started training. They were both determined to make some progress before the trial. Luke made sure he was a good distance away from Jim to avoid distracting him before drawing his sword.
He let out a deep breath, got into the right stance and activated [Cut]. It still felt so surreal, even though he’d used it multiple times yesterday. Luke felt every part of his body adjust itself into the perfect position as he swung his sword at the wall of stone in front of him.
A deep gash was left on the cliffside, the damage was astounding. Luke knew that he would die instantly if he was hit by such an attack but that pleased him. There was something exciting about having this sort of power and already, he wanted more of it.
Soon, my sword will be able to split the entire cliff apart he promised himself.
An hour later, the cliffside was unrecognizable, covered in cracks, scratches and gashes. Luke had yet to gain even a single level in [Cut] so he finally decided to try something different.
Luke got into the right stance and took a deep breath, but instead of activating [Cut] he tried to replicate how he felt when he used it. For the next few minutes, he adjusted his stance, posture and breathing to try and make it exactly like it was when he used [Cut].
Eventually, he felt like he was as close as he would get and swung at the cliffside. Luke frowned at the far smaller gash that was left on the rock. He looked at it for a while, trying to see if it was at least better than usual but he really couldn’t tell.
Guess I’ll try again he thought, and that’s what he did for the next half hour. There was something particularly exhausting about trying to execute the perfect swing. It was both mentally and physically fatiguing.
At last, Luke just sat on the ground and stared at the destruction he’d caused on the cliffside. He’d made no noticeable progress, at this point he was sure he wouldn’t make an improvement before the trial. Luke closed his eyes for a while until he heard a voice behind him.
“Either your ability is really good or you have something against cliffs” remarked Jim.
“Your stealth is getting better”
“Thanks, I took pointers from Emma” said Jim as he nocked an arrow.
He shot it at the cliffside, aiming above Luke’s damage and watched it embed itself into the stone.
“Not as much damage as yours” he said regretfully.
“You get to be a safe distance away” said Luke with an annoyed expression.
“True, I’m the only one who has yet to have a near death experience” admitted Jim.
“Mana infusion is a really cool ability though” said Luke enviously.
“It’s not an ability, it’s a skill” replied Jim.
Luke shot up at once, forgetting all his frustration and grabbed Jim’s shoulders.
“Does that mean I can learn it?!” he cried.
“Erm…maybe?” said Jim, weirded out.
Luke nodded and stared at Jim expectantly.
“What?”
“Can you teach me?” asked Luke.
“I suppose I can try. Would be interesting…rather scientific actually” said Jim thoughtfully.
“Oh don’t be so over the top, what do you know about science?” asked Luke with a laugh.
“I’m actually an amateur scientist, I had a whole lab set up in my house” said Jim.
“…Archer, model and also a scientist. What exactly made you want to do all these things, Jim?” asked Luke curiously.
“Let’s talk about mana infusion” said Jim hurriedly, making an obvious attempt to change the topic.
Luke had made many such attempts with Emma back in the day, so he decided to just go along with it.
“I understand mana infusion as the ability to channel my mana through something else to make it stronger. I mainly use it on my arrows but it seems to work on anything so you should be able to enhance your sword with it” continued Jim.
“So how do I use it?” asked Luke.
“Try getting a sense of how mana moves within you” suggested Jim.
“I suppose I could try using one of my abilities” said Luke.
He placed both his hands over his eyes to create darkness before activating [Dark vision]. He figured it would be easier to notice the flow of mana when he was standing still without any other distractions.
He turned the ability one and off a few times, not really feeling anything. Luke tried deepening his focus until eventually, he could feel a strange tingling sensation behind his eyes. He felt like there was something pooling behind his eyes and enhancing them but he wasn’t sure where it was coming from.
“I think I felt something behind my eyes” said Luke after he moved his hands away.
“Really? Can you feel that even now?” asked Jim curiously.
“I’ll try” said Luke before he closed his eyes and tried to focus again. Jim waited patiently as Luke spent a few minutes trying to sense the same thing he felt earlier. It took around ten minutes before Luke was able to feel it once more but this time, it wasn’t just behind his eyes, he could feel it within every fibre of his being.
“I feel it” he muttered.
“Try moving it towards your fingertips” said Jim but Luke was already doing it.
There seemed to be some sort of blockage in his body. The process was slow, weird and a little bit painful but as Luke kept trying to move the energy within him, it started to flow a little better until at last, it began pooling at his fingertips. Trying not to lose focus, Luke started to bend down to grab his sword.
Luckily, Jim was there to do it for him. Luke grasped the hilt tightly and tried to push the energy pooling at his fingertips into the blade. He was expecting a painstaking process like before but the sword didn’t appear to have the blockages his body did. As soon as he tried pushing his mana into the blade, a notification appeared.
*You have acquired [Mana infusion (lvl.1)]*
*One skill point earned*
“Did something happen?” asked Jim, noting Luke’s grin.
“I got the skill. I also got a skill point, though I’m not sure what that does” he replied.
“So learning new skills gets you skill points…” said Jim thoughtfully.
Luke saw that Jim was deep in thought so he left him alone and opened up his status. He didn’t know for sure what a skill point did but he assumed it was like a free point that levelled up skills instead of stats. Luke tried assigning the point to mana infusion but it produced a strange result.
*Invalid*
Can you not use it on the skill that earned you the point? he wondered. Luke tried assigning it to stealth instead and this time, it worked.
*Your skill in [Stealth] has reached level 13*
Luke smiled at the message, this had just opened up brand new possibilities. He turned to Jim, only to find that the man had walked away and was now staring intently at one of his arrows.
Luke decided to let him do his thing and make another attempt to level up [Cut]. He approached the cliffside and got into the right stance before infusing mana into his sword. A few seconds later, Luke felt like he’d reached his limit and couldn’t add any more mana to the blade.
Here goes nothing he thought as he activated [Cut].
Nothing turned out to be quite remarkable. The deepest gash by far was formed on the rock, the damage was nearly twice that of the second deepest.
*Your ability [Cut] has reached level 2*
“YES!” cheered Luke and Jim at the same time. They looked at each other with surprise before bursting out into laughter at the strange coincidence. Luke was about to call out to him and ask what he was so happy about, but before he could, another notification flashed into existence.
*Be warned, Champion*
*The first trial will begin in 12 hours*
*If the village falls, so will you*