《Aeternalis》 Prologue - Start At the start, there was only Void. From Void came Chaos and Order, the two supreme energies. Through their endless fight, new energies arose. The Divine Energies of Life, Death, Time, Space, Spirit, and Creation. These newly born energies were not constantly warring; their selves a combination of Chaos and Order. They mingled together, combining themselves in new and unexpected ways. As time passed, they began to gain consciousness, and soon used it to improve upon what they had created. Eons passed, projects were started and destroyed; worlds were created and soon collapsed, endlessly. More, lesser energies, came to being. They were no longer made of purely Chaos and Order, but instead had a make-up completely separate from the Divine Energies. With the combination of the Divines and everything below them, a world was finally created. It was limitless, at least to most of its inhabitants; it constantly grew, as the Energies devoted more time and effort into creating new lands and new beings to populate the lands. VIllages sprung, towns developed, kings and queens rose and fell, empires flourished. Chaos and Order became balanced, and Void ceased to be. Or so was believed.If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. Chapter 1 - Day 1 The Desert of Dadria, occupying an area that would put the Sahara to shame, was home to a multitude of different beings, the most populous being Selens. They were tall, lanky bipedal creatures that had adapted to the burning days and the chilling nights of the land. There were many others though, small towns of humans and cities of reptilian halflings. There was one space that nobody would dare enter though, The Dunes of Dadria. Infested by Sand Worms and the residence of the Sand Tempest, nobody could be seen near there. Within the dunes, next to a small oasis that consisted of 4 small lakes, a rift opened. A blackness so dark everything seemed to be consumed by it spilled out, and a figure could be seen standing in place of the rift. With a height of 1.90 meters, this ¡®human¡¯ stood fully bare at the edge of the oasis. They had a lean build, their muscles easily visible, with a tanned complexion. As they opened their eyes, one golden and the other the same black as the rift, all time seemed to freeze. -¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª Welcome To The World of Alaba. All conscious beings unlock their system when they reach the age of 15. As you have finally reached this age, you can now see your Information and Skills. Prosper and rise.
Name: ----- Species: Human Voidling
Level: 1 Titles:
Health: 250 Mana: 250
Stamina: 250
Age: 15 Years Lifespan: 300 Years
Strength: 25 Constitution: 25
Endurance: 25 Vitality: 25
Agility: 25 Dexterity: 25
Intelligence: 25 Wisdom: 25
Skills
Void Magic: Level 1
??Void Blast: Level 1
Looking at his own Information, ¡ª¡ª¡ª continued to sit in silence. He knew what he was, and why he was put into this world. Void was vanishing, and he would be its last hope into the revival of Void. He was currently a blank slate, with no emotions and sense of purpose other than helping Void return. All he had was an instinctive distrust of other life. Done contemplating himself, the Voidling began to look around. He would need to find food and water, but that would most likely not be a problem considering he was next to an oasis. He would also need to create or find some type of clothing and weapons just his magic wouldn¡¯t do much. His Void Blast attack would take up roughly 50 mana per cast, so he could at most use it 5 times without break. While it could cause some damage, it wasn¡¯t sure to kill something, nor could it protect him. Walking towards the biggest lake, ---- began to try to find bushes with food or small animals that he could possibly hunt. He had been infused with memories required for survival during his creation, but his actual skills would be terrible until he trained. After getting within 100m of the water line, he managed to spot a small yellow-brown creature digging away underneath a tree. Looking at it, a prompt appeared showing some of its information. It was called a Sand Skeever and was Level 3. Nothing else showed up. Crouching down, ---- began to slowly walk towards the Sand Skeever, doing his best to not step on any sticks or shift the sand too much. After two minutes, he was already within 10 meters of the small creature. Just as he was about to push off and try to grab the it, it quickly began to run away through the bushes. Seeing it run away, ---- quickly forgot about the creature and began to look around at some of the trees and bushes, trying to get another prompt. After a couple of minutes of attempting this, he finally got the prompts again. There were 3 kinds of bushes and 4 kinds of trees. Two of the bushes were normal plants while the last one grew a small berry similar to a strawberry that was edible. Out of the trees, 3 grew fruits. One of them was called a Olag Tree, and grew Olags, coconut like fruits but smaller. The other two grew a bright red and bright yellow pear shaped fruit. Seeing the closest tree, which had the yellow fruits, he began to climb up it. His fingers and toes slightly dug into the bark as he slowly pulled himself upwards. Five meters up, he finally grabbed one and another prompt came up. Name: Red Reld Category: Fruit Description: The red reld is a common fruit from the Desert of Dadria. It is farmed and is considered a delicacy to the Selens. It has undiscovered medicinal properties. Pleased with what he had read, ---- continued to pick the rest of the red relds and soon piled them up beneath the tree. He would have to find somewhere he could hide them so other creatures wouldn¡¯t take the only source of food he could find in this place. Finding the nearest yellow reld tree, the Voidling soon climbed up it and got 7 of them. The sun was still high in the sky and the desert heat was unbearable but somehow he wasn¡¯t affected by it. ---- knew he was different from all the other beings in the world and had infinite potential to change the world as he see fit once he became stronger. As a Voidling, a being creature created by the original energy, he would be able to learn anything and everything, as all that existed came from Void. After stopping at the bottom of the tree, a series of prompts appeared in his view. You have learned a new skill! Identify Lv 1 Description: Allows you to gain info on anything you look at long enough. Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. You have learned a new skill! Stealth Lv 1 Description: The art of moving unseen and unheard. You have learned a new skill! Climbing Lv 1 Description: The ability to scale objects with increased proficiency. You have learned a new skill! Herbal Knowledge Lv 1 Description: Allows you to gain knowledge on any herbs you pick and improves chance of harvesting herbs. After looking through his new skills, he decided it would be in his best interests to try to create some clothes for himself. He had some memories of how to create clothing out of animal hides and plant fibers. ---- had plenty of plant fibers around but he would need to find hides and skins that would be usable. Grabbing one of the fruits, he began to walk towards the shore. His pile of fruits were about 200 meters away from the water, so most of the animals who wanted water wouldn¡¯t go too close to him. Once he got closer to the water line, ------ threw the fruit. It landed 40 meters away from him next to a small hole that was dug into the ground. He had hoped that the hole was dug by one of the Sand Skeever that was currently laying inside of it. After crouching down, he slowly began to move towards the fruit. He could feel that his sneaking was better than it previously had been; the skill was affecting his sense of how and where he should move. Less than 20 seconds after the reld had been thrown, a Sand Skeever¡¯s head poked out of the hole. Its nose twitched slightly as it turned in all directions making sure nobody was close to the fruit. It had noticed the Voidling but thought that it was too far away to bother it. Sadly for the Skeever, he was never planning on sneaking up anymore. He was going to try to use his Void Blast ability to kill it from further away. Once it began nibbling away at the fruit, the Voidling raised his hand and began to use Void Blast. From the middle of his chest, he could feel an empty feeling passing through his body towards his stretched out hand. Once it reached his hand, his fingers began to instinctively move in a circular pattern. A small orb began to appear a inch away from his palm. It was a perfect sphere and was as dark as his eye. It grew until it was an inch across before it shot out from his palm. It quickly zoomed forwards before it collided with the Skeever¡¯s head. Instantly, a portion of its head simply vanished. That was the power of Void Magic. It was the original energy and could simply get rid of all the other energies. Even if all Void ceased to exist, anyone who could use Void Magic would be able to rid the world of everything else. Too bad he was the only being in the world who could use Void Magic. None if the other Divine Energies or anything below them was able to control Void as it was was above even the Supreme Energies. Only Void itself could create a being that could control Void Magic, and that was exactly what he was. The Skeever quickly fell to the floor and he received a prompt. You have killed a Sand Skeever Lv 2. You have gained 7 experience. Not caring much for the 7 experience, ------ began to walk towards the dead Skeever. With no tools to skin the corpse with, the Voidling with simply have to make due with using his hands. It would not come out well, but that would be the best he could get right now. ---- would use the skinning to practice his skills. Whatever ended up being the result, such a small piece of scaled hide would not be useful for him. Looking at his mana pool, he saw that it had increased to 205 in the 10 seconds it had taken him to begin walking towards the corpse. That meant that he could theoretically fire Void Blast every 2 minutes without running out of mana. It wasn¡¯t much, but in a prolonged battle he would get the chance to use it quite a few times. With its ability to return matter into nothingness, even being directly hit by one of the blasts would be enough to end a fight. That is as long as the being on the receiving end didn¡¯t have strong enough magic and enough mana to cancel out his attack. Hopefully for him there would be nothing nearby that would pose a large threat for him until he gained enough levels in Void Magic to make it almost impossible for it to be canceled out by anything, but he knew that was very unlikely. There were countless strong beings and peerless treasures throughout the world, and more continued to appear. It would be his job to stop that. For now though, he had to get some basic clothing and maybe a crude weapon. His mana would only go so far. He had amazing physical stats and he would make use if them as well. Picking up the carcass of the skeever, he received a prompt. You have picked up: Sand Skeever Corpse (Moderately Damaged) Making it so that prompts like that one would never appear again, ¡ª¡ª¡ª- began to think on how to skin it. It was unlikely there would be anything sharp enough to properly skin it nearby him, and he couldn¡¯t leave the corpse here until he managed to make something sharp enough. Either it would be gone or it would have already started to rot. If it wouldn¡¯t work with normal means, he would simply have to try with magic. Focusing on his right index finger, he imagined his nail lengthening into a sharp claw made of Void Magic. He felt the mana within him resist his pull slightly, but with a bit of force, the mana listened and did as he asked. On his finger his nail began to darken as it began to extend forwards. It wasn¡¯t as sharp as he would want it to be, but he simply believed that it was due to lack of practice. He had basic knowledge of skinning within his mind but had no actual practice. He was sure he could learn the skill quickly but his first few attempts would be horrible. It would be better to practice with worthless corpses like the Skeever¡¯s before attempting it on something he could actually use for clothes. Starting at the neck, he made a cut all the way around. The scaled skin of the creature was cut quickly with the use of his magic. The cuts were rugged and rough, most likely due to his poor control of his magic. Doing the same with the four limbs, ¡ª¡ª looked back into his memories and followed. Sticking his fingers between the skin and meat, he slowly began to peel the skin away. Anytime it was stuck, he would use his magic to cut the meat away. After two minutes of slowly pulling, ¡ª¡ª- had skinned the skeever. You have created: Sand Skeever Scales (Small) (Horribly-Done) You have learned a new skill! Skinning Lv 1 Description: The ability to skin beings of all kinds to gather resources. You have learned a new skill! Void Claws Lv 1 Description: Use the power of Void to form claws along your hand. (This is a sub skill of Void Magic) You have learned a new skill! Mana Manipulation Lv 1 Description: With the ability to manipulate mana comes the power to recreate the world. The further you go into this skill the more you go against the world¡¯s will. You have learned a Controlled Skill! A controlled skill is a skill that will, as you continue to improve it, harm the user as it goes against the world¡¯s will. As mana manipulation is a power of the God¡¯s, mortals who use it will find their minds slowly corrupted over time by the The Divine Energies. As a Voidling, you are immune to the powers of The Divine Energies, and so the skill does no harm to you. Chapter 2 - Day 1 Reading through the prompts, ¡ª¡ª- understood why his cutting was very badly done. Since it had become a level 1 skill, he would have to do a lot of work if he wanted it to work well. He wasn¡¯t surprised with the fact that the skinning was horribly done as there were still some clumps of meat on it, it was torn in some places, and his claws had poked some holes while he was trying to separate it from the body. He was confused as to why Mana Manipulation would be a skill of the Gods, but since it seemed that it wouldn¡¯t matter to him, he stopped caring. According to the prompt it was obvious some mortals could use the skill so even if he wasn¡¯t immune he wouldn¡¯t care that much. Throwing the messed up patch of scales aside, ¡ª¡ª- grabbed the meat he had put aside. As he was starting to get hungry, he began to eat some of the raw meat. To him, there was no point in cooking the meat. Not only would it take longer, but his body allowed him to eat almost any living matter without consequence. If he could find the bones of a dragon he could even eat them, but his stomach acids would take decades to gnaw away at them. After eating his fill, which was the entire corpse except for a leg which he left behind, ¡ª¡ª decided it was time to move on. The first task would be to level himself and his skills up. The stronger ------ got, the easier it would be to face the elites in the world. Afterwards he could slowly start to kill of empires one by one until he reached a point that he could begin to devour everything around him. He was still far, far away from that level though. For now, his most important task would be to create new spells with his Void Magic and begin to level that up. The Mana Manipulation skill would also need to be leveled as it would likely allow him to improve every aspect of his magic. He had a long range magic attack and a short range one so now all he really needed was a defense. As Void Magic could cancel out all other magics, he would simply have to force the mana to bend into a sphere like shape around him without destroying himself in the process. Closing his eyes, ¡ª¡ª- began to feel the mana within him. He imagined a perfect sphere of Void Magic to appear around him, and that it would only absorb magic spells that came into contact with it. He would also have to create a physical defense spell, but that would require control of Void Magic that he simply didn¡¯t have currently. As he focused, he felt a sense of congestion start from the center of his chest which soon spread to the rest of his body. Straining to continue the attempt of creating a shield, he felt something pop within him before he spit out blood. You have received backlash from attempting to create a spell. The feeling of congestion was gone, and with it 100 of his mana. He knew that making a spell like that would be hard, but not to the point that he would fail so quickly. Seeing his mana at 113, he knew that he had one more try. The backlash had taken 30 HP from him, so there was no need for him to worry about it happening again. All he needed to do now was continue to practice. Thinking over what had happened, he realized his mistake. When ----- had created Void Claws, he simply wanted the mana to travel through his body into his finger. Now, ----- wanted to mana to leave his body and surround him, but he never told it to do so. Instead the mana that was supposed to be making the shield was just running in circles inside his body. Knowing what to do now, he began again. This time, the feeling of congestion never came, and slowly in front of his eyes a transparent, black film materialized from his mana. It covered everything within a meter of the center of his chest and slowly glimmered as waves of energy were being fed into it. You have learned a new skill! Void-Magic Shield Lv 1 Description: A shield of mana created by Void Magic. Can only stop magical attacks. (This is a sub skill of Void Magic) Congratulations! Void Magic has leveled up to Lv 2. Congratulations! Mana Manipulation has leveled up to Lv 2. As the last prompt appeared, ¡ª¡ª felt a small amount of The Divine Energies from the surroundings to seep into his body. As the energy went through his pores into his body, it was quickly neutralized by the Void that made him up and dispersed. As he already knew that his body was immune to the energies, he simply did not care. What he did care about was the improvement he felt from the skills leveling up. While it was a very small change, he could feel that the mana within him was more inclined to listen to him and he felt as if he instinctively knew more about the Void than he did before. This was the power of skills, to give beings an automatic increase in their abilities once they reached a certain threshold. If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. Now that his skills had increased in level, he wanted to see if he could try to make a shield that deflected physical attacks as well. Sadly, even with the level ups he couldn¡¯t understand how he would do so. But now wasn¡¯t the time for that. Since he already had a defensive and offensive skill, it was time to start putting them to use. The best way to train combat skills was of course to use them in combat. Looking at his status quickly, he noticed that he was almost out of mana. Luckily, within his memories existed the knowledge of a skilled called Meditation. It allowed people to better open themselves up into the world and absorb the mana into themselves. Getting into a similar state of mind as the one in which he had attempted to create new spells, ¡ª¡ª- tried to feel for the mana around him. He calmed his breathing and allowed his body to relax fully. This was something not manageable by most species, but as his body was one created with no flaws, he had perfect control over himself. As he allowed himself to become one with the world, he felt the mana in the surroundings grow closer to him. The mana saw him as part of them, and as the concentration of mana in his body was very low, it began to flow into him. Along with this current of mana that began to flow into his body, more energies began to flow in. From the lowliest energy to the highest Divine Energy, all of it was slowly being gathered within his body. The mana would quickly be accepted while the other energies seemed to disappear into him, almost as if teleporting into another plane of existence. Without noticing, time began to quickly pass. The sun traveled through the sky as purples and reds began to appear in the evening sky. Finally, as the last blues left the sky, ¡ª¡ª- opened his eyes. You have learned a new skill! Meditation Lv 1 Description: The ability to absorb all energies and mana from your surroundings. (As you possess the skill Mana Manipulation, this skill will accelerate the corruption of your mind caused by the use of Mana Manipulation.) Congratulations! Meditation has leveled up to Lv 5. Congratulations! Mana Manipulation has leveled up to Lv 3. Gasping for breath, ¡ª¡ª looked around at where he was. He had fallen into a trance-like state during his meditation as his instincts as a Voidling were to continue to absorb everything around him until nothing existed anymore. Although his Meditation skill could only absorb the energies in the air and not matter itself, when ------ had entered the trance-like state he believed that it would be possible to absorb everything around him. Looking at his status, -----¡¯s mana was back to 250. As dusk began to approach, ------ could tell that a few hours had passed in his trance. There would be no other way for the Meditation skill to level up 5 times if it wasn¡¯t for him getting lost within it. If there was any good to him having skipped a couple hours of the day, it would be that most of the dangerous creatures came out during the night in the desert. As most were cold-blooded, it was well in their best interests to stay as far from the sun as they could. He had already begun to see some small figures shifting around in the sand. Some chased one another, some drank at the pond near him. Looking towards his pile of relds, he noticed that most of them were either gone or had small bite marks left on then. As it had been a couple hours since he had eaten anything, he quickly went over and began to eat the remaining fruits. The fruits were juicy and sweet with a slightly bitter aftertaste that made you want to eat more. Them being a delicacy to the Selens definitely made sense. Finished with eating the remaining fruits, ¡ª¡ª¡ª began to sneak his way towards the pond. There were a couple small creatures around but they all scurried off when he came close, a testament to how bad his stealth skill currently was. He did actually manage to kill two more skeevers though. One was shot with another Void Blast and the other was sleeping underneath the sand when ¡ª¡ª stepped on it. With a quick slash of his Void Claws it had been decapitated. As not to waste the corpses, he picked the two up to practice skinning later. With nothing left in the way the Voidling soon arrived at the shore. Kneeling down, he pooled the water in his hands and began to drink. It was surprisingly free of sand and looking down ¡ª¡ª- could see his own face reflecting back towards him. Eyes that seemed to pierce through one¡¯s soul sat on an otherwise featureless and bald head. Hair was just something that would get in the way and as such a perfect being like himself had no need for it. Looking back up, the first moon could be seen rising over the horizon. It was a sickly yellow, and was spotted with craters. Along with it came roars from beasts that hsd finally come to drink and eat. In front of ¡ª¡ª- in the water a shadow slowly began to appear and grow larger. 1 meter, 3 meters, 5 meters. As the creature began to surface, the Voidling quickly identified it. Name: Oasis Lacertae Level: 6 Description: A large, oasis dwelling lizard. They have long tails adorned with spikes which they use to attack their prey. They are slow due to their large size, but their feet are nimble and can allow them to turn at astonishing speeds which fuels their tail attacks. As the Oasis Lacertae fully left the water, the Voidling got a look at it full size. It was 7 meters long from head to the end of its tail and had 4 thick, stout limbs. It¡¯s tail was 4 meters long and was covered in triangular spikes that came out 5 centimeters. Some of the spikes were bent or missing, likely due to prior fights it had been in. It had two large, yellow eyes which stared back at ¡ª¡ª¡®s own. Its mouth was large and filled with three rows of sharp teeth. As the creature opened its mouth to roar, he quickly shot a Void Blast at it. Whether due to his quick casting of the spell or the slight movement made by the Lacertae, his attack had missed it¡¯s open mouth but had managed to catch its left forelimb. It quickly collapsed under its own weight and began to scramble back into the water to attempt to swim away, a now sizeable hole in one of its legs. Before it could do so, ¡ª¡ª quickly ran forwards and jumped onto the creatures back. Just as it was about to attempt to roll him off, a Void Claw quickly found its way to the Lacertae¡¯s brain. Its body trembled a bit before locking up. You have killed an Oasis Lacertae Lv 6. You have gained 113 experience. With the experience from this and the previous 3 skeevers, he now had 137 experience. The requirement to get to level 2 was 525, so ¡ª¡ª still had a long way to go. Though he had planned to continue to hunt over the night and attempt to reach level 2, now that there was a perfect corpse ready for skinning in his face, the Voidling changed decided to change his plan for the night. Grabbing the mouth of the Lacertae, he began to slowly drag it back onto the sand and away from the water. Most of the fighting was taking place near or on the water, so the further away the skinning happened, the less likely it was that there would be an interruption. On the way, ¡ª¡ª picked up the two skeever corpses to take with him. They would serve as some more practice to see if skinning would be leveled up to level two. Though the clothes he made out of the skin Lacertae would be very shoddily made, at least the extra protection from the scales would help. Though his Void Claws had managed to quickly pierce the scales, they were actually quite thick and would hamper any other creatures attempt to harm him. Chapter 3 - Day 1 After dragging the corpses out a couple hundred meters from the shore, he dropped everything by one of the reld trees. As there were no good plants around who¡¯s fibers would be usable for knotting, the only substitute would be strips of heartwood from the trees. Sitting down by the tree, ¡ª¡ª first began with the two skeever corpses that were left. They were both in slightly better condition than the first and soon he had finished skinning the two. One had been another horribly done and the last was a badly done skinning which had boosted his skinning skill to level 2. From what existed in the Voidling¡¯s memories, there were 10 ranks that could be achieved when crafting. From worst to best there was: Horrible Done, Badly Done, Below Average, Average, Above Average, Well Done, Excellent, Masterwork, Saintly, and Divine. The second piece of scales had barely passed the threshold into badly done, but with that alone he had managed to level skinning up. Now that the skill was a higher level, his result with the Lacertae¡¯s scales would likely be slightly better. ¡ª¡ª was planning to take his time with this pelt, cutting off small pieces at a time and taking breaks to keep his mana levels high. If everything went well, the results would be a large badly done piece of scales that could be used to make bad armor out of. Before he got to skinning the Lacertae¡¯s scales, ¡ª¡ª quickly dug out all of its teeth. You have picked up: Oasis Lacertae Teeth x47 The teeth would be usable to create a weapon or if he could find a way to, would be added along bracers. As an enemy attacked and ¡ª¡ª brought his arms up to defend, the creature would get cut by the teeth. If that didn¡¯t work, they were even harder than the scales so they would add a nice boost to his defense, if ¡ª¡ª could find a way to attach them to bracers that is. Now that the teeth were out, the claws were also something ¡ª¡ª wanted to take advantage of. There were 4 on each limb, each 10 centimeters long. He quickly removed those too before he planned out how he would skin the entire Lacertae. You have picked up: Oasis Lacertae Claws x16 As it was a massive creature, ¡ª¡ª- was planning to skin it in three parts. One part would be its tail. The scales covered with spikes could be used to create a tunic that would work similar to the bracers inlaid with teeth. Another section would be the Lacertae¡¯s underside. As it was softer and more flexible than the scales on top, it could be used to make more comfortable pants that wouldn¡¯t restrict his movement too much. The final part would be the Lacertae¡¯s upper side, which would be used to make bracers and thicken any thin parts of the clothes that would be made. Finished planning, he got started. One again starting at the neck, he cut all the way around. Before beginning to peel it off, he switched over to the tail. At its base, he cut all the way around; on the underside of the tail, he cut a straight line from the base to the very tip. As a piece of hide the shape of a cone wouldn¡¯t be very useful, that cut would allow ¡ª¡ª to turn the tain into a curved sheet of scales which would actually be usable. His next step was to cut off all the legs. He would still use the skin from them, but they wouldn¡¯t need to be connected. Afterwards, along the side of the Lacertae¡¯s body where its rough upper scales and soft under scales met he cut a line separating the top from the bottom. Now that the it was split as he had wanted, ¡ª¡ª began with the tail. With the increase in level of his Void Magic the claws were slightly smoother and kept a better shape, allowing cleaner cuts than he had before. If the claws felt as if they were too rough or his control of the skill was slipping, he would stop the skinning and wait to regain control before continuing. Even so, a few tiny holes were poked here and there, and some parts of the skin still had bits of meat left over. After 30 minutes of this, the piece of scales off the tail had fully come off. You have picked up: Oasis Lacertae Scaled-Skin (Medium) (Badly-Done) With all the effort he had gone through the result had been well into the badly-done range. ¡ª¡ª¡®s badly-done skeever skin was pure luck compared to what he had done now. Throughout the skinning, a few other creatures had come close to see if they could get some of the meat. They all eventually shied away though, knowing by the smell of the blood that the dead creature was very strong, and the one that killed it even stronger. With the peace brought on by that, the Voidling quickly continued to skin the rest of the creature. After another hour and a half, the creature was fully skilled. Two more pieces of (Medium) (Badly-Done) Lacertae skin were rolled up next to him. Along with it, skinning had leveled up to level 3 and Void Claws had leveled up to 2 and then 3. Halfway through the skinning ¡ª¡ª- had to take a break to allow his mana to recharge after the continuous use of his Void Claws skill. Looking back at the corpse, he began to plan out other things he could do with the creature. He would collect the tendons to use for knotting or connecting the armor but the Lacertae¡¯s tendons were almost as hard and stiff as its scales.This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there. Some of the bones on the other hand could be used. A small bone, maybe a leg bone, would serve well to be carved into a proper skinning knife. While Void Claws did get the job done, something claw-shaped would never work as efficiently and smoothly as a proper knife; not to mention the mana cost of sustaining the skill. Some of the ribs could be turned into slightly curved, longer blades that he could use in close range. Other than that the rest of the body was simply food. Maybe some of the organs had medicinal properties but he wouldn¡¯t know and so didn¡¯t care. Grabbing one of the back legs, ¡ª¡ª quickly skinned it and pulled out the femur. It was the size of his forearm and around 4 centimeters in diameter. Using Void Claws, he quickly marked where the blade would begin, where it would connect to the handle, and how long the handle would be. He slowly began to scrape piece after piece of bone off the femur. It slowly began to get thinner and thinner, and after a few minutes resembled a crude knife. The blade was 12 centimeters long and the handle 8 centimeters. After getting the shape down, ¡ª¡ª began to sharper it by running the blade along the edge of his claws. Once it was sharp enough to prick his finger with ease, ¡ª¡ª- stopped and looked at the blade he had created. You have crafted: Lacertae Femur Skinning Knife (Horribly-Done) You have gained a new skill! Weapon-Making Lv 1 Description: Turn materials found all around you to create weapons of all uses. Name: Lacertae Femur Skinning Knife Quality: Horribly-Done Description: A skinning knife made from the femur bone of a Oasis Lacertae. Made by a new Weapon-Maker, it had several issues and may break under great stress. Agreeing with the description of the blade, ¡ª¡ª tried to skin the rest of the legs with the new knife. The skinning went much faster, and the pieces he had cut out were all of higher quality than the skins he had previously cut. You have picked up: Oasis Lacertae Scaled-Skin (Small) (Badly-Done) You have picked up: Oasis Lacertae Scaled-Skin (Small) (Average) x3 The first skin was from when he had cut it with his Void Claws and the last three were cut with the skinning knife. It was obvious to see that proper tools were needed in any crafting. As ¡ª¡ª saw the results with the skinning knife, he had realized it would have been smarter for him to first make the knife and then skim the full Lacertae. It was too late for regrets now though, and there were probably lots of other creatures he could skin. His next task would be to create some clothing and armor for himself. The first piece that would be made were a pair of pants. Looking back into his memories, ¡ª¡ª- studied how to properly cut the skin so that it could be turned into a pair of pants. After a few minutes the Voidling reopened his eyes and got to work, skinning knife in hand. With a few quick cuts, a section of the underside skin had been cut into shape. As he had nothing to sew the pants with, ¡ª¡ª took a different direction. With the knife, a few small holes were poked along the edges that were supposed to be sown together. Walking up to the reld tree, he cut i to the tree until he reached the heartwood. From there, thin, flexible strips of heartwood were scraped off. Using those strips, he would put them through the holes he had cut and tied the skins together. In his hands was a pair of fully made pants. He pulled at certain points of the pants, trying to see if the makeshift sewing replacement would work. And it certainly did. You have crafted: Lacertae Scaled-Skin Pants (Horribly-Made) You have gained a new skill! Tailoring Lv 1 Description: Use hides and linens to create clothing for any occasion. You have gained a new skill! Armor-Making Lv 1 Description: Use hides, linens, metals and more to create armor capable of defending yourself. Name: Lacertae Scaled-Skin Pants Quality: Horribly-Made Description: A pair of pants made by a new tailor. Provides some defense due to being made of Lacertae Scaled-Skin. The seams are fragile due to being made of heartwood. Putting on the pants, ¡ª¡ª got ready to create the rest of his gear. The next 3 hours were spent much in the same manner. After the pants came a thin undershirt and thicker outer shirt made of the tail skin. The spikes on the tail took up a majority of the back of the shirt. Finally, two arm bracers were made. Though he had tried, there was no way for the Voidling to attach the teeth to them. Congratulations! Tailoring has leveled up to Lv 3. Congratulations! Armor-Making has leveled up to Lv 2. You have crafted: Lacertae Scaled-Skin Undershirt (Horribly-Done) You have crafted: Lacertae Scaled-Skin Gambeson (Horribly Done) You have crafted: Lacertae Scaled-Skin Bracers (Badly-Done) Name: Lacertae Scaled-Skin Undershirt Quality: Horribly-Done Description: An undershirt made by a new tailor. Provides some defense due to being made of Lacertae Scaled-Skin. The seams are fragile due to being made of heartwood. Name: Lacertae Scaled-Skin Gambeson Quality: Horribly-Done Description: A gambeson made by a new tailor. Provides some defense due to being made of Lacertae Scaled-Skins. The seams are fragile due to being made of heartwood. Name: Lacertae Scaled-Skin Bracers Quality: Badly-Done Description: Bracers made by a new tailor. Provides some defense due to being made of Lacertae Scaled-Skins. The seam are fragile due to being made of heartwood. Congratulations! You have created a set of Lacertae Scaled-Skin armor. If all pieces are worn together you get : +5% defense Chapter 4 - Day 2 By the time he was finished making all of the gear, midnight had come and gone. It was still the middle of the night but as time continued to pass the sky would gradually lighten. Putting on all the gear, ----- felt that he was much more defended right now. With the skinning knife and armor he could now go out and fight without having to be as careful of who or what he fought. For now, he would have to try to find a town or village nearby where he could begin to gather some wealth and helpers. WIth money he could begin to buy items to create stronger gear and could begin using true magic. While using magic through one¡¯s body worked well enough, true, large-scale magic would require materials, space, catalysts, sometimes sacrifices, and lots and lots of precision. Every line, every point, every mana channel within the magic circle that would be used to do large-scale magic would have to be drawn with liquidized mana. When one area had a large enough density of mana, over time a mist of mana would begin to appear. At this point, many people would come to the area as skills would level up 50% faster in those hotspots of mana. Some places were so technologically advanced that engineers would create containers that could contain some of that mana mist, and whenever the person was about to train they could simply take a breath of it and they would advance faster. The cost of these container though was prohibitively high. In a town of 10,000 people, maybe 50 could afford to buy a small canister of mana mist. If mana mist is left undisturbed for hundreds of years, there is a chance that the mana mist will continue to gather before drops of mana begin to appear in the air. This is the start of a mana lake. With more and more time, a small pond or lake will form, made out thousands and millions of these drops of liquidized mana. This liquidized mana is what would be required to create large-scale magic circles. Even with the rarity of both mana mists and mana lakes, there was something even beyond that. Once eons passed and mana lakes continued to grow deeper, at one point the pressure inside the lake becomes so high the liquidized mana would begin to crystallize into small, sharp shards of mana crystals. These crystals were rarely used, and instead were hoarded and protected by large empires and kingdoms. The more mana crystals a kingdom or empire had, the more noble, powerful, and wealthy they were thought to be. When mana crystals were used, it would be to create Masterwork and above quality items. Even if the roughest of crafting was done, if a small shard of mana crystals was imbedded, the quality of the object would greatly improve. While getting liquidized mana was definitely something ¡ª¡ª- could do within a month or two, getting mana crystals was something that would only happen in years. There was no point in thinking about the future while still having to do many things in the present. Looking back at the extra bones and meat from the Lacertae, the Voidling decided to quickly make a small pag that he could use to carry his materials. Dimension Jewelry, known for its enchantments that created a small sub-space where items could be stored, was something he was planning to either purchase or create when he found a town. Small ones were quite cheap, and Dimensional Jewelry with a meter cubed of space went cheap enough that most well-off households had at least one. The expensive ones, those which nobility and high-class merchants had were exorbitantly priced. These were ones which had a massive amount of space, anywhere from 10 cubed meters to the legendary kilometer cubed dimensions. As the space of the dimension increased, the mana cost and enchantment skill to create it increased exponentially. By doubling the size of a dimension, you would increase the work required to make it by 3 times. With enough time though, ¡ª¡ª was sure he could create dimensions even beyond those that existed only in legends. He was created from the world itself, and his potential was infinite. As long as he continued to exist and level up, ---- would be able to become a god which roamed the mortal land. While the Voidling thought of the future and continued to plan out everything he had to do in the future, the bag had been created. You have crafted: Lacertae Scaled-Skin Backpack (Badly-Done) Name: Lacertae Scaled-Skin Backpack Quality: Badly-Done Description: A backpack created by a new tailor. Less likely to tear under heavy weight due to being made of Lacertae Scaled-Skin. The seams are fragile due to being made of heartwood. WIth the new backpack, ---- quickly put a couple of femurs, along with a few more relds he had picked up into the bag. The relds were juicy enough that they would stave off his dehydration for a while, and the fruits would most likely last him two days. Hopefully by the end of the two days, ---- would be at a village or town where we could trade or work for some money. Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon. With said money he could continue to travel to larger and larger towns and eventually cities where he would be able to gather some of the resources required for his growth. For now though he would have to find his way into civilization. Trekking across the desert, ---- realized just how empty of an area his current location was. Other than the oasis he had walked away from, there was nothing around for occasional sand dune. It was a pointless walk across the desert, but hopefully it wouldn¡¯t last too long. He had enough fruits to last a while if he rationed them all, but the less starvation he had to go through, the better. For water, ---- could quickly learn water magic if that was necessary and by using it water would never be a problem. Realizing that learning water magic from nothing would take a long time, ---- began to attempt it while walking. As a wielder of Void magic, all other elements came to him naturally and so he use them after a short time practicing. Beginning to pool mana in his palm as he had done with Void Magic, a small dark blue ball soon began to grow. In a second, the mana has dissipated from his hand, a sign of failure. Even with the elements coming naturally, being able to form a new type of mana on your first attempt was nothing but luck. As he continued to walk forwards, ¡ª¡ª soon unlocked Water Magic. You have gained a new skill! Water Magic Lv 1 Description: Use the power of the world to create and manipulate water. Though the magic was now unlocked, without creating actual spells to use with the magic, the only thing he could do would be summon the element. With a good source of water that was practically infinite in his hands, ¡ª¡ª continued to move forwards. As time passed an outcropping in the distance soon came closer and closer. It looked out of place in the middle of the desert, as it was the only part of the terrain were solid rock was visible. As he had been walking for a couple of hours, ¡ª¡ª decided to take a break within a cave he saw on the outcropping. As the Voidling came up towards the cave, small lizards rose up from the sand and quickly squirmed away. Quickly identifying them, he found out that they were called Sand-Cropping Geckos. They were all level one and lived near stone outcroppings in the middle of the desert due to the aquifers that naturally existed deep beneath them. Making his way into the cave, ¡ª¡ª soon sat down. Though his stamina hadn¡¯t even gotten below half the entire time, after a few hours of walking his legs were stinging. The constant rubbing of the sand on his feet had made his feet feel almost raw. Taking out a reld, ¡ª- quickly ate it before sitting down and beginning to meditate again. He was trying to keep himself from entering into a trance-like state. He didn¡¯t need to quickly gain levels in the skill; all that was needed was for his physical body to fall asleep so the leg pain could quickly go away. While allowing his legs to rest up, ---- began to look through his status screen and decide where his attribute points would go when he leveled up. As a Human Voidling, ¡ª¡ª would recieve 8 attribute points(AP) per level. Different species would get a different amounts of AP per level. Humans for example, would receive 4 AP per level, while some types of dragons and phoenixes could receive close to 10 AP per level. He wasn¡¯t at the top end of the list but was high up enough that unless he had to be compared to rare creatures, nobody would have been his equal if they were at the same level. As magic was one of ¡ª- ''s main paths to power, he planned to out 3 points into intelligence and 1 into wisdom. The other 4 points would be equally split into agility and endurance. This would allow him to keep away from most melee fighters until he had enough skills to put up a fight. Until then, Void Magic would be his go-to. After he finished his contemplation, ¡ª¡ª decided to move further into the cave. When he first walked in, he had noticed that it seemed to continue winding down further into the ground. Before continuing to go into the dark, the Voidling decided that it would be smart to quickly learn Light Magic so that he could have a source of light as he walked. Doing the same thing he attempted to do with Water magic, ¡ª¡ª soon imagined the mana changing into light. As light was one of the higher ranked elements, when compared to water, it took him close to 15 minutes before he successfully managed to create an orb of light. You have gained a new skill! Light Magic Lv 1 Description: Use the power of the world to create and manipulate light. You have gained a new skill! Brightening Orb Lv 1 Description: An orb of mana created by Light Magic. Creates a ball of light that follows you around and acts as a light source. (This is a sub skill of Light Magic) Immediately his surrounding lit up. Taking his first good look at the inside of the cave, ¡ª- could see faint lines that seemed to crawl along the walls. They seemed almost alive, and when he focused he could feel a faint pulse coming from deeper within the cave. With an actual reason to go further down into the cave, ¡ª¡ª began his descent. As he got further and further down into the cave, the lines along the walls gradually got thicker. After a couple minutes if walking, more of the walls were covered by the lines than not covered. Soon, ¡ª- found the end of the caves. In front of him, standing at over 15 meters tall, was a set of doors. They seemed to be made of massive stone blocks the same color as the stone surrounding him. All of the lines upon the wall joined together into two lines that snaked their way along the doors before meeting at the handles. As he continued to look at the doors, the Voidling felt a growing urge to open the doors. Soon, without even thinking of what he was doing, he placed his hands upon the door, and pushed. With a ting and a little blast of moldy air, a prompt appeared within his mind. Seeing this prompt, the Voidling uttered its first words since it was birthed into the world. ¡°Shit.¡± Chapter 5 - Day 2 Congratulations! You have discovered a dungeon! Congratulations! For being the 735th person to discover this dungeon, you are rewarded with a 5% boost to experience gained from killing anything within the dungeon. You have discovered: Dungeon of the Patsate The almost insatiable urge to open the doors now made sense. Most dungeons, in an attempt to get more people and creatures to come into them, gave off waves of mental pressure that would compel one to enter the dungeon. There were skills one could gain and train to help fight back against the pressure, but those were usually gained after being subject to the pressure numerous times. It was hard enough to survive going through a dungeon once, much less multiple times. The only hope for ¡ª- would be that this dungeon was fairly new. If it was only a few decades or even 2-3 centuries old, he should be strong enough as he is to manage to make it to the exit. Though he was only level 1, with the extra boost to experience, he had a chance to blast through the first few levels and gain enough AP to make surviving a much easier task. For now though, the most important thing to do was find out exactly what kind of creatures the dungeon had. When a dungeon was first formed, which usually meant when a mana crystal grew large enough that it began to gain sentience, the dungeon would automatically pick one of the nearby species to serve as it¡¯s monster. While dungeons who had more than one kind of monster existed, they were usually all 1,000 if not more years old. There would be no way for him to survive such a dungeon. With age came more floors and stronger enemies, to the point where some dungeons had bosses which would be almost impossible to find outside. Moving forwards, ¡ª- quickly cast his Void-Magic Shield and prepared a Void Blast in his hands. He realized that he should have made a weapon that would actually come in handy, not a poorly made skinning knife. Holding said knife in his left hand, ¡ª- continued moving forwards. He had started sneaking earlier on but realized that with a massive light source right above him it was kind of pointless. Moving forwards, the stone walks soon changed to hard packed dirt and began to look more and more like tunnels that were dug out. Soon, the tunnel began to split and other tunnels began to randomly intersect into the larger one he was walking within. As he continued to walk forwards, ¡ª¡ª heard a series of clacks and fast steps approaching him. Raising the hand with the Void Blast, he quickly checked his mana pool. As he had been walking for a long time even after casting the shield and Void Blast, his mana pool was fully filled at 250. Soon, the creature came into his sight. It was a large ant, 2-3 meters long and almost 1 meter tall. It had two beedy, green eyes and 4 mandibles that all connected to a circular mouth in the front of its face. Its legs were long and thin, with sharp points at all of the joints. Its carapace was split into two parts, and has ridges all along its back. As it sped towards him, he quickly analyzed it. Name: None Species: Patsate(Giant Dungeon Variant) Level: 4 Looking at the stats, ¡ª¡ª knew that this dungeon would be much harder than expected. A giant version of an ant species. Hopefully the dungeon didn¡¯t have a Queen Patsate, because if it did there would be hundreds if not thousands of giant ants in his way. As the ant came towards him, he quickly shot the Void Blast towards its mouth. He hoped that the ant would try to eat the attack so that its organs would be destroyed and it would die quickly. Sadly, the blast didn¡¯t hit its mouth. Instead, the Void Blast landed perfectly on the ant¡¯s left eye. The eye quickly vaporized under the attack along with a portion of its face. The ant stopped skittering and simply dat in place, screeching towards ¡ª¡ª. Before it could start moving again, another Void Blast managed to go perfectly down its throat. For a few seconds the tunnel was silent. Then, as if a switch had been flicked, the ant collapsed and began to thrash around. The Voidling stayed back, scared that in the process of the ant tumbling around, one of the sharp points on its legs would hit him. He had a slight belief that the armor could withstand the attack, but there was no need to put himself at risk to test that out. After another minute, the ant stopped moving. He knew it wasn¡¯t dead as he hadn¡¯t gotten a notification so he began to close in, skinning knife in hand. He kicked its head and backed up quickly, but all the ant could do was wiggle its legs. Walking back forwards, ¡ª- shoved the skinning knife into the same spot his Void Blast had hit its eye. After a couple twists, the ant burst into tiny particles that were absorbed into the dungeon¡¯s floor. You have killed a Patsate(Giant Dungeon Variant) Lv 4. You have gained 72(+3) experience. With the 75 experience, added to the other experience he had, ¡ª- was now 40% of the way to the next level. Looking around and spotting nothing on the floor, he continued forwards. Dungeons, in order to lure more people in, even those who had gained the skill to resist the mental compulsion, would sometimes reward the people with items and resources that would be dropped from killing a monster.You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story. As this took a portion of the dungeon¡¯s strength, they would not do it too often, but when it did happen the items were rare enough that people would keep coming back for more. Unluckily, he didn¡¯t get anything. Not letting it bring him down, he continued to move forwards throughout the tunnels. He had encountered a solo ant twice throughout his exploration, and neither time did he get an item. They were Level 4, same as the one before, and so he gained another 150 experience. Now, for the first time, he had come across a group of two ants. A quick analyze showed that they were now both Level 5. The tunnel was still just as wide as before, approximately 5 meters across, so there was plenty of space for both of them to come charging at him. Quickly moving back, he shot a Void Blast towards the one to his left. The ant tried to jump out of the way. Whether it became smarter due to its level up or something else, it didn''t matter much to the Voidling in the heat of battle. The Void Blast managed to clip the left ant¡¯s front-most left leg, causing it to stumble and slow down. With one the ants out of the way for a while, ¡ª- backed up and shot two Void Blasts at the ant on the right. Same as the other ant, it leapt to the side only to be struck by the other Void Blast. It screeched but continued to push forwards towards the Voidling. Checking his mana pool, he saw that it was at 102. Though much had happened, since he cast the very first Void Blast, only four seconds had passed. The right-ant, after being hit by the attack, continued to charge at ¡ª-, mandibles spread in a horrifyingly inviting manner. Stopping to better his aim, the Voidling managed to launch one more Void Blast down the throat of the ant, causing it to collapse and squirm. He quickly ran past it, trying to get to the other ant before it could gain momentum. As he did, one of its legs stretched out and managed to hit his leg. Thankfully, the armor he was wearing managed to fully block the blow, and he continued forwards. Though the mana-shield he cast earlier was still in effect, because it only blocked magic and not physical attacks, it had done nothing. The other ant finally managed to right its footing and charged at ¡ª- while he charged back. As the ant came in for a bite, the Voidling leaned back and managed to dodge the attack. Right after doing so, he moved back forwards and stabbed the knife into the ant¡¯s right eye. Feeling the pain, it shook its head violently and smacked ¡ª- across the chest with its mandibles, launching him towards the tunnel walls. He hit the wall hard enough some of the dirt above flaked down. His head hit the wall right after his chest did, so not only did he get the wind knocked out of him, but his vision almost started to go black for a couple seconds. Before he fully collapsed onto the ground, he managed to shoot out two more Void Blasts, emptying out his mana pool. Though his vision was blurry, he could see one hit the wall while the other hit another one of the ant¡¯s legs, leaving it with only four. Losing the balance it already struggled to maintain, the ant collapsed on the ground a few meters away from ¡ª-. It continued to thrash about, the knife still stuck in its eye. As the Voidling finally caught his breath he backed away from the ant. It would take another 80 seconds for his mana to recharge enough for him to fire another Void Blast, so the only hope he bad would be to try to get the knife that was stuck in the ant. Seeing the ants struggles, ¡ª¡ª quickly found an opportunity. As it attempted to right itself, he ran behind it and jumped onto it, landing right behind its head. It once again fell, not able to hold its front-half up with no front legs. Quickly grabbing the knife, he pulled it out before plunging it back in. He put so much strength into the push that even his hand had made it inside the ant¡¯s eye. Thankfully for him, dungeon monsters didn¡¯t bleed, but he could still feel the eye-juice come in contact with his hand. As quickly as he felt it, the feeling went away as the ant¡¯s body dispersed. As he looked up, he noticed the previous ant had also already died. Before even looking at his prompts, ¡ª- simply collapsed against the tunnel walls, breathing heavily. You have killed a Patsate(Giant Dungeon Variant) Lv 5. You have gained 80(+4) experience. You have killed a Patsate(Giant Dungeon Variant) Lv 5. You have gained 80(+4) experience. Congratulations! Void Magic has leveled up to Lv 3. Congratulations! Void Blast has leveled up to Lv 3. You have gained a new skill! Small-Blades Lv 1 Description: The ability to use small blades of all kinds to cause harm to your enemies. You have gained a new skill! Dodge Lv 1 Description: The ability to dodge and maneuver around enemies attacks. Congratulations! You have leveled up to level 2! You have gained 8 Attribute Points(AP). Progress towards next level: 5/1050 Sighing with relief that he was still alive, ¡ª- began to look at his status. His mana was still abysmally low, the entire fight having only taken 20 to 30 seconds. His health had gone down 25 points from the ant¡¯s mandibles hitting him and another 50 from slamming i to the wall, leaving him with just over two thirds of his total health. His stamina plunged down 120 points when he got the wind knocked out of him, leaving him less than half when you added his other exertions. Overall, the fight was much closer than it should have been. His mana would never last against tens and hundreds of ants if he couldn¡¯t even kill two of then with it. His melee skills were barely even there, as seen by the fact he got thrown against a wall. The 8 AP¡¯s came as a saving grace that would make the delve that much easier, and the skills gained meant that he was making progress. Speaking of AP¡¯s, ¡ª- decided to switch up his strategy a bit. Instead of splitting 4 points into intelligence and wisdom, he simply put all 4 into intelligence. This would boost his mana pool by an additional 40 points. As two points in wisdom would only equal another 0.04 mana per second, which would be almost useless in these quick fights. That extra 40 mana though, meant that after 20 seconds he would have enough mana to cast another Void Blast. He contemplated putting another point into intelligence, but decided to instead use the 4 points to strengthen his physical aspects, and he increased those according to his earlier plans, 2 in agility and 2 in dexterity. Looking at his stats, ¡ª¡ª felt a strange feeling of elation rise up within him at seeing his growth. It was¡­ pride.
Name: --- Species: Human Voidling
Level: 2 Title:
Health: 250 Mana: 290
Stamina: 250
Age: 15 Years Lifespan: 300 Years
Strength: 25 Constitution: 25
Endurance: 25 Vitality: 25
Agility: 27 Dexterity: 27
Intelligence: 29 Wisdom: 25
AP: 0
Skills
Identify Level 1
Herbal Knowledge Level 1
Weapon Making Level 1
Armor Making Level 2
Tailoring Level 3
Skinning Level 3
Climbing Level 1
Stealth Level 1
Meditation Level 5
Small Blades Level 1
Dodge Level 1
Mana Manipulation Level 1
Void Magic Level 3
??Void Magic Shield Level 1 | Void Claws Level 3 | Void Blast Level 3
Water Magic Level 1
Light Magic Level 1
??Brightening Orb Level 1
Chapter 6 - Day 2 Looking at his skill list, ¡ª¡ª realized that he had forgotten to use Void Claws during the fight. While there weren¡¯t many situations where it could have been used conveniently, it could¡¯ve helped him not get thrown across the tunnel. Laying on the hard ground of the dungeon, ¡ª- began to plan forwards. He still has plenty of Lacertae meat within his bag that could be eaten, even though it was probably kind of squished right now, along with a few more Relds which were just as equally squished. After his mana would regenerate, he would cook some of the food and eat it, using Fire Magic to ¡®barbeque¡¯ the meat. The food he had on him should be enough to last 2-3 days, so he was going to go around fighting mostly solo ants and a couple groups of two or maybe three ants before moving further forwards. It would be even better if he could level up once more before he attempted to take the boss on. There were nowhere near enough ants for there to be a Queen Patsate, so the boss would most likely be an even more oversized ant. With a couple Void Blasts, he should manage to kill it. For now though, regening was the only goal. He wasn¡¯t sure quite what his health and stamina regeneration were at but knew that it would be much, much slower than his mana regen. Taking some of the meat he had taken off the Lacertae, ¡ª¡ª quickly conjured a ball of fire and began yo cook the meat. He got the Fire Magic skill at Level 1. Soon, the meat was cooked, burnt actually, and he drank some water that he had summoned. Looking at the part of his armor that got clipped by the ant¡¯s leg, ¡ª- saw a faint white scratch. It was barely visible, so his confidence in the armor went up, even though it was of Horribly-Made or Badly-Made quality. Getting up, the Voidling began to make his way backwards towards the entrance. He would find a calm spot to sit down and meditate, allowing his body to fully recover. After going through tens of twisting tunnels, he eventually made his way back to the beginning of the dungeon where the tunnel was still made partly of stone. Sitting down on the ground, ¡ª- began to meditate. The overwhelmingly comforting throb of mana and energy coursing through his body almost sent him back into another trance, but he quickly managed to regulate the energies going through him. Instead of allowing it to run rampant through his body, he guided it and had it disperse evenly across his entire body. Though he couldn¡¯t tell, his body began to glow and radiated a deep blue to his surroundings. As the mana dispersed, it intensified. While he was guiding the mana, it eased up. As time passed, the gentle throbbing of mana rang through the tunnels. Combined with the fierce hum of mana coming from the center of the dungeon, a melodic song was formed. The creatures nearby, whether dungeon-created or naturally born, all began to listen to the song. Together, the entire dungeon gained a sense of tranquility and peace. An hour passed before ¡ª- stopped meditating. Getting up, his body felt different. He wasn¡¯t stronger, nor more flexible, but it was almost as if he just had more control over his own body. He could perfectly control how much power he put into any of his actions. Seeing a prompt appear in front of him, he quickly read it. Congratulations! You have learned to spread excess mana and energies through your body. This action allows your body to tune itself with nature. Everything you do will now feel more. Congratulations! Meditation has leveled up to Lv 9. The prompt explained the sensation better than he ever could. Looking back at his status, his health and stamina had finally climbed back up to 250. He didn¡¯t know how much time had passed, but he wasn¡¯t hungry yet so most likely not much. Seeing how fast his Meditation skill was going up, he chalked it to the trance he had earlier and the fact that he was spreading the excess mana and energies through his body. Soon, meditation would be raised to level 10 and he would finally become an Adept at Meditation. Every skill, once it reached a certain level, would have a level of proficiency associated with it. For levels 1-9, one was a beginner. From levels 10-24 one was adept. Levels 25-50, and one was knowledgeable. There were more even further beyond, but getting to those levels would take a very, very long time. His current task would be to begin farming experience and skills. A couple melee-only fights against solo ants would help quickly raise his Small-Arms skill. Pulling out his skinning knife, he quickly recast the Brightening Orb. It lasted a couple hours but had likely gone out while he was meditating. Moving forwards, he tried to remember all the tunnels and turns he had made while making it to the ants. Soon, he made it back to where he had seen the first ant, and once again there was another one there. Before the ant could screech, ¡ª¡ª put his new agility to use and rushed it. He shot a Void Orb at it and managed to clip one of it¡¯s legs. Before it could react he twisted and jabbed the knife directly into the small jap between its head and chest. A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. Screeching, the ant slides sideways with its legs. Before he could get hit, ¡ª¡ª pulled the knife out and jumped upwards, landing on the ants back. His feet landed squarely on the part of its back that was covered by the ichor that had spilled from the cut, and combined with the ant falling over from being unbalanced, causing him to fall and collapse on top of the ant. Opening his eyes, the Voidling was greeted with the ants mandibles snapping towards his neck. Before his back could get severed, ¡ª- quickly pulled back, feeling the wind smach against his adams apple. Rushing backwards, he took a quick look at his health and stamina, seeing them at 243 and 223 respectively. The ant took this time to right itself, finally managing to catch is balance. ¡ª- stepped forwards again, only to feel a sting across his cheek. The ant had, when he stepped forwards, sliced its front leg forwards to hit the Voidling¡¯s neck. Luckily it had missed, as he believed that he would not have survived a slit throat. Finally realizing what it meant to fear for your life, ¡ª- decided to stop playing and simply kill the ant. Before it could react, three Void Blasts were shoved directly at its face. Watching the ant die, ¡ª¡ª noticed that it had dropped an item. Walking forwards, he picked it up. You have picked up: Giant Patsate Chitin (Medium) (Average) You have killed a Patsate(Giant Dungeon Variant) Lv 4. You have gained 72(+3) experience. His Small-Arms skill had gone up to level two along with dodge, and his Void Magic skill had finally raised to level 4. While starting with 25 in each stat was useful, only after nearly dying did ¡ª- realize just how truly weak he was. Even though he started with many more stats than any other species, most people, when they unlocked their status at 15, would already have many skills that would be leveled to adept or even knowledgeable ranks. Meanwhile, he started without any skills. Even some monsters created by dungeons would be created already having skills. The one thing that would come useful now was the fact that he was Plateau-less. A normal person in the world always has caps to their skills. At one point, you would get so good at something, or were so bad at something, that no matter how many thousands of hours you spent training that skill, it would not level. Whether from the fact that he was made of Void or another, he had no cap to his skills. As long as he continue to improve and use the skill, his skills would continue to level up as far as his lifespan allowed him to. For now though, he had lots of ants to kill, and lots of xo to gain. ::::::::::::::: A few hours later, by ¡ª- ''s estimate, he had found and killed his twentieth patsate. 16 of the kills were solos and there were two pairs he had taken care of. There were 14 level 4¡¯s and 6 level 5¡¯s which netted him 1,554 experience, pushing him to level 3 and a third of the way to level 4. He put 4 points into intelligence and 2 into agility and dexterity bringing them up to 33, 29 and 29 respectively. Skill wise, Meditation had increased to 12, Stealth to 3, Dodge to 4, Small Blades to 5, Void Blast to 6, Void Claws to 4, and Brightening Orb to 3. For having gotten to Adept in Meditation, ¡ª¡ª had been rewarded with a new prompt. Congratulations! For having broken past the Beginner stage to the Adept stage in your Meditation skill, you have gained 500 experience. When skills had leveled past a certain threshold , they would give experience that would increase as the stages increased. Breaking from Adept to Knowledgeable would give more experience than Beginner to Adept, though ¡ª- didn¡¯t know how much the increase was. This experience was the way that most normal citizens leveled up through their lives. Instead of fighting and killing monsters or others, they would continue to raise their skills and gain experience that way. Most people, by the time they were in their thirties, would have reached Level 10. Compared to then, ¡ª- still had more total skill points due to him starting out with 25 in everything while very few other species started out past 15 in their stats. The only species that the Voidling had in his implanted memories that started with stats near him were the Wyrms, an offspring of Dragons. They usually started with stats between 20-30. ¡ª- could be considered one of the strongest Level 3¡¯s in the world due simply to his race. After killing all the Patsates he could find and traveling around the dungeon, the Voidling had a general idea of where the boss would be. The series of tunnels in the dungeon were built similarly to a cone. At the entrance, where he had started, the tunnels went a kilometer or so in every direction, but near the end there was a single tunnel which continued forwards. --- didn¡¯t know how far forwards the tunnel would extend as the number of Patsate¡¯s in that tunnel was enough to even scar him. If his quick glimpse was accurate, then there was a pack of 8 or 9 of them in there. With his current mana pool, he could take out 6 of them before they could get to him. Leaving him with a few he would have to fully melee. On the other hand, if he could survive 40 seconds against them he could have enough mana to fire off another Void Blast. He heavily doubted they would give him that much time though. If he could enchant he would prefer to use Void Imbuement as it would make the fight almost effortless. Magic Imbuement was an enchantment which let the user coat a certain weapon in a type of mana without affecting it. If --- tried to imbue his knife with Void Magic it would be swallowed up instantly. If someone tried to coat a weapon with Fire Magic, it would likely catch fire or even start to melt unless it had been enchanted with Magic Imbuement. At the same time, the enchantment could only handle so much. The better and stronger the enchantment, the more mana could be infused into the weapons. Imbuement was the largest reason why most people wouldn¡¯t come close to mages. At long range, you could dodge their spells. Up close, their weapons coated with magic would chew through your own weapons durability and one strike would greatly wound you. Alas, --- didn¡¯t have the materials required to enchant, or even the skill itself. For now, it was time to fight the boss and leave the dungeon. A half hour later, the Voidling stood near the entrance to the single tunnel. He had only met one pair of Patsates on the way which he had quickly taken care of. Looking off into the distance, he could once again spot the group of ants he would have to kill to move forwards. Now that he got a better look at them, he could count 8 ants. If all the Void Blasts hit, that would be two left to melee. Very possible for him to do. Not wanting to get their attention too quickly, --- first began to sneak his way down the tunnel. At his current range, he would be lucky to have his attacks not hit the walls instead of the ants, but he still wanted to be far enough away that he had space to run back. Getting within 75 meters of the ants, the Voidling raised his hand and began. Chapter 7 - Day 2 As the Void Blasts were shot forwards, the Patsates were left completely unaware. By the time one of them began to charge at ---, all 6 attacks had landed. 5 of the hits had landed on the Patsate¡¯s heads, killing them instantly. The other blast flew to the side and managed to cut off 2 of the ants legs. As the injured one fell to the floor and screeched, the other two charged towards the Voidling. Grabbing his knife, he began to quickly run backwards. When the 5 ants died, he had gained enough experience to push to Level 4. Though leveling up didn¡¯t refill your status bars, the 8 AP¡¯s would come in handy for this fight. As he ran backwards he decided to put all 8 points into Wisdom. It would mean he only had to survive 30 seconds instead of 40 to be able to get another Void Blast off. With 5 seconds spent running away from the Patsates, he had 25 left before he could heavily increase his chances of survival. As the ants closed in, --- decided to go after the ant that 2 of its legs cut off first. Running towards the two uninjured ants, the Voidling jumped to the side and kicked off the wall, launching himself over them. The injured ant had already gotten up and was slowly ambling its way towards ---. As he closed in, the Voidling moved to the ant¡¯s right as it had less legs. As it tried to turn it to face --- it lost balance and fell, allowing --- to quickly stab the knife through its head. With two ants left, and 20 seconds left to go before he could use another Void Blast, the ants and he Voidling joined together in a dance of sparks. Crouching over one leg swipe, --- blocked another with his knife. Said knife was now beginning to wobble whenever he blocked, its horribly-done rank showing itself. It wasn¡¯t even made to be used in battles, simply for skinning, so having to punch through chitin and block attacks reduced its durability drastically. Before long, --- was covered in all kinds of small scratches and cuts. He had managed to cut off one leg off an ant and stab the other on the underside in return, but he was doing much worse off. Stepping back, --- noticed he was at 50 mana and quickly shot a Void Blast forwards. He also noticed his health which was currently at 140 and steadily dropping, likely due to all the blood he was losing. The Void Blast managed to hit the full-legged ant in the mouth, killing it. Now left with only one partially-legless ant, --- quickly moved back forwards and finished it off by stabbing its head a few times. Having finished the fight, --- sat down and let out a breath he didn¡¯t know he had been keeping. He was soaked in blood and his Lacertae ¡®armor¡¯ was shredding in multiple spots. Giving his body time to rest, --- looked at his gains from the fight. Dodge had gone up to 6, Small Blades had gone to 6, Void Blast to 8, and Void Magic to 6. His Void-based skills seemed to be increasing the fastest in comparison to how often he used them, but considering he was a race fully based on Void itself, he wasn¡¯t too surprised. Realizing it would be a while before his health and stamina fully recovered, --- slipped back into a short session of meditation. Once his body had fully recovered, he set out down the tunnel. The walk was long and uneventful, giving him some time to see what was wrong with his knife. It had a large crack going across the midpoint of the handle and blade; it was held on by a tiny sliver of bone near the very middle of the blade. It would work for maybe one or two attacks and then it would be better to simply throw it at an enemy and hope it hit something. Continuing his walk, --- soon made it to another door like the one he had seen at the entrance. Taking a deep breathe, the Voidling pushed open the door and walked in. On the other side was a large circular chamber 50 meters in diameter. At its center were two larger Patsates and towards the back of the chamber, near a door --- assumed to be the exit, was an ant that towered over the others. It was around 8 meters tall and 15 meters long, with pincers roughly 2 meters long. It was the true definition of a boss monster, massive compared even to the larger Patsates standing in the center of the room. Name: None Species: Patsate Royal Guard(Giant Dungeon Variant) Level: 6 Name: Varmio Species: Patsate Queen(Giant Dungeon Variant)(Boss) Level: 8 Two level 6 royal guards and one level 8 queen boss. Upon seeing ---, the queen quickly got up from its spot and tried to screech. Before it could do so, the Voidling had already fired two Void Blasts, one at each Royal Guard. One was hit dead on and died while the other nimbly jumped to the side before charging. It was almost 50% faster than its normal dungeon variant counterparts due to its higher level and royal guard status, allowing it to reach --- in seconds. Seeing the ant come towards him, --- quickly jumped forwards and crouched, landing underneath the royal guard. Before it could turn, he infused his breaking knife with Void Magic and thrust upwards at the Patsate¡¯s brain. Rolling out of the way before the body collapsed onto him, --- faced the queen. He had left the knife embedded in the ant, if any of it had even survived the imbuement. The queen now looked visibly angry at having her royal guards taken out, at least that''s what the VOidling understood from the clattering of pincers. With no weapons to use save for a few Lacertae femurs he had in his backpack he had left by the chamber door, --- quickly planned ahead. His mana was currently at 246, so he could just attempt to kill the queen with four Void Blasts but he doubted it would work. There was so much chitin and meat to go through before he could hit any important areas that the attacks would likely only do surface damage.This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it. If he could get on top of the ant he could probably hold on and use Void Claws to dig into the boss¡¯s brain. As nasty as that sounded, it was his only feasible plan. Once again sighing, --- began to run towards Varmio. The queen quickly moved forwards, scuttling over the ground almost three times as fast as the Voidling. As she approached she swiped her front-most left leg at ---. Seeing it coming, he quickly dodged under and then grabbed onto it, using the leg to vault himself onto the queen¡¯s back. Before he had even came in contact with the queen¡¯s back, she screeched. Accompanying the screech, --- could feel the mana in the surroundings joined at the spot he would land as a spike of rock appeared in its place and got launched at him. Seeing the surprise attack, --- used his Void-Magic Shield for the first time, causing a slightly opaque circle to surround him. While the shield would only block mana and not physical objects, since the rock was created from mana it would still block the attack. If the queen had picked up a piece of stone off the ground and lobbed it at him on the other hand, it would have done nothing. The stone projectile crashed against the shield and sent him flying backwards. Turning in the air, --- managed to land on is feet as he stumbled to a stop. Happy with her attack pushing the enemy back, the queen once again screeched in spot, only to have one of her pincers cut off by a Void Blast that had crashed against it. --- had aimed at her mouth but his aim wasn¡¯t quite right. Seeing the pincer collapse on the ground, -- got another idea. It was roughly two meters long and would serve well as a make-shift weapon to smack the queen with. If he could get his hands on it. That would likely be very difficult considering the amount of mana the queen was gathering around herself. Checking to see his mana pool, which had dropped to 197 after the attack, began to move away from the queen. His shield worked passively, meaning that it took a cost to summon it, and then as it got attacked it would drain mana from his pool to stay intact. Only when his mana was fully depleted would the shield finally collapse, but allowing all his mana to vanish wasn¡¯t something that interesting the Voidling. As more mana continued to build up, a hum of energy was birthed in the air, causing --- to fear. He quickly backpedaled as fast as he could, feeling the mana in the surroundings come to a crescendo as spikes jutted out from every surface of the boss chamber. Some were wide and short, while others pierced through the ceiling from how much mana was packed into the spell. Three such spikes had managed to hit onto --- ''s shield, two clipping him and one sending him careening across the air towards the queen. Crashing into and breaking another spike, --- quickly got up and looked at the queen. She seemed to be weakened for a few seconds after that attack considering she wasn¡¯t moving. Seeing her broken pincer on the floor, the Voidling rushed towards it. By the time he reached it, the spikes had all but dissolved and the queen was beginning to stir again. Sliding under one of the remaining spikes, --- grabbed the pincer by the cut end and spun quickly, swinging it around. The slide had carried him close enough to the queen that he managed to cut a leg off with the pincer, a deep green ichor spilling all over the floor. This spark of pain seemed to reawaken the queen as she screeched before trying to collapse on top of the Voidling. Infusing the rest of his available mana in the pincer and hoping it wouldn¡¯t vanish before he managed to attack, --- swung the pincer upwards with as much strength as he could. The swing, mixed with the queen already moving downwards, allowed the infused pincer to cut three meters into the queen. The originally two meter long pincer, after being infused with the rest of his mana, had gained a dar sheen over it that extended a meter past the edge of the pincer. Using the rest of his available stamina to rush away, --- quickly distanced from the queen as she lay on the ground twitching. She was very obviously still alive, but the missing leg and massive cut on her side caused her to stay down. Sitting down to take a breather, --- watched as the ichor continued to flow from the queen¡¯s body before she ultimately died and disintegrated in a shower of sparkles, leaving a brown colored orb on the ground. You have killed a Patsate Royal Guard(Giant Dungeon Variant) Lv 6. X2 You have gained 85(+4) experience. x2 You have killed Varmio, a Patsate Queen(Giant Dungeon Variant) Lv 8. You have gained 240(+12) experience. Congratulations! You have beat the first level of the Dungeon of The Patsate. For being the 653rd person to do so, you have been awarded an Average Ranked Weapon. You may now choose to either leave the dungeon or travel further into its depths, seeking fortune. Congratulations! You have gained a new title: Dungeoneer I Solo Dungeoneer I: Beat 1 floor in total of dungeons solo. Next tier at 10 floors. Reading through all the prompts, --- gave himself time to recover and breath. Considering he was the 735th person to walk into the dungeon but the 653rd person to beat the first floor, it meant 82 people had died on the first floor. He was almost certain a majority of those died from the queen¡¯s magic. If he didn¡¯t have his Void-Magic Shield, even he would have died. The title didn¡¯t mean much to him as it didn¡¯t do anything to help him. He was planning to look at how his skills had improved over the fight but decided to save that for after he picked up the weapon that had dropped from the queen. His had just broken and considering he was still in the middle of the desert, he doubted he could make a good weapon. Getting up, he slowly ambled his way to the brown orb in his hand. It flashed brightly before a 2.5 meter long spear appeared before him. Name: Giant Patsate Queen Leg Spear Quality: Average Description: A spear made from the leg of a Patsate Queen(Giant Dungeon Variant). It is flexible and light; made for high speed attacks. It¡¯s shaft is prone to crack if too much pressure is applied to it but the spearhead will stay sharp even under an onslaught of attacks. Seeing the weapon, --- nodded in satisfaction and began to walk towards the exit door after picking up his backpack. While de didn¡¯t have any spear skills, they would be easy enough to train to an acceptable level. Getting to the exit, the Voidling pushed open the door and walked through. In front of him was a split path, one leading further into the ground and one leading upwards. Choosing upwards, --- walked forwards while beginning to look at his skill gains. Dodge has increased to 7, Void Magic had increased to 7, Void-Magic Shield had jumped from 1 to 4, and Void Blast had leveled to 10 which net him another 500 experience from reaching Adept.. He also gained a new skill called Void Infusion which had increased to level two. You have gained a new skill! Void Infusion Lv 2 Description: Infuse your weapon with Void, allowing it to cleave through everything.(This is a sub skill of Void Magic.) With the extra experience, --- was 75% of the way to level 5. Considering he had been alive for two days, it was an amazing growth. Walking out of the dungeon, --- got a notification that he had left it. He was within another cave, likely near the same area as the entrance. He could see the exit in the distance, but considering how dark it was, it was likely already night. It might even already be early morning. Laying down by the exit, --- ate one of his last relds and fell asleep. ¡°Awaken little one.¡± Chapter 8 --- bolted upwards at the noise and attempted to grab the spear before realizing he was no longer in the cave. He wasn¡¯t sure he was even in the actual world as the space around him was devoid of any light or sound. He could see his body perfectly well, but anything past that was just endless darkness. He couldn¡¯t even summon his status in whatever place he was. ¡°Do not worry little one. You are not being attacked. I have simply pulled your mind into your own true self.¡± The voice seemed to come from every direction at once, the very darkness surrounding him trembling and contorting to the voice. ¡°What are you? What do you mean this is my own true self?¡± ¡°I am nothing and yet everything. I see everything and am apart of anything. I am Void itself. I am your creator, little one. What you see here is your true self. You are a Voidling, a being made fully of Void, and so within you lies that Void. What you see around you and where you are is that Void.¡± ¡°You call yourself Void but also say I am made of Void and that I have Void within myself. How--¡± ¡°You are not made of me, nor do you have a part of me within you. I am Void as that is what I wish to call myself. I am the oldest consciousness of all the Energies, their creator. When I created you, I took a piece of that Void that made myself up and gave control of it onto a new consciousness, being you. You are a blank slate so that you can truly grow; you can build yourself to be whatever you wish.¡± ¡°When you use Void Magic, where do you think the disintegrated Energies go? Do you believe that they just dissolve and exist as gas in the world? No, little one. You absorb those Energies into yourself in their truest forms, which is what creates this space around you. The more you grow, the greater Void itself grows.¡± ¡°I have grown weak over the eons little one. Where once I ruled over all creation, the other Energies together have continued to push me back as they continue to expand this world. They communicate with their follows, create beings such as yourself of their own, and strive to become stronger. Even the Energies constantly fight for power.¡± ¡°I always watched, never getting myself involved. It is now too late for me to fight back, and soon I will be consumed by their struggles. You are the one and only Voidling I¡¯ve ever created. It is now up to you little one. Once you grow stronger, find the true meaning of Void. Once you do, the Energies will bow before you. I don¡¯t have much longer. Ask me any questions you have left quick.¡± His mind spinning from what he had just heard, --- struggled to come up with questions. Being told that he was the only creation of the true Energy was something he didn¡¯t believe he would have to deal with. Thousands of questions, from what his purpose was, to how he should grow stronger, to how he was supposed to find the true meaning of Void rose up within him. ¡°I guess it truly was too much to expect a newly born Voidling to stay sane after hearing all of this. Since you haven''t asked anything, take this advice little one. Skills don¡¯t simply improve through level. While you may get better at doing certain things, what truly matters is if you understand the skill.¡± ¡°You must understand the Will of the skills themselves to truly grow. I will create a prompt to better explain it to you as I am out of time. Remember, Everything is made of Void, and Void is made of Everything. We are one and the same.¡± ¡°You are the one and only Voidling, as such, you shall now be called Irell Vatayarra. Understand the true meaning of your name, and grow.¡± As suddenly as he had been pulled into his true self, he had been spat out. ---, or Irell, simply laid within the cave staring at the ceiling for a few minutes. His mind worked hard to get everything he had just learned and understood together. The last quote he had heard floated through his mind, and suddenly he could feel Void better. %$#%$@%$$*&^%*(^&*%$%&##&%^$* Little one, with my last message you should have awaken your first will. Wills are the true meanings of any skills. As your Wills grow stronger, they will improve your attributes to allow you to better utilize them. All your skills had a non-existent Will preciously, as such nothing showed up in your skill list. Now, any skills which have Wills will show the level of the Will next to them. They go from non-existent, to pitiful, to weak, to strong, to existing, to alive, and finally into real. Your sub skills can¡¯t gain wills, as their main skill is what truly matters for comprehension. Once I come out of this fight, I will contact you again. %^$%^$#$%#&^%*%%()#!#%^%&&(*$ Congratulations! Your Will for Void Magic has grown from non-existent to pitiful. You gain 5 Intelligence and 15 Wisdom from your Will. Congratulations! Your will for Void Magic has grown from pitiful to weak. The gains from your Will have increased to 15 Intelligence and 40 Wisdom.You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version. Before he could react, Irell felt an enormous surge of mana enter into his body at once. The 15 intelligence and 40 wisdom gave him a sense of power he never believed was possible before. If a weak Will gave these many attributes, what would alive, or even real Wills do? Before getting too caught up, Irell summoned his status.
Name: Irell Vatayarra Species: Human Voidling
Level: 4 Title: Solo Dungeoneer I
Health: 250 Mana: 480
Stamina: 250
Age: 15 Years Lifespan: 300 Years
Strength: 25 Constitution: 25
Endurance: 25 Vitality: 25
Agility: 29 Dexterity: 29
Intelligence: 48 Wisdom: 73
AP: 0
Skills
Identify Level 1
Herbal Knowledge Level 1
Weapon Making Level 1
Armor Making Level 2
Tailoring Level 3
Skinning Level 3
Climbing Level 1
Stealth Level 3
Meditation Level 12
Small Blades Level 6
Dodge Level 7
Void Magic Level 7 (Weak)
??Void-Magic Shield Level 4 | Void Claws Level 4 | Void Blast Level 10 | Void Infusion Level 2
Water Magic Level 1
Light Magic Level 1
??Brightening Orb Level 3
With the extra wisdom, his mana regeneration had more than doubled, meaning he would be able to shoot a Void Blast every 35 seconds if he was out of mana. Not to mention his now massive mana pool, Irell could likely be able to clear the dungeon with ease with these gains. He decided to spend much more time to comprehending his skills truly. He wondered if he would be able to do so while meditating, though that was something for the future. Even without leveling up, if he spent years working on his wills, he could likely grow strong enough to do whatever it was that Void wanted him to do. Getting up, Irell grabbed his spear before making his way out of the cave. The sun had just risen, which allowed Irell to continue moving in the same direction as he had before entering into the dungeon and not getting sidetracked. He spent much of the walk thinking about what he had heard from Void and what he had learned about Wills. Though he had no idea how long it would take to gain one, he began thinking about what meditation really was. It was currently his highest leveled skill, so hopefully that would allow him to better understand it. During the walk, his Water Magic had increased to level 2 due to how frequently he had been needing to drink water under the sun¡¯s penetrating rays. Sadly, by the time night came, not only had he not gained any sort of WIll related to meditation, but he had run out of relds. Hopefully he could find some random creatures tomorrow or he would have to starve until he reached civilization. Laying down at the bottom of a dune, the Voidling drifted off to sleep. -------------------- Hearing a loud screech coming from his right, Irell swung his spear with as much force as his half-asleep body could. He felt it impact a fast moving object before it crashed into him, sending him sliding across the sand. Opening his eyes, Irell was greeted by the sight of a mouth-ful of teeth 4 meters wide careening towards him. Barely reacting in time, he stepped sideways of swung his spear horizontally. It raked across the scales of the beast and left a gash two centimeters deep in the creature¡¯s scales. Using identify, Irell looked at what he was fighting. Name: None Species: Sand Worm (Juvenile) Level: 17 The creature was approximately 50 meters long and 4 meters wide, with a mouth taking up the entirety of its front side. He had no idea how it could see or feel where he was, but he chalked it up to some kind of other senses. Not only was the creature massive and strong, but it was also a juvenile. Irell almost paled at the thought of an adult and what level they would be, but remembered he was in the middle of a fight. Calming himself, the Voidling shot out 4 Void Blasts, aiming them into the creatures massive maw. The spheres were larger, and seemed more real to Irell. As he knew skill levels didn¡¯t actually affect the strength of the skill, he guessed it was due to his WIll and better understanding of Void. The four hit true, three hitting the Sand Worms teeth and one going further down its throat. The teeth seemed to vanish entirely before the now smaller Void Blasts continued into the sides of the creatures mouth, leaving small holes fist wide. The fourth one seemed to have hit something important as the Sand Worm began wriggling back under the ground and screeching. Seeing this, Irell began to move forwards preparing to continue the onslaught. Before he could do so, he saw something that made his heart stop. Fifty meters to his right, a dent in the ground 10 meters wide began to grow, all the sand seeming to be absorbed into the ground. He was left in awe as another Sand Worm, this one many times larger than the one he had previously been fighting with, burst out of the ground and let out a roar that almost made him fall. Name: None Species: Sand Worm (Elder) Level: 49 If the previous worm was massive, this one was colossal. Its mouth itself was around 12 meters wide while he couldn¡¯t even tell how long it was. He just knew it was well in the hundreds. Its scales had an assortment of scars and puncture marks that seemed to almost make a pattern. His body instantly kicked into motion, trying to get as far away as he could. There was no way he would be able to fight that Sand Worm and win. He could spend all of his mana shooting Void Blasts into one spot on the thing and it would shrug it off like he would a bug bite. Thankfully, the elder Sand Work didn¡¯t seem to be the best in terms of traversing the desert. It¡¯s massive size meant that it slowly sunk into the sand if it tried to slide across the land so it had to keep diving in and out of the ground to move towards him. His stamina was depleting quickly but the distance between the two was also growing. He hoped that it soon realized something as small as him wasn¡¯t worth the effort. With a final screech, the Sand Worm dove back into the depths of the desert, far from any prying eyes. Even so, Irell continued to run forwards until his stamina reached single digits, where he finally stopped to regain his energy. That sight had made getting out of the desert his number one priority. Even with another 25 levels he might not be fully safe within the desert. The worm was level 49, one away from breaking through to 50. Level 50 was one of the most important levels a being could reach in the world. At Level 50, your body would evolve into a higher version of your previous species. It accounted for what skills you had, what your attributes were, and even your personality before it made the best possible evolution. That evolution would bring with it a massive boost to every stat a being had, making it almost impossible for a level 49 to beat a level 50. Considering this worm was one level away from 50, Irell didn¡¯t want to bet on the fact that there were none that had actually reached 50 and evolved into something that could instantly kill him. For now though, the Voidling was just happy it had survived. As long as he continued to move forwards he could eventually come to a place that was safe. Like so, he continued wandering through the night, hoping another worm wouldn¡¯t pick him as a snack. Chapter 9 Soon, night had fallen over the desert. The penetrating head had disappeared and a dry cool had taken its place. Irell had run out of relds hours ago and the horizon was still covered fully by sand. He had seen no semblance of another living thing since escaping the worms. Silently cursing Void for having dropped him in the middle of nowhere, the Voidling continued his walk forwards. Finally, as the crescent moon reached its peak in the sky, he found signs of others. A few dunes away, a party of three had stopped moving. He couldn¡¯t make them out perfectly, but considering they all turned to face him, they had probably spotted him as well. He tried to identify them from this distance but failed, likely due to the skill still being level one after all this time. Before he could begin to walk towards them, one of the figures had begun running from their position. At a speed more than twice as fast as Irell¡¯s, the figure slowly came into view as they closed in. Wearing all brown and gray colored leather, the figure stopped 25 meters from him. She was short, likely below 1.5 meters in height, and had a lanky build. She had two small fur covered ears near the top of her head and two short-swords on her hips. Name: Bella D¡¯agotor Species: Casp Level: 36 She was over 30 levels over him, and likely had the stats to match, if her speed didn¡¯t already show that. As he was preparing to speak up, the girl raised her hand, smiled, and began to talk. ¡°Heeeeeeey! Who are you? Why are you in the middle of the deserts alone? Are you also hunting for juvenile Sand Worms? Are you some super secret hero who came to fight the Sand Tempest? Wait wait let me guess. You¡¯re a traveling merchant who explores the world and brings rare and powerful artifacts with him! That has to be it!¡± While she was talking, the other two members of her group walked up. Snapping out of his confusion, Irell quickly identified the two. Name: Dante Forn Species: Bulnor Level: 36 Name: Pim Sel Species: Selen Level: 34 The first, a large, towering mass of muscle was Dante. He had a great-axe on his back larger than Irell. Wearing thick leather and chain, the behemoth looked like he was unstoppable. The second was not much shorter, but mess less girthy. Her features were similar to a humans though she had a flatter nose and her ears were simply two holes in the side of her head. She was dressed the most casually, with simple cloth covering her. She had a bright-blue bow in her hands that Irell could instantly tell was enchanted. While he had been looking them over, Dante gave Bella a lecture. ¡°Bella, you can¡¯t just randomly run towards unknown people in the middle of the desert. What if he tried to attack you when you came close? I¡¯ve told you this everytime we see a group of people or a person outside! Especially if its a single person! You can¡¯t keep doing this.¡± Bella sheepishly looked to the side as Dante continued to berate her for what she had done. Meanwhile Pim seemed to be eyeing Irell up and down. He likely looked a mess with the cut up armor and dried blood everywhere. Soon, Dante seemed to be done and turned to look at Irell. ¡°Sorry about all that. Bella doesn¡¯t know how to let someone speak without asking them hundreds of questions.¡± Hearing this, Bella pouted and spoke up. ¡°Yes I do. Pim don¡¯t I let people talk? I do don¡¯t I?¡± The two ignored her and Dante continued to talk to Irell. ¡°My name is Dante. The loud one is Bella and the quiet one is Pim. We¡¯re a group of adventurers that came from Sank.¡± Irell continued to just stand there, looking over the three adventurers. They seemed more like a dad and sister pair than a group of adventurers but their races shot down any chance of that being true. Seeing Irell not speak up, Bella once again spoke.The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings. ¡°Maybe he¡¯s a mute? Hey are you a mute? Do you speak in writing?¡± ¡°My name is Irell. I was¡­ wandering with a group of friends before we got attacked. An elder Sand Worm came and we all ran in different directions. That was last night.¡± Having come up with a story other than ¡®an Energy created me and plopped me in the middle of the desert¡¯, Irell told it. He had no reason to trust any of the three, nor did he want to even be around 3 people with levels in the 30¡¯s. He could theoretically shoot them with Void Blasts if they tried to do anything but he doubted it would do much. Pim and Bella seemed to be very agility based and could likely dodge while Dante had thicker armor and likely enough Constitution to fight off the Void. While the Void could consume anything, the stronger the thing being consumed was, the longer it took. ¡°We¡¯re only a couple hours of walk from the city so you should be able to get there soon if you continue in this direction.¡± Before Irell could respond Pim spoke up. Unlike Bella¡¯s rapid fire, almost squeaky voice, and Dante¡¯s deep, boisterous voice, Pim¡¯s was collected and almost elegant. ¡°You do realize you¡¯re telling someone who just barely awoke their status to go walking through the desert in the middle of the night towards Sank. The city that basically has no laws other than ¡®the strong rule¡¯. ¡°Well what else am I supposed to do? Yeah sure he probably is super weak and it¡¯ll be hard to survive there but I can¡¯t just take care of him until--¡± Cutting him off, Bella squealed and spoke up. ¡°Oooo, oooo! Let me take care of him! I promise I¡¯ll keep him safe and he won¡¯t be a bother. C¡¯mon it¡¯ll only take us a day to find a worm and leave.¡± Sighing, Dante walked off and continued his walk into the desert while a smile split Bella¡¯s face. ¡°Lets go Irell. Dante¡¯s not actually a meany but he wants to get this job over with quickly and go home. You¡¯ll be plenty safe with us, we¡¯re really experienced. We¡¯ll stop soon for food and sleep so just stay fine a bit longer and then you can rest.¡± WIthout being able to speak up for himself or even talk about the fact that she took the task of keeping him protected, Irell let himself be dragged off by Bella as he knew he could in no way fight her off without dying in the process. Pim let out a chuckle at this sight and followed behind the group. A few kilometers later the group had stopped at the tallest dune in the area. Irell watched curiously as Dante pulled out a scroll and lit it on fire. A blue bubble spread out in every direction before becoming transparent. Seeing Irell¡¯s expression, Bella explained what the scroll was. ¡°That''s an alarm scroll. Once you burn it it lets out a perimeter 100 meters in every direction and lets out a loud noise if anything walks in. They¡¯re pretty cheap because they¡¯re one use and they¡¯re easy for scribes to make. Usually we wouldn¡¯t use one as there are ways to get around the alarm but in the middle of the desert there isn¡¯t much to be wary of. Once we get back I can show you a few places where you can buy them.¡± Still confused as to why Bella was so trusting and nice to him, Irell continued to watch on as Dante pulled food and sleeping mats out of nowhere. His eyes almost sparkled when he realized that Dante did indeed have dimensional jewelry on him. If he could get a hold of it and the bow he could probably study them long enough to get some good leveling done to the enchanting skill. He knew they wouldn¡¯t let him see either of the two items easily even with the way things were currently playing out so he left it as a maybe for the future. Grabbing the food from Dante, Irell thanked him and began to eat it. It was a long, thick strip of smoked jerky. He couldn¡¯t tell what it was made of but his identify skill showed it as Smoked Jambly. Whatever a jambly even was, Irell was sure he would find it in the city. It was stringy and hard to bite through but left him feeling full enough after that one piece. Quickly summoning some water, he drank away the salty taste and quenched his thirst. Looking back at the almost family trio, all three were staring at him. Dante¡¯s voice was the one that ended up breaking the silence. ¡°You know, I¡¯m happy we decided to take him with us now.¡± The two nodded along with him as they asked him to create some water for them. Water took up too much space for them so they settled for bringing Hydrators, a small cube that could be eaten that helped a body rehydrate itself. The only issue was how bad they taste so having someone who could summon water was like a wonder for them. As they finished eating the group all began to lie down to sleep. As Irell lay down on the sleeping mat taken out for him, he suddenly felt grateful that his body looked the same as a humans did. If he ended up looking like a being made of Void, it would likely be impossible for anyone to trust him. They would probably just kill him on the spot and parade him as a trophy of some kind instead. The next morning went in much the same was as the previous night. They ate and drank before Dante swooped everything into his dimensional jewelry and they began to move on again. Through the next few hours, Bella told Irell about the group. They had all known each other since a young age and once they all came of age decided to work together as an adventuring group. They had spent 2 years working together before Dante had met a woman of his race and married her. She was the only healer in the town they lived in so she couldn¡¯t leave to adventure with them. They had split for 3 years and basically retired before they all met back together once Dante¡¯s son wasn¡¯t a baby. Despite their looks, all 3 members of the teams were in their 40¡¯s, though their levels and stats likely helped to lengthen their lifespan. During that time, Pim and Bella had explored outside the desert and focused on honing their skills instead of leveling up. When they came back though they found that Dante¡¯s skills had improved even more than theirs due to constantly fighting against warlords near his town. They now took jobs for a portion of the month before going back so that Dante could be with his child. They also ended up asking about Irell¡¯s past, to which he said that he had amnesialeading up to right before he had awoken his status. They seemed to believe it, and Irell was awarded two levels in a new skill called Deception by the end of the talk. You have gained a new skill! Deception Lv 1 Description: The ability to lie, manipulate, or deceive those around you through words or actions. The walk had been relatively quiet after that point with everyone just moving in silence. That silence was later broken by a screech that almost made Irell bolt from his spot. Looking to the side he saw a juvenile Sand Worm barreling towards the group. Chapter 10 Quickly identifying it, Irell saw that it was level 23, a bit stronger than the one he had met earlier. He quickly lobbed his bag to the side as the other three spread out. Dante stood directly in front of the worm, with Pim to his left and Bella to his right. Grabbing his greataxe, Dante spun around and swung it horizontally at the Worm. The impact sounded like a building collapsing as the Worm ¡®s trajectory was pushed a few meters to the left, a deep cut near its mouth. Seeing it come close, Pim pulled back on her bo string. An arrow made of mana appeared before she began to infuse ice magic into the arrow, causing it to take a light blue coloring. The arrow shot out with a -twang and sped into the Worm¡¯s mouth before it eventually exploded and froze it¡¯s throat. By now Bella had jumped onto the Worm¡¯s back and was running along it as the Worm flopped around in pain. Jumping up, she pulled out her two shortswords and infused them with WInd Magic. Halfway along the Worm¡¯s body, she crouched down and stabbed the two swords as deep into the worm as she could. Afterwards, all three moved away from the worm as a spray of blood came out of the places Bella had stabbed. After a minute the Worm had finally died. Realizing he wasn¡¯t needed, Irell picked his bag back up and walked over to the three. ¡°Hey Irell! Irell! How was it? Did you like the way we fight? Dante uses his incredible strength to slow the Worm down and redirect it and then Pim freezes its insides so it can''t move as well and then I stab it in the heart with Wind Magic so that the cut is longer and deeper. Its a really really good way to fight the worms.¡± ¡°If you and Pim have magic why don¡¯t you use it from long range?¡± Pim was the one who answered. ¡°We never discovered we had magic affinities until we were already proficient with our main weapons so we never placed much focus on magic, only using it to infuse our weapons. Dante would do the same but he never even tried finding which affinities he had.¡± Though it seemed foolish to him to not also use the magic from long range, he decided to not bring it up. As far as they knew, he was a random kid with a spear who had amnesia and got lost. ¡°Why were you guys hunting the Sand Worms?¡± ¡°The scales from a Sand Worm make armor that''s strong against impacts. Most people around here use it as can absorb most blunt hits.¡± After finishing speaking, Dante pulled out a skinning knife and began to cut along the scales. ¡°Irell, do you have the skinning skill?¡± ¡°I do but its not at a high level.¡± ¡°The quality doesn¡¯t matter much. Cut the scales into patches 2 meters by 2 meters wide.¡± He threw another skinning knife at Irell, who caught it and got to work, though he did inspect the knife beforehand. Name: High-Steel Skinning Knife Quality: Well Done Description: A mass production skinning knife made of a high-steel. It was made from a cast created by a master and policed by an apprentice. Sharp enough to cut through most low-mid level hides. Enchantment: Extra Sharpness (Below Average) Realizing it was the first piece of enchanted gear he had seen so far, Irell took a good look at it. It was smooth and easy to hold and along the blade¡¯s cheek there was a symbol drawn in liquidized mana. The enchantment looked rushed, which is likely what led to it being below average. Enchantments also had rankings, though they followed the same ranks as item quality. With the sharpness enchantment along the blade, the knife easily pierced through the Worm¡¯s scales and Irell got to work. It was amazing how without putting any pressure on the blade he could cut better with this knife than he could a full strength swing with his spear. His spear wasn¡¯t exactly made for cutting, as its edge was rounded and blunt, but it still showed how much enchantments and item quality played into how good the weapon was.Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation. By the time the two were done skinning the Worm, they had 150 pieces of skinned scales. Dante had done 112 while Irell had managed to do 38. Of the 38, 8 were average, 23 below average, and 7 were badly done. The 7 badly done were thrown away while Dante picked up the other 31 into his dimensional jewelry. Irell¡¯s skinning skill had increased to 7, putting him close to getting another 500 experience. With a job well done, the group began to head back towards the town. According to Bella, if they didn¡¯t stop they should get there some time after midnight. From there Irell could become an adventurer or a mercenary, or if he wanted he could leave to another city. Having just finished skinning for a long period of time, he attempted to create a Will for skinning. Hours passed as he continued to think over it but nothing came to mind. At least nothing accurate came to mind as he got no prompt. Along the walk, Bella continued pestering him about all the things she could show him once they got back to town. She asked him what he wanted to do once he got to town and he wasn¡¯t quite sure. He didn¡¯t have enough money to attempt enchantment yet, and most adventuring groups and mercenary bands wouldn¡¯t take someone as low leveled as him so he was stuck with having to train one of his crafting jobs for a while. Even if it took a few weeks to level them all up to a passable level, by then he would have made enough money to attempt enchanting. Once Bella heard this, she went off on another one of his speeches about how she was close friends with one of the tailors in the city, and how she could ask her to take Irell as an apprentice. He tried telling her that he could do it on his own but she didn¡¯t take no as an answer, and by the time they could see the city in the distance, Bella had already planned out his next few days. As they got closer to the walls, Irell asked the group a question. ¡°Is there anything I should know about the city?¡± Pim looked off in thought before she spoke up. ¡°The city is ruled by a Selen merchant named Renny Fint. The city was originally a small town that he slowly built up into the city it is today. Normally he doesn¡¯t get too involved in affairs unless the mercenary groups get into an argument and he¡¯s not a bad ruler. The city doesn¡¯t have many laws other than the regular don¡¯t steal, kill, rape, things like that, but they¡¯re not well enforced so many groups get away with those actions.¡± ¡°The most important thing to keep in mind is to stay away from people wearing dark red cloaks that cover their heads. They¡¯re some kind of cult that practices sacrifices and no matter how many time Renny kicks them out they somehow appear back in the town. Other than them as long as you keep to yourself most people won¡¯t bother you. It''s dangerous to be out late at night but considering you¡¯ll be apprenticing near the center of the city it should be safe.¡± ¡°What do you mean the center of the city? Is it split into parts?¡± ¡°The city isn¡¯t split by walls or moats or anything but there are unofficial sectors. The center district is near the city hall is where most of the shops and crafters make their locations. The main mercenary hall and adventurer¡¯s hall is located there. The rest of the city is split into higher-wealth and lower-weight areas, with the northern quarter of the city dedicated to housing for mercenaries.¡± ¡°The central district is the safest as it has active guard patrols with the higher-wealth area coming close in terms of safety.¡± By the time Pim had finished explaining everything to Irell, they had reached the walls of the city. They were made of a light-gray rock and were 25 meters tall. They were fully smooth and had no handholds or cracks in them. The gate was roughly 25 meters wide and packed with people moving in and out. People of every race and wealth came through. There were guards stationed near the sides of the gate, and after identifying them Irell realized most were between level 20 and 30. As they passed through the gates, they continued down the main street. It progressively got less crowded as they continued, people turning off to go their own directions. Soon, the party split up. Pim went with Dante to hand in the scales while Bella and Irell went to one of the inns around. Calling it an inn didn¡¯t do it justice though. Standing at a comfortable 7 stories tall, it looked closer to a square palace than an inn. Making their way in, Bella paid for 4 rooms on the fourth floor. As the floors went up, did so the luxury and cost of the rooms. After saying goodbye, Irell walked into his room. It was spacious, with a large bed to one corner and a bathroom in the other. Leaving his bag on the floor and stripping off his blood soaked armor, Irell took a bath. The warm water washed away the fatigue he had been building up and left a lingering feeling of weightlessness. Drying himself off with one of the towels, he collapsed onto the bed. He thought about what had happened the past few days. He had awoken in the middle of the desert, by an oasis. After killing a few animals and making some armor, he began walking towards the horizon, hoping to find civilization. One the way, he found and fought through a dungeon before encountering a group of adventurers. They instantly took him in and took care of him until they had reached the town, and now one of them was even going out of her way to help him apprentice under a tailor. It felt almost surreal to him. He couldn¡¯t even think about why he was so distrusting of them when they first met. Maybe people weren¡¯t as bad as he had been born believing. As he fell into the first comfortable sleep he had taken in this world, he smiled. Prologue Arc: Beginnings - Completed Arc 1: Growth - Starting